Herbie Awards 2011 - Nominations for Best Day’s Cruise on Someone Else’s Boat.

This year we’ve been lucky enough to tag along for the ride on the boats of friends on three very special occasions.  They should all win an award, but there is only one to spare.  Which will it be?

1. January aboard Indigo Dream as guests of the ever generous Sue and Richard and other boats from the St Pancras Cruising Club on their tideway cruise to the Royal Docks.  Up the Lea from Limehouse, out through Bow Lock onto Bow Creek to Greenwich and down the Thames, through the Thames barrier, dodge the Woolwich ferry and into the giant Royal Docks with the City Airport jets landing along side us.  A cruise which very few narrowboats ever make.  After the big winter freeze, the weather was kind to us and once we got over being terrified, it was great.

I had a rather neat idea for showing the route on the blog!  I think we should call it the EastEnders Cruise



and took a million photographs.  here are just a few.

Narrowboats look very small

 

and the Woolwich ferry looks very big

and as for the Royal Docks – blimey!- this is inside the dock

2. Next, in June,  came the Braunston Historic Boat Rally where we blagged a lift with Sarah and Jim on the mighty Chertsey as part of the Saturday parade of boats. I think it would be fair to say that progress was rather slow as we took about four hours to travel a mile, but a lot of fun was had by all.  Suffice it to say that there were a lot of boats in a small space.



It wouldn’t have been so difficult if boats hadn’t been coming in both directions and if that wasn’t alongside a row of moored boats.  Sarah did brilliantly (including a perfect three point turn) and we didn’t sink a single other boat.



No-one expected it to take quite so long and I think it’s the only time I have been on a boat where the skipper went ashore for a pee without stopping the boat or handing over the tiller!  With all the banter between boats, the passengers,  and the gongoozlers, (not to mention the lovely weather) it was a day to remember. 

3. Finally in September the first rehearsal of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Thames Flotilla (narrowboat section). Once again we were hosted by Sue and Richard aboard Indigo Dream (we are indeed honoured) for another spectacular.   In terms of chaos this rivalled the Braunston Rally, although we did manage to cover a good number of miles.  This was our first trip past Westminster and all that and everyone’s first trip as a flotilla.  As ever Richard was the epitome of calmness and Sue the perfect hostess. 

Of course the event was special and the scenery legendary

The cruise was memorable in so many ways, but perhaps most of all for the scariness of the force of the tide in some parts, as demonstrated by Nb Leo


What lucky people Kath and I are.  Three brilliant and special cruises in one year, all hosted by fellow bloggers.  many thanks to Sue, Richard, Sarah and Jim.  But which was the best?  Which will win the award for Best Day’s Cruise on Someone Else’s Boat?

I feel another sleepless night coming on.

Best Day’s Cruise result

What a difficult one.  If I go on like this I’ll suffer from sleep deprivation. The problem is that the three cruises were so different from each other that it’s like comparing apples with oranges.  Those kind enough to send in comments can’t agree either.  Well i have made up my mind – for now at any rate.

Pause while presenter rips open golden envelope . . .

Aaaah. In the end it all boils down to sheer exhilaration.  The excitement of treading new ground, of overcoming obstacles and, well, just fun.    So the winner is not exactly the most restful cruise or the most scenic, but the one which felt like an adventure. 

The Herbie Award for Best day’s Cruise 2011 goes to

The ascent of the Birmingham and Fazeley canal into Farmers Bridge.

Here we are moored up at the end of the climb

Now I feel disappointed for the other two nominees

Rick suggests I have a reader voted category for the best picture on the Herbie Blog this year.  Fine by me but, dear reader,  are you prepared to trawl back and look for a  favourite?   Or I could post a selection for you to choose from?  Rick also suggests I could have a premium rate phone line for the vote.  Now there’s an idea!

Tomorrow I’ll post the short list for Best Cruise on Someone Else’s Boat.

Herbie Awards 2011 - Best Day’s Cruise Nominations

So we start our 2011 Awards with three nominations for Best Day’s Cruise, which in chronological order are

1. March 28th. River Thames- Brentford to Hampton Court

 

It was an unseasonally warm and sunny day when in the company of Rick, Marilyn, Simon and Carrie we cruised out onto the tideway at breakfast time and Herbie took us effortlessly up towards the big lock at Teddington while we were entertained by views of the posh bits of Richmond and all that.  Down this end of the Thames there is plenty to see, and on the rising tide the river is calm and the going is easy. This was a first go on the tideway for R,M &C who soon overcame any fears and settled down to enjoy the day. Then after a shopping stop at Waitrose on to Kingston for a truly scrummy lunch at Riverside Vegetaria  followed by tea and cakes on the river bank.  Simon and Carrie had to go but the rest of us cruised gently upstream round the big bend at Hampton Court to moor up right beside the Golden Gates of the palace where we disembarked for a tour of the beautiful gardens in full spring bloom.

Good weather, good cruising, the best company, excellent lunch, a superb mooring spot at the end.  A strong contender.

2. April 8th.  South Oxford canal -  Heyford to Banbury

A special day.  The first ever visit to Herbie by my big brother Graham and sister in law Jackie and we could hardly have picked a better spot.  This is arguably the prettiest stretch of this canal and there are plenty of locks including the strange lozenge shaped ones on the river stretches.  Lift bridges too of course. Graham was taken with the scenery and asked “Are all canals like this?”  “Oh yes” I lied.  I think we did 14 locks that day so there was plenty to do, but the weather was gorgeous and we had a lovely picnic at lunchtime.

3. October 6th – Birmingham and Fazeley canal – Curdworth to Farmers Bridge

A daunting prospect beforehand, especially since I had been in A&E in Sutton Coldfield in the early hours of the morning!  A mere 9 miles, but 27 locks.

Would we be molested by bandits in Aston? Would we arrive before dark? Well, I’m here to tell you it was brilliant. Rick was with us to help out as crew and we flew up the lock flights grinning from ear to ear.  This trip is mostly urban and industrial but endlessly fascinating.

Coming up the Farmers Bridge flight under roads and office blocks was a great experience, plenty of gloom, but no doom. Then arriving at the top in probably the swankiest bit of Birmingham was the icing on the cake.

Three superb cruising routes, all very different.  Which would you choose?  The winner announced tomorrow.

The 2011 Herbie Awards begin

As the narrowboat of destiny catches its rudder on the cill of misfortune and the windlass of fate raps the knuckles of the hand of carelessness I notice it’s time to address the issue of the Annual Herbie Awards.  Yes its time to set out the ballroom for the year’s most glittering occasion and get a packet of spangled envelopes to conceal the names of the winners and snag the fingernails of the hapless presenters. 

last year’s thrilling award logo

Which places, pubs, waterways, gadgets and events have most pleased the crew of Herbie in 2011 and which items have most appalled, frightened and amused us over the year?

All will be revealed over the run up to Christmas and culminate in the granting of the premier prize The Herbie Special Award for something or other.  So send your gowns and tuxedos to Sketchleys and get spruced up for the big event.  The final list of categories is still in preparation, but I can announce that the opening category will be   . . . .

Best Day’s Cruise on Herbie.

This year we have spent 100 days aboard Herbie (not all on the move) travelling 580 miles and passing through 352 locks, so we have plenty to choose from. 

Q. What makes a good day’s cruise? 

A. We need to have had a Great Time – that’s all really.  I suppose I ought to add that the company must be good, the waterway attractive or stimulating, and there needs to be a sense of achievement at the end of it.  Also it helps a lot if the weather was nice!

Presentations for the  3 nominations are in preparation and should will appear in the next post.  There, I’ve committed myself.  Now I’ll have to be decisive and get on with it.

Stories and confessions

You might have noticed that I have revamped the blog and put some new links on the left hand side.  Well I hope you have, because I slaved over them for a few hours last night! Just old posts I thought might be useful for reference.  In an act of bravery I also included confessions about things I did wrong (or didn’t do when I should have).  Just to remind you how useless I sometimes am. Cautionary tales are often more instructive than success stories.

Gunsmith provides a deadly finish

Yesterday for the first, and probably only time in my life, I visited a gunsmith’s shop and came out with something potentially lethal.  You may however be relieved to know that it was not a gun, but a small tube of cream bearing the words MAYBE FATAL IF SWALLOWED.  So I decided on this occasion not to swallow any, but to squirt some onto a cloth and rub it onto the newly rubbed down pendulum rod on the clock I have been restoring.

Why a gunsmith?  Because this stuff is called Gun Blue and it is principally sold for people to restore that blue black finish on their gun barrels.  Of course you can use it for any ferrous metal object and maybe there’s something on a boat that would look nice done this way, although at this moment I can’t think of anything. The colour produced is rather lovely, and the advantage over paint is that the coating is microscopically thin so it looks like the metal itself is blue black. 

I can well believe the health warnings on the tube.  After using the stuff for half an hour in our airy conservatory, (it needed about four coats to turn an even colour, although each coat dries in a couple of minutes),  I had significant irritation in my nose, although I didn’t notice any fumes at the time.  I wore latex gloves which I think are strongly advisable.

The clock is nearly ready to go now and is looking quite good although not nearly as pristine as Rick’s.  I wouldn’t like to think how many hours I have spent with the wet & dry paper and the metal polish.

      

Keen observers of horology might notice that the clock has something missing.  A clock face.  A minor detail.  I’ll get one presently.  I didn’t buy the clock to tell the time, but to watch the lovely mechanism doing it's stuff.

I tried to get a good photo of the blue black finish, but so far this is the best I can do (it’s on the rod only).

   

Anyway, it’s been a fun thing to do while we can’t go boating.  Herbie is currently sandwiched between two canal stoppages, so we won’t be cruising for a while.  I’m itching for Foxton locks to re open because I want to go to Market Harborough.  I can’t see that happening any time soon.

Answer revealed and reasons to take your boat to Coventry.

I was a bit surprised not to get a correct answer to the puzzle in the last post as it is from one of Coventry's most iconic works of mid 20th century art.  I thought you might spot it was engraved glass and then work out the rest for yourself.  What in Coventry is world renowned for mid 20th century art?  Why, the cathedral of course – ten minutes walk from the canal basin.

Our picture was a close up of part of one of the Saints and Angels engraved in the Great West Window by artist John Hutton.


Looking out through the window you see a part of the ruin of the old cathedral destroyed by incendiary bombs in WWII.  As usual Kath asked me to take close ups as inspiration for her textile work.



If you have no other reason to take your boat to Coventry, the cathedral alone is worth the trip.

Add to that the truly superb transport museum (even closer to the basin) and Coventry is a must.

Add to that the chance to stop at the absolutely splendid Greyhound pub at Hawkesbury junction on the way in to Coventry and a visit to this city becomes virtually compulsory.

Urban Oddities

After the last set of photos, something completely different.  Some evocative views of true urban settings.

First in  Birmingham, Kath asked me to take this picture.  I suspect it will end up as a piece of textile art in due course.  One building reflected in another.

 

Here it is un-reflected – not half so interesting.

Then for contrast, but only a short walk away, a more historic scene.  We squeeze through the seven foot wide gap at Worcester bar which used to separate two canal companies and necessitated unloading one boat into another across a few yards of land. Now, thankfully, open to navigation.

 

Now we go to Leicester where six feet from our overnight mooring we see this.

Sadly, it appeared to be abandoned.

 

And lastly a puzzler for you.  This picture was taken ten minutes walk from Coventry canal basin.  Any idea what it is?

Nature album

This years cruising itinerary of London, Oxford, Coventry, Leicester, Birmingham, Warwick etc sounds a bit urban when I tell friends where I’ve been.  My photo album tells a different story.  I don’t find it easy to get good pictures of plants and animals but a small percentage come out alright, so here’s a selection from our cruises this year.

Don't forget, clicking brings 'em up big

1 Just a mossy branch, but the light was good.  This is my favourite.

2. The “other” side of mooring at Braunston

3. A visitor at Foxton Locks

4. perhaps the roses on our cans are more realistic than we think.  Actually I think this butterfly looks like
an old plane ready to take off

5. Crab apple blossom I think.  there was a bumper crop this autumn.

6. At last a peacock that doesn’t squawk – on the S. Oxford

7. A Richmond on Thames heron looking, as all herons do, grumpy and miserable

The people have spoken

Back to a more normal blog view.  Blogger’s new tricks didn’t find favour with you lot out there and I’m inclined to agree.  We’re not quite back to how we were, but near enough for now.

Meanwhile winter draws on and it’ll soon be time for the start of the ever popular Herbie Awards season in which we consider the best and worst of the years cruising, pubs, events and all that stuff. Will there be new and exciting categories this year?  There might be if you can suggest any.  Also what about the Herbie Special Award for someone who deserves it for their actions this year.  This year I’m inviting nominees from readers of the blog.  Thinking caps on folks.

An experiment -any views on views?

Blimey, what’s all this?
I thought I’d try out Blogger’s new Dynamic Views.  There are a number to choose from and some are more startling than others. if you click on where it says Magazine on the black bar at the top, you can see the blog in all sorts of strange new formats.

Some of them do have the advantage of encouraging you to look back at older posts and perhaps browse the blog rather than just reading the latest post.   I rather fancy the Flipcard view, but perhaps it might be too confusing for the casual visitor.

Sore fingers

I’ve got really sore fingers from rubbing down.  Not paint this time but brass.  People who bother to polish the mushroom vents on their boat will know the feeling. For a change though, this brass has nothing to do with boats. It’s more to do with something to keep me occupied while I can’t go boating. It’s my new clock.  Well, when I say new I mean 40 or 50 years old.  This clock will never live on the boat.  Apart from being too big, it is a pendulum clock.  Imagine that trying to work while the boat rocks in the wind!

 

There are lots of brass sub assemblies like this

all tarnished with age and the object is to take it all to bits and using wet and dry paper and metal polish get them back to a shiny state.  I have of course taken photos from every angle, otherwise I’ll never get it back together again. Just like me getting the clock in the first place, this is all entirely Rick’s fault.  He has a similar clock we he has restored to spectacular condition, I suspect better than new.   I will never achieve that standard, having neither the skill nor the perfectionist tendency, but I won’t be able to look him in the eye if I don’t at least give it a good clean.  Incidentally since his house is full of interesting old clocks, I have been considering referring to Rick in future as The Time Lord. 

Taking a clock to bits is a bit scary, but I suspect I might get it reassembled and working as the bits are nice and big and simple.  By Christmas would be nice.