john6767

Yep on the Main Line at the Old Turn End. I must admit I thought the simplification was mainly about the 14 day moorings there (both sides) and the 2 pontoons at Cambrian Wharf that were visitor mooring while the other are all long term moorings. What I don't understand is why all the 2 day moorings have now been made 4 day, the majority of the hire boats and others passing through only want 1 or 2 nights. We shall have to see how that goes I guess.

I thought that they treated the visitor licence number that you display as the boat name, but however it is technically done, as a boater you don’t need to concern yourself with this at all. You buy a visitor licence, display said licence and you are done!

Yes at the first manned lock you just say you need to buy a visitor licence, they take credit cards. Only complication can be the length, they are basically one day, one week, one month, some will sell you two weeks for example at 2x one week cost, others will not do that. You don’t need to produce any documents, you just fill in a form with your name/address/phone etc, the boat details, index number/name of manufacturer/year of manufacture/length/toilet type (as they don’t allow sea toilets)/home mooring location. I think that is about it. Enjoy the Thames.

I did not know that they had introduced some 5 day moorings, that is new, it was all max of 2 days previously. Do you have to stay/pay for the full 5 days, or can you stay/pay for say 3 days?

I would say you would be better arriving in the basin on a Sat if you can, but if you can’t then try and get there midday on arrival day and you will probably be fine. It’s just first come.

I doubt that, but with respect to the price, it is commercial premises so the price may well be in line with what you would expect, I genuinely don’t know.

It is indeed in private ownership, I will not say where it moors as that seems a bit unfair to the current owners.

If the OP is under a lot of time pressure to move the boat fair enough, but why not get a week licence for the Thames as it’s not that much more than a day and then you remove the time pressure. On the Reading to Oxford section the only place I can think you might want to pay is Beale Park, but if you object to a tenner there are other options that are free.

Hope everyone has made it back ok, and that the beer in going down nicely 😀

I don’t think GDPR would allow the licence holders name to be displayed on the licence, I would say that is an error.

As an observer this year, fingers crossed for next year; is anyone manning the @BCNChallenge Twitter account?

I don’t think you say if the phone is an iPhone, but I often have an issue on connecting my iPad to my iPhone, in that the iPad will not see the iPhone network. Some times it works as it should, as it meets the requirements as both iPhone and iPand have Bluetooth on, and they are both using the same Apple ID. I can always connect the blue tool which does creat an Ethernet connection, but for me that seems slower than using wifi. So I have to unlock the phone and have the personal hotspot page in setting displayed on screen, and then it connects fine. Usuall once by iPad is connected, other devices like my wife’s phone and the Firestick connect ok, but occasionally that needs the hot spot screen to be displayed as well. I wish I could figure out why this does not always work as it is a pain when the phone is in the cratch area to be a better signal!

We have done the Nene and the ML, but we ran out of time, and still need to do the GT Ouse. I thought with the new licensing you had to have a gold licence, as you can not buy a licence for the ML if you just have a CRT licence and an EA visitor licence? That said the EA visitor licence for Nene and Ouse are even more expensive than the Thames, so I think if you intend to spend more and a month on EA, then it will be cheaper and certainly more convenient to get a gold licence. the windlass you need is for the ML, and there is also a ML Yale key, principally for the service at March, at least I think that is all we used it for. You get them from Stanground lock. The way Stanground lock worked when we were there is that they give you a specific time to get to the lock. I joined Friends of the River Nene, there is a lack of mooring on the Nene so it was worth it, I suspect they have more mooring now. We went off piste on the ML and there was quite a lot of weed, and of course some very low bridges, but well worth it.

Good to see the new section open, I look forward to getting down there. I have seen some stuff on Facebook about the next section to be restored and that might be much simpler than this one as it has not been subject to subsidence, I don’t know if that will take it to the Welsh border. Has the work started on the Welsh section that was awarded funding from the government?

Yes they they would normally go the NORTH Stratford way. When we went Ashted last week it was quite busy both ways and I don’t think it was just because of the tree down on the North Stratford (which was the reason we were there), as we saw no one on Camp Hill so people were going Garrison/Ashted I think, personally I would go Aston every time!

Or busier if people are going Birmingham to GU! making Garrison two way for the Challenge would seen a good idea, but then Garrison isn’t part of the BCN either!

Or near Red Bill services

Farmers Bridge and Aston need a key, the GU sections of Garrison and Camp Hill not. There may be some locks on Camp Hill but I don’t think they work. Bottom line is you will need a key.

Same here, we only went the GU route last week because of the tree down on the N Stratford closing it. But if you do the Warwickshire ring then strictly that is the GU route, but with enough time I would always go into the centre of Birmingham. Garrison, Ashstead, Camp Hill are not my favourite lock flights.

Is the Anchor still open, it look rather closed when we passed a couple of weeks ago

Personally I would go from Curdworth, eg by the Cuttle Bridge Inn, to Catherine de Barnes in one day, it’s not a long day really and stopping at Star City whilst OK is not really a plus. We did Birmingham centre to CdeB via Ashstead and Camp Hill last week, Camp Hill grim but it all worked fine, and the GU summit was OK if not very interesting and a bit boring. Stopping at Camp Hill has been mentioned, I would say that is not possible anymore, at least there is nowhere secure to stop, much of the buildings there have been demolished and the services are not in use and the compound gates open and lots of fly tipping. Knowle locks are heavy work, but when we went through it was over run by volunteer lock keepers so was very easy and I could go straight across the pounds without having to wait. I don’t really see it is much different going down to going up, and other than hovering in the pounds can be hard, they are the same as the other widened GU locks, like Calcutt which you will be very familiar with.

Yes that one.

I suspect it is the same boat. We met them moving last year near to bridge 100 between Braunston and Napton, which always has a lot of moored boats and I had to pull in between a couple of boats and hold the boat on the towpath while he plowed on through. I said to him it must be a bit of a pain and his reply was, you get used to it, bet all the people having to get out of his way don't though, so no wonder they get some abuse. I notice there is another widebeam moored on the offside near to the Black Boy, something to do with the ghost marina there possibly? And I know the big monster moored on Leamington has already been discussed, that one certainly looks to be 14’ beam to me, comparing to the narrowboat moored in front of it, but it is shorter than the other one. I don’t remember the discussion about it this one exactly, but presumably in was put in at Delta Marine in Warwick, and then they discovered they are stuck.

Yep that basically, I use kitchen towel.

We will go through there on Sunday I think, perhaps I will try and measure it!