Cocktail
Posted: September 28, 2014 Filed under: Bobbing about, Dry land, Geeky facts | Tags: Bill Nighy, Covent Garden, Grand Union, Jared Odrick, Kensington Gardens, Little Venice, London, NFL Regent's Street, Speakers' Corner, Trafalgar Square, water 2 Comments
Forget asking to share mooring rings, guarding your offside from moor alongsiders and expecting any sort of gap between your boat and the next, London is a whole different ball game – one continual loop of musical boats where everyone ropes up to anythin
g that keeps them roughly secured to the towpath, it’s not that people aren’t nice, everyone gets along well enough, it’s just the way it is.
So, w
riting from a different patch of water from the one we’d expected to sleep on, we took advantage of this 
evening’s boat shuffle and hooked up to the nearest waterpoint before settling in for the 
night – possibly.
A far cry from some
of the dark, deserted rural spots we’ve parked up in, here the sky isn’t ever truly black and the towpath never sleeps.
A couple of days discovering and re-discovering 
London we’ve come across all 
sorts: NFL on Regent’s Street (good, but the drains were oh so stinky), Covent Garden, a lively Speakers’ Corner (not one for you SFR), Kensington Gardens, Trafalgar Square, the National Portrait Gallery (loved that)…
Bill Nighy’s back
The house boats across t
he water and the enormous Georgian houses beyond make for a pretty good view, meanwhile they get to look a stack of us boaters; one big cocktail of people all getting something from the canal, somehow it seems to work.
Living Local
Posted: September 26, 2014 Filed under: Bobbing about, Dry land, Geeky facts, Moving on | Tags: Grand Union, Kensal Green, Little Venice, London, Paddington Basin, Regent's Canal, South Bank, Tower of London, water Leave a commentDespite far less boat travel t
han normal we seem to have been all over the place this
last week, thanks to legs and trains. Our mental web of London continues to gradually grow and some roads are magically beginning to link up, making a few convenient loops.
Unfortunate eno
ugh to take navigational advice from SFR, AJ and UM arrived at Paddington 
having traipsed through most of London on foot – this wasn’t made any more enjoyable by a very large roll of rubber we’d asked them to bring along. It was lovely to catch up with the ‘la famille’ and with London dangling off tube stops it doesn’t take too long to get right back down to the Thames and onto the South Bank. The tower poppy display is spreading, apparently the appeal for volunteers to plant the ceramic flowers was overwhelming.
‘Home’ in terms of family is now just a 30 minute Southern Rail ride away (when there hasn’t been a fatality on the line that is), which feels so local 
compared to Manchester or Birmingham. Swiss Family came up trumps with a great book to aid our London adventure and it was brilliant to see so many familiar faces in one place!
Having maxed out our stay in Paddington Basin we untied an
d headed out for water in Little Venice followed by a mega shop at the mammoth Sainsbury’s at Kensal Green. Boats boats boats everywhere, every shape, every sort, pretty much anything goes. Little Venice is twinkling tonight, breasted up and not far along from our lovely neighbours 
from Paddington Basin, so far so good – although the far end, beyond the
designated visitor moorings has some pretty nasty bags of grot on the tow path and so much rubbish dumped in the water it’s actually impossible to moor.
It’s been a bit of a whirlwind last few days, but London life is beginning to shape up nicely.
Portobello Road
Posted: September 21, 2014 Filed under: Bobbing about, Dry land, Geeky facts | Tags: Hyde Park, London, narrowboat blog, Paddington Basin, Portobello Market, Portobello Road 2 Comments
Boris bikes definitely seem the way to go as at the moment we are walking our legs off. It was another
sunny morning so we set off in the direction of Little Venice and ended up in Portobello Market. The market dates back to 1870 when traders gathered to sell their horses. Busy s
treets, splashes of colourful houses, out of the ordinary things for sale and an energetic atmosphere made for an interesting wander. A long list of films, n
ovels and songs have sprung from various doors and shops – not least Paddington Bear who enjoyed elevenses on Portobello Road with Mr Gruber each day – resulting in clusters of flashing cameras in various locations.
A few areas are beginning to join together now, meaning we 
might manage our way home without following the blue dot provided we’re within a 10 minute radius of Pa
ddington Basin.
Legs hanging, we opened the door to a fresh and fully fueled Murk, eager for a walk, so after a very quick lunch we were back out – off through Bayswater and down to Hyde Park.
The moorings have busied up as the weekend has gone on, tonight was especially busy with boats circling in search of a space.
Bright Lights
Posted: September 20, 2014 Filed under: Bobbing about, Dry land, Geeky facts, Moving on | Tags: Banksy, Camden, Double Locks, Hyde Park, King Robbo, Limehouse Basin, Little Venice, Regent's Canal, Regent's Canal Dock, Regent's Street, water Leave a comment
Limehouse Basin was a lovely place to stay, boats coming up and heading out into the wider water provided regular entertainment, one especially beautiful yacht moored opposite – complete with a muesli eating, wholesome yacht boy. Originally known as Regent’s Canal Dock, in 1865 1,500 ships and 15,336 barges entered, it was expanded several times and often so busy you could walk the water by hopping from one boat to another. Changing water levels were interesting as with high tide the deep lock we rose in shrivels to barely a lock at all. The Thames effectively provides one large lung for London with stale air being pulled out and fresh bought in on the tides.
Leaving the basin
we faced our first double loc
k since the Huddersfield Broad. It was great to share with a couple we’d been moored next to, the ride up towards Camden has endless (mainly stationary) boa
ts and people all around everywhere. Split from our lock buddies for a while we headed separate ways for wate
r – turning up at St Pancreas Cruising Club it was clear that Nicholson has slipped in a not totally public waterpoint; luckily the guy was very nice and let us hook up, despite the tap not being the ‘free for all’ variety for over 30 ye
ars.
After passing the bridge where King Robbo and Banksy staged their well documented graffiti war, we arrived in Camden and worked through the two locks we first had a go at on a days training in 2012. It was a messy affair back then.
Through Maida Hill tunnel and past Regents Zoo, we entered Little Venice before moving on to Paddington Basin. Incredibly lucky to find two moorings available we pitched up with the crew from Black Bart who own chairs – and we like them – that’s the second lot of chair owners we
‘ve enjoyed spending time with now!
Loving London life so far, Hyde Park has Murk’s seal of approval and Oxford Street, Park Lane, Marylebone and Mayfair are all around a ten minute walk away.
London
Posted: September 18, 2014 Filed under: Geeky facts, Moving on, Waterway wonders! | Tags: Boat Race, Clippers, Globe Theatre, Houses of Parliament, Limehouse Basin, Limehouse Lock, London, London Eye, narrowboat blog, narrowboat on Thames, OXO Tower, River Thames, Teddington lock, Teddington to Limehouse, Thames, The Shard, tidal Thames, Tower Bridge, Tower of London 5 Comments
It began as a tiny thought yesterday afternoon, it grew during Bake Off and was squished again after reading the ‘London Tideway Guide: Downstream Addition’ – at 24 pages it’s a whopping eight pages longer than it’s upstream counterpart and with lin
es like ‘It is very important to appreciate that making the passage downstream to Limehouse from Teddington or from Brentford is considerably more challenging that coming the other way,’ we decided it was no go. So we went to bed, happy with the knowl
edge that just a short trip down to Brentford lay ahead.
But the sun was shining this morning, and the water was calm, and the tides were perfect. There was no way we could go though as we hadn’t given Limehouse 24hrs notice –
so emphasising our lack of booking
we felt safe to ask the Teddington lock keeper, expecting flat no, meaning we could at least tell ourselves we tried. We weren’t expecting him to say ‘It should be fine, phone Limehouse,’ and we really weren’t expecting Limehouse to say come o
n down…
Waiting with a nervous hireboater on his way to Brentford wasn’t the most calming start, then out of the blue another narrowboat sped along to Teddington Lock, he was going all the way too. Yay. Out into slack water nothing seemed any different to the non-tidal section above Teddington, in fact with so little rain and
a low tide the river was way calmer than our previous Brentford journey. As the hireboater veered away
into the safety of The Grand Union Canal we ploughed on, the tide was beginning to pick up and it was no struggle to keep good time. Miles and miles passed, the water grew wide, the Boat Race finish came and went, the Boat Race sta
rt came and went, Harrods 
Depositary, Battersea Power Station – other than the odd City Cruiser the water seemed quite quiet. Then London came in waves, thick and fast. The traffic busied up and the landmarks were hard to keep up with in between negotiating the 
best angle to direct the boat in order to tackle the ever-increasing rolls of wake. Suddenly London was all around, we were a teeny-weeny boat muddled in a big city
snow globe – even a crazy Dazzle ship used extensively in WW1 added to the mad whirl wind.
The grand finale came in the form of Tower Bridge – built from 31 million bricks, two million rivets and 22,000 litres of paint that all opens on average three times a day…no need for our passage, we just about 
squeezed under, before radioing our position into Limehouse.
As the sights decreased the reality of the turn into Limehouse Basin hit home. The main rule being: travel on to get a good view round the bend before attempting to turn to the wrong side of the river…the Clippers come quickly, which they did, two of them j
ust as we wanted to turn. Eeek. So we waited, the boat pitched and rolled in their wake. In reality there’s not 
an awful lot of time that Clippers aren’t zooming at you from one direction or the other, flashing their ‘making life easier’ sign writing – really? We bit the bullet and turned. Willing the boat to come round the waters were all over the place – people talk of ‘back-Eddys’ – perhaps that’s what it was, but
one things for sure it’s our trickiest lock turn to date, smashing Selby out the park. Safe and sound we moved into the lock and up into a gloriously sunny Limehouse Basin.
An adrenalin fuelled start to London for all three of us, having had an axe fall on him during the turn Murk was pleased to stretch his legs – which he did in Canary Wharf as though he owned the place.
Hampton Court
Posted: September 17, 2014 Filed under: Dry land, Geeky facts, Moving on | Tags: Chertsey Lock, Hampton Court, Shepperton Lock, Shepperton Marina, Thames 2 Comments
Leaving Eton we passed what looked like a whole bunch of brilliant free moorings only to read one of many signs stating the land w
as Crown Estate and there was strictly no mooring, for the most part we’d still clock it as stopable but a huge guy in a Range Rover looping the boundary looked like he meant business.
South of Windsor there seems to be a shift from eye-popping ornate bricks and mortar to intricate floating 
homes. Passing under the M25 and then the M3 we motored on towards Shepperton Lock. The junction with the River Wey was busy with rowers and boats. A quick stop at Shepperton Ma
rina was 
an eye ope
ner, pontoon after pontoon after pontoon of pristine cruisers bobbing about, the chandlery is stocked with just about every boat thing imaginable too.
Narrowboats slipped away as we headed on through Kingston Lock, in fact we were mainly surrounded by boats heading out for evening d
rinks or the theatre. A couple of perfect moorings were still available outside Hampton Court, we thought about squeezing in between two shining cruisers but having considered their immaculate canopies and the fact we’d be lighting the fire, opted for a mooring tucked out the way where sparks wouldn’t matter. With temperatures still brilliantly high for this time of year, it’s hard to imagine Henry VIII rode to London on the frozen Thames on one of the 20 occasions it’s frozen over since Roman times.
Liz And Phil
Posted: September 16, 2014 Filed under: Bobbing about, Dry land, Geeky facts, Moving on | Tags: Eton, Eton College Fields, narrowboat blog, River Thames, Thames, Windsor, Windsor Castle 2 Comments
A misty start meant Cliveden House had vanished this morning. The sky began to clear as we travelled
down river passing some very elaborate homes, it seems a flag pole and boat are a must along this stretch. Not overly busy with pr
ivate boats today although plenty of French Brothers river trips were running. No horse racing to gawk at as we drifted by, just long long lines of sprinklers watering the course. Rounding the bend the castle began to come into view, with mooring available on either side and the island we opted for a night on Eton 
College Fields – Windsor is just 100m across the water.
The city was bustling as usual, still odd to see hotels we’ve stayed in and car parks we used before sussing out this alternative way to see England. After a walk through the shops and up to the castle we made a very quick trip to Waitrose.
Up on the roof and moored right
on the flight path Nick lost himself in ‘Planefinder’, point it at a plane and you get all sorts of interesting information down to details like how many seats are o
n each flight. It’s along the same lines as his M6 traffic reports – interesting for the first few minutes….
Still reeling from
getting caught for our first mooring fee this trip, enjoying the evening sunshine there was no escaping the ticket man marching along the riverbank. The further downstream we’ve travelled the higher we’ve climbed in terms of ‘neighbours’, not totally next door but we’re claiming Windsor Castle for tonight, Liz and Phil even helped with our tv tuning thanks to a surprising aerial poking out from a turret.
Next Door
Posted: September 16, 2014 Filed under: Dry land, Geeky facts, Moving on | Tags: Cliveden House, Cookham Lock, Henley, Marlow, Profumo affair, River Thames, Spring Cottage, Temple Island Leave a comment
Tonight’s neighbours aren’t in, it could have something to do with the price tag starting at £1
,800 for a night at infamous Spring Cottage. Moored just along from where the exciting stuff once went on – On trips from Windsor, Queen Victoria enjoyed the ease of tea on the terrace as opposed to being hauled up the hill 
to Cliveden Hou
se in a pretty undignified hoist contraption…Christine Keeler and John Profumo enjoyed themselves there too. Rooms are still and empty and the silence surrounding the place is almost 
deafening. Occasional use by a whole host of indulgent paying guests suits Spring Cottage so much more than happy families.
What went before pales into insignificance, which is harsh as working backwards we drifted through Marlow and before that Henley. Henley’s regatta course wasn’t set out, making for an easy straight journey down towards Temple Island. Past Cul
ham Court, owned by Urs Schwarzenbach who buys surrounding multi-million pound properties only to knock them down in the pursuit of a more pleasing view. Out numbered 
by cruisers it’s always fun to see a narrowboat out here 
– passing Sue on No Problem was a coincidence as she first contacted us during our terrifying ordeal on a flooded Thames telling us to moor up and wait because when conditions are right th
e river is a great place to be. And she was right.
Soon on and into Marlow. With visitor moorings all taken at the park we moved on through the lock to the good moorings below, a short walk up into the town and into Sainsbury’s. The last leg of today’s journey was the beautiful drop down through Cookham Lock and o
n past Spring Cot
tage, before mooring amongst the trees. Judging by Cliveden’s luxury ‘Doggy Break’ promising dinners from the chef’s canine menu, Murk is definitely neglected.
Looking Out
Posted: September 14, 2014 Filed under: Moving on | Tags: Cleeve Lock, Kennet and Avon, narrowboat blog, Reading, Sonning lock, Thames 1 CommentA walk on to Cleeve Lock saw us
legging it back to the boat – watching masses of boaters badly queuing for the lock was entertaining until we realised the longer we watched, the longer we’d have to wait. Despite mooring on a £4 mooring last night the debt collector didn’t show up, although a Defender did seem to be kicking up a lot of dust and heading in our direction shortly after we pulled away…
Down at the lock most pe
ople were hanging about for water, figuring we could wait
for the next hose we dropped down and out. One guy whose engine was causing him problems eventually caught us up, plumes of smoke and a spluttering motor meant he wasn’t exactly enjoying his Tha
mes experience. Entering a later lock he mentioned being desperate to get off onto the Kennet and Avon…having bought his boat in Staffordshire 
he’d endured his rope wound round the prop, smashed the back canopy off under a bridge and boiled two sets of batteries. Things weren’t about to get any better. Leaving Whitchurch Lock the keeper explained there was a kayak regatta in full swing, ‘Basically keep left of the white buoys and sink as many kayakers as you fancy,’ were our instructions. On leaving the lock a total muppet pulled in front of us all – ge
sturing for us to slow and let a whole load of kayaks cross our path. That wasn’t part of our instructions. It seemed the poor guy’s engine either did flat-out or nothing at all and after smacking into the buoy he faded to a tiny dot amongst the colourful mass of energetic kayakers and was never seen again. Boat life isn’t always a walk in the park.
Reading came and went under the gloomiest skies all day, on past the turning for the 
Kennet and Avon it was just a shor
t spurt downstream before things brightened right up with beautiful Sonning Lock. Houses grew bigger and wider and grander as we gained ground on Henley, tied up for the night and looking across at the jaw dropping amount of light filled windows opposite you have to think that pound for pound, our view beats theirs hands down.
War Horse
Posted: September 13, 2014 Filed under: Bobbing about, Dry land, Geeky facts, Moving on | Tags: Abingdon, Abingdon Heritage Open Day, Days lock, narrowboat blog, Thames, World Pooh Sticks Championships Leave a comment
A little out of place through Blackburn and Burnley, Nick’s pink shorts are right at home
down here on the Thames, in fact he looks a little underdone without a captain’s hat, Henri Lloyd deck shoes and striped shirt.
Murk’s morning walk resulted in discovering Abingdon Heritage Open Day, a stroke of luck as it hap
pened for just one day. Designed to transport visitors back 100 years the town was transformed by war horses, soldiers, choirs, Punch and Judy shows and perhaps the most surprising touch – windows displaying
information on war-time residents, many owners even opened their front doors for passers-by to experience the places soldiers lived before leaving to fight.
Mov
ing out of Abingdon the water was busy, boats of all shapes and sizes out for Saturday morning on the river. Magical boat houses hide away beneath the bo
ughs of trees beginning to turn, some of the enormous human houses are pretty impressive too. The miles ticked up as locks came and went. Tucked out the way co
mpared to others, Day’s Lock was quiet but since 1983, crowds gather there every March for the World Pooh Sticks Championships.
Beyond sad, we’re marking all the free mooring spots in Nicholson…there are more than we’d previously
thought although last time down we needed to see rings, or at
the very least bollards for a gap to register as moorable. Now, provided it’s plankable, it’s moorable. Home tonight is up from Cleeve Lock where, other than one disco thumping neon bright light party boat, the water has been still for hours.
Marpessa2 