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Post by Telemachus on Aug 4, 2017 12:13:00 GMT
Why are you eating so much beef, Nick? I see a heart attack coming. You will drop, hand clutched to chest, into a lock and the last thing you will see is your boat coming to crush you, and your last ever thought will be "Fake Rivets!" I know, but it's just two days. We've been out on the boat for 2 weeks and those are the only two meals we've had out, it just happens that they are on consecutive days. The rest of the time we have eaten on the boat. Normally we have things like spag bol, lasagne, Hungarian goulash, wiener schnitzel, cottage pie. So no beef. Oh! Wait a minute...
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Post by patty on Aug 4, 2017 12:33:18 GMT
Why are you eating so much beef, Nick? I see a heart attack coming. You will drop, hand clutched to chest, into a lock and the last thing you will see is your boat coming to crush you, and your last ever thought will be "Fake Rivets!" I know, but it's just two days. We've been out on the boat for 2 weeks and those are the only two meals we've had out, it just happens that they are on consecutive days. The rest of the time we have eaten on the boat. Normally we have things like spag bol, lasagne, Hungarian goulash, wiener schnitzel, cottage pie. So no beef. Oh! Wait a minute... substitute beef for that Quorn stuff...you may never notice the difference.....
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Post by naughtyfox on Aug 4, 2017 14:18:11 GMT
Come on, Patty, that's ground-up egg boxes.
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Post by bills on Aug 4, 2017 17:16:07 GMT
Well that's a little known secret! I've boated down that stretch well over a hundred times in everything from a Shetland Family 4 to a tug and butty and in conditions where the water was starting to come over the gates at County lock, and I muat have seen many hundreds of boats doing the transit, but I ain't ever seen that. It's a fairly old one as well, . . . passed on to me courtesy of river boatman Wilf Townsend who worked the Thames, Kennet, Southern and Midlands canals with horse-boats and motors, and was then retired and living in Abingdon. We had loaded at Atherstone (Baddesley colliery) for Reading with the first loads of coal for the Kennet and Avon Canal Society's newly acquired steam dredger. It was late Summer 1969 and there wasn't much, if any, fresh in the rivers, so after we had emptied above County Lock, I ignored the good advice I had been given, ran plenty of water under the motor's engine hole, cabin and back-end (to get the counter well in for good 'fan-hold'), took down the butty's cratch and headlight, laid the mast and stands down, took the cans and chimneys down from both cabin tops, then ran Brewery Gut singled out, . . . we made it alright, but only just and more by luck than judgement. On later trips in Wintertime with good amounts of fresh on, dropping down, singled out, stern first from County Lock was really the only way to be sure of avoiding cabin damage. In those days there was just enough room to wind a pair of boats above County Lock using the extra width where the side channel runs off to the sluices, but I believe there is now a longish landing stage in the way and it's not possible any more. Coming downriver from the next lock up (Fobney ?) and having to get back down Brewery Gut in a bank-full of fresh with a pair of empty boats nowadays, I would guess you'd have to make do with winding the butty in Foundry Brook, singling out from County Lock with the butty's stern end tight up to the motor and enough weights out from the butty's fore-end to almost hold both boats against the current. You would probably have enough control in the narrows and under High Bridge (?) doing it that way, but winding the butty and getting it hitched stern on to the motor again in Foundry Brook in a strong current could be a lot of fun ! Dropping down stern first, head to tide or current, and when necessary with a weight on a line or an anchor at short stay slowing the boat/barge so as to have some flow of water past the rudder used to be everyday, common practice in days gone by. At the swing bridges on the Ouse at Selby, dropping through stern first was in fact mandatory under the navigation Byelaws for inbound river traffic arriving in Selby with the Flood (tide) still running up. Fascinating stuff - a pair travelling backwards through the Oracle shopping centre would cause quite a stir these days. It is still possible to wind a full length boat above County lock, even with the pontoon in place - we turned a small Woolwich butty there a few years ago,
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Post by Deleted on Aug 4, 2017 17:28:40 GMT
Bloody hell !! "Travelling to the Thames had some interesting moments. I found the sections where the river Kennet joins the canal particularly difficult as the canal was so overgrown in places that you couldn't see which way the canal went."
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Post by bills on Aug 4, 2017 17:34:55 GMT
That's the bit between Monkey Marsh lock at Thatcham and Widemead lock. There are a few bits like that in the long pound as well.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 4, 2017 17:37:50 GMT
I saw that film.
Must say Humphrey Bogart was superb.
Rog
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Post by Deleted on Aug 4, 2017 17:38:23 GMT
That's the bit between Monkey Marsh lock at Thatcham and Widemead lock. There are a few bits like that in the long pound as well. Hope she didn't have fake rivets.
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Post by Telemachus on Aug 4, 2017 18:09:01 GMT
We traversed that bit a few days ago, just 50 yds or so and no big deal. Keeps the fat boats out though.
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Post by bettina on Aug 4, 2017 21:03:47 GMT
We traversed that bit a few days ago, just 50 yds or so and no big deal. Keeps the fat boats out though. You might wish it did Though I must admit, I was sitting up front when we went through those bits and just prayed we didn't meet another WB coming the other way or even worse one of the massive hotel boats that ply their trade on the K&A
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Post by bettina on Aug 4, 2017 21:08:20 GMT
Bloody hell !! "Travelling to the Thames had some interesting moments. I found the sections where the river Kennet joins the canal particularly difficult as the canal was so overgrown in places that you couldn't see which way the canal went." Is that your boat? If it is the angle of the pic along with the surounding vegetation growth makes it look like a wee narrow boat!!
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Post by Deleted on Aug 4, 2017 21:30:35 GMT
Bloody hell !! "Travelling to the Thames had some interesting moments. I found the sections where the river Kennet joins the canal particularly difficult as the canal was so overgrown in places that you couldn't see which way the canal went." Is that your boat? If it is the angle of the pic along with the surounding vegetation growth makes it look like a wee narrow boat!! No, it's not me. It is a narrowboat.
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Post by naughtyfox on Aug 4, 2017 21:37:16 GMT
Piffle-wiffle. I used to drive the 386 to Hitchen from Hertford. Around Cottered the roads are so narrow grass touched both sides of the bus. And there were many places (such as in Tewin) where we had to wait for the bus coming the other way as there was no room to pass if we met up in the narrow places.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 4, 2017 23:26:55 GMT
No, it's not me. It is a narrowboat. Well yes of course it is. Why do you answer so often in riddles Steve? We all know you have a wide beam so I think some would be curious as to why you posted a picture implying you were on a Narrow boat at the time that picture was taken.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 4, 2017 23:28:48 GMT
Well yes of course it is. Why do you answer so often in riddles Steve? We all know you have a wide beam so I think some would be curious as to why you posted a picture implying you were on a Narrow boat at the time that picture was taken. Thanks for confirming you are a cunt. One day you might just answer a question directly you evasive little slug..
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