Category Archives: Boat cats

Faces Everywhere. 29th July

Pond Lane Footbridge 16 to Eco Moorings east of Islington Tunnel

Some fabric samples had arrived at my brothers that needed collecting. My first thought was to walk across to pick them up, then Mick and I was could rendez vous at Bottom Lock on the Hertford Union. But Andrew was busy doing site visits so a later visit to the house was arranged.

We pushed off, the canal a lot quieter than it had been a couple of weeks ago. The pubs were empty and no canoes were out. A lady from a widebeam a few boats up took note of us leaving and phoned a friend who was on their way.

London does unusual boats well. Paint jobs that are not your standard traditional affairs. The uprights of The East Crossway Bridges have all been decorated, one with cds and other objects and one is almost totally covered in old spray cans. Then the new St Columba boat has an interesting roof line, a section of it raises similar to a roof on a VW camper van.

A right onto the Hertford Union, Ducketts Cut which was intended as a short cut from the Thames to the River Lee, cutting out the tidal Thames. It now saves a trip down to Limehouse basin and back up saving just under three hours cruising.

What we’d seen being started ten days ago

The graffiti we’d seen being painted almost a couple of weeks ago was still there, not yet painted over. The green Frankenstein holds a spray can.

This lock also has the offside bollards painted with wrestling faces, quite amusing.

On a couple of the pillars someone has painted faces, a different style to your usual graffiti art, but I quite liked them. There was another on the tight towpath bend below the middle lock.

Another piece that catches your eye is by Frankie Strand. There have been several of Frankie’s works along the Lee, a distinctive style. She is also an illustrator and has a website Here. She certainly likes here flamingos, snakes and cormorants.

A widebeam was just coming out of the middle lock, this turned out to be the boat that was heading to where we’d pulled out from. The large inflatable flamingo is now semi deflated, it’s head bowing down towards the water.

With just the last few inches of the top lock to fill I left Mick to finish off the lock on his own and headed off across Victoria Park to collect my post. A cuppa with my brother was lovely for an hour, but then it was time to catch up with Mick who was now single handing. Hopefully the London Leckenbys will catch up with us in a couple of weeks, if not we may not see them for quite a while.

I guessed that Mick might have made it to Acton’s Lock so started to head that way across the vast park. I gave him a call and it turned out he was only just starting to work his way up Old Ford Lock just after the junction back on the Regents Canal. My route was altered accordingly, popping back out onto the towpath above the lock. No sight of Oleanna so I carried on walking westwards.

A glimpse of a stern, was that Mick? Yep it was, he was just calling to tell me where he was. I soon caught up a bit before Acton’s Lock. He’d taken his time, loitering on lock landings so I wouldn’t have too far to catch up with him, also it meant he wouldn’t have to single hand too much. As he’d pulled away from Old Ford Lock NB Driftwood was just arriving so we paused at Acton’s Lock to wait for them.

Two boats however were heading towards us, so we worked our way up to free up the lock for them. We then pulled over to the elsan to empty our yellow water. This meant Driftwood was quite close behind us now. They caught us up by Stort’s Lock and then shared our last two locks for the day.

We only had through the next bridge to go, where as Rod and Nor were hoping to find space for Driftwood in Paddington Basin, I hope they succeeded. Hopefully our paths will cross again somewhere, sometime.

I walked up to the Eco-moorings. At first glance they looked full apart from a space that wasn’t long enough for us. Our booked mooring was 1A. The moorings are numbered lowest to highest East to West from Bridge 38, Froglane Bridge to the entrance of Islington Tunnel. The first four moorings are double moorings between April & September, all are 21.7m long, so we should have pulled in alongside the first boat. But a short distance on was a gap big enough for us, if it became a problem to anyone we’d move back. No-one else arrived so that was fine. Have to say unless you’ve fully read the emails and website you wouldn’t know which mooring was which as they are not labelled.

Phew we were moored up! Tilly was read the rules, she’d already started to do calculations to be able to climb the wall alongside the towpath. Yes but things took a different turn when I saw a furry friend. Calculations put on hold, I needed to introduce myself! No amount of cyclists , runners, even woofers distracted our second mate from her introductory mission.

‘Hello Leckers!’ A passing walker stopped to say hello. This was my oldest friend Nick, he’d just spent the day doing jury service in Southwark and had decided to walk home. He knew we’d be in the area as we’d planned to meet up tomorrow evening. Mick connected us to the electric hook up and we sat down for a cuppa and a good catch up. Jolly good to see Nick and we look forward to seeing him again tomorrow, hopefully accompanied by Kerry his partner and Harry his faithful hound.

The Eco-moorings are a quiet zone. C&RT have provided electric hook up points, so you are only allowed to run your engine if you are moving your boat and should you light your stove you can only burn smokeless fuel. At the moment these moorings are a trial, another two sites will become eco-moorings sometime in the future. Here’s hoping such places pop up around the network enabling boats to reduce their emissions in built up areas.

7 locks, 1 single handed, 2 shared, 5.21 miles, 2 rights, 3 canals, 2 shades of blue, 1 brother, 1 nephew, 1 shark left, 54.5 years a friend, 3 big friends, 1 wall to master, 1 tidy boat all hooked up. Shame the washing machine’s not working!

The Greasers. 28th July

Ordnance Road Bridge 38 to Pond Lane Footbridge 16

NB Driftwood came past as we were having our morning cuppa in bed, we wouldn’t be sharing locks with them today. We also wouldn’t be sharing with the boat that followed them as we had breakfast, keeping up with the green boat would have been quite a feet!

We pushed off around 9am to retrace our route back to Hackney Marshes, hoping to find a space before turning onto the Hertford Union. A pigeon was determined to sit on top of the bottom lock gates as I closed them, filled the lock, opened and closed them again.

The high banks of the reservoirs followed us to the east and the power lines hung above us most of the way. The smell of malt filled the air, due to passing a brewery where a wagon was off loading.

At Ponders End Lock I had a quick check to see if the powered lock might just work, but as the button to be able to open the top gates was missing I guessed we’d still be using the manual one.

Below we paused to top up with water. Taking in a bit of the graffiti under the bridge I noticed an outlined figure which reminded me of a friends ceramic figures. Below one layer of paint there was a sprayed message, The Hackney Empire Strikes Back.

At Alfies lock we waited for a boat to come up, the crew only sort of knew what they were doing. As the levels equalised bags of rubbish were brought out for disposal. Two C&RT chaps were busying themselves round the lock, they’d obviously lent the chaps on the boat a windlass as this was handed back to them. Apparently they didn’t have a Key of Power either! They can’t move very often!

The chaps in blue were busy greasing all the paddle gear. One chap had a gun to squeeze the lubricant in around the collars on the gates, the other a knife like a putty knife. With this he was troweling on the grease to the teeth of the gear. I asked how often they did this. Between three to six months. Here we were at the last manual lock on the Lee and it was being greased, If we’d left it another day or two the locks above would all have been easier!

An outdoor stage was being erected by The Drumsheds, an outdoor festival will host gigs in the coming months. So if you want a quiet evening moored up on the Lee, this isn’t the place to moor at weekends.

Stonebridge Locks and Tottenham are awkward to drop crew off at, so we pulled onto the service mooring above and I walked between the locks. Chance to see things from the towpath for a change.

Below Tottenham Lock we were ready to have to clear the prop at regular intervals, but the weed boats must have been through as we only had to go into reverse a few times. Fairly recent graffiti has been added to bridges in the area, someone’s not too pleased with the way the pandemic has been governed!

Gradually the duckweed increased covering the navigation. Our eyes began hunting for a spot to pull in for the day. Dark clouds had been threatening us for a while with the occasional shower, but the rain was soon going to come down in earnest.

Cycle superhighway just behind the friendly cover

A bit sooner than we expected a chap was just coiling up his ropes about to push off. The space would just be the right size for us, so we pulled back and waited for him to vacate it, then pulled in. Our timing had been good in that respect it was also good in that just after we’d put the pram cover up the heavens opened. Tilly was slightly dismayed at this. They only move the outside when it’s dry, then tie it up when it’s really really wet!

5 locks, 8.94 miles, 1 speeding boat, -1 button, 1 full water tank, 1 green carpet, 4 hours of wet outsides, 2 lucky dry boaters, 8 leftover meatballs.

PS. Does anyone know why the Lee is sometimes spelt Lee and other times Lea? Both the navigation and river seem to have different spellings.

PPS. Thank you Clare from NB Billy. The ladybird I showed yesterday has a got a problem, sexually transmitted parasites! Eww!!

Anyone Got Any Change? 27th July

Broxbourne Bridge to Ordnance Road Bridge

After a hunt round on the internet Mick found the other circuit board, the one that now by process of elimination must be the problem with the washing machine. He had tried removing this one about ten days ago and decided that an engineer would do it better than he could. A phone call to the company was made and the circuit board has been ordered, we need to call them back later in the week to see where an engineer can come out to us as we’ll be making our way back through London to the west.

Just as we were about to push off a boat came into view, hopefully a lock partner. As the boat came past we noticed that it was NB Driftwood that we’d seen yesterday heading up the River Stort with the high cratch, they’d obviously not made it under the bridge.

We pulled out shortly after them just as the local number checker arrived and tapped on the roof of the boat behind us. Would today be a day when everyone shuffled round to get the maximum time on a mooring? Is moving as your number gets checked a good thing? How many times would our number be taken? We seemed to be keeping up with the chap on the bike.

Back past the busy Lee Valley Boat Centre, we’d already had a couple of day boats go past and now people were arriving to collect smaller craft for a few hours.

Under a bridge I noticed a sign listing the Greenway Code for Towpaths. 6 is especially good. ‘Give way to oncoming people beneath bridges’. Very sensible except the positioning of the sign was under a bridge and it would take someone time to read it all the while being in the way!

At Aquaduct Lock we caught up with NB Driftwood and the number checker, who’d just stopped to take a photo of a widebeam just before the lock landing. Notices posted on boats regarding their lack of movement used to be paper with the C&RT logo slotted into plastic for protection. Today it seems that picture postcards have taken over.

Rod on Driftwood chatted away. Yesterday he had to reverse quite a distance when they realised their cratch wouldn’t fit under Roydon Railway Bridge. He could have collapsed the structure, but then would also have had to remove a lot of things from his roof to get under, so they’d decided to abort the trip up the Stort.

We accompanied them through several more locks, enjoying their company. Rod and Nor have had their boat since October last year and have refitted quite a substantial amount of the interior, still more work to do but for now it is time to cruise and enjoy owning a boat.

We passed boats we’d seen on the way up and kept passing the number checker. Boats were certainly on the move today. The narrowboat with a mass of fenders was being polled along to the next space and a wider than narrow boat complained when we started to shut gates on her. She’d apparently been waiting for ages, yet hadn’t shown interest and had just melded into the moored boats. We apologised and opened the gates back up for her.

There was sighting of a hot composting bin on a widebeams stern deck, tucked behind some nasturtiums. Sadly these are too big to live on a narrowboat, but trials are being carried out by several of the Composting toilet group on facebook with smaller containers that will speed up the composting process.

At Waltham Town Lock I decided to walk on ahead so that I could see what the new facilities block had on offer that we’d spotted the other day and get it’s location to pass on to Paul for the next update of Waterway Routes maps. NB Driftwood pulled in as they were after using the services.

We waited for a widebeam to finish dropping down Rammey Marsh Lock, refilled it, then dropped down ourselves. Now it was time to find a mooring. Plenty more boats along this stretch than when we came up ten days ago, but luckily we found a couple of spaces free. Depth and underwater lumps and bumps were a touch awkward, but we got in in the end.

After a late lunch Mick packed the hold all. We’d only got a few pairs of socks and pants left each, so it was time to visit the launderette. There was one close by on Ordnance Road, so not too far to drag our underwear. How much change did we have though? I don’t bother carrying money around anymore and the 46p I managed to find must have been on my bedside table for at least a year.

Luckily the shop next door to the launderette could supply enough change, so we now have freshly laundered socks and pants.

5 locks, 4 shared, 5.29 miles, 1 dribbley roof, 37 fenders, 1st 5 blackberries, 10 point code, 4 to 6 inches higher, 643 babies maybe, M25.

Are these babies or has this ladybird got a problem?

https://goo.gl/maps/56S7nfS8FQgK7pEE7

Two Bricks In The Amber. 26th July

Hunsdon Lock to Broxbourne Bridge

With all the rain yesterday we knew the river would have come up. The small weir that lads had been paddling in on our way upstream the other day was now a torrent of water, not sure you’d have been able to stand up in it today. I looked downstream from the lock the level was certainly higher, would the railway bridge below Roydon be passable?

We dropped down the lock and quite speedily made our way to Roydon Lock. There were quite a few boats moored on the pound. Signs along this stretch suggest you should find alternative moorings as the levels change quickly.

At the lock one bottom gate paddle was half raised, presumably to help lower the pound. There are also sluice gates further upstream that were raised sending water down.

The gauge below the bridge is quite hard to gauge, unless your boat is lowered to the level below. So we brought Oleanna into the lock and dropped her down. When level with the pound/reach below the top of our horns (highest fixed point on Oleanna) were just about level with the top mortar line of the lock. Tracing this across to the gauge and nudging Oleanna forwards we deemed the river to be two bricks in the amber, ‘Proceed with caution’.

The red line where Oleanna’s horns would come to, 2 bricks into the Amber

Two bricks in the amber was nearer red than green. Two low bridges to go under, which we might just make, but there is also a sharp left hand bend which with the increased flow would make it a touch hard to skid round. If we’d been heading upstream then maybe we’d have given it a go, you can go slowly heading into the current and stop should needs be.

Below the lock, river to the right and river to the left

Mick reversed Oleanna back into the lock, I closed the bottom gates and we refilled the lock, reversed out onto the lock landing, pulling as far back as we could and left the gates open should anyone else arrive from above.

A chap from a boat moored there said the level yesterday had been right up to the top of the lock and spilling over the bottom gates. The lady at the lock cottage said if we had no rain today we should be fine by the end of the day. All we had to do was wait, so that is what we’d do, Tilly taking advantage of the spare hours.

A message came from Hackney that the washing machine circuit board had arrived! Hooray!! With time on our hands Mick headed off to the station to catch a train in to Stratford to collect it.

During the morning I had a quote through for the set build of #unit21. Apparently the cost of materials has shot up in the last few months, I’m not surprised. Grahams quote thus was a touch more than I’d been hoping for. I need to get my budget in to the Producer by the end of the week, so we’ll see what she reckons as I know we’ve already trimmed away quite a lot of what we were wanting.

At about 1:15pm I could hear a boat arriving. One lock gate was slightly closed so would need opening up for them to enter the lock, so I went to lend a hand. NB Otter had things on it’s roof and the chap on board was aware of the low bridges ahead, but wasn’t aware of how the gauge worked below the lock. By now the 16.5 bricks below the green had increased to 18.5 so at least another 6 inches. Once Otter was lowered, it looked like it would still be in the amber, but nearer the green. The chap dropped his solar panel off it’s chocks, Tidied his roof, removing any plant pots, crossed his fingers and set off.

He didn’t return.

Then emails from the Production Manager of Panto started coming in. At least she was wanting to communicate with me! A quote for the build needed checking through that nothing had been missed, a village hall is being sought for me to paint in the week prior to rehearsals and the final costs of printed cloths were being added into the budget.

Of course poor Mick arrived back as I was working my way through the quote and was told ‘I’m busy!’ ‘No, I need to concentrate’ ‘Shhhh’. Tilly had already retired to the bedroom to keep out of my way.

Once work emails were sent, we made ready to push off again. Two C&RT chaps had walked past going to close sluices up stream saying the level was just about back to normal now. Mick removed the black buckets and coal from the roof. Oleanna dropped down in the lock, the level below had risen a touch since NB Otter had gone through. Still in the amber but far closer to the green, we’d go for it.

Zoomy down the river. Around a bend. There was THE bridge. All looked good several inches to spare. We’d have had difficulty earlier on. Under we limbod out through the other side.

The next bridge, arched, was now a breeze. A boat was heading towards us with a raised cratch, we both looked at each other, lined their cratch up with the top of our horns. It would very much be touch and go for them to get under the bridge. We mentioned this to them as they sped past us, at least they’d be able to slow down.

Their cratch a few inches taller than our horns. Eeek!

The sharp turn under the other bridge was handled by Mick and we were safe.

Brick lock with it’s leaking top gates took forever to empty, but with patience it did eventually. Below Lower Lock a group of boats has gathered and labelled the off side as Pirate Collective Pollenglish. Back to the junction with the River Lee and the end of the River Stort.

Boats were using the services below the lock, so there was no hoping back onboard below, a little walk was needed to find a suitable spot. Pylons of the Lee now escorted us back to Dobbs Weir Lock where two magnet fishers were hard at work, it didn’t look like they’d caught much.

At Carthagena Lock a boat was just leaving, the gates left for us. Brilliant! Except there was a breasted up pair hiding amongst the masses waiting to go down. We took our revs off and glided into the side to wait our turn.

We helped the pair down. If anyone would like a couple of painted watering cans they have been left for anyone to pick up just by the lock. Mick helped with the annoying bottom gates, thankfully as we left they weren’t too much bother.

Fingers crossed that a mooring would be available at Broxbourne. Most boats want solar for 14 days, so we were lucky in that there was space for us under the trees. We’d also quite like some solar, but cruising for a few hours a day means it’s not as imperative to us.

Too late in the day for Tilly to go out she was plied with her evening dingding to placate her. After we’d eaten our evening dingding Mick pulled the washing machine out to replace the circuit board. Would it work? Only a few more days of pants left in the clean drawer!

Well, we’ll be looking for a laundrette in the next couple of days! Sadly the circuit board hadn’t worked. We will regroup in the morning and decide how to progress.

7 locks, 1 twice, 4.93 miles, 1 left, 2 bricks, 16.5 bricks, 5.5 hours wait, 2 trains, 2 buses, 2 quotes, 1 dog peed rope, 1 bucket water, 1 bollard cat claimed, 18.5 bricks, 1 cratch 2 high, 1 breasted up boats, 2 watering cans, 1 circuit board, 1 broken machine still.

https://goo.gl/maps/NDk3dsBBMDKefRpf8

Boating Without Boundaries. 22nd July

Hunsdon Mill Lock to Footbridge 28

A couple of days ago Mick had scanned Google maps for a supermarket close to the canal as our supplies were getting low. In Bishop Stortford there is a Sainsburys, but they weren’t offering Click and Collect, plus it was another days cruise away and the wine stocks were down to the dregs in the last box! Tescos came up trumps in Harlow a short distance away from a footbridge over the canal. So we’d booked a slot between 12 and 1pm. The handy mooring, if free, was only an hour and half cruise away.

The difference between January and July above Hunsdon Lock. This is as far as we got on the River Stort in 2015, so all water ahead of us would be new.

Stunning blue skies and meadows, very pretty. The train line out to Stanstead Airport runs quite close and the new trains sound their sore throat horns quite frequently, what a strange noise! Every now and then there would be a moored boat, gang plank out to the bank, Tilly would love it if she could cope with a plank.

First Lock was Parndon Mill a cream brick building with a square chimney. Several mills have stood on the site all milling flour. The current building dates back to 1900 and had a state of the art flat turbine mill wheel installed in 1904. It stopped turning in the 60’s once the miller died. The building was then fenced off by Harlow Development Corporation who searched for a new purpose for the buildings, preferably something to do with the arts.

In 1968 Sally Anderson a local potter was looking for new studio space someone pointed her in the direction of the mill. With four floors, a six bedroom house, outbuildings on three acres of land it was huge. Other artists came on board, work was traded for studio space and so the Mill was renovated and turned into a centre for creativity. Glass blowing, architecture, ceramics, a blacksmith all sorts have occupied the building. Somewhere worth visiting in better times.

At Burnt Mill Lock we could see activity above, a boats windows moving sideways across the cut. Here the bottom gates are powered requiring the key of power so Mick brought one up and helped to empty the lock. What was going on above? There seemed to be a lot of faffing about going on. Chaps in blue t shirts clustered together all wearing life jackets and hats. A group of them stood at the bow of one of the two boats, two more at the stern. We rose in the lock and opened the gates. It didn’t look like we’d be going anywhere soon!

Here is the base for CanalAbility who have two widebeam boats that do day trips and holidays for people with disabilities. They had been preparing for a trip out today, their longer boat needed turning, the other boat in the way. So someone had attempted to wind the boat at just the wrong spot, a gap maybe just a few inches too narrow for the full length of the boat. Here we had an Ever Given situation! The boat was stuck fast between banks, the sun beating down on it expanding the metalwork.

We offered to lend a hand/boat to help. Ropes were being tugged both at the bow and stern. She wasn’t moving. Which way had they been turning when she got stuck, going clockwise, had they tried pulling her back out the way she’d gone in. Yes.

We were requested to push the bow whilst their other boat did the same at the stern. This didn’t quite make sense to us, but we obliged and pushed our button up to their bow as the other boat rammed into the stern. Well it move a touch, maybe an inch by the looks of the paint mark on the wooden edge.

One chap stood at the back, bowthrusters going, tiller this way then that, engine roaring. All of this was just making matters worse, all the time our click and collect slot getting closer.

Trying to make the canal that little bit wider

A saw, chisel and hammer were brought out with the aim of cutting away the wooden edge enough for the bow to be pulled round. Ropes were attached to our bow so that we could pull. That is all that should have been happening, but another shove at the stern and more engine and tiller too.

More sawing, more chiselling, more pulling, she moved an inch! More sawing, more chiselling. We dug out our big crow bar, another pull and she was back where she’d been thirty minutes ago. The problem was there were too many chiefs and one lady who kept on apologising to us and the group that had now arrived for their trip out.

The second boat was winded, thankfully it is shorter and didn’t end up jamming us against the side! Half the visitors climbed onboard and then were taken down through the lock and on their cruise, the remainder of their party brought chairs to sit in the shade to wait.

At last someone who spoke with authority arrived. Asked which way the boat had been winded. He looked around, put on a life jacket, returned with some blue rope and a short scaff bar to make a Spanish windlass attached to a mooring bollard that wouldn’t spin. Eventually after I don’t know how many turns the bow creaked it’s way round. At last the navigation was open again!

We quickly got out of everyone’s way and got on our way, there was still time to get our shopping.

Round the bend was plenty of shade, we’d been warned about Willow branches leaning right over the navigation and sure enough the wood had been cut just above our roof height.

Above Latton Lock the moorings we’d been hoping for seemed full, a gap at the start of them might just accommodate Oleanna and still leave enough space for the lock landing. We pulled in, tied up avoiding as many nettles as possible and hoped nobody would curse us for being too close to the lock.

Out came the Brompton and Mick cycled off to pick up our shopping. One boat did come along, but they managed quite easily being a few foot shorter than us.

Onwards. One of the chaps at CanalAbility had suggested a mooring on an S bend. These were all taken and had no shade, we carried on. The two day mooring at Harlow Mill Lock was taken too. The river was proving to be more popular than we’d expected it to be.

Feakes Lock was surrounded by a group of teenagers, all keen on swimming. One chap jumped in as we approached but thankfully they all kept their distance as I emptied the lock, then refilled it. One chap helped with the gates, another picked up their windlass and lifted a paddle for me, after all the sooner we got out of their way the better. No point in dropping the paddles at the top as the swimmers would only open them up again.

Round the next bend we spotted a space under some trees next to a small weir. We pulled in just fitting opposite a footpath leading into a local park. Here Tilly had trees to climb and we would have space for a barbeque under the trees nestled into the nettles.

It being a month since our last barbeque we enjoyed our sweetcorn, veg and haloumi kebabs with a pork steak each that I’d marinated in a sweet and sour sauce. Very tasty.

5 locks, 5.02 miles, 1 honesty bridge, 1 stuck boat, 1 notch where not to wind a 62fter! 1 click and collect, 4 boxes wine, 11 swimmers, 3 hours, 2 many woofers, 2 men at work, 2 chums, 2 sweetcorn, 4 kebabs, 2 pork steaks, 2 many twitching woofer noses.

https://goo.gl/maps/7xvBfH2aDZpDYzpRA

Electric Webs. 21st July

Broxbourne Bridge to above Hunsdon Mill Lock 12, River Stort

A haze rose from the canal this morning. Luckily for us the rain hadn’t continued through the night so we managed to get some sleep. Each night seems to be getting that little bit cooler from the last thankfully.

First lock of the day Carthagena Lock. Heavy flexing gates that didn’t want to come out of their recesses. Mick ended up having to climb a ladder to come and help, one gate simply wasn’t going to shift without two of us. The RSJ has an infill where you normally push them open, but with two of us there wasn’t enough, so I got lean on a section not filled in, quite painful really. At least we got the bloomin thing moving in the end.

Still wearing my boaters PPE a year later

Above Dobbs Weir Lock webs of electricity had been spun above our heads. So many lines in different directions, below Rye House Substation was the reason.

Not far now to Feilde’s Lock where we topped up the water tank and disposed of our rubbish whilst the lock emptied. Here we had a choice, leftish on the Lea towards Ware and Hertford or right towards Bishop Stortford. Right was the decision.

The River Stort was used to transport malt to London. In 1766 an Act of Parliament was passed which enabled the River Stort to be made navigable to Bishop Stortford. 15 wooden locks were built, parts of the river rerouted and dredged. Three basins were built at Bishop Stortford, the work finally completed in 1769 at the cost of £100,000.

In 1811 and 12 attempts were made to extend the navigation to Cambridge and beyond via the River Cam, but the finances of over £0.5 million were never raised so the project was dropped.

The locks were built for barges of 70 to 86ft long and 13.25 ft wide which carried around 60 tons of cargo. The width of the locks now means that they are not wide enough for two narrowboats to share, but are wide enough to require you to open both gates, top and bottom.

Brick Lock until a few days ago required assistance from C&RT to pass through. Today one of the top paddles is out of action, covered up in a C&RT aware yellow bag. As we set the lock, emptying water out we could see that the top cill either has lots of detritus on it or will fail at some point soon, plenty of water billowing up from under the gate. This made opening the bottom gates hard, exacerbated by a large amount of weed covering the off side sluice opening.

When Mick brought Oleanna into the lock he did his best to clear the weed, hopefully the next boat through won’t have as much difficulty as we did.

On the sign post for the lock is an explanation of the Navigation Warning System. It is a standard Green amber red system, but it is used the opposite way round to most river level boards. This is positioned under the next bridge and shows you if you have enough air drought to get under the Railway Bridge a short distance on. Back in 2015 we passed under the railway bridge as it was raining, the river rising overnight and Brick lock closing the following Monday for maintenance. When we woke in the morning we decided to return and limbo back under the bridge for fear we might get stuck for weeks if not. Lillian cleared the bridge with not much to spare.

Fortunately for us last night thunderstorms hadn’t brought the river up too much, so we passed under with quite a bit of space above our black buckets.

Up Roydon Lock and on past meadows to Hunsdon Lock where lads were playing in the stream alongside, they came over and offered to lend a hand with the gates.

This is where we’d been aiming for, hoping the tree coverage would be good and that there would be space for us. Fortunately there was and we remained in the shade for all but an hour all afternoon.

There were a few boats, all who seemed to know each other, everyone knew Dave and Ted his dog. Dave is an old hand at canal life, very friendly and has been helping others to paint their boat. Ted was kept on a lead or indoors all afternoon, but we were warned that he would be allowed free reign in the evening. This was fine as Tilly would hopefully be home for her dingding at around 6, when the doors would close behind her, so Ted could run as free as he liked.

With food supplies running a touch low, I cobbled together some chicken marinated in not quite Jerk seasoning, due to the lack of chillies. As the drum sticks cooked away in a pan on the stove we had a frequent visitor. Ted could smell the cooking through the open window, the only thing stopping him from coming to sample our dinner was the blind. It was quite funny as whenever I heard Ted being called by the others on the towpath, there he was watching my every move through the blind

I’m very pleased to report to Ted that my not quite Jerk Chicken with rice and peas was very tasty, if I can remember what went into it I’ll make it again sometime.

8 locks, 4.88 miles, 1 right, 2 1 narrowboat only, 1 low bridge, 1 interesting table, 1 lodger negative, 1 shady mooring, 1 Christmas card location, 1 Ted, 1 Mrs Tilly Stamp.

https://goo.gl/maps/o6kcMGutCYQBis4p9

Thunderous Trains. 20th July

Ordnance Road Bridge 38 to Broxbourne Bridge

Another early start today, hoping to reach a shady mooring again before the sun got too hot, I hoped I remembered a mooring correctly and that it would be free.

We were soon at Rammey Marsh Lock where we ascended and swapped with a boat heading downstream.

Next we bobbed under the M25, a far less spectacular view than the one you get from the Grand Union.

Shortly before Waltham Town Lock and the road bridge below it, there is a new service block with bins, a water point and toilets alongside some moorings. We both remember a cafe with bins behind it, possibly a pump out machine that ate our C&RT cards with out it doing any sucking! Looking back at Lillian’s blog for News Years Day 2015 has confirmed that the new buildings here have replaced the the café and services. A banner boasts about a show boat that must be moored on the little arm just out of view. If you have £225,000, this would buy you a 60ft widebeam on a serviced mooring here. I wonder what the other charges are?

Now the locks are all manual. The bottom gates having cranked beams made from RSJs. These tend to flex more than move so take quite a lot of effort to get going. People offered to lend a hand, but only with the top gates, they must have known!

The locks are now fairly evenly spaced along the straight stretches of the navigation. Each pound was almost full of moored boats, all different shapes and sizes, many hogging the shade.

Cheshunt had been our destination for the day, but then our schedule has changed in recent days so we wanted to head on a touch further. Anyhow there was very little space available.

As we worked our way along we tried to remember where the Water God of The South bequeathed a big washing brush to us. It was somewhere along this stretch. The electric lines looked familiar but the towpath wasn’t quite right, it needed speed bumps to discourage speeding cyclists!

Up ahead at Aqueduct Lock we could see that the lock was empty, bottom gates open waiting for us. Then a group of people with windlasses in hand arrived. We were still some distance away so I wouldn’t have blamed them for turning it. The gates closed, then there was movement around the lock, but nothing much seemed to be happening. They then reappeared at the bottom gates and proceeded to try to open them again, the leaking top gates had obviously just let through enough water to make this impossible. They all returned to their boat which backed away from the top gates.

A widebeam was moored just off the end of the lock landing, a lady was most apologetic as they had broken down and hope they weren’t in the way. Three signs announced this which were all pretty new, so maybe not a constant problem for them. Up at the lock the boat above was now winding. Ah ha! A day boat from Lee Valley Boat Centre in Broxbourne, a sign above the lock suggests that small vessels should not pass down the lock, maybe someone had seen this hence their retreat.

Once up we knew that this stretch was where we’d received the brush. We’re not certain of how we came to be its new owners, but my theory is that a cyclist had stolen it from another boat and whilst speeding down the towpath they had launched it at Lillian’s roof practicing their javelin throwing. We still have the brush and it occasionally gets used on the gunnels.

After Kings Weir the river takes over again bringing back meanders which helped to hide the other small vessels on the river today. I’ve not seen a pedalo for years! One motorised boat had obviously been told to keep to the right, they did this religiously even if it meant going through the over hanging willow trees.

Just after the right hand bend by The Crown pub the mooring I’d remembered showed itself to be very much in shade and free. Brilliant. We pulled in just after a fisherman and tied to the end bollards. A green green wood right alongside us, Tilly heaven.

I was given seven hours! I made the most of it, but was getting a touch parched and exhausted after six, so returned for a snooze in my escape pod.

In the woods we found space where we could put a stool without being in a cyclist or scooters way. Mick had his first haircut in an age, it’s always nice to see my boyfriend reappearing from behind all that hair!

With the railway being quite close the trains rumble over bridges crossing the river. But as the afternoon progressed the rumbles were hard to differ from thunder. The two merged into one as dark clouds came past. At 2pm we expected torrential rain if the rumbles were to be believed, but it took until 4:30pm for the heavens to open at last.

We’d considered going to the pub for food, but were glad we couldn’t book a table as I think our food would have got a touch soggy in the garden. I do remember Tom and Jan eating in a pub along here somewhere and not being that impressed, so maybe the weather saved us from wasting our money.

5 locks, 5.15 miles, 1 more hot day, 1 more early start, 2 more leapfrogs with Small World, 0 brushes today, 1 day boat retreating, 5 pedalos, grade 3, 1 boyfriend again, 2 torrential down pours, 2 goats cheese ham and caramelised onion pizzas, 1 Mrs Tilly stamp of approval, 2 reusable blocks!

https://goo.gl/maps/USXAqQsEZHf6cV5t7

Weeeeed! 19th July

Marshgate Bridge to Ordnance Road Bridge 38, Enfield

A much quieter night thank goodness, but the heat absorbed by the boat yesterday kept us nice and overly hot as we tried to sleep last night, so today we hoped we’d find a shady spot for the afternoon.

Alarm was set to try to get cruising by 8am which we just about managed. Another boat had pushed off much earlier leaving a gap two boats up, we were leaving another.

Three and a bit miles to our first lock at Tottenham, this should have taken us about an hour. But the amount of weed in the navigation gradually slowed us down so much that we had to cut the engine mid stream. First Mick tried to clear the trailing weed with the boat hook, then the weed hatch was investigated. Masses of weed and a few plastic bags were pulled out, thankfully there isn’t that much of a flow on this pound so we stayed almost stationary in the middle.

A chap shouted across from his boat that he’d had to do the same three times yesterday. When the engine started up again it was obvious that we still had stuff on the prop, our progress upstream was slightly better, but only slightly.

A gap showed itself under a willow tree, we pulled in and tied up to clear the prop properly. Despite the shade this wouldn’t be a place to stay for the rest of the day as we were by a outflow of some sort which constantly trickled and had an certain aroma to it! Mick requested a bag to stuff the weed into for disposal later, he managed to fill it. At least we’d been cutting a way through for following boats.

Well NB Small World soon came into view, they too stopped mid channel to clear the prop. Another boat headed downstream, a few blasts of reverse weren’t going to help, but they kept trying!

Now with a clear prop we set off again, hoping to last until we’d reached Tottenham Lock which we did thankfully. We had a widebeam pull out in front of us, but he was just nudging up from underneath a bridge to the next available spot. A weed cutter was just heading out from it’s mooring, hopefully our route back will be clearer, although I suspect the weed grows pretty quickly.

It took us 2.5 hours to reach Tottenham, we’d hoped to be stopping late morning, but we knew we still had some distance to go before we’d find any available shade. As Mick dropped me off to set the lock four fire engines and a ladder tender turned up sirens blaring, they turned down the road just alongside the lock. There was no sign of what the emergency was and by the time I’d walked up to the lock control panel the engines were turning round and one by one heading away, a false alarm perhaps.

Time for the key of power. A quick refresher on how these locks work and I pressed the button to open the bottom sluices. On the Yorkshire locks there is a panel situated at each end of the locks, this is because most of them are so big. Here two narrowboats have plenty of space but only one panel is required.

Up came Oleanna, fresh white paint leaving it’s mark on our ropes.

With not far to Stonebridge Lock I walked onwards to operate the panel, NB Small World only just having exited. We’d been wanting to stop for water, but there was hardly any space for us to pull in so onwards.

We passed boats we’d seen when we came along here back in January 2015. Two cruisers made into a catamaran. Plenty of boats protesting that boaters rights are being eroded and abut a section of the navigation which has now become a safety zone for rowers, cutting down on mooring space.

Three grey arched buildings stood out as being quite new and interesting. Google maps has them as the Troubadour Meridian Water Studios. This turns out to be a new film studio complex. At the moment there are three huge studios another three are planned in a couple of years time. More info here.

If it wasn’t for all the traffic going over head we might have moored under the North Circular, it was lovely and cool down there. There were signs that people live there, a couple of comfy beds alongside the canal along with other home comforts.

At Alfie’s Lock we waited for a widebeam to exit the lock and then joined a chap who had novice crew with him today. Alfie’s lock was busy, plenty of people sitting outside the lock cottage along with a few gongoozlers pausing on their bike ride or walk.

Do not let the geese in the lock or the swans

Alfie’s lock used to be called Pickett’s Lock, but was renamed in 2015 after the long serving lock keeper Alfie Saggs to mark his 86th birthday. When we passed through the lock that January there was a box requesting a fare of a Bounty bar for safe passage through the lock, these were meant to be Alfie’s’ favourite. We made sure when we returned that we left one for him. Today it looks like the cottage has new occupants, the bounty bar box is gone but Alfie’s name is on the gate and there is still a warning regarding the geese who reside above the lock.

Our lock partner asked for the paddles to be raised with caution, no baffles on the gate paddles can give a rather bumpy ride. So one turn at a time until we’d both ascended. There is a water point here, but you have to sit in the lock to use it, so not the best position, we decided we’d wait a while to top up the tank. I did however pause to check out the new bin store on the towpath here, although I omitted to check whether there were recycling bins along with standard ones. These are not marked on our Waterway Routes map, but are likely to be in the next update once we’ve passed on the grid reference to Paul. Apparently some of the facilities have been upgraded on the Lee, so we’ll have to keep our eyes peeled.

Mick couldn’t find a C&RT notice about this

Just before the next lock Ponders End there was a tap, time to top up. After a while our partners arrived and headed into the powered lock. They seemed to be there forever with nothing much happening. Maybe the training of the crew was taking time. A sign gaffered onto the bridge however explained, the powered lock was out of action, so the twinned manual one should be used.

We shared the lock again and our companions stopped for a beer or two at the Navigation leaving us on our own again. We passed NB Brocky with it’s wooden cabin, pointy bow and steam funnel.

To our east large reservoirs hide behind big banks, tall pylons follow the line of navigation. To the west large warehouses back onto the canal, noisy both day and night according to Clare and Pete on NB Billy!

It’s amazing what you remember from six and a half years ago. The hefty weight of lock gates, those that seem to flex more than move, pylons. The locks that have powered gates but maybe still need a windlass. Glad I thought of that as at Enfield the gates are powered the buttons being covered by a metal panel. Then all the paddles are windlass operated.

As we passed the lovely terraced houses on Government Row we hoped for a mooring with shade. We spotted one, but would it have enough depth? The water being so clear I didn’t think we’d be in luck, but fortunately we managed to get into the side, well almost!

The doors were opened up and Tilly set free to explore whilst we had a late lunch. What we’d hoped would take us 4 hours had taken us 6.5 hours due to so much weed. This mooring turns out to more or less being where we were to see in the New Year 2014/2015.

We watched the press conference from Checkers and Downing Street, Freedom Day not quite fitting it’s own bill. As covid cases rise around the country our cruising plans are changing. The current play at the SJT is cancelled for ten days due to a cast member testing positive and other members of the company are now having to self isolate, I hope our lodger is okay. We will keep wearing our masks in shops and on transport, we’ll also be doing our best to avoid crowds.

5 locks, 9.47 miles, 1 key, 1 windlass, 1 boat trimming the weed, 3 very slow boats, 1 full water tank, 2 boaters keeping their eyes open, 1 very hot day, 1 shady mooring, 10 days no shows, 6.5 years, 10 weeks to new measures.

https://goo.gl/maps/z4VjambskSbRCTBa9

Our friends Jennie and Chris from NB Tentatrice have decided to hang up their windlasses and sell their lovely, much loved boat. If you are thinking of a life afloat or just your summers, you really should take at look at her. We’ll miss the opportunity to meet up with Jennie, Chris and Monty on the canals, but hope to be able to see them when we are in their part of the country. Tentatrice for sale.

Standing At The Edge Of Shade. 18th July

Marshgate Bridge 15

It may have started before midnight, we can’t quite remember, but it certainly continued all the way through the night and at around 7:45am the volume was turned up! The consensus between the Oleanna and Billy crew was that a rave had been going on in the Marshes behind our mooring and that they’d only got one LP! The rhythm was monotonous only broken up by cyclists with built in stereos speeding past us. So not the most restful nights sleep ever!

By the time Clare and Pete were ready to push off the music had finally stopped. Yesterday had been our anniversary, a year since we shared our first locks together through Blackburn. We wished them well and thanked them for getting us a mooring in a handy spot. Maybe our paths will cross later in the year, they will somewhere, sometime.

Scrambled eggs on toast for breakie as we have a few too many eggs on board.

Tilly was given four hours shore leave whilst we pottered about enjoying what shade we were getting from the trees behind us. But as the hours passed the sun of course moved. Both sides of the cabin started to warm up, this wasn’t too bad until we had to start closing doors.

We made ourselves presentable, packed the big holdall on wheels with dirty laundry. Spread out the cool mat for Tilly, then closed all the doors. Back in April I’d seen cool mats for pets for sale so had bought one. So far we’ve tried it a couple of times and it has totally been ignored by our feline companion. Today however shortly before we bade her goodbye for the afternoon, she did have all four legs stretched out across it. However she soon moved off it and onto a pile of cushions, a very cool place!

The sun was far too hot for us to drag our washing almost a mile to get it clean. So just before 3pm we stood at the edge of the shade where a cycle path meets Homerton Road and waited for a lift from my brother Andrew.

A late Sunday lunch with had been planned whilst we were close by. Three loads of washing would keep us going until the circuit board arrives and hopefully the washing machine on board will then be mended.

A visit to the building site to use my brothers A3 scanner for my drawings and then we had a site visit up into the roof.

Josh checking out his new window, not much of a view yet.

All the roof timbers are in place now and chip board flooring is down. You can see where the roof lights are going to be along with a dormer window. All very exciting especially for Josh who’s room it will be. Their house was lovely and cool, Ziggy and Finn having a much easier time of the heat wave than Tilly on the boat.

Back at the temporary house Andrew had prepared a joint of lamb that had been cooking for five hours marinated in a sumac and lime rub. Served with some roasted new potatoes and salads. To follow we had a Somerset Apple Cake that Jac had made. All very nice.

By the time we were ready to head back to Oleanna our washing was almost dry. The coolness of the evening thankfully made it easier to return with our washing. Thankfully Tilly had survived the afternoon and evening without cooking too much. It took a good couple of hours before we could feel the benefit of having the doors open again.

Here’s hoping there isn’t another rave tonight!

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 year anniversary, 1 busy rave, 1 stern gland picker loan, 4 hours used well, 3 doors open, 1 ignored cool mat, 1 cooking cat, 1 big bag washing, 1 light in the drum, 20 minutes added when not looking, 9 scans, 1 roofless room, 1 ladder, 1 joint lamb nicely cooked, 1 cat still raw thankfully!

Farewell HS1. Hello Hackney! Breach 55 17th July

St Pancras Cruising club to Marshgate Bridge 15, River Lee Navigation

Back in Yorkshire it looks like it’s been a lovely day and a good one for drone flying, Mark has been back to the breach site today. Thank you Mark for letting me use you photos.

The breach site has been without water for quite sometime now, there are plants growing on the silt on the southern side. The little boats are back that were used to get across the canal in the early days of the cofferdam, it also looks like the small tug is back on site.

In the above photo you can see that the access road has had a change in direction. It now leads across the eastern side of the cofferdam to what looks like a little pool of water.

This is where, when the cofferdam was built, they discovered a void behind the original piling on the south side. This had a temporary fix done to it to make the dam water tight. Now the top has a new concrete edge, a more substantial fix having been made.

Back on the north bank it looks like they have started to remove some of the aggregate that was being used as an access road. Parts of it have been dug out.

The piling now has a top edge, capped off to neaten it off. The concrete over the drain below has now been brought out to meet the level of the piling, neatening it all off. The surrounding bits of towpath have been filled in and levelled off.

Here’s hoping that when they raise the water levels everything remains water tight. Then the next stage will be removing the cofferdam and reopening the navigation.

Meanwhile back in London

We dropped into the Geraghty Saturday morning zoom for about ten minutes before paying for our mooring and making ready to push off. Graeme had his crew arrive, Roy and Jamie.

Mick walked down the gunnel of the boat in front of us and pulled our bow rope, pivoting Oleanna so that her nose poked out from the other boats. Terry from NB Flora Dora gave us a final push with a pole as Mick cranked the engine up, our extrication from the basin far easier than we’d thought it would be.

The sun was out, the sky blue, we were both lathered in sun cream, the world looked good. Once in the lock Mick got out his new propmate ready to clear the prop, making sure he put his hand through the string. There had been no point in doing so before we got out past all the weed in the basin.

NB Misty Blue soon followed us out and the two boats were ready to descend towards the Lee Navigation.

With plenty of crew our cruise would be plain sailing. We dropped down St Pancras Lock and said our goodbyes to the basin, thank you all for making us feel welcome and giving us somewhere to be whilst we headed to Scarborough, Huddersfield and attempted to sort the washing machine. But I have to say I won’t miss the trains early in the morning.

Last of the gas holders in their original place

A short distance on by Goodsway Bridge there is part of one of the gas holders left to mark where they had originally stood. Then on to Islington Tunnel. A lady moored on the offside just before the tunnel ask if we could lend a hand. Last night they had their rowing boat stolen, it was used to break in to a charity boat on the other side of the tunnel. If we could see it could we make sure it was tide up safe for her to collect later.

We had to wait for a trip boat to come through then the way was clear, NB Misty Blue following on behind. The rowing boat was tied up on the moorings so safe for now, maybe the lady would be able to get someone to tow it back through the tunnel for her.

A boat was just coming up City Road Lock, so we swapped over and waited for our lock partners to join us.

Lots to see. Interesting boats, graffiti all with the sun beating down on us.

A couple of volunteers were on duty at Old Ford Lock, they helped us down meaning we could stay on board and get ready to turn left onto Ducketts Cut, The Hertford Union Canal. With only three locks and 1.2 miles long the canal is easy, it cuts the corner on going down to Limehouse Basin and back up to the Olympic Park, which is 4.7 miles and 6 locks.

Misty Blue led the way, onto new waters for her and her crew.

More colourful boats, the Dad of the flamingo we’d seen up near Tring a few weekends ago and C&RT signs that are now totally unintelligible! We think the mooring sign used to say 4 hours, but we’re not sure!

Loads of spray cans, it must cost a small fortune

At Old Ford Lower Lock a chap was busy creating on the wall alongside. For as long as we can remember this wall has always had graffiti on it. Today it was getting a refreshed look. The face of a green man was appearing as the chap worked away. I was interested in how they work.

As a Scenic Artist I usually have reference to work from, a scale model, this chap kept looking at his phone. The chap said the wall was usually planned out before hand, but not always sometime it was just how the mood took him. He was however following whatever was on his phone quite religiously. I said I looked forward to seeing how it turned out when we return in a week or twos time. He said it was going to be a really good one, but that it would have been painted over by the time we come back.

Here is where the two boats parted company.

Graeme and crew on NB Misty Blue turned southwards with the aim of cruising round City Mill River to see the stadium, his crew being West Ham supporters.

We turned northwards up into Hackney Wick. Blimey the river was busy! Moo canoes filled the water, the towpath was chocka, bars and restaurants were filled to the gunnels, the whole area alive and buzzing.

The graffiti artist who has the ‘I ♥ Eggs’ as their tag has decorated one of the bridges. They have moved on from just their tag that appears near St Pancras, now there are fried eggs to accompany it.

We moored by the Copper Box for our first Christmas afloat in 2014, large areas of the land surrounding it have changed so much. It was what felt like desolate wasteland before, now it is filled with buildings.

We passed under the footbridge from Josh’s old junior school where we once moored on Lillian, this stretch now permanent moorings. Onwards northwards the only gaps in the moorings were too shallow, but we knew somewhere we’d be able to moor.

Up ahead tucked in behind a bush we could make out a riveted hull, then the red and green of the cabin side came into view, we slowed down and prepared to pull alongside NB Billy. An exchange of messages yesterday with Clare meant we’d be passing today, but they had decided to stay another night at Hackney Marshes and offered for us to moor alongside.

We’d only really just got settled when NB Misty Blue came past, sadly Old Ford Lock was closed on the Lee so their trip around the loop hadn’t been possible. As we are heading in the same direction our paths are likely to cross again in the next week or so.

Clare and Pete returned from a bike ride round the Marshes. We decided to do a do-si-do, for us to be on the inside and them on the outside. This would mean we were ready for them to push off in the morning and Tilly could have shore leave without passing over another boat. We swapped sides, possibly confusing a boat who thought it’s luck was in as both boats pulled out, but then snuck back into the same spot.

NB Billy should have been long gone, but they had had an incident with a large chunk of tree and their prop a week ago. A lot of damage was caused and necessitated being in dry dock for a day, their prop blades were distorted, it sheared off 8 bolts from the shaft coupling and dumped their propshaft into their bilge. But all is just about right now, just a bit of packing needed in Billy’s stern gland.

As we chatted Tilly came and went, her calculations went slight array when she attempted to leap from the stern which os moored out at quite a distance. A big splash, one soggy cat extricated herself from the cut onto the bank and ran inside, to be grabbed by me with a Tilly towel. I’d told her not to go off the back! It was all planned, a nice cooling dip!

Now we have yet another dirty towel needing washing with no washing machine!

8 locks, 5.83 miles, 1 tunnel, 0 mysterons, 2 lefts, 3 canals, 1 Goole escapee partner, 5 crew, 1 propmate, 1 hot day, 1 prearranged mooring, 1 Billy, 1 soggy moggy, 1 do-si-do, 1 noisy towpath, 1 bouncy castle, 54,674 cases!

https://goo.gl/maps/Ki8h4kCkCsDBScpy5

Narrowboat Oleanna

Travels of Narrowboat Oleanna