UK Canals - Journey reports

Sunday Lunch at Toll House Tea Rooms

Overcast and chilly wind but turned out a loveley day in the end.  Turned the boat at Widewater with Pat prepping the lock.  Denham Deep and Uxbridge were both waiting for us with gates open.  Lovely!  And then, to cap it all, Cowley visitor moorings above the lock (before the bridge) were empty; and I managed to turn the boat there as well.   Both of the gravel boats were not there, so did the turn with 6 inches to spare in deep water.  We were made very welcome for Sunday roast in the Toll House Tea Rooms and put away a large lunch, too big for the plates really.  It seems to be the hangout of some locals on Sundays.   Can't say I blame them.   After lunch we shot straight back to Harefield and with only two locks to contend with we made good time.  At Denham we had a free ride as we drew up below the lock with a Hillingdon Community boat full of little girls who did all the work for us.   No sense in getting in the way!   Margaret (the lady inside my sat nav smart phone) gave us a good route back in 75 minutes.

Another short trip

The plan today was to fill the water tank after de-winterisation and to install the definitive fix for the radio aerial.  This has been a long saga after discovering that the RF interference from the LED lighting made listening to the radio impossible with the lights on.   Preliminary trials a few weeks back confirmed the nature of the problem and suggested a couple of solutions,  I have therefore installed a flexible aerial on the cratch with a 3mm dia. 50 ohm coaxial cable back to the radio.    This gives a neat finish but with the only snag of having to put connectors in the coaxial to permit removal of the cratch board should this be necessary.

As we have Alfie with us, as last time we have ascended Widewater Lock and moored above, so that he can run around freely and bark at all the passers by.  Tomorrow we will potter down to Cowley for lunch, just to give the engine a run for the money.