malc1110

Makes clipping my canopy on the bridge at Earith seem a bit tame!

We got caught on the wrong side of the derailment, we were on the Old West when it happened. Fortunately we have a mooring at Earith as well as Ely so we used that for a couple of nights and to top up batteries and water. We then did the New Bedford and were really impressed with the scenery as for the greater part of it you can see over the banks. Both the lock keeper at Earith and Denver were excellent with their help and advice and the trip was very enjoyable. We shall certainly use that route again. It took approximately 3.5 hours just gentle cruising with the little 9.9 outboard's throttle about 2/3rds open.

Take heart Fuzzy, in general boating hasn't changed, there are some wonderful people out there on the rivers and canals, we met loads on our trip to Earith. What has changed is the facility to communicate. Until the internet and its forums most communications between boaters were over a pint in the pub, over a balance beam at a lock or in a friendly bankside/towpath gossip. In such amicable circumstances few would exchange anything other than general pleasantries or friendship. Now we have a tool that facilitates far greater and wider discussion, instantly and in the privacy and comfort of our own homes. There are as many opinions out there as there are people and because of the safety and anonimity afforded by forums many will take the opportunity to express them even if they inflame others. It is the same with the news, full of doom and gloom, every bomb in Iraq beamed directly into our living rooms withing minutes of it exploding. Pictures of starving children and nine year old kids with AK47s confront us as we eat our cornflakes. Everybody says "What a terrible world, so much cruelty, so much violence. It never used to be like this". Actually it did, all that has changed is the technology that allows these events to be seen by us as they happen. Years ago many such events would have been three weeks old before being reported on page 8 of the Daily Telegraph, That said the interwebby gadget can be used for much fun. Look at all the happy banter and helpful posts that appear on your own forum....AND SMILE Going to log on there in a minute for some lighter boaty browsing. Oh yeah, Council Tax, great idea, cheap to administer, cheaper still to collect, difficult to avoid/evade, has its faults but is fairer than most of the alternatives and completely not understood by many. A virtual LA to collect from CC'ers... hmmm? The technology exists to do it but it would simply not be worth the expense, it would be diabolical to administer and far from cost effective to collect. Edited to put into English.

I would certainly pursue anyone who damaged my boat. There is enough yobbish behaviour everywhere today why sit back and ignore it just because you are on the river/canal. I would imagine that your own insurance company would act on your behalf and take it up with the offenders insurer. Don't forget that, just like on the road, you should not pay any excess applying to YOUR policy if the damage is not your fault, your insurer should claim your (uninsured loss) excess back from the offender's. This has happened to me twice on the road, the first time I had to pay the excess then wait whilst the insurer got it back from the other party's company. The second time I told them at the start of the claim that I wanted them to claim my excess too, and they did, no problem. Sure the rivers and canals are very different from the roads and some contact is inevitable. Provided all due care has been taken by all parties then one should expect a few bumps and scrapes as part of boating life, but if someone is downright carelesss or stupid then they must be made to pay for any damage they cause. You and your boat should not suffer because of someone else's actions.

There was also a human element in the Holly saga, a real live person had gone missing too and people were rightly concerned for his safety. As soon as sightings began to be reported a general direction of travel was indicated and boaters were kept informed by MNB, this served to stimulate people's enthusiasm for he hunt. Thunderbird posted and disappeared, instead of replying to the first three posts which all requested photos there was absolutely no response, not even "thanks I'll post some soon" or even "I'm afraid I don't have any." Thunderbird's post was a bit like saying "My blue Ford Escort has been stolen in London, it has an engine and four wheels." I am sure that there was not a single person who read the post who did not wish a prompt and safe return of the Shetland, but as there was no human factor and there was a total lack of follow up most people just shrugged and thought "Oh dear, I'll look out but I'm not optomistic."

We are going, but not by boat.

Best post I have seen on here for ages!!!!!! I totally agree Machpoint005. You saved me a lot of typing . Patrick Moore is right, nothing worse than a female Captain on a starship. Heaven forbid, we will have women piloting narrowboats next, instead of working the locks and making tea and bacon sarnies.

Question 1: Why don't the pro metrication lobby object to 24 hours in a day, 60 minutes in an hour and 60 seconds in a minute? Question 2: Why don't the anti metrication lobby object to seconds being subdivided into tenths, hundredths and thousandths etc. Question 3. Do the pro metrication lobby want the smiley glasses changed from good old English pint mugs to pc Euro litre steins. Perhaps metric time could be introduced. Metric Time Working The whole of the United Kingdom (but excluding the Isle of Man) could be converted to Metric Time Working (MTW). Following the introduction of MTW there will be 10 seconds to the minute, 10 minutes to the hour, 10 hours to the day and so on, delineated as shown in Table 1. Obviously, from the Departmental standpoint, as one new hour represents only 5/12ths of an old hour, members of the staff may be expected to work longer hours, eg, 31/4 decidays (or millimonths) per day. However, for administrative and payroll purposes, it is intended to reduce the mid-day break by 3/4 of a new hour (3/4 decidays thus making an MTW working day equal to 4 new days). There will be no alteration to either wages or salaries due to the introduction of MTW except in the special case of leap kilodays when adjustments will be made at the end of every 1.46 decamonths. Table 1: Old time and its converted time equivalents Old time Converted time 1 second 1 milliday 1 minute 1 centiday 1 hour 1 deciday (1 millimonth) 1 day 1 day 1 week 1 decaday 1 month 1 hectoday 1 year 1 kiloday Question 4. Why stop with measurements, why not adjust our language too? European officials have often pointed out that English spelling is unnecessarily difficult. For example: cough, plough, rough, through and thorough. What is clearly needed is a phased programme of changes to iron out these anomalies. The programme would, of course, be administered by a committee of staff at top level by participating nations. In the first year, for example, the committee would suggest using "s" instead of a soft "c". Sertainly sivil servants in all sites would reseive this news with joy. The hard "c" could be replased by "k" sinse both letters are pronounsed alike. Not only would this klear up konfusions in the minds of klerikal workers, but typewriters kould be made with one less letter. Enthusiasm There would be growing enthusiasm when, in the sekond year, it is announsed that the troublesom "ph" would henseforth be written "f". this would make words like "fotograf" 20 per sent shorter in print. In the third year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments would enkourage the removal of "double letters" which are a deterent to akurate speling. We would al agre that the horible mes of silent "e"s in the language is disgrasful. therfor we kould drop thes and kontinu to read and writ as though nothing had hapened. By this tim it would be four years sins the skem began and peopl would be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" by "z". Perhaps zen ze funktion of "w" kould be takn on by "v", vitch is, after al, half a "w". Shortly after zis, ze unesesary "o" or "u" kud be dropd from words kontaining "ou". Similar arguments vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters. Kontinuing zis proses yer after yer ve vud eventuli hav a reli sensibl riten styl. Avter tventy yers ser vud be no mor trublsum difikultis and evrivun vud fin it ezi to interstand ech ozer. Ze drems of ze Führer vud finali hav kum tru! The real question: Since we already have an nation in which most people, this forum membership excepted of course, cannot add up, spell, read (and understand) or even speak properly, does it really matter? malc1110 sticks tongue in cheek, presses Add Reply button then logs out. Will return to absorb flames later.

Absolutely right Benadix. Billings Aquadrome's staff were unfriendly to visitors too. Wellingborough does have the small plus of having a Tescos just a few minutes walk from the EA waterpoint and a nice flock of swans there too , otherwise it is as Benadix states.

Hi Steve, we have recently done the Northampton Arm and the Nene through to Stanground lock whilst moving our cruiser from Stratford to Earith. There isn't really anywhere to moor on the Northampton Arm and you certainly wouldn't want to stop at the first few locks in Northampton. That being the only place we felt uncomfortable on the whole trip, particularly at the lock before Midsummer Meadow, there were yobs standing on the derelict building opposite watching our every move, tens of kids trying to get on the boat, and winos and druggies lurching all over the place. We stopped for the night at the Britannia Arms a bit further on, great food, good ale and cctv on the moorings. There are several moorings that are big enough for a nb up to the Red Diamond moorings, then they are not so frequent but I would think that by picking your spot carefully you could get in on the banks at a number of places. If you do get onto the Nene (pronounced Nen until you reach Oundle) you MUST visit the Oundle Cruising Club, this is one of the friendliest places on the planet, let alone the rivers . They have a great riverside visitors mooring, water, shore power, wifi hotspot, clubhouse, showers etc. There are fuel and all other facilities at the adjacent marina, where the staff are also pleasant and helpful. Just before the second lock above Oundle at Ashton Lock there are excellent moorings for nbs and the best bit is that they are only a few minutes walk from the pub. The Tuesday Night club have cruised this area and you may find a lot more info from their logs. There are a lot of logs published at http://www.jim-shead.com/waterways/River-Nene.html. The first few miles of the Nene are disappointing, a bit bleak after the loveliness of some of the canals, but stick with it as it gets better as you go further up. All in all I would say you could have a really nice trip without needing to moor at locks, especially if you are laid back and don't mind getting through the scruffy bits at the beginning fairly quickly. Do post on here and let us know if you do the trip. Malc

Some suggestions for songs for the musical (all sung in the 50's by, appropriately, Buddy HOLLY): In Scene 1: The Hunt. Crying, Waiting, Hoping (sung by MNB staff) Holly Hop (sung by The Internet Holly Hunters) Wishing {that I could see you everyday} (sung by Adam Foskett) In Scene 2: The Chase. (E)Mailman Bring Me No More Blues (sung by Trish) Blue Decks (Days), Black (Nights) Gunwales (sung by David King whilst {allegedly} painting) Got To Get You Near Me Blues (sung by Paul Foskett) What to Do Now (sung by The Internet Holly Hunters) In Scene 3. The Recovery. Come Back Baby (sung by MNB staff) Changing All Those Changes (sung by The MNB Maintenance crew) I Guess I was Just A Fool (sung by David King) Reminiscing (sung by entire cast) Rave On (and on , and on , and on ) (sung by The Internet Holly Hunters)

Due to my earlier involvement I much appreciated the Private Message with pics of Holly from Starry. In his PM Starry's expressed his concern that the pics should not be published without consent and I certainly would not break the confidentiality of his PM by posting them on this or any other Forum.

Coming soon to a Forum near you! Holly II (The Shropshire adventure).

Post 'em Starry, post 'em. Wanna see, wanna see!!!! (if ok with Jon of course) It is nice to know she is home. Thanks.

Erm! I think it was the prosecution that asked for more time and also asked for it to go to the Crown Court.