TRIP REPORTS : THE FELIS CATUSYEARS

AUTUMN 1979

Part 3 : the tail-end of the year.

Click on a picture to see a bigger version with a caption

For more information about our then boat , Felis Catus, see here.

At the end of our October Half Term, we had left the boat at Waltham Abbey. We continue the story from there.

A WEEKEND TRIP HOME.

We came up from London, had some beer in the Old English Gentleman & thanked the landlady for looking after the boat : her husband had actually been clearing water off the deck cover. But they wouldn't accept any money. Wendy did dinner.

We had hoped for an early start but were delayed by a flat battery, for which we got help from a local garage who started us with jump-leads from a car. We set off at 08:54 and stopped by Brimsdown power station, where Ian served breakfast. We stopped again before Stonebridge locks because of the lock-keeper's lunch break. At Springfield Marina we took on water and used their loo-point. They weren't open for diesel. Wendy did a late lunch on the move.

At Duckett's junction we passed on to the Hertford Union where we had some problems with plastic on prop. Then we joined the Regent's Canal and moored above Old Ford lock at 16:45. Ian & I found it a long walk to find an open pub! Then I served dinner.

Limehouse Basin

We set off at 08:46, doubling back southwards to Limehouse Basin, where Wendy cooked breakfast before Ian & I went for a photographic walk. Then we winded and set off back up the Regent's. On the way we had a lot of grot on the prop & injector problems. We met a wide boat in Islington tunnel & had to back out. I served lunch (Regent's Canelloni) on the move. We tied up at our Maida Hill mooring at 17:06 and went home.

At the Grand Junction Arms, Harlesden

Subsequently that winter we made a couple of trips out to the Grand Junction Arms for the sake of charging the batteries (Mike, Wendy, Roger & Chris on Sunday 18^th November and Mike, Wendy & Ian on Sunday 2^nd December when we went to look at the North Circular Aqueduct de-watered for maintenance), then I had a working weekend (8^th/9^th December) doing painting and carpentry. On Saturday 15^th December I came up to charge the batteries before Wendy and I took her parents out for a day's local pottering the next day.

Paddington Stop	Kensal Green gasworks	Carlton Bridge
The North Circular Aqueduct at Park Royal drained for maintenance.

We didn't spend Christmas aboard that year, but Roger & Chris came up to charge the batteries on Boxing Day. The boat was iced in.