Pam S

Thanks for the info. Just had to turn a 58.5 ft boat in a 60ft winding hole having past the 70ft hole at Milton before checking my emails! Don't have any more info now but am on way back to Etruria marina and may find out something there. Pam S

I use a Vodafone dongle plugged into a 3G wireless router. This can stay at one end of the boat, near a window and the various members of the crew can pick up the broadband signal anywhere that is comfortable in the boat. With a crew of four last summer we had three laptops! Pam S

My husband is a relatively inexperienced narrowboater and during a stint at the tiller recently he made the mistake of trying to avoid an angler's pole by going to the other side of the canal and almost got us grounded. We were clearly having difficulties and the angler thought it was highly amusing. I was rather cross - partly with the angler but mostly with my husband. He had refused to do as I instructed (I'm the one with several years narrowboating experience) which was to keep on course and not to make allowances for the angler and his tackle (we had just passed moored boats so were still going very slowly). My husband is a very polite person and was adamant that it cost nothing to be polite and accommodating. I pointed out that it had actually put us into a mildly dangerous position: We were approaching a blind bend with a bridge hole There was a lot of vegetation on the other side of the canal indicating shallows (and putting our prop in danger of being fouled) He was unfamiliar with this stretch of canal and didn't realise that we were about to enter a fairly sharp and exposed chicane in canal terms - any boat approaching the bridge hole from the other side could itself be in some difficulty due to the problems with cross winds I also pointed out that the angler was in fact sitting in the middle of a 'No fishing' zone - plumb directly underneath overhead power cables. My husband didn't believe that - he hadn't noticed the first warning sign, the angler was obscuring the middle sign and we were still arguing as we passed the sign at the other end, so he didn't see that either. He did admit that had he stayed on course he might not have scraped the boat through the bridge hole but did not concede my point fully until the return journey when he did see all the warning signs, and also found he had to stay in the middle to avoid running aground. There is really no excuse for fishing where there are clear 'no fishing' signs (in locks, at lock moorings, winding holes, overhead power cables etc.) and I'm not even sure we should be particularly polite to such anglers. Pam S

"240v is very handy, i like it, it always feels a little safer than low voltage options, I would happily leave a 240v appliance connected for long periods, i'm always nervous if I do the same with 12v especially if a wall socket is used." We recently acquired one of those electric cool boxes. It can be plugged into the car 12 v output or it can be used with an adapter to run from the mains. The instructions suggest that before using it, one cools it by plugging it into the mains for a while. This I did, for about two hours and when I unplugged everything to load up the coolbox I burnt my hand on the metal tip of the 12v terminal. The adapter was also pretty hot but not outrageously so. We had the box running intermittently from the 12v in the car during our journey (from Scotland to Northampton) because the connection did get very hot. My hubby, an eletrical engineer, didn't think it would catch fire and wasn't therefore dangerous. Yebbut, it was hot! "Hoovers, toasters and irons are far better in 240v" And hairdryers. I find 12 v hairdryers absolutely useless and no quicker than a thorough towelling and brushing one's hair dry. Pam S

Some of us have multiple boat personalities - kayak, dinghy with O/b, shared narrowboat, and hire a Tupperware boat when the fancy takes (e.g. Shannon holiday). Pam S

I've got a two-ball cork thingy and have just tested same with its usual complement of BW key, boat door key plus ID tag. It floated successfully in a large bucket of water. Pam S

"Getting back on topic (passing in tunnels), we always slow down but keep enough power on to steer properly. We aim to be a couple of inches from the right wall but sometimes end up scuffing along the side. " There is nearly always a rubbing board on one side or other of the tunnel (must be a reason why not both sides?) and we reckon that if the rubbing board is our side of the tunnel then it is better to rub along it than to risk bumping an oncoming boat. If it is the other side of the tunnel then we try to keep a few inches away from our wall - but it isn't easy. Despite boating for several years (in a variety of different craft) I only did my first long tunnel (Wast Hill) last year. I was amazed how difficult it was to keep straight and was also a bit hacked off with an oncoming BSB* that hogged the centre channel forcing us against the side that didn't have the rubbing board. Pam S * Bright Shiny Boat

Can't remember which pub it is, possibly the Red Lion at Cropredy, where there are two water points (each with two taps) opposite a winding hole. (Quite a big winding hole IIRC). When boats are watering there anyone arriving at the winding hole might be forgiven for thinking that there are a lot of stupid skippers about (roughly four, actually). We were unfortunate in that the other three boats appeared unoccupied whilst we had our tap going full tilt and two members of the crew scoffed down lunch in the bow whilst on water watch. We got roundly told off by a winding boater although he had plenty of room to turn and he just would not accept that it was a water point. He just kept yelling that we'd moored in a winding hole. He was definitely suffering from a surfeit of testosterone as he muttered about stupid women ... Pam S

"Although doing the locks at Tradebigge (sp) twive in a week may be too much for the weaker willed members!" A lot of hire boats have to do the Tardebigge twice in one week if they want to do them at all! Last October we went from Hockley Heath to the Severn for a quick twirl and back, doing the Tardebigge both ways very comfortably in a week. We did have Robert (RJ) with us for part of the trip but he wasn't allowed to be quite as efficient as he usually is. You meet some interesting things doing that flight. We came across a man playing an alpenhorn by the side of one of the locks because when the lock was empty the acoustics were wonderful! Pam S

" The technician is suspended in a frame from the chopper which flies over the wires and clips him on. " Some years ago the Scottish Power training courses for those working on live cables were known as the 'Marigold' courses. There were also t-shirts proclaiming the 'Real Men do it in Marigolds'. Pam S

I've been up and down quite a few times with my friends, the Streets, on Gamebird. Lost count of how many times I've done the Falkirk Wheel but it never ceases to amaze me. The two canals are very different in nature. The F&C is broad - meant for big boats. The Union is narrow and is a 'contour' canal apart from a couple of aqueducts. All the structures on the F&C are BW operated - one gets to know the lads quite well after a day of it! I can't think of areas that I particularly like - I like it all. The canal development in Glasgow city centre is good but I like the canal structures best. The Forth & Clyde has some interesting things - not just the Falkirk Wheel. We have a drop lock at Dalmuir (you go into the lock, you go down, you go forward under the road, you come up, you come out of the lock) and varous swing bridges and lift bridges of various designs, including two in the heart of Clydebank shopping centre. We also have a sail-through fish and chip shop on the canal at Clydebank. Cheers for now

I live a ten-minute drive from Bowling (where the Forth and Clyde meets the Clyde). Unfortunately I do not have a boat up here but have friends who do! I will contact them and ask them to get in touch. If there's anything else I can help with, please let me know. Pam S

I was on Tuptonia (a Girlguiding boat) out of Swallow Cruisers in June. The owners aboard Oasis Too were kind enough to let my friends and I have a look around and, as a result of the chat, four of us clubbed together to buy a 1/12 share in Sylph (also at Swallow). We are all delighted that Oasis Too is back in action. In June we went via Lapworth to Kingswood Junction, then onto the Grand Union, via Hatton and into Warwick. I think we turned at Radford Semele. It was a lorra locks! Then we finished our week by going past Swallow to King's Norton, thence the Wast Hills Tunnel and Shortwood Tunnel after which we turned. Tuptonia is banana-shaped and, apparently, too wide to do the Tardebigge flight. So in October on our very first week on Sylph we are planning to go to Worcester and back. Have a good cruise. Pam S