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When is the last time you went for a cruise on the canal?


Rambling Boater

When is the last time you went for a cruise on the canal?  

73 members have voted

  1. 1. When is the last time you went for a cruise on the canal?

    • In the last week
      25
    • In the last month
      25
    • In the last 6 months
      6
    • In the last year
      10
    • More than a year
      7
    • Never
      0


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4 hours ago, Rambling Boater said:

The Suez counts as a canal apparently, so why not?

In which case your poll should include cruising The Broads, since they are human-made waterways with a sea inlet.

 

 

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5 hours ago, Rambling Boater said:

 

 

5 hours ago, Rambling Boater said:

I've never 'done' the Middle Level navigations. Are they worth doing? I always had the impression they might be a bit boring over a flat landscape.

 

The Suez counts as a canal apparently, so why not?

In which case I can answer the question.

 

Yes the ML is flat but there are some beautiful skys and some good places to visit especially if you like pumping engines 😎

Edited by Loddon
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1 hour ago, Puffling said:

In which case your poll should include cruising The Broads, since they are human-made waterways with a sea inlet.

 

 

 

And in particular Haddiscoe Cut,  which connects the Yare and the Waveney and is very much a 'proper' man made canal.

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14 hours ago, buccaneer66 said:

Unfortunately for me it's been 30 years or more since I last hired as circumstanstance meant I couldn't afford it, but when I'm retired I'll be back.

Problem is, when you're old enough to afford it, you may be too knackered to do it.

Guess how I know this!  😞

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12 hours ago, Rambling Boater said:

I've never 'done' the Middle Level navigations. Are they worth doing? I always had the impression they might be a bit boring over a flat landscape.

 

Is anything not worth doing, at least once?

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8 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

Is anything not worth doing, at least once?

I can think of a couple of trans pennine canals that I haven't done fully, they didn't exist when I was last there, nothing would persuade me to take my boat up there up and do them.  

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2 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

Is anything not worth doing, at least once?

 

Thomas Beacham expressed an opinion on this. One of the two things he suggested wasn't worth doing was Morris dancing. The other isn't appropriate to mention on a family friendly forum.

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1 hour ago, alias said:

 

Thomas Beacham expressed an opinion on this. One of the two things he suggested wasn't worth doing was Morris dancing. The other isn't appropriate to mention on a family friendly forum.

 

I tried Morris dancing once, but I kept falling off the bonnet. 

 

 

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I'm deliberately lingering and moving slowly in the Cheshire area for family reasons at the moment, so after 10 days static on one mooring I finally cruised about 4 hours to a new location yesterday.

 

 

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26 minutes ago, Tony1 said:

 

I'm deliberately lingering and moving slowly in the Cheshire area for family reasons at the moment, so after 10 days static on one mooring I finally cruised about 4 hours to a new location yesterday.

 

 

 

Four hours in 10 days?!!!! There's commitment to the lifestyle if ever I saw it.

 

You only need to cruise for 20 minutes every 14 days.....

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23 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

Four hours in 10 days?!!!! There's commitment to the lifestyle if ever I saw it.

 

 

At the moment I have the same approach to cruising as our dear Queen Elizabeth 1 was reputed to have towards bathing.

In order words, it happens about once a month, whether needed or not.

 

Unfortunately CRT have taken the rather extremist view that just because my boat has an engine, I should feel obliged to use it periodically. The effrontery of this organisation knows no limits. 

I know my engine will start if I turn the key, in very much the same way that if I drop an apple, I know it will fall to the ground.

CRTs petulant insistence that I should demonstrate my engine works every two weeks is frankly winning them no friends amongst my legal team. 

 

Of course the whole business is somewhat complicated by my VIB status. CRT don't want to be seen to offend an important boater, and of course I don't want to cause any embarrassing spats with the top brass. 

So for the time being I'm indulging their continued interest in the running of my engine.

But my patience has its limits. 

My legal chaps have been telling me that if I can prove I'm insane, I can stay on the same mooring for as long as 6 months. 

I was starting to think I had an excellent chance on this basis (I think the evidence is fairly obvious) - but then I spoke to a boater yesterday who assured me- barely 90 minutes into our conversation- that the royal family are actually alien lizards. 

With this sort of competition, I dont stand a chance of claiming insanity. 

 

 

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4 hours ago, alias said:

 

Thomas Beacham expressed an opinion on this. One of the two things he suggested wasn't worth doing was Morris dancing. The other isn't appropriate to mention on a family friendly forum.

Would that be renowned conductor Sir Thomas Beecham?

I believe he once chided an under-performing female cellist by telling her, “Madam, you have between your legs an instrument capable of giving pleasure to thousands – and all you can do is scratch it.”

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11 minutes ago, Tony1 said:

 

At the moment I have the same approach to cruising as our dear Queen Elizabeth 1 was reputed to have towards bathing.

In order words, it happens about once a month, whether needed or not.

 

Unfortunately CRT have taken the rather extremist view that just because my boat has an engine, I should feel obliged to use it periodically. The effrontery of this organisation knows no limits. 

I know my engine will start if I turn the key, in very much the same way that if I drop an apple, I know it will fall to the ground.

CRTs petulant insistence that I should demonstrate my engine works every two weeks is frankly winning them no friends amongst my legal team. 

 

Of course the whole business is somewhat complicated by my VIB status. CRT don't want to be seen to offend an important boater, and of course I don't want to cause any embarrassing spats with the top brass. 

So for the time being I'm indulging their continued interest in the running of my engine.

But my patience has its limits. 

My legal chaps have been telling me that if I can prove I'm insane, I can stay on the same mooring for as long as 6 months. 

I was starting to think I had an excellent chance on this basis (I think the evidence is fairly obvious) - but then I spoke to a boater yesterday who assured me- barely 90 minutes into our conversation- that the royal family are actually alien lizards. 

With this sort of competition, I dont stand a chance of claiming insanity. 

 

 

Why don't you just take a mooring and sit put for as long as you like

Edited by ditchcrawler
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9 minutes ago, Tony1 said:

I know my engine will start if I turn the key,

 

I've spotted in an instant where you are going wrong. The truly talented CCer has a list reasons why they cannot move as long as a K&A boater's gang plank. one of these reasons (newr the top) is "Broken down, awaiting parts". Near impossible for CRT to argue with as to disprove would involve sending a marine engineer to the boat to test it, and what self-respecting CMer would ever allow this? 

 

We had one on here a few years ago who took it the extremes. Three years I think he spun it out for, claiming he could not afford the parts necessary AND a license for his historic sinker. Which did CRT want him to get? Or something like that. 

 

Point being YOU know your engine will start if you turn the key, but CRT have no idea....

 

 

 

 

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Just now, ditchcrawler said:

Why don't you just take a mooring and sit pot for as long as you like

 

Well the short answer is because I'm mostly just joking.

I get bored after 2 weeks in one spot, and I'm itching to get going again.

 

But its family, innit?

As they used to say in Eastenders.

 

Also, there are very few moorings in this area that are fairly close to the places I want to get to.

Tattenhall is okay-ish and they probably have space at the moment, but there's only one handy shop (in the village itself), and a loaf of bread there is about the same price as a one-bedroom flat. 

 

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24 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

I've spotted in an instant where you are going wrong. The truly talented CCer has a list reasons why they cannot move as long as a K&A boater's gang plank. one of these reasons (newr the top) is "Broken down, awaiting parts". Near impossible for CRT to argue with as to disprove would involve sending a marine engineer to the boat to test it, and what self-respecting CMer would ever allow this? 

 

We had one on here a few years ago who took it the extremes. Three years I think he spun it out for, claiming he could not afford the parts necessary AND a license for his historic sinker. Which did CRT want him to get? Or something like that. 

 

Point being YOU know your engine will start if you turn the key, but CRT have no idea....

 

 

This sort of thing is all very well for the rank and file boater, of course. Make those lazy blighters run their engines every two weeks.

In fact, why not flog them if they dare to complain? In many ways CRT is far too lenient on these idlers.

 

But the key issue I think you're not picking up on is my VIB (Very Important Boater) status. 

Normally this status is conferred by ownership of a boat that appears to be over 100 years old (even if the rivets are not real and the boat was actually built 5 years ago). 

But in my case CRT clearly recognise they have a great asset on their hands. A chap who can act as a sort of roving waterways ambassador, enthusing the general public about the waterways (whilst harnessing their labour to get through lock flights). 

 

My hope is that CRT don't canvass the opinion of the young family who attempted to help me get down through Middlewich big lock last November, but then abandoned me with one gate stuck open. 

I fear that my distress may have caused me to use words that were not appropriate (I may have called them 'a family of damned commie traitors').

My customer service ratings certainly took a hammering that afternoon. 

 

Edited by Tony1
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13 hours ago, MtB said:

 

Four hours in 10 days?!!!! There's commitment to the lifestyle if ever I saw it.

 

You only need to cruise for 20 minutes every 14 days.....

Incorrect - there is no time (or distance) requirement. All you have to do is convince the Board that you are engaged in a bona fide navigation and that you move from one place to another at least every 14 days.

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12 hours ago, Tony1 said:

My legal chaps have been telling me that if I can prove I'm insane, I can stay on the same mooring for as long as 6 months. 

 

The chap that famously gives unsolicited legal advice that you can stay on the same mooring for months doesn't have his boat anymore ...

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11 minutes ago, Mike Todd said:

Incorrect - there is no time (or distance) requirement. All you have to do is convince the Board that you are engaged in a bona fide navigation and that you move from one place to another at least every 14 days.

 

 

Also wrong.

 

But it will be a strange set of circumstances that convinces the Board that the vessel is "being used bona fide for navigation" (surely?) if you cruise less than a mile less and/or frequently than once a fortnight.

 

3 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

The chap that famously gives unsolicited legal advice that you can stay on the same mooring for months doesn't have his boat anymore ...

 

 

Really? Fancy that happening...

 

However, what did actually happen? How on earth did he come to lose it when he is always right, all the time?

 

:giggles:

 

 

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4 minutes ago, MtB said:

However, what did actually happen? How on earth did he come to lose it when he is always right, all the time?

 

He didn't lose it.  It was stolen by criminal thugs while he was being held back by bent coppers, allegedly.

 

Other people think this may not be exactly what happened on the day ...

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4 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said:

He didn't lose it.  It was stolen by criminal thugs while he was being held back by bent coppers, allegedly.

 

 

 

Oh yeah, obvious now you explain. I should have worked that out for myself....

 

 

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