nb Tastoma

Friday 22 April 2011 (and a few days either side)

With the prospect of two long Bank Holiday weekends and a promising long-range forecast, when Andrew Phasey (of St Pancras Cruising Club) sent out an email inviting us to the Thames Easter Cruise with a PS of “Go boating.  You know you want to”, we could not refuse.

Registration form duly completed and returned to Andrew, I immediately put the anchor from my garage and into the boot of the car (to avoid forgetting it as I did last time!).

I then wrote an email to my insurers to seek their approval for navigating the Thames in a convoy of boats (which they did without hesitation).

On our two previous Thames cruises, we did not have a VHF marine radio.  Although there is a requirement to have one (plus qualified operator) on board when navigating the tidal section of the Thames, as we were travelling as part of a convoy (of which some boats had VHF), we were exempt from having one ourselves.

However, without having VHF, we missed out on important messages being passed between London VTS, marina / lock operations and other boat traffic.  I decided therefore to try and enrol for the VHF course ASAP.

After searching through a number of web sites offering the RYA’s VHF Short Range Certificate course, I eventually found one being run on Sunday 17^th April in Guildford.  A quick phone call and I had booked my place on the course.  I would of course also need a VHF radio, so following previously received advice, I placed an order for an ICOM M33 handheld radio.

On a glorious sunny Sunday, I attended the Tiller Sailing course on the 17^th and passing the exam was now legally able to use the radio (which had arrived just a couple of days after being ordered).

As I had to attend an event in London on Tuesday 19^th (A-Team Group: The business and technology of low latency trading ), I had stayed on the boat in Packet Boat Marina from Saturday 16^th (to do the VHF course on Sunday) and head to our Slough office on Monday.  After work on Monday, I returned to PBM with the intention of moving the boat to Little Venice in the evening.  With a couple of small jobs to do before setting off (emptying bins, toilet etc), I decided to start the engine and let it warm up.  As always, the engine fired up first time, so leaving it on slow idle, I set about doing the jobs.  Within 2-3 minutes, the engine stalled.  It was then that I remembered I had turned the fuel tap off when I was last on the boat (something I don’t normally do), and I had now starved the engine of fuel.  It then took another 15 minutes to prime the fuel line before I could get the engine to restart – oops.

With a glorious windless and sunny evening, I eventually arrived at Little Venice at around 21:30 (the usual 4.5 hour cruise).  With the intention of continuing along the Regents canal later in the week, I had hoped to moor up between Harrow Road Bridge and Ha’penny Bridge on the Grand Union.  Unfortunately, there was not a single free mooring all the way from Harrow Road to Little Venice – the usual mix of long-term “visitors” .

Having never taken the boat down the Paddington Arm, I thought I would try for a mooring there first, and if unsuccessful would return back along the Grand Union towards Kensal Green.  Passing Rembrandt Gardens, I saw a mooring space just after two moored boats on the port side.  Mooring up as quickly as I could, I then realised why no one was moored there – it was under the rather noisy A40 Westway bypass.  Fortunately, as the evening progressed, the noise from the traffic got quieter and I managed to get a good night’s sleep.

Then off to the A-Team event on Tuesday and back to the A40 mooring that evening.

Throughout the day on Tuesday, I had noticed that I was starting to lose my voice.  By the morning and having had a rather uncomfortable night (made worse by the noise from the traffic), I was feeling rather unwell – I had caught the dreaded lurgi!

Rather than take the train to Slough and work from the office on Wednesday, I decided it would make more sense to work from the boat.  I had a good quality 3-G signal and had plenty of work to do, and thought it better not to go passing my germs on to my colleagues in the office (although strongly suspect that was where I caught it from in the first place on Monday ).

At lunchtime, and with the outside temperature reaching 26C (and inside 32C!), I took a stroll down to the end of the Paddington Arm – something I had not done previously.

With names of Merchant Square, Waterline House and Waterside Estate and 2-3 bedroom flats costing £5k per month, the Paddington Arm has clearly gone up-market!

Passing some residential moorings and on the far side a length of visitor moorings (all fully occupied), as I approached the end of the Arm – surrounded by some very modern office buildings and shops, I spotted a couple of mooring spaces.

Overlooking the end of the canal is a modern Estate Security Office.  On asking the well-dressed security guard about visitor moorings, he confirmed that the remaining spaces were indeed for visitors.  Needless to say, to avoid another night under the A40, I quickly returned to the boat and set off the 0.5 miles to the end of the Paddington Arm.

 

Bev travelled by train from Swansea, arriving in Paddington at 17:30.  I met her on the platform and walked the 0.5 back to the boat.

Thursday morning we set off, again in glorious sunshine, towards Limehouse arriving just after 19:00.  As we pulled into the marina, we quickly spotted there were no available visitor moorings.  However, on seeing us coming in, the skipper onboard Dutch Barge Bertillac called us over to moor alongside. On chatting to them later, we found they had planned crossing to Dunkirk.  Unfortunately, within a very short time of setting off, an engine warning light had come on, and thus they sought refuge in Limehouse to await an Engineer (which on a Bank Holiday weekend was going to prove quite difficult).

On looking at the other boats moored on the visitor moorings, we spotted Drawing Breath (Skipper: Don Ward) and later in the evening saw John Sheridan bringing Tarporley into the marina.

At 13:00 on Friday, and having already been joined by John and Margaret Gwalter on board Ernest (spelt correctly this time!), we had our safety brief with Andrew, Jeremy (BW Limehouse lock manager) and the remaining boat crews; Beryl Windsor (Anne Louise) and Kevin Davis (Peace of Pearce).

Seven boats all ready for setting off, Doris Katia, Anne Louise, Drawing Breath and Ernest were first to lock out followed by Peace of Pearce, Tarporley and Tastoma (us) were second out onto the Thames to join the fast moving ribs, river taxis and other passenger vessels for our trip up stream (with an incoming tide).

Just before Barnes Bridge, we saw the Dutch Barge Red Dragon approaching very quickly from behind.  As they reached the middle arch (the accepted navigation channel), the skipper (a young female) appeared to make a last minute decision to change to the nearside arch.  Unfortunately, due to the incoming tide, and their excessive speed, she lost control of the boat which hit the bridge pier broadside with quite a substantial knock.  In an attempt to prevent the collision, the young male onboard had grabbed a large fender and had tried to place it between the boat and pillar.  Unfortunately, he was not quite quick enough and was almost knocked overboard when the impact occurred.  Even if he had been able to position the fender, it would not really have reduced the impact with ~30 tonnes of boat, flowing tide and speed versus the static concrete pillar.  To make matters worse, he was not wearing a life jacket – silly boy!

Getting ready to about turn in case a rescue was required, I unfortunately did not manage to get a photo of the accident.  After passing the bridge, the crew of Red Dragon coasted for approximately a minute before turning mid-stream and returning the way they had come.  There appeared to be no outward structural damage to the boat, but such a knock would have been great enough to potentially knock the engine off its mountings, or at least break a few wine glasses (and dent their pride).

Needless to say Peace of Pearce kept a very wide berth!

We continued our journey upstream, eventually locking into Thames Lock at Brentford and back onto the calm waters of Grand Union.  Although we had originally planned on mooring at The Fox (just below Hanwell Locks), we decided to take advantage of a quiet stretch of embankment just after Gallows Bridge and spend Saturday relaxing in the sun (another 26C!).

Having had SEVEN days / nights on the boat, we had not had a drop of rain (at least none that I saw) – an unprecedented Spring.  So, when SPCC announced an impromptu BBQ on Saturday, it was a fore gone conclusion, it was going to rain!

As I still had the remnants of the dreaded lurgi, after rejoining the Grand Union from the Thames, we decided to moor up at the first opportunity rather than head on to The Fox at Hanwell Locks (as the others had intended to).  Just after Gallows Bridge, there were a couple of moored boats, followed by a very quiet length of canal – absolutely perfect.  As we were still not too sure what we were doing about getting back home, we decided to stay where we were for most of Saturday – after all, it was another glorious sunny day.

Mid-morning, Margaret Gwalter telephoned to say that on Friday night, there had been a unanimous decision made (whilst in The Fox), that they would have a BBQ tonight (Saturday), and would we like to join them.  Not wishing to miss out on our first BBQ of the year, we accepted the very kind offer and agreed to move our boat the remaining mile and lock and join them at The Fox.  Being unprepared for a BBQ, using Google Street View, I managed to find a Sainsbury’s local within about 1 mile from the canal.  Returning with the usual mix of salad, burgers etc, I prepared a rice salad, mixed a fresh salad and pre-cooked some potato wedges.  At about 17:00 we set off for The Fox, and within about 30 minutes we were double breasted along with several other boats.

Just on the other side of the tow path, in a small open field, I could see a plume of smoke.  Perfect, we had moored right next to the BBQ field.  Just as I was securing the boat, I could have sworn I felt a drop of rain…

Within 5 minutes, the blue sky was replaced with black, and rather than using umbrellas to shade from the sun, they were now being used to fend off the downpour.   To add to the entertainment, we had plenty of thunder claps and lightening.

 

 

Sunday 29 August 2010

Having had a few hectic weeks (and weekends), Bev and I decided that we deserved a weekend away from it all. Although we had some unpredictable and inclement weather over the past few weeks, the forecast for the August Bank Holiday weekend looked quite promising.

So, with Max (the Labrador), Bev and I set off on Thursday evening for the 200 mile drive to Packet Boat Marina.  Arriving just after 7pm, we unloaded the car and settled in for the evening.  Within an hour the unmistakable tapping on the roof saw the start of downpour.  This continued through the night and into the morning.  Catching up with Carol Kirkwood (BBC weather presenter) who was standing unbrella in hand presenting the BBC weather forecast from a rain-drenched, muddy Reading Festival gave us some hope promising an improiving weather forecast.

As forecast, by lunchtime the rain had ceased and the cloud had lifted – much to the pleasure of Bev who could now see the aircraft landing and taking off from Heathrow.  With a blue-sky forecast for tomorrow (Saturday) and an improving forecast through to Monday (and beyond), we decided to stay put in the marina on Friday and delay our departure until tomorrow.

This then gave me chance to attend to some of the bits and pieces; filling the fuel tank (two trips by car to Uxbridge Boat Centre), adding Redex fuel treatment to the tank, buying 100KG of coal (Homefire Ovals) which are now sitting on the roof and refilling the water tank (after taping up the leaks in the hosepipe which seems to have turned into a colander!).

With plenty of time to spare on Friday, I decided to cook.  Three courses; leeks wrapped in ham with a cheese, creme fraise and mustard sauce, chicken pasta with brocili and a rather indulgent melting chocolate pudding – all washed down with a cheap (not) bottle of plonk (many thanks for the wine Mr Lydon).  Ah well, back to the diet tomorrow

OK, enough of this lazing around, time to set sail.  Saturday morning, and as promised, a cloudless(ish) sky we set off towards Rickmansworth.

First challenge and within 10 minutes of setting off we come across two unoccupied boats tied together but having come adrift and now blocking the canal.  Jumping off the boat at bridge 189 I managed to haul the two boats back to the bankside and secure them with a decent piece of rope.  Clearly the thin plastic rope they had secured them with had worn through – some boaters just need to learn how to moor properly.

An interesting sign – “No fishing between arrows” – Now if I am not mistaken, those arrows are about 6″ apart!

Onwards to Cowley, Uxbridge and Denham Deep – all of which we shared with other boats.

By the time we got to Widewater lock we found we were not only sharing locks, but having to queue.  Clearly the superb weather, coupled with it being a Bank Holiday weekend brought the boaters out en-mass.  Not that any of this was a problem, as it’s great to be able to stop and chat with other boaters and gongoozlers.

King Louie (who we had shared a few locks with) had reached his stop-off point – the Coy Carp at Harefield.

Whilst helping a single-handed boater through Black Jack’s lock, he mentioned that Rickmansworth mooring were rather busy – especially around the Tesco moorings.  This we found out later was probably due to the Real Ale festival being held in Rickmansworth all weekend.

As we were fully stocked up with food and Holy Water (St Ella), we decided not to go all the way to Rickmansworth and stop at the first available mooring after Stocker’s Lock.  So we continued through Copper Mill and Springwell locks – sharing with another 50+ foot narrow boat and a small cruiser.  With it being quite a tight squeeze for all three boats in the lock, Bev helped protect the cruiser from being crushed by 2x 30 tonnes of steel by holding on to their bow handrail.

As we exited Stocker’s lock, there were just two boats moored along the long visible stretch of canal running along the Colne Valley Trail.  Good enough for us.  We moored between the two boats with a 100m separating us.

Having had glorious sunshine for most of the day, and having been cruising for just over 5 hours (a voyage that normally takes no more than four), we were glad to stop and crack open a can of Holy Water.

On Sunday we planned to just stay put.  Catch up with some emails, write the blog and do some reading.

Relax