An Interesting Weekend

I had volunteered to take the Narrow Boat Trust pair to the Reading Water Festival with Barry Adams, who has been one of my mentors when working these historic boats. http://www.narrowboattrust.org.uk/index.html

Unfortunately, the River Kennet was in flood and the festival was cancelled at the last minute, due to the high water levels. However, Barry and I decided to go to the boats moored at Burghfield to do a few jobs on board; Barry having acquired a temperature gauge, which he wanted to fit to the engine. This we did on the Thursday, using only the basic tools on board, which meant reaming out a round hole with a square file and no vise to hand. By the time this job was finished, it was too late to shop and cook, so we repaired to the pub for a meal and beer.

The following day, Barry was anxious to try out the gauge to see if it did the job and to assess the temperature of the engine coolant, having cleaned out the water system previously to try and cure the overheating problem The water level had dropped overnight by about two inches. I reversed the boat into the stream and we made slow headway through the next bridge ‘ole against the current. Several other boats had also travelled upstream before us and did not appear to have any problems, except for slow progress. All went well apart from me having difficulty getting round some of the sharp bends in one go. We reached Tyle Mill and I winded the boat bow first into the weir stream, which turned it very quickly and then reversed up to a mooring, where we stopped for a light lunch.

The return journey went well and was much faster than when coming up, apart from two of the locks, which slowed us down due to them being the same length as the boat, when below cill level.



Barry Tightens the Top Strings



We had had no problem coming up stream, because the stem was lifted over the top cill, but the boat barely fitted between the top cill and the bottom gates when the lock was empty and going downhill. If the boat was fitted diagonally, it was impossible to get out with the bow tucked in behind the closed gate. The only way was for Barry to take the bow line and position the stem between the mitre of the two gates. At this point, the rudder was at right angles to the cill and hard against it, but Barry was then able to open a gate to get the boat out. It became obvious that these locks were not built to take boats of 71ft in length, and a breasted pair would have to single out. On the other hand, some locks were much longer than the boat and would easily take two boats.

A Tight Fit!

The entrance to the weir stream where we were moored was at an acute angle to the way we were travelling, which entailed carrying on until a winding hole could be found to turn the boat round. Although there were several marked in the Nicholson’s Guide, they were into fast flowing weir streams and impossible to navigate.



"Where is that winding 'ole?"



 Eventually, after a couple of miles there was one marked above Fobney Lock, which was also into a weir stream, but the width reduced the flow of water considerably. Even though it was wide, the stern was into a tree. Barry boarded the boat after walking for a fair distance from the last lock and we returned to the Burghfield mooring for a pub meal and welcome drinks with Keith, the present NBT chairman.

Finally, the temperature gauge was pronounced a success, but indicated that the engine was now running at 50 to 60 degrees instead of 70 to 80, which would be expected, so there is still more work to be done.

Back on the Bassie

Here I am again on the Basingstoke Canal, moored up at Brookwood Country Park. Again, just like at Easter, it was not an easy journey from the Wey Navigations. Fortunately, I managed to contact Phil Hardyman, who lives in a house on the bank, with his boat nb Winter Lily moored at the bottom of the garden. I had met Phil on the Easter trip, but had not taken his phone number or e-mail address, so tried various methods of contacting him, all to no avail until I Googled his name. Surprisingly, his name appeared linked to nb No Problem's blog in 2010. I e-mailed Sue, who passed my e-mail on to him. From then on he was up for lock wheeling in his bike from 9am on Friday morning. The locks had to be unlocked by the two Canal Rangers and after passing through, then caulk the top gates with sawdust, soil and anything they could rake up from the canal bed after emptying the lock. What does all this cost? £130 each for their days work plus the cost of the van, fuel, administration, etc. They reckon it will cost about £500 to get me there and of course, the same to get back - quite ridiculous! The sooner 'open access' is declared, the better for their purse and the boaters, but that will not be possible until the Deepcut Flight is restored and opened, hopefully next year. I was surprised to find that I was the only boat booked to go from the Wey, after the publicity at the IWA National Rally. From the Odiham end, which is entirely navigable, there were three beautiful steam launches, all home built by their owners and a self build narrowboat, as well a few smaller boats. Not a great turnout really. I understand that the 'John Pinkerton' trip boat will be there today.

We made slow progress up the Woodham flight, mainly due to shallow water, weed and leaves. The Axiom propeller does pick up anything and almost everything, so the weed hatch was up three times before I got to clearer water. Quite a collection!

The Rangers were following us the flight in their van and caulking up as we cleared each lock and we didn't see them again until we reached St. John's Flight, where the same procedure took place. Phil was now steering the long pound through Woking and considerately slowed down when passing moored boats, especially his own!

At last, we came to the penultimate lock of St. John's and the short pound between that and the last lock, to be confronted with low water yet again, so no movement possible without running water through the sluices to be able to float in. I offered to take Phil for lunch at the local pub, but unfortunately the kitchen closed at 2.30 and it was now 3pm. Beers were very welcome and Phil returned home on his faithful steed. I continued for another mile or so to a winding hole in Brookwood Country Park and moored against the staging at the water point. No worries there, as there are no other boats to stop for water in this pound and none expected. My BW key does not fit the padlock to the WP anyway - do I need a Basingstoke key for this then?

Saturday morning, after a quiet night, I decided to bike up to Frimley to have a look at the 21st Anniversary celebrations of the re-opening of the canal, which I estimated to be about 5 miles away. On the way however, I thought it might be an idea to visit the Brookwood Cemetery. I only went to the Military Cemetery, which was very large indeed and very poignant when reading how old some of those servicemen were, when they died. Officers were buried alongside other ranks, so no distinction there. The other part of the cemetary is even larger and will have to wait for another time. http://www.brookwoodcemetery.com/about_the_cemetery.htm

I got to Frimley eventually after a hard slog up the towpath, which turned out to be a 14 mile round trip by the end of the day. I met up with Verna Smith and Jan Byrne briefly, just to establish my presence at the event. There was no beer tent as had been advertised, so after a walk around I repaired to the local Harvester house for a well deserved pint, only to find that it only served 'Eurofizz'; no real ale, so I opted for a pint of Guinness, which tasted bad. Even though it was changed for another pint, that also tasted of pipe cleanser. Their excuse was that the glass was tainted, so no more visits to that pub chain. Back at the boat, I was dismayed to see it on the other side of the cut. The mooring lines had been wrapped around the short bollards and then tied on the boat, so they had been slipped off the bollards and the boat probably pushed out. I had a half mile to ride to the nearest bridge, but luckily a canoe was approaching with a man and his son, who I hailed and so they managed to tie the stern and centre lines together so that I could tow the boat back. The lines were then securely wrapped around the supporting piles and tied back on board, which means they would have to board the boat to do the same and I don't think they would have time to risk that. When I leave the boat again, it will be chained to the piles anyway. As the canoe returned, I heard the man ask two young boys on the bank if they had set the boat adrift, to which they replied "We didn't touch the boat." I then got off the boat and they scooted off at a rate of knots, with backward glances as if they wanted to see if I was in pursuit, so it was obvious to me who was responsible. Their idea of fun I suppose.

Sunday was a day for watching the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Pageant to see if I could spot nb Leo No.2 and nb Hazell Nut with Kathryn and Rodney respectively, from the Byfleet Boat Club. I have to say that the Queen's party hogged most of the limelight, though Leo was spotted briefly twice and possibly Hazel Nut once. No kids about here today as the rain has been torrential at times.

Monday was a no rain day - well, almost! I had been running the engine about twice a day for an hour to recharge the batteries and the alternator had been rather noisy on occasions, but this time I became unbearable, so it was time to investigate. The drive belt was very slack and the alternator very wobbly and it became evident that one of the bolts holding the bracket to the engine had sheared off. This had happened once before and I had added some lengths of screwed studding, nuts and washers to my armoury. With the repair complete I made a note to buy some high tensile bolts to fix this rather jury rig in future.

During my time in the 'engine 'ole', Phil had phoned to offer me a lift to the Byfleet Boat Club BBQ. I had intended a walk to The Anchor in Knaphill, which scored highly on the 'Beer In The Evening' web site of pubs, but a lift to the BBQ sounded far more attractive than drinking on my own in a strange pub! There were several members there when we arrived and the BBQ was soon lit up for all to BBQ their own food. Carol and Phil had brought enough suitable food to include me in the feast, becasue I was unprepared for this as I intended taking them out for a meal later in the day. We all sat down to tables with wine and beer included, before partaking in a hilarious game of skittles to end the evening. A very enjoyable sociable event, but I still owe you Phil for all that effort getting me up and down all those locks.

Tuesday was forecast rain in the afternoon and I was at St. John's top lock waiting for the Rangers at the appointed time. The pound below was still a struggle to get through, even though it appeared to be full of water, but after that, we made good progress through the remainder in four hours to the Wey, with the Rangers caulking the top gates of each lock behind the departing boat. As you can see below, it made an enormous difference to the amount of water leaking through the gate cills. It was also a rather precarious operation, walking across the gate beams.



Caulking - the tools



The material

 

 

The Problem.

 


The Operation.





The Result!



A Labour of Love

At last - my painting has come to an end and it has been a long journey, which has lasted all through the winter. It became more exciting towards the end when the pace quickened to get it finished.There has been more thought put into the design of this can than anything else I have painted so far, mainly because it is the one that will be on show, but also because there was such a large area to cover and I needed to vary the design in each individual section so as not to be too repetitive, hence the orange lily on the spout as a last resort for something suitable to fit in the space.

I began with the three castle scenes (there is one inside the lid), as I thought these would be the most challenging. A few hours watching Phil Speight and Tony Lewery videos once again, regained my confidence with the castles, but there was a fair amount of white spirit and tissue required to rub out and try again and this can only be used when the background  paint is dry, thereby taking a lot longer than the practised professionals.

I bought four sign writers' lining brushes a while ago, knowing that I could use them on the can and it took some courage to try one out when it was loaded with paint, but I surprised myself by how easy it was to do and the paint seemed to last forever before it thinned out. The brush seems to run on rails however much your hand shakes! Watch it done on You Tube and you would think "I could never do that!" but you can.

I had never tried any sign writing before and this presented problems that caused some concern over what font to use and where I could find exemplars. Brighton Public Library came up with very little information, so it was back to the internet and there was considerable material to be found, mostly on boat sign writers' web sites and You Tube. I had also started taking photographs of suitable sign written boats on my travels, so I was building up quite a library of material. The original font used on the stern of Stronghold was the basis of the chosen font, which went on reasonably well, but the drop shadow took several abortive attempts before getting a satisfactory result. Similarly with the scrolls at each end - all rather frustrating, but I got there in the end and am pleased with the result.

Sunday Morning Mission.

My mate Dave on nb Mrs Moorish (where did that name come from?), who is moored a few boats along from me, had been informed on the QT that there were ready cut willow logs opposite to his mooring, which he was rather anxious to lay his hands on. Having already tried to get his boat close to the opposite bank without success, I was inveigled into walking over the lock with secateurs and handsaw to drag the said timber out of the undergrowth and tie on a line so that the load could be floated across the cut. A Monkey’s Paw tied around a golf ball was used as a weight to throw the line over from his boat, with Dave standing on the short fore deck. All was going well until he caught the line around the headlight and overbalanced and fell on the deck, fortunately for him. How he didn’t fall in, I don’t know. After that close encounter with swimming lessons, he stood on the counter of his neighbour’s boat – a far safer base. I have to say that although his name is David, he would not have been able to hit Goliath with a slingshot after his performance on Sunday!

                                                                    

         I get the shitty end of the stick!                                   Contemplating building a Kon Tiki Raft to get back.

Log rolling from a sitting position.                                                                           Dave's a happy man.    

If you are looking at this on Google Chrome, the titles to the pictures are all over the place and it's a Google web site! It's OK on Internet Explorer, so what is going on?                           

The Axiom Propeller Saga

It was in April 2011 that I had Stronghold lifted out by The Locker Company at Parvis Wharf for blacking and Stuart and Julia did a fine job on their tiny wharf. Strangely enough, at the same time, I was in a dry dock at Grendon blacking the two Narrow Boat Trust boats – was I mad or what? Anyway, I had bought an Axiom propeller to replace my chipped and bent prop and Stuart fitted it, though with a lot of effort to remove the old one. I had done a lot of research on the internet with people who had taken the plunge with an Axiom and apart from one, they all agreed that it was the ‘ mutts nuts’. Funny that, after I contacted one boater, I was networked to several others  with the same propeller – almost impossible without the internet – the electronic towpath telegraph.

I had contacted Alan and David Watts some months earlier with all the details of my boat and engine, so they were able to recommend the size and pitch of propeller to suit from their vast resources and experience. I was delighted with the performance, notably its power to stop from full speed in half the length of the boat, instead of one and a half times the length with the old propeller. Reversing in a straight line is far easier and it is possible to steer in reverse with some practice. Prop wash is greatly reduced when mooring and stopping in locks, but all these properties are as advertised. It is prone to collecting leaves in the Autumn though and I think this is due to the sharp corners on the inner edges of the blades, but a quick reverse soon clears the obstruction.

All was going well, or so I thought, until an Autumn trip to Oxford and back caused some concern over the fuel consumption. My consumption with the old propeller was about 1litre/ hour and now I was getting only 1.6 litres/hour – not up to Axiom standard, as they advertised an  improved consumption from 7% to 15%. I immediately contacted the Watts and they came back with a considerable list of things that would cause the increase, like cruising upstream, wind velocity, depth of water, fuel quality, etc. I countered all of these arguments and had a reply offering me a total refund. However, I did not want to return to the bad habits of my original propeller and asked if there were modifications that could be done. The reply was in the affirmative and so the boat was lifted out once again and the Axiom removed and taken to Thrapston.

I was given a very warm welcomed by Alan, who showed me around his garage workshop and told me his personal history of the boats he has owned and how his passion is the Axiom design. He offered to dress and balance the original propeller, free of charge, and then run it up on his dynamometer and take appropriate readings every 100 revs. After which, he would run the Axiom and match it to the characteristics of the original prop. He proposed to reduce the diameter by a small amount and reduce the shear, but refused to tell me how he intended doing that – trade secret! I can only assume that he removed some metal behind the blades, because in my opinion it would be almost impossible to alter the blade angle. I collected it the following day and it was re-fitted the following weekend.

 I now found the engine to be far more free revving and peaking under power another 100 rpm. There is no ‘sweet spot’ in the rev range - it was ‘sweet’ all through the rev range. I could cruise the canal at 4mph at 1400 rpm without any breaking wash. This had never been possible with this boat before. The reversing and stopping characteristics remained the same. Speed on the Thames remained at 5mph at peak revs, both upstream and down.

However, things were not as they appeared. The fuel consumption was just the same and I was not happy after a couple of short cruises up the Wey. As usual I check the lubricating oil level before every trip and suddenly it had increased by about 1 inch on the dipstick – horror of horrors! How could this happen? Further research on the internet revealed a leak of diesel into the sump of the engine and the most likely place was through the diaphragm of the lift pump. OK, get a new one from E-bay and fit it with the assumption that the diaphragm had a hole in it – false! The following weekend the oil level was again up by 1 inch, so what was left? I should at this point tell you that the engine is a BMC and the only possibility for diesel to enter the sump is through the lift pump and the injector pump, which are driven by shafts inside the engine block, so the injector pump was all that was left. Advice was sought from my local diesel service agent and my worst fears were confirmed. So, it was off with the injector pump the following weekend, which took a good four hours, having to pump out the sump and change the fuel filters yet again as well as removing the starter motor and oil filter to get access to the injector pump.

Fuel Lift Pump

I took the offending pump to Automarine Diesel Services, Portslade and they renovated it with new seals and re-calibrated it on their very expensive testing equipment for about £240. On re-fitting the engine started first time and ran very well after bleeding the system through – I was getting very good at this! All went well, until I decided to cruise up to the water point about 100yds away, when the engine refused to rev up. At first thought, it must be a broken throttle cable, but that was intact, so what was amiss now? As it happened, my friend Richard the diesel engineer, was on the scene, but could not offer a solution, recommending that I phone Automarine the following day. They were also at a loss as to why this had occurred and suggested that I return the pump, so off it came yet again, in an hour this time.

Injection Pump in situ.

After Treatment by Automarine.

The diagnosis, done in twenty minutes, was that there was a piece of dirt inside the  pump that stopped the throttle from opening fully. This was almost certainly down to me as there is so much loose paint on the engine. So, back to re-fitting yet again in thirty minutes this time – I really was getting good! This time it worked fine and it has not faltered once. The fuel consumption is now back to 1 litre/hour after 65 hours cruising and maybe even better over a longer period.

All in all, it was a salutary lesson – don’t always assume the obvious! It was also expensive and probably unnecessary to have taken off the Axiom to be modified. On the other hand, I did learn a great deal about the workings of a BMC diesel engine and you don’t usually gain experience without cost, one way or another. Finally, for all you sceptics out there, you won’t know about the Axiom until you have tried it. I would certainly never go back to the original propeller now.

Lower Heyford Fun Weekend

I have been steering trip boats for the last year for the IWA events at Oxford Open doors and Banbury Canal Day since I gained my Helmsman’s Certificate last year, so just had to volunteer for Lower Heyford Fun Weekend on the Oxford canal, with an invitation from Peter Darch to bed down on his boat ‘The Great Escape’ for a couple of nights. I arrived on the Friday, having spent one night on board ‘Stronghold’ at Addlestone, which is a convenient ‘stepping stone’ for trips to the Midlands and beyond. After assisting Peter on Friday afternoon with a few event tasks.We adjourned with Frank, a WRG (Waterways Recovery Group) member to ‘The Bell’ for victuals. It is a pub I have been to before on my travels up and down the Oxford,  with a good choice of ales and very good food in adequate proportions. As good as the pub was, the next experience was not up to the same standard and that was trying to sleep with the main train line about 50ft away and all the extraneous noises that emanate from blokes who have just returned from the pub – yours truly included. I must have counted 30 to 40 trains passing throughout the night; the rest I will leave to your imagination!

                                                  

Oxfordshire Narrowboats Base

Dayboats moored four abreast with "Muddy Waters" on the inside.

The following day dawned with sunshine and it was warmer outside the boat than in. We did a few more jobs that needed doing around the boatyard and I met up with people who I had not seen since October at Banbury Canal Day. My shift as helmsman came round in the afternoon and once again I was in charge of one of Oxfordshire Narrowboats’ Day Boats. These are about 35ft long with an open foredeck with seats and a small cabin with table, chairs, cooker and toilet. Steering a day boat is totally different to steering a longer boat as they are very skittish and have very little power to accelerate and even less power to stop or reverse. Some of us discussed this and decided that they were built that way to control the speed of the boat by using a small propeller in the hands of inexperienced hirers, thus limiting the forward speed so as not to cause wash on the banks or disturb moored boats. This is acceptable in the present situation, as we are generally passing moored boats on the ½ hour trip, but stopping or reversing means revving the engine so fast that the boat is vibrating out of all proportion to its speed. The other problem is that the boat is bow heavy with all the passengers at that end, making the propeller less effective. Having a boat with an Axiom propeller, as I have, means all this revving of engines comes a bit of a surprise when winding the boat and is easy to misjudge how close to the bank the bow is. However, on this trip, I realised that I could bend down and look through the cabin to see where the bow was in relation to the bank, thus having better control of the winding operation.

One of two day boats coming in to the mooring with Steve Parker as bowman and David Beaumont steering.

As on other occasions, I dressed the part of the historical (or should that be hysterical?) boater in cords, spider belt, embroidered shirt, red neckerchief, waistcoat, black boots and bowler hat, despite the fact that it should have been a trilby hat on the Oxford canal. The bowler hat is the traditional wear of the Grand Union boater, but I think the bowler is more generally appreciated and recognised by the public, so I wear one.

In the evening, we repaired to The Bell again for our evening meal, but with different companions, David and Barby, who live at Lower Heyford and have a boat, “Kings Vanquish”,  moored at the bottom of their garden. At the end of the evening, they invited me to moor alongside at any time when I was next there, which would be extremely convenient if I needed to go home or stay for a longer period, as the train station is right there as well. That is what I like about the boating community, they are all out to help one another. It’s a pity the rest of the world can’t get on so well!

Interior view of the day boat.

Sunday dawned just like the previous day with sunshine and high cloud. We had all slept better as there were only four trains that passed before midnight, then there were no more. The day was similar to Saturday and I was out of a job until 1pm, but I was on call at the boarding point with a newspaper, but little chance to read it as boats were coming and going, so I stepped in when no one else was available to help trippers on and off the boats, as well as chatting to other IWA members who were crewing. My shift ended up in the rain again, but I was well prepared with waterproofs. On one occasion Mary Heritage recalled the boat back to the mooring twice to take on extra passengers, just as I had left. I felt that it was just like being in a boat handling competition.

A thoroughly enjoyable  weekend and I have to thank Peter Darch for his company and hospitality on board “The Great Escape”and to his wife Anne for her endeavours in achieving  the impossible on my behalf.

It did rain at the close of the show.

A Basingstoke Virgin

This post has nothing to do with Richard Branson, so rest assured that I am not planning transatlantic flights into Basingstoke. It is all to do with the Basingstoke Canal, which as you probably aware, has been in suspended animation for a good few years for various reasons, not least that is owned by Hampshire and Surrey County Councils jointly, who have spent very little money on its upkeep since restoration in the ‘70’s, until now. Several large trees have been felled at the Wey Navigation end and the Woodham flight of locks appear to be in good condition, with some attention paid to paddle gear and lock gates in good condition, however, the bottom is too near the top and is in need of some serious dredging. Once above Woodham top lock, the going was much better in clear water for some distance, although there is still plenty of weed, timber and other rubbish afloat.

Approaching Lock No. 1

I was invited by Kathryn Dodington to join the Byfleet Boat Club on an Easter Weekend Cruise and having never ventured up the Bassy in 5 years, since owning Stronghold, I jumped at the chance. There were eight boats taking part, so there were crew on hand for lock wheeling, which was fortunate for me, because I could not have achieved this on my own. The lock landings or waiting points were impossible to get to, due to lack of depth, as I soon found out when I wanted to stop to clear the blades. I realised that the better of two evils was to carry on with rubbish on the prop, rather than to try and stop.



Waiting for the ranger with no depth for mooring.

After spending the night moored at The Anchor at Pyrford, I accompanied Dick and Brenda King on nb Nancy Bell to Woodham Junction on a very cold morning, to meet up with the other boats at Lock No. 1, where we waited for the ranger to arrive and unchain the gates. I then progressed with Zavala, with Brian, Margaret and Suzanne operating the lock gear, though I did manage to wind a paddle or two. We cleared the six locks in good time and were then cruising through mostly clear water with reasonable depth for the next 2/3 miles to Bridge Barn, which was our stopping place for the night. By this time, the sun was out and so were the people at the pub. Several people along the way commented on how good it was to see some boats moving on the cut at last.





 

They have their own dredger, but don't seem to use it very much!

The Gang moored at Bridge Barn



It was a big table booked for us at Bridge Barn, and as it was a Beefeater House, I was rather apprehensive.

Firstly, there were not enough staff serving drinks at the bar during this very busy period and I only got a pint, because Peter insisted on getting me one in with his round. The table was booked in the restaurant upstairs, which was some respite from the melee at the bar. It took about an hour from being seated to actually getting the food and I was served with my spare ribs, which were very good, but by this time I would have eaten almost anything! We had all had enough activity by now and rolled into bed for a fairly peaceful night.

Day 2.

It was a much warmer night with cloud cover, so no need to light the fire this morning. We set off at 10am with Stronghold and Nancy Bell in the lead. We were soon at St. John’s  Lock flight and all went well until the final pound, which was down by about 12ins.

Bottom lock with Nancy Bell

 Trevor, an ex maintenance man from the Wey Navigation, was lock wheeling and had to let a fair amount of water through the top lock before we could make an entrance, having been stemmed up in the middle of the cut.

Not a lot of water here!

Stemmed up with no way off.

Trevor runs some water through.

 The main problem was the depth of leaves on the bed of the canal, which just choked up the propeller and almost stopped it from rotating. With more water and Trevor bow hauling, I managed to get into the lock, followed by Nancy Bell.

Where did Ratty come from?

The same problem existed above the lock and considerable tooing and frowing continued until we floated free beneath the bridge. After that it was plain sailing in very pleasant surroundings along the long pound to Brookwood Country Park , where we arrived about 1pm and moored up for the night.

Chaos ensues in the mud and leaves.

 I was fortunate in getting on the only jetty with bollards, most of the others having to put planks out.

The first and best mooring.

 



.

Brookwood Country Park

Later in the afternoon, I decided to walk up to the Deepcut Locks. It was in the 80’s that I last saw them from a car, when they were being restored, so it would be interesting to see what state they were in now. I passed by Brookwood  three locks, most of which had no paddle gear. There was was water in the pound above, but very green with weed.

Lots of the green stuff about.

Plenty of these too.

 Further on I got to Deepcut bottom lock with an inappropriate sign advertising lock opening times.



Someone's having a laugh.                                                       See what I mean!

Something is going on! 

Strange culverts beneath the cill.

On returning to the moorings it was nearly time for twelve of us to go out for the evening meal to the Hunters Lodge, part of the Vintage Inns Group. Service was much improved on the previous night and we were joined by Sylvia, who conned us into  believing it was her birthday. Upon overhearing that, the waiter brought a bottle of Champagne, implying that is was on the house, but never actually saying so. At the end of the meal, it appeared on the bill, which no one was happy about. Eventually, Brian ‘manned up’ and asked about it, upon which the waiter apologised about it being on the bill and said it was a promotion paid for by Vintage Inns – whereupon smiles broke out all round. Apart from that little hiccup, an excellent evening was enjoyed by all. Finally, Kathryn invited me to join the Byfleet Boat Club, so I think I had passed the vetting procedure!

 

Day 3

 A rather miserable day with mist and the promise of rain. However the day was brightened up by the arrival of the Easter Bunny with a goody bag from the Basingstoke Canal Society. There was a bottle of Merlot, a chocolate Easter bunny, a little Easter chick and a card thanking me for venturing up the Basingstoke – how nice. We set off a little later and had an uneventful trip back to Bridge Barn, where we had yet another meal. After the last fiasco, it could not have been any worse and it wasn’t, thankfully.

Day 4.

Awoke to rain on the cabin top and it continued throughout the trip down the Woodham flight to the Wey. Phil turned out on his bike to do some lock wheeling, which was very welcome. There was a lot of hanging about, because the locks are very slow to fill the last few inches, but I don’t think anyone got stemmed up, as the channel had been somewhat cleared on the way up and all the pounds were full. Where the water came from, I just don’t know – we didn’t have that much rain and there was nothing coming through Deepcut.

I continued on the Wey with Mick and Suzanne on Aqua Vitae to our moorings at The Pelican, arriving in the middle of the afternoon.

Final impressions.

I have waited five years to voyage up the Bassy and I found it to be somewhat of a challenge, but extremely enjoyable, with new experiences and new companions. I have booked to go again in June for the 40^th aniversary of the re-opening, but I will need to go with another crewed boat, because the lock landings are just too shallow to enable a mooring to operate the locks singlehanded. No doubt something will turn up.

Note. I finally got this blog published with pictures with a Wi Fi conection in The Pelican, even though there was no internet connection, or so it said! The first priority was to upload the photos, as they take the longest time to upload. Once that was done, the text was soon done. Trying to do the same with a 3G connection was just impossible. How do these other bloggers do that?



More Modifications

Here are some more bits and pieces that I forgot about earlier, probably because I thought them less interesting to read about.

Shower Convenience

One of the inconveniences that have to be endured on a boat is the constant worry of running out of water, due to the limitations of the storage tank. Having a shower like you would have at home with constantly running hot water is a no-no! To resolve the problem of saving water, I wanted to cut off the supply of hot and cold water part way through my shower without altering the temperature that was already set by the taps. You will see that there is no mixer tap to do the job, so I had to devise some alternative method. With my usual blinkered method of solving problems, I searched in vain for a threaded tap of sorts to fit in the hoseline from the taps to the shower – alas, there were none to be had. I happened to mention this in the pub one night and lo and behold another boater suggested shutting off the water pump with a switch. Why didn’t I think of that? Easy Peasy! So the switch was wired in parallel to the main pump and mounted at the far end of the bath and under the gunwale for added protection from water. Naval showers are all the rage on this boat.

Better Drainage

After blogging about my cabin top drainage system, Neil on “Herbie” described his system, also on an ‘Andicraft’ boat, so here it is, just a piece of wood glued on with mastic. Whether it works as well, or better, remains to be seen when it eventually rains! I still have the wicks in place to test it.



Bow Marker

I think most single handed boaters have all nosed gently up to the gates of an empty lock and pushed them open, just to save time and effort. Entering an empty narrow lock and nosing up to the cill gently without breaking all the china is also a tricky maneuvre. The problem here is being able to judge exactly when the bow will make contact. Boating earlier this year with Peter Darch on the Oxford, I was impressed with his solution and unashamedly plagiarised his idea. The pennant is glued to the top of a 3mm glassfibre rod, which is extremely flexible and it is pushed into the bow fender, so that the pennant is visible to the steerer, as below:-

R and R Time

I have been panic digging up my lawn for the past week or so, so as to get some seed potatoes in. The reason I’m doing that is that I gave up my allotment last October as it was too much of a committment and got on the way of my boating and it was far too big at 10 rods on a hill to boot. Well, it’s partly done and the spuds are in, so it was time for a little relaxation on the water. I cruised through Thames Lock yesterday afternoon and moored at ‘The Anglers’, Walton-on-Thames for the night, having paid a visit to the local Wetherspoons and the ‘Old Manor Inn’.

This morning I set off at 11am to catch up ‘Midnight Shadow’, so that we might go through the locks together.

I have seen this boat frequently cruising this section of the Thames and met up with Nigel at Sunbury Lock, only to discover that he frequents this area because he has cancer and needs to be near the hospital. I also found out that another liveaboard owner on ‘Tally Ho’, is called Rick, who also cruises this section frequently. The Towpath Telegraph gets better by the minute!

I moored up at the Hampton Court Palace moorings, with a view to investigating a very old pub called ‘The Bell’ at East Molesey. More about that later. I sat for most of the afternoon in the sun, re-splicing my centre line. I was advised to wash it in the washing machine, because it was so stiff with dirt. Imagine my surprise when I removed it from the washing machine to discover that the eye splice was like a steel hawser – only that part; the rest of the line was OK. Only one thing to do and that was take it apart as I didn’t want to lose any length – it took an hour to do a 20min splice, it was so stiff!

I did get to "The Bell" eventually with the help of a Google map. The pub was quite impressive from the outside, originally built in 1460, with quaint sash windows and wobbly walls and I think it relied on it’s history for it’s reputation, for the interior left a lot to be desired in a good pub. There were Courage Ales and London Pride on tap, but no guest beer. The food menu was of the fold out encapsulated type that advertises a menu that has not changed for a very long time and shows no originality at all. Overall, the place was very tired and in need of some TLC. Very disappointing! If you are at all interested you can read more here:- http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/13/1340/Bell/East_Molesey

The following morning was overcast and very chilly, so after an hours cruising back towards The Wey, I had to stop and make coffee and light the fire. An uneventful return to my mooring arriving  about midday.

I am looking forward to my first jaunt up the Basingstoke Canal with six other boats from the Byfleet boat Club on Easter Weekend, so will Blog about that later.