Scotty

Was it a really big white boat with lots of people onboard?

David Walliams is undergoing Tests For Weil's Disease. Apparently he has been ill since swimming the length of the Thames for charity and is currently in hospital unable to walk from unbearable cramps. Leptospirosis or Weil's Disease can be fatal, so lets hope he gets well soon.

I used Aquapanel from B&Q which is a cement board

That good to know, I can of course record a gpx track using android, but i'd miss navvygator's updates of distances and eta's

Hi Stuart, I like the updated site. Would it be possible to make a navvygator app for android?

You can download the leaflet and map from their website: http://www.middlelevel.gov.uk/navigation-documents.aspx http://www.middlelevel.gov.uk/map.aspx There is a spiral bound map available by Imray called Fenland Waterways, but it doesn't compare with a Nicholsons Guide

The most powerful laptop i've seen was a gaming laptop from Dell: http://www.dell.com/uk/p/alienware-m17x-r3/pd They're not cheap, small, pretty or particularly portable but well worth a look.

How about Radio5 or Talk Sport? I can't see the Sky TV over mobile broadband working, You'll need a really good mobile signal. Does anyone know much bandwidth an hours tv would use?

Can't remember who's photos these are, but they're so useful i saved them. They might not be Caldwells, but very similar:

Mine's a 2005 and has windows from Caldwells http://www.caldwellswindows.co.uk/narrowboat.htm

I didn't know her name or any of the stories about her but I know who you mean. I met her once while walking along West End and I found her to be cheerful and friendly. She has always smiled and waved when we have passed in the boat, and she hasn't stolen any of my diesel or cut my ropes. Perhaps my experience of 'Jenny' was a lucky one. PS. Do boats need a name or index number on the middle Levels? There's no licence fee to evade, so what did she do to invoke a 'MLC 7 day notice' ?

Possibly i'm quite a low power user, but I don't live on the boat so can't say. I found that the batteries were often sat at around 90% (Smartgauge) and there was no point using a 40 or 50A charger to put in the last 10% of charge.

I broke the 10% rule and bought a 10A sterling charger for my 330Ah battery bank. If the batteries are low, I take the boat for a day trip and the alternators replace the bulk of the charge. By the end of the day the batteries are accepting less than 10A anyway so overnight on the 10A charger is plenty.

Do you have those part numbers handy Will? My Isuzu 35 is due a service, and it will save me some time. (I really must keep a note of them) Scott

If you get water below the floor, you'll need plenty of ventilation to allow it to evaporate. If you can still achieve this ventilation with the insulation, then it should be ok.

You need a GPS receiver, but Navvygator is free http://www.waterexplorer.co.uk/Brochure/Navvygator.aspx It's very good too.

This is my favourite free energy system:

Make sure you're not powering the charger using the inverter! I have a socket wired to the shoreline which is isolated when switching to the inverter

Don't worry about the amps, your welding cable will easily cope with that. It's the volts that are important when charging. Any drop in voltage from the alternator to the batteries will extend the charging time, if you can shorten the cable length and increase the cable size this will minimise volt drop.

It's worth remembering that the Middle Level Commissioners don't charge a penny for boating. For them to improve facilities, they would need to introduce a licence fee

I've used some neodymium magnets to hold stuff on the boat's roof. I bought countersunk ones from ebay so they can be screwed to stuff. They work great on the satellite dish mount. They are ridiculously strong, and come with plastic spacers to separate them.

I have a 3 position switch auto-off-on wired as below:

I think you can use up to 2500 lts of veg oil tax free. (This may have changed or might only be relevant for road use)