Mike Todd

A while back, I realised as I walked up to a lock that I had left my windlass at the previous lock, not too far away. I jogged back, could then!, and found a boat just about to leave in the opposite direction. I asked if they had seen said item, which had been on the balance beam. Very sheepishly the windlass was produced with a comment about wondering whose it was and what they should to about it! I thank them profusely for keeping it safe for me. ..

Not planning to go through Torksey? It is always a 'feel good factor' when the parents want (with evident delight) to take photos of their little ones pushing an impossibly large gate!

And then change it on the day itself!

I wasn't claiming to know how it was pronounced in the past, only that today's usage is chuff and that --ough has a variety of ways of saying.

Will the market forces and pricing strategies be much different from the present? I almost always use the rail system off peak ('cos I can) but I am also aware that other people on that train making exactly the same journey may well have paid very different prices (I get a third off anyway just by being ancient). Travel at peak times is driven significantly by business (or more accurately travel-to-work) journeys and the pricing seeks to even out the demand into the other times of the day (and long may it continue!)

According to local press reports (Beeb?) publicly available data tracking the ship demonstrated that the crew made several attempts to rectify the situation, probably as soon as their alarm went off, but the conditions turned too difficult for them to succeed and they ended up drifting ever closer to the beach. Luckily they seem to have had no cargo and were fairly shallow draft as a result - whether that impacted the power from the prop I don't know but I have read in other reports that it can be a factor. In any event, they could not have been much closer to the full range of support and rescue services! Despite the public drama - made for easy news reporting - I doubt whether they actually came close to any real danger for the crew - hopefully they will now get at least as good pastoral support from the good folk in Falmouth. (At least they will get to understand the wholesomeness of 'proper' Cornish pasties - at least whilst the protected status remains - will they get away before the end of March?)

What I was really getting at is that pronunciation changes much more quickly, sometimes quite radically, than we sometimes recognise. One of my favourite wind-ups is when I encounter people who insist that wind, as in winding hole, must pronounced as the stuff that blows rather than as in kind. However, we know from rhymes in some well used places that wind, as in the blowing stuff, rhymed that alternative way - winter wind thou art so unkind. There are plenty of anomalies as well. Here in Cornwall we have seen the return of the local chough, well embedded into local usage for all sorts of things. But it does not rhyme with the current pronunciation of plough but as in chuff. Similar views are available on both sides of the debate about whether 'proper' grammar matters! (Not to mention RP) Actually they tried to avoid locks and used inclined planes in several places! (They had different tendencies?) Perhaps that happened as a result of a misunderstanding through (mis) pronunciation . . .

Towns are bypassed because the traffic is not local. Benefit to residents from reduced congestion but benefit to wider users through improved journey times (unless the scheme simply transfers the problem elsewhere, not unknown!)

And how do we know how it was pronounced?

That's an obtuse angle to the debate . . .

Methinks you knew what I meant!

But it will be already built by then . . .

Thanks - still a bit bemused - where were you standing when you took it? (Trying to align this pic with the ones I have when the canal was full) and: I have now looked back at your July 7 pix and have a better idea - amazing how foreshortening changes the impression!

I know that the pic is very foreshortened, but which bridge is that in the distance?

I don't usually inhabit the Virtual Pub but isn't this an old programme? I recall watching it some while back. Or am I mis-remembering?

Also worth checking how much of the 'black' the quote covers. In particular, what does it say about the area between the lowest rubbing strake and the gunnels. Last blacking we had done was at Oxley Marine (Wolverhampton). We were very satisfied. I cannot recall the cost of the blacking as we had several other things done at the same time.

My very limited experience of the Ribble crossing is that the lock keeper (who used to be very experienced) adjusted the time that boats were let out from Tarleton on the basis of experience and 'reading' the river conditions. Whilst lock keepers are not infallible (I also know that from experience elsewhere!) I would never disregard their advice. Last year we failed to make our trip in mid summer from Selby up to York because the keeper so advised - despite some other boat owners claiming to know better (but then they had sea going boats and went downstream) Instead we visited York by train and when we saw the state of the river and the moorings we were glad that w had heeded the advice - it would have just been feasible (as an arriving narrowboat demonstrated) but there would have been a very nervous night not to mention considerable worry on the way up about whether a mooring was possible - the intervening lock might also have been out of action. It is rare on a canal boat that there is a major imperative to travel a particular route on a particular day. Our jobs does not depend on it but our lives might (in the opposite direction)

Whilst the passage times are set to make the transit as easy as possible, predicting tides is not as precise a science as some people like to think. Firstly, the passage involves a change in the tide direction so the balance between the two has to be estimated. Secondly, the flow of the tide on any river is dependent not only on the moon etc but also the amount of fresh from recent rainfall. You will not be allowed out of the passage is expected to be unsafe but things can change between departure and arrival and you may well be diverted to Preston at the last minute. You may get into a situation where best possible speed is called for (by the officials at Preston) in order to ensure that you make it into the outer dock before it dries out and leaves you on the mud. I would not want to deter anyone from experiencing the transit but it is as well to have a reserve of engine capacity to cope with the unexpected - as with any tidal stretch.

Some people are only interested in rather restricted movement routes. It might matter to someone.

Category error

How much are you prepared to pay for this privilege? £100 a year? £1000 a year? £10,000 a year? Although we now know more about the downside of Brexit than at the time of the Referendum, we still are really guessing at the cost to individuals in terms of reduced standards of living - and equally speculative about possible upsides. So, what would you pay?

I think that you will find that they are negotiating, but in their own interests.

That is not hiding, unless you call it hiding in plain sight. From an enforcement point of view, shifting a problem into someone else's patch might be considered a win! Further, I suspect several of those will soon make Cart look like the soft option.

My fingerprint is unique. A four leaf clover is pretty unique. Me winning a good Olympic medal is very unique.

I don't think it is that black and white: firstly, there are only 2000 ish miles of waterways, much less than the roads and there are very few places to hide off road, as it were. Secondly, it would depend on the determination of CaRT - if they found that not having a licence plate as well as not having a licence was ultimately a route to seizing a boat then they could be as immediate as with cars ie once spotted then it is impounded straight away and you only get it back once you have satisfied the authority. If there were sufficient CCTV systems around the network it would be quite quick to find - look back at the occasional boat theft that is often resolved by vigilant folk on here and similar. But to be clear: I am not advocating such an approach (at least not yet!) but simply responding to the suggestion that it is not feasible - especially as it manifestly is.