I’ve mostly been on boats in the UK, though occasionally been on pleasure boats abroad, such as cruise to Egypt, channel ferry, and a passenger pleasure boat through Paris. I wasn’t set up with time lapse equipment at those times, so sadly no footage. However, Kevin a fellow time lapse boater, sent me a link to his trip on a French passenger boat, so thought I’d share it.

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Andrew noted in his twitter box at GrannyButtons that CanalPlanAC was down. It was for me too, so I checked with a site-Uptime service and it said the server was down (that is mihalis.net rather than the canalplanac domain). So a bit of digging and I found:

Nick Atty’s Canal Route planner (Canalplan AC) will be unavailable for a bit because I have to move the server.

Just completing final precautionary backups in case the current server never comes back to life (it has been mostly up and running for over five years and is just a homebuilt PC in my basement)

posted 1st June 2008

So lets hope you’re not just setting out on your boat and have forgotten to plan a journey and wanted to do it “last thing”.

There are tons of canal events and festivals that occur, and whilst large ones such as Crick will always attract 1000’s of visitors, how do you make a less known one a successful event? One way could be to host an unusual competition, such as the Duck Race being held in the Delph Locks for the 150th anniversary event taking place this weekend (7th-8th June)

“The race will see 800 ducks swimming between the locks for a 1st prize of £150.”

Its amazing that they got 800 ducks to enter the race, who’d have thought it, mind you I’m sure some will be doing it for charity. I always thought humans were strange because some have the urge to race a marathon, but at least we’re not the only species. I wonder if there will be any there racing in fancy dress?

Yes I do realise they’ll be plastic!

Granny Buttons posted about the canal boat magazine game, and several bloggers have taken the challenge. So I thought I’d be like a sheep and join in:

1. What’s your favourite canal?
   The one I’m on at the time. Each usually has something I like about, such as Northern Oxford looking at the shortening that occurred. Then again apart from this it’s quite boring and maybe I should nominate it for Q2.
2. And your least-favourite?
   The one I’m on, if its pelting it down and there’s no decent moorings around. I’ll nominate the Southern Oxford as you can go ages before you find anywhere.
3. Who would be your ideal cruising companion?
   A clone of myself, that way I could drive the boat and operate the locks. Hmm. Its not that I’m a loner or totally big headed I just like steering and operating the locks.
4. What was the last book you read? (I reckon the question should be “last waterways book you read, not including magazines or canal guides”)
   Barking by Tom Holt, and as far as Waterways book, I guess the first Narrow Dog book, or can we have books that mention canals?
5. What’s your favourite time of day on the waterways?
   A sunny afternoon, you can relax and enjoy the cruise without having to squint at the sun which is usually the case a few hours later.
6. What irritates you most on the waterways?
   Impatient boaters, such as those who empty/fill a lock that’s set for you just because they got there first. Ooo and owners who moor right next to locks or the mooring posts and then moan because you come close to them because you want to use the lock.
7. When would you most like to have lived?
   Either 1790 or 2090. It would have been great to live through the Canal Mania, assuming that I was involved, though not just as a navvie - don’t think I’d like to have been some factory worker with no access to canals. So how about some time in the future when there are solar powered narrowboats and you can easily work virtually from onboard.
8. When did you last fall in?
   December 2005, a chilly afternoon when I was just mooring up in a marina having been out for a week and was tying the bow to the next boat.
9. What did you want to be at 12?
   Not sure, it could well to be a canal boater as that was my first holiday on a hire narrowboat - I’d been on the Broads a few times when we hired cruisers, but this time it was with our neighbours who’d hired many times, so we had a 70′ hire boat and I was given a few goes at steering.
10. If I didn’t have narrowboating I’d … ?
    be on the Broads, or possibly be non-floating caravan.
11. Narrowboaters are … ?
    A very friendly bunch, willing to chat and always willing to help.
12. After a day’s cruising I most look forward to …
    A beer at the pub we’ve moored near.
13. The waterways need … ?
    Straightening, there’s too many bends in it … LOL. Less longterm moorings, I go out to enjoy the canals not passing miles of moored boats who’s owners use it as a weekend floating caravan. I was pleased when BW said they’d remove moorings in proportion to new marina moorings coming on-line, but not so when they gave-in to some boaters who complained when they tried to remove their cheap moorings.
14. If you met the Waterways Minister on the towpath, what would you say to him?
    Nothing, because I’m sure he’d only politely say he’d “do his best” to take my suggestions on board and then forget them as soon as I’ve left.
15. Windows or portholes?
    Windows, since I like to be able to see when inside.
16. Pumpout or cassette?
    Pumpout. I like my flushing toilet, well I say ‘like’ I just prefer not having to mess with cassettes every day or so. Some people call narrowboats “floating caravans”, but that doesn’t mean I want the full camping experience.
17. Canals or rivers?
    Canals, though like both.
18. Where will you be when you are 70?
    Steering a boat, or complaining the locks aren’t at easy as they used to be.
19. What do you think is your greatest achievement in life?
    Don’t know yet.
20. What would your superpower be?
    The ability to know what my greatest achievement will be so that I ensure I do it.

You’re chugging along on your boat at 3mph when suddenly something gets caught on your propeller, maybe  it just makes a brief noise, so you give a blast in reverse and it clears, or maybe it stops dead and so you engine stalls. Either way its usually just a minor inconvenience, it just slows you down if you carry on or delays you whilst you delve down the weed hatch if you stop and clear it. This isn’t too much trouble when you are out on the cut, but there are times when it causes more of a problem, for instance doing the Warwickshire Ring in 2007 my prop got snared on the way into Birmingham when time was an issue - it was early evening and I still had a flight of locks to get through to reach the city centre mooring. That wasn’t too bad, a slightly more frantic time was when I got a ground sheet on my prop just as I was entering a lock. It stopped my engine and I just carried on into the empty lock until my bow fender met the cill and brought me to a stop.

However getting a snag on a river can be a completely different kettle of fish. Kevin, a fellow time-lapse boater, told me about the time his engine gave out turning his boat into a very large  Poohstick bobbing along the river until he was eventually brought to rest on the bank downstream. My experience wasn’t so gentile, mainly due to the sound of rushing water - that’s right whilst approaching a weir!

Heading down the Avon I got something on my prop, but after giving it a blast in reverse it seemed to clear so I carried on. I guess as we were going downstream and taking our time it wasn’t apparent that anything was wrong. It was a sunny day and waters calm, so something we could do when we stopped, after all it probably had cleared itself. As I approached IWA lock on the Avon, a tight turning infront of the weir I found I didn’t have enough power (so there was something on my prop slowing me down enough that I couldn’t go much more than tick over) and the boat turned, caught by the current, and turning broadside straight for the weir … well, straight for the safety buoys. So after shouting for everyone to brace themselves it was a case of leaning away until we reached the buoys and it took the strain bringing us to a halt.

I  was now running on adrenalin and after checking we were okay, it was a matter of rescuing the boat! The bow was near the bank and luckily there was a hire boat in the lock who’s crew came to help. So I put the boat into gear pushing it forward as everyone else pushed the bow round to the lock channel entrance (luckily not far, a couple of feet) and the boat went forward and we were out of danger. Quite an experience, and all captured on camera!

Not many posts recently, I guess because its cold and I’m not on the boat! What I have been doing is adding photo’s on canalplan mainly of the places without photo’s, but some with just the one. So you can go to the gazetteer and browse your planned route, which is quite good. My time lapse photo’s mean I can contribute quite a bit, and I’ve been steadily going up the leader board, which shows how many photo’s people have added. So next time you’re on a boat, take a few extra pictures of the bridges, locks, and turning points, and share them. Also why not browse over your route to gleam off information and see some pictures too.