Category Archives: Cats

Waving Goodbye, 31st July

Eco-Moorings to Ballot Box Bridge, Paddington Arm

Mick was off with a shopping list to keep us going for the next few days until we can get a click and collect somewhere. Then it was time to sit down with the Geraghtys. Todays topics, Olympics, Toddler stage school and Trampolines.

Time for us to head off. We unplugged (once the dishwasher had finished), turned on our tunnel light and followed the trip boats through Islington Tunnel. On the other side a boat was showing off it’s tyre sculptures. A curvy lady and a lizard, all very clever, have to say I preferred the lizard.

Many of the same boats were moored up in the same spots as when we first came past a month ago, tyre fenders touching the water an ideal place for a moorhen or coot to build a nest. Have to say one boat almost certainly had done a diy nest on their back deck, the predominance of organic material a sheer give away, London coots and moorhens like a bit of plastic bling added to their nests!

St Pancras Lock sat full, full of duck weed, in the last two weeks the bloom has taken over.

As we worked our way up Richard and Victoria from NB Chance stopped for a bit of a chat, they are currently staying at the Cruising Club before heading onwards, we also spotted NB Misty Blue pulled in against NB Flora Dora. Today we wouldn’t be stopping, not even for water as planned, someone else had got to the tap before us.

We waved goodbye to the gas holders as we ducked under the railway bridges and carried on our way westwards.

Below Kentish Town Lock Christine was waiting behind the railings to watch our ascent up the three locks, the last on the Regents Canal. She stayed a good distance away from the waters edge at all times, just as well as she still had her shopping to do.

The pretty NB Moondance was coming down in the middle lock, so we swapped over in the pound below and carried on upwards. The boat that had been on the water point at St Pancras appeared below the locks, but we were well on our way up and there was plenty of water coming down.

Hampstead Road Lock was full and needed the gates closing so we had a pause whilst I set the lock, no volunteers on duty today, although Mick said an off duty lockie stopped to say hello.

Now which gate was the b**ger to close? I called Mick to see if he could remember, he couldn’t, don’t know why I asked really! Foolishly I chose to open the gate on the island which opens over the steps, this was the wrong gate and did take quite a lot of effort to close. A lady appeared at the other gate and said as much, wound down a paddle then stood keeping an eye on the bottom gate. I half expected the lock to immediately be emptied as soon as I closed the top gate, but it wasn’t.

Christine had headed up onto the bridge above for one final wave goodbye. It’s been lovely to be able to catch up with family whilst we’ve been in London, spending some quality time with them. There were plenty more people we could have seen, but family were the most important for this visit.

Now back into the mayhem that is trip boats, paddle boarders and Goboats. The paddle boarders held back as we passed following NB Black Pearl who stayed in tick over for most of the way through Regents Park.

Big piling has been going in where we’d seen the sunken workboats two weeks ago. All boats now above water, a busy site.

By the time we reached Park Road Bridge we had another trip boat behind us, three Goboats at least coming through the not quite tunnel ahead. Then came another trip boat. With three boats waiting to go through, Goboats dawdling, some having pulled in right where the new trip boat had to go as there was nowhere else for it, it slammed into reverse! Quite surprised there wasn’t an incident!

Once through Maida Hill Tunnel we were away from any possible collisions. Rembrandt Garden moorings were awaiting it’s next lot of moorers and luckily for us the water point through Westbourne Terrace Bridge was empty, we pulled in, hooked up the hose and started to fill up. The tap being slow we knew we’d have chance to have something to eat before carrying on.

Blimey those fish down there blow big bubbles! I waited to see if one would surface in amongst the grass but it didn’t.

Slowly we cruised out west, we passed the widebeam we’d rescued a few weeks ago. Where scaffolding has been used to tie up to forever the hording boards have been removed, maybe the scaff will follow and people will have to drive mooring spikes in again. A wall we’d seen being cleaned of graffit tags as we came in last time already has a collection forming again.

Just where we’d rescued the widebeam a couple of weeks ago

Our progress slowed to the point where we needed to stop to clear the prop. Urban Jellyfish, as Tom used to call them, had been caught on our prop.

In Alperton we noticed a mural under a bridge. Had this been here before? A plaque at the end mentioned the artists name Gianpaolo Buccheri and that the piece was a commission from C&RT. It turns out it was created only a couple of weeks ago.

I also like the cat and sofa that must have been there longer.

Might have to start carrying a container with me soon

Soon we arrived at our destination, now our usual stop in and out of London, Ballot Box Bridge. We pulled in where there was plenty of space and despite it being very nearly Tilly’s dingding time she was given an hour of shore leave. I put a chicken in the oven to roast and Mick cleared the prop again.

4 locks, 1 tunnel, 11.63 miles, 1 right, 1 full water tank, 1 dry Christine, 1 empty wee tank, 2 trips down the weed hatch, 1 near miss, 2 many Goboats, 2 boaters and 1 cat waving goodbye to London.

https://goo.gl/maps/3JnRLqCfLrfnHpBM7

Visitors, Non-Visitors and an Invite. 30th July

Eco-Moorings. Islington

I had a visitor this morning.

Tom Adam brought me gifts so I managed to drag myself away from the big furry friends outside to say hello. She and Tom made cups of tea and they all chatted away for ages about boaty things and different outsides that they’ve tied up. It was good to see you Tom Adam, thank you for the chin rubs and the rainbow Dreamies.

It was great to see Adam from NB Briar Rose this morning. He’s working the Breakfast Show at the moment so we’d arranged for a catch up after he’d finished work today. Maybe next time we meet up it won’t be raining!

The day was full of showers, light ones and some down right heavy ones too! Each interspersed with glowing sunshine. The sunshine was tempting, I really wanted to have a wander about the streets to see what could be seen, but as soon as I got myself ready to stir my stumps the heavens would open again, the side hatch was shut, so we settled down to do some more nothing importantness.

The majority of boat traffic has been from the Hidden Depths boats. Parties going back and forth, in and out of the tunnel. The poor ladies on the back deciding that autumn has arrived early this year as they were both damp and cold.

No-one mentioned chilled medication two boats away!

Sadly our rendez vous with Nick, Kerry and Harry their dog was called off. Harry has a limping problem which moves from paw to paw and he’d seen the vet last night. So it was decided to take a rain check on our meeting this evening.

We eventually managed a short trip out to collect a fire and CO alarm. The one we have in the bedroom had started to chirp the other day, with a new battery in it it didn’t test correctly, so we’ve bought a new one from Argos. £30 is cheap compared to a life and if we can find the receipt then we should get our money back as they come with a ten year warranty.

A Jools Holland type band were busy jollying up the world by Argos, plenty of toe tapping. We then went to look at Chapel Market, only the stalls that we weren’t interested in were left as it was quite late in the day by now.

We walked back admiring the houses on Duncan Terrace. Every house looked to have it’s original window shutters. There were some bold colour choices for front doors. The fanlights above the front doors wonderfully ornate. A few of them had lamps in them, I’ve never seen this before. What a lovely feature. If you happen to have a spare £3million you could buy one of these five storey grade 2 listed, Georgian town houses, well this one is under offer.

We’d just decided that for our last night in London we’d treat ourselves to a take away curry when Mick noticed a message from Christine, his sister, inviting us to join her and Paul for some Tapas this evening in Camden. What a lovely idea.

The 214 bus took us round Kings Cross and onto Camden where we made our way to Jamon Jamon for a meal. Numerous dishes kept arriving to be put on our dinky table, some careful plate logistics was needed to make space for the next dish and then the next. All the food was very nice, thank you so much for the invite Christine.

Walking back along Duncan Terrace past the lovely houses we were pleased that one house had it’s fanlight light illuminated. If we had one of these houses the fanlight would be lit up every night!

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 visitor, 2 packs of Dreamies, 1 happy cat, 3 cookies, 37 rain showers, 1 or 4 poorly paws, 1 rain check, 1 pretty street, 1 combined alarm, 214, 9 tapas, 2 crème brulee, 1 cheese cake, 1 almond cake, 1 illuminated fan light.

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

Stacks Of Stuff. 25th July

Sawbridgeworth Lock to Hunsdon Lock

The alarm not being set meant we both slept in, maybe a little too much, but so long as we got to where we needed to be tonight it didn’t really matter. There were a few bits and bobs that needed finishing up so Mick set too in the kitchen for breakfast.

Then we walked down to the maltings where several antique places sell their stuff. The first we went into was very organised and a touch posh really. Lots of jewellery and china.

A few bits of furniture. We considered swapping our sofa bed for a curly low sofa which would fit under the gunnels nicely, but we’d have nowhere for the two matching chairs.

‘One’ would need a leather bound library for a Victorian wooden step ladder.

Cats, pig marching bands and Clarice Cliff bowls tucked away in the display cabinets. Nothing for us here.

A units further on was Acorn Auctions, not open today for viewing, never mind there was plenty more to look at.

Riverside Antiques covered several floors and for those who have ever visited Josie’s in Bempton, it reminded me of there, just a touch tidier and you didn’t come out feeling grubby!

From Fred and Wilma, to Walter White.

Captain Scarlet and Blue to Thunderbird 2.

Railway paraphernalia, cap badges and Trains in Trouble singles.

Telephones, crockery, horse brasses. I took lots of photos of horse brasses as reference for panto.

1950’s clock with a timer, a calculator, beer steins, typewriters.

So much stuff, it went on and on for ages! The chap from the red boat had been right, these places could fill up a whole day if we let them. So much stuff nobody needs!

Oh hang on! We did find one thing each that maybe we’d have bought. Mick, an Aston Martin DB5 Corgie car. This was James Bond’s car, first seen in Goldfinger. It had rotating number plates, a retractable bullet proof rear shield, extending front over-riders, pop out machine guns, and, of course, a functioning passenger ejector seat! £15 a bargain!

Mine, a cream tea pot with chrome cosy. I used to have one of these that I think I bought at the aforementioned Josie’s. I would make my morning cuppa in it every day, but sadly quite a few years ago it broke or started to leek. Today I could have replaced it for £8, I very nearly did too!

Then near to the Ercol pebble tables and the canteen/table of cutlery there were two Victorian photographs which had dolls faces added to them. Three dimensions morphing out from two, quite disturbing really. Had someone made these up for a Halloween party?!

Yet another floor showed itself to us, but here we decided that we’d seen enough and that it was time to push off and get a few miles done.

Today there were thunderstorms forecast for the afternoon. We gathered together our waterproofs before setting off, we knew we would be needing them today!

NB Small World had already moved off when we passed the gated community. We dropped back down Sheering Mill Lock all the time the skies behind us getting darker. There was a queue at the water point at Harlow Mill Lock which stretched back towards the lock, we managed to get past but a widebeam wouldn’t.

Here as we finished dropping down the lock the heavens opened, just enough time to get waterproofs on, I’d already put shorts on to save over heating in clinging waterproof trousers. Mick stayed up top and brought us along the pound reaching Latton Lock where we’d stopped for our Tesco’s click and collect the other day. Derek and Margaret waved from their comfortable dry seats as we passed, hoping there would be space for us to pull in before the lock.

We ended up on the lock landing. Covers back up and dripping under cover. We really wanted to be further on today so we waited and waited for the rain to subside. At one point it started to look good and Mick walked to set the lock. A cruiser was just arriving, so he helped them up, leaving the top gates ready for us, of course now it was heaving it down again!

Almost an hour later the rain dried up, covers were dropped and time to move on again. Thunder continuously rumbled around above, it was hard to hear the crack associated with each lightening flash. Above Burnt Mill Lock there were now three trip boats moored on the off side and David and Ted’s boat was sat on the visitor moorings, he’d said he needed some shopping.

It stayed almost dry through Parndon Lock but then on our last stretch of water the heavens opened up again. I made an excuse of preparing our evening meal whilst Mick stood at the tiller through the driving rain. Thankfully at Hunsdon Lock there was plenty of space for us to pull in.

Drip drying we checked the river levels. Tomorrow we need to pass under Roydon Railway Bridge on the river section. The pound we were in had risen by about four inches and we were seeing footage of flooded tube stations at Stratford! We’ll see what happens.

7 locks, 6.61 miles, 2 antique shops, 6 scarlet, 6 blue, 87 brasses, 7 piece band, 2 much to look at, 2 down pours, 25 minutes constant rumbling, 16 meatballs with celeriac, 0 shore leave, 1 very steamed up boat, 1 cruising plan coming together.

https://goo.gl/maps/cYxba9TsGk1iFs4N6

Flying In. 24th July

Bishop Stortford to Sawbridgeworth Lock 5

We were up early again, a shopping list for provisions to get us back to London was made and Mick headed out after breakfast to Waitrose for a free newspaper. Rain had been forecast for today, Mick managed to avoid the worst of it, but still came back wet.

It’s been a few weeks since we have sat down and been a full part of the Geraghty zoom on a Saturday morning, so today we made sure we wouldn’t be moving. Todays topics, chicken pox, ankle biting sisters, it was lovely to see everyone again.

The winding hole that used to stretch to Sainsburys

Time to make our move, we pushed off backwards at around 11am, reversing to the winding hole and then pulled in at the services. With the water tank filling we emptied the yellow water tank, Tilly got a clean pooh box and we disposed of rubbish.

There was one other gap in the moorings this morning, NB Small World had pulled away, we’d be following them back down the locks. Back past all the warehousey apartments. I think one boat really could do with a new chimney before winter, at least his bathroom door was in place today! No gongoozlers to keep us company at the locks as we made our way out of Bishop Stortford.

Bridge 47 is exceptionally narrow, made from what should be called a ‘T’ beam, the top being a touch wider than the bottom.

Approaching Spellbrook Lock a Dad was paddle boarding with his son clinging on for dear life, we made sure we drifted past them the little lads knuckles already white!

A group were fishing from the lock landing, so we slowly came in, nowhere else to drop me off, they moved to let us pull up and chatted away. Someone has added cable ties to the pawls, quite a good solution to be able to lift them without getting very greasy fingers.

Saturday is obviously a busy day at Stanstead Airport at the moment. Those heading back with Ryan Air from a week in the sun kept the sky full of planes coming in to land. Then once we were meandering our way towards Tednambury Lock they started to take off in our direction.

All the boats were still on the meadows. The one moored quite a long way out is tied to the bank but also has a couple of mud weights out to stop them moving too much.

At Tednambury Lock we caught up with NB Small World again, apparently the river had been quite busy this morning, most probably boats coming out from Hallingbury Marina close by. My friend Mike had been on a friends boat earlier in the year and sent me a photo of NB Dorcas pulled in on the lock landing above. Today I recreated the photo, except mine had grey skies not blue.

Mick pulled electric cables and weed off the prop as the lock filled and just managed to pull away off the landing before a wide beam arrived. However the prop soon got fouled again, our progress downstream slower than upstream, but we hoped there would be space for us above Sawbridgeworth Lock.

Thankfully there was plenty of room, a hand from a chap on the bank helped to pull Oleanna into the side as by now there was almost no steering due to weed on the prop, something to clear before we move onwards tomorrow.

Wonder how many litres of white paint that takes

A very late lunch whilst Tilly explored the area and some quinoa cooked for a salad later.

I headed out for a walk crossing the lock and walking down Mill Lane, aptly named as it starts on the lock island, the weir behind it used for power at what look to be couple of old mills. The buildings are now pristine white with white flowering hanging baskets, a stopped clock and a mechanism that must have powered machinery in one of the mills. Ransomes and Rapier were known for their railway and crane equipment, but in early days they made saw-milling machinery.

I walked past thatched cottages and through 1920’s estates many of the houses displaying sunbeams on their walls. At Sheering Mill bridge I thought I’d walk through the apartments to reach the Maltings, but big signs suggested I’d not be welcome and that I’d need a key fob to exit at the far end. So I turned round and walked along the river bank instead, I could look at the gated community from the other bank where NB Small World was nestled for the remainder of the day.

I had a quick walk around the Maltings, numerous antique shops to look at tomorrow and what smelt like a very good Indian Take Away. I was tempted but we ate out yesterday and the quinoa would be cool enough to make into a salad back at the boat, it didn’t stop me looking at their menu though!

Meanwhile in Scarborough and along the North Yorkshire Coast, Animated Objects Theatre Company are touring their ‘A Thousand Ships’ exhibition. This weekend they are in the Brunswick Centre in Scarborough, tables filled with the origami boats all made by people from the Yorkshire Coast. This is part of a much bigger project The Odyssey which is running over the next few years.

4 locks, 4.53 miles, 1 wind, 1st Saturday paper in a while, 1st full zoom for a while, 1 empty wee tank, 1 full water tank, 1 clean pooh box, 2 boaters staying dry, 25 planes, 1000 ships, 2 mills, 2 moustaches, 1 tall aerial, 1 maine coon, 1 Tilly stood down and brought inside, 1 fisty paws avoided.

https://goo.gl/maps/Fe4hQR3fFz7hEBoe6

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

Narrowboat Oleanna

Travels of Narrowboat Oleanna