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Continuous cruising along the river avon?


Tasemu

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Hello! We are currently cruising along the kennet and avon canal and we want to eventually head up towards keynsham for a bit and then back again. I hear the river avon has a current and can flood. Do you have any tips for us to navigate the river avon and back safely?

 

Thanks for any advice in advance.

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I believe mooring locations are few and hard to come by, so that might be one challenge.

Appropriately, here is an relevant current thread...

Having done Stourport -Severn - Avon to Stratford I ashamedly confess to foolishly having done too little research of river cruising and had too little knowledge or experience of potential emergencies we faced. However conditions were benign and the boat reliable so ignorance was bliss as they say. It's only since lurking here I've realised what I should have known and been prepared for.

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47 minutes ago, Tasemu said:

Hello! We are currently cruising along the kennet and avon canal and we want to eventually head up towards keynsham for a bit and then back again. I hear the river avon has a current and can flood. Do you have any tips for us to navigate the river avon and back safely?

 

Thanks for any advice in advance.

As said there are very limited moorings on the Bristol Avon. It is not a great place to be in the winter outside of the marinas due to flooding, it is not unknown for the River to be closed for weeks!

 

Some info:

 

https://www.waterways.org.uk/avonandwilts/a_picture_the_current_situation_on_bristol_avon

 

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57 minutes ago, Tasemu said:

Hello! We are currently cruising along the kennet and avon canal and we want to eventually head up towards keynsham for a bit and then back again. I hear the river avon has a current and can flood. Do you have any tips for us to navigate the river avon and back safely?

 

Thanks for any advice in advance.

Do you mean the Avon between Bath and Bristol or do you mean the river sections of the Kennet and Avon between Bath and Reading ? There is a big difference 

 

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Just now, ditchcrawler said:

Do you mean the Avon between Bath and Bristol or do you mean the river sections of the Kennet and Avon between Bath and Reading ? There is a big difference 

 

Between bath and bristol :)

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13 minutes ago, Tasemu said:

Between bath and bristol :)

Its a beautiful stretch of river. I was there last summer. It is benign most of the time but like any river when the rain keeps falling the level keeps rising and it will be no fun. There are very very few moorings. Many of the few boats moored are simply pegged to the bank and will be a nightmare in flood conditions. the very few pukka moorings were infested with continuous cruisers, er sorry I meant continuous moorers when we were there so its far from ideal unless just for transit.

Edited by mrsmelly
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6 minutes ago, Tasemu said:

Between bath and bristol :)

OK I wasnt sure, in that case Take care as others have said, next to nowhere to stop.  You can get information here https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/notices/results/page/1?waterways[]=81&noticetypes[]=1&noticetypes[]=2&region=-1&datefrom=&dateto=&itemcount=10&Search=Search

 

 

Capture.JPG

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Its a lovely river, on a good day the trip down to Bristol is superb boating, spoiled only by the sight of the sunken boats of failed continuous moorers. Its a river, there is no towpath and almost all of the banks are privately owned. It comes up very quickly after rain. Safe moorings are mostly floating pontoons and just one or two good bankside moorings, these will probably be occupied. Its just possible to do a bit of continuous cruising if you are very experienced and suitably equipped. Sadly one of the few good moorings spots is under threat due to abuse by continuous moorers.

 

.................Dave

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Thanks for all the feedback! I'll make sure to time it right with the weather, and mooring sounds difficult. Finding a 14 day mooring in saltford or keynsham sounds very unlikely from what you're saying. Bit of a shame.. ?

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16 minutes ago, Tasemu said:

Thanks for all the feedback! I'll make sure to time it right with the weather, and mooring sounds difficult. Finding a 14 day mooring in saltford or keynsham sounds very unlikely from what you're saying. Bit of a shame.. ?

I'm not sure I'd be wanting to moor for 14 days on a river, a lot can change in that time. When we cruised along the Avon a decent mooring we found was by the bridge where the Bristol and Bath Railway Path crosses, it is here on Google

 

image.png.81b580155345c2315dd736b9a54a2e69.png

 

I suspect however that is it the location others have said has been taken over by continuous moorers, which is a bit of a shame. The only downside we found was that coming from the Bath direction with the flow, you only see the mooring as you come around the bend and then have to try to stop, didn't go brilliantly I must admit:unsure:

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Bristol is good though you have to pay and its quite expensive. Choose a good day when there is not too much flow and go down to Bristol for a couple of nights, easily done in a day. That will give you chance to have a good look at the river and suss out where the mooorings are or might be. If you are lucky you might just find a spot to stop for a few days. There is one good spot for a few boats but there has been a lot of conflict between locals and boaters so best behavior is required. Don't ever go away and leave the boat on the river.

 

................Dave

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On 07/03/2019 at 11:49, Tasemu said:

Thanks for all the feedback! I'll make sure to time it right with the weather, and mooring sounds difficult. Finding a 14 day mooring in saltford or keynsham sounds very unlikely from what you're saying. Bit of a shame.. ?

not clear if you want to enjoy the river as part of a cruise, or if you want to 'continuously cruise' on the river.  The mention of 14 day moorings strongly suggests the second course of action.

 

no, it is utterly impractical to 'continuously cruise' leaving the boat on 14 day moorings on the Bristol Avon, unless you get marina moorings at Saltford or Bath marinas (which I am sure are chokka block) ......  period.  

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1 hour ago, Murflynn said:

not clear if you want to enjoy the river as part of a cruise, or if you want to 'continuously cruise' on the river.  The mention of 14 day moorings strongly suggests the second course of action.

 

no, it is utterly impractical to 'continuously cruise' leaving the boat on 14 day moorings on the Bristol Avon, unless you get marina moorings at Saltford or Bath marinas (which I am sure are chokka block) ......  period.  

Aye, seems that way.. Guess bath is as far as we can go then.

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59 minutes ago, Tasemu said:

Aye, seems that way.. Guess bath is as far as we can go then.

There is nothing to stop you cruising to Bristol and back if you want to go for a cruise.

Edit

I have just looked and the longest official mooring spot is 24 hours but you can stay in Bristol of course

Edited by ditchcrawler
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1 hour ago, ditchcrawler said:

There is nothing to stop you cruising to Bristol and back if you want to go for a cruise.

Edit

I have just looked and the longest official mooring spot is 24 hours but you can stay in Bristol of course

There are or were a length of 14 day moorings at Mead lane, about half way down the Avon. There was a lot of conflict between boaters and local residents and the council has been running some sort of trial/ probationary period. I think the moorings are now half 24 hour and half 14 day, or maybe they have gone altogether?

I think it was the usual same old story, some riverside residents don't like scruffy boats and some boaters assert their legal right to park vans and trailers right outside peoples houses etc etc

 

.............Dave

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There are a few 14 day moorings - Mead Lane* at Saltford for example, however they tend to be full. The river banks are private and so the situation regarding mooring isn't as clear as it might be, and "no mooring" signs are beginning to sprout up

 

*I'm not sure of the exact position now at Mead Lane, the bank "belongs" to the highway authority, who want to have a 14 day restriction so as to avoid confusion with CRT's regime on canals, however last time I checked they were unsure whether they had the powers to create such a restriction 

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  • 2 weeks later...

There is also a huge difference in terms of boat risk between

 

(a) "Continuously cruising" mooring your boat for 14 days, staying on it each night and spending the days working, sightseeing or relaxing.

 

(b) "Continuously cruising" mooring your boat for 14 days and going home/away/whatever and leaving the boat unattended.

 

And then there's the other meaning of "continuously cruising". So confusing!

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2 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Is that the one where you moor up and don't move at all ?

What, near your place of work or your children's school, with a sign in the window claiming "broken down awaiting parts"? Nah, there's yet another meaning! Sorry for the ambiguity.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I'm hoping to do the Avon between Bath and Hanham this week. No one has mentioned if there is the possibility to moor just west of lock 1 (according to the crt map there is the last little bit of crt water after this lock and google shows a couple of boats hanging on). It would be ideal to "complete" this stretch by doing lock 1, over nighting then heading back.

Also I would like to stop half way ish in each direction, Mead Lane looking favourite. Wanderer Vagabonds good mooring spot by the railway path (in the google image above) is down on crt map as no mooring? I find the lack of mooring quite worrying.

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there are plenty of places where you can 'moor' up to overhanging trees just west of the first lock, whether on CRT water or Bristol Harbour.  Nobody will bother you as long as you don't block the navigation or damage the trees.

 

getting on and off the boat is another matter.

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