Chickadee

Yep one of them

Bristol to Sharpness in a widebeam? (over 57ft) Anyone done it? In my mind I'd have thought it would be more stable than in a narrowboat. Would this be true?

Not sure what the boat was called. It was under water when we saw it. I am probably going off third hand info so your probably right.

Thanks, glad you all enjoyed it. Should also say that dry dock must be the most idyllic place you could ever black your boat. I'm sure someone who knows the Avon better than me will know what its called. Such a peaceful place, could quite happily live there.

Hope people don't mind another flickr album from me. Just been sorting these photos out. This is the trip we made last year to black our boat. Me, my bf and my Dad had all booked a few days off work to take our boat from the Gloucester Sharpness up on the Avon to a dry dock to black our boat. We'd been checking all week that there would be no high tides or closures, the day my bf and Dad (I had to work) wanted to leave Gloucester but we didn't find out till the day they left that there was a stoppage on the Avon meaning we couldn't travel up high enough to the dry dock so Dad decided to go round... up Worcester, then to Stafford then down to the dry dock. We had a week to move the boat, black it and get it back to our home mooring! We did it! To be honest the blacking was totally uneventful compared to the trip to get there. Hope someone finds these interesting. They might not be in order, they came from two different cameras.

Going to have to try that. The BF is currently cooking venison stew in an enamel casserole dish like this http://www.amazon.co.uk/Premier-Housewares-Enamel-Casserole-Speckled/dp/B004S9W3NG But small. Started it before we went out to walk the dog about 12ish and we'll probably eat about 6pm. If we can wait that long! Chuck a couple of dumplings on the top and finish in the oven for 10 minutes just to crisp up the dumplings. I don't think you need heavy pans, I never have a problem with anything sticking and things seem to cook through well. Very satisfying making use of the heat and filling the boat with tasty smells.

Surely that depends on how old your boat is. I'm sure if you go for a new build the drop will be quite big but we got our boat 4 years ago and looking about still seems to be holding her price. Obviously we've kept up the blacking and servicing as needed so shes in as good of a condition as when we bought her.

And just like the M5 you can still have accidents lol. BF managed to plow the boat into a bush not long after we'd got her. Still don't know how he managed it when the canal is so wide. We also seemed to end up with all the insects off the bush in the boat too!

We're in the marina at the moment but leaving next week.

I'm using my 3 iphone as a hotspot right now. Couldn't you do that with a pay as you go phone?

Ah ha your at Quedgeley. You will get peace on the canal, I love the still and quiet esspecially the great sunsets. I would invite you to come and have a look at our boat but if your getting a 70ft it really wont help as its a world away from that! Hopefully we'll be upgrading to a bigger one in the next few months though so I will extend the invite for then.

Depends how and where you black your boat. We DIY'd it and lived on board it was so much fun, the dry dock is at a beautiful spot on the Avon. It was most weird being on board without the boat moving. I didn't sleep well at all those few days. I'd say our 42ft boat costs us about as much as a small flat in Cheltenham where I had been living but I wouldn't have been able to afford a flat to own and I wouldn't have had a massive back garden to go play in right outside my door. I think although I don't really save money being on the boat atleast its not going into some landlords pocket and I will have something to show for it if we decided to sell up.

Its interesting to see how someone else has got on with this. I started looking into doing a take away boat in Gloucester but have had to put all plans on hold for now. I'd got so far with BW but haven't heard from them for sometime. Probably better to focus on the afternoon teas and that sort of thing on the canal. I to would be put off for breakfast and would hunt out something else. (me and the bf walked out of a veggie cafe a few months ago after we'd already sat down and found a table as when we looked at the menu we realise it was veggie ) If i wanted a veggie breakfast i'd have cereal on my boat.

From what I can remember the boat that sank on the Severn last year sank because it was taking in water on the well deck and that got in through the doors and eventually sunk it. It sunk on the last corner before Gloucester lock so maybe they Thought they could make it home. It added to a very scary journey for us when after riding a high tide down (never doing that again!) the last corner had to be negotiated round this sunk boat. Never been so happy to see Gloucester before! Surely it would take water coming in for awhile and not a freak wave to sink a narrowboat, unless your st sea.

I always turn predictive text off on my phones as my spelling is so bad. Thankfully iphone is helpful without being full on predictive. To be fair some kids these days just strugle to talk or write properly esspecially on line as they are so use to conversing with their friends online in this manner. I could read the OP's posts without much effort and feel that some people were being rude or pedantic for the sake of it. Its a shame that these posts have to come inbetween the genuinly helpful ones.

We won't be spending any money till I have a new job, we simply can't afford to but its good to look at what our options might be and where we can save energy in the mean time. We've been meaning to change over to LED bulbs for a while and some of the bulbs have gone without replacements being bought so we could always get LED bulbs for the most used lights and then swap the current bulbs back into the lease used light sockets that are currently unused. That would be good, thanks. There are so many out there didn't know which one to try next! Mmmm might look at getting some usb speakers for my iphone to so I can still get my 6 music fix.

If you don't have a dog you could always make a recording of someone elses dog and then display beware of the dog signs. Turn on the recording then shout at the dog, should do the job. Having had someone climb on our boat in Gloucester but left totally undisturbed in Birmingham when there was football on I think i'll be getting us a little sign. Dog will bark if awake... We can sneak up on her in when we come in the boat without waking her.

So sad, glad they have people looking out for them. 15ft waves though! Blimey! And a 24 year old dog wow!

This thread has been a great help, so far we've decided the following... Do without the fridge till spring/summer. Charge laptop at BF's work and use this for watching DVD's. Change the lights that we use the most to LED. Decide after i've left my current job if we should buy solar pannels or not. This will depend on what happens in my work life future which at the moment is totally uncertain. Minimal TV use. Still hard to do a proper power audit till we get out there and see what we actually use.

I was joking, not sure if you missed that. I'm happy for whatever to be discussed its an open forum after all and I might even learn something. Would you really bother forking out for a whole new battery bank if you had recently bought new batteries and planned on selling your boat in the near future?

I knew it wouldn't take long for this thread to turn to talk about batteries that I don't understand.