Jen-in-Wellies

Stop it. Stop it! Pub, going out. All things we still can't do. Aarrgh! Meeting people and inside a cabin too! Please stop tormenting us. Just 'cause you had a non-clown government. Lovely boat though.

Indeed. Keeping the bottom of the canal far enough away from the top to boat is hard enough as it is. When our moorings were drained a few years ago while the adjacent lock gates were being replaced you could tell exactly which boaters do this. A large mound of ash on the canal bed by each one. People think it somehow magically disappears. It doesn't it sinks straight to the bottom. Let it cool and put it with the general rubbish. Once burnt, wood and coal ash is a fraction of the volume of the original fuel. If I remember right, coal ash from power stations used to get made in to building blocks or some such? Is there anything that coal, and/or wood ash can be recycled in to?

Agree with above on getting one of a "good" range. Makita (I have), DeWalt etc. If you need spare batteries at any point be very careful to get genuine brand name. There are a lot of knock off batteries that look like Makita etc ones, but are not. They skimp on cell quality and safety electronics inside the plastic. These are Lithium ion batteries and can burn with great fierceness when they go wrong. Buying a spare battery, or two at the same time as you get your drill, or angry grinder, from the likes of Screwfix, or Toolstation should be fine, but beware secondhand and Ebay. Jen

Canal and River Trust at Newark certainly don't know that. They do know about corking though! Perhaps @blackrose could use cork tiles instead? ?

You're not the only one who does this! Jen

A contrasting colour caulk gives a striped effect to the floor that some find aesthetically pleasing.

Did it have solar panels?

Don't go boating in the Sahara desert though. Oh wait, right. ?

Bump, Clang, Dang, there go the wine glasses. Oops, the dinner plates are all over the floor. At least that is how it was when I was learning. If a particularly loud bang woke the cat up she would march from the sofa to the rear hatch and complain about the rubbish steering.

As always, it's who you know, not what you know. A hire boat company friendly article from someone on the team is always going to win out over an honestly cynical one from me. No one has ever commissioned jewellery from me either The Karin Andreasson's have got both fields sewn up. No chance for an outsider with fresh ideas! ?

If you were good at playing "Operation" as a child, you'll have fun steering through the hire boats! If you were bad at playing Operation, you'll still have fun at busy hire bases, but with more noise...

Wow, I can't believe the Guardian editor accepted Karin Andreasson's waterways article pitch and not mine. ?

Wardle Canal. Wow, that was short. Walsall Canal. Wow that has a lot of rubbish in it. Rochdale Canal in Rochdale. Wow, I've never spent so much time down the weed hatch. Chesterfield Canal. Wow that's a lot of weed. Ashby Canal. Wow that's shallow.

Depends if you come up north at any point. A 57' Calder and Hebble lock won't leave you anywhere to go!

A bigger risk is a flow over the top of the top gates of a lock as you are heading up. No paddle to close and if your boat is a similar length to the lock, no chance of escape. Could be on a river in flood, on the Rochdale 9 through Manchester anytime, or someone coming down the flight above you overtopping the pound as they empty their lock. If water is coming in from the sides, with a bit of swell on a river, then the flow rate that comes in is probably going to equal the flow rate going out when the peak passes. With water coming from above, the bigger the better, within reason to reduce the risk of the well deck being overwhelmed. Jen

Complete rubbish. I laid a piece of rope on the table like they do in the videos and it didn't move at all, let alone tie a recognisable knot. What a con. ?

Some former neighbours of yours got theirs installed by a Sheffield based gas fitter found through the Gas Safe Register search that @TheBiscuits links to. He worked for a larger company and it wasn't his usual sort of work, but he did have the appropriate LPG and boat qualifications on his ticket. Said it was nice change to work on a boat once in a while! This was around five years ago. I can't remember who it was and he may no longer be doing this. Not a lot of help I know! Jen