NBDensie

The pie & veg farm shop in Atherstone is called "19gales" and the pies are superb - the steak pies are full of large chunks of tender meat. To find it go down to the high street and turn right. You will find it on the right hand side near a small supermarket. There are good butchers in the town,which is pleasant enough, and as others have said the countryside from there to Hartshill is very attractive.

Two things you do need to be aware of .... Bridge 30 (Carr Swing Bridge) on the upper Peak Forest is currently BW operated between 9:00-17:00 (I think) because the bridge was damaged when a boat hit it. I believe the bridge is locked outside these hours. Bridge 25 (Higgins Clough Swing Bridge) needs a BW key to operate it, this isnt mentioned in our Nicholsons. The lift bridges just need a windlass. HTH

Thanks for all replies. We did intend to moor at Portland (junction with HNC) after going down the Marple flight but Marple was closed in the morning because of paddle problems. We got as far as the nature reserve between Romily and Hyde where there are good deep moorings (the first chance since Marple) alongside some new piling. So we started early for us the following morning, got to the top of the Ashton around 10:15 and reached Piccadilly/Ducie Street mid afternoon after an uneventful trip. We were advised that it was rather late to start on the Rochdale 9 so although the moorings by the car park just above the first Rochdale lock were full we were able to moor breasted up to a helpful hire boat. What I believe are the official BW moorings on pontoons just before the junction looked decidely uninviting. We did consider Piccadilly village but strongly suspected the shiny bollards and rings werent actually intended for use by real boaters. Now moored in Castlefield. First time in Manchester - its brill!

We are currently at Whaley Bridge and intend to go to Castlefields and then out through the Leigh branch of the Bridgewater to join the Leeds & Liverpool. Any suggestions on reasonable places to moor other than Castlefields in the Manchester area? I think to get to Castlefields from somewhere outside the built up area, say Hyde, would be more than we would want to do in a day. Thanks for any suggestions.

We moored there twice last year on our trip up the Nene and Great Ouse. We found the moorings quiet, safe, and conveniently close to the city centre. They are surrounded by a park with no obvious attractions for ne'er-do-wells. There is also a facilities block with water, rubbish point, and free pump-out. The Italian restaurant in the theatre by the start of the mooring is very good. The moorings (concrete edge, rings) stretch for perhaps a mile (from memory) and so if you are worried you can stay out in the wilds, but really this isnt necessary.

I am currently planning Densie's 2 month summer voyage to the Penines from our moorings at King's Bromley on the T&M. My thought is to go via Manchester to the Leeds & Liverpool to Leeds and back via the Rochdale and Macclesfield, with various trips on the way - eg Peak Forest, Caldon, Weaver. We may even make it to the Lancaster. Any recommendations for such a trip? In particular, is there any benefit to going E/W or W/E on the L&L. Is the Rochdale to be preferred to the Huddersfield Narrow? Any Must Sees or Must Avoids? Thanks in advance for any advice from people who have done these routes.

I guess its pretty unlikely that they would come back here, but for completeness I can report we have been the full length of the Ashby in the past 2.5 days. No sign of anything looking like Que sera sera

Like most macerater based systems our holding tank is underneath the double bed behind drawers. This space could not be readily accessed for storage.

When we did the trip last year we moored at Bridge 2 on the Shroppie near Autherley junction, Wolverhampton, and the Black Country Museum. The moorings at Wolverhampton are above the top lock opposite the BW facilities. They have the great advantage that they are only accessible from the canal being at the bottom of a high cutting wall and so there is no chance of overnight disturbance. The disadvantage of course is that you cant get off them to explore the delights of the town. From there it's a an easy half day to the Black Country museum where there are good safe moorings. If you havent been before the Museum is a great day out.

Having had the same problems what I do now is to turn the inverter off and run the heater directly from the shore supply simply by bringing the cable in through a window. IMHO leaving the inverter on unattended for any length of time is not a good idea - if you loose the external supply simply running the inverter will eventually drain the batteries. Note also with the Victron that if you do completely drain the batteries you cant recharge them from the inverter/charger because it needs battery power to start up. Whether all inverter/chargers have this problem I dont know. Other points.. "Charger only" is intended to drive the 240V sockets solely from the mains supply and so prevent the default operation of switching to the batteries should the mains fail. That's how you probably want it to work if you run the inverter unattended. I have found that if you try to run the inverter with a very lower battery it will cut out from overheating rather than any low voltage check. Some good news - my batteries are also 2-3 years old, both times I have drained them from this cause they recharged fine and continue (touch wood) to work. Mike

Info from Mrs Densie - what you normally see on narrowboat windows is crocheted lace. If you have not done any crochet work before I suggest that you have a look at this website. There is a booklet called "Cabin Crochet of the Inland Waterways" by Janet M. Reeve, which has patterns for lace edging (seems to be available on amazon). What I used for my porthole design was not a spiders web, but was just a round "doily" pattern that I had. I did a search on the web and there are a few books listed here. Hope this enough to get you started.

Many thanks for the assistance. Now I know what the device is I have got in touch with Intellitec in the UK who are being helpful. Regards, Mike

In addition to the standard manual switches. my NB has electrical switches to isolate the domestic and engine batteries. The domestic switch doesnt work reliably - when trying to turn it off there is the audible click as the relay operates but the power isnt disconnected. After repeated attempts, and holding the switch down for a few seconds, the power is eventually disconnected. I assume the relay is sticking and that I need a new one. Here is the relay: The device is labeled "Intellitec battery isolate relay". I have searched the net and have found several Intellitec devices, but none that look like this. Does anyone know what it is and where I can find another? Many thanks, Mike

We met this one when going up through Stanground lock (middle level/Nene) when we were instructed by the lock keeper to attach the centre line to a rear bollard and to keep the engine in gear. It worked very effectively and we have used the technique occasionally since on wide locks. But there is no need to rev the engine, tick-over works fine. Sure if you do not have a properly maintained boat and sensible ropes there could be problems, but it does not seem much more of a risk than many other things on the waterways.

Our water pump (a Shurflo) is permanently on. This causes the calorifier pressure release valve to vent and so seems to be a pump problem rather than a water leak. Has anyone any experience of this? Is it worth trying to fix the water pump? If so what should I look for? If I remove the water pump to fix or replace it I guess I will need to drain the water system. What happens about the accumulator? Is there any special technique needed to refill it or does everything look after itself? Thanks for any advice Mike

We have travelled 1000 hours in the past couple of years on our 57ft narrowboat. Our Isuzu 35 has worked perfectly with no problems at all. As to noise - I have twice been asked by people on the canal side whether the boat is electric as they couldnt hear the engine! Its rather noisier on the back deck but a lot better than boats I have hired. We also have Vetus water lubricated stern gear. It has worked with no problems, no drips, and no maintenance required. At the 500 hour engine maintenance I asked the engineer to check it - he reported that nothing needed attention. Mike

Thanks for all the helpful replies. We will try the products recommended and have a look at the double skinned chimney options. That should be OK as we have a vertical chimney on a horizontal collar.

We are planning to spend some time in the Fens this summer with our 57ft NB. I understand mooring in Cambridge is difficult - does anyone know the situation and if it isnt possible to spend a few nights at Jesus Lock, where the nearest alternative is?

Does anyone have advice on how to restore paintwork stained by the noxious fluids emerging from my chimney? Soap and water does not seem to have very much effect. Would a double skinned chimney reduce condensation, if that's what it is, and so reduce the problem?

No, the OP meant Freesat. Just to confuse things the same group who run Freeview have just started up an equivalent Sat service they call Freesat (www.freesat.co.uk), not to be confused with Freesat from sky (www.freesatfromsky.co.uk).

You are very argumentative arent you! I know invertors invert and chargers charge - Vectron, and I guess the other manufacturers sell combined units. I normally refer to mine as an inverter. Perhaps other people do the same. I dont know what is happening and neither do you - there isnt enough info. I am merely relaying my experience of similar symptoms and also my finding in this case that it is very easy to assume wrongly that because you do something and the problem disappears that you have found discovered something useful. If this is helpful good. If it doesnt apply in this particular case, ignore it.

Yes, but the invertor could still be charging the batteries. In my case the trip happened with no domestic usage at all. Also in my case, because the trip happened at apparently random times it was easy to jump to incorrect conclusions on what was causing the problem. We would change something, eg move to a different bollard, and the problem would disappear, only to reappear 30minutes later. I think we need to know whether its an RCD or an amp limit breaker and the type of invertor.

We had exactly the same problem with our Vectron invertor which also charged the batteries. The reason seemed to be that the invertor made occasional high demands on the landline supply. The invertor has a max landline amp setting which by default is 16amp. The land supply we used had a claimed 10 amp breaker which I suspect actually cut out at a lower demand. Anyway, when the demand setting on the invertor was reduced to, I think, 6amp everything worked fine. If your invertor is a Vectron I can supply firther info.

Use a dipstick (or rather 2 dipsticks!). Once you have been travelling for a while you get to know your average consumpton. We use 1 cm fuel a day, and know that it is sensible to fill up with water every 2-3 days. Not so much because we run out of water, but rather to stop the wait for the tank to fill becoming too tedious.

Thanks for your help. The wire brush and WD40 cleaned up the rust. The 2 nut idea on the vent thread didnt work because there wasnt enough thread showing to get 2 nuts on. However I found that it is possible to get a spanner between the glass and the back cover and turn the inside nut, which eventually freed the vent. The copper grease worked very well. Everything is OK now. Thanks again, Mike