john6767

Being a pedant, you go up from the Oxford onto Dukes Cut! When we came off the Thames at Dukes Cut about 2 1/2 weeks ago if was quite a large drop down onto the Oxford, at least 2ft, and you could not get near the lock landing below Dukes Lock without going aground. Once up Dukes Lock it was fine, and even the pounds below Banbury which were low on our way down at the beginning of August were fine. The only issue was through Cropredy and CRT were stopping every thing moving for a couple of hours in the morning while they ran water down.

I think all this was being said that the £6 per night charge for mooring in Llangollen would possibly attract this "tourist tax" and would therefore go up. The impact of that would really depend on how it is levied; if it is a percentage of the charge then its likely to be peanuts on a £6 charge, but is the levy is a fixed charge per person per night is could be significant and much more than the mooring charge.

Personally I would have thought that they have to be separate or else it would create an unfair advantage over other mooring operators. They should be two separate organisations.

As there was some discussion about the Thames locks restrictions on this thread, I thought I would update our observations as we are off the Thames and up the Oxford canal tomorrow. Basically the published restrictions have in my observation made no change at all to how things work on the Thames. There is no timed locking, you rock up and assuming there is a lock keeper on, he does what he has always done, turns the lock for you if it is against you. There is no attempt to group boats up in the locks any more than there always has been, our record being 13 boats in a lock, ok us and 12 canoes. I did observe two lock keepers telling canoes to carry them round the lock though, so I don’t think they will cycle the lock just for canoes. Over the bank holiday weekend around Henley it was very busy as you would expect, but a lots of the boats were all the day boats from Hobbs, but come Tuesday is has been very quiet again back up to Oxford. Of the locks downstream of Oxford about 60% have been manned, above Oxford more like 30%. Out of hours the locks are still usable on self serve as usual. All in all a great time to try the Thames if you have never done if before, few boats about, and virtually no flow on the river.

You might be lucky and find a spot there, but that area is rammed with CM’ers all the way down past the boat houses to where the pub is.

I have said it before, I find the canal in Oxford rather grim, and avoid it by using Dukes Cut. If you have not been down it from Dukes Cut junction to Isis lock then of course make your own mind up about it, there are a reasonable number of visitor moorings just before Isis lock opposite the hire base so that would be where to stop before you go on the Thames. On the Thames the East Street moorings above Onsey lock are OK and I rather like the pub on the corner there, but the food is vegetarian if that’s a problem, but it was nice last week. We are currently heading back up the Thames for the Oxford canal and back to Napton, possibly we will stop on East St moorings again, or Kings lock, or between Kings Lock and Eynsham lock, before going back via Dukes Cut. Port Meadow is a massive open view, but be very careful of the depth, it is even lower than normal, stay well over to the left when going upstream.

Lechlade is deserted at the moment, very few boats moving on the way up from Oxford. Will be below Oxford later next week, but if you want it quiet and don’t mind self serve locks, then get above Oxford.

From the additional note is seems they are going to do nothing about unmanned locks, except for asking you to follow the 15 min rule, so I think the power will stay on/no locks on the manual locks. Can’t see the restrictions making a big difference to water usage, but at lest in the upper Thames there isn’t really a shortage, particularly with the low numbers of boat movements.

Just discovered a nite at the bottom of the email, great so that’s going’s to work well then! Due to vacancies (which we are in the process of filling) and sickness (including due to COVID-19) amongst our lock and weir keeping staff, you may find that more locks are currently on ‘self service’ operation than usual. Other appropriately-trained members of our River Thames Waterways Team are helping out by carrying out lock-keeping duties instead of their normal roles where possible, but where locks are on self service operation (including outside of lock and weir keeper normal hours of duty) we ask for your co-operation in adhering to this approach, which we believe strikes a sensible balance between the need to conserve water by reducing lock use while minimising inconvenience to river users.

So how is this going to work when so few of the locks are actually maned. Presumably they are going to magic up staff to man all the locks, and not allow any user operation, but it is not clear on that. At least farther downstream where the locks are bigger I would have said that a lock takes 15 min to cycle anyway, and when you take into account for getting perhaps half a dozen boats in and out, I don’t so how you can possibly complete an up and a down within the allocated 15 min. Those in the know can you elaborate as to how this works and what the actual manned hours will be, as again it does not say that.

In Lechlade now. There were only 2 locks manned between Dukes Cut and Lechlade, but the good news is there are very few boats about. According to the lock keeper at St John’s lock (odd choice to man), people are being put off by the lack of water, but in reality I would say that everything is at normal summer levels.

I have seen quite a bit about this topic on Facebook, and I read it as people just making mischief. The reason for saying that leisure boaters can not use a hose to fill the tank, is based on the headline restriction of use for “domestic recreational” purposes. What is clear and without doubt though is that using a hose to wash a private boat in not permissible, and that would apply to all, liveaboards as well as leasure boaters, but not to hire boats or trip boats. That is my reading it it all, we shall see soon as we are in the Thames water area (actually on the Thames), so will the EA be posting notices on all the water points, to say cans only no hoses for none residential boats.

Greater concentration of boats in the time window, means more opportunity for one up, one down. Also closing in the afternoon and over night allows back pumping to recover water levels on the summit pound. The South Oxford is a good example.

It was a bit low through Kidlington, but it was nothing to cause a problem. The Thames looks to be free, no lock keepers on duty at the locks we have been through so far.

The opening times have changed, it is now in the morning. If you log onto the CRT licensing site and go the my bookings/make a booking, to book your passage which must be done the day before at least. It is well worth the trip, and you really want to have two nights if you can spare the time.

An update on our progress on the South Oxford, to the Thames. From Napton, across the summit and down Claydon, all fine and the water level on the summit was better than previous summers. The next pounds were all fine too, until you get to the Cropredy pound above the marina. That was basically empty with all the offside and towpath boats well aground. Apparently CRT come at 8am each day and run water down, we were there at 7am. Then all was good until Banbury lock. The pound from Banbury lock to Grants lock was very low, hit the bottom a few times on the way out of Banbury. Then from Grants lock to Kings Sutton lock, as you would expect it was low, but really no lower than it has been for the last few years and passable, I would not choose to moor there though. Once down Kings Sutton lock it is all good to Thrupp, where we are now. Most of the lock weirs have water going over them. Not expecting any issues from here to the Thames, and very few boats about.

I actually meant from an available time point of view, with a week if you go down the Montgomery you will probably use up the time west of Grindley Brook, you can in you want turn directly above the locks or a mile short at Whitchurch. To go down Grindley Brook and back up with not much in between could take the best part of a day.

Assuming you are starting on Fri or Sat, then starting at Trevor is a good move, go straight up to Llangollen, is is much quieter in the basin on a weekend. You can have 2 nights there if you want, you can’t book in advance, and you pay at the horse drawn trip boat office, all you need to know is the name of the boat. If you want to go on the Montgomery then you need to book that, not sure how hire boats book it, so speak to the hire company about that. If you do the Montgomery and have a week hire, will you actually need to go down Grindley Brook? Anytime is fine to cross the aqueducts, just take your turn.

We were held up by it. It was a body in the canal just to the north of Banbury, where the long term moorings start. A boater we spoke to at the lock below Cropredy saw the body floating in the canal an another boater called it in. There were some police still there when we came past and a short section of towpath is still taped off.

If you had a Gold licence you did not get a free month for COVID, so ours still renews in Jan.

It is a good question, I and I don’t know. We are currently above Claydon locks, destination upper Thames. I did see something about no self service, but I thought that was just what they would do if they introduced restrictions. I get the Harbour Master notices for the Thames and I don’t remember seeing anything about limited hours or anything, but if anyone knows it would be good to know the score. Just spoken to another boat here, on the way to the festival, they have come from Watford and they said the GU was not good for water. South Oxford good so far , no issue on the summit. The next couple of days will see if it gets bad below Banbury as reported.

Surely this is a scam, reported

It is restricted hours at Atherstone not closure, I pointed the error in the email out to CRT on Twitter. If you want to take your time and don't mind the additional lock count, when go through Birmingham, although the North Stratford lock 17 is currently closed it should be open by the time you get there, and there is still the option to go GU into Birmingham from Kingswood. Then join the Shroppie at Autherley Junction. Alternatively go North Oxford, Coventry and T&M to Gt. Heywood then S&W to Autherley Junction.

Not many trains to the Arena station, think it may be just one an hour from Coventry station, and it is not recommended by CWG that you use the train if going to/from Coventry station. The shuttle busses that the games provide from free are numerous and do the job much better.

Will be there tomorrow, not on boat, but just cheching that you are aware of the changes in mooring periods for the duration of the commonwealth games and of course in general Birmingham is heaving with people. There is a CRT notice for the mooring changes.