Mike Stevens' UK Inland Waterways Pages

TRIP REPORTS : THE FELIS CATUS II YEARS

SPRING & SUMMER EVENTS IN LONDON

Part 3 - Mid-season weekending

We resume the story with the boat at Limhouse Basin after the Three Mills Rally.

MID-SEASON WEEK-ENDING

I visited briefly to re-moor the boat on the spare mooring lines and take the good ones away to use for the rope-throwing event at Waterways for Youth at South Norwood Lake.

I visited briefly again to bring back the good mooring lines.

We came up from home deliberately late in order to avoid the heat of the day. We set off from Limehouse Basin at 18:33 and were accompanied from Commercial Road to Johnson's lock by a little group of abusive kids on bikes. Then at Mile End we met a couple of sub-teenage girls doing a school project on "barges", and gave them a ride to Old Ford, despite Wendy's new-found scruples about this!

There was a lot of rubbish in & around the locks, especially on the lower part of the Regent's. We moored above Old Ford Lock at 20:01 and had a barbecue on one side of our aging Son of Hibachi barbecue, because we only had enough charcoal for that. Our friend Pete's attempts to get some new grids made for SoH had come to nothing, so we were back looking for a foundry to cast them. Wonder if the Black Country Museum could do anything?

We made an early (06:57) start to try to get through the locks before the heat of the day, and reached Hampstead Road lock by 09:46, so missed the crowds as a welcome side-effect. We went on to Browning's Pool and then to Sainsbury's, Kensal Rise, for some odds & ends of shopping, including a couple of disposable barbecues. We stopped at Willow Tree Marina, intending to have a pump-out here, but their equipment was temporarily out of order (problem with the drain). At Bull's Bridge we joined the GU main line and soon Passed the two Peters on Kitty moored at The Shovel, having come up Cowley lock just before we shared it with another boat. We got back to our home mooring at Hillingdon CC at 16:56 and had a barbecue using one of the disposable barbies: not very successful. Then we went to the clubhouse, in my case until very late. Next morning we left separately, Wendy to home and me to a towpath walk.

Wendy came up in the afternoon for shopping. John & Wendy B (John is a colleague of mine) picked her up from Sainsbury's and drove to the boat. The fridge was refusing to light. I arrived later. Then we all ate on board before the Bakers went home overnight. I went to the Clubhouse until late.

It was hot, sunny weather, with the fridge still not working. At 08:25 we set of to High Line, Cowley Peachey for a pump-out. There was a problem with a blockage in our pump-out pipe, which Paul took a little while to clear, so we were late getting back to the Club to meet the Bakers again. We finally set off from the Club at 11:22, having collected the Bakers. We had varying company at locks. We stopped at Frogmoor wharf, Ricky , for shopping & lunch.

In the afternoon we continued north, stopping above Ironbridge lock at 18:25. Our first mooring spot was too shallow to get into the bank comfortably, so we pulled back to a better spot. We saw a snake swimming across the cut. Someone on another boat had seen one earlier in the day. We also saw a toad. We barbecued. The fridge was still refusing to light on gas power, and its elex didn't seem to be working either.

Wendy and I made an early start at 06:56, the others joining us soon afterwards, in time to work Cassiobury Park Two. We winded in the wide before Lady Capel's lock and made our way back to below Lot Mead lock for a breakfast stop. When we set off again there was an apparently lost dog taking an interest in boats at Springwell. We made a note of the 'phone number on its collar, but before we got round to 'phoning, met its owner (at Copper Mill) walking back looking for it, and later saw them together. One gongoozler at Copper Mill had a ferret on a lead.

We had a pub lunch at The Fisheries, Harefield. It had been refurbished as a Big Steak pub, like the Barley Mow at Limehouse. Since then it's been refurbished again and changed its name to The Coy Carp, but we've no experience of it in this latest incarnation, although the towpath telegraph is not encouraging. Then we continued back to the Club, where we arrived at 17:03 and made our several ways home.

I came up to meet Richard Jensen for the engine's 50-hour post-running-in service & for him to do a proper repair on the engine stop-button. We were still not happy with the thermostat setting. He also sorted the fridge problem which was caused by bits of rust blocking the jet.

IWA MIDDLESEX BRANCH RALLY

We came from home rather late and met Libby Bradshaw, Ian Ferguson and the latter's colleague and Mark at the General Elliot. There was no food there that night as they had a private function, so we ended up driving round Uxbridge before finally eating in an Indian place in the High Street. We got on board something after midnight.

We set off from the Club at 06:25 and suffered a delay en route when we met a couple of boats (one of them a BW work flat) adrift across the cut, having been cast adrift overnight. Fortunately one of them had people on board who were just getting up, so they were re-moored with no difficulty. At Tesco at Bull's Bridge we did our provisioning for the weekend and long-term stuff for the Summer cruise.

IWA Middlesex Branch rally at Willowtree Park

We reached the Rally at Willowtree Park and moored outboard of Cleopatra II and Heron. Later we did a boat-juggle to put Heron on the outside as she was leaving that evening. It was a pleasant small rally of about 30 boats. I played boule in the afternoon while Wendy was chatting with our friends Baz & Joe. Another friend, Graeme Heap, was there so he helped us drink some beer while telling the story of his engine problems on the Campaign Cruise and since. There was a Barbecue & Barn Dance in the evening, which we enjoyed.

We loafed around for longer than we intended, partly because I wanted to see if there was anything worth buying in the Boat Jumble (I bought a barbecue grid which doesn't actually fit our barbecue but kept us going temporarily) and partly because I then got into a long and useful conversation with Daniel Roth about Safety Certificate matters. We set off at 11:44, had a pump-out at Willowtree Marina and continued, slowed by an angling match. We got back to the Club at 15:04 Worn out with the heat, we both fell asleep for long enough to decide not to travel back that night.

Wendy went off very early to go to my Dad's place in Marlborough. I pottered around the boat getting things ready for the next trip (including a few running repairs) before setting off for home about 09:30.