What we've been up to

It's been a while since I posted - the original idea was that the blog should be for the cruising, but in fact I now realise that lots of things have gone on and I wanted to put them somewhere.

Boat modifications
The Calorifier
After the problems with a freezing cold shower in October in London, we decided to fit a calorifier, so that we had more than one way of producing hot water. So Alan started to measure up and get in the materials he needed. He sawed a hole through the bed top, and over a week or two, working in very cold conditions at the back of the boat he fitted the new calorifier under our bed at the back of the boat, as this was really the only place that we had the room.

How it works - The diesel engine generates heat and needs to be water cooled, with the heated water passing through a skin tank under the water line to radiate the heat gained before it is returned to the engine. The effect of this is that the heat from the engine is lost into the canal. The calorifier takes some of the heated water from the engine (instead of it going to the skin tank) and passes it through coils in an insulated tank in much the same way as a domestic hot water tank does.


The calorifier (55 litres) and expansion tank (red) going in under the bed.

The washing machine - we saw a post on the Canal World forum that someone was looking to get rid of a very small twin tub washing machine. I'd always fancied the idea of being able to do some of your washing while cruising, without having to find a launderette. It can be difficult to find a launderette near the canal (there is a list published by the Aylesbury Basin Canal Society) the only one I've ever used is the one at Braunston marina, which is very useful, but right next to the pump out - and if you have to sit there for an hour or two while you do your washing and drying....well, it helps not to have any sense of smell!
We spent some time measuring up at the boat to see if there was any way it could fit into a corner in the bathroom, even though we'd had to try to estimate some of the dimensions from a web-site picture. Then a bit of investigation made it clear that it really wasn't worth our while going to get a second hand washing machine from the middle of London. The outlay in fuel would be fairly high, and even the owner had no idea whether it worked, as it had been 'inherited' with their boat. So we decided to forget about it - but then once an idea takes root, it niggles and works at you. Alan did a bit of investigation on the Internet and found a cheap supplier of the washing machine - so one was duly delivered.
Alan began trying to fit it into the space in the bathroom. He built new shelving and eventually fitted the washing machine as well as a small fold out drier, as well as room underneath for a spare toilet cassette and a bucket. In addition the shelving gives us somewhere to put towels and clothing while you are showering - something that had proved a little difficult before. After all Alan's hard work I ended up with the task of making a new 'shower' curtain for the front of the shelving.
The washing machine takes a small load (up to 1.5 kg) and we have fitted it so that it can be filled from the shower hose, and emptied into the shower tray.

the finished bathroom
















The electrics
Of course - there was a problem with this. We had the smallest inverter possible. The boat has four batteries, all of which are charged when the engine is running - one is the starter battery, the other three are the domestic batteries, and these supply all our electrical needs while we are cruising - the lighting, the water pumps, the TV, the... well, that's it - there wasn't anything else. Occasionally we wanted to charge rechargable batteries, so we had bought a piddling little inverter - but the washing machine required more power - so we needed a bigger inverter. Not only did this mean a bigger inverter it also meant that the inverter needed to be installed at the back, near the batteries (instead of at the front of Chalice, at the end of a long cable), and new cabling would need to be put through to the bathroom for the washing machine. Well, of course, while Alan was doing that it seemed like a good idea to install new cabling throughout the whole boat, so that when we are at our home mooring we can plug into the shore power and run lights, power tools, vacuum cleaners, etc from the 240V supply. So he recabled the boat.

The Bunk Room
Chalice was bought nearly 4 years ago - with a childrens' bunk room taking up 5' 9" in the middle of the boat. This was not really ideal for our sons - David is 6' 2" and Michael around 5' 11", so there is no way that they could fit into a bunk room as small as this. So the room got used as dumping ground. We'd arrive to go on a cruise and put toolboxes, clothes and boot bags in there - and it would get into greater and greater disarray as the trip progressed. The plan was that we would 'do something, someday'. Well, after Christmas, Alan decided that it was time to start doing the 'something'. We talked through all our ideas - and came up with the idea that we wanted

1. somewhere to store the stuff we needed to have on the boat in a more orderly way
2. somewhere to sit and/or eat away from the front of the boat - because sometimes someone wants to read away from others who are watching TV, and because we may want to have the double bed left up at the front and still have somewhere for people to eat.
   

Alan drew some nice plans using Sketchup, and then we went down to the boat and started to rip out the walls to the bunk room. The whole process took several weeks - as all work on the boat seems to.

At one point the weather turned really cold - down to -11 degrees one night - and we hadn't drained down the water system for winter as we thought we'd need to have water while we were working on the boat. This meant that we had to go down and light a fire every day, to ensure that the boat was warmed up enough that the pipes didn't freeze overnight - no matter how tired, no matter how cold.

Anyway - eventually it was all finished, with new cupboards and wardrobe and a new sofa - for which I was recruited to do the upholstery - rather more than the curtains and cushions I've done in the past. Alan adapted the Desmo leg table, so that it can be put in two different positions in the boat.


The new sofa.

















Having done all of this work we took Chalice to the Canal World Forums banter at Bulbourne on the 28th February 2009 - where we managed to get 19 people on Owl.


Some of the 19 people who abandoned the pub when the band arrived to cram onto Owl.

We've had a mention on Granny Buttons

Andrew Denny on the well-known Granny Buttons site has said some nice things about this Chalice blog. You can find what he has said here.
Thank you Granny Buttons, it's always nice to get encouragement.

Preposterous fishermen

Sunday 2nd November - Apsley to Cowroast
We wanted to get started early, so go up, ate breakfast, while I started to make a thermos flask of coffee. The locks are close together and you don't get time to boil a kettle or prepare food.
We make the coffee into the big thermos coffee pot using a filter on top of it, we've never had any problems in the past with this method, but on this occasion I knocked the filter sideways, just as I'd put the first lot of hot water into it - it shot everywhere, spraying water and damp coffee grounds into the gas hob and around a large part of the galley area. It took me half an hour to clean up the mess to the stage that we were able to function in the kitchen, and walk through again. We finally left at soon after 9:00 am.

It was cold, and damp, but we were booted (Wilderness Boot bought a few weeks ago in Guildford from Cotton Traders for £20 - we found them very effective) and wearing warm coats, hats and scarves, and Berghaus waterproof overtrousers - which I think are brilliant. I applied a bandage to my arm for pressure (RICE - rest, ice, compression and elevation - I'd done the ice, and couldn't do much about rest and elevation so I took an anti-inflamatory painkiller and we set off.) We headed up through Apsley, and on through Boxmoor, where a fishing match was due to start at 9:30. As I cycled through lockwheeling at 9:20 the fishermen were standing around chatting, and checking their watches.

We worked up through Fishery Lock, and into another set of fishermen, separated by regular distances. I cycled on past them, by now the competition had started and some were deep in concentration, staring at the water. Nowadays fishermen have very long carbon fibre rods, which they use to fish the other side of the canal. As the boat approaches they will either move it backwards into the hedgerow behind them or leave the rod out as long as they can and raise it for the boat to go underneath - you can't tell which they are going to be. Some fishermen are friendly, and you can exchange a cheery greeting with them, others do everything they can to be looking the other way when you pass, but looking on the Internet forums you can see evidence of some fairly angry opinions of boaters by fishermen, and vice versa.

As Alan brought the boat through the section of pound he went slowly and down the middle of the canal - as fishermen have indicated is best. The fishermen moved their rods steadily out of the way as he approached them, until one who didn't. Alan was expecting the rod to be raised over the boat, but the man so deep in concentration that he hadn't heard the boat. He whipped the rod out of the way and began to yell at Alan in colourful and very aggressive language, combined with interesting non-verbal signals. Why hadn't Alan sounded his ******* horn? Alan tried to explain calmly that if he honked his horn when approaching every fisherman he would quickly aggravate them. This only served to annoy the fisherman further, and Alan began to worry that the man was going to come after him, or catapult maggots into the boat. Three 'pegs' on, at the end of the line of fishermen, one of them called out to Alan "OK mate? There's always one isn't there?"
On through Winkwell, where I watched a large group of long tailed tits flitting through the bare branches of an alder tree, and I saw a heron stalking across the path away from the canal, then catch something small in the hedgerow - I thought they only ate fish. Michael rang saying he was low on supplies and could we stop at the supermarket in Berko - no problems, we would have enough time to do this and get back to the marina by dark.

Lots of water as we approach Winkwell bottom lock.

At Bottomside lock there were three fishermen on the lock apron - one set up on the steps to the lock. These were not in any competition, they were just fishing. Fishermen are not supposed to fish where the mooring bollards for the lock are - however, they seem to think that it is fair game. It does however make it very difficult for boaters to bring the boat in to be able to use the lock. For us we can manage with me jumping off at the front, but for a single hander, or for someone less agile it is very hard if you can't bring the boat in and tie her up. I jumped off and walked up, and the second fisherman along said to me about the one on the lock steps "I told him not to go there". I restrained myself from saying - "so why are you where you are then?"

Bottomside needs to be left empty after use, so I told the fisherman that I would be emptying the lock after we had gone through. I didn't want a tirade about stirring up the canal bed, but he said "Oh, I know, I know". He had chosen to set up there, making life difficult for any boaters, with no apology for the inconvenience he put anyone to - and despite the signs saying no fishing from the lock, precisely because he knew that we would stir up the fish when it was emptied. Some fishermen seem to want the bottom undisturbed, others want it stirred up - how are we supposed to know which is which?

We ate the rest of yesterday's chunky vegetable stew, mashed up and turned into soup which I'd warmed up on the stove - we really didn't have time for much else.

In Berkhamsted, above Broadwater lock, there were fishermen again. The towpath side of the canal was completely filled with boats for as far was we could see, and the other side was set out with fishermen competing again. Then, as we approached the supermarket, which is on the towpath side, there was just one mooring, the closest to the supermarket itself, which is set back from the canal, and under a footbridge - it was ideal for us.

We moved in to moor and were accompanied by a very loud tirade from the other side of the canal. "I don't ****ing believe it the ****s have ruined my day - ******s!!! You're not ****ing mooring there, ****!!! I was at the front of the boat, and could hear this, but Alan, at the back by the engine, couldn't. He jumped off with the centre line, and I went back to let him know that we had upset another fisherman. This continued at full volume for the whole time that we were mooring. "****ing brain-dead ****s!!!" We said nothing, although Alan did look at the man with a long stare of complete disbelief - there was no point in saying anything, he clearly couldn't see that it was a bit like him bellowing at us for parking our car in the supermarket car park. He seemed to be trying to get other fishermen to listen to him and agree, but they were, perhaps wisely, looking the other way. I decided to go to the supermarket alone and leave Alan to watch the boat - we were underneath the footbridge after all, and anything could have been dropped on the roof, or in the front well. Or he could have tried putting a lead weight through one of the windows - it's been known.

When I returned shortly afterwards the man had stopped bellowing at me, although Alan said that the man considered that he was fair game whenever he stuck his head out. We pulled the mooring pins and left quickly, and with as little disturbance as we could - resisting any temptation to stir up the canal bed as much as possible. As we left the man continued his tirade, but rather quieter now - perhaps he had begun to realise just how preposterous he was?

Almost home.

We continued our journey, managing to avoid any further confrontations with fishermen, and arrived back at the marina at about 4:30. We packed everything in the car, and got home about 6:30 to find the house clean and tidy and Michael starving hungry.
miles 7.81 and 19 locks

Total miles: 95, Total locks: 110

The story continues

Sorry about the gap in the blog - various problems with uploading info while out and about, combined with other distractions.

Wednesday Continued
Water Heater Problems - Alan got up later in the morning and decided to look at our Morco water heater, as the water was coming through very cold - it was just about tolerable, but nothing like as warm as it had been. We were wondering if it was just a matter of the heater only being able to heat water by a given amount, and when we were out in September it was quite warm.
No, the Morco is filled with soot, and the flame is burning very yellow - not good as this means Carbon Monoxide. We do have two CO detectors on the boat, but that is for emergencies, and we can't use a dangerous water heater. We spent quite a lot of time trying to look at it, and Alan got some helpful advice on the Canal World Forum.

Toilet Troubles - While we were looking at this I noticed that the carpet in the hallway outside the bathroom seemed to be a bit damp - had we just walked in some water from outside where it was raining, or was the answer more sinister? We have had one of the water hoses on the Thetford toilet leaking fairly spectacularly a couple of times in the past so we were hoping it wasn't the same thing again. No, it wasn't, but the cassette had pools of water on top when we pulled it out. Erm...

No, fortunately, it didn't seem to be wee, but it appeared that the flush was leaking - we took the fuse out of the toilet so that it couldn't flush and filled a couple of plastic milk bottles with water to use as 'non-automatic' flush.

Out and about in London - the afternoon was wearing on, and I was getting pretty feed up with being in London and not going out, so I decided to head off and see if I could at least find a bookship, having managed to set off on this trip with not a single book (anyone who knows me well, knows that this is tantamount to extreme torture - I was getting very tetchy and beginning to gnaw at my knuckles). Although Alan was still headachy and feeling unwell he decided to come out with me, provided we didn't have to walk too far. Just as we were leaving the boat we were passed by Les D on Blue Pearl, who had decided to try to moor in Paddington Basin itself, as all the moorings near us were taken up. They eventually moored right under the Westway.

We went for a walk around Paddington Basin, and eventually found ourselves in the Edgware Road. Thirty years ago this was full of electronics shops of the type that sold electronic components, not electronic equipment. It was always a cosmopolitan area, now it is largely arabic, with halal butchers and arabic supermarkets, and many cafes with groups of men or young women sitting outside at tables smoking hookah pipes. We went into various shops, wandering down towards Marble Arch, but I still haen't found a book shop - so we set off along Oxford Street, as I sort of expected to find something fairly quickly. Now, one of the problems that Alan has is that he really doesn't have any kind of mental map of where anywhere in Central London is - he doesn't know distances, or directions, so when I say we'll walk along Oxford Street, he doesn't really understand what this entails - and, it proved, neither do I these days.

I was born and brought up in North London. When I was a kid I was regularly taken up to London to watch my dad, who played in the band of the Grenadier Guards - Changing the Guard, playing at a band stand in one of the parks, Trooping the Colour, and so on. During my teens I thought nothing of going into Central London with some friends for an afternoon or an evening by tube train. I did my degree and teaching qualification close to Euston, and got very used to walking around a large area between lectures, going into interesting shops, or to the museums and art galleries. But all that stopped in the mid 1980s. I still know the layout of the streets, but many of the shops have changed, and the number of people around has increased enormously. I thought that a lot of people had moved away from London, and fewer people were working in Central London, but the pavements were far busier than I remember them before.

We walked for a long way, right past Oxford Circus, before we found a book shop, where both Alan and I spent some time browsing, and we bought a few books. Then we decided to catch an underground train back to Paddington. At Oxford Circus we got into a huge press of people that didn't seem to be moving at all, and more and more people were joining it from the exit to the station. It was hard to keep together, and people were beginning to jump the barriers to escape the crush - it was beginning to get quite unnerving. We eventually escaped from the crowd and decided to head to a parallel street and to try to catch a bus instead of trying to force our way through the press of people entering the underground station. We continued walking for some distance, and eventually found a bus stop, only to find another change from when I used to jump on a bus and pay 10p for virtually any distance in the days of the GLC in the early 80's. You don't buy tickets on buses now, you buy in advance from a machine - so far so good, but the minimum fare is £2!!! We had just bought some rolls and orange juice and could scrape together £3.90 in change, so no bus tickets. We walked back to the boat - so much for Alan not wanting to walk very far.

We ate on the boat that evening.
No miles, no locks

Thursday 30th October - Little Venice
Alan decided to look at the Morco, so we began to take it to pieces, which took a very long time. It was filled with soot, which we brushed and vacuumed out - just at the point that we stuck our heads out of the boat we were passed by Les and Heidi walking their lovely dog. We were covered with soot and must have looked quite a sight, but we stayed and talked for quite a while.

Further investigation of the toilet proved that the water leakage was from the flush water, so we reinstated the fuse in the toilet and taped up the flush button so that we couldn't use it by accident.

Once reinstated the Morco was working better, although still quite cold. Alan bravely decided to have a shower, and I had a full wash then washed my hair under the shower - which was just tolerable. We're not sure what's wrong with it, but it looks like yet another reason to install a calorifier. Les kindly offered to let us use his shower, but we were already clean by then.

We took the boat up to the water point and refilled the tank, then headed back to the mooring having turned the boat ready for our departure the following morning. We went out for a meal at Zizzi in Paddington Basin.
No miles (unless you count the trip of a couple of hundred yards to fill the water), no locks

Friday 31st October - Little Venice to Stocker's Lock.

Little Venice in the autumn sunshine.

We woke early and saw no reason not to get going soon. The first 17 or so miles are completely lock free, so it was just a case of taking it in turns in the cold. We had coffee and hot porridge for breakfast to set us up and got going very soon after 8:00 am. We hardly saw another boat moving along the Paddington Arm.

Approaching the North Circular Road again.

We also realised that it was the 31st October, the final day before the duty on Red Diesel for boat use increased considerably, so it was important to fill our tank. However, the coal boats, Ara and Archimedes, which we were hoping to see to buy fuel from were tied up and locked up with no-one aboard.

At Bulls Bridge we turned right onto the Grand Union Main Line, and soon afterwards we saw Arundel, a replica working boat, loading with sand. The boat was right down to the gunwales - it's nice to see what working boats looked like in the past.

Coming through Uxbridge an unseen assailant on a bridge threw half a banana accurately at Alan.

At Uxbridge Chandlery we bought fuel at 78p a litre - the next day the price would rise by more than 40p plus VAT per litre for fuel used for propulsion - fuel used for power, heating, light, etc remains at the same level of duty. However, no-one seems quite sure how you are expected to measure what proportions you are using for propulsion and domestic uses. It looks like if you declare a 60/40 split you are unlikely to have problems, and if you are completely residential, then you will be able to continue to claim 100% domestic use.

We kept on all day in the cold - I made seeded loaves in my breaks from steering, and in the long pounds between the locks.

We moored at Stocker's Lock, the last half mile was done in the gathering dark, and we moored at 5:15. We were kept awake for hours by the honking of geese on the nearby lakes.

24.54 miles and 7 locks

Total miles:77.2 miles , Total locks: 72

Saturday 1st November - Stocker's Lock to Apsley

A cold and very wet day. A quick stop at Tesco's at Rickmansworth then pressing on as we were increasingly aware of how far we had to go before dark.

Passing "Elstree".

Very few boats were moving, although we ended up behind a very slow single-hander who was not going more than a couple of locks, but did them so slowly that it was hard not to keep running into her. I know that some people say that if you can't go slowly then you shouldn't be on the canal - but perhaps those people don't have the same constraints on getting the boat back to the marina and being back at work on Monday morning. I don't want to rush everywhere - for goodness sakes, you can't - but I would like to know that my schedule isn't going to be completely ruined by someone whose top speed appears to be considerably less than 1 mile per hour. If people want to go at that speed, fine, I have no problems whatsoever, but I have got to get back to work - let me go past.

I made a chunky vegetable stew on top of the stove to eat on the go and to keep us warm - we ate it with cheese and the remains of the previous day's seeded loaves.

A silly mistake - At Nash Mills bottom lock we met up with a single hander who was delivering a boat to the New Boat Company who have a base near Blisworth - he told me that he had delivered three boats to them in the last four weeks. He hasn't done much work on this section of canal, but is employed to take boats that are for sale to a central brokerage. It was streaming rain and getting dark by this point, but we agreed to press on for a lock or so together. At this point I made my mistake, my hand slipped in the wet while lowering the gate paddles and I let go of the windlass, which whipped around at considerable speed, hitting me on the arm and the hand, before spinning off into the lock. I was cold, and very tired, and the pain was excruciating. I genuinely thought that I might have broken a bone. Fortunately I keep instant ice packs on the boat, and I applied one as soon as I could. Alan drained the lock hoping that our best windlass might be lying on the cill - but no. So we caught up with the delivery man, and went through the lock at Apsley where we used to work - then pulled over and moored, while fireworks burst all around.

I began to think that I would have to go to A & E for an X-ray, but a bit of prodding when I took the ice pack off made me think that I had only badly bruised my arm, and not broken anything, although the pain was far worse than anything I could remember for a very long time. Later, as I warmed up in the boat, it became clear that a large part of the pain was sheer cold, which was added to by the ice pack on my arm. I applied a bandage for pressure, and had a drink.
9.87 miles and 17 locks

Total miles: 87.1 , Total locks: 89

Brentford to Little Venice

Monday 27th October 2008 – did not move from Brentford
Chalice moored outside of Blackrose at Brentford.

We walked to the National Archive at Kew, it was bright and sunny, if cold, and gave us the opportunity to look at some of the boats on the River Thames. Some of them are truly enormous, they don’t seem to float very often, so presumably need some way of supporting them on their fairly small bases. There were a couple of narrow boats moored nearby, and which were completely dwarfed.
At the Archive Alan found his grandfather’s war record, I failed to find any mention of my great great grandfather. However, I did get a good insight into the lives of Victorian railwaymen, so it was an interesting visit.

I rang my father, who lives not too far from Brentford Lock and we arranged to meet him and his wife for a meal in the evening. We had an interesting and pleasant evening together. My father decided not to bring his cornet this time!

Tuesday 28th October 2008

Chalice passing the old loading wharfs at Brentford.

We returned maps and keys to Mike on Blackrose – our considerable thanks go to him. He was feeling unwell as we left – I hope it doesn’t last long.

We had considered going down through the gauging locks as low water mark was approaching and below the locks is semi-tidal, but at the last minute decided not to, which turned out to be a good decision in the end. We untied from Blackrose at about 9:00 am, and set off up towards Bulls Bridge, and the Paddington arm.

At the first lock – Clitheroes, lock 99 – we suddenly lost power and Alan had to go down the weedhatch. He pulled out an enormous piece of heavy duty red nylon, with various straps attached. It was tightly tied together in such a way that it must have been done by someone before they threw it in.

What is this equipment for? It has heavy straps and metal buckles like those on seat belts.

NOTE: We subsequently found out that it is emergency evacuation equipment that goes under a hospital mattress, then the whole mattress, with patient strapped in, can be dragged along the floor, taken down steps, etc.

The lock took a very long time to fill, so much so that we went and rechecked that the bottom paddles were down – they were. Some workmen by the lock reckoned that there is something wrong with the ground paddles.

At the next lock – Osterleys – we met with LesD and Heidi coming south on Blue Pearl. They were planning to spend a little time in Brentford and come north again the same day, with the plan of reaching Paddington on Wednesday.

The attractive fencing alongside the Hanwell flight.

We finally reached the top of the Hanwell flight at around 12:00, and started off on the long, lockless stretch to Paddington. It was 4:20 before we finally moored at the first possible place in Little Venice, so we were grateful that we hadn’t gone down through the gauging lock, as it would be dark by 5:00. I set off on the folding bike to see if there were spaces in Paddington Basin. There weren’t, and some boats were displaying notices saying “winter licence applied for”, so it looked like there wouldn’t be any coming available soon. However, we moved the boat up a few spaces to be away from the footbridge over the canal. We’ve stayed here before with no problems at all, but while I was away on the bike a rather nasty fight had broken out on the bridge, and as it was possible, we decided to move a little further up.

Shopping in Paddington station, then by 9:00 I was so tired that I went to bed, leaving Alan to stay up for some time.

Locks: 10, Miles: 18.3

Total Locks: 65 , Total Miles: 52.7

Wednesday Morning
Today Alan is feeling unwell, and has gone back to bed for the moment. I may go out later, once I’ve tidied up the boat a bit.

On to Brentford

Denham Deep Lock to Brentford – Sunday 26th October
We woke up to rain. Which stayed with us to Brentford.
We were up at about 6:30 by GMT, but 7:30 by the clocks on the boat, which we hadn’t reset from the clocks going back last night.

We had breakfast, got ready, then Alan went to start the boat – nothing. Had our dodgy starter battery finally bitten the dust? Alan went and dug out a multi-meter, but found it wasn’t working, fortunately David seems to carry a complete workshop around with him, and had a multimeter. It turned out that the starter battery wasn’t in too bad a state, but more research suggested a dodgy connection, which was quickly fixed and we were on our way.

Above Uxbridge lock we passed Baldock and Tafelberg - but it was too early to go and knock on peoples' boats. There is a strong outflow of water from the right below the lock, and there isn’t anywhere you can easily pick people up as you exit the lock. This means that you don’t get a good run at the outflow and are in danger of being pushed into the dutch barge which is moored opposite. However, we managed it, then at Cowley lock we were watched down by a posse of police officers who suddenly appeared.

Then we had several miles of lock free canal. I was steering while Alan was in the shower, David was on the back, chatting to me, when we noticed something orange in the canal, and what seemed to be a pallet. Since we had left most of our kindling at home, and already considerably spent over the odds for a tiny bag of firewood it seemed like a good idea to pull the pallet out. We slowed down and David fished it out and put it on the roof to dry in the rain. The orange thing turned out to be a life ring. I’m always keen to return any found item to its rightful owner, but we could see nowhere that this object might have come from, so it ended up on our roof too. At this point Alan came out after his shower, and was horrified to find a pallet on his roof, and was all for throwing it back in.

At Norwood lock we needed the anti-vandal keys, and while I got the lock ready David and Alan took a hammer and pincers to the pallet on the lock side, discarding into the rubbish anything that was too heavily filled with nails. The anti-vandal measures on these locks are the hardest to use that we've yet come across - it always surprises me that each different area makes up its own versions of thing.

A lot of the Hanwell flight is alongside the old ‘mental asylum’. Notice boards explain that in Victorian times the asylum was completely self-sufficient, producing vegetables, fruit and animal products. Anything that was surplus to requirements was taken out by narrow boat and sold – there is an old bricked up archway where the boats went in and out. Alan has only been down this section of canal once, in 1971 when he and his brother Mike retrieved a boat for Wyvern Shipping at Leighton Buzzard. Alan had a part-time job for Wyvern, and one of their boats which was on the “Thames Ring” had been abandoned because of flooding. Alan and Mike went to fetch it back to Leighton. He remembers going up past the asylum as being quite unnerving, it still has a disconcerting air today.

Alan lockswheels back past "Asylum Lock", with parts of the old asylum in the background.

Chalice in "Asylum Lock", I liked the unusual lock cottage.

What surprised me was the considerable amounts of very high mesh fencing which accompanies the walls of the asylum and carries on further down the flight. It is very high, and has a curved top, to stop people climbing over it. It also seemed to be sectioning off various ‘compounds’, but it was hard to see because of the tall brick walls of the asylum. It reminded me of Winson Green Prison that we passed in Birmingham this summer, despite the fact that there seemed to be some kind of housing in amongst all the fencing. I eventually stopped a passing local couple and asked if the fences meant that there was a prison here now, but they said categorically no, and suggested that it was anti-vandal fencing. They must have extraordinarily athletic vandals around here.

The route into Brentford is very attractive, but I don't think I've ever seen quite so much rubbish in the locks.

We arrived at Brentford, but there were no mooring places, fortunately Blackrose had already said that we could moor next to him if there were any problems, and as we pulled up next to his boat he appeared on the front deck to catch a rope thrown to him. He’s been very helpful including lending us local maps to find the station so that David can get back to uni tonight.

Brentford moorings are attractive housing on one side, old factories on the other, and right under the flight path to Heathrow.

Exactly one hour after putting David on the train at Brentford we received a phone call from him saying that he was walking up from the station to his accommodation at the university.

13 locks, 12.41 miles

Total locks: 55 , total miles: 34.4

On the 'road' again

Cowroast to Home Park Mills - Friday 24th October

We had planned to go down to London, maybe with our son David's help, and meet with some friends who live in Wiltshire, who would then stay with us for a few days, and help us work back to our home moorings. However, our friends are having an extension built and are having problems with builders. As they want their building problems sorted before the winter they have regretfully decided that they could not meet with us this week. After some deliberation we decided that we wanted to go to London anyway - and hopefully we'll be able to meet our friends somewhere for some boating together next year.

Nothing is ever very simple and our original plan was to do an hour or so travelling on Thursday night, but after getting my car back late from its MOT, and all the things that we needed to do, it just didn't happen. We did the packing, went to bed some time after midnight, and got up at 6:30 to finish things off. We left the house at about 8:30 and Chalice left the marina an hour later.

It's four weeks since we were out with the boat on our trip to Aylesbury, and autumn is really with us and the corners above the top gates are filled with a floating mat of yellow leaves, occasionally with small bobbing crab apples from a nearby tree.

South of Cowroast the locks come thick and fast, with only the occasional pound that give you time to make coffee or a sandwich. At 10 am the sun came out, and stayed out for the rest of the day - it was cold, but sunny.

At Bushes Lock a smiling man approached me and asked if the boat was nb Chalice - I had a brief moment of complete puzzlement - how did he recognise the boat - had he known the previous owners I wondered? How did he know, I asked. No the answer was, obviously, far more sensible. He had seen the post that Alan had made on the forum last night to say that the boat was travelling south today, and while walking north along the canal was keeping an eye out for us. We had met with Batavia from the forum, whose boat we later passed in Berkhamsted.

Around the next corner we passed the final Jam 'Ole Run boats heading north again after Alan saw them earlier this week.

As we passed through Gas 2 lock in Berkhamsted, Alan was standing on the foredeck of the boat and looking up towards me when two brilliant blue kingfishers flew only feet above his head, and along the length of the boat before flashing over the balance beam of the boat and into the bushes above the lock. Alan hadn't seen any of it, but I was completely astounded to see them so near in to the middle of the town.

Jam 'Ole Run

At Canal Fields, opposite the supermarket in Berkhamsted a boat was across the canal - it had pulled its pin at one end, we pushed it out of the way. I went to do some quick shopping, Alan lit the fire, and then went to put the pin back on the drifting boat.

South of Berkhamsted we nearly had complete disaster strike - the prop seemed to be fouled with something, possibly just a mat of leaves, and our weed hatch is a nightmare to get through, particularly with a hot engine, so Alan decided to see if there was anything that could be freed from outside the boat. He took his glasses off while he poked around under the boat with the boat hook, so that they didn't fall into the canal - then he promptly stood on them. For various reasons he only has one pair, and without them he is unable to read anything, or do very much at all. He took the mangled frames and carefully bent them straight, but it really is time that he went and got a couple of new pairs.

Alan steering through Boxmoor in autumn sunshine.

We kept on south, wanting to get far enough to be able to meet our son who was planning to join us from university for the weekend. We needed to be near enough to the railway that we could meet him, but not so near that we were disturbed by the trains. Then steering through Boxmoor, while Alan cycled ahead lockwheeling, I had one of those brief moments of complete peace - life is often a rush, there are many things that worry or stress me, but I know that out with the boat I will find the occasional island of complete contentment.

Chalice Passing Banstead south of Apsley - the boat from the (appalling) film "the Bargee", in which Harry H Corbett (as Hemel Pike - "the Bargee" passed through the Dickinsons Paper mill, with the female workers leaning out of the windows of the offices and waving to him.

Many, many years ago Alan and I worked at John Dickinsons (well, let's be honest, he worked, and had the misfortune to have me in his team - I didn't want to be working there, and so somewhat immaturely I didn't very much). The lock at Apsley was in the heart of the factory, and our office overlooked the lock (or to be honest again, it wasn't so much an office, more the corner of a warehouse that had been breeze blocked off from the fork lift trucks and the racks of paper products). Nowadays, the lock is surrounded by attractive housing but I can't pass through the lock without remembering the old factories which still displayed their faded wartime camouflage, and the strange business practices which even in the 1970s were long outmoded.

We finally moored above lock 70 - Home Park Mills at a little after 5 pm. I mixed up a sponge pudding and put it on the stove to steam. David arrived at Kings Langley station and we went to meet him at the station, then back to the boat for dinner.

10 miles, 25 locks one swing bridge

Home Park Mills to Denham Deep Lock - Saturday 25th October 2008

Very cold this morning, but the fire was still just alight, and Alan quickly had it blazing again.

At Lady Capel's Lock we saw a boat approaching, which Alan thought might be Fulbourne, which he knew was travelling north. A man approached the lock from that direction, so I asked him if he knew if it was Fulbourne - he turned out to be Tim Lewis, so we met up with another forum member - nice to meet you Tim.

It's been a pleasant, but not really sunny day. We've taken turns to steer, or cycle, although cycling has been fairly difficult on the wet muddy towpath strewn with leaves. Our towpath bike is a £3 special from the tip - a rusty folding bike with small road wheels, so cycling on mud means the back wheel regularly sliding about beneath you.

At Iron Bridge Lock in Cassiobury Park, Watford

At Lot Mead Lock the boats Ara and Archimedes were delivering coal, so we bought a bag of coal from them - this photo shows them when we passed them later on.

Moored above Denham Deep lock

12 miles, 17 locks
Total: 22 miles, 42 locks