gatekrash

North Stratford was several inches down on usual, but easily passable. We hit bottom quite a few times, but nothing too sticky. That said we have picked up more industrial plastic crap on the prop today than ever before, and that includes our many trips through Brum. Maybe it was all lurking on the bottom a few inches out of normal reach. Still persistently peeing down here. Hope I remembered to shut the Houdini hatch.

Today, 2022. Tardebigge tunnel.

Sat in the Blue Bell at Waring's Green and it's been absolutely hammering down for the last half hour. Had to have another pint to wait for it to stop rather than walk back.

Droitwich was ok yesterday - drove past on the way to get shopping before our trip and made a point of looking at the levels. We'll be on the north Stratford tomorrow heading round the Warwickshire ring, looking at the forecast there's going to be a good dumping of rain Weds / Thurs so fingers crossed we won't be stuck on the Coventry in a couple of weeks.

We give these out when we're doing water safety talks and presentations. It's an RNLI leaflet and probably goes through everything you've just asked. I'll scan one when I get 5 minutes and upload it. In the Coastguard we use a mixture of 150 Newton and 275N ones, depending on whether we're expecting to be intentionally in the water or just working beside it. My personal ones are Baltic's as they're a good make, but that's not me making a professional recommendation !

The top paddles on that pair of locks are usually quite stiff, bottom gate paddles are easy enough though. The longish pound between Blackpole and Bilford is often quite low anyway, so I can't imagine it took much to make it look really bad.

I think RPI as a measure is being stopped in the next few years - the ONS aren't going to calculate it any more, so pensions that use it will have to change. Mine uses RPI capped at 5% and we've all been advised it'll use CPIH at some point in the future once RPI no longer exists

We almost T-boned one a few weeks ago. We were, fortunately slowly, approaching Worcester bar, as there was a boat coming through when the numpty in the go boat reversed out in front of both of us. He knew we were there cos he'd seen us, but clearly thought he could just jump out in front of us and we'd both stop for him. I think the young lady from go boat who was responsible for looking after the moored ones there might have guessed we were both less than impressed because we both made very similar unprintable comments. I did wonder what would have been left if the thing had got squashed between us and the oncoming narrowboat. Then when we got further down there were 2 of the things moored up in the winding hole at the Vale! Have to say though, probably no worse than the current craze for inflatable SUP's that really don't have a clue or any directional stability either.

Ours was like it when we bought the boat - pitted badly, to the point where the surveyor poked his screwdriver through it entirely. Again, only around the prop blade area. We had the whole tube replaced as part of our sale negotiations. Surveyors view was it was caused by a combination of lack of maintenance (difficult to black in there) combined with mud and grit effectively scouring the tube in that area. Especially if someone has been using it to get the boat off the bank when moored where the shallow muddy water would be easily stirred up by the thruster. When we came out for blacking last month which is now 2 years since we bought the boat the new tube was unmarked and still blacked. Probably because we keep forgetting we've got the BT and I've normally forgotten to turn the isolator off !

That's probably because a fortress isn't really shaped to fit neatly on a bow roller like a plough or claw shaped anchor like a Bruce is. A fortress is much more likely to be stowed flat in a locker out of sight. That said I've not got one on my yacht either, having used a Bruce for the last 30+ years with a CQR as a kedge. And I'd agree about the costs entirely. They must be selling enough though else the company would be out of business. Perhaps they're more popular in the States. I'll make a point of looking later today when I'm out - Sail GP in Plymouth, so some insane 50 foot foiling catamarans doing 50 knots around the Sound.

Insta and tik tok these days. Facebook is apparently only used by us old farts now.

Surprised she's not already appeared in a Reach plc newspaper with obligatory picture sporting her best 'compensation face'. Maybe it's just my generation, but if that happened to me I'd be way too embarrassed to report it to the BBC, and would have vacated the area as fast as possible just in case anyone saw me being such a dick.

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Probably being tarted up ahead of the commonwealth games.

I think so too. And if I remember correctly they have smiley faces painted on them!

That's definitely in the plan for next year for us 😁 This is exactly our process 2 handed (usually because 1 of is is of setting ahead so the other is working the boat through the lock). We' up and down through Hanbury pretty much every time we're out, and the ladders are positioned so that you can't get back on a 50 footer if it's sat back in the lock when you're going down, so you need a line in a bollard so you can line the boat up with the ladder, else you can't get back on (don't ask me how I know that one 😔)

Not the same thing at all. Soft white rolls ideal for sticking yer burger in. Not crusty like a cob. I'm a Devon lad and even I know that ! Assuming we're talking about bread...

I've had mine not indicate full a few times when they were clearly well full, both based on the time they'd been in since empty (we know how long a cassette lasts the two of us) and by looking at the level down the flap. Usually caused by some bog paper getting stuck on our around the level indicator float and stopping it from rising fully, fixed the next time it was emptied and rinsed out.

I paid 385 for a tonne of newburn in march. Just checked with the same supplier and it's now 500 dead. Glad the coal store is full, but not looking forward to buying the next lot in 2023 ☹️

My friend's boat has exactly this in his bow cabin. I've never looked at how it works (I was too busy drinking beer at the time 😁 ) but he folds it right up out of the way during the day then it pulls down and locks to make a full width double at night. I think it's got some sort of mechanism on it that enables him to slide it down at an angle to use one side as seating as well.

Ours are in exactly the same place on our semi trad. We can get 3x 6kg cylinders in there. The locker floor is level with the gunwales and the seat (locker lid) is about the right height. Although our boat has quite low gunwales. Ours was converted from a second diesel tank when the boat was changed from gas free. I reckon it'll cause a lot of headaches for small sailing/motor lumpy water boats. We use 4.5kg butane on our lumpy water boat as do loads of others judging by the quantity of bottles that size in our local chandlery, and changing an integral gas locker on a manufactured GRP yacht isn't going to be an easy job.

Thank you, I've been trying to remember the name of that company for days. They were based out of Plymouth in the mid /late 80s. They'd sold the concept to a few companies and got their sails onto a couple of large tankers, then the global oil price crashed and put them pretty much out of business. There was a leisure Tri or catamaran based in Plymouth with one of their sails on it, remember it was a pale violet/blue colour and was marketed for a large 6 figure sum, but never caught on. Yachties weren't interested because you drove it by a wheel inside and the sail was computer controlled so you weren't hands on, and motor boaters didn't like it cos it had 'sails' and want particularly quick. I seem to remember it being badly damaged in a gale down here after the sail feathering system didn't quite work properly. These days it'd probably get a lot more interest. Bit like Clive Sinclair's C5, right concept but 35 years too early.

Last time I came through there a couple of months ago that stretch above Wolverhampton was terrible, the worst bit was the wheelie bins floating just submerged with their lids flapping, you only saw them just before you hit them as they float upright. Fortunately too big to wrap around the prop!

We keep both, chains for overnight, nappy pins for a short stop where you can just hook on and off quickly.

Lidl and Aldi occasionally have them in their middle aisle for a lot less than that. Go in for a pint of milk, leave with a flame thrower...