200 - We Crossed the Middlewich Breach
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- Опубліковано 6 лют 2025
- Our Last vlog - A Quickie in the Rain
• 199B - A Quickie in th...
The Canal & River Trust Time Lapse or the Middlewich Breach repair
• Middlewich breach repa...
Music:
Dan Leibowitz - Blue Creek Trail
Dan Leibowitz - Surrender
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Jo wrote a short book about her travels and how she met Michael.
tinyurl.com/ya...
FAQ's
Q. Where are Michael's T-shirts from?
A. Tee Republic; www.teepublic....
Q. Why do you speed up some of the footage in your videos?
A. We don't, we film it as time-lapse footage. We do not have the battery capacity or data storage to film in real time as our cruises can last up to 7 or 8 hours. We use to the time-lapse footage to help tell the story of movement rather than showcase the scenery. We limit the amount of time-lapse shots we use in each vlog.
Boy! You weren't kidding about having the sound down during that CRT video
200 in and still going... Thats a testament to how much fun and enjoyment these videos are so thank you both for making them. And I am learning so much...
Glad your coming to the potteries! And going up the caldon canal to the Black lion! And to our paradise as you will see! A MARKER was put down by Floating our Boat, can't wait for the Vlogi
We’re still trying to get to the Caldon; videos are a bit behind us but we’ll catch up soon! M
I really like to new format of having your commentary audio included with the cruising footage. It really helps bring us along with you. Thanks!
That ending was brilliant
Thanks
Just had a butchers @ the video on the breach, made me appreciate the work they had to do to create the network in the first place
Pretty crazy, isn’t it? And imagine all that without the heavy equipment! M
I've really been loving your music AND your voice-over commentaries. Very nice! (Google says: A male swan is called a cob. ... A female swan is called a pen, and their young are called cygnets.)
Thanks! Also I was going for “milk-swan” and/or “mail-swan”, though “mail-cob” (or in the UK, “post-cob”) would have worked! M
"All this" is part of the charm of your videos. Side tracking is how we expel excess information that would otherwise clog our fragile sanity. Take care and God Bless, Paul from Florida, a fellow side tracker.
Heh, well either we’ve got way too much excess or our sanity must be MIGHTY fragile! M
@@MinimalList Me thinks a little from column A and a little from column B. lol
I have just done my blacking at Ellen mere dry dock. It isn't to bad a job and the big advantage is that you know it has been done Properly. Some marinas do cut corners and you wouldn't know as the boat is back in the water.
We know about the cutting corners ... we found out the crooks who blacked us the first time charged us for engineering works never done when she came out of the water this time. We ended up having it done for us, as we went into a drydock and the cost wasn’t much greater while the weather forecast proved daunting, so we’re glad we did, though we inspected like hawks! M
I can't believe it's been 200 already! Congratulations to you both and of course the star of the show, George. I feel some more Patreon pennies are in order since it's unlikely I'll ever get to buy you both a drink!
Thank you! We know that pennies aren’t as fun as drinks, but we certainly appreciate them! Cheers! M
When you do the blacking, have an inspector check the hull just in case.
No. We could visually inspect it. But it doesnt get tested
Michael you are a gracious gentleman!
I try! M
200 !! ...thanks for the Sunday morning coffee boat ride along in Utah ...heading to the lake with our 1977 water ski boat right now : )
Thanks! And enjoy the lake! M
I really enjoy your voice overs during the video. Hope you three are well. Cheers!
Thank you! And we’re doing great, hope you are as well! M
Congratulations on the 200th vlog Jo and Michael. As always very interesting, I like the narration you guys are doing. Thanks
Thanks! M
It's funny about the trains. Here trains are really loud but we found that a lot of those trains that came past when we were moored near rail lines were pretty quiet and quick.
Seems to depend a lot on the train... some of those express Virgin ones are fine, but then a freight or an older, slower passenger will go past and be deafening! M
@@MinimalList The Virgin ones are very quiet and very fast! Most of the ones we saw were Virgin - the older, clunkier trains are very noisy though!
I get the feeling George's "pre-cruise towpath patrol" goes something like: "I'm running away so you can't make me get on the boat, but I'm not going too far, because I'm a good boy really, but I'm not getting on the boat, but ... oh you're going that way."
Heh, might be something like that. M
Spotted the cruiser! Loved the boat with the 🦆 . Cheers
It was quite the 🦆! M
Congratulations 200 Vlogs
Thank you!! M
We were planning to do the Four Counties when we were on the Soar but the breach stopped us. We’re now moored near Rugby so we did a bit of big ring including the Warwickshire ring. We took advantage of Jack’s in Middlewich, the only one we’ve been in, and we quite liked it. Both our children now work for Sainsbury’s so we feel that we should shop there which isn’t too much of a problem as it’s the nearest store to our new marina.
Shame about the breach disrupting your plans... probably screwed up a whole lot of cruises! Jack’s was interesting; first I’d heard of it and only one we’ve seen... but we’re pretty supermarket agnostic! M
Great vlogs guys. It has become addictive following your travels. It a shame you are by-passing the Macc as we are on there next week doing the Cheshire Ring from Heritage Hire boats.
Sorry we’ll miss you, but enjoy the Macclesfield! M
"Totally nailed that mate!!"... well done sidetracker!! turning into a binge-watching session!
Glad you liked them! M
You guys ever geocache on the canals? Seems like it would be kinda fun for the boater families
Never been our thing, though I did find a geocache, by accident, when we hiked over to the cave home near Kinver, so I’m sure people do it. M
A lovely cruise...thanks for sharing
Thanks for enjoying! M
Superb vlog as always guys... regarding the blacking of the hull, do constant cruisers need to do this task more often than those who moor in a marina?
Maybe a little more often, but not substantially enough to shift the average... the constant cruiser will obviously wear the blacking off quicker, but the marina moored boat has much more to worry about with galvanic corrosion and biological accretion, so unless you’re ice breaking it should be roughly the same duration between coats. M
Oh, and the Foxes Afloat, Colin and Shaun, suggest that it was vandals who did it (opened the paddles).
Yeah, there’s different ideas of what happened. I’ve heard that the last boat that passed through a few hours before the breach had some people on it who were drinking and had some issues working the locks... I’d also heard it was vandals... I tend to find the first more likely. But it could be either. M
Great vlog again. Ask Rich and Fran. They've just done there's i think they said 5 days on hard standing. Abit messy though.
We ended up deciding to have it done, as the cost wasn’t much different and the dates they could do the work get us cruising again much quicker... also not as messy! M
Done blacking twice, not the most fun thing in the world but ....
My advice if you going to do it yourselves have plenty of ventilation but do it under cover if you can as we also did some gloss work as well while the antifoul was drying between coats.
Yeah, the lack of fun and the fact that having it done was only slightly more expensive had us leaning towards not doing it ourselves, and in the end scheduling tipped it as DIY would have had us out of the water longer! M
@@MinimalList Good call I reckon.
Glossing the kitchen doors and skirting boards is not fun either but thats my task today.
Hi, As I said on Twitter, get together with one or more boats (cruising the cut was one) and do it together, save on tools and have some fun, and of course make some videos while you do it. cheers Malcolm (New Zealand)
Always fun to get together with David, but you got any idea how hard it is to get a bunch of boat tubers AND their boats in the same place?! M
@@MinimalList I only have the ideas it up to you to make it work. :-)
Of course there may be another theory regarding George! "Oh my gawd, home is moving again. Quick Jo he is going without us. Quick, quick if we jump now we can get back on baord.....Oh...oh, he is not rushing away we can keep up with the blagard. Ha ha, we are walking faster than he is cruising. We will teach him"
An alternative George thought process. LOL
Heh! Might be accurate, though I’m not sure George would ever lick a blagard every night! M
Maybe someone has asked this before; I just finished your book and really enjoyed it. Are you planning to update? and, is Michael going to write one of his own? I enjoy the watching and traveling with you two,
At this point Jo has no plans to update, though who knows. I actually wrote a blog as well the same year as I was traveling, though I’ve never released it as a book ... mainly because I’m much more verbose than Jo, and the raw draft is over 1300 pages. M
You cow accosters! Poor thing just wanted her beauty rest.
That breach must have been a shock to anyone on moorings in the area. I presume there would have been a fairly rapid tilt during the night. Like the result of a night of heavy drinking, without the expense.
When I was young (and the earth was flat) I made my living painting things. My advice, do the blacking yourself so I can watch someone else struggle. 😁
We didn’t mean to accost the poor thing! She was so cute she deserved a photo! And yeah it must have been something to be on the Middlewich that night, as it would have gone really, really quick. Not freefall speed, but way faster than you’d want to tilt! M
Our local, Dutch, Harbour Master told a horror story about lifting a narrowboat from the water. Because of the base plate having such sharp edges on that specific narrowboat, it cut through the strops while being suspended in the air. The result was quite ugly, with the narrowboat falling hard on the concrete.
As a caveat, I’d like to note that we’re not accustomed to boats having sharp edges at their kim here in The Netherlands. So that might have impacted the decision on the type of strops to use for the lift.
Ouch! Yeah steel flat-bottom narrowboats have quite a bit of an edge where the side plates are butt-welded to the much thicker bottom plate. Not exactly a knife’s edge, but if the right pressure and movement were applied it could saw through some materials. M
Hi guys,question,to the best of your knowledge,whilst cruising on your terrific narrowboat adventures,are there some tunnels that the both
Of you have come across on the canal system,that are extra narrow, if so ,are that very challenging,when steering your narrowboat through these
Scary dark ghostly long tunnels,without any trouble,also,would there be enough room in a larger tunnel for two narrowboats
To sail through side by side,without colliding with each other,and the canal sides,
Hi there... well, the narrowest tunnel we’ve seen is Gosty Hill Tunnel, which is just wide enough for a single narrowboat (and a narrow one at that). There’s a couple of other one-boat only narrow tunnels on the BCN (for instance on the Digbeth Branch) but none as long as Gosty Hill. The Chirk Tunnel is also too narrow for two-way, though much roomier than Gosty. Most longer tunnels on the system are two-way traffic, and we passed several boats in Braunston tunnel, for instance. For tunnels that are wide enough for two it really all depends on the profile of the tunnel, if there’s sufficient height then the CRT will keep them two way, otherwise they turn them into one-way working tunnels, usually with some form of signaling or scheduling. M
Love the vlog and the banter laurel & hardy reincarnated
Heh! Which one’s Stan and which one is Ollie, though?! M
Jo , I have cabin fever . Michael ,its raining and I am gonna get wet anyway lets move ( broke the cabin fever at lest ). Don't they replace the anodes at the same time as they blacken the boat ? Thanks for info and vlog gang ,all the best and cheers from OZ.
Heh, sums up that conversation pretty well. As for anodes, yes at the same time we’ll have a look at them and have them add new ones if necessary, but it all depends on how the old ones are doing. Ours look pretty good, but there’s two I can’t really see and am less sure about, so we’ll find out soon! M
I'm torn on the new audo format, I waited until I watched a few videos with the new audo to comment. I like how clear the voice is, but I think I would like it more if the voice had engine or water noise with the voice. I don't know, the clean audio is just a bit too clean for me. Although I like the nature sounds when you talk at the beginning and end.
Jasmine did her own blacking, so did life in a nutshell, David did a video on it as well so did Anna & Kath. As for the diy experience, if nothing else it will let you know what to look for if you do pay someone to do it. Good luck with it whatever you choose.
Bit tricky to mix in more natural noises with the VO, as a lot of those shots are timelapse and have no audio at all, which is why they’re usually over music. But I get what you mean about it being a bit too clean audio wise. As for the blacking we’ve ended up having it done this time, just because it makes it easier to get cruising again quicker. Next time we’ll do it I think! M
I did my boat (30ft) while my drive shaft was being repaced. It cost me £96 for the paint. It was easy but you have to consider the cost of getting it out of the water. That can be pricyey
Thanks! Yeah the cost of getting it dry and back seems to be the biggest issue. We looked around quite a bit and in the end the best solution was to get it done for us in a drydock that could have us cruising again quickly, but we’ll likely do it ourselves next time! M
Me and my friends planned to do this route last year, got to the hire place and was told it was shut! They said it was affecting business badly too as it’s such a critical cut. Instead we did the hair castle tunnel! Was tough work doing all the locks but next Friday we will be doing the middle which branch, so looking forward to some more chilled out cruising.
Any recommendations?
Well the main one is leave early if you’re actually going through the locks, as the queue can apparently get quite substantial through there. It’s a very busy cut, though for some reason it seemed to be worse if you’re traveling towards Nantwich, at least when we were on it. Moorings are nice along its length, but be prepared for the Shroppie Shelf! M
Pity me, I subscribed Ages Ago!!!
Poor fellow! The sheer amount of digressions and bloopers! M
How often do you have to paint the bottom? And at what costs?
With regular bitumen blacking roughly every 3 years, less if you do a bunch of icebreaking like we did. Cost is about £200 for materials for a 57’ boat, and a very variable amount for getting the boat in and out of the water, covered vs non-covered working area, and so on. Between £600 and £1K is the rough quoting range. Blacking with 2 pack epoxy is considerably more expensive (especially the first time, which requires shot blasting back to steel), but lasts substantially longer between applications. M
Minimal List thanks reason for asking is that I follow a few sailing channels and they speak of the costs to getting their bottoms anti-fouled by someone or do it themselves compared to blacking it’s two different potatoes I guess 😬
Sharp hair and beard Michael.
Thanks! M
Did you leave a link to the time lapse of the repair to the breach? Or m I just blind?? :-)
I thought I had... here it is again just in case. ua-cam.com/video/AMh_MIQSgUs/v-deo.html
Here's a video of the breach: ua-cam.com/video/nLC0eGWv3oM/v-deo.html (times at the point where the vlogger gets to the actual breach). Interesting nerd fact. Swans mate for life, meaning they bring up their young together, but they are promiscuous at mating. Some scientists did DNA testing!!
"Press the bell icon" he said. E- mail, Notification on turning the computer on, before I even log in. Notification in the side notification panel, pop up notification, notification on you tube . Google is trying to be very annoying.
Given the cost of pulling it out and paint, bitumen, stuff I am leaning towards let them do it.
Yeah they’ve got a bit overboard on the notifications, depending on how you use their services... ours is mainly the phones so there’s just the one source of bingleybing. Though we do get a few hundred such noises a day! M
We’ve leaned the same way... we went with a drydock and the labor cost is really just a small proportion... to do it ourselves wouldn’t have been significantly cheaper (though it might have been on a hardstanding), and this way we save ourselves a lot of ick! M
Ellen mere? Ellesmere!
Swans rule the world along with the mice :-))))
Yep, that was what I heard in the Sermon on the Mount too... ”Blessed are the Meece, for they shall inherit the Earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after right fingertips, for they shall be filled.” M
@@MinimalList I will submit this information to deep thought in the hope that 42 also applies to swans.. :-)
Dont get paranoid but going through this footage, I think there is a Woman following you with what looks like spaniel
That’s funny, I often see a different woman toddling along up front with another spaniel! M