Watford to Rickmansworth - Swan Attacks

Wednesday, 28 November 2012

Yeh... It's not raining this morning.  Only a short journey to complete today.  Great excitement as Susan spots a Kingfisher......  No time to get a photo..

It is a strange journey from Common Moor lock to Rickmansworth.  Loads of different types of boats line the waterways mainly prior to Batchworth Lock.  Some have seen better days.  Some are amazing.....  Some have left loads of litter in the countryside!!!  We see green parakeets in the trees too.

Susan's favourite Boat

Squirrel feeding post on side of floating house boat

Once in Rickmansworth, some of the visitor moorings have also been changed to permit holder winter moorings only.   Luckily we find a mooring almost opposite Tesco's.

Total 1.5 miles and 3 locks.


Tuesday, 27 November 2012

The stove went out overnight.  Susan puts the gas heating on to get us warm.....  Condensation was soon dripping off my windows........  Susan notices there is a damp patch by the bed....  she pulls the mattress away from the side and hopes it will dry out.  Pete assures Susan that I am not leaking.......

Mazey still in bed at 9:50 -  snuggled up under the duvet.  It is raining again!!

We are moving from Grove to Cassiobury Park, Watford, today.  We are going to have dinner with Cheryl, who lives alongside the Grand Union canal - she says she has put up a union jack flag in her bedroom window...  Susan and Pete are looking forward to dinner!!

Before we set off from The Grove, Susan notices the M25 noise as she steps off onto the towpath.  Two fisherman have already setup their equipment and the brollies are up.

Fisherman - The Grove

Strange looking boat

 It starts to rain heavily and gets very breezy in places.  They share the locks between them as, once again, the lower gates are heavy due to water pressure.  Within two locks, Susan's new 'waterproof' gloves are soaked.  She is freezing so pops in to get another pair and these are soaked by the next lock.  Susan does the lock without any gloves on and her hands are now wet, red and ice cold....

It would be a very pleasant journey through Cassiobury Park which is mainly woodland if it weren't for the rain.  Another tree has fallen and is obstructing the towpath.

At the last (Cassio Bridge) lock, a man comes out of the cottage and tries to clear the wooden twigs and leaves gathered by the gates of the lock.  He said that the towpath by the lock had recently been flooded due to the leaves and twigs.   He tries to shove them back into the lock.  Susan helps to pull them out of the lock, off the gates and completes the task whilst the man goes back into the warm........

Leaves and twigs

Pete fills me with water as I was thirsty again.  A swan comes over and Pete feeds it.  As Pete puts the pipe thingy back into the hatch on the front, the swan decides to attack Pete.  It keeps pecking at his shoes and his trousers.  I think it wants more food........  When Susan comes back it tries to do it to her too....  Mazey barks at it and it hisses back.....

Nice Swan

Attacking Swan

After filling me up at the other end, we continue on to just before Common Moor lock.  Susan notices the flag and we moor up opposite it.

Union Jack Flag

During the night, I get caught up on the ledge in the early hours of the morning which makes me tilt over.  Pete got up and relaxed the mooring ropes.  All chilled out!!

Total 2 miles, 4 locks

The Grove - Watford - Rain and more Rain

Susan wants a 'duvet' day - not a boat moving day!!!  Pete tells Susan to get a 'wiggle on'.....

We set off at 10:30 in the rain but, thankfully, no wind.  Susan, Pete and Mazey are all in wet weather gear.  At the second lock of the day, Susan helps a boat in the lock moving in the opposite direction.  His wife has broken her wrist 3 days' ago.  She slipped at a lock....  She said it was painful.  They also said that Paddington Basin's visitor moorings are now full of winter moorers....  Susan and Pete need to decide what they are going to do now as they had planned on staying in the basin over the weekend until Tuesday (note: winter moorings take effect from 1 November until 31 March).  Whilst in this second lock I get extra water.....  It takes ages as Pete forgets to put the nozzly thing on the end of the pipe onto full power..... Do'h.

Most of the locks have their bottom gates open which need to be closed before the lock can be filled with water - some idiot has left them open when exiting - Grrrrr.  Pete and Mazey prep most of the locks after the second lock as the bottom gates are very heavy to open due to water pressure.  We go under the M25 and pass only 1 other boat moving today.  There are many available mooring spaces from North Grove lock to Lady Capel's lock - which is where we are.  We arrive at 3:00 and overlook The Grove golf course.  Very pretty along here but also muddy.  Mazey is caked in mud and gets a brisk rub down.  Sitting in the dark at 4:00 - batteries not on full charge yet.....

Total 9 locks, 4 miles

Apsley - Lunch in the Paper Mill

What a night!!  Pete got up twice to sort out the TV arial and anything else on the roof that the wind might drag off, as the wind built up and the rain pelted down, throughout the night.  I was swaying in the wind which lulled Susan back to sleep quickly.

A sunny but breezy morning.  No rain yet!!

Pete and Susan had a lovely lunch in the Paper Mill pub with Lorraine and Pat.  There was a huge Christmas tree and a two piece band  - saxaphone and keyboard.  It was very busy.  It has been 3 months since Susan saw her sister Lorraine and misses her terribly.  Susan's hair was a tad frizzy due to lack of a hairdryer or straightening irons.......

The Paper Mill Pub

Apsley

Lorraine and Pat

Tomorrow, after a day's rest, we will be moving on.  Pete says if too windy we won't be going anywhere.  I got 'banged' again today by another boater just passing by - the wind caught them and forced them into the side of me!!! Hey ho - boating is a contact sport!!!!

Cowroast, Berkhamsted, Winkwell, Hemel Hempstead and Apsley

Apologies for the interrupted service which is due to Susan having watched 3 X-factor music videos last Saturday.  No TV signal was her excuse!!!  She could not believe how many megabytes they ate up..........  Susan and Pete have been into Hemel Hempstead to try and buy more megabytes.  No luck!!!  They have now purchased a MiFi (mobile WiFi).  Don't ask me what it is but, hopefully, we will have an uninterrupted service from now on.......  I don't like not being able to chat to you and let you know what I have been up to....  So here goes...

Saturday, 24 November 2012

Yet another grey drizzly day.  Pete and Susan try out their new thermal waterproof gloves and fleeces.

Nr. Boxmoor Lock - Hemel Hempstead

After completing Boxmoor lock, Hemel Hempstead, the towpath is obstructed by a fallen tree.  Susan and Mazey get back on.  More locks completed without too much trouble.  We arrive in Apsley which is a popular place to moor as there is a marina here.  We find a mooring.  Susan goes shopping to Sainsburys which is a few minutes walk from here over the bridge.

Susan gets the mobile wi-fi sorted whilst Pete watches the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Total 1 mile, 3 locks

Friday, 23 November 2012

As we leave Winkwell mooring, Susan and Mazey head off and prepare the swing bridge.  A British Waterways key is required.  The barriers come down and this stops the cars going across.  Then the bridge swings out of the way.  Whilst this is happening a goose decides to check Susan out and crosses the road.

Winkwell Bridge

Penalty

Susan makes sure that the bridge is closed correctly and she does not want to pay a penalty...

Once through, we get pump-out at the boat yard - Middx & Herts Boat Services.   Susan and Mazey then prepare the next lock.  All goes well until they have to open the bottom lock.  No hope!!  Pete has to climb out of the boat by jumping onto the top and then hoisting himself up onto the towpath and help push it open.  It takes ages.  Susan resorts to the giggles as she keeps slipping in the mud.  After a lot of swearing and pushing the gate finally opens.

At the next lock, Susan pulls out a wooden pallet.....  This lock takes even longer to open.  Again Pete helps.  The lock after this takes even longer and Susan and Pete realise they are wasting their time as well as hurting their backs through sheer effort.  It has taken 2 hours to do 1 mile and 3 locks.  No other boats have moved in either direction today.  They decide to moor up prior to Boxmoor Lock near Hemel Hempstead shopping centre which is a 10 minute walk across the cricket pitch.  Susan and Pete go shopping and agree to stay for the evening.

Total 1 miles, 3 locks

Thursday, 22 November 2012

A grey, breezy day.  Weather warnings!!!  Pete is recovering from a night out with pals in London.  Susan went to the Rex cinema in Berkhamsted to see Anna Karenina.  The Rex is a privately owned art-deco refurbished cinema.  Susan said it was an amazing experience sitting in plush red velvet seats.  Mostly full of groups of women drinking wine.....   Downstairs there is a seating area with tables so that guests can sit in groups and drink whilst watching the film.....  

Pete's ex-work colleague and friend Peter joins us in Berkhamsted today.  He puts his bike on top and then we set off in the rain.

After two locks they fill me up with water again.  Susan shops in the garage and gets pre-made sandwiches, and basic provisions for lunch.

Pete and Pete at water point

Mazey and Susan walk and prepare a few locks whilst the two Peters finish the locks.  The lock gates are really heavy due to strong water pressure.  After the third lock the weather brightens.

We moor near Winkwell Spring Bridge.  The humans decide to go and have a quick pint at the Three Horseshoes Pub.  This pub pre-dates the canal by 3 centuries.....  and allegedly has not one but two resident ghosts in the bar we sat in.......   Thank you Peter for your help.

Three Horseshoes - Quick pint

Winkwell Spring Bridge No 147

Winkwell Moorings

Getting very windy late in the day and lots of rain!!


Total 2 miles and 7 locks



Monday, 19 November 2012

A very cold morning - brrrrrrr.  Pete takes me into Cowroast Marina for pump-out which takes a lot of manoeuvring in the wind.  Another boater in the marina informs us that it is closed on a Monday!!!  Decide to continue on to Berkhamsted and get pump-out from Middx & Herts Boat Services in a few days.  On exiting the marina a fuel boat, Phil, arrives just  behind us.  We share the locks with them into Berkhamsted.  Phil's father-in-law helps Susan and Mazey prepare the locks whilst Phil and Pete chat....  Two swans decide to escort us into Cowroast Lock..  Susan frantically tries to discourage them... Do they have a passport!!!

Swan Patrol

Susan is a bit fed up as the fuel boat is 70 feet long and Pete keeps bumping me into it......  There are a number of Canal and River Trust helpers along this stretch of canal.  There is a problem with some of the locks due to lack of water in the pounds below the locks - believe it or not!!  They are trying to allow water to flow from Tring Summit to the lower levels.

Cowroast Lock - Fuel boat

Fuel boat exiting lock

The fuel boat is heavy and has a deep stern - so keeps dragging on the bottom and gets stuck at Bushes lock.  The Northchurch lock pump is broken, so the helpers are opening the bottom paddles to encourage water to flow down the locks.

On the way Susan spots a donkey - she is very excited about it!!

Donkey

We meet another lady boater travelling in the opposite direction to us who has decided to leave Berkhamsted as she does not like tilting at an angle......

Once we arrive in "Berko" (Berkhamsted), I get more water again but not before we are attacked by a Weeping Willow tree.......  Pete fights back... Susan decides to go and get food shopping in Waitrose over the bridge and leaves us to it....

Willow attack

Water point

Totem pole in Berkhamsted

Once the shopping is done and water levels are full, we find a mooring prior to Raven's Lock and Susan keeps her fingers and toes crossed for days that the water levels stay OK.

Raven's Gate - Mooring

Total 2.5 miles, 8 locks


Sunday, 18th November 2012

A beautiful, bright, sunny, frosty morning.  Fisherman are already set up for the day around the corner to our mooring.  Everyone up early.  We leave the Wendover basin and head to Cowroast.

After filling me up with water, we arrive nr. Cowroast Lock at 12:30.

There are lots of rowers out today with their coaches on bikes shouting out instructions and encouragement.

Rowers

Cowroast mooring

A pair of swans visit us late at night and peck the plankton off the side of me.  A quick clean-up service - thanks.

Total 4 miles, 0 locks, slow going due to silt along the canal.

Wendover Arm

We set off early.  A grey, chilly, wet morning.  Wet weather gear on again.  I know 'cause I can hear Susan swearing even before she has stepped onto the towpath....  She does seem to have trouble getting her legs through the trousers and out the other end...

Leaving our overnight mooring

Susan and Mazey prep the locks.  Pete helps out too. The locks are full of leaves.  Lovely views on the way.

Lock full of leaves

I am thirsty, so we stop for a while and wait for a boat to finish filling up with water at the drinking tap.  Pete wanders if his pipe (hose) is long enough.  This is where we meet 'Mad Hatter' with Chris and Ruth on board.  The humans chat for a long time..... about everything!!!!  'Mad Hatter' has a large water tank - much bigger than mine.  I wish I had a bigger tank - then I would not get so thirsty so quickly....  Susan and Pete admire their boat.....  Lots to discuss and while away the time - no rush.  A few of the items discussed were moorings, batteries/inverters, water storage, and, as every boater will admit to, the lovely topic of toilets.  No boater can go by without having discussed this at least once a week.  The type of conversation usually is "Are you pump out or cassette"??  "How long do you go for before having to empty it?"!!!!  When they leave the water point they go backwards to their residential mooring... Great steering by the way!

Mad Hatter reversing - Chris and Ruth

Drinking point

A duck says hello.... Sorry no food today

At one of the locks Mazey tries to help out.  She looks to Susan and says 'come on - give me a hand here'........ I think she wants a biscuit - maybe she is thirsty too.

The whole stretch of Marsworth is picturesque - lots of fisherman and people walking dogs.  It is not far from Tring.

Marsworth Reservoir on the left

After doing 9 locks and 2.5 miles we turn off at Bulbourne Junction onto the Wendover Arm.  We have not been along here before.  At the beginning it is silted and I end up dragging my bottom in the mud.  Not very pleasant.  Susan is a bit scared when we start to tilt over at an acute angle due to the shallow water.  Eventually after 1.5 miles, we manage, at a very slow pace, to get to the end of the arm and turn-around.  We have moored at the end of the arm for tonight.  Lovely views of the countryside.

Mooring - Wendover Arm

Total 9 Locks and 4 miles

Juels Fuels

What a difference a day makes.......  As a thick mist surrounds us, casting an eerie silence across the Chiltern hills, Susan and Pete decide not to move today.

Great excitement when Pete sees Juel's Fuels the working boat coming towards us.  They pull alongside me and fill me up with diesel and Pete buys 6 large bags of coal for the stove.  Juel and Richard have been working this area from Apsley to Braunston since 1972.  Boaters can order what they want by text (diesel, coal, logs, gas bottles, toilet fluid).  If the boat is unattended the couple will still leave the goods on your boat with an invoice.  The invoice can be paid by internet banking.  Welcome to the twenty-first century......

Pete asked Richard if he had ever fallen in.  Richard told us that he had 4 week's ago.....  He slipped off the back of another boater's slippery stern whilst about to fill the boat with diesel.  Once he managed to get back onto his boat sopping wet, using a ladder, the first thing the boater said to him was "My dog gave birth to 7 puppies last week" - not a word about his fall into the canal.  Naught stranger than boaters........

Juel's Fuels

Filling-me up with diesel

Marsworth

A beautiful warm sunny day.  Such a joy to be cruising on this 'spring-like' day....  Pete says "What a lovely way to spend your days.  Beats work"...........  Did not pass one moving boat today...  All quiet.

At Church Lock there are 6 boats all moored in exactly the same place as they were when we went past them in July (below the lock).  This is not a private or BW temporary mooring section - so all moored up illegally....  One of the boats even has a motorbike blocking the towpath....  wonder if the new Canal and River Trust will sort this out....  The old church has now been renovated and has been sold as a family home.

Such stunning views after Church and Slapton locks.  Susan decided that it was a lovely day and as there was quite a distance between locks to put her folding chair in the stern hatch.  Mazey sat on her lap as Susan read her book and chatted to Pete.

Church Lock

Susan noticed that mushrooms were growing on one of the lock gates.......  Susan is not sure if she can eat them!!

Mushrooms

These boats were moored on private land - legally.  Such stunning views over the countryside.

Approaching the final lock of the day.  Only a swing-bridge to do....

Dunstable boat club.  I am moored around the corner from here just prior to Marsworth locks 37/38.  A lovely spot.

Dunstable Boat Club

Total today: 5.5 miles and 7 locks

Milton Keynes to Leighton Buzzard - Grove Lock

A busy few days cruising from Milton Keynes to Leighton Buzzard (Grove Lock).

Sunday, 11 November

Day of rest.  Pete taking advantage of the beautiful sunny day to paint the front of me.  Yippee.... Susan says it needed it weeks' ago - so Pete got to work.  Looking great!!!!  Feeling pretty again......

Saturday, 10 November

A grey blank sky greets us this morning after a night of heavy rain.  It starts to rain just as we leave......

Susan and Mazey prep the 3 Soulbury Locks after Susan struggles to get her wet weather gear on - I can hear her cursing when she gets dressed.

Grand Union pub overlooks Soulbury 3 locks

At Leighton lock, prior to Leighton Buzzard, Susan walks up to the lock and helps the single boater arriving from the opposite direction to prep the lock.  It is difficult to do the locks if you are on your own.  There is another boat waiting going in the same direction as us but he decides to not help out and waits by the side of his boat - lazy ***!!!!  Whilst Susan helps another boat comes along, so Susan helps them through too.  They all thank her and one of the 3 men on board say she is very public spirited.  Eventually, we get into the lock and carry on to Leighton Buzzard.

We stop for a bit whilst Susan goes food shopping in the canal-side Tescos..... 2 hour wait only here.  Lots of waterfowl getting fed by walkers and shoppers.

Leighton Buzzard

At Grove lock there are a lot of gongoozlers - mainly children.  The lock is overlooked by a popular pub.  A young boy called Chrisopher asks Susan if he can help.  So they do the lock together.  He is really excited.....  Thanks to all the helpers at the lock!!!!

After pump-out we moor opposite the small marina for the evening.  Such a beautiful night sky.  More fireworks can be heard in the distance.

Night view

Total 5 locks, 5 miles

Friday, 9 November 2012

A dull day but not raining yet!!!

After 3 miles we get to Fenny Stratford lock.  Pete and Mazey prep this one as there is a swing bring in the middle of the lock and it was too heavy for Susan last time we came through here.

I had a collision today with an idiot boater - who came around a bend going far to fast.  I had slowed almost to 'tick over' as we were passing moored boats on both sides when this boat came at us from the opposite direction.  After hitting us the 'boaters' shrugged their shoulders and threw their hands up in the air to apologise. Pete growled at them and said 'Slow down'.........  I was a bit annoyed too......  If you drive up to a bend and cannot see around it you should go slower.....  it is good etiquette after all!!

A large heron played 'tag' with me today.  Great fun but I could not catch it up...

Lots of moored boats along this stretch - boats are now being moored up for the winter.... resting...  I wonder when I get a chance to rest........

Total 2 locks, 6.5 miles