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LutraSkip

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About LutraSkip

  • Birthday 23/01/1951

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Market Harborough
  • Occupation
    Retired
  • Boat Name
    Lutra
  • Boat Location
    Market Harborough

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  1. Thank you for all the extremely helpful information. We have now nearly completed our crossing of the Pennines on the Leeds and Liverpool. We have relied on a great deal f the suggestions and advice offered. We stopped at Dover Lock before Wigan, but had to do the flight on our own. It was hard work, made even harder by two empty pounds and some locks which were leaking out quicker than it would fill without opening all the paddles. We moored at the top. We couldn't have gone much further! Our next mooring was at Botany Bay, which was nice and quiet. Our mooring and departure times didn't leave time for too much retail therapy. We teamed up with a hire boat to go up Johnson's Hillock and had a nice lunch in the pub at the top. We moored later at Feniscowles, which was again a good, quiet mooring, with access to a Tesco, 10 minutes walk up the road from the bridge. Blackburn locks were pretty awful with a lot of broken glass around. We moored up at Eanam Wharf for a while. It was a safe mooring from which to leave the boat to make a necessary visit to a Doctor and to Backburn Hospital. We moved on later to a wonderful rural mooring after the first railway bridge between Rishton and Church, opposite the golf course. After stops in Burnley at Rose Grove for lunch and water and on the embankment for Tesco, we moored at Pendle Marina, where we stopped to clear the prop, but they let us stay, free of charge, overnight. On Saturday the 29th June we cleared the final locks to Foulridge and left what a CRT man in Gargrave said they call "the dark side". Well he was a fellow Yorkshireman. We moored in East Marton and thoroughly enjoyed the Cross Keys , then on to Gargrave, where we had an excellent Sunday lunch in the Masons Arms. We headed next day to Skipton for lunchtime fish and chips at Busy Lizzies - excellent, then on to a mooring at Kildwick. This was a lovely mooring, but for the church clock, which chimed all the quarters throughout the night. Before descending the Bingley Five Rise, we moored overnight before the Micklethwaite swing bridge. We didn't test the validity of the 6 hour restrictions on the notice at Saltaire. We stopped for a few hours to explore, but moved to the visitor moorings at Shipley, which were fine. Then on to Rodley for two nights, which is an attractive place to spend time before the early transit to Leeds, which we will undertake with another boat tomorrow. We are intending to moor at Granary Wharf. Thanks again to all who have been so helpful. Richard
  2. Well. At Telford Basin, there was a man watering the plants just as we arrived. I asked him. He gave me a number, which was correct, but for one number. He seemed a bit confused - or maybe it was me! Anyway, we passed someone coming in as we went out of the gate, so didn't need the code. When we couldn't get back in, I got the attention of a hire boat moored on the offside online moorings outside the basin, which also need the code, who put me right on the wrong number. Hope you have better luck! Richard
  3. Sorry, Pete and Helen, we moored just after the Marple aqueduct and the opened up tunnel. We didn't fancy going further, though there were places in Romiley which looked fine as we passed the next day. We didn't venture out to find a pub, as we were always going to eat on board. The mooring was good. We managed to get in to the side. There must be civilisation somewhere near by as there were lots of towpath walkers and an alluring scent of curry on the air! Sorry not to be of more help. Richard.
  4. The precise wording of the condition is actually quite liberal. As there is no definition of short period it is open to interpretation and they cannot be prescriptive about it. They must follow their own conditions - when they even bother to read them - and cannot withhold permission without a good reason. There is no provision for them to impose conditions on such permission, though such conditions might be agreed with the party asking. The proposal I raised was, I thought, only likely to deal with a few days temporary occupation and that must be a short time in anybody's interpretation when compared with the full term of a mooring contract. The other factor is that the condition is open to the giving of a blanket permission and it may not therefore be required in each individual case. In practice, they would want to deal with a lot of individual applications. It may be worth asking my regional moorings manager to give blanket consent for me to allow someone to use my mooring for no more than 5 days in a calendar year, when I am not using it. I will await any further contributions to the discussion before I decide whether to do so.
  5. I am relatively new to this Forum and this may have been raised before. Also, if a moderator thinks this is in the wrong discussion, please feel free to place it more appropriately. After reading something in a recent discussion, I picked up that another member will be travelling near my home base, when our boat will be out until the autumn. After contact by PM, he now has an empty mooring to use for a few days. I began to wonder if this could not be done more widely. I know marina berths will often not be able to be made available under their berthing regulations, but CRT and possibly some private moorings could probably be made available without offending any rules. It would seem unlikely to be seen as sub-letting if no money changes hands. I put this up the flagpole to see if it flies. The simplest way for it to work might be for anyone able to offer their home mooring to others travelling in the area to post their mooring location and size, with relevant dates. Maybe a separate place in the forum would be required for this. Formal permission to use the mooring on particular dates and any other essential information would be dealt with by PM. I'm not suggesting that someone else should just turn up and use it. Daft? Or might it work?
  6. We are making our way from Manchester to tackle the Wigan 21 and continue to Leeds. We have heard that we should moor at Dover Locks before tackling the 21, both because it's a reasonable mooring and to try to see if anyone travelling the same way wants to double up for the locks. Any thoughts, please? It is also 20 years since I was last on the L&L. We would appreciate help with any more up to date ideas on favourite moorings; things not to miss, which we might otherwise pass by; and places where it would be unwise to moor. Thank you, in advance. Richard Holland
  7. I am most grateful to Martin for drawing attention to this part on his website. It is very useful accurate and practical advice. We moored last night in Thomas Telford basin in Piccadilly Village. It would, I know, not be everyone's cup of tea, as a modern basin surrounded by apartments. It is however a quiet mooring, provides a safe resting place for anyone wanting a recuperation period between the Ashton locks and the Rochdale 9, or vice versa, feels completely safe and, with the gate code, allows access to the shops, pubs and eating places in the city. It is a practical safe place to overnight, rather than a mooring to raise the spirits, but we will not hesitate to use it again.
  8. I suggest you find the most convenient location for you to take an RYA helmsman's course. Then, as you say you intend to take several holidays to gain experience, you will have the chance to choose different locations in which to hire. A route with both broad and narrow locks would give good initial experience - e.g Napton to Fenny Compton on the south Oxford and return past Napton through Braunston, on the Grand Union, to Norton Junction and return. If you are not fully convinced about buying your own boat, you could consider the share boat opportunities, possibly on two or more boats in different locations to vary your route options.
  9. We are moving further along the route of our planned summer trip and about to cover what is effectively part of the Cheshire ring. We will go on to the Macc tomorrow at Harding's Wood and intend to go to Whaley Bridge on the Peak Forest before going via the Ashton and Rochdale through Manchester to join the Leeds and Liverpool. Does anyone have advice for us about good moorings, places to avoid mooring, good places to eat etc. or the best stages along the way? We like to cruise for up to 4 hours each day, with some 2 day stops in especially nice places. All advice will be gratefully received. Richard Holland
  10. Thank you to all of you who have provided such helpful information. We have now completed our visit to the Caldon Canal and have enjoyed it enormously. We have a 2ft 10in draught according to our boat spec, but we managed very well, by staying in the middle as much as possible, though we did find some stony underwater obstructions to bounce along in places! We could see that some of the edges were shallow, but we managed to get in to moor in all the places we chose. The canal is as beautiful as the books say. The arm to Leek is particularly impressive. We spent a night on a lovely mooring with superb open views across the valley. We didn't clear the gauge for the Froghall Tunnel and despite some of the contrary advice didn't have the nerve to go through. We walked it instead. It was good to see so many people enjoying the amenity of the towpath. Other good moorings were found above Engine Lock, below Woods Lock and at the bottom of Stockton Brooks locks. We look forward to a return visit. Richard.
  11. Ann and I are heading up the Trent & Mersey intending to make our first visit to the Caldon. We will probably be at Etruria Junction early Saturday afternoon. We would be grateful for advice from locals and regular visitors on nice places to moor and, if any, places to avoid mooring. Thanks in advance to anyone who can help. Richard Holland
  12. Thanks for the very useful advice. Lemonroyd have agreed to find us a mooring for the week. And it will have power.
  13. I am planning (for us) a big trip from the Midlands to Yorkshire in the summer. We will need to leave our 59 foot narrowboat for about 7 days from around 7th/8th July to go back home. We expect by then to be somewhere approaching Leeds/Wakefield. We need shore power as our freezer will be stocked and running and will otherwise seriously empty the batteries. Can anyone help with advice about a suitable, safe mooring, ideally close to public transport? Just a thought, but if anyone with a suitable mooring in the area will be out of it themselves during that week, we will gladly offer a reasonable fee to use it, or, alternatively, reciprocal use of our berth in Market Harborough for a few days, which is likely to be empty from late May to the end of September.
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