On the move again, again

The weather is beautiful today and it was great to be back in the boat and moving. We only went to dump rubbish and get water but to be moving on a still canal on a beautiful day is a pleasure to be thankful for.

There are a lot of boats about. The shared ownership boats are frequent visitors and we have a few boats that appear to be hanging around waiting for the stoppages when they will be 'forced' to stay in town. There are a few hirers making a trip in the good autumn weather. I wonder if there is a way to determine the weather before booking or whether these hirers are just grabbing the deals at the end of a tough season for holidays in the UK.

I spoke to one hirer on a Kate boat. He was not a new hirer and had been this way before on another boat. He was really enjoying the time and loved the boat he was on. "The only thing missing is a stove! We have central heating, though". I must admit that the stove is an essential. to us however, it is also the central heating. In fact it is the only heating! I guess that the risk assessment for a stove on a hire boat would be just too much for the hire companies to contemplate. Diesel central heating is much safer, cleaner and more practical with little children around.

We also saw BW pushing a hopper back to Nell Bridge with their new workboat. It didn't appear to be named. "Little Boy Blue" would be nice or maybe "Blue Notes" or "Blue Peter". It was very smart and blue.

The "water run" took us four hours today because we had to stop for lunch at General Foods on the way.

It was good to be moving again.

It's Official!

You may remember my moan about the BW workboats that clutter up the Banbury town centre when no-one would mind them mooring below the lock where leisure boaters feel vulnerable. (A Popular Place)



Well as you can see, BW have now made the mooring adjacent to Tooley's yard their official place of abode. Now they can charge any boat that moors here a charge and stick on one of their red stickers!


The Banbury Mooring Restriction Zone was ostensibly instigated to ensure that visitors could moor in the town centre for a reasonable time (48hr). Obviously BW do not think that leisure boaters should have priority above their work boat.

By the way, there is no vehicular access to this particular mooring. The BW workmen have to approach the canal and park BELOW the lock adjacent to the Facilities building. So why can't they designate a mooring there for themselves?

Where have all the BW men gone?

Apparently, according to gossip heard on the towpath today, they are all digging three holes on the off side of every narrow lock in the country to install three cast iron bollards that we haven't needed for 200 years and will not be any use in the future! Apparently the crew seen is a specialist one with a brand new workboat and an electric cement mixer.

My informant described Aynho weir lock, which is possibly one lock that (maybe) could do with bollards as it is wider than the average and a coffin shape. The bollards are on a side of the lock that is inaccessible if you have the bottom gate open, as you can't cross the top gate! So how do you untie your boat to leave!

We have been thinking about this. One wouldn't tie your boat up if it was going down because the boat will hang on the ropes. And you wouldn't tie your boat up if you were going up because the ropes would slacken off and allow the boat to move. So when would these bollards EVER get used?

What a load of BOLLARDS!

A Popular Place

Banbury is a popular place and today I had arrived back in town to have lunch with friends at GF club.

Normally, I would have stopped on my mooring and walked into town but today there was considerable congestion at Hardwick Lock that delayed us sufficiently to merit taking the boat on. We also needed those requisites of life that are provided by the local boatyard; a pump out, gas and diesel. They were shut for lunch when we arrived so we progressed under Tom Rolt bridge to discover that the town visitor moorings were full.

I did not intend to lock down and moor below the lock. We would then have to turn at Bankside and return and lock up again to return to the boatyard. We would miss our lunch date too.

The crew of Sylph saw my predicament. He said he would check with the captain but thought they were leaving in 5 minutes. I backed up, hovered and waited for them to go. They were true to their word and we moored beneath Tom Rolt bridge and went for lunch.

What really got me though was the reason the moorings were congested. You can see from the photo that British Waterways have taken no notice of what I wrote in this blog in July last year. Now however they have not just moored the workboat but a 70foot hopper as well!

I suppose they think they own the waterway. In essence we tax paying, license paying, mooring fee paying, boaters do along with the rest of the nation.

Come on BW. Moor these large floating objects where we leisure boaters do not want to moor.

A Bit on the Down Side

Today we received an early morning text.

A dog-walking neighbour to our boat had noticed that the Bright Yellow Robin-Suburu 1700i Generator that sits on our rear deck was missing. A thief had cut away the fencing surrounding the deck to release the generator, chain, lock and all, during the night.

We surveyed the damage with disgust. It is not the first generator we have had stolen. Each time something goes "missing" I feel violated. Not a nice feeling.

We talked to a few of our mooring neighbours who said that recently there had been people up and down the towpath who didn't say "hello". This is unusual because dog walkers, tow path walkers and boaters are usually an affable bunch who at least pass the time of day and politely acknowledge one another. It doesn;t take much to wish someone a good day does it? These people obviously don't care.

As it was a lovely day, we started the engine and blew the winter cobwebs off. Just a couple of hours run to stretch her legs a little. Sonflower seemed to enjoy her outing and behaved impeccably as we proudly cruised through town and back again.

We only saw one boat on our journey under power. Surprisingly, this was Dancing Duck, the day boat from Tooley's Boatyard, hosting a boat handling course for none other than three BW employees brightly kitted out in high-viz and life jackets. Why "surprisingly". Well I would have expected BW to have the expertise to train their own employees to handle a narrowboat and secondly would have expected them to use their own workboat! It is moored in the centre of town next to Tooley's yard.

We had lunch with other boaters at the GF club Just like old times.

Now the hassle of police reports, insurance claim and incident reporting. It makes one sick.