roggie

Why not go straight into the GU at Brentford? You will have to pay a licence if you go through Teddington, not sure what might stop you mooring on the tidal Thames guess you could find somewhere to tie up against. I'm not sure if the lockies at Limehouse tell their colleagues at Brentford or Teddington you are coming though.

I went down to the mouth of Deptford Creek to give you all a wave. I was not surprised that the Thames part was cancelled....lots of boats bobbing up and down, not narrowboat conditions.

How much clearance did you have at the low bridges? The one just outside Aldershot was as far as we got.

Warm up the engine so the oil flows easily, suck out the old oil and replace with new...check the dipstick for the right level. Screwing off the oil filter can be messy so have something to catch the oil. I've a brass pump on my bmc and place a old oil container with a action cut out for the old oil. Its fairly straight forward. Check out the TB-training website too.

There is always the pub just before the Sunbury lock. Last month I took the right hand route round the island just after Hampton Court, made a change. I didn't realise that you could until I saw one of the large trip boats going that way. Same approaching Mosley lock although that entails a near 90 degree turn.

It was great to hear how lovely the last 13 miles of the canal were especially as we couldn't get there. There is a handy Sainsbury's pretty close to Brookwood Country Park, one of the largest Sainsbury's I've ever been in and at 8.30 am one of the emptiest. 5 mins pedal away. My wife found the shop near New Haw lock, that area is a very handy place to moor too.

Best of luck going down, well worth having someone go ahead to open gates before you get there as hanging around in a v shallow pound not the best. Also come out of the locks one at a time due to gates not opening fully. You might hear the sound of music from the barracks, we did, I guess they practice in the morning.

24+ C at the weekend.

Bikes on a flight mean you can nip off to the next one and be back in time to open or close gates, whether somewhere like Hatton where they are close together or 'Heartbreak Hill" where they are further apart. As long as you make sure no one is coming the other way of course. Then again I'm not that good with walking.

We were told the levels when we were there were 10mm above normal, it chucked it down the day before. Guess it was not to be, would have been worse to get thru but not get back. I did think of offering a battalion of squaddies a few beers but no guarantee they would be available for the return trip. Guess we shouldn't think about the Droitwich till we have sorted the chimney. At the top of the Deepcut flight is a excellent farm that sells farm food https://heatherhurstgrange.comlovely sausages and well worth ordering, they might even deliver if you are mooring by the top lock overnight. Well done for getting through to the end, we did have nice comments that people didn't often see narrowboats, the local village Twitter account even tweeted a photo of our boat moored at Brookwood Country Park with the comment "Narrowboat on the Basingstoke Canal #Knaphill this morning #navigation #Woking" Fame at last.

Last lock in the Deepcut/Brookwood flight my morse cable broke.. I know we should all carry a spare but.... Towed to the next mooring, 3pm and lock only open on specific days at 9am. Highly unlikely RCR would come in time so quick phone call to Pyford Marina, out comes the Brompton and within 2 hours I was back with 2 new cables. Just under 20 miles round trip. Wouldn't have been cheap by cab and given they closed at 4.30 no time to use public transport. Good job it wasn't a Tuesday when they are closed. Bromptons may be state high end of the price scale but you often get what you pay for.

One photo at https://twitter.com/roggys/status/733318854848417793?s=09the first of the flowers didn't get under and the chimney was higher. The boat we went up with had to remove their cratch cover https://twitter.com/roggys/status/733975726102286336?s=09 It's a good trip though, we went from our mooring on the Slough Arm which meant 6 hours to Brentford next day onto the Thames to the start of the Basingstoke, another 6 hours ..check tides of course. Next 2 days are linked to lock flight opening times, time I'd yours till the return trip. Do if you like to take it easy perhaps it's not a trip for you especially if you normally moor up when it's raining.

Went through there last Thursday and the obstruction seems to have gone, could have been due to the CRT dredger that went past us at Brentford the night before or the huge amount of water overflowing the bottom gate. It was there 2 weeks before. It wouldn't suprise me that the silt comes back quickly when it rains heavily. We met 3 of the vol lock keeps at South Norwood top lock. It seems you have to ring for assistance if you want it. Btw it seems CRT have renamed the top lock as Hanwell Lock for that is what the sign says.

We went down there 2 weeks so, didn't manage the first low bridge which was around 5'10" tried to get the chimney off but failed...to been on for over 25 years I guess. I was told the 2 bridges in Fleet are lower. One boat said they had to remove their tiller pin....it's that low. Thames transit is £10 from Teddington and a weeks Wey transit £14 inc borrowing a windless. You have to book by 3 pm Basingstoke passage and will be met by lock keeper at the first lock (almost forget about getting onto lock landings) who will check your paperwork (you pay when you book), they want insurance docs and proof of BSS. There were 3 boats going up and locks have to be left empty. The lockie follows the last lock to caulk them up, soil and wood mix plus good prodding by a long pole. Only 2 places to moor overnight after the 2 flights, good option is Brookwood Country Park which is better than the one just after the last lock. You have to clear locks by 3pm. The same for Brookwood & Deepcut flight, wooden sunken boat still there. We started at 9.30 and finished at around 3. You are on your own from there. The same coming down, again 3 boats and the first 2 opened the top paddle so they were full for the last boat, we shared on day 1 and singled on day 2. Agree lots of leaves so a quick spurt of reverse helps. Everyone said how nice the upper section was which didn't help. The canal centre might of lent me a angle grinder which I seriously considered. So if you have a cratch cover it will almost certainly have to come down. I took some Photolapse videos and will try to post links when I can, I did post links and photos via Twitter so if you look for @roggys or @thebcateam you should find them. This was coming back in nice weather This was going up and not nice weather

A recommendation for Marcus from me too.

Thanks Tim, even a few of us....

Not forgetting the section of the Wey between Thames lock and Town lock. Today's conditions state:- "09.40hrs Dangerous conditions to navigation exist from Bowers Lock to Worsfold Gates, Papercourt Lock to Walsham Gates and Town Lock to Thames Lock and it is not safe to proceed along the waterway at this time in this area. You can also check the latest river conditions by calling Thames Lock 01932 843106 or the Navigations office 01483 561389 (recorded message not updated at weekends)" At least no rain forecast between now and next Monday.

I just noticed the Thames warnings on the EA site. Guess it would be Sod's law that all tides are for us but water situation (too much rather than too little on the Basingstoke). Hoping that entering the Thames at 9.45 would be enough time to get to the Wey. What will be will be.

We are off to the Basingstoke Canal next week for 7 days, anyone any thoughts/recommendations? Coming out at Brentford Monday morning and plan to moor near to the Wey/Basingstoke junction that evening, £10 EA transit and £15 Wey transit. We will phone the people on the Basingstoke on the Monday so they know to expect us. Tide times are favourable both in and out which is good, although coming back we will have to request someone at Brentford around 1930hrs. Hopefully we will have enough rain this week to get those water levels up.

My offer of offering CRT staff a trip on our boat to and from Cavalcade was taken up by various CRT persons, I met London regional manager, Jon Guest and a new volunteer coordinator lady at Slough Basin and took them all the way to Little Venice, 7 hours later. On the return journey I was accompanied by Richard Parry. I think they found it very useful and I did jest that as I had never seen the canal look so clean there must be a 'Parry squad' who clear up in advance of the CEO's travels. There was even graffiti and weed removal boats on the Slough Arm. West London doesn't have the same issues of moored boats as East London does and even where new rings have been installed there were few boats...might have something to do with a lack of facilities out west (a new Elsan has just been installed in Alperton). I would like to congratulate them for spending 6+ hours with me, something even my wife seldom does.

I go with TowerGate mainly for the RCR cover, the RCR coverage adds about £55 to the premium which was around the same as other quotes received. They also give me a £10 IWA credit which I use. Guess it depends on how many times you might need to call out RCR. Like many insurers the offer a amount of money for referrals, can't remember if this is for both parties or just the referrer.

That was Stella who was 'active' and elected. Some of you may have seen that 'Canal Boat' magazine recently published the 4 boater reps CRT email addresses and suggested people contact them about any issues they would like raised. The next council meeting is months away but I certainly will be coining this. One item is asking if any report on the very poor council elections, and subsequent desirsory participation, will be commissioned. 3.5 years until the next elections and the organisation should be looking at getting various constituencies involved in the charity. I will also be asking if the 4 reps will work together and how they each intend to 'represent' these they were elected to represent.

Matt Miller is a good guy, works around the Uxbridge area.

Tim sent me the link, I guess not a bad picture but not much of our boat decorations....took us all morning to put them on. Also took a while to put up the lights for the illminated parade, finished runner up in that competition. Not much time to sit back and relax. We took 2 CRT London people from Slough Basin to LV on Friday and Richad Parry came back with us on Tusday (as far as Langley). I hope he found it useful to see this section of the GU...took us 6 hours. Saw 4 nb's on the Arm today, were all going to the basin, 2 on the way back from Cavalcade I think, they seemed to enjoy it.

Thanks everyone, I brought 3 mats from Willo at £3 each http://www.wilko.com/doormats/wilko-outdoor-rubber-mat-scrape-clean-40x60/invt/0204651