Stoke Bruerne – Google Streetview style

March 11, 2010 by Mike · 2 Comments
Filed under: Canals 

Thursday 11th March 2010

Braunston Tunnel should be opening today and Zulu was supposed to be on the move tomorrow but I just heard that yet another stoppage has been extended, this time Buckby Locks, which will not now be open until mid-day on Monday, so although we can get through Braunston Tunnel as of today (can anyone confirm that it did actually reopen today as scheduled) then the furthest I can get this weekend is the other end of Braunston Tunnel so its simply not worth moving from Braunston.  I imagine a lot of boats will be trying to get through and they will all end up at Norton Junction 4 miles from Braunston, where mooring will not be easy.

I had hoped to reach Stoke Bruerne by Saturday and then Milton Keynes area by Sunday so I can leave Zulu for one last stopover before we get a home run to Uxbridge.

So today I will have to do with a virtual tour of Stoke Bruerne, thanks to  Google StreetView which has just been extended to cover virtually everywhere in the country – even rural lanes can now be viewed – and there’s bound to be some other excellent canal scenes.  Here’s the one I just found showing  Stoke Bruerne!

Stoke Bruerne as seen in Google Streetview

Stoke Bruerne as seen in Google Streetview

The world has become even smaller as a result of this amazing technology.

Click to link to this location in Google Streetview.

I may even get to see this for real, on Zulu, in a week or two’s time but not next weekend – its holiday time again!

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Take no notice. What stoppages?

February 28, 2010 by Mike · 2 Comments
Filed under: Canals, Cruising Log 
Incorrect stoppage notice on Lapworth locks

Incorrect stoppage notice on Lapworth locks. Even the phone number is mis-typed.

Last week we came down the 19 frozen and snow covered Lapworth locks from Birmingham and I meant to mention the notice pinned to the balance beams of lock 20, the bottom lock of the flight if arriving from the Grand Union.  I knew it to be untrue, having just arrived from the other direction but what would I be expected to do if I had just arrived to go up the flight?  Maybe walk 2 miles to the top, to verify it is possible to get through – as once committed to the flight there is no turning place until well after the top lock.  Maybe I should just assume it is OK in the absence of a lock and chain? Or maybe check Waterscape.com to find out whether there is really a stoppage?

Search results from Waterscape.com

Search results from Waterscape.com

Yes that’s what I did earlier in the trip.  No point in phoning British Waterways these days, as the stock answer is “have you checked Waterscape.com?”  I didn’t realise it at the time but by searching for stoppages on the Stratford Canal and CHANGING THE FROM DATE I had broken the search system, which then returned a long list of incorrect stoppages!  I couldn’t understand why boats had been arriving in Birmingham while I was seeing a long list of Lapworth stoppages for January to March.  And then the penny dropped.  The search results were showing me 2009 stoppages – I just hadn’t noticed the year until now!  I tried it again at Lapworth and got exactly the same incorrect results.

Today after complaining to British Waterways about this, I notice that the search results have been corrected, and indeed there is no way to search for 2009 stoppages deliberately so last week’s results can only have been the result of an error rather than finger trouble.

So back to the plot, the notice on the bottom gates of the flight is now totally inexplicable.  I wonder if it refers to the flight going down towards Stratford, which is indeed closed, although you wouldn’t be going up through lock 20 if taking that route.

So once again, no information would be so much better than half a story – if Waterscape.com didn’t exist and if someone had removed the notice from the lock when lock 19 was repaired ahead of schedule 2 weeks ago, then nobody would be any the wiser.  But as it stands BW are continuing to make demands of the user without having the systems to back them up themselves.  There is no excuse for returning old data from a website query, other than dodgy programming and lack of testing and the incorrect notice could have been removed by someone from the local BW Offices the day the locks reopened.  Its all of 200 yards from the lock to their front door.  They could do with typing practice too by the looks of it - even their own phone number has been mis-typed!  It should of course be 01827 252000.  I suggest we should all call them tomorrow.

Meanwhile theres no cruising log this weekend.  Looking at the rain, and the forecast for even more, I have decided not to move Zulu today but hopefully the weather will improve this week.

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A bad start to our trip south

December 17, 2009 by Mike · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Canals, Cruising Log 
Middlewich Big Lock Stoppage - should be completed on 18th December

Middlewich Big Lock Stoppage - should be completed on 18th December

Very soon I will be warming up Zulu’s frozen insides and setting off Southbound.  In fact I should be there right now, queueing up for the stoppage at Big Lock to be cleared tomorrow so we can get on our way south to our new moorings in Uxbridge over Christmas and New Year.  Now I hear that the work, including fitting new gates, will not be finished until at least 23rd, so that is really going to spoil things, because after the New Year, new stoppages begin and some don’t finish until the end of March, so this could be an even longer trip than planned.

I have done everthing I can including booking a trip through Harecastle Tunnel on Monday, in the hope that British Waterways manage to let some boats through the stoppage over the weekend.  I have to phone them tomorrow to see if this is going to be possible.

Meanwhile I am still down south watching the temperature drop to a forecast minus 7 tonight and wondering if planning such an ambitious trip over such a short window was such a good idea after all.

Still only 182 miles and 163 locks to go!

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