Stats, Hire Boats and the love of family.

Just look at these stats from the blog. The two top posts of all time are by Jaq, "what every woman wants..." and "the Airhead marine...". How can that many people be that interested in sh toilets.
 Nearly six thousand page views. Ok so we can understand that composting toilets are big talk amongst boaters present and those about to step aboard but Jaq has become quite flushed with so much interest in those two posts.

Now look down the list and in 3rd place the post i did about going to London for my check up and the two needles I had to endure, yuk I do so hate needles, has had 1820 views. 
Now this post like most of the others had average views upon publishing but sometime in the late summer  some four months after I posted it was getting hundreds of views day after day. It did have a video link to bus driver training on a skid patch that came from YouTube but surely that wouldn`t link to the blog.

As to why Dorney Lake  is high on the ratings, Googling it shows nothing related to the blog in the first 6 pages so a mystery there.


Last Sunday five hire boats of the Kate Boats fleet from the Warwick base past us just outside Leamington. I walked up to the lock to use the rubbish/trash bins and because I knew the lock was closing on the Monday and asked them about returning the boats. It seems they will return them to the Stockton base some 8/9 miles along the canal. 
I guess they will be transported by road back to get their cars. Amazing thing about Kate Boats is the number that are out on hire through the winter months. 
Even over Christmas we met a boat heading up the Hatton lock flight intending to have Christmas dinner on board and had seen many Kate boats out during November and December.

Madeline for example is a 47 foot four berth 5 star luxury boat on hire in the peak July/August season for £1635($2350).  It can be hired out of the main season in February for £1,000($1400) LESS than the summer price.
The lowest saving I found on older boats was £700($1050) so I can see the attraction to hire this time of year. Looking at the crews aboard the hire boats I`m  guessing these are second holidays as not one boat had children aboard.

 Back in early December I reported the demise of our Central heating boiler. It is a diesel powered unit that heats the hot water tank and the four radiators spread through the boat. 
The price quoted for a new unit was astronomical and we decided to do without it as it never was in use constantly as the stove was our source of heat and the engine gives us hot water.
My son Kevin turned up one day just before Christmas with the grandchildren and his partner Adele plus a full Eberspacher installation kit. He said he paid a fraction of what i was quoted and as he is in the transport trade with his trucks using the air blowing version I don`t doubt that.
When your son turns up like that and also pays for the installation saying "you have given me enough cash over the years" a dad knows he didn`t waste his time raising that son.
All now recently installed, with lots of spare parts, and working  I guess it will get used first thing in the mornings if the cold below freezing weather appears from the weekend onwards.
Thanks son.