My narrow escape (Home)

I have changed the layout of the blog as I was not happy with the previous one. There may be the occasional odd look of the old posts as reformatting existing posts seems to be not always done correctly. Blame blogspot please. There may be some more changes when I can work out why the navigation on a mobile is not working 100%. But the journey continues meanwhile. Stay tuned for Blisworth to Braunston soon ....

Stoke Bruerne is a canal village, which used to be an important point on the Grand Union network. It is now a tourist attraction with a canal museum, historic boats, artisans, guided walks and boat trips and ... the Blisworth tunnel. But more about the tunnel later. On the weekend I arrived, Stoke Bruerne had their annual boat rallye on, which means that lots of narrowboats descended on the village and everybody knew everybody (except me). It's a small world on the canals. The top lock at Stoke Bruerne Raymond, one of the last wooden working boats I caught up with the Idle Women crew and watched the show again, this time split over the two days of the weekend festival. It was a challenging setting with rain occasionally drumming on the roof of the marquee and the generator droning in the background. But it was great, there was a good audience and it was lovely to meet up with them again. Working boat Tench accompanying the Idle Women tour In the evening we w...

After Sabine left me, my single-handing started in earnest. First of all it started with a day off as it rained most of the day. In the afternoon as the rain cleared, I cycled up to the Ashridge Estate. A hill that was quite challenging for a flatlander from London. But I was rewarded with the most amazing bluebell carpets. Ashridge Estate. The canal is somewhere behind the white building centre-left. So the next day I pushed on. I was aiming to catch up with the Idle Women tour again in Stoke Bruerne on the weekend. The first feature of the day was the Marsworth locks, six in a row. I was lucky to be able to share the locks with a local boater, who also had a few tips for me. Mid-lock flight we were also joined by two lock volunteers, who did everything for us. Just sit back, relax and occasionally potter on to the next lock. Amazing! First time on this trip sharing a lock I did another 8 locks on the day and all of these sadly on my own. It was very pretty though ...

For the weekend I picked up my first crew, my friend Sabine, to make it all the way to the first "summit" of the GU in the Chilterns. There are lots of locks scattered in short distances in between all the way up. Sabine joined me early Friday afternoon and off we went - and got as far as the first lock ten minutes into the journey, when the engine cut out, just as I was in the middle of the lock entrance. Hm. Not good. We pulled the boat back out and tied up on the lock landing. On the first couple of attempts the engine wouldn't start again. Then it started OK, but cut out as soon as I put it into gear. I had no idea what the problem could be, let alone know how to fix it. Fortunately we were broken down just opposite a marina and found an engineer, who said that it's likely to be a fuel problem (water in the diesel) and that the fuel filter would need changing. But he said he had no time until possibly(!) later in the evening. Very encouraging, especially as t...

So much is said about overcrowded canals in London. OK this is not exactly the hip part of the London canal network, but it is not far from London and within good transport reach. I definitely expected to share locks. But on my trip from Southall to Rickmansworth the canals were practically empty. I encountered not more than ten boats on the move in two days. In most areas, the canal bank was lined with boats, but no movement. Which meant I had to do most of the locks on my own (I've got beer stashed for bribes, but nobody to give it to). Ah well, I can use the exercise and since I changed the method to step off the boat before the lock and pull it in from the top I don't need to tackle slimy lock ladders anymore either. The first lock in Cowley was so leaky that I was not strong enough to open the gate. I had to recruit two blokes from the local pub to push on the gate with me. It's been the same already last year, do these locks not get repaired? As I was moored bef...

As a prelude for my journey, which will start on Wed 10th May, I went to see the "Idle Women of the Wartime Waterways " show by Alarum Theatre in Horsenden Farm in Perivale this week. The day was cold and rainy and the show was supposed to be outdoors. Fortunately at the last minute a great indoors venue was found in the hayloft. The room was full and the audience enthusiastic (especially in the singing at the end). The home-made ginger beer laced with rum might have helped, too. The show deals with the stories of the young women, who were recruited to work the canal boats during WWII, while many of the men were off to war. The work must have been extremely hard and also dangerous, but judging from the show those who lasted through the training (some fled immediately when they saw the cramped living conditions and lack of plumbing on the boats!) took great pride in their work. For middle class women in the 1940s it must have been a hugely empowering feeling to manoeuvre 50...

So many people write boat blogs about their journeys travelling the UK waterways and abroad, why add another one? I am not assuming that I can add something overly exciting or unique. But friends and family have asked to be kept up to date on what I am up to, so this is going to be my medium. And if anybody else finds it interesting, even better. (Do let me know if you do, I may need encouragement!) I bought my narrowboat Willum in summer 2016 in the West Midlands, cruised down to London and moved on board properly. After staying in a marina in West London throughout the winter and working to finance this little adventure, I am now setting out to cruise the English waterways over the summer together with my old and faithful cat Edward and friends in various places along the way. It has been a steep learning curve so far coming to grips with leaks, muddled electrics, rust, broken bits and bobs and making some improvements to make the boat more suitable to my own style of living aboard...