UK Canals - Journey reports

Coy Carp

As we were suffering withdrawal symptoms, a decision was quickly arrived at on Friday to visit the boat and go for a short cruise.   By short, we mean enough to warm the engine through.  So we pitched up just after 9 and crept out of the marina to join a boat in Widewater Lock.   These folk were celebrating a 30th birthday of their son and had the boat decorated with balloons and such.  We stayed with them until the next lock (Black Jack's) and then peeled of just before the road bridge at Coppermill Lock to moor outside the Coy Carp pub.    This has extensive gardens as well as a large interior seating/restaurant area and serves half decent food at reasonable prices.

So we had lunch and returned.   There is an awful lot more weed in the canal along this river stretch than I can ever remember and today, not much flow either, so expecting to be able to back into the winding hole and have the flow turn the boat for me, I was disappointed.   It just got stuck in the weed.   So I had to resort to the bow thruster which in turn got jammed up with weed in the grills, so although I did successfully turn the boat in the end, it was another lesson learned.   I should have reversed the boat past the winding hole and then done a conventional bow in turn, driving the stern round on the engine against the feeble flow in the river stream.   So a gentle return to base and a pleasant day all in all.

Harefield Marina and home

Up early as usual with the intention of being first up the Hanwell flight in isolation so that I could go at my own pace.   It was evident on leaving that two of the boats I had followed out of Teddington had the same idea and would not be far behind me.  The first lock two locks were in my favour and although the following boats were able to help with the first, I had left them behind by the second.  At Hanwell bottom lock I picked up with WILLPOWER.  Ruby and Cliff had just opened one gate and were entering as I pitched up, so I stopped at the lock landing, opened the other gate and joined them.   They seemed to be a little dismayed to find that I was single handed, but with single gate working and setting locks ahead we made a formidable team and reached Norwood Top Lock in 3 hours from Brentford.   They appreciated my need for haste but left me to carry on for the remaining two and a half hours of the journey as they needed water. 

I met the two Denham gravel boats at Uxbridge.  With the moored boats there, especially at Uxbridge Boat Centre where they are sometimes two abreast, the canal is pretty tight.  There is quite a surge of water pushing sideways when these vessels pass and then everything is sucked back after, so being near moored boats is difficult to manage.   I just missed one guy's outboard motor with about a foot to spare with a feeling of helplessness as the boat was pushed towards it.

Back at Harefield, the car battery was flat again, but this time I came prepared with jump leads to charge it up on the boat.   Next time I will disconnect the battery before leaving I think.

Brentford

No rush this morning.   There are only two locks to Teddington where I must wait for the tide, so I set off at 8:50 to guarantee a lock-keeper at Sunbury Lock.  I was the only boat waiting and just as I was entering the lock a long blast on a horn from behind (round the corner, so out of sight of the lock keeper) preceeded the arrival of tug ASH with a flat in tow.   I love the way the workmen just asually toss a heavy rope with a large eye in the end over a bollard to stop the barge.   As I approached Molesey Lock the gates were against me, but the paddles were up and I could see a chink of light between the gates.   No sign of any boats inside, so I continued ahead slowly aiming for the centre of the gates, and the gates duly opened - to reveal two narrowboats, one each side of the lock.   A hasty sideways manoeuvre followed to the startled look on the lock-keepers face.  I entered the lock, alone again, and apologised. The lock-keeper must have been so perplexed that he forgot the top paddles were still up.   With no further incidents I arrived at Teddington super new moorings at 11:15.   At 13:45, three other boats that had turned up behind me started off for the lock and I joined them.   Being a bit early it was Richmond before we started to pick up some useful tide to speed progress and by Kew Gardens I recorded a mind-blowing speed of 6.8 mph (having risen from 4.8 mph above Richmond), so 2 mph of tide half an hour after high water. 

The blocks of flats opposite the moorings at Brentford Basin are pretty well finished now and look absolutely cheerless.  There is another block being built on the towpath side by the little swing bridge and this appears to be so close to the path that the area is beginning to resemble a canyon.  I just hope that the ambience improves in future because it looks absolutely sterile at the mopment.  There is lots of commuter traffic, both pedestrian and cycle on the towpath here.   Nonethless, a quiet night

Walton-on-Thames

We were out walking last night and came to Boveney Lock where we saw the bottom gates were open which is contrary to instructions for the unmanned lock (it was 8 pm).  Shortly after a sequence of evening party trip boats came through.  These guys cheat.  They have a key to turn the power on, whereas oiks like ourselves have to wind the handle hundreds of times when the lock is unmanned.  Later that evening our youngest daughter phoned to say that she thinks she has mumps.  Help!  This morning Pat phoned again and now feels duty bound to return home ASAP.  So we set off at about 7:50, did Boveney Lock the hard way, and carried on to Staines where we reckoned a good train service should be available.   Very little traffic on the river, so we were there by 11:30.   Pat was home in an hour and a half!  I did the remaining three locks solo in all respects, solo crew and solo boat.  I just use a centre rope to steady the boat and put a stern line on to stop it drifting, then sit on the wall holding both ropes.  Sneaky positioning by the steps helps getting back on with deep locks, but most of the Thames locks are not that deep.  I arrived at Walton-on-Thames at 14:00 and found a space by the Anglers.  I have warned Thames Lock at Brentford to expect me tomorrow.  Strictly speaking its not necessary to phone ahead during normal hours, but the Brentford guys are very helpful and they are more likely to have the gates open ready.  The high tide tomorrow is at 14:30, so I will appear at Teddington Lock at 14:00.   Am looking forward to Hanwell flight on Tuesday (not!).

Boveney

We left our moorings at 7:50 and descended Fobney Lock and County Lock.  County Lock is in much better condition that last year, so no problem there.  There is a notice under the bridge before the lock which invites boaters to "alight here" to work the lock.  I could not because the wooden top to the piling is so high that it would have damaged the cabin paint and side doors.   There is a pontoon just round the corner which is quite useful.   Because of the narrow channel and the strong current, the next section known as the Brewery Gut is controlled by traffic lights. We got a green traffic light immediately on pressing the button and proceeded down the Brewery Gut with no suggestion of any difficulty with the stream.   Blakes Lock was unmanned, so we dealt with that ourselves and made Sonning Lock exactly at opening time to get a visitor's licence.  The three day licence was an amazing £48.60.   We could make Teddington in 2 days we were told, but that takes no account of the tides.  We will need to be at Teddington for the 14:15 high tide according to my information.

  We had also worked out that the Henley Royal Regatta was still on and that must mean further delay.  At Marsh Lock we were given an instruction sheet, and all through traffic is herded to the west bank past the boom marked course.  Never having "done" the Regatta it was very interesting to see several races at various stages as were moved along.  The most impressive were the female 8's, all looking tanned and incredibly fit, though more noisy that the men.   One could almost smell the hormones!  We also noticed the gradual transition in the spectators from the smart hatted ladies and well dressed men at the town end in the grandstand to the more informal gatherings with beer tents and icecream vans at the farm end.   A day's mooring on the opposite bank we noted will cost you £50.00 inc VAT.

Fortunately thereafter, most of the traffic was opposite direction, so no real hold-ups along the way and we found good moorings for the night at "the hangar" by Boveney.

Positioning for the Thames Dash

The list got very much worse this morning as Reading Marine hire boaters filled the lock in readiness to beat the Aldermaston Bridge rush hour closure and drained the pound down.   So at the first opportunity we moved the boat off the rock or whatever the centre was sitting on and took up position nearer the lock.  Armed with walkie talkies we established a procedure for exiting the lock across the strong cross stream, as the river joins here, and making sure the swing bridge is open.   The strong current makes a good procedure critical and as a single handed boater, this is a spot to avoid if a prolonged obstruction to the traffic is to be averted.  We were joined for this by another Reading Marine hire boat, but whereas I moored up below the bridge to pick up Pat, this skipper just sailed on leaving two of his crew to run all the way to Aldermaston Lock.  Perhaps this was normal for them.  They didn't seem put out at all.  A stroke of luck!  The large Aldermaston Bridge on the A 340 was being serviced, so the workmen took the opportunity to work it for us.  We hate doing this ourselves as the motorists are so impatient.  Carrying on past Aldermaston the tone of the canal changes.  The locks have seen little of the lockgear modifications troubling us on the rest of the canal and most of the traffic disappears leaving only a few "long distance" boaters coming off the Thames.  We moored up near Fobney Lock in a place shown to me last year by Terry & June (Pluto).   It has started to rain.   Lets hope we have a wet weekend for the Thames which might keep the lock queues shorter.  We will have Henley to contend with as it happens, but the aim is Teddington in 2 and a half days.