Just when you think you've met them all.

Before leaving my mooring on Saturday I hung the doors to the wardrobe, so that’s finished apart from finding handles.

I did one of my shortest ever cruises which was about ½ mile and one lock.

Apsley top lock

mooring up just before the services at Apsley, convenient for Sainsbury for some grocery shopping and Dunelm for curtain or blind shopping (turned out to be blinds).

Saturday's Mooring:

I watched the last game of the Six Nations rugby, a disappointing performance from England but never mind.

Sunday saw me do the shop visits and continue with little bits of preparation in the bedroom, the next phase is to take down the ceiling panels which I will paint on the reverse side to hopefully prevent condensation leeching through, I also intend to take down the redundant TV ariel from the roof  which is only accessible above the ceiling, obviously it’s not that easy! to get the ceiling panels down I have to strip down the wall panels, so that means taking off the window surrounds....well stripping out most of the room including the corner cupboard, ho hum, it will be worth it! I am not going to start in earnest until after my trip to Surrey.

This morning saw me head up to the service point to do a fill and empty before heading through the first lock of the day which went smoothly enough, another explanation to another passerby as to what Quinquireme meant but it’s good to have some human interaction.

Now the title of this post, try to picture the scene the next lock is against me, empty, I am going downhill, so I tie up on the lock landing and walk up to the lock, check no-one is approaching check the bottom gate paddles are down and then open all the paddles on the top gates to fill the lock, I then sit on the balance beam and wait for it to fill.

It’s about ¾ full when ‘Mr Bean’ arrives on his bike, glances around and then begins to open the paddles on the bottom gate, my flabber is well and truly gasted, I shout at him and on the third shout he looks at me as if I am a tutu wearing pink elephant, “Are you going through?” he says, “ummm..... YES!!!” says I, “where’s your boat?” he says, “it would be that 55ft blue thing on the lock landing” says I, “Oh sorry” he says.

So not only did he not notice my boat on the lock landing, he never noticed all 6 sluice racks sticking 2 ft up in the air, he also never noticed the water swirling around as it filled the lock, and he never noticed a 6 foot man sitting on the balance beam with a windlass in his hand looking very puzzled as to what the bloody hell he was doing! But he did phone his wife (twice) who was heading towards the lock to warn her I was descending J it takes all sorts, thankfully, otherwise life could become very dull.

'Mr Bean' opening the gate to let me out !

The remainder of the cruise was not such fun, the weather  became gloomy, and drizzly.

This boat has its own parking platform for the family bikes with rack to lock them to.

I passed Phil on fuel boat Hyperion who shouted "You are going the wrong way!", the last time I saw him I had said I was heading off north probably to Leicester for my summer cruise, but things have changed.

Anyway I carried on until the wind began to get quite strong and the rain got heavier and decided to call it a day after Lady Capel's lock (74)

Lady Capel's lock

I moored up opposite Grove Mill between bridges 164 and 165.

Mooring:

Totals this post: 6 miles : 11 locks

I will probably move tomorrow as the internet signal is pathetic and the phone almost non-existent, I haven't bothered with the TV so tonight will be Kindle and maybe a celebratory brandy as today is my birthday :-)

From Listing.........

......to dredging.

My second night at the mooring was uneventful, due to the listing problem the night before I had slackened my mooring lines and put a tire fender at the stern to keep it slightly off the bank, and I woke to find the boat level.

Yesterday however it was listing again, it makes moving around on the boat quite awkward although it does't show hugely in the photo.

The reason I mention it again is because casting off was difficult, normally a shove is enough to 'slide' the boat off the canal bed when the water levels have dropped and you are sitting on the bottom, but it took me a good 15 minutes with a lot of pushing and resorting to use the pole until I finally got the boat into deeper water about 4 feet from the bank, by the time I reached the lock just ahead I was worn out!

The first two locks were dealt with slowly while I recovered from my exertions.

Lock 51 in the distance behind while I am in lock 52.

It was then a pleasant cruise through Berkhamstead again dealing with lock as I went, no pictures this time as I have photographed just about everything on my previous 3 passages.

At lock 57 I caught up with a couple of boats just leaving the lock, and I passed one of them, who had moored up, on my way to the next lock, the other boat had waited in lock 58 for my arrival, very kindly, they were an early holidaying couple and very friendly too.

I explained my method of getting through the lock using only one gate to exit, them leaving first and me following and closing, allowing them to go ahead and set the next lock. They were very surprised and curious as to how I was able to maneuver my boat across the lock to get out the same gate as them without the use of a bow thruster, but then again I  often am as well!

My locking partners just ahead.

We dealt with the next few locks the same way and then the electric swing bridge at Winkwell, they had never operated one of these so I advised them on the method and it went without a hitch.

After the next lock (61) they winded (turned around) and headed back, time was up for them and the husband wanted to stop for a days fishing.

I continued on through the next three locks to moor where I had previously after lock 64, which gives easy access to Hemel Hempstead for some shopping.

Leaving the lock and heading for the bank there was suddenly a graunching sound and the back of the boat lifted up as I rode over something, I had my suspicions as to what it was.
Once moored and letting the water settle I walked back and had a look, I had struck my first shopping trolley! I've seen plenty of them submerged but this was the first one I had hit, it had been placed well just by the lock landing to catch unwary boaters.
I got my boat hook and after a struggle pulled it out from the water, I was then left with what to do with it? I decided leaving it on the bank would only result in it being returned to the canal, I didn't want it on my roof, so I threw it onto a hedge, climbed over the fence and tucked it out of view in the bushes, ok not a great place for it, but better than in the canal.

Offending trolley

If I can pluck up the courage my arm will be going down the weed hatch later today to check the prop for possible damage, hopefully nothing!

Totals this post : 4.5 miles : 14 locks : 1 moveable bridge

Throw away times........

......and painting.

Ok so the laptop problem is a pain the neck, it freezes on the splash (startup) screen, it has done it for a long while now but it is intermittent. I phoned a 'specialist' laptop repairer a while back and his soloution was " if it's over five years old, throw it away and buy a new one" Well I don't happen to like that idea, my workaround discovered after many hours of googling and experimenting is a long winded affair that usually works, eventually.

Skip if you are bored already!

1: Remove battery and power cable
2: Hold power button down for 30 secs
3: Remove back panel and disconnect hard drive
4: Hold power button down for 30 seconds:
5: Plug in power cable and reboot
6: Ignore message that says 'hard drive not found' power down, remove power cable
7: Hold power button down for 30 secs
8: Refit hard drive
9: Hold power button down for 30 secs
10: Reconnect power cable and reboot
11: Pray to the laptop gods
12: If successful refit back panel

If it doesn't restart curse a few times then repeat all the above, this time using the 'recovery' key to enter Bios and reset all defaults, then pray again, it usually works by now!

And back to the blog!

So last night I poured a glass of wine instead of doing any of the above and used the tablet instead, but I have no way of getting images from my camera onto the tablet, isn't life wonderful :-)

So..... this morning I put a second undercoat on the doors to the wardrobe and glossed one of them, not enough room to gloss them both!

Just so this post has some pictures here's as far as I've got, yippee clothes are back hanging up !

Empty but all painted inside. The pipes are the hot and cold to the shower mixer
and the waste pump is in the brown box on the floor.

Door-less for now

The doors are fitted and will go on once the second one is glossed and they are both dry, moving on tomorrow though so not fitting them quite yet.

Progress......

....of the materials gathering kind.

Edited : pictures now added.

I'm having problems with the laptop again so no pictures at the moment, I may add them later if I remember.

I had ordered some bits and pieces from Screwfix in Berkhamstead so before I left my mooring yesterday I rang Jewson, who are both near the canal and Screwfix, and inquired if they offered a ‘cut to size' service, they did so my plan of action was sorted.

Leaving Bulbourne I intended to stop at the water point to top up, there are signs stating no mooring at either end of the length of bank where the tap is located, not 1, nor 2, but 3 boats were moored between the signs, access to the tap was not available given the length of my boat, it didn’t matter much as I was not desperate and knew there was another water point ahead at Cowroast, but why when there was a perfectly clear section of visitor mooring, with rings to tie up, about 300 yards ahead, why would they choose to moor where they shouldn’t? It’s funny how some people think or possibly don’t think.

All three of these are between the 'No Mooring' signs
The gaps not quite big enough for me to get in.

The main offender, if he had been a narrow boat I would have tied up alongside
him, the tap is just in line with his bow railing.

Anyway I carried on along the Tring summit,which is 39ft above sea level, having reached the highest point in this section of the canal, the sun was shining but hidden from me cruising through the deep shaded cutting, it’s not nice unless you like looking up steep banks!

When I reached Cowroast I used the water point which was clear of moored boats and topped up.

On the water point at Cowroast

It was then an uneventful cruise through the next five locks, although following a wide beam, to reach my intended stop just beyond bridge 140 which offered easy access to Jewson, and then the fun began, 3 failed attempts to get to the bank because it was too shallow saw me reverse back through the bridge to try the other side, it was deep enough, just, but about 6 attempts to drive a mooring pin in saw me again give up and move forward to just before the next lock (51), success this time and only a short walk to Jewson so I settled for that.

Current Mooring:

Totals : 5 miles : 5 locks

I walked back to Jewson and collected the MDF that will become my wardrobe sliding doors, two trips as it’s heavy stuff, I wasn’t too happy to see little hidey holes along the bank hedgerows with discarded beer cans, obviously a favourite section for the secret drinkers but as it was only for a few nights maximum, my Screwfix delivery was due today, and it is still cold at night I decided I’d be ok.

And I was ok last night, but this morning at 5:30 I woke up to find myself listing rather heavily, the pound I am in had drained to lower the water level by about 9 inches, I investigated once I was dressed and decided it was just due to the badly leaking lock ahead of me, not much I could do about that, hoping it would correct later, it did.

My delivery arrived just after lunch so I collected my bits from Screwfix and have spent the afternoon/evening hanging the doors and painting, I will stay here tomorrow in an effort to at least get my clothes put away!

Continuing South.....

...... and an unusual gongoozler.

With my engine charging situation remedied thanks to Ed Boden I set off on Thursday to continue  coddiwompling south at around 9:15, it was a beautiful bright morning as I passed through Leighton lock (27) and made for the Tesco moorings at Leighton Buzzard.

Two trips to the store to stock up with groceries and a trip to the petrol station for some fuel for my generator and I was heading off again.

Just before Grove lock who should poke his head up from an engine hole but Ed Boden, small world, he walked back to his van while I was dealing with the lock and asked if all was well, that’s not bad PR ;-)

Off again passing Grove lock Marina

At Church lock it looked as if a boat was ‘loose’ just ahead but when I got there it wasn’t, just moored on a bend the other side of the lock.

It was a lovely day to be cruising on the canal although I seemed to be alone, I didn’t pass another boat on the move at all.

The Whipsnade lion (on zoom) looked as though he could do with some attention, a coat of white paint, I only just spotted him in the distance as it almost blended into the surrounding greenery.

I was tempted to moor up between Slapton and Ivinghoe Locks, there was plenty of nice room but a fair bit of it was in the shade so I decided to press on.

More beautiful views

and just before the first Seabrook lock I spotted this chap having a good old look at what I was up to from his raised vantage point!

 I made the decision to stop where I was on the journey northwards, between lock 36 and the swing bridge but on arriving at the lock I could see the moorings ahead looked fairly busy so I backed up a bit and moored before the lock, a nice quiet spot with the sun on the solar panel and just me for company, lovely.

On Friday I emptied the wardrobe (again) and began priming the new wood and then undercoating all the inside which I think I will just paint in white gloss for brightness.

Today I was getting ready to move on and having a cuppa on the stern deck when a boat came through lock 36 ahead, they left a gate open for me assuming I was about to move off, so I thought I had better take advantage and set off, it was only 8:30 though!

So off through the ready lock and on to the swing bridge, I decided to try a new method as there were no pedestrians to open it for me, so  I edged into the towpath just before the bridge and tied the bow on a longish length of rope to the bridge railings nearest the towpath, I then crossed the bridge and pushed it open which pulled my bow over and forward with it and enabled me to hop back on at the bow, walk along the gunnel and cruise though (having untied my rope first ! ), I then reversed back to the offside past the bridge and hopped off and closed it, job done, it worked quite well, the only issue was keeping the bow from striking the bridge as it moved forward and over but with this bridge it was quite simple to fend the boat off, I will see if it works as well on other bridges.

Job done and I'm happy.

Past Cooks Wharf I was now heading for the Marsworth locks (37-45), nine in all, and as I was in no rush I was enjoying the calm before reaching them.

My luck was in at the first one, a boat was about to come down but seeing me and with the lock in my favour the crew waved me in and told me to stay aboard while they locked me through, lovely.

At the next lock a Canal & River trust employee was adjusting water levels so he set the lock for me and helped me through that one, what a nice start to the flight!

Arriving at bridge 130 just before Marsworth junction, I met Jules Fuels coming the other way, they came through the bridge first and left me plenty of room to slide past before moving across to service a boat with fuel.

I was through the junction and starting up the flight proper and at lock 40 a boat was just leaving so I slowed down and waited when who should poke his head up out of the boat alongside, yes Ed Boden again, no getting away from him now!

Ed's in the boat alongside me.

The locks came thick and fast.

With no other boats or help around it was just a steady relaxing climb up the locks, and by around midday I had reached the Top Lock.

My mooring awaited as I want to watch the Six Nations England game this afternoon, hope I have a signal or I may have to watch it in the pub L

A lovely end to a tiring but pleasant morning's cruise.

Totals this post: 10.5 miles : 19 locks : 1 moveable bridge

Charging update

After a fairly in depth analysis of my charging system the fault was found to be a short on a small live cable from the alternator, it had nothing to do with my using the hoover at the same time as the washing machine, purely coincidental.

Pleasing to have found it and equally pleasing to know it was not due to my stupidity 😀

More trials and tribulations.

I left my Giffard Park mooring on the 28^th February and cruised back to Fenny Stratford, it was bright and dry but decidedly chilly, I found out after about an hour’s cruising that I wasn’t properly dressed for the cold but I pressed on.

I liked the front window arrangement on this boat.

Passing beneath the many bridges around Milton Keynes.

Not a view motorists above get to see.

Real monstrosity's some of them. 

Before arriving back at the visitors mooring I texted Karl to inquire of the mooring situation, he replied that the space I'd vacated two days before was still empty so I pulled in there keen to get below and get warmed up!

I intended to move on Thursday 2^nd March but it was very blowy so I stayed put and did some shopping instead, Friday it was raining so again the decision was made to stay and I walked to Travis Perkins and bought some more wood making a start on the wardrobe framing to eventually carry a pair of sliding doors.

Saturday it all looked much brighter so having had a final coffee with Karl and said our goodbyes I headed off through the lock to the service point where I did the usual empty and fill.

This new boat had a familiar name, it will probably look better once it's sign written.

It was a pleasant morning cruising along.

By midday I was getting hungry so I looked for a suitable stop and pulled over for lunch, while I was there I put a load in the washing machine, all was good with the world.

Lunch stop mooring....

...that became a longer stay.

After lunch I decided as it was so nice I would stay and carry on with my wardrobe, I began by moving all the clothes and dismantling what there was to allow me to sand all the surfaces within the wardrobe, the engine was running still because I was using the washing machine and the batteries were showing 100% charge, I used my palm sander (240v) to do the sanding and then got the hoover out (240v) to tidy up a bit of the dust, I then carried on with making up the frame, all seemed to be going reasonably well, once the washing load was finished I switched off the inverter and put the hoover and sander away, I glanced at the battery monitor and was surprised to see the reading was now 86% but assumed it was just because of the useage of hoover etc. Half an hour later I looked again and it was still 86%, damn, that’s not right, for some reason it wasn’t charging.

The joys of boatlife and batteries! Being an expert (not) I started investigating, all the little lights seemed to be glowing in the correct colours as they should be, next checked the alternator, that ‘seemed’ ok, next check the batteries, yep big black things all looking fine, now begin checking voltages, I don’t know much about electrics but I do know you should have the same voltage going in and coming out of a fuse, I have 2no. 100amp fuses in line from the two alternators, one was ok (starter battery charging) one was blown (domestic battery charging), I dunno how but I presumed I had overloaded it!

The upshot of this was no domestic battery charging, luckily I have a generator for just this eventuality, so that was put to use, the downside was I only had about 2litres of petrol and no service station for miles around, oh well can’t be clever about everything.

So methinks no wasting ‘lecky, no TV, no radio, no laptop, conserve what I have for lights,pumps and fridge, good job I have a Kindle and a wine box and thanks to my foresight clean clothes once they’ve dried!

Sunday after a couple of phone calls I headed off to buy a replacement fuse, the nearest place was 4 miles away so the bike was bought back into service, fuse obtained and heading back a sharp right turn downhill on a slippery surface saw me end up on the ground, being me I did what I always do in these situations, I leapt back up, brushed myself down and checked the bike for damage all in the space of a few seconds, 'nothing to see here people, it was intentional, just testing my safety equipment', and rode off again,  half a mile further on I noticed blood dripping from my hand onto my jeans, back on the boat I cleaned myself up, two grazed palms with a nice triangular flap of skin on the blood leaking left hand, a small graze on the chin and a large dent in my self esteem. The next day lots of aches but I’ll survive.

I fitted the fuse and..... it promptly blew again, quite an efficient way to dispose of £10 (£10! I know, shocking, but it is a big fuse) but proving it was not just the fuse, time to call upon an expert!

I phoned a marine electrician I had met before but being Sunday I had to leave an answer phone message.

Yesterday I waited till 9:30 but got no response to the message so I phoned a well known mobile marine engineer who was also more local, answer phone again so another message.

I decided to move further South, 3 reasons, 1: nearer my eventual destination for this trip, 2: nearer a petrol station and 3 good access for the engineer.

The cruise itself was pleasant enough and dealing with Stoke Hammond lock (23) no problem apart from having to clear vegetation debris from behind the gate to allow it to open fully.

Next came the flight of 3 Soulbury locks with the Three Locks pub alongside.

Bottom lock of three Soulbury Locks, pub adjacent.

There was a single hander coming down already in the middle lock and he had set the bottom lock for himself so I waited for him and locked him through, that also meant the middle lock was ready for me with one gate left open, at the top lock some debris prevented the bottom gates closing so I had to mess about before eventually clearing that and then continuing on.

Nice artwork.

I reached my stop just beyond The Globe pub, leaving a good space behind me in case I needed to run the generator and looking for a gap in the trees to allow the solar panel a good line of sight to the Sun.

Current mooring:

During the afternoon the solar panel managed to get the domestic battery bank charged so I was happy again, but still conserving power by not using anything unless absolutely necessary, in the late afternoon the local engineer rang me and arranged to visit on Wednesday pm.

Today I carried on with the wardrobe, finishing off all the framework and preparation apart from the doors (I have to source sliding gear), so it is ready for painting, when I get the paint!

The sun has been very warm and again the solar panel has charged the batteries, with the hope of a repair tomorrow I felt confident to fire up the laptop and update the blog :-)

Sorry it was such a long post, needs must though.