Scholar Gypsy

Thank you, I will add that to the list - although any water ingress there won't cause a safety issue, just a slightly fuller tank! Thank you, that's very helpful. At least one of our club boats does have the vents opening inwards, for this very reason. Indeed so. I have a copy of the orginal Safety Bulletin and send it to people from time to time!

I am interested in understanding the purpose of engine room vents that are below the side deck. You can see some on this boat, blocked off with gaffer tape., just underneath my head (I am sitting on the cabin roof). I can think of three possible reasons: 1) Engine cooling, on an air cooled engine. Quite rare. Obviously not a good idea to block them up 2) Engine space cooling, on a water cooled engine. I would have thought should not be necessary, if you have an adequate keel tank. Not safety critical? 3) Air supply to the engine. A 2 litre engine running at 1500 rpm needs 1500 litres of air (1.5 cubic metres) a minute. If the boatbuilder was a bit obsessive about soundproofing then you need to add a way to let air in. If such vents are sealed up then one may need to lift a floorboard or take similar action to let the air in and allow the engine to breathe. Anything else I have missed? I am just reviewing the guidance St Pancras Cruising Club gives to boaters visiting the tideway. Different guidance applies to composting toilets, fore deck scuppers and gas locker drains.

This is a more than unusually nerdy blog. I do rather enjoy having three journeys on the same map! https://scholargypsy.org.uk/2025/06/30/st-pancras-cruising-club-annual-tideway-cruise/

The Teddington arrangement is indeed high power electric drills. That part of the hydraulics is not working. Fortunately the gate rams are! I use Mxmariner on my mobile phone, which is linked to a set of nautical charts. The track facility produces a GPX file of waypoints (time, lat and long) which can be used to produce a map in GoogleMaps. This is quite handy eg documenting the rather strange route I tested out at Hungerford bridge (in the blog post). I have also written an Excel programme (in VBA) that imports the GPX file, and then processes it to produce the output shown. I manually created a simple database of waymarks that I am interested in, with lat and long. The programme finds the waypoint that is closest to each waymark and then outputs the information you see. It can do knots, mph or km/h. The documentation is currently non-existent but it's fairly easy to use, I can email a copy (not this week - I have the SPCC annual cruise to organise!).

That's good to hear. Others might like to see the timings from my trip from Teddington yesterday, with a group of four boats (so two lockings needed). Given boats go at different speeds, I reckon four hours is my standard time now, leaving Teddington 90 mins before HW (ie 30 mins before HW London Bridge). One pushes the tide a bit between Teddington and Brentford, which takes 90 minutes. HWLB 1030, HW Teddington 1130.. Most of the rough water in Central London is due to the trip boats (and no exposed beaches), I think. https://scholargypsy.org.uk/2025/06/21/teddington-to-limehouse-june-21st/

At the moment CRT are not accepting bookings for Thames Lock Brentford, I think to avoid a logjam building up there. The work on site only starts next Monday, when we should have a better handle on reopening times. It could be several weeks. If you are going to a specific mooring in Brentford then CRT may agree to let you in. Teddington is currently operating 0900-1700 (last entry 1630), so picking a tide is a bit tricky. If you are catching an early morning tide, a number of boats are locking out the night before and spending the night on the tidal river on the floating pontoon. If you can get from Staines to Teddington then the bit to Brentford is straightforward, if you get the timing right. This page includes a few tips and a photo to help you turn at the correct time when you get to Brentford https://thamescruising.co.uk/?p=36

There's a fine set of lift and swing bridges on the River Hull, sadly not used very much nowadays. Photos here. Sadly they wouldn't lift them for us... https://scholargypsy.org.uk/2021/06/17/rivers-trent-humber-and-hull-2-old-harbour-to-beverley-beck/

Indeed. An occasion when big squashy fenders, and long mooring lines are needed, or else find a spare buoy to use (there are some quite close). I've seen the swell snap a T stud off a 70 foot boat, when the boat went up while the thing it was tied onto (by a short line) went down.

It's no great loss IMHO. I would always advise narrowboats waiting for the lock to wait out on the tideway. It's much more comfortable than sitting on the pontoon, and also enables the lock keeper to empty the lock faster.

I'm not sure. Last time I crewed on a boat (Augyst 2024) there was a rather inconvenient fender attached to it https://youtu.be/X8ohLxJudSU?si=jScjcf4ENRXoedl8&t=244

No problem! I will reply shortly. Looking briefly at this thread, I should record that the outer pontoon at Limehouse is not currently in position (it is tied up in the basin!).

West India Dock today....

A rather fun trip from Preston to Tarleton yesterday - one of the first since the link reopened after a gap of about a year! https://scholargypsy.org.uk/2025/05/03/ribble-link-preston-to-tarleton-part-1-of-2/

I use Foxes every five years for blacking, hull survey and any necessary works (the sink drain failed in 2023); and Ken at Stretham in the gaps for blacking (which is therefore done every 2 1/2 years). Westview at Earith have a good reputation (and good lifting facilities, which I used last year)

I try and keep an up to date list of stoppages on here: https://goba.org.uk/a-guide-for-visitors-to-the-east/

Thanks, I recollect that the documentation I was looking at (see below) said to call on Ch 15, which indeed didn't work, probably for the reason you state. I was surprised as I had a line of sight to the location - only a few miles away. We didn't see a single other moving boat all day. Interestingly, on the tidal Thames I now often use a handheld set (5W) but with an external antenna mounted on the roof, and the performance is nearly as good as the standard fixed set arrangement (25W). I can reach VTS from Kew, which is in my experience impossible to do with a normal handheld.

We called Humber VTS as we approached the Humber bridge, but couldn't get an answer. Weirdly they use a channel on which only low power transmission is allowed ....

Yes, and here is the website mentioned above https://trythetrent.wordpress.com/

If the journey was in the other direction, then I think this newspaper article would be very relevant. Ditto the advice it contains from HM Coastguard. https://www.kentonline.co.uk/kent/news/man-sails-round-isle-of-sheppey--a85754/

The kink is almost exactly 400m from the east end. It's a good idea not to meet an oncoming boat there.

Sorry for pedantry, but the barge in the foreground (GPS ANGLIA?) is construction realated (probably the tideway tunnel). The tug in the distance (REGAIN?) is towing rubbish downstream.

I use a bit of silicon grease to hold the new O-rings in place while fitting everything together. PS You did make sure the old rings were removed?

Watford details. https://pandsmarine.co.uk/

Here's my (rear) tunnel light in action, a small headlight on a pole. No flash used in this photograph. As @magnetman described above, I turn the light to point to the right when passing another boat (or to have a look down the side adits in Blisworth tunnel).

Yes, I do have that too. But it is very low power (be seen rather than to see).