So, any recommendations ?

In my last post I rambled on about moving Percy to a marina. I have had such thoughts in the past and decided against and I may well do so if Fradley stays relatively untouched by developments around.

But if not I have a shortlist of 5 marinas I may consider.

1. Kings Bromley marina
2. Great Haywood marina
3. Swanley marina
4. Overwater marina
5. Aston marina

Distance from home, cruising routes, marina facilities, marina 'feel', marina ratings all will be considered. I may well use it as a excuse to either cruise to each and spend a couple of nights there or use it as a bike day to get around them all. In fact I may well do the bike first then the boat this summer....

However if you have any experience good or bad please let me know?

If its bad then you may want to drop me an email ?

With a heavy heart....

'The times they are a changing'..... I have moored my three boats at the same spot since January 2007.

We owned Comet for just three months. She was a nice boat but I knew she was a maintenance challenge and having youngish kids at home and a full work life I did not have time to cruise and repair. Plus at that time you could transfer moorings with boats and Hunts moorings did not come up too often so buying Comet got us the mooring we wanted.

So Waterlily arrived Mid 2008  - I have checked for a decent picture of Waterlily at Hunts andf the first I could find was the following winter.... much of my Waterlily blogging was words and less pictures.

And four happy years later Waterlily was gone -this is one of the last pictures taken just before we cruised to Great Haywood where she was sold. 

 A little handover of the moorings between boats (I recall Mandy our neighbour allowed us to use her mooting while she was away, hence the location of Waterlily....

Those who know the moorings will see we really have not moved too far....

This is an old photo with all three boats in front of Waterlily being sold (The maroon boat, such as life) was repainted blue and sold and now lived on Kings Bromley Wharf. This photo is pre my other neighbour Mandy who brought Don't Panic there in I guess 2008 ?

So why all the reminiscing? Much chat on the moorings about marinas housing estates and gravel extraction is coming to a sad reality. There is planning approval for a 60 boat marina just below Common lock, and I think a larger marina at Alrewas buit this may not get build. I like the boats and the marina being a little closed than the winding hole at Alrewas would be useful.

The housing is extending out from Fradley and the field behind us is owned by one of the large builders - not that I expect it will get to Hunts in the next 10 or so years. The biggest sadness is there is approval for gravel extraction in the fields across the canal from us. So that will be noise, dust and a lot more traffic on the lanes.

Basically the beautiful Fradley junction is being changed from what is was when we first had a boat.

My mooring is up for renewal in July so I may have another year as I like it but as others may move on the community will dissipate and that is another reason not to stay. 

I am sad writing this but life moves on.

I may consider a marina next time, less maintenance but a lot more cost. Plus we can stay a couple of years and move on so was can base ourselves around the system.

I don't like change so it will take something to move me from Fradley but that something is on its way and the loss of fellow friends and boaters will be the real decider.

Seem to be setting an unwelcome record

Winters in the past have seen me living aboard Percy, hard but rewarding existence. This winter I think I have set a new record in time not on Percy. The last time I was aboard was in November when I used the boat as a base for the bike show in Birmingham. The irony is I am now retired and spending less time aboard !

There are good reasons for this, a family member is quite poorly and this is taking a lot of time and travelling to add in support around Rachel’s work and the distances we need to travel.

I have been to the boat, essential checks really. My boat neighbours have been good in sending pictures - especially in the snow. I’ll not really know how Percy has survived until I light the fire and turn in the water in a week or so. It is our anniversary in February and we like to spend it aboard so that will be a good check all has survived.

Should we be worried ?

I am reading C&RT have basically borrowed via bonds 100 million pounds in January and will be doing the same later in the year for a further 50 million. They also agreed a rolling credit agreement with RBS in the recent past for 25 million pounds. 

The revolving credit facility allowed for up to £25m to be borrowed by C&RT for periods between one month and the date of the facility’s expiry in June 2019. The RCF has a rate of interest 1.75 per cent above London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR).

C&RT did not make immediate use of the RCF. It was not until the 2016/17 financial year, when the amount that could be drawn down was doubled to £50m, that it acted. C&RT borrowed the whole amount. £10m for repayment in June 2017 and a further £40m for repayment in April 2019.

C&RT also has a loan of £13m inherited from British Waterways. When BW became C&RT, its few debts were written off with the exception of £13m owed.

Now I am a simple soul and borrowing money to pay back borrowed money is a bad strategy. If I were in this position I'd look to see where my spending was going and curb that, or adjust my budgets, short, medium and long term to fit my income.

There is only one outcome here, massive cuts down the line when these debts are due, and the people making the loans will be long gone... it does sicken me that they think we Joe public can't see this ??

I love the canals but they are going to get less and less as the cost to maintain them cannot be met so the likes of the Caldon and northern canals will just get closed and be left as cycling walking and fishing venues and not boating !!

Another new gadget for the boat

I do have a temp gauge on Percy but it does not give much info.... I've often wondered what different parts of the engine are doing heat wise, the hot to touch technique is ok to a point but for £10.99 I can now get some comparative readings across different parts of the boat.

So this is now part of my toolkit. 

I need to balance the radiators at home also so it will be useful in getting the flow and return pipes to an acceptable difference  - demonstrating the radiator is in fact radiating heat at a decent rate. 

Changing the gas - you've never had it so good !!

We all hate changing the gas I guess. It's a difficult job, manoeuvring those small cylinders into and out of the front gas locker. Well how about swinging one of these  around.... these are the heating fuel source at the cottage we rent down south. Daft idea and expensive to heat the house for sure.

That 47kg is a bit of a disguise as thats the empty weight.... so it's an easy lift out of the pit, then I have to lug 95kg to the pit and then lower it in !! I am a 70kg sort of fella so that's a third more agin my own weight. just glad I don't have to do it over water !!

Did I say lots of miles

.... 450 miles  today New Years day -  to get the cat a long story a bit sad really but maybe something to say later. For now I hope you all had a Happy New Year and have some plans for 2018.

My yearly review will be delayed for a few days  - I know you can't wait !