After over a year of complaints to the company who run our Marina about the amount of silt sitting under our boats, they have finally taken action to deal with it. Over the last year, we have had great difficulty in getting out of our berths and into the cut, because we have literally been stuck in the mud on the bottom.
The dredger arrived two weeks ago, but has had to stop work before getting to our berth, because the amount of silt which has been extracted is already over the limit which has been agreed can be dumped in the delegated spot in the nearby fields.
Consequently, we are still stuck on the bottom and had great difficulty getting out of our berth on Friday, making us nearly late for our dry run of the Saxophone project. I was really angry! We have been campaigning for over a year to get the silt removed and it has only actually happened when the company decided to build some more jetties and needed to dredge that area. I suspect that the dredging of the remainder of the berths, including ours will now be abandoned.
Overall, I am becoming extremely disillusioned with the company who run the Marina. They seem very keen to take our money, but are hardly proactive in providing facilities to match what we pay. At present, they are the only providers to offer residential status and the security which comes with that, so they are calling all the shots. I just cannot wait for other marinas to start offering the same terms at competitive prices.
We have been fully residential for over a year now, but still the issue of council tax has not been resolved. Currently we are paying full council tax for the boat and this includes arrears for a time when we were not officially residential. Everything is hanging on our marina operators and the valuation office coming to some agreement about what we should pay, but very little seems to be happening. In the meantime, we are left paying more than we should. I don't mind paying council tax, I think it is quite right that we should contribute, but the amount needs to be a fair reflection of our situation. For example, we pay for refuse collection as part of our mooring fee, so currently we feel that we are paying twice.
I love living on this Marina. Every single other boat owner here is lovely, without exception and it is very well situated in a great spot, but I am becoming increasingly disillusioned and cross at the cynical attitude that our landlords have to their customers.
I know that this has been a long whinge, but it is only right that I present the downsides of boating life as well as the good things!
One of the nice things that has come out of this work is the huge amount of wood which came from the jetties, which they removed and the caretaker made sure it came on our direction.
Another recent positive experience is that the dry run of the Saxophone trip went well. I was a little aghast when he asked if we could stop for a couple of minutes under each bridge, so that he could play a whole piece to properly demonstrate the change in acoustics. The idea is, that as a physics lecturer he can demonstrate to his students how sound changes over water and under bridges. In addition he is using it as an advert for the launch of a CD he is producing. He is quite a good amateur player and seems to have a number of gigs set up for the near future. He will be uploading the final video to Youtube, so I will provide the link when it is done.
Friday was quite windy and we did explain that boat handling in windy weather can be tricky. The canal is also very shallow at the moment, so there was also the possibility of us grounding if we lost control. However, we had a successful trip and he seemed pleased with how it had gone. The only problem was when we were mooring up at the end. All the cameras and instruments etc. were in the bow preventing access, so when I brought the front of the boat in to the tow path, Phil could not get access to get hold of the bow rope. The wind took us side on before he could get to it and the next thing we knew we were right across the canal. This was in the town centre where many people come to watch the boats, so it was particularly embarrassing. Our guests seemed completely oblivious to our difficulties until I called upon them to get on the end of the central line and help us pull the boat in!
That is my only worry about this project. The requirements do not completely fit with ease of manoeuvring a narrow boat! We will see how it goes. The proper run is next week, weather permitting. They are concerned that it will be wet, which would ruin the equipment, so would make it impossible. We are concerned that it will be windy and are not sure that they fully understand the difficulties associated with that and may insist on going ahead.
We had a lovely night out after the rehearsal, moored up in the town centre, which made it all worth while!
And to end on another positive note we have just spent a couple of nights in the Lake District having some proper R and R soaking up the scenery and doing some walking:
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Al :)
The dredger arrived two weeks ago, but has had to stop work before getting to our berth, because the amount of silt which has been extracted is already over the limit which has been agreed can be dumped in the delegated spot in the nearby fields.
 |
| Here is the dredger being lifted into the water |
 |
| Here it is in the water |
 |
| Dredging commences |
Consequently, we are still stuck on the bottom and had great difficulty getting out of our berth on Friday, making us nearly late for our dry run of the Saxophone project. I was really angry! We have been campaigning for over a year to get the silt removed and it has only actually happened when the company decided to build some more jetties and needed to dredge that area. I suspect that the dredging of the remainder of the berths, including ours will now be abandoned.
Overall, I am becoming extremely disillusioned with the company who run the Marina. They seem very keen to take our money, but are hardly proactive in providing facilities to match what we pay. At present, they are the only providers to offer residential status and the security which comes with that, so they are calling all the shots. I just cannot wait for other marinas to start offering the same terms at competitive prices.
We have been fully residential for over a year now, but still the issue of council tax has not been resolved. Currently we are paying full council tax for the boat and this includes arrears for a time when we were not officially residential. Everything is hanging on our marina operators and the valuation office coming to some agreement about what we should pay, but very little seems to be happening. In the meantime, we are left paying more than we should. I don't mind paying council tax, I think it is quite right that we should contribute, but the amount needs to be a fair reflection of our situation. For example, we pay for refuse collection as part of our mooring fee, so currently we feel that we are paying twice.
I love living on this Marina. Every single other boat owner here is lovely, without exception and it is very well situated in a great spot, but I am becoming increasingly disillusioned and cross at the cynical attitude that our landlords have to their customers.
I know that this has been a long whinge, but it is only right that I present the downsides of boating life as well as the good things!
One of the nice things that has come out of this work is the huge amount of wood which came from the jetties, which they removed and the caretaker made sure it came on our direction.
Another recent positive experience is that the dry run of the Saxophone trip went well. I was a little aghast when he asked if we could stop for a couple of minutes under each bridge, so that he could play a whole piece to properly demonstrate the change in acoustics. The idea is, that as a physics lecturer he can demonstrate to his students how sound changes over water and under bridges. In addition he is using it as an advert for the launch of a CD he is producing. He is quite a good amateur player and seems to have a number of gigs set up for the near future. He will be uploading the final video to Youtube, so I will provide the link when it is done.
Friday was quite windy and we did explain that boat handling in windy weather can be tricky. The canal is also very shallow at the moment, so there was also the possibility of us grounding if we lost control. However, we had a successful trip and he seemed pleased with how it had gone. The only problem was when we were mooring up at the end. All the cameras and instruments etc. were in the bow preventing access, so when I brought the front of the boat in to the tow path, Phil could not get access to get hold of the bow rope. The wind took us side on before he could get to it and the next thing we knew we were right across the canal. This was in the town centre where many people come to watch the boats, so it was particularly embarrassing. Our guests seemed completely oblivious to our difficulties until I called upon them to get on the end of the central line and help us pull the boat in!
That is my only worry about this project. The requirements do not completely fit with ease of manoeuvring a narrow boat! We will see how it goes. The proper run is next week, weather permitting. They are concerned that it will be wet, which would ruin the equipment, so would make it impossible. We are concerned that it will be windy and are not sure that they fully understand the difficulties associated with that and may insist on going ahead.
We had a lovely night out after the rehearsal, moored up in the town centre, which made it all worth while!
And to end on another positive note we have just spent a couple of nights in the Lake District having some proper R and R soaking up the scenery and doing some walking:
Al :)
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