Braunston Rally

Adrian got back to Cosgrove at around 11.30 last night, parking the car in the village and walking through the horse tunnel.  This morning we were awake surprisingly early, and about 8.30 set off back through the tunnel to the car, and off to Braunston for the rally.  But we had an appointment en route, a visit to Lesley and Joe of Yarwood, who were moored by bridge 102.  It was about October when I last saw them, but Adrian hasn't seen them for well over a couple of years -- in fact this was his first look at Yarwood.  We had a good hour catching up and hearing about their plans (not to mention a delicious cake, which was still warm), before we left for Braunston.  We gave Joe a lift into the village, as he had some shopping to do.  We parked and made our way through to the marina, where a brass band were playing.

We were expecting to see lots of boats moored in the arm as usual, but in fact it was almost empty.  The boats which had spent the night there had left early, gone down to the turn, and were waiting for the parade to begin.  It meant the parade itself was much less chaotic than usual

We'd been invited to join Sarah on Chertsey  for the parade, and when we located the boat Kath and Neil of Herbie were already on board.  The plan was that they would play music, but the weather didn't look conducive to that.  Shortly afterwards were were joined by James and Amy of Willow and the Moomins.  We also saw Kathryn of Leo No2 who was on Sculptor, the Stoke Bruerne Museum boat.  It started to rain as we waited to set off -- which was unfortunate as we'd refused to believe the showery forecast, and not even brought coats.  Sarah was well equipped for the weather, though.

As the rain became heavier, Adrian moved inside.  The under-cloth part of Chertsey is now looking really good -- very homely, with lots of pieces to look at.

The parade started rather slowly, but once we wer doing the loop of the marina things speeded up a bit.  The rain got heavier and heavier, and gradually most of us moved inside -- except Kath and Neil, and Amy who had an umbrella.  Kath did empty about five litres of water out of her hood at the end, though!

Sarah did a great job of reversing Chertsey into the arm, and then mooring up across the end.  Once we were back, we said our farewells and went to get some lunch.  As it was still pretty miserable, we then headed back to Cosgrove.  It was still chucking it down when we arrived, so we parked in the village again.  Later, when it had dried up a bit, I took the car to the marina and walked back along the tow path.

Now, of course, the sky has cleared and the sun has come out.  It's really warm, so I've rolled up the cratch and am sitting out there writing this.  We'll probably stay out here until after dinner, then go back to the marina.  I have to be at work at 7.30 in the morning, so it will be an early start.

1 mile, 0 locks.  (7 miles, 2 locks)

Not the day originally planned

We came up to the boat last night.  Adrian had been working in London, so came and sat at the desk next to mine and did some work, until I was finished just after 10pm.  The drive up was mostly in heavy rain.

This had been planned a couple of weeks ago.  I was due to do a boat test today, Adrian was going to work from the boat (probably moving down to Cosgrove where there's a decent BT wifi hotspot), and then we'd go to Braunston for the rally tomorrow.  But my boat test was postponed, and Adrian needed to go to a funeral near Belfast today.  It turned out that by far the best air fares to Belfast were from Birmingham, so this morning he was up before 6am, a drove in my car to the airport.  I was due to have a pretty lazy day doing not very much, especially if it was going to rain all day like the forecast said.

But when I got up this morning (having gone back to sleep once the shower pump had stopped), I discovered that the loo wasn't flushing.  Boaters will probably find the next few paragraphs fascinating; non-boaters should probably skip them; and potential boaters should read on to discover what boat owenership is really like.  I tried the usual thing of massaging the big black pipe at the back of the loo, but that didn't have any effect.  The motor was making a rattling noise, and I was a bit concerned that the impeller might have disintegrated or something.  I had breakfast while I thought about what to do.

Access to the loo workings isn't easy.  I didn't want to have to unscrew it from the floor, so you have to go in through the dinette.  This means taking out the big drawer, and laying on the floor with your head in drawer space.  I took down the table and moved the dinette cushions to give a bit more light.

I tried phoning a few local boat yards, but the first few didn't have any suggestions.  Then I spoke to a helpful chap at Grand Junction up at Gayton.  From what was happening, he thought a blockage was more likely than a motor problem, as the motor still appeared to be working (it just wasn't having any effect).  He was willing to have a look, but it's a journey of at least four hours, and has the Stoke Bruerne flight en route, so I really wanted to sort it out myself.

Then the marina pump out tractor turned up.  I usually don't like using it, because it's a bit too powerful.  That sounds odd, as you normally want a thorough pump out, but when you can hear the tank flexing, and even the water in the loo is sucked away, that seems like a step too far.  However, this morning, I was quite keen for the loo to be sucked dry.  The marina owner, Roy, did his stuff with the machine, but it had no effect on the loo.  This was more evidence that there was probably a blockage.

Back laying on the floor, I found that getting access to the main part of the macerater was impossible.  So I decided to undo one of the few jubilee clips that was accessible.  I prepared by cutting in half a five litre battery top up water container, to catch whatever came out of the pipe.  This was largely successful (although there was one mis-hap, the details of which I'll spare you).  Miraculously, it appeared to be where the blockage was, too.

I'm trying to remember if we put some lemon juice down the loo before leaving last time.  Because the blockage appeared to be mostly large bits of scale which had come free, and failed to get through the smallest part of the pipe -- and had then stopped everything else getting through too.  Removing it was a pretty unpleasant job, but at least once everything was back together it worked.  It sounded normal, and the flush flushed.

After all that I thought I deserved to go out somewhere.  Wolverton seemed the obvious choice, as I needed something for lunch, and I also wanted to get some decent disinfectant to give the whole area a scrub.  What's more, the promised showers hadn't arrived -- in fact, it was sunny.

It was about 11.30 when I set off.  Cosgrove lock needed to be turned, and I met two boats who waited while I crossed the iron trunk aqueduct.  Just before Wolverton it began to rain, but only lightly. I moored up on the first rings, and it now being 1pm, went to Tesco for shopping.  After lunch I donned the disposable gloves again, got the disinfectant out, got back on the floor, and did some serious scrubbing.  With the sun now beating down, I then went on and washed the towpath side of the boat.

At about 4pm I set off again in warm sunshine, heading for the winding hole at New Bradwell.  I even took a photo of a nondescript bit of canal to show just how sunny it was.

I turned without fuss and retraced my steps, passing through Wolverton heading for the aqueduct and Cosgrove.  Shortly after Wolverton, it began to rain.  It was gentle at first, then torrential.  As I approached the aqueduct there was a bright flash of lightening followed very closely by a loud clap of thunder.  It had gone incredibly dark, yet looking back towards The Galleon pub, there wa still blue sky.

Crossing the aqueduct, the rain was coming down in stair rods.

By the time I'd crept past all the moored boats and reached the lock I was soaked -- only marginally drier, I reckoned, than if I'd fallen in.  The rain eased off while I worked the lock, and I bow hauled the boat out.  I'd just shut the gate and set off when a boat came round the corner to go down.  The steerer asked me if I'd been waiting in the lock to dodge the rain.  Did it look as if I'd dodged the rain?  No, I looked like a drowned rat.

By now the rain had pretty much stopped.  I was hoping the mooring right by the bridge at Cosgrove was free, because of the BT wifi.  I slowly edged round the corner to have a look, and saw there was a boat on it.  It meant I had to reverse a couple of boat lengths back round the corner to an available space.  The BT wifi is too weak to be of any use here, but i've got a nice view of Cosgrove church instead.  Not long after mooring up, the sun was out again.  I needed a change of clothes and a shower.

Adrian is flying back tonight, but will be back quite late.  Tomorrow, we'll drive over to Braunston to have a look at the old boats, and with luck meet up with some old friends.

6 miles, 2 locks.

June weekend - Day 3

Bridge 75 is another quiet mooring.  Last evening we decided to go for a walk, so went back along the towpath to the Black Horse, and through the new housing estate, marveling at how other-worldly the whole place seemed.  We found our way back to the field which borders the canal, and a path down to the bridge.

This morning was sunny first thing but had clouded over by the time we set off at about 9.10.  When we got to Wolverton we moored up, and while Adrian did some work I popped to Tesco.  The reason we were there was that Adrian had to go to London, and getting a train from Wolverton is very easy.  Having the extra night on board also seemed much more appealing that driving home yesterday and having to get a train from there!  Later in the morning Alan Fincher arrived, single handed, on Chalice, so I helped him moor up.  Cath was due to arrive at Wolverton station, having done a car shuffle.  It really is a very convenient station.  Adrian left to get the 1137 train; he'd be in London before I was back at the marina.

I set off to take the boat back to base.  I passed Fulbourne, moored up -- if you can call it moored, as it was about five feet out from the bank!

Cosgrove Lock was about three-quarter full, and a boat was just arriving at the top.  They came down and left a gate open for me.  Once I was in the lock another boat arrived to go down, so I had a bit of help with a paddle.  On leaving the lock, it started to rain and was also pretty gusty.  But fortunately by the time I got to the marina things had calmed down, and I was able to reverse into our berth without incident.  Then it was just a matter of packing up, loading the car, and driving home.

5 miles, 1 lock.  (22 miles, 2 locks)

June weekend - Day 2

We had a good evening last night.  We walked back up the locks at around 7pm, and the food (brought across from The Boat pub by Mike in his trip boat, Charlie) was available from about 7.30.  It was pretty good.  Adrian had a chicken curry and I had beef stroganoff, both with rice, and both very tasty.  We ate with Kathryn, although the band playing in the tent made it a bit difficult to talk.  Later we wandered along the boats moored towards the tunnel, as it was a nice evening, before returning to Briar Rose.

We saw a boat yesterday whose supposed owners name made me smile.  Anyone who knows Rochester knows that the town is famous for its Norman castle.

This morning we had a very relaxed start.  Adrian's been working very long hours recently, so it was good that he could get some really good sleep.  We had scrambled eggs on toast and set off after 9.30.

We passed our marina, and carried on to Cosgrove.  Adrian jumped off to go to the shop at the caravan park, while I headed for the lock.  Fortunately, a boat had just come up and another was going down, and they waited so I could join them.  The boats were almost ready to leave the lock when Adrian arrived back, but in time to drive the boat out.  On the water point below was the Braidbar boat, La Suvera, whose owners we know from the Braidbar group, so we had a quick chat as we passed.

We continued over the iron trunk aqueduct and through Wolverton.  At the Grafton Street Aqueduct one boat was already coming across, but then I could see another.  I've never actually passed anything on the aqueduct, although it must be wide enough, so I decided to go for it.  Of course there's plenty of room, even though it looks a bit tight.

We had lunch on the move, and carried on to the winding hole at Great Linford.  We turned there and made our way back to Bridge 75, where there's a nice quiet, open mooring.  It's a popular spot and there are quite a few boats here.  We were moored by around 2pm, so I've done a bit of cleaning and Adrian has done some work.  I keep thinking about washing the side of the boat as it's very dusty.  But so far I've got no further than thought.

12 miles, 1 lock.  (17 miles, 1 lock)

June weekend - Day 1

We came up to the boat last night.  I was working until late, so Adrian came up to London on the train, then we drove to the marina, arriving about 11.30.

This morning before we set off, I topped up the batteries and we filled the water tank.  We were ready to leave at around 9.15, and made the turn out of the marina towards Stoke Bruerne, which is having its family canal festival this weekend.  It was warmish, but not hot like it has been, and bright, but not sunny.  It took the usual hour and a half to get to the bottom lock, where I winded in the arm and we moored up.  Yet again, we had our pick of the moorings so opted to stay at the end closest the locks.

Adrian was finishing some work, so it was just before lunchtime that we set off to walk up to the village.  Halfway up the locks, Ryan Dimmock was winding Southern Cross and its butty, and returning up the locks.

In the village there were old boats, a craft tent, beer tent, a cheese boat, and an ice cream boat.  We met Kathryn, chatted to Steve Parkin from the Albert blog, and had some lunch.  There were radio controlled boats, including a one-twelfth scale life boat, and Morris dancers.  It's been a day of sunny spells and sudden heavy showers which leaves everyone dashing for the nearest tent.

Today's big local news was that Stoke Bruerne resident David Blagrove has been awarded the MBE in the Queen's birthday honours, for services to the restoration of the waterways.  There was a short congratulations ceremony by Richard Parry, the chief exec of the Canal and River Trust.

We've come back to the boat for a while, but we'll be wandering back up this evening as there's food available later.

The mobile broadband seems really weak here today, so I'll try an upload with small photos, and replace them later.

5 miles, 0 locks.

New Tilley hat

My Tilley hat has become something of a trademark -- and I often get people saying they recognised me because of it.  But lately it's been looking a bit worse for wear, and when it came out of the wash a week or so ago,the front was full of little holes.  It's maybe not surprising, given how much I wear it, that it gets regularly soaked (as I like to have it on under the hood of my waterproof when it's raining), operates as a sun hat, and once had to be rescued from the canal when the wind took it (they're designed to float).

So I emailed Tilley in Cornwall, who said the hat was covered under their lifetime guarantee never to wear out.  After a few checks, they've sent a replacement.  All I had to pay was a fiver for postage.  It's only when you see the old and the new next to each other that you realise how battered and faded the old one is.  Anyway, well done Tilley; a guarantee that really does mean something.

Mogoch on test

The July issue of Canal Boat is in the shops, and includes my boat test on Mogoch, a 70ft widebeam by Bluewater Boats.