The Grand Canal Tour 2014. To Limehouse.

I set off on my own through the pool and though the tunnels in much better weather, though very windy. If it carries on like this, I can’t see us doing the Thames cruise on Sunday. I met up with Helen and Gerry on nb Josephine and we did several locks together. She rather disapproved of me leaving my boat in gear at the lock lay-by, with only the centre line tied to the bollard, saying that it was dangerous if anyone fell in and that the old boaters never did that, because they had no centre line. To which I replied that it was often done by the old guys using the back end beam line and that I had been taught how to do it when on my RYA Helmsman’s Course. She did not make any further comments after that!

I due to meet up with Terry Woodley in Limehouse about midday, but it took longer than I expected, so he had already been waiting about two hours, when I arrived. We were rafted eight deep out from the wall, with forty boats ready to go in the morning on the Olympic Park Cruise. Barry arrived on a boat, which rather surprised me, as he came by train and only met up with this boater after walking down to the cut from the DLR. Sleeping arrangements were organised before we all went off to the Cruising Association building for a safety and itinerary briefing from Andrew Phasey on the two cruises. We were amply supplied with maps and lists of boats, complete with mobile phone numbers and e-mail addresses along with the order of boats on the route. After that, we had the meal, which had already been ordered. A visit to Limehouse is never complete without a visit to The Grapes, http://www.thegrapes.co.uk/ which backs on to the Thames. Being Friday, the place was rammed, though we did find a space on the minute balcony overlooking the river.

 

 

 

The following day, we were walking past The Grapes and Terry said,

 ” I wonder how old that place is?”

 “About 1583.” I replied.

 “How do you know that?” he said.

 “It’s written on that blue plaque on the wall, Terryl!”

 

"Doh!"

 

 

The Grand Canal Tour 2014. Wet and Chilly.

Wet and Chilly.

 

Just for a change, I thought I would try The Prince Alfred http://www.theprincealfred.com/  last night.  This late Victorian pub (1863) is a temple of adulation to the demon drink and is well worth a visit, but could hardly be treated as a local by us mortals, but then we don’t own the huge mansions and Bentleys that surround it. As Time Out described it,”............. the wow factor for first-time visitors is pretty much guaranteed, and there’ll be more exclamation when the price of a pint becomes apparent: your Peroni will cost upwards of four quid.”.

Too right! My pint of Youngs Bombardier was £4.09! So in for a penny......the second pint was Youngs Double Chocolate Stout at £4.74!!! Ouch. I even had a meal there, which was good, but not exceptional. Probably, two pints of Chocolate Stout would have constituted a meal in itself!

The main bar of this place is big, with a high stucco ceiling and amazing tall etched windows. Although the bar is big, it is divided into about four snugs, each separated by a wooden screen with frosted glass at the top and a very low door to get from one area to the next, so you have to duck down to get through. The top of each screen is decorated with a spindle turned frieze and a heavy broken pediment in the centre, all carved in mahogany. All these snugs surround an island bar, so there is service at each of them. The restaurant reminded me of a tram shed, with steel trusses across the ceiling and an enormous ‘dog box’ big, with high decorative plaster seiling...the second pint of Youngs Double Chocolate Stout was £ of a skylight above. The walls are decorated with enormous black and white photographs of the boats on the canal and appear to have been taken in the 70’s as they are all cabin cruiser narrow boats. How much better it would have been to show historic working boats instead.

 

It was an interesting and enjoyable experience, even though my wallet complained, but I will not return. A final nightcap of Doombar was had at The Warwick Castle on the way back.

 It has been raining on and off since this morning and I was hoping to complete the side doors. It may improve later, but in the meantime there is plenty to read about on the web about the forthcoming BCN Challenge and to continue with this blog.

 The Huawei Mobile WiFi E5332 is working really well and I don’t know why I didn’t get one sooner. The one problem is that the TS-9 aerial plug does not hold in place, like it did on the Huawei E 160 HSPDA USB Stick, which has a round hole to support the aerial plug on the outside. A retrograde step in design, I think.



Eventually, the rain did stop and I had a walk back to The Prince Alfred to take some pics of the outside, but I was tempted inside to take some more, so I just had to buy another pint of Double Chocolate Stout. I think that was worth it, as the interior is so impressive. A stroll back to The Warwick Castle for a last pint of Doombar was in order, before heading back to Stronghold and a meal. I am looking forward to tomorrow and the trip down the locks to Limehouse to meet up with Barry and Terry, my crew for the weekend.

The Warwick Castle.

 

The Prince Alfred

 

One of the smaller snugs.
 

Restaurant.
 

The island bar.

 

 

 

The Grand Canal Tour 2014. Time To Relax and the Most Amazing Coincidence.

All the boats had moved out of the pool by the time I walked up about 10am. I said my goodbyes to Fabian and John before returning to catch up on this blog. I also had to try and get still pics off the video that someone else had taken on my camera of the prizegiving, instead of still pics that I asked for. He had obviously pressed the wrong button at the time. I got there in the end and managed to get the blog up to date some hours later. Perseverance pays off in the end!

 I took the side doors off to put another coat of paint over the cured rust and was making a new handle for the kettle; the previous one being thermo-plastic that  had melted after leaving the kettle on the stove until it boiled dry. I found an old broom handle in the rubbish tip and already had some stainless steel strips in my ditty box – knowing that they would come in handy at some point. Thanks Jim!

 While I was working at the aft end, a couple passed by and we started talking about narrow boats, as they were going to hire a boat from Worcester for a week. They had arrived from Canada that morning and lived in Victoria, on Vancouver Island, where I had been many years ago, so we had a common connection.

I answered the usual questions like “Do you live on your boat?” and “Where is your mooring?” etc., until they then said,

 “We are going to Burgess Hill tomorrow.”

To which I replied “That’s funny, I used to live there and teach at the secondary school.”

The next question was “Do you know the Burtenshaws?”

“Yes.” I replied.

Then the bombshell – “Well, Gordon Burtenshaw is my cousin!”

Now I taught Gordon and he also trained as a teacher, after which he took over my job, when I left that school.

Coincidences like that are so rare as to be almost unbelievable, and they very nearly walked past my boat and only turned back at the last minute. We exchanged e-mail addresses, so I hope to catch up on their boating holiday soon. Watch this space!

The Grand Canal Tour 2014. Prize Giving.

I was watching BBC news in the morning and there was Carol Kirkwood presenting the weather forecast from Canalway Cavalcade, so I had to take a look. I took some pics from the road above and when she had finished filming, I walked along the quayside to take some more pictures. She was chatting to Mark Saxon, the water space manager and then there were a few photo opportunities for onlookers. When she had two CRT guys standing either side, I said, “I know these two guys, but who are you?” Which raised a laugh from Carol, even though I still had my trousers on!

"I know those guys, but who are you  the middle?"

The boat handling competition was still in progress and I watched their performances. Fulbourne being 72ft long had great difficulty turning 360 deg in the pool and so did the other boats; one even turning the wrong way round. They also had problems reversing to the judge at Warwick Avenue, so I knew by that time that I had done better. I was standing close to the judge by the bridge and when he opened his pad to score the last boat, I managed to look over his shoulder and see that I had scored 8/10 for his section, whereas the others had scored only scored 6’s and 7’s.

More chats with boaters and getting some advice from Paul Garner about protecting boat paintwork from the constant ravages of mooring lines. Then it was back to Stronghold for some lunch, before the prize giving at 1pm. I was right in the middle of cooking an omelette, when I had a phone call from Mark Saxon, asking me to be on the Horse Bridge in 20mins, saying that it would be well worth going, so I knew then that I was up for a prize of some sort. In fact it was the Westminster Trophy for The Best Handled Boat at Canalway Cavalcade, along with a bottle of Prosecco and a shield to keep. My dream had been realised at the second attempt and I was chuffed to bits.

 

The evening was spent celebrating my win in the Warwick Castle in the company of Mike and Jenny Moorse, who were also NBT members and whom I met two years ago on the Oxford. Their boat is Guelrose, which I took note of previously, but there never seemed to be anyone on board at the time. Another perfect ending to a perfect day for me.

The Grand Canal Tour 2014. Day of the Boat Handling.

After a late start for a change. Dave and Kay Murray (they have the boat next to me on my home mooring) turned up for coffee and a chat about boating (what else do boaters talk about), before leaving for a look around the stalls.

I had a stroll around the stalls as well later and eventually got to nb Roger http://www.rwt.org.uk/historic-working-boat/the-roger/      where I met up with Fabian Hiscock, who is very much involved with the boat, as well as being a fellow member of the Narrow Boat Trust http://www.narrowboattrust.org.uk/  There is a very interesting video on the RWT page of the restoration of the Roger, which I found a little difficult to locate. It is on the RWT home page where the Rickmansworth Waterways Trust logo is, fairly well down the page, rather than an underlined link. Fabian gave me a tour through the hold to view the formidable task of replacing rotten timbers. I was also impressed with the portable dual burner diesel hob on the boat, which was designed for them by Kabola, I believe.

Brian and Margaret turned up for a chat in their boaters Sunday best – traditional boaters costume for high days and important events. Margaret looked particularly splendid in her new outfit made by Suzanne Wilson of the Byfleet Boat Club. I had forgotten about Sunday best, so I quickly changed before leaving the mooring to join the start of the Boat Handling Competition.

Margaret and Brian in their Sunday Best.

 

Progress was slow through the pool, as the London Waterbus Co. boats where very busy winding and coming and going. I got off to a poor start by shunting into the stern of a tug that I was following. I had not realised that it had stopped and the wheelhouse was well ahead of the stern, which protruded some way behind. The hull was so low that it was out of my view – well, that’s my excuse! Good job I was not yet in the competition.

Under starter's orders behind Fulbourne.

It was a different route to last year, when I also took part. This time, boats came out of the Paddington Basin and moved alongside Rembrandt Gardens, before reversing onto the Browning’s Island pontoon and shaking hands with the judge; not forgetting to take a line off the boat at the same time. Then we had to reverse around the island and up to Warwick Avenue Bridge and shake hands with the next judge, before moving forward and rotating through 360 deg in the pool and head out under the Horse Bridge. Reversing Stronghold, or any other boat, is not an easy manoeuvre, though better in deep water as it was here. I was reasonably pleased with my performance overall; the best part being the 360 deg rotation in the pool. Stronghold turns on a sixpence in deep water, aided I think, by the Axiom propeller. http://www.axiompropellers.com/

It was time for a well earned beer, so off I went with own mug in hand to the beer tent, which was CLOSED at 5pm, even to me with my wrist band on view. So that is that!!! I will never patronise them again this weekend. My next port of call was The Bridge House, where I had never been before and will never go again! The place was not only short staffed and obviously could not cope, but all the tables in the bar were covered in empty glasses and plates. I waited 10mins to be served, which I wasn’t, so decided to call it a day there and went to The Warwick Castle instead, which was also straining at the seams, but well staffed, so I was served within a minute or two.

At last, a good ending to the day.  

The Grand Canal Tour 2014. An Early Start.

It is very rare for me to be awake at 04.30 and even to get out of bed, but the sun was shining and I wanted to take some early morning photos with no one about. So I walked down Paddington Basin and met a security guard doing his rounds there, plus a few early morning travellers going into the station.

An 05.30 view from the Horse Bridge.
 

All ready for the fray.
 

I wonder if all those air bubbles are there to keep the flotsam back? Hope that is cleared up later!

I hope they get this fixed shortly too!
 

 

After a late breakfast, Jo and Phil arrived just in time for the decorated boaters’ pageant, one of two competitions that I had entered in the Cavalcade; the other being the boat handling competition. Stronghold was only decorated with bunting, as I am not interested in winning this one, but it was a chance to charge the batteries and heat up the hot water. Some of the boats go for this event in a big way and are very successful. One boat even had a Nelsons Column erected, with a figure of Nelson on top and another had the Queen on the bow; then there was Boris on a bike on a third boat. We cruised through the Maida Hill Tunnel with no problem and then through the London Zoo and under ‘Blow Up Bridge’, where a gunpowder barge exploded some years ago and finally winded in Cumberland Basin. The return through the tunnel was not without incident, as I still had the bunting up. The sun was in my eyes as I entered the tunnel and it takes some time to get used to the darkness, consequently I got too close to the wall twice and had to stop and fend off to get back in the channel. I dropped my visitors off at the Horse Bridge, as I had to travel quite a distance to wind the boat and get back on the mooring. That was confusing, as I failed to recognise my mooring, because another passing boat had stolen my place. I contacted the Water Space manager, who arrived almost immediately and we moved the offending boat further down the line and affixed a ticket asking them to move, which they did later.

I had a walk up to the boaters' bar for a pint and met John Fevyer there briefly and offered to buy him a pint, but he was busy being in charge of Area 1 and actually refused a beer. It was not long before Adrian and Hillary turned up after their trip to Twickenham to meet up with some old friends and watch the Army v Navy rugby match. We had a few laughs and that was about the end of the day for me, having been up so early.

The Grand Canal Tour 2014. A Day With No Locks

A Day With No Locks

An leisurely start to the day, as we were in no hurry to get to Little Venice. If you arrive early, it appears that boats spend most of the day being shunted around and just hanging about. All the moorings were allocated this year, which is a great improvement on last years fiasco, when boats of differing lengths were moored next to each other in the order of arrival, which is quite a waste of mooring space.

It is just over 13 miles from Bull’s Bridge to Little Venice and there are no locks to break up the day, so although the going is easy, I tend to find it boring. Zavala set off about 11am and I followed about 15mins later, so they were out of my site on the trip, but in radio contact. I made a couple of stops on the journey to collect some kindling and then to chain saw up logs that I had collected previously and were cluttering up the cabin top. I don’t think they would have enhanced the appearance of Stronghold in the decorated boat parade! I had met Paul Garner on Destiny2 briefly, who Brian already knew and Paul invited me to a dim sum lunch at his favourite Chinese restaurant, called East Pan Asian, in Alperton. It was an excellent meal and wiled away a very pleasant couple of hours. The restaurant is above Loon Fung Chinese supermarket (a worthy rival to Wing Yip at Croydon) at the rear of Sainsburys.

Following Tarn to the mooring...............

 

..............................closely followed by Zavala and Destiny .


 

I arrived at the Delamere Terrace mooring about 6pm and found that I was to be moored next to  the tug Tarn, instead of Muttley. It seems that they changed places so that Dorothy and her sister on Tarn, could walk their three dogs more easily than being stern first in the pool, accompanied by the milling crowds that would be on the towpath over the weekend.

 

I was busy clearing the plastic bags off the propeller later, when Adrian on Serendipity introduced himself and said he was off for a pint at the WarwickCastle. I said I would see him there shortly, as it is the Victorian pub that I frequented when I was here last year and serves Doombar, one of my favourite beers. Adrian was with a crowd of boaters that had moorings on the Slough Arm and had wanted to get to Cavalcade last year, but were thwarted by a collapsed bridge on the arm. As he commented “It has taken us a whole year to get here!”

I believe they were going on somewhere else after the pub, so I said my goodbyes and turned in without having anything to eat, having had enough food at lunchtime to last the rest of the day.

The Grand Canal Tour 2014. A Few False Starts.

 

I have been planning an extended cruise since last year, which included Canalway Cavalcade at Little Venice to start with at the beginning of May and then the BCN Challenge at the end of May.

All the entrants for the Cavalcade were invited by Andrew Phasey of St. Pancras Cruising Club to take part in two cruises the following weekend through the Olympic Park and then Bow Locks to Bow Creek, around the Isle of Dogs, Deptford Creek and back into Limehouse the following day.
This was a chance not to be missed and my application form went off first class the next day.

After the BCN Challenge, I had yet not decided where I was going, except in a northerly direction. However, I had a good two weeks to get to Windmill End on the BCN for the start of the challenge and am hoping to get down the Aylesbury Arm and maybe the Wendover Arm as well, on the way to Brum. The Ashby Canal is also on the agenda, but probably after Birmingham. I have passed by all these minor waterways in previous years, when time has been of the essence, so now is the time to give them some attention.

 The Grand Tour began on Wednesday 30^th April with a false start immediately. The favourite place to wind the boat after leaving the mooring is outside The Pelican pub, where it is wide and deep enough close to The Pelican piling, but at one end there is an unknown obstruction which stopped the engine dead. A weed hatch exploration was begun and whatever is was down there was not easily moved, so Dave Murray, my crew for the day, pulled the boat further down the mooring, which cleared space for the propeller to rotate. Now we were properly on our way, so we thought, but Zavala, who were our boating buddies for the trip, were waiting in Town lock with little sign of activity. There was a red board posted there and the top gate was chained up. The River Wey, below the lock seemed calm enough, so phone calls were made to the National Trust and Thames Lock and Tracy the lock keeper appeared shortly with the appropriate key to release us onto the river. On arrival at Thames Lock, the dreaded red board was again in evidence for the Thames between Shepperton Lock and Sunbury Lock, after which there were only yellow boards, “Stream Decreasing”. We decided to go, knowing that once beyond the Shepperton weir, the going would be much easier. Brian and Margaret on Zavala went first and I knew that if we lost radio contact, something had happened. All went well though, with full throttle applied through the weir stream and then more slowly into the Desborough Cut. Speed was fast in the current and through Walton and we were soon into Sunbury Lock and paying for the £10 transit licence to Teddington. It was then midday and we had until midday the following day to complete the trip, if we so wished.

Zavala at speed on the Thames.

 

Plenty of white water over the weirs!

 

The next incident occurred at Kingston, when I pushed the throttle control too hard and pulled the outer cable out of its fixing in the engine compartment. On investigation, I thought a tension spring had broken as well and some time was spent looking for this mythical object, but on reconnecting the cable in the appropriate position, all was well and we were soon on our way again to Teddington, where we locked through about an hour before high water on one of the highest tides of the year, 7.1 metres.

The crewman keeps a sharp lookout.

 

After an hour, we were at Thames Lock at the beginning of The Grand Union Canal, where the water was level on both sides of the lock, necessitating a short wait to be able to get under Brentford Bridge and then through the gauging locks to a mooring. My crew man Dave, insisted on buying me a beer, before he made his way home. Being an offer I could not refuse, we repaired to O’Brians, where a welcome pint or two were consumed with a meal before he departed on the bus for Kingston. I made my way to The Brewery Tap, where there is normally home grown music on offer, but it was a quiet night and I became absorbed with a Daily Mail article on the gaffes made by the Green Party’s farcical shenanigans trying to govern Brighton and Hove, which is very close to where I live.

 The following day, we planned to leave Brentford about 10am to tackle the Hanwell flight of locks to Bull’s Bridge. It had rained hard in the night, which might well have affected a later trip on the Thames, so we had made it in good time. There were two Black Prince hire boats moored there and as there was some movement on board at 9.30, we decided to move earlier and make the most of our advantage, otherwise all the locks would be set against us and would make for slow going. Progress was good in the intermittent rain, with Margaret valiantly preparing the lock ahead and Brian or myself closing the top gates of the lock below. We made it to Bull’s Bridge in 3 1/2 hours and had plenty of time to dry out and take it easy.

 

 

Easter Cruise with the BBC

or Tugboat Ray `.

I signed up at the last minute for the Byfleet Boat Club Easter Cruise, having been mostly inactive during winter hibernation. Not that I hadn’t been to Stronghold over that period, but not actively out on the waterway, so I was rather suffering from cruising withdrawal.

Eleven boats were signed up for the trip to Guildford and Godalming, stopping at The New Inn, Send on Friday night for a meal and visiting Hector’s Bistro at Farncombe for Sunday lunch, where places for 25 members had been reserved.

I eventually got to Send at 18.30, having expected to spend the night at the boat club, but on arrival there, I was informed that they had all left earlier, so I was on my own (nothing new) for the two hour trip to the pub.

The New Inn had changed hands since I had last been there and the decor had been improved slightly, but the range of beers had been improved considerably and one of my favourites, Doombar, was on offer, so I was happy. I ordered the Scottish mussels and expected similar to other Scottish mussels that I had had in the past. However, they were not and for the first time ever in a restaurant, I complained about the miniscule size of the molluscs. I was assured that they were indeed Scottish, but was offered a complimentary sweet in compensation, amounting to half the cost of the main course, which I considered to be a reasonable offer. Next time, I will have the enormous fish and chips!

The following morning, I accompanied Mick and Suzanne on their brand new boat Cranley, which Mick had brilliantly fitted out for them as Aquarius Narrowboat Fitters. Obviously, I had to take extreme care when entering locks as I did not want to be the first to mark the shiny paintwork – I left that to someone else and indeed that someone, who shall be nameless, actually did!

 

It's very hard work, this locking business!

 

I moored up on Guildford water meadows with John and Sue on Corn Dolly on the outside and it was agreed that I should go with them to Farncombe the following day, as mooring there is limited. This was a good decision for me as it turned out later.

The trip to Farncombe was without incident and all fifty of us sat down to a hearty roast lunch, which was good for Hector’s, as it was now raining heavily and customers would have been scarce under the circumstances.

All the boats left in mid afternoon, again in heavy rain, but as I was only crewing, I had the chance to stay in the dry until we came to a lock and although I didn’t get quite soaked to the skin like John, I was pretty wet when we arrived back at the meadows. Needless to say, my fire was soon coaxed into action and I spent the evening warm and toasty.

I cruised back to Byfleet with Corn Dolly as far as Papercourt lock, where a cruiser was on the lock lay-by and I asked if he intended locking through, to which he replied in the affirmative “eventually”, as he had broken down. In my usual generous manner, I asked if he wanted a tow to Pyrford Marina, where his boat was based, which he accepted. The alternative was for him to bow haul the boat two and a half miles, which I estimated would take several hours, whereas by boat it would take about one and a half hours. After locking through with Corn Dolly, the cruiser locked through and the tow started on a very short line. I was pleasantly surprised at how well the cruiser steered and all went well until the footbridge with scaffolding after Worsfold Gates, where the top frame of the windscreen suffered some slight damage. As the guy said later, “It was OK on the way up”, but it appears there were four on board at the time and the river section had been rising during the constant rain. As is normal on any weekend, there were plenty of gongoozlers out at Pyrford lock and we both got through the lock together, which was even easier than Newark lock.

Leaving Newark lock. (photo by Suzanne Wilson)

I was rather worried about getting the cruiser through the narrow gap into the marina, having not done so well last year with Rowan, but this time I took it far more slowly and all went well on the short tow line. The reception committee were there on the jetty to start work straight away and I left them to it and said goodbye. I forgot to ask the guy for an address to send the salvage invoice – oh well, next time maybe!

The weekend finished back at the clubhouse downing a few beers with Mick, before cruising back to The Pelican moorings in the morning. A good start to the season.

 

BMC Engine Starting Problem Solved.

Ever since I bought Stronghold, I have had starting problems with the BMC 1.5 engine as soon as the weather starts to get colder. Despite trawling the internet and all relevant solutions offered therein, nothing seemed to work. As most BMC owners will know, you are advised to clean out the carbon from the hole where the heating element fits, but no one stresses just how important this is to solve starting problems. I had changed the heater plugs a couple of years ago and there was a minor improvement after attempting to clean out the hole where the element goes in with an 11/64 drill. However, this is difficult to achieve for several reasons:-

1. It is almost impossible to twist the drill with your fingers and putting it in a drill chuck with a heavy drill on the end, risks breaking the drill off in the engine block, with dire consequences.

2. Holding the end of the drill with pliers is extremely awkward, because the injector pipes get in the way of the pliers.

3. The drill needs to go right into the hole, leaving only 3/4 inch protruding from the block, which leaves very little left to hold.

Having just acquired a lathe, I decided that a drill soft soldered into a ½ inch diam steel rod would give me something to grip with my fingers. Better still, a 5/32 and then an 11/64 drill would enable the carbon to be removed from the hole in smaller quantities, so making the tool easier to turn by hand and if it was knurled, much easier to grip with the fingers. So I made up the tool illustrated.

I checked that the removed heater plugs were working, using one of the batteries, before reaming out the carbon in the element holes, smaller drill first, with a little grease on to contain the carbon. Even though the tool is quite long, it did not impinge on the injector pipes. Had it done so, I intended sawing it in two.

The heater plugs were replaced in the block, with some copper grease on the threads, and re-connected to the circuit. Now came the moment of truth. The ambient temperature was about 10 deg C. The heaters were switched on for 30 secs and the throttle set to half open. Imagine my delight and surprise when the engine fired up immediately!

I never realised until now, how important that clearance around the heater element was. The carbon must have been restricting the effectiveness of the heater element for nearly all, if not all of its length, because after the thread was released, there was still some resistance when extracting the plug from the block. This is not really surprising, as the heater element is .125” diam. and the clearance around it is only .023” either side, so it would not take long to clog up with carbon.

I think this is now going to be an annual ritual before winter sets in.