About Me

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After thirty years of hiring, I finally bought my own 50ft boat in 2005, which was built in 2001 by Andicraft at Debdale Wharf. I mostly cruise single handed and have no problem with that, although it does take a little longer than with a crew. My mooring is on the Wey Navigation, so I have a choice of routes on the Wey or the Thames.

Friday 24 May 2019

Freedom of the Cut 2019 - 4.


Ricky to the Summit Level.

Sunday 19th May

After a shower and breakfast, I attempted to publish my blog. Probably because my mobile had no signal, the photographs that I had on it refused to be picked up by Blogger, so had to be transferred by Bluetooth to the laptop and then uploaded from the appropriate laptop file – I found it to be extremely frustrating, but got it completed and published eventually.

 I had a stroll through the stalls and various music arenas. There were far more stalls than at Cavalcade, but of course there was far more space. All the usual tat of course and ethnic clothing plus food outlets. It was certainly crowded despite the amount of space. I spotted John Fevier inside one of the waterway stalls and we passed the time of day for a while. I had a beer before returning to the boat for a spot of lunch, after which it was time to dismantle the lights and bunting, which took all afternoon – is it really worth it?

nb Chedoona  won a bottle of prosecco for being the best decorated boat and it was well deserved. Moranwyl Phyllis wanted to move from the inside mooring to the outside for an early getaway in the morning, so a bit of disorganised boat shuffling took place, but at least Stronghold was now on the bankside and I had a spring line out to steady things when other boats passed by.



This boat was named Rose in June, but has been repainted 
and totally refitted and is on a mooring by The Pelican.


It was just too far to walk to the pub, so a quiet pint ensued on board and a period to wind down before having supper.

Monday 20th May

I should be doing an oil change today and stocking up with food for the next few days to intersperse with the sweet and sour chicken dishes. The oil change was put on the back burner and I did some M&S shopping instead and whiled away the afternoon with a book, during which time, Margaret asked me if I would like to go with a group of boaters to Wetherspoons for a meal later and of course I jumped at the chance, despite there being a total of fifteen boaters, most of whom I knew anyway.  It was a very enjoyable evening talking to different people and discussing everything from boat toilets (why does this always crop up in the conversation even during a meal), to where are you going next, where is your mooring, and your working life history amongst other topics. We finally departed the pub at 22.30 and I was flagging, it being long past my normal bedtime, but I slept extremely well for a change.

During the evening I had a phone call from Chris, who had said previously that he would come out and crew for me on Tuesday. Despite me hanging around Ricky all day Monday, he was now possibly going to turn up on Thursday.

Tuesday 21st May

I was out of bed and ready to move at 8am. I was now moored next to Zavala closer to the town lock and although Margaret was out walking the dog, I had to wake Brian by starting the engine to cross over the cut to Tesco. Unfortunately, Miss Matty passed by while I was there, so no chance of accompanying them through the locks. I had to stop for water below the lock anyway and I was in a queue, so it was a long time before I eventually went through the lock with another boat until they stopped for water at Cassio Bridge. I continued was  caught up by nb Gerald with Barry and Jenny, who was also at ‘Spoons pub last night, so we did several more locks together until they stopped just above Hunton Bridge top lock.

By this time (14.00) I also had done enough for the day and pulled in on a favourite sunny mooring just north of the bridge for some lunch and a stop for the day.  Now that the engine was hot it was time to do that oil change. The weather had been incredibly sunny and warm in the morning, but a breeze sprung up in the afternoon and the off bank wind made mooring difficult, so I had to be very quick getting pins in and tying up without getting blown across the other side of the cut.

Surprisingly there are only two other boats moored within sight, whereas there have been masses of live aboard boaters moored up along the banks, which of course necessitates moving at just above tickover speed and makes progress so much more tedious. Some years ago there was a call for more offline moorings in purpose built marinas, which would hopefully reduce the number of online moorings, but the opposite has happened because although they probably did move to marinas, there are now so many people living on boats and taking up cheaper online mooring spaces that it is worse than ever before in my fourteen years of owning a boat. London is the prime example and it is almost impossible to visit the city any longer on a boat, unless you have a designated or reserved mooring space.

Wednesday 22nd May

Just after 08.30 nb Enigma came past who had been moored behind me overnight. I asked if it was OK to accompany him up the locks, which it was. We got chatting a the first lock and Les enquired about The Pelican pub in Addlestone, which was one of the Watney’s pubs that he used to deliver to way back when he worked for Watneys.  He was also a single handed boater as was evident when he approached that lock. Not only was his sense of humour similar to mine, but he also knew what he was doing at locks and not only did we get on well, we gelled into a team with no words spoken. In all we did twelve locks as far as The Three Horseshoes at Winkwell and went in for a couple of well deserved pints and more chat. His family are going to Whipsnade at the weekend, so he is stopping here for a while to meet with them.

In the meantime Chris phoned to find out where I was and agreed to come for a pint too later in the evening, before meeting up closer to Berko to crew for me tomorrow. Nb Gabriel with James and Hazel also arrived and moored up and we agreed to leave about nine-ish in the morning to travel together, so it looks like we will be mob handed for locking tomorrow. It’s not often I get the chance of a locking crew, so I look forward to that.

Thursday 23rd May

Another sunny day is promised and I was up early to be ready to let go with nb Gabriel. We let go around 9am and did a few locks, before Chris came down the towpath to crew for the day, so with James and Chris working the locks we fairly flew up them as far as Berko, where we moored briefly to visit Waitrose. 


Gabriel stopped there for the night, but we continued as far as the summit level to moor at Bulbourne, where there was plenty of space.


About 2ft lower than normal between Dudswell Two Locks.


It was a short walk to The Grand Junction, but to our surprise the real ales were off and there was no gas for the pressurized stuff either – a pub with no beer is not good news. Chris decided to fetch his car from Berko, by catching the train from Tring and then returning to collect me and go to The Red Lion at Marsworth, where they still had Harvey’s Best Bitter on tap as last year, which is a regular ale according to the landlord. I pointed out that Harvey’s only deliver within a 50 mile radius of Lewes, so how did he manage to get a supply. The reply was that it was delivered by a local beer wholesaler, which is what I thought might have happened.

It had been a six hour day of travelling and although the locks were done for me, I certainly had had enough by that time, so another early night ensued.

Friday 24th May

Another day of sunshine was promised, but it clouded up later, though still warm. I had a late morning breakfast and decided that I had enough hot water to do some washing. By now I had got the hang of using this Mickey Mouse twin tub washing machine that I found last year. Despite this, it still took me two hours of continual supervision over a hot tub.

I debated later whether to walk down Maffers flight for a pint at The Anglers Rest, but decided against it hoping that there was beer on in the local pub by now.

I could see that the Bulbourne workshops were now empty and fenced off, with many small trees cut down, so some sort of action was forthcoming. Several of the buildings are Grade II listed, so there is limited room for redevelopment.  https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/media/library/2676.pdf




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