Janet S

What a fantastic outcome! Very well done to everyone concerned and especially to Marcus for sticking with it. Janet

Oh sheesh.....the suspense is horrendous! Wishing you all the best! Janet

We've moored at the top of the flight on several occasions...good facilities(showers, rubbish disposal etc) and an excellent meal at the local pub just a short walk away. Janet

Wishing you all the very, very best! Janet

Anybody else having problems? When I click on it as I always do, it now tells me no new content. When I log off and do it, it works fine! Very frustrating as I've been following some rather long threads and now I can't simply go to the last viewed post. Janet

Watching from Lancashire....fingers crossed! Janet

Ermmm...he's in Australia! Janet

I think forum member Bones has a piano onboard. Hopefully she'll be along soon to advise how she managed it! Janet

Strumble was up for sale recently since Richard and Karen decided to give up the boat hire business to concentrate on their young family and actually having a life! A delightful little boat. Janet

Sounds like you're feeling better then? How are you coping with all the swing bridges? Janet

Yes, you're free to use my photo as you see fit...just wish I'd remembered to bring my proper cameras instead of having to rely on phone camera....it's worse than useless! Janet x

They should be through there by now.... Janet

Chalice just leaving the old wharf in Burnley, ready to head across the Burnley Embankment (or t'Mile Cut as it's known locally!) I'd tried to get the afternoon off to be able to help lockwheel up Barrowford Locks but no luck. Cath seems to have picked up a bit of a tummy bug but remained cheerful. They moored just before Hapton last night, very close to one of our favourite mooring spots - I'm envious, to say the least! They had a lovely sunset and fabulous views down the valley (including my house!) and across to Pendle Hill. I'm sure they'll manage just fine, but I'm equally sure that they wouldn't say no to a helping hand with some of the locks on their way to Skipton if there are any forum members in the vicinity! I held off warning them about the swing bridges... They are hoping to moor at Greenberfield overnight - as they're not too late and the weather and light are good, they should go through the locks tonight. Janet

Nice to meet up with the "Southern softies" at lunchtime today, and thanks to both for taking the time out of your schedule to stop for an hour. Alan makes a cracking cup of coffee! Lovely to see the magnificent Odin too! Janet

We've had various trips on both hire and private boats over several years. A wooden broom or mop handle makes a good dipstick for the fuel tank...on our three week cruise from the Midlands to the Thames and back a few years ago, we found it invaluable. As we had to pay for our own fuel past the first two weeks, we wanted to make sure that we didn't run out or even worse, overfill the tank and waste money! Mark the stick with each dip and you'll know how much you're using and when it's time to fill up. We've never had a boat with a water gauge, but we've never run out. We usually fill up every other day at least, when it's convenient. I'm sure we could leave it longer, but we like our hot showers! Janet

Do you mean Morrison's at Nelson? The L&L doesn't go through Colne. Well, it sort of does, but it's a long walk! If you meant Nelson Morrison's which is canalside, then you simply need a BW key to open the padlock. The moorings are offside and very safe and we had no trouble with depth and there were mooring rings. We felt it quite safe to leave the boat whilst we did our shopping and we've done so on several occasions with absolutely no problems apart from needing our ballast checking due to the vast quantities of wine they had on offer! The L&L can be shallow in many places, particularly if you want to moor out in the wilds, but it's just a matter of nudging in and checking the depth then moving on a little bit until you find somewhere you can fit. Well worth the effort for some of the places you'll find! Now shush.....we don't want everyone to know about it! Janet

That's a great suggestion from Pluto...Greenberfield is a lovely mooring spot. I love the locks! Three locks and three different types of ground paddle! Very close together too, so easy to lockwheel ahead. You can see Kennet on her mooring in the background here... Please let me know when you're coming through Burnley...I'd love to pop up and say hello if I could. It would be well worth mooring overnight at the top lock of the Johnson's Hillock flight if you're not in any hurry...good, safe moorings, facilities and a very friendly group of boaters and a rather good pub with decent ale and good food. Blackburn and Burnley are the main grotspots along your route, but nowhere near as bad as folk may tell you...they are no better or worse than any other urban location and you are through them very quickly. Many of the old canal side warehouses and buildings have been/are being renovated at the moment and it's getting better all the time. It's looking very good ready for the Canal Festival later this year. The Inn on the Wharf is a good safe mooring spot if you do want to stop overnight in Burnley. If you moor for a while on the embankment (or the Mile Cut as it's known locally) then if you go down the steps you have a massive Tesco for any essentials. As you go through Nelson, you'll find a Morrison's on your right hand side with moorings right outside. IIRC you need your BW key to get through the gate. It's offside and very secure. We've "done" most of the L&L several times and I used to do handovers for Canal Boat Escapes based at Lower Park Marina so if you have any questions, please ask. You are SO lucky to be doing this trip...the L&L is my favourite canal...just wait until you get to Greenberfield and thence on to Gargrave and Skipton...then you'll know why we try and keep quiet about it! It simply is the most glorious canal. Janet

If you're not interested just ignore it. Janet

We've boated in this area on several occasions over the last few years and have never had any problems. I well remember the first night we moored at Rodley with a group of fantastic (and barking mad!) guide leaders... I'd love to do the trip again! Janet