Thanks, vertical dowels might help especially when there is a bit of wind blowing my line about. As for line, I got it as a gift from my sister in law (I think it was the Rio brand and I wish I could recall the technicalities). When I get round to changing my line I will make sure it is weight forward or shooting head but reluctant to do that in the near future because I know the one I got was a decent quality line that floats beautifully.
As for my rod, I'm pretty sure its a slow action. Very happy with it and its something I will just have live with.
The pattern for me is my casting starts of pretty lousy and gets better as the day goes on - it seems like I have to develop a rhythm and, once I have that, I am OKish. For the most part, I think I do just fine without monster long casts but it would help when I am trying to fish on tidal waters for sure.