Wednesday 16th December

As the forecast was good for the morning we intended to leave Croxley bright and early. However the first, most important job, was for R to change over the calor gas cylinder or we couldn’t even have a cup of tea! The gas ran out last night but it was too dark to be fiddling about outside.

I filled the lock (laboriously slowly as one of the paddles was not working) and just as we were about to go in Juels Fuels arrived so R decided to wait for them as we needed gas, coal etc. That meant they took our full lock so we had to start again refilling it. Our early start disappeared and then who should appear on the towpath but a friend from Thorpeness. She just happened to be walking along to pick up her car from a nearby garage. I had no idea she lived in Rickmansworth. Her mother, I seem to remember being told, was rather sweet on R’s father before he got married!

Arriving in Rickmansworth was a bit traumatic. R had gone ahead to find a mooring before the lock and as I tried to enter our boat swung right across the canal, being pulled over by the force of a nearby weir. It took R all his strength to try and pull the boat in from the front as he could not reach the centre rope. Eventually he managed to grasp it but still we couldn’t get the back round. It took two experienced boatmen, who happened to be passing, to help haul in the boat and avert disaster. (I got talking to one of them who shared his secret of how he keeps his legs warm – ladies tights!). As R was mooring up on pins that easily sank into the muddy towpath I decided this was not a safe place to stop – visions of our mooring coming adrift and us being sucked into the weir in the night made me suggest we go beyond the next lock. The air turned blue as R was exhausted and understandably did not want to move. However at that moment a boat rose up from the lock so we were able to glide in without having to do any of the preamble and were shortly mooring up in a far safer spot (in my opinion!).

Piping hot water meant it was a good time to have a bath and we then enjoyed a delicious baked potato from the takeaway canalside cafe – a rare treat as baked potatoes take so long to do in our oven that I don’t think they are worth the gas.

Out of necessity we needed to find a laundrette and the nearest one which wasn’t going to charge me a minimum of £25 for a service wash was a half hour walk. As we got closer so the rain started and by the time we had the clothes in the machine it was a steady heavy drizzle but we were not allowed to stay in the laundrette. 35mins later and a coffee from the local BP garage, drunk on the forecourt, saw us back at the laundrette to feed the meter for the tumble dryer. Another 35mins in the rain and the purchase of some black sacks to keep the tumbled dried clothes dry on the walk home, we ventured back to the boat. We have been nearly 8 weeks on the water and I have to say I think today was the first time we have felt done in by the rain. Not to be defeated, we got the boat heating on to dry ourselves out and now the boat is toasty warm with the stove blazing.