Top Thirty, 2013 week 3

Here is the UK Waterways Site Ranking (top thirty-two places) as it stood at 2100 on Monday 21st January 2013. This is taken, with permission, from Tony Blews's UK Waterways Ranking Site.


1 Canal World Discussion Forums (=)

2 Pennine Waterways (=)

3 CanalPlanAC (=)

4 Jim Shead's Waterways Information (=)

5 Retirement with No Problem (=)

6 Waterway Routes (=)

7 nb Epiphany (+1)

8 UKCanals Network (-1)

9 Water Explorer (+1)

10 Granny Buttons (-1)

11 nb Waiouru (+1)

12 boatshare (+4)

13 Towpath Treks (-2)

14 Jannock Website (+1)

15 Captain Ahab's Watery Tales (-2)

16 Narrowboat dreaming ... Parisien Star (+2)

17 Contented Souls (+7)

18 Canal Shop Company (-1)

19 nb Lucky Duck (+4)

20 Derwent6 (=)

21 One Thing After Another (+9)

22 boats and cruising (-1)

23 Narrowboat Bones (-4)

24 Baddie the Pirate (-10)

25 Milburn Boats Ltd (+3)

26 Halfie (+6)

27 NB The Manly Ferry (+2)

28 Seyella's Journey (-3)

29 Boatshed Grand Union (-3)

30 Rock n Roll (-)

31 Boats and Canals Forum (-)

32 Narrowboat Briar Rose (-10)


The figures in parentheses denote the number of places moved since the previous chart;
(-) denotes new entry or re-entry into the chart;
(=) denotes no change.

There are 178 entries, down from 181 last week.

Icicles galore!

I have never seen so many icicles - real ones - hanging from gutters before.

We went for a short walk this afternoon while it was trying to snow some more, and were astonished by all the icicles hanging from most roof gutters. My theory is that the heavy snow followed by a hard frost blocked the downpipes, so that when a slight thaw occurred the water couldn't drain away normally and started to dribble over the edge of the gutters. Then a tendency for the water to evaporate cooled it, and the icicles formed. I ought to look up how icicles grow and see if I'm right, I suppose.

In the front garden of one house was an unusual snowman - with spiky hair made from icicles. The neck was an icicle too.

In other news: I have almost finished editing the village pantomime which I filmed four days ago. The next job is to create a DVD from it.

A few more snowy pictures

Three days ago I took some photos of St. Remigius Parish Church in Hethersett.

This is the first I took, and I think it is the best.

The sun was making the ice crystals on a fence sparkle.

Everywhere was - and still is - covered in a blanket of snow.

I expect everyone with access to a boat has taken a picture of it in the snow. I'll have to check that Ally and Ben have photographed Jubilee.

Halfie tries a £6,000 Velomobiel Quest XS tricycle for size

Six thousand pounds? A tricycle? Has Halfie lost the plot?

Well, not yet. But look at this! In the days BS (Before Snow) Adrian's friend Bill rolled up in his Dutch built Velomobiel Quest XS human powered vehicle.

It's an amazingly curvaceous machine with its smooth white carbon-fibre shell hiding three wheels: two in front and one behind.

Adrian squeezed in to model the front view. Imagine having this coming up in your rear-view mirror! Bill says he has no problem keeping up with traffic in 30 mph areas.

Yes - I got to have a go, just round the end of Adrian's cul-de-sac.

It might go fast - well over 40 mph - but it has a lousy turning circle compared with a conventional two-wheeler. My first car, an Austin 1100 with a notoriously poor turning circle, could turn in less space!

But I suppose that's not the point. The thing is, it looks fantastic and goes like the clappers. It has brake lights and indicators. It has luggage space. I want one! Not sure how I'd get it on the boat, though. Oh, and it costs a cool six grand - but it's cheaper than a Jaguar E-type.

I wonder how Bill got on in the snow.

This is Halfie behind a camera

I said yesterday that I was about to drive to Norwich to get "my" camera so I could film the local pantomime. Well, I did that after spending about half an hour clearing the snow off the car. After the previous day's heavy snowfall the local roads were compacted snow, but the main roads were mostly salty slushy icy stuff. There was plenty of grip for the Amazon's relatively skinny tyres (a set of brand new 165x15s).

Here I am ready to film the panto with a Sony HVR-Z1E, universally referred to within the BBC as a Z1. This is the camera which I sometimes get sent out with to film for Look East (but not for much longer: just ten weeks to go!)

Oh, and there is a canal connection - can you spot it?

Top Thirty, 2013 week 2

Here is the UK Waterways Site Ranking (top thirty places) as it stood at 2350 on Sunday 13th January 2013. This is taken, with permission, from Tony Blews's UK Waterways Ranking Site.


1 Canal World Discussion Forums (=)

2 Pennine Waterways (=)

3 CanalPlanAC (=)

4 Jim Shead's Waterways Information (=)

5 Retirement with No Problem (+2)

6 Waterway Routes (-1)

7 UKCanals Network (+1)

8 nb Epiphany (-2)

9 Granny Buttons (+1)

10 Water Explorer (-1)

11 Towpath Treks (=)

12 nb Waiouru (+1)

13 Captain Ahab's Watery Tales (+2)

14 Baddie the Pirate (+2)

15 Jannock Website (-1)

16 boatshare (-4)

17 Canal Shop Company (=)

18 Narrowboat dreaming ... Parisien Star (+7)

19 Narrowboat Bones (+4)

20 Derwent6 (-)

21 boats and cruising (+6)

22 Narrowboat Briar Rose (-2)

23 nb Lucky Duck (+1)

24 Contented Souls (-)

25 Seyella's Journey (-3)

26 Boatshed Grand Union (=)

27 ExOwnerships (-8)

28 Milburn Boats Ltd (=)

29 NB The Manly Ferry (-)

30 One Thing After Another (-)

31 boatrent (-)

32 Halfie (-11)


Yes, there are 32 shown this week. For some reason, possibly connected with the fact that I missed a couple of days of blog posts, I've slipped 11 places.

The figures in parentheses denote the number of places moved since the previous chart;
(-) denotes new entry or re-entry into the chart;
(=) denotes no change.

There are 181 entries, up from 180 last week.

Snow causes traffic chaos in Norwich

Yesterday a large amount on snow fell around here. I was at work in Norwich, and, at lunch time, I walked past St. Stephen's roundabout. A bendy bus was struggling to get round owing to the compacted snow and ice; traffic on the inner ring road was at a standstill. I returned to the office, told the newsroom, and went back with my camera to film the goings on at the roundabout. Of course, by that time, the bendy bus had gone, but there were many shots of wheels spinning and cars going nowhere to be had. The roundabout is on a slight incline, and that was enough for inexperienced or ignorant drivers to get stuck on, believing that the faster you spin the wheels the more chance you have of moving - where the opposite is usually true. As I had the TV camera with me I didn't get a chance to take any stills, but my pictures were used in a report on BBC Look East.

I was very pleased I'd cycled to work. There were many tales of people taking three hours to do a journey which would normally take twenty minutes. On my cycle home at 1900 traffic was either standing still or just about crawling forwards between Norwich city centre and the junction with the road to the hospital - about three miles. In most places I was able to cycle past the queues, but my journey ended up taking an hour (normally 35 minutes). The main roads were the worst for ice. I lost grip once or twice but didn't come off (don't tell Jan!), but once on the minor roads I was able to go faster with, mostly, plenty of grip.

This was our front garden on Sunday 14th January ...

... and the same scene this morning 16th January. The car has about six inches of snow on it.

Bay tree from upstairs on 15th Jan:

This was the outside temperature this morning: -8.9˚C.

I cleared the snow off the car this morning; now I have to drive in to Norwich to get my camera. I have to film the village pantomime tonight. I hope it's still on.

Entering the Royal Docks

After the excitement of the Woolwich Ferries came the entrance to the King George lock.

I think this must be the largest lock I have navigated. I estimate that you could fit 60 wide Grand Union locks in here. Those are the (Thames-side) gates closing behind us in the photo below.

Just five minutes later (according to my camera's timing) the dock-side gates were opened. That's as fast as any Grand Union lock!

After a twenty minute delay while clearance was awaited from air traffic control - London City Airport is built in the middle of the dock - the bascule bridge started to open.

We had a ten minute window in which to clear the aircraft approach area. As soon as the bridge had opened sufficiently the tall-masted plastic boats powered out of the lock ...

... leaving the narrowboats standing.

But we got the "hurry up" and charged out ourselves.

The three boats in the photo below look as though they're on a wide choppy river: they're actually still in the lock!

Immediately on exiting the lock we turned right. Right under the final approach path for aircraft. Doris Katia is powering past the lights at the end of the runway.

Above Lotus No. 10 and Doris Katia are aeroplanes on the hard standing. This is Royal Albert Dock, whose water seemed lumpier than the river we'd just left.

Dividing Royal Albert Dock from Royal Victoria Dock is the Connaught Bridge, actually a road bridge and separate foot bridge. Andrew Phasey had confidently advised the authorities on the VHF radio that narrowboats didn't need the footbridge raising. The plastic yachts had blasted on ahead and the bridge (or bridges? Presumably the road bridge is also a moveable structure) had already been lowered. There was plenty of room.

One constant feature throughout the latter stages of this docks cruise was photographer and Canal Boat magazine deputy editor Martin Ludgate. We first spotted him on the Thames-side lock gates, and now here he was on the impressive suspension bridge spanning the Royal Victoria Dock. (He's that speck in the middle!) For his high-angle photo our narrowboat convoy formed up seven-abreast.

And then it was suddenly the end of the cruise, and somehow I was still steering. I hope Richard, Paul, Andy and Sarah will forgive me for hogging the tiller. A neat U-turn, and we tied up right where Jan and I had enjoyed the view in the sun six months ago. That was just before we watched some Olympic table tennis at ExCeL on the dockside.

For my final photograph I set up the camera on its self-timer. Here I am (flat cap and blue scarf) looking very happy!

And it wasn't entirely down to Andrew's generous doling out of sloe gin and whisky, the traditional ending, as I learned, to this particular SPCC Royal Docks cruise. But it may have helped. No, actually, I would have been grinning anyway after such a splendid bit of boating.

For more photos, including excellent ones of the Woolwich Ferries I missed getting, see Richard's on his Indigo Dream blog.