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Preference for being single handed?


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Ive never forgotten that feeling, I felt for the very first time that I was truly the master of my life and driving my own kingdom. I shouted and sang for at least ten minutes. It never gets old. That same feeling happens each time I take off. 

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1 hour ago, Winn said:

Ive never forgotten that feeling, I felt for the very first time that I was truly the master of my life and driving my own kingdom. I shouted and sang for at least ten minutes. It never gets old. That same feeling happens each time I take off. 

I know that feeling too.

 

I find myself singing Gilbert & Sullivan without realising it.

?

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10 hours ago, Winn said:

Ive never forgotten that feeling, I felt for the very first time that I was truly the master of my life and driving my own kingdom. I shouted and sang for at least ten minutes. It never gets old. That same feeling happens each time I take off. 

Ah, but should you choose to marry, you could turn it into a "Winn-Winn" situation! ;)

 

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11 hours ago, Arthur Marshall said:

Single handing is pure joy.  Part of the fun is doing locks and lift bridges on your own, working out how to do it and then doing it.  All very satisfying, and it stays that way for years...

 

Exactly this.  In fact so much so that if anyone tries to help, I get confused and things start to go wrong.  But with advancing years, I'm grateful for help with the heavy stuff now.

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On 22/12/2019 at 22:03, Winn said:

Ive never forgotten that feeling, I felt for the very first time that I was truly the master of my life and driving my own kingdom. I shouted and sang for at least ten minutes. It never gets old. That same feeling happens each time I take off. 

 

Really? It just feels like steering a boat to me.

On 22/12/2019 at 22:29, stablemabel said:

I remember the first time i went under a motorway bridge at night.all the cars with their lights flashing by almost as if they were at super-speed and there was i on my little secret kingdom tootling along..sneaking past

 the guardhouse while the guards were sleeping

 

I've obviously been missing something! ?

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On 23/12/2019 at 00:10, Arthur Marshall said:

Single handing is pure joy.  Part of the fun is doing locks and lift bridges on your own, working out how to do it and then doing it.  All very satisfying, and it stays that way for years...

 

Until you done many hundreds of locks and bridges on your own and then after a while you're grateful for any help you can get! My ideal scenario is just staying in the boat and controlling the boat with the engine while someone else works the lock and I don't even need to use a rope.

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1 hour ago, blackrose said:

 

Until you done many hundreds of locks and bridges on your own and then after a while you're grateful for any help you can get! 

Really, the more help I get the more I'm happy to do it myself. Everyone seems in such a hurry nowadays! Being sat on a boat in a lock after putting a stranger in total control must invalidate any insurance should the boat be lost!

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3 hours ago, blackrose said:

 

Until you done many hundreds of locks and bridges on your own and then after a while you're grateful for any help you can get! My ideal scenario is just staying in the boat and controlling the boat with the engine while someone else works the lock and I don't even need to use a rope.

 

Could be time to find a partner. Mr Smelly will advise on the requirements for a low maintenance type. ?

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22 hours ago, Yellowback said:

Really, the more help I get the more I'm happy to do it myself. Everyone seems in such a hurry nowadays! Being sat on a boat in a lock after putting a stranger in total control must invalidate any insurance should the boat be lost!

 

I seldom find that people are in a hurry, or if they are I've never really noticed. It's not a problem for me but if you prefer to do it yourself you always have that option, so we're both happy doing what we want. But you must have an odd insurance policy. There's no exclusion in my policy regarding someone I don't know operating a lock for me. Does your policy also preclude all the people you don't know who happen to be lock keepers on rivers like the Thames, or volunteer lockies in countless other places? 

 

Anyway, without wishing to be rude, if someone's in "total control" of your boat while you're onboard the boat in a lock then you're not doing it properly. You should be communicating with whoever is operating the lock. I always am and in 18 years single handing I've never had a problem.

 

Merry Christmas!

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On 24/12/2019 at 05:25, blackrose said:

 

Really? It just feels like steering a boat to me.

 

I've obviously been missing something! ?

You very obviously have ...no romance in your soul! 

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  • 1 month later...
On ‎22‎/‎12‎/‎2019 at 22:03, Winn said:

Ive never forgotten that feeling, I felt for the very first time that I was truly the master of my life and driving my own kingdom. I shouted and sang for at least ten minutes. It never gets old. That same feeling happens each time I take off. 

Whilst i rarely boat alone, i still get joyful everytime i step aboard and when have the tiller in hand and the gentle rumble of the engine, I hum or sing the odd tune.     The dog just sighes at me.  

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  • 2 weeks later...

I used to love being single handed on my boat.

 

After a winter moored outside the Globe Inn just north of Leighton Buzzard 14 day notices were slapped on all the boats after the end of stoppages and it was time to move.

 

Mrs Thinkingallowed was out at work and as I had to fly off to work after the weekend I thought I'd move the boat to Marsworth where we could enjoy the weekend together.

 

Our stupid boat looked like a narrow boat but was about 9'6" wide which means using both gates in the locks but I had a system and all day to do this and the weather was a crisp sunny early spring day. There was patches of ice here and there on the canal so I definitely didn't want to end up in it.

 

Slowly but surely I made my way and by the time I'd done ten locks I had a super rhythm going and only one more to go.

 

Into the lock and as I jump from the top of the boat onto the lock side it all goes terribly wrong. I slip, end up hanging on the side of the lock as the boat drifts away from me. I can't get any purchase on the lock side to scramble out and the centre rope had fallen in during my slip.

 

No need to panic. Maybe the boat will drift back or if I shout someone will come out of the lock keepers cottage or a passing walker will rescue me. Maybe even another boat, though I hadn't seen one moving all day. None of these things happened. 

 

Now remembering the ice on the water earlier I don't want to go for a swim but I know that I can't hang on to the side of the lock forever as I'll need some strength to get to the boat and climb on to it. So I throw myself in. Golly it is cold but I'm soon at the boat and scramble aboard. 

 

As there's noone around and I'm down in the lock I decide to strip off naked on the back deck. Just as I'm taking my jeans off a courting couple peer over the lock side and I give them a wave and wish them a good morning, while muttering under my breath where we you five minutes ago.
 

So into the shower to get warm and clean before choosing some fresh clothes to put on. We'd just been to Mexico for Christmas and a lovely white t-shirt with a sunny Sol lager logo on seemed just the thing.

 

A couple of minutes later I'm looking for somewhere to moor when I pass by some ex neighbours of ours from the Globe. I don't notice them but as they are huddled round a stove one of them asks isn't it cold outside. His wife replies yes, why and he says I've just seen Andy go past in a t-shirt.


 

 

 

 

Edited by Thinkingallowed
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5 hours ago, Thinkingallowed said:

 

Now remembering the ice on the water earlier I don't want to go for a swim but I know that I can't hang on to the side of the lock forever as I'll need some strength to get to the boat and climb on to it. So I throw myself in. Golly it is cold but I'm soon at the boat and scramble aboard. 

You found it easy to climb on the boat? I would have headed to the nearest lock ladder.

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56 minutes ago, David Mack said:

You found it easy to climb on the boat? I would have headed to the nearest lock ladder.

I was young and fit so getting back on board was easy. If I use the lock ladder I still need to get back on a boat which is happily sat in the middle of the lock. So cold, wet and a little bit slimy I have then to jump from the lock side onto the boat.

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1 hour ago, Thinkingallowed said:

So cold, wet and a little bit slimy I have then to jump from the lock side onto the boat.

 

As you have discovered, jumping from boat to bank or vice versa, is best avoided when single-handing. Manoeuvre the boat to the side so you can step off or on, don't jump across gaps. 

 

One of those sensible suggestions that is obvious to do, but only obvious once someone has actually said it... 

 

 

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17 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

As you have discovered, jumping from boat to bank or vice versa, is best avoided when single-handing. Manoeuvre the boat to the side so you can step off or on, don't jump across gaps. 

 

One of those sensible suggestions that is obvious to do, but only obvious once someone has actually said it... 

 

 

Or only obvious once you have fallen into ice cold water.

 

Wasn't really a jump I was doing and there was no gap between the boat and the lock side until I sort of push it away as I'm trying to get onto the lock side.

 

Anyway I'm well aware that it wasn't the safest thing to do and it is supposed to be a light hearted story not instructions on how to do locks on your own.

 

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1 hour ago, Thinkingallowed said:

Or only obvious once you have fallen into ice cold water.

 

Wasn't really a jump I was doing and there was no gap between the boat and the lock side until I sort of push it away as I'm trying to get onto the lock side.

 

Anyway I'm well aware that it wasn't the safest thing to do and it is supposed to be a light hearted story not instructions on how to do locks on your own.

 

 

I know... 

 

It was worth spelling out though as quite often we get newbies writing about 'leaping ashore' and all that. Leaping or jumping whilst holding a line is never a Good Idea, especially single handed. 

 

Oh look, I dunnit again!

 

 

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One of the reasons why I leave the stern line coiled nicely on the slide ready for tying up, but leave a short line handily and loosely looped around one of the stern dollies. If I were to take a look it is easily reachable to enable exit from the water by using a quick loop in the line as a foot hold.

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