Tim Lewis

For BWML marinas go to: http://www.bwml.co.uk/uploads/customerinfo...s_-_website.pdf Tim

Not as fast as the time we did Hatton in 80 minutes! Tim

Strewth - how slow do you go! I've done the 21 in 90 minutes before today but certainly wouldn't expect anyone to take more tha two and a half to three hours. Tim

Attended a number when I was a IWA Branch Chairman. Attendees are normally representatives of local organisations that have an interest in the canals in question (IWA, NABO, HNBOC, Anglers, Cyclists etc) BW got a lot of critisism at one time as using the meetings to tell us what they intended at length leaving little time for actual group discussions, don't know if this has changed. Details of meetings at http://www.britishwaterways.co.uk/listenin...tional-meetings Tim

It's hardly a couple of miles into Leek, it's about a 10/15 minute walk, albeit up a hill! Don't miss the Belgian Beer bar in Leek, Den Engel, or the Wilkes's Head (Assuming that you like decent beer) Tim I wasn't actually thinking of the C & R article, just checked and it's actually the August 2008 edition of Waterways World that contains the Caldon Canal guide - modesty prevents me from mentioning my article on the Caldon Canal in the October 2006 edition of Canal Boat magazine! Tim

If you want to paint the bottom check the depth of the dry dock, some dry docks are so shallow to make painting the bottom very difficult if not impossible. Tim

Whoever you spoke to was talking rubbish, its one of my favourite waterways and you will not be disappointed. There is a good guide to the Caldon in (i think) the latest edition of Waterways World Tim

For those of you that plan your boating around the IWA National Festival (Wherther to go to it or avoid the area) the IWA have issued the following press release: IWA Press Release Issue Date: 25 June 2009 The Inland Waterways Association (IWA) today announced that their 2010 National Festival would be held at Beale Park on the River Thames at Pangbourne, near Reading. The 2010 National Festival also coincides with the centenary of the birth of one of The Inland Waterways Association’s founders - Tom Rolt. L T C Rolt met with Robert Aickman and others at a historic meeting in August of 1945, at Tardebigge Lock, on the Worcester and Birmingham Canal. This meeting led to the formation of The Inland Waterways Association in the following year. To celebrate the centenary of Tom’s birth, The Inland Waterways Association will be holding their 2010 Festival in his honour. Speaking on behalf of IWA, the Festivals Chairman, Ian West, said: ‘We are delighted to be returning to Beale Park, which has proved to be such a successful venue in previous years, and we are pleased to be able to hold it in Tom’s honour in this, his centenary year. In making this return we hope that many members of the IWA will join us in re-enacting part of the famous “Cressy” cruise which Tom Rolt undertook and which he recounted in his book ‘Narrow Boat’, which did so much to capture post war interest in the plight of the waterways’. ‘IWA is equally delighted to announce that to support the festival the Environment Agency have kindly agreed to discount the two week or monthly Thames Licence by 33% for boaters making the journey to the festival’. Tim

We will be there on Fulbourne for some of the weekend, a few pictures of how we fitted our cloths at: http://www.pbase.com/timlewis/cloth_replacement Tim

They're still calling it Frogmore Lane :-)

My ex uses this map for most of her long trips, it is uncannily accurate. Tim

From another Forum: Here's the definitive - right from the horses mouth as it were - statement. Firstly, and vitally, although they resolve into other things, please always use the main domain addresses for CanalPlanAC. That's "canalplan.org.uk" and "canalplan.eu". You'll find that at the moment they both give you the same thing (more on that later). The first of those - canalplan.org.uk - will point to the best version available at the moment. This has been the version you all know (version 8). However that version is almost impossible to maintain. The second - canalplan.eu - will point you to a hopefully fairly stable but more experimental release of the new version (version 9). This is much better structured, uses a real database, and can do a lot of things that version 8 can't (including - hence the name - supporting waterways outside mainland England: there aren't any in yet, but work is going in that direction) but can't quite do everything that version 8 can, particularly as regards maps. It's a much more modern layout, much more configurable and interactive, and is designed so that it can fairly easily be translated into other languages and given a skin for mobile devices. That's being work on and when I think that this is the best version - which is not that far in the future - then version 8 will be retired. At that stage I'll make a decision as to whether to still have a "stable release" and "development" versions or whether to just have the one. Note that I'm talking about versions of the software here. There is the then the question of the machine that runs them. These are currently hosted on different machines. At the time of writing the machine that hosts version 8 (mihalis.net) is down, and so I've redirected both addresses to point at the machine running version 9 (tty.org.uk). That's a very good reason why you should use the "canalplan.org.uk" and "canalplan.eu" URLs to find them - not the URLs on the machines that are hosting them. That lets me move them around, cope with system downtime etc. Hope this helps - I'll keep looking here for comments. Feel free to copy and post any of this information anywhere you see people asking - I can't keep up with all the waterways information sources these days! Nick

They only get up to that speed well downstream of Tower Bridge, as Mike said, well worth the money especially if you go all the way to Woolwich. Tim

Another good guide: http://www.stpancrascc.co.uk/thames-cruising-guide.html Tim

Glad you enjoyed it, I have done the trip dozens of times and it still thrills especially the section between Tower Bridge and Lambeth Bridge which goes all to fast. Last trip was a couple of weeks ago, pictures here. Tim

The house is still there by Old Ford Locks on the River Lea (Not to be confused with the one on the Regents Canal) and would still appear to have some of the TV set stuff in its gardens. As it is the shadow of the 2012 Olympic stadium I expect that we may be seeing more of it in a couple of years time. Tim