Boaters left 'petrified' to use Alwalton lock following anti-social behaviour spree

[Guest]

I found youths in locks were generally OK as long as you re filled the lock if you were going down. (Yes a waste of water I know).

 

I admit I did once plant a seed of doubt about the safety of canal swimming by warning them to seek medical attention if they developed flu like symptoms after a couple of days....

 

'Why Mister?"...

 

"Rats pee disease, look it up."

[magnetman]

I had quite a lot of teenagers on a bridge near Henley looking like they might want to jump on the boat. 

 

I was in the gloating electric beer drinking platform at the time which is only a two person boat. 

 

I hollered out 'if you want to jump on me make sure it is one of the ladies who does it" which diverted their attention somewhat. 

 

I suppose Henley teens are probably a little less scrotey than in other areas but I was still relatively petrified and afeared. 

 

 

[enigmatic]

Alwalton is... not quite as far from Peterborough housing estates as I thought but it's as pretty and rural as moorings get

 

 

I generally don't mind kids stupidly swimming in locks and even being idiots with the life rings, but being "happy slapped" tonight (not in Alwalton) wasn't particularly pleasant. The fact I was really close to my boat and had an expensive phone and drone with me meant not really fancying seeing what happened if I chucked one of the kids swinging for me in the river (The fact they were almost certainly videoing it and I'd have been the one who ended up in trouble occurred to me later)

 

Franky I'm more concerned I seem to have lost a set of keys (I have a spare... somewhere...) than petrified, but then I'm the sort of idiot that made a point of not giving them the satisfaction of seeing me run.

[Midnight]

Hundreds of teens swimming and jumping from bridges at Teddington last weekend. No grief but an unbelievable amount of bottles, rubbish and plastic either thrown in the river or left on the bank. And these cheeky twerps say my generation ruined the planet for their future. Plant ruiner me collected a bin bag full of rubbish from a few yards in front of the boat and dropped it in the bins near the lock.

[Laurie Booth]

22 hours ago, IanD said:

And some people just seem to like posting scary things on CWDF about all sorts of subjects -- anti-social behaviour, bacterial corrosion, boats over weirs... 😉

Springers falling apart

[mark99]

2 hours ago, Laurie Booth said:

Springers falling apart

 

Are there any left?   😆

 

 

[Pluto]

On 29/06/2023 at 21:08, M_JG said:

I found youths in locks were generally OK as long as you re filled the lock if you were going down. (Yes a waste of water I know).

 

I admit I did once plant a seed of doubt about the safety of canal swimming by warning them to seek medical attention if they developed flu like symptoms after a couple of days....

 

'Why Mister?"...

 

"Rats pee disease, look it up."

A previous lockkeeper at Barrowford would just hand out printed descriptions of Weil's Disease to any youths who were jumping into the canal. It seemed reasonably effective in reducing the number jumping in.

[StephenA]

Someone at the top of the three locks at Grindley Brook threatened to kill me by "Bashing your f*cking skull against the side of your boat" the other week.

 

Things can happen anywhere.

[MtB]

23 hours ago, Laurie Booth said:

Springers falling apart

 

Oh dear, is yours prompted this comment?

 

 

[blackrose]

11 minutes ago, StephenA said:

Someone at the top of the three locks at Grindley Brook threatened to kill me by "Bashing your f*cking skull against the side of your boat" the other week.

 

Things can happen anywhere.

 

Was that completely unprovoked or is there some context in terms of some previous interaction?

[StephenA]

27 minutes ago, blackrose said:

 

Was that completely unprovoked or is there some context in terms of some previous interaction?

 

 I apparently "disrespected" his son.  We were going up the locks and there were about 10 people hanging round the lock. We went in and the bottom gates were closed and immediately one of the top paddles was fully opened.  I called out to my crew member on the lockside to hold back on opening his paddle. I was concentrating on keeping the boat clear of the bottom gates and keeping an eye on what was going on and working out where we were going to go when we came out of the lock, when a child with a windless appeared and held out a phone charger cable at me. I told him it wasn't mine

 

Apparently he was autistic and I should have known that he was offering it to me as a gift.

 

His father went off on one. Said he'd kill me, that he'd track me down on my boat and kill me because I'd disrepected his son. He claimed that the CRT people knew about him helping out on the locks and were happy for him to work locks like that.  At no point had I raised my voice at him, or even at anyone else

Edited July 1, 2023 by StephenA

[Arthur Marshall]

31 minutes ago, StephenA said:

Someone at the top of the three locks at Grindley Brook threatened to kill me by "Bashing your f*cking skull against the side of your boat" the other week.

 

Things can happen anywhere.

There was apparently some serious bad temper at Grindley a couple of weeks ago with some boaters refusing to accept there was a 3x3 system operated by the lockies and refusing to see the need to queue.

When I got there Tuesday 6 came down, each one refusing to believe anyone had gone down in front of them, and a bloke, prior to the lockies ariving, insisting he was the third in line (actually the 7th). When the lockies arrived, they let the last three of the six down before we came up. Which didn't bother any of us waiting, luckily. Not the lockies fault in any way, but it does show why tempers can get frayed there when boaters, who know the system perfectly well (all were private boats) , deliberately bollox it up.

[haggis]

The last time we went through Grindley I met a young male (late teens ?) At the services and when I spoke I realised he was deaf and perhaps had learning difficulties but he was happy having a job cleaning the services. I wonder if it was the same guy who offered the phone cable.

[StephenA]

7 minutes ago, haggis said:

The last time we went through Grindley I met a young male (late teens ?) At the services and when I spoke I realised he was deaf and perhaps had learning difficulties but he was happy having a job cleaning the services. I wonder if it was the same guy who offered the phone cable.

 

The teen I'm talking about wasn't deaf and was there with his parents and siblings.

[rusty69]

Phew, we barely made it out alive today. I couldn't read all the cautions on the notice. If I could, I probably wouldn't have risked it.

 

 

Looks like the budding graffiti artist had trouble spelling his own tag.Just as well the beam had enough length for them to have another go eh!

 

 

I'm just glad we had some of this onboard:-

 

 

Edited July 4, 2023 by rusty69

[Scholar Gypsy]

On 30/06/2023 at 00:08, Midnight said:

Hundreds of teens swimming and jumping from bridges at Teddington last weekend. No grief but an unbelievable amount of bottles, rubbish and plastic either thrown in the river or left on the bank. And these cheeky twerps say my generation ruined the planet for their future. Plant ruiner me collected a bin bag full of rubbish from a few yards in front of the boat and dropped it in the bins near the lock.

 

And a bit later on Sunday I had some fun going through Kingston and Hampton. In places I reckoned I was keeping an eye on 50 plus people in the water, all having a lovely time.