On Schedule !

Week 78

Sunday

We were awake again about 4am and a boat went past at 6.30am, heading northwards. We got up shortly after and had soon had breakfast. We were on the move just after 7.30am and noted a boat reversing behind us. That boat then turned and followed behind us just after we set off.

The following boat had been the one we'd heard earlier. It had been for water and was only passing through one lock before they moored. We, on the other hand, continued, unaccompanied.

Unlike the previous two days, we saw a number of boats heading in the opposite direction. Some were at locks, others en route between.

We were accompanied through Denham Deep lock by a hire boat but they turned soon after.

We picked up a colleague at Uxbridge and shortly after passing through the lock found ourselves behind the local trip boat. Because of the number of boats moored in line we remained on tick-over all the way to Cowley lock where we had to wait for the trip boat to drop down through the lock, turn and then return up through the lock.

There was another boat waiting to join us by the time that Cowley lock was ready for us. This boat, which followed us to Bull's Bridge Junction, then made their way to Brentwood from whence they planned to go onto the Thames.

Cowley was the day's last lock for us and we simply carried on for the next four hours without stopping until we reached Paddington Basin where we turned and moored up.

Like the day before, the heavens opened as we moored up.

At least telephone and television signals were better here, although the 'phone signals didn't appear to be as good as we remembered from our trip to Braunston ten months earlier.

Monday

Monday was spent moored up in London. Although we left the boat several times, instead of staying on board all the time, we weren't particularly frugal with either water or electricity and both seemed to survive the challenge of two lots of entertaining. The first visitors, just two in number, had lunch and a couple of drinks. The other five visitors came later in the day, stayed a lot longer and also eat and had drinks.

The only concession that we made was to switch the boiler over to heat the water, a function normally carried out by the engine.

We do have a problem in keeping hot water and need to fit a non return valve (NRV) to stop convection effectively drawing the hot water back into the engine overnight. We did fit an NRV initially but this was not the right type and stopped any hot water getting to the calorifier. We think that we know what type of NRV we need to get now, we just need to source it.

Tuesday

As has been the case throughout the trip, we woke around 4am and made a cup of tea shortly after. We eventually surfaced around 7am with the intention of setting off at 8am. However, by the time we'd had breakfast and done a small bit of shopping, it was 8.45am before we fired up the engine and moved the boat about half a mile to the water point where we spent three quarters of an hour filling the nearly empty tank.

We left Little Venice just before ten o'clock and set off northwards. We paused for an hour about three miles before Bulls Bridge Junction for lunch and sat on the bow in warm sunshine.

We restarted just before 2pm and made our way to Cowley Lock. On the way south we found a large proportion of the locks against us and frequently with at least one of the far end gates open. We had hoped for better luck on the way back but by the time we moored for the evening, opposite Harefield Marina, all of the locks that we'd gone through needed emptying and a couple had one or both top gates open when we arrived.

We called into Denham Marina to purchase a Tippy Ash Carrier to replace the biscuit tin that we'd been using and which was beginning to suffer from also being trod or knelt on! We had hoped to pick up the NRV here as well but they didn't have any in stock.

We ate our evening meal with the side hatch open, such was the temperature and we wandered to the local shops to post a letter afterwards. When we returned we tried to use the Internet but found that the only way that we could get a decent signal was to sit on the bow. We didn't want to do this for too long as the evening air temperature dropped quite rapidly. Even sitting on the bow wasn't too successful and we were glad we were soon able to get back inside, away from the chill night air.

Wednesday

We woke early once again. The day dawned bright and we saw the sun rising as we looked out of the window. We intended to set off about 7.30am as we had plenty of ground to cover. We also intended to motor for about an hour to give that water a chance to heat up then we were going to stop so that we could both shower. As it turned out, the water had stayed warm enough overnight for us both to shower before we set off, so our start was delayed by thirty minutes.

And as we set of, so did the rain start to fall and continue to do so until almost lunch time although it did take a rest a couple of times during the morning. As per usual all the locks seemed to be against us and invariably one top gate was open as well.

We got to the lock below Batchworth and found the diesel boat just ascending in the lock. Luckily this was his last lock for the time being as he is a solo boater with a motor and butty to control and he would have slowed us considerably if he'd stayed in front of us.

We stopped at Tesco's at Batchworth long enough to get a few things and we were then off again. We got as far as Rickmansworth before we found anyone else going in our direction. The bad news is that they were ascending in the lock when we arrived and we planned to stop and take water at the top of the lock.

The other boater told us that the tap here was slow filling and said that they'd wait for us at the next lock if we decided not to stop for water. Although we didn't stop for water, we must have taken too long to rise in the lock as, by the time that we got to the next lock, the other boat was just leaving. They did, however, agree to wait for us at the next lock, which they did.

We spent much of the rest of the afternoon in the company of this other boat until they stopped at King's Langley and we pressed on towards Hemel Hempstead. We even had the fortune to find several locks in our favour both before and after we parted company with the other boat, which was crewed by a husband and wife team who spend half of the year in England and half of the year in Australia.

We stopped at Apsley for water and some more shopping and then pressed on for another hour, finally mooring for the evening in Hemel Hempstead, a few locks down from where we hoped to be.

We took a stroll into the town after eating and, on the way back to the boat, the fitter fell on the towpath and badly cut a finger and landed heavily on his wrist. He had to wait to see how things felt the following morning before he discovered whether he has done any significant damage to it.

The evening was rounded off quite nicely when the fire took exception to being stoked up for the night and promptly went out. It then repeatedly refused to stay lit for any significant amount of time until we'd spent well over thirty minutes trying.

Television signals were slightly better but we had to fight for the telephone signals.

Thursday

We were awake quite early on Thursday morning and on the move around 7am. We watched a number of commuters walking to the station as we passed through Fisheries Lock and were glad we still had a few days of freedom. Although uncomfortable, the fitter's wrist was still usable albeit strapped up.

The rain developed as the morning progressed although, thankfully, we did have some dry spells. Some locks were for us and some against and we also saw a few boats moving in the opposite direction. We planned to stop at Cowroast for lunch and had to contend with a very heavy shower as we worked through the two locks before that.

It stayed dry whilst we stopped for lunch but the temperature wasn't warm enough for us to sit outside despite the fact that the saloon resembled a laundry with all the drying washing following two sessions with the washing machine.

We started the final leg of the trip just after 2pm and sauntered through Tring Cutting. We had another heavy rain shower as we made our way down the Marsworth flight and eventually got back to our mooring around 5pm. We ate, showered and had a general tidy up before we wandered over the road to the pub for the weekly quiz. Despite having the extra player pictured above, we managed to completely disgrace ourselves and come last, primarily because we had split the normal team in two to boost the number of teams and the team's key player was the week's question master.

Friday

It was nice not having to drive home after the quiz on Thursday night and it would have been nicer not waking at some unearthly hour on Friday morning. In fact, from memory, we woke a couple of times due to increased pressure on our respective bladders - say no more!

We finally surfaced around 7am and had breakfast. We then spent the rest of the day pottering around the boat. The first job was to recover some of the wood, all of the tools and the compressor, which we'd put in the car before we set off. We had hoped to transfer some stuff from the boat to the car to give us some room to work but, in the end, we just rolled up the carpets, pushed the chairs back and got on with it.

The day was spent measuring, cutting and fitting trim, a job for which 1½ pairs of hands were needed. One pair to do most of the work and the other pair to support the far end of the bits of wood as they were cut or being fixed. The air nailer is an absolute God send. We're sure that we'd have got very frustrated with the electric one as it didn't seem to have the same amount of punch as the air one and would have meant us continually punching the nails completely home by hand.

We won't bore you with the intricate details of what we achieved. Suffice to say that the ceiling trim is now complete in kitchen and the bathroom and that includes the trim around the partition tops, all of which have reasonably good mitred joints - good for us, anyway!

Whilst the fitter was busy fitting trim, Mrs. Fitter was doing wonders with the filler, trying to cover the pin holes that were left by the nailer. Practice made (almost) perfect and she gradually reduced the amount of excess filler that will need to be cleaned off before we can apply a couple of coats of varnish.

One thing we had decided during the course of the trip to London was that we needed a cupboard to house the mop, broom and vacuum cleaner. Currently these items lean against the partition between kitchen and saloon on the port side of the boat but, for some reason, the partition is slightly wider on the starboard side of the boat and that extra width makes all the difference in being able to accommodate the clothes airer in the cupboard as well. So the tall cupboard will be built on the starboard side of the boat.

We've decided that a cupboard on one side of the boat will look a bit strange so we'll also add a structure on the port side as well, opposite the tall cupboard. The port side's structure will be a low chest with some drawers as we realise that we are incredibly short of storage space. Another reason why we can't have anything tall on this side of the boat is because there's a light switch in the way.

The fitter tidied up around 6pm whilst Mrs. Fitter performed some culinary magic. After we'd eaten we entertained some of our trip boat colleagues for a while and then, to round off the evening, relaxed with books and knitting. We leave you to decide who was doing what.

Saturday

Our daughter came over for a visit on Saturday morning and took her Mum shopping for some odds and ends for the boat that we realised we either needed because we hadn''t got them or needed different versions of because what we had wasn't suitable. They were gone for a couple of hours, leaving the fitter to plod on in his own way with the fitting out.

The first job was to adjust the gauge on the toilet waste tank. The meter had been continually reading little more than empty for a lot of the trip, although more recently it had crept up a little. However, by peering down the hole it was evident that the tank was much nearer being full than it was being empty. In fact, the fitter judged that we probably had about two day's capacity left.

The cover over the tank's capacity sensor had purposely been made removable and this allowed easy access fot the adjustment. The adjustment was made within five minutes and everything restored to the way it was. The gauge had been set to almost full to leave us with some capacity and grace in finding a pump out facility when the meter says the tank is full.

One of the reasons why we'd stayed on the boat when we got back from London was because we had trip boat duties on both Saturday and Sunday. The fitter's role on the trip boats involves a couple of hours of boat preparation so time on his own boat was limited. Nonetheless he managed to carry on fitting more trim and the bathroom and much of the bedroom now boasts trim.

One time consuming job that the fitter and Mrs. Fitter did during the day was to (try to) fit the porthole liner to the port side porthole above the bed. The existing apertures for all of the portholes are slightly too small and need to be enlarged. Once they're enlarged we can see how well the holes align with the portholes and then adjust the apertures further to improve the fit.

We started off using a hand powered keyhole saw but this proved very tiring as we were cutting at an angle and the wall panels weren't fixed to battens where we were sawing. After spending quite some time trying this method and getting more and more frustrated at the seeming lack of progress, the fitter fitted a fine tooth blade in the jigsaw and gradually adjust the size and position of the aperture until the porthole liner aligned with the porthole. Exact alignment wasn't possible because the diameter of the inside of the liner was a few millimetres too small. However, the fitter pinned it in position in the knowledge that it would need to be removed and taken home on Sunday to adjust the diameter.

There was just time to add a few more pieces of trim and quadrant before we had to pack up, get showered and go over to the trip boat.

It was quite late when we returned and, apart from eating, we did nothing else of note and turned in not long before 10pm.

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