floating in the city

cycling on the towpath: remember the two tings

A friend of mine has complained that a rear view mirror is now required for anyone walking on the Regents Canal towpath in London, because it has become a bicycle super highway. I think that is an exaggeration, although the towpath is well used by cyclists. As a regular towpath cyclist I always follow the London Towpath Code of Conduct of course, and it seems most other cyclists do too. The main requirement is to give "two tings" on your bell when coming up behind people to avoid unnecessary heart attacks. I think making a 'ting ting' noise might also be ok, but this is not mentioned. Cyclists do not have a legal right to cycle on the towpath, but it is officially allowed by British Waterways who allow responsible towpath cycling. In London you do not need a British Waterways Free Cycling Permit but this is required in some areas.

water level down a bit, bandwidth ok

Despite all the rain over the last few days the water level is down a bit on this stretch of the Regent's Canal, but I've seen a lot worse. The wire in the top left of the photograph is my broadband connection which I have to remember to disconnect before setting sail. Then it is Three on my mobile for £5 a month, which works ok floating in the city, even for blogging, but could be a problem in some country parts of the waterway-net.

• Pocketsurfer3 by Datawind sounds like a mobile internet solution that is better than a mobile. 30 hours usage a month for the first year is included in the £199 price, and you can get lifetime unlimited use for a one off fee of £59.99. The only problem is that the stockists listed on the site do not have any Pocketsurfers; Ideal World is out of stock, and Maplin is only selling the Datawind UbiSurfer Netbook for £149.99 with a similar 30 hours a month deal. A big plus for those with a sub-primer credit rating in these harsh credit crunch times is no credit check is required for this interesting mobile Internet deal, but don't blame me if it is all too good to be true, because I have not tried it, yet.

living on a boat: it can be cold, expensive, miserable, wet ... and wonderful

Above: Old, new and expensive; the historic 1937 Tarporley narrowboat, moored outside the new Guardian building, over looking Battle Bridge Basin where moorings cost £150 a week.

THE Guardian/Observer seem to have caught canal and boating fever with two articles on the subject in the space of two days. Maybe this is because they have moved into a very trendy waterside office block in Kings Cross, over looking the Regents Canal and Battle Bridge Basin.

Today's Sunday Observer warns their typical romantic dreamer type readers of the dangers of thinking they could last five minutes living on a boat, even if it is moored outside a John Lewis. And forget about living on the cheap. The Observer got some excellent advice from Rex Walden, chairman of the Residential Boat Owners Association;

"If you are serious, then try it out. Book a narrowboat holiday, ideally in the winter when it's freezing cold and raining, to see what it really would be like."

Meanwhile, it seems the best thing for Guardian readers is to book a hotel boat trip up the Thames (in the summer); this Saturdays Guardian has a very sweet article all about that.

I will always remember the reaction of a friend from New York visiting me on my beautiful traditional narrow boat, moored on London's picturesque Regents Canal;

"Hey! What are you doing living in a tin can, floating in a sewer?"

Living on a boat is not for everyone, that's for sure. All to often romantic dreams end up as rotting hulks, as the credit crunch sinks the poetic fantasy, and everything gets rusty, damp and behind on all the bills.

Of course there lies an opportunity for some - people who know what they are doing. It is possible to create a wonderful floating existence; a realistic dream. If that's you, maybe look out for adverts of the "must sell - it's the boat or my wife" variety. But you have probably thought about that already.

• There is an interesting link in the Observer article to Great Escape Narrowboats who rent live aboard narrowboats from £600 a month for 6 months, plus cruising license (approx £300) and fuel (est £140). They favorably compare these costs with renting a typical 3 bed semi house, but I did notice they included council tax for the house, but not for their boats. Having just been hit for over £800 council tax at my mooring I am wondering if this is not a mistake. If council tax is included, renting a boat from this company is almost exactly the same price as a 3 bed house. The site is fairly informative, except for everything it misses out, and very 'flash' so only people with broadband can look at it. This got me thinking it might be worth checking that the boats for hire have broadband.

amsterdam: tossing smart cars in canals is new craze

picture by tinou bao

There seems to be a craze in Amsterdam for throwing poor little innocent Smart cars into the canal, even when they can't swim. Tossing Smart cars into the canal is taking floating in the city to extremes, and it is Smallist, but Amsterdam has always taken things further than the rest of Europe. I am wondering how water tight Smart cars are, they look like they might bob along fairly well. Amphibious Smart cars that you can drive up canals - now that really would be smart. You could avoid traffic jams, until everyone started doing it of course, then they would have to bring in a floating congestion charge. All we need is for British Waterways to make the canals Smart Car Friendly (SCF), with ramps so you can drive in and out of the water without having to suffer the indignity of having to be craned out by the fire brigade. Smart cars are even narrow like narrow boats; you could get several in a lock at one time for sure.

coming soon: electric power from canals

An "in-stream hydrokinetic turbine" for harvesting electric power from canals, irrigation networks, wastewater systems and the streams in and around industrial sites could be available by 2011. "Think of it as the love child between a steamboat paddle wheel and a small hydroelectric dam" reports Greentechmedia.

Developed by Hydrovolts, the device will cost about £300, and can be placed in relatively slow moving water courses. A six-foot by four-foot turbine in an irrigation canal flowing at two meters a second might produce 1.5 kilowatts. The same turbine in a four-meter-per-second stream might produce 6 kilowatts to 8 kilowatts.

Above: Lab test at Washington University.

floating tv: bbc rivers with griff ryhs jones

Several years ago my boat featured in the back ground of a Crime Watch reenactment of a brutal tow path murder in Kings Cross. Since then the Floating TV genre looks like it might getting out of the crime/horror rut and going main stream. At the moment there is BBC Scotland's 'River City' drama series based in Glasgow. The main river content is in the intro sequence, but never mind. However a new five part series starting this Sunday, called 'Rivers with Griff Rhys Jones' (BBC One, 21.00), could do for Britain's rivers and waterways what the excellent 'Coast' did for cliffs, and amazing beach views filmed from a helicopter.

The BBC explains:

"Actor and comedian Griff Rhys Jones sets out on an adventure to explore how rivers have influenced, nurtured and powered our lives throughout history. From the raging torrents of Scotland to the reflective flatlands of East Anglia, Griff barges, canoes, swims and sails his way along a hidden network which has been the lifeblood of Britain."

I think I might earn £10 cash from Private Eye's Pseud's Corner for the above paragraph, but this new series could be interesting. and even funny, especially if he falls in.

how swimming pool shortage puts lives at risk on waterways

According to the Maldon and Burnham Standard, Essex, lives are being put at risk on waterways in the area:

YOUNG people are putting their lives in danger, risking disease, and breaking bye-laws on the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation.

Several incidents of antisocial behavior have been reported on the waterway, which connects the tidal estuary from the river Blackwater at Heybridge Basin with Chelmsford, and now police are warning this sort of behavior cannot continue.

Hidden currents and rubbish can trap swimmers, unexpected changes in depths can lead to difficulties and swimming or bathing is described as very dangerous.

Those jumping into the navigation are also at risk of disease such as Leptospirosis - also known as Weil’s disease - which can cause severe illness.

Under the bye-laws it is an offense to swim within 36 metres of a lock or to jump or dive from any lock or other structure.

I am wondering if this has anything to do with Maldon District Council ending free swimming in March. Free swimming was very popular, resulting in a 21% increase in people using the local swimming pool, but now it seems the local waterways are the only place some people can afford to go, even if it means risking their lives.

At least Maldon Council still has a swimming pool. Nationwide public swimming pools are being closed almost as fast as Maggie Thatcher sold off the school playing fields.  In London there were 96 public diving facilities in 1977, there are now just six, a 94 per cent loss. And then they wonder why kids are jumping in canals?

A government backed initiative costing £5.5 million was earmarked for top-up swimming lessons for 11-year-olds in 2006 after it was found that one in five children could not swim 25 metres due to obesity.  But another government plan is destroying school swimming pools as fast as it can. It has been estimated that 2,000 [out of 3,000] school pools will have closed by the end of the 'Building Schools for the Future' program. This has been systematically destroying school pools in favor of more class room blocks.

For adults as well as children, the main threat to the local swimming pool, and possibly their lives, is that councils are not required by law to provide swimming pools, so when they have to cut something, swimming pools are one of the first public amenities to be closed down, often forever.

The latest front line in the battle for Britain's swimming pools is in Birmingham where local people from Sparkhill and Balsall Heath recently staged a public protest against Birmingham City Council. The Council is about to spend £10 million, partly funded by the NHS, for free swimming, gym and exercise classes to all residents in the city. Trouble is they have closed most of the swimming pools in the city, and have been allowing the remaining ones to fall into disrepair.

Perhaps we should start converting parts of the canals and other waterways into Safe Swimming Zones. With fewer and fewer swimming pools available, kids and adults alike are going to continue risking their necks for a swim in the canals, lakes, rivers and waterways, and some will end up drowning for sure.

outside my window

Lots of boat traffic on this canal, mostly very smart looking narrow boats with paint work like mirrors. They all seem to be going towards the River Lee, which is a beautiful stretch. I want to go too, but my engine has swine flu and needs a doctor. This narrow boat is floating, but not moving. Does anyone know a decent boat engineer who will actually turn up? The brilliant guy I've known for years is away at the moment. Meanwhile the one recommended by the local boat club said he would come when I rang him, and then did not answer any further calls or messages. That's rude. Was it because I said I had a Perkins? I know two other boats currently desperate for mechanical help and ready to pay. A decent boat knowledgeable mechanic who can use a mobile phone could do very well in London; the market is wide open.

bring back the fleet river

All over the world major cities are digging up and renovating old lost waterways as they discover floating in the city is the way to go. The New York Times published an interesting feature about this recently; Peeling Back Pavement to Expose Watery Havens, which describes how "Cities from Singapore to San Antonio have been resuscitating rivers and turning storm drains into streams". Here in London the Thames Barrier is obviously not going to hold out against the rising waters forever. At some point London is going to have to let in the waters and go back to being a series of islands like it used to be. I can't wait! The obvious first step is to bring back the Fleet River from it's solitary confinement under ground. London Mayor Boris Johnson has supported the idea but some boring people say it is impossible. Obviously they are wrong.

Above: A picture of the Fleet River or rather the Fleet Sewer it is today from a great collection of photographs by Steve Duncan from www.undercity.org. More great Fleet Sewer photographs by stoop here and there are some more at Silent Uk.

Above: Where the Fleet River joined the Thames in 1750, large ships went as far as Kings Cross. The source was in Hampstead. 

Above: Where the Fleet Sewer empties into the Thames today (picture from Wikipedia). According to Wikipedia the Fleet River can still be heard "through a grating in Ray Street, Farringdon (EC1) in front of the Coach and Horses pub."

• Fleet River Walk:  Youtube video by squareyes of overground walk along course of the Fleet River from Kings Cross to BlackFriars.

• The Fleet River was once called the 'River of Wells'. Believe it or not, in the middle Ages London was more famous than Lourdes for the healing qualities of it's many natural springs, especially the 'Healing Springs of Islington'. The broken, but still beautiful Victorian drinking well at St Pancras Church, near Kings Cross, marks the site of one of the most famous. 

bilge pump works

Above: bilge pump at work. No leaks, just a bit of rain water. This narrow boat is still floating.