Jump to content

oarfish

Member
  • Posts

    398
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    1

Posts posted by oarfish

  1. So it's been 8 good years as a cruising liveaboard on Valhalla, but everything comes to an end. My mind has turned to sailing (probably a Westerly on the Orwell somewhere), and my partner's to plumbing and it's near impossible to do both without bricks & mortar. 

    Out boat is ..quite unique https://www.kateboats.co.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/valhalla.pdf (with various improvements). Can anyone suggest a reputable broker? Or would a private sale be better? I was thinking the London market might be better (other than their desire for massive widebeams), as you get more than a few raised eyebrows crusing Valhalla through Braunston.

  2. Don't stop until Littleborough. We do it early in the morning if possible when the locals will warn you about the ..other locals. Generally the people who will give you shit are not going to be up at 9am on a Sunday - just nice African Ladies on their way to church (they asked us if we were cleaning the canal and gave us some Jesus stuff). Never had an incident there (unlike the Rochdale 9) but it is basically Shameless: The Canal Trip, so good to be cautious. 

  3. I saw this beast going down the Nottingham and Beeston canal towards Trent bridge a few weeks back. I guess they must have turned round and gone back down the GU. Thing is much more appropriate for the river. Moorhen nests seemed to be intact. If you are going to splurge that much cash on a new dutch barge, why not one with a nice chined hull so you can play on the lumpy stuff a bit?

  4. The state of the north west canals was partially the reason we moved cruising location to around Nottingham, legit CC in the region was getting difficult. I'm assuming the winter trick around Notts is to get accidentally stuck on the Beeston canal while the Trent is in a bad mood. 

  5. So according to the GMP police twitter they nicked a bunch of 13-15 year old kids for 'robbery and other offences in the Village area'. That was almost certainly them. And yeah, it's not all bad at all. Going down the Ashton on the way plenty of people were trying to be helpful when we picked up a metal strap lined suitcase on the prop. Also last year going through Rochdale early on a Sunday morning it was mostly nice African ladies on their way to church, one of whom asked us if we were cleaning the canal.

  6. 1 hour ago, nicknorman said:

    Ps are you now moored at castlefield?  In which case I’ll pop over and say hello.

    ... and so what if they did!?

    Well that was the plan, but the lock by rain bar was out of order. Should get down there this evening.

    Yeah, it's often a timing thing. Thought it would be low harassment due to having a bunch of friends helping out.

  7. I would advise early morning transits of the Rochdale 9 through Piccadilly basin and Canal street. Had probably the worst harassment we have experienced on the system - thrown bottles & stones, spitting, jumping on the boat etc. 2 separate groups. There were 5 of us on the boat (and two of us are gym rats), I pity some poor old sod trying to single hand through that. Informed the police, but if you have seen the state of Manchester recently they are unlikely to actually do anything.

  8. 16 hours ago, Victor Vectis said:

    Are you saying that being by water is not enchancing your (and Jeff's) welllness Nick?

     

    We got bollocked earlier this year for saying the HNC isn't fit for the purpose of navigation. We were told to be 'more creative' in how to moor to use the locks etc (Ha Ha!)

     

    I've never seen top lock gates so leak free as those last half dozen or so up to the summit but I can't help feeling that the money spent on maintaining that navigation would have been better spent elsewhere.

    The pounds are often so short and shallow that the only practical moorings are Visitor Moorings with 48 hour restrictions. On a canal with very few boats (at least last year when we were there). As working Genuine Continuous Cruisers™ we had to creatively interpret the rules. Lovely canal in places and the tunnel should be on every boater's bucket list.
     

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.