Cheshire cat

You obviously got there early. We were in group 29 to go through (8 to a group) and we arrived at midday. It had thinned out a bit by the time we came out the bottom lock but they had around 400 visitors. Everyone had to be kitted out with helmets and hi vis. Elf n'safety. The cafe put on free coffee all day. Many thanks for that. There was a cool wind.

On the bottom end of the Ashton. I hope it wasn't Dean that made the discovery this time. Victim is male and around 30 years old according to first reports.

Officially, cellulose isn't available to the public anymore. It is still available to the trade. Professional car repairers do use two pack paint involving isocyanite (sp) these days and have to wear breathing apparatus to do so. The work is usually done in a spray booth to allow the gas to be sucked out and to make sure the working environment is dust free. You probably wouldn't want to do your boat in a metallic or fluorescent colour on cost grounds. I had a car done in fluorescent and the paint was £800. Labour and other materials were on top of that and it had to be baked in an oven.

Tesco will deliver direct to the boat as long as the boat is accessible from the road. Beat me to it Martin.

Strange stuff weather. In Manchester we haven't had any rain for 24 hours. It must be on its way.

Where is Lyme would be my first question

Delightful boat but given how little of it is above water on the photos at the moment it looks like it has suffered significant structural damage

I think what you have done seems sound to me. I await other comments. We have the exact same problem. Are spares available from anywhere. I haven't been able to find a source.

Our boat was failed by Norbury Wharf. No problem with that at all. Charging for the retest was out of the ordinary though. I won't be giving them my business in future.

Antiques and collectables on Bridge Street in Ramsbottom Lancashire. Probably too far away for you Mike.

Unless you read the regs it is all too easy to be unaware. Our boat failed because the batteries weren't tied down and the gas bottles weren't tethered. Easy to fix but no problem getting a pass four years previously. The annoying bit was being charged £130 for a retest once the situation had been remedied. I know that many inspectors don't charge for a retest but it left a bitter taste that the one we used did.

The river level is up again in York again. http://www.farsondigitalwatercams.com/live-webcams/north/Ouse/York/ No boats this year though.

I have been thinking about getting a barometer for a while. Last weekend I was in an antique (read junk) shop and they had half a dozen on the wall. Guess what? They all showed different readings. They all broadly agreed and would be useful for predicting the weather but in terms of millibars or inches of mercury they varied quite a bit. I suppose they are on a par with a wind up clock.

Assuming insurance was / is compulsory I would say that 2% are arrogant but 30% plus are ignorant of safety rrrequirements

My experience of Portland Basin is that it is overpopulated with residents on wooden boats. i am sure a cruiser could tuck in somewhere though.

You can indeed moor in that basin and people frequently do. The towpath is gated so you will have to stay on your boat or get a friendly local to tell you what the number is for the keypad. Actually, I think you would be OK to moor on the canal towpath at that particular point as long as you didn't want to run a generator. Narrowboats frequently tie up there.

Interesting discussion considering the government has removed the requirement for an MOT on pre 60's cars.

And there was me thinking this was the season of goodwill to others!

I passed through last month and he was open but I didn't realise it was a business! I thought it was a working museum. He needs better publicity and hopefully facebook is a move in the right direction.

Get some talc down as has been previously recommended preferably with copper sulphate in for effect.

I turned on the ten o'clock news to discover that the storm has been completely upstaged by Nelson Mandela. R.I.P.

Thanks. Missed some of it but can catch up later

Yes, sorry Richard's. It's good fun. I've stucj a few welding rods to the piece in my time not to mention the scars from molten metal and inadequate protective clothing.

I thought this thread was going to be an announcement that Alan's welder had succumbed to Starcoaster's amateurish attempts to weld!

Cue the arrival of several experts on registration marks! Joking aside I have found this particular thread very interesting. I installed leds to replace our 21 watt incandescent bulbs some three or four years ago. So far so good. I think I paid around three to four pounds a unit. The GU10's I tried at home didn't last despite paying £12 a go at B&Q but I'm convinced it is the transformer in the necks that breaks down.