Spangle

Thank you very much indeed for that gem of info! Much appreciated.....

Hi Guys! I'm hoping that someone on here will be able to advise us! I know that there are charges being made down the GU from Berkhamsted onwards, regarding visiting the Olympics. But are there similar charges being made on the Oxford Canal? I'm thinking Lower Heyford, Banbury and Oxford itself (where there are train stations). I've checked out Waterscape but can find no references anywhere and I just seem to be wasting my time looking. So I thought I'd ask if anyone knows anything about it at all? Thanks in advance and looking forward to hearing from you! We are currently tootling about on the GU waiting for the weather to improve!

Hi there everybody! We know that there is now a beautiful new canal waterway around the Olympic village, sadly though it isn't really going to be open to us for cruising round until after the Olympics. I asked on Waterscape about dates for availability but nobody got back, so I thought I'd ask on here. So - does anybody have any idea as to when that new 'Ring' will be open? Is there going to be a charge (I sincerely hope not). Any thoughts or suggestions? I know - I think - that you can pay and moor on it during the Olympics, but the charges are a fortune, so we won't be doing that! Look forward to hearing your comments! Hope you are all coping with these high winds (we're currently on the Llangollen) and we'd like to wish everybody a HAPPY CRIMBO !!!!!

We have just paid 7.00 per bag for 10 bags of petcoke, which is our preferred choice, it stays in beautifully overnight. Each bag is 20kg. Delivered to boat from coal merchant. We're currently on the Bridgewater, near Manchester, but only briefly.....this lot should last until Christmas with any luck!

We only use gas for cooking, and a 13kg propane bottle lasts 12 weeks. We always have one ready to go in, but we use 12 weeks as a rule of thumb. The last gas we bought was 19.95 from near Br 117 (Trent & Mersey, Stoke on Trent) - a brilliant price, especially when he knows you are a boater! Everywhere else seems to be about 25.00.... In winter we use approx 30 bags x 25kg coal, though we prefer petcoke which stays in overnight very nicely. A bag costs approx 8.00 - 10.00 depending on where you get it from. We are CCers, doing approx 1000 miles a year, so we cruise all year winter & summer. We reckon as a rule of thumb that a litre of diesel gives us 1 hour cruising/running time on days when we don't move. Hope these figures help!

So, we've been on the Fossdyke and Witham for best part of a month now and had no problems at all really to speak of. Certainly nothing like the Chesterfield! Currently moored at Anton's Gowt, looking at all the weed on the Drains, so I think we'll be giving them a miss, unfortunately. Off down the Kyme Eau on Sunday! This is turning out to be great trip!

Thanks for the offer of help, Andy - much appreciated! However, we have now turned back and heading for West Stockwith...... we WILL be back!! Yesterday - joy of joys! - a weed cutter passed us, with the associated boat skimming off the bits he'd just cut, so we made much better progress than we thought we would. So pleased. We are now heading for the Witham .... so reading that its weedy as well has just made our day!! Cheers one and all!

We are currently cruising the Chesterfield Canal, and very much enjoying it. However, I thought I might just warn other potential cruisers: There is NO diesel or gas available canalside. You could ask someone at Shireoaks Marina or Clayworth Boat Club to take you in their car, but that's it as far as we can tell. It's June - and the weed is thick, thick, thick, especially past Retford up the Forest Locks towards Ranby. We were doing less than half a mile per hour at one point as we slogged through it all. Now these two points above are related! Because it is so slow you are using far more fuel than you think you will need - and I have heard of two boaters who rang BW and said it was all their fault for not maintainting the canal properly that they were now very short of diesel....and BW brought them some in containers! Having said that, the scenery is gorgeous and the water is so clear you can see very large fish mooching about, even several pike, and we saw a snake swimming along yesterday too. Just be aware of its pitfalls!!!

We found a dead person under a bridge in Blackburn on the L & L, turned out to be a murder victim. After we reported it the young policewoman let us carry on, taking no details off us at all, which we found odd (we've seen enough detective TV stories to know!). We then got trapped in ice for a couple of weeks, never gave it another thought - until our daughter rang to say that the CID were looking for us!!! They only checked areas where there was a proper towpath though and we were way out in the sticks. So eventually our very own Morse and Lewis turned up at the nearest pub for a statement. Months passed. By then we were in Oxford when the Coroner's Office rang to request our attendance. We suggested that it was a long way....could they manage without us.....and apparently they could because we never heard anything else!!! Whew!

We always stop in Castlefield in Manchester, you can either walk up Deansgate or get the free bus (it runs about every 10 minutes) up to the Arndale Centre, which is where you'll find M & S, Debenhams, Boots, Primark etc. We also stopped on the new mooring rings outside the Trafford Centre - it's about 3 minutes walk across the car park into one of the biggest retail malls in the country. There are security cameras and personnel, they watch the boats all the time and the gates to the Trafford Centre can be unlocked for you, should they have not quite got round to it. We stayed overnight, perfectly safe and quiet, we will definitely stay there again! The Boathouse pub at Astley Green is very friendly, they have meal deals on .... we were iced in there for 8 weeks and took advantage of their 2 meals for 4.95 deal. Most acceptable! It's a shame that you are only allowed on the Bridgewater for a week, we struggle to visit all the places that we like in the time available. Enjoy!

We have just set off along the L & L from the Wigan end, so we have fingers crossed that all will be well for us traversing to Leeds! There's definitely not been much water at this side of the country (though it's raining as I write this). We 're not rushing, so it will be approx end of March before we clear this canal - heading for York etc. We don't want to go too quick so we don't encounter flooded rivers! Can't win!

We have just set off from the Bridgewater Canal (where we've been iced in for 8 weeks....) and are now heading up the Wigan Flight over the L & L to Leeds, then to York - we can't get beyond there I think as we are 59ft - then Stamford Bridge, Pocklington Canal, Doncaster, Sheffield, SYN, down Trent again to Chesterfield Canal, then on Trent again and off to Lincolne, Boston, Kyme Eau, Back again to Trent and along to Gainsborough and Nottingham. Grand Finale up the Erewash if we have time.... and then back along the T & M to the North West. That will take us all year we reckon, with all side routes covered wherever possible. We've not done anything beyond Leeds really before, so looking forward to it!

I am delighted to report that a boat from Castlefield has gone past us here at Astley Green this lunchtime! So after all but two months, we are now free to escape!! We only came for a coal delivery, way back in November ..... So, the ice is all but gone now - we can get on with our travels!!! And a very welcome tank of water ....

We have travelled on the Thames several times now, it's one of our favourites. We nearly always turn & face upstream, maybe it's just us, but if we don't, we always seem to make a hash of it! I broke my leg at Windsor one year, the lockies were really helpful, ringing ahead to let everybody know we were on our way. I would sit on the back deck with a stern rope, but when I couldn't do that Hubby would put a really long rope from the bow, step off onto the lock surround and simultaneously hold the stern rope. It worked well! We've covered both ends of the river, as it were, the Lechlade end is marginally better - but there's tons to see downstream! Regarding being on your own - in summer you can queue, but some of the bigger expensive cruisers refuse to go in a lock with a narrowboat, so the lockie tends to hold them back & wave you in. And if it's the wrong time of day, then you'll do them on your own anyway. The ones at the Lechlade end are beams, from Oxford they are electric. Enjoy whatever you do, it's great!

It all depends what you want to do! We've been live aboard continuous cruisers for 7 years now and it all works fine - but you must both want to do it. That's the key to the whole thing. If it's raining - we don't travel. If it's a weekend - we try not to travel! Just suit yourselves. We visit ageing parent as often as poss, ring regularly, send postcards (mum's not on the internet), our daughter keeps on coming to visit and brings new grandson - so it's all possible! Enjoy!!!

Hi Guys, Interesting reading so far! We sold up 7 years ago, selling the house contents on Ebay wherever possible, and we had a 59ft built to our spec up on the L & L. OUr boat has everything in that we had in the house (fridge freezer, washing machine, central heating, shower, bath, tumble dryer, you name it). We found that the more you disposed of, the easier it became. Our builder said that basically you could move onto a boat with just clothes and kitchenware and on the whole this is correct. There's just so much that we didn't need (and it was a 3 bedroomed detached house with workshop & garage that we emptied!!!) This 59ft allows us to do virtually everywhere except the bit up to Ripon, we have even managed the Huddersfield locks which were only 57.5 - that was a struggle, we had to go in diagonally and take off a fender, but we managed it. It's our plan to take this boat to Europe and start again over there, in fact we thought we'd have gone by now. Except we still are exploring the inland waterways here! Yes, it will be a bit of a challenge but one we think we are up for. Though there's lots to think about for that major step. A Dutch barge would be nice - but the more space you have to play with, the more clutter you carry. And quite a few seem to manage with 'just' a narrowboat. And anyway, we don't think we can afford one! Better to stick with what we know, we know how she handles and her complete history, so that's what we intend.....

Now in our 7th year and still loving every minute of it! Though being iced in again is a pain, desperate to move now....We seem to average about 1000 miles a year and have still to do a few bits, this year we are covering the North East (York, Lincoln, Boston, SYN etc etc) so that should keep us quiet for 2011. We will be setting off again on Thursday we think, having had a load of coal delivered. Happy days! We didn't do this to moor in a marina, love to moor out in the middle of nowhere, sheer bliss. The overall outline plan is to cover the whole of the system then have her put on a lorry and taken to France where we will start again. But we keep on putting it off as we discover new corners to explore!

We are still iced in here on the Bridgewater Canal, just north of Manchester. It is getting thinner though, and if it rains tonight (Tuesday/Wednesday) we just might be able to set off on our travels - or at least to a water point!!! No boats have been through here since middle of November.

In this weather, a BIG kettle. We ran out of running water 5 weeks ago now, so a fair amount of time is spent trekking to the nearest pub (Hubby is quite pleased about this excuse!) with containers. However, the water is cold, so the only way we have to heat it is on top of our permanently lit stove (heating it on the hob takes too much gas). Then at least we can get a hot drink/wash dishes/ourselves etc with comparatively little bother. Roll on a thaw!!!!

We keep our two bikes chained on the back of the boat - we have a square back cruiser stern. They are fastened to the boat using a device from Ikea from their garage storage systems, 7 years ago now, so I don't know if they still sell them. We don't put them on the roof because I'm only little and I'd never be able to get them off there!

Very much enjoyed the video! If Victoria can't make it there's not much hope for the rest of us!. What about elsewhere? We have been iced in for 7 weeks now on the Bridgewater Canal, north of Manchester. Not a hope of it melting yet, it's at least 3 to 4 inches thick here still. Starting to get cabin fever now! Never mind dreaming of showers and not using the kettle to wash dishes! Happy New Year everybody! Have a great 2011 - we'll look out for you!!

We signed up to Waterways Mail about 18 months ago, it's #7.00 per month for the basic package. We ring him up, ask if he's got any mail for us and then ask him to send it to which post office we happen to be handy for. We used to have a Mailbox but that's a lot more expensive but handy if you're running a business that requires lots of packages to be sent to you. Poste Restante works very well indeed - just remember to take in some ID with you. I personally wouldn't like anybody knocking on the boat delivering post to me - it would never be convenient and besides, we move too much for it to not be a nuisance.

We are iced in on the Bridgewater Canal, outside Manchester. Handy pub! There's even a coalyard here who fortunately delivered us 10 bags the day before the canal iced over. So snug & warm at least! But conserving water big time - we use disposable paper plates and tinfoil on dishes to save on the washing up. Baby wipes are handy instead of washing hands. Washing of clothes will have to wait! Last year we got iced in for 8 weeks on the L & L near Crooke, this is better as the bus stop is much closer. And of course, there's not been much snow here so the towpath isn't lethal to walk down. The local Warden has been past today, not to talk about us moving but to check that we are OK, which we think is good, because you're only supposed to be on the BRidgewater for a week in total and we've been here for a week now already. The ice is at least 4 inches thick.

This has been our worst ever year for having stuff nicked - and we've been continuous cruising for 6 years now. It started off when kids took our bow rope to pull their sledge when we were iced in in January. We didn't notice initially! That was at Crooke on the L & L. Then we had one of our folding bikes stolen while we were at Market Drayton on the Shroppie. Apparently things go missing here quite often..... We replaced the missing bike and carried on our merry way. Until Fenny Stratford on the GU when suddenly we felt the boat move and heard splashing sounds. At first we thought it was a duck attacking the strawberries on the roof! But no, some local had come along, armed with trolley and bolt croppers and made off with both bikes. We were not happy boaters - so Hubby gave chase and found one of the bikes lying on the towpath. Next day we called the police and SOCO came down and took footprint/fingerprints off the back of the boat and on the rescued bike. As he was leaving with all the information, we noticed a wheel sticking out of the water at the back of the boat - and there was the second bike! So we got them both back..... hopefully the info the police have may eventually come in useful when they get the thief for something else. After that - a boater stole our BBQ. That was at Napton bottom lock. Then - if you can believe this - we were at Northampton when a Russian tried to nick the fishing rod off the roof. We were on the boat at the time again! We have always taken all normal precautions, but this year has been spectacularly bad. No answers to this one, but I've listed the places where we had these incidents so you can make a note!

This is my first ever post, so I hope people find it useful! We are continuous cruisers, and these are the prices we have found so far this year: Banbury (Southern Oxford) 70p Aynho (Southern Oxford) 75p College Cruisers, Jericho, Oxford 1.00 Stowe Hill (GU) 67p Whilton Marina (GU) 74p Diesel Boat Bletchley & Argus (at Braunston, but also down the Oxford) 71p Another good link is lock13.co.uk/boats which has a section on boats selling coal & diesel on the canal. By the way, the above prices, as you've probably guessed, are all for domestic use! Hope this helps - and I shall drop that link you mention an email with the above info on as well....... Cheers, folks