john6767

It is not good news From 29/07/2013 until further notice UPDATE (29 July 2013): We are having to de-water the pound and carry out a fish rescue in order to ascertain whether there is a leak from the canal bed. Once the source of the leak has been determined we will be able to advise regarding the repairs required and the length of time this will take. It is expected that a further update will be available Wednesday afternoon.

You can top the up with 1GB or 3GB etc when the initial allowance runs out, but of course you are not going to do that, you just throw that SIM away and put in a new one from Amazon/Ebay with the initial 1GB or 3GB as that is much cheaper than topping them up. You do not need to bother registering the SIM either as you don't need to top it up.

To be fair that is the general Twitter account from CRT, so expect general stuff. There are more specific ones such as "CRT Customer Service" and "CRT WEST MIDLANDS" who have tweeted this. The issue I have is really that none of this info got out until Monday morning.

Also looking closely at this. Due to go through this coming Saturday, and will be positioning the boat in preparation one evening in the week, so will need to make a decision in the next couple of days. What with this, and the rain causing potential river issues. our plans may change drastically. It is on the stoppage web site now, but it does not say any more than is already known.

Only done it once (North to South), but I really did not think it was a big deal at all. Now that the towpath has been removed the tunnel is very wide, and there is only a relatively short section that is low, and even that is not that low. The tunnel keeper will explain the process and give you a leaflet that explains for example what to do in the case of breakdown.

If I were designing a stoppage app the primary purpose would be to report on existing stoppages, and use a map as well as search by waterway name as the current one does. The technology is all there, and that to me would be very useful. Of course it would still be flawed if the stoppage database is not be up-to-date, as it seems with the Minworth stoppage this weekend just gone. Perhaps CRT also need and internal app to allow those on the ground to easily update the stoppage database outside office hours. It is a natural progression to allow the reporting of issues by registered users in a stoppage app, that is going to be particularly useful out of hours I would have thought. The current 0800 number to a call centre does not seem to always work well. Also I do find it annoying that they will not publish the regular number behind the 0800 one, forcing those reporting issues, who are inevitably on a mobile phone, to pay for the call.

Actually if you are looking at the thread on a phone as I was yesterday, then you only see about half of the title so you would not have the info on what the engine type was. Similarly you do not see the tags on a phone. So it is best to make certain the all the relevant info is in the OP, and not just in the title.

The real point here is not so much who's decision it is, or who physically closes the gate, but that the navigation has been closed and you would expect something on CRT's stoppages. The issue I think is more to do with this being a weekend and the stoppages don't seem to get updated at the weekend, which seems quite a poor process.

The must not be much news then, the app is hardly ground breaking stuff.

The coverage seems to be very concentrated in certain areas, perhaps reflecting the interests of the authors. The K&A seems to be particularly well represented, whilst Birmingham is not.

Whilst some of the info may not be in 100% the app is quite nice I think. I like the way it says "It looks like you are near: ......" and provides a link to the nearest location in the app. The list of locations and all the basic text for the locations is embedded in the app, try running it with your phone in airplane mode and you can see that. The main map (Google I guess) and the PDF files with the location maps (the same ones that are available on the web) are linked to the internet though. So updating the basic text requires an app update. They have already done one update to it since I downloaded it after CRT promoted it on Twitter. An app for reporting issues would be great.

I find that quite hard to see that under normal circumstances an overdue oil change would cause overheating. The obvious first questions seem to be; . What date was the oil last changed? . How many hours has the engine done since the last oil change? . What type of engine is this? . Has it overheated before, and if so what cured it?

I also don't think you will find non-time limited ones, certainly not from Three that I assume those are from. To me the 3GB for 3 months are a good deal for irregular light use, at £12 that is £48 per year, less than £1 per week, with luck you may get them at nearer £10.

Oh pants, our plan is/was to go through there next Saturday. Or, depending on where on the W&B, two down, three to go!

BBC report on this http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23447511

It was getting a bit late in the day, so we decided to turn and go back upstream and find somewhere to moor, here is always next time. We also did not go upstream as far a the flashes, so again it's left something for next time.

Timelapse going down the lift and on the Weaver

If you just walk down the New Main Line once you get past St. Vincent St bridge (the second bridge) the towpath is not paved, if you keep to the left towpath going out of the centre, that is the less used and hence rougher one. That is where I take our dog.

We turned up to go down and had to wait a couple of hours. When we booked in to do down we did pay (£5 I think) to book the return as wanted to come back up late in the day, so wanted to be certain we would get on. As well as the lift you also have to consider the Weaver lock opening hours. The Weaver was great though, so many contrasts.

If you are going to be booking it well in advance and are investing it air fare too, my suggestion would be that you book with a hire base on the canal part of the Avon Ring, then it the weather is poor and the river sections are out you can still have you holiday just sticking to canals. The Avon Ring in 2 weeks is a piece of cake, you will have a couple energetic days that is all.

On a tidal river you would hope that most do have an anchor. But having just been on the Severn and Avon, I can say that most of the narrowboats (which make up 95% of all moving boats) did not, at least visibly, have an anchor.

Usually if there is another boat to come in I use the centre line to pull the boat over to the side until the other boat comes in. Going down hill I slow to almost a stop and step off with the centre line and wrap it round the bollard and the boat pulls its self into the side. Going up hill I throw the rope up to the lock crew on the side, they pass round the bollard to drop the rope end back to me and I pull the boat over.

Yep Star City is fine to moor, but Star City its self it quite down market theses days. Star City would give an alternative to Cuckoo Wharf to break the journey, but with Start City you would go Garrison/Ashted/Farmer Bridge, rather than Aston/Farmers Bridge.

I would not stop anywhere there. We will be doing this is a couple of weeks in the other direction and will go from Old Turn to the Dog and Doublet in one hop. The locks are close together and you can work them efficiently. As has been said there is always Cuckoo Wharf at the bottom of Aston, so you could come in as far as there from the Curdworth area the day before.