Where have all the BW men gone?

Apparently, according to gossip heard on the towpath today, they are all digging three holes on the off side of every narrow lock in the country to install three cast iron bollards that we haven't needed for 200 years and will not be any use in the future! Apparently the crew seen is a specialist one with a brand new workboat and an electric cement mixer.

My informant described Aynho weir lock, which is possibly one lock that (maybe) could do with bollards as it is wider than the average and a coffin shape. The bollards are on a side of the lock that is inaccessible if you have the bottom gate open, as you can't cross the top gate! So how do you untie your boat to leave!

We have been thinking about this. One wouldn't tie your boat up if it was going down because the boat will hang on the ropes. And you wouldn't tie your boat up if you were going up because the ropes would slacken off and allow the boat to move. So when would these bollards EVER get used?

What a load of BOLLARDS!

Eventful Day

Yes!! It is finished. The last two LED bulbs were installed in the navigation lights and I have LEDs throughout the boat. I had to replace the starboard nav' light first though because I knocked the last one off in the Harecastle Tunnel! Don't remind me that we don't really need them anyway.

After that the clearup! Tools from front to back and so after collecting the screwdrivers, saws, drills and bits together and then stowing them in the cupboard that has everything I could ever need to fix anything that ever gets broken and a spare of most things just in case, I managed to collect the rest into a bin for disposal.

We now have six fluorescent fittings and four 12v 'reading' lights (10w automotive bulb) surplus to requirements.

Anyway, a trip to the rubbish was planned when the Best Mate said, "How about lunch in the club?" The tiller was in my hand toute suite and we were off the mooring almost forgetting that we had another crew member with us 'cos he's not at college as he has broken up for the summer. The Best Mate called him and we were ready.

Lunch was great and we swapped great weather stories and the joys of the Euro2008 tournament with the locals before planning the afternoon. I would go to the water point and the Best Mate would buy me a new mop and broom at Woolworths and we would wash the boat, lock down, turn, deposit our rubbish, lock up and wash the other side of the boat.

The tools appeared but the Best Mate needed a rest and Pooh, Our Bear of Little Brain, wanted to play football so I was left to do the lift bridge single handed (but a boat was coming the other way so I snuck in in front of it with thanks and a cheery wave to the skipper who gave way to me) and then moored on the water point. Washing a boat is an interminable job. While I was doing the job I spoke to the skipper of "Tinkerbell" who confessed to being a reader of this blog. How encouraging to know that I have one! I lent him my hose to fill his drinking water bottle and top up his tank. I left the polishing for another day.

I filled the lock and then the crew of nb"Rye" appeared. I could have missed this boat as she was heading for the lock and I started to fill it but the crew assured me that, although she was only 25feet long (The smallest conventional narrowboat I have seen), they were out of sight when I had looked. I was assured that they had enough room for the two of them and their alsation! They offered to wait for me to turn but the arithmetic 25 +57 into a lock didn't go so they carried on. Nice thought though!

Just under Tramway Bridge I watched and stopped the boat to allow an angler to land his perch. He bemoaned the crayfish but hadn't yet caught a zander. After turning I returned to the facilities point to moor behind a Napton Boat with a most helpful crew. The lady opened the rubbish enclosure for me and then they opened the gates and assisted me through the lock saying they might need a favour some day. Aren't people kind?

Back at the water point I met Raymond of "Summer Wine" and his good lady. They were filling every container they had with them. "Where is the boat?" I asked. "In Braunston", they replied but the water there is contaminated with a parasite. Some people have already got it in their water tanks!" They were filling everything they could with our Oxfordshire Thames (Cherwell) Water as their Anglian Water was contaminated with cryptosporidium. I had heard of the crisis and, in fact, only just missed being affected as we had a lovely weekend away in Northants, but didn't realise the effect it would have on boaters. Fancy driving forty miles for fresh water!

Then a phone call from the Best Mate. I had run out of time to get Pooh to his football practice! Oops. She suggested that there would need to be a bit of bridge re-building. One cannot hurry things on the canal. I had not stopped all day. The Cabin Boy (Piglet) joined me to finish washing the other side of the boat. We stepped back to admire the view and then set off once more for our mooring. Quite an eventful day.

Anpther day, another ...

Another Day but no money at the end of it. Today was Saturday and I spent it continuing to battle against the heat and my own mistakes fitting the LED lighting. Most of today was spent on my back working at just more than arm's length away from the wiring, fittings or cable that I was trying to fix. I was attempting to fit downlighters under the top berths in the bunk room to light the Lower berths.

And by four o'clock today we had light right through the boat!

Well almost! I ran out of cable and cable clips so the wiring for the second lower berth will need to be done later.

Altogether though a good weeks work and rewarded by the Best Mate telling me that there was a beer waiting in the fridge! And how I needed that. She told me I had earned it.

While I was toiling inside this afternoon, the Cabin Boy and Best Mate were cutting their way through the jungle that is beside our mooring and revealing that there is grass under the nettles and cow parsley. Four hours hard work later and we could see one of the signs that demarcate the mooring: 65 feet the other way though the sign is still in the undergrowth.

BW are supposed to maintain the mooring. That is the only thing they should be doing for us for the £1300 a year fee. Not this year! No sign of any grass cutting gangs at all.

We went for fish and chips after all the hard graft and spent this evening lolled in front of a dvd.

Life in a sweatbox!

It is sunny out there. Unfortunatly I am not seeing much of it at the moment. I am working inside the boat, up near the ceiling fitting LED lighting. Having made the decision to use LEDs as a measure to reduce the need to recharge the batteries and to allow more lights to be used at the same time, I now have to fit them!

Richard, from Bedazzled, explained to me why we need to fit a suppressor and thermal fuse to the supply circuit of the downlighters we have already installed rather than just replace the bulb with an LED assembly. The problem is where to fit it and, of course, the supply wiring is behind wood panelling up in the roof. So I am getting hot and sweaty.

I have made excellent progress today. I probably have another day's work ahead of me but I think it will be worth it. I am replacing all the fluorescent fittings with double cabinet lights and so far it looks good. The bunk reading lights with 12v tungsten bulbs are all going to be replaced with downlighters as well.

Then we will be ready to cruise and expect to light the boat like Blackpool illuminations on the amps of one 15W fluorescent.

Away from it all

Believe it or not I'm watching tele.

Not bad for someone who doesn't have tele on the boat or anywhere else for that matter. But this weekend is Birthday Weekend and myself and the First(Best) Mate are away from it all on a weekend away.

Having carefully selected a 4-star county hotel that the internet told me has fishing lakes, I arrived to the word from the receptionist "We have lakes but definitely NO fishing". Three golf courses but no-one can hold a rod and line near the water! I discussed this with the leisure manager this morning. The general opinion is that it is something to do with "health and safety". An angler is apparently a sitting target for golfers who have lost their sense of direction or have little or no basic club swinging competence.

So I went to the canal and fished there! At 4am this morning there were no boats moving. There again there were no golfers moving on the golf course either. But I was healthy and safe.

Success? One largish roach- a lively fish. One small zander (10-12") which wriggled off the hook as it came out of the water before I could kill it! The Lure Angling Society reports over 900 of these were electrofished in 2007 with weights up to 10lb. It is not too good news that these voracious predators have survived.

The Best is Cheap enough

I am just resting after a wonderful lunch.

Devilled herring roes on toast with fennel and parmesan salad.

Don't we eat well!

What is amazing though is that this meal for two cost under two pounds! The herring roes (milts) were £1.19, half a fennel bulb costs about 50p and the toast was two crusts of a stale white loaf that were going to be used as fish bait! Add in the few flakes of parmesan and two mushrooms for the salad, the butter to cook it in, a tablespoon of flour and a teaspoon of paprika/chilli powder and we just about top the two pound mark.

It made me think though about all the people who fill their shopping carts in Tesco with stuff that they haven't prepared, filled with ingredients that they haven't chosen and other stuff they haven't a clue about and spend twice to three times what we do on it.

No wonder people can't make ends meet and are suffering from ill health and obesity.

But we eat well enough! Thistles are even cheaper! You don't see many of them though because they are swamped by the 5ft high nettles and six foot high cow parsley!

Walk it off!

"The canals are generally seen as a relaxing place to be, and a week’s boating holiday an ideal opportunity to chill out and leave the cares of the world behind you. However, what few people realise is that boating can boost your fitness levels, develop your arm muscles (lockwinding) and tone your legs (walking to the next lock)." Waterscape.com

However, how do you get that exercise when the towpath looks like this?

I have heard that BW have a policy to "rurally manage" some stretches of the towpath but this in is in Banbury Mooring Zone. It is also on the waymarked Banbury Fringe Circular Walk. Believe it or not there is a canal next to this path- it is on the left.

I wanted to go for a walk to exercise my replacement knee but at this point the towpath was impassable to me. The nettles are about 5 feet high and the cow parsley reaches up a good two feet taller.

"Rurally managed". Rarely managed I would say.

I spoke to the local BW patroling officer the other day. He was fed up with getting soaked by the excessive vegetation and he's paid for walking the towpaths.

Keeping afloat

I promised you all the details of what it takes to keep the boat afloat.

This morning I determined to fix a navigation light that I had knocked off in a tunnel. As I am determined to refit the lighting on SONFLOWER with LED lamps to save precious amps I thought I would look at tying them in to the tunnel light circuit as I never use the nav lamps without it.

A quick look at the wiring loom and I discovered a loose (actually disconnected) wire. The tunnel light circuit was in need of repair. A few moments later I was about to start on the navigation lights when I thought about locating the spare. I could not find it in my cupboard where I keep everything! I thought it was at the back of the boat before we had the back of the boat refitted so I wondered where we had put it while we had the back refitted and then thought it might be under the back steps so I felt under there and........water. Cold, wet, water.

This could only mean one thing. I went under the bathroom sink and took out all the shelves and cabinet that are in front of the bilge pump to discover that the bilge pump area was reasonably dry. Lifting the float switch turned the pump on. My intitial fears of pump failure were unfounded.

Nevertheless we had water in the bilge on the starboard side and the list on the boat meant that the bilge pump on the port side in the bathroom wouldn't help me.

The next hour was spent bailing out the bilge with a dust pan which I emptied into a waste bin which I emptied over the side.

We have had a loose connection on the sink waste in the galley so I imagine that this was the source of the water. Time will tell.

We are still afloat.

Doesn't it look nice?

I thought I would let you see the third new Generator that now adorns the rear deck of SONFLOWER.

It is petrol driven so I can't locate it inside the boat. There isn't any room in the engine hole so it has to stand proudly as "deck equipment".

Is there a better way to secure it or is this adequate?

Any suggestions?

Bad Manners

I don't like to moan. No really.

But sometimes one gets that "Victor Meldrew Moment"

We had a wonderful cruise yesterday. We took additional crew with us a little way up the canal and they had a lovely time. ("The best Sunday afternoon ever") It wasn't spoiled by coming bow to bow with a Napton boat whose forward lookout was playing the ukelele rather than looking out. We all started as hirers and there was no physical contact. It's all in the boating experience. I just sang about the captain who played as his boat sank!

When we got to Cropredy there was a hold up. One of the local long term moorers could not get his boat out of the winding hole because a Calcutt Boat was moored opposite it! They had 'popped to the shop'. We couldn't turn because the winding hole was choked. Impass. Eventually the hirers who remained with the boat were persuaded to rope the boat back toward the bridge to allow normal proceedings to resume.

We met the crew of this boat again on the way back to Banbury after our meal. We met them as we came out of Little Boughton Lock because they were moored on the lock mooring! There are three bollards at this lock but with two of them occupied and the towpaths overgrown to a height of seven feet with nettles and cow parsley there was little option bit to try to pull up behind them to get my crew back on board. I didn't mean to but I nudged them a bit as I pulled away again.

I met them again this morning. I was assisting Jack on Iron Maiden who was single handing through lift bridge and lock. He was waiting for the boat blow the lock to enter and work up. This boat however, was waiting to get on the facilities mooring below the lock to empty the cassette toilet, dispose of rubbish and take on water. Who was on the mooring? You've guessed it, the Calcutt crew most of whom had just "nipped off for a bit of shopping". After I approached the
man left with the boat who was on the phone to the rest of the crew, he agreed to move over to the other side of the canal thus reliving the blockage from the lock entrance, and a taxi arrived at the Mill car park with the rest of the crew.

Surely it is not too much to ask people to have a little respect for etiq1uette on the canal?

How can one have such bad manners?

"I don't believe it!"

Almost there

The upholsterer delivered the seat cushions for our new seating/occasional berth this evening. These had been delayed because they were working overtime to complete a boat that was to be exhibited at Crick Show.

They told us a sorry tale of woe about the show that was a literal wash out because of the weather. The work to complete on time was wasted by two terrible days after a promising start on the Saturday when large crowds were turning up.

(Tomorrow we will be sitting on the cushions and I hope that we can add a photo to this post.)


As promised: pictures of the newly furnished saloon with table and bookcase.

No image of the "tv" cabinet for the tv we do not have is available yet.

You have already seen the doors.


Do you want to know who did the work for us? Follow the link. . . . . here

Upholstery is by Dragonfly of Stockton Top Marina.

Just because we can

Yesterday the full crew went to Cropredy and back.  6 miles, 6 locks in 4 hours.

Just because we could.

The weather was overcast but it didn't spoil the excitement of boating on the meandering South Oxford with its remote locks and rape filled fields. The meadows were plush with buttercups and clover. I have never seen clover so high in flower as this year. 

The towpaths are brim full of cow parsley and flowering nettles. The canal banks are also showing a lovely display of Water irises and reed mace.

On our way we spotted larks and  kestrels hovering in their differing ways, one distracting from the nest and the other quartering for voles or mice. Cattle ambled across the fields, their only aim being to find a suitable place to sit and chew the cud. We met a friend walking the towpath who asked whether we had seen a pair of cormorant. We had seen herons and geese and a family of swans with nine cygnets, the occasional mallard and moor-hen but no cormorants. He assured us they were nearby. The fish were jumping and he told a tale of "the worlds biggest carp" that had jumped in front of him. Maybe a bit of an exaggeration?

There was so little traffic on the canal for a Saturday afternoon. We didn't meet another boat on the way there if a canoeist can be disregarded as a boat. We only met one at Little Boughton lock on the way back but were followed by another with a norwegian crew.  

Flat Water Junkies

Sonflower's Crew are away visiting our son and daughter-in-law and grandson in Cardiff for a few days.

The weather is predictably Welsh so what do we do? We take a boat trip around the bay! At least this boat has a covered seating area.

There are lots of big expensive motor boats and sailing yachts in the two large marinas that we saw. My son says that Penarth, on the 'other side of the water' has two classes of people: the "haves" and the "have yachts".


These are pictures to prove that we were on the water!

The cormorants, coots and swans (one black one if you look closely) seemed happy enough. I wondered how the tens of thousands of waders feel who were evicted so that the city of Cardiff can have a large lake.

Twenty Questions

Granny Buttons is recording all the bloggers who are doing the "Twenty Questions Game" and listing the Twenty Answerers

I thought I would join in so here goes. . .. .


1. My favorite canal is the South Oxford. I never get bored with the rural meandering and marvel at the surveying that enabled James Brindley to build it. It is also home!

2. The least favorite canal is the Birmingham and Worcester north of Kings Norton Junction.

3. The Best Mate

4. The last book I read was "The Pheasants Revolt" by Brian Viner. Very funny stories of life in the country. The last waterway book was "Ramlin Rose" by Sheila Stewart, a heart rending composite life story of the wife of a "Number One".

5. Just after dawn. Bird song, mist and the anticipation of the sunrise.

6. People who rush to make the bridge hole when it is obvious you were closer to it! It would be better if we both stopped to give way.

7. During the Industrial Revolution when engineers seem to have respect and trust to achieve phenominal things.

8. I have never fallen in. I have got my leg wet but not yet become totally detached from the boat.

9. An aircraft engine designer.

10. If I didn't have narrowboating I'd ......be stressed out and working 12 hours a day!

11. Narrowboaters are a friendly group of people who respect their environment and community.

12. A game with the children and a bottle of wine with Best Mate.

13. The waterways need looking after as part of the national heritage.

14. Can you get a moorings policy based on boater's needs, please?

15. Windows, new double glazed ones please!

16. Pumpout.

17. Canals: rivers scare me. Having been cast adrift on the Wey, the gentlest of rivers, by exuberant youths I dread the prospect of waking up across a weir.

18. As my birthday is mid summer, I will be cruising somewhere.

19. Seven wonderful children, five of which have chosen wonderful partners.

20. 20-20 foresight. SO many people have 20-20 hindsight.

Bank Holiday Boating

What an 'orrible day!

But...... having complained in the past about BW and others overstaying on popular moorings we had to move today from the 48 hour moorings and return to our home mooring.

The wind was playing havoc with boats in the narrows of the town centre and things blew off the roof of the boat and into the canal.The moorer opposite had lost the coolie hat from the chimney and we have a chimney lid that is probably now in the cut. C'est la vie. As we talked I noticed that a footrest that I had reclaimed from the canal two years ago was again floating down the waterway, too far away to retrieve with a boat hook.

I pointed it out to the other boater. He recognised our boat name and introduced himself as our new next door neighbour. He was the other lucky winner in the recent auction of two moorings at our mooring site.

We had to move and so returned to the mooring about an hour after he arrived there.

The weather was awful. Everyone agreed but there were a lot of empty spaces. We were all out somewhere. Our other neighbour was bemoaning the fact that his plans to grind out rust on his roof had been scuppered. A chat with our new neighbour revealed that all was not rosy on his boat either as he had discovered an elusive plumbing leak by finding water in the bilges and an empty water tank (not the best way to discover it but at least he knew of it before it sank the boat!)

As we all passed the time chatting about our problems in the rain, two other boats returned from their Bank Holiday cruises. 50th birthday celebrations were spoiled by a gig that was cancelled and the rain that dampened the cruise home.

Why don't the Government instigate a variable Bank Holiday that moves to a time when the weather is good. Any party that promised that would surely get elected.

Connected!

I told you that I had bought a new dongle. Now I am sitting in my lavishly furnished saloon with my laptop atop my lap and posting.

Isn't that great.

The cruising season has started in earnest. We have our boat back from the mini refit, We are not on our home mooring. We have two lads asleep, tired out in their bunks and the Best Mate is yawning in her bed. We are boating!

And, I have mobile broadband on hand to keep me company. I hope that it keeps going.

A happy summer is ahead.

It's Moved!

As I sat in the club eating my ham egg and chips today, I noticed the hopper and tug, that I pictured in my moaning post yesterday, passing the window.

I have no idea whether it was because of my post and e-mail to BW but they are gone now and another space is available in the town centre. Normality is now restored.

What all the fuss is about

Here they are.

Aren't they good. Beautiful rear doors in iroko, hand made to fit SONFLOWER complete with new door frame. All is oiled and I just love to touch them.

There is nothing so lovely as natural wood.

Pass the teak oil somebody.

A Popular Place

Banbury is a popular place and today I had arrived back in town to have lunch with friends at GF club.

Normally, I would have stopped on my mooring and walked into town but today there was considerable congestion at Hardwick Lock that delayed us sufficiently to merit taking the boat on. We also needed those requisites of life that are provided by the local boatyard; a pump out, gas and diesel. They were shut for lunch when we arrived so we progressed under Tom Rolt bridge to discover that the town visitor moorings were full.

I did not intend to lock down and moor below the lock. We would then have to turn at Bankside and return and lock up again to return to the boatyard. We would miss our lunch date too.

The crew of Sylph saw my predicament. He said he would check with the captain but thought they were leaving in 5 minutes. I backed up, hovered and waited for them to go. They were true to their word and we moored beneath Tom Rolt bridge and went for lunch.

What really got me though was the reason the moorings were congested. You can see from the photo that British Waterways have taken no notice of what I wrote in this blog in July last year. Now however they have not just moored the workboat but a 70foot hopper as well!

I suppose they think they own the waterway. In essence we tax paying, license paying, mooring fee paying, boaters do along with the rest of the nation.

Come on BW. Moor these large floating objects where we leisure boaters do not want to moor.

Thank you Nick

I had a limited time today. I needed to move the boat between boys to school time and the time that the Best Mate could pick me up somewhere near the canal. She had an appointment today at 3.30pm so I had to be around at school out time.

That's where Nick came in. His canal planner allows you to change the speed at which you cruise. Being 'single handed' today I changed the time taken for doing the locks and then adjusted my speed until I knew I had time to get from our overnight mooring at Napton Lock 13 to The Wharf at Fenny Compton between 0930 (drop off time) and 13.30 (Pick up time). Nick's plan gave 3hrs and 57 minutes at 2.5mph.

I don't usually travel 'single handed' so this is how it went. I cast off at 9.32am and cruised to the first lock to find it full. A bad start but as I opened the top gate to leave another boat arrived and offered to close it for me. At the next lock I opened one of the two bottom gates and pushed the other one open with the bow (sorry BW). This time, as I was opening the top gate I left it to swing while I lowered the paddle. Mistake. The next lock started to be emptied and the wash of water in the pound promptly closed it again for me with a bang (Sorry BW). I had to re-open the paddle and then, knowing that another boat was on its way down I was in a quandary as to whether to close the gate or leave it open. I left it open and then, before I had left the lock lay-by had a pang of conscience and looked back. The boat behind who, had closed the gate for me at the last lock, were now in sight and the crew was disembarking. I stopped and returned to close the gate, turned and saw the bow of other boat coming round the bend past a moored boat. So I stopped closing it. By this time the crew was ready to let the water out by opening the bottom paddle. I shouted "STOP!" and opened the gate again to let the thankful descending boat enter.

It 's not easy being single handed!

As I approached the top lock I could see daylight between the gates so gingerly eased Sonflower's bow toward the bottom gates to prise them open. As I did so, I saw another boat come to the top gate. The crew member holding it on a rope moved toward the paddle to fill teh lock. I sounded the horn and hoped, as the gates started to open, that he had understood. Sonflower slipped in and I ascended the steps to take my place on the gates. "Good morning", I said, "Would you mind closing the other gate for me?" "delighted, he said, "G'day to ya". The crew of Alouisius had out in her for five weeks. "Do you know where we can get diesel?" I told him of all the marinas that now adorn the area below Napton Locks.

From there on it is all on the summit level. The passage was uneventful until I came up behind three gents on Union Canal Carriers' Wenlock, They seemed to me to be dawdling so after a little while they invited me to pass. I don't do that very often and I am not sure whether I want to do it again. As I passed the boats seemed to get locked together, I had to navigate round a bend across their bows and they didn't give way so hit me broadside! no damage done but quite scary.

The next boat I came up behind was Florence Edith from Kate Boats. This time I didn't ask to pass. They didn't wave me on, but I thanked them for giving way when they next went aground. The young man in the front well deck resignedly elevated himself from his seat and reached for the pole giving credence to the hypothesis that this was not the first time that it had happened.

Then I received a text from the Best Mate. Time was no longer of the essence. She was bringing my mother for a trip out and lunch at The Wharf.

I arrived at The Wharf at 1302, well ahead of Nick Atty's prediction. As I moored the Florence Edith arrived and scaped down my side as they headed for a mooring space ahead of me about half a mile long. "Take care of Cheryl and Nick's boat", I said "They are nice people" as he hit the piled bank at 30 degrees. "I was trying to miss you" he said.

The three men in a boat arrived about 15 minutes later and we were all in the pub together by 1330.

I needn't have bothered to rush!

Anyway, thank you Nick for your wonderful site.