addicted

For cleaning vinyl upholstery I was advised by the company that made some cockpit seat covers for us to use Mr. Muscle bathroom cleaner. Always found it very effective with minimum effort. Carole

What an interesting post. Thank you. Our experience of Scotland is very scant. Just a flight to Edinburgh for a long weekend and an overnight train trip( through fabulous scenery) to view a boat just outside Fort William. Both many many nears ago. I must say the caravan looks superb. Hope you enjoy the rest of your stay and look forward to reading more about it . Carole

A few years ago a builder friend and fellow boater gave us a tip that has proved to be very helpful. I thought I would pass it on. He advised us to use Thompson's Waterseal when needing to re-proof our canopy following a clean. We've done so ever since. iI works a treat and very much cheaper to buy than Fab Seal. Carole

O.K. I confess, the present cold spell is all my fault, according to Tony - I turned our central heating off! Sorry everyone. Carole

The BBC telling porkies.?Surely not! Whatever next? They'll be calling the Broads a national park next! Carole

You might consider having a remote control for a thruster. That's what a friend of ours who always cruised single handedly did after coming perilously close to losing his Ocean 30' in high winds. We have thrusters bow and stern and a remote and it makes things much easier. Carole

Don't worry about Hemmingford Lock. I remember it as being really user friendly. No nasty cross winds like Brownshill always and Houghton sometimes has. Hope it all goes well for you . Carole

Even after owning our own boat for 40 years plus I never lose sight of how lucky we are to do so. Carole

I've managed to unintentionally post this twice. Can Mods remove the 2nd one please. Carole

When we first came to the Broads, in 2010 Somerleyton Bridge was under repair and opening for a brief window of about 15 minutes twice a day. Along with a lot of boats we had been hovering downstream of the bridge waiting for it to swing. when we came under the bridge the sight was lijke something out of mad movies. Boats were all over the river. As we were passing the moorings a hire boat approached our stern with speed and made as if to undertake us. We had a Sheerline 950AC which meant I could move down the cockpit right to the stern and call out to the approaching boat just as it's bow levelled with our stern. I asked the helmsman if he would drive his car like that. He looked at me blankly. No of course you wouldn't I said. Well don't do it here, back off! He very quickly did. Carole

Thanks everyone for the kind wishes. I'm home now having had a really lovely time and I must confess I was thoroughly spoiled. Carole

I am at my daughter's. I am being taken out to lunch as today I reached the grand old age of 80! I am being thoroughly spoilt which is lovely, coincidentally it It's my lovely son-in-law's birthday too so joint celebration Carole

I watched that video with growing disbelief at how silly that man must be. Even now with the benefit of hindsight It apparently still hasn't dawned on him that what he did - or rather didn't do, nearly cost his wife her life or at the very least her limb. They don't seem to be newbies so I can't understand how he didn know that the first reaction to someone overboard is cut the engine. I'm sorry if I seem to be excessively judgemental but I'm absolutely horrified. I have some experience of this type of situation. Many years ago while cruising the RGO we attempted to moor on a bankside spot beween Brownshill lock and St. Ives. As I landed the bank gave way and a large chunk of it plus me went into the river! Tony immediately cut the engine and leapt off onto another part of the bank . I was by this time laying in the water on my back alongside the waterline of our boat. He leant over and in one massive pulll yanked me out of the water. (He was a lot younger and I was a lot lighter in those days) I remember I was immensely proud of the fact that I didn't let go of my rope! ! Carole

I always disliked it bercause no matter how clement the weather everywhere else it always seemed to be blowing a hooley at Brownshill. It was also very slow and if the operations button was pressed part way through to "hurry" it it would jam and one would have to reverse the lock and start all over again. Carole

The level of maintrenance on the RGO has lacked much to be desired for many years. Quay headings on moorings damaged by narrow boats crashing into them, being simply taped off rather than repaired meaning an even bigger shortage of moorings than already exisiting.With Brownshill lock closed this means boats that moor in the Ely areea can not access the river up stream and vice versa, a disgraceful state of affairs and quite unacceptable. The cost of the toll on the RGO is exorbitant anyway given the poor amenities available and lack of maintenance. Ever since EA took over from the NRA the standard of care got lower and lower and the massive influx of narrow boats encouraged by EA just exacerbated it. Lack of supervision allowed narrowboats to hog moorings for days and days on end and when they did finally move off they left the quay headings plastered with bitumen which ruined our fenders. It is very sad to see the massive deterioration of waters we cruised happily for 25 years to the extent it now finds itself in. Carole

The approach to Hemmingford lock has always been shallow especially on the bend approaching it. We always used to shoal there on our Fairline Mirage. A word of warning - mooring on the lock pontoons on the RGO for anything olher than going through the lock is a bit of a no no. No need to be nervous of the lock operating procedure especially at Hemmingford as it is really user friendly. The lock to be wary of is Brownshill. my personal bete noir! Enjoy your boat! Carole

A belated Happy Birthday from Tony and Me Sam. Loved the photos. Thank you for the interesting log too. Carole

A warm welcome from me too. My dad served in the R.A.F. during WW2. A pilot friend of ours told us that it was deemed right to bounce a bit when coming in to land. But I don't think that applies to boats though. Carole

I get very fed up with the amount of very bad language that pervades what passes for drama on tv,today. I often remark to Tony that if all the 4 letter words were removed from the average script, the programmes would probably be a good half hour shorter. It's mostly gratuitous and quite unnecessary adding nothing to the gravity of the script, rather, often detracting from it. Old fashioned I may be but often old fashioned in this instance is vastly superior to new fashioned I think. Carole

Hi Will, welcome to the forum. It sounds as if you do the same job as one of my granddaughters. She works in west London. Carole

I can just remember when meat came off rationing. my nan, who lived with us, took me shopping and we stood outside the butchers and she told me to look in the window and pick anything I wanted and I could have it. It was a big event. I remember I chose a lamb chop! Carole

We use cash just for the purchase each morning of our papers and I use cheques to pay my visiting hairdresser. I use internet banking only to check that all is in order and for any transactions I go to the bank personally as although our local branch closed we still have branches in neighbouring towns that are easily accessible and some functions are possible at our local post office so at the moment we can manage things to our satisfaction. It's not so much that I don't trust modern technology, it's more that I don't trust myself not to make a hash of it! My keyboard skills lack much to be desired. Carole

That really does look good Sam. You must have felt wretched when you found ll that hidden damp damage. Let's hope that is the last of nasty surprises for you on Mermaid and it's all plain sailing from now on or should that be cruising? Carole x

Reading the above, as a parent of a baby boomer my generation has had to cope with all the changes mentioned and it gets harder practically every day. For example I can no longer park my car in a car park I've habitually used for 40 years or more because some twit decided to make the charge payable only by the use of a smart phone and I don't have one. I don't have one because I simply couldn't get on with the one I tried for a few months. It was anything but smart! I spend an inordinant amount of time these days on trying to find ways I can avoid being scammed while almost every other call I receive on my land line is from someone who is hell bent on doing just that! In other words all,these changes are not necessareily for the better. In fact I find life pretty difficult these days Sorry, rant over. Carole

Tony and I used to run a pet shop and it was quite a common thing for a youngster to be brought in by a parent to buy a hamster and be paying for it with money saved in their money box. It could be a bit of a pain to count the cost out in coins of small denominations. Even more so if the required pet was a rabbit, complete with hutch and all the accompanying required equipment! Carole