JohnEW2912

Now back from a very enjoyable weekend. The two trips down were pretty uneventful. we had an early trip down the weedhatch but this was a bit of thick rope, which can happen anywhere. On the way back yesterday we picked up a bit of plastic right at the end in Maghull. All in all, the run was no worse than any other urban canal. We did the run from Bridge 16 in about 4 hours each way for 13 miles. Eldonian Basin was an excellent location to see the Tall Ships, about 10 minutes walk from Wellington Dock. The BW guys were very helpful and very keen for us to come back, which we will be doing next year to try out the new link to the Albert Dock. The guys said they had been told that there may be up to 40 boats a day next year, which seems just a trifle optimistic though!

When I first booked 2 weeks ago they said it could either be 8 or 9. They called again on Wednesday and asked if it could be 8 as they will be short staffed, so 8 it is. On Monday they seem to be very relaxed about a time to come back - we haven't set a definite time yet.

We're leaving bridge 16 at 8.00 on Saturday. Yet to arrange a time back on Monday but should be around the same time. As of yesterday afternoon we were the only boat on both days. The BW guy I spoke to 2 weeks ago said that there was not too much weed then but he expected it to be worse by this weekend.

We are off into Liverpool this weekend. Assisted passage from Bridge 16 all arranged for Saturday, back Monday. We have an invite on to one of the tall ships on Sunday! Has anyone been down this way recently or knows the Liverpool section well? We're prepared for a fair bit of weed and other detritus but anything else we should know or watch out for? Thanks.

We came down this length yesterday moring, just before hearing of the incident. There seemed to be nothing wrong with either of the two swing bridges (don't know which one it was). Certainly the locking mechanisms did not seem to have been vandalised on either, so I would think the most likely outcome was that a boater left it not properly locked, which would allow the kids to play on it. Both bridges are hevily used as footpaths by the locals - I let people across on both yesterday before opening them, before 9.00 a.m.

There is (or was last year) a small hire company working from the old L&L cruisers site at Heath Charnock near Chorley, but I doubt they have a big enough boat. Can't remember their name. Claymoore Navigation is certainly within range of Liverpool for a week - only 8 locks to Liverpool and a few swing bridges. Black Prince at Acton Bridge and at a push Alvechurch at Anderton also within range.

This is BW's vision statement, taken from their website: - Our Vision Our ambition is that by 2012 we will have created an expanded, vibrant, largely self-sufficient waterway network used by twice as many people as in 2002. It will be regarded as one of the nation's most important and valued national assets. Visitors will be delighted with the quality of the experience and as a consequence many will become active participants. Clearly their remit is to encourage use of the waterways. The more people that use the canal network, the more will have their interest awakened to take a boat trip, hire a boat or even buy one. More people will encourage more businesses to invest in waterside operations from chandlers to pubs and ice cream vans. That will help generate more money for BW and therefore less from the taxpayer. Of course it's not in the interest of anyone who wants to keep a nice quiet waterway network for themselves to enjoy in peace.

The Blue Bell at Kidsgrove (just by Harding's Wood Junction) should not be missed, although like the Anchor, there's no food. The range of real beers and ciders is constantly changing but always good. Buy a ready meal from Tesco round the corner if you don't want to cook.

I've been with Newton Crum since getting our boat in May 2003. I had to make a claim a couple of months after first taking out the insurance and they could not have been more efficient. as a result I've stayed with them, although I haven't made a claim since.

We went with Newton Crum when we got our new boat in 2003. We had to make a claim for a vandalised cratch within a couple of months and they could not have been more efficient and helpful. As a result I have stayed with them and the renewals have remained reasonable.

We're off from our mooring in Rufford round to Blackburn and back so that I can go to the football by boat. That means up Wigan on Friday and back on Sunday. We could pick up the Wigan team on the way and they could give us a hand with the locks - would make a change from training for them! Should be a lovely weekend in gales and sleet.

Fairly straightforward. Castlefield is the obvious first stop, an easy few hours cruise from Lymm. Then you could moor again around Piccadilly after doing the Rochdale 9 but probably best to plan for a long day and get to Portland Basin. Then easy down the Peak Forest with just the question of whether to tangle with the Marple flight in a longer day or moor up below and save it for a second day. Rochdale 9 are big and heavy and will take longer than you think. Ashton and Marple locks easier. Try to avoid travelling up the Ashton when the schools are out as you may get some unwelcome attention.

Have just got the bill for the next 12 months at Fettlers Wharf, Rufford - £26 a foot + VAT + a £70 service charge. Total including VAT is just shy of £1,600 or £32 a foot for a 50' boat.

We have a cheap but perfectly adequate Phillips bike we bought from the local shop for about £170 4 years ago. We have tended to find that they pick up a lot of sand and grit from the towpath so you do need a fairly robust design. This month's Canal Boat magazine has a review of 6. On the windlass I tried hooking it to the pannier frame we have at the back but it wasn't successful and now just ride with it in my hand. Not perfectly safe but I have not had a problem with it.

To pinch the Nike adline - just do it! To give you some examples this, as I remember it, is where we have left the boat this year on a trip from Rufford to Limehouse and (almost) back: - Parbold for 48 hours Castlefield, Manchester for 10 days (with a side trip to the FA Cup semi-final at old Trafford by boat in the middle). Lymm for a week Wincham Wharf, Northwich - this was for the boat to be repainted By Rumps lock, Middlewich - 2 weeks, inadvertently as we had a breakdown (broken drive plate) Kidsgrove - 2 weeks Weston - 2 weeks Glascote locks Tamworth - 2 weeks Islington visitor moorings, London - 5 days Paddington basin 2 weeks (I know you're only allowed 7 days officially but the BW office at Paddington are very flexible if you have a genuine reason for not being able to stick to 7 days Berkhamstead - 2 weeks Fenny Stratford - 2 weeks Castlefield, Manchester - 1 week Parbold - since last Sunday - to be moved back to Rufford this weekend Most of the above were accessed by a combination of lifts and car shuffling from our home in Preston. We used trains at Kidsgrove, Tamworth, Berkhamstead, Fenny Stratford and London, helped by the fact that the west coast main line from Preston follows the route of the canal most of the way. Most of the northern locations we already knew. From Tamworth south we used Waterscape to find 14 day mooring sites and then matched them to train stations. Some of the visitor moorings have moorings wardens which we have found out about by default, which provide considerable peace of mind. I guess you could always track down the location of these via BW offices. You always have a slight nervousness when going back to your boat that it won't be there or will be as you say a smouldering wreck but nothing has happened to us in 5 seasons, other than some wags untying the ropes at the Navigation pub at Gathurst and the boat lying on the wrong side of the canal. We don't have an alarm.

We have had two instances of crime on our boat in the five seasons we have owned it (since May 2003). The first was a few weeks after we got the boat. My son (18 at the time) and a few of his friends borrowed the boat and were taking it through Pagefield lock outside the JJB Stadium in Wigan. They had left the mallet on the front of the boat a a lad picked it up and smashed the glass window and part of the frame of our cratch before legging it before he could be caught. Partly our fault for leaving the temptation and also I suspect something that happened to a group of young lads which would not have happened had we been on board. it certainly wasn't picking on small kids though as my son is 6' tall and his mate considerably bigger. The second instance was two years ago when we left the coat on the Whitchurch arm for a few days and someone stole a full gas canister. Again partly our fault for not locking the gas locker but still took us by surprise. Having said the above we are regular weekenders who are wont to leave our boat all over the place for up to 2 weeks at a time. This year we have been from our home mooring on the Rufford branch of the L&L down to Limehouse basin in London and back and have left it regularly for 2 week periods with absolutely no problems. By necessity we pass through Wigan regularly and frequently leave the boat in Castlefield in Manchester and have never had a problem (except above in Wigan). We have been through both Blackburn and Burnley often as well and have never had any problems. In conclusion I don't think it's that bad in general - the fear of crime is considerably worse than the actuality.

Just to prove that we're all different our experience has been the opposite of most above. We have been boating since the mid 1970s on occasional hire boats and in 2002 we finally had the money to buy our own boat. After looking at some second-hand boats and getting very depressed at the poor quality for the money we opted to buy a new boat at the bottom end of the market. We opted for Triton Boats in Eccles and took delivery in May 2003. I fully expected that we would be looking to trade our boat after 5 years or so because I assumed that we would want other features or a different layout with the benefit of a few years ownership and usage. Now coming to the end of our fifth season I can think of little I would want to change and have no real desire to change boats. Maybe we were lucky in that we had many years of hiring experience plus we did a lot of leg work in researching our ideal layout but our boat has and continues to work for us. Given the prices of most new boats I see it was also a bargain at about £40K all-in for a 50' boat (probably £50K now). The only real problem area was a fairly poor initial paint job but we have put that right this year. On toilets we chose a Thetford cassette and have never regretted our decision. We did think we might get fed up of emptying our own but we never really think about it now. It costs us nowt to empty and disposal points are much more convenient than pump-outs. But as said above, each to their own....

Not since the summer of 1975! They were fine then though, although whether it's the same business now I don't know.

We have moored in Castlefields many times in the last 4+ years and often left the boat for a few days and have never had any problems at all. There were a few issues with noise when the bars at the end of the arm were open but they have been shut for a while now. In comparison the one time we left the boat for a day or two on the Whitchurch Arm, which I imagine most people would regard as safe, we had a gas cylinder nicked!

This just goes to show how different we all are. A bit of rain hasn't stopped me cruising yet without one. I personally would never countenance a canopy. One of the things I enjoy about boating is being out in the weather, good or bad. A canopy insulates you from the outside in my opinion. After all, there is no such thing as bad weather, merely inappropriate clothing. Get a good coat. On the other hand we don't do a lot of winter cruising. Each to their own...

It's certainly not queues compared to what you might find in the Midlands but we certainly saw them heading west on a Monday at Greenberfield. Any other time and it's probably very quiet. My point is that there are not too many boats about but the hire boats all tend to move in one direction so keep bunching at the locks. Going the other way first will probably avoid this.

Interesting that you won't moor in the centre of town but are happy to moor in Victoria Park, which my son tells me is just by Hackney's "murder mile"! Having said that it looked OK to me when I went through. However, there is really no problem with mooring in either Little Venice, Paddington, Camden or Islington. Well it wasn't on either Friday 6th or Saturday 7th July when we moored there. We were back after midnight on the Saturday.

The south portal is fine for mooring, although you might also consider the lake a bit further south. However, the north portal is OK, particularly if you go down the first lock and you also get the chance to go to the second best pub on the 4 counties - The Blue Bell. No food but a wonderful and ever changing range of beers and ciders. (Best pub is of course the peerless Anchor at High Offley).

We just moved our boat north last weekend after three weeks in London at various sites. You can stay 7 days in Paddington, Camden and Islington and all are perfectly safe. Islington is very handy for Upper Street and the Angel tube station but you do get locked in at 9.00, which is not very conducive to a night out, although that perhaps isn't an issue if you have kids. Contrary to the comment above you don't get locked in at Camden, or at least we didn't on a Saturday night recently. Camden or Islington won't be easy to find space in though. It's well worth taking the trip down to Limehouse basin even if you're not planning a trip down the Thames. You can only moor for 24 hours but the kids will probably love mooring up against the swanky yachts for a night. Also the DLR is handy for a trip to Canary Wharf or Greenwich - again great fun for kids. As we had to leave our boat during the week a couple of times, we found the floating BW offfice on the end of the Paddington Arm very helpful. They were quite happy to allow an extension to the 7 day rule if we could not moor at little Venice, which we could not, as long as we asked and explained the circumstances (weekending the boat and living 200 miles away). Get ready for plenty of locks to get down there - paddles are generally fine but the gates can be pretty heavy though. I guess you are used to that if you're based in Braunston.

You've not mentioned the Caldon canal on your proposed itinerary. This may be because you will be quite close to it at Great Haywood but it is not to be missed, probably my favourite of all. The River Churnet section can be a bit racy after rain but we are well past that now so should be fine (unless the rains come again).