We've decided to head north...

[Alan de Enfield]

4 minutes ago, mikedel said:

If you are really keen to get there then the Trent Falls route allows you to cover a lot of ground - fast. You have to time it right with the tide and the weather and a VHF is required but you could get from Cromwell to Selby in one day. We left Torksey in our 46 foot narrowboat and caught the ebb tide to Trent Falls and the flood to Naburn without stopping - a distance of 84 miles (about the same as Cromwell to Selby) in exactly 12 hours.

7mph is a heck of an average speed.

Just goes to show how important it is to go 'with the tide' - trying to go against a 4 or 5 mph current in a NB and you are going nowhere.

[Alway Swilby]

As said above, I reckon Newark would be your best bet especially in if there's room on the pontoon. You might even get hooked up to electricity if you're lucky. Good train service from there to Leeds, less than an hour I would think.

[john6767]

So it sounds like Trent Falls is the only way, wouldn’t it just be simpler therefore to put the boat on a truck and be in Leeds in a day.

[mikedel]

39 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

7mph is a heck of an average speed.

Just goes to show how important it is to go 'with the tide' - trying to go against a 4 or 5 mph current in a NB and you are going nowhere.

Yes at times we were doing 10knts over the ground. Approaching Trent Falls the flood was just starting to push up the Trent but when we rounded the hairpin bend between the two rivers the ebb was still running quite fast out of the Ouse and it was a slow push against it for about half an hour until slack water. From then on it was a rapidly accelerating ride up on the flood all the way to Naburn.

53 minutes ago, magictime said:

Yeah not sure it's for me! We've done Keadby to Cromwell over two days, and have the charts, but the northern bits sound a bit intimidating.

Fair enough  - on a good day it is an enjoyable experience -  but I wouldn't want to be there with a strong wind against the tide.

[peterboat]

1 hour ago, magictime said:

Yeah not sure it's for me! We've done Keadby to Cromwell over two days, and have the charts, but the northern bits sound a bit intimidating.

Not really it's all about timing and arriving at Ocean lock at the right time 

[magictime]

1 hour ago, Alway Swilby said:

As said above, I reckon Newark would be your best bet especially in if there's room on the pontoon. You might even get hooked up to electricity if you're lucky. Good train service from there to Leeds, less than an hour I would think.

Hmm... The thing is, would my consultant (or me!) actually be happy with me being discharged after surgery on the basis that I was then catching a train back to Newark, and having to get back from there if I had any complications. I suspect not. 

 

I'm just going to have to play it by ear. The canals may re-open before surgery is scheduled, or I might have to put it off for a while, we'll see.

[Movin' on]

On 26/04/2020 at 18:11, Alan de Enfield said:

 

I have had an MRI scan delayed / cancelled, but I'm not going to sit outside the hospital in case the road is closed and I cannot get there when they eventually say "this is your new appointment"

 

I've had an urgent (to me - due to pain levels) Hip replacement cancelled and will certainly make sure I'm able to respond as quickly as possible when its available again if the OP isn't able to get to his pre-op he will be stuffed - go for it.

[Lady M]

Transport after the operation seems to be the main concern.  I suggest that the OP investigate hospital provided transport for this journey.  It's also possible that the consultant operates at more than one hospital and might be able to offer the operation somewhere more accessible.

[Mad Harold]

Could you check again the stoppage on the Stainforth and Keadby. I have tried CRT's website and the only one I could find was a bridge inspection with the navigation still open.

Perhaps your computor is better than mine as mine flicks all over the place especially on CRT's website.

[nicknorman]

7 minutes ago, Mad Harold said:

Could you check again the stoppage on the Stainforth and Keadby. I have tried CRT's website and the only one I could find was a bridge inspection with the navigation still open.

Perhaps your computor is better than mine as mine flicks all over the place especially on CRT's website.

The sliding railway bridge is inoperable due to network rail staff shortages due to Coronavirus. Bearing in mind no-one is travelling by train, sounds a bit of an excuse to me!

[David Mack]

11 hours ago, magictime said:

Effectively yes, because if you could get the other side of the Rochdale or Huddersfield, the Calder and Hebble is out. And I think there are stoppages on those two anyway.

The Rochdale is closed ufn due to a culvert collapse, but I think the Huddersfield may be still open (if you can get a tunnel passage). That would get you to Huddersfield which has fast trains to Leeds. 

[Tacet]

7 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

The sliding railway bridge is inoperable due to network rail staff shortages due to Coronavirus. Bearing in mind no-one is travelling by train, sounds a bit of an excuse to me!

The nice bridge operator ("best job in the world") told me that water traffic had priority over rail, subject to safety signalling.  He took some delight in opening the bridge to boats when his bosses would have preferred him to keep the train on time.

[Alway Swilby]

25 minutes ago, Tacet said:

The nice bridge operator ("best job in the world") told me that water traffic had priority over rail, subject to safety signalling.  He took some delight in opening the bridge to boats when his bosses would have preferred him to keep the train on time.

Must have been a different signaller when we were there, we had to wait 10 minutes for a suitable gap in the trains.

[Mike Todd]

9 hours ago, magictime said:

Hmm... The thing is, would my consultant (or me!) actually be happy with me being discharged after surgery on the basis that I was then catching a train back to Newark, and having to get back from there if I had any complications. I suspect not. 

 

I'm just going to have to play it by ear. The canals may re-open before surgery is scheduled, or I might have to put it off for a while, we'll see.

Travel by canal is a bit unreliable at the best of times - the network often has stoppages when they are least expected! You would need to assess the risk of being stuck miles from anywhere just at a time when you needed a fast train (or even a taxi at NHS expense). Look back at Fi Slee's blogs back when she and John  were still cruising and she needed not infrequent access to key hospitals. (Her condition and treatment was similarly non-trivial) They managed but it did need a lot of preparation and research. Still, there's plenty of time right now . . . 

[ditchcrawler]

A few years ago a relative of mine got taken to hospital while staying with her son in Newark, she got hospital transport back to Gt yarmouth on discharge 

[magictime]

2 hours ago, Lady C said:

Transport after the operation seems to be the main concern.  I suggest that the OP investigate hospital provided transport for this journey.  It's also possible that the consultant operates at more than one hospital and might be able to offer the operation somewhere more accessible.

Thanks. It's not just getting back home though, it's knowing that if I had any post-op complications it would be the team that knows my case that would end up looking at me. (Minor-ish complications are quite common, e.g. cerebro-spinal fluid leaking, and major ones obviously potentially very serious. If I started having symptoms of a stroke or something I'd want to be bloody sure it was the LGI I ended up in.) I think both my consultant (the surgeon) and the radiologist who has jointly led my treatment are firmly based in Leeds, but I'll certainly be asking about all this if and when it comes to it.

1 hour ago, David Mack said:

The Rochdale is closed ufn due to a culvert collapse, but I think the Huddersfield may be still open (if you can get a tunnel passage). That would get you to Huddersfield which has fast trains to Leeds. 

I think there's a stoppage between Slaithwaite and Huddersfield actually, but yes we have considered going that far. Trouble is, with the C&H out, we'd then have a heck of a journey to do to get to Leeds when the L&L route is next available - which we'd probably still want to do before surgery actually happened, for the reasons mentioned above. 

 

I think it's just a case of "watch and wait" now. Obviously the sudden, indefinite L&L stoppage neatly illustrates why it was reasonable of us to consider it essential to make that journey sooner rather than later, but the situation's changed and I think it now makes sense to just not panic and see where we are when things start moving on either front (medical/stoppages).

[Grebe]

1 hour ago, Mike Todd said:

Travel by canal is a bit unreliable at the best of times - the network often has stoppages when they are least expected! You would need to assess the risk of being stuck miles from anywhere just at a time when you needed a fast train (or even a taxi at NHS expense). Look back at Fi Slee's blogs back when she and John  were still cruising and she needed not infrequent access to key hospitals. (Her condition and treatment was similarly non-trivial) They managed but it did need a lot of preparation and research. Still, there's plenty of time right now . . . 

Mike, Thanks for the reminder of a dear dear friend.  John always had a plan - postcode of nearest road - names of landmarks - grid reference etc.  For regular appointments Fi was collected/returned by medicar volunteers.  Towards the end I helped them get to Rufford so she could be near Preston for radiotherapy.  They also suppoeted SWMBO when I was 'on the brink'.

 

Magictime, good luck and best wishes.

[David Mack]

1 hour ago, magictime said:

think there's a stoppage between Slaithwaite and Huddersfield actually, but yes we have considered going that far. Trouble is, with the C&H out, we'd then have a heck of a journey to do to get to Leeds when the L&L route is next available - which we'd probably still want to do before surgery actually happened, for the reasons mentioned above. 

 

Manchester might be a safer bet. Direct train service to Leeds and better placed for all three transpennine routes.

[Machpoint005]

On 28/04/2020 at 09:44, Alway Swilby said:

we had to wait 10 minutes

 

A ten minute wait, in a boating context? I really do not see the problem. 

On 28/04/2020 at 10:53, magictime said:

I think it now makes sense to just not panic and see where we are when things start moving on either front (medical/stoppages).

 

I think it always made sense, but my remarks were not interpreted as such by some.

[StarUKKiwi]

On 26/04/2020 at 18:04, Alan de Enfield said:

 

 

To attend an URGENT hospital APPOINTMENT, not to attend an appointment you MAY be given some time in the future.

Brain surgery is generally at the higher level of elective surgery, being classed as semi urgent 

[Alan de Enfield]

16 minutes ago, StarUKKiwi said:

Brain surgery is generally at the higher level of elective surgery, being classed as semi urgent 

I am fully aware of the situation regarding brain surgery.

It's not something for any parent to be told - your Son has a brain tumour & we estimate less than 5 years to live !

Now 3 years later after surgery, Radio & Chemo therapy he is now on '3-monthly scans' (with the last one having been cancelled)