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When the engineers were raising the bridge manually (they debated between them whether to use the motor or winch it up manually, opting for the latter) they seemed concerned about something shearing, or a crack, or *something* I didn't quite hear. So I'm not sure it's as simple as just replacing the broken bearing. Apparently the initial cause of damage was a vehicle (land, not a boat) hitting it, so I wonder if there was more damage than initially thought.

Just got through, free at last! Contractor typically showed up half an hour late 😂 think there were about 20 or so of us wanting to get out, and maybe 8 or 9 wanting to get in. Asked the contractor how bad it was when we were coming through. He said, and I quote 'it'll never lift again'. Not sure if he was taking the piss or if it really is that bad - they seemed to be worrying that something had sheared off. If that's the case, those on other side might not be free for some time

Exact same reply from Jane Hunt MP as @Richard T

That's good news! Though I'm not sure the swing bridge will be fixed in time to free us from this 4 mile stretch of (admittedly extremely pretty) canal

Idk what you wanna call them, posters? Bills?

at Bugsworth Basin there are normal red biffa bins, and some green ones that are labelled 'originally' labelled for dry recyclables, but plastered over them is the CRT 'general waste' (or whatever it says, maybe 'household rubbish?') stickers. So while we've been dutifully putting our recycling in the green ones, I've got a sneaking suspicion it's all gonna end up in the same place

I for one would be very interested in such a restaurant. I'm not Jewish, but am interested in eating a variety of interesting cuisines (and, yes, experiences... eating and sharing meals together is an extremely old and important method of socialisation, and there's no reason that must just be about the food itself) and that's something I'm often willing to pay for. But a suggestion would be maybe to find a community of people interested in the *cuisine* aspect first (rather than boaters), and see if they would be interested in your unique spin on it. Sadly I don't know where you'd find those communities, maybe something catering (heh) towards pop-up food events and stuff like that in and around London?

With the two Teltonika routers I've purchased (a RUT950 and a RUTX50), we've never had to manually specify APN settings, they've picked the settings up automagically. But they're a wee bit better than the standard cheapo routers you can get

What is advisable for storing the stern mooring lines while underway? We have a couple of hooks we hang them from on the railing of our cruise stern

We're currently moored on the upper peak forest just by New Mills, though if you're headed to Tarleton I presume you'd be heading straight onto the lower via the Marple flight (which is also restricted by opening times). Plenty of boats passing us in both directions and apparently Furness Vale is packed at the moment. I'll ask anyone coming past from the direction of the junction if they came from the lower peak forest and if so how busy it was

cheers, this answers my question earlier in the thread

We're currently 'dawdlers' since for once it feels like we're not trying to get anywhere, which is a great feeling. Happy to let any boat past us, we tend to just get to the towpath and hang around with the center line to clearly telegraph our intent. But this discussion has made me realise a gap in my knowledge. Were we to not stop on the towpath to let a boat pass, and simply slow down and move over, to which side should we move over? Instinct tells me we should move over to the right of the channel, allowing the passing boat to pass to our port (as with approaching boats). Is my instinct correct?

Wait isn't that the best bit of swing bridges? Watching cagers pile up while you casually amble along in your life at 3mph?

Another fantastic thread for CWDF to be proud of

Today, 2023 Congleton Every single day I'm thankful to be out on the cut

Also the now defunct Probuild, which as I understand it is in some way related (in a familial sense) to Reeves

Hate to bring a thread back on topic but there we go. Today, we did the Harecastle tunnel. Prior to entering, the bloke manning the tunnel (and talking us through the safety stuff, etc) handed me an airhorn and asked if I could pass it to the bloke on the other side. Maybe a diplomatic way of ensuring people have an airhorn with them. About 150m into the tunnel (from the south entrance), my engine sputtered... struggled... I tried then to kill the engine myself but that didn't work. After about a minute, it finally cut out. Being without an engine in a closed-off tunnel wasn't particularly fun. I sounded my horn as per instructions (one long blast every 30 seconds) a few times. After that, I opted to use the provided airhorn pointing backwards towards the (obviously much closer) entrance. After the second blast, the fans wound down and the doors opened. Since we were so close to the entrance, with the fans off we could just about communicate via shouting. I was fortunate and was able to get the engine started again, backed out and could inspect the engine. After a chat with the tunnelkeepers, they informed me they didn't hear my boat's horn at all. Not surprising since it's facing the opposite direction to them, and those fans really aren't quiet. They heard the first blast of the airhorn, waited, then when they heard the second blast realised we were asking for help. Everyone was really nice, professional and reassuring. After escaping the tunnel, checking the engine over, running it under load for a while and being (reasonably) confident it wasn't just going to cut out again, we went for a second attempt and got through just fine. Still not sure what caused the engine to cut out, but based on my Victron's monitoring of the batt voltages, I suspect I left the ignition key in the off position (life lesson there, don't just let go of the key after the engine's started since it'd sometimes spring back to 'off' rather than 'on'... I should have known better and that's my f*ck-up). That would explain why I couldn't shut the engine off when I tried in the tunnel, but doesn't explain to me why it would cut out. Probably caused considerable damage to the alternator, but hey ho. Mistakes were made. Something to get checked out at the next available opportunity. Anyway, having the portable airhorn on me certainly made our recovery and subsequent passage happen a lot quicker, and for a few quid they definitely seem like a worthwhile item to have on board for tunnel crossings.

Absolutely chocka heading to Great Haywood today for the floating market. Must've passed a decent 20 or so boats heading south, and we got comfy in a queue of 4 or so boats at Colwich lock (6 by the time we left, broken paddle...). Got a spot maybe 10 or so boats before the start of the market (heading north, before the lock), and definitely shan't be moving on until Monday. Wonderful to see so many people out, and the weather's been absolutely perfect! Had a glass of wine sat out watching the sunset while the cat went into the nearby field and bothered a pheasant that was strutting it's stuff.

I've got an ex-Black Prince hire boat (as OP does), and yep that's our method! It's separated into two tanks, the first to fill being the (mostly) center tank, which then overflows into the starboard-side tank. Once this happens, we notice a slight list developing and we know it's definitely time to pump out - as the list doesn't develop enough to notice until the 2nd tank is becoming full.

We've recently discovered that turning the oven off at the (240V) socket saves us about 20W via the inverter (a surprising amount), but if your batts are measuring 12.5V and dropping to below the eberspacher's cutoff for low-voltage (iirc its 11V?) when being loaded, it sounds like your batteries might be on the way out.

Had quite a few black country ales in the Windmill Inn in Rugby last night. Really decent beers, I was a huge fan. My head this morning disagrees, but I'll definitely be seeking them out again

With modern banks like revolut, you can make any number of virtual debit cards which would help mitigate the tracking to some extent (though its most useful feature is if you're using a site of potentially less repute for a purchase). Create a new virtual debit card, tell Google pay to use it, buy your stuff and cycle it back out for a new one. I tend to do this every month or so, and obviously it won't help protect you from Google's tracking of your purchases but it makes me feel a little better

Ah shite I've been meaning to fill the form out to formally apply but didn't get round to it yet... I'll get it done probably some time tomorrow, promise!

idk dude, 66 is probably pretty representative of the number of *active* posters on the board

Thanks! As an aside, this sort of information (links to pertinent information made available but sometimes not obvious by CRT) would be very much at home on a wiki of some description...