Scholar Gypsy

Thanks - helpful. I'll give it a go, and then update the guidebook.

I hope to see one or both of you - I am leaving Burton Waters Friday lunchtime and spending the night at Fiskerton I think - I may try the pub on the old River Witham, though that will mean a bit of reversing... To the Kinema in the Woods at Woodhall Spa on Saturday.

Latest intel from GOBA - I will send NC a PM is that * EA staff now in attendance at all three locks, St Ives St Neots and Brownshills (where they have the wrong sort of sun). * At St Ives there is some risk of the guillotine descending when not desired! * St Ives stoppage should be done in a day, but second is as a precaution. NB Houghton & Hemingford meadows just above St Ives are glorious. There are many worse places to be stuck, and not many that are better.

Photographs please in due course - it's now even easier to post them to the forum....

Comments on the GOBA forum suggest that the problem at Brownshill is overheating of the gate controls. Get out the windlass for manual operation, I would say ....

Very frustrating. ... or going in at Denver and doing the tributaries in a different order, and then returning via the New Bedford? No doubt Phil will say that the locks have detected you are coming, but I am sure that is unfair ....

See here -- dated yesterday. The twitter feed does seem to work best. [i don't particularly like it as a means of communication, but it does seem the most up to date source of information]. Hope this does not muck up your plans too much.

yes - sorry Tony my earlier post was a bit unclear I was talking about two separate charts. One useful (Boating Assn) and one less so (Imrays chart of the UK!)

vg - the Llangollen does cross the border three times, but this is the crossing on Whixhall moss, just west of the Junction with the Prees branch. Yes, Lodes End lock, just outside Ramsey on the Middle Level. It's open at both ends in this photo. Not far from the lowest point in England (some websites claim this is the bottom of Lake Windemere, but I think that is cheating...)

OK and another. Hint 1: there are two clues in this photograph, one is nearer than the other. (NB flag pedants could quibble)

EMERGENCY CLOSURE NAVIGATION NOTICE Section 15 Anglian Water Authority Act 1977 RIVER: Great Ouse DATE: 30 June 2015 – until further notice LOCATION: St Neots Lock DETAILS Due to a mechanical issue that has developed with the guillotine gate at the above location it has become necessary to close the lock. We are arranging for contractors to visit the site as soon as possible and will issue an update when new information becomes available. For further information please call the Incident Communications Service (ICS) on 0800 80 70 60 and ask to speak to the River Great Ouse Waterways Duty Officer. The Environment Agency apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Here's another:

Have a great trip. Do let me know if you have comments to add to my annotated photos (based on the old sketch charts that you sent me). (2.5 MB here). I have added some words to photo 1, to show you which way to go when you get to Denver ...

Oh dear, I really should have worked that out. My excuse is that the stonework looks more "northern". I wonder if the sofa is licensed.

So what's the structure on the other side of the bridge? Looks like a pipe bridge and possibly a low level crossing as well??

Yes I've got the Boating Association charts / annotated photos, which have quite a lot of detail. I have loaded the waypoints into my GPS which is a complete waste of time because the chart I have (Imrays - entire UK) is largely solid green at this point (and where the Trent is shown they've put it in the wrong place!) See here trent_1.pdf!

Thanks Tony (we do seem to be hijacking this thread a bit ...), I will add that to the mix. I am currently intending to leave Torksey an hour before HW, so passing Marton (4 km downstream) at slack water, between the two posts.

NC: Have also been meaning to ask if you want to borrow my set of 1:25,000 OS maps for the area?

It wasn't me who mentioned it... Horrible place, anyway.

I have just invested in one of these Hoselock hoses on a nice big drum (25m). Very pleased with it. I can also run it from the boat's plumbing system when I am miles from a waterpoint...

Thanks - it's slowly coming back to me now. In 1982 the moorings outside Torksey were poor, and we had a dog who needed walking - that's why were late. On our later trip (1994) we waited in the lock until the flood arrived, the water went up a foot or two, and off we went! This summer I am doing Torksey to West Stockwith and back, which looks fairly straightforward (so far as tide times are concerned) on the dates I have in mind.

Thanks - interesting stuff. I think I must be putting too much weight on my first experience of the tidal Trent (1982), where we left Torksey rather late and punched the ebb for some of the time up to Cromwell. For about ten minutes we didn't seem to be moving at all, but we got there in the end ...

I suspect a plot. See earlier posting here.

And for me too. We bought our first yogurt pot at Ladyline in Braunston in 1970 (Shetland 535). I think this is somewhere on the GU? A year or so later we decided we needed something bigger so upgraded to this (Shetland 570) - I am on the helm ... No idea where, possibly the Leicester line as the name is not yet on the transom?

Thanks for the comments - I think I will start with a proper gunking which I haven't done for a little while; and I may take the rocker cover off and paint that separately. Most of the dirt is assorted bits of grass and leaves that seem to find their way in - I can never find any oil leaks.