Category Archives: Boat cats

Shooting Buns. 6th 7th July

Huddersfield and St Pancras Cruising Club

Mick has been doing a few boat jobs. He decided to check the fuel filters over, finding a bit of crud in the first and second ones. He replaced the second one and gave the first one a good clean out. A hunt through the lockers for a pipe we bought ages ago was successful. With this pipe you can dip your tank and it gives you a view of what lies down in the dark. The fuel looked just how it should, so no worries there.

Back in Huddersfield Tuesday had me running all the overalls I’d tacked on Monday through the Directors sewing machine. Tacking was removed, excess fabric removed and edges finished off.

The second bubble of actors was in so I did three more fittings. Everyone on Monday had been a small or even smaller! Two of todays actors were the same, so they were fitted with ease. Then there was Toby, I knew he’d be at least an XL, but this only got so far. An XXL got further and Toby did manage to get the zip done up but it was all really quite tight fitting! Unless he lost some weight the seems would only hold for a certain amount of time. It would do for the photo shoot so I pinned the legs up.

By the end of the actors working day I only had one bit of hand sewing left to do which I could do back at the hotel. The studio was set up for a busy day on Wednesday.

Back at the Dark Horse office I sat down with Amy (Director), Lynda (Producer) and Penny (Stage Manager, Technical and Digital person) for a meeting. This was my first face to face design meeting since the beginning of the pandemic. Not a computer screen in view, just a big table, open windows and Bento boxes from the restaurant down stairs. So lovely to be able to interact with people in one room again.

We talked lights on costumes, lights on the set, flooring, projection, colours. My prep work for the set had been worthwhile and a vague idea of what things were likely to cost meant we could be creative yet realistic at the same time. Penny and I were left with a list of things to pursue, I’ll do some technical drawings and get the set priced up in the next couple of weeks.

Wednesday, an early start to get everyone’s outfits ironed and ready for the photo shoot. Two hair dressing stations were set up and we were all ready for the ensemble when they arrived. This is the first time the two bubbles have met up since March last year. Everyone was pleased to see each other even if it was at a distance. It was actually a good job that we were a couple of actors down as it gave us all a little bit more space.

At 11am the photographer arrived, set his big light up and I started to put people into costume. The ladies had their hair done, coloured extensions and braids added to their big space buns. Then the music was turned up and the photo shoot was started. Toby was shoe horned into his overall just before his photos, they were checked over, a few more taken then he could be released from the tight zip.

The amount of energy in that room! Between helping people get changed, sanitising hands I managed to get a few photos myself. Have to say my eyes welled up on a couple of occasions. Here we all were in one room, the thoughts that have cumulated over the last year of lockdowns, all the actors giving their best, the energy, dancing and smiles from everyone was electric. We were back doing what we do, only one thing missing, the audience to share it with.

Today photos were being taken for leading images for the show which will have a showing early next year. The costumes will change a bit between now and then and an XXXL overall will arrive in August for Toby.

The whole day had been scheduled for the photo shoot, but everything went so smoothly that we had finished by lunchtime. This gave me plenty of time to tidy up, make notes and sit around as my train back south wasn’t until 5:15pm. A very good three days work with a great theatre company.

My train back south took me through torrential rain, outside was darker than dark. Then within a ten minute window the clouds cleared and the sun came out. At the cruising club it was club night, the bar was open and a TV set was showing the match, benches were pulled up around the set overlooking the basin.

Mick was having a beer with several people and I joined for a glass of wine and a sociable chat as the sun was starting to dip.

0 locks, 0 miles, 2 trains, 7 actors, 7 overalls, 1 tight squeeze, 672 lots of hand sanitiser, 90 minute photo shoot, 1 electric morning, 1 show just about designed, 4 bento boxes, 3 productive days, 2 filters cleaned, 2 pints 1 glass of wine at the water tower, 1 cat watching the football!

Two Sizes Smaller Than Small. 5th July

To Huddersfield and London

Mental note, the back bedroom needs the curtains lining or a blackout blind! However today it didn’t matter too much as I was awake extra early and Mick got up soon after me.

Today we were heading in different directions. I was off to work in Huddersfield and Mick was returning to London, Oleanna and Tilly. Her magic food bowl would have opened its second compartment last night and all the yellow biscuits will have been picked out leaving only the boring ones!

I dropped a key through the front door of the theatre for our next lodger Vicky who was arriving later in the day and hopped onto the 07:34 to Leeds. Mick had a few things to finish off in the house before he would be on a train two hours later.

Only one narrowboat at the Museum Gardens today

I’d booked my train so that I would arrive at the rehearsal space in Huddersfield before the actors so I could get myself set up and ready to do costume fittings. But this simply wasn’t to be. Due to multiple track circuit failures along with a points failure my train pulled into Leeds half an hour late, my connecting train cancelled! The next service I tried was also cancelled, so by the time I reached Huddersfield I was an hour late and everyone had arrived.

All the way through the pandemic Dark Horse has continued to work with their ensemble and students. For much of the last year their work has happened online, The Garden being one project they produced. Since the restrictions eased they have been back in the studio, the ensemble of nine actors, now split into two bubbles working on different days to help maintain social distancing.

Today I had five actors to fit into their overalls. Everyone would need sleeves and legs shortening. Several would need darts putting in the front and back. Two would require a couple of inches taking out from the body and arms. Then there was Rebekah, her overalls would need major work, they actually needed to be two sizes smaller than the small I had purchased for her. I’d been expecting to wear a visor and mask whilst working, but early on it was discovered that quite a few of the actors lip read, nobody had realised this until instructions were being ignored. So my day was spent behind a plastic visor with a big bottle of hand sanitiser.

I ran out of safety pins quite quickly trying to shrink everyone’s costumes. Then I set to tacking Rebekah’s so that I could try it on her again before she left for the day. All seemed good thank goodness.

Meanwhile Mick managed to get his train to York, there was congestion due to the problems in Leeds, but he was only delayed by 15 minutes. Tilly was pleased to see him. Well there were no yellow biscuits left!

With all the fittings done I decided to retire to my hotel room to neaten and tack all the alterations as I’d have more room there.

The same boats on the permanent moorings

When booking my hotel I’d looked at both the Travelodge and Premier Inn. Travelodge came in £2 cheaper, it sits by the Huddersfield Broad Canal and is a bit of a walk away from town. So I’d booked into the Premier Inn at Apsley Basin where the Narrow Canal meets the Broad, its closer to where I was working with a handy Sainsburys in between and filled with boats rather than rubbish!

The first overall was tacked during an episode of Midsummer Murders, then I headed to Sainsburys for supplies, one of which was a bottle of House Pinot Grigio which I cooled in the bathroom sink.

All the alterations took time in fact I didn’t finish until gone midnight. I was very glad of that wine.

0 locks, 0 miles, 2 trains both late, 5 actors fitted, 1 overall to be rebuilt, 10 legs, 10 arms, 1 hit and run, 1 wine cooler sink.

The Girl Next Door. 3rd 4th July

Scarborough

They think I don’t know what’s going on! They think I don’t realise that they are going off into the outside and leaving me all on my own. They don’t realise what a hard, exhausting job looking after the boat is. But I know I am more than capable. I quite look forward to days like this especially when She gets my magic food bowl out, it does mean though that there won’t be anyone to snuggle up to when it goes dark.

Bags packed, Tilly in a sulk, we were ready to catch the train northwards to Scarborough for the weekend.

With seats booked the train journey was fine, plenty of space for everyone. We swapped trains in York and arrived in Scarborough to meet Bridget and Storm, leaving our bags in their car for the afternoon. We were all heading to the Stephen Joseph Theatre to watch the matinée of The Girl Next Door the latest play from Alan Ayckbourn.

At Christmas the auditorium had been about a quarter full, but today it was just under half, couples sat in a checker board fashion across the rows helping to fill the space.

The play, Alan’s 85th is set in lockdown last year. Rob an actor who is famous for playing a fireman in a 1940s drama is stuck at home with his sister who works at the treasury and spends most of her days on zoom calls.

When a girl is seen through the garden hedge, hanging clothes out to dry, Robs life is about to have a hole new dimension added. Cheese souffles, brandy, blackouts, covid 19 all make for a time travelling love story.

After the show we’d booked a table at Eat Me Cafe who have taken over the theatre restaurant and bar during the pandemic. We all enjoyed quality burgers and very fine chips.

It was lovely to spend time with Bridget and Storm seeing the play, along with catching up with various people around the theatre it made for a great day.

Our arrival at the house was a noisy one, we’d been warned and a small bag of treats had been left in the hallway to appease Brodie and we soon made friends.

Brodie our lodger woofer, don’t tell Tilly!

It’s odd being in your own house, yet not quite being the occupiers of it. For the last 9 weeks Bill and Alex have been our lodgers whilst The Girl Next Door has been rehearsing and playing at the theatre. Tonight was the last night of their run, so it was safe for us to stay over.

The wild flower seeds have sprouted and gone bonkers. Does anyone know what this is please?

Last nights usually involve a drink with the director so our lodgers were quite late coming home to have a catch up and drink with us which was far more relaxed than when they had first arrived.

Sunday morning and it was time to say farewell to our lodgers. Bill was on an early train whilst Alex and Angie had breakfast with us as they packed. A few weeks ago they had kept our neighbours amused as they had done a run of the play in our house and garden. Our kitchen being two terraced houses knocked together and the rear gardens being still separate, it was an ideal location to rehearse the play.

Back on our own in the house, we had chores to do. The garden needed some taming, so our compost bin had a major boost of greenery.

Once the bed linen had been washed and dried there was ironing to do, beds to make up for our next lodgers who would arrive on Monday after we’d left. So it was a very busy day.

We’d asked Alex if there was anything that was missing from the house. A cafetiere (they bought one and gave it to the house), a ladle (I found 4 in storage) and a mirror in one of the bedrooms, this was easily rectified as we had one upstairs upstairs.

Last thing to do was to hang the painting my Dad did in 1954 which was a scheme for our house in York. The design changed quite a lot over the next 8 years, but this is one of my prized possessions.

The house ended up being quite different

We ended the day with fish and chips from Capplemans and a glass or two of wine. One very good weekend.

0 locks, 0 miles, 10 minutes walk to the station, 2 trains, 1 Sir, 1 Lady, 1 play, 2 times, 4 burgers, 1 Monty, 2 actors, 1 roadie, 1 Brodie, 1 back bedroom, 3 gardens tidyish, 2 hours ironing, 1 painting hung, 2 of each.

Space Buns

St Pancras Cruising Club

Knowing when the first train is likely to go past kind of helps when you wake up at just gone 5am and luckily we managed to get back to sleep.

I spent the first part of the morning making lists, next week I’ll be in Huddersfield for a few days doing costume fittings before a photo shoot for #unit 21. All the overalls have arrived along with a few bits and pieces to do neon hair dos. But I was still missing a few bits so a trip into town was called for.

Mick and Tilly were left busy working their way through the washing and awaiting another visiting boat that would be pulling up alongside us today. They also caught up on the cycling.

I could of course get on the tube or climb on a bus, but when I roughly know the way and it’s not too far I much prefer to walk around London. Heading out of the gate from the cruising club I walked up Camley Street which parts St Pancras and Kings Cross stations. On the paved area in front of Kings Cross, where the old station used to have lines of waiting passengers queueing for their trains, there was a food market today. Everything looked tasty, most of it full of gluten. It was still too early in the day to purchase food and the tasty cheese would have spent far too long on a hot day fermenting in my bag.

I wove my way down towards Oxford Street. A modern block of flats had a very good bit of painting on what most probably is the bin store. Such a wonderfully atmospheric painting.

But this side was even better, what an atmosphere

My first port of call was Primark, for my sins! With a small budget and not a very long run, Primark is usually a good starting point. Anything I bought that doesn’t get used can be returned to the Huddersfield store quite easily next week. However, Primark seem to have gone for grown up colours this season! If I wanted shorts today I would have come up trumps with neon colours, but there was only one t-shirt in a good size for one actor in the whole store! It’s a good job we don’t actually need the t-shirts for the photo shoot, so I can gradually collect them when I see them.

They did however have a lot of buns. Not edible ones, but ones to help make big hair buns. These were cheaper than the ones I got online, so I may require more to create big space buns!

Next I headed to Sally’s, here they sell hair products mostly to hairdressers. I’d hoped they might have some colourful hair extensions, but fortunately they didn’t as the cheapest ones there were around £30! I did however get a very large can of hairspray to help with the space buns.

Not such an Aladdin’s cave of fabricness that it once was

Down to Berwick Street, hoping shops I now of old have survived. Borovicks is still there, but I’m sure there used to be three times as many rooms full of fabric.

MacCulloch and Wallis on Poland Street pulled me inside. Here the basement is full of haberdashery. Want a zip? Any type, length, teeth, they have it! Sewing cottons, you’ve a whole wall of colours to choose from. The yarn on the ground floor was all so tempting, but I was good and only bought things for the show.

A window display that I couldn’t walk past

Returning on a more westerly route to Oleanna I walked along roads surrounded by hoardings hiding the ongoing works for HS2. Pile drivers driving and four story high portacabins, most probably accommodation for the builders.

Back at the Cruising Club our whirligig was very full, towels were drying on locker lids, Mick had run out of clothes pegs. We have a new neighbour who is staying for one night. He had more difficulty getting in due to the weed.

Lists were ticked off for work, train tickets printed out, just need to pack things now.

At around 7pm we could hear loud music, just where was it coming from. A peek out the front of the boat suggested that this might be a regular thing. Heather yesterday said there is a chap who turns up with a big sound system at the gas holders. Here he shares his music with others.

It was an eclectic mix, 80’s, reggae, bhangra, modern pop, allsorts. Across the way people were dancing, laughing and having a great time. At 9 pm the music stopped, two hours of jollyness shared amongst strangers.

0 locks, 0 miles, 7 miles walked, 2 stages for Cav, 4 space buns, 1 t-shirt, 1 triangle of chalk, 250m thread, 1 M&S sandwich, 2 clean boating caps, 4 loads washing, 1 bag half packed, 1 new neighbour, 1 bored cat.

A True Boater. 1st July

Rembrandt Gardens to St Pancras Cruising Club

Our booked seven days at Rembrandt Gardens were up today. After a leisurely start we pushed off at 11am, waving our new neighbours goodbye. The moorings under the trees are not so good for solar, but in warmer weather the shade would be welcome. One thing however that I’m not going to miss is the almost constant smell of weed. It seems as if nobody smokes cigarettes anymore, they just roll joints and find a boat to smoke them by!

We rounded the island and turned onto the Regents Canal. NB Muddy Waters a Finesse boat is still moored along the stretch before Maida Hill Tunnel, it looks like their tunnel light is as rusty as ours after four years. The tunnel was clear so no need to wait, popping out the other side where there are permanent moorings.

At the far end work is being done, it looks like new jetties are going in. Mick’s tug being put to work.

The stretch through Regents Park is always interesting. The big expensive houses with immaculate lawns, there will be a good crop of brambles on the other sides of their railings in a few weeks time! The towpath was busier than we’ve seen it before, so was the canal. Paddleboarders, trip boats and narrowboats all managing to be in the same place at once.

The Snowden Aviary at the Zoo is empty of birds, instead scaffolding was being erected and a chap stood on tip toes angle grinding another hole in the mesh. The aviary a Grade 2* listed building is being transformed by the architects Foster + Partners. It will become a walkthrough exhibit with colobus monkeys overhead, red duiker on the forest floor and African grey parrots will fly up to the top of the structure. More information can be found here.

As we rounded the bend by the Chinese floating restaurant we are still amazed that four years ago on Oleanna’s first trip to the capital we managed to get one of the 7 day moorings in Camden. Today it was crammed full, just like every other time we’ve been along this stretch. Good job we weren’t wanting a mooring today.

Just under the railway bridges we could see Christine walking towards us. She’d come to watch us go through Hampstead Road, Hawley and Kentish Town Locks as she only lives a few minutes walk away. Mick slowed Oleanna down and prepared to pick Christine up, however she decided to walk along the towpath.

A few minutes of us pootling along and chatting was brought to a very sudden stop!

How does time know when to slow down? It always manages it on such occasions.

I saw Christine put her right foot down, expecting there to be a solid surface below to meet it. Her foot just clipping the edge of the towpath, then there was nowhere else for it to go but into the canal, very closely followed by the rest of Christine!

Engine out of gear straight away. Oh blimey!!!

We still had momentum going forward getting further away from Christine. Mick shouted to a lady on the bank to help, ‘Please could you just hold her hand’. At least we hoped that would help until we could get off Oleanna to help her out.

In the meantime other people came running, we didn’t quite see what happened as we tried to get close to the bank without the prop becoming a danger. As soon as we looked again Christine had been helped up onto the towpath and was proceeding to empty her bag of water. Thank you’s all round and the samaritans who’d helped just seemed to vanish.

A sit down on Oleanna to assess any damage and to recover from the shock. Poor Christine, thankfully apart from a wet none functioning mobile she only seemed to have gained a grazed knee, which may have happened when she was pulled out of the water. We offered her a shower, but she decided as she was close to home she’d walk back an have one there. A short rather wet visit.

Up at the lock two canoes were coming up, then we were waved in. I hopped off to help the volunteer and take photos.

With volunteers at the next two locks we were a touch mob handed. The help was welcome, but when one of them commented that I was doing his job, I just carried on doing mine, I at least wait for confirmation from the helm before I start emptying a lock!

Four years ago there were cranes overhead, the general area a big building site. Today the railway arches are being converted into a cinema, a screen for each arch by the sounds of it.

I love that these two little blue houses have been allowed to keep an eye on the canal, with a gap between the modern boat like apartments.

Then as we ducked under the railway bridges and the repurposed gasometers came into view we knew we had reached our destination. St Pancras Cruising Club. We slowed and then started to back in towards NB Floradora who was to be our neighbour.

There had already been a discussion onboard as to whether it would be frowned upon to use our bow thruster to assist in mooring, but the amount of weed in the basin prohibited it’s use anyway. Terry from NB Floradora popped out to lend a hand, our centre rope passed over a t stud on the roof, this meant Oleanna could be brought into the gap almost sideways.

The weed made this a slow job, but after a while we were close enough for Mick to be able to catch the bow line and help pull her in to nestle up in the 60ft space below the HS1 line. Terry very kindly gave us a tour round, elsan, bins, garden, toilet etc, during which we met various people who all seemed to know who we were, well Marty did anyway!

We’d originally booked in for a few more days in Paddington Basin, but had been given the heads up by Heather Bleasdale that one of the longer boats at the cruising club was out at the moment, meaning that we might be able to use their mooring. We got in touch with the Harbour Master and booked our stay here instead, cancelling Paddington Basin as soon as we had confirmation.

Once we’d settled the first thing was to check if Christine was okay. She’d made it home safely, had a shower and was in the mobile phone shop trying to sort a replacement. Thank goodness she was okay.

Not long after we’d arrived there was a knock on the roof. Heather is down in London for a few days and staying on a boat in the basin. We made plans to meet later in the garden for food and then headed off to explore the area.

The new development around Kings Cross goes on for miles. It is a nice mixture of old warehouses mixed with modern architecture. Retail units, bars, restaurants, Central St Martins art college, plus exhibition spaces and gardens.

The gasometers now have flats built inside them, if you have a spare £825,000 you could buy one too! The old structure surrounds the new and gave a very vocal Blackbird a good perch to sing it’s heart out. Plenty to see and explore, we’ll have to come back to see more.

Once our evening meal was cooked, we loaded a bag with wine, crockery and cutlery and carried our two pans all the way round the basin to the garden. Heather joined us as did others to chat away the evening, a selection of gin and tonics spread across the table. It was dark by the time we decided to call it a day. After three glasses of wine each we made sure we walked carefully back round the basin to Oleanna with our dirty pots.

3 locks, 3.25 miles, 1 empty wee tank, 1 wind, 0 birds, 1 true none boating boater, 1 drip dry Christine, 1 reverse, 60ft under the railway lines, 1 visitation, 1 blackbird, 1 Tilly eyeing up the wall! 1 Tilly grounded, 2 spag bols in the garden, 3 glasses of wine, 4 gins, 1 very pleasant evening.

https://goo.gl/maps/KA1pq4wv9GRqeY7B9

Where To Now?

Over the last few months our aim has been to get to see family. Heading to London meant we’d be able to see all our siblings bar one with relative ease. But what about that missing one, Anne! How could we get to see Anne?

Anne isn’t in the south. In fact Anne is quite a lot lot further north. This would take some planning.

The first part of our route would see us leaving Rembrandt Gardens and retracing our steps back to Fradley Junction. Here though we would turn left and head up to Great Haywood, Stoke, Middlewich. Onto the Bridgewater Canal (you have to book that online now), up to Leigh and join the Leeds Liverpool Canal. West to the Rufford Branch, turn down there to Tarleton. Another booking would need to be made to cross from the River Douglas to the River Ribble, then up Savick Brook and The Ribble Link on to the Lancaster Canal.

Just over 22.5 miles of the Lancaster Canal would bring us to the Glasson Branch where we’d head down the locks to the Basin. This portion of the journey would amount to 315 miles 2.75 furlongs and take us through 197 locks so a bit more effort required than our trip to London from Goole. According to Canalplan this would take us 153 hours and 36 minutes, so at 7 hours a day (which we rarely do) it would take us 22 days, add in a few days off for bad weather, waiting for the tides to be right crossing to the Lancaster Canal, so make it 29 days.

Then our journey would require a touch more planning, mostly on the food and wine stakes as I’m not too sure whether we’d find many shops on route. We could visit The Port of Lancaster Smokehouse before we left, their smoked goods would last us a while.

Choosing a suitable tide we’d exit through the lock out onto the River Lune, keeping to the channel away from the numerous sandbanks, heading southwards before we turn to the west, crossing Morecombe Bay and heading to Barrow-in-Furness where we’d pull in for a night at West of Duddon Sands Windfarm.

This would be 19.42 miles, so at 6mph 3.25 hrs cruising time, we may however have had to wait for the tide to turn so as to avoid all the sand banks on Morecombe Bay.

Continuing northwards we’d pop out alongside Sandscale Haws National Nature Reserve, hugging the coast passing Sellafield to near to St Bees, where the coast to Coast walk starts. We’d beach here for the night. 32.6 miles, so a 6 hour day.

Still hugging the coast we would pass Whitehaven and pull in at Harrington Marina. A short day with only 10.5 miles, 1.75 hours. I think we’d have a meal at The Lifeboat Inn, except it doesn’t look like they serve food, so it would be smoked salmon again!

From here we’d set a course to the North West and Scotland. Yes we could pull in to Kirkcudbright but I’d rather beach at Brighouse Bay a favourite bay from my early college years. 25.75 miles , 4 to 5 hours cruise avoiding the rocky headland.

Our course would now be South West, crossing to the Isle of Whithorn, just over 11.8 miles, 2 hours, but there is a small harbour here and a Post Office with a shop where we could pick up some milk.

Brighouse to Isle of Whithorn to Cairnryan

From here we’d go back out to sea, cross from Cutcloy to the Mull of Galloway, then hug the coast, keeping an eye on the lighthouses at Crammag Head, Killantringan and Corsewall, popping into Loch Ryan to moor up with the P&O ferries at Cairnryan for a much needed break after the 69 miles of concentration taking 11.5 hours.

An almost due north course of 20 miles, 3.3 hours, would have us pull up on Ailsa Craig, where we’d make use of the little jetty.

Heading back to the west coast near Turnberry we’d skirt our way northwards to pull in at Troon. Here we’d stock up on a few bits and bobs at Morrisons and check in with the RNLI. 28.25 miles, 4.75 hours.

From Troon we’d cut across the bay avoiding the SSSI of Bogside Flats and what looks like a lovely beach. Hooking round into Ardrossan Harbour, an Asda and a Castle to visit here, well it’s only 9 miles so we’d have to fill the rest of the day.

Maybe we’ll stop off at the islands on the way back

We’d keep along the coast then to the east of Little Cumbrae and Great Cumbrae where we would take advantage of the Clydeport Road which stretches out into channel. 10 miles, maybe 2 hours to avoid larger vessles.

Northwards to Inverkip where we’d seek shelter in Kip Marina, hopefully they have a visitor mooring suitable for a narrowboat. Just over 11 miles, so 2 hours cruise.

Round to Gourock where it looks like there is a pontoon in the bay. Tilly may have to swim ashore for supplies. 6 miles, so we might just add this onto the day before or after, all weather dependant of course!

From here a North Easterly course will bring us across the mouth of Gare Loch and Helensburgh Ferry Terminal, 4 miles, so under an hour. Hopefully we won’t get in the way of the PS Waverley for a few days. From here we are kind of hoping that Anne might just come and pick us up by car as I think they live up the hill a touch.

So in total we would have 45 hours cruising at sea, over about 12 days, so back to our more normal cruising times, with one long day.

So Anne we’ll see you around the 11th 12th August. Hope that’s okay!

198 locks, 572.7 miles, 41 days, 4th sister, 1 plan, or maybe we could go up the east coast!

The Waterway With Christine And Paul. 30th June

Rembrandt Gardens

With a little under a quarter left in our water tank we decided to push off and have a top up this morning. We were fortunate to find the taps on both sides of Westbourne Terrace Bridge unoccupied so we didn’t have to share the water pressure with anyone else. Once the rubbish was disposed of and the tank full we reversed back through the bridge, winded and came back round the island to our mooring.

We tidied ourselves up and set off for our lunch date with Christine and Paul. We’ve passed the restaurants that run along the side of the canal numerous times, but never been inside, so today was going to be a treat as we were going to The Waterway.

Christine had booked an outside table. Outside is actually under two huge canopies and surrounded by large see through plastic walls, but there is still a lot of air circulating, heated by large electric heaters, one above our table.

As a meal out is now quite a treat we all had three courses. I had Squid with chilli sauce for starters. Followed by a very aromatic chicken in an ~~basket~~ enamel tray with fries and beetroot coleslaw. The chicken had been rubbed with cumin and was very tasty. My pudding was a scoop each of their sorbets, mango, lemon and raspberry, the first chilled medication I’ve had this year!

A very leisurely lunch with good company and wine. Again it was so good to be with family again after such a long time. Hopefully things will have improved sufficiently by Christmas for there to be a Geraghty Leckenby get together this year, well we can hope.

Much of the rest of the afternoon has been spent on the verge of snoozing. Mick has caught up with Mark Cavendish winning a stage of the Tour de France, I’ve got the blog up to date and done a little bit of work.

Tilly had some excitement when she came across a rat almost nose to nose with her. Tilly was far keener than the rat, who in the end after a stand off decided it would be best to run away, all be it closely followed by Tilly. I however decided that maybe it was dingding time for her and managed to encourage her back inside and closed the doors.

0 locks, 0.28 miles, 1 full water tank, 2 outsides, 1 confused Tilly, 2 boaters cleaned up, 3rd day in a row, 1 squid, 1 goats cheese croquets, 1 gravlax, 3 burgers, 1 chicken in a basket, 3 scoops, 1 cheese cake, 1 crème brulee, 1 brownie, 2 bottles wine, 1 lovely lunch, 3rd sister, how to get to see the 4th? 3rd neighbour, 1 snoozie afternoon, 1 long tailed friend.

Busy. 26th June

Rembrandt Gardens

A busy day on board today.

NB Billy had booked the mooring here for a couple of nights so it was time for them to move onwards to their next booked mooring in Paddington Basin. Shortly before midday they walked down to check it was available. There was plenty of space waiting for them so they moved down.

Saturdays are busy round here. The popular Go Boats are constantly coming and going from Paddington Basin. Paddle boaders, canoists, then boats looking for a mooring. Add to that the trip and restaurant boats. Billy joined the masses going through the bridge.

Their space only remained empty for about 5 minutes, another boat pulling in who’d tried to book a mooring here but hadn’t succeeded. They stopped for a couple of hours for lunch, then pushed off again. An hour later our new neighbours arrived, so thankfully nobody was already on their mooring.

Today I had set aside for work. Costume designs to finish off for #unit 21, a budget breakdown, an updated storyboard of the coloured model for panto, alterations to the props list and a gentle nudge to the director as there is a props maker chomping at the bit to make a start on things over the summer.

Mick headed off to stock up on supplies and furnish himself with a new polo top or two, most of his tops are starting to disintegrate so need replacing. This meant that Tilly and I could take over much of the boat. Drawing board out, printer scanner, bits of model, laptop etc.

As I worked away a Scout narrowboat arrived wanting to moor on the Community Boat mooring in front of us. This should have been easy, but there was already a boat tied to the rings. They tapped on the roof of the boat, but no-one was home. So they breasted up alongside us whilst they made space for themselves.

The community mooring must be quite long as the Scouts managed to pull the other boat to one end and get themselves moored up in front of us. The restaurant boat however wasn’t too pleased as they wind and then reverse down the arm to their mooring and the other boat was just in the way for where they wanted to put their stern.

Mick returned with some sad gits Cajun chicken from Waitrose for our evening meal meaning I had longer to work. Sadly not quite long enough there is still a list of things I need to do before work can sit on the back burner for a while. The budget for #unit 21 is extreamly tight and spending £350 on two large sheets of perspex to make a lift is simply too much, I may have to use Twinwall instead which comes in at a quarter of the price and hopefully will still back light once painted to create nice shadows.

0 locks, 0 miles, 5 neighbours in 1 day, 34 Go Boats, 5 paddleboards, 2 canoes, 9 costumes designed, 1/7 on Perspex! 1 storyboard, 1 props list, 1 gentle nudge, 2 sad gits chicken breasts, 1 boat in the way, 4 old scouts, 1 new top.

Billy Mates. 24th June

Ballot Box Bridges to Rembrandt Gardens

At around 3:15am we were woken by what sounded like an outboard motor. We laid in bed fully aware of the noise hoping that it would pass by us reasonably quickly, but it stayed constant. Constantly annoying with a bit of revving added into the mix, or may that was a motor bike. After a while Mick opened up the hatch to see what he could see, it was quite dark. A small strange looking cruiser was pulled up quite close to our stern with it’s engine running.

Currently Mick’s tool box has a nomadic life and yesterday had been left out under the pram cover. Just in case someone was eying our possessions Mick popped out the back to bring it inside. Other than move there wasn’t really anything we were willing to do about the noise. Yes one of us could have politely asked them to move to turn their engine off, but at that time of night it didn’t seem wise.

The revving stopped, possibly a motorbike had headed off. Then after at least half an hour we noticed the engine noise had stopped too. Thank goodness! We fell back asleep.

On waking this morning I opened up the side hatch to inspect our new neighbours. Well the canal bank was just as empty as it had been when we arrived, not a boat in sight! Maybe whatever happened last night was the reason for there being no boats on this stretch!

Thankfully no alarm was required this morning as we hadn’t really got that far to go. So we had a relaxed breakfast and pushed off a little before 11.

I wanted to pick up a few bits of shopping so we pulled over so that I could visit Alperton Sainsburys which was thankfully not heaving. We pushed back out to move over to the water point through the bridge on the off side. Mick admitted we’d actually pulled out in front of another boat, they were the kind of distance away where up north it would have been polite to wait for them to pass.

I looked behind us and there almost angel like a chap stood at the helm, highlighted by the sun before dipping into the darkness of the next bridge. I knew who that was!

As the bow came back into the light my suspicions were confirmed, it was NB Billy with Pete at the helm, Clare soon popped her head up at the stern lifted binoculars to her eyes, we waved back.

Last night on Facebook people were making comments regarding the new eco moorings in London, Clare had made a comment that she hoped her booked mooring at Little Venice would be unoccupied on their arrival. Well we were going to be neighbours! We last saw NB Billy last year near Newby Hall on the River Ure, they were returning from Ripon as we were heading there. Earlier in the summer we’d shared most of the western locks on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal.

What a stupid configuration, fine if approaching from the other way

We pulled into the water point and let them pass, we’d catch up later. Now the elsan and waterpoint at Alperton are not the easiest to get to. A railing has been put in to stop people from falling in, but this means we’d have to pull along onto the permanent moorings and hope our hose would reach to the tap as there was nowhere else to get off your almost 60ft boat. We decided against it and would fill the tank on reaching Little Venice.

We followed at a reasonable distance, both boats catching up with another who waved us past. The going was very slow, plenty of weed below the waters surface.

A temporary bridge has been put in over the canal for HS2 even though the line is a touch further away from the canal. From here numerous pipes, possibly containing electrics snake along the bank and through the water for quite a distance.

We passed more colourful boats, piles of rubbish and strangely enough several mooring spots big enough for us. But we knew there would be space for us up ahead so there was no need to take note of them.

The row of terraced houses that back onto the canal in Kensal Rise always make you wonder how many more such streets used to back onto the canal and do they have a problem with rising damp! Imagine the outcry from London boaters should the canal walls require repointing and a stretch be dewatered.

One property has a lot of satellite dishes on the back wall. Is it flats? Why would someone need so many dishes? Well it turns out it is the rear of Jamal Satellites, so that’s why.

It felt as though there was a lot more graffiti about. Mostly tags, some quite good, but very little of serious artistic merit.

Two years ago, where the Westway offers shade to the canal there was a series of wooden ramps and a drop in centre of sorts, but that is long gone, instead piles of rubbish line the wall, rather sad really.

A short distance on a red haired lady was chatting to a chap on the towpath, she pointed at something on the canal. I recognise that face! It was Micky whom we’ve met several times up at Crick in fact when Oleanna was brand new she was one of the first to make a bee line to have a nosy.

The water point on the near side of Westbourne Terrace was occupied, but the one on the other side was vacant. Oleanna is a touch too long to slot in here, but the water tank needed filling up, so we slotted in as best we could, stern sticking out under the bridge. Thankfully no widebeams came along which would have meant having to move.

Micky came and joined us for a chat as the trickle from the tap did it’s best to fill our tank. It was nice to see her and have a catch up. When she left to head home we decided we’d cope with what water we had, we can always top up the tank later without loosing our spot if needs be.

We followed the one way signs round the island and pulled into our spot at Rembrandt Gardens. A catch up and compare cruising stories was had between us and Clare and Pete, very good to see them again. Sadly their hope of finding the other half of the original Billy on the K&A didn’t pay off, but they’d had a good time cruising there and back.

Rembrandt Gardens back at the beginning of 2015 had only just started to be a bookable mooring in London. The day we arrived in January that year was the day we met Heather Bleasdale. Today is our second visit and we find ourselves sharing the mooring with Clare and Pete. I wonder if we’ll know our next neighbours here?

Back in February when the roadmap out of lockdown was announced I suggested to Mick that we look to see if any of the moorings in London were available. I think we looked within ten minutes of the announcement being made. Paddington and Rembrandt Garden bookable moorings are usually booked up months and months in advance, but we were lucky, we got in before anyone else had the idea. We booked our slot, we just needed to get to London and escape from Goole!

Little Venice with the Lady A going past

So over the last month we have accomplished our mission to get to London. 293.15 miles and 143 locks. Now it’s time to actually see some family in the flesh.

0 locks, 7.33 miles, 3:15 noisy neighbour, 2 pints milk, 5m wrapping paper, 1 glowing Pete hopscotching us, 2 boats for Rembrandt Gardens, 1 Micky, 0.75 full water tank, 1 bemused cat, 29 days, 293.15 miles, 143 locks, 1 escape plan accomplished, 1 happy Oleanna, 2 happy boaters, 4 humongous trees!

https://goo.gl/maps/7QHs8QFvk2kyrzcd9

Taking A Left. 23rd June

Black Jack’s Lock to Ballot Box Bridges 13, Paddington Arm, Grand Union Canal

Over the years we have been gifted a few things by the God of the London Waterways. On Lillian we had a hose pipe brush javelined onto our roof whilst we were on the Lee Navigation. We still have this and it occasionally gets used, although the plastic that holds the bristles in can scratch your paintwork. Then on our last visit we were breasted up to by another narrowboat at Little Venice waterpoint. We didn’t notice until much later in the day that the chap had left us with his rather good lightweight boat hook, this is now the preferred hook to use.

So our mooring today was offering us a blue trolley with accompanying yellow bungee. All we had to do was bring it out from the friendly cover and pop it on the roof. We actually noticed it when we pulled up yesterday, then we debated about it. A trolley would be handy, moving heavy things around such as gas bottles (the chap yesterday used his mobility scooter to great effect) and our yellow water container to elsan points, coal bags etc. But it would have to live on our roof which we prefer to keep uncluttered as we cruise so much. In the end our roof stayed uncluttered and we left the find either for it’s original owner to reclaim or for someone with a greater need, anyway it hadn’t been placed on our roof like the previous gifts had.

The lady at Jack’s Mill Café was putting tables out in the sunshine this morning getting ready to open up. The crocodile that used to lie on the grass below the lock seems to have moved off to pastures new, a shame as it was one of those things you look out for.

The local opposition to HS2 is very obvious by the time you reach Wide Water Lock, as is the big crane a little bit away from the lock. Once we’d dropped down and passed a few boats we could see the start of the works. Fencing along the towpath marks the spot where the line will cross on a viaduct. Another area fenced off part way across all the trees felled, waiting for construction work to start. Here there used to be a protest encampment, the trees which surrounded it now gone.

We could see mounds of gravel, diggers and cranes. Further along plenty of green fencing stretched out parallel with the canal, upturned black boxes sat by the fence at regular intervals. What was this all about? It wasn’t on the route for the railway. Was it a compound for the works? But there was a lot of water in between. In the end we think this area is where they will be adjusting the overhead power cables, maybe dispensing with the pylons and dropping the cables to underground.

As we cruised on, Mick was somewhat distracted by the works, Oleanna’s line drifted off centre. The first we were aware of this was a horrible scratching squeaking noise of pointy branches doing their worst down the port side cabin. This is the first time I’ve ever shouted at Mick, I did apologise quite quickly as did Mick. Just what damage had been done now?! Poor Oleanna!

Denham Deep Lock required filling so this gave me plenty of time to take in the damage. At least two more big scratches along the cabin side. These are more wiggly than the one created yesterday. We’ll try polishing them out, we have some blue polish. If anyone has any handy advice please pass it on, we are not shiny boaters but we also don’t want to look like a well used hire boat!

Denham Deep is suitable named, not the deepest lock we’ve been through, but still deep. We dropped down, only one paddle usable on the bottom gates and a queue was forming for Fran’s Tea Rooms at the lock cottage.

Approaching Uxbridge Lock we had a tight squeeze past a breasted up pair and a work boat carrying a big reel of cable or pipe. Luckily there was space for us all and the neat gardens on the offside didn’t give us any cause for concern over more marks on Oleanna’s cabin side.

Mick brought Oleanna into Uxbridge Lock, closely followed by the local swan family. We did our best to move them out, or in, we didn’t mind which just one or the other would do. But the cob had other ideas sitting in the open gateway, going one way then coming back, he was refusing to let Mick close the gate. In the end a crust of my new loaf of gluten free bread had to be brought out, food was what he was after along with the rest of his family. We could now close the gate.

Is the lock cottage still for sale or just on the market again?

We swung Oleanna in to the service point at the marina below, the diesel renowned for being the cheapest in the area. No price showed on the pump. A head popped up from behind a boat on the offside to give us the news that the marina was closed on Wednesdays! Pooh!! Oh well. I hopped back on and we reversed out, we’ll hopefully find a coal boat, we still have half a tank.

It’s actually the lock cottage for sale looking the other way https://www.alldayestateagents.co.uk/properties/13842790/sales price on application!

The next lock Cowley Lock was to be our last, the last lock down into London. We topped up with water and disposed of yellow water at the services then swapped with two northbound boats to drop down onto the Paddington Level of the canal.

All on the flat from here. Lots of building work about. A widebeam had difficulty coming through the bridge by Packet Boat Marina, it seemed he’d got his bow thrusters the wrong way round, but the amount of tyres on his bow suggested this happens frequently.

Straight on past the Slough Arm, we may do this on our way back, we had to abandon our cruise down there back in 2015 due to ice and sadly it was the day before we had to say goodbye to our first second mate Houdini.

At Bulls Bridge there were plenty of boats moored up on the offside, only one boat on the visitor moorings. We have enough stocks on board so we left the rest of the stretch to the magnet fishers. Oleanna was swung round to the left and passed under the bridge onto the Paddington Arm.

We decided to have lunch on the go, our chosen mooring still a distance off, but if we saw anywhere before hand we’d pull in. Plenty of boats moored up, not many moving. Some familiar, like the one that looks top heavy and wouldn’t fit through bridge holes now sat on a mooring. Boats that invite themselves to be painted by graffiti artists, life rafts of different shapes and sizes.

At Willow Tree Footbridge it looked like most people had moved in and onto land. The possessions next to one cruiser made you wonder how they would move if they had to take everything with them! I think they’d sink.

At Black Horse Bridge bend building works are still on going, high rise buildings going up. A wharf with mooring bollards and what might be an elsan looked all very smart. On we went, not much further till we reached Ballot Box Bridges.

As we rounded the bend we were surprised to see not one boat moored where we’d managed to slot in last time. The towpath has been redone, the hard surface getting quite close to the edge, but we thought we’d be able to get some spikes in, which we did. Was there something we didn’t know?

5 locks, 15.4 miles, 1 aborted left, 0 diesel, 1 left, 0 shopping, 1 crust, 2 strawberries, 2 lunches on the go, 0 swans, 1 warmer day, 0 boats at the mooring, 1 super speedy boat, 1 nature reserve, 2 loads washing, 1 fox, 1 cat not so keen.

https://goo.gl/maps/KBH7fNiaWyZyo7jeA

In other not so good news a C&RT update regarding Selby Swing Bridge

Update on 23/06/2021:

Since Selby swingbridge was damaged by overweight vehicles our team have been reviewing options for carrying out repairs to rectify the damage. We regret to inform that the design detail of the temporary pedestrian footbridge is still being finalised. This alternative means of access over the canal must be in place before it is possible to put a road closure in place to lift-off the defective bridge and re-open navigation.

We now expect the defective bridge to be removed and navigation re-open in mid-July. In recognition of the additional disruption this causes we are investigating whether it is possible to perform and emergency swing of the bridge for a limited period to allow boat passage should those moored in the area wish to move. We will make a further announcement on this as our plans develop, and not before Monday 28^th June 2021.

Narrowboat Oleanna

Travels of Narrowboat Oleanna