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Hello again freindly helpers and pointers in the right directioners ☺

 

Am looking at planning my maiden 'bring her home' voyage from Whilton to Cosgrove over about 2.5 days-ish, so, is it best to stop before Blisworth tunnel or after? (Would our time of arrival have any impact - i know widebeams can only go through at certain times but I'm on nb ☺)

 

Also, would we be better off doing a reccy to make sure there is room for us to moor up or would that not be a problem?

 

All input greatly and thankfully received ☺

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Or go through thr tunnel and moor up between the tunnel and the top lock at Stoke Bruerne. Reports on here say there is always space.

and if not you can always drop down two locks and moor there. Its about half a day to the tunnel so it will depend a bit on what time you set off. at the moment you could easily boat until 9pm if needed

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As you are a NB then anytime except when prevented from doing so by WB transits of Blisworth Tunnel which are generally around 08:00 and not usually at weekends. There's generally mooring available in Stoke Bruerne but if it is full then the long pound (two locks down) has about half a mile of mooring so you should find somewhere quite easily and it's only a 'five minute' walk back to the village with its two pubs, museum and Indian restaurant. Alternatively Whilton to Cosgrove in a day is quite possible at this time of year. If it is a first time you may find mooring in Blisworth a sensible idea so you can tackle the tunnel when you are not tired.

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Leo No2 is right, the whole trip could comfortably be done in a day; canalplan says it's just over 8 hours. But as it's your first trip, unless you have an experienced boater aboard it's better to take it easy. I think mistakes are more likely to happen when people get tired.

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The trouble with Blisworth is (1) it's long and (2) it can give you a shower of water from the roof in places, particularly towards the southern end I think. But it's a dead straight tunnel with no nasty low roof.

1,100 meters in from the northern portal (just into the new section) there's a very strong flow in the far corner of the airshaft - just keep to the right (going south) and it'll pass about 6" to the left of a standard narrowboat. There are other numerous places water comes in (if it didn't come in it would compromise the structure of the tunnel) as the repairs in the early 1980s dictated that there would be water ingress mainly through the side shafts or adits. If it is quiet and it's flowing well you can hear the one at 1,100 meters a good 100 meters before you get to it.

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Take it slow, make sure you have your camera at the ready and I hope you enjoy your maiden voyage as much as we did on ours, I remember every bit of it even now. What a great feeling :)

 

If your worried at all about the tunnels, just moor close to them and try to be there around 8:00, that way you can follow a WB through and know there will be nothing coming the other way, we had a couple do that with us for the first one and a single lady ask if she could follow us through on the Blisworth one.

 

Not everyone likes the tunnels, me being one of them. But in hindsight, it was no where near as bad as I thought it was going to be.

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For getting used to tunnels I recommend riding round and round on the Circle line of the London underground for a day or two. The coach interiors being sort of tubular are quite similar to narrowboats. You could wear headphones and play boat engine noises to yourself whilst doing so.

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For getting used to tunnels I recommend riding round and round on the Circle line of the London underground for a day or two. The coach interiors being sort of tubular are quite similar to narrowboats. You could wear headphones and play boat engine noises to yourself whilst doing so.

Say hello to my son (one of them). He drives a Circle Line underground train.

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For getting used to tunnels I recommend riding round and round on the Circle line of the London underground for a day or two. The coach interiors being sort of tubular are quite similar to narrowboats. You could wear headphones and play boat engine noises to yourself whilst doing so.

I would recommend the Northern Line at a very quiet time (try when it opens early on a Sunday morning) as a better simulator, because it's continuously underground for a long distance. The Circle Line is open to the sky at regular intervals because it was built for steam trains.

Tube trains are of course too fast, pass on the left with the driver at the front, and have brightly lit stations at regular intervals, but to overcome all that you'll need a proper expensive tunnel simulator. The people who do the aircraft ones could make you a good one for a price, but I'm sure Bizzard could come up with a cheaper version. Either way you need a shower head or similar to give you the Blisworth experience.

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Take it slow, make sure you have your camera at the ready and I hope you enjoy your maiden voyage as much as we did on ours, I remember every bit of it even now. What a great feeling smile.png

 

If your worried at all about the tunnels, just moor close to them and try to be there around 8:00, that way you can follow a WB through and know there will be nothing coming the other way, we had a couple do that with us for the first one and a single lady ask if she could follow us through on the Blisworth one.

 

Not everyone likes the tunnels, me being one of them. But in hindsight, it was no where near as bad as I thought it was going to be.

How often do wide beams transit Blisworth, they could be waiting a few days to follow one especially if they arrive Friday at 10 am.

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For getting used to tunnels I recommend riding round and round on the Circle line of the London underground for a day or two.

Alas you can no longer ride round and round the Circle Line. Since 2009 trains have operated from Hammersmith to Edgware Road then once around the loop to terminate at Edgware Road, before going back again.

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I don't particularly enjoy tunnels especially Braunston and Blisworth.

Nice when you come out the other end with you sanity intact.

Enjoy!

Of course, we only have your word for the fact you did Martin ;)

 

Rog

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Thanks again for all the input

 

My folks are coming with me but I think we'll definitely go for early morning passage with no oncoming widebeams lol

 

I'm looking forward to the tunnel, seems my maiden voyage will be a baptism of fire anyway, so in for a penny...... (having said that, I always wanted an operation until I had one!!! )

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