Editor John Sadler writes:

The ‘Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’ has descended rapidly this year, just in time to welcome us to our home mooring. As ever, there’s a bit of damage to repair before the winter sets in and some maintenance scheduled for the cooler months. We set out in June, in winter clothes but we had some hot spells during the summer and only donned full waterproofs once. I don’t recall more than half a day waiting for rain to stop either.

After swinging my whole weight on the windlass on too many wide lock paddles out of the 76 that we passed through, I was very relieved to be back on narrow locks. So was my hernia.

We sailed through Cropredy during the festival which seemed to be attended by lots of boaters. Music and mayhem abounded as we passed the moored boats on the last day of the festival. Obviously the next day there was going to be a large exodus, however the first lock had a ‘yellow bag of shame’ over one paddle and the next lock up had two paddles ‘awaiting repair’. I’m afraid we pottered on to be clear of any possible canal rage the next day. I think that as this is a major festival, which is widely publicised, it would have been a good opportunity for CRT to have carried out a survey beforehand and scheduled repair work to be complete. I’m sure that would have been much appreciated by visiting boaters and created a better impression of canal maintenance.

On a positive note there has been a good response to various acts of vandalism by mother nature and inconsiderate road users. An unknown vehicle struck bridge 83 on the Coventry Canal and left a large section of the parapet in the canal. Although I spoke to a couple of boaters that had carefully come through without mishap, the canal was subsequently closed. By the time we went through, only a few days later, scaffold had been erected and reconstruction was underway.

Another problem for logistics was the recovery of a lorry and its load of carrots parked in the Kennet and Avon canal after crashing through the parapet of bridge 175 at Burbage Wharf. Although the lorry was quickly recovered the navigation was closed for a week while debris was removed from the canal.

With a couple of unusually fierce summer storms there were a number of trees uprooted and laid across various canals. The reactive response team once again was quite impressive, however, many boaters feel that a bit more pruning would lead to less disruption.

As major floods sweep through Europe we wait to see what winter will deliver. It can be hard to see a positive future for the 2000 miles of historic waterways across England and Wales and how life is better by water. NABO will be holding its AGM soon, we would love to see you there and hear your views, please register your interest so we can provide refreshments