Victor asks when is a stoppage not a stoppage?

WHEN it's a winter works we are told.

As that is what has happened with the problem with Woodnook Lock on the Wakefield Branch of the Aire & Calder.

We are told that due to a change in scope—whatever that is—the works need to be changed to a winter stoppage rather than a restriction that allowed boats through the lock.

All alternatives have been explored, we are told, but in order to complete the works in the quickest time possible, the navigation will need to be closed.

But the work that was required in the restriction is the same work that is now required in this stoppage—it's for grouting of the lock. And I would have thought that it would not have been too sensible filling the lock with water to allow boat passages with it covered in wet grouting, then it being ruined as the lock is so quickly emptied.

Perhaps someone eventually realised that!  Anyway, it's closed from the 19th February to the 8th March.

Something completely different

Yes, completely different indeed—Scams!

I should imagine that every one of you using credit/debit cards gets email scams nowadays, as it is easy for anyone to get the name of your bank and card numbers, we get plenty of scams, but it's  knowing what is a scam and what isn't.

But there is a very simple way of discovering if a scam or not—simply look at its email address. You will discover that though the scammer will most likely use the actual name of the company it is purporting to be in its email, it cannot just use just the real one so puts in other words to be able to register it.

All major companies use their own names followed by the normal .com or co.uk—and that's it.

Anything else included then it's a scam. So forget it! 

Strange

I was surprised that the proposed River Canal Rescue photo competition made the distinction that 'landscape' pictures are preferred', as hardly in the essence of a competition, telling the subject that is preferred. Or perhaps it's not the subject but the format!

If people take notice it will finish with 12 somewhat boring landscapes, with nothing either humorous or dramatic—that would make a better picture. And as entries have to be about canals or rivers, landscapes will be somewhat awkward to include. So I reckon it must be the format!

Anyway, the profits will be donated to Cancer Research UK.

Friday finishes

I see that the contractors are still managing Friday finishes for their jobs.

The two long jobs on the Macc and the Peak Forest were both finished on a Friday—following on the contractors' now somewhat long tradition.

Not forgetting of course many a Monday start!

How work manages so often to fit into five days—or more often multiples of five days—baffles me...

Safe!

One thing is certainly for sure—we are very pleased we left Sawley for higher ground! (Or perhaps that should be higher water!)

With all this rain and that marina at the confluence of the Trent and Derwent both being backed-up by the Soar, its jetties are more and more being subjected to flooding, so little wonder it is a getting more and more empty berths. Ours one of them.

For those not in the know, it's the Derwent that is the worst culprit—it draining the lower Pennines,..

Which is why the Environment Agency had it it wrong about when the river would peak in the latest downpour.  It did not allow for the 24 hours for all that water to reach Sawley via the Derwent.  Anyway we are now safe, but still find it strange that after stepping onto the boat at various heights from the pontoon for so many years now stepping onto the boat whose height from its pontoon never varies.

Victor Swift telling tales for 24 years...