Search results for tag #boating
A cast-iron milestone in traditional black-and-white paint, along the New Mainline of the Birmingham Canal Network or BCN.
The letters are raised, so can still be read up close, despite the black paint having flaked off.
Heading left, or southeast:
• Northbrook Street.
• Rotton Park Junction.
• Gas Street Basin.
Heading right, or northwest:
• Winson Green Junction.
• Rabone Lane.
• Galton Valley.
#CanalLife #canal #BoatLife #boat #BoatingLife #boating #narrowboat #CRT #UK #milestone #history
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A black pole, with raised letters, BCN, at the top. It has two signs, also with raised letters. One sign faces left, the other right. Much of the paint has worn off the raised letters.
Text is described in the post.
In the background is a steep bank, overgrown by an assortment of plants, mostly green, a few with flowers.
The canal (not shown) is behind the camera. The milestone and its signs are positioned to face passing boaters.
On board is a pair of rose clippers that can cut stalks, twigs, and small branches.
From time to time, when the vegetation has ridiculously overgrown the canal from the side or from above (I'm looking at you, weeping willows), I will stop, float in place, and spend 10 minutes pruning and trimming.
It's important not to leave stubs that will scratch the paint off boats that pass too closely.
#CanalLife #canal #BoatingLife #boating #BoatLife #boat #narrowboat #vegetation #CRT #pruning #paint
Set out for 2 hours, at 7pm, once the air cooled a bit.
By 9 pm, moored in a low-traffic canal, tall trees on both sides for shade from tomorrow's heat. There are industrial buildings on both sides, but industry is quiet after hours.
Right?
Nope.
After sunset, the place starts up. Clink clank bang and some sort of blower.
I think it's a bakery. It smells like bread. This may go on for quite a while.
🍞🍞🍞🍞🍞🍞
🍞🍞🍞🍞🍞🍞
#CanalLife #canal #BoatingLife #boating #BoatLife #boat #narrowboat #mooring
As of this evening, the boat is moored beside an ASDA and a McDonald's, both of which have air-conditioning. Tomorrow, while it is 33°C or more, a certain boater will be sitting in McDonald's for a lo-o-o-ong time.
I hope my 12-volt fridge can handle the strain.
Two years ago during the heatwave, it was the seating area of a Morrison's, but many grocery chains have shut down their cafeterias and cafés.
#CanalLife #canal #BoatLife #boat #BoatingLife #boating #narrowboat #weather #heatwave #UK
As I pass by, I see canal infrastructure being used as a billboard for anti-immigrant graffiti, with slogans such as "This is England" and George's Cross (🏴).
Canal infrastructure dates back to the industrial revolution and peak colonialism.
It's possible the irony is lost on those slathering paint on their cultural assets, on the outskirts of Birmingham in the UK's economically deprived Midlands.
#CanalLife #boating #boat #UK #Britain #England #immigration #vandalism #grafitti #heritage #CRT
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A brick and steel bridge, seen from the water. It takes the Tame Valley canal towpath across the Rushall canal at Rushall Junction. At water level, under the bridge, an enormous George's Cross is painted on the brick – a red cross on a white ground. I
This symbol also appears on the opposite side (not pictured) and on other nearby bridges (not pictured), sometimes accompanied by the slogan, "This is England" (not pictured), evoking the idea that it's not for people who don't belong.
Still waiting for that spring haulout.
#Boating #Lake #Moletai #WoodBoat
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A wooden rowboat in green paint. Its dragged half ashore but the stern is in the water. It is also filled with water, suspiciously matching the level of the lake, implying there is a hole in the boat. Two wooden oars in matching reen rest on the plank seat.
With 70+ locks, short lock chambers, and a long tunnel, Ashton Canal is not for the faint of heart. It'd see little traffic.
I entered—but didn't get through—the first Rochdale lock toward the Ashton canal.
With another boat descending that flight, the water amasses at the bottom, and it's impossible to get up without knowing the trick.
I reversed the boat back into the Manchester basin.😅
#CanalLife #canal #BoatLife #boat #BoatingLife #boating #narrowboat #Manchester #lock #CRT #UK
Zeeschouw: https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schouw_(historisch_scheepje)#Zeeschouw
I've been posting in german so far, but I might post in english as well.
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Die Wanderschaft liegt ruhig an der Liegestelle Wulfstorf. Das Kanalwasser ist ganz grün, auf beiden Seiten des Kanals sieht man Wald
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Ein Blick nach Achteraus. An einer Leine wird unser treues Beiboot geschleppt. Auf beiden Seiten des Kanals sieht man Wald
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Wir passieren ein Binnenschiff, auf dem Heck sieht man mehere große Topfpflanzen, im Hintergrund Wald.
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Blick über das Heck der Wanderschaft. Etwa 30 Meter unter uns, sieht man Schiffe an der Wartestelle liegen.
Tame Valley canal is full of garbage. Repeatedly I had to stop the engine, open the weed hatch, and pull off an assortment of soft and hard plastic, rope, and pieces of wood, all tangled around the propeller.
Small mercies: the endless beer cans and plastic bottles stay clear of the propeller.
This canal is a wasted green space. Shame on local councils for failing to make it an attractive destination.
#CanalLife #canal #BoatingLife #boating #BoatLife #boat #narrowboat #GreenSpace #CRT #UK
When I look out over the forewell at the canal towpath, among the greens I see a riot of flowers: red, several yellows, white, two purples.
When I take a photo of what I see, the flowers recede into the many shades of green: duckweed, grass, green blackberry bushes, trees.
Which version is real: what I see or what the camera sees? I suspect we cannot see our world objectively at all.
#CanalLife #canal #BoatingLife #boating #BoatLife #boat #narrowboat #UK #flowers #wildflowers #vegetation #UK
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A lush, green, leafy view along a canal towpath, seen from the canal. The unmowed towpath is full of wildflowers and an amazing variety of plants. On either side of the canal there are bushes and tall trees, especially—in this case, in this place—on the towpath side.
The canal surface is slightly rippled by the breeze. A few bits of blue sky are visible directly over the canal where the trees haven't quite filled in the sky.
On the Birmingham Canal Network, or BCN, the Tame Valley canal is little used:
• clear water to the bottom.
• trees reach way over the canal.
• no moored or oncoming boats.
In one of the ponds, or short sections between locks, the water level was down two feet (60 centimeters or 7 bricks), so the boat ran aground. By flowing water through the next lock, the boat refloated in 3 mins, no problem.
#CanalLife #canal #BoatingLife #boating #BoatLife #boat #narrowboat #locks #CRT #UK #Birmingham #BCN
Part of the vacuum broke, so it won't work.
It had a noisy motor that required aircraft-grade, noise-dampening earmuffs. But it was tiny, and storage space is an issue on boats.
Argos sells a tiny vacuum that separates into parts for storage.
We must pick it up. Delivering packages to a boat on the move is a no. The Maps app says there's an Argos 0.4 miles (640 meters) from the rural farm field we're at. 🌞
#CanalLife #BoatLife #canal #boating #narrowboat #boat #shop #delivery #VacuumCleaner
It was just a fuel hose that leaked, in the engine bay.
It was under £100 to get it fixed.
All spillage was contained in the engine bay, except the portion that evaporated. Diesel vapour!
The aft cabin was unusable due to the fumes, but the boat has 3 bulkhead doors, so the fumes stayed contained back there.
The lounge has a sofabed, so no problem with sleeping fume free.
#CanalLife #canal #BoatingLife #BoatLife #boating #narrowboat #boat #diesel #engine #leak #repair #UK
The diesel leak is being fixed.
The engineer is using a piece of hose, not one of the screw-on types, though. I guess it'll be jubilee clamps.
#CanalLife #BoatingLife #canal #boating #narrowboat #boat #maintenance #engine #repair
The diesel leak continues.
It is one of the two fuel lines, one for diesel in and one for diesel out.
It's not a loose brass connection that's leaking; it's one of the hoses itself.
A new hose arrives Monday.
#CanalLife #canal #boating #narrowboat #boat #FuelLine #hose #leak #diesel
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Two fuel lines, diesel in and diesel out. They have brass connections to a green engine block. The red-striped hose on the right leaks. Below is the bottom of the grey engine bay, with a pink tinge—that's red diesel that has leaked.
The boat cooks with LPG or propane. I have a brass coloured spanner (wrench) to dis/connect Calor canisters or bottles.
I just swapped an empty for a full one when a fuel boat* passed. We stopped side by side in the middle of the canal, which blocks it.
The brass-coloured spanner was quick to find among the nickel-plated ones, so the entire exchange was quick.
*Fuel boats sell diesel, LPG, and some do pump-outs.
#CanalLife #canal #boating #narrowboat #boat #cooking #fuel #LPG #propane #gas
For those of you wondering how canal locks work, this is how.
On a canal, locks are like lifts or elevators. To admit boats, they have a gate on each end: on the high side and the low side. Locks fill from the high side, and drain from the low side.
Referring to the photo and labels:
A. Is the ground paddle. This one has been raised, to let water flow through. A ground paddle lets water through a channel in the ground.
🧵/1
#CanalLife #canal #boating #narrowboat #boat #lock #gate #paddle #UK
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A lock, surrounded by green grass and trees. The post describes the parts. The parts are painted in the traditional black and white.
Behind the lock is a brick bridge.
It's a sunny day.
A few weeks ago, in my black, cast-iron solid-fuel burner—or wood stove—I laid a fire with coal briquettes, kindling, and a log.
It was a place to store some briquettes, kindling, and a log that now don't need locker space all summer. Also, I figured in the fall it would be nice to have it ready to go.
Guess what? It's mid June and I lit the fire this afternoon to chase away the damp. It's been 23°C in the boat, all day.
#CanalLife #canal #boating #narrowboat #boat #UK #weather #spring #chill
Four hours after cleaning out the bottom of the engine bay with a mop, there was more leaked diesel.
In the engine bay, various parts have been bagged. So far, none of the bags have collected any diesel.
Slowly zeroing in on the culprit.
#CanalLife #canal #boating #narrowboat #boat #engine #diesel #maintenance
The aft cabin had the smell of solvent all day. I checked the drawer that has the supplies of oil, WD-40, grease, fuel additive, … found nothing that was leaking.
It also wasn't coming from outside. Eventually I noticed a trace of red fluid in one side of the engine bay: diesel. That was the smell.
Tomorrow I will work up a list of possible sources of a tiny diesel leak.
#CanalLife #canal #boating #narrowboat #boat #engine #diesel #maintenance
Sunday, walking toward a lock, I saw a boater opening the top paddles of a lock.
Then I saw the lock was empty and the lower gates were open! With water flowing through the lock, they got the bow of their hireboat in the lock but the flow stopped them entering further.
The boater who'd opened the paddles sauntered back to close them—but forgot his windlass. Eventually he closed them.
Water conservation? Safety? Huh?
#hireboat #CanalLife #canal #lock #idiot #boating #narrowboat #boat #CRT #UK
To moor, yesterday, I hammered 2-foot pins (60 centimeters) into the ground—a soft bank covered in wildflowers.
The first few boats this morning passed at speed, which pulled the stern pin out of the ground. [Insert curmudgeonly grumbling about hire-boaters being wankers, here.]
Irony: just after the next bridge there was a hardened bank with a rail that boaters clip onto.
This evening there was a hard bank with mooring rings.🎉
#CanalLife #canal #boating #narrowboat #boat #mooring #pin #ring
Things disappear on a boat. There are so many nooks and crannies that houses and flats don't have.
I spent 10 minutes scouring the boat for my favourite drinking glass, actually a jam jar.
No success.
After I sat down—only once my eyes were at gunnel level—could I spot the glass atop a radiator. It was sitting very still, to avoid being spotted, tucked under the gunnel. That's a ledge on the outside of the boat; inside it's an anti-ledge.
#CanalLife #canal #narrowboat #boating #boat #gunnel
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An empty jam jar sitting very still on a white radiator under a narrowboat gunnel, against a light oak wall and behind a thin, brass rail (which is for hanging damp things over the radiator).
Last week's roses dropped their petals. To replace them today, coming down a rural flight of locks, the offside bank (not the towpath side) offered us several abundant choices, only accessible by boat.
Not sure what they are, but they're looking good on board in the evening sunshine.
#CanalLife #canal #boating #narrowboat #boat #flower #bloomscroll #floral #plants #UK
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A green glass vase sits on a wooden surface and holds two kinds of flowers. One kind has clusters of tiny, deep-pink flowers. The other kind has white petals and a yellow centre, resembling a daisy.
The long and winding road…
For once the camera has caught a bit of the beauty I see with my eyes.
#CanalLife #canal #boating #narrowboat #boat #vegetation #tree #lighting #photo #camera #overcast #sunshine
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A gentle bend in the canal, lush green trees on both sides, grassy towpath on the left, dark cloudy sky overhead but somehow the sun is lighting all the green, making it glow. The water is a murky brown—but an interesting, colourful brown.
Last night in the dark, a boat went by.
I say "in the dark" but it had a headlamp on it, a foot (30 centimeters) in diameter that lit up the world.
I heard this boat long before I saw its headlamp. It was a steel narrowboat, about 30 feet (about 10 meters), with a diesel generator roaring on the forewell, and a tiny electric outboard motor on the stern—barely enough to get this boat crawling through the water in the dark.
#CanalLife #canal #narrowboat #OutboardMotor #boating #boat #generator
Along the canal there were wild roses. It was on the off side, not the towpath side, in a stretch that nobody can reach on foot.
Have boat, will flower.
With the bow in close to the rose bush, it was possible to clip a small bouquet. These roses are in full blat but there are also some buds tucked in below.
#CanalLife #canal #vegetation #plant #rose #flower #bloom #boating #narrowboat #boat #BloomScrolling
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A short vase of pink roses, cut short and arranged in a bunch.
The vase is sitting on an oak worktop beside a white sink, below an open swan doors, against a grey-and-white tiled backsplash, next to a square ceramic and wood soap-dispensing pump.
In other words, it's in the galley, or kitchen.
Where a weeping willow hung low over the canal, the only option was to slowly boat through the hanging curtain of leaves.
Then: an enormous TWANGGGG. Something caught the solar panel brackets.
Amidst the twigs and leaves was a hidden limb with a diameter of 5 inches (12½ centimeters).
Out comes the electric chainsaw. That tree got a trim.
#CanalLife #canal #willow #tree #vegetation #pruning #maintenance #boating #narrowboat #boat #solar #SolarPanel #CRT #CanalRiverTrust #CanalAndRiverTrust
A long day of boating. It was busy on the cut, but not crazily so, which is good for a bank-holiday (long) weekend.
The weather was gorgeous so I wore a wide-brim hat, long sleeves, and cotton gloves. There's nothing like holding a tiller all day for getting a sunburned right arm and hand.
Call it a boater's tan.
#CanalLife #canal #boating #narrowboat #boat #weather #sunshine #holiday
In dim light, spiders always look bigger than they are.
One just did a Tom Cruise Mission Impossible drop from a ceiling vent. Straight down, like it owns the place.
. |
🕷️
I turn to the light switch, flick on the lights. By the time I turn back to it, the spider has made a speedy return to the ceiling. It's medium sized.
One gentle tissue-grab-and-shake later, and this spider finds itself on the canal towpath outside the swan doors.
It's time for moving on.
Cloudy days are days you don't get sunburned. If it rains, it usually blows over quickly, on days like this.
#CanalLife #canal #waterways #boating #narrowboat #boat #CRT #UK
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Photo from the stern (back of the boat), looking over a narrowboat's roof—a long, narrow boat—in a canal. V-shaped ripples show the boat is moving, but slowly. The water is murky. On both sides of the canal there are green bushes and trees, including blossoming hawthorne, all with their spring growth well underway. On the roof of the boat there are mushroom vents, named for their shape, and a few ropes, or midlines, fastened to the boat roof at the middle of its length. There are solar panels near the bow. The towpath (like a footpath, but named for the horses that formerly towed boats along the canal) is on the left at this point. The sky is cloudy.
We were set to pass a steel narrowboat when it slowly backed directly across our path. At 2 miles per hour, that's enough time to walk through the boat to the bow and push off.
"Sorry, sorry!" they said.
I said, "No worries; it's just boating. Everybody knows backing up is hard to do."
Like that 1960s Neil Sedaka song:
🎵 Don't take your boat
🎶 away from me
🎵 'Cause backing up
🎶 is hard to do
(I'm quite sure those are the lyrics.)
#CanalLife #canal #boating #narrowboat #boat #reverse #BackUp
Our boat has a dedicated brush in the outside locker just for dog 💩 on shoes.
When you're trying to moor a moving boat, handling ropes, mooring pins, and mallet, it's easy to overlook an abandoned turd.
Dog owners who use the towpath to let their dog out—but who don't pick up after their pet—should be dunked in canal water. And then helped back out, of course. Boaters aren't mean-spirited folk.
#CanalLife #canal #towpath #pet #dog #walking #boating #narrowboat #boat #CRT #CanalAndRiverTrust
We share the Grand Union canal with all kinds of birds.
Here are some swans and their cygnets at the aptly named swan doors of the boat, eating bird seed.
Their long necks help them graze for underwater greens.
#waterfowl #bird #birds #aquatic #wildlife #swan #cygnet #canal #CanalLife #boating #narrowboat #boat
Today was an enjoyable day. Though overcast and windy to start, with the wind at my back it was fine. I wore 4 layers: a T-shirt, a long-sleeve T-shirt, and two hoodies. By the afternoon it had turned sunny.
Now it's nearly 2 am and I'm still wearing all 4 layers, wondering when the weather will warm up.
#CanalLife #canal #boating #narrowboat #boat #weather #wind #chill #cold
In memoriam: Bob Hicks, publisher and editor of Messing About in Boats, died last week, aged 96.
https://groups.io/g/bolgerboats/message/1271
Although incomplete (760 issues printed! and it was not, initially, a print magazine!) there is a collection of Messing About in Boats on Archive Org. It would be a fitting legacy to make a donation to the library - that one or any other - in remembrance.
https://archive.org/details/messingaboutinboats
#boats #boating #sailing #sailboats #BobHicks #MessingAboutInBoats
When the boat is in the water, the stern deck is about a foot (30 centimeters) above the water level.
When it's on land, it takes a substantial stepladder to board the boat.
#CanalLife #canal #board #boarding #boating #narrowboat #boat #maintenance #ladder #stepladder
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An aluminium (aluminum) stepladder that has 6 steps, standing on a gravel surface and beside the stern of a narrowboat. Several short-cut railroad ties on the bottom of the ladder give it stability.
When the boat's out of the water, and I can see the propeller clearly, I am always surprised at how that small thing can propel 15 tonnes of steel forward.
#CanalLife #canal #waterways #boating #narrowboat #boat #propeller #propulsion
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Back end of a narrowboat out of the water, showing the propeller and rudder, and, above it, a bit of a knotted-rope fender. The boat is sitting over a gravel surface, on wood blocks (not shown in the photo). In the distance on the left there's a mobile office building.
I am used to the floor moving as I walk around the boat. I have no trouble.
I also have no trouble on land.
Currently, the boat is on land, getting its hull blacked. As I move around the boat, I find my body automatically adjusting for floor movement that isn't happening—which is slightly unbalancing.
Aren't bodies amazingly adaptable?
#CanalLife #canal #boating #boat #maintenance #narrowboat #balance
The boat's out of the water, getting its hull blacked. I'm allowed to stay in my boat for the week.
The wharf worker's words and actions are in tension:
• "The hull's in good shape"
• He is now grinding the rust off.
On a steel narrowboat, there is nowhere Nowhere NOWHERE that the sound of a grinder on a steel hull doesn't reach. Think of a dentist's drill but LOUDER.
#CanalLife #canal #boating #narrowboat #boat #maintenance #hull #blacking #AntiRust #paint #noise #transmit #grinder #tool #UK
Call me the spider wrangler. I just put out two.
The inside of a boat is no place for spiders, this early in the season. There's simply not enough to eat in spring.
Spiders need to eat themselves big and fat while out in the bushes. Then they can climb or drop aboard a boat once the flying insects are out in force.
A mushroom vent makes an ideal home for a fat spider.
#CanalLife #canal #boating #boat #narrowboat #spider #insect #vent #MushroomVent
I'm at a CRT bin for garbage and recycling, so I've emptied a ⅔-full bin bag rather than risk having an extra bag kicking around for days, before the next CRT bin.
Since I'm boating alone. Everything is 3× the effort, once mooring and unmooring are factored in.
I'm down to the last of the last rolls of Wilco bin bags. (I may have slightly overbought, since Wilco went bust a few years ago.)
#CanalLife #canal #boating #boat #narrowboat #bin #recycling #garbage #waste
Along the canal towpath, a mole has pushed up a row of molehills.
A toddler just came and planted a small stick in each hill.
When he grows up, maybe he'll plant flags on mountains.
#CanalLife #canal #boating #narrowboat #boat #UK #wildlife #mole #towpath @ukwaterways
Mist on the canal, this morning.
#CanalLife #canal #mist #sunrise #boating #narrowboat #boat
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A southward view over a canal in the chilly early morning sun. The mist hasn't burned off, and is hanging over the water.
There's green on both sides of the canal—the close side is hedge and the far side is a sports field. Just ahead of the photographer is the stern (back) of a narrowboat. which has traditional patterns painted on its stern doors and hull.
Frost on the roof this morning.
The rope, wet from yesterday's rain,was frozen into a coil.
I pushed off just before 08:00 o'clock, and made good time. The sun joined me, with very few clouds, and made the day lovely.
With the curtains open, the lounge is now 21°C (70°F), so I've just drawn the curtains on the sunny side. There's no need for more heat as it makes the 12-volt fridge work harder.😅
#CanalLife #canal #boating #narrowboat #boat #rope #frost #sun #refrigeration #sunny #UK #weather
Made in 1902, this cast-iron winding station for raising and lowering a lock's ground paddle has been used continuously for almost 125 years.
Will it be in use in another 125 years? Can the Canal and River Trust, which is currently responsible for canal maintenance, survive without government support?
#CanalLife #canal #history #BritishWaterways #CRT #boating #UK #government #fund #funding @ukwaterways
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A cast-iron ground paddle can be wound up or down from this painted, black-and-white station.
It's alongside a canal, at the top (uphill) of a canal lock. There's green grass and vegetation on both sides of the canal, which extends into the distance and around a bend.