Jennifer McM

Pleased to hear that, we bought our boat from them 3 years ago and found them very good. We had been looking for months for our boat, and we'd been to about a doz brokers. Some were good, and some weren't so good. With us, Gt Haywood just clicked. Funny coincidence, we picked our boat up from Longport where it had been blacked before an out of water survey, and as complete newbies we were travelling on the T&M to get onto the Ashby where we'd organised a mooring. Just as we were passing GH, Leeza from the office phoned us, she was wondering how we were doing and if we had any problems. A few months later we called into GH and Leeza visited our boat, still asking if everything was OK. You have to speak as you find. BTW, and sorry it's off topic - Leeza works for a Staffordshire Terrier rescue place - if anyone's looking to rescue a Staffie, she's your contact. Regarding handing over the money, we transferred the cash through the internet, into GH's customer holding account. It was pretty painless.

That beggar's belief. We were about 10th in the queue going up those locks just a couple of months ago. If that boat had been there then.... ??

Hope you don't think I'm complaining Mike because I'm not. Merely trying to clarify the situation. If you look at the maintenance schedule (post #13) the schedule looks rather ambiguous (in a previous post I did ask if it was me being a bit thick), plus I did phone CRT for clarification which I'm sorry to say failed. I'm still no clearer, that's why I asked people to check out the situation for themselves. I'm only flagging up the maintenance and the possibility of confusion.

We passed through Keepers Lock on Tuesday (New Years Day). After chatting with two boaters (at different locks), they didn't realise about the closure of Keepers lock. It caused a panic as they realised they'd have to turn around because they needed to get back through Keepers Lock. We moored o/n in the pound above Keepers Lock, moving yesterday morning through Junction Lock 17, Middle Lock, Shadehouse Lock, and Wood End lock (#20). Before we left we saw CRT setting out their materials and barricades in readiness for the work on Keepers Lock. We didn't manage to speak to a CRT person about the closures. Last night we were moored at Handsacre. Just before we were about to untie this morning, a boat passed us, the boater was rather annoyed with CRT as they had closed Shadehouse lock this morning at 8 o/c (so he said!). He was muttering something about CRT causing chaos. It appears if you're coming from the Coventry, you'll have to turn at Fradley Junction, there's no Left or Right turn onto the Trent and Mersey. You'll need to check out this out for yourself though as it does look like there's some confusion/misinformation on the CRT site.

I got through the problem with feet to spare, so I must have 'called it right'. When the wind is involved it's 'interesting'.

Yes, you're most probably right. Thinking about it, it's a bit like learning to ride a bike, the trick is not to look down at the road because for sure you'll hit the road. Coming out of the lock with confidence (more speed) and looking ahead, instead of 'concentrating' how near the other boat is getting - probably would have been better. Except if my 'calculation' was wrong, it would have caused a bigger impact.?

Knowing where the pivot point didn't really help yesterday. After rising in the lock, the top gate opens, and the boat gently leaves. Towpath is to the right, and on the left there's a permanent mooring for a very nice vintage boat which is rather close to the lock's exit (about 30 ft away). Also on the left to the lock, and behind the vintage boat, is a weir where the water is obviously running down, having the potential to push the boat to the left. Just to make the situation interesting, there's a strong wind coming from the right, pushing the boat towards the moored one. It's impossible to start to steer the boat until our boat is out of the lock, and is halfway along the vintage boat. In this hairy situation, I wasn't really thinking of the pivot point ? ? On top of that, a boat appeared in front on the way to enter the lock, my OH hadn't seen it, and didn't hear my screeching to leave the gate open, then of course, with the wind it wasn't easy to get out of the way of the oncoming boat! Boating can be very interesting....

Aren't they both the same thing? All I need to know is that our boat turns from the middle, any more information would be overload... ?

Yes, that was my thought, also she was (probably) still in Christmas mode, and was full of cold, so being a softie I didn't push her too much. If the contractors are around, preparing, I'll send 'him-who-does' to have a chat with them with a mission to glean information, and I'll report back.

Don't know procedures, I guess it depends on circumstances. Remember when we were waiting for Glascote locks to open after major works, the pounds weren't emptied as far as I can remember.