Top Thirty, 2011 week 1

Here is the UK Waterways Site Ranking as it stood at 0925 on Sunday 2nd January 2011. This is taken, with permission, from Tony Blews's UK Waterways Ranking Site.


1 Canal World Discussion Forums (=)

2 Jim Shead's Waterways Information (+1)

3 JustCanals.com - Forums (-1)

4 Pennine Waterways (=)

5 CanalPlanAC (+3)

6 Granny Buttons (=)

7 CanalCuttings.co.uk (+2)

8 The Boats and Canals Forum (-3)

9 Retirement with No Problem (-2)

10 Jannock Website (=)

11 WB Takey Tezey (+1)

12 nb Epiphany (+1)

13 Towpath Treks (+3)

14 boatshare (+3)

15 Canal Shop Company (+14)

16 Narrowboat.co.uk (+4)

17 Narrowboat Bones (-3)

18 Waterway Routes (-3)

19 ExOwnerships (-8)

20 UKCanals Network (+6)

21 Canal Photos (+2)

22 Captain Ahab's Watery Tales (+2)

23 nb Piston Broke (-2)

24 nb Lucky Duck (-6)

25 Water Explorer (=)

26 Narrowboat Debdale (-)

27 Derwent6 (-8)

28 Halfie (+2)

29 Narrowboat Caxton (-7)

30 Seyella's Journey (-2)


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

There are 135 entries altogether.

Blogging and statistics

In 2010 I published 396 blog posts which attracted just over 28 thousand page loads, an average of 77 per day. This is almost double the hit rate of 2009, with 321 posts and nearly 15 thousand page loads, averaging 41 per day. In 2008, my first full year of blogging, there were four thousand page loads, or 12 per day, with 195 posts to choose from.

I record this not to boast, but in humility that you, dear reader, think my efforts are possibly slightly more interesting than a blank screen.

I find it a good discipline to attempt a post a day, even if what I write is mostly inconsequential. The blog allows me to record our boating exploits and other holidays, and to write about home life and, well, anything I want, really. Most of the time I try to keep to a waterways theme.

Today's date can be written 010111, which is binary for 23. A more logical way to write the date would be 110101 (53), where the third and fourth digits indicate the month, and the last two the day. Putting dates written like this in numerical order would preserve chronological order, which doesn't happen with our usual day/month/year way of designating them. Nor, of course, with the USA way of writing month/day/year. I think internal computer clocks date/time stamp things in this most-significant-number-first way.

[I remember being fascinated with binary numbers when I was eight or so. What I can't remember now is what I did with them!]

The photo is of Sainsbury's Distribution Centre by the Lee Navigation. Many people will be more interested in the Rye House Kart Racing opposite - as, indeed, I was on the way upstream - and might miss Sainsbury's. Not that they'd be able to buy their bread and paper there.

Why, incidentally, do dog walkers feel they have to wear hi-vis jackets these days? (Perhaps if the dog had been wearing one too I might have included it in the picture!)

Milking it on the Lee

Some boats have very odd names, don't they? On the Lee Navigation in August 2010 we went past Milking Shed just south of Stanstead Abbots.


Well, this is my last post of 2010. 396 posts! Knock out the weekly Top Thirty chart posts, though, and the total goes down to 344 or 355 (I think I missed one week). Still, that's very nearly one a day. Mostly drivel, but if you've enjoyed reading it, then that's great.

So ...

A Happy New Year to all my readers!

And may the only ice you encounter while boating - whether really or virtually - be that which goes in your G&T.

Boozy boat juxtaposition

Liquid Lunch next to Spirit Level just above Stanstead Lock on the Lee Navigation in August 2010.

On Christmas Day we most certainly did not have a(n entirely) liquid lunch. Afterwards ten of us went for a short walk round the village. Here we are illuminated by the security light on our return.


(yes, I was the one taking the photo.)

[By the way, H.S., did you know that clicking on a photo will (usually) enlarge it?]

Caption competition

Is that you Bones?

Thank you, Debbie, for that caption.


No prizes, but if you write your caption as a comment I'll incorporate it into the post.

Offers so far (with a small amount of editing):

The locks can be a bit slow on this waterway (Halfie)

Will you ever bring me that tea? (Halfie)

Thats a rowing boat coming past. No its not, its a scull! (Captain Ahab)

Whose turn to steer? (H.S.)

Waiting for new licence from BW (Martin)

It'll take more than a skeleton crew to get this boat moving. (Jan)

Is that you Bones? (Debbie)

In 1960 they told me this was the Tardis & I'm still tryin' to get inside the darn thing ... (Heth)


Thank you all who have contributed. Debbie, your caption made me laugh out loud, so I've promoted it to top spot!

(edited to incorporate suggestions)

Snow on narrowboats, and gauging loads

On her blog yesterday Heather of Takey Tezey mentioned that members of the local constabulary were handing out £50 fines to anyone driving around with snow on their vehicle's roof. In a comment I explained why driving with snow on the roof is dangerous, but then got thinking about how much snow would have to fall on a narrowboat's roof before its weight* became a hazard.

A foot of snow on a 60' narrowboat weighs about a ton. How do I know? Well, I worked it out.

60 feet is about 20m. That's 2,000cm. The boat's beam is about seven feet, or approximately 2m. That's 200cm. Multiplying together gives the area:

2,000cm x 200cm = 400,000 square centimetres.

Assuming that a foot of snow is equivalent to an inch of water, all we have to do is multiply this depth (1" = 2.5cm approx.) by the area:

2.5cm x 400,000 square centimetres = 1,000,000 cubic centimetres.

This is the total equivalent volume of water.

We know from car engine capacities that 1,000cc is 1 litre. So a million cc is 1,000 litres. A litre of water weighs 1kg, so a foot of snow on this narrowboat would weigh 1,000kg, or one tonne (or approximately one ton in old money).

The extra load would, assuming even distribution, merely serve to push the boat down in the water about an inch. (Why? Because that's the equivalent extra depth of water on top of the boat. It would displace its own weight of canal water, or an inch's worth.) That's if the ice were to relax its grip (and it probably would). OK, the boat's now a little less stable now, but dangerously so? Probably not. Most of the weight (I believe a modern steel narrowboat weighs about 17 tons) is still below water level.

Now if TWO feet of snow were to fall, that would mean two tons extra on the roof, or a possible increase in weight of more than ten percent. This could start to get significant, especially as this weight is a long way from where you'd normally want ballast.

In calculating the above I now understand why working boats sink about an inch for every ton of load. Yes, working boats are generally 72 feet long, but a cabin and the pointed bow would limit the hold to a maximum of 60 feet, so my calculation, although approximate, is directly applicable.

The photo is of Fulbourne heading up the Thames above Teddington Locks. It looks as though there's a good two feet of freeboard, so I would estimate that it could take an extra 24 tons of load. (That's 24 feet of snow!)

*Note: I have talked about "weight" (a force) where, strictly speaking, I should have used the word "mass" (a, er, mass). But, given that narrowboats are unlikely to be navigating in an environment where the acceleration due to gravity is much different from 9.81 metres per second squared, I think I can get away with it! Of course, if we discover narrowboats on the moon - in a snowstorm - I'm quite prepared to reconsider.

Weird natural ice formations

On a walk yesterday David and Penny came across some strange ice sculptures. Today, after we'd said goodbye to the last of our Christmas guests, we went for a walk ourselves, and saw the outlandish natural phenomenon.


A small stream often flows across the road at this dip. Passing cars have thrown spray to the sides, which has frozen on plants and on the grass verge, creating these amazing shapes.


And this was after a few hours of thaw. I imagine it was even more spectacular yesterday.

Christmas Day and Boxing Day chez Halfie

Thank you everyone who wished us well at Christmas. This was the scene at the present-opening session after The Queen. I'm happy to report that there was no fresh snow, and that all the hoped-for guests came.


On Boxing Day nine ten of us went for a walk to the old gravel pit nearby.


This is Jemima looking at the shafts of sunlight through the trees.