doratheexplorer

My boat is 1.7719940454002541×10-15 light years long.

Appearances can be deceptive, however the stretch of canal north of Kiddy up to Stewponey is up there with the best in the country.

Don't be fooled by the media/tv programme image of canal life as being all gentle and dreamy. There's unfortunately a fair contingent of miserable old buggers on the canals who try to inflict their grumpyness on everyone else.

Some thoughts: Single handers are in the minority. Female single handers are an especially rare species, but we do exist. No sure about gay single handers, but trailblazing is always a good thing. If you get to a narrow bit, you can just power through with your fingers crossed and a clean pair of underwear at the ready, or if you have time, you can wait for another boat and follow them through. This approach is good for wide locks, which you can share with another boat, and swing/lift bridge where you can sneak through behind. Many other boaters and gongoozlers will offer help to single handers at locks, which is nice, and can be a real help, but remember it's your boat and you're in charge. If people aren't helping in a way you're comfortable with - tell them. I quite like travelling very early in the morning or late in the evening when there are fewer people about, I can take my time and do things my own way.

Thanks. Some of the stations give a predicition and some don't. Hadn't noticed that before

Do you have a link for projected levels?

It's cheaper if you have an adaptor to fill the bottles yourself or you use huge bottles. If you're just swapping 13kg bottles at boatyards, it's no cheaper. The main advantages then are that the fuel itself is seen to be cleaner and safer and that if doesn't go off if you store it a long time. Disadvantages are that you pay more for the lpg kit, some gennys don't get on with lpg, and the lpg causes greater wear and tear to the genny components. Also, there's my personal concern about the safety of these heath robinson kits. I suspect they aren't tested to the same extent as a brand leading genny is.

But West Stockwith is downstream and that's the trip which was proposed.

Doesn't look like it's dropping fast to me. I'd be staying well clear of the Trent for the next few days.

https://petepowerblog.wordpress.com/lpg-propane-conversion-of-petrol-generators-explained/

I looked at that option. If you're gonna use it a lot, the savings are good. Also, advantages re storage. In the end I was put off by how 'heath robinson' the conversion kits seemed to be. I was worried about their safety, which I realise is a little ironic in the context of what I've said on this thread.

Yes. Been there, done that. My well deck is fine, as are many other well decks I presume.

Front decks aren't lockers so the requirements for lockers isn't relevant.

Disclaimer: this happened a long way from my viewpoint but this is what I think I saw and heard: Possibly the stupidest thing I've ever seen was a skipper of a commerical trip boat, which had engine on and was moving (albeit very slowly), topping up a portable generator with petrol on the cabin top in front of his helm position. Again, I can't swear to it, but it looked like he had a cigarette in his mouth. I can only assume the generator was in use. I was aware that at that time, the operator had already been reported to the maib for their use of portable generators.

Nobody is advocating ignoring sensible precautions. But some are suggesting that generators are a total no-no for boats. They aren't. They just need using with care and common sense. I'm in the one in 25.

Banning polluting cars from city centres isn't abuot reducing carbon emmissions, it's about improving air quality. Why should people who live in city centres, who typically have the smallest carbon footprints of any part of the population, have to suffer ill health caused by the highest polluters?

We, as a species, have a tendancy to catastrophise. We also, tend to evaluate risk very poorly. The most probably serious boating related injury is likely to be something like a fall from height, specifically around a lock. Less exciting and therefore less newsworthy than blowing up in a petrol fuelled fireball though. What is also true is that, without exception, every story I've read about people dying on boats due to CO inhalation or fire, has included a line about there being no CO alarm/smoke alarm fitted or working. I suspect it's far more common than you suspect.