Dave123

Market Harborough is lovely and the visitor moorings great, also just been there Tuesday this week! It's all very quiet along the Leicester arm, seems everyone has gone to Napton and had the same idea of avoiding any towns? No queues at Foxton in either direction. The waterfront bar in the basin was open and doing food every day. The arm does seem quite shallow as you get nearer to Harbourgh and the road swing bridge at Foxton was a right pain to open! But otherwise a very good time to go while it is quiet.

On the flip side there is a fairly new 'official' winding hole on the south Oxford at Twyford wharf. It used to just be a silted hole in the private bank just for those who moored there. Now it has CRT signs including no mooring opposite it now. The South Oxford does need more winding holes to stop unnecessary journeys through locks just to wind. It would save water.

It's worth doing! Much of the bank is too shallow for easy mooring though. But there is some secret underwater armco attached to the canal wall along Gallows Inn Fields which makes it possible to moor here. It's a nice walk up to the dry bed of the Nottingham canal. Nice moorings before the railbridge above Cotmanhay too.

As has been said above. 4mph is virtually impossible on every narrow canal and most broad canals. Tickover past moored boats is etiquette but is increasingly ignored, especially in the summer when its busy and everyone is in a rush.

The white hart in Wytham (an easy walk from the many moorings between Godstow and Kings locks) had excellent social distancing in place last weekend when i went. Plenty of outside space and 4 person tables with roofs.

I stayed for a week last summer and missed the farmer as I was at work every day. He caught up with me as I was leaving. Very nice chap and said he was happy for donations to the RNLI iinstead if you don't see him to pay the fee. It was £5 a night, £25 a week or £60 for a month if I recall rightly. Just watch out for the cows licking the boat! PS never found parking in Lechlade to be a problem but not been since covid. It's hard to predict what the situation will be like now, previously quiet places are heaving and normally busy places are deserted!?‍♂️

Sorry! Although it is nice when everyone is agreeing I didn't mean to be an echo?

Is there ever a justification to behave like that? No matter what happened beforehand, off screen as it were, two wrongs don't make a right.

They actually was a study done into this in the 60s (it was mentioned in a history on the K&A I have just finished reading but dont have to hand to quote). It was concluded that closing canals didn't save that much money compared to keeping them navigable mostly because there is either a massive cost outlay on completely filling them in or a constant cost in keeping bridges, embankments, cuttings etc safe. Locks would need turning into weirs which still need maintaining and the canals will have to continue draining water/sewage etc from the land, especially in times of flood. And supplying water to sewage plants. They can't just fill them in. Also the point some make about walkers etc not interested in boats is not true. Seeing boats is the main reason for many visits to canals. CRT do realise this.

This thread is predictably optimistic ? I actually do think the canals will still be navigable in another 30 years. Covid might increase the popularity of holidaying in the UK. I think the change from retired pensioners on holiday boats to younger liveaboards doesn't have to be a bad thing and many will catch the canal bug and become lifelong enthusiasts. The canals still get used for boating even if the boats aren't shiny and aren't doing 1000s of lock miles a year. It was interesting that CRT had to keep navigation open during lockdown for this reason. Although I do wonder if some of the energy put into some restoration schemes might be better going on some currently navigable canals that need more than a little tlc

I think the stronger argument for closing gates (as opppsed to the extra effort for a following boat) is that it can drain the pound if the single set of gates holding the water back isn't water tight.

I regard the water licence usage as a good thing. Isn't it the only reason some of the canals weren't built over in the 50s? And as this includes discharge into canals e.g. from sewage works, it helps keep us floating. But of course if there had to be a choice in an extreme drought, growing food and sanitation would obviously take priority.

You must be the only person to think the Shroppie is boring?

Had mixed experiences like most on here, most anglers just pointedly try to ignore the boat and any eye contact or hello; and it does seem common for them to leave the line in the water until the very last second like some game of chicken?. Had a pleasant experience on the Staff's and Worcs a few years ago in November when some anglers actually said how pleased they were to see a boat as the canal was too clear for the fish to be out! And this winter at Froxfield a more unpleasant experience, with no less than three anglers in a long line of a fishing match deciding to openly urinate ON the towpath just as we passed (it was winter with few boats or people about so they easily could have waited until no one was passing) and then encountered the unofficial signs they have put up at the Froxfield visitor moorings telling boats to leave 5 metre gaps for anglers! Got shouted whilst passing one angler here as I was trying to glide into a mooring with no prop but needed to engage gear briefly (into tickover) to steer and he didn't like this! Told him he was lucky there was space for me between the anglers or he would have needed to move (these were the only moorings reachable before dark) which didnt help his mood??‍♂️.

Apparently it's the covid19 effect. People don't need to be in central if they are working from home or furloughed. London boaters leaving 'London' and spreading out is also exactly what some people who complain about london have always wanted isn't it? You reap what you sow?

I'd query the third and fourth days. You say you'll end up in Uxbridge the third day in the evening and expect to be in Berkhamsted the fourth day? Thats a very long day! The general problem with such ambitious itineries is you have to keep going until late which means youll have to stop wherever you are rather than timing it to arrive early and get a space at a nice/safe mooring. I doubt youll find space anywhere in central london (without booking) if you dont intend to moor until late evening. Other boats will have stopped and taken the best spots much earlier than that. But it doesnt matter if you just want to transit right through london. There is likely to be space somewhere around Hackney/Hertford Union or the Limehouse cut and from there in one day you can go right through the Regents to beyond Kensal where again there will be space somewhere. Anywhere will be safe enough if you arent leaving the boat unattended and aren't walking around towpaths after dark.

No change in the Thames flow yet but at least the canal reservoirs will get a top up and its good news for some of the northern ones that are shut.

Quicker than expected!

Was meant to be going that way mid July so fingers crossed. How bad is the other gate? Don't fancy getting trapped and having to go the long way round via Leicester. Might go to the Ashby canal instead...not so much that can fail there?

The instructions aren't always accurate as some imply you need to keep pushing the sluices open button every few minutes to raise them to the next stage, when this actually happens automatically as part of the sequence initiated at the first push. An awful lot of Thames boaters in cruiser motor yachts complaivocally about even having to push the buttons themselves nevermind winding the manual wheel! Which actually can be pretty hard work depending on the lock. I can only remember having to do Shiplake on hand wind and I'm 30-something and consider myself in good shape yet needed a break and someone else to take over to close the lock up! But still....good thing they cant get onto the canals to see a CRT lock??

Possibly. Although since joining the Thames the other week I've been (pleasantly) surprised at how busy it is with boats I would assume are not CCers or liveaboards ??

Yes this is a shame. Thanks for posting it here. The last couple of years I've increasingly noticed problems with Brentford, they have twice failed to turn up for a booking despite me triple checking it with the office beforehand. Am I right it switched to being operated by volunteers about this time?

I've struggled to see a part of the network where you could move every 2 days all winter without running into a winter stoppage, never mind bad weather. ?‍♂️

I think the the poster of that might have gotten confused with St Katherine's dock? That does have million pound boats in it. RE low pounds in the Hertford cut...The pound in question is easily refilled. There is a very interesting story about the poor original engineering behind why it happens. If it is low it *usually* isn't because some idiot didn't close up the locks.