nipper

Southcote Lock is now repaired, open and in operation! Nipper

Thanks Tim. Now all is nearly right with our boating world Now all we need is for boat yards to keep their promises and it would be perfict!! Nipper

To be honest I missed you as I was probably looking at a couple of boats that came down river with us yesterday. I'm bunkering up at Better Boats in the morning and also having a bit of welding done by them too. Then I'll try to get alongside the long term/sorry the Tesco mooring to do a bit of shopping as it seems ages since we did a shop! Then I'll probably bumble about till Thursday when the licence runs out and see what's happening with the lock. If it is still closed , then I'll make tracks either back up to Oxford and the canal or down to London and the Grand Union! Don't really matter either way! Nipper

Thanks JV44. I past Goring a couple of hours ago and the lockie did mentioned the stoppage, others above Goring didn't know anything, but then, it's not there waterway! If CART have spare L SECTION plates, and lets face i,t they have had a few days to find some, perhaps a day would suffice for the repair. Happy fishing. Nipper

Be very aware that there are Winter stoppages before Christmas on the lower Llangollen and one up past Trevor after Christmas! The details can be got off the winter stoppages from CART, but these are marked on my wall chart with not details to hand! Hope it help! https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/notices/winter/#staticFiles nipper

This damaged gate, although it's only a guess by my part, has all the hallmarks of the Buckby flight damaged gate. Surely CART have access to "L" section steel plates, or if not, it cannot take that long to get them cut out and fixed as a gusset both sides of he damaged section. I suspect the same will happen here as at Buckby and assisted passages will be the norm till November, then the whole lot can be fixed at the same time! So, long waiting times are probably ahead, as is happening at Buckby. I really don't want to get on a canal and find that in a months time i cannot get off of it! Maybe I should cut and run up to the Midlands, skirting the top of the Grand Union at The Buckby Flight and getting up past Norton Junction before the stoppages on the Southern Oxford. Hell, there seems to be an endless stoppage everywhere i look on the map! Oh the trials and tribulations of a proper Constant Cruiser! Nipper

Whilst I'm a little peeved at having to wait to continue my passages, It dos emphasise that CART will send staff to put out fires, so to speak, on prominent bits of the system, but show complete lack of interest on others! Lets face it, 4 days to send a team to repair a gate? We have known about this since JV44 started this thread, but there is not a mention of it in the stoppages from CART and with it occurring at the start of a Bank Holiday, I would find it very hard to defend CART, as is my usual stance when c..p happens. Yesterday, whist heading Reading way in the rain, I came across two narrow boats heading back to their moorings on The Kennet and Avon, who had heard not a thing about what lies ahead of them. Also, just as an aside, I have had no messages from CART at all about stoppages anywhere on the whole system. which really seems to indicate that perhaps they have all had the weekend off, leaving the system to look after itself! This "unofficial" stoppage seems to be the result of a boater damaging the lock gate "again". And does suggest that the lock gate was a little "on the tender side", indicating to me that lack of maintenance is again at the forefront. It does seem that CART cannot hope to maintain the system at the present rate without starting, or thinking about closing down some of the lesser used canal sections. Oh, i do hope i am wrong. Nipper

I think he is talking about those stainless steel like springs that offer a better snubbing than just rope. I see they are putting them on the Pontoons that are being installed along The Regents Canal. But, of coarse, I could be wrong by a long way! Nipper

If you use the same method of tying up as you do now, I would hazard a guess that the same will happen! Can you not tie it up properly in the old time honored way, like what you was told at schoool?

Thank you Steve for the update. I have also learned that there is now not a lockie at Blakes Lock. At least I have my Environment Agency licence up untill Thursday evening. Happy days! Nipper

Ah! A friend of a friend stoppage? Ah! Would that friend of yours be the same friend of your friend that had a message from someone they knew that had heard of the stoppage that JV44 knows? Apart from frustrating me on my cruise of the south of England. If this is true, then there will be an awful lot of boaters that wont be able to get back to civilisation for a long while! I have had no success in reaching the Blakes Lock lock keeper as yet! Nipper

Nothing on Stoppages. Can anyone else give any further news? I'm due to enter at Reading on Wednesday! Nipper

It seems that I am always going through Camden at the weekends. I treat it as a bit of fun and the chance to have the crack with the can swiggers, who generally are a happy bunch of all sorts, with no malice to them! Though it would be nice to stop for an hour or two at the visitors moorings sometime instead of motoring past the line of Pallet carrying boats that never seem to move! Nipper

Yes, that Pyrford disposal point is a stink hole, but don't knock it, because it's the only elson disposal point that you can guarantee to be working. This cannot be said for the Dapdune and Godalming disposal points, that were closed a few weeks ago! Nipper

Na! don't do it! you know it makes no sense!

Dean, cannot you accept that you were doing everything right, but CaRT needed to ask you a question, because there logging program is not fit for purpose and needed to make sure your were moving as they guest you were! Now relax and stop making your life complicated and go boating! Nipper

Cus, he normally has chicken shyt around his old coat cuffs from robbing those birds that have just laid! Nipper

Um! I believe that if one owned a Sunseeker, one doesn't go to the toilet! Nipper

Yes, my thought also! I wont be changing my direction of travel until I reach the bridge! By then I would think, that all loose stonework would of been taken down or make safe and perhaps a protective scaffold put around, if we are lucky! Just think of the hire boats up there, wanting to get back down to their bases by the end of the week! Methinks it wont be that long until passageway can be made Nipper

Oh! I'm so pleased that I bought a months licence to explore the Thames! Still, Oxford and the river below are still nice, with lots of out of the way moorings as long as you don't want the whole of your boat alongside! Lets hope this is sorted soon, as I can imagine, there are lots of boats the wrong side of it, for whatever reason! Nipper

Good morning, Yes, it was electric. Having bought Largo nearly three years ago, I looked at the underfloor heating with a view of getting it working, I spent 2 hours checking this and that , then decided that it wasn't ever going to work and if it did, would only use mega amounts of precious electrikery! So decided to disconnect the wires and chop them off with a sharp Chisel at floor level. Job sorted and no worries! My take on this type of heating is, it maybe ok if your connected to shore power, but it would probably be expensive to run. If you want your tootsies to be warm when in that room, then buy a bathroom rug to stand on! I must also say, that the microwave oven, that came with the boat was also launched into a skip on the same day and never replaced! I'm not much help really but I'd stick to my Multifull burning coan nuggets and with a small USB desktop fan to woft some of the heat to the back of the boat if necessary. Largo is 70ft. We never turned our central heating on last winter at all! But we were CCing and moved every two or three days all winter! Nipper

Largo had it installed in the shower room! But i don't think it ever worked properly, and I have made sure that it will never ever work again! Thats one of the two things that don't work on this boat. The heating in the shower room and Samy the Cat, she just sleeps! Nipper

So, they come on the river with or without a registration fee being paid! Well, why don't we all do that and save ourselves the money! I merely jest!! My point is that rules are rules. if they are not enforced, then why bother? Why try and enforce a rule of £100 when the enforcement for less is never taken up! I'm generalising here, but you see the point! Wether it is a licence or registration, it really means is that we have to pay! Not pay in any other walk of life and you wont get! Try not paying your council rates, your rent! your mortgage? You are risking loosing what you have. Why not your unregistered or licensed boat? Anyway, enough of that, I pay my way and enjoy the ambeance of river and canals, and now I shall draw up the mooring pins and go find another mooring later! Lets hope there are some! Nipper

Morning all! When I came on the river yesterday, I paid about £210 for a visitors licence for a month. I now have to display this white strip of paper in full view telling the world that I am a visitor and to what date I am licensed too! If I hadn't, I wouldn't be allowed past the first lock, and when it runs out I have to leave the river! It's my understanding that you cannot get full license to cruise on the river full time, unless I have a mooring. It's also my understanding that full time cruising cannot be done with visitor licences. My point is that, if these people abuse the licensing of the river and will probably not have licences, and it should be quite easy to see if they are, because there will be no visitor licence displayed. Surely it is not the local councils responsibility to sort this out, It is the River Licensing authorities, i.e. The Environment Agency's, job to do that, after all they are the ones that collect all the cash! Lets also face it, this effects all the river users from skiffs to the big jobs with the flying bridges, because we all have to stop somewhere, otherwise what's the point of a boat, whatever the size! A boat less River is, as far as I am concerned, is a dead river! Nipper Edited for a little more diction!

Today I left the River Wey after three lovely weeks visiting Grandchildren and old friends and turned left at Thames lock and am now cruising the River Thames. How disappointing that the first mooring that I chose to stay the night at after entering the Thames from the river Wey is now not a public mooring despite being on my Pearson's and on E-canal Mapp! On reaching this mooring, Ryepeck Meadow visitor moorings, there are signs giving notice of £100 charge for stopping and with 30 days to make that payment! Is this now common place on the Thames? Maybe, I have made a mistake on purchasing a months licence? I did spend three weeks on the Thames two years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it, with no such restriction like the above! Looking on the net, apparently a contractor has been appointed by the local council to enforce mooring restrictions at Ryepeck Meadow and council owned land at Shepperton. If this is so, then it will be my last visit here! Nipper