Bellamina

Best wishes from "across the pond" to boating friends we know and the ones we haven't met yet. We wish we were there for the banter. Michelle and Bill

Sarah, I don't know if Bill and I will be "in country" yet when you have this banter. If we are, we'd love to come. (Just found the dates suggested - we won't be there yet, drat!!!) Having been shown around Lewes and environs by the Chertsey/Warriors last fall, I can heartily recommend their local knowledge and enthusiasm. We were introduced to the pleasures of Harvey's and had a grand time. Lewes is exceptionally pedestrian-friendly, which has to be a good thing when the beer is so tasty! Hope you all have a good time!

I've recently been told that the locks on the River Avon don't have anywhere to land crew for lock operation, that one must climb ladders in the lock to get on and off the boat. I was surprised as I've not heard that before - is it so?

In June I had to take hubby in to A&E at Milton Keynes Hospital with pulmonary edema. He got excellent treatment at the hospital and was released late in the day with the admonition to stay where we could be reached by ambulance in case he worsened again overnight. We returned to the boat, and I moved it into Milton Keynes Marina to have easy road access. The office was closed by that time, and I tied up on the designated visitor mooring. Despite my efforts to find an after hours telephone number, I was unable to contact staff that night. We used no services overnight. The next morning I went into the office first thing. On being asked if we "had been to the theater", I explained the situation. Without batting any eye, the manageress quoted 15 GBP per night for their visitor mooring and offered to allow us to stay longer if we needed to at that same rate for each night. I was allowed to fill up with water and empty a toilet cassette. As Bill was feeling all right, we moved on. I thought this pricey for a site without showers or laundry.

Thanks so much for the explanation. I had always assumed the numbers to have been assigned sequentially, which I now understand to be a mistake. There's always something new to learn!

Pardon me if this has been covered before, but I don't understand my boat built in 1991 having a BW index number of 51209, and Chertsey having 70453 assigned ten years earlier. Were working boats assigned numbers from different series than leisure boats? Or, is our number a "recycled" one? Thanks for enlightening me.

I do remember sharing the locks at Wilmcote and the pleasant chat we had. Thanks to you and others for their kind comments about our boat. Bill and I love it and enjoy our time on the canals more than we can say. Our thanks to all for your warm hospitality.

I was on the South Stratford last year with two friends from work. It was their first canal holiday, and they loved it! We had a grand time. They developed quite an affinity for pubs. I hope we weren't too rowdy when you saw us.

Yes, we moor close to you - just beyond Bridge 55 on the offside. I've noticed your boat, but there's never been anyone on it when we passed. Perhaps we'll meet this year.

Just noticed where your from! are you hiring or do you own your own boat? We own our boat "Shilling." It is a small (31') narrowboat but plenty for two of us. We have come to England spring and fall for six to eight weeks each trip since we bought the boat. (We come home in the summer to work and pay for the next trip!) This is our fourth cruising season. We've not been south of Stoke Bruerne before and look forward to seeing some new territory. I appreciate the information provided. It will be helpful to me as I pore over maps.

Bill and I are beginning to plan for our spring cruise and wonder what the mooring situation is likely to be in London in mid-May. We would only plan to stay a few days. We may have friends coming into the city from Kent to spend a day with us and would like to be handy to transport for them. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

We had our first hire from Rose Narrowboats, and they've done some work for us on the boat we own. We've always been very happy with them. We've had good luck with National Express coaches out of Heathrow to Warwick Parkway. It's a comfortable journey of less than two hours as I remember it. This would get you a short bus or taxi ride from Kate Boats in Warwick. It also wouldn't be far to Anglo Welsh at Wooten Wawen. I believe the same coach continues on to Birmingham Airport from which you could easily enough get transport to Alvechurch Boats in Alvechurch or Anglo Welsh at Tardebigge Old Wharf. The South Stratford on Avon is very beautiful, especially in the spring; we found mooring in Bancroft Basin to be quite a treat. This route has quite a nice mix of scenic country and villages. I don't know how much temperature difference there would be between the northern routes and the more southerly ones at the end of March. That might be worth considering. We have taken the Heathrow Express bus to and from Oxford from Heathrow - the price was 10GBP for seniors (don't know if you qualify) and something more for other adults. I seem to remember this taking about an hour. This and National Express are very comfortable coaches. Be aware that canal cruising is addictive - our ten-day hire from Rose led to two more extended hire holidays and the purchase of a boat. Now we spend about four months on our boat in two trips a year. If I didn't need to get home to work to pay for the next trip, we'd probably stay from April right through October. Good luck and have a grand time. You'll get a lot of useful advice from forum members.

Thanks for the help. We've moored in the basin before, having filled up at Stratford Court Cruisers before going down the locks into the basin. I didn't remember having seen a waterpoint but hoped I had missed it. I hadn't looked out on the river. Ordinarily I'd say we wouldn't have any problem with having enough water for two days. However, Shilling is just a small boat with only a 65-gallon tank. While that's plenty for Bill and me, this time I will be traveling with two women friends who are not boaters and will have only been aboard a couple of days. I'm not sure how good they will be about water conservation, so I'm doing my contingency planning. It's their first trip to England, and I don't want the prevailing memory to be that we ran out of water in Stratford-upon-Avon.