Winkwell to Stockers

(Posted by Cath)
Winkwell to Stockers
A sunny day, Alan was up early, and took Charlie for his first walk. We ate breakfast and then set off around 9:00 am. I walked Charlie from Winkwell down to Apsley - although he pulled constantly the whole way. He's been taught to walk to 'heel', which he's generally pretty good about, but he's so excited by being on the boat, and walking down the towpath that he's constantly pulling ahead.

Unlike yesterday we were largely on our own, we caught up with a couple of boats, but neither stayed with us for long. After Charlie was back on the boat we got one of the folding bikes off, which allowed us to get the locks ready. It meant that we both got quite a lot of exercise, although Alan is - not surprisingly - still a little nervous about getting on a bike.

Going through Hunton Bridge with a cheerful group of people who'd hired a local community boat for the day.



At Common Moor


We did quite a lot of miles, and a lot of locks, on a hot day. We walked a lot, and cycled a lot. By the time we got to Stocker's Lock, just south of Rickmansworth we were quite tired, so moored up with a plan to take Charlie for a good walk. It was only too late that we realised that David, our son, is planning to meet up with us tomorrow, not on Monday, which means that we really should have pressed on south for another hour or so. It's going to be hard to get to Paddington to meet up with him, and we'll have to set off early.

We took Charlie for a long walk around the lakes that are only just a short distance from the canal. We've moored here many times, but have only just discovered the lakes - as a direct result of having a dog.

Winkwell to Stockers
Miles: 12.4, Locks: 23
Total Miles: 23.0 , Total Locks: 47

Difficult Decisions - Should I stay or should I go.

(Posted by Alan)

Cook's Wharf to Winkwell

For various reasons we have known for some time that it would be impractical to do one of our summer "mega trips", where we usually stay out at least 3 weeks, and pile on both the miles and the locks. A great shame, really, as the two weeks at Easter largely also fell off our boating schedule when yours truly contrived to fall from a push bike beforehand, and smash his pelvis in three places, and an elbow in one.

So the idea was to start the school holidays with a trip which of necessity had to be rather less than 2 weeks. We should have set off yesterday, the day after Cath's term ended, (although I'll be the first to admit we were ill prepared!) However, soon after her school day had ended, unfortunately Cath got a call from her mother, who apparently had been suffering severe pains in much of her body, had seen a GP, but was now being despatched to hospital. We live miles away, but fortunately a very caring neighbour had stepped in, even to the point of going to sleep at Cath's mums house on Wednesday night to look after two dogs and a cat. So plans rapidly changed, and Cath drove up yesterday, first to deposit son David at his gran's house to act as a longer-term animal minder, then to see her mum in hospital.

The short version of events, (I'll spare you the long one), is that hospitals communications are seldom great, and knowing when anything will happen, tests be done, results known, or feedback given is at best a guessing game. All we knew by this morning was that Cath's mum felt better, was awaiting results of some extra tests, but likely to get sent home today.

Difficult decisions then. If we didn't start our planned break, (already shortened by over a day), then we would run out of time, but what if the situation ended up being less favourable ? Fortunately we live close to the boat's mooring, we had two bikes on board, and the canal runs close to the railway for many miles. We reasoned that if we had to abandon the boat for a bit we could, (even if it then only got taken back to base quite quickly at a later date), whereas we could not claw back time lost by not trying.

So eventually we were on our way South by about 11:30, just the two of us and Charlie the Spaniel, as David was now elsewhere.

Not too much to report on the boating. A fair day, mercifully free of the excessive heat we have had. Canal levels were unusual, after all these dry conditions, as a few pounds down from the summit were unusually low, but in pounds around Berkhamsted where levels do drop quite often at any time, water was pouring over some lock gates for no obvious reason.

Good water levels between "Gas Two" locks









Unusually we shared locks the whole way. Initially we shared with a Wilderness boat, with a couple taking grandchildren on a day trip. These charming boats are made of glass-fibre, so it is usual to agree how to handle entering and leaving to keep steel and plastic well apart! As soon as they made their first planned stop, another boat was just casting off, and has stayed with us all day, (now being about 10 feet behind, actually).

The lady we shared with most of the day had just bought her ideal second-hand boat in the Braunston area, and was bringing it down to it's new mooring.

By mid-afternoon our decision to travel was suddenly made to look "iffy". It turned out that the hospital were now saying my mother-in-law needed an ultrasound done, but this was not going to be until Monday, and they would be keeping her in over the weekend. The usual heart-searching followed, but we decided to carry on, whilst we contacted people, and to see who would be available to visit, and when.

But later on, David rang us to say that his Gran was now at home having been taken home by Cath's brother! Apparently another doctor had seen her, and reversed the decision to keep her in as quite unnecessary! Based on what's happening this time around, and on my own hospitalisation in February, I'm starting to think it's no exaggeration to say that whatever you are told is going to happen will not, (or at least not then, anyway!). David is planning to spend a few days with his Gran and then meet up with us.

So at the moment the decision to travel is still working for us, but tomorrow is of course another day!

A less sound decision was probably to visit the "Three Horseshoes", however. What they can charge for a pint and a large glass of wine almost beggars belief, and my beer proved to be cloudy enough to need replacing something you could see through properly. The food, whilst delicious, did not come in sufficient quantities for those who have just done 24 locks, and was over-priced. However, as usual Charlie came in for much admiration, including from a girl who gave him enough attention to cause him to jump up her for even more. "Hello, Georgia", said Cath, recognising one of her pupils. "Oh, no! Don't give me a detention," said Georgia, "I didn't realise it was your dog". (Cath note: I had no idea I am considered that scary!) Although the dog rescue said Charlie would be admired everywhere he went, I don't think we expected anything like the adulation he actually receives! He was less popular this morning when he managed to eat a small plastic bag - something we rather fear we may not have seen the last of, (yuk!)

Cook's Wharf to Winkwell
Miles: 10.6, Locks: 24
Total Miles: 10.7 , Total Locks: 24

Another Unusual Day On The Grand Union!

OK, I'm a sucker for old working boats, (even in ones or twos). I'm a real sucker for old loaded working boats, (even in ones or twos). So when seven are known to be working through my home turf loaded, one day of being a spectator, or even a lock wheeler, was never going to be enough, was it ?

Charlie the dog, after all, needed a walk, and Marsworth reservoirs are one of his favourite spots. He'd not mind being "moored" by the odd lock, while I wound a paddle or two, would he ?

So I set off to Marsworth by car, hoping the fun was not over. Luckily for me, if not the steerers, low pounds around Berkhamsted, and general slow down on Tring summit meant even the lead boat had only made it less than half way down the flight.

So some more pictures, that represent the different order the boats were in on this part of the trip.

Mike is on the lead boat, the massive Royalty class Victoria. He is carrying a similar load to the others, and needs as much depth of water, but the Royalty boats were built with much deeper hull sides, giving the untrained eye an impression they are carrying less.
























Mike waits whilst a BW man is trying to clear an obstruction behind a gate that would mean the later boats breasted together would get stuck.


Archimedes and Ara are the next boats down. The steerers of this pair switch fairly freely between motor and butty, so you never quite know who to expect to be on the tiller.

As I spent lots of time with this pair yesterday, I let them go, to get some pictures of the single motors following.
























Next down were Callisto and Themis. Although both motor boats, Callisto had been having fuel issues with it's Russell Newbery engine, so they were breasted together, and being powered by Themis' National, (I hope I have that the right way about!).

Here they are in the second lock down at "Maffers"
















Moving on between locks - all but the bottom the pounds at Marsworth are short, but few of the locks are in any alignment, as the canal twists and turns.






























Third lock down - The BW man has cleared the gate with an obstruction, so they can stay breasted.
















The white former lock-keepers cottage is a useful marker in this flight for those who have lost track of where they are, as being beside the fourth lock, whichever way you are travelling, it marks mid-way through the locks.

















Some of the 'S' bends between locks need some nifty tiller and speed wheel work to first miss the bank as you leave one lock, and then to have to get right across to the other side of the cut to get a good line into the next lock.

















Most of the work of the flight over, there is a much longer pound to reach the bottom lock. Always popular with moorers, they may have been surprised by the time 7 loaded boats had all made their way past in not much over an hour.

















Themis pulls Callisto into the bottom of 7 locks of the main Marsworth flight. Congratulations to their crew for making me a hot mug of tea, that kept me as a captive audience for a few locks, and so guaranteed my presence as a lock wheeler.

















By now Charlie the dog was finding it all a bit much. Being tethered up quite a bit, and with Marsworth being so popular with dog walkers, he was getting a bit bored by having other dogs sniffing his bottom! I decided to not wait for Arundel and Joe, who were slightly separated from the 5 boats ahead of them.

I went on up to Chalice's mooring, giving me the opportunity to see the whole fleet pass in the period from about 11:20 to 12:30

Victoria

















Archimedes

















Ara

















Themis

















Callisto

















Arundel

















Joe

















And, all too soon, sadly, the last one had gone, and life on this stretch of the Grand Union reverted to the more normal mix of private leisure boaters, interspersed with hire boats, day boats and wide-beam trip boats.

Thanks to the crews/owners for bringing this spectacle to our canal!

An Unusual Day On The Grand Union (A VERY unusual day on the Grand Union!)

This is another post where I have been "playing boats", but Chalice has not moved.

A news item on Canal World Forum alerted us to a total of seven narrow boats being loaded with gravel at Paddington Basin, which they are then carrying right up to Atherstone on the Coventry canal.

That simply sounded like an opportunity too good to miss, but the problem is I'd normally tackle such a day out by bike, and I have not been back on the bl**dy bike since I fell off it and broke my pelvis in three places, and my elbow in a less dramatic sounding one place only. The pelvis is by no means fully repaired, and, I suppose if I'm honest, I was considerably more than just "apprehensive" about getting back into bike riding.

So thank you to the crews of these boats for giving me the necessary lure to break out the bike, get on a train and to come down to Apsley to start looking for you.

Also, although I picked up a windlass, I didn't really expect to use it a great deal. When I followed the "jam 'ole" recreation last year, each boat had enough crew that "hangers on" like me only needed to work the occasional paddle, or to lock wheel ahead to give them a bit of a break, Not so today! Despite the large publicity this was happening the boats were largely operating loaded with just one person per boat - just a single crew man on the single motors, and only one more to steer a butty. Only the last pair had more, so the crews had no capability of "lock wheeling", namely someone going ahead to set unfavourable locks before their arrival, (although the steerers of leading boats can at least shut gates and "pull a paddle" to start the lock emptying for following boats - but extra work for them, that slows progress further).

So I very quickly found myself much in demand, main role being as boats left a lock to close up, and prepare it for the next boats along. Obviously I can't do this for all boats, but can at least help those at the back stay closer to those at the front.

The boats were, (and in this order).

Single motors:

Callisto & Themis, (both "Star" class and travelling together).
Victoria ("Royalty" class, either alone, or sharing with various pleasure boats).

Motor/Butty pairs:

Archimedes & Ara (both "Star" class again).
Arundel (modern replica of older working boat) & Joe (ex Birmingham canal navigations "Joey")

I stayed mostly with the 2 motor/butty pairs bringing up the rear, and although I chatted with Mike Askin on "Victoria", I somehow failed to photograph it - sorry Mike.

A typical load on each boat was 18 to 20 tons, I believe - not massive in true working boat days, but enough to give the crews plenty to do to avoid the problems of the shallower canals of today. The gravel is surprisingly dense, meaning that the holds don't look very loaded, but the boats depth into the water shows that actually they really are.

Anyway not much else to say, but show the pictures.

Callisto & Themis at Home Park Lock

















Archimedes and Ara near King's Langley

































Archimedes & Ara approach North Grove lock

















Arundel & Joe approach the M25 Fly-over

















Above lock 69A "Town" class Banstead and its modern butty had broken loose, and was blocking passage. (Was this to do with the single motors that had already passed with their loads ?).

















It was shunted out of the way by Archimedes & Ara, who put one of the following pair's crew on it to re-moor it.

















Archimedes & Ara on the slightly longer pound up to the Nash Mills locks.

















And passing up through the now derelict and part demolished Nash mills. Breated up they seemed to need a lot of power, even though levels weren't down.
























Lots of elum required to make the turn out of the top Nash Mills lock.

















By now Cath had driven down to Apsley at the end of her working day, and managed to catch Mike Askin on Victoria, borrow a windlass, and work him through a couple of the Apsley locks. She might have produced the missing photo, had she not unfortunately discovered the camera she has actually had no battery in it.

Archimedes and Ara tackled the short pounds breasted up. - Also now at Apsley.

































Archimedes & Ara approach Apsley top lock - the point at which we bade them farewell.

















Having turned the top lock for them we went down to the middle Apsley lock, and awaited Arundel & Joe (their technique of singling out even in the short pounds seemed to mean the engine needed to be worked far less hard).

















Cath was offered a ride on Arundel, and didn't seem to try too hard to refuse! Despite being a modern boat, built after most commercial narrow boat traffic had ceased, Arundel completely looks the part.

















Arundel and Joe arrive in Apsley top lock - despite travelling singly, the Joey was strapped to the motor each time, so that it can control its position in the lock.
























Sadly, by now my injuries were playing up enough, and the next lock far enough away, that I decided to call it a day - I never did get that elusive photo of Victoria loaded, (almost certainly for about the first time since 1971, according to it's owner!).

We wave Arundel and Joe on their way.

















I'm afraid I didn't get everybody's names, particularly on the final pair where more people kept arriving, too many of them called John!

But I offer my thanks to all who allowed me to go and play working boats for a few hours. They were all a welcoming and friendly lot, and seem to have attracted remarkably few volunteer lock wheelers in view of the wide publicity this has received.

So I'd urge anyone who likes old boats, particularly loaded ones, or the noise of Listers and RNs working hard to turn out and offer support. If you are like me you'll be glad you did!

Oh, and riding the bl**dy bike really wasn't that frightening after all!

Out for the evening

Friday 2nd July 2010
This edition of the blog will contain notes on the current sartorial choices of towpath cyclists.

I finished work a bit early, so suggested to Alan that we spent the night on the boat. We need to talk about what we are planning to do for the summer break, and how we are going to get various things things done on the boat, and I had the idea that we could sit in the evening sunshine with a glass of wine.

Alan suggested that we moved north a couple of locks, to be away from the railway, which seemed a good idea. There are winding holes (if you include the unofficial places where we can wind a 50ft boat) every few locks in the section north of us.

We set off, but found that immediately below the Seabrook 3 we couldn't get the boat into the side, so ended up mooring just above the Ivinghoe locks, with a view of the Chilterns across the canal. We cooked dinner, and chatted about our plans. "What we need is 'Cruising Rings and Other Things'", I said, so Alan opened the cupboard to get the book out, and we moved forward in the boat to look at the various options.

A bit later we heard chomping noises, only to find that Charlie had discovered the loaf of bread that I'd put in the cupboard, had dragged it off the shelf by pulling on the plastic bag that I'd put it into and had taken a couple of large bites out of the top. I cut the top off the loaf, thinking that we could still make sandwiches with the remainer tomorrow, and threw the cuttings out for the ducks - I don't want Charlie thinking that he can just take a couple of bites and he'll get the rest for his tea.

When Alan rebuilt the middle section of the boat he added a very useful cupboard, the top shelf of which we use for our books. One of the useful features of this cupboard is that when the door is opened it blocks off the back part of the boat - good if you've got someone else staying on the boat and sleeping in the front section, or if you want to change clothes in some privacy. However, you do have to shut it when you take things out, or the dog will start to look for some extra food.

In the dusk a duck with 11 large ducklings came by and began to attack the weed just under the water line of the boat.

We took Charlie for a walk down to Horton Lock, the sun slowly setting in a stunning display of pink and orange. On the way back a field full of young cattle charged up the field to huddle in the corner peering at us over the fence - there must have been 40 or more, but it was too dark to take a photo - all we could get was pictures of glowing eyes in the dark.



Horde of cows













Saturday 3rd July
We were quite sluggish getting started, so it was much later than usual that we started up the boat and got going. After some discussion we decided that it was far too nice a day to wind the boat between Ivinghoe locks, so decided that we'd set off for Slapton and turn there. I knew I'd got things to do at home, but any excuse to go off boating....

Just as we finished emptying the top Ivinghoe lock a little boat, with a balcony of flowers on the front, arrived behind us. We waited for them at the next lock and shared with them for several locks.

Maude-Again is a 20ft 6 inch fibreglass boat that the owners built in their back garden. It took them a year, and it is built of flat sheets of fibre-glass provided by a local supplier who manufactures his own flat sheets. The owners explained that the advantage of this is that for three weeks after manufacture the sheets are flexible, and can be bent into curves. This way they managed to get away with not having an expensive mould for the boat. They used galvanised forms for the corners. They told us that they had built the boat 7 years ago, and it took a year to build. They now trail it all over the country, and have travelled extensively in their boat - all credit to them.

Signs at Slapton.


















We were going so well that somehow Slapton came and went (who wants sandwiches made from a loaf with the top cut off anyway), and we kept heading north. Eventually we got to Grove, where we knew that we really did have to turn around - but not before trying out the pub. Several people had said that the food is good, if a bit expensive. It was a little pricey, but nothing out of the ordinary, and the food was fresh and quickly served. The 'fat chips' that came with our meals were excellent, and in quantities that I really couldn't cope with - although I tried valiantly.


Alan steers, approaching Church Lock, just past Grove Marina.
We winded, and headed south again. The canal seems much busier today than I've seen it in ages - far more boats moving than usual. The sun continued to beat down, although by now there was a slight breeze.

Coming back through Horton a group of young men on mountain bikes passed us. They were all dressed differently, some in long trousers, most in shorts, and the final one in cycle shorts. Now, I own several pairs of cycle shorts, which I invariably wear underneath cycle tracksters. They are very comfortable, but I wouldn't impose my rear in cycle shorts on any unsuspecting passers by. It is a feature of cycle shorts on bumpy towpaths that they make visible a disturbing quiver - except in the most rock hard derrieres of the truly addicted cyclist. I was just considering what kind of mexican wave version of this I might be capable of - when another small peleton of cyclists shot past. The final young man in this case had eschewed cycle shorts for a very fetching crimson dress. It was a strapless dress with a tight velveteen bodice and a full circular skirt bordered with white hearts reaching to about half way down his well toned thigh. From his cycle bag protruded a long, curly blonde wig, which he had presumably decided was unwise on such a hot day.

I was so struck by this sight that I completely failed to notice that the lock was full. Alan had slowly been moving the boat forward, and it pushed the gates open - leaving me stuck on the non-towpath side - which prompted one of those completely pointless arguments that can only happen on a very hot sticky day.

Charlie tethered to the lock sign to keep him safe while we work the boat through.

This photo shows the old pumping house beside the middle Seabrook lock. There were water supply problems on the canals from the early days, and there are many pumping houses next to short flights of locks, where the water was back pumped from the bottom lock to the top pound. Many of these old pumping houses are now homes, this one remains empty, with doors barred against entry. Alan wandered over and took some photos. On the other side are boarded windows.

We got back to the mooring far, far later than we should have, having had a really great day, but not really having got much further with our discussions of what we need to do.