Berkhamsted again (cruise retrospective)

I went to sleep last night to the gentle sound of ducks pecking at the weed around the hull water-line. I was awoken this morning by the sound of emergency vehicle sirens. Come to think of it, we heard a lot of that yesterday evening. Is Hemel such a troubled town?

We left Boxmoor under a grey sky. It was cold and windy, but looked as if it might improve with time. Fishery Lock was next, the nearby ancient inn still closed and looking sad. Boxmoor Top Lock, then on to Winkwell. I love the electrically controlled swing bridge there. All that power given to you at the press of a button! Barriers come down across the road, lights flash, a claxon sounds, cars and lorries stop, and the bridge swings back, allowing Kantara through. And the road vehicles have to wait patiently for this slow craft, and until I press the button to return the bridge, raise the barriers and let them across. There's a sign by the bridge, warning boaters that failure to "close and fasten" the bridge might result in a ten shilling fine! I felt 50p was a bit steep, so I pressed the button.

photos geograph.org.uk

The unfortunately-named Sewer Lock (I sniffed the air - no nasty smells) surprised us both. As we approached, there was none of the tell-tale leakage from the bottom gates. A sure sign that the lock was empty, and ready for us to enter. Grace drove Kantara right up to the gates, and I jumped off to open them. The lock was in fact full. The gates look very old. There was no sign of recent repairs. But the gates met each other with a perfect seal. This is most unusual!

It was warm now, and I'd peeled off a couple of layers of clothing by the time we arrived at our final locks into Berkhamsted.

The Rising Sun has an amusing welcome sign outside

Another tame heron

Clearly, the home of some Native Americans

At one lock, a bystander was clearly a bit agitated about the way I was ignoring the warning which is commonly seen at top gates.

This is a very valid warning, but the fact is that, with care, the flow from the top paddles can be used very effectively in raising a single narrowboat in a double-width lock.

A single boat going up a wide lock is very likely to be thrown all over the place as the chamber is filled. The use of ropes and bollards goes some way to check this, but we've found that that's usually quite unnecessary. What we do is this...

Grace draws the boat up against a chamber wall. I open the ground paddle on the same side as the boat. The water from this sluice goes across the chamber in front of Kantara, hits the wall opposite, and comes back against the side of her hull, pinning her firmly to the wall. I then cross the top gates and slowly and carefully open the gate paddle on the other side. This has the effect of sending a torrent of water straight down the chamber alongside Kantara, holding her even more firmly against the wall. I can now open the ground paddle on this same side, then, when the water level in the chamber is higher than the other gate paddle, I raise that. All of that has to be done carefully and judiciously, but it's our normal practice, and it works well for us.

At Berkhamsted Lock 53, we found two narrowboats waiting to enter and descend. One of them was being towed by the owner.

photo grandunioncanal,co.uk

The skipper of the other craft and I helped him in and out of the lock. Leading it with just the centre rope (or any single rope, come to that) would have been hard work, and very likely to cause collisions with any part of the lock, or nearby boats. The poor man had been driving along happily, without problems, until he put the boat into reverse. At which point, the Morse handle jammed and he could neither go forwards nor stop going backwards. He had continued in reverse at some speed until he went deeply aground in a reedy bank. And there he had to stay until someone came along who was able to pull him out. Once down the lock, he was going to moor up and try to buy a new Morse cable.

In Berkhamsted, we arrived at our usual spot, and tied up behind NB Muttley. The lady on board recognised Kantara, and came out to tell us she'd read my book, and how much she'd enjoyed it. I was chuffed. She and her husband, along with nearby NB Tickedy-Boo, are on their way to the IWA Canalway Cavalcade, to be held over the May Bank Holiday. She's recently retired, and now does a lot of work for IWA. It's a shame we couldn't have stayed in London to attend the Cavalcade, but the length of the wait was prohibitive.

photo - boatingbusiness.com

Her husband (stupidly, again, we failed to learn their names) very kindly gave us a 500W inverter, for us to power our computers. We've not tried it yet. We're trying to find out if the "modified sine wave output" might damage the computers or their power supplies. It seems that some think it might.

It's raining. That wasn't mentioned by the Met Office. We're here for the night.

Grove Park to Boxmoor (cruise retrospective)

The next morning, we ambled out of Grove Park, passing the early-morning golfers, and folk driving away from the Grove Hotel after a very comfortable, very expensive and well-fed stay. Hunton Bridge Locks 72 and 73, and no sign of anyone else on the move.

We stopped for an early lunch alongside the River Gade above Lock 71. We were hungry, it's true. We often don't have breakfast. But Grace had been experiencing an unusual vibration in the engine, and I needed to get down the weed hatch to inspect the propellor, the number one suspect. Which is what I did while Grace prepared brunch. And indeed, the vibration had been caused by a great deal of plastic that had wrapped itself around the propellor and its shaft. I removed it within minutes. No harm done.

It was only the third time in almost five years that we'd had a fouled prop. Ours is a fairly standard model, though slightly larger than normal. There is another type called and Axiom, which claims to be more efficient than the standard. And so it may be. But everyone we know who has an Axiom prop suffers far more than us from plastic bags, weed, items of apparel and all sorts of other rubbish which can be found in our inland waters. One boat with which we've travelled in the past needed their prop de-fouled most days.

There are brand new gates at King's Langley Lock. Pristine. Perfect. They still smell of the coal-tar preservative with which they were treated during construction. But the top gates have no paddles, and, with ground paddles only, the huge chamber fills extremely slowly. It's a strange omission, and I wish I knew why they did it.

Nash Mills Lock has a water tap to one side of it, but below the top gate. The first time we went through this lock, we had to wait for some time before entering it, because a hire-boat was having its tank filled whilst still in the chamber! I tweeted a photo of the tap, and commented that it was a strange place for it to be located.   

A wiser Tweep than me pointed out that, when the tap was first in use, boaters carried their water in Buckby cans, several of which could be filled while the lock was filling or emptying. Now we have large water tanks on board, the modern boater has to use some common sense, and moor above the lock in order to fill up!

All that noisy busyness in the distance! The A41.

We had hoped to meet Louise again when we got to Nash Mills, this time to visit her flat, but it was early afternoon when we got there, and Louise was at work, and we didn't really want to wait several hours, only to find that she wasn't around that evening. And contacting her was out of the question, Lou's a teacher.

So we carried on to Hemel Hempstead, stopping at the same spot as the one we'd used on our way south. Boxmoor Locks in the Two Waters area.

Next to a noisy, busy town, this spot offers a tranquil, attractive mooring.

Out of Berkhamsted

Monday morning greeted us with squally downpours and very strong winds, hitting us broadside on, and shaking us around a lot. The mooring pins remained firm, to our amazement. We were needing an Elsan disposal point, and were a bit concerned about our gas supply. One of the two bottles was already empty, and we were thinking the other couldn't have much left in it by now. And water was low. And there were bags of rubbish littering the well-deck. We needed to get moving, charge the batteries, and to find services and someone to sell us gas. But we were not going to leave in the current weather.

It did improve enormously in the afternoon, though. It was till very windy indeed, but now it was blowing through a blue and sunny sky. Our Nicholson Canal Guide showed a boatyard just a little way down the canal, so we strolled out to find it, and see if it would be open the next day. It had gone. It was now a very attractive house, and several other modern buildings.

We strolled on for a while, bought some food, and returned to the boat. The playground was very busy again.

Tuesday, we set off at last. The weather was far better. NB Renaissance joined us through the locks as far as Winkwell, where we stopped at Middlesex & Herts Boat Services. Here, we received excellent service from a young man who replaced our empty gas cylinder, topped up both diesel tanks, and provided a hose for filling our water tank. This all despite the fact that we were very awkwardly breasted up against a boat that was being worked on, and it all involved much clambering and hauling. I disposed of the waste, too, and we left an hour later with Kantara feeling fully recovered.

At the bottom of Winkwell Locks, it rained. And hailed. Hailed harder. And stopped, and the sun came out again. It must be nearly summer! The water was very high, towing paths very wet and muddy – almost impassable in places.

Despite the height of the canal, though, when it came to mooring at Boxmoor, we failed several times because of the shallowness at the bank. The water was high, but so was the bottom of the canal! Finally, we stopped for the night at a good spot just above Boxmoor Lock. Hemel Hempstead looks so much better from the canal!