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Sally Grim

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Everything posted by Sally Grim

  1. Just bear in mind that in you’re supposed to be moored up by sunset, that’s a requirement by most hire companies. And sunset is rather earlier in October than in summer, so you get less hours actually boating
  2. If you're not used to tiller steering, you automatically put the tiller the way you want to go, especially if you're already a bit flustered. Hence the "going into the brickwork" situation, of course. It brings back memories.... The first time we hired, the intructor only wanted one of us on deck, so I duly went inside and startet to unpack, and left my husband to it. 5 minutes later I was called out. My husband simply hadn't been able to get the hang of it, so I was asked to take over. Needless to say, the next day when we were on our own and all was calm, he picked it up quite easily. When we hired (from Wyvern and Canal Cruising), we always had a thorough handover, which included the instructor accompagnying us through the first lock and showing us how to work it. Even when we were returning customers.
  3. Same here. Crossing my fingers for being able to visit our boat in step 3. Hopefully it will at least be OK in step 4, then we might even be vaccinated! But we haven't dared to book any flights yet, since we've had to cancel all trips but one last year.
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  5. Blimey - you're totally right, Tony, and Cheese too! My sincere apologies to everyone. We fly in to either Heathrow, Gatwick, or Stanstead depending on what is cheapest, so that's why I got momentarily confused. That - and not having been able to travel and go boating since summer. But I have great hopes for next year!
  6. We once did that from Gatwick when there were major rail works - never again. The traffic was horrific, we spent most of the time creeping forward at what felt like 1 mile/h on the M25 (?), and that was a Saturday! Might have been because of the rail works, though. But I'll think we'll stick to trains in the future, and a taxi from the last station. ? I would go Heathrow Express to Victoria, tube to Euston (Victoria Line), train to Rugby, and taxi from Rugby.
  7. Perhaps something heavy was added to the stern or removed from the bow, after it was built? That would affect the trim.
  8. Long Itchington be my choice as well. According to Canalplan, Napton Junction to Two Boats are 3 hours 47 minutes,
  9. They're set to pick up the boat at 2.30, sunset is about 7 pm. That's 4,5 hours, and you might also have to deduct time for the handover. So getting to Cape might be a bit ambitious. I would expect that would cause a a trail of "speeding hire boaters" shouts?! ?
  10. From memory; no 3, Birmingham and the heart of England would cover it.
  11. I would not plan to go further than Long Itchington on the first night. You need time to familiarise yourselves with the boat and the locks, and you might not have the boat till late. And remember you're not supposed to cruise after sunset (or before sunrise) - most hire companies don't allow it. We have done Long Itchington to the top of Hatton in one day, and there's only two of us. Had great help from the lockies at Hatton, though! My preference then would be for Lapworth locks into Birmingham. And on the way back - Polesworth, Hawkesbury, Braunston. There is a great route planner at www.canalplan.eu which might help you.
  12. We share locking and steering about 50/50. I must say that I've mostly had comments about "women doing all the hard work" when I'm locking, I can hardly remember any comments about me doing the steering. Maybe those were said out of my hearing, to my husband! ? And we both use the engine to control the boat in the locks, so no turning it off for me.
  13. Both, but if I had to choose one, Nicholson. I think it is confusing the way north can be up, down, left or right in the Pearson ones. So Nicholson for planning, underpays, and to see how far it is from one place to another. But Pearson is good for a bit of local colour.
  14. That sounds odd, giving a signal just before hitting, if it was intentional. To me that sounds more like the OP did something unexpected, and the following boat couldn´t avoid hitting.
  15. Lapworth is very nice and easy - one of my favorite flight s- but some narrow locks pull, as others have mentioned. Napton, for instance. Going up Napton I find it helps working the paddles "in parallell": a few turns on one side, then a few turns on the other, helps keeping the boat still. But then we're only 50 ft - maybe it's otherwise with a longer and heavier boat. I'm not strong enough to hold the boat back with ropes if the lock really pulls hard, hence the carefulness and using the engine to keep the boat still.
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  18. This evening, Braunston. And btw, thank you to DandV for starting a lovely thread! ?
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  24. May I fill in the "However..." for you? ? Because - if you take matter of the EU away from your comment, your observation is a pertinent one. No problem getting together a collection of countries which haven't been as hard hit as the UK. But there are so many unknown parametres which must be considered before the collection should be deemed as relevant. Criteria for whether a death is a corona one, and the country's stage in the pandemic, are two. So I really see your point! ?
  25. Where does it say that it's supposed to be the EU? Probably just a collection of countries with low death rates. For example, Norway with 235 deaths and Iceland with 10 deaths are both in there.
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