‘The canal has dried up – my narrowboat dream has been beached’

[Alan de Enfield]

 

from the Telegraph

 

I am on the Grand Union canal in Buckinghamshire, unable to move north due to around 20 lock closures blocking the route. So, instead, I have been moving south.

Over the weekend, water levels in the Stoke Hammond area had fallen by about 12 inches, leaving dozens of narrowboats beached at acute angles.

Perched at 20 degree angles, half on the mud and half in the water, they are impossible to move, and almost as difficult to live on. One boater I passed said his boat had become beached overnight, and he only realised when he and his cat fell out of bed in the morning.

 

Another .....

 

 

 

‘I have never seen the canals as low as this’

Bliss Gibbons, 31, lives on her 60ft narrowboat, which is currently on the south Oxford canal. The stretch of water has had lock closures in August, which threaten to carry on during September and possibly beyond.

“We are missing access to essential services,” she says. “This section of the canal is very rural, there are not a lot of services available, and if you get stuck on a stretch of a couple of miles, you can’t get water, you can’t empty your bins, you can’t empty your toilet, so it’s hard work.

“I’ve done a good job of avoiding it so far. In Oxfordshire, we have a lot of water meadows, which take the excess rainwater and become saturated. They are now all really dry, so we are likely to have some flash flooding when it does rain.

“On the plus side, it’s been really good painting weather, everyone has had a great time painting their boats this summer.”

And ........

 

Another boater, Daz Jones, who didn’t want to use his real name, is currently stuck on the Grand Union canal near Milton Keynes.

“I have never seen the canals as low as this. I need to get as far as Watford, but there are stoppages on the canals all the way down, which is bad news for me,” says Jones, 42.

 

“The plan was to sell my boat when I get to Watford, having already lost a sale from a previous stoppage. Now, I am likely to have to wait until next spring, because people don’t tend to buy boats in the winter.

“I have multiple sclerosis, and the prospect of trying to make the journey and then getting stuck far from access to healthcare is a real concern. I had a timeframe in mind for this journey, and now it’s really hard to make plans.”

For now, the easy freedom I imagined of life on the water feels more like a nervous limbo, with many boaters watching the waterline creep ever lower.

We find ourselves in the unusual position of praying for a long, wet winter, lest we enter the new year in an even worse position than we’re in now.

 

 

[Tonka]

6 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

from the Telegraph

 

I am on the Grand Union canal in Buckinghamshire, unable to move north due to around 20 lock closures blocking the route. So, instead, I have been moving south.

Over the weekend, water levels in the Stoke Hammond area had fallen by about 12 inches, leaving dozens of narrowboats beached at acute angles.

Perched at 20 degree angles, half on the mud and half in the water, they are impossible to move, and almost as difficult to live on. One boater I passed said his boat had become beached overnight, and he only realised when he and his cat fell out of bed in the morning.

 

Another .....

 

 

 

‘I have never seen the canals as low as this’

Bliss Gibbons, 31, lives on her 60ft narrowboat, which is currently on the south Oxford canal. The stretch of water has had lock closures in August, which threaten to carry on during September and possibly beyond.

“We are missing access to essential services,” she says. “This section of the canal is very rural, there are not a lot of services available, and if you get stuck on a stretch of a couple of miles, you can’t get water, you can’t empty your bins, you can’t empty your toilet, so it’s hard work.

“I’ve done a good job of avoiding it so far. In Oxfordshire, we have a lot of water meadows, which take the excess rainwater and become saturated. They are now all really dry, so we are likely to have some flash flooding when it does rain.

“On the plus side, it’s been really good painting weather, everyone has had a great time painting their boats this summer.”

 

And ........

 

Another boater, Daz Jones, who didn’t want to use his real name, is currently stuck on the Grand Union canal near Milton Keynes.

“I have never seen the canals as low as this. I need to get as far as Watford, but there are stoppages on the canals all the way down, which is bad news for me,” says Jones, 42.

 

“The plan was to sell my boat when I get to Watford, having already lost a sale from a previous stoppage. Now, I am likely to have to wait until next spring, because people don’t tend to buy boats in the winter.

“I have multiple sclerosis, and the prospect of trying to make the journey and then getting stuck far from access to healthcare is a real concern. I had a timeframe in mind for this journey, and now it’s really hard to make plans.”

For now, the easy freedom I imagined of life on the water feels more like a nervous limbo, with many boaters watching the waterline creep ever lower.

We find ourselves in the unusual position of praying for a long, wet winter, lest we enter the new year in an even worse position than we’re in now.

 

 

How is she stood in the weedhatch?

[magnetman]

A handy way to put people off ?

[NB Saturn]

3 minutes ago, Tonka said:

How is she stood in the weedhatch?

 

Maybe the water levels that low 😂

 

I was wondering why the shorepower connection is fittied so water will drain into it rather than out?

[magnetman]

One could ask where in the licence paperwork does it say there is a right to access 'essential services'. If this circumstance puts off people who are unsuitable for living off grid on towpaths it could be a positive outcome. Can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen.

 

 

 

[Tonka]

1 minute ago, NB Saturn said:

 

Maybe the water levels that low 😂

 

I was wondering why the shorepower connection is fittied so water will drain into it rather than out?

Because the fitter drilled the hole too low and couldn't plug it in so turned it over

[NB Saturn]

Just now, Tonka said:

Because the fitter drilled the hole too low and couldn't plug it in so turned it over

Ah, that would make some sense I suppose, although it’d be better to fix that error with a straight connector.

[magnetman]

When I had a residential mooring it had all the services but... It needed paying for...

 

 

 

 

 

[GUMPY]

7 minutes ago, NB Saturn said:

I was wondering why the shorepower connection is fittied so water will drain into it rather than out?

Fitting it the other way up is worse as the water collects in the female connector. At least that way up nothing collects in the connector apart from in the cable gland.

The correct way to fit those connectors is so the plug/socket is horizontal. Then no water can collect in the connectors or the cable glands.

Edited August 29 by GUMPY

[David Mack]

18 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Another boater, Daz Jones, who didn’t want to use his real name, is currently stuck on the Grand Union canal near Milton Keynes.

“I have never seen the canals as low as this. I need to get as far as Watford, but there are stoppages on the canals all the way down, which is bad news for me,” says Jones, 42.

Are there any stoppages between MK and Watford?

[IanD]

2 minutes ago, GUMPY said:

Fitting it the other way up is worse as the water collects in the female connector. At least that way up nothing collects in the connector apart from in the cable gland.

The correct way to fit those connectors is so the plug/socket is horizontal. Then no water can collect in the connectors or the cable glands.

Or fit it inside a stern locker so it never gets rained on at all... 😉 

[Tonka]

8 minutes ago, IanD said:

Or fit it inside a stern locker so it never gets rained on at all... 😉 

Someone will tell you off for saying that.

Because the cable can chafe against the steel resulting in bare wires eventually. 

Edited August 29 by Tonka
Spelling

[Alan de Enfield]

46 minutes ago, Tonka said:

How is she stood in the weedhatch?

 

On my Trad-stern she'd be straddling the gearbox - the weedhatch was further back.

[IanD]

27 minutes ago, Tonka said:

Someone will tell you off for saying that.

Because the cable can chafe against the steel resulting in bare wires eventually. 

Not when it exits the locker through a gap under the lid with the gap edges covered in plastic... 🙂 

[Tonka]

18 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

On my Trad-stern she'd be straddling the gearbox - the weedhatch was further back.

But if you look at where the rudder is that has to be the weed hatch. Even on our previous Mike Heywood trad the weed hatch would be there

[Arthur Marshall]

44 minutes ago, Tonka said:

But if you look at where the rudder is that has to be the weed hatch. Even on our previous Mike Heywood trad the weed hatch would be there

It's probably the weed hatch access, rather than the weed hatch itself. Just makes for a more dramatic picture.

[Mike Todd]

4 hours ago, NB Saturn said:

 

Maybe the water levels that low 😂

 

I was wondering why the shorepower connection is fittied so water will drain into it rather than out?

BSS Fail?

[Kingdom Isambard Brunel]

4 hours ago, Arthur Marshall said:

It's probably the weed hatch access, rather than the weed hatch itself. Just makes for a more dramatic picture.

She is legless.

1 hour ago, Mike Todd said:

BSS Fail?

No. BSS is brainless on 240v .

[Ronaldo47]

5 hours ago, GUMPY said:

Fitting it the other way up is worse as the water collects in the female connector. At least that way up nothing collects in the connector apart from in the cable gland.

The correct way to fit those connectors is so the plug/socket is horizontal. Then no water can collect in the connectors or the cable glands.

Being horizontal doesn't guarantee watertightness.  At the heritage railway where I volunteer, intermittent tripping was eventually traced to a leaky connector in a  long-forgotten, allegedly waterproof,  16A  extension cable that was still plugged in. 

[NB Saturn]

46 minutes ago, Ronaldo47 said:

Being horizontal doesn't guarantee watertightness.  At the heritage railway where I volunteer, intermittent tripping was eventually traced to a leaky connector in a  long-forgotten, allegedly waterproof,  16A  extension cable that was still plugged in. 

 

But the ones i n that picture, and most of the ones you see on boats, are only IP44 rated, so not really waterproof at all (protected against splashing water in all directions). They do make an IP67 rated one (1m submersion for 30 minutes) , those screw together rather than just being held by the cover.  

 

However, I took an IP67 pair apart  after about 5 years use, where they certainly hadn’t been submerged at any point and there was signs of moisture having got into the plug at some time, although it hadn’t caused any problems in service. Those were genuine MK Commando as well, not one of the cheap Chinese knock-offs.

[GUMPY]

18 minutes ago, NB Saturn said:

However, I took an IP67 pair apart  after about 5 years use, where they certainly hadn’t been submerged at any point and there was signs of moisture having got into the plug at some time, although it hadn’t caused any problems in service.

Usual problem when used horizontally is the cable gland not being done properly, i.e. too many of the sealing rings being removed during assembly. We had loads of problems on one tour cos the idiots on the lighting crew insisted on hanging the joins vertically and the backs of the cable glands  filled with water which seeped through causing the connector to eventually fill with water.

 

Best ones to use if you can get them are either Mennekes or Cee-Norm.

I only use ip67 ones especially if it's a cable joint.

 

[Ronaldo47]

I hadn't noticed the IP rating. We don't leave extension leads lying around for ages especially when still connected to the mains. It seems that this one had been used by a group of volunteers who had been working on a restoration project, in a little-visited part of the old goods yard, that had been abandoned well before Covid, and had not bothered to put it away when they disbanded. It could have been left, plugged in and exposed to the elements, for the best part of a decade. 

Edited August 30 by Ronaldo47

[GUMPY]

The one I had on my moorings and now use at home was out in the elements for the best part of 15 years.

Took it apart the other day as I had broken the cap off it dragging it across the drive, no sign of water ingress at all.

[StevieN]

On 29/08/2025 at 13:55, David Mack said:

Are there any stoppages between MK and Watford?

Low levels, but no stoppages on that section of the GU