More mad runners

Sunday 23rd January 2011

Alan woke up early, and got up to check the fire, then took Charlie for his first walk of the day. I have to admit that I snoozed on in our warm bed for a while.

Once fortified with coffee I got up to make porridge, which we ate outside, as we headed on north to the first winding hole.

The weather forecast threatened rain from midday, so we wanted to get on fairly quickly.

Brand new top gates at Leighton Lock - Good to see it now has gate paddles.



We turned, and headed south again, only to see the runners from yesterday heading back in the other direction again. Once again they had set off at 8 am, and by 10:00 the faster ones were heading back through Leighton Buzzard on the way back to Northampton.

One of the charac- teristic double bridges from this stretch - for a brief time in history, a narrow lock was added alongside the original broad one, as a water saving measure.

It remained a cool, and damp day, but we never saw the promised rain. Charlie spent a lot of his time - when not walking between locks - standing on the front of the boat like some figurehead and watching the world go by.

It was an uneventful trip, but it was so good to be out on the boat again.

Boater and dog.

I've been reading Richard Mabey's book 'Weeds', about our relationship with "plants which are growing where we don't want them". Alan and I were talking about the season and agreed that we are probably in the middle of winter now. Even though we are a month after the solstice it is probably the coldest and greyest that it will be, with few signs of the spring to come. I did see bunches of hanging hazel catkins, but they never seemed to be where I could take a photo. However, by Seabrook middle lock there was still a bit of colour around when I looked for it.

Mosses on the coping stones.


















Lichen on a blackthorn tree.


We arrived back at the mooring around 3:00 pm. Our weekend trip was less than 18 miles, and only 20 locks.






Footnote by Alan (who hopes he didn't muck up Cath's post too much by inserting a couple of extra photos!)

We have always tended to think of "Chalice" as a bit of a fair weather boat. It's only form of heating is a small solid fuel stove, located at the very front end of the cabin - there is no form of radiators or other "central heating". However experience is showing that despite the boat's length that stove can heat the whole living space in really quite cold conditions. We get maybe a 5 degree temperature gradient between the toasty warm sitting area at the front, and the cooler bedroom at the back. So we are increasingly happy to venture out now in mid-winter.

Not much heat gets to the steerer though - not like a traditional boat that would have a stove in the back cabin right alongside. I'm tempted to see if a normal style heater from a car or van could be added to the engine cooling circuit - I rather fancy having hot air blasted up when steering on a cold January day!

Trip to get some fuel

Saturday 22nd January 2011
We've had a nearly empty tank for a while, and we didn't know of any fuel boats due past, so we decided to go to get some diesel at Grove Marina, just south of Leighton Buzzard.

As always, we had some things to sort out before setting off, so actually left our moorings shortly before 11am. It was drizzly, cold and grey, but we were happy, and so was Charlie the dog, although he got very wet on the walks between locks. Walking along the towpath there seemed to be a strong smell of fermenting apples at times, and there were heaps of rotten crab apples underneath some of the trees, but I couldn't always see where it was coming from.

It has rained a lot recently, and many of the fields were so flooded that it was hard working out if they were fields, or lakes ..."Well, it LOOKS like a lake, but I've never noticed one there before."

We started to notice small groups of runners passing us, thin wiry runners with very developed leg muscles - mostly men, but there were a handful of women among them. All of them decked out in bright shades of yellow, orange and pink lycra. They all bore numbers declaring that they were in an 'Ultra' race. Enquiring at a checkpoint by Church lock I discovered that they were running from Northampton to Tring, and had set off at 8 am. The nearer we got to Leighton the more women there were among them, and the older and less wiry the runners were.

We got to Grove and got our diesel, and a new cylinder of gas, then headed on northwards to pick up some food in Tesco.

As we were leaving the mooring outside the supermarket a couple of people were watching us leave - I pushed the front of the boat away from the edge, and jumped on. Mr Bystander called out, "why are you doing all the work, why doesn't he do it?" I never fail to be surprised by passers by, who no matter what I am doing are convinced that I am working hard, and Alan is being lazy. I can be working locks, or steering, just about everything except lying on the roof, and they will ask why I'm doing all the work. I turned back, "because he's recovering from a broken pelvis". "Ha," says Mrs Bystander, "that's a good enough excuse!"

We carried on as far as The Globe Inn, and moored in the gathering gloom. Another runner passed, a much larger woman. All credit to her, but I was worried about her carrying on along the towpath in the dark, given the state of it these days. She must have had another 12 miles to run.

We walked Charlie. Getting a dog has been really good for us, in the past we would have collapsed at the end of a day's boating - on the computer, reading a book - now Charlie gets another walk, we get to talk things over. I dropped into the Globe to check the menu, and discovered that we would be able to take Charlie in as long as he remained in the paved area and off the carpets - but that the last table in the restaurant had just gone. No matter, said the landlord, you can sit in the pub area and eat - just come back in a while when it has got quieter, when there would be tables free.

Back on the boat we changed out of our muddy clothes and went back to the pub for a drink before our meal - and found the previously busy bar much quieter. We ordered drinks, and decided on our meals, which were excellent. My peppered mushroom suet pudding with chive mash and seasonal vegetables cost £10, and Alan's Red Pepper and Onion Tart was £7 - both really delicious, with attentive service from the bar.

Somehow we found ourselves in conversation with another couple in the bar - the talk became more and more animated, and they moved over to sit with us. Eventually they had to go, as they had another place to go to that evening, but we left with their phone number, and the plan to meet up again at some time.

Back to our nice warm welcoming boat, and a good night's sleep.

Getting some charge in the batteries

Sunday 16th January
We decided that our poor boat needed some charge in the batteries - so set off up through 2 locks to Marsworth, where we had a quiet pub lunch in the Red Lion.

Afterwards, we found this bike and a brace of pheasants outside!












It was wonderful to be out on the boat for the first time since the summer. Even if it was cold and grey.

Some sad news.

Posted by Alan.

This may seem a strange thing to post here, but I have been receiving several inbound messages from people who I have no obvious other way to respond to, but I know look here from time to time.

Many have noticed that our regular cruising pattern ended after August, and indeed the boat has not moved since, and has sat through the recent severe weather, unloved, and with a flat battery.

Some will know the reason is that my mum, Adelaide, fell ill in early October, and we have been on a fairly roller coaster ride since then.

Sadly Mum passed away on the 27th December, and was laid to rest this last week.

Mum had lived independently at home, without assistance beyond friends or family ,up until over 92 years old, and was not a fan of hospitals and care homes. So, while it has been a shock to lose her so quickly, we are comforted by the fact that she spent most of a very long life as she wanted it, and that the unavoidable period of being cared for by others at the end was not too drawn out.

So, on a brighter note, if I can manage to not damage myself again, as I did early last year, (more boating time lost!), and if Cath's parents can manage to stay hale and hearty for a while, then there is a much greater chance that we may make it around a wide range of canals and rivers this year.

Mind you, I now have a cataract operation to get out of the way before serious boating begins.....

Thanks to all those who have expressed concern, or given support, through the recent months.

Boxmoor to Cook's Wharf

(Posted by Alan)

Boxmoor to Cook's Wharf

Resuming my attempt to remember what happened on the intensive final two days of this trip!

In fact we did not intend to make a particularly early start, but a pair of community boats had been moored behind us, where not a lot of control seemed to be being put on the youngsters aboard, making their antics look quite dangerous. So when it looked that "Pisces" and "North Star" might be about to start up, we decided we would rather be ahead of them, than behind them.

Once we had worked a few locks, and were approaching the middle Winkwell one, someone hailed us from a moored boat, and asked if we would wait for them. I thought they might be a while getting going, but in fact we were quickly sharing locks, which helped us on our way a bit.

"Wooden stake and mesh" bank reclamation just below Berk- hamsted, something we have seen elsewhere, but new to the lower Grand Union, we think.

Small tug being delivered to these these works by lorry - I had previously thought it was being taken away, but have since met the lady who drives it, and who corrected me!

We continue to share locks at Berk- hamsted's "Rising Sun". I was fascinated to hear that the owners of this boat had saved at least £20,000 over an equivalent new one, by a second-hand purchase of an almost unused boat. (It's an Aqualine, built in Poland).

Alan lock wheels past extensive floral display at The Boat, Berk- hamsted






Our companions were stopping at Berkhamsted, leaving us to press on up the next eight locks to Tring summit alone. As we started encountering every lock against us, despite frequent boats the other way, we were clearly catching up another boat, but never quite seeing it. Often pairs of top gates were open, so we were guessing either two boats or a wide-beam.

Typical state of the refuse facilities at Cow Roast










We were not long on to Tring summit, about 3 miles with no locks, before we quickly caught up a wide-beam community boat. Much of the summit, being in a cutting, is relatively, (but not exceptionally) narrow, but they seemed to be navigating it incredibly slowly, even before they decided to start letting some of the visitors steer the boat, and were actually virtually stopping on a fairly regular basis. As we caught them at one of the wider parts, they could easily have held at the side for half a minute or so, and waved us past, but they didn't, and eventually we stopped in a bridge-hole and shut down the engine until they were out of sight. It didn't help much, as we very quickly caught them again, so we repeated this, waiting longer, but still caught them quickly.

Imagine our relief when as we finally got to Marsworth top lock, a narrow-boat was waiting to enter, meaning they could not share the lock, due to their width, but we could. I don't think I have ever been waved past with quite such bad grace, or such condescending comment. A great shame, as this was one of the usually better operators of coimmunity boats, but their arrogance and unhelpfulness that day has left me with a rather different view of what can happen.

Fortunately the lady we then shared with proved to be the perfect antidote. She was not young, but single handling a boat she had recently bought, and which was not without some mechanical issues. She was clearly having the time of her life, and neither the fact that a warning beeper kept coming on on the engine, nor that she had no idea what it meant, really didn't seem to trouble her at all. In fact she was not fazed when the engine decided to stop as she was under way, ("it does, sometimes", she said quite simply!).

So thank you, unnamed lady, as well as our accompanying boat earlier in the day. Not an auspicious day for community boat crews, we felt, but some very nice private boaters made our day. (And we got back within out target time too, which was surely a plus).

Almost home! - leaving the penultimate lock at Peter's Two








Boxmoor to Cooks Wharf
Miles: 12.2, Locks: 27
Total Miles: 179.8, Total Locks: 189

Widewater near (Harefield) to Boxmoor

(Posted by Alan)

Widewater near (Harefield) to Boxmoor

Apologies to those who have told us repeatedly that they are waiting to see if we made it home!

We did, of course, but immediately embarked on our project to try and give Chalice a DIY repaint.

Now any amateur that has ever tried it will tell you this is not a job for the faint hearted - that roof that doesn't look too big normally, for example, suddenly appears a lot larger if you are trying to take it back to bare metal, or to apply many layers of new paint to it.

So we have been busy, and the blog went on stall, but I'm now finally going to attempt to record those last two days.

In fact, the wet dock booking made us decide to try and get back from Widewater, (near Denham) in just two days, to allow us a clear day for getting at least a bit reorganised at home, before boat painting completely took over our lives. This is not a massively hard target, but we were both very tired, and we knew it would take a bit of effort.

Above Widewater lock is usually a good tie-up, and this time was no different, so I have no real excuse that I woke early. However it was a good opportunity to take Charlie for an early morning walk, which I did trying not to disturb the other people on board, (a challenge!).


Leaving Widewater on another fabulous day









A strange feature of this part of the trip was that although the canal had become quite busy, we still ended up sharing very few locks, or indeed even finding very many in our favour, necessitating someone regularly being ahead with the bike to set them up, if progress was to be maintained.

However at Lot Mead, just north of Rickmansworth, the resident of the lock-side cottage approached me, and said there was a problem with the top gates, and despite multiple attempts to shut them or dislodge obstructing matter, they could not be closed. I was just thinking "what chance of getting BW out quickly on a Sunday of a Bank Holiday weekend.", when A BW guy appeared. I'm not sure if he was actually working, or just doing a good turn, but miracle of miracles, he knew where to find a keb. Now a keb is a long shafted rake, with end like a digging fork with it's tines bent through 90 degrees, and exactly what you need, but finding one near a GU lock these days is nearly unheard of. So when out man fished around expertly, we were mightily relieved when he pulled out the obstruction. It was one of the shaped metal caps used to top off the mitred posts of the gate, but curiously it didn't belong to the current gates, as both theirs were still present. Good old BW man - our chances of getting back on schedule suddenly recovered!

Approaching the pair of locks at Cassiobury










It is unusual this far down the Grand Union to find many low pounds, because much of it has rivers flowing in and out, and water is usually plentiful even when rainfall has been unusually low. However we did realise we were seeing quite a few pounds where levels were down from usual. Fortunately Chalice has a shallow draught, and is little affected by small water shortages on a canal like the Grand Union.

Using British Waterway's property as a waiting point to avoid the shallows in a low pound at Nash Mills



The schedule we were trying to stick to actually required that we got beyond Boxmoor, but there are opportunities to moor there that are rather quieter and less affected by road and rail traffic noises, so we decided enough was enough. We had done 23 locks, but stopping a bit early left us 27 to do on the final push.

Widewater (near Harefield) to Boxmoor
Miles: 14.0, Locks: 23
Total Miles: 167.6, Total Locks: 162

A Quiet Day With Cath's Father & His Wife

(Posted by Alan)

Brentford to Widewater near (Harefield)

On two successive trips on the tidal Thames we have tried to take Cath's father and his wife for a trip, but each time he has been busy, (or so he claimed, anyway!).

With hindsight we now realise this would not have been a very clever idea, as neither is young - in fact Dot became 85 yesterday. We found the two and a half hours, much of it crashing through waves physically exhausting, and realise it would have been very difficult for them.

Anyway we had agreed to take them out for the day today - they could get to Brentford on public transport, and if we could deliver them to Uxbridge station, getting home would be quite straightforward too.

They couldn't get to us particularly early, but we should have time, including a lunch stop,

Now, I have to say, if you wanted to show off the Grand Union, you would not by choice start at Brentford. This has to be the most litter strewn bit of the entire cut, locks are filled with floating debris, and the prospect of large plastic bag tangled on the propeller is ever present.

Jim and Dot at Hanwell, (shame there is nowhere else for the bikes!)


Also you probably would not choose a route that fairly early on includes a flight of 8 double locks, which is what you get with Hanwell and "Norwood Top" combined. Furthermore these locks were unusually busy, many of the intermediate pounds missing a foot or more of water, and a few boats reversed locks on us that they probably should not have done. I think our guests may have been initially perplexed about an arrangement that took maybe an hour and a half for only a mile travelled!

Locking up through Hanwell - the threatening clouds never did deliver much rain.







One of the few remaining parts of the old asylum buildings, viewed from a lock. They have always had a kind of menace for me, since I first encountered them in the 1970s.

The next part of the plan didn't work too well, a suggestion to have a pub lunch. The canal guides indicate three possible canal-side pubs each at a different bridge separated by around half a mile. The first was deserted, and looked uninviting. The second proudly announced outside that it did food, but when Cath enquired, it did not. The final one looked far more promising, but was in the middle of a refit, and not doing food at the moment. The guide showed few more options, and the next pub along apparently has strippers - we decided not to inflict them on a couple in their 70s and 80s.

So a change of plan saw us stop at the supermarket at Bulls Bridge, and buy what was needed for a lunch on board.

By now we were into a fairly long lock-less section, so hopefully our guests got a better idea that canals is not all being static in locks.

We eventually arrived at Uxbridge, by which time I think we had worn them out. Cath ensured they were safely on a train, before returning to the boat.

We were by a noisy road, and a noisy pub, so decided to push forward for a few more locks starting with Uxbridge lock itself.

We moored at one of our regular quiet overnight mooring spots, just above Widewater near Denham.



I just wish the boat we shared Denham deep lock with, and who then followed very slowly behind us, had told us their intentions. Having set up Widewater lock for two boats, and waited very patiently for them, they instead turned into the marina entrance, just before the lock.

Oh well, that's boating for you!

Brentford to Widewater (near Harefield)
Miles: 14.0, Locks: 14
Total Miles: 153.6, Total Locks: 139