Scholar Gypsy

That's a nice video. I liked the way the seal was showing you where to moor. I was impressed that your GPS tracking system measures the calories burnt by the boat. And also a nice demonstration of the mooring procedure at Wisbech (14:00 onwards). I should note that MIDNIGHT came on the St Pancras Cruising Club trip on the tideway last year, and nothing broke. Here's a short and technically rather rubbish clip of rough water on my first crossing. Daryl said the conditions were marginal (a decent wind from the NNE). A couple of the crew were seasick, but no crockery was broken. A nasty corkscrew motion. As you can see we took a dog leg course to avoid the wind being beam on. Once we turned to the south west (at low tide, so no more wind over tide) everything suddenly got much calmer.

Just to add that a number of representative bodies are in discussion with CRT about the new arrangements. The slots currently offered on the CRT website are sub-optimal, and discussions will happen soon with CRT to improve this. We are very seized of the importance of effective comms with the lock keeper en route. A key issue is sorting out the operating hours. To date (with prior booking) 0500 to 2200 all year round. This used to be the case at Brentford, but is now 0700 to 1900 (1600 in winter). Nearly all the relevant websites (PLA, Acquavista, CRT) are now out of date, please don't rely on them. I will be updating http://thamescruising.co.uk/?page_id=648 as soon as I can.

I'm not sure there is a lot to choose between going up or down the Nene. I do both single handed, without too much difficulty. If there's a strong current then I would prefer to go upstream - it's easier to moor, and to control the boat more generally, and you can normally just go straight into the lock (if the guillotines have been left up, as they should be). But if there's a strong current the river is quite likely to be closed to navigation very soon anyway. As to the Wash, I've done two of the four possibilities: Denver/Kings Lynn to Boston, Boston to Wisbech. The Denver/KL section is quite challenging - lots of mudbanks - but that's why you have a pilot. It's normally best to stop on the way at Wisbech, on the pontoon moorings in the marina. This is probably a bit easier if going from Boston to the Nene. There is plenty of room before you get there to turn round, and then you point downstream, under power, and let the tide carry you backwards / upstream onto the moorings. If you are going from Peterborough/Dog-in-a-Doublet on the ebb then you need to go beyond the marina, turn around, and then punch the tide to get back to the moorings. Denver/Kings Lynn is trickier, but quite exciting. The mud banks on the tidal Great Ouse do move around quite a bit, and you need to get the timing right in both directions to avoid running out of water. So in summary I would do Boston to Wisbech, or if you are feeling a bit more adventurous Boston to Denver. Please say hello to Daryl if you use him as your pilot. He requires good quality bacon butties throughout the trip. Lots of resources here: https://scholargypsy.org.uk/washing/ including some annotated photos of Wisbech pages 8 and 8M here (very large file: https://nbsg.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/nene_guide_aug2015.pdf ). Here is Wisbech. PS you may find this helpful about the practicalities of visiting the Nene, and/or the Middle Level and the Great Ouse. https://goba.org.uk/a-guide-for-visitors-to-the-east/

I agree. Here are Scholar Gypsy's logs for the last fifty years. There is also a separate engine log. One of my son's regular crew has produced this (click the link) from a careful analysis of the log for the trips he (the son) has done. (I am Papa, JJ is the son, Tom B is the mathematician friend). Hover your mouse over the chart. May not work on all mobile phones (it does on mine: Chrome on Android) https://scholar-gypsy.vercel.app/

The cows are not there this week (photo by Maria S on Facebook). I think this photo is taken from Halfpenny Bridge.

Meanwhile near Denver on the Great Ouse the water level is below normal -- this is standard operating practice. There was a bit of a current yesterday, but it only really got noticeable when going under the main road bridge at Littleport and the railway bridge at the north end of Ely - where the river must be a lot shallower than elsewhere. Standing waves at Ely....

I think you probably need a professional skipper, and to be careful about insurance. In theory this should be doable on a single tide, but that would require some travel in the dark. An overnight stop at Gravesend would be more relaxing. You could ask on FB and you would get a recommendation. London Boaters or Thames Liveaboards. Some info and photos of the most recent SPCC trip. https://scholargypsy.org.uk/2016/05/16/medway-trip-day-1-limehouse-to-gravesend/

It is of course not the only back-to-back double lock in the UK. For example * Bow locks * Torksey * Keadby plus several that have either sector or guillotine gates and can operate in either direction, eg * Three Mills (I had the fun of working this myself recently! https://scholargypsy.org.uk/2023/11/16/after-the-protest-cruise-return-from-west-india-via-three-mills-to-st-pancras/ ) * Limehouse * Denver * Salters Lode

It is indeed a mechanism for opening the gate at the lock in Dartford. This is the best photo I can find (from a group visit in 2018). The rack and pinion engages on a quadrant attached to the gate, rotating it through (say) 75 degrees. It no longer works, sadly, though you can get through the lock around high tide. More photos here: https://scholargypsy.org.uk/2018/05/29/fc3-dartford/ There is a similar mechanism on a number of (non-navigable) tidal doors in the Fens. This one is at Boston Grand Sluice in Lincolnshire. When the non-tidal river (in the foreground) is higher than the tidal section, the water pressure forces the gates open. As the tide comes up to make a level the weight, steel cables and pulleys pull the doors shut to keep out the tide (as here). Just an enormous and very simple one-way valve!

I have an identical unit to Magnetman (except it is installed with the taps above each other!). However the hot tap is connected to a cheap TMV that is installed near to the Carlorifier, and which mixes the very hot water with cold water to produce warm water to feed the shower and the bathroom sink. (The galley sink is connected to the very hot water, not least so I can fill up the kettle). It's worked perfectly for nearly 20 years. As the schematic shows, I also added a bypass valve (W) so the pipework between the mixer and the taps could be drained.

Facebook (I think) sent me an item recently about one of the early US aircraft carriers. They had a load of planes lined up and tied down, facing to starboard (on the bows) and to port (on the stern), and then ran the engines and the boat span nicely. Of course I can't find it now, when it might be useful. My only other tip - which worked for me a few years when pinned in Whitttlesea, was to push the bows over to the other bank, and get the bow stuck in the helpfully provided gloopy shallows. The boat stayed put for long enough for me to get to the other end and then motor off. An occasion where shallow water is helpful! A cable tie around a convenient tree might have worked....

I guess you mean "above Oxford".

I will ask my son, who is a maths teacher... If you want a rough estimate, then the movement of the boat (forwards going up, astern when going downhill) is M = L - (L^2-h^2)^0.5 ~ 1/2 . h . h/L (to first order, as h/L <1) So if h is 8, L = 32, then M is about 1. (The pendulum result depends on the fact that sin (x) ~ x for small x.)

For Sandford (which is tricky) I had a second bow line, going back from the bow, of similar length to the stern line, and tied to a bollard. That enabled to hold the boat against the wall, just. And it was hammering down with rain...

I did the whole river from Teddington to Lechlade last summer. Going uphill I do this: get off the boat at the stern, with a stern line and a long light line that lies on the roof and is tied onto the bow line. Stop the boat completely before doing this & then stop the engine tie off the stern line, a reasonable distance astern of the boat tie off the bow line, a reasonable distance in front of the boat close the bottom gates start the automatic sequence for filling the lock take in the slack on the bow line as necessary Going downhill Use as long a stern line as possible, and tie it off to a bollard (25 feet plus) Do NOT secure the bow line, but make sure it stays on the bank (eg wind the end very loosely around a bollard, or put a bowline in the end and drop it over a bollard alongside the boat) Close top gates, operate bottom sluices Tend the bow line, take up the slack and then letting it out as necessary In both cases, Pythagoras is your helper. For example with a 25 foot stern line between the boat and the bollard, then as the boat goes down (or up) 8 feet (more than most locks) the boat will move forwards/backwards about 16 inches. Here is Shifford, one of the deeper locks on the Upper Thames (and hand operated of course)

And both locks appear to have ropes/chains for opening the gates?

I think they are electricity poles, and I agree they don't look very French. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utility_pole

I did think, after watching the final episode, that the narrow boat must have had a rather powerful inverter; and probably a composting toilet.

In the 5th episode of Boat Story (BBC iplayer https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0glcy88/boat-story-series-1-episode-5 at 56:30) there is a shot described as the Canal du Midi. (It's a rather complex plot). Looks more like the Leeds and Liverpool to me, with CRT bollards approaching the lift bridge. Any ideas >?!

As well as the width issues -- as others have explained the Northampton Arm locks are 7' wide -- you should also check the draft (how much water you need) and probably more importantly the air draft of the boat (there are some quite low bridges around.,,)

This would have been before the half tide lock was built at Richmond (1890s), and so would have dried out fairly comprehensively. It's the annual draw down at Richmond at the moment, until Monday 4th , and is well worth a visit around low tide. https://www.pla.co.uk/assets/u19-23.pdf Photos here: https://scholargypsy.org.uk/2017/11/18/what-happens-if-you-leave-the-paddles-open/

I went through this summer, in the middle of the festival. It was very fine. I spent about two hours filling my water tank, and having a nice long lunch stop. A procession of boaters kept arriving, and I let them fill their portable drinking water containers .... ... and I bought a nice belt as I went past this boat ...

The non-tidal side - strictly speaking the level at City Mill lock, a few hundred metres above Three Mills. If the water is above this level, then the headroom on the A11 road bridge is too low. Also the water level may be above the level in St Thomas's Creek - in which case the lock (which only has one pair of gates pointing that way) would not work either. It's quite a complex system, with not a lot of room for things to go wrong.

Not very relevant, but this graph shows how Three Mills lock on the Olympic waterways was working on Wednesday this week (I was operating the lock after the FBW protest cruise!). There was a strong tide, which mean that the weir lifted (the red line) at 1300 to keep out the tide. Then the impounded level (between Three Mills and City Mill) gradually rose, filled with fresh water from the Lea, which meant City Mill lock could not be operated (it locks out when the water is at 2.9m). At about 1530 the weir lowered automatically, and an hour later the boats were on the move - having spent three hours in the lock!

Yes, I had one door bolt that was a bit sticky....