Tim Lewis

It really depends on the cat/cats. My ex girlfriends cats would never venture more that a few feet from her boat and were always on board in the morning whereas the late Mike Stevens would tell stories of having to wait a couple of days for his cats to return before he could set off! Helps considerably if you have a lockable cat flap on the boat Hve seen many cats happily living on narrowboats. We only ever put the cats into life jackets when travelling on tidal waters, cats can quite happpily swim in canals, the main problem (for the cat) is getting out of the water once it has fallen in, especially on steel piled sections of canal. Tim

There is a superb picture of the incident on page 12 of todays Guardian Tim

Don't forget the Leek Arm, some excellent pubs in Leek, including a Belgian bar, and it's downhill all the way back to the boat! Tim

A few pictures of the return trip from the London Boat Show http://www.pbase.com/timlewis/2009_excel_r...ip&page=all Enjoy Tim

The Woolwich Ferry runs a two boat service as a matter of course, it only tends to run a single boat at weekends. There are actually three boats, the Ernest Bevin, John Burns, and James Newman. Tim

Not as close as it looks Tim

I believe Lockmaster was the trading name of Doug Smith who lived in one of the barrel vaulted coatages on th e Stratford Canal, he produced the iconic Lockmaster canal maps. Sadly he passed away a few years ago. I have had brass plaques made by: http://www.narrowboatbrassware.co.uk/ Tim

Biggest problem that I have found with Ski gloves is that they have a high grip surface on the palm which makes useing a windlass that doesn't have a rotating section on the handle a nightmare! Tim

It would appear that the answer is yes in that you can post a link to your facebook photograph or albumn. When you open your albumn/photo you will see 'Show people this album/photo by sending them this public link:', copy this link and use it in your post to this forum. What you cannot do is insert the actual photo into your post as you can from some photo hosting sites. Tim

Testing Link here Would be interested to know if non Facebook members can see the picture in this link Thanks Tim

Worth checking the openimg hours though (on all the locks), they are specially designed to prevent uninterupted cruising! Tim

I seem to remeber that it was at this point we been told to go back - the first time we have ever been prevented from boating by an instruction from Air Traffic Control! Tim

On the return trip the locking out is at 6.0am so I don't think we will be doing much exploring! Tim

We did Worcester to Stratford in two days last year at the end of August. Fairly long but comfotable hours - we caught Tekesbury Lock during the Lock Keepers lunch break which gave us a forced beer stop . We got as far as Wyre Piddle on the first day. Can't remember what time we set off but it was getting dark as we arrived in Stratford. Tim

Nothing wrong with T & G. My ex's boat has had this kind of shower lining for 17 years with no sign of rot, I can't say that it is that heavily varnished either. Tim

I have posted a few pictures at: http://www.pbase.com/timlewis/2009_excel_trip&page=all Enjoy Tim

67p from here Tim

It would appear that 101 was not that successful: http://www.101.gov.uk/101-areas/index.html Tim

The cabin of Coronis at the London Canal Museumcontains an audio presentation from an ex working boatman who describes what it was like living on board. Tim