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Brian | 21 May 2013 22:04

Harnser Trip Report

Date -  21 May 2013
Day - Tuesday
Start - 1100 Ely
End -1300 Little Ouse Moorings

You will find our latest position and all our past travels with
photographs on our blog at http://nbharnser.blogspot.com/

Now we are home I have uploaded so videos to Sundays Blog, you can read it here.

last night we ate at The Boathouse on Ely waterfront. The food was very good and Diana thought her Duck was the
best she has ever had.

 This morning we woke to wind and rain, we had been moored under a
sycamore tree and the wind had deposited loads of unripe sycamore seeds
on the roof, at the same time the pigeons had deposited something else,
so we had to scrub the roof before we set off.
 While we were doing this a uniformed gentlemen came by recording all
the boats on the moorings, these moorings are limited to 48 hrs with no
return in 48 hours.  
 We only went a short distance to the other end of town where we stopped
to pump out the toilet tank. Once this was sorted we were really off.

The light was much better today so I took another shot of the Cathedral PhotoDSCF1901  
 I was surprised that the trains were still travelling over the Adelaide
bridge. They have recently added these arches over the bridge, at first
I though they were to carry overhead cables but now I am not so sure as
they are so close.a PhotoDSCF1902 

The wind and waves were coming straight down the river towards us, but that was the only thing that was.
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Brian | 20 May 2013 19:26

Harnser Trip Report

Date -  20 May 2013
Day - Monday
Start - 1030 
End - 1630 Ely Jubilee Gardens

You will find our latest position and all our past travels with
photographs on our blog at http://nbharnser.blogspot.com/

 Firstly I have decided to title my blog in a different format, starting
with the place we are moored at that night. I thought this may help
people if they are looking for information on a particular place or area.

 back to today. The weather has gone back to early spring, yesterday was
tee shirt weather, today tee shirt, shirt, fleece, jacket. 

 We set off at 1030am and headed up the Cam. There are a couple more
boats moored at the Fish and Duck but not much sign of life. Until today
I had only seen a couple of Swifts, today I have seen dozens of them,
probably more today than I normally see in a year, also Swallows and
Martins of course. I tried very hard to get a photo of them but they are
not called Swifts for no reason, I got lots of photos of sky.a
PhotoDSCF1892 
This is a real haven for bird life. As we approached Bottisham Lode we
spotted what we think was a Kingfisher nest and had we not been there I
think it would have gone in, who knows. Shortly after that was a pair of
Moorhens with 7 chicks.a PhotoDSCF1896  I don’t recall seeing that many
before, they lay lots of eggs but you normally only see about 4 chicks.
 We winded just below the lock as we don’t have a cam licence. The EA
have drawn the levels down a bit in anticipation of heavy rain. This has
resulted in lots of holes in the banks being exposed, I was wondering if
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Oonagh & Peter Trigg | 20 May 2013 12:50
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CRT User Group Report West Midlands

This was circulated to the BCNS list – thought it might be of interest.  If the attachments (PDF files) 
don’t get through can someone please let me know how to post.

Regards

Peter

From: Brenda Ward 
Sent: Friday, May 17, 2013 7:26 PM
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Subject: Fwd: CRT report for Boundary Post

Hi All

Dean Davies & his team along with John Dodwell presented a User Group Meeting at the Visitors Centre at
Chasewater at the end of April. It was well attended but not all of you were there so Dean & John think its a
good idea to spread this information to as many of you that can be reached so if you want to pass this on please
do. See two attachments.
All the best
Brenda
--

-- 

The BCN Society, a Company Limited by Guarantee, is a registered charity (1091760) first formed in 1968,
which exists to conserve, improve and encourage a wide range of interests in the 100 mile network of
Birmingham and Black Country waterways known as the Birmingham Canal Navigations. 

Boundary Post is the journal of the BCNS and is issued quarterly. 

Take a look at our website:-http://www.bcnsociety.co.uk/
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Brian | 19 May 2013 23:46

Harnser Trip Report

Date -  19 May 2013
Day - Sunday
Start - 1620 Prickwillow
End -1930 Little Thetford

You will find our latest position and all our past travels with
photographs on our blog at http://nbharnser.blogspot.com/

 Yesterday evening the wind died to nothing giving some lovely
reflections.a PhotoDSCF1819  A Black Prince Narrowboat came down stream
and moored at the moorings the other side of the bridge.

 This morning the sun was streaming in, there was no wind and it was
warm. We set to and washed the boat roof, this was so we could see the
rust spots easier as in places all that is visible is a small crack, but
scrape it and great lumps come off. Once that was done we wandered down
to the Pumping Museum. 
In the car park they had three steam powered Fire Engines all in steam with there copper, brass and paint work
gleaming. 

a PhotoDSCF1824

a PhotoDSCF1828

a PhotoDSCF1826 

a PhotoDSCF1829

 They also had an old what could best be described as a pickup to tow it
with instead of horses. It is actually a first world war Royal Flying
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Lee wells | 19 May 2013 13:56

Guyers lock closure.

Hello, 
 Guyers Lock (84) on the Kennet and Avon canal. 

Boats have been returning from Guyers as one of the fate has come off its hinges. Workman on site are telling
boaters that it will be closed for a week plus at least as crane etc need to be brought to the lock. 
I've not been up there myself, just passing on info from returning boats. Hope this doesn't disrupt too many journeys!
All the best Lee

Sent from my iPhone

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Brian | 18 May 2013 16:00

Harnser Trip Report

Date -  18 may 2013
Day - Saturday
Start - 1015
End -1330 Prickwillow

You will find our latest position and all our past travels with
photographs on our blog at http://nbharnser.blogspot.com/

Last nights moorings at Station Road are in my opinion the best ones in Littleport. They are well away from
the main roads and also the most distant point from the railway.

This morning we were away at 1015hrs. and we could see that the water level had dropped by quite some distance
overnight,a PhotoDSCF1807  so the EA must be expecting more heavy rain in Cambridgeshire. Again we
didn’t meet any other boats all day. About three quarters of an hour latter we were turning into the Lark.
As we turned we could see the moorings at Diamonds were also empty, just like the ones opposite the Swan.

Making our way down the Lark, Tom’s Hole Farm moorings were also empty, such a shame we didn’t want to stop
here. It was not long before we were at Littleport. Again all the moorings were empty, not a boat in sight. We
stopped just before the road bridge and filled with water. As things were so quiet we decided to carry on
upstream for a mile or so. As we left the village we passed the second lot of moorings in the village, again
deserted. We approached a pair of Grebes that were totally engrossed in each other and I actually had to
turn to avoid them, they didn’t move until our bows were level with them.a PhotoDSCF1812 

We passed the discharge from a drainage pump, in this case with tree pipe outlets, however this one for some
reason is surrounded by a plywood housing. This is the only one I have seen like this.a PhotoDSCF1816  

About a mile further upstream we winded and headed back to the Mile End Road at Prickwillow and moored for the
night at about 1330hrs. 

Our reason for mooring here tonight is that tomorrow the Prickwillow Pumping Museum have an engine running
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Brian | 17 May 2013 22:21

Harnser Trip Report

Date - 17May 2013 
Day - Friday
Start - 1430
End -1530 Littleport

You will find our latest position and all our past travels with
photographs on our blog at http://nbharnser.blogspot.com/

We arrived back at the boat a little after 2pm. We had bit of a diversion on the way along the old A47 as a coach
full of pensioners had caught fire casing the police to close the A47 just west of the end of the Norwich bypass.

Once on the boat we went upstream through the moorings to wind and then back down to the end of the moorings to
load up from the car.

Just after we exited the Little Ouse, turning left along the Great Ouse a Narrowboat came from the Denver
direction and followed us all the way to Littleport where we pulled in to moor just ahead of NB Balmaha. As
Diana adjusted the front rope to give maximum room to moor for any boat to moor ahead of us the passing
Narrowboat called out to ask if we were just going. There would have been room for him ahead but he just kept going.

The afternoon was spent drinking first tea and then wine in NB Balmaha while we discussed their trip across
the Wash and caught up with other news since last time we stopped for a proper chat 2 years ago in Peterborough.

As we made our way along the Gt Ouse I light the stove, I know its passed the middle of May but it was only 13° in
the boat, now its a pleasant 23°.

Tomorrow we will be heading to Prickwillow as on Sunday the engines will be running at the pump museum and
also there will be vintage fire engines on display.

--

-- 
Brian
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David | 17 May 2013 21:42
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Hand cranked Thornycroft

Anyone fancy a trip on a 60ft trad powered by a 20hp Thornycroft engine?

The deal is that you get to hand crank the engine as the owner can't do it, and I won't try!

David

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Richard Tanner | 15 May 2013 16:23
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Re: FW:

Access denied

Richard

On 18 April 2013 14:15, John Slee <john@...> wrote:

> **
>
>
> http://www.acst-h.co.jp/tklfjx.php
>
>  
>

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

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John Slee | 18 Apr 2013 15:15
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FW:

http://www.acst-h.co.jp/tklfjx.php

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Chris J Brady | 15 May 2013 07:05
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New tradition ... Canal Handspike Dancing

Waterways News • June 2013, p20-31

DANCE HISTORY The South Pennine Boat Club claims to have made 'dance history' on 4th May when the world's
first Handspike Dance was performed at the organisation's rally and open day.

===

Dewsbury Reporter 

VIDEO: Dancing pirates down at boat club

By Robert Cooke 
Published on 29/04/2013 11:49

http://www.dewsburyreporter.co.uk/news/local/more-local-news/video-dancing-pirates-down-at-boat-club-1-5626419

Dancing pirates have been practicing their steps ahead of an exclusive debut performance.

Members of the South Pennine Boat Club have choreographed a brand new routine they are calling the
Handspike Dance.

It combines country dancing, morris dancing and break-dancing, and dancers carry handspikes.

The handspikes are normally used to work the locks along the Calder and Hebble Navigation.

But on Saturday, boat club members Hipless Jon, Marlin Spike, Fearless Frank, Ken Bear-Paaark, Pete
Two-Names and Captain Grey Beard will don their best pirate gear and give the first public performance of
the Handspike Dance.

Above, you can see a video of the group practicing, filmed by Reporter photographer Jake Oakley.
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Gmane