We pulled pins at 07.45 as we had a busy day in front of us. We wanted to get down through the Napton flight and then drop down through the 3 Calcutt double locks and pick up a mooring by one of the marina entrances. Passing the dug in boat on the summit and he is still there with a big GO sign on the mound of earth that was dug out to create his little marina. If Canal and River Trust do nothing about this, or cannot legally do anything about it i can see a lot of people buying small parcels of land next to a canal and doing the same thing. ..Now that gives me an idea…
Dropping down the Napton flight and i never tire of the view across to Napton on the hill.
The fields on the way down the flight are full of Buffalo’s ,. I did say to Carolyn we will have to try a Buffalo steak sometime.
Carolyn doesn't normally like going down in locks , but she let me do 6 locks on the way down the flight..If I'm not careful she will have me operating all the locks ,and that would never do !!!
There are in total 5 signs within 40 yards telling you that this is a water point at the bottom of Napton and is for water or lock landing only. So my question is .What is this hire boater doing leaving his boat tied up and unattended on the water point. Is he Stupid ? or a total tosser who cares about no one else except himself.There was no note in the window to say it had broken down or there had been an emergency. The crazy thing is that there were loads of moorings just back around the corner. There were also 2 boats waiting behind us to get water who were not at all happy.
With Carolyn back on the windlass its onto the Grand union canal as we turn at Wigrams junction and come across double locks again.
We picked up a lovely peaceful mooring half way along the straight from Calcutt towards Stockton. With good internet and TV this will do us for tonight.
Happy Days
Yes we have come across a selfish wide-beam owner moored on a water-point, with water running in and out of the his boat.
ReplyDeleteWe asked him to move along as there was room for two boats and he wouldn't. After a 'discussion' and waiting half an hour we gave up with the selfish 'person' and left.
Did you just do a few single locks so that it was Carolyn's turn when you hit the double ones then Gary?
Ann
There is always one or two selfish people when it comes to water points. Often with the shower outlet pump going and boats waiting for them to fill.funny that when it was Carolyn's turn the locks were doubles !!!!
DeleteHi Gary, After a couple of times of seeing boats moored on water points and moving on to look for the next one, we now moor alongside them and climb over them. It is easier if they are closed up and empty - less likelihood of aggro. But still we do it so they KNOW that they shouldn't be there and that we have the right to access the waterpoint. We do say 'You don't mind if we pull alongside you so we can get to the waterpoint, do you?' Our 'favourites' are the ones who have the hose in the tank but not turned on ... Would be a bit hard at the bottom of the Napton flight as it's not terribly wide there, eh? As it was a hireboat, I'd have been inclined to move it ...
ReplyDeleteOn the Thames recently we moved one empty moored up boat down to the end of the lock landing from the waterpoint it was moored on - having asked the lock keeper first. Also had to help move another broken down boat away from the self service pumpout. Both boaters had moored right on the services area - nuts or what! Cheers, Marilyn
Hi Marilyn, I suppose if we were desperate mooring alongside is a good option. We always try to avoid any aggro , but sometimes it really gets to you .luckily as we move a lot we pass a lot of water points and if there is an empty one we tend to stop and top up. I do know a couple of people who do not untie the boats and move them but cut the ropes ..Which is a bit severe , and something I just couldn't bring myself to do ,but apparently it gets the message over as it hits them in the pocket when they have to buy new ropes..
DeleteHi Gary, We don't move any great distance at one time so we generally need to use the waterpoints when we get to them. We used to move to the next one, but decided that mooring up alongside gave a good message without having to be grumpy. Cheers, M
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