Just slow moving and a bit winter cruising...

Tuesday 15^th December to Thursday 24^th December

We had spent enough time moored here in Croxley and thought it appropriate to move northwards for a bit – but not too far – just up to Cassiobury Park – Phil joined us for the first part of it before needing to return home – something about going to work.

Anyway we moored up just for Lock 76 where we had adequate TV reception and it was quiet and well away from other boats – we fancied a bit of peace and quiet.

The weather has continued to be very unseasonable – almost like an English summer – there being rain and the occasional glimpse of sun.

Our intention was to continue north heading towards Hemel with the objective to spend a few days there before winding and coming back south again.

Stoppages are starting to limit where we can head to – if we were really going to head a lot further north it would not help our plans for later in the month and for January.

So the slow and stopping a few days here and there approach is how we have been progressing.

Stopping at Kings Langley was a first for us, as usually it has been getting from Hemel through to Watford that was the priority, but for once we did stop and explored up the hill where there is a lovely range of shop – we found the country market and parted with some hard-earned; then a little further on was a nice little charity shop where we found some real bargains – a couple of Spode Blue Italianate pieces for a fiver (total) and a lovely set of old scales for a tenner.

Moorings at Hemel were fairly full in the popular places but we managed to find a spot between locks 65 and 66 – a short pound subject to random leakage overnight as we found out a couple of times but with no worries.

A lengthy journey up the hill to the cinemas was rewarded with Maccas (just for the ice-cream) and seeing the new Star Wars movie – enjoyed both very much.

The beauty of going uphill first is that the trip back is downhill – much easier on the body.

We both like Hemel and uncharacteristically, we found that over the days that we were around the area, there were not the huge crowds that would be expected at this time of the year – that is except for the supermarkets, where you would think that the apocalypse was approaching.

People were loading trolleys with anything that didn’t move – Diane was smart enough to make sure that she held tightly to my hand as we picked out the few items that we actually needed.

The highlight of our stay was the trip to the pub to watch Watford beat Liverpool 3-0 – a very nice pub, and whilst they didn’t serve food, they had no objections to you bringing in anything from the adjoinging takeaways.

One downside was some crazy character who wanted to chat whilst we were watching the match. Eventually we had to ask him to move somewhere else – he thought that I was telling him to f--- -ff, but I was quite polite and only thinking it, not saying it!

Eventually we winded and headed back south again and made it as far as Abbots Langley to more up for a few days – weather considerations played an important part in how much we would cruise; TV considerations made up the other part of the process – what with Doctor Who and Strictly airing on Xmas Day, the reception was important.

Lastly, and I know that this is after the fact, my very favourite Mother-In-Law (Millie aka Dot) celebrated her birthday on the 23^rd – not getting it out of me how many years around the sun she has been – else she would be over here on her broomstick and after turning me into a newt or other such creature, she would be using my organs straight into her cauldron.

I do love her dearly and we were able to wish her a happy birthday over the phone (on viber) – she loves all of that stuff.

....and finally from our crazy kids who got together in LA - some of this years Santa photos - the ring-in is Joey Turner - practically a family member anyway

That little white sign in the background between Sam and M itch is
the HOLLYWOOD sign

12 Miles, 23 Locks

YTD: 887 Miles (1427 km) , 561 Locks, 14 Tunnels, 11 Lift Bridges, 16 Swing Bridges

Total: 3781 Miles (6085 km) , 2682 Locks, 112 Tunnels, 45 Lift Bridges, 167 Swing Bridges

A different sort of week

Sunday 30th August to Friday 4th September 2015

Well after a couple of weeks of fairly lengthy travelling the boat has been in the same spot all week.

Diane decided that we should have a bit of a walk down along the tow path - she had wanted to see if she could find nb Serafina (Rachael and Kelvin) - she knew they were in the area.

The rain made it a case of a take the umbrella with you kind of walk. I did ask her what the colour of the boat was - easier given the rain to look for a colour than necessarily try to read all of the names - the reply was "a red one".

Didn't see a red boat corresponding to the name and we reached bridge 154 and there was nothing further on.

mmm- she loaded their blog to see if they were where we thought - I caught sight of the picture of their boat - not exactly red - from the small picture on the phone it looked dark blue - that shed a whole different light on it, so we back tracked and found it - it was actually a darkish green.

It  didn't matter, they weren't there anyway - later knowledge told us that they had actually done the same to find us - and we weren't there either.

We did enjoy a lovely Sunday roast at The Steam Coach which is just along in St.John's Road - very nice indeed - on the Wrenbury scale it was an 8 out of 10

Again we were quite lucky to have a cricket match going on right opposite the pub, so we finished our drinks sitting outside at the pub but able to watch and afterwards just strolled across the road to see it just that bit closer.

Monday was a pretty casual day - my last day of leave from work so we explored a bit and had lunch out again - this time we found the 'spoons which appears to have manifested itself in the old picture theatre - not the first we have seen thus transformed.

Tuesday it was back to work and it has been pretty much that for the rest of the week - catching up on emails and things that customers want.

Strangely, as I was coming back from Aldi where there were a few things needed to reinstate into the kitchen I managed to meet up with Kelvin and Rachael - they were just passing Ferndale so there was a bit of a chance to have a chat - not long enough really, but there will be sometime in the future.

Next year we will enjoy a drink together - good travelling you two.

The rest of the week has been a bit full on with work and not much else until today when I managed to get a few jobs completed on the boat that had been on the list and also got around to an engine oil change - always happy to get that done.

So now it is time to sit down and relax and ready oneself for the weekend.

I shall update with some photos tomorrow - hopefully.

London Calling!

Wednesday 8th April 2015

It is a bit too early to call it, but the beginnings of summer are with us - for a third straight day we have awoken to and enjoyed another beautiful day.

We needed to fill up with water before the first lock, which involved a lengthy wait as another boat was there quite a while before us - it didn't seem like a slow tap when we finally were filling so have to assume that he had a large tank almost empty.

Again we were having work through as a single boat in the lock - most set against us and just a few travelling the other way.

They all were all slow fillers and slow emptiers - most of the engine time today was taken up with the water fill and locks - out of a total of 3.75 hrs that the engine was on we were propelled for just over an hour.

We used the washing machine again today, but this time Diane put in a couple of kettles of hot water. The thinking being that although we are essentially using a cold wash cycle, the water still gets heated a bit - it did go through the cycle without any problems - so at least we can get the washing done without any hassles - we will still be getting the alternator checked as soon as we can.

At Lock 70 we met a lovely young couple - in their 20's, so young to everyone, who were liveaboards.
The woman of the couple was proudly telling Diane that she started steering the boat today and went well, whilst the young man was telling me much the same with similar pride - he spoke about her need to learn in case something happened and she needed to take control of the boat. He also went onto talk about CaRT's crack down on continuous cruisers and how much he agreed with it, saying that if boaters want to stay in a particular area then they should find a mooring - he gave an example of friends that had done just that.

Earlier in the day we spoke to another boat that had moved a mile that morning to carry on complying with the new CaRT rules - whilst he didn't acknowledge that he agreed with the rules, he didn't rubbish them either.

He did however teach me a new nautical term - the practice of coiling the rope(s) on the deck (or in our case, the roof) is called "Cheesing the Rope".

I dare say that there are 1001 other terms that I probably still have to learn.

We are now "officially" in London, having passed under the M25 Motorway and entered the "controlled" water space of the "London Central Waterways Authority".
 

Almost into London - that is the M25 - traffic was moving

now we are in London - seems a lot sunnier down south

I noted to Diane this morning that it was a month ago yesterday when we left Paul and Elaine in Macclesfield and apart from a few days in Stone on the way down, we have been pretty well on the go almost every day - covering 293 lock-miles.

After our last leg tomorrow we will be slowing right down.

This afternoon has been taken up with work (for me), boat polishing (for Diane), explaining to the lady moored behind how to use cross-pins to moor up, and a very interesting phone-call from Canada.

When we moored up there was some noise from the nearby A-road and also some from the train line, none of which we could really hear inside, but really do they have to keep practising their bell-ringing until after 10pm

3 Miles, 5 Locks
YTD: 263 Miles, 150 Locks, 6 Tunnels, 2 Lift Bridges, 11 Swing Bridges
Totals: 3157 Miles, 2271 Locks, 104 Tunnels, 36 Lift Bridges, 162 Swing Bridges

A Tough Day

Tuesday 7th April 2015

You know when you start out the day with a plan about what you want to do and where you will be by the end of it and then when you finish the day and it was kind of a bit more than you had intended - it was one of those days today.

The day was a back-to-work day for me so that meant an early start; the main problem was that our Myfi has reached it's limit and therefore won't allow me to log onto the internet - a sort of disaster for someone who relies on it for their job.

Well it wasn't the total disaster that it first appeared to be- our action plan includes 3 back-up phones giving enough connection for a week or so - probably a bit longer.

We did finally workout where the data allowance disappeared to - we have been playing an on-line game called Trivia Crack which we now believe had associated applications running in the background - well that has been sent packing.

All I need to do is make it through to next Monday and all will be well again.

Anyway, I was back up and working normally with a minimum of disruption.

We had an early shop at Waitrose and our free cup of coffee each - make mine a latte.

Then back to the boat and off relatively early - as we had about 4 days to get down to Watford, we were going to make it four easy days - no long travelling; but we knew that today might be a little longer.
 

The obligatory totem pole photograph at Berkhamsted

Nice little runabout - just those pesky locks to negotiate - it is registered as well

just nice cruising

A sign we would like to see more often...

...until you see the fine print - should have gone to Specsavers

The locks are all heavy - that goes without saying; and most have signs from CaRT asking that they be left empty - so going down means that it is set against you each time.
What doesn't make it easy is when the bottom gates are also being left open as well as the requested paddles.

We eventually caught up with the boat - a single hander who thought that empty means paddles and gates open.
Fortunately he stopped at Winkwell for fuel and for lunch, but we continued on - not finding a suitable mooring spot it looked like we would end in Hemel Hempstead - and that would have been very nice indeed.
 

With the top gates leaking like this, it took a bit longer and a bit more pushing
to open the bottom gates.

At least the dog poo was picked up, but surely the council can empty these bins
a bit more frequently; also no excuse for just chucking the bag on the ground -
if the bin is full take it with you - I blame both council and lazy dog walkers

Home of The Stig?

The problem was that all of the mooring spots had been taken - correction to that - the mooring spots had not been vacated yet by the winter moorers - quite clearly the terms of their winter mooring licence are that they leave those moorings onthe 1st April.

It is a new rule and one that needs to be enforced - all that is happening is that these people who have already spent months here, think that they can then stay longer in accordance with the summer regulations - they bloody-well can't.

CaRT - start policing every rule because these p___ks just laugh at the situation and will take a mile if given the chance and then give a sob story when the rules go against them - we are all affected by this and it is the ones who flaunt the rules that cause the rest of us problems.
We did notice in Milton Keynes that the winter moorers were all moving on April 1st, so why not bring those enforcement officers further south and do the same.

There - rant over - but a problem to be addressed.
 

New type of mobile phone??

So, this all meant that by day's end we had travelled considerably further than we had originally inteneded - now being on the southern side of Hemel, but the positive is that we are much closer to our initial primary goal.

It would have been nice though to not have been so bloody exhausted from the extra locks.

5 Miles, 15 Locks, 1 Swing Bridge
YTD: 260 Miles, 145 Locks, 6 Tunnels, 2 Lift Bridges, 11 Swing Bridges
Totals: 3154 Miles, 2266 Locks, 104 Tunnels, 36 Lift Bridges, 162 Swing Bridges