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In 1977 we hired our first narrowboat from Anglo Welsh at Market Harborough.From that moment our destiny was set. In 2006 we finally purchased our own brand new 57' narrowboat which we named 'Free Spirit'. Our aim is to travel the length and breadth of all the navigable rivers and canals of the UK. This will be our story as it unfolds.

Thursday 6 August 2020

More delays!

 Groan....this from C&RT re Buckby today

After de-watering the lock and completing the fish rescue, we unfortunately discovered further maintenance issues, which require our attention. 

These works include repairs to both wooden cills, which are loose and there is also a hole in the lock gate which requires further maintenance work. 

Due to the location of the required works, we cannot get our crane boat close enough to assist and therefore a lot of the work is being done manually by our maintenance team on site.  This consequently means that these works will take slightly longer then we originally planned.

However, we are working hard to complete this job as soon as possible and aim to be finished by Monday afternoon.

So many hire boats came past yesterday heading either for Napton or Braunston.  Could be an interesting conversation with the hire companies waiting for the returning boats. And what of those due to hire next week? Oh, to be a fly on the wall!

Went blackberry picking to make a crumble, this morning, Ian came with me to do the least favourite job essential to boating, empty the loo. C&RT volunteers were down by lock 19 watching over a 'Lets Fish' for beginners. Two lone boaters were descending the flight but there happened to be a problem of too much water between the pounds. Apparently the lock gate refused to open, water levels just wouldn't equalise even with paddles up. Ian was on his way back, saw the problem and lent his strength to that of the volunteers to get the gate to move.




Looks like we will be staying even longer now. Trouble is Ian is running out of things to do on FS. As for me well walks and fishing and I'm happy as Larry.

Now for a question. Blogger has made changes and I have resisted using the new layout but yesterday when I opened the blog, there it was. I'm having great difficulty in keeping my photos uniform on the post as every time I add a caption, the photo goes off-centre. Does anyone have any ideas on how I can rectify this?  You will see what I mean with these photos.

Bream

Oh, and that Swan family. Miscounted the other day, there are actually 9 Cygnets one of which became a right pain while I was fishing!




Making a grab for the net!




And the float

And today's wildlife is a fishy theme












9 comments:

Mike Todd said...

I'm a little frustrated as well. Not only the layout issues (also insist on inserting pix at large size rather than the one I want and have to change each one) but also the loss of the ability to upload all the pix in one go and then insert lone at a time. Now have to upload and insert one at a time - actually you can do several but only at one insertion point. Why?

Ian and Irene Jameison said...

Exactly Mike. This has not been thought out at all!

Dave (Scouts) said...

I wonder what hire companies do, it must be in their plans as its not the hirers fault if they are stuck the wrong side of a broken lock.

Pip and Mick said...

We gave up with blogger and Open Live Writer over a year ago and jumped ship to Wordpress. This took a while to get used to but I've settled in now and like it. The only thing I miss is having a rolling blog roll.
I'm sure the hire boat companies will have made arrangements to turn the trapped boats around elsewhere, maybe Wilton. Just a shame if the new hirers were wanting to go the other way.
Pip

Ian and Irene Jameison said...

Hi Pip, The problem is the returning hirers need to fetch their cars. I met a lady who cleaned for a hire company and mentioned that maybe the staff at the base could collect the stranded hirers and then take the new hirers to where the boat was. She put me right by saying every boat returned during the Covid era now needs a deep clean so that wasn't an option.
I'm not sure I'm brave enough to change from blogger. I worry that I might screw up and lose everything that I've written in the past. Me and technology do not go together!

Ian and Irene Jameison said...

Hi Dave, I'm not sure they can make contingent plans. As mentioned in my comment to Pip, it's all to do with where they have left their cars and I expect if too many boats are stuck on the wrong side and moored in different locations, collecting the hirers would be very difficult. I think it would be a logistical nightmare.

Adam said...

Tap on the photo and a box appears, where you can select whether the photo is aligned left, centre, or right, (using the usual symbols) and what size it is by using the plus and minus. It might be a matter of trying what looks best, because it depends on how wide your blog is -- for me, I have a slightly smaller photo aligned left, and in comes out in the centre!

Linda Gifford-Hull said...

I’m having the same problem with Blogger plus when I go to insert a photo it wants to go in at the end and not where I want it to go. If anyone comes up with a solution I would be very grateful!
Linda Gifford-Hull
NB Mary H

Ian and Irene Jameison said...

Thanks Adam, I'll give it a go and if it works that would solve your problem too Linda. One other thing to try is to make sure you have clicked on the left or centre alignment on the blogger task bar when you insert the photo.

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