Chickadee

Last night was our first night house sitting for a week. good points, Bath Massive TV loads of channels Instant hot running water Big kitchen big garden for the dog to have a run around in. 30 minutes to work instead of an hour. Bad points, Loads of space for the dog to run around in (i'm sure theres lab in her somewhere, she loves stealing stuff and running off with it she never gets far on the boat but here she can run and hide with stuff) Dog next door barks at our dog all the time getting our dog on edge (why do people leave their bloody dogs in the garden all day! I'm guessing because they are to lazy to walk it properly) You cant move when your neighbors dog is pissing you off. We could never afford a house this size with the massive tv and all the channels. Beautiful dog walks are a car ride away instead of up the canal or over the bridge an up the lane. Pubs are rubbish in the city. I miss the excentric old dudes. So much space to keep clean in a house! We were thinking of moving back on dry land as we have out grown this boat (42ft with two of us and a dog) but I can't do it. It would suck to move off the canal now. edit - also forgot the boat is like a sauna in the summer but it seems easier to get a good breeze going through the boat in the evening than the house does. I felt like there just wasn't enough air in the house last night. Also the stove. I love it couldn't be without one now.

It would be handy if it showed both.

I will not be trying that! I'm accident prone enough without tempting fate!

I've tried closing a few gates but some of them on Tardebigge are a bit tough. We got stuck in one lock for a bit becuase we couldn't open the gate then when we did get it open we couldn't shut it again even with the bf pushing the gate and me reversing the boat at it. Still only three years into this little adventure so maybe i'll get the hang of it one day. I'd love to have a proper go at single handing one day so it would be handy to get the knack of things like this.

Sometimes its easier to say what they want to hear or what they expect to hear than the truth? I quite often tell white lies when people ask boaty questions becuase its just easier.

Thats kind of what we do, bf sets the lock, i steer in, he closes the gate, then we both turn the paddles (mostly because I strugle with some of Tardebigges tough paddles), I open the gate as he'll be ahead setting the next lock, paddles back down and then I get back on the boat and on into the next lock. Then the bf cycles (god forbid! ) back down and closes the gate.

This was how you ended your other post which as boaters who use a bike got my back up. Just because you've had a bad experience with a biking boater doesn't mean we're all like that! I always ask if people want help and tell people if we don't or if they do something silly that might damage my boat. I love riding up and down between the locks its great fun. Why shouldn't I be allowed to do that? If anyone is emptying locks they shouldn't be a quiet polite word should do the trick. If they are in a hurry or anoying you that much pull over let them past and carry on your merry way as slow or a quick as you like. After all its a holiday isn't it, whats the hurry.

Yep I've had people thank me for slowing down as well. we're quick when we can be but i'm not a dick.

Like the poster above surely it's up to me how I do my holiday. Also it's not always a holiday. Especially when your Dad books your boat into dry dock on the Avon but then you find out a locks closed on the Avon meaning you have to go the long way round. We'd all booked time off and it wasn't a holiday but it was brilliant fun! And at the end of the day isnt that what it's all about?

We used a bike and found it really handy. We never set more than one ahead and only see one or two boats a day anyway. I think a bike is perfect for that flight. Also almost every time we've been up or down it we've been in a hurry for one reason of another so a bike is very handy thanks.

We find having a bike helps with Tardebigge as some of the locks are a little way apart. When we've done it two of us on one boat my bf rides ahead and sets the lock, I steer in while he rides back down and closes the gates of the last lock. I then get out the boat, close the gates and start that lock off while he rides up ahead and sets up the next one. Can't remember how quick we do it now but we're pretty speedy.

I found boat blogs really handy when I was looking at buying a boat. Even the most boring information was interesting to me. I'd never stayed over night on a boat let alone travelled miles and had to deal with day to day things like how often we'd need to cut wood or where the nearest butcher might be. I read everything on Ernies Ten Bob Note blog (although admitedly I liked his blog becuase of all the pictures) but there were others that gave me insite into a world that I thought I wanted to be part of but didn't really have a clue about. I never did get to stay on a boat before I moved aboard full time but these 'boring' blogs helped me decide it was for me.

Although I agree in theory that people from BW are not necessarily the right people to be running the waterways trust there is alot of good arguments for employing people on a pay roll who can bring their expertise to the table. I also think re the original post that there still needs to be plenty of involvement at a local level. Although alot could be done from a central office different areas of the canal work very differently from others and more local offices would be helpful to make sure that the individual canals can work well.

With my modern trad stern we only ever have to move stuff to get at the engine. I can steer and get to the stern gland with out moving a thing. On top of the engine we have a shoe rack and then above that a coat rack and we use it for keeping things like wetsuits and toys (frizbees etc) Your toasty and dry when working on the engine and warmer and drier steering in the rain. Our engine still looks brand new and is always dry. I can also use the back step to give me an extra few mm of height to see when steering into locks. I looked at a boat with across boat bed it had front doors but the guy selling the boat said he didn't use them very often. I can see the attraction as long as you have other doors near by. I'd love a nice big bed like that.

Does anyone have any opinions either way on widebeam builders. Was just looking at Cuttwater and I like the shape of them and that they've been in the business a few years but i'm just looking at the images so not really the same as seeing it in the flesh.

Yeah, thats the other thing that would lean us towards a widebeam. I think we would be more limited with anything with a wheelhouse on which rivers we can go on and how far up we can go up them. Today i'm leaning more towards a widebeam for sure.

Thats true... and i do like things out of the ordinary (obviously as i'm already living on a boat ) I think at the end of the day it will come down to what we can afford and whats avaliable when we're ready to buy. I'm sure my Dad would love us to get a widebeam sailaway for him to play with.

I've never had anything fall off thanks to a passing boat. Me steering into tight locks does that quite well enough. We do however spend most of our time on a rather wide canal and only venture on to the narrower ones out of season when most days we don't see othe boats moving I can however see how it can happen particularly when the boat is going fast enough to pull the water from the bank and hoof it back again. What would you lot do if you couldn't find anything to bicker about...

That is a good point about the gunnels. The DB we went on the other day was rather a big one so my view is probably a little skewed of how nice they are inside size wise. Widebeams do seem to be a nice large rectangle shape that you could do anything with. There are a couple of wide beams for sale near us, maybe I better go see if I can have a look around these and see how I feel then. (the one I love the look of so who knows I might fall for that one ) I guess I could always get a pram style cover for the back end if i'm still hankering after that space with light to work in. I'd probably use it most in the summer anyway. I think i'm confusuing myself here! I think maybe it will be more of a case of what is avaliable once we've sold our boat as there is only so long I can spend with the inlaws which is probably where we'll end up inbetween times. Its a good job my Dad is consulted to check out all the technical stuff i'm so drawn by my heart i'd probably end up buying a totally beautiful but useless reck.

I've seen a few of the widebeams with a wheel house and i'm not really a fan. Doesn't look right to me. Although I haven't actually been on one so then I might change my mind.

Bigger boat, Yup! I think we've finally decided on a bigger boat thanks to a friendly neighbor who let us look round his lovely dutch barge the other day. It was as i'd imagined (which isn't suprising the amount of them i've looked at on AD) and although his was alot bigger than what we need I've fallen hard for a boat with a wheel house. I don't think a wide beam will quite hit the spot. I'm also totally scared about steering one but also super excited to give it a go. We've given ourselves 4-6 months to get our current boat sorted and sold and find our new bigger toy. As that will be winter i'm hoping we might pick up a bargain. Maybe we started to small with our 42ft and now my longing for more space has got a bit out of hand but I can't bring myself to move off the water just yet! We're also thinking this will be the boat that we might have kids (or atleast one kid) on so we need space for them to. EEeeee! Exciting!!

We are going backwards and forwards on this at the moment. We know we need more space than our 42ft nb gives us but we can't decide what to do. Part of me really really really wants a wb for the space that it would give us (I found I got quite claustrophobic last winter in or nb) but then I think about not being able to go up the worcester Birmingham canal any more and it makes me a bit sad but then thats the only narrow canal we get to do because we both work and can't take long enough holidays to go futher afield. I think we could always hire elsewhere if we really miss narrow canals..

Hehe it looks like that thing off the tellytubbies. I'm no engineer (although I am the daughter and gf of two) yet I think it looks a bit silly. Esspecially when you see it against the old dredger towering in the back ground. Also if they are just moving silt out to the river isn't this going to make things worse out there? I thought there was some report a year or two ago that that needs dredging but no one wants to put up the money to do it? Glad we don't have any plans to go anywhere with all this going on!

Wish we could have done Worcester to Brum so quick the other month! Liked seeing her have a go at those gates. Alot of them are really tough.