Windy. 26th September

Paddington Basin

Having bought membership to the Imperial War Museum when we visited Duxford earlier in the year it would be silly not to make use of it. As we were now on Plan B we could make use of the bookings we’d already made. 10:30 the Churchill War Rooms and in the afternoon HMS Belfast.

**An austere doorway into the underground world**

The entrance to the War Rooms is located on Horse Guards Road opposite St James’s Park. Here a line stood waiting to be allowed entrance, we spotted a second empty line for members or those with a booking, we were both of those so stood at the front of the queue and waited to be let in.

Down the steps we went under the Treasury building. Handsets with commentary were handed out and we set forth to explore the underground world from which Churchill had run the British campaign in WW2.

Corridors painted cream stretched off, had they originally been white but had years of chain smoking turned cream? Fans were used to move air round, an early air conditioning unit may have helped, but it must have been horrible down there. Those who worked down here worked twelve hour shifts rarely seeing daylight, they were oblivious to what was going on above their heads. A sign in a corridor would inform them of the conditions ‘Fine and Warm’ today, but if it said ‘Windy’ London was having a ruff time of it.

The rooms were gradually expanded though the war, taking over more basement rooms. Wooden posts were added to reinforce them, steel girders and then a thick slab of concrete was used, one staircase was totally filled in for safety (it took 3 months to drill through it make a corridor for the museum), still it may not have been enough should the building have had a direct hit.

Map rooms with coloured telephones, conference rooms. Sleeping quarters for many were on the floor below in bunk beds. The higher up you got you’d have a room with a narrow single bed, higher up the pecking order you’d have a couple more inches of mattress and be given a section of rug for the floor of your room.

A kitchen for the cook to prepare Churchills three cooked meals a day, she may have had to move her preparation from one building to another to keep the man fed.

Charts of flying bombs, maps of where they landed. Many of the rooms were just left when their need was no more. When it was handed over to the Imperial War Museum in the 80’s inventories were done for each room. In a drawer in the map room was an envelope which contained three sugar lumps, a commanders secret stash.

Part way though the corridors you enter a vast room, where walls must have been removed to house the Churchill Museum. Here the history of Churchill is arranged starting with his war time speeches. If you stood over a small glass square in the floor you could hear one of his historic speeches. Very clever as the next speech was only a few feet away. I had been wondering why people had stopped in their tracks and were stood staring into thin air.

Churchills political history was laid out in modern museum form, how such places have changed in the last ten years. Interactive screens where you can paint one of his landscapes, animations totting up his war time air miles around the world (over 100,000) and a list of his favourite things.

A collection of his hats, a plum coloured velvet siren suit, his medals stretching out in one long cabinet. This is a man who when not a politician headed off to war stricken parts of the world.

**Excuse the fuzzy photos everything is behind glass**

His room is one of the last on display. A comfortable single bed, maps on the walls, telephones, ashtrays. He apparently only slept in this bed for three nights, but he did have kips every now and again, Nana Naps. During these a signal was put out and silence rang through the corridors of the basement until he was awake again, even the typewriters were silent.

We stopped off part way at the cafe. A very poor selection of things I could eat, just flapjack bars from a jar. However it was interesting to see the coloured in large scale maps of London showing bomb damage.

Well worth a visit, we didn’t take it all in and if we are back in London within our years membership we may return to read the displays we edited out today. By the time we left it was far too late to take in HMS Belfast as well. That will have to be for another time.

We walked down Horse Guards past the end of Downing Street to The Mall. Union Jacks flying the hole length to Buckingham Palace where the flag remains at half mast.

Whilst we’d been underground we’d received email confirmation that our booking in Paddington Basin had been cancelled and the refund was to be processed. Mick tried giving them a call to explain that our change in circumstances had changed again and that we were using our booking after all. But as the call was not answered and went to answerphone he had to leave a message. At least we have informed them.

The No 6 bus took us from Trafalgar Square back to Edgeware Road where we perused M&S food hall for sad gits reductions. Back in Paddington we had one new neighbour NB Firecrest. Cheryl and Eric had been down to watch the flotilla on Saturday close to the Millennium Bridge. Thank you for the photos.

Food and a sit down with Tilly on my knee in front of the stove, a nice relaxing evening. Tomorrow we start to head west to pantoland.

0 locks, 0 miles, 2nd IWM site visited, 0 gf options, 2 cups of tea, 26 medals? 3 square meals a day, 0 time for HMS Belfast, 1 thing added to the next time list, 12 hour shifts, 1 evening in with Tilly.

If you fancy seeing more photos of the flotilla here are links to Scholar Gypsy’s blog

https://scholargypsy.org.uk/2022/09/27/reflections-flotilla-post-1-of-3/

https://scholargypsy.org.uk/2022/09/27/reflections-2-of-3/

https://scholargypsy.org.uk/2022/09/27/reflections-3-of-3/

The last post has links to even more photos

The Morning After 25th September

Limehouse Basin to Paddington Basin

A bit of a lie in this morning was followed by Mick removing all the lights from Oleanna. I made my excuses from this as my knees have spent too much time over the last few days slightly twisted by standing on gunnels or kneeling and they need to have recovered by the time I start Panto painting. This morning Pam looked to be developing a black eye and had a bump on her head after her fall last night. She seemed jolly and was quite glad of having an excuse not to have to work the locks back up the Regents Canal.

This morning Heather had decided to join us on the Tideway and she would chance getting in at Brentford with David. A fourth boat NB Thyme would be heading to Teddington with us, so everyone had a buddy. Locking time was confirmed as 11:30, just the final engine checks to be done.

**Water swirling round to fill Limehouse Lock**

A short while later Mick appeared from the engine bay. We had a puddle of coolant half an inch deep and the header tank was low. Yesterday we’d not overheated. It could be something simple to fix, but with Oleanna’s history of coolant leaks we weren’t sure. He checked the engine over. He tightened four jubilee clips on the hoses, they weren’t that loose.

Should we go out onto the Tideway? Yes we’d be with other boats, after all the problem might now be solved. But on the other hand we’d be going out knowing that we might have a problem, be more apprehensive and know that we’d be relying on other boats to rescue us. That wouldn’t be right, and we wouldn’t enjoy the trip. So we aborted our chance of going under Tower Bridge for the third time in two days. A great shame, but we’d rather discover we didn’t have a problem anymore on the Regents Canal. Time to let Tilly know she could stand down and needn’t burrow into our pillows again.

Whilst Mick mopped up the engine bay I watched the three boats we should have been joining head back out onto the choppy waters of the tideway. The last boat out of the lock was NB Bleasdale, just as Heather completed the turn to face upstream she turned and waved. Not sure when our paths will cross next, but they will.

Reverting to plan B we knew that our mooring in Paddington Basin hadn’t been cancelled and wouldn’t be until tomorrow, it would take us a while to get back up the locks and all the other boats heading that way had already left, we’d be on our own, we’d best get moving.

**Not homemade gf pastry, but still yum**

As we worked our way back up the Regents Canal the oven was put on, sausage rolls we’d intended for yesterday were baked between locks, cooled just enough by the time we’d risen Old Ford Lock and had a longer pound to eat them in.

Today we had a wide cruiser ahead of us for one lock who made use of an empty lock, they were heading along the Hertford Union so we’d be going different ways. We shared Acton’s Lock with a young couple, they were only heading to the next available mooring and stopped just after the lock possibly to use the services there.

Just about every lock was set against us. At nearly every lock we had a crowd of gongoozlers watching our every move. Occasionally someone would lend a hand with a gate and occasionally we had to ask people to move for their own safety.

For the first time we’ve passed the entrance to Victoria Park on a Sunday whilst the market has been on, today we didn’t really have the time or energy to stop for a nosy. The food smells were wonderful though, but my sausage rolls were just the ticket to keep us going.

City Road Lock I had extra crew. A chap who works at the cafe there leapt into action, helping with gates, closing paddles, he even has his own windlass. Today he’d helped around twenty boats through, I wondered if he ever did any paid work at the cafe! This lock has yellow and red lines painted round it and signs all over the place. These suggest to boaters that if they consider members of the public to be in danger then to beep your horn five times at which the public will move away. These signs had been attached to the lock beams with cable ties, as I walked to get back onto Oleanna my foot caught on one. A trip hazard if ever there was one!

There is now a stretch of 14 day Eco Moorings near Camley Street Bridge, they don’t appear bookable on the C&RT website and they were very very full. At the bottom of the Camden Locks there was a boat coming down, I helped and chatted to the owner, they were having a bit of a cruising party to their next mooring an Eco mooring near Kings Cross.

As we rose in the lock I knew the top lock was being emptied, the middle lock managing to stay empty for us and the crew above taking their time doing everything! Sadly they’d left the wrong gate open on the top lock, I now knew why the volunteers don’t like using it. It opens over the steps and over the accompanying locks beam, so the beam is high up, but not high enough to crawl under once you’ve got it over the steps. All very awkward, but at least I kept an eye on where my feet were.

Now we just had to negotiate our way along through the zoo and Maida Hill Tunnel around all the Go Boats. This involved some zigzagging, being waved ahead of them at the tunnel and we managed to avoid them all.

Little Venice we turned left and headed down into Paddington Basin where our not quite cancelled booked mooring sat waiting for us. Another three spaces available, it’s the first time we’ve ever seen room here.

We were tired and hungry, so despite having had pizza yesterday we headed to Pizza Express and filled up on a Classic pizza each. A longer day than if we’d have headed out onto the Tideway, but at least it looks like just tightening up the jubilee clips has done the trick.

12 locks, 9.24 miles, 1 straight on, 1 leak, 1 plan aborted, 8 sausage rolls, 1 happier cat, 0 shore leave still, 2 pizzas, 2 glasses of wine, 2 pretty pooped boaters.

https://goo.gl/maps/WFQpSuhh8Y87u15S6

WoW!!!

Reflections Flotilla Part 2

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.*

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.

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.

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.

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.

Thames Barrier Closed

Reflections Flotilla Part 1. 24th September

Limehouse Basin to a buoy outside Chelsea Harbour Marina

Final preparations this morning. Fishing net, washing brush inside, everything else tied on the roof. Coal wrapped in a heat wave white sheet. Well deck emptied of everything other than the anchor, it’s chain and rope and a couple of fenders. All this as well as a full bucket of deposits were brought inside into the bathroom. Engine checks done, VHF radio and mobile phone fully charged.

Heather had been procrastinating about her lights so I headed over to lend a hand. I managed to put one layer of lights along both sides and some around her cratch before my knees said enough was enough of standing on gunnels. Heather spent time trying to fix rope light to her gunnels held in place by some strong magnets. This ended up being quite tricksy, using the hatch on the boat next door as Bleasdale was moved back and forth made it a little bit easier.

Last night we’d heard that David on NB Albert Victor would be heading back out onto the tideway on Sunday, heading to Brentford. We checked with him if he’d mind us buddying up, then we’d carry on to Teddington on our own, the fast route west, this had been our Plan A. Mick booked us in with the Lock Keeper and then proceeded to cancel our Plan B bookings, lock passage at Brentford and 2 nights in Paddington Basin. The mooring couldn’t be cancelled as the right people didn’t work at the weekend, but they would be informed on Monday morning, then hopefully we’d get our mooring fees back.

Time for a cuppa and to sit down with Tilly, both of us needing a reassuring ear rub. I don’t like it when the shower gets full, it means we’re about to go on a lumpy bumpy noisy fast outside! The thought of them makes me go all fat faced and ridge backed.

12:30. There would be three lockings out onto the Tideway this morning, the first with six boats, three full length and three shorter boats at the rear. The aim was for the lead boats to head up stream making good speed so as to secure moorings for the narrowboat and widebeam section of the flotilla, we’d been allocated several possible places to moor near Chelsea Harbour Marina, but these were also going to be used by the rest of the motor squadron, better to have steel against steel rather than trying to breast up against cruisers.

We were in the second lock with two other narrowboats, the third lock for WB Reflections. As we had a small hand held radio it was decided that we’d be the middle boat heading up stream as we’d not be able to hear everything that the others with beefier VHF radios would. The radio was tuned in to duel scan channels 14 and 8, 14 being VTS (Vessel Traffic Services) and 8 to talk to other boats.

With our bow rope passed around the riser in the lock then wrapped around our T stud, stern line passed round the riser at the stern, NB Dragonfly came in alongside and tied up to us. We were ready for the surge of the lock.

**Canary Wharf just after we turned out from Limehouse**

Only about two foot difference this morning. The Thames Barrier was having a routine test closure today and had started closing a couple of hours earlier, it would remain closed until just gone midnight. Leaving Limehouse we would still have a certain amount of push from what was left of the incoming tide until the river found it’s level, then there would only be what fresh water was coming downstream.

This however didn’t mean we’d have a calm start to our cruise up stream. The speedy trip boats can hammer along below Tower Bridge at great speeds as can the Uber Clippers all creating big washes that ricochet of the banks. Today it was so rough out there I got wet feet in the well deck before I moved back to the stern.

We tootled along upstream bumping around on the lumpy water in a line of three boats. Alan Ayckbourn’s London flat, Doris May on her mooring, Tower Bridge, then all the other bridges with people, cars, double deckers and trains crossing them.

As we passed under Hungerford Bridge something hit the hatch right in front of me, the lid from an after shave bottle. It hit with quite a force but thankfully missed us both, the aroma though lasted for a while!

**RNLI Duke Of Edinburgh would be towards the front of the flotilla tonight**

Last year scaffolding had surrounded Big Ben, today the refurbished tower and clock looked resplendent, wow what a sight all that gold!

As we passed Battersea Power Station we wondered where the lead boats would have found us to moor. Eventually I could spy the three of them in the distance, the next three boats pulling in alongside.

Instructions had been to moor facing downstream so each boat headed upstream, turned and approached a separate buoy each with a pair of boats already moored. The journey upstream had taken just under two hours. Once secure to our neighbours we could relax.

All the way upstream I’d been a little bit conscious that we’d not heard anything on the radio, well a apart from one short exchange between boats. Last year we’d been able to hear the half hourly VTS information for some of the journey. There were comments about cake being made between crews, had we missed something? Well after a radio check (which we should have done earlier!) it was decided that our radio was no more! NB Dragonfly kindly lent us their handheld radio as this evening we’d need to be able to hear instructions from flotilla control. If the flotilla needed to make an emergency stop we’d need to hear it.

WB Reflections arrived after an eventful trip upstream. Then later on in the afternoon three more narrowboats joined us from upstream and pulled in alongside, rafting up to await the muster time.

I prepared some sausage rolls, but then we decided to have pizzas as it would be really quite late before we’d be eating again. Photos of spag bol, roast chicken came through on WhatsApp from the other boats.

As the afternoon progressed more cruisers arrived, most moored up to a barge in the middle of the river. Strings of rowing boats came past pulled by ribs to just upstream of us. A Dutch Barge pulled up opposite us, just as one of our mooring buoys seemed to be moving closer to the next raft of narrowboats. Boats moved and breasted up elsewhere. We waited.

Inside Oleanna Tilly had come out from her hidey hole under the gunnel protected by pillows and had settled down for an afternoon kip on the sofa, good to see that she was managing to relax a little.

Then as more boats arrived some had to be reminded that some of us had minimal fenders and that they should cut their speed. We deployed extra fenders between the boats as all three hulls took it in turns to bob up and down bumping and scraping against each other. We waited.

Then over the radio we were given the order to pull into position an form the flotilla.

Lights were switched on, each boat untied their lines and gradually moved round each other to get into our allotted position in the flotilla.

We were in the third line behind WB Reflections and the most northerly line of boats. Getting on for 150 boats were starting to make our way downstream. The flotilla was on the move!

Reflections Holding Page

Blog posts of such days take a lot of compiling. I’ve managed the first edit of photos down to around 200, then there are many others from fellow narrowboaters friends and family to add in.

So for now here’s a link to a time lapse of Tower Bridge opening and closing.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=473259411387719&extid=CL-UNK-UNK-UNK-AN_GK0T-GK1C&ref=sharing

One to some professional photos and footage from the Daily Mail. If you look closely we just get into shot.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11246409/Crowds-gather-watch-flotilla-150-boats-sail-Thames-touching-tribute-Queen.html

Then a few from Youtube. Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxeNsqNleT0

Narrowboats from about 20 minutes in

The Final Leg. 23rd September

Colebrooke Eco-moorings to Limehouse Basin

The first of the flotilla boats came past a little after 8am in the rain. We were on the move up to the water point a bit after 9 to fill up and to empty as needed. Cheryl from Firecrest came to wish us luck and Tilly watched Tracy Ullman walk her dog.

Heather and NB Bleasdale arrived, our locking partner, soon followed by Sally on NB Mobius. We’d all fit in the locks together, Oleanna on one side and Bleasdale and Mobius one behind the other on the other side.

Sally had extra crew on board so it made for light work. The eight locks down to Limehouse were completed in just under three hours. Care was needed fitting all three boats in the locks not only at the stern to miss the cill but also at the bow so as not to get hung up on the gates.

A stretch of towpath was cordoned off which necessitated getting back on board to do the next lock.

We wondered what the giant pear was growing over an archway, was it a butternut squash? And the Hackney sharks now sing from the canal and roof tops with a giant butternut squash over the top of the barge.

We arrived at Limehouse and claimed a stretch of the lower wall, still quite a height to get up to. The pontoon was reserved by the advance boats for those who don’t do climbing up and down walls.

After lunch the boats were a hive of activity another two boats arriving and breasting up. White lights were being draped over cabin sides, down to bows. We put up our extended mast and then checked with others about it’s height. In the back of our heads we’d been wondering if it might be too high and cause a sight line issue, keeping good watch will be all important out on the river with so many boats about in close proximity to each other. So we reduced it’s height and set about rearranging the lights.

Our new length of lights covered most of the boat, a second length cable tied around the stern, attached in several places or safety. We couldn’t decide whether to add any more or just to leave them be, final decision will be made in the morning. Other boats have a lot more lights than us.

At 7pm it was time to meet up with everyone at the Cruising Association for the safety briefing. We were handed two glow sticks for use in emergencies, a flotilla flag and number which must be displayed so that we can be seen to be part of the flotilla. Sheets of information were given out, which arch of which bridge the white section should use etc. This was followed by a meal and a couple of glasses of wine chatting amongst the crew.

Back at Oleanna Mick turned the lights on as did David on NB Albert Victor, very pretty.

Just a few things left to do tomorrow.

8 locks, 4.3 miles, 3/4 full water tank, 1 empty wee tank, 3 in a lock, 2 abreast, 80m, 15m of lights, 1 flotilla flag, 2 red glow sticks, 71st boat, 2 boaters just about ready, 1 cat who has no idea!

https://goo.gl/maps/qArV54DCXtNUd8uL9

Crepes. 22nd September

Colebrooke Eco-mooring

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

0 locks, 0 miles, 2 buses, 8 sheets card, 1 pair specs, 2 antipodean visitors, 1 sister, 5 crepes, 2 boxes of wine, lots of laughs, 1 budget through, 1 painting space confirmed.

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.

Faces At the Window. 21st September

Ballot Box Bridge to Colebrook Eco Moorings, Regents Canal

We’d planned to be on our way by 7:30 but that didn’t quite happen, it was nearer 8 by the time we’d pushed off. The journey in towards London always takes time, add into the mix weed and other boats, it can always take longer.

A new development sits up high, hang on was that a boat up there? NB Pavo, we’d seen the boat about. Our deduction from down on the canal is that this boat has found itself a pool of water to sit on off Canal and River Trust water a bit like the boat on the South Oxford Canal. Maybe it is going to be an office for someone, or maybe it’s just a big water feature for the complex.

More boats all individual, more paintings on walls.

Soon we could see a breasted up pair ahead of us some distance away, each bend brought them closer and closer, each bend gave them shallow water that they needed to pole off, it was the Polish coal boat. We caught them up and slowly followed them, tick over then neutral then tick over again. There was nowhere suitable for them to pullover to let us pass until their bow got stuck again. They freed themselves leaving a gap just wide enough for us to go through between them and a moored boat, we were waved on.

Kensal Town brings with it office windows to look into. From above Ainsley and Nicholas peered back down on us, nosy blighters! Duck weed covered the whole canal by now. The bubbles at Westbourne Terrace Bridge doing their best to hold the mass of green back and away from Little Venice. The water point was free, we pulled in to make use of the tap and bins and make a brew.

Left at Little Venice, Rembrandt Gardens moorings were full, we hoped our booked space further along would be available.

The steep bank outside one of the posh houses on the Regents Canal has been clad in astroturf, their gardeners no longer having to mow that part of the garden, they might just have to weed it instead in years to come.

Warthogs biffed at large balls containing edible treats. A lazy Colobus Monkey lounged in what used to be the Snowden Aviary it is now a walk through monkey valley exhibit with high up perches for the monkeys.

Stood waiting for us at Hampstead Road Locks was a familiar figure, Heather, she’d walked up from St Pancras to help us with the locks. No volunteers on today and thankfully I remembered which gate had a problem last year, so I used the other one.

Heather set off to set the middle of the three locks. A trip boat set the bottom lock for us, all easy going. Around us the new buildings we’ve seen going up over the last few years all look complete, walkways criss crossing everywhere.

A short pootle and we arrived at St Pancras Lock, two volunteers on duty, one of whom we’d done the Tideway with last year. Sadly there was no room for us to moor at the cruising club this time, but there was plenty to chat about as the lock was set in our favour.

We waved goodbye to Heather and David and carried on our way, we’d be seeing them both at the flotilla. The Queen had done her washing and watched us go by as we approached Islington Tunnel.

The tunnel was clear, I zoomed in with my camera. One boat in view on the Eco Moorings where we’d booked for two nights. There was a possibility that the boat was breasted up and there’d not be room alongside the towpath. We carried on through the tunnel.

By the time we’d reached the other end the boat I’d seen was breasted up, in fact it was the third boat out from the towpath. All along the Eco-moorings the boats were breasted up apart from one small gap. Was someone overstaying? Had the C&RT website calculated the wrong length of mooring available?

We pulled through the next bridge and I walked down to check on any spaces below the lock. Every space was full with boats breasted up. Pooh! Only yesterday Mick had tried to look to see if there were any spaces available at the other eco-moorings, but as we’d already got a booking it wouldn’t show us. We’d past a space on the other side of the tunnel, admittedly by a building site, but we’d have been bank side there enabling Oleanna to finish being washed.

Only one thing for it, to reverse back into the space that was available, do the best we could mooring at a jaunty angle and try to sus out when those we were blocking in would be wanting to move off. The angle did have one benefit, we’d be able to open our hatch! Soon after mooring the Puppet Barge came past, thankfully there was enough room for them.

We settled in and explained to Tilly that there would be no shore leave for the foreseeable future. The hook up cable came out and after quite a bit of grring from Mick we had power, £10 credited to our account. We’d be able to do washing and use the electric kettle. Cheryl from a few boats up (NB Firecrest) came to say hello as she reads the blog.

This evening we caught a bus and headed over to Kentish Town to meet up with Christine and Paul for an Indian meal at the Bengal Lancer. A very nice meal with great company and the delivery of our nav lights. These came in a really rather big box, four times the size of the lights! We just need a battery for the white one now and somewhere to strap it to. Thank you Christine for the use of your address.

4 locks, 11.73 miles, 1 full water tank, 1 left, 1 tunnel, 1 Heather, 1 David, 1 Ainsley, 1 Nicholas, 1 Queen, 40ft mooring, 58ft 6 boat, 1 jaunty mooring, 1 mission nearly accomplished, 3 nav lights, 0.5 clean boat, 1 harrumphy cat!

Reflections Flotilla

Tomorrow we’ll be heading out onto the Thames with many other boats, both motor-powered and manpowered. Much of the day will be spent on the Tideway. The Thames barrier will be dropped at midday to hold the tide, even so we’ll still have some push upstream.

Motorised craft will loiter above Chelsea Bridge for a few hours before the flotilla will get into order. Oleanna will be on the northern side of the flotilla, Bleasdale the southern side and the narrowboat/widebeam section will be a little bit in front of Glorianna.

Timings for those wanting to come and watch are as follows.

7pm | Chelsea Bridge
7.10pm | Vauxhall Bridge
7.30pm | Westminster Bridge
7.50pm | Blackfriars Bridge
8:05pm | London Bridge
8:18pm | Tower Bridge

If you come and watch we really hope you enjoy the spectacle.

Monkeys and Parakeets. 20th September

Bridge 182 to Ballot Box Bridge, Paddington Branch

Yesterday evening we’d had quite a few people stop to chat as we set up the lights on Oleanna. One lady had been concerned that Denham Deep Lock (the next one) may be closed as the bottom gates were open a little bit and in front of the top gates there was a mass of weed, surely we’d not be able to get through! Neither of us were concerned at what she said and when we got to the lock this morning it was nothing compared to the amount of pennywort we’d come across at Wide Water Lock and the bottom gates were just open because that was they way they rested when the lock was empty.

Denham Deep is very deep, but thankfully with fairly new gates it doesn’t leek so it filled in no time compared to the shallower locks we’d recently come through.

Below the lock the floating dry dock was giving a piggyback to another boat.

Onwards to Uxbridge. Here two boats were breasted up on the lock landing and the last people to have gone through the lock had left both bottom gates open with the paddles up! We are now in the land of not giving a monkeys and the number of parakeets way out numbers blackbirds, robins and kingfishers. Thankfully we weren’t a widebeam, as some of the broader boats would have had difficulty getting into the lock and there was space on the off side for me to hop off to set the lock.

We’d arrived shortly after Denham Yacht Station had opened for the day. A top up of diesel was required and Mick had dug out our 5litre can which also got filled. Going out onto the Tideway you want a full tank and we knew we’d not be at St Pancras Cruising Club at the right time to top up there.

At Cowley Lock three volunteers stood awaiting our arrival, we were to be their first boat of the day.

Below someone is building themselves quite a large house boat. New stainless steel tanks sit in the water and a wooden structure is going up above.

Now we were on the level with Paddington. We pootled along passing large building sites, two fellas working their way through a pallet of turf.

Under Murderers Bridge where eight years ago we said a final goodnight to Houdini my old cat.

A plant peeked up out of the hold of a boat, was it what we thought it was? Yes, most probably. Soon we were at Bulls Bridge where the Boat of Fame is currently moored in it’s Mind The Gap coat of paint, very whimsical.

Left onto the Paddington Arm. All sorts of boats. Jolly dogs and grumpy cats. Heftily insulated boats. You see everything down here, some we now recognise each time we’re here.

A sunflower has reached up for light at the edge of the towpath surrounded by new builds. A cormorant took advantage of a high up post.

I ducked below to have a catch up with Jo the props lady for panto leaving Mick to cruise us onwards to near Ballot Box Bridge at the foot of Horsenden Hill. Almost two hours later I finished chatting to Jo and could finally have my lunch. Then it was out with the buckets and cloths, time to give Oleanna a bit of a wash before the flotilla. The starboard side seems to have caught the sun more than the port side, so hopefully a wash might make her look better. Who knows if the starboard side will get washed it depends on time and on how busy our mooring in London will be, at least that side looks a touch smarter.

Mick busied himself attaching the cratch lights. These haven’t been on Oleanna for two years, they are our normal arrangement for Christmas. These will stay on now for Saturday, a little less to do.

3 locks, 12.92 miles, 1 left, 1 tear, 1 tube boat, 3 volunteers, 2 hours talking props, boat 71, 1/10th of lights fitted, 1 clean bow for the first time in years.

https://goo.gl/maps/51HrmhHDspQyGydy6

Narrowboat Oleanna

Travels of Narrowboat Oleanna