Victor was thinking of giving Canal & River Trust a miss this week—but...

I REALLY WAS THINKING of giving Canal & River Trust a miss this week.

As after all it has had the hell of a lot of bad publicity recently, with all its many stoppages affecting us boaters.

Then now I see the load of emails from our Keith of just how the navigations are progressing, so that idea of of telling nothing was forgotten, so here it is:

CaRT calmly tell there are 19—yes 19—stoppages/restrictions on its waterways at present! 

Yesterday there were three new ones—Watford Flight on the Leicester Section, where we are told that multiple teams from across the trust have been on site this morning to assess and attempt to repair the damage, of Lock 5 but with no luck and need specialist equipment.  So any boats stuck at Crick hoping to get away will be unlucky.

Selby Canal with Selby Swing Bridge out of action is another stoppage.

And yet another stoppage on the Rochdale at Lock 72 in addition to the stoppage already between locks 1 to 4. But this Rochdale stoppage brought a brand new reason/excuse—it has 'paused navigation currently'.  How about that then?

The long stoppages like the two on the Macclesfield and the Tardebigge are still not completed. The picture shows the second problem on the Macclesfield at Bollington that perhaps is nearing completion.

The Huddersfield Narrow is still closed from end to end and seven lock flights on the Leeds & Liverpool are still unavigable.

So alas, no miss of bad news for Cart this week after all.

Then 

As I have often related, we were told at an event at Foxton by a volunteer who had obviously been instructed, that Canal & River Trust, together with its C.E.O Richard Parry, were brought in to sort out the problems left by British Waterways.

So I will give you examples of  then, under British Waterway, and now, under Canal & River Trust:

We first cruised the Leeds & Liverpool Canal in an hire boat around its Eastern end in 1994. And enjoyed it so much that after we constructed our own boat we cruised it again in 2006 from Keadby off the tidal Trent all the way to the Bridgewater on the other side of the country.

Before this in 2002, we cruised the entire Rochdale that had recently been restored, having people take the boat to enable us to do this and return to Sawley via the Bridgewater and the Trent & Mersey canals.

It was in 2003 that we cruised the entire Huddersfield Narrow Canal, having to be wrapped-up (pictured) to keep the boats clean and so pulled by a tug with three other boats through Standedge Tunnel—including the 74 locks—via the Macclesfield Canal and the Peak Forest and all its flights!

Discovering that boaters could now steer their boats through the tunnel with Fred as the chaperone, we took to the Huddersfield Narrow  Canal again in 2011, with Jan at the tiller and not striking the wall once!

That was then under British Waterways. With not a single stoppage anywhere to interrupt our journeys

And now

And now, the same waterways under Canal & River Trust:

As you will have read, seven lock flights on the Leeds & Liverpool are closed to navigation as well as a swing bridge and a lock with paddle problems—so no cruising that waterway.

There are two stoppages on the Rochdale—so no cruising that waterway either.

The Huddersfield Narrow is completely closed from end to end—so definitely no cruising anywhere on that waterway.

Lack of the wet stuff of course that is worse with so many short pounds as shown.

Any road up, you can't get to the northern canals as all access is closed by stoppages.

So has Canal & River Trust sorted out the problems of British Waterways? What a joke! Eh? 

Another services bites the dust

Telling of these stoppages the trust relates that if your boat is currently in an area likely to be affected, it strongly recommends that you relocate to a place where you will continue to have access to customer services facilities.

Then tells that alas, another has gone on the Trent & Mersey. The refuse and recycling site at Oakmore Café, near bridge 36, is no longer available. 

There is no information as to it being either re-opened or replaced.

Sensible

There is sense in Mercia Marina's advice to its moorers about how to manage if they fall into the water, pointing out that the marina is shallow enough for people to stand up with their heads well above the water, and other such advice.

So perhaps I should point out how to help boaters not to fall in the water in the first place and give a few examples.The one thing boaters should not do is stand by the side of the tiller when reversing, even though I realise it can be difficult in the case of lack of space on a traditional stern.

There was one fella who was attempting to reverse out of his mooring near ours when we moored at Sawley Marina. There was ice on the marina and standing by the side of his tiller reversing the rudder hit the ice that swung the tiller right over, knocking him into the freezing water. Luckily Jan and Thomas saw this and rushed to help his wife, who was struggling to get him out as he was well built, but the three of them succeeded.

The worst instance was at Alrewas where a Canaltime boater, also standing by the side of the tiller, reversed with the rudder hitting the brick wall, swinging the tiller over and throwing him into the water. This time he was unlucky as he was caught in the fast revolving propeller and sadly killed.

So when you reverse, never, never stand by your tiller—stand by the front of it nearest the cabin.

And...

Two other instances where we have seen people fall off the boat. Once in Sawley Marina and again at Fradley Junction. 

This time caused by slipping off the gunnel when holding on to the wet grab rail—or whatever it is called—running along the top of the sides of a boat.

This was one with straight sides (as shown) and in both cases it was a woman hanging on to this with their hands slipping on obviously wet steel and so falling of the gunnel into the water.

Some are worse than that in the photograph having a slope on both sides of the grab rail, making it even harder to retain a hold when standing on the gunnel when wet.

So if you are considering buying a boat it would be sensible to get one with a proper grab rail that you can firmly hold on to, as shown.

Even in wet weather this allows a firm grip with little chance of slipping.

Or else be sensible and only stand on the gunnel when next to something solid!

Oh dear!

I hear that water voles have been spotted on the restored section of the Wilts & Berks Canal, with people rejoicing in the fact.

Way back when Bugsworth Basin was re-opened for navigation on the Peak Forest Canal there was also rejoicing.

But alas not for long, as the water voles that had been introduced tunneled deep into the bank near the entrance of the restoration and emptied it!

So the £1.2 restoration of the basin was closed for a few months whilst the bank was reinforced against the creatures.

Not so good

Mercia Marina recently had a visit from reporters from The Times resulting in, I understand, a glowing report of the 'Life on the UK’s biggest inland marina', but alas a problem for those who wanted to read it, me included.

For alas, the only way was to agree to subscribe to a trial, by giving of course all your particulars. The three months was cheap enough, but it meant agreeing to the dreaded 'cookies', and my experience of these is lots of spam.

But more important there is the real risk of all your details being stolen as were those customers of Marks & Sparks and the Co-op, losing all customers' details to cyber thieves. I no longer risk it. Who knows who will be next?

The only hope it that the marina itself can release The Times write-up in its news letter, so all its moorers can have a read, including me!

Victor Swift—telling tales for 25 years...