Scholar Gypsy

It depends a bit on how many locks you want to do, and how many hours cruising, but my vote would be the Southern Oxford to Cropredy and back (32 hours cruising according to canalplan.org.uk). Fabulous scenery. The other obvious alternative (no locks at all, apart from the stop lock at Hawkesbury, but v pleasant countryside) is to explore the Ashby - about 28 hours cruising, a bit more if you fancy a detour to Coventry.

It may be related to this... Looks quite tricky to fix....

I find Hatton is easier going downhill, so I would suggest you go anti-clockwise, ie Ashby - Brum - Kings Norton - Stratford - Warwick - Braunston - Ashby. If you want to do fewer locks you can avoid the centre of Birmingham and go via Solihull and Knowle, but I would recommend the Northern Stratford route.

How are your fan belt(s)? They could be loose / worn and the smell is of burning fan belt? Does the voltage gauge measure the domestic or the engine battery voltage?

I agree. I am still not getting email notifications but suspect that may be a knottier problem...

That's a good idea, although on my course the instructor said it was important to neither over- nor under-tighten the nut on the fuel filter, else it would leak. When we asked how we would know what was the "right" amount of tightening, he said "experience" and I guess there really is no substitute for that. After changing the fuel filters half a dozen times I am now much more confident....

Well, I had a go at sorting out the glowplugs today (inspired by this thread from Karen Lea Rainey). Of course the problem when starting did not recur - maybe as the weather was rather warmer? So I took out all four glow plugs, testing them using a variety of techniques (4), and all passed. To get them back in and seated firmly, I had to remove the rocker cover. I decided to replace the three link cables, as they looked a bit thin and the spade connectors at each end a bit feeble. I suspect I won't know until next winter whether the problem is solved. I will buy some spare glow plugs in the meantime (neither of the two motor factors I tried today stocked them ...).

I would put that down to the Scotch that was consumed...

I am just doing something similar for the Great Ouse between Denver and the Wash. I am intending to use my £20 GPS dongle which will tell Google Earth exactly where we are ...

As far as I can see here, the Environment Agency do not offer an online service yet. I guess you missed this thread that started four days ago??

Winter moorings ended on 31 March, according to the latest C&RT London newsletter that issued this week. (By the way, in subsequent discussion about the tidal locking times (penultimate item) C&RT have pointed me to the 2015 times).

The gauge at Adelaide seems to show the usual daily cycle (driven by the tides), so I wonder if the problem is low fresh water flow?

Tired muscles, more wash, and slower progress. Pumping is a useful technique when turning the boat round ("winding" - there are other threads devoted to the debate on how to pronounce that word ...). Squeeze the tiller rapidly one way (the way you want to turn) and then back less rapidly.

Here's another video, turning a bit late? Some quite colourful commentary...

So, I delisted the IP address quoted (which belongs to server.canalworld.net). Email notifications worked again for a few hours, but the address has been blacklisted by spamhaus again, and email notifications have stopped (I use ukservers.net for my mailbox). Spamhaus output (PDF file) here. It says "Perhaps the person who previously removed it didn't actually fix the problem." which I suspect is correct...

It is perhaps worth adding that there are a large number of charities who provide services commissioned (and paid for) by national and local government bodies. That does not make them "controlled" by Government.

and they also do a natty pennant, if you like such things (as I do).

Amazing: http://www.artscouncilcollection.org.uk/artwork/grand-junction-canal-0

What is the legend bottom left? I would guess "Published by Contemporary D ???, London". The drawing is a bit stylised, so is hard to date! My initial thought was "Camden Lock, London" (Hampstead Rd) but there are so many reasons why it is not.... It could be further east on the Regents?

Locks 9, 10 and 11 will be closed between the hours of 8am and 3pm on Thursday 16th April 2015. May affect those lucky people having a post-Easter break ...

I thought the dinghy was the fender ....

The PLA have just launched a consultation - closes 6th May - as the first stage in a 12-month project to develop a Vision for the future of the tidal Thames. Details here, if anyone wants to comment. This newsletter also includes dates of some open meetings in May and June. And a nice video (but no shots of narrow boats ....)

That photo was taken fairly soon after we arrived, so there was scope for quite a bit more fiddling around. What you are noticing is the effect of the flood tide. On the ebb the boat would have slid backwards a bit, until the bow line went tight. It got rather more exciting at 0300, when two large ship tugs went past (backwards) at full speed.....

... indeed so, and there were lines going the other way as well, as we were there for 24 hours from low water to low water. This was quite tricky for the boats in the background, which were right up to the end of the pontoon, with nothing to tie onto this side of the yellow buoys to hold them in position during the flood tide. I improvised using a centre line to the fifth boat out, which did the job. The forces on some of these lines, with a 2-3 knot tide, were quite substantial, but nothing snapped.

Gravesend ...