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.

I would like to know if he had made any alterations to the inside He seemed to be doing something when we briefly looked inside Holly.

Hi Pixiesun, our daughter lives on a narrowboat and has done for over a year now. She and her partner moved in to it in the depths of winter last year and had to move their boat 15 locks to their residential mooring in the rain and snow, never having handled a boat before. After that any sunny day seems like heaven to them. That is sound advice in the earlier posts, try to hire a boat off peak for a few weeks to see how you cope with being confined in the limited space when the weather is not too clever. You may find, like they did, that you love it. They have done an almost total refit and I don't think they would buy bricks and mortar now if they could. There are some pics in the signature link below. PS glad you liked the "90' narrowboat theory" in the Holly thread, it gave me a chuckle as I wrote it .

Yes, I too was wondering how you all at MNB managed, glad to hear that you coped. Presumably it was not just managing the bookings but all the hassle of the police, press, checking sightings and all the millions of bits an episode like this generates. And all the normal work to be done too!!!! I suppose you will have court appearances and other stuff in the aftermath as well, it doesn't just end with Holly's recovery does it.

I have seen some pictures of Holly as she was found by the Middlewich staff, they kindly mailed them to me earlier today, and have to say she looks good. The blue in my photo, and in the one of her by lock 33, might have been an undercoat as the blue she now wears seems less bright, but maybe it is just different weather or a different camera that makes it appear that way. If it is a new topcoat that fella Dave King worked d*****d hard to paint her again. All the cratch has been painted too, inside and out! Whatever, she is still mainly blue. As it is his site, and if it hadn't been for his dilligence in emailing the entire forum membership Holly might never have been found, I will leave it to Jon to up the piccies, which he will no doubt do as soon as he can. I am certainly going to take up Trish's offer of a cuppa one day when we are in that area.

Ever get that sinking feeling?

Fantastic news!!!! I see he had added some red panels too. I think Jon could well be right in saying that he might just have been repainting the existing black rather than doing a whole repaint.

Yeech!!!! I cannot believe some of the things I read on here. I will clear up a couple of points. 1) As we went down the flight we got a routine going in which Dave would go ahead and prepare the next lock, my wife would look after the boats in the current lock and I would go back to close the previous lock. This worked very well. As many of you know there is a fair distance between some of the locks, at these Dave cycled between them, using, guess what, A BIKE, also some of the time he put the bike into the front well. No doubt he did this to avoid it being shown in any photo!!!!! This explains why some pics show bikes and some don't. 2) During the descent we were watched by many walkers, hikers and cyclists, several of these took photos of the flight and some of these will have us in them, none of them were taken covertly or sneakily. The picture that has recently appeared shows lock 33 and must have been taken before mine as mine was taken much nearer the bottom of the flight. I think its a rather good picture of a boat and lock gear, clearly the photographer has an artistic trait. It may, of course, be a cropped part of a bigger picture showing only the relevant bits.

Here is another theory. After leaving Itchington bottom lock Mr King equipped himself with several copies of The Big Issue and two RSPCC collection tins, these powerful magic tokens are proven to render the bearer totally invisible. He used these to hide himself as he waited until a 50' narrowboat crewed by a bunch of 18/30s moored up whilst the crew went to the pub for a quick drink. As soon as they departed he dashed over and, using all the skills he has as a painter and decorator, he cut the boat into 3 pieces. Next he cut Holly in two and cut and shut the 40' middle piece into her to make a 90' boat. Working fast he stuck the remaining bow and stern together to form a new 10' boat, knowing that the crew would be rather worse for drink when they returned and would not notice the difference (when they did they decided that they had lost a bit in one of he locks and went back for another drink). His next cunning move was to camouflage the 90' boat by painting it purple with yellow go faster (7mph) stripes, knowing full well that 80% of people just won't notice it at all, 10% will not believe their eyes and just ignore it, 5% will think “nice boat” and the remainder will decide that they had a really “bad” pint in the last pub. To alert him to the approach of any BW officials he has probably linked a very sophisticated CCTV system to the NEC SX-8 supercomputer that he bought for 49p in a boat jumble. Whenever a member of BW staff comes within 250 yards of 90' Holly the system sounds a siren that he has tuned to a pitch only he can hear. This gives him plenty of time to place copies of the Big Issue over the superstructure and one of the collection tins on the bow and stern, thus cloaking 90' Holly like a Klingon Bird of Prey. He gets the 90' boat through the locks by opening both upper and lower gates at once and using the flow to waft him through. Going uphill is no problem due to mighty power of the old Rolls Royce Merlin engine he added between lunch and his mid afternoon nap one day. As for food, drink, diesel and gas etc. no problem, he simply gets his old mate Lord Lucan to bring them round when he takes Shirgar out for a morning canter. Probably the only danger he is in is being swamped by the wash of one of the Russian submarines that secretly use our canal system at night to spy on David Cameron. (Just a joke, since the end of the cold war the Russians buy their licences just like the rest of us, they are easily spotted because they have a little red hammer and sickle just under the BW number; and just like the rest of the world they are not really interested in David C.) Well, it is as plausible as some of the others!!!!!! Sorry, as the guy who saw blue Holly I know well that it is a serious thing, but I felt a little humour might raise morale and give those helpful people who are actively going out to search a smile to help them as they go.

I have to comment on the posts referring to the picture quality and green/blue paint. The original picture showed my cruiser in a lock with the blue Holly, my wife and I did not feel comfortable with our boat being shown with the stolen boat and asked for our boat to be removed from any published pictures. Jon, and all the other webmasters on other sites, kindly did this. The reflection on the side of blue Holly is of my boat, not trees, not bushes but good old GRP. Apart from the removal of my boat the original picture has not been tampered with using paintshop pro or any other editing software. The original picture has been sent around many times now and somewhere along the way some less than perfect copies have appeared and I agree they do not show that area very clearly. The "new" blue paint was in very good condition and from the confirmed sighting times mentioned by Trisha it could only have been a few days old, and I have to say he had done a nice job, hence the good reflection. I was beside that boat for several hours and saw it a good few times after that over the remainder of that day and several times the following day. Not a trace of green was showing. By whatever ways the poorer quality pics came to exist we should all just be pleased that people are circulating pictures of a blue boat in an effort to return it to its rightful owners, and to ensure the well being of David King. Having spent a fair bit of time in his company I tend to agree with the more charitably minded people who have posted the opinion that he has suffered some kind of breakdown/burn out and opted out of ordinary life, Reggie Perrin style. Perhaps if we spent more time looking for Holly and David King than examining jpgs and bmps pixel by pixel for some stupidly perceived conspiracy/alterations we might get a result .

Regarding Jo's point about did I ring Middlewich NBs or the police first, I rang Middlewich as I felt they would be able to 100% identify their own boat, despite it being blue. I did not want to waste police time when Middlewich engineers and staff could give a positive identification very quickly, which they did (all conspiracy theory sceptics please see Trish's posts). Also, because we were travelling and visiting relatives, there was nearly 3 weeks from when we saw Blue Holly to when I saw the Email from this site so instant police action was clearly not necessary. Naturally I gave them permission to pass all the details on to the police, which they did. The police have since contacted me and we have supplied them with a great deal more information than we have put on any website. A couple of posts mentioned the River Nene, that was our route and we spent several days on that river, including 3 moored on the bankl at Oundle Cruising Club (Seriously nice people, great club and somewhere that I have just got to go back to), if Holly had come though there we would almost certainly have seen her. We then did the whole of the Nene all the Middle Levels and all the way down the Great Ouse to the Old Western. We never saw Holly again so we think it highly unlikely, though not 100% impossible, that he went that way.