Psychalist

Barrowford top lock: wind - 50% more than anywhere locally, direction nearly always from the boats opposite. Not the most peaceful mooring - it's better round the bend on the pontoon but it's a walk to the services. "Weather Forecast UK" app uses Met office data and shows wind stength and direction hourly for the current day

ooh water.... Update on 19/10/2021: We are pleased to advise that the water levels have stabilised on the Burnley stretch of the canal and the Barrowford Lock Flight has reopened to navigation. To those on the Burnley section of the canal, the last point of turning before the closure between Bridge 110, Aspen Bridge and Bridge 109, New Barn Bridge is Simpson's Bridge, Bridge 111D. A further update will be provided Friday 22 October.

Update on 18/10/2021: Works to pump water to the Burnley section of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal over the breach between Bridge 110, Aspen Bridge and Bridge 109, New Barn Bridge are underway. Whilst more equipment is needed, over the weekend we took delivery of 540m of pipe and partially laid onsite. More equipment will be arriving over the next 2 days, and we expect to be pumping water past the breach towards the end of this week. Additional pumps were also brought in over the weekend to help raise the section of canal towards Blackburn. Once the water supply has been stabilised, we will be able to determine if we can open the closed lock flights to limited operation. Our teams continue to remove debris from site which will allow us to further investigate the area and help determine the repairs and timescale required. We are hoping to have more information on this later this week. We continue to speak to and assist all those affected by this closure and we urge anyone further to contact our North West Customer Support Team on 03030 404040 if you, or someone you know, is seeking help in the affected area. A further update will be provided Friday 22 October.

September's Resvervoir Watch has L&L reservoirs at second worst capacity of 36% slightly behind Peak Forest & Macc. at 34%,. Seems poor considering they are usually two of the wettest places on the network. It isn't looking too hopeful for the pound from the breach to Barrowford - it's a good 8-12 inch down. Apparently it is rising slowly. Whether it recovers enough to allow movement, time will tell. Hopefully there aren't any boats between Rishton and Blackburn that need to move - there's usually one or two at the cafe and another couple at the Eanam Wharf. CRT are pumping water round the breach. This may release any stuck that need to get to the services or escape altogether or it might just piss past the leaky locks at Blackburn. Escape east is blocked at Skipton. I fear any movement may be short lived. The work may not take 6 months, but getting permissions and doing the environmental studies might. With access from the towpath side being steep one might expect to approach the job from the uphill side but those Accy golfers won't want caterpillar tracks all over their fairways.

I imagine many along this stretch below this contour are are a little more nervous in the light of this and Toddbrook, There was already remedial work being done by CRT further along at Clough Bank.

It does. It's at a site of a tributary stream to Hyndburn Brook that comes off Accrington golf course and is also a spill-way from the canal.

There was nothing in Rishton res before this, so presumably most replacement water has to come from Barrowford and above. Those were already operating at reduced capacity.

Update on 11/10/2021: Our teams have been working throughout the night to try and stabilise the significant leak between Bridge 109, New Barn Bridge and Bridge 110, Aspen Bridge, Rishton on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal, unfortunately, during the early hours of this morning the canal bank has breached. Dams are currently being installed onsite and our teams are organising a method of repair, including pumps to be able to pump water over the affected area to maintain a feed to the lower section of the canal. To help conserve water in the surrounding areas, the following Lock Flights are closed: Barrowford Locks Blackburn Locks Johnsons Hillocks Wigan Flight A further update will be provided tomorrow afternoon, Tuesday 12 October.

Witnessed Ribble in motion today at Clough Bank on L&L heading for Hapton. It was quite special seeing a proper working boat moving round the bends there. Had to agree weed is currently a massive problem as we pushed against it for 14 miles yesterday to get there.

I'd suggest airlock too, as it appears to temporarily clear and reappear next time from cold, as if the coolant circulation is blocked and then unblocked. If it was leaky head gasket, the problem would progressively get worse as more gas is pumped into the coolant circuit rather than clear itself. You could try idling from cold with the cap off and squeezing the hoses to see if any air comes out. Check the bleed and as Tony says, an infra-red thermometer is a useful option so you can check it as you go along (if that is possible).

NW had the Ellesmere Port episode. I thought it was Ep1 but apparently it is Ep4. "Still Open All Hours" was on BBC1HD. The Canal Diaries were only on SD - a tad confusing.

I appreciate your efforts Ray. Thanks

The best bit of this rant is the lovely church bell at Kildwick. Someone warned us not to moor there because of the noise keeping them awake, another example of useless disinformation one receives or sees on the cut or Intercut. As they say 'Your mileage may vary', so I guess the same as one's perception of any situation. In Jo and Michael's case they were clearly so concerned they made an official complaint. Most wouldn't. Having seen work scheduled for the winter, we didn't raise any concern with them despite a boat we shared with had a half filled engine room. We also saw hire boat so low at the stern the canal was nearly over its skin fittings. They were on the way to Skipton oblivious to the amount of water they were carrying in their engine room . Jo was very complimentary about Claire the lock-keeper down on the three rise, who we also found very helpful when we went down and back up this summer. She works under difficult circumstances and often doesn't have extra help, which makes managing the both sets of locks event more challenging. Broken paddle gear and the amount of water is a problem but creating confrontation with a volunteer lockie is only going to leave a bad taste, which clearly affected this couple. Maybe neither party handled it well. If their complaint to CaRT results in improved safety and more enjoyable passage, then some good has come of their experience.

The issue isn't so much the rating of the sockets but the wiring that supplies them. There is probably a fuse or cut-out at the distribution panel or whatever is between it and the battery. That might show the rating. The other way would be to pop out the existing socket and check the size of the cable. See previous posts about cable type/size etc or posters on here will no doubt advise. It is worth mentioning the reason for the sockets you have rather than the 12v cigarette lighter type is they are usually fitted because of their superior current carrying capacity. The connections through the pins are much better. Cigarette lighter plugs can't really carry much current and because the tip is a dome and only a small surface area is in contact with the supply. At higher currents, the tip gets hot and can melt the surrounding plastic. This is a good reason to keep the existing sockets and do your wiring external to them - you will be able to monitor any localised heating from whatever load you connect.

The device in the link has two of them and is similar to the Lidl version. The difference is whether you adapt the wall socket, or this sort of device, that you then plug in the existing unmodified socket. /G