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Roger Murray

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Bollington
  • Occupation
    Journalist
  • Boat Name
    Kyle
  • Boat Location
    Clarence Mill Bollington

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  1. Hello Martin. Not really having a go. Just that I have a bit of a whimsical mind, some of us do you know! Something went wrong somewhere, possibly my fault, I let go my frustration on this site. Roger
  2. With some of the comments re my licensing problem, for which I came for help on this forum, than the lofty comments of some, and I mean only some, who seem to have very neat and tidy minds and do everything perfectly to the book....We are not all the same! If we were the world would be a dull place. I think it was Oscar Wilde who said beware of the man with a neat and tidy desk! My debit card is RBS and has no sort code is on it. Fact! There was, as far as I could make out, no facility for getting round this on the CART on line licensing facility. No sort code. No licence! As simple as that! I would suspect that its not only me on this forum who is never over sure when the licence runs out, hence running over time. In my case I had to have emergency open heart surgery when out of the country delivering a large sailing vessel, being to an extent incapacitated, not thinking about things like licenses and paperwork etc. Roger
  3. I guess I am not really as organised and as efficient as some of you. I never really know when the insurance, safety certificate or licence runs out. Find same with the car and its things. Although some of you got through on the phone quickly, for some reason I didn't....and for some reason there doesn't seem to be a sort code on my RBS/Visa debit card. They say on bottom left corner, not on mine! Not using it as an excuse, but at 86 on line stuff does get a bit confusing, especially when it keeps on rejecting the facts you key in. Roger
  4. I am out of the country and had a reminder from CART to renew boat licence. Phoned the number given and sat for well over 20 minutes waiting for somebody to answer, running up a costly overseas phone call. I tried again, but still waited and waited, finally giving up! Went on line and could not licence after filling all the info required as wanted my bank branch sort number. Don't know this as no bank paper work with me. Then had to phone the bank. Tried again on line to pay licence and this time it said my debit card number was wrong. I use it every day and it definitely is not wrong! Yes I understand that CART need boat licenses paid, but they should make it easy to pay that licence, especially by answering that phone quickly. They are efficient and quick in telling me that my licence is overdue both by email and phone, also with the threat of a £150 fine for late payment. So now have yet again gone on line and again filled in all the details, they are now quibbling about something else, but you can't speak to anybody, so don't know if the boat is licensed or not. If anybody from CART reads this. The boat name is Kyle and my email address is (... Available by pm ...) They gave me a code number of DC26C4. The money is there, all I ask is for them is to take the money and licence the bloody thing. Roger
  5. Was chatting to Darrell Pickup who has the marina at Saltford on the Avon near Bath. He mentioned that they once had a narrowboat in the marina which had actually crossed the Atlantic. Evidently this chap from Nova Scotia wanted a boat which he could cross the Atlantic in, and navigate the UK and European canals etc, which meant a maximum beam of 7ft. He built a boat on narrowboat lines, only difference as Darrel remembers, a longitudinal girder on underside of baseplate as kind of semi keel and proper screw tight portholes, plus a mast. Think that surpasses Nick Sanders trip with Narrowboat and butty to the Black Sea and back. Roger www.rogermurray.co.uk
  6. I asked about 'The Duchess of Athol,' as years ago we were moored next to her with the steamer Monarch at Little Venice. Lisa,the girl who owned and lived on her, was at the time in charge of moorings. She lives in Bahrain now, and we were reminiscing on Facebook when she asked if I knew where her old boat was now, hence the posting. I have special memories of the boat, because it was one of those situations where you remembered where you were on a special day. i/e For instance when President Kennedy died etc, I was staying on 'The Duchess of Athol one night, and for some reason couldn't sleep, waking up in the early hours and switching the radio on, just in time to hear a news bulletin about a crash in a Paris Tunnel, then about Princess Diana's death. I cried my eyes out, feeling foolishly embarrassed about myself. So the boat does has that special memory. To those out there with lewd thoughts! No I didn't sleep with dear Lisa. Gorgeous as she was, and probably still is! Roger.
  7. Anyone know the whereabouts of tug called 'The Duchess of Athol' She's a small pretty looking wooden tug. Nothing sinister about this enquiry, just that have been going over old memories of when moored next to her with the Steamer Monarch nearly thirty years ago at Little Venice and was chatting to her then owner, and the proverbial question came up. 'I wonder where she is now?' Hence this posting. Roger rogermurray.co.uk
  8. .....and was news to me that Francis Drake had an Epping stove in the back cabin of the Golden Hind!
  9. Just read a brief history of the potato. Contrary to the general belief that Sir Francis Drake brought a shipment back from Virginia in 1586, thus first introducing them to Europe. They originally came from the Andes, Peru in fact, where the Peruvian people have been eating the potatoes for thousands of years, also a valuable food source for the Inca. A civilisation destroyed by the Spanish conquistadors and who first introduced the potato to Europe and the British Isles. Although it was said that Drake did bake jacket potatoes on an Epping stove in the back cabin of the 'Golden Hind.' Liking them so much that he recommended them to Queen Elizabeth, who dedicated them to her great great great great grandson 'King Edward.' Roger. www.rogermurray.co.uk
  10. I too had problems at first cooking with the Epping, sometimes just to keeping the thing alight! This was on an earlier boat...the first experience of a living in a trad back cabin. On first lighting, the Epping would belch out clouds of black smoke from every orifice, with me gasping for air and having to open the back doors and hatch. A knowledgable old hand on these things was disgusted at the dirty condition I kept the stove in, spending a good hour raking out all the sooty gunge blocking up the airways and flu's leading to the chimney, plus the chimney itself. Repeatedly saying that oxygen was just as important as coal! I should have known that, well I did, but had been lazy as far as that particular stove was concerned. It worked wonders after that clean out! In later years with the steamer Monarch, a lot of the cooking was done with a pan on the top of the boiler, with some of the aroma sucked up the funnel. I'm sure providing gastronomic pleasures to some we passed on the towpath. On one occasion, coming up past Rugeley, one of the boiler tubes started leaking. One trick with the old steam men was to bung a dead sheep in the boiler, which always seemed a bit far fetched to me, or a less dramatic cure, a sack of spuds! Thought about the dead sheep idea but opted for the less dramatic. All the way up through Stone and the Potteries, we smelt like a floating fish and chip shop, and I'm sure the smell would have lingered in the Harecastle Tunnel for days. Roger. www.rogermurray.co.uk
  11. Unfortunately Baz, as the 'Right Said Fred' commercials were shot on 35m film they possibly didn't survive. The agency 'Royds' who shot them is no longer in existence, nor the film unit. Seems I'm the only living survivor to tell the tale. Frightening isn't it! Roger
  12. Running short of provisions, so baked a couple of potatoes, (which was all I had) in the oven of the Epping back cabin coal stove. With lots of butter, black pepper and a touch of salt they made the most delicious meal imaginable. Maybe my imagination, but been baked in a old coal fired oven, in the trad back cabin of a boat, on a cold winters evening, made them somehow differently better. Just as was licking the last of the butter from the plate a chug chug chug sound could be heard. Looking out from the back cabin doors a big Woolwich under cloths came into view with the back cabin chimney merrily smoking away. Think it was 'Aldgate' or a name similar. as going dark and couldn't see it properly. Couldn't have been a better finish to the evening. Just as an aside. The evening before had been entertained to dinner in one of those expensive Nouveau Cuisine establishments where art is more important than the meagre messed about portion of food which arrives on the plate. I can tell you...Those two simple spuds were a hundreds times better! Roger. www.rogermurray.co.uk
  13. Yes Dave. Kyle was owned by Brian. It seems to have his name tagged to it as everywhere I go with her, people ask 'Where's Brian?' He was obviously a very well liked character of the cut. Roger.
  14. Last week my daughter Ailsa phoned saying that she was taking her boat to Buggy for Easter. 'There's a big boaty do on! Why don't you bring "Kyle" down?' So that was it, decided on the trip from the Clarence Mill at Bollington, where the boat is moored, along the Macclesfield canal to Marple, then along the Peak Forest to Bugsworth Basin. An easy days canal voyage. I have a special liking for the Peak Forest Canal, which seems to transport the boat into a different world, especially after coming through the blind bridge at the end of the Macclesfield and negotiating that sharp turn right. Suddenly a real open feeling of being up in the hills, with views across vast valleys. Can even see the high outline Kinder Scout, where all those years ago, in the 30s, there was the massive protest march of ramblers from Manchester against the strict laws of trespass. They won the right to roam for the whole nation! The little swing and lift bridges of this particular canal are sometimes almost impossible to lift or swing, but adding that bit of added drama to the voyage. Especially with the likes of Ailsa who was single handing and getting the bow of her boat well stuck under the bridge. A big old mill chimney comes into view and a heady sweet whiff of Midget Gems or whichever sweets they are producing pervades the boat as you pass Swizzles sweet factory. (Bet somebody posts saying they don't make Midget Gems!) Well, they make lots things like that! Then the canal gets really spooky, especially if its going dark. On a long sweeping bend in a bit of a desolated spot, a big sign with red lettering confronts you. 'Beware of Giant Hogweed!" That must be the most scary notice in the whole of Britain, conjuring up thoughts of 'Beware of the Triffids!' I heard that one lady boater was too frightened to proceed beyond that bend. Mind you, have heard that certain boaters have been visited by these Giant Hogweeds in the middle of the night. When we finally got to Bugsworth Basin it was all happening! Flags, bunting, tents, stalls, men in yellow jackets directing things, and lots of boats. At the Navigation pub, in my humble opinion one of the best real pubs on the cut, they were hosting an influx, of what was described on all the notices as 'Wild Campers!' Laura my partner was excitedly expecting to see a hoard of semi naked sexy men in loin cloths camping in teepee's ! She had just been watching a DVD of the 'Game of Thrones.' which I think set her imagination into full 'PanoVision mode.' Disapointingly these 'Wild Campers turned out to be about a dozen or so camper vans which had parked up at the pub car park, who's owners claim the title of Wild Camper, as they don't overnight at organised caravan parks. preferring to overnight 'Wild', possibly on lay-bys and things. They turned out to be quite a genial group of normally dressed people. Then it rained and blew...and did it rain and blow! The place soon turned into a quagmire. A great pity as the organisers at Bugsworth, nearly all volunteers. had worked so hard to make it happen. And a great canal and family event it was. A credit to them all. Apart from the weather, It was still worth the trip and lots of fun. Roger www.rogermurray.co.uk
  15. Over recent years have done a few trips from the River Weaver, down the ship canal to Liverpool and back on the old ex ICI coaster 'James Jackson Grundy.' Sister ship of the 'Wincham' and a number of those little vessels which used to operate out of Northwich. Think the James Jackson Grundy the last of that fleet. Certainly the only one still operable. Until very recently she regularly carried 400 tons of grain from the silo's at Canada Dock up to Runcorn. I think for Warburton's bread. But don't sue me Warburton's if this was not so! Anyway good for your publicity by saving hundreds of road truck loads, helping the environment etc! Well she did carry this grain until just recently, as the old girl was probably beginning to run out of puff bless her. On one of those gallant voyages we made a very shaky amateur film and have now put it on YouTube for posterity. So if you want to see this iconic vintage vessel still working for her living, or if you are contemplating the Mersey crossing from Eastham Locks and would like to see a bit more of that Mersey River, go to YouTube, then to Search, key in Roger Murray. Amongst the stuff which will come up you should find the heading 'James Jackson Grundy.' Fingers crossed, the film should come up. Roger.
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