Richardcn

Anybody know the owner of this er 'boat'? It's still tethered (above Waltham Abbey on the Lee). I have this image in my mind of the owner departing the scene having forgotten that the tender was still tied up! Although the duck tape suggests that the parting was only a matter of time!

Well it appears that the annual weed cut has encouraged some use of the arm. A pair of widebeams went down yesterday and I found two other boats moored further down (but before the M25) and a third coming back along when I took the dog for his evening walk. A dramatic early splash of autumn along the way as well. I didn't photograph the cr*p in the hedgerows that seems particularly prevalent in this area though. And the cut-through from the towpath to Argos just down from the junction is absolutely appalling, it's like a small landfill site!!!

Just as a follow up. We did eventually meander along the Slough Arm, after switching plans several times! It was a gorgeous day (Mon) and I thought why the hell not. I have to say it was pretty shallow, even in the centre, up to the bridge 4 winding hole but we never travel quickly so it suited us. Paula did her first wind there as, not only were there no gongoozlers but there were no boats either! Where else can you say that this close to London. The early autumn wildlife was lovely and the odd walker or cyclist that passed by was jovial. I had forgotten the pleasure to be had from a narrow canal. We really enjoyed the peace and quiet, yes even whilst the DM2 was chugging steadily. However, there was nowhere that I would have felt comfortable mooring and probably nowhere we could have got in on that stretch anyway. You can see and feel the potential but you can also see it is slipping (or has already slipped) away. I fear that, with the location of the travellers camp (and the notoriety of its residents) unlikely to change, the Slough Arm may never achieve its potential. What a crying shame.

Good advice without a doubt.

Good news... and bad news! Daniel, the owner, was at the boat this evening. Nothing was taken and he's now moved on to find a better spot to board up the window (he was contacted this morning btw). Bad news is that there are a lot of scrotes around here. You can see them dealing just around the Slough junction, they're not exactly subtle! And the really bad news is that another boat, a little further up, has been broken into in broad daylight and had a lot of valuables stolen in the last few days. The Police were apparently unavailable to answer the phone to allow the owner to report it! Sadly, a sign of the times it seems. Time to move on methinks.

Looks like I'll be moving a boat later then...maybe.

Well I don't know, I've never found myself in this situation! I'm just trying to help out! But being as they have an 'Emergency Line' that does cover this then I would expect then to contact the owner, then if they had no joy there then send out one of 'the team' to board it up or make secure BECAUSE that's what they implied they would do "...send one of the local team out.. "!!! (Exclamations for exasperation)

I don't want to make the location known for fear of inviting looters but I've just found out the boat name from its licence disc, 'Dada'.

Hi All Yesterday evening, whilst walking the dog, I noticed that the window of a boat (on the towpath side) had been smashed. It's a nice boat, not a shed but being fitted out so there is stuff inside. The window is big enough so that you can step through into the boat so I took the number and informed CRT on the emergency line. We're moored near to boat today so I took a look and found that nothing had been done and the boat and its content are 'at risk' in this location. Phoned CRT again and they said "...it's been passed on...". I told them they needed to act, now! But will they? Is there any way anybody can suggest in which we can make the owner aware? I will 'wind' the boat before dark if nothing is done today. Richard

Oo er. It's not looking like it's really worth the diesel it would seem. But then again, what the heck. Down and back non-stop then moor near the marina just for the hell of it... maybe! Richard

Many thanks Matty. I think we'll take a walk down there with the dog before we commit then. I'll report back for any others hoping to go that way. Richard

Nice one. I worked on Vulcans at Scampton on my first posting so they hold a special place in my memories. A truly awesome aircraft. I sometimes find it hard to believe that I was once sat in the cockpit of these aircraft at barely 18 years old and in charge of filling it with ridiculous amounts of fuel whilst trying not to overbalance it onto its tail! Them were the days. Richard

Hi All Has anybody been down the Slough Arm in the last couple of weeks and, if so, is it navigable? I've heard that there can be problems with weed (the water-borne kind ) and we'd rather not entangle ourselves having seen how dense that stuff gets further up the GU. Also any tips for moorings/water/undesirable locations etc please. Regards Richard

Ha ha well spotted! I didn't but I knew that it wasn't anywhere near my target price so I bowed out at that point. I was tempted to ask 'Tanya' what evidence they could supply to support their claims about "...very old stock..." though. Richard

Just an update on my battery order. I checked out 'Batteries on the Web' as far as I could and was satisfied enough to consider ordering. However, I then remembered that one of the big suppliers did a price match so I thought I'd reduce my 'risk' by ordering with them instead. Anyway it turned out that it was Tayna (who I'd always mispronounced as Tanya until my wife corrected me yesterday) that have a 'price match guarantee' so I approached them with my 'deal'. They considered it but declined, I quote: "Unfortunately, in that instance we can not match "batteriesontheweb" prices. We send those batteries on palletised freight and and not in individual parcels which add to the overall cost." I persisted, airing my disappointment and asking them for their best price but they countered with this, I quote: "Thank you for your response. For the US2200 batteries delivered to that postcode it would be a total of £311.89. Now as my colleague has mentioned we do not match that particular company amongst another 2 companies as we find that when unit prices have gone up like the US have recently, they still retain a far cheaper price, which as we've experienced, always indicates they are retaining very old stock." Sales talk I concluded but I contacted Batteries on the Web with the relevant questions about their stock, Manu dates, fill dates etc and they assured me that their stock is no more than 6 months old and batteries are only filled prior to despatch. Whether this is true or not remains to be seen but I've no reason to doubt it so I've ordered two US2200XC DT (dual terminal) this evening. I'll update this thread once I've got them and have checked them out, which may be a few days as I'm having them delivered to a relative. Unless I've been lied to £122.50 each seems a wholly reasonable price compared to other suppliers at the moment. No doubt somebody will find a better deal somewhere though Richard