Excitement all round

Despite the drought, (actually it’s raining as I write –hooray!) we are in a state of some excitement about boating this summer.

I believe the Queen may quite excited too if her minions have informed her that Kath and I will be accompanying her on her Jubillee cruise down the Thames in June.  Admittedly not on the same boat (a tinge of disappointment for her there), but on board Nb Indigo Dream.  Yes, Sue and Richard have generously invited us as crew on the big day, perhaps because we didn’t panic when it got a tad choppy during the trial rehearsal last year (remember my pic of NB Leo looking as though it was about to dive like a submarine).    I believe there will be 998 other boats there too, but I don’t suppose anyone will notice.

The organisers seem to be leaving nothing to chance, having recruited King Canute (well, the Thames Barrier), to stop the tide for a day, a precaution I am very grateful for, having seen how fast the tide can rip through London.  We have had to fill in security forms with the sorts of details you might have to disclose when applying for a job with MI6.  Even now I suspect that we are under constant surveillance from the house opposite and I’m sure I saw a frogman bob up behind Herbie on the Leicester arm recently.  On the form, we had to declare our role on the vessel.  It was decided between us and Richard and Sue that putting me down as tail gunner or munitions technician might fail to rouse the security staff sense of humour, so we settled for crew assistant or some such.  Thinking about it afterwards I would have liked to offer myself as “oiler” which is a splendid job title often seen on old steam ships. 

However it’s not all good news.  There is a strict alcohol ban for the day, including 8 hours before the event! Well everybody has to be a hero sometime.

We get extra treats too, for we have to attend tideway rehearsals during May.  If they are anything like last year’s they should be enjoyably chaotic.

Our own organisation for that period is somewhat less thoroughly planned and we have a lot to fit in.  It is the same weekend as Crick Boat Show and as we have free tickets and Herbie is moored on site we will be attempting to do the show and the Jubillee pageant.  That leaves us with the small matter of getting from Crick to Canary wharf for six am on pageant day and then back again for the rest of the show.

In the weeks prior to all that we also have to fit in our annual sailing weekend on the Norfolk Broads, and then in the week before the Crick show and the pageant, we will be guest crewing on another well known boat, for we’ll be giving Adam a hand in bringing Briar Rose up to Crick from his new moorings at Thrupp wharf.  No not Thrupp on the Oxford.  This one is just north of Milton Keynes on the GU.  There are quite a few heavy locks between there and Crick, not to mention the Watford staircase, so the poor lad needs a hand as Adrian is unavailable.  Actually we’re looking forward to that too.  A chance to work on a superior vessel to our own.

So that’s May and June boating for us – all on other people’s boats.  Herbie will be getting jealous.

Reservoir level charts

Here’s something to freak out all you data freaks.
 
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I used BWs reservoir watch figures to produce this chart,.  I suppose it just tells us what we already know –that there ain’t enough water for the time of year.  The graphs cover the period from January 2011 until March 2012.  The vertical axis shows the percentage fill level of the reservoirs for the canal groups listed. 

What it shows for the Grand Union in particular, is that over the course of last year the reservoirs used up between 70% and 80% of their water, and over this winter we have only put 25% back.  Now that the boating season is under way, we should expect the graphs to turn downhill again albeit at a lesser rate because of the restrictions in place.  Unless we get a lot of rain, it all points to closures by late summer.

A bit about the canal groups:

GU is a bit complicated as it is in three bits – the OXF/GU line covers the Oxford canal and the GU in the Braunston area.  It’s interesting to see that the three GU lines follow pretty much the same course, although the GU north seems to have changed more significantly.

Kennet and Avon looks a bit erratic doesn’t it.  I wonder why that is.

I included the Shroppie/ Staffs & Worcester area mainly to show the contrast once you get north of Brum.  They’re actually better off now than a year ago.  I haven’t shown northern canals such as the Leeds and Liverpool because the chart is getting a bit crowded, but suffice it to say their reservoirs are full!

Never Mind. Rick tells me it rained well in Buckby all day yesterday. That’s the spirit!

Avon calling

There are an alarming number of river Avons, mostly because Avon is an old word for river. Here we see The Avon at Welford, which confusingly is nothing to do with Welford on Avon which is near Stratford.  Same river though. This picture is taken at Welford Northants where the Avon is just a couple of feet wide and six inches deep  ( I think that might classify it as un navigable) and is very close to its source. It runs within a few yards of the canal basin, and   I bet like me, a lot of people mistake it for the reservoir feeder to the canal.  However, it never touches the canal although it continues parallel to the summit of the Leicester line for some miles before peeling off towards Warwick. 

So now you know which Welford is which.  Or do you?  Disconcertingly, there are as many Welfords as Avons and to add to the confusion, one of them is close to the Kennet and Avon canal !  That of course refers to a different Avon, the one that goes out through Bristol, and not the one that rises on Salisbury plain and goes down to Christchurch.  Are you still with me or have you lost the plot by now?

Anyway, I was very happy to find this little stream at Welford because it reminded me of the many happy hours (well years actually) I wasted on the banks of the Avon near Evesham in my youth.  That’s why I called it The River Avon.   I should have dropped a little paper boat onto it at Welford with a message for my brother who still  lives close to the Avon at Offenham. 

I wonder, as everywhere is so dry, where the water comes from, because the little stream had a reasonable flow on it.  Springs I suppose, although I can never work out why springs emerge on high ground.

Anyway next time you are boating through Stratford upon Avon, or down through Pershore to Tewkesbury you’ll know where it all starts.  Make sure you’re on the right Avon though.

Foxton condolences

I’m not sure how you condole a dog, but at Foxton museum it would appear to be obligatory.

When we were at the locks last week I roamed about with the camera trying to capture a sense of what a lovely evening it was.  Quite hard, as the middle distance was quite hazy.  The low sun really picked out the ridge and furrow patterns on the adjacent field.

Standing at the top of the locks you really do a sense of the plunge you take going down the hill to the junction .

The locks have well kept side ponds all the way down and the reflections in this one caught my eye.

Leicester summit pictures and the tale of the Welford pumps.

Back home now with a chance to sort the photos I couldn’t post while we were out.  Here’s my favourite

According to Nicholsons, this bank is the site of the medieval village of Downtown or Downton.  Quite Hockneyesque don’t you think?

Here is one of our buzzard escorts I mentioned last time.  I wish I had a longer lens!

Then, surprise surprise, some water actually flowing into the canal in between Welford and Foxton!  I haven’t got a clue where it comes from but every drop helps.

Up on top of the world at Welford, they currently have two pumps picking up water from below the solitary lock and depositing in the upper arm to keep the boats afloat in the basin.  They also have another pump at the end of the basin feeding a long pipeline over the hill and into the reservoir. 

 

So If there is sufficient water they can actually fill the reservoir from the canal (In thought it was supposed to be the other way round!).  The day we were there, that particular pump wasn’t running and the end of the pipe lay forlorn.

 

Local rumour has it that  BW originally put a higher capacity pump at the basin than they had at the lock, so the basin kept running dry because the lock pump couldn’t keep up.  This was the cause of a badly worded restriction notice from BW warning that the lock might be closed at times in order to top up the basin.  Now it seems they have got the pumping the right way round and the lock is open all the time.

The reservoir, although a little fuller than when we were there in January is still very very low.

In fact, if I have read this gauge right, more than three and a half meters below the full level.  That’s over ten feet in old money.

Next time I’ll sort out some images from Foxton.

To Foxton with aerial support

By jove it's good to be out cruising again!  The canal here on the Watford to Foxton summit is looking very pretty in the spring sunshine.  Daffodils, coltsfoot, primroses and violets,  sticky buds opening and pussy willow in full bloom.  This remote stretch of canal gets better and better as you go further north, and the last few miles into Foxton offers as good a view of typical old England countryside as you can get anywhere.  Sadly I cannot show you pictures of it because I have forgotten to bring the lead that connects my Canon camera to the computer.  From now on I'll use the little Lumix which has an SD card.

From the Welford arm junction almost to Foxton we had wonderful aerial support in the shape of three buzzards circling low over the canal and  following us  along from farm to farm.  Eventually they left off when they came across the territiory of a red kite.  I might have some good buzzard pictures but as I haven't down loaded them I can't really tell yet.

Now the news of Foxton Locks restrictions.  This morning we spoke to one of the lockies who said they had no objection to people going down the locks and on to Market Harborough for a couple of nights and then returning.   We didn't do it however, because we want to get back to Crick on Thursday.  So we got the bus from Foxton into Harborough, where I now sit  to type this courtesy of Wetherspoons WiFi. Drinking coffee I hasten to add!!

Maybe its just the blue skies and sunshine, but it is extremely handsome here.  I'm sure we'll want to return.  As to Foxton village, we have already benefitted from a few very friendly and helpful locals.  Without them we wouldn't have got the bus, for there is no proper bus stop - you just have to wait under a tree and flag the bus down when it appears.  A nice old lady went out of her way to get us bus timetables from the shop and invited us to a coffee morning at the shop and another at the village hall.

Last night we tried out the little Bridge 61 pub at the foot of the locks.  What a little gem.  It could be that our first canal pub of the year  might turn out to be the best.  It's tiny.  Beer is served from the hatch and healthy sized free tatsers of the ales are offered without really asking. This is where the locals huddle for a natter while the tourists ( and Foxton has lots) eat in the Foxton Locks inn next door. It didn't take us long to join in the conversation - about chess believe it or not!.

The beer  is good too.  If you go there try a beer called Inclined Plane.  A contender for Herbie pint of the year if ever there was one.

So there may not be much water, but being out on the boat is still great.

Fear and trepidation–Herbie rides again - but not far by the looks of it!

After the longest break we have ever had from Herbie, we return this weekend with some trepidation.  Did the calorifier (not drained) split open in the 16 degree frost they reported at Crick?  Is the diesel tank full of condensation water?  Is the starter battery flat?  Oh it’s stressful having a boat.

Part of the reason we haven’t been cruising is of course the water situation.  Should we be adding to the problem by going around wasting water through locks just to enjoy ourselves?  Next week we plan to make our long postponed trip to Market Harborough and back, which means going down through Foxton locks and then back up them again 48 hrs later.  Will the lockie frown upon us?  I’m sure I shall feel guilty, but considering we haven’t moved for nearly 6 months, not too guilty.

As to the rest of the season, we’re finding very difficult to plan a long cruise because of various home and social commitments.  How about the upper Thames – another long desired target?  Hmm, crossing the Oxford canal summit which has restrictions, then the upper Thames itself.  Quite shallow up there I reckon.  Will the EA be closing locks?  I reckon they might.

At present the most likely next cruise of any consequence after Market Harborough would be Stratford upon Avon in June.  Six days and 96 locks each way at six hours a day according to canalplan.  We might stretch it to three weeks.  Always assuming there is a route through any stoppages.
Our plan to go to Chester will hopefully go ahead in September if there is any water to go on.  At least by then the Shroppie will have less traffic than the summer hols, when it can get a bit manic if memory serves me right.

Don’t get a boat – you’ll have too many sleepless nights murmuring “what if . . “

Four Hours later

Aaaarghhh!  Now I read on Canalworld forums unconfirmed reports that the lockies at Foxton are indeed asking people their reasons for descending the flight and if they only want to go down and come back a couple of days later, they are being asked not to do it.  So that's that then.  now what do we do?  Restrictions to the right, restrictions to the left.  At least we're on a 20 mile summit pound, so I suppose we can cruise up and down that and perhaps pop down to Welford (although Welford lock may be closed).  This summer I can see us doing more camping and less boating.

Bad tidings

Gloomy news is flooding in from all directions.  Well, when I say flooding I really mean the opposite because the gloomy news is about drought.  BW has this week announced a slew of new restrictions to locks on the Grand Union, especially in the Chiltern summit area and through Braunston and Calcutt.  At this rate Herbie will be marooned at Crick before summer really arrives.  Amy on Lucky Duck tells us today that the Northampton Arm will be completely closed for lengthy periods, thus isolating the Nene and the fens from the rest of the system for weeks at a time.

Not that I blame BW.  If they don’t impose these restrictions now, it won’t be long before we get total stoppages.  BW have just published their March reservoir watch stats and whilst holdings on the GU  have improved by between 7 and 9% over the last month, they are still at a historically low level for the time of year.  The worst bit seems to be GU North which is still only at 41.2%.  “Our bit”, which they call Oxford and GU, is not much better at 46.6%.  Worst of all is the Birmingham navigations whose reservoir holdings are at a worrying 35.9%.

As with domestic water supplies, they have no problems further to the North West where holdings are mostly in the 85 –95% region.  Well we did have the idea of heading up to Trent and Mersey and the Shroppie this summer, so that still looks sensible.  I am reminded of our very first narrowboat holiday in 1988 when we did the Shroppie and this photo of me then sums it up fairly well.

 

Come on rain, where are you?  I promise not to complain.  For the first month anyway.

Rain water diverters

I got a comment from Oakie who has a newish, but rather good blog http://nbstronghold.blogspot.com in which he shows us some of his handy boat modifications and some splendid castle painting.  Oakie’s boat was built by the same people who built Herbie, in the same year too, so I was a bit surprised that a good feature of Herbie is not on his boat Stronghold.

Here is what I’m talking about.

See those shiny grey things sticking out across the roof from the handrail just forward of the hatch.  I guess they might have been added by Roy, Herbie’s previous owner, because he was full of good ideas like that and they are made of hardwood – Roy’s favourite substance.  What are they for?  Well most narrowboats don’t sit level on the water most of the time, they sit lower at the back, so water on the roof runs towards the back deck.  Those sticky outy things on the roof make sure that the rain water goes out through the drain holes just forward of them and doesn’t pour onto the rear deck lockers, which is the problem Oakie seems to have.

Simples. –and they really work too.

Why we couldn’t be live-aboards

I don’t understand how people live on narrowboats.  It’s not the weather or the narrowness or the watery life that would prevent me.  Its the lack of room for hoarding stuff.  I’m currently half way through clearing out our loft at home in readiness for men to come and lay new insulation.  Already I have brought down the ladder enough stuff to sink the average narrowboat.  I can’t ever see us getting into feng shui or minimalist room layouts – we just seem to be natural hoarders.

This has been a wonderful voyage of rediscovery though.  Old books, games, clothes, photos, broken musical instruments I mean to repair one day.  Not to mention old suits and trousers ready for when I once again have a 32” waist.  Letting go of some of this stuff is a challenge, especially for Kath who still can’t bear to part with our Peter’s toddler clothes ( he now weighs about 16 stone!).    However the profusion of charity shops that now occupy half of our (and most people’s) town centre gives us an opportunity to feel good about letting go.

What is rather more irksome is that about half of what we have found has gone straight to the tip.  Not that I mind dumping it, it’s just that we have been storing all this worthless junk for years and years.  It’s a bit like my favourite definition of a fridge, which is “a place to store food until it is rotten enough to throw away”.

What has been good has been the chance to get our kids to face reality.  A goodly proportion of our house seems to be dedicated to providing a home for their stuff, even though they haven’t lived here for donkeys years.  This week I have been writing ruthless emails like “Your Commodore Amiga 500 and discs and manuals  - ebay or charity shop or tip?”  Note I haven’t included the “keep” option.  So far the main result has been to get them to admit that they’ll never need this stuff again and just to let it go.  Why then did they ask me to keep it all in the first place?

So, soon we’ll be partially cleansed – not fully of course, we still have the shed and the garage and the conservatory and the cupboard under the stairs bursting with rubbish.  I mean you never know when we’ll want our ice skates again or when we’ll find a need for half a dozen quality cameras that use good old film.

So I guess all this disqualifies us from permanent residence afloat.  We just couldn’t do without our clag. 

Boating–just what the doctor ordered.

Interesting programme on telly last night.  Horizon I think.  For those who didn’t see it, it concerned weight loss and fitness and some new research by academics in various countries that is showing that traditional long held beliefs about fitness and exercise are somewhat askew.  To cut a long story short, it seems that whilst sweating it out in a gym for hours a week does no harm, it is in fact is no better for your general health than a few very short, very intensive bursts of exercise.  In this case the presenter, a doctor, was asked to go flat out (and he really did go hell for leather)  on an exercise bike for three twenty second periods, three times a week.  This it was claimed is all the cardio vascular exercise you need in order to get healthy.

At this point I couldn’t help recalling our descent of the Hatton locks flight last year.  Those big lock paddle mechanisms are just right.  Twenty seconds of lung bursting activity every few minutes.  I have a habit of jokingly chanting “It’s doing me good, it’s doing me good” at such times and now it seems that that might be true.

The other interesting finding of the programme was that sitting still for long periods does you no good.  In fact it can be harmful.  You don’t have to leap about and fling heavy weights all day, just get up and walk about a bit at least every hour.  Even just standing is better than sitting.  Perhaps that’s why my mum lived until she was 94.  She couldn’t sit still for 5 minutes.  Anyway doesn’t all this sound like a day boating?  On your feet all day, frequent opportunities to walk about a bit and occasional bursts of frantic exercise.

Maybe that explains why Kath and I are laid so low with a fluey virus at the moment.  We haven’t been boating since well before Christmas. 

Next time I go off boating, I can say I’m only doing it for health reasons

The difference between buying cars and buying boats

Our family (me , Kath, our daughter Claire and the grandchildren) have all been laid low these past two weeks with some kind of flu like lergy.  In fact it hasn’t gone away yet, we keep having relapses.  That’ll teach us, Kath and I have  been on a weight losing campaign since Christmas –strict healthy eating, exercise and no booze.  There’s a lesson there somewhere. 

However we haven’t been as bad as my poor old car, now ten years old and 130,000 miles.  It nearly had a terminal event last week, a suspected gearbox failure.  At that age we were ready to evoke the Do Not Resuscitate rule as the repair would have cost twice what the car is worth.  I was qetting quotes from recycling yards to take her away.  Then at the last minute I softened, and I sanctioned a short investigative operation at our local garage and it turned out to be just a drive shaft bearing failure, so after a short operation the patient is restored to health.  We have however cruelly decided to get another younger model before the old one costs us any more.

Being house bound with the lergy, I have been car shopping on the net.  Plenty of cars there, ebay, Autotrader etc.  Pretty much like browsing for boats on brokers’ web sites.  Then I came across something quite different.  OK for cars but not for boats.  You see the thing about narrowboats is that almost every one is different.  Granted you can get a standard Liverpool boat or a formulaic Polish jobby, but in general narrowboats are bespoke.  Contrast with cars where companies like Ford churn out hundreds of thousands of identical Focuses (or should that be Foci?).  That’s were Tesco’s come in.  (Bear with me I - have not lost the plot.)

Someone at Tesco has realised that one used low mileage Focus Zetec TDCi estate, say, is much like another.  So much so that if they could assure the customer of the car’s good condition through independent surveys and money back guarantees, they could sell the car unseen. Try that with a boat.  Furthermore, they sell the car before they even receive it!  What they do is get the cars from leasing companies at the end of lease.  The end of lease date is known in advance, and from the service history, the likely mileage is calculated in advance.  The car is advertised on the web at a fixed price(cheaper than forecourts because of the low cost of doing it this  way) and the purchaser puts a £99 deposit on the unseen car which is then taken off the site and allocated to the customer.  The car eventually arrives and the RAC give it a thorough going over (all in the price).  The customer gets the RAC report and if he or she is happy the deal goes ahead, although the customer can first go to inspect the car personally if they like. They can in fact walk away and get their £99 back at any time before they finally commit. Once the customer is happy the fixed price is paid, the customer gets a 7 day money back guarantee and a free short but full warranty to cover any unseens.  Simples.  The testimonials on the web site all say one thing – a scary way to buy a car, but it works and everyone would do it again.

Is this the future of boats sales?  Will Whilton marina advertise a five year old Steve Hudson tug due in shortly and sell it unseen? Hmmm I doubt it somehow.

Hang on though. What about new boats? Well they’re almost all bought unseen aren’t they,  because they are built to order and bespoke.  Compared with buying a used car unseen, having a new boat built for you must be  really scary.  Will the builder go broke half way through?  Many have.  Will the builder produce precisely what you asked for?  Many don’t.  Will the original price hold good until the end? Hardly ever.  (admittedly often the customer’s fault for changing his mind halfway through, or over looking things at the beginning).  Or worse still will the builder turn out to be less than trustworthy?    A certain Mr BH springs to mind.

No, to me, buying a new boat is more scary than buying an unseen used car from Tescos.