RichardN

It is always hard to put this into perspective, these are tidal waters so you must make sure you are prepared and treat tidal water with great respect but we never felt scared, the boat coped remarkably well. After the video we did alter course slightly to try to find calmer waters and succeeded. Yes it was still bumpy but nothing like on the video, much calmer. To be honest I am not sure if the video was shot in the middle of an awkward knuckle of water or changing course did the trick. More importantly by the time we got to the turn it was much calmer and then really calm on the Medway apart from when fast movers went past.

The St Pancras Cruising Club guide has the best guidance on doing this trip, note there is a 45 minute window just outside Sheerness for the turn from the Thames into the Medway. We left 1 hour before high tide on Saturday and made the trip down the Thames and up to Allington in one hit, easy peese though a bit splashy at times as we both went submarine a few times. You do need to take great care of your timings, it is 40.5 miles to the turn, you need to get there in under 6 hours so at an average speed of 7 mph. Our engine revs on the way down were 1400 but I know from past experience there are boats that struggle to keep up with us even when we drop the revs to 1200. Try Teddington - Limehouse first, if you can do that in under 3 hours then that is speed you need to get to the turn in time. Consider stopping off at Gravesend and Queenborough, makes the trip easier, lot less time pressure then. Saturday's winds were forecast as 6 - 8 mph, I think they were actually more but still less then we would normally worry about as a wind over tide. Those winds made it very choppy going past Canvey Island - there is a video in Herbie's blog. My advice is do not go if the wind is easterly or north easterly

For the fuel filter I am now changing to a fleetguard ff5394 as it's the same length as the original Isuzu filter. I get the cheapest prices from my local car parts shop but have bought from http://www.inlinefilters.co.uk/, wonderfully convenient. I have not used filtermania but they seem well regarded, I have seen bargains and rip offs on eBay, but they don't feel right? I think I have used both 10w/40 and 15w/40 oil but always cc grade. My deliberations on filters are here: https://indigodream.wordpress.com/2013/01/08/technical-isuzu-42-servicing-info/

They are listed as being 38" long meaning they are long enough to be driven through any buried HV cables. Please don't use anything that long.

Point well made. Virtual greenie.

Does your gauge go to 5 bar? I think the manual says that they run at 90 psi so around 6 bar and minimum oil pressure is (again from memory) 2 bar which means that the standard panel they were supplied with tends to show oilpressure maxed out all the time. I have scanned the HMI manual but not the original Isuzu manual. If you have not got an original manual, pm me (I don't check cwf that often) and I will scan it and post it up on Indigodreams blog.

Or Kings Lock Chandlery in Middlewich - I have used them and found them excellent: http://kingslock.co.uk/

We sent our instrument panel to one of the instrument panel repair specialists - loads if you google. They took a look at and were a bit bewildered, all the panels they see have open backs but boat gauges are sealed units and *vaguely* waterproof. I think the far east ones for peanuts are intended for the inside of nice dry cars, I have no relevant expertise but would hesitate to get a non waterproof panel for a boat. Our panel has got VDO gauges, if yours are the same then worth a call to Siemens VDO Marine Department- 0121 326 1271 as they are very helpful and will tell you if the gauge is still made or if not then what today's part number is. The VDO gauges are sold through Furneaux Riddall and are not cheap. People like ASAP supplies have control panels for sale, probably work out a bit cheaper then buying individual gauges but not sure how good their Faria gauges are, worth researching.

I am sorry but I don't remember the guy's name but Aquafax in Luton have a Tecma guru who is brilliant but nowadays only works part time. Tecma toilets seem to be relatively bullet proof, the only blockage we have had is when we had an embarrassed teenager on board and most of her now VAT free product went through, what jammed the blades was the plastic wrapper presumably as they had been slowed by chewing through everything else. A while back but I have to say that as far as I remember we had no noise from the motor when we tried flushing.

Hmm I think the lady that owns that has offshore qualifications ....... Rumour has it that a second one arrives later this month! PS The Lady is also very clever so I will be surprised if she ventures out too far. Hmm how far is too far? I think you were waiting in Limehouse as we left but we turned right! I have seen the odd mention of the trip but did you ever write it up in a blog or similar. On second thoughts I don't want to know as really don't want to be tempted. Mind you if we find in the summer that getting to the medway is not that bad . . .

What a fine looking hound. Run free Bonnie.

Greyhounds don't learn about stairs till they are around 4 years old and open tread or ships ladders really throw them. We have a boat with an extra step to make it more greyhound friendly, that said I now have to carry our 13 year old greyhound, Ollie, up out of the boat as his back is going a bit and stairs just hurt. Greyhounds will obviously tell you that they never counter surf, steal pizzas, someone's steak at a barbecue, pack of chocolate biscuits on a shelf, it is all lies. (Thanks Bruce)

I would agree. On a former boat we had a Mikuni, it would fur up pretty readily if there was any water in the diesel so always worth fitting some extra filters. I am with MTB in thinking that red diesel is different. 4 or 5 years ago we were filled up with white diesel not red (long story), we were sure that everything ran better but that is subjective.

Thanks guys, good advice. Our issue will be the weather - we are off down to the Medway and need a 7 or 14 day mooring if we have to wait for a weather window and then get to Limehouse smart-ish. I know that generally visitor moorings in London are full, a lot of the other places which we used to use are beyond of full, I now worry about safety, and worry about whatever dogs we will have with us. The wall at Limehouse should have spaces but after 24 hours you are paying a fee which is probably not unreasonable for Central London but the wall is not that dog friendly, again depends on who we have with us. It may be better to moor up at Brentford or Teddington and then pop down when we know we have a weather window, we will miss our old haunts but not sure if I fancy the hassle.

Yes work restricts us but we still manage reasonable distances. Our summer cruise will be at least 628 miles and 328 locks, some of the miles will be a bit quick.We need to go through London but don't fancy being triple moored so not sure what we will do - possibly avoid the Regents Canal ?

I don't think this is anything to do with exemption or zero rating. I have not looked at this years paperwork but in past years we always got an invoice for our gold licence and in it there was a breakdown with the CRT portion being subject to VAT and the EA bit of our licence NOT being subject to VAT yet the EA manage to claim back the VAT they pay on building works as they have a special deal with George Osbourne but probably best not to remind him about it. Same piece of paper, two VAT regimes. My memory may not be accurate but there was a big debate about this 12 or 13 years ago and BW as was chose to opt in for VAT on land and buildings as that gave them a fairly massive net tax reclaim - I see their briefing note talks of £20M. For the rivers only piece of paper I can remember there was an argument with HMRC (or was it Customs & Excise then?) who ruled that VAT applied, I can remember a rivers only piece of paper holder posting that they had even managed to talk to the relevant VAT inspector which is quite a feat but as I was having an HMRC audit at the time, I did think do you really want to bring yourself to their attention?

That was a quote straight from the press release so BW's words not mine. My words now: Irrespective what you call it if CRT is entitled to make a charge then why does anyone think it can be without VAT? Quoting the example of the EA is a complete red herring as they have this special status which BW/CRT do not. Someone understands, thank goodness.

Can you use cash accounting? https://www.gov.uk/vat-cash-accounting-scheme/overview

So you want to keep a boat on a river waterway, not pay anything and get VAT back. Hopeless VAT was debated extensively years ago. BW issued a briefing note at the time:

Had to go and look this up. 2000 rpm is as fast as we can go with our prop. At 2000 rpm our Isuzu 42 apparently produces 30 bhp so bang on the 1.5 bhp / 100 rpm figure. We have broken one PRM 150 but if ever I should replace our boat I would gladly have another PRM150.

Your cruise sounds great, obviously the northern canals are fantastic but providing your boat is fit for the tideway then a trip on the tidal Thames will be the highlight of your year so go for it. Read all the guidance you can so you are prepared, obviously I am biased but a good start is here: http://www.thamescruising.co.uk.

We went west to east. We talked to the nice people at Shire Cruisers, had a look at Salterhebble and decided to go down in reverse which worked fine. Apparently some people in 60' boats do go down pointing downstream but we did not fancy it, I think the point about snagging the rudder is spot on and the driver gets to stay a bit drier! After that we went through normally, well almost. There is a walkway on the upstream side of the bottom gates, we had to get the front under that so we would let water out and pull the front under the walkway as soon as we could. We only went west to east but obviously looked at the implications of going the other way and for our boat I would worry about it more, it would be more difficult and harder to avoid getting caught under the walkways as you come up. We won't be back on the C&H till 2017, I am hoping to go west to east but that is so far away that plans may change . . .

You probably can do it . . . though I think I would prefer to do it anti-clockwise rather than clockwise. We are notionally 60' and did the whole ring (apart from the Leigh Branch) this summer. It is a fantastic journey, superb so give it a go but be prepared! * The Rochdale is a good work out, a demanding journey but stunning, really stunning. * We had to go through Salterhebble backwards with our fenders off! Sue had one of our excellent driving days and drove in reverse between the locks and went in through a single gate without any effort before I could get round to open the other gate! Do your homework, best advice is on the Pennine Waterways site here, photos of us going through are here. * The journey is well worth trying but be warned, if you are a bit too long or you have a big bum then you will drop down Salterhebble Top but won't be able to get out. If that happens weep at what you are missing but rejoice in that you get to do the Rochdale again. * You really need to concentrate on the Calder and Hebble Navigation, also I suspect it is easier going down from Sowerby Bridge ie anti-clockwise round the ring as in most locks we had to pull the boat under the walkway on the bottom locks as water dropped and before we ground on the cill, with our shape of boat it would have been awkward the other way round, ymmv. Take it easy and it is fine, we got quite good at working the boat through with a rope and boat hook. * The Leeds & Liverpool is way long (127.5 miles?) and well what I can say, I can't wait to do it again. Very enjoyable even if there is a swing bridge every 5 yards. * We dropped down into Liverpool and that again was an unexpected treat. I remember Liverpool as a place with a fierce reputation but now it is a lovely city, they are working so hard to make a fantastic place and I think they are really succeeding. * I needed the exercise so we went down Wigan unaided. If you book then you can get help from CRT / Volunteer lockies, contrary to the opinions expressed here I have talked to several people who had help up or down Wigan, they were universal in their praise and gratitude for the help. Do it and enjoy!

Have you a source for that? We were not required to provide any documentary evidence when we over-stayed for 6 weeks.

I never understand these debates. We have overstayed on occasions after talking to CRT and found them very helpful. Worse case was 6 weeks on a honeypot site whilst an orthopaedic surgeon put in screws etc. we rang, explained the issue, the questions asked were more to check that we would not be causing an obstruction and ended with saying that they would check the boat was ok every time they went past. I know others who have had similar experiences, to be honest it seems the norm but as others have said talk to them first and don't take the pee.