Scholar Gypsy

Yes Allington is a very pleasant spot. Neither Port Medway nor Medway Bridge marinas (in or near Rochester) seem to have slipways. Rochester CC were very friendly to us when we took a group of NBs there in 2016, And finally Queenborough in the Swale is well worth a visit. NB the Trot boat doesn't run every day, details here,

Have you thought of including a run down to the Medway? I am sure lots of places there you could lift your boat out

So you won't be slated but you might be electrocuted

Thanks, have now replied with a PM, but in summary I am happy at Cathedral. NB I would not recommend Hermitage marina at Earith - looks very gloomy, run by the same company - but I think the comment above is about the other one (West view?). NB that is on the tidal section and it can flood quite a bit, but all moorings are on floating pontoons I think?

I am a bit surprised by this experience - I can get 20-30 miles range with my setup (an 18 inch Shakespeare magnetic arial), and easily raised Stockwith from Gainsborough. On one occasion I even picked up London VTS from near Sonning lock. I was quite tempted to call them up "London VTS NB Scholar Gypsy I am in Reading and reading you loud and clear" but decided against ...

For benefit of others, we normally do one of these each year, in about May. A lot of narrowboat focussed advice on these two sites: http://www.thamescruising.co.uk/wordpress/ https://www.boatingonthethames.co.uk/Narrow-Boating PS the wash from the clippers is not that bad. You do need to keep a good lookout astern as below Tower Bridge you can get less than a minute's warning of them overtaking you at 25 kts.. There are other boats that generate a lot more wash. Enjoy! Make sure your diesel is clean

There's a similar video of a narrowboat on that pontoon. The skipper was standing on the pontoon and only realised what was happening a few seconds beforehand. Not the most exciting town.

Ugh! The interesting thing for me was how stable that boat was. As well as the risk of sinking there must be some risk of the centre of gravity getting too high and the boat capsizing. One advantage of flat bottoms?

I suggest - as per others - that you demonstrate your skills at keeping the boat under control while not moving forward. A mix of forward and reverse gear, keeping the bows pointed a bit towards the wind (if any). Of course if you were on a river then the boat(s) heading downstream would have priority ...

Thanks - a nice site. Glad to see I wasn't make it up about Tardebigge being 14'. I was just wrong ....

Somerton is 12' rise, so not as great as a number of others (eg Tardebigge is 14'). Maybe the reason it has a reputation as a particularly deep lock is that it is (I think) the deepest lock with a single bottom gate?

Thank you for doing that, I was about to make a similar estimate. The answer needs to be in terms of the number of Olympic swimming pools, though?

I think I would be tempted to take the lock out of use, ie just remove the broken lock gate and lock the other one in the open position. As noted above the fall is pretty small and so it wouldn't cause too many problems to equalise the levels for a few weeks ??

Most people split the journey at Torksey. I should also add that the Chesterfield is lovely (if a bit shallow) and well worth an explore. A couple of links: * NABO advice - a bit out of date perhaps * Chesterfield canal trust advice * Charts * and finally a neat diagram that shows how the tides work. You might want to get some Hull tide tables and then you can do your own planning (with the Richlow book which is indeed good). Below Gainsborough you are within the Humber Port area and you might want to check out the ABP website. I used a VHF radio (which I think is required by their byelaws) and a depth sounder (which certainly is not!).

Sorry, can't help with this one. Others comments are more useful! We didn't have time to explore Kyme Eau in 2015. However the Witham Navigable drains were a lot of fun. There was an article about Kyme Eau in a recent Waterways World.