TRIP REPORTS

SOUTHWARDS FROM BIRMINGHAM,
March & April 2006

(Part 4 : Berkhamsted to London.)

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We resume the story after a short stay at Berkhamsted.

I went off at about 08:30 on Tuesday to go to the museum. Lindy invited Wendy to dinner on Wednesday evening. Good craic on Thursday.

I arrived back at lunch-time and we had a snack before starting at 13:33. We were lucky enough to join a 4-person boat - fit father and three energetic teenage sons. The boat was Griddlebone, still in Bridgewater Boats livery apart from their company panel. At Apsley I spotted that Sainsbury's was still open, so we went onto their mooring at 17:20 and Wendy shopped. The cats had good hunting. With luck we hoped to reach Rickmansworth the next day.

We didn't. First I got up very early to do some Cavalcade work, then I went back to sleep and couldn't wake up for ages. By the time we were ready to go, Tilly had disappeared, probably, we thought, in her cave behind the washing machine, but we couldn't take the risk of her having returned to her good hunting ground. We started the engine, which produced no response, then started the washing machine. Some time later she appeared, but we didn't notice from where. We evebtually started boating at 14:01 We locked through the first three locks with the two Peters on Kitty and with another boat for Five-Paddle. We tied up at ther foot of Five-paddle lock at 15:52. we had some good venison steaks for dinner, then I went to the station to go back for London for a special event at the Canal Museum, after which the plan was to do some work for Canalway Cavalcade for a few days before returning to the boat.

While working at the flat on Sunday evening, I suffered a major crash of my lap-top which looked pretty fatal. As I didn't have a debit card at the moment, Wendy had to rush to London on Monday with hers so that we could by a replacement machine. Fortunately PC World by Wandsworth Bridge was open on a Bank Holiday. All the software discs and back-up files were on the boat, so we came back and I spent the later part of the day setting up the software and reloading all the data files from the back-up. On Tuesday I spent much of the day finishing the Canalway Cavalcade brochure (lots of 'phone conversations with Libby) then rushed it to the printer in London & returned to the boat.

By our recent standards our 08:39 start was an early one because we knew we needed a long day's run. At Cassio Marina we stopped for gas. We'd also hoped to buy solid fuel, but Frank doesn't keep it. He said the coal-boats Archimedes & Ara were coming this way from Ricky. Soon after leaving Frank, we met them and were able to buy a couple of bags of smokeless fuel, almost without stopping the boat. We reached Hillingdon Canal Club in Uxbridge (our old mooring with the previous boat) at 17:37, moored on the club-house mooring and took on water. While this was happening, Debbie, the harbiurmaster, came along and said it would be OK for us to stay there overnight, which we did. After supper we went into the clubhouse and had a long natter, mainly with Stuart behind the bar.

We did some shopping at Uxbridge Boat Centre before we set off — ordered a replacement horn and bought a shore power cable. Tilly was nowhere to be found, so we flushed her out of hiding, as a few days ago, by starting the washing machine. We continued at 11:10 , with a long delay at Cowley while we waited for a tug to take an empty pan down the lock to the dredger working below and bring a full one back. i helped work the lock. On the Paddington Branch we stopped at Willow Tree Marina for a pump-out & a talk with Graeme Heap. He came and looked at the inside of FC3 and showed us his progress in re-fitting Azolla — he's done a lot but has much still to do. We reached Browning's Pool at 18:51 and continued to moor by the side entrance to Paddington station at 18:57. We moored, as requested by Moose (who would be running the work-camp for Canalway Cavalcade), in the area that will be used by the camp so that he can move us when he gets here on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Our next week or so was spent in preparations for Canalway Cavalcade.