A trip on the cut to nowhere in particular

[Lady Muck]

Purpose of the trip? Several. We had been aground for ten days ever since some idiot came through the gates late one night, left them open and moored at the water point.

 

By the time he was spotted the next morning, it was too late, we were aground.

 

So I came back from my business trip abroad to find the boat on the bottom. Grr! We had very little gas, hardly any diesel and water either.

 

Called BW and begged for water (this happens far too often I can tell you!) As promised, they let sufficient through for us to move Thursday. We untied about 11am. It was still very shallow, but we managed.

 

Canoe man is taking school groups all week ( Not quite boating though, seems to me to be a screaming and sinking workshop).

So we navigated through the screeching splashing masses and tied up at the water point. It was good entertainment, pulled up a chair, made a cup of tea and a cooked breakfast and enjoyed.

 

After fill up, attempted to set off. Couldn't get engine going, so little diesel. So I put everything on one side, we all leaned, tried to persuade The Hound to lean too and off we went!

 

Bought gas and diesel at Springfield. Intention was to moor there, but no room. Decided to moor at Walthamstow marsh, but the boater we intended to moor next to had a Staffordshire Bull Terrier. The Hound does not like dogs with square faces. He took offence, so we went on to Lower Clapton and moored at the Princess of Wales pub.

 

I left The Hound and The Submarine Captain onboard. If you walk along the cycle path accross the adjacent park, you will find a road at the corner called Chatsworth Road. I used to live here and it was my local shopping street. You have to walk quite a way up the hill to find the shops. There is a launderette (the workers are a bit miserable and I'm warning you, the opening times posted bear no resemblance to the actual opening times!). I headed to International Cuisine, my favourite kebab shop EVAH!

 

Got back to vessel, fed Sub Captain and Hound and we set off again. Struggled with most of the gates on the Hertford Union, don't konw if they are worse than usual or if it's me that's worse than usual. Probably the latter!

 

We decide to tie up for the night above Old Ford lock. No chance. Completely full, we eventually found a space after Bonners Bridge.

 

I think the first day took us about 3 1/2 hours. Had a beer and watched the magnificent sunset.

[Lady Muck]

Friday

I took The Hound for a walk around Victoria Park. Progress was really slow. The Hound insisted on peeing on every tree there. There are lots of trees. *sigh*

I had a meeting in town, it was only a short walk to Bethnal Green tube (walking over Bonner Bridge) so after abandoning The Hound back on the boat (and the submarine captain), I set off.

Returned to Bethnal Green, had a look at the small market and went to Tesco, then back to the boat.

As the weather was good, we decided to move on. Mission was to tie up at Camden.

We were very pleased to share all of Camden Locks with another boat. There were enough of us to set all three locks, so we breezed through them. I say breezed, but we still had to swat away about a dozen punks and maybe about two dozen drug dealers who were hogging the balance beams, before we could do anything. They were all very good natured though (or should that be wasted, hhmmm?).I was just pleased we were doing Camden on a weekday. Weekends, you cannot believe the crowds and the silly questions and the everything else.

 

Camden was full. No mooring space. There are two boats on the visitor moorings that have been there since last October. Naughty!

 

So, we headed up to Paddington basin. Fuller than I've ever seen it. We got the last space, near a sushi bar, noisy location, but at least we got a space. After tieing up, saw about six boats come past looking for moorings too. It wasn't as busy as this last summer!

 

Took The Hound and The Submarine Captain for a walk. Noted recycling facilities on the main road behind the BW facilities at Little Venice. Will take our bits n' bobs there tomorrow.

 

Made a big lasagna and salad for dinner.

 

Went to bed early. Awoken by shouting and people on our roof at about 11pm. Opened the front door to see a gang of pissed up blokes, running away with our boat hook, towards the sushi bar where they picked up chairs from outside and threw them.

 

I went after them in my monkey printed pajamas. By then the security guard (there are lots here at Paddington Basin) and restaurant manager had chased them away. Went and retrieved boat hook from sushi bar. Noted how random boating can be sometimes. I never thought I'd find myself standing in a sushi bar in my pajamas in central London at 11am holding a boat pole. Just like a weird dream.

 

Checked the roof, they had thrown stones and moved things around but no damage. Went to bed.

 

Saturday

 

A quiet morning, considering the racket and the crowds the night before. Took THe Hound down the towpath,and dumped the recycling in the bins behind the Little Venice facilities. Then went to Paddington Station for groceries. There is a Marks and Spencer and a Sainsburys. They are not proper sized supermarkets, only Bonzai, but they had what I need and Sainsburys keeps it's beer and wine in the chiller - great! I don't have to flatten my batteries to chill it in our fridge. The Aussies arrive at 11 and we set off, plan is to go to Uxbridge for a curry. An uneventful but pleasant journey. The Aussies have 'done a Pom' and underdressed, in pretty cropped cotton trousers and little pumps. Cute but they are freezing. I rummage in the storage crates under our bed and provide waterproofs, fleeces and (when it starts to rain later) brollies. We warm the Aussies up further with booze. Bandits attack the boat with stones at Hillingdon. I shout back at them, 'nought out of ten for originality!'

 

Arrive at Uxbridge at about six, so that's around six hours cruising from Paddington (we had a pitstop on the way). We never go anywhere that fast though, The Submarine Captain would go everywhere on tickover if I let him.

 

We visit Satya, excellent South Indian Curry Houseand our favourite curry house ever. The Aussies ask for Chicken Korma, we get them something called Chicken Malabar (this is not your usual curry house). Satya is located on Rockingham Road, (main road going over Dolphin Bridge), you pass it if you go into the Town Centre.

 

I take one of the Aussies to the tube, we open abottle of wine and barely manage half of it, before we all crash out.

[Chris J W]

Bit worrying to hear you had some problems at Paddington Basin - I live not far from Little Venice and had planned to use there as a temporay mooring whilst I trundle up and down the Regents / Grand Union Slough getting the hang of the boat (when I've bought her) so, perhaps, bang goes that idea.

 

Hope the rest of the trip goes well!

[Lady Muck]

It's probably one of the safest moorings in London as there are 24 hour patrolling security guards. We had a lousy spot, next to the entrance to the footpath that goes to Paddington station, therefore all p*ssheads en route from the pub passed our boat.

 

Camden can be a bit busy during the day (you can wake up to find half a dozen stoned Spanish students using your roof as a makeshift picnic spot), but they lock gates either end at night, so it's boaters only after that. Not that we've been able to get onto those moorings in a year, they're permanently full.

Edited May 27, 2007 by Lady Muck

[RupertG]

It's probably one of the safest moorings in London as there are 24 hour patrolling security guards. We had a lousy spot, next to the entrance to the footpath that goes to Paddington station, therefore all p*ssheads en route from the pub passed our boat.

 

Camden can be a bit busy during the day (you can wake up to find half a dozen stoned Spanish students using your roof as a makeshift picnic spot), but they lock gates either end at night, so it's boaters only after that. Not that we've been able to get onto those moorings in a year, they're permanently full.

 

I've lived in the area for years... it's lively enough, but the various eurotrash and dope dealers are usually good natured and operate on a live and let live basis. The real problems are the beered-up louts, and I don't think they're any worse than you find in many cities. Which is plenty bad enough.

 

Shame I wasn't there gongoozling when you went past - I and the future first mate were at the London Canal Museum, doing a spot of Bank Holiday research (one result of which is the word 'gongoozler'). Did see Felis Catus III, whom I'm sure I've read about either on here or on a blog, moored at the museum, but no signs of life.

 

R

[Chris J W]

It's probably one of the safest moorings in London as there are 24 hour patrolling security guards. We had a lousy spot, next to the entrance to the footpath that goes to Paddington station, therefore all p*ssheads en route from the pub passed our boat.

 

Ah! I've gotten my areas mixed up - for some reason I was thinking of St Pancras.

 

As daft as this sounds, I've walked around there quite a bit, but never actually spotted a direct relationship with the train station. The hospital, Praed Street and Sheldon Square, yep. The Station. Nope! Assuming it's not piddling down tomorrow I'll have to have a look walking from the station, and see if I can work out where you mean.

Edited May 27, 2007 by Chris J W

[Lady Muck]

Rupert G - pity we missed you, we hope to be back in Camden by Saturday, a relative who lives opposite the visitor moorings is having a barbecue and I said I'd help him prepare the food. That's why we are so desperate to get a space there.

 

Anyway, this is turning out to be a 'not going anywhere' diary.

 

Sunday

 

The weather was such that we decided to stay put. Bankrupted ourselves in Uxbridge Boat Centre instead. Bought a multi stage battery charger. We have mains hook up now, so we thought we'd get one of these babies.

 

By teatime The Submarine Captain had dismantled a large part of the lining out backcabin and we were poring over the build photos that the vendor of our vessel had kindly give us. Very useful photos indeed, he had taken pictures of all the wiring, in place before lining out. This meant we knew pretty much where to find the bits of wiring, without taking everything off.

 

Cooked a risotto, took The Hound out. There was some kind of race going on on the towpath. All participants looked extremely damp and annoyed.

 

Monday

 

We are still here, it's like the North Sea outside, there are trees down. Hope to be on the move tomorrow. Not worth going anywhere today.

[Lady Muck]

Tuesday:

 

Set off early, me with The Hound and a windlass on the towpath, The Submarine Captain at the helm. Outside of Uxbridge, the towpath became a very muddly trail. I was wearing crocs with no socks, by the time we got to Denham Deep Lock, I had to get back on the vessel and wash my feet! Situation was critical, we had filled all our poo cabinets, so we stopped at Harefield Marina to empty them. The boat sitting higher in the water again, we set off. Batchworth Lock, we offloaded rubbish. There is a miniature model canal there, I guess they fill it with water and add boats and gates etc, so kids can learn how locks work. Nothing so exciting today, only that the Elsan disposal had flooded and there was evilness all over the towpath.

 

Headed North through Croxley. The Submarine Captain used to bring his boat up here about 15 years ago. He noted how much it had changed, there were houses now where there had been none.

 

We arrived at Cassiobury Park after about six hours cruising (at our usual slow pace). We are moored just after bridge 168, handlily placed because I have two Buddhist meetings in North London this week, and as I'm a district leader, I don't like to miss out. The Sub Captain and Hound walked me the short distance to Watford Station, one and a half hours later I was in Seven Sisters and at my meeting.

[Lady Muck]

Wednesday. We stayed put due to my needing to get there and back from a Buddhist meeting tonight. The mooring is great, because we are right next to a beautiful woodlands (Whippendall Woods). Took the hound there this morning and went to the meeting this evening. If you have a doogy I reccommend this place as a place to stop. We think we might come back here if there is a heatwave. It's lovely and shady and near to the tube to get back into London if needs be.

 

Thursday.

We plan a slow, uneventful mosey back to London. What we actually ge tis a weeks worth of boating 'incidents' in one day.

First lock we get to the hound is attacked by swans (with cygnets).

 

Second or third lock we are flagged down by a tinsel bedecked 'hippy' boat. Their engine doesn't work. The large tree growing out of the fender is evidence of this. They have an injured hound onboard and need to get to the vets. So we give them a tow. They are absoultely windlass free too as we discover at the first lock we encounter. We get the impression that they're not used to boating.

 

At Batchworth Locks we pass a trip boat and get the filthiest looks ever that tell us they're not keen on unpowered hippy craft. We smile and wave cheerfully.

 

At the Aquadrome we leave the hippy craft. They don't possess a mallet either, so we drive their mooring stakes in and tie them up. I'm in the galley making tea. When I come up onto the stern deck I finds an enormous cucumber. Such was thier gratitude, they had to give us something in thanks, and a cucumber was all that they had! I hope their dog gets well.

 

Our crazy day is not over yet!

[Lady Muck]

Thursday: forgot to mention another incident with the hippy boat. Their bow deck. Or rather what The Hound thought was their bow deck. He leapt onto it and vanished. There was no bow deck, only a deep hole covered by a tarp. Oops!

 

We caught up with another nb who were also locking through to Uxbridge. They had two dogs with them. One was a newbie to boating (more of that later).

 

Just before Widewater lock we noticed a very smart looking nb had come untied and blown right across the navigation. I took the helm and deposited The Submarine Captain on the bankside in order to deal with it.

 

He pulled the boat in, only to find that:

-their dinghy was chained onto one side - the wrong side so the boat would have to be turned the other way round in order to tie it up. The nb had no middle line and the bow and stern lines were too short, they didn't reach the full length of the boat. So we had to find a bit of our spare rope in order to pull the boat around and tie it up. By this point the owner had come tearing out of the pub and down the towpath!

 

THEN. The newbie dog on the other boat jumped in and entangled itself under some brambles whilst still being in the water! Gahh! everything at once!

 

The craziness had not stopped when we got in the lock, we got a large tree trunk jammed behind the gate and had to work hard to free it.

 

The rest of the journey was uneventful (apart from a completely blotto bloke driving a cruiser at Uxbridge Lock). Tied up, went to Uxbridge Boat Centre to buy everything we had forgotten to buy last time we went (as is traditional). Admired the coal boat, currently in dry dock and being reblacked by her new owners. They did a good job. It looks great.

 

Friday.

 

Mission for today is to go to Tesco in Bulls Bridge, offload the recycling (the back cabin is now full of it) and take on supplies. Then onto Camden to get a mooring opposite the Submarine Captains' brothers place <prays>. I am doing some of the food for his birthday barbecue. I really don't fancy having to carry it all the way from Paddington if the moorings are full.

 

The day proves less eventful after the craziness of Thursday. At Cowley Lock The Hound misbehaves. He pees on a jacket that a surveyor has left on a gate post. Fortunately the surveyor is ok about it, we clean his jacket up and set off on our way.

 

Bulls Bridge Tesco has a freaky recycling machine that you can get clubcard points for It talks and has conveyor belts and everything. I manage to break half of it. I do get lots of clubcard points though.

 

After loading up with supplies, we set off.

 

Prayed, crossed fingers etc AND GUESS WHAT? We got a Camden mooring! Woohoo!. It was pretty full and we moved up a little in order to let a little crusier nb to tie up too. Went and met the submarine captains brother in the pub. Went back to his house and at midnight we bailed the dinghy out and he rowed me, The Hound and The Sub Captain accross the cut to our boat.

 

Saturday was barbecue day. Spent the morning making salsa, guacamole, cheese and chive dip and home made burgers. Rowed accross the canal with said dips and helped set up. Sub Captains friend, Turkish bloke and barbecue maestro did all the cooking, it was excellent. Drank too much and fell asleep. Lovely hot day. The barbecue was a success.

 

Sunday, We took The Hound to Regnts Park. Discovered the Camden Green Festival There was a fabulous herb stall and I bought lots of plants for the boxes on our roof. We admired the solar power demonstrations and the electric scooter and van. I planted my herbs and the toursits took pictures of me. It's a very public mooring, I feel like one of those actors in costume at the boat museum. Later on I rowed our laundry accross the canal and took advantage of Sub Captains Brothers washing machine. Hung the washing out and the toursits took pictures of me. Had a look round the market as well but gave up after an hour because I couldn't deal with the crowds.

 

Monday. I'm doing some work. We plan to go back to our mooring tomorrow. We are ready to go and try out our new battery charger.

Edited June 4, 2007 by Lady Muck

[Lady Muck]

Moday afternoon, I had a wander around Primrose Hill. Regents Park Road has lots of chi chi little shops. Bought posh dog food in the excellent petshop. Didn't buy a wooden spoon in the ultra expensive cooking shop. Then back down to Earth: went to Morrisons. From the vistor moorings walk until you see the Pirate Castle, up the steps, turn left, walk accross Gilbeys Yard and down the alley.

 

Tuesday we headed back. Set off about 11.30. We are never that fond of the locks Hamsptead Road to City Road, partly because it's always quite busy there and partly because of the voluntary work we do with a community boat club, we have worked through these locks a zillion times, so it's like groundhog day.

 

So, deep breath and off we go. Camden Lock I have to ask some teenage girls to get off our boat. Fortunately some police come along to gongoozle then we don't see them for dust! Then some boaters coming in the opposite direction seem to have left lots of paddles up, so we have to first of all point out why their boat isn't ascending at all and then check every subsequent lock as most have the paddles on the top gates left up.

 

At St Pancras lock there is a community boat scheme half term kayak trip. We immediately identify with the youth workers. We've been there. The youth worker has to ask one of the kids to put his cigarette down (it looks suspiciously herbal to me), the lock isn't filling. I suggest they check the paddles. Yup the paddle is up. The 'smoking' kid drops thier windlass in. He is a bit panic stricken to say the least. We get our sea searcher magnet out and fish out the windlass. We help them do the locks. They are very grateful.

 

The rest of the trip is much easier and quieter. At Old Ford we wait for another boat to fill up with water and chat a while. This is quite common at Old Ford, boaters have to fill up with water whilst in the Lock.

 

Next stop is the Garden Centre; Growing Concerns. It's located right at the middle lock on the Hertfords Union. As well as garden centre type stuff they sell ice cream and loo chemicals.

 

They kindly helped me to the boat with plants and compost. When I returned to the boat The Submarine Captain was talking to gongoozlers. The Hound has a long swishy tail. They'd seen only that part of him to start with and thought we had a monkey on board! Haha!

 

After that we stopped at the Princess of Wales pub in Lower Clapton. Reason being I smashed one of the removeable boat windows on the stove and need a replacement. The 1 hour service window place really didn't want to know. So I'm going to try somewhere in Tottenham instead.

 

We were back within six hours. We couldn't moor properly as the water levels were so low. Had to use a gangplank.

 

Now for the moment of truth. <deep breath>

 

The battery charger works ! We didn't blow up the boat.

 

Ok, we didn't get as far as we liked but I hope our bits n' bobs of 'local knowledge' prove useful to those boaters from out of London.

 

Next trip out we think will be the Boat Festivals in Ware and Bishops Stortford. Looking forward to it!

Edited June 7, 2007 by Lady Muck

[NB Willawaw]

Whens the festival in Ware and BS ??

[Lady Muck]

Bishops Stortford is 22 to 24th of June and Ware is 6 to 8 of July.

 

I'd like to do the two without heading back to our mooring inbetween, but I think I'm needed abroad. BUT Bishops Stortford is very handily placed for Stansted airport, it would be daft to not hang around it that vicinity.

 

If anyone would like to p.m. me I can send the contact details - Ware you need to pay £15 and book a space, BS they would like to know if you are coming, if possible.

[NB Willawaw]

I think I'm planning to leave for the Fens before then, but otherwise I'll pop up.

Bishops Stortford has had something of a facelift.

You might want to check out my photos in the gallery..

[SteveE]

Ok, we didn't get as far as we liked but I hope our bits n' bobs of 'local knowledge' prove useful to those boaters from out of London.

 

Thanks Lady Muck. We'll be in Little Venice or the Paddington basin on 28/6 on our maiden voyage in our old converted butty and all the info is much appreciated.

Best regards

SteveE

[Lady Muck]

We are going North up the Lee and the Stort in a few weeks time (not doing the boat festival anymore, too busy), we've explored these rivers quite a bit and have found a few interesting places along the way that you won't necessarily know about. I'll make sure I do a blog for this too!