14 November 2017 Canal Boat canalboat.co.uk
NEWS
REVIEWS
APP OF THE MONTH Met Office weather – Free
MORE THAN 15,000 coarse fish were saved
by volunteers using netting and electric
fishing techniques when a stretch of the
Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal recently
sprang a leak.
With water and oxygen levels already
dangerously low, officers from National
Resources Wales (NRW) and members of
Pontymister Angling Club transferred the fish,
including roach, carp, bream and rudd further
up the canal in a large tank towed by an
NRW lorry.
Jon Goldsworthy, operations manager for
NRW, said the timing of the rescue operation
at Fourteen Locks was critical because of the
dry weather.DEADLY INTENT
Ever had a canal boat holiday that wasn’t as relaxing as you had hoped? It can’t have been as
bad as that facing the family in Cheryl Browne’s new Matthew Adams detective thriller: they
are kidnapped and held prisoner in a claustrophobic hireboat by a drug-crazed sadist with a
hair-trigger temper... With family and self-respect at stake, our reluctant heroes just hope to
get out alive. The author uses her experience of canal boating to create the background for this
fast-moving (well, around 3mph) tale.
Deadly Intent, Sheryl Browne, currently available as e-book on amazon.co.uk, £0.BREAD AND BARGES
We’ve seen some varied approaches to writing about waterways history and the Thames in
particular, but this book stands out as the first one ever to include bread-making recipes at the
end of each chapter. However as the author, who has first-hand experience of delivering grain by
barge to Coxes Mill on the River Wey in the 1980s explains, bread and waterways transport have
been interlinked for centuries – and nowhere more so than on the Thames. The book traces the
development of grain farming and baking, in parallel with the use of the River Thames from the
Romans through the Dark Ages to the heyday of the commercial river and the industrialisation of
the milling processes. Finally there are chapters on life on the barges, the author’s own story,
finishing with the end of trade upstream of London – and the rediscovery of artisan bread.
Bread and barges, Di Murrell, Prospect Books, prospectbooks.co.uk, £15, 978-1-909248-51-WITH WINTER APPROACHING, an accurate weather
forecast app is something every boater needs and the
Met Office’s own Weather Forecast app is just that.
Using your GPS, the app can give a daily or even hour
by hour breakdown of what to expect from the weather.
You can save your favourite locations to keep an eye
out for any trips you might have planned. From severe
weather warnings, pollen count and windspeed
information to sunrise and sunset times, you will be
prepared whatever the weather.
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/met-office-
weather-forecast/id1068146838?mt=
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.gov.
metoffice.weather.android&hl=en_GBYou’ll have heard of ‘A bridge
too far’; but in Denmark
recently it was more a case of
‘A bridge not quite far enough’.
Construction of a new bridge
over the Kongeåen canal near
the town of Jedsted in western
Jutland hit an unexpected snag
when the final section of the
concrete structure was being
lifted into place – and turned
out to be one metre too short
to fill the gap. By this point the
official opening was only ten
days away, the Town Council
had already sent out the
invitations, and it had no
intention of postponing the
event. “Someone didn’t
measure correctly”, said the
town’s Hans Kjær, adding that
“We ordered a bridge to go
from one side to the other. It
doesn’t do that, and how the
supplier solves that is their
problem.” No pressure, then...Now that’s what we call a catch