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42 feet of pure prettiness

MissMax

By MissMax
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MissMax Proficient

MissMax

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Narrow Lock! Hang on Mr Brown. I've only just stopped waking in a cold sweet after Mr Peterboat took me to the monster sized lock near here :D

 

My Pup has only had one accident in the boat but I still lay out the puppy pads as they are great mud mats when she comes in from a walk. My day starts between 4 and 5 am when we go tinkle outside.

 

Need to get to Keighley for Tuesday or Wednesday so I will do a slow cruise towards it ( think Stockbridge is closest mooring) then potter along towards Bingley.

 

I really do appreciate everyone's posts and I promise that when I win the 'Bitumen' lottery

Your all getting some :)

 

Do people pick days to travel or do they just pick any old day? I like travelling in the morning when it's light enough to see around 8 or 9 and a chance of less traffic on the water. Still haven't passed a wide beam on the water yet (dreading it)

 

My roof has got bold patches on it :( the bit where I poured the undercoat I found on the boat is starting to show ( blame Cuthound)

 

There are woods (that's what the map shows... I think) between bridge 193 and 195 hope to take the pup for her first woodland adventure

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Athy Veteran II

AthyDonate to Canal World

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Narrow Lock!

 

...is, you will find, much easier to negotiate than a wide one. It's probably five years or more since we took Trojan through a wide lock, and we like it that way. You may find that you drive straight in via both sides, but you can't stray far off line!

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MissMax Proficient

MissMax

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Bridge 197a is a electronic monstrosity :(

 

Got to 197 which is a electronic swing with its bits on the normal side and stupidly assumed 197a would be the same. Well it blooming ain't! Heck knows how single ganders get through here. They must wait for decades before their body's are found cocooned in cob webs their hand still on the tiller forever waiting to be rescued from this visitor mooring who's rings are 5miles apart in each direction (what size boats are these for!)

 

 

And another thing. Did not one of you lot think of telling me I'll have to do all these swing bridges again on the way back!

 

Blooming selfish bunch of Tea and crumpet gobblers :(

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bargemast Influencer

bargemast

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It must be a relief that you can blame everything that doesn't go like you thought how it would go (all easy peasy) on this Blooming selfish bunch of Tea and crumpet gobblers.

 

If you ask me, I think that they're a heartless bunch of selfish people, enjoying to read about all your seemingly never ending misseries.

 

Peter.

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MissMax Proficient

MissMax

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Don't worry I caught my boat before the centre line fell in the water. Luckily for me the boat won't fit side ways in the canal so it got stuck and helpful people watched me pull it back.

 

This mooring spot is a blooming wind tunnel :(

 

Only one person is honourable to confess ( he can have a bottle of Babycham) I blame the forum illuminati for everything that is going wrong. I have water sloshing about in my engine room at the blunt end and I've bent my nail the wrong way.

 

Hope you are all proud of yourselves :(

  • Greenie 3
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MtB Veteran II

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Don't worry I caught my boat before the centre line fell in the water. Luckily for me the boat won't fit side ways in the canal so it got stuck and helpful people watched me pull it back.

 

This mooring spot is a blooming wind tunnel sad.png

 

Only one person is honourable to confess ( he can have a bottle of Babycham) I blame the forum illuminati for everything that is going wrong. I have water sloshing about in my engine room at the blunt end and I've bent my nail the wrong way.

 

Hope you are all proud of yourselves sad.png

 

 

Bent nails can be hammered straight again if necessary, using the tail of a vice as an anvil.

 

Hope that helps and I get the Babycham too.

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Neil2 Veteran

Neil2

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Bridge 197a is a electronic monstrosity sad.png

 

Got to 197 which is a electronic swing with its bits on the normal side and stupidly assumed 197a would be the same. Well it blooming ain't! Heck knows how single ganders get through here. They must wait for decades before their body's are found cocooned in cob webs their hand still on the tiller forever waiting to be rescued from this visitor mooring who's rings are 5miles apart in each direction (what size boats are these for!)

 

 

And another thing. Did not one of you lot think of telling me I'll have to do all these swing bridges again on the way back!

 

Blooming selfish bunch of Tea and crumpet gobblers sad.png

 

Believe me if you carry on down to Leeds it gets a lot, lot, worse. I think there are maybe another 20 swing bridges.

 

All the single handers I have met on the L/L say they either persuade a kindly passer by to operate the electric bridges, or simply wait until another boat comes along. The one at Apperley Bridge is impossible to do single handed anyway. When I say "impossible" I mean in the real world of busy traffic and unsympathetic and downright rude and abusive motorists. We used to do a lot of cruising on the L/L and there's no shame in waiting for a crewed boat to help get you through these bridges, anyone who knows the canal appreciates what a pain they are.

 

Your consolation in learning the ropes on the L/L is it's one of the "heaviest" canals there is, so when you get to other navigations you will find life a lot easier. Of the popular canals I think only the K&A is comparable in terms of "degree of difficulty".

 

So don't get too downcast.

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Robbo Veteran II

Robbo

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Believe me if you carry on down to Leeds it gets a lot, lot, worse. I think there are maybe another 20 swing bridges.

 

All the single handers I have met on the L/L say they either persuade a kindly passer by to operate the electric bridges, or simply wait until another boat comes along. The one at Apperley Bridge is impossible to do single handed anyway. When I say "impossible" I mean in the real world of busy traffic and unsympathetic and downright rude and abusive motorists. We used to do a lot of cruising on the L/L and there's no shame in waiting for a crewed boat to help get you through these bridges, anyone who knows the canal appreciates what a pain they are.

 

I do the electric ones the same as the manual ones, in fact they may be easier as the bridge tends to stay still when your pulling the boat through! Ignore the motorists and don't rush as you just make mistakes. The only issue I have is that my boat does catch the wind, so I tend to plan my movements on the weather.

 

To do the bridge the opposite way when it swings to towards the boat you just need to park the boat not as close to the bridge, you do need long ropes, tie the ropes to the end of the bridge as they won't get as caught.

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MissMax Proficient

MissMax

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Babycham for Neil2 and Robbo. Bottle of Blue Nun for Mr MTB (he's lucky to get that!)

 

I'm contemplating walking my boat backwards to the other side of bridge 197 and using the hole to turn round. Nothing but giant boulders lurking in the water when you go past Silsden (even in Silsden :( )

 

I like to go slow (my tiller needs more balls as it vibrates at speed) and smell the flowers, stop and go for a wonder in the wilderness and I can't do that if I can't park (shakes fists at Sky)

 

Bridge etiquette question

 

What time in the morning can I use the electric bridge 197 to walk my boat backwards through? I was thinking 4 or 5 am but the bridge has alarms on it but least likely to have traffic.

 

Or do I keep plodding forward to the next hole?

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Neil2 Veteran

Neil2

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Oh I do miss those swing bridges.

 

Wouldn't worry about the time of day we used to try and do these outside busy traffic periods not 5 in the morning mind.

 

Further down bridge 199 IIRC is, or was, the most hated bridge on the network. Notoriously unreliable. We managed to get the stupid thing stuck half open on a Bank Holiday none of the emergency numbers answered and the manual override didn't work either. That was in BW days of course I'm sure things have improved since...

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