UK Canals - Journey reports

Mrs Barnes

Thursday:  Our early start this morning was uninterupted.  So we settled down into our routine which brought us to the top of Hatton in 3 hours.  Pat walks on ahead and opens one gate.  I get the bows in through the gate and then leave the boatto rope it to a stop from the lockside having climbed the steps and then close the gate.  Pat in the meantime, armed with the boat hook, secures the bow rope to the front bollard.  This is really a precaution, because we open both top paddles straight up.   By the time I have completed my 21 turns (fantastic total body exercise by the way - and I must see the doctor about that hernia) I go to take up the slack on the top rope then walk to the back to lassoo the rear dolly so that the rear doesn't swing out.   By this time (very fast) the lock is full, so Pat drops her paddle, crosses the gate, opens my gate and walks on.   I retrieve my ropes, exit the lock and stop the boat in the lock throat to close the gate, by which time the next lock is ready.  So we made Catherine de Barnes by 2:55pm.   Now, the mobile phone!   Yes it worked of course from the start, but I had not realised that I could not just sit down and access the internet as if nothing had happened.  I use Orange GPRS with a 25 megabyte monthly bundle and a bluetooth connection.   Firstly the bluetooth wouldn't work.   It took me some time to realise that it had to be set up as from scratch because it works on the phone IP address, which with a new phone was different.   Once that was achieved I found that I had by now disrupted my Internet Explorer settings and it took me until today to sort this out.   Hence no blog reports, and big problems getting email.   

Leamington Spa and the Cape of Good Hope

Wednesday:  After a night of rain, and with it still raining it was obviously going to be a wet weather gear day.  So a 7 am start again to get a good lead on the 10 lock flight.   Now I have noticed that in general, if I put on the wet weather gear, it stops raining.  And so it did, well almost.   Just a fine drizzle from time to time.   Having descended the first two locks guess what!   A lock keeper turns up and wants to let water down the flight and would I mind waiting.  Not much one can say really, but by waiting I get caught up with another boat.  This turned out to be another hire boat crewed by about 8 students on a week's holiday.   Worried initially that there seemed to be no organisation, they were just standing around just chatting, I had visions of a slow and painful descent.   However, after a few locks they got the idea and had both advance and cleaning up parties were deployed, serviced by a seemingly constant supply of tea & bacon butties mysteriously appearing from inside the boat. Amazingly, therefore, I reached Leamington 3 hours early.    Pat arrived at the appointed time and we decided to press on a little way, at least to the bottom of the Hatton flight, as we knew that we could make Catherine de Barnes the next day and get an easy approach to Birmingham.   So we got to the top of Cape Locks and found a convenient mooring, now in the rain again.   Visited the Cape of Good Hope ("No muddy boots in the lounge please") to find the football in full swing on the pub screen.   A short visit in socks!

Braunston and Stockton

Tuesday:  Arrived at the bottom of Whilton Locks alone.   Great, I thought.   A nice quiet ascent at my own pace with total control.  No, not to be.   Having prepared the first lock I was approached by a woman who said that their boat was waiting at the lock above.  The husband & wife team with young boy and greyhound were first time boaters in a short hire boat from Gayton.   These were their first locks, so I ran what amounted to a tutorial with practical demonstrations.  Not actually easy because the helmsman could scarcely control the boat in the lock so following, as I was, it was difficult to decide which side of the lock I was meant to go in.  At the end, they were doing  quite well I thought, using a rope to hold the boat against the wall and working the gates and paddles efficiently.  I left them at the top and carried on through Braunston Tunnel and moored for the night at the top of Stockton Locks.   Braunston amuses me rather.  It is obviously a big narrowboating centre with a large marina, but the Braunston boaters were out in force in their shiny cosseted boats, men never leaving the helm and the women doing all the work.   Nice for me because I had all the locks in my favour, still being single handed.  My boat I regard as a working boat (if it doesn't work I fix it), so it was covered in mud stripes from the ropes which I use constantly when single handed in broad locks.   Yesterdays cleaning was, of course, a total waste of time.   I did stop off briefly to visit Tradline Fender shop in the marina for a new anchor warp for our River Severn cruise in June, but moored outside the marina worried about taking such a dirty boat in.   The shop is a wonderful place!   Full of all sorts of goodies, so I couldn't resist getting a new front fender as well.   That night the rain set in.

Stoke Bruerne and Beyond

Monday: The warm, often sunny weather of the last few days was over. We awoke to a chilling, grey, misty dawn, and as customary, set off early. I was trying to get Gemma onto an early train at Wolverton Station and give myself time to get further on at least to Stoke Bruerne, my timetabled stop as per Nick Atty's excellent web based canal route planner. Progress to Wolverton was slowed by the multitude of moored boats and snagging one fishing line. The owner of the latter apologised for being asleep. Anyway, we saved his line, and got to the station on time for the 9:15. I was able to hook up with a 4 crewed boat for the ascent of the Stoke Bruerne Locks where gongoozlers were out in their hundreds. Perhaps the recent newspaper publicity for the Boat Inn had something to do with it, but it was by now a beautiful sunny afternoon. So, having made such good time I decided to continue on to get ahead of schedule to guarantee my next fixed point, Leamington Spa on Wednesday afternoon. After Blisworth Tunned (which I managed this time without hitting the roof on entry) I aimed for halfway to Whilton Locks, found a quiet rural morning and cleaned the boat in the evening sunshine.

Milton Keynes

Sunday:  Our early start (7.00am) was thwarted by the lock keeper at Marsworth who wanted to let water down, so we were delayed by half an hour and then had to wait for another boat.   This one was mob handed, so a relatively fast descent was made in spite of vast quantities of water over topping the gates, making opening the gates difficult.   I would say that restoration of the pound had been a bit overdone.   We left our company at the bottom and proceeded on.  Being Easter Sunday there was a lot of traffic, so we were rarely without company, but fortunately, no serious hold ups.  Following advice of other boaters we made for Great Linford for the night.   It was a very long day, but compensated for by a very acceptable sirloin steak in the Giffard Park pub/restaurant and a pleasant bottle of the cheapest red.

Mobile phone woes

Saturday: Still without mobile phone, and beginning to realise what a serious problem this would be later in the cruise when alone a measure of desperation had crept in. I had tried telephoning Orange on Friday night but after about 16 minutes on the line had got nowhere. The call centre seemed unable to find neither Apsley or Hemel Hempstead and I seemed unable to get my predicament across to them. So this morning, after enquiries of the Sainsbury Customer Service Desk, we set off to the next bridge where we were told we would get the best access to the Hemel shopping centre. It was about a 15 minute walk, after getting directions from passers-by. I decided to play the dumb idiot and asked to be shown how to work the phone. Within a very short time I was in touch with a knowledgable agent on the shop's telephone and as the phone was insured there was absolutely no problem in getting a replacement. The only difficulty was that it could only be delivered to a post code address, and if I wanted it delivered that day between 6 and 10pm, arrangements would have to be finalised by 10:00 am. This I was able to do after racing back to the boat and getting the Grand Junction Arms at Bulbourne to give me their post code. So it was that we were found sitting in the said pub that evening having a few beers when the replacment phone duly arrived. That was not the end of the problems, see later reports.

Llangollen Day 1

Thursday: Arrived at the marina in the morning to do a few little jobs and fill the watertank. Then moved to top of Widewater Lock to await crew (Gemma) in the evening after she finished work. It was sometime in the afternoon that the mobile phone went off network. Initially I thought nothing of it, but was unable to liase with Gemma for her arrival. Fortunately, by dead reckoning, I was able to guess which bus she would arrive on and was there to meet her. We dined on tuna bake and garlic bread (her request). Friday: Off to an early start. Surprisingly we picked up company at Coppermill Lock, both of us destined for Tesco at Rickmansworth. A quick re-victualing of ships stores followed and on return to the boat saw two boats approaching going north. So we knew that there would be some delay to a speedy trip. One of these peeled off at Cassio Lock so we joined the other (Blue Peter) single handed en route for Kings Langley to pick up his family. However, we stopped at Grove Bridge for lunch and lost him. There were a lot of bored kids at Apsley Lock messing around. Gemma seemd to handle them OK and they were in the end no trouble to us, but a danger to themselves. We found a mooring at Apsley for the night.