gatekrash

The one below Tardebigge top lock used to complain, before it was closed there was a laminated sign saying 'only use one paddle when emptying this lock', complete with a badly printed CRT logo in the corner. The owner came past us one day when we were waiting to come up, turns out he was a CRT employee...

We were planning the S Oxford this year, we also like to try and find somewhere we haven't been. Not even going to attempt it now. Tardebigge being out has screwed most of our plans this year, although we did go up the T&M to Middlewich at Easter which was a route we'd not done before. Current plan was to go down the Severn and up the Avon to Stratford and then back via Brum, hoping Tardebigge was open by the end of August, but that was shot down by the S Strat closure at the weekend. Plan C, guessing like a lot of people we will be up the Shroppie again. Although we might go up Stourbridge/ Delph and have a play on some of the BCN. Haven't been out to Anglesey basin, so that's a possibility. Did come back from a 2 week boating hol in the Med a couple of weeks ago, which included Sicily, so got a boating fix at least. Although it wasn't quite on a narrowboat...

Have you not done the plastic freezer bag trick ? Place blanking plug in freezer bag. Attach freezer bag over log stub inside boat and tape the neck of the bag tight. Undo the transducer through the bag so that it ends up inside the freezer bag with the blanking plug. Bag fills with sea water, but it doesn't shoot up your arm and into your face. Grab blanking plug through the bag and reattach it to the log stub. Remove bag. Hey presto, only one freezer bag full of water in the bilge and none spraying everywhere. Having said that, the latest log on my sailing boat has two loose hinged flaps that are flush with the sides of the transducer tube, as you pull the transducer out the water pressure pushes them closed and you only get a trickle into the boat anyway. Very clever !

Only if you are literally on deaths door. It's called NHS continuing healthcare (CHC) and it's pretty much impossible to get. Managed it for my mum after fighting for 2 years. Advanced dementia, bed bound, severe osteoporosis meant she had fractured vertebrae and she developed open bedsores because she couldn't lift her chin off her chest. Still told she wasn't 'ill enough' to qualify. We eventually managed it, but they still tried to take it off her 12 months later (presumably because she hadn't died fast enough). You can still claim attendance allowance in a care home though which was a small amount to help.

Well I started at about 6 minutes in and lasted until about 8 and a half. Glad I did cos at 8 minutes 30 secs they went past my boat, we were clearly in cos the side hatch was open !

Yesterday, Tardebigge top lock repairs

Lidl were selling water meters a couple of weeks ago, about a fiver. Mechanical vane /impeller thing on a hose connector that attaches between the tap and the hose. We completely emptied the tank dry then refilled which gave us a volume measurement.

Quite often, yes. We sometimes get helimed turning up at jobs we wouldn't expect to need anything for transport other than a land ambulance because I think they have higher levels of specialist care training than some of the land crews and can get there really quickly. They've also got an air ambulance vehicle that sometimes turns up with the helimed doctor aboard so they can also get the higher level of care on scene without the aircraft. This was one of our jobs a couple of weeks ago. Cas had an open ankle fracture and didn't need airlifting but we were grateful for the helimed doctor who we dropped over the cliff with one of our guys to help with stabilising his ankle. We also had HART here so anyone looking on would have seen 5 ambulance vehicles, 3 coastguard trucks and an air ambulance, effectively for one guy with a broken ankle, albeit a fairly major break.

Off the back of this we've just bought 4 with a new 185w victron panel to add to our solar. We've had a few months with an eco flow lithium and foldable 160w panel running our little alpicool freezer and decided to add a bit more to the permanent panels so we don't have to keep deploying the folding one. We were originally going to use one of bimble's plastic stick down mounts that attach to the panel corners but your feedback on the mag mounts was good so we've gone that route first to see if it works for us. Think we might need to grind off the non slip grit from the roof first where the magnets are going though, when we usually stick stuff down with magnets they're not as firm as I'd like for a panel mounting.

We fitted ours ourselves. I built the hearth, the Mrs did the tiling. Porcelain "Victorian" floor tiles, come in 6x6 backed sheets and the border tiles also on backed sheets. Took a bit of working out the size to make sure the pattern worked properly.

We went down there for a few nights last year, definitely worth the trip. Definitely the Portuguese cafe for breakfast. And a good chippy up the hill and around to the right, but of a walk but the F&C were good.

I reckon there's a stoppage inbound at Middlewich if anyone's around there... HGV in the canal...

Definitely happens in Plymouth, although not generally in the 'posher' neighbourhoods. I know of a few caravans which people were living in for a while in various places. Although at least 3 of those got torched by the local youfs. May well be cos there's more employment in Bristol, Plymouth tends to be tourist jobs these days now the dockyard is a shadow of its former self.

Definitely not. £2 each for the plastic glass on the first pint though, but only the first time around. If I'd thought of it I'd have brought back last year's and saved myself another 4 quid.

We've done a whole 2 hours from the marina to Netherwich basin today. Now slaking our thirst after that marathon effort. Currently 16 ales and quite a few ciders on at the beer tent at the canal festival, and it's only just opened so we can take our pick. One of the several different Pardoes ales was tempting but gone for an oatmeal stout for starters 🍺 Mrs G is on 7% abv cider, luckily as a Devon girl she can handle her scrumpy 😀

Solar Kingfisher is down at Droitwich at the canal festival this weekend, I'll see him there and ask him.

Also nicknamed a spin-maker after a Chinese gybe in a serious blow. Only time I've ever had to get on the keel of a yacht (Laser 28 it was - as seen on Howard's Way!) to try and get it upright, even dumping the spin halyard hadn't worked, the mast had already filled with water by the time we got it free.

Loads of places to eat in Worcester. We love Bendictos, really good Italian restaurant, moor either on the VMs at Diglis or at the Commandery, walk up to the Commandery bridge then up towards the cathedral, it's on your left as you go up the hill. If not, then there's the Olive Branch in the centre of town which is also excellent. Or the Anatolian Palace in the covered shopping area does Turkish. If real ale is your thing then the Dragon inn up towards the end of the main street is a full-on ale house, but no food there. Worcester cathedral is free to walk around. If you like history then there's Greyfriars house (National Trust) but that has an entry fee. In terms of avoiding places, I probably wouldn't overnight in Kidderminster from about Caldwall through to Wolverley (good VMs there below and above the lock). Not that it's any worse than any other industrial / urban type area but it's noisy and a bit grim and Wolverley is much nicer. Tesco's and Sainsbury's supermarkets in Kidderminster both have moorings right outside and are handy for a quick shopping stop. Kinver is a nice place to stop, the rock houses are interesting but a bit of a walk up the hill. Several pubs and a couple of takeaway places there. Another historic house is Wightwick Manor at Tettenhall, VMs quite close and the house is close to the canal. But I have a feeling it's covered in scaffolding at the moment! Once north of Compton Lock I probably wouldn't plan on stopping until Coven, there are moorings at Autherley but nothing really there. If you stop at Penkridge on a Wednesday or Saturday then there's a large market, but I wouldn't necessarily plan my trip around it, lots of what I call 'the usual tat' stalls, but a good butcher and a guy doing fantastic venison sausages and burgers on market days. If you like peace and quiet (or at least being woken by wildlife) then stop at Tixall Wide, it's a nice spot. Wave at us when you leave the marina if we're there, we're moored right outside the office. Here's Tixall from when we were there a few weeks ago.

We went round anti clockwise a couple of weeks ago. Just checked the log, we stopped at Coven one night (but we didn't go to the pub, we just know the moorings there are the first decent ones we'd find after coming up from the bottom half of the S&W the day before), next night was at Tixall. Set off from Coven at 8am, arrived Tixall 1730. Stopped Penkridge for lunch and shopping for an hour and a half. It was a couple of weeks ago so the canal was still quiet and we didn't get any queues anywhere. The other option if you wanted a longer day then a shorter day is to push on harder on the first day and stop at Brewood (pubs in village) and then a shorter day to Gnosall. Brewood is a bit gloomy for mooring, in a bit of a cutting but at least you have more option for food (Indian takeaway away and a few pubs).

I'm just looking at my tools on the boat. Set of metric spanners Smart battery charger High capacity water pump (for emptying the water tank - does 500l in a couple of minutes) 6 inch bar battery chainsaw (used tonight to process a load of logs picked up whilst we were out the last couple of weeks) Battery multi tool 'fake' dremel - perfect for grinding out small rust spots on the handrails Multimeter All Lidl / Aldi, all cheap, all used fairly regularly, no complaints with any of them. And nearly all of them I only went in for carrots and bananas... Oh, and tonight's tea was Aldi Cajun spiced chicken breast, paired with a veggie bake - still on their Easter offer of 8p each for bags of carrots, parsnips and potatoes. All perfectly fresh and tasty. No complaints here. And yes I also shop in Waitrose, their whisky offers are really good, better than any of the other supermarkets, and they're one of the few places to do decent venison steaks.

We've got 2 centre lines attached to a soft shackle. I think the tradline ones are made from kevlar line so they are a lot stronger than they look. Ours have been on there for the last 5 years and never caused any problem with breaking, wearing, fraying etc. Knowing how much strain the Kevlar main halyard on my yacht takes when it's winched up right in a blow I'm not concerned that it's likely to break under the strain of working a narrow boat. We've also got fairleads, the centre line goes into them if we're stopping somewhere like a lock landing, then comes out of them again to lay back to the hatch once we're moving again. The only time we ever popped the fairlead off was when we forgot to take the line out of the fairlead when going into a lock, and the upward angle of the centre line pulled the fairlead off. Like others said it was attached with brass screws, now drilled and tapped out larger and replaced with steel.

Seems to be a common thing with the charge status lights then. Our setup is pretty much the same, heart interface, freedom 20 and link 1000 but with a victory battery monitor and solar. The link 1000 never 'adds ' the charge back on to the battery status, even if we've motored all day or left the batteries on charge. All that ever happens is the green lights go yellow after a few days, then red, and then need resetting through the menu on the link system. Doesn't seem to stop it operating properly, and the victron gives us the correct SOC anyway.

All I can say is that they've replaced the gates and gear down at Gregory's Mill near Worcester, but not bothered greasing any of the new gear. It's already a rusty mess, and it is possibly the worst lock gear to operate I've experienced in quite a while. One click and a grind and squeal each time, the Mrs couldn't budge it even with a GoWindlass. So I'd say that greasing it helps, if there's friction in the paddle and on the gear at least reducing the gear friction has got to help.

We shave our sloes with a sharp knife after they come out of the gin and add them to a flapjack mix, simple and easy and you end up with sloe gin flapjacks. Alternatively, and similar to what Sue suggested earlier, add a couple of cheap bottles of red wine (Lidl or Aldi £3 jobs) and a splash of cheap brandy to the used sloes once the gin is drained off, leave for a couple of months and you end up with something that tastes like a fruit flavoured port. Haven't got the exact recipe here on the boat with me but have done it at home a few times.

That's where we're heading. Figure the S&W is currently quiet because the usual rings down here are all screwed because of Tardebigge, Bevere, Diglis all being fubar. I see that the north strat has also closed this morning so you can't get out at lapworth now either and the south strat is still closed too. Plus apparently the Easter school hols don't start until next week up here, whereas they started this week down our way, so no 'holiday traffic'. We'll enjoy the peace for the next few days then!