JohnEW2912

Just received this update from BW: - UPDATE (04 June 2010): PASSAGES WILL BE RESTRICTED AS FOLLOWS: There will be ONE supervised passage on Saturday, Sunday & Monday starting at 10am PROMPT between Locks 65 (Wigan Top Lock) & Lock 85 (Railway Lock). Any boats arriving after this time will have to wait until 10am the following day for the next available passage. Poolstock (Locks 1 & 2) through to Ell Meadow (Lock 89) will be open between 8am and 1pm only. Any boats arriving after this time will have to wait until 8am the following day for the next available passage. Passage between Dean Lock (Lock 90) & Appley Lock (Lock 91) will be strictly monitored. Passages will only be permitted if water levels allow. Please note: BW will not guarantee passage if water levels are not sufficient to permit navigation. Please do not contact Freefone Canals for updates relating to these restrictions. This number is for EMERGENCIES ONLY. A further update will be issued on Monday 07.06.10 at 2pm.

That might be the case where you live but it has been exceptionally dry here in Preston for all of 2010. Apart from a couple of weeks in March there has been little or no rain in the north west for five months. Foulridge reservoirs are not very far from here so I assume it's been much the same. To be honest, given the weather we have had, I'm surprised it has taken this long for restrictions to come in.

As an aside I see that the Burscough Boat Company is planning a chandlers shop in the development - their main site is on an industrial estate fairly close by. Does anybody know anything about them? As comparatively a local I've never heard of them but I saw an ad in Canal Boat this month for them and they are going to Crick. They say that have craftsmen with 25 years boat building experience.

Given that this is the bank holiday weekend and school half term he can expect a lot more private boats to be out along with pretty much every hire boat so it will be very busy whichever way he goes. He probably needs to be prepared to be patient and not be too ambitious.

Anyone's view of a marina will depend on what they want to get out of it. The OP clearly spends quite a bit of time on his boat there and therefore facilities and social life will be important. We use our marina space as somewhere safe to moor our boat fairly near home, when we can't be boating. We never spend any time there other than to check the boat is OK or to leave on a cruise. As it happens the marins has all the basic facilities but in truth we don't really need them and could easily have an online mooring if we could be sure of security.

The Stourport ring is a fairly comfortable week's holiday. Lots of variety and plenty to see on the way. We did it many years ago before we got our own boat when the kids were young (c6 and 8). We had a day at the Black Country Museum and a day at Cadbury World and still got round comfortably.

I like the idea of advice on BCN moorings and think we could have some others, particularly for the larger urban areas.

We went into Liverpool last Sunday (18th). We were the only boat and apparently set a new season's best time of 3.5 hours from Bridge 9 to Salthouse Dock. We didn't need to stop at Litherland and the guys were keen for us to get through Canning Half Tide Dock before 1.00 as HMS Shoreham was there and planning to leave on the tide. Speaking to others in Salthouse Dock 6 boats on Friday had taken 5.5 hours for the same journey. Also there is a new huge 24 hour Tesco right by the services at Litherland, which can be easily accessed. Whilst you are virtually on top of the Liverpool One shopping centre in Salthouse Dock, there aren't a lot of handy food shops near the dock, which might be important if you're planning a few days there. Some bright spark has put the trolley park at Tesco right next to the canal so you can expect a mini Aintree boating steeplechase around there shortly.

To be absolutely specific, these are the days you can travel in and out: - Sunday - in to Liverpool Monday - out from Liverpool Tuesday - no passage Wednesday - in Thursday - out Friday - in Saturday - out

The main problem with timeshare has been the relatively high cost to buy in and the difficulty of then getting out if you want for any reason without a big capital loss. If your share can be bought for £500 then any potential capital loss will be pretty small. If you can't afford either the time or cost of a shared ownership boat and are happy with the type of boat you will get then it seems a good deal to me. We have a couple of weeks timeshare with Marriott that cost a lot more than this and we are very happy with them. The bottom line is, can you afford to lose the cost of the timeshare if things go wrong? I'm not saying it will, but if the loss of £500 would be manageable then I can't really see a downside.

There is a small sanitary station with a tap and cassette emptying facilities at Castlefield. It's just on the way in to Castlefiled on the left hand side befiore you get to the junction with the Rochdale. It isn't very obvious but there was last year at least a big sign written on it saying Sanitary Station Open. There is also a newish sanitary station at Anderton as well. Presumably there will also be facilities at all the hire boat bases along the top of the T&M, although you may have to pay if you're not buying anything else - Middlewich Boats, Andersen Boats, Alvechurch, Black Prince and Claymore Navigation.

As a boat owner and a Blackburn Rovers fan I've been to a few games by boat - thee times to Ewood and once to Old Trafford for the FA Cup semi-final against Chelsae a couple of years ago. There are plenty of grounds you could go by boat to. Off the top of my head: - Blackburn Rovers Burnley Wigan Athletic / Wigan RL Man United Man City Stoke City Northwich Victoria Wolves West Brom Aston Villa Birmingham City Bristol City Fulham No doubt there are plenty more. One problem though is that the grounds are often in areas where you would not want to leave your boat unattended. Wigan is a good example where you could moor right outside but I wouldn't - I'd opt for mooring in town and walking back.

Have they not sent you a detailed guide or the link? Last year I enquired and got a lot of stuff which explained in detail the two day procedure. Our circumstances changed and we didn't go in the end but i have every intention of going this year and am just awaiting plans for this year to be announced.

We did a very similar trip quite a few years ago - around 10 at a guess. We got as far as Little Bedwyn in the week, which is just beyond Crofton, although we went to the edge but not right into Bath. I don't recall it as being particularly strenuous, as we had time to have a visit from family going up Caen Hill, co-ordinating meeting one of our sons in Devizes and dropping him off in Pewsey and having a half day in Devizes on the way back. But then we're from oop north and found the Rochdale OK last year. As a hire boater you probably want to cover some ground - it's much easier to move at a leisurely pace when you have your own boat and therefore more time. Of course what I don't know is whether the state of the K&A has deteriorated much in the last 10 years. Unless this is the case I would say go for it. You can always revise your plan once at Devizes and turn round earlier if you need to (or don't go to Bath and nip there in the car when you've handed the boat back). On sharing the locks we frequently find that pairing up often slows us down. Whilst you should always pair up if you can, we often find it quicker to work as a 2 person team who know what they're doing and can move steadily on than share with another either lazy or precious about their boat.

There are plenty of excellent mooring options west of Wigan. You can moor safely in Wigan itself at the nottom of the flight next to the junction with the Leigh branch or outside the BW office. After that you're better getting out of Wigan but anywhere from Gathurst onwards is fine. Indeed the section from Gathurst to Parbold is as nice a section of canal as there is anywhere. Also anywhere along there is good if you need to leave the boat as the Wigan to Southport railway line runs very close and there are regular stations. The Rufford branch up to Tarleton has a few isolated mooring spots as well. These days I would not want to miss carrying along the main line though and going into Albert Dock in Liverpool. Getting into the city was a two day affair last year but that may change when they announce the 2010 rules.

If you haven't booked your flights yet then I would seriously consider flying into Manchester. Off the top of my head there are direct flights from Newark, Atlanta, Chicago, Orlando, Philadelphia and Las Vegas to Manchester. Alternatively you could fly via Paris, Amsterdam or Frankfurt and then fly into one of many UK airports and back from another. You could then fly to Birmingham and have lots of options. If you want the L&L then flying to Leeds/Bradford might be handier for the hire bases there than Manchester. Another thing to bear in mind are possible stoppages if you're coming early in March. The winter programme of maintenance stops in mid March ready for Easter.

Arlen were fine when I hired with them, but it was in 1975!!

Two can play at this game..... Ribble Valley, Trough of Bowland (so wonderful it's the inspiration for Middle Earth), Lancaster, Arnside & Silverdale, the Southern Lakes, West Pennine Moors, Southport (Lord Street was the model for the boulevards of Paris V Doncaster, Rotherham, Barnsley, Dewsbury, Huddersfield, Middlesborough, Middlesborough (so bad it's worth two mentions) etc etc :lol:

We did it in reverse in early September from the Irk Aqueduct to Ducie Street in 4.5 hours with the good ship Elemiah and that was with a couple of short delays. There were two boats, four of us, all pretty organised though. Mind you it then took us 3.5 hours to do the Rochdale 9. There was a fair bit of water coming down from the Pennines., most of which had fallen on us a few days earlier. The mooring at the Rose of Lancaster was collapsed when we were there on Saturday 5th September.

We've been through Blackburn I think at least once a year since we got our own boat in 2003 and have never had any problems. I think all of those occasions have been at weekends as well. Take the usual sensible precautions you would anywhere else and you'll be fine.

Tony, Given you have to be at Harecastle Tunnel by 3.00 to guarantee passage and last passage in any case is 4.15 I doubt you will make it from Middlewich in one day. If you get to Kidsgrove the best place to moor overnight is in the pound below the top lock - just before the tunnel is not recommended. There is a Tesco close to the top lock and a very fine pub, the Blue Bell on the offside across from the top lock. If you want a more rural mooring the run between lock 47 and bridge 135 is decent.

Tony, It was Southport Air Show this weekend, hence your plane spotting. We had a Red Arrows fly past whilst at the pub in Preston for lunch. There's a fine deli in Ellesmere, before you give all your money to the Tesco behemoth.

From the Rufford branch of the L&L to London two years ago took us probably about 3 weeks of steady cruising, although we didn't do it like that. We weekended a number of times, had a 2.5 week holiday to get from Tamworth to Little Venice and had some help from our sons borrowing it form short trips. We're comfortable leaving the boat on the towpath for up to 2 weeks at a time (in the right place). One big advantage of going down from the north west to London is that you are not very far from the West Coast mainline most of the way so weekending by train is very easy.

All 5 main marinas to the west of Wigan on the L&L aren't on either, although one I've never heard of in Maghull is.

Tony, Very well - she finished in 49 minutes 47 seconds for the mile - 3,613th out of 6,000, which was pretty good considering most were younger and she was doing breaststroke all the way. She was 30th in her age and gender group. As you may remember Sunday was a beautiful day and Windermere a great place to be in the sun for the swim, even as a spectator. If anyone feels like posthumously sponsoring her you can at www.everyclick.com/anneallister. (In case of confusion Allister is her maiden name which she uses professionally).