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Many years ago A group of us had taken out the college minibus for a weekend field trip. During the trip I noticed a fuel leak coming from a little pipe on the top of the engine. Knowing little about diesel engines at the time I took a geological hammer to it and crimped it up. Went fine for the rest of the weekend. I don't know if it was ever fixed!

The moral is, don't lend your boat to strangers! Do let us know when you get a conclusion to this.

Wasn’t Timothy Spall’s was it?

Last summer I left my Kia Sportage for three weeks on the drive. I fully expected to need to charge the battery due to the alarm, but it started happily.

Absolutely. Just think how much better the rail system (worldwide) would have been if the gauge had been built to a seven (and a 1/4”) foot gauge. Back on topic, I left the boat without isolating the batteries and with the fridge door open the batteries were almost completely flat after a few days. Went back after a couple of weeks and voltmeter showed nothing. Recharged over the next few days cruising and I expected them to be knackered but they continued another couple of years with no obvious loss of capacity.

There is no dark aside of the moon really. As a matter of fact it’s all dark. ETA: TPF roadie (allegedly).

Or blackberries picked below waist height.

So you watched that programme last night too.

So the survey said it needed some welding five years ago. Not going to be any better now, and going by the description, I doubt it has been blacked in that time either. Can you afford £1000 for a survey on top of everything else if it is already over your budget? Probably best to walk away, and consider if your budget really is enough to go boating safely.

When new houses were built south of Nantwich next to the canal I asked CRT if they intended to restrict mooring as they had done a bit higher up when new properties were built. I was assured that it wouldn't happen, and so far, after a few years, it hasn't. Incidentally, I asked CRT a few years ago why mooring was banned on the embankment where the new houses had been built. The answer was tat it was done in W's day and they didn't have a record of why and weren't inclined to change it. The local word was that a bolshy lawyer bought one of the properties and threatened BW with legal action because boats were mooring up and overlooking his property. BW, as was their wont at the time, chose not to challenge him and so a good stretch of visitor mooring was lost.

Maybe the "shiny boater" wanted to know how long you were stopping as he thought they might invite you over for a drink later ...

On my first trip through a lock, mid eighties, I was steering with the owner on the back with me. As the lock emptied I felt the tiller start to rise. Although I had no practical experience of boating, I knew how a boat was built and what an empty lock looked like. I realised what was happening and whacked it into full forward. Fortunately the boat slid off the cill as it was only caught by the rudder but it all happened pretty quickly and the boat could easily have been caught. The boat owner, who had some experience, admitted he hadn’t been aware of the danger.

If you can’t fix it with a hammer........... you need a bigger hammer.

THIS is an air lock ...

There are narrow boats that are not narrowboats, and narrowboats that are not narrow. I prefer ‘narrowboat’ for what we accept as just that.

I would ask myself if I really needed 3000VA. It is a lot of load on the batteries. The quiescent current is probably higher than a smaller one. I've had a 1800VA Powermaster inverter for the last 13 years. Run everything I needed including a decent vacuum cleaner, a microwave and a lawn mower. Most electric kettles now are 1700W, but then I don't need an electric kettle.

Bit like the old peat working at Whixhall Moss on the Llangollen. The canal is now well above ground level, kept in place by heavy duty piling. The level of the land has dropped through both extraction and the peat drying out.

Anyfing to be on the telly.

Tilstone being fixed tomorrow (closed 07:00 - 11:00). No word on Beeston Stone which badly needs doing.