London-bound: Day 8

So much for the forecast heavy thundery rain.  We've had one shower, which lasted about two minutes, and just about made the roof wet.

We were awake early, possibly because of the joggers pounding past at 6am, and seeing that the rain was now due to come through this afternoon rather than in the morning, we decided to get going.  Consequently we set off at 7.15.  Cassio Bridge Lock was the first of the day, and has the Metropolitan Line just beyond.

A couple of hours later we were at Rickmansworth, and moored outside Tesco.  We were the only boat there, so this time could stop on the bit without the fence.  We did a shop, and set off again in increasingly sunny conditions.

Below Springwell Lock there are some lovely houses, including one with a huge glass extension, and one where the owner was mowing diagonal stripes on his immaculate lawn.  It's just a pity they're right opposite the sewage works.

While we waited for Widewater Lock to fill I sent a text to Bob and June from Autumn Myst, to see where they were.  It turned out they were only about a mile away, so when we got there we stopped and had an hour's chat over tea and cake.  It was great to see them, and meet their latest guide dog puppy, Jimmy.

We continued through the miles of moored boats at Uxbridge.  At our last lock of the day, and the last on this bit of the journey, Cowley Lock, there were a couple of volunteer lock keepers, who'd apparently had quite a busy day.  Plenty more boats have come down while we've been here.

We squeezed into a space on the moorings immediately below the lock.  It's a solid towpath with a concrete edge, but there are stupidly few mooring rings.  We've had to 'reverse moor', with the ropes coming back towards the centre of the boat.  The little boat which was behind us has gone, but has been replaced by another.

12 miles, 12 locks.  (70 miles, 102 locks)

Autumn Cruise - Day 8

The Cassiobury Park moorings were very quiet -- just the odd plane going over.  As we headed to Iron Bridge Lock in the still of the morning, you wouldn't have known it was Watford.

At the second lock of the day, we teamed up with a little boat called Ellesmere, heading back to moorings at Uxbridge after a summer in the midlands.  Immediately after the lock, we passed under the Tube for the first time.

At one of the locks this morning we passed Halfie's share boat, Shadow, with some Americans on board.  We'd hoped to get water at Batchworth Lock, but there was a widebeam boat on the water point so we carried on to Tesco, which has its own moorings, for a stock up.  While we were there, the fuel boat Baron was delivering to customers up the arm, so when he'd finished we called him over and filled with diesel.

We started a wash load while on the Tesco moorings, leaving once the washing machine had finished heating the water.  We were testing whether the Travel Power would still work in neutral, while we were in locks.  The resto of the cycle clearly doesn't take as much power, so it was fine.

Stocker's Lock is one of the prettiest down this way, with a nice lock cottage and a large house apparently built for the collector of coal duties.

We'd planned to fill with water below Copper Mill Lock, but as we decended a widebeam boat arrived to use the water point.  We stopped for lunch a little bit further on.  We'd just finished lunch when a boat went past, so we quickly set off to share the next couple of locks with them.  It was Viking, a boat we've seen several times over the past few days, returning to Harefield Marina after a week out.  It meant we were on our own for Denham Deep Lock, where we had help with the gates from some children out for an afternoon at the cafe.

Past Uxbridge there are some extraordinary boats.

Above Cowley Lock, it was third time lucky with a water point.  It took a while to fill -- we knew it would as we've done three loads of washing since we filled at Marsworth Junction.  The bow was a couple of inches higher out of the water than usual.  While the tank was filling, I cleaned the brass portholes on the towpath side, and did all the mushrooms again.  Once we'd moored, Adrian cleaned the windows that side.  Obviously, it's now raining.

We went down Cowley lock (our last on the GU), and moored below, next to the park.  It's been a long day, mainly due to the lines of moored boats we've come past.

12 miles, 13 locks.  (98 miles, 93 locks)