Tuesday 17th October 2006

I left work early on Tuesday, as I wanted to get the boat down to Bulls Bridge Tesco to do some shopping before the long days. I got there quite early, and did my shopping before falling asleep at 9pm.

Wednesday 18th October 2006

An early morning today, I had to meet a friend from work who was going to help me up the heavily locked section of the GU. He had never been on a narrowboat before, and it was a bit of a baptism of fire for him - I did warn him before hand!

It took longer to get to Uxbridge than I thought, so Paul was waiting when I got there. The first few locks we did individually, but once I was happy he could handle a lock, I got him on a bike to get the locks ready ahead - really the only way to do this section with any speed.

We reached Hunton Bridge by about lunchtime, and since Paul was expecting more Pubs on this trip, we went to the Kings Head, which is now more of an Italian restaurant. Their Spaghetti and Meatballs was good, and not too filling since we had plenty more locks to go at.

There were very few boats on the move, and we shared only a few locks with others. We did the last couple of locks in the dark, before stopping just below Winkwell Top Lock. We visited the Watermill Hotel for tea, a nice place if a little hotel like (unsurprisingly), the old waterwheel was still in place, but didn’t turn.

Thursday 19th October 2006

Another early start in the dark - Paul was still getting ready when I set off, so single handed the boat through Winkwell Top. Paul made a cooked breakfast, but it was a bit difficult eating it while driving in the dark. It started raining by the time we reached Sewer Lock, and kept raining right through Berkhamsted. It had stopped by the time we reached the Summit, and Paul enjoyed the run on the boat to the top lock of the Marsworth flight. Only one paddle was working on the top lock, so it took a long time to get ready. Paul set off down the flight to prepare the rest of the locks, but didn’t realise I could not easily finish the locks off going down (yes I close the gates before leaving).

We followed a boat all the way down the locks, until nearly catching up near Horton Lock - but since they were only going down to the next pound and mooring up, I told Paul (who had cycled ahead) to let them through.

Dad was going to join us at Leighton Buzzard, Paul originally leaving later at Fenny, but he decided to jump ship at Leighton since the station was so close. Dad and I had a good run down to Fenny, stopping the night at Tinkers Bridge, having a nice (and unexpected, and welcoming) meal with some friends (David and Jan King) who live there. We met them when we shared GU locks together on the return from a National Rally.

Friday 20th October 2006

David gave us a challenge to get to Braunston in 11 hours, so the race was on! In fact since Dad had to get back to Hull for tonight, we didn’t have much time to mess about anyway.

It was raining when I set off - I say “I” because Dad was still fast asleep, and only awoke once Cosgrove Lock was reached. The rain died out about Wolverton, and it stayed dry the rest of the day.

A boat was just setting off at Castlethorpe Wharf (or thereabouts) just as I came through the bridge. He then spotted me, and let me by as another he was travelling with hadn’t quite got off the mooring as I passed. They followed me all the way up to Stoke. Just before Stoke a boat set off from their mooring. It was a steel wide beam Thames cruiser style boat, with a plume of black smoke spewing forth. Either without looking or thinking, they turned in front of us, and got blocked across the canal. A bloke on the back of the boat was fiddling with a boat pole, while the steerer revved forwards and backwards, not really getting anywhere. After about 2 minutes of this I beeped my horn, and shouted to them to push the bow over. After about 3 minutes they had finally managed to move out of the way enough for me to get by, which I did post haste. The other two following boats also did the same. I got a load of verbal from the bloke on the stern, but I knew damn well they were liveaboard bridge/pound hoppers as I’d seen them in May. I explained that they should check traffic before blocking the canal to passing traffic.

The Stoke Bruerne flight was slow, as we were following two slow boats. One stopped at the top, and the other let me past once I had caught up with him at Blisworth. It was just after I had got by him, that rafts of narrowboats were on the move at the boatyard there. I’m not really sure what they were trying to do, but once one boat had been manhandled partially across the canal, one of the blokes jumped on the back of another. I went forward to squeeze through the gap, and even though he wanted me to stop I’m glad I went for it. He backed up the large raft of boats backwards, causing the boat stuck crosswords to swing completely, and block off the canal.

We had a good run down to the Buckby flight, and ran through the locks like a dose of salts, Dad biking forwards setting the locks. A quick run to the Braunston flight, and down them with only one small hiccup - Dad had set the locks, but some ‘kind’ soul had seen fit to close the gates, and paddles - in the meanwhile the lock had dropped.

We moored on the fuel mooring at Braunston, and Dad fancied some Fish and Chips. We drove to the chippy, but then had to wait half an hour to get our order - I’ve never seen a slower chippy, they were cooking everything to order. Dad set off for Hull, and I had an early night.

Place	Time	Miles	Locks (exclusive)
Northolt	17:15	0	0
Bulls Bridge	18:09	3.67	0
	06:13
Cowley Peachey	07:06	6.93	0
Springwell Lock	08:20	9.43	1
Widewater Lock No 86	09:17	11.93	3
Batchworth	11:15	16.18	8
Hunton Bridge	14:06	21.3	18
	15:00
Boxmoor Lock	17:08	25.68	26
Bourne End Bottom Lock	18:40	27.68	31
	06:10
Berkhamsted Top Lock	08:00	30	37
Cowroast Lock	09:38	32.55	44
Marsworth Top Lock	10:37	35.56	45
Slapton Lock	14:05	40.9	60
Leighton Buzzard	15:42	44.75	62
	15:57
Soulbury Three (Top)	17:09	48.46	63
Soulbury Three (Bottom)	17:25	48.59	66
Fenny Stratford Lock No 22	18:40	52.6	67
Tinkers Bridge	19:11	54.5	68
	06:00
Cosgrove Lock	08:50	63.86	68
Stoke Bruerne Bottom	10:36	69.73	69
Above Stoke Bruerne Top Lock	11:47	70.48	76
Gayton Junction	12:51	74.35	76
Heyford Wharf	14:12	79.45	76
Buckby Bottom Lock	16:03	85.45	76
Above Buckby Top Lock	17:16	86.76	83
Braunston Top Lock	18:08	90.17	83
Below Braunston Bottom L	18:56	90.67	89
Braunston Marina	19:07	91	89

Continued below...

Saturday 21st October 2006

Woke up early, just to keep the momentum up, but didn’t need to be about until nearer 9am. At 8am some people were milling about, and went to join them. Eventually I met Tim and he said to bring the boat around alongside the others. I deftly reversed the boat through the narrow gaps, and moored next to Brighton.

Engines were cranked up at about 8:30, some more easily than others, and Lily who was moored on the canal filled their tank at the fuel point - just as well I moved. Under the orders of Alice Lapworth, we set off for Atherstone, with Nutfield in the lead. I was following Rocket Ron on his boat Duke, I was a little worried I wouldn’t be able to keep up, but in the end I could just about catch up to other boats over several hours. Berwyn, a hire boat that Tim and crew were using, followed.

Videos:
Start Your Engines
Nutfields Engine
Lily's Bollinder
NBT Boats Leaving Braunston
NBT Boats Leaving Braunston
Swallow Leaving
Duke Leaving

With the convoy bearing down on them, several boaters pulled in to let us by. One of them was a friend I met from my previous job installing TV studios. I knew he had a boat, but have never actually managed to bump in to him on the canals (so to speak).

Lily, the partially load Josher had water problems, only steam was exiting the outlet when I passed. Ron jumped onto the Lily, and cleared the mud box, and redistributed the weight to get it further out of the water.

At Hillmorton a queue had developed (not surprisingly), but it didn’t take long to get the boats through the double locks. Unfortunately one of the bottom locks was out of action, and a long wait ensued. I let Ron in front on the Lily, and after passing through the lock I was playing catch-up all the way to Suttons Stop.

At lunch time I was getting hungry, but since I knew other boats were following not far behind I didn’t want to waste much time. As I passed the last boat in a long line I took the boat out of gear, and popped to the loo. Just as I finished the boat bumped into something, and I ran to the back. An irate looking bloke popped his head out of the moored boat, and started ranting. I asked if I had hit his boat, but he didn’t answer. Looking at where the boat was, I didn’t think I had, and explained that I had ensured that the boat would not hit his when I left the tiller, and left him looking annoyed.

I stopped in the bridge hole at the next bridge, and made my sandwiches, and got off before Berwyn caught up.

At Hawksbury I caught up to Ron, who was just taking Lily into the lock. Swallow was moored just above the lock, and as I passed I found out they had also suffered problems. The pin which holds the prop shaft in place had broken, and every time they put her into reverse the prop moved backwards jamming the rudder!

Ron jumped back aboard Duke, and Lily’s owner took her up to Atherstone. I followed Lily all the way, only falling behind when they opened her up after slowing down for moored boats (yes they do, contrary to popular option). The large prop of the Lily could really push her well through the shallow canal.

Reaching Atherstone in the dark after the mother of all thunderstorms, another queue had formed, this time turning at the tight winding hole above the locks. You don’t actually realise until you start to turn how tight on space the winding hole is - must be even harder for the 72 foot boats - which I understand are pulled round on ropes.

After a quick dinner I went up to the pub for the evening. I had a good chat with Alice Lapworth, who thought I looked like Daffyd (“The only gay in the village”), and many of the other boaters. I finally wimped out at 10:30pm knowing I would have to be up early in the morning.

Sunday 22nd October 2006

It was a windy night, and the cratch cover kept banging about, so I was already awake at 4:30 when I heard David Blagrove chug by. He mentioned some excuse, but we all know why he wanted to be in front :-)

Knowing it was likely that we would be moving shortly, I got the boat ready, and we were off less than 15 minutes later. It was a cold morning, but far better than it should have been at the time of year, and the morning light came just started after passing Nuneaton.

Second time in one around Hawksbury Junction, and followed the Lily up to Streton Stop, where they got one of their crew members on board (bike and all), and filled with diesel. I could see Swallow in the distance, and eventually caught her up near Rugby.

Just through Rugby, a boat coming the other way beat me to a bridge, and I had to stop to let him through. On passing he said that a boat driven by a young lad had crashed into another boat, who’s owner was not best part please - not knowing if it was one of ours, I drove through slowly. There was a small fibreglass/wooden boat with full length cabin on the outside of the bend, and a rather grumpy old lady hanging out the door. I said “Hello”, but all I got back was a load of mumbling complaints.

Later I find out what actually happened from Tom who was steering at the time, when basically, he met another boat coming the other after just going through the bridge, and could not stop without continuing towards the outside of the bend, where the old lady was moored. Anyway, there was no obvious damage; I think it just shocked her a little.

At Hilmorton some hireboats had managed to get in between me and swallow, and with Duke behind had to wait a long time. I used the time to get some lunch, and so by the time I was going up the lock I was fed and watered. Once passed the bottom lock I had a good run up the locks, thanks to help from some of Tim’s crew members, and others on Lily (which had also caught up). I followed Swallow all the way to Braunston, where it promptly started to rain just in time for the locks.

A few other boats had jumped in front of us, and while a couple disappeared down the South Oxford, there was still one boat waiting at the bottom lock. Ron went up, and asked nicely if he would mind if we went in front, but the owner took great exception to this (for no apparent reason), and so we decided to let him go up on his own, while I paired with the 60 foot Duke, with Brenda taking both boats through, and I got on me bike.

At the next lock, Ron walked up while I went to the next lock after to get that ready for them. There was another single boat there, and I asked them to wait for the boat following. By the time I got back, Ron seemed to have caused more friction by offering to close the offside lock gate, thus allowing the boaters daughter to be on the right side of the lock. Apparently the owner went into “I’m on holiday” mode, and so Ron gave up trying to help them.

Ahead of these two boats, Nuneaton and Brighton where working their way through happily, and behind Corona and Nutfield followed. After a slow rise through the locks, we passed our “friend” moored on the summit pound, and continued our way towards Stowe Hill. I’m still not sure why they didn’t just stop below Braunston, doing it in the rain ‘tis no fun if you don’t have to.

When we reached the Buckby flight, the top lock was ready, with loads of people about, and we were told the road was set. After the second lock we realised that it was going to be an uphill downhill struggle, with some of the locks still empty. My Dad, slowed by traffic on the M1, finally rejoined me on the second to last lock, just as the rain had stopped!

I got him to drive the boat after the flight, while I dried off and had my tea. I just didn’t feel up to going to the pub, so promptly collapsed in bed.

Monday 23rd October 2006

Not quite so early this morning thankfully, so we were off at 5am. The convoy passed down the pound in convoy, but the Lily had some problems and slowed down. I went astern, and noticed I had picked something up on the prop - it wasn’t until I looked down and saw my stern rope disappear steadily into the water did I realise what it was! It took a little while to remove the rope, and then I was playing catchup all the way to Stoke.

Once the backlog had cleared the top lock, we had a good run down, at the back of the pack, on our own. At Yardley I finally realised what was causing the list we had acquired - the weed hatch was leaking, and nothing we did could stop it. It wasn’t until we were nearly at Cosgrove that there were going to be nowhere convenient to pickup some more weedhatch rubber, and that I would have to bike back to Yardley. I did this (after realising why the canal takes such a torturous route above Crosgrove). Dad continued boating at a reduced speed, and actually reached the towpath stoppage at Wolverton before I could get back to him.

About 4 miles from Fenny we passed the Lily, stuck with waterpump problems. We did offer a tow, but they didn’t take it - which is a shame, but I would like to have seen how my boat would have coped. The Swallow was waiting at Fenny for Lily, and we continued up the canal. A slow run up ‘the three’ with hireboats dominating the traffic. On leaving the top lock we still didn’t see the Swallow or Lily. Once through Leighton Buzzard, we began the long hard run up the hill. It was dark, and Dad didn’t fancy going on the bike, but thankfully the boats in front had back set all the locks, and we eventually arrived at Marsworth only 10 minutes after them. It was 10pm by now, and I went straight to bed. Apparently, an hour later the Swallow and Lily turned up – I didn’t hear them!

Tuesday 24th October 2006

It was raining hard most of the night, and I got a call just before I got out of bed at 5am saying that the start would be delayed until 6am, since we didn’t need to get very far today. We did the locks in the dry, after the rain stopped at 5:50am. At the top lock loads of BW bods were milling about - I thought they might be there to keep an eye on us, but it was actually a gang coming to fix the broken top ground paddle. They didn’t know we were coming through, and Tim was told it was going to happen yesterday – it didn’t as they did not have enough men to push the stop planks down!

Today we were in the middle of the pack, this meant that if we were slacking, we would get extra help from the two boats (Swallow, and Lily) behind. As it was we were helping the boats in front as much as the crew behind was helping us, so it didn’t really make any difference. At Iron Bridge lock, a very slow filler, the two behind caught up, but we never saw them again. I think that they sucked a load more muck in while waiting above the lock, and had to stop while they cleared the problem.

Video:
Leaving a GU Lock

We stopped at Batchworth, and we decided to have a meal in the White Bear, which was good, but I think everyone else disappeared further into town, where there was a beer festival on in one of the pubs.