droshky

…or will we? Lock 23W closed for repair, and yes it was a decrepit top gate. Watching crt notices, anybody got any local advice, we need to get through by Easter Sunday for our tunnel booking on Monday?

Thanks for all this Adam, we’ll be following you up and down over Easter. Sounds promising

No that’s ok, we’re already well above there… since last year! I’m more worried about continued progress if and when we get through the tunnel. There’s been very little rain this winter compared to normal

Much later update from us… we never did get through before the tunnel closed. So we’ve been waiting…since July! Next proposed reopening is late March, going to ring tomorrow to try and book. Will we never get back if we go through?😀

We’ve been hanging around since June to get across!

And only for 10 days

We all put in our tuppence worth, happy cruising

Hmmm. That has hasn’t been our experience over the last 6 years. Not that we haven’t been broken into, but only 3 times and only once more than minimal damage. we don’t live on board, and typically are away for at least 10 days at a time. We’re fairly careful about it, nowhere too busy or too quiet, preferably in sight of another boat or two, definitely not anywhere urban. And yes if you live mainly on board you’ll have more stuff worth taking. But our experience is that it’s mainly alcohol and wolfable food that goes missing. And even that is fairly safe if we’ll hidden. it is of course a risk, but balancing the many hours not spent negotiating with owners and earning money to pay for moorings, I’d say we’re well in front. Winter is of course a time for winter moorings but even then, judiciously situating yourself between shutdowns can give you a few weeks grace, and then you find a marina or whatever anyway for the rest of winter …or summer, if you might be off the water then. Dont be afraid and don’t take the previous very negative post as gospel. Yes these things happen but fellow boaters being a regular persistent threat… naaah. Urban centres are higher risk, as are very remote places. But many areas allow you to have a relaxed attitude. If you’re going to fret about everything you could worry about marinas too, not 100% secure, all that electric acid rotting your boat, and the “back to base” issue several have pointed out. Enjoy

Hi, non live aboard here, hoping to make progress next time we’re on board. Bit of a diversion but sort of related… on the Huddersfield narrow hoping to head for the L+L…our plan is to hang around the west end of the Standedge tunnel (a few locks down obviously) waiting till it’s open again AND for there to be a cancellation so we can slip in. Considering the issues on the L+L above, and the persistent problems on the Hudd narrow, (not to mention needing to cadge a tunnel slot) are we being ridiculously optimistic? cheers

Very strange language. Clearly auto translated from the original Chinese

Very helpful, thanks Stroudwater1

Yes that’s exactly what I’d heard, thanks for confirmation

Thanks guys, I’m emboldened to carry on! In full knowledge that it’s my personal informed decision and no one else’s responsibility. Like hell I am, anything goes wrong and I’ll <expletive deleted> … not really, thanks for the tips. Generally I’m guessing that if we can creep up in the wet weather we should eventually make it. Given our deepness, that’ll surely take us longer than most. So should I budget 2? 3? days to get up to Standedge, or at least to where we can moor and leave in “normal” security? Worst of all worlds would be get 1/2 way up and give up, then have to return and find somewhere safe swiftly. As you may have spotted, still a little edgy, thanks again for all the tips

That is the way I’m thinking. But it’d relax me (and Mrs D!) to hear that people were making it thru without too much drama. We have had the bottom overplated, so despite removing most of the ballast, we are a bit deep in the water compared to most. And also, we want it to be fun, and we want to get up the Pennines towards the tunnel in short order. so with the utmost gratitude for any good wishes, who’s been up or down the Huddersfield narrow from Portland basin recently?

Getting back to the south Pennine ring… came down Marple and spoke to a guy who’d just turned back from lock 6 on the Hudd narrow. Sounds very bad, low water, many obstructions. He could hear the swearing of the descending boats’ crews before their engines! Among his problems he was grounded for many hours well into the dark in a pound, had to wade to the side and let water down himself to refloat. was he exaggerating? It makes me very nervous about taking it on (anti-clockwise as mentioned)

Yeah but when I slow down to jump on my Canyon, it would become real, and even 20% would destroy me And anyway, you just made that up, I’m sticking with infinitely heavier

Thanks for all the advice on hyperspace travel, I’ll bear it in mind when I upgrade transport modes… though I should point out that were I to follow your advice, I think I’d become almost infinitely heavy, a considerable problem for a sylph -like Lycra clad racing cyclist. thanks also to Goliath and Kendorr for their more immediately relevant advice

Morning all. Fairly experienced non live aboard ccers. Similar topic, hope you don’t mind me jibbing in. We’re going the other way, from the peak forest turn right and then if we have time, turn up to (wards?) Hebden Bridge, then turn back to Leeds and if possible the long way back via Burnley. We got the year to do it in stages, if we fancy it. But immediate decision, when we get down Marple locks we won’t be able to get up the first few Huddersfield narrow locks while they’re working on them this week. We’ll have to leave, come back from home, and continue. So…. where should we leave? Near the bottom of Marple , near the junction, or somewhere else? Mainly concerned about security.

I see from crt posts and OpenCanalMap that there’s a couple of pretty technical looking closures on the way from Ashton up towards Standedge, Bridge 103 and Lock 24w. Thats where we’re hoping to head once our winter mooring on the Peak Forest runs out next month. Anybody got any local knowledge, are either of these long term?

…and rescheduled for early march

Not quite. The grand canal is about 1/2 mile south of the brewery, it’s the Liffey that is adjacent. And while the water does come from the Liffey basin, it’s pumped down from a cleaner source in the Wicklow mountains.

Haven’t seen this aspect mentioned, you probably all know this, but anyway… A few years ago we wintered on an offside farm mooring. After a month or two, we got a crt letter advising of water charges payable to them in addition to our rent to the farmer. In the end we accepted it and coughed up. So they must have active spotters off season on quiet stretches of the Middlewich Branch, unless of course we’d somehow told them and then forgotten! Or maybe the farmer….

Yes I had followed that. I expect results for a correctly functioning Lister would be similarly promising; we’ll see when they try it out in one. My concern is about the situation we’ve just had, where diesel was leaking into the oil, in our case from the injectors, if I understood it right. With the engine then being lubricated by oil mixed with fuel, wouldn’t using HVO have a risk of engine seizure in a case where, unknown to the owner, this was happening? Obviously if you have a problem you should fix it but I’m talking about idiots like me who only half understand what’s happening down there. Oil could be diluting for some time before you’re aware of it, and with HVO it would be becoming less and less viscous(?). Don’t get me wrong, I want this to work

So where are we on older engines? We’ve got a lister sr2

A Cautionary Tale Went for a walk with mrs D on Whixhall Moss a few years ago. Adders don’t like water and normally (we were later told) only populate higher drier parts of the area. But this one had got lost and was in a soggy part. It had warmed up nicely and had found a tussock where it was dry but shaded from the the hot sun. We had moored near the car park and were following a route round the Moss from a canal side handout. There had been some heavy rain so despite the warm sun, we had to tread carefully not to get soaked, and were hopping from one dry bit to another. When she said she’d been bitten, to my shame I first assumed it might have been a wasp sting, but I saw the culprit slither away. We called the ambulance but concluded by saying that she seemed ok. The bite was at first similar to a wasp sting, until we got back to the boat and she sat down, and put her leg up. Then gradually her throat and tongue began to hurt and swell. A tense period followed, where the ambulance which had fortunately continued towards us across country was unable to find us or get through on the phone. Mrs D, using her training as a speech therapist, was just looking for a pen to use to (a) mark the spot for me on her throat and (b) perform an emergency tracheotomy….. when the ambulance found the car Park. Simultaneously a chopper appeared above but by the time he found a place to land had used too much fuel to take us. Adrenaline was administered and the ambulance wobbled around the countryside like Noddy for a while till we made it to Shrewsbury General and the NHS performed at its best. Its unlucky that she had such an anaphylactic shock reaction, having only ever had mild allergies to wasps and shellfish before. But it can happen, and could have been extremely serious. At least now we know to always have an adrenaline epipen to hand. And to wear decent boots! Made the local papers and BBC radio website!