Last Fridays post was filled with woolly goodies. Two more Independent dyers had sent me some yarn for my sockathon. What kindness! The two parcels together most probably had enough yarn for 14 pairs of socks. Thank you so much to Jem (Under The Olive Tree) and Beth (Beehive Yarns) for your generous and wonderful support.
I had a day out to Leeds to visit the Hello Stranger Yorkshire exhibition. Lots of photos from shows over the last four years and how the pandemic was coped with and how the industry has changed since. Designers were invited to add their details to a map of Yorkshire. One colour string showed where Yorkshire designers lived, the other where people from outside Yorkshire have worked. As I fitted into both categories and neither I decided to have both colours of string on my label.
I made sure my return to the station included the wonderful markets and the Exchange. Must remember all that fish when we pass through Leeds in a few weeks time!
Saturday morning started with me casting on the first pair of socks. These were to be knitted in yarn that I had bought for the challenge, matching the logo colours of @dementia-uk. In the post that morning I received a card from their Fundraising Officer wishing me luck, what a lovely touch, especially hand written, my sister-in-law would approve.
So far I’ve managed to knit a sock a day, that’s an average of 8 hours clicking a day. I go to stretch my legs each day so that my natural posture doesn’t take to being a seated one. The occasional move from one chair to another also helps. Podcasts are listened to when I’m going round in circles and we’ve taken to watching an episode of Downton Abbey each day, starting from the very beginning. We may have to up to two episodes a day as there are 50 in total. Blimey some of those servants are really really horrible!
Mick has been seeking out new insurance quotes for Oleanna. For some reason our renewal quote from GJW had gone up whilst reports on social media suggest other peoples have gone down. Craftinsure are by far the cheapest for both contents and the boat, however some things are not covered such as laptops. Why are they so much cheaper? How are they so much cheaper? Do they pay out without hassle if you need to claim? All questions Mick is seeking the answers to before we commit ourselves to a new policy.
Oleanna on a sunny day
The days, weeks and months are ticking away. Time to visit Oleanna and give her engine a run, check her over and now that we have a date we need to be back on the boat for, give notice on our mooring. Mick took the train down to Goole an easy and familiar ride now, whilst I sat on the sofa knitting.
The daffodils at Oleanna’s stern are long past their best and the scraped paintwork turning orange on the gunnels shows that she hasn’t moved anywhere for sometime. Hopefully there will be time to give things a good rub down and repaint before too long.
Clear view to NB Ivy
Mick sent me a photo looking out through the new window in the pram cover. A vast improvement from the old one which not only had holes in it but had become a touch white making the view a bit foggy. The boat opposite our bow has had a change of name, a very wise change by Lisa.
Mick ran the engine and went to see Laird and also had a catch up with Alastair. Sadly Viking Marina are out of diesel at the moment, so the tank still hasn’t had a fill. Then it was time for Mick to plug the laptop into Oleanna’s brain and give the inverter a firmware update. This new version means we can control the charging of the lithium batteries more, especially when the temperatures are really low which lithium’s do not appreciate.
Daffodils and gunnels past their best!
With everything locked up, Mick headed back to the station with the intention of being back in Scarborough to eat with me before I headed out for the evening. Sadly there were problems on the tracks. A vehicle had run through both barriers of a level crossing at Gilberdyke. This meant all trains had to run slowly and that Mick’s train which normally would have continued on to Scarborough stopped in Hull.
The chandelier at The Bike and Boot
The next train northwards followed a slow train and by the time it had reached Bridlington it itself had been cancelled as the train behind had just about caught it up! In all it took Mick four hours to return to Scarborough by which time I’d cast on the toe of sock 5 and decided to give myself an evening off. Spent at the Bike and Boot with old female friends I used to work with at the SJT. It was very nice to see every one in the flesh, many I’ve only seen on zoom get togethers over the last few years and those have gradually petered out.
The Chippy model box waiting for me to be creative
Another parcel has arrived at the house. The empty model box for Chippy Panto, all ready for me to start designing. It made sense for it to come here, rather than us trying to guess where to get it sent to in a months time.
For those wanting to know what panto will be this year, I can now confirm it will be ‘Cinderella’. But not just any old Cinderella, this one will be set in Latin America! So the music will most certainly be toe tapping. Sadly the budget won’t stretch to a visit to South America for research purposes, the internet will have to do!
The Sockothan continues and if I continue at the current rate then I should manage to beat last years pairs by several! Thank you so much to those near and far (Hello Canada!) who have sponsored me. Thank you also to those who’ve requested socks. All socks on my list are guaranteed to be knitted in April so make sure you’ve made your donation on the JustGiving website. I may be opening the challenge up for more sock requests in a weeks time, so if you feel you missed out first time around you’d best keep an eye on the blog.
Time for the annual round, a long post so sit back, put your feet up and enjoy.
The New Year kicked off with winter maintenance in the house. Having two hallways proved time consuming refreshing the woodwork and patching up the worst of the wallpaper. But this was broken up with weekly walks to see the sea. I resumed work on the development showing of #unit21 for Dark Horse and a Christmas present of a cheese making kit proved very tasty in creating my first ever Yorkshire Curd Cheese Cake from scratch. I plan on having a second go at this soon!
In February work progressed in Huddersfield towards opening night, the floor painted, final costume fittings and then the set and lighting added. All while Mick serviced our life jackets and Tilly grew more and more bored of life in the house.
Once the show was opened we had a trip down to London to catch up with the London Leckenbys for a belated Christmas, on our way back we visited Oleanna. When ever we could we visited Blue Water Marina to do jobs and have a pack up lunch. The stove was reblacked, walls washed down and cupboards sorted through.
Then at the end of February, Mick and I left Tilly in charge of the house, we packed enough clothes and food for a couple of days boating and headed to Thorne to move Oleanna through Thorne Lock before a winter stoppage began. Blimey it was chilly out there, but wonderful to be back afloat and moving Oleanna to Goole. Now we were all set to move back onboard and have a few weeks of pootling about in Yorkshire.
Back at the house we made it ready for the first of this years lodgers. Our boat Christmas tree was retired into the back garden where we hoped it would thrive, this of course was before we knew a drought was on it’s way! Tilly said goodbye to the dragon that lives up the chimney, left Seville and Valencia to look after the house before having to endure the car trip back to boat life.
After a few days sorting ourselves, including having one of Joan’s gluten free Chinese takeaways, we unplugged Oleanna and backed out from our mooring at Goole Marina (Boat House). We spent the next three weeks bobbing about between Pollington Lock, Doncaster and Goole. Maintenance jobs were ticked off the list.
Alistair did engine and weedhatch jobs, Frank joined us a couple of times to do carpentry jobs, our galley drawers no longer have a life of their own, the covers had a good scrub and a spray of Wet and Forget to help them keep clean.
In March I’d set myself a charity challenge, to knit as many pairs of socks in the month as I could. Nine pairs knitted for people in return for sponsorship, I also got a very generous donation of yarn from Lisa on NB Summer Wind.
Our plans had had to change as Thorne Lock still hadn’t closed, but was about to! Plans to visit York and West Yorkshire were abandoned, we’d bought ourselves a Gold Licence for the year so wanted to make the most of it. So on March 24th with all the jobs done we turned our backs on Goole and set off into the sunset to see where 2022 would take us, all three of us grinning from ear to ear.
We made our way to Keadby ready for our booked passage on the tidal River Trent, the fast route south. A phone call from a boating friend in need of support meant we’d be doing our best to make use of the spring tide to reach Cromwell in one go despite the weather forecast. We spent a couple of days doing what we could to help in Newark before we needed to be on the move again.
On upstream to The Trent and Mersey keeping up our cruising hours and Tilly hoping we’d stop with enough time for her to explore each day before cat curfew.
Up to Fradley then onto the Coventry Canal, we played leapfrog with NB Free Spirit for a couple of days.
Birmingham and Fazeley Canal, up the Curdworth Flight then a turn left onto a section of the Grand Union we’d not been on before at Star City. Up Garrison Locks, Typhoo Basin and then the Ashted Locks where we now have the measure of that Tunnel! A mooring space at the top of Farmers Bridge had our name on it. This was handy for a road trip to swap lodgers and for visits to the dentist. It also meant we were in shot when a group came to jump the top lock!
Fast forward to 6:15
Our route out of Buminghamsaw us through Edgbaston Tunnel, down Lapworth followed by Hatton. A pause was needed for Tilly’s annual visit to a new vet, the one here the closest to the canal we’ve visited so far, also handy for The Cape of Good Hope!
At Napton we joined the Oxford Canal and headed for Braunston, pausing to stock up on goodies from the butcher. On the Grand Union we made our way up over the hill and started our descent down The Long Buckby flight back towards tidal waters.
On the 1st of May we turned left at Gayton Junction onto the Northampton Arm dropping down the flight to the River Nene. We’d only been this way once before and that was when we’d just bought Lillian (NB Lillyanne) back in 2014. We bought ourselves a second Abloy key, showed our Gold Licence to the chap at Northampton Marina and started our journey down stream, time to explore.
A decision was made to head down to Peterborough taking note of places we’d want to visit on our return journey. We worked our way through the guillotine locks, many button operated and others with the wheel of cardiovascular overload.
Tilly loved many of the moorings apart from those in Peterborough where crowds surrounded the boat and meant returning from shore leave was impossible for several hours.
In two weeks we reached the end of the river at the Dog in a Doublet Lock. Here the river becomes tidal, we’d save that trip for another time and turned back upstream to head for the Middle Level.
Here we wanted to explore all the drainage channels, but decided we’d do that on our return too. So we took the direct route and crossed the low lying waters in three days arriving at Salters Lode on Mick’s birthday. The levels out on the tidal stretch of the Great Ouse needing to be just right to get through the lock, turn and head upstream to Denver Sluice.
A lovely GOBA mooring was found on the River Wissey and eventually the sun came out for a birthday barbeque, we’d made it to the Great Ouse.
The remainder of May was spent exploring the River Wissey, Ely and The Little Ouse. Brandon Lock sits at the most easterly point on the connected navigable network for boats Oleanna’s size. Sadly a build up of silt stopped us from getting her bow into the lock, but we did get her as far east as was possible, ticking off the fourth point of the compass.
There was a trip to Hull Truck to meet old friends at a gala evening followed by a meet up with Micks family back in the Fens. At the end of the month we got to know Neil the seal at Ten Mile Bank moorings as he basked in the sun and took sunset dips in the river.
The Jubilee was seen in at Denver, we lit our guiding lights as a Lancaster Bomber flew overhead heading to see the Queen. The Relief Channel gave us a good mooring to be able to have a trip away to celebrate Dawn and Lee’s 50th Birthdays in Scarborough, we went as Wallace and Gromit and won an Oscar!
Another visit to Ely to see the Cathedral, Farmers market and meet up with Heather from NB Bleasdale, the first of many this summer. The River Lark was explored, the end of navigation reached with a handy mooring outside a pub.
We headed for the Cam, our paths crossing for the first time with Ken and Sue from NB Cleddau. Then onwards in to Cambridge where we visited colleges, ate chilled medication and had a day trip to Duxford so that Mick could sit in the pilots seat of a Trident 2, a seat his Dad had sat in on many a flight.
Oleanna squeezed along each of the three Lodes, Wicken, Burwell and Reach. Wicken Lode a magical place and a day visit to Anglesey Abbey with it’s wonderful gardens.
Then we headed onto the Old West a river with a very different feel than the Ely Ouse. A pause was needed when we reached Earith for us to have a tour of Heathers new to her boat GT. Once off the tidal water we were on a different Great Ouse again. Here St Ives, St Neots and Hemingford gave us sunsets, D shaped locks, huge meadows and wonderful towns and villages to explore.
As the temperatures started to rise I needed to do some work. Cruising happened in the mornings, my Panto script and sketches were done in the shade of what trees we could find. White sheets were bought and we hoped for a mooring with shade for the really hot days that were to come. Tilly took to lying on the floor and we took to wearing wet t-shirts to help us to keep cool. Thankfully the hot blast only lasted a couple of days then the temperature dropped and we could continue to head upstream.
July 21st we reached the navigable limit of the River Great Ouse, having to reverse some distance to be able to turn round and return to Bedford for the River Festival.
Here we met up with Ken and Sue, Jennie and Chris from NB Tentatrice and Heather again. Plenty of things to see, do and hear. The boat parades, raft races, vintage cars, all sorts kept us busy for the two days.
Now at the end of July we alternated the days between cruising and my work. More beautiful days cruising and more wonderful sunsets, one day off to visit Cambridge for some more chilled medication and to see the Hockney exhibition.
August saw more hot days. Trips to London to celebrate birthdays, panto meetings, catch up with best friends and travellers over from Australia.
On the 15th August we crossed back from Denver Sluice to the Middle Level having really enjoyed our three months on the Great Ouse. Now water levels were a worry along with having enough time to reach Oxford for me to go to work in October. We made the decision to come back and explore the Middle Level another year, maybe we’ll cross The Wash to get there!
By the end of August our progress up stream on the River Nene slowed to a halt. First one lock broke then another two ahead of us. We’d recently been accepted to join the Reflections Flotilla on the Thames to mark the Queens Jubilee in a few weeks time, now that time was ticking away.
When we did get moving again we had to make up our cruising hours. With the news of the passing of the Queen we didn’t know if the flotilla would still be going ahead, we carried on at pace waiting for news. Back up the River Nene, turning onto the Grand Union, working our way southwards. The news came through that the flotilla would go ahead, but now in remembrance of the Queen.
With a couple of days to spare we squeezed into the Eco-Moorings by Islington Tunnel. Two days of catching up with family and more friends over from Australia before we joined boats heading along the Regents Canal towards Limehouse Basin. An afternoon of activity saw numerous narrowboats festooned with white lights.
On the 24th of September the Thames barrier was closed and we all headed out of Limehouse Lock up stream to Chelsea where we clung onto buoys until the early evening when the flotilla started to muster.
Getting on for 150 boats all displaying white lights got into formation and headed down stream. Crowds stood on the illuminated bridges and Tower Bridge opened up in a royal salute as we passed underneath. What a truly amazing day.
Now we had to head towards Banbury, back round the Regents Canal as a leak in the engine bay needed testing on the calm waters of the canal rather than the tideway. By the time we reached Brentford we were confident with Oleanna’s engine again. On the Thames Tilly got a birthday present of a night on a Cliveden Island. Sadly we got an unexpected present on our arrival in Oxford, a second red line on a covid test! Panto painting couldn’t be put off so we made our way gradually up the Oxford Canal keeping our distance from people at locks and taking maximum doses of paracetamol.
A week of painting in Banbury before I moved to Chipping Norton to stack up the hours over the next four weeks getting the 50th anniversary panto ready. Rendez Vousing with Oleanna at weekends in Banbury and Coventry kept me sane. Mick had to single hand across the summit of the Oxford Canal to avoid the first of the winter stoppages.
All three of us were back onboard by mid November, covid free and vaccinated. We took things slowly now, time to rest up, meet friends, gather family and pootle towards Christmas. Our 20th Anniversary was celebrated with a Chinese takeaway at Alvecote Marina, a planned stop which ended up being extended due to plummeting temperatures. The canal froze, there’d be no moving the outside for Tilly!
Temperatures lifted dramatically and the ice just about vanished in a couple of days, we could now be on our way to Christmas. Alrewas was a good place to spend the festive days, a very good butchers and a village with lots of character and humour.
Bookings in the New Year had been made for passage on the tidal River Trent for us to reach Yorkshire, but this would not be. The Trent had risen before Christmas, Cranfleet Flood Gates were shut ahead of us, so no New Year at Hazelford Lock. Instead our alternator played up and we sought out a mooring to hook up to and see in 2023.
This year we’d been wanting to explore again. This year we cruised miles of new water, made new friends, got too hot, got iced in, got stuck, got to be in the first illuminated flotilla on the Thames for 300 years. What a great year it has been.
So our vital statistics for 2022 according to Canalplan are
Total distance is 1249 miles, 6½ furlong and 555 locks . There were 88 moveable bridges of which 29 are usually left open; 156 small aqueducts or underbridges and 18 tunnels, a total of 7 miles 2 ¼ furlongs underground and 8 major aqueducts.
This was made up of 227 miles, 1 1/2furlongs of narrow canals; 363 miles, 2 furlongs of broad canals; 85 miles, 5 furlongs of commercial waterways; 269 miles, 1 furlong of small rivers; 234 miles, 7 1/4 furlongs of large rivers; 69 miles, 6 furlongs of tidal rivers; 176 narrow locks; 232 broad locks; 54 large locks; 2 locks on major waterways.
731.7 engine hours
1156.1 litres diesel, 5 (although we’ve got 1 empty now) gas bottles (used for central heating as well as cooking), 28.5 litres oil, 3 oil filters, 1 fuel filter, 2 air filters, 1 water pump, 2 new belts, 690kg coal, 1 overnight guest twice, 6 packs Dreamies (not enough!), 56 friends, a record breaking 41 Mrs Tilly stamps of approval (4 in one day!), 15 pairs socks, 2 shows designed, 9 lodgers, 2 lots gluten free puff pastry, 9 supermarket deliveries, 30 boxes of wine delivered, 2 lost unicorns.
Thank you all for joining us on our journey. Wonder where we’ll get to in 2023?
Tilly came and went most of the day. The sun was out and what a lovely day it would have been to cruise. Instead Mick did a couple of loads of washing, introduced himself and Tilly to our bow neighbours. They have quite a few bird feeders and a dog, so it was good to let them know of Tilly’s existance.
Maybe it was the cat nip Dreamies or maybe its the two donkeys in the field next to our moorings, but Tilly rarely ventured further than the gunnel and the hatch. Any suggestion that it might be open was used. Dreamies are rationed now to one each time she comes home! She comes home frequently!!
Mick’s hair was over his ears, time for a trim. A stool was taken outside and the clippers came out. Grade 3 all over and no need to sweep up. Just a shame it’s a little bit early for the birds to collect the hair to line their nests. I always think Mick looks a little younger after a hair cut, even if he turns into a Skin ‘Ed.
Catching up with friends always happens at this time of year. As yesterday had been my college friend Kathy’s birthday it was way past time to have a good chin wag. Good phone signal required being outside so I took my coat with me and stood on the stern. We really did have a lot to catch up on, Kathy has moved back onto her boat on the Thames by Tower Bridge for a while. A shame she hadn’t been there for the flotilla, although I suspect it was a very noisy evening.
View from the stern
I heard about the next Society of British Theatre Designers exhibition, which this year Kathy is curating. There will be 13 regional exhibitions, instead of the usual one, under the collective title ‘Hello Stranger’. The exhibition happens every four years and is normally filled with costumes, model boxes from designers and students. Many of the models are remade specifically to be exhibited costing people a lot of money. This year the designers are being encouraged to only use what already exists for display and there will be more workshops and conversations than before. The work on display will chart what has happened in the performance design world over the last four years, how the pandemic changed the way designers worked and what they produced. Hopefully we’ll be near one of the exhibitions to be able to visit.
After an hour and a half it was time to warm up again in front of the stove. That is when I realised I should have called Kathy via Whatsap. Numpty! But then I’d have missed the mist collecting in the field opposite and Tilly exploring the roof of the boat at our stern!! Rule 4, NO going on other boats! Being flouted in front of my eyes.
My #unit21 knitting came out. Time to stuff the head of the rabbit. Sew on some features and it’s ears. I still need to knit the second leg and both arms. I just hope it’s big enough, otherwise there will be some doubling up of yarn and bigger needles needed.
By the time we went to bed the River Trent had managed to drop by 11cm. There’s still a long way to go and more rain forecast.
0 locks, 0 miles, grade 3, 1st ever Tilly return to the boat using Dreamies packet rustle, 90 minutes catch up, 1 very chilly arm and shoulder, 2 ears, 1 nose, 2 french knot eyes, 1 stuffed head, 11cm.
Levels on the rise. I don’t see us moving for some time. The flood gates at Cranfleet have been closed since the 23rd December and levels are higher now. The lowest recorded height in that time that we can find was 1.13m and the flood gates were closed then. So this mornings height of 1.76m is going to take a while to head on down stream.
Water Explorer
Yesterday I made note of all our journeys that have been recorded through the years on Water Explorer. The chap who has been running it said the site would be taken down at the end of 2022. It’s still there, Oleanna recorded as the last moving boat. When the site vanishes so will all our vital statistics for both Oleanna and NB Lillyanne.
Our last journeys
At the end of each year I sit down and put our years cruise through Canal plan with the aim of getting a slightly more accurate distance than Water Explorer gives. Water Explorer will cut corners if there have been no way points, it also sometimes counts locks twice or not at all. Beeston Lock on the Trent usually gets counted twice for some reason. This year I will do the same, working out our back and forths on canalplan, which also isn’t totally accurate.
But for now here are our vital statistics (according to Water Explorer) dating back to 1st January 2015.
NB Lillyanne, starting heading up stream on the River Lee from Enfield 1st Jan 2015 to when we moved her for the final time on 2nd May 2017 to brokerage at ABNB in Crick.
Total Journeys
505
Total hours recorded
1550
Total Miles
2565.76
Total Locks
1714
These figures are from trips recorded, some journeys in the early days were missed.
NB Oleanna, starting on 28th March 2017 from Finesse Boats in Sheffield to 31st December 2022 to Willowbrook Moorings.
Total Journeys
1279
Total Hours recorded
4164
Total Miles
6242.72
Total Locks
3694
So our Total statistics from Water Explorer
Total Journeys
1784
Total Hours
5714
Total Miles
8808.48
Total Locks
5408
At some point I will work out Oleanna’s statistics for the year as I normally do, but that will have to wait for tax returns and giant props to be made, along with zooming along the River Trent back to Yorkshire.
Final positions
Mick spent some time in the engine hole today. Trying to see what he might be able to find. Did we have a problem, or was it that something wasn’t pushed home properly? A new battery for his multimeter was needed, the power on board totally turned off for a half hour. The alternator was working. But can we trust it?
Boarded up
He got a phone call from the chap at JD Narrowboats who was wanting to check that we’d got plugged in somewhere and were we sorted. He also sent us a link to a new alternator he’d found on ebay. How very kind of him. Mick is thinking on what to do. We intended on buying a new alternator and when the current one failed we could swap them over and send the original one off to be mended if possible, then we’d have a spare. But should we do it now or wait until we’re back in Yorkshire? Should we go for the ebay one at half the price of a Beta one? Well you get what you pay for!
A lovely building
This afternoon we went for a walk to have a look at the river. We followed the muddy towpath through the old port of Shardlow. Since our very first visit nothing much has changed. Several of the old warehouses still stand boarded up, calling out to be refurbished into offices, housing or some other use. One of my favourite buildings has already been converted into a home, Soresby Warehouse built around 1820.
Derwent Mouth Lock 1 on the Trent and Mersey Canal
Derwent Mouth Lock, the last lock on the Trent and Mersey sat half empty today. In normal times this would have been only about a quarter empty, but with the river in flood! Below, the level at the lock landing today would mean stepping down off Oleanna, normal times it would be one very big step up to the bank.
The river level boards are well in the red as expected.
Lovely
We walked back on the other side of the canal, past the pubs, lovely houses and the not so lovely more modern buildings. What a busy place this must have once been.
Their TV is a projector onto the end wall of the house, huge!
A pause to look over the garden wall by the lock. The river, here unnavigable, rushed by faster than the River Ouse passes Selby Lock. The house here has spent quite a bit of money on their Christmas lights, multi coloured fairy lights in all the bushes and trees in the garden and then multicoloured bulbs along the eaves the excess gathered together inside their phone box.
In need of a lick of paint
Pork and apple stew tonight with dumplings. I chose to cook it mostly on top of the multifuel stove meaning the dumplings didn’t go crispy.
Pork and apple stew, click the photo for the recipe.
Our viewing of the new series of Happy Valley was interrupted by a call from my bestestest friend over in Sydney. Emma was out for a morning walk with her dog Moose. It was lovely to have a good catch up.
0 locks, 0 miles, WE this year, 234 journeys, 743 hours, 1248.12 miles, 565 locks, 3 mile walk, 0 twinging calf, 1 not so sure cat, 1.84m river level at 11pm, 1 stew, 6 dumplings, 30 minute catch up, 1st Happy Valley season 3.
The yellow water tank was emptied and two bags of coal put in the well deck. Then the bed was pulled out access to the vacuum bags below required for my big down coat, time it came out in case the temperature drops as forecast next week. Opening up the storage under the bed always brightens up Tilly’s day, it’s very exciting!
Magic food bowl
Bags were packed, all watched on by an increasingly concerned Tilly. Next the most important job, the magic food bowl was brought out from under the bathroom sink, turned on, ticking noise was present. A cool block was popped in the bottom, a sachet of food added to one of the compartments and primed for opening. It was then positioned on the floor below the dinette table where it can flip open unimpeded.
Brighton and Nuneaton on their home mooring
Now is was time for a reassuring head nudge. Tilly was being left in charge for the night. Stove stocked up and turned onto night mode, central heating set to 10C, so it might get chilly, but not overly and she can always cuddle up under the duvet or blankets. A full sweep of the boat was done to remove any chewable cables, the top removed from the toy box for Tilly to select a few good ones to keep her occupied.
Tamworth Station where lines cross
A taxi pulled in to pick us up taking us to Tamworth station. The station here is handy as two lines cross over each other, one heading north south, the other west east. Today we took the high line and a train to Sheffield which was very very full. We were lucky to get seats!
At Sheffield we looked up to check the platform for Scarborough, the slow £20 cheaper route via Hull. Our train was cancelled due to lack of staff! We weren’t allowed to change route so had to wait an extra hour for the next service which thankfully was running. We took refuge in a cafe for some cake, a cuppa and warmth.
Oh pooh!
Two strangers at the next table chatted away, at some point an old fella appeared between them. His chair right in the corner between the lady and man. How had he got there? Had he pole vaulted his way over the top of the chilled medication freezer? Crawled across on the floor under the table? Was he Mr Ben? Or were we actually extras in an Alan Ayckbourn play, the couple and man inhabiting two different time lines and somehow, we were able to observe both. The old chap did seem to be oblivious to the conversation going on in front of his nose and the couple didn’t acknowledge him at all!
Fast to Doncaster then slow!
Out of Sheffield we passed familiar sights, it was still light going through Doncaster where all the visitor moorings were chocka, only one boat was moored above Thorne Lock, we didn’t get chance to see if we knew any boats moored on the visitor moorings in Goole.
Hello warm side of the house
Arriving in Scarborough it was chilly but thankfully not raining for the walk to the house. Blimey it was cold inside! One side of the house is warmable, the other the boiler an object waiting to be fixed. At least we’re saving money on fuel consumption and thank goodness we haven’t got lodgers. Today though we took a booking from an actress I know well from my Hull Truck days, good job we’ve the plumber coming to visit just in time!
With heating on and doors closed to keep the Arctic air from spoiling the growing warmth in a few rooms. Mick headed off to buy essentials as I ordered us some fish and chips. Our preferred Chippy Capplemans was soon going to close so we tried elsewhere, Claires Plaice and they would deliver. Not bad haddock and chips, but Capplemans tend to be better.
Well we are at the seaside!
Mick tinkered with the pvr. Last time he did this at the house he came across an episode of Look North presented from the new Hull Truck theatre on it’s opening night. Today he found a segment about the final show at Spring Street, the old Hull Truck theatre. Of course it was Bouncers, there on stage were friends and old Truckers Jim, Jack, Matt and Mark. Lovely to see them and great to see the old blue tin shed that we all used to call home.
Maureen, Plain Elaine at the back, Rosie and Sexy Susie
Duvets were moved about for extra insulation, here’s hoping we don’t freeze overnight.
0 locks, 0 miles, 1 magic food bowl, 1 concerned cat, 1 stove stacked up, 2 trains, 1 stinky loo, 90 minutes wait, 1 Freezing house, 1 down coat needed, 2 of each, 1 mushy peas, 15 tog plus 10 tog should keep us warm?!
Contact with my friend Graham was needed today. Graham built the set for #unit21 and it was built with the hope that we could upgrade it should the show get funding to go on tour. Replacing green neon gaffa tape with LED neon or rope light was always the goal, hopefully we now have sufficient budget to do this.
I finally got round to stowing away items brought back from Chippy. I seem to have gained a few glue sticks, a longer tape measure than the one that broke. The best item was a large panto potato. This will be reused, being chopped up into chips for #unit21, a suitable use. Items from the model were edited down to a minimum, barrels and a favourite piece will be saved the rest went in the bin.
Daytime TV watching has moved on from episodes of Inspector Morse to the original series of Star Trek, Mick treated us to the gangster 1920s episode whilst I worked on making a large scale model of a door from panto. This will be sent to the director to fit into a sample of a cloth I was sent that’s about four times bigger than my 1:25 model. As her son gave us lots of inspiration for the cloth it seemed like the natural place for it go, it just needs a door to finish it off.
Atmospheric and chilly out tonight
Early evening we walked up to The Barley Mow, just 200yards away to meet up with our friend Lizzie. We always try to get to see her when in the area and we’d arranged a meet up after panto.
Mick, Lizzie and me
Very good to have a catch up. She’s had another very tough year, it’s about time things improved for her. We were impressed with the food in the pub. Two black and blue burgers and a rump steak. One improvement would have been warm plates, my steak nicely cooked just a touch cool when I got it.
0 locks, 0 miles, 1 day back at work, 2 bags unpacked, 1 still to be stowed, 1 under dinette cupboard full, 1 big door, 2 boater reviews of panto, 2 burgers, 1 steak, 1 good friend.
A lie in and then tea with the newspapers and handing over of Advent calenders. Mick has a Science Museum one and I have one with Reese’s peanut butter cups. The Geraghty zoom covered parkin, leaf mould and the World Cup.
Advent
Then even though it was Sunday I needed to do some work. Time to read the latest version of #unit21 the show I designed for Dark Horse in Huddersfield. They have been successful in being awarded funding to tour the full show next year in February. For the showing last February we produced Act 1, Act 2 was to follow.
Runny Sunday
Script read, notes taken. Then a spread sheet for the budget. I spent much of the day hunting round the Internet for materials to make giant mugs, finding extra small overalls and working out how the budget should be spent. Mick and Tilly pottered away the day, keeping quiet when needed.
Reminiscent of the array of velcro at Nottingham hospital seven years ago
Advent Sunday dinner was popped in the oven then it was time to catch up with my brother who’d had an overnight stay in hospital a few days ago. Thankfully he seems to be on the mend after an operation. There was lots to catch up on and festive plans to be made.
Advent Lamb
Our joint of roast lamb was very tasty indeed. Not a patch on the Advent Sunday meals my Mum used to make. These would have huge joints of beef and big proper Yorkshire Puddings as starters. But the most important part of the day was spending it with my God Mother Betty. Today I made sure I sent her an email, hope she was having something nice to eat too.
Betty and Me
0 locks, 0 miles, 2 calendars, 2 acts read, 1 page of notes, 1 joint lamb, 1 BP email, 1 brother in one piece.
A hair dryer was requested by the plumber this morning in Scarborough, with the hope that a bit of heat would get the fan moving on the boiler. Sadly this didn’t work, a new part needs to be ordered, but at least the boiler hasn’t as yet been condemed! However an inspection hatch would be needed in the ceiling of the utility room so that the flue could be, as suggested, inspected. We’d need to get one fitted.
First port of call would be Frank, see if he’d be willing to help. Thankfully he was and arrived with his own tea and sugar as supples at the house are minimal. He was quite happy to sit and chat in the rather chilly kitchen with his coat on. Next job was to try to find out where the supports for the ceiling were.
When we had lots of work done to the house we took quite a lot of photos, so that we’d know where pipes etc were in future. This was a very good idea, just a shame the photos take an age to find. This job was passed on to me, a welcome distraction when I was about to start on my accounts!
This however led to more distractions as I worked my way through folders of photographs from twelve years ago. One was handy as my cousin has been asking about a painting that had hung in my Dad’s house, I wasn’t sure which one she was asking about as there were four hung on that wall.
Most photos were near water, early boating holidays, later boating holidays, Houdini sitting on top of the boiler when it was newly installed.
Weddings, family walks, photo shoots for shows, sets.
Eventually I found the photos and was able to give guestimates as to where the joists were, but at least Mick and Frank knew which way they ran. Soon the hatch was installed. We just need the plumbers to get back in touch with a date when they can return to replace the part and use the newly installed inspection hatch.
Back on board Oleanna, Tilly and I whiled away the day. Mushrooms on toast for breakfast, another episode of Lewis, no accounts and then some cabbage and halloumi hash with a poached egg. Somehow we’ve ended up with three lots of halloumi in the fridge and we’re very unlikely to be having a barbeque soon, so the recipe was a good find.
During the day I could feel that my cold was moving down into my chest. More lemsips required and a phone call to the dentists for some advice. As long as I wasn’t positive for covid they would see me. A test was done in the afternoon, still negative. This must be my first cold in over three years, have to say I haven’t missed them!
0 locks, 0 miles, 1 coal skuttle refilled, 1 fan not working, 1 chilly kitchen, 1 inspection hatch installed, Thank you Frank, 1 Mr Hughes, 1 Duncan (he gets everywhere!), 1 old school friend, 6 passing boats.
A buoy outside Chelsea Harbour Marina to Limehouse Basin
*This post contains some slideshows. I’m not sure if these will work if you get the post emailed to you, so you may have to go to the website.*
Getting into position
It took a little while for us all to get into position as the flotilla started to move away downstream. In all the paperwork we’d been given about the event we’d not seen how far apart to the side boats should be. Infront and behind should be about 60ft, a boats length. As our huddle of boats moved into position we decided that maybe a similar distance to the sides would be good too.
Beam us up Scotty! Quite an artistic mistake!
It was dusk, you could just see peoples lights. I had my camera and fully charged phone on hand to take photos. I’m by no means a pro, the contrasting lighting along with being on the move meant there have been many a photo head straight to the bin. Add to the mix keeping an eye on the flotilla, checking which bridge arch we should be heading to and whether we’d be sharing it with neighbouring boat Panacea or not, listening to Flotilla Control instructions, this all made for one busy evening.
Dusk
By the time we’d reached Battersea Road Bridge we’d all got into position. Already people lined the bridge above us.
Albert Bridge, wonderful in day light, now at dusk a spiders web of Victorian beauty. There waiting on the down stream side was Gloriana the Royal Row Barge. Neon rope light swaged along the gunnels and every long oar stood upright with a straight line of white light. No-one would miss her.
Illuminated Rowing
Flotilla Control called Gloriana into position in the flotilla. Safety gaps had been planned between certain sections to hopefully avoid bunching up. The flotilla was now complete. Motor powered boats in front, Gloriana in the middle followed by man powered boats.
Looking back upstream
Following our charts and the boat ahead. Hang on, shouldn’t we be going through the span to our port? This only happened at one bridge, we then kept to the plans we’d been given. Speed adjustments were required to try to keep in line, but then the boat ahead wouldn’t be going quite fast enough, so we’d slip behind our line. Safety boats moved along the sides, keeping an eye out. Our two red glow sticks were bent, broken and shaken in case we needed to draw attention to ourselves, thankfully they remained unused.
From the river we could see a line of people stood on each bank, just about every bridge too. I wondered if this had remained a Jubilee event would more people have had white glow sticks on the bridges. That would have been quite a sight.
Chelsea Bridge, Victoria Railway Bridge, Battersea Power Station with it’s changing coloured chimneys.
Vauxhall Bridge at 19:32. Lambeth Bridge 19:39
Houses of Parliament
Instructions came through to speed up, get closer, slow down as Flotilla Control required. Positions drifted, then came back. Messages from family about our position needed conveying along with everything else. Sheet of bridge profiles once passed under added to the discard pile on the stern locker lid.
Westminster Bridge. The London Eye. Hungerford Bridge at 19:50
Festival Pier and the South Bank19:52. Waterloo Bridge. Blackfriars Bridge and Rail Bridge 20:01. Here those wanting to stay warm lined the windows looking down at us.
Millennium Footbridge. Was that Andrew, Jac and Josh? Had they got the right bit of bridge?
Yep it was, Andrew shouted to us that they would now head to the pub. I messaged them back telling them to turn round and wait until Gloriana had passed at least.
Southwark Bridge at 20:09 Now we could see Tower Bridge, the towers lit up in blue. The progress of the flotilla slowed, it slowed some more. Cannon Street Bridge, London Bridge 20:15.
Our progress slowed right down, Gloriana a distance behind, a Dutch Barge a touch too close. Keep moving came the instructions.
HMS Belfast was lined with Sea cadets who as Gloriana approached all saluted as did the oarsmen on board.
Were we waiting for Tower Bridge to lift? All boats were finding their own space, we’d liked to have carried on moving but that meant those ahead of us should be doing the same and those ahead of them. We could see double deckers and pedestrians still crossing the bridge.
After what felt like an absolute age Tower Bridge started to lift. Normally it lifts enough to let tall ships and boats through, but today it would lift all the way up in full Royal Salute.
Boats started to move, everyone of us going under the central span. Years ago before we owned NB Lillyanne I gave Mick a birthday card of Tower Bridge saying that one day we’d be going under that central span. Here today as one of the 150 boats we were doing just that, bedecked with fairy lights and at night, we were doing it in style. 20:40
There was now a bit of confusion. What was to happen at the end of the flotilla had changed due to the Queen passing away. Some boats sounded their horns, others remained silent. As Gloriana passed through the bridge and lifted their oars in salute there were three cheers for the King, then over the radio came instructions to sound our horns. Everyone went for it still moving downstream at a steady pace. A last look back to the bridge. WoW!!!
Now what? The narrowboats remained in formation heading down stream. All boats wanting to return upstream were meant to continue downstream and reach a certain boat before turning and heading back upstream along the northern bank. It was nice to see the displays of lights on the cruisers that we’d been behind, some very pretty boats.
The stretch of water below Tower Bridge is normally lumpy bumpy but this evening it was quiet, the river was still closed to normal traffic whilst the flotilla dispersed. Andrew the leader of the narrowboat section said he had a time for the lock, we all continued downstream, now arranging ourselves into our locking groups, there’d be four lockings into Limehouse as only one boat was heading back up stream. I spotted a red light flashing in front of us on top of a pole, as I was pointing it out to Mick, Simon shouted from the boat behind, we adjusted course accordingly passing the light on the starboard side.
Now we had rowers catching up with us, heading downstream, they were going some! Three passed us before we reached Canary Wharf where we turned and followed the north bank back towards Limehouse. One boat swapped to the first locking as they were overheating. Six boats packed into the lock and rose the now 7ft up to the canal.
We were instructed to hold back away from the opening of the lock as the water being dropped from it would make quite a bit of turbulence. The river had now opened to normal traffic, Uber boats zooming from one stop to the next and a huge party boat heading up stream. All those people who’d not been aware of what had been happening upstream of them over the last couple of hours.
Then it was our turn to head into the safety of the lock. A repeat of on the way out, ropes round risers, round the T stud and wait for the surge.
During the day a couple of boats had arrived at Limehouse and moored up. With more narrowboats coming back in and less wall or pontoon to tie to boats were rafting up again. On the pontoon I spied a chap inside his boat, I gestured to see if it was okay to pull alongside. It was, after all it is London! We came in carefully. Pam from Flora Dora came over the stern of the boat to help us with our bow rope.
In the dark on a strange boat Pam hadn’t seen the step down to the boats back door. As I passed our rope towards her, her hands held out to take it she fell towards me and the gap between the boats. Thankfully she didn’t fall between them, but this did mean she bumped her head on our gunnel. Glasses, phone were safe but Pam needed a sit down and to be checked over. After five minutes of quiet her shock subsided.
A quick check on Tilly, I think her evening had been calmer than the afternoon. I wonder if she sat in the window for any of it? The Cruising Association was open for us to be able to have a drink and a buffet had been laid on. It felt like an absolute age since we’d had our pizzas. After all the days excitement we sipped our glasses of wine exhausted.
WOW!! What a day! What an amazing day!!
1 lock twice, 15.95 miles, 9.5 hours on the tideway, 34 bridges gone under, 1 barrier closed, 12 narrowboats, 1 widebeam, 1 faulty radio, 1 borrowed tow line, 1 borrowed radio, 1 fully charged phone, 17 sheets of instructions, 1 dead body on the roof, 2 pizzas, 1 fluffed up Tilly, 1 very choppy ride, 1 dutch barge up the rear, 3 Leckenbys, 1 Cheryl, 2 many photos, 1 bridge in Royal Salute, 1st time under the centre span, 1 sponsored walk held up, 1st time in 300 years, 1 amazing afternoon and evening well worth the effort to get to London for, 2 privileged boaters and 1 cat.
1 very big thank you to all the boaters, friends and family who’ve allowed me to use their photos in the flotilla posts. Thank you.
Ahh, tea in bed again! Wonderful, well except it was quite early as we seem to have gotten used to early mornings now. Once breakfast was over I headed to catch a bus to Aldgate to buy some card.
All sorts of wood
4D Model Shop has just about everything a model maker could want, I think they used to be near Holborn and I visited them many years ago when I still lived in Brixton. What I was after today was some sheets of grey board, card that is fairly easy to cut and cheap that I could make stencils from for the panto portals, reducing the amount of time spent drawing things out to a quarter.
I did have a good look round. You could buy any tree or any colour at a variety of scales, plenty of scale people several having a great time in a bowl of breakfast cereal. All sorts of wood, card, styrene shapes, sphere’s of all sizes. I could have spent an absolute age here, but managed to refrain from it. Over the last couple of years I’ve been wanting to find a magnifying glass to help when doing very fine things. The chap showed me a pair of glasses on which you can change the lenses to increase magnification, Something to add to my Christmas list.
Mick, Siobhán and Patrick
Once back on the bus there was enough time for a breather before we had visitors arrive. Siobhán and Patrick arrived from Australia on Monday, Siobhán is an old school friend of Micks. We’ve not seen them for several years as trips back to the UK were cancelled due to covid. They brought along with them Fionnuala, Siobhán’s sister who came to visit us once in Paddington.
Wine sorted
We had a lovely few hours with them catching up, seeing photos of their new grandchildren. Tea on board was followed by a walk up into Islington for something to eat. We chose Crepeaffaire, who make crepes and buckwheat galettes. They were nice, but could have done with being a touch warmer and a bit more filling. The lady serving us whipped out her pay machine which was all of a bit sudden. Because Mick was the first to get a card out, the others protested and we ended up visiting Sainsburys so they could help top up our wine cellar.
A lovely day with great friends, another reason for dashing down to London.
Just before we got straightened out
The boat behind us this evening pulled away leaving a gap on the straight that Oleanna would fit into. So we pulled back and breasted up against NB Keeping up with the Jones’, a boat that many may know, but now has a new owner. Our new mooring meant that the very short boat on the inside would now be able to pull out when they wanted to this evening.
Because the blog is published a couple of days behind I thought it only fair to share a photo from the flotilla, to wet your appetite. There may be a delay in further photos as I’ve a lot to sort through from the day.
