First award awarded - Best Overnight Mooring

After due deliberation, the 2008 Herbie Award for Best Overnight Mooring* goes to (drum roll while golden envelope is opened) - Hertford Visitor moorings. Loud applause.

I suspect Andrew on Granny Buttons might agree, as he wrote in praise of these moorings (and Hertford) only the other day. Our runner up was Limehouse Basin, which is a great play to stop over because of the surounding history and geography, but mooring up against a wall two feet higher than the boat, precludes bankside picnics etc. What is more, at Limehouse you are only supposed to stay for 24hrs (although a friendly word with the lockies will often secure an extension).

At Hertford, on the other hand you can stay for (I think) a fortnight, the grassy bank is well kept and has good mooring bollards. The river itself is very clear and the abundant ribbon weed looks pretty waving in the gentle current, and amazingly seems to avoid tangling round the prop. The people on the allotments and the locals out for a stroll along the bank all seem relaxed and sociable, and the nearby town centre still retains independent shops and a bit of character. As to pubs, there is the excellent Old Barge which I can reveal will be a nominee for Best Pub. (coming soon).

Well done Hertford.

*Of course, this applies only to places we have stayed this year.

Most scenic day's cruise -nominations

Whilst readers wait with bated breath for the result of the Herbie Award for Best Overnight Mooring we now turn to nominations for this year's Most Scenic day's Cruise. I checked back to last year to see what my criteria were when the award was won by Linslade to Fenny Stratford on the GU. Umm, well I didn't seem to have any criteria then! I suppose Most Scenic is self explanatory, although I should say I will include urban scenery alongside rural.

So the nominations are:

1. The Thames from Brentford to Weybridge - lots and lots to see, and from stately mansions to fascinating bridges to quirky boats and boathouses to channels around the numerous islands. We enjoyed it a lot.

Our first glimse of the Thames after entering at Brentford

Bridges at Richmond

The Desborough Cut between Walton and Weybridge

2. The Wey navigation from Send to Godalming. At times this looked like a Constable painting, with lush watermeadows and distant church spires. Even the centre of Guildford was a pleasant surprise. Some of the bridges too on this stretch are wonderfully rustic. No surprise it is all managed by the National Trust.

Near Godalming

Lush greenery everywhere on the Wey

The meadows at Guildford

3. The river Stort from Roydon to Bishops Stortford. Narrow, snakey, and largely rural, enhanced by its new sculpture trail, and marred only by the unattractive last mile into Bishops Stortford.

Breakfast time on the Stort near Harlow

Another bend on the Stort slalom!

Interesting that all three nominations this year are on rivers rather than canals.

Is this the thinnest balance beam on the waterways?

Not only does the Stort have the craziest footbridge (see previous post), I reckon it also has the thinnest balance beam on a full size lock. OK I know the Stort locks aren't as big as normal double width locks, but they're still bigger than the single locks found all over the midlands.

Anyway, this one is at Harlow, just by the railway station if my memory serves me right. I don't have a clue why it was made this thin. I suppose it was about four inches square. I thought balance beams were supposed to counteract the weight of the gate, and the gate was normal size. I remember the gates were easy to open and close, so it works OK.

If you've seen a slimmer one, I'd be interested to know of it.

Is this the craziest bridge on the canals?

I don't mean crazy in the perjorative sense, just a bit zany I suppose. This footbridge is at Bishops Stortford, and it's virtually imposible to fully capture in a photograph because of its size and complexity. It has all sorts of angles and loops, partly I suppose to allow disabled access. Google Earth doesn't show it as far as I can tell, which is a pity, as an arial photo might make sense of it. Presumably, it's very new. Anyway, for your delectation here are some on the pics I took as we passed beneath it in September. Incidentally, there is a very good chinese buffet restaurant just at the side of the bridge.

Nominations for best overnight stop

Time to consider the first of the 2008 Herbie award nominations - Best Overnight Mooring

What makes a really good overnight mooring stop? Here are some ideas, although a couple are mutually exclusive

Attractive surroundings (whether rural or urban)
Safety and security
Nearby facilities - good shops, pub etc
Other boaters for company
Solitude
Reverse gongoozling (people watching)
A good bank side to sit out on (no dog poo)
Good walks nearby

I like all these things at different times. Of the places we've stopped this year, favourites that spring to mind are:

Hertford visitor moorings - safe, quiet, but with a couple of other boaters and occasional passers by to chat to, attractive enough, a good grassy bank, a very good pub (the Old Barge) and handy shops

Limehouse basin - safe, spectacular city landscape with lots to look at, interesting walks around dockland, The Grapes pub, handy small shops

Paddington basin (not the Basin itself but just round the corner near the Station)- safe, loads of reverse gongoozling, more pubs and shops than you could shake a stick at, a "patio" to sit on, and easy access to the rest of London on public transport

Just outside Thames lock at the entry to the Wey navigation - like a private garden, safe and quiet, immaculately kept, but nothing much to see.

The bottom of Hanwell flight by the Fox is good but fails the dog poo test

Normally, we'd have had some more rural landscapes to draw on, but this year we seem to have been a bit more urban in our travels. The Stort was rural but no moorings took our fancy to a great degree. I think some spots on the Wey are beautiful, but not many of the really rural bits would make good places to tie up. Small rivers are beautiful, but often not that convenient for stopping.

Any Herbie crew reading this might like to add or respond before the decision is made.

Bio Magic trial report

Boaters (and possibly caravanners) will happily read this, because it's about toilets - a favourite subject. The rest of you can look away now if you are squeamish as some of the following is a tad graphic.

We've been trialling Bio Magic, and alternative to the usual bue formaldehide toilet fluids like Aqua kem and Elsan fluid. Bo Magic is clear and odourless and claims to work by supplying the natural bacteria in your poo with lots of oxygen so they can break it down quickly and without odour. I'm not sure what the chemical formula is. The bottle just says the contents are water, oxygen and nitrogen. Anyway it claims to be perfectly safe, non staining etc etc and it very probably is.

We tried it in an effort to be environmentally responsible and to get rid of the chemical smell of the blue stuff. Previously we had tried Aqua Kem green which was frankly disgusting.

We've now used Bio Magic a number of times and here are our conclusions. I should add that we are using it in a cassette toilet.

Does Bio Magic work?

Yes it seems to. Everything is odourless and it really does breakdown the tank contents in a matter of a couple of hours. Even the loo paper. All you get when you empty the tank is liquid, so the tank cleans out easily. For the foreseeable future, we'll keep using it.

The downside? Well the resulting liquid is brown and not pretty blue but I can live with that as it all pours away so easily. You need to thoroughly clean out your holding tanks before using the product so that the bacteria aren't killed by formaldehide residue. Our impression was that Bio Magic worked better after a few cycles. The bacteria run out of oxygen after three days so if you don't empty the tank before then, you need to add another dose. Bio Magic is quite a lot more expensive than blue stuff if you buy it in small quantities. We will be buying it in the larger sizes from now on as they are much cheaper and it claims to have an indefinite shelf life. You can get the cost down to below 10p a day this way.

Has anyone else out there tried it? I'd like to know how you got on.

Finally I should say that we have no connection whatever with whoever makes or sells the stuff.

Odd sights in the capital

I've at last sorted through the pics from last weekend's trip through London. I'm reminded of the contrasts between city bustle and our separate existence on the canal.

Having a leisurely breakfast outside at Paddington is always fun, eating our cereal whilst the commuters scurry past.

Going down St Pancras lock we see the gas holder frame which in the near future is going to be filled not by gas but by a circular block of apartments. Someone told me they were even going to move it over to the left of this picture while they were at it.

Catching glimpses of the famous landmarks is always interesting whether it be the gherkin peeping over the skyline as we come up Ducketts Cut, or Canary wharf tower seen with its head in the clouds as we swing into Limehouse cut.

Cruising through London is good. If you haven't already tried it, then you should.

Tremors

Being a Worcestershire man myself, I had to smile this weekend at the headline "Eartquake rattles teacups in Worcester - 15 people call police". Such is the pace of life over in the British countryside.

We had plenty of rattling teacups on Herbie this weekend, mostly from tremors caused by plastic bags around the prop. I think we broke all records on the number of times we visited the weedhatch. Janet pointed out that a lot of the bags were knotted at the top and wondered if they were doggy poop bags. I used not to mind clearing bags off the prop but she's put me right off it! Mercifully they were all empty and clean by the time the prop had minced and rinsed them.

Another problem was the build up of fallen leaves that seem to stick themselves to the prop. The boat gradually slows down until, every ten minutes or so, you have to engage reverse gear and rev up to shed them.

More leaf trouble - Herbie nestles under a maple tree at our moorings and I'm noticing that the fallen leaves leave brown stains on our newly painted roof. What a drag.

Sea trials reveal flaw in CanalOmeter design - ESB factor results in a dark homecoming

All went well with my new paddingtonOmeter and regentscanalOmeter as we cruised down to Limehouse on Friday and Saturday. The calculations worked out pretty well and we arrived in good time each day.

However Monday was different. A new and hitherto unforeseen element came in to play and Herbie was forced to negotiate the narrow Slough Arm in near darkness.

It all started when we stopped off at the Black Horse at Greenford for a scheduled break. We arrived spot on schedule, leaving time for a quick pint and a snack. That's when the ESB factor hit us. Phil and I both agreed it was the best pint of Fullers ESB that we had tasted in a very long time, and over a packet of crisps it was decided that we really ought to have another, and maybe we could make up time later.

Sadly the ESB clouded our judgement, so that half an hour after resuming our journey we decided to stop off in the park at Yeading to eat our Toulouse sausage baguettes rather than eat them on the move. Now nearly an hour late we set off for home in the gathering gloom. We thought it would be light until 5.30, but along the Slough arm it is very shaded and I was steering by a faint reflective glimmer on the water surface all the way down. By the time we arrived back at that time we had the tunnel light on. Miraculously we moored up against Lady Elgar without so much as nudging her.

One solution to this would be to avoid drinking nice beer at lunchtime, but as designer of the CanalOmeter I think it would be better to put a warning notice on the device and advice on adjusting factors in the case of beer of a particularly strong and delicious nature.

Another good pub find and a crazy building

It’s funny how doing a familiar journey with new companions gives you a fresh look at places. Today we cruised from Paddington to Limehouse with Phil and Janet and discovered a number of things new to us although we have done the trip ourselves quite a few times now.

We’re always happy to discover a good pub, and as Phil is partial to a lunchtime pint we stopped off at the Narrow Boat just below city road basin. From the canal this looks like more like a wine bar, but entering from street level above the canal revealed a comfortable bistro style bar with three good real ales and what looked like a tasty menu. There is mooring right outside too. Another fine addition to our favourite watering holes list.

Despite a gloomy weather forecast it stayed dry and we arrived at Limehouse basin in time to explore the area on foot before dark. There seems to b e something interesting around every corner, and one thing we hadn’t stumbled on before was the crazy portico of the Limehouse Link tunnel. This huge edifice of pink and cream stone looks like something from radio GaGa or King Kong. The building stands a good forty feet higher than the top of the tunnel and probably contains something. Maybe in the morning I’ll wander back over and take a photo.

Last night we had the first of three sessions of Desert Island Discs. Kath did hers, mostly folky things, and the only thing the general population would know was Leonard Cohen. Tonight Phil is doing his. First however we have to do our customary visit to the Grapes and eat some fish and drink some beer.

It’s a hard life.

Herbie Awards 2008

We had a lot of fun last year creating the prestigious Herbie Awards for 2007. It’s a great way to remember the highs and lows of the year and gives rise to some fun arguments. So here we go with the plan for the 2008 awards. Despite a successful procedure last year and some moving acceptance speeches from the winners, I think we should keep innovating and consider some new award categories along with some of the old ones.

Categories we will continue from last year are:

Best overnight mooring
Most scenic days cruise
Best pub
Best pint
Best pub meal
Most scary moment
Worst canal lock
Best guest crew member

New categories will be:

Best gadget for boat maintenance
Best gadget for boating
Worst stretch of canal
Best thing in none of the above categories

Suggestions, discussions, and arguments will be invited from Herbie people (who have cruised on or shared routes with Herbie this year). Should we ever come to decision the results will be announced as and when, between now and Christmas. The Nation holds its breath.

New Mills to Llangollen in a sinking boat, and how Jim MacBeam was invented.

In 1994, in freezing cold weather we took a sinking hire boat from the peak district to Llangollen with our friend Phil. The boat was from Anglo Welsh and we journeyed from New Mills on the Upper Peak Forest Canal, all the way down the Macclesfield canal then down all the 29? locks on Heartbreak Hill to Middlewhich, then across to the Shroppie and up the whole length Llangollen canal. All in six freezing, and sometimes wet, days. To keep costs down we always hired at Easter and just endured the bad weather.

The boat "Silver Cloud" had a leak in the hull and we needed to run the bilge pump for long periods several times a day (and at night) to keep her afloat, and to keep the carpets dry! Here is Phil complete with red nose steering us across the Pontcysyllte aqueduct in a howling gale. Nevertheless the sun was shining and so we got the wonderful shadows.

That night it snowed.

The previous year we cruised the South Oxford Canal with Phil, and again the weather was awful. I think it rained 23 hours a day. It was on that holiday that we concocted the Jim MacBeam, a whisky mac using Jim Beam Bourbon instead of scotch. A couple of those before going in search of pubs with log fires were instrumental in keeping our spirits up.

So it is with some trepidation that we look forward to Phil and wife Janet joining us next weekend for a trip down to Limehouse and back. After several beautiful weekends recently, the forecast doesn't look at all good. Perhaps Phil's middle name is Jonah.