Out again at last

Back on Herbie for a two day trip in the sun. The spring wildlife is well in evidence now with lots of ducklings, and coot and moorhen chicks about.

More unusually, we spotted this terrapin basking on a log at the edge of the Slough Arm. We had seen one before in London, but not here.

We stopped off at Uxbridge Boat Centre to enquire about a suitable anchor and chain etc for Thames crusing - £93 ! I guess we'll have to have one though for safety reasons. Uxbridge is not the prettiest place on the canal , but once you get above the lock things become very pleasant again.

We moored up for the night in a favourite spot above Denham lock before returning next day via Denham Marina where wqe bought a new ash boat pole. Before that Kath (bless her) spent a happy half hour in the engine bay mopping up the remnants of spilt oil from our old oil leak. Now the engine floor tray is squeaky clean. Fresh newspaper under the engine tells us we still have a small drip, but nothing of significance.

Next week we're off to help our son Richard to move his narrowboat up the Ouse to have her bottom blacked, then we're off for a weekend sailing on the Norfolk Broads with friends, and then we hope to take herbie out for a longer trip. let's hope the fine weather continues.

Here we go here we go here we go

Normal life has been suspended in recent weeks in preparation for the wedding of our daughter Claire. A rare family photo (plus Joe , Claires new spouse)- our kids are hardly ever all together at the same time. Doesn't little Jacob look dapper!

Although it was only a small affair she elected to have the reception at our house, so I had to get the house and garden ready while Kath made Claire's wedding outfit. Anyway it all went off well, the sun shone and now we're back to some semblance of normality.

So tomorrow we're back on Herbie for a couple of days. We need to pick up a new boat pole from Denham and hopefully an anchor and chain etc for our forthcoming trip up the Thames. More money :-(

We have been hoping to detour down the Wey navigation and the Basingstoke canal whilst doing the Thames but they all need separate licences. The short visitor licence on the Wey won't give enough time to branch off it up the Basingstoke, or even to get straight down the Wey and back without putting in quite long days. I wish they'd get their act together and do a decent joint 10 day licence at a reasonable cost. The BW licence begins to look comparatively good value even at over 500 quid for a year. At least you get hundreds of miles of canal and free mooring almost everywhere.

Other boats

Herbie sits waiting for her spring cruise while we are busy at home. However we never seem to be far from a boat. Last weekend I was up in Galloway where I spotted this one looking in need of a bit of TLC.

On the way home I popped in to see Rick and we had a look at the impressive model he made of the Norfolk Wherry Albion.

We had sailed together aboard Albion in 1973 (Rick is seen in the centre here)

and spotted her again when we were on the Broads last year. She is a magnificent boat, built in 1898 and still going strong.

Ugly ducklings no longer

I had to go into Reading today, so I popped down to the swan sanctuary area on the Thames near Caversham Bridge. Last years cygnets now have only a few brown feathers remaining. Actually I rather like them as they are.

I couldn't resist this next photo opportunity

The river is still flowing fast, but looks more benign than last week.

This coming weekend I'm off with my pipes to Gatehouse of Fleet in Galloway, Scotland for an "empirical workshop" organised and hosted by my good friend Jock Agnew of the Lowland and Border Piper's Society. I've booked myself in to a small hotel which I discover was recently awarded the accolade of Best Pub in Southern Scotland. I can't wait!

Jolly boating weather - but not for us:-(

Here in South East England the weather has been beautiful all week. I should have been out on the boat, but I need to attack the garden while its dry. I'll probably neglect it all summer so it needs a good spring clearup to keep it in some sort of shape.

Meanwhile after weeks of wet weather, the rivers are still very high with floodwater. The Thames at Reading last weekend was all over the adjacent meadows (in this pic the actual river is somewhere in the distance)

and roaring along like a train. Footpaths become swimming pools.

I pity those poor souls who keep there boats on the river. I don't know how they sleep when the river is so full. Is the boat tied up securely enough? Will it be deposited on the bank when the floods susbside? I'm very glad we're safely tied up on a canal where the level rarely goes up or down by more than an inch, and there is no current to speak of.

Tale of Three Cats

They say things come in threes. Well, they did in the last couple of weeks. Three totally separate cat related events. The first was amazing, alarming and somewhat stressful.

In the gales we lost a tile from the roof at home and because it was out of sight from the ground, we didn't know until the rain started dripping though the landing ceiling. A quick nip up to the loft spotted the hole and later that day the tile was replaced. End of story, or so we thought. It wasn't until a few days later that we heard a cat meeowing and scratching over the back bedroom (which has a flat roof).

Next evening we heard the same and it became apparent that the cat was somewhere in the loft, although a search through all the boxes and stuff revealed nought. Then I spotted some cats poo on top of the loft hatch. It must have got in when the tile was off and became trapped when it was replaced.

Next time we heard the noises we could tell it was not in the open part of the loft but behind the plasterboard in the void over the stairs. A search with a torch revealed how the pussy had tunnelled through the fibreglass insulation down into the void. Here you can see the tunnel.

We had visions of the poor thing starving to death and me having to cut holes in the wall to retrieve the body. Calls to the RSPCA were disappointing to say the least. I have to say we were not impressed by their lack of response. They seemed more interested in getting my name for their fund raising mailing list. Suffice it to say I shall not be making a donation.

Anyway, we put a nice smelly tin of tuna in the loft and next morning it had all gone. So at least we knew the cat was able to move about and we could keep it alive. It was now over a week since the tile had been replaced and still we hadn't seen the cat, although every night it made a racket and ate our food, and every day it went quiet. We left the loft open with a ladder in place constantly, but to no avail. Then, on Thursday, twelve days after the incident began it decided to show itself at the loft hatch, meeowing loudly. With a piece of tune in one hand to entice it, several attempts were made to grab it until at last Kath managed to seize the cat, receiving a nasty scratch in the process, bring it down. It was a sizeable tabby and despite our fear, it looked in good health although it was obviously hungry. Here it is on our doorstep. I turns out it belonged to a neighbour round the corner who was used to it disappearing for days at a time.

The second cat belongs to a boat which moors near Herbie. It paid me a visit yesterday when I was aboard and wouldn't go away. Not that I mind a friendly cat, but after our recent experience I didn't want to inadvertently trap it aboard Herbie when I locked up and went away for a week! Every time I put it out the back door it would sneak back in the front. Needless to say I did a thorough search before locking up.

Finally, our new ship's cat for Herbie. No problem this one, it just lies there curled up. Well there's not much else a cat made of cardboard and rabbit's fur can do.

This one is a copycat, being a replica of the famous Mrs Chippy, the cat that accompanied the Shackleton expedition to the South Pole.

Navigation by pubs

I just came across an amusing waterways map of the greater London area on the web site of the London Waterways Recovery Group. I'll leave you to follow the link rather than risk infringing their copyriht by putting the map here. Suffice it to say I like it very much as it uses pubs as the only landmarks and copies the familiar London Transport map style.

Here's a picture of another pub landmark lurking behind a weeping willow.

The Rising Sun heralds our entrance to Berkhamstead, a town well endowed with pubs, none of which (amazingly) we have yet sampled! Must put that right this year.

Time and (Semi) Tide

Signs of spring and thoughts of trips to come. March 1st and the daffodils are out on the roundabouts and roadsides near us. British Waterways is nearing the end of its annual stoppage programme and we'll have a free run up the canal again.

I've been researching the journey up the Thames to Oxford and beyond. We have to buy an additional visitors boat licence for this, costing £75 for 15 days. Ouch! Should we wish to venture up the Wey Navigation (belonging to the National Trust) on our way past, that would be another £26 for 3 days or £51 for 7 days. Hmmm. All that is on top of our standard BW licence which this year is £540 odd. At least with the BW licence you can moor overnight almost anywhere on the canals for free. On the Thames you often have to pay a few quid.

Just before we enter the Thames from the canal, we go through a short stretch described as "semi tidal". I had to find out what this means. The Thames itself at Brentford is fully tidal and sealed off from the canal by a lock. Surplus water in the canal spills over a weir alongside the lock. When the tide below the lock goes out, the level in the canal stays at the level of the weir, but when a high tide comes in, it overtops the weir and raises the level above the lock. Semi tidal - geddit? Beyond the next lock further up the canal the tide has no effect.

Once we get on to the tidal Thames we dash upstream an hour and a half to Teddington, where there is a big lock above which the tide cannot reach.

A dream trip

I've been reading up on the restoration of the Cotswold canals, which when completed would link the upper Thames to Gloucester and the Severn / Bristol channel. For me it would provide and almost perfect circular route. Down to Brentford on the GU, up the Thames to Lechlade, down to Gloucester via Stroud, up the Severn to Tewkesbury, then onto the Avon through Evesham (near where I was brung up), to Stratford, then up to the Midlands to pick up the GU for the journey home.

The Cotswold Canals Trust has been doing sterling work in pursuing the restoration and are well on there way on this very ambitious project. It might well be another ten years before the trip becomes a reality, but if we still have a boat and are fit, I'd love to give it a go.

Take a look at the Costwold Canals website. Each year they run the Saul Canal Festival, near Gloucester, to raise funds. Rumour has it is that it is a superb event with masses to see and superb entertainment.

A somewhat larger waterway

We haven't been to the canal this week, but we did pop down to Portsmouth on Friday. An interesting contrast in boating scenes. How about this boat passing the local pub. The captain could practically reach out and grab a pint as he passed!

or the Mary Rose, still under a constant spray of water after all these years

I'm well pleased with the zoom lens on my camera. Here are two shots of Pompey's famous Spinnaker Tower taken from the same distance. We were in a boat at the time so the angle changes a bit.

Not bad for a camera that cost 150 quid.

Life on the straight and narrow

The Slough arm is straight, narrow and five miles long, and there always seems to be something interesting to see. Take this week for example. We've been staying on the boat the last few days but not going anywhere. That's partly because the Arm is cut off from the rest of the canal network for a fortnight. At the end where the arm meets the Grand Union at Cowley Peachey, they are inspecting and refurbishing the ARP gates.



"And what are ARP gates?" you rightly ask. Well after some research, (i.e. asking the good folk on the uk.rec.waterways internet newsgroup), it turns out they are Air Raid Precaution gates that can seal off sections of the canal if a major breach occurs. In that way a major loss of water from a huge area can be prevented. My guess is that our ARP gates are installed because the Slough arm passes over three aqueducts, which if breached would empty the canal between there and Ealing, where the next ARP gates are. On that section there are no lock gates to trap any water loss.

We went to see the repairs 9 days after the work commenced and all we could see was the fabric dams in place either side of the gates, so we don't know if the work is nearly finished or hardly started, or just stalled. Contractors boats were around, but it was lunchtime so no workers were to be seen.

There are at least a couple of hundred boats moored (i.e. trapped at the moment) in the Arm. You can see some of them in the picture. These are the ones at Packet Boat marina. The rest are with us down at Iver. To be fair though I doubt if more than half a dozen would have been out at this time of year anyway.

The previous day we walked from our boat to the other end of the Arm. The "basin" at Slough, five miles from the junction at Cowley Peachey. It would be fair I guess to describe the basin as unimpressive. Somewhere to turn round and go back.

There isn't even a good pub there :-( . Previously we had been only as far as the winding hole about 2 miles from the basin.

The rest of the Arm is OK and worthy of a cruise or a walk. Straight, narrow, and surprisingly quiet. The immediate edges are mostly reeded and there is plenty of wild life in evidence. According to an angler we met, there are plenty of fish, including pike to over 20 pounds.

At intervals there are also industrial sites, the biggest being the giant ICI paints factory at the Slough end. I guess this is where Dulux comes from. Surprisingly, it doesn't smell of paint, although there where one or two nasty niffs as we passed.

On the way back we detoured into Langley village with its old almshouses and the inviting looking Red Lion pub, which looks cottagey at the front but has a huge dining extension at the rear.

Back at the boatyard, Wednesday was the monthly craning day when boats are lifted in and out of the canal for hull surveys, blacking, repairs etc. Craning is expensive, over £200 per boat, but it does need a huge crane and a lot of manpower to sling and steady the boat. I wouldn't like to think of the consequences of a boat being dropped!

Watching the lifting is entertaining. It appears to need eight people. Four on the boat to adjust the balance. The boat swings alarmingly if the straps aren't in the right place. Two on the bank to hold the boat in line with fore and aft ropes. One to operate the crane, and one to supervise and give commands. The guy in the silly trousers is the marine surveyor waiting to do his bit once the boat is safely lowered onto the yard.

A final trip to round out year one

Insurance renewals remind us that it’s now a year since we took over Herbie (well 9 Feb actually). As a final trip we took out Steve, my best man thirty years ago, and Kathy Fordham for a quick run up to the Malt Shovel at Cowley and back. It was a cold but sunny day and once again we caught glimpses of the Slough Arm Kingfisher(s).

Time to look at our stats for the year. 75 days aboard, 523 miles cruised and 394 locks negotiated. Do you think we now qualify as boaters? I’m sure some would say we’ve barely started, but I reckon we’re not wasting the asset anyway. One of the things that has been nice is entertaining friends aboard, we’ve had 16 friends/ family members as crew so far, many visiting more than once, and we hope to increase that in the coming year.

Two more things we hope to achieve in year two are 1) undertaking a long trip (several weeks continuous), and 2) refreshing the paint on the roof and front and rear decks, and possibly also the name panel.

Back at Herbie’s base, we moor up against Lady Elgar, a beautiful boat with fine paintwork and some proper traditional fittings, including a boatman’s cabin inside, plus some very non trad things such as a computer workstation. Sadly her current owner is seldom to be seen, but her original owner Trevor Pavitt has just published a book about his travels on her. Trevor and his wife spent a number of happy years living and cruising on Lady Elgar and seems to have covered virtually the whole of the inland waterways system. You can see pictures and find out about the book at

www.trevorpavitt.co.uk. I dropped Trevor an email to say we were LE’s new neighbours and he replied quoting the paragraph at the end of his book when he and his wife finally walked away from the boat with tears streaming down their faces. Well, even though she seldom moves these days, she is still a lovely boat and looks in good nick. We tread very respectfully on her stern each time we cross over her to board Herbie.