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Craig Campbell

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2 minutes ago, Naughty Cal said:

I spy a lovely Naughty-Cal sized gap there. :D

We used to do that with WotEver. At 34ft she was ideal for squeezing between two 60-odd ft Narrowboats with 40 ft space between them. 

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2 minutes ago, WotEver said:

We used to do that with WotEver. At 34ft she was ideal for squeezing between two 60-odd ft Narrowboats with 40 ft space between them. 

We always make a point of squeezing into the twat gaps left between narrowboats on the pontoons. 

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6 minutes ago, Naughty Cal said:

I spy a lovely Naughty-Cal sized gap there. :D

Ah, but I spy a gap well suited to a 72 foot narrow boat.

It's just that quite a bit more use will need to be made of "ahead" and "astern" to get it to fit properly!

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What can happen on the River :

...........We all awake to a freshening wind. The water lapping up the hulls and the flags straining in the breeze. Not ideal weather for navigating the tideway but needs must. So by 11am we are all roped up and descending the huge Cromwell Lock.
The trip starts well enough with all four boats performing well. Then over the radio comes the news that one of the group has grounded at Fledborough. So we approach with caution and hang around whilst they unpick themselves from the mud. Whether we were just not paying attention or not we don’t know but by this time with wind has pushed us onto a very nice sandy beach with little chance of escape, the wind pushing us further inland with each minute.

So Dev comes to the rescue to throw us a line, which wraps around both the props stalling both engines. Now we are both on the beach. So BV to the rescue with one overheating engine. BV eventually tows us off the beach then we tow Dev off with the intention of towing them to Dunham where the rope can be extracted from the props.

A few minutes later NC overheats so Dev drops anchor and we drift alongside where we both sit stern to the rocks taking in the Trent scenery. Whilst Dev cuts off the rope, Liam changes our impellor to reveal a mud pie or two in the water intake. Within a half hour we were back underway all under our own steam. Finally we make it to Dunham Bridge where we moor up for another BBQ and a well earned beer. This is the first time we had stopped at Dunham and found it to be a really pleasant spot.
 

It isn't difficult to follow the bloody charts. They cant make them much simpler.
 

  • Haha 1
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20 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

The moorings on the Trent typically have a sign requesting NBs to breast-up - a couple of NBs can take up the space of 4 or 5 Tupperware.

NBs will typically also moor on the 'outside' of the pontoons and leave the usual 'canal spacing' between them, whilst the inside generally being shallower cannot accommodate keeled Tupperware, but a NB would easily fit.

Image result for cromwell lock visitors mooring

 

The inside of that pontoon looks remarkably like the bank, to me. 

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7 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

What can happen on the River :

...........We all awake to a freshening wind. The water lapping up the hulls and the flags straining in the breeze. Not ideal weather for navigating the tideway but needs must. So by 11am we are all roped up and descending the huge Cromwell Lock.
The trip starts well enough with all four boats performing well. Then over the radio comes the news that one of the group has grounded at Fledborough. So we approach with caution and hang around whilst they unpick themselves from the mud. Whether we were just not paying attention or not we don’t know but by this time with wind has pushed us onto a very nice sandy beach with little chance of escape, the wind pushing us further inland with each minute.

So Dev comes to the rescue to throw us a line, which wraps around both the props stalling both engines. Now we are both on the beach. So BV to the rescue with one overheating engine. BV eventually tows us off the beach then we tow Dev off with the intention of towing them to Dunham where the rope can be extracted from the props.

A few minutes later NC overheats so Dev drops anchor and we drift alongside where we both sit stern to the rocks taking in the Trent scenery. Whilst Dev cuts off the rope, Liam changes our impellor to reveal a mud pie or two in the water intake. Within a half hour we were back underway all under our own steam. Finally we make it to Dunham Bridge where we moor up for another BBQ and a well earned beer. This is the first time we had stopped at Dunham and found it to be a really pleasant spot.
 

It isn't difficult to follow the bloody charts. They cant make them much simpler.
 

That's a blast from the past. Easter 2009 I believe.

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We are at the moment making our way to Bath/Bristol, K and A ....quite slowly . The first 4 boats we encountered were wide beams , fine , but 2 had difficulty  with depth , even with all this water around . I moved as far over as possible , into the reeds , going aground  , and they were slightly out of the middle of the canal , and they were hard aground  . I managed to get some water under the swim and edge past them . If we had been another wide beam .... no one would have been going anywhere, well now very easily   . So the K and A is a wide canal but maybe just be aware of cruiseing difficulties.  Bunny 

 

  • Greenie 2
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5 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

The moorings on the Trent typically have a sign requesting NBs to breast-up - a couple of NBs can take up the space of 4 or 5 Tupperware.

NBs will typically also moor on the 'outside' of the pontoons and leave the usual 'canal spacing' between them, whilst the inside generally being shallower cannot accommodate keeled Tupperware, but a NB would easily fit.

Image result for cromwell lock visitors mooring

Try the Thames, There you often find 3 or 4 tupperware 30 foot apart and no other mooring for a mile or so, I am quite willing to breast up but can't put 15 tonnes of boat alongside a tupperware. The most irritating was at Marlow, as we left the lock we spied a 70 foot gap n the mooring jetty, proceeding towards it a tupperware came steaming past from behind as as you can guess plonked himself in the middle of the gap. We id not visit Marlow on that occasion, no where to stop.  There was as 40 foot slot at the end but we could not overhang due to the vegetation.

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2 minutes ago, WotEver said:

No, that’s a very silly flag. 

That flag is one of the oldest, unaltered, flags in the world.

 

However the Ensign is not only in the wrong position but as a superior 'flag' it should be higher than the Welsh flag.

The most senior position for a flag on a vessel is reserved for the Ensign - this is as close to the stern of the vessel as possible.

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1 minute ago, Scholar Gypsy said:

OK, OK, I suppose I asked for that.  Here's my latest flag, purchased at the Boat show. I do put pennants on the swans neck, but for some reason it doesn't feel the best place to put the red ensign. 

dscf2186.jpg

Is it an Isle of Ely fen flag?

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PS on this occasion the red ensign was the highest flag on board, as you can see above the Welsh and Scottish flags (and quite a few others). 

roger1-copy.jpg

9 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

Is it an Isle of Ely fen flag?

No, Vanuatu in the South Pacific where my middle son is working for a couple of years. You can just see it in the corner of the White Ensign on the stern of this police cutter (photo taken on our trip last summer)

dscf1034.jpg

Edited by Scholar Gypsy
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