Monday 27th June 2022

Relaxing at the Uxbridge Boat Club, watching Wimbledon, after a few intense days of boating. First we travelled from Water Eaton to Berkhamsted and then in two days did what we took three weeks to do in Windrose, our narrowboat in 2020. R needed to get back home and the weekend was when K was also available to journey with us. Two boats in a wide lock makes more sense as there is a risk of damaging a single boat as it can bang from side to side unless you control the water flow  very carefully. K and I didn’t want to have to do too many of the heavy locks alone, hence the urgency of getting as near into London as we could before R left us. Even two boats with three people is tiring so a fourth pair of hands is always welcome – how delighted we were when BBT arrived, windless in hand, early on Saturday morning and  helped us through seventeen locks! Whilst K collected him from Kings Langley (train strike meant he couldn’t just hop on the train to Berk) R and I worked the three locks through the town to catch up with K’s Orange carrot, moored further along than us because she hadn’t been able to find a long mooring spot. Coincidentally she had moored at exactly the same spot as when we had Windrose for a whole month in Berkhamsted in lockdown 2020. A super fit young man, new to boating, was also travelling in our direction so we shared the three locks with him which lightened the load somewhat. He then went on ahead of us and such was his agility, it didn’t seem to take him long to do the whole lock procedure on his own, because it wasn’t until much later in the day we met up with him again.

K was just walking along the towpath with BBT as we moored up alongside her so perfect timing. Knowing the single boater was ahead of us we paused for a cuppa to give him time to get well ahead of us, but unfortunately two boats then snuck in front of us and we realised we’d be in a queue all day! Not unusual as it was Saturday, a busy day on the canals with lots of hire boats also moving about. It surprised us that we didn’t see many boats travelling in the opposite direction which meant every time we arrived at a lock we had to fill it up, which is both a waste of water and time! I love it when we manage to co-ordinate with a boat traveling in the opposite direction. Infact as we were making our way through Hemel Hempstead a boat was about to exit the lock and I recognised the boater as being the daughter of our best man at our wedding! I knew she was somewhere on the GUC but our timing was impeccable! My only sadness was that we did not have time for a proper chat – we realised that we were equidistant from where we were both headed as she had come from our end point and was heading to our starting point, both of us having left four hours previously! It was rather sobering realising we still had four hours ahead of us – we had little choice as BBT had to get back to his car, so no slacking off early. We had actually been delayed by a swing bridge at Winkworth that decided to stop working as we arrived. Locals told us it was often playing up and we could be hanging around a long time for the CRT to come and sort. There was nothing for it than to make use of the hostelry next to the bridge and BBT settled down to eat his lunch, which he had thought he would have to consume as we were going along, as I had said there was no lunch break factored into the day. Little did I know!! What we are discovering is that the best laid plans of mice and men hold no sway on the canals. You can never fully plan as you just don’t know what might go awry. The timings written in our Pearson maps are perfect if you are the only boat on the canal, all the locks are set in your favour and there are no unforeseen adverse circumstances.

Our forced stoppage gave us a second wind and by the time we arrived at the outskirts of Kings Langley BBT was happy to travel further and walk back to his car after working another couple of locks. It made such a difference to our starting point on Sunday morning, one of the benefits being, that we got ahead of the two boats that we had slowly followed all the way on Saturday – every lock we had to wait for them to go through and then we had to refill the lock before we could proceed. As there were two boats following us, we couldn’t even moor up to give ourselves a bit of space from the boats ahead, as we would just have ended up behind them as well!

How BBT had the energy to not only walk back to his car but then drive home I do not know! He and I had done most of the lock operation and it was like a day long workout! Some of the gates required heavy pushing to open them. R was helming due to his knee being very painful and I didn’t want it made it worse by his hopping on and off the boat all day. K needed to helm her boat so that left BBT and me to work the windlesses. Luckily the promised rain did not materialize so, apart from tiredness, it was a great day and we fell into bed exhausted!

Awaking on Sunday, without BBTs help, the day ahead looked rather daunting and so it was! Setting off early we had no visible boats ahead of us. We were on the lookout for a marina to refuel with diesel as we were unsure as to how much fuel we had actually used in the last month and didn’t want to be in the embarrassing position of running out. Up ahead I spied a fuel boat which was great on two fronts. One, they tend to be cheaper and two, they come alongside your boat so no need for any complicated manoeuvres into marinas. The fuel man made the very sensible suggestion of us marking off a dip stick that would show how full the tank was. That would give a good indication of when a refuel was necessary and remove the guess work. Simple but effective – why didn’t I think of it!

We arrived in Rickmansworth at lunchtime and moored on the Tesco moorings, benefitting from restocking on heavy items as the shop was so close to the boat! Having travelled for four hours we took a break, setting off again about 4pm, just as a boat passed by and we realised we would, yet again, be in a queue! Arriving at Quarry lock there was a jammed gate and we were told to prepare for the worse – the CRT would probably take two days to fix it, so once again it looked like our plans of getting as far south as possible would not materialize. K meanwhile got her boat stuck in the mud and was unable to alight! Resigning ourselves for a long wait I was just about to have a shower (plenty of hot water as the engine has been running!) when I heard shouts of joy – a couple of boats had arrived to come up the lock and there were a few youngsters who were not going to be defeated by a jammed gate. Suffice to say they sorted the problem by managing to remove the obstacle trapping the gate and we were all able to continue onwards once K freed herself from the mud bank.

It was another long day of boating with about a dozen locks in all, but eventually we arrived at Harefield and moored up alongside a beautiful reservoir, where we were able to enjoy the setting sun and use our firepit as a BBQ.

Monday morning arrived damp and rainy so we set forth with our waterproofs and took extra care at the locks because they were wet and slippery. Grateful indeed that we had covered so much ground in the dry weather and only had a short distance and three locks to go. By 1130, when our final destination came into view, the sun shone and we were able to moor up in the dry. R erected the stern cover only to find that one of the struts had been dented on one of the manoeuvres into the locks over the weekend. A thing of beauty lasts but a short time…… Unfortunately the cover no longer fits properly so we are going to have to dismantle the frame and return the bent strut to Melton Mowbray for a replacement to be made. A lesson learned that we really need to take more care when manoeuvring close to other boats!