Top Thirty, 2013 week 16

Here is the UK Waterways Site Ranking (top thirty places) as it stood at 2050 on Sunday 21st April 2013. This is taken, with permission, from Tony Blews's UK Waterways Ranking Site.


1 Canal World Discussion Forums (=)

2 CanalPlanAC (=)

3 Living on a Narrowboat (+2)

4 Retirement with No Problem (+2)

5 Water Explorer (+2)

6 Waterway Routes (+3)

7 UKCanals Network (+1)

8 Towpath Treks (+4)

9 nb Epiphany (+1)

10 nb Waiouru (+3)

11 boatshare (+4)

12 Canal Shop Company (+5)

13 Narrowboat Chance (+8)

14 Narrowboat Briar Rose (+12)

15 M. B. Willow (-1)

16 Milburn Boats Ltd (+4)

17 One Thing After Another (+7)

18 Narrowboat Dreaming .... Parisien Star (+13)

19 UK Waterways Ranking Site (-)

20 NB The Manly Ferry (+5)

21 Boats and Canals Forum (+2)

22 Baddie the Pirate (+5)

23 Contented Souls (-)

24 boatrent (-2)

25 Rock n Roll (-)

26 'Eileen Inlanding' (-)

27 Seyella's Journey (-)

28 NB Percy (-)

29 Narrowboat Tacet (-)

30 Narrow Boat Albert (-)

31 freespirit (-)

32 BCBM Ltd (-)

33 Narrowboat Starcross (-)

34 Pennine Waterways (-31)



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 81 entries, down from 190 last week. Tony has had to make some changes to his ranking website. This has meant that all subscribers to his system have effectively had to start again from zero hits, so it will take a week or two for things to settle down. I have only just replaced the code in my blog, hence my position now of number 76.

Sweeping a Villager Puffin stove

One job I did before leaving Shadow was to sweep the flue. I'd discovered a new-looking flue brush in the front locker, so I removed the chimney and ran it up and down the flue a few times. To get the brush right down to the stove I had to insert my arm up to the elbow. Yes, the fire was out and the stove was cold!

For the benefit of Jim of Starcross I got Jan to take a photo showing the baffle plate removed complete with its pile of soot. The plate slides out easily, and there is no need to scrape the soot off with it in situ in the stove.


This little lot tipped nicely into the ash can.


And look: my hand is hardly dirty.

This shows the baffle plate back in position, sitting on its supports:


In the photo it's shown not quite pushed fully home. I push it all the way back, so that hot air is forced the long way round to escape up the flue.

This is one of the quickest and easiest boat maintenance tasks. I'll have to get my own flue brush for Jubilee - the last time I swept Jubilee's flue I used a tree branch. The proper brush does a much better job.

Next I blacked the top of the stove to hide the rust marks.

By the way, Jim, I'm reasonably confident this is the (4kW) Puffin. According to the Villager website the Heron at 5kW is bigger.

Life after work

Easter cruise 2013 with pictures!

It's odd how, after an enforced break from blogging, it's difficult to start up again. I'm finding that to be the case. We were without internet for two or three nights in a row towards the end of our two weeks on Shadow; then I had a late night after going to see my parents in Essex; then I was unwell ...

Anyway, here I am again, reliving that cold cruise.

On April Fool's day we set off from Braunston after a car/bike shuffle.


Snow was our constant companion.


It picked out the mediæval ridge and furrow field systems abounding in this area.


At Willoughby David, Penny and Fergus joined us.


Here is David steering out of Hillmorton Bottom Lock.


Seeing this boat reminded me that I am about to discover that there is ...


... life after work!

We're home

Apologies for the lack of blog posts lately - we've managed to find mooring spots without internet signal.

But we're home now, and I'm now going to be able to provide pictures. That's when I've uploaded them from the camera, which could take some time.

Future posts will include "The (of)fenders of Bosworth Tunnel"; visitors at Crick; and winding hampered by wind.

I should have time to write the first of these tomorrow, but the lawn needs mowing ...

Top Thirty, 2013 week 15

Here is the UK Waterways Site Ranking (top thirty places) as it stood at 2235 on Sunday 14th April 2013. This is taken, with permission, from Tony Blews's UK Waterways Ranking Site.


1 Canal World Discussion Forums (=)

2 CanalPlanAC (=)

3 Pennine Waterways (=)

4 Jim Shead's Waterways Information (=)

5 Living on a Narrowboat (=)

6 Retirement with No Problem (=)

7 Water Explorer (+1)

8 UKCanals Network (+1)

9 Waterway Routes (-2)

10 nb Epiphany (=)

11 Granny Buttons (=)

12 Towpath Treks (+3)

13 nb Waiouru (-1)

14 M. B. Willow (+7)

15 boatshare (-1)

16 Jannock Website (-3)

17 Canal Shop Company (=)

18 Captain Ahab's Watery Tales (=)

19 ExOwnerships (+5)

20 Milburn Boats Ltd (-)

21 Narrowboat Chance (-)

22 boatrent (+8)

23 Boats and Canals Forum (+6)

24 One Thing After Another (-8)

25 NB The Manly Ferry (-)

26 Narrowboat Briar Rose (-7)

27 Baddie the Pirate (-5)

28 Macclesfield Canal (-)

29 Herbie (-)

30 The Real Life of a Narrowboat Wife (-)

31 Narrowboat Dreaming .... Parisien Star (-)

32 Boatshed Grand Union (-)

33 Trafalgar marine Services (-)

34 boats and cruising (-1)

35 Halfie (-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 190 entries, down from 192 two weeks ago. (Apologies for the lack of chart last week.)

Leicester to Kilby Bridge - where have all the boats gone?

Where have all the boats gone? We saw just two moving boats in seven hours of cruising today. OK, this isn't yer Grand Union main line, or yer Oxford Canal, but neither is it the outer reaches of the BCN (or the Erewash, come to that). This is the Leicester section of the GU. In fact, there were barely any moored boats until we got to Blaby, five miles from Leicester. Is this not the start of the peak season for boating? Easter holidays? Or has the persistent wintry weather put everyone off?

Things went smoothly on today's cruise until we reached St. Mary's Mill Lock. This was leaking badly from one of the top ground paddles, and only one of the bottom gate paddles worked, meaning that the lock didn't drain fully. Consequently I couldn't open a bottom gate on my own. Jan was in the shower. Fortunately I didn't have to wait too long for a walker to come along and help.

The next incident of note was when I was trying to take a photo of a dye works while negotiating a tight bend. A moment of concentration on the photo was at the expense of correct positioning of the boat - with the inevitable result of running into trees and the bank. To make it worse there was a witness on the bank who made some comment about my similarity to Fred Dibnah (I'd managed to knock the chimney down).

We stopped for lunch above Gee's Lock. A very peaceful spot. Certainly untroubled by passing boats.

Jan earnt several Maffi points today, collecting three bags full of rubbish as she walked along the towpath. After disposing of them at Kilby Bridge we had a meal at the Navigation pub. Not as cheap as the last time we were here, but good food nevertheless. The Navigation ale (£3.00/pint) was good too.

I spent some of the evening sawing and chopping. If we don't use the logs I expect Ally and Ben will.

Or will they? The weather felt warmer today than for a long time. The chilly wind had eased, and there was enough heat in the sun for us not to wear coats and gloves. The first time this holiday!

The locks will be fast and furious tomorrow: 12 of them in four miles will raise us to the Market Harborough level. I expect I'll get my bike out for some lock wheeling. After that the Foxton Locks will be the last ones we ascend. It's downhill all the way from there to Wigram's Turn by Saturday.

Loughborough to Leicester, and the problem with rivers

I think we're unlikely to tie up in Loughborough Basin again. The pontoons are too short to be able to tie both ends of a 58' boat to, so we tied up along the concrete basin edge. Here, though, the bollards are hardly any better spaced. The wind during the night caused the boat to bash against the side, waking us with every crash.

In the morning we watered up and arranged for daughter Ally to join us at Barrow-on-Soar. She would get the train back from Leicester to retieve her car and drive home in the evening. This plan worked well: we'd only just tied up above Barrow Lock when Ally phoned to say she was walking from the station.

As we approached Leicester the amount of visible rubbish increased, most noticeably hanging from low branches of trees swept by recent flood waters. In one place this was above the top of the boat - scary!

Jan's dislike of rivers was strengthened when, on leaving Birstall Lock, the wind caught Shadow and she was unable to pick me up after I closed the gate. She had to steer, avoiding weirs, shallows and overhanging trees while I walked on looking for a suitable pick-up place. About a mile later I was able to rejoin the boat, to Jan's relief.

When we got to the Castle Park moorings where we had hoped to tie up for the night we found that they were full. Jan on the bank, though, had negotiated with one of the boats there to let us tie up alongside. I think they will be off at 0900 tomorrow, so we'd better be up and ready to go by then.

The weather today has been possibly slightly warmer than recently, but still with a strongish cold wind. A rise in temperature is forecast for tomorrow, but with some rain in the evening. We'll see.

And tomorrow's destination is Kilby Bridge. The last time we were here the pub did puddings for 50p. Let's hope for the same again!

Trowell to Loughborough, and a good meal at Wetherspoon's

Another earlyish start this morning saw us catch up with our schedule. Last night's mooring was as quiet as any we've enjoyed. We carried on down the wide locks of the Erewash Canal until, eventually, we arrived at Trent Lock. NB Free Spirit was there, but there seemed to be no-one on board.

We crossed the Trent onto the Soar, and made good progress to Loughborough where we have tied up in the basin. There's only one other boat here, and I'm fairly sre it's the same one as was here last time we were here: Ramesses II (sic).

As we entered Ratcliffe Lock a wide beam boat came up behind us. Unfortunately, of course, we couldn't share the lock, so we went on ahead. After we tied up in the basin at Loughborough I cycled back to Loughborough Lock to see if I could help them through, but they'd already done it. Instead I chatted to single-hander Ross of Bluebell as I helped him down the lock. He was on his way to do the Rochdale Canal.

This evening we looked up the local Wetherspoon's (the Moon and Bell) and had a good meal (my mixed grill was excellent - £9.60 including a real ale of my choice). They were holding one of their seemingly never-ending beer festivals, and I enjoyed three third-pint tasters of more of the ales (in particular the Good George "Pacific Pearl", a dark beer at 5.5% abv).

Before returning to Shadow we called in at the nearby huge Tesco for a few provisions. Last time we were here (2009?) there was only the Sainsbury's (which is still there).

Tomorrow looks like being a shorter day as we have only to reach Birstall.