Mike Stevens' UK Inland Waterways Pages

TRIP REPORTS : THE FELIS CATUS II YEARS

SPRING & SUMMER EVENTS IN LONDON

Part 1 - April to early May 1996

Click here for information about our boat, Felis Catus II.

MIDLESEX BRANCH TREASURE HUNT WEEKEND

We came up from home very early (by the standards of our recent form) for the IWA Middlesex Branch Treasure Hunt, which was starting from Hillingdon Canal Club in Uxbridge, where we moor. We were ready for the off at 10:25, having used the facilities at the club to take on water, empty the Porta-Potti etc. We checked in for the event and were given a 12:15 start time. The first clues sent us South, so before we started we had to go up to the Swan & Bottle to wind, which we achieved with difficulty because of muck next to the towpath.

Back at the Club we waited for the off signal, then departed in with Bob & Chris McGowan's Chrystina. When we reached Cowley lock we found several boats waiting and actually locked through with the Bannon family on Aquinas. We stopped at Packet Boat lane because one of the treasure hunt clues asked us for the price of the bitter at the Paddington Packet, so I went to find out. The next clue sent us to Cowley Peachey junction and into the Slough Branch, where we stopped by bridge 1 to try to puzzle out the answer to a clue about aqueducts/ bridges or something. After that we were running slowly, in part because we were looking for answers to clues and partly because there were a lot of boats around doing the same thing.

We winded at the winding hole past bridge 4 and went back to the main line, stopping again near Packet Boat lane to check names of some of the firms in the trading estate to answer a clue. Another clue needed info from the menu inside The Shovel. We paused briefly at a couple of points to solve more clues, then winded by Denham Yacht Station and went back to the HCC clubhouse. We'd not quite got all the clues because we had to wait for the General Elliot to open in the hope of finding the answer to one about the eponymous gent, but the information wasn't there. Finally we went back into the Clubhouse for the evening of quizzes, barbecue and prize-giving.

Our next aim was to move the boat to Little Venice ready for Canalway Cavalcade. We left the Club at 09:26, joined the Paddington Branch and stopped at Willowtree Marina for a pump-out. Our friend Graeme Heap's Dutch Barge Azolla was there, so I had a brief chat with him. Then we went on to do our major beginning-of-season provisioning at Sainsbury's, Alperton, before the final run to Paddington Basin, where we moored outboard of our friend Adrian Steinkamp's boat Chyna Too until Cavalcade.

CANALWAY CAVALCADE & THE PARLIAMENTARY CAMPAIGN CRUISE

In the day I went with an IWA colleague, Eric Garland, to Greenwich Pier to hand over the South London Branch piece of the IWA Jubilee Jigsaw to the sailing barge Pudge for onward transmission eventually to Birmingham, where the jigsaw was to be assembled for an international waterways conference. Pudge was already carrying jigsaw pieces she had collected from the Chelmsford and Kent & E Sussex Branches. I was to see the next part of its progress next day.

I was on board Felis Catus II briefly in the evening en route to a Cavalcade Committee meeting on nb Water Emerald, known to us as Walter Haemorrhoid, or Wally Pile for short, having brought up a lot of Cavalcade papers with me.

nbs President & Kildare and sb Pudge at Limehouse

I was at Limehouse earlier in the day to photograph the hand-over of the Chelmsford, Kent & E Sussex and South London pieces of the IWA Jubilee Jigsaw from the sailing barge Pudge to narrow-boats President and Kildare. Then I went home to finish more Cavalcade paperwork before we both went to the boat. We left Paddington basin at 20:22 and moored temporarily at Paddington stone wharf for me to go to a Cavalcade Committee meeting on the bar boat. Later we moved into Browning's Pool and onto our Cavalcade mooring next to the scaffolding bridge by Warwick Avenue.

Canalway Cavalcade

We were both working at Canalway Cavalcade. Ann Tilman stayed on the boat (her husband Dave was commuting because he wasn't very well). Felis Catus II was used as the Press Office, so was quite busy. It was also the base for David & Mary Llewellyn and David & Gina Young to run the new South London Branch game. Libby Bradshaw's Panacea moored outboard of us. During the Cavalcade, President collected the N & E London and Chiltern Branch pieces of the Jubilee Jigsaw (and possibly some others) to take on to Birmingham. Wendy went home on Monday evening for work the next day.

I ran the boat down to Paddington stone wharf again, with Panacea, for the Cavalcade clear-up work. Libby & I were busy with Press Releases (thanks to the help of Brian Oliver's printer on nb Zavala). The next two evenings involved social gathering for boats on their way from Cavalcade to South London Branch's Campaign Cruise in a few days' time. Libby and I had both planned to have our boats at St Pancras on the Tuesday evening for the meeting there, hosted by IWA North & East London Branch, but ran out of time and had to go by car. At the meeting, Roger Squires gave an illustrated talk about the bridges on the Thames Tideway, or "what not to hit on Thursday". We left Libby's car there and Ian Ferguson brought us back after a late meal.

I set off at 08:39, cruising with Panacea, both single-handed (the first time Libby and I had actually boated together). Mary Llewellyn from nb Random Still and Daniel Roth from nbs Argo and Tadworth met us at the Camden Three to help us lock through. Their boats were at St Pancras. We wondered whether to stay there, but decided it would be a more prudent use of time to press on to Battlebridge, where that evening's social was to be hosted by IWA South London Branch at the London Canal Museum. There were many boaters around so we had lots of help locking through St Pancras. We both moored in Battlebridge Basin and were busy sorting out a lot of things for the Campaign Cruise next day. I went IWA Head Office (then in Regent's Park Road) to photocopy the Canalway Cavalcade post-event and Campaign Cruise Press Releases, then Mary joined me on board to help with the envelope-stuffing. Later we had a South London Branch subcommittee meeting about the Norwood Lake Take Part event before joining the social at the Canal Museum.

This was the day of IWA South London Branch's Campaign Cruise Past Parliament. There were some uncertainties about timing of volunteer lock-wheelers, so I set off at 09:53 as soon as Ben Scott, who was crewing for me, joined. It was a very slow run to start with, partly because a lot of boats started at about the same time, partly because one lock had a bottom paddle out of action and partly because Laburnum Boat Club's nb Opportunity was doing an educational trip. We locked with different boats at different stages. Our other crew member, Mike Larkin, joined somewhere around Mile End and somewhere en route I did a live radio broadcast by 'phone about the Campaign Cruise. When we got to Limehouse Basin, the engine stop was too stiff to operate, so we had to keep the engine running. I was busy with the event, mostly trying to sort out complications caused by Lindy Foster & Lord McNair. Ben's wife Judy joined us. We had been expecting to host some Press for the cruise, but none turned up.

Despite various delays during the morning, the official party of boats (including us) locked out to the tideway on schedule, although with a few stragglers yet to follow, which hadn't been the intention. Once on the tideway, Panacea led the flotilla crewed by John Fletcher and Ian Ferguson as the radio liaison with PLA. and the River Police. We came second with a big IWA flag, followed by IWA's exhibition boat Jubilee (steered by its builder, Pat Buckle) with Audrey Smith (IWA national Chairman) and the official IWA party. Mike L steered quite a bit of this leg so that I could change and take photos.

At Lambeth Pier, Felis Catus II and Jubilee had great fun doing a wide turn across the tide under a lot of throttle to stop at the pier to meet the officers of the Parliamentary Waterways Group and give them a statement of IWA campaign aims. Arthur Farrand Radley (a Vice-President of London IWA) and Adrian Steinkamp (from South London Branch Committee) were on the pier as the Branch's hosts, and journalist Dieter Jebens was there photographing. The Chief Justice of somewhere (Zambia?) also happened to be there as Lord McNair was hosting him for the day, hence the cause of the earlier complication with him & Lindy wanting to change the schedule, with another boat stopping at the pier, which in the end we couldn't prevent.

The flotilla looked very good, especially when nearly half of them turned below Lambeth Bridge to go back down to Limehouse, so we had IWA traffic on both sides of the river. Some commercial traffic followed us, but sadly wasn't very visibly part of our event. The official business concluded, we made another nice big turn across the tide. We were now leading Jubilee with everybody else well ahead. Ben and Judy took turns at steering. When we turned into Brentford Creek and joined the Grand Union, we found Ian F was at Thames Lock "counting us in". We moored above Gauging lock at 19:10 and Pat managed to stop our engine. Richard Jensen (one of the two chaps who'd rebuilt the engine for us) came and had a look at it while about 30 of us were in the pub for an 'indoor barbecue". There was a splendid sense of fellowship since most of us had been boating together for the best part of a week

I wasn't quite sure what to do as Richard had only temporarily solved the engine problem. But as several boats were going up, I decided to join them and Wendy would get the train from home to Hayes and walk back to meet us. I set at 12:28 off in company with Bob on Sterling, usefully mob-handed, and with Sue & Roger Burkett's Nackered Navvy and Richard Bird & Dorothy Robbie's Tarn in the lock ahead of us. Wendy joined us at Norwood top lock, and at Bull's Bridge junction I passed one of their coffee-mugs back to Nackered Navvy. We stooped at High Line, Cowley Peachey (our old mooring) for a pump-out and bought diesel. We reached our home mooring at 17:47 and I spent the evening in the Clubhouse Bar.

We did a lot of clearing up and bought solid fuel from Argo. Then we went home to get ready for the Region Jubilee Dinner that evening, which was also Richard Bird's 50th birthday party.