8th October
After an overnight stop in Bradford on Avon, we pressed on to Seend Cleeve, 8 locks and several swing bridges, encountering a troublesome gypsy boater ahead of us who decided to moor on the wrong side of the canal in a wood very suddenly, causing us to have to stop - he apologised and waved us through but as his boat was across the canal by then, there was little we could do. He was trying to pull it back with the stern rope (he was alone) and had run aground. Short of getting in the same predicament, there wasn't anything we could do but to push him out of the way to get through. I always believe these live-aboard toughies are completely savvie, moving back and forth as they do all through the seasons and generally bucking the system, but sometimes they astound you with their lunatic selfish manoeuvres.
Further along at Hilperton, another boat with no one aboard had broken its mooring and was only held to the bank by its very slack stern rope. Pete got off our boat to pull it out of the way (it was completely across the canal). The water was so shallow and the boat obviously drawing more than a narrowboat, he had enormous difficulty and was only able to drag it back the width of our boat, so that I could squeeze past. Normally we would attempt to secure it again, but this was impossible. That owner will have a shock when he/she returns, hope they have a flexible gang plank to get onboard.
It strikes me in these days of health and safety gone mad, that boating is something that has managed to get away without too much regulation. So much of it relies on common sense (which I confess I haven't always got) and taking responsibility for your actions. And as I have said before, most boaters help each other in this. It's refreshing mostly. I just wish there were one or two notices to give you a heads up here and there; we might not have got stuck with the Spencers in lock 19 if there had been one there to warn us for instance!
After an overnight stop in Bradford on Avon, we pressed on to Seend Cleeve, 8 locks and several swing bridges, encountering a troublesome gypsy boater ahead of us who decided to moor on the wrong side of the canal in a wood very suddenly, causing us to have to stop - he apologised and waved us through but as his boat was across the canal by then, there was little we could do. He was trying to pull it back with the stern rope (he was alone) and had run aground. Short of getting in the same predicament, there wasn't anything we could do but to push him out of the way to get through. I always believe these live-aboard toughies are completely savvie, moving back and forth as they do all through the seasons and generally bucking the system, but sometimes they astound you with their lunatic selfish manoeuvres.
Further along at Hilperton, another boat with no one aboard had broken its mooring and was only held to the bank by its very slack stern rope. Pete got off our boat to pull it out of the way (it was completely across the canal). The water was so shallow and the boat obviously drawing more than a narrowboat, he had enormous difficulty and was only able to drag it back the width of our boat, so that I could squeeze past. Normally we would attempt to secure it again, but this was impossible. That owner will have a shock when he/she returns, hope they have a flexible gang plank to get onboard.
It strikes me in these days of health and safety gone mad, that boating is something that has managed to get away without too much regulation. So much of it relies on common sense (which I confess I haven't always got) and taking responsibility for your actions. And as I have said before, most boaters help each other in this. It's refreshing mostly. I just wish there were one or two notices to give you a heads up here and there; we might not have got stuck with the Spencers in lock 19 if there had been one there to warn us for instance!
Location:Seend
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