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Hi! I happened to be driving the boat when the gates fell off. From the other end of the boat nothing looked amiss, the collars were left in place. I don't think the gates hit the boat at all when they fell off, they were pretty damn close though. one of them might have knocked, but I didn't feel or hear anything. We were initially told we could wait on the boat while the CRT assessed the situation, so we got to spend the night in the lock! It was pretty miserable down there, we were told we had to leave the boat around 10am the next day. We had a dog on board, but luckily she wasn't too hard to get out. Pretty miserable situation, but at least no one was hurt.

I'm glad you got treated ok by Black Prince. Enjoy the rest of the trip - this doesn't always happen, honest...

Daer Canal World Community Members. Thank you for all your postings on Mary Gibby, who was clearly loved and respected and a sad loss of one of those unique and interesting people. I am particularly indebted for these postings; I did not know Mary but she was a friend acquaintance and fellow botanist of a close fiend of mine - who had worked at the Natural HIstory Museum for over seventy years. She was equally shocked - and the only information I could find on the internet (and particularly MAry's funeral) was from your Canal World community. Nothing from the Natural History Museum, Chelsea Physic Garden or The Edinburgh Botancial Garden. Anyways, Thank You all again; nice to know such Communities still exist - and I've joined! Even more extraordinary I have sent you some cash! Best Wishes Mel

Solved it! The spout of the aluminium kettle gets hot on the gas and when I pour it the water gets heated more as it runs through. If I heat it on the smallest burner, though taking longer to boil. the spout doesn't get as hot. No frothy coffee!

I’m not sure why people bother to argue with each other on here, no one ever changes their mind.

Ian, you continue to insist that a percentage of the payment you make to the Marina is a payment you make to CART for the use of the navigation. This is simply not so. It is true that CART makes an income from a charge on businesses and land, but it is your boat licence which grants you the use of the canal system, which you may use as little or often as a boat without a Home Mooring. You also assert that for the amount you pay, including the charge made by CART on the business, gives you exactly the same services as that of a boat without a Home Mooring. This is also completely untrue. You must be aware that in taking a Home Mooring, you gain the benefits associated with it. A secure place to leave your boat for as long as the contract allows, in a place convenient to you, a mains hook up, on site facilities, Elsan, pump out, fuel, water, all conveniently available. Parking for your car, the list goes on. None of that is available to a boat Without a Home Mooring. It is true that what you get varies between marinas, end of garden, and farmers moorings, or other online moorings. But then the fees are different too, and if you don't like the offer, you are free to leave it. The fact that you, and many others, take a Home Mooring, suggests that you are content to pay for the benefits it gives you. Coming up with different charging regimes, makes no difference to the above. In particular, I believe CART should charge businesses which rely on the navigation and their connection to it. It underpins their business model, and CART should not be subsidising private businesses. So, you are not getting the same deal as a boat without a Home Mooring, but extras you are happy to pay for.

That's their wok drying. 😁

Part 1: I'm not sure what is classed as history/historical in the eyes of this forum but I thought I would share some photos we took 22 years ago on our first sojourn on the canals. Given the age, I hope they can be classed as historical, as many of the views will have changed one way or another over the years. All photos were taken on 35mm film and digitised during processing. Our seven-day journey for this holiday started at Alvechurch on a 45-foot boat called Raven. We headed north to Birmingham then south through Knowle and Hatton to Warwick. The return was via Hatton, the North Stratford and back to Alvechurch. As mentioned, this was our first trip on a canal and it left a lasting impression, although we have not done as many holidays on the water as we would have liked over the years. Image 1: Yours truly as a mere pup, only half my current age. Image 2: On our way north along the Worcester and Birmingham Image 3: Our first major canal feature, Wast Hill Tunnel: Image 4: Almost 2726 yards later, the light at the end of the tunnel: Image 5: Bourneville Image 6: Near the end of our first afternoon on the canal, the center of Birmingham. Image 7: Moored up and now in the dark at Cambrian Wharf I will break this up into separate parts as there seem to be restrictions on the number of photos that can be uploaded at once (I am still getting to know what you can do on this forum). Part 2: The first full day of the holiday saw us take on the first locks, Farmers Bridge. Image 8: Me in one of the locks on the Farmers Bridge flight: Image 9: Heading out of Birmingham, somewhere Image 10: A small workboat called 'Thrasher' somewhere in the Birmingham industrial belt: Image 11: Grand Union, somewhere (?) Image 12: Waiting at Knowle Top Lock to see if another boat came along to share the lock: Image 13: Looking south From the top lock ( Image 14: Again on the GU, between Knowle and hatton I Will continue with the pictures tomorrow.

I used to think that, but now I don't. 😂

FWIW I disagree with you😁

That is one of the costs of running the business, the services of which you buy. If you sell a boat through a broker, who has premises and moorings, and makes a contribution to CART for that, you don't then claim to be contributing more to use the system than a boat without a Home Mooring. You accept it as part of the brokers fee. This claim to be paying more by virtue of paying for a Home Mooring is a quite specious argument. It is false, and has no merit, and appears only as an attempt by some, to justify the increased charge for those without a Home Mooring. CART didn't do that, they went on the possible increased usage of the system. Incidently, as Home Moorers, you can use the navigation and it facilities just as much as anyone else, whether they have a Home Mooring or not.

This cottage was not a waterways property and was demolished before the Toll Road was threatened. This is a quote from Don Clive who was lock keeper/ lengthman living in the cottage at the top of Curdworth Locks:- " It belonged in the last instance to the farming Cooper family (Who owned the field it stood in, but the last occupant was a member of the boating Rea family, after working on the canals for many years, one of the family (I'm not sure of his name, but I'm working on it) decided in the 1950's to move with his young family 'On to the land', and was offered a farm labourers job with the Cooper family, the cottage went with the job. The previous occupier also had young children and decided to cover the well in the back garden where the family obtained their water and inveted in a hand lift pump that was placed near the front of the house, he demolished the surroundin well wall to below ground level and covered the hole with some old galvanised sheets finishing off with a layer of earth, on which eventually grass grew. When the couple moved into the cottage the wife had recently had another baby, this child was about six years of age when tragedy struck, the children were jumping about in the back garden when this youngest one disapeared through the ground, the old galvanised sheeting had given way and no one could get to her in time to save her life. That was the last time the cottage was occupied."

But if my marina was not paying CRT £300pa for my berth, I would expect my mooring fee to be £300 less. I am paying the marina, say, £3k a year currently. £2.7k of that is for the marina services, which is the amount I would pay without the CRT surcharge.

Yes I have press tooling for 0, 2, 4, 6 and 7 and a BW crest, I successfully remade mine. If you could supply a scan (from a printer/scanner) of your licence plate (or a good photo taken square on) I'll CAD up other numbers and knock out whatever is required

Finally met a moving widebeam on the Oxford at a bridge (101 or 102, somewhere like that), was waiting for one coming through who told me it was behind him so I hung back. One chap spotting on the front, one on the tiller and another on the side, they actually seemed quite happy. Don't see what all the fuss is about

All true, but if you don't already have an unlimited internet contract, why pay about £20 every month when your £10 TV aerial will last for many years?

HA HA HA! given the construction of the feathers there is zero chance of that happening and then i heard that the parts were neatly piled up near by. This is someone with a serious grudge, so it is likely to happen again, until they are caught. PS The new lock 53 on the Rochdale was one of the locks which had its beams saw off. I still do not understand the farmers dispute, as they ended up with a far better access route.

The boating population skews older. People carry on doing what they've done years ago and there isn't the imperative to go straight to the new shiny. They already have the freeview gear, have worked out how to align the aerial and see no reason to change till something breaks in a major way. Why send yet more electronic waste to landfill when there is no need yet? I used freeview and freesat, till I gave up on live TV years ago. When I first set it up, 4G and streaming weren't even a thing, or only available in big cities. When you've mistressed an older technology, there isn't the imperative to change and start the learning cycle all over again, even if the newer is better by some metrics. I still navigate by map, compass and dead reckoning, rather than GPS for the most part. Vinyl is still a thing, which I find bizarre, but I never got in to that as a youngster and CDs when they came out were so obviously superior that I went straight from cassette tape to them, then to MP3. Still not got in to streaming music. I'm impressed with new shiny as much as any one, but unless I see a compelling case for my situation, I won't change to it just because it is new and shiny.