Mike Stevens' UK Inland Waterways Pages

TRIP REPORTS : THE FELIS CATUS II YEARS

AUTUMN & CHRISTMAS 1997

(and subtitle.)

After returning to Uxbridge from our Summer Cruise, we'd been on board for the Club's open weekend, and I'd slept on board after a meeting at the Club. This was our next bit of boating.

SLOUGH CANAL FESTIVAL

We were delayed leaving home, & so later starting than we had hoped. We left our mooring at 13:06 and winded in the slipway. At Cowley we found ourselves queuing for the lock, so I nipped into the Shovel for a quick pint. When we set off again we locked with Renown, a Bantock's horse-boat of 1897 now motorised & converted, which I'd known when it was owned by Sue Cawson of the HNBOC. At Cowley Peachey Junction we turned into the Slough Arm and soon bumped over something in a bridge'ole (bridge 3?). We stopped at High Line boatyard for pump-out, gas & water. Their diesel was much too expensive. After this it was slow running on the arm, but nothing like as weedy in the channel as we had imagined, although very much so at the edges. We winded. at Slough Basin, where we saw David Llewellyn holding Random Still on a rope while Mary went shopping.

We arrived at out rally mooring at 17:20. Because we hadn't booked in, we were asked to moor right down at the Slough end of the moorings. We had great difficulty mooring because of weed & shallows. I managed to get the bows in and get myself ashore using the plank, but couldn't moor by myself as the wind was blowing the stern right across the cut. Wendy was suffering from a migraine and even more hesitant than usual about using our now rather dodgy plank, but she finally nerved herself to, and we managed to moor (and get her back on board). Later David & Chris Chamberlain on Sophie 2 moored outboard of us, which was a help as they've got a much better plank. After drinks on their boat, I went to the barbecue and sampled the entertainment: not much impressed with line-dancing.

I was roped in first to help John Brice distribute rally plaques and then to man IWA's publicity boat Jubilee for a couple of hours. Meanwhile Wendy was chatting with passers-by and explaining that we weren't Rag Doll! By the time we got back, Sophie was ready to leave and we decided to go with them. Albert helped us cast off before he & Nicky had a lift on Sophie back to their own boat further along the moorings. We set off at 15:34. Sophie bounced on the obstruction in the bridge'ole that we had found yesterday. Their signals to us about where it was were quite incomprehensible. Wendy managed to avoid it, but only by side-swiping the bank.

Other traffic separated us from Sophie at Cowley lock, and we locked up with Liz & others on Charlie's Girl. We arrived back at our mooring at 18:04 to find that Club Harbourmaster Ron Coleman had re-arranged the moorings over the weekend. We were now between Owen & Mary Revis's Lidian and a long gap when we soon expect to find Alan Eggby's Dreamland Tonight and Tideway Adventurers' Michael. We had a long chat with Ron over a few drinks on board, so decided to stay the night and went home on a 6 am tube.

We didn't do much Autumn cruising that year. We were on board overnight at the end of September after a Daystar Theatre performance at the Club, and Roger Alsop came the next day to do our BSC survey. Not as much needed doing as we had feared. We didn't have an Autumn Half-term cruise because of 'flu. In November I spent a night on board after lecturing to North Uxbridge Residents' Association and brought a couple of chaps from the meting on board for a drink. At the end of November I came up for a day to winterise the fresh water system & pick up various things to bring home. In December Wendy came board for the Club Christmas Party while I was laid low with a rotten cold. Next day Wendy took the boat up to Denham Yacht Station to fill up with diesel. A few days later I came for for a short visit to do a few jobs on the boat (including putting up some fairy-lights) in readiness for spending Christmas aboard.

CHRISTMAS CRUISE

We had hoped to come up no later than the previous day, but circumstances (work) prevented, so we got an early taxi from home. We took the boat up to the clubhouse mooring to load the luggage, take on water, empty the elsan etc. One or two club members were around, including Ron Coleman who told us that Mike & Lynda Eade's granddaughter was born on her mothers' and grandfather's birthday. We set off southwards as 8:55, in wet weather with very gusty wind.

We stopped at Bull's Bridge Tesco for major shopping to stock up for Christmas mainly booze (as we'd brought the turkey and most of the other food with us), but including the Christmas Pudding that we'd forgotten to bring!. Wendy shopped while I put up the Christmas cards and found a drifting balloon which I attached to our radio aerial. By the time all this was done, the shopping unpacked and we'd had some brunch, it was tipping down with rain, so we stayed where we were, doing newspaper quizzes, until it let up.

Then we continued into the Paddington Branch and stopped by Alperton Sainsbury's at 16:18, as we reckoned it was the last decent mooring we'd reach in daylight. We were a bit apprehensive about passing motorbikes, but we needn't have been. I went for a beer in The Pleasure Boat but didn't stay long because of over-loud music: a pity as in other respects the pub was quite reasonable. The gusty winds continued and we were pulled around a lot on the mooring.

We got up later than intended, as we both slept through the alarm, as did the cats: Orinthia was actually in Wendy's bunk when we woke up. Had a leisurely breakfast, while the cats availed themselves of the (now) dry weather. Rain was forecast by mid-day. We set off at 9:34, glad to be cruising this stretch in daylight. We passed by what looked like a breach, supported by sandbags & moored barges, near Scrubs Lane bridge. The rain actually came, quite heavily, at about 10:30.

At 11:03 we moored almost under Formosa Street Bridge, Little Venice. The grass here was to the cats' liking. I went to the Bridge House. It was almost empty & the beer wasn't much good. I had a chat with a couple of boaters from Harefield: fairly new to narrow-boat ownership having owned g.r.p. previously. I went with the man of this pair to the Warwick Castle which was predictably busier and with better beer. Met a bunch of boaters including Tim Clarkson, Sam Dent & Toby Parrott. The last had some ideas about Canalway Cavalcade, and also the news that Paddy Walker, one of the pioneers of trip-boating on the Regent's Canal, has died in the last few days. I came back on board for a traditional Christmas Dinner: I'd made an interesting fruit & nut stuffing. Then there was general doziness for the rest of the day.

It was very windy again during the night, with a lot of bumping and banging. I wasn't very happy about our mooring pins: I couldn't drive them in as far as I would have liked, so we decided to move into the Pool and moored outside Beauchamp Lodge with various other boats including the Baroi family on Imagine. I led my usual guided walk in the morning: 33 takers this year, not as many as last year's mammoth crowd. Then we lazed around for the rest of the day. In the late afternoon and evening some boats started arriving for the New Year gathering, including Aldgate and Umea.

We started off at 9:44, rather later than we had intended. At Paddington Stop we disposed of rubbish and took on a lot of water so that we could each have a shower on the way back. On the way back we were glad to be pushing a good charge back into the battery: despite a few runs of the engine to charge it up, it had taken quite a pasting in the last few days, with the short daylight, and lots of good things on the radio to listen to: some of them quite late in the evening.

We stopped at Sainsbury's, Kensal Rise, for a few odd & ends of shopping. This pause made us give up our original plan for a beer stop at the Black Horse, although as it turned out we could have done. We'd intended to stop at Willowtree for a pump-out, but only their answering machine was on duty. We joined the Grand Junction main line, and continued, getting back to the mooring in daylight at 15:36, but were too tired to eat at a sensible time. Wendy was beginning to go down with a bad throaty cold.

We spent a day on the boat. The stove didn't want to burn out until quite late so, as Wendy's cold was getting worse we decided to stay on for another night. We gave the battery a good long charge.

We went home by taxi, after giving the battery another hour's charge. Wendy's cold was still getting worse: when we got home she took to her bed for a week or so and we missed the planned New Year trip to my Dad's place in Marlborough.