Michele

Can anyone tell me what the difference is between a short throw and a long throw windlass please? And which one I need? Looking online at pictures I can't tell any difference.

I think the problem we have here though is that Dirty Harry won't have an address in the UK and the banks won't open an account for you if there is no address to do the searches they do to identify you. (voters roll etc).

We'll look out for you. Try to get there before 11.07pm - I think we will have gone home by then!

Not to worry, we'll go anyway as we're not all that far away really. What time is best to get to Walsall so that we don't miss all the fun, do you think?

We may have "missed the boat" here (terrible pun, I know) but have any of you lovely people got room for two crew members for Sunday at all? We'd love to get involved but seem to be without a boat! We're very hard working crew and will bring beer and supplies!

I asked my friend and she said that a good starting point would be HSBC online - international - look at the HSBC Passport account. Still not sure if you will have a problem because of having no address but it's worth a look. Who do you bank with in France? Do they have branches in England? Did you live in a house when you opened this account? Do you really need an English bank account? If you want to PM me so that it's private, I may be able to be of further assistance.

Do any of you make home brew beer/wine/cider on board your narrowboat? How do you deal with the lack of space? the movement of the boat? etc etc?

When we go out for the day, we take a picnic which we leave in the car (along with some fold away chairs) and just go back to it at lunchtime to eat. I also freeze lots of 500ml bottles of water the night before, taking them out just before we set off - take a few in your rucksack for the morning and put some in the cool box keeping your picnic cool, they can then be taken with you to drink for the afternoon - then you've got a supply of cold water throughout the day. Saves a fortune and you know what you're eating! If you really want a burger - take a disposable BBQ, a couple of bricks to put it on and cook your own! Much more satisfying and a lot cheaper than the one's from the greasy spoon trailer!

Can I ask why you need 2 TV's? There's b*gger all on anyway - we very rarely need one!

I worked for 20 years in a UK bank but as that was 4 years ago I wouldn't like to say about the current rules, however, I have friends who still work in the industry. I will contact them for advice and get back to you midweek with their answers.

I agree with Hobbler, we live by the Red House Glass cone and walk the stretch up past the Delph locks to Merry Hill frequently. We have very rarely, if ever, seen boats moored on this stretch - I guess there's a reason for that! You'd be best to moor at Merry Hill and, as Hobbler says, it's not very far to either the Delph or Thorns pubs from there.

How much were they asking for it?

Do you already have a bank account?

Nice to meet you today, hope it didn't get too busy there this afternoon!