Copper Mill Lock (cruise retrospective)

Tuesday was shaping up to be a beautiful day as we drove out of the marina topped up our fuel tank and made off down the last couple of miles of the Paddington Arm, then turned right, back onto the GU Main Line.

It was a good journey. Uneventful, not exciting, just simply very pleasing in its rich variety. Hayes, West Drayton, Yiewsley, Cowley. At Uxbridge Lock, we were joined by NB Sylph on their way to Gayton Junction to meet friends. As we waited together for the lock to empty for us, a raucous noise drew our attention to eight parakeets mobbing an intruding crow, a green flash against a very blue sky, and the cacophony of their voices.

But it was hereabouts, strangely, that seemed to mark the end of London. After the lock and the A40 bridge, the scenery made a distinct change into something far more relaxed and rural. And beyond Denham Deep Lock, where Sylph moored for the night, we were back into that glorious watery stretch where huge lakes sprawled out on both sides of the canal.

At Widewater Lock, we had to wait while another boat descended. I strolled up to meet the skipper, and to lend a hand. The boat was a rusty, dirty, decrepit widebeam that had seen very much better days, though probably a long time ago.  I remarked that the guy hadn't opened the ground paddles, just those in the gates. He laughed wrily.

"I haven't got a clue what I'm doing, mate. I've never done locks before today."

I opened one ground paddle, and he followed suit with the other. He peered into the chamber.

"Blimey! That's filling fast! I wondered what they (indicating the ground paddles) were for! No wonder the locks have been taking me so long!"

I tried not to laugh. He told me his story.

A film company were looking for a rustbucket boat for a film they're making, starring Billy Zayne. They found one such on the web, and this canal rookie was commissioned to drive it from Rickmansworth to Bow. I didn't ask how it was he got the job. So here he was. Solo, and totally uninstructed in canal navigation. I gave him a quick lesson in locking, helped him down that lock, and off he went, shaking his head in disbelief and muttering, "Ground paddles!"

We moved on.

We moored after Copper Mill Lock, and had an excellent meal at the nearby Coy Carp Vintage Inn restaurant. We nearly missed the opportunity, though. The building faces a small lane, and its face is painted grey, its windows look dead. It's all drab and untidy. There are no signs on it, no adverts, nothing. We sighed in disappointment, and turned to go. Then my attention was caught by a car driving into a little turning off the road. I walked down to investigate. The actual entrance to the restaurant, the "front" of it, is at the back of the building!

And very nice it was, too!

The weather was still fine, warm even. Midges hung in dense clouds over the water. Could this be the change in the weather everyone's hoping for?

(I have electricity until tomorrow morning, so...) Onto the Paddington Arm

...I'll post another retrospective account of this fabulous cruise. We're back in Willowtree Marina in Yeading, not far from the exit of the Paddington Arm onto the Grand Junction Canal. We're plugged into a mains electricity supply, so we've been washing clothes, vacuum cleaning, recharging things, and catching up with email and stuff. Tomorrow, we carry on with our journey.

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Catching up... Day 24

Our journey on from Denham Deep Lock - the deepest on the Grand Union, at 11 foot 1 inch - took us through Uxbridge and Cowley. Large, modern buildings lined the route, some of which I remember from when I taught at Bishopshalt School in nearby Hillingdon.

The weather was fine. Almost summer. Fish were jumping, the cotton was high.

It's good to meet in person folk I'd only known previously on the web. I'd been Tweeted by Wobbly Boater a few days earlier.

I replied...

A few days later, a boat hooted as it passed us, moored up but preparing to leave. It was NB Wobbly. We exchanged a few words this time. It was likely we'd meet up now. And we did.

It was at Cowley Lock, in fact. They, too, were headed for the Lee and Stort, and would get there "eventually". It's their habit as continuous cruisers to stop from time to time, sometimes for a week or two, so they were going to take rather longer than us to get there. It was good to see them, and put faces to names.

We left them at Cowley Lock, had lunch shortly afterwards, then carried on through Yiewsley and Hayes. Canalside properties were an uncomfortable mix of new and old, rich and poor. And it was definitely London suburbs now.

Bull's Bridge, the junction of the Grand Union with its Paddington Arm. We waited to turn in as an unusual craft pushed a houseboat out, and left onto the GU. It was quite a manoeuvre.

It was followed immediately by a short narrowboat, nipping out quickly in the wake of the others, then we turned in.

The Paddington Arm was an immediate disappointment. There was rubbish everywhere. On the water, on both sides of the canal, particularly where junk had been thrown over the the fences of canalside businesses. The rural setting was very pleasant, however, and we enjoyed this for the couple of miles to Willowtree Marina.

The marina was our safe choice of overnight mooring. Having had no previous experience of canal travel through London, we didn't want to find ourselves not able to moor at the end of the day. Unable, because there were no suitable places to stop, or because there were no spaces at suitable moorings. So we'd booked in to Willowtree. The mooring had a mains electricity supply, and there were full services, of course, so we made the most of this little haven, tidying up, vacuum cleaning, dumping rubbish and so on.

We booked a table in the restaurant, too, but when we arrived at 7:30, the waitress apologised that there was a huge party celebrating a 70th birthday and taking up most of the tables. The one she's booked for us was actually in the bar area, but it was one of the two that had been taken up for the past four hours by a large, noisy family group. She seemed rather intimidated by them, but nonetheless managed to persuade them to move to just one table. Grudgingly, they did, but our meal was frequently disturbed by small children pushing behind us, and one particularly obnoxious man talking far too loudly, and shouting very close to my ear at his kids, who took no notice of him.

The waitress was brilliant, managing to serve everyone most efficiently without getting at all flustered, despite the chaos around her. And the food was good, though far too plentiful!

Grace's burger and chips!

We were in no great hurry to leave on Sunday. I'd been given no deadline. Actually, it was all very informal. There were no instructions or rules, and no paperwork at all, save our receipt for £21.25. Money very well spent!