I apologise. I've relaxed now. Since I moved the boat ahead 2 spots, NOBODY has crashed into me. I picked an unfortunate place to stop, before. My bad.
Sometimes boating is like bumper cars at the fair—the boats themselves are built to take it. My peace of mind suffers when many tonnes of steel hit my 17 tonnes (18¾ tons) of steel.
On reflection, what I meant to say was: boating is an adventure, also on windy days.
When you're ready to go boating, for last-minute prices I recommend https://www.latelink.com
I used that site back when I still hired (rented) boats.
LateLink aggregates all the big and small hireboat companies.
The site is hilariously, awfully unusable, in the style of the 1990s Internet. 
It's an adventure just finding the best boat for you. But it's fitting because narrowboating is a throwback activity.
#CRT Staff and volunteers got us through Grant's Lock this morning. Stopped at #Cropredy now as we're both tired. #BoatsThatToot #Boating #OxfordCanal #Seren
Eight times in 3½ hours a boat crashed into me while I was tied up along the shore.
I have just moved the boat forward, leap-frogging two boats.
And in the process I myself hit 2 boats — inevitable, unfortunately, but I was unwilling to continue being crashed into by people for whom the wind is somehow a surprise.
Six boats have crashed into me in the past 3 hours, scraping and bouncing all the way down the length of the boat. The wind is too strong for occasional- and hire-boaters but it doesn't stop them, so they get blown into me as they clear the trees.
I want to move but the strong wind also means I cannot move the boat. There are 2 boats immediately ahead of me and I could never clear them.
Clearfield teenager to compete in kayoing world championships in Slovenia | News https://www.byteseu.com/1103774/ #boating #CanoeingAndKayaking #Kayak #MoshannonCreek #paddling #rapids #rivers #Slovenia #Water #WaterSports #Whitewater #WhitewaterSports
Apologies to anyone wondering about the boat trip. No internet last night, lock problems today. Details blogged later. #BoatsThatToot #Boating #canals
The traffic closures have been an adventure in #dc all week. But then there’s also the river closing…. north of the 14th Street Bridge, The Washington Channel, and the Tidal Basin. The Security zone is in effect from June 13, at 2 p.m. to June 14th at 10 p.m.
I send thanks to the buyer from Iowa who purchased a metal print of
Safe Harbor -- https://2-steve-henderson.pixels.com/featured/safe-harbor-steve-henderson.html?product=metal-print
May the artwork take you on a day of adventure and exploration, and then safely home.
Blissworth tunnel is long, but at least I can see the pinpoint of light at the end of the tunnel right from the start—as soon as my eyes adapt to the dark. (Amazing engineering, when you think about how straight that tunnel is.)
Tomorrow it's a visit to Canal & River Trust's canal museum, then right back through the tunnel.
I have a work call in the afternoon and the mobile signal is better on the north side of the tunnel.
On day one of the boat trip Gareth and I took some video footage. I finally edited it, badly. It's here:
https://tube.spdns.org/w/wv5nZsK22GQtvuMY5C923W
More on the blog tomorrow, done enough today.
#BoatsThatToot #Boating #canals #Crick
Do any of you techie/boatie people understand Victron solar controllers? Last night we ran the battery down and overnight the Victron cut off the 'load' to spare the battery. This morning we've got bright sun, the battery voltage is improved but the load is still off. Does it somehow sense when enough charge is stored before reconnecting? Asking for a person who needs tea but the water pump is off! Edit to add: #BoatsThatToot #Boating #CanalBoat #OxfordCanal
Managed to fix a wonky bilge pump that really struggled to clear itself of air. The outlet line was facing slightly "downhill", right at the connection between the hose and the pump discharge pipe.
By turning the entire pump so that the discharge pipe faced slightly uphill, the pump is able to clear the impeller of enough air to get the discharge going strong, and that carries the air out the rest of the way.
Major victory to get it working well in this very old boat.
