nipper

It's not the money, but the quality! Proper thick yokes with a deep yellow/orangy coolur! You won't get them at Tesco's! The chickens are not your hybred onesl ike your battery chickens, but proper Purebread ones. I used to keep Chickens and Purebreads give good eggs of quality! Nipper

Works for me! Nipper

Just bought 10 litres today, ready for my next oil change 250 hrs time! After initually using the same oil on servicing my Beta 50 last week! http://www.halfords.com/motoring-travel/engine-oils-fluids/engine-oil/mobil-super-1000-x1-15w-40-oil-5l I also bought a years supply of filters from http://www.inlinefilters.co.uk/ So now i can relax and carry on enjoying my cruising, knowing i have all the stuff for my next service on board and wont be pushed into buying the £35 for 5 litres some Chandlery shops charge! Nipper

There is nobody at Brentford out of tidal times! Lockie arrives 5 minutes before your due to go out, on his push bike. If you can't get hold of him, I would just turn up, as did a couple of boats did when i came up to Teddington few weeks ago! There is time to get plenty of locks full of boats heading Teddingtons way. Have a good trip and mind the weed on the run into Brentford. Nipper PS. There is a lockie at the Gauging locks, from about 9 am ish!

Service area at Godalming is now open and working, if a little slow!! Nipper

Just slightly off topic! To all boaters heading upstream to Godalming, who may require to use the Elson and water point at Godalming. The facilities building is out of order and dead locked, and because the navigation has removed fron outside tap to inside that building, there is no tap either! Best be bunkering up with water at The Dapdune Wharf and use that Elson disposel too! I did suggest they put a notice on the Stoke lock balance beam, or indeed, include one in your welcolme pack you get from Thames lock, but i think that is too challenging for them! Nipper note! there is a tap on the wooden building the horse boat uses at Godalming, but i think it belongs to the horse boat, but they didnt object when i used it!

Surely your recent tides are just normal neap tides effected by the high atmospheric pressure we have had of late? ie making them lower than they would be normally. Next week they will be normal Spring tides, but maybe a little higher because of a lower atmospheric pressure we are now experiencing and due to continue, apparently. The really big and low tides come around September and again in the spring, time due to the equinox! ie the crossing of the equator by the sun! Nipper

I found that when asked, the lockie of the moment, will give you a load of gobbledygook just to fob you off! I don't know if that is down to the lockies not being paid staff. or just down to not knowing what's going on! Surely those seals have been done by now? and why cannot they top up the basin when it's high tide? I now I have made up my mind not to contact them the next time I want to use the locks and arrive without booking and take a chance! Which, to be honest, is a very sad state of affairs! Nipper

The cat will be fine and adapt to life on board probably faster than you will. Just give her access to her food and somewhere of her choosing to sleep. The net will be in reserve and probably be only used to rescue floating Pigeons and frogs, and also for fishing, if your that way inclined! Our Cat, Samy, is now the skipper and has her crew running about doing whatever she desires! Best of luck and don't worry about the cat. Nipper

Chatting to the Thames Lock Lockie at the entrance to the River Wey yesterday, she said that it was closed through lack of water, but that it was possible to do the first 3 or 4 locks! I agreed with her, that they were not worth the hassle of going though the Basingstoke's entry process to do them, as it is the upper Basingstoke Canal that is, by far the best bit! Nipper Edited to make sense, i think!

Yes i agree, but they probably don't know any better!

When I last did the trip from Limehouse to Teddington and then onto the Wey, I beleave that I bought a day licence when I arrived at Teddington, but was told that it runs out in 24 hours. So, in practice, I had a mooring at Kingston that night and poodled up to the River Wey the next day at my leisure! Nipper

Thanks Magnetman and Lodden. But I have enjoyed myself down this way and will probably do it again before the years out. I may even come back straight after my trip to Godalming, and take time to explore more of the hostelries there abouts. I will add too that, I have had no trouble finding a space for this 70footer anywhere in London and surroundings. OK, London is full, but not that full! And as someone said on another thread, All the owners of moored craft, I'll call them that, because some of them really can't be called boats, have been cheery and smiling, ready to have a laugh and banter. So, anyone who is a tad apprehensive about coming down to London, should put their worries aside and try it, You may be surprised!! Nipper

So! Having come down the Lea and bypassed Limehouse, because of what was said when I chatted to the lockie, I am now sitting just above Brentford Gauging locks ready for my passage up to Teddington tomorrow at 11 - 30. However, I have just met a chap on a boat that has told me that 9 boats left Limehouse today, and that Limehouse is open for business! Now, I have traveled 27 miles from Limehouse area including 20 odd locks to get to Brentford. today alone, I've been down the weed hatch 5 times and the bow thruster hatch twice all because of the weed problem here. The question is, Have a the right to be pissed off?? Nipper

Thanks to you both! I was really grasping at straws as I'm coming down the Lea at the moment and really didn't want to go through Duckets, back up the Regents etc, just to get on the Thames. As i wrote the last message, I began to remember the times of HW next weekend and realized that Bow would not really be an option. None more of an option than me taking the wife to the O2 and a trip on the Emerates cable cars tomorrow, because of the Tube strike! Sometimes, one just has to relax and go with the flow! Nipper

And now we have a reason for my conversation with the Limehouse lockie yesterday! https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/notice/3925/limehouse-lock-limehouse-london Has anyone been out at Bow lock?? More to the point, is anyone wanting to go to Teddington vie Bow locks? Wanna team up? I do have Navionics Charts! Nipper

What annoys me is CART and their auctions. They now, as was said earlier sell moorings in metric. But, I have a 70ft boat and when i come to get a mooring from CART thats when the problems will come. CART have moorings for 22 meter berth which at 72 feet is fine. But next down the line are moorings for a 21.3 meter berth, which is an inch short of 70ft! Would they wave to odd inch i wonder? Nipper

Yes, as Tony says, the Meadows are a good place, just past the rowing club. but pins are better as some of the footpath comes river side of the trees. I have never had a problem there and have been there for nearly a week at times! To my mind, your a visitor, and are expected to do what visitors do, thats moor up anywhere they want to as long as your not in the wey! But be aware that the most time I have been there the levels drop down a tad overnight and the boat is aground, but by 10ish in the morning levels are up again. It takes quite a bit of rain to raise the river levels as The river Wey is a well sorted canalized river! I'll be up there in the comming week, thats if i can get to Brentford at the weekend , now that i have learned that The Limehouse lock is working on Spring tides only! Nipper edited for muppetry!

Yes, but if the lockies wont let you out untill a HW springs, then the idea is doomed! 0200am to 0400am is ok if i'm crosing the English Channel from the south coast, but, leaving Limehouse at that time is a different matter!

Pity, but the springs are falling now to enable that. Right weather too! I'll find that out as i am just about to come off the Stort and onto the Lea.

Now thats an idea! But, I think by the time i get down to Limehouse the Springs will of fallen away. Also, I have seen the way the Thames hits that area where the pontoons are, and with our 70footer, the wifey wouldn't like that one bit, especially in the dark! Hehe! Nipper

I've been on the Lea and the Stort for a few weeks, but before i came here, i didnt notice any depth problems exept for the normal stuff! The lockie didnt explain well and didnt answer my questions about water levals, and was quite short of a proper explanation. I'm now thinking it's more a problem with the lock itself! Has anyone come up the Thames from Limehouse lately? Nipper

I've just had a chat with the Lockie at Limehouse Basin with view of locking out and making a passage up to Teddington next weekend. He said that that was not possible at the moment and that they can only lockout at High Water Springs. Aparently, it's all to do with the low water levels in the Basin. If anyone is not aware of what happens to the Thames at HW Springs, I'll tell you that, it is not a place to be, especially if your heading the other way to the ebb. So anyone wanting to get on the Thames from the Canal system and wants to head up to Teddington, it will have to be from Brentford! Happy Days! Nipper