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The kindness of strangers


Theo

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I exhibited an example of incompetent steering yesterday by distracting myself on a bend of the Worcester and Birmingham heading north just before we got to Alvechurch.  We ended up hard aground on the offside with not chance of escape and no boats around.  Poling, reversing, jumping around and cursing had no effect.  I even cosidered calling out Alvechurch (expensive?).

 

At the opportune moment a pair of healthy looking chaps on bikes appeared so I hailed them and they were obliging enough to stop.  I used the safety line as a heaving line and passed a long mooing rope to them across the canal.  In not very many minutes then had pulled the stern across and set us free.

 

They even refused a beer!

 

It didn't stop me feeling a fool.  How can you do that sort of thing after 4,000miles of canalling?

 

Nick

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2 minutes ago, Theo said:

I exhibited an example of incompetent steering yesterday by distracting myself on a bend of the Worcester and Birmingham heading north just before we got to Alvechurch.  We ended up hard aground on the offside with not chance of escape and no boats around.  Poling, reversing, jumping around and cursing had no effect.  I even cosidered calling out Alvechurch (expensive?).

 

At the opportune moment a pair of healthy looking chaps on bikes appeared so I hailed them and they were obliging enough to stop.  I used the safety line as a heaving line and passed a long mooing rope to them across the canal.  In not very many minutes then had pulled the stern across and set us free.

 

They even refused a beer!

 

It didn't stop me feeling a fool.  How can you do that sort of thing after 4,000miles of canalling?

 

Nick

i havnt done that for well over twenty years.............but I will again someday :D

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I've snatched a few people off the mud thinking to myself how foolish they were to get stuck and congratulating myself rather smugly on the good turn that I was doing.

 

Ho hum...

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Just now, Theo said:

I've snatched a few people off the mud thinking to myself how foolish they were to get stuck and congratulating myself rather smugly on the good turn that I was doing.

 

Ho hum...

There are boaters who have been stuck,and boaters who are going to get stuck! Unless you take your narrowboat across the Atlantic. But I have heard that there are other problems on the Atlantic.[Storms,pirates,icebergs,etc.]

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2 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Wots one of them then ?

Sounds like a load of Bull.

I am sure that the forum will milk that mistake until it's dry.

 

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I got well and truly stemmed up in a remote spot on the Oxford a few years ago. After about an hour a BW workboat came along and with enormous difficulty dragged me off. 

 

One mile up the cut I passed a forum member who hailed me and asked how I got off, as it was all over facebook I was stuck there lol!

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Easily done. A momentary lack of attention.  We were going up Glascote top lock - boats waiting to come down - our boat just gone in - wife steering - I shut the bottom gates and waited - day dreaming and thinking the boaters coming in who were standing there with keys ready would fill the lock - wife shouts up - "don't just stand there ! - do the paddles." So I leapt into life and quickly opened them.  I immediately got shouted at from below "not those you fool - the top gates - we're going up."  Whoops!

Senior moments, but why is there an audience when I do daft things!

 

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My stemming up happened thusly:

 

We were moored on pins the previous night.  Three pins because I always set a spring.  SWMBO was busy somewhere else so I out the pins on the stern deck, roughly coiled the sternline and set off.  Before long the pins around my feet began to irritate so I gathered them together and laid them on the top step to be stowed later.  It was suring the gathering up that I suspect the stern was grabbed by the towpath side and we stemmed up of the opposite bank.  We were on a reasonable tight bend too.  So as you see the whole incident was caused by a series of ill considered acts.

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10 minutes ago, Theo said:

We were on a reasonable tight bend too. 

 

Fully explained!

 

There is a tight bend just up from one of my moorings that gets me every time. Eve though I KNOW it is deadly shallow...

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Last year on the Llangollen came across a share boat well aground in the shallows, threw him a line and dragged him off. Once he was free, waved him past  and he drew the water from me and left me in the mud pfft. Only a little experience (and a lot of good luck, no gongoozlers) got me free.

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9 hours ago, jam said:

Last year on the Llangollen came across a share boat well aground in the shallows, threw him a line and dragged him off. Once he was free, waved him past  and he drew the water from me and left me in the mud pfft. Only a little experience (and a lot of good luck, no gongoozlers) got me free.

How did he draw water from you?  Did he fill a lock below where you were?

 

N

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