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I think I will set up as a wife or husband shagger (I’m not fussy, provided the lights are out). Surely any self respecting spouse should be delighted when they arrive on the scene to find me helping their spouse into bed without the bother of me actually asking them whether they would like to be bedded. After all, I am doing it as a volunteer so it must be welcomed by all.

July 2021 - Berkhamsted (Lock 53 and Lower Kings Road Bridge), Marsworth Lock 40, Heron near Cheddington

Ah, start em young, this was my daughter doing the Leicester Line at 8 1/2 (70 footer, phut Phut Phut engine)

I have been on the Wey for a few years now, so here is my list of potential mooring sites upstream of Cartbridge. High Bridge, RH side between Cartbridge and New Inn Outside the New Inn LH side below Triggs Lock (2 or 3 places - very rural) LH side just past Wareham's Bridge (1/3 mile above Triggs - very rural) RH side by Sutton Place, a little way before Broadoak Bridge (some A3 noise) RH side 1/3 mile above Broadoak Bridge (very rural) LH side just past the lock landing above Bowers Lock (some A3 noise) LH side after Bowers once you rejoin the natural river (A3 noise) LH side by the metal footbridge below Stoke Lock LH side between Rowbarge PH and Woodbridge (against new wooden towpath support structure) Dapdune Wharf (a perfect peaceful idyll) LH side next to Odeon cinema in Guildford (only if you want to spend the evening with the local drinkers) RH side below town bridge in Guildford by the old warehouses (can be noisy) RH side above town bridge in Guildford (can be noisy) RH side above Millmead Lock (can be noisy) LH side above Guildford Rowing Club (perfect all the way along the straight) In the weir stream below St Catherine's Lock (perfect and peaceful) RH side in the rough above Unsted Lock (quiet) LH side Godalming Wharf (handy for Sainsbury's but can be noisy) RH side above Godalming Wharf

Thank goodness Vlockies who order boaters about are in a minority

The bible is part myth, part history and part poetry. It's full of contradictions, as I presume are all religous texts (I did start the Koran, but it appeared to be so ridiculous I couldn't face carrying on). That's largely why organised religion spends most if its time trying to stop people reading its particular holy book, and the rest of it arguing about the interpretation. Most of them contain some advice of practical value and a lot of encouragement to nobble anyone who follows different gods. Bit like CRTs t&cs, apart from the nobbling.

Just locked in the pouring rain from Rodley to Granary Wharf on the L&L. Not a roaving vlockie to be seen! That's the answer - only move in the rain ?

Bit of freight on the Marne canal July 2012. The spits was owned by George and Helen Smith now retired and back in Braunston. The cargo petro coke from a refinery in Belgium to a cement works on the Rhone.

I assume that everyone has read the new Licence Terms and Conditions, you know, section 11.2 the part where it says "The Boat Licence does not give You any priority of passage on the Waterway. You must follow the directions of Our employees and volunteers". That can be read on a number of levels, and is one of the several remaining requirements that NABO are trying to get removed or amended.

well I take the point to some extent, that is why I played down the fact that he hit me with his windlass, but the bottom line is that people representing an organisation you are interacting with should be identifiable. If he had been wearing his name badge as he is supposed to, or if he had given me his name when I asked politely, the camera wouldn’t have come into it. But if people try to hide behind anonymity then the camera is the only resort.

Even when Ive done that Ive listened more to whats required of my services than most lock vols ever will....

It would be a very bad idea for us to have the boat an hour or more from home as we'd never get there! I have a demanding job in the NHS in Hull and the boat's main purpose is to be Somewhere Green, only occasionally will it get out for more than a weekend. Don't worry, I have a lot of respect for big rivers - we can see the Humber Bridge from our bedroom window, have sailed on the Severn estuary and lived just inland of the Firth of Forth. I should tell you sometime about the episode when we unwisely spent low tide on Weston Super Mare beach on an 18' 'pocket cruiser' with a 4hp egg-whisk…

It does, they enjoy working locks! Many are boater, they are OCD about locks, what a wonderful opportunity for them to extend their pleasure time. Doesn't make them bad people. I think they deserve medals for putting up with some people who moan about them here and elsewhere.

Losing the lock vols wouldn't be a great shame....I happily boated before they came along....in some cases much happier!....if they just wanted to paint things or mow some grass if they must that would be fine by me...it seems to be something that lets say attracts a certain type of person.....

I tried to read it, but it was in code which I couldn’t decipher.

Us too. Blissfully quiet. Good to meet you in the basin. Well HIP HIP HOORAY! We ascended Wilmcote flight today, not a volockie in sight. It was so relaxing! Well as relaxing as 16 somewhat knackered locks can be when the copilot is incapacitated and can’t wind paddles or move gates.Nice couple of guys on the boat in front who back-opened several paddles for us. Although we had helped get them into the bottom lock where they were stuck by a not fully opening gate. Basically I rammed them up the back end with my enormous fender, if you know what I mean.

Thing is, most of us only go through Foxton every five years or so, and we need a bit of instruction. The vast majority of boaters are inexperienced, and this is what CRT have to cater for. This understably irritates the few of us who generally know what we'ree doing, but the lockies have no way of knowing which are which, and there are enough inexperienced idiots in captain's hats who think they know it all to muddle the waters even more. It's not just the lockies who can be petty minded and showing off.

The efficiency or otherwise of the CRT personnel at Foxton is the stuff for a whole new multipage thread.......

I've lived aboard full time for nearly 5 years now. For the first few years, I had to stay in one place for work and so paid for permanent moorings. I've since changed jobs primarily to enable me to work remotely and enable CC'ing. I've already gone as far North as Liverpool, East to Peterborough and South to Devizes all while working from the boat. If I have to travel to an office, I jump on the train. I know it's easy for me to say but this is what I consider 'Continuous Cruising', ie bona fide cruising the system and moving around the country, not endlessly circling the same town. If you need to stay in one area then by definition you can't cruise continuously. Really, you need to decide whether the elements of your lifestyle that are keeping you in one place are more important than your desire to live on a boat without a home mooring. My previous job was tying me to one area, so I left it and found a different one. I support most of what the NBTA do because they're one of the few organisations that genuinely recognise the value of having people living on the waterways. What I don't agree with is people who really need a permanent mooring abusing the system, but they are a very small minority compared to the 10,000s boats on the system.

Like most voluntary codes, the people that read it will be the ones that already follow it. The people that need to read it won't bother.

however as we know, the Ts and Cs have no standing in law. Licensing of boats is controlled by the 1995 act which places the well known 3 requirements to be met at which point a licence will be issued. The licence cannot legally be revoked on CRT’s whim. And they know that. In addition, any T/C that says “you must obey our volunteers” is clearly an unreasonable one. A rogue volunteer might say “you must give me all your money / murder my enemy for me” etc etc. Unreasonable Ts and Cs are not binding. Had the T/C said “you must obey the lawful and reasonable instruction of our volunteers” then it might not be an unreasonable one, but that isn’t what it says. But actually think the point of the T/C is for places like Watford and Foxton where some degree of organisation of traffic is needed.

In extremis : You could be sat at the top of a flight waiting to go down, buy the Volly doesn't like the look of you, so lets everyone else down, and up and you are left there - make a fuss or just 'go for it' and you lose your licence for non-compliance. Volley says "I'm working the lock", you refuse to let him and do the lock yourself and you lose your licence for non-compliance. Volley says "no mooring there there is a fishing match tommorrow", you moor anyway and lose your licence for non-compliance

My wife sadly passed away after a short illness a month ago and her last comprehensible words to me were "you are not staying in this house - you will rattle around in it and you won't look after it". so I bought a ground floor apartment in the housing development surrounding Abingdon-on-Thames marina. Sale completed on 30 June (just in time to benefit from the stamp duty holiday) and started to move my kit in yesterday. The boat will follow when our big house is finally sold (asking price offer was accepted even before the estate agent could put it on the market!). The view from my back door:

When you say growth what do you mean. Trees or just long grass. We always carry garden shears to cut the long grass down.

Thanks - this says: As I say in my opening post, that isn't the case because of the amount of growth along the towpath side... Thanks - this is sort of what I'm asking - is there a list somewhere of "official stuff"... there doesn't seem to be in the NT's guide for boaters. As I quote above, it makes it sound like one can moor anywhere along the towpath side (except of course for services, lock landings etc) Thanks.

Thank goodness nicknorman is in the minority or else volunteering at any flight would be an unenviable chore and demoralise any sane helpful volockie .

Camping boating 1981. Trent and Mersey think near Colwich.

That’s how they worked it the next day when we went up the rest of the flight, they worked as a team setting ahead for about 5 locks each and then passed over to the next one, all they did on the lock with the board was to close the bottom gate before going off to set the next one. It is clearly just some who do not want to actually be helpful, but have their own agenda.

Did CRT consult boat users about the "volunteer lock keepers" before they were introduced? I can't remember if there was any sort of proper consultation and taking of feedback about the whole thing or if it is just done to make the corporate image better. It seems very inappropriate for these people to not be identifiable.

Running into one little Hitler does not in itself mean that the principal of volunteer lockkepers is bad. If that were the case then we'd have no police, no teachers, no managers, etc. You may not like them but then what do you do on rivers like the Thames which have traditionally had lockkepers? Perhaps you just avoid such waterways. What you've described sounds a bit like a battle of egos to me. Of course as skipper ultimately you should be in charge, but why either of you wish to get into such a conflict in the first place I don't really understand. Personally I'm happy to relinquish control on locks on the Thames because with a big lock full of boats somebody has to take charge and that has to be the lockkeeper. Even if I'm in a smaller lock on my own which a volocky is working I'm perfectly comfortable for them to direct me as long as what they're doing is safe and they ask for my signal before opening paddles, etc. I'm glad for the help. If it were me in your position I'd have "appeased" Hitler and let him have his way. It's just one lock after all and then you could have continued with all the other diy locks on your journey. Don't sweat the small stuff. Think of your blood pressure. Life's too short for this sort of petty nonsense.