A trip down the Thames

Its been years since I went down the thames, past parliament and under tower bridge, 12 years in fact.

So I was happy to help a friend who wanted an extra pair of hands due to a slightly incapacitated crew member. (the very same person who fell in the lock and is now nursing broken ribs and a snapped knee)

The cruise was lovely, turning left out of Brentford and heading to Limehouse. The tide was still on its way in, but being a neap was not very powerful. We punched the tide for a while before it turned and swept us a long at a decent 8mph pace. There was some nice swells from the other river craft, nothing went in through the front cratch though, thankfully for the broken crew member as she would have got a bit wet and those pots get a bit heavy when dunked in water.
The exciting part was the entry to Limehouse. this was the bit Ive been curious about. Ive never seen a narrowboat turn into the small inlet, Ive only heard stories.
Particularly stories about the northern wall being a bit of an unintended buffer for a lot of boats.

So the captain/skipper/owner was handed the tiller well before we needed to turn and I just stood on the back, gripping the roof and watching with delight and some small amounts of concern as we turned, started wallowing around in the turbulence, the flow took as sideways as planned but not quite enough so a bit of adjustment ( reversing) to avoid the eddy in the entrance and some large amounts of welly again and she just turned in time to avoid the notorious wall and enter the lock nicely.

except a tupperware boat had bombed up ahead of us thinking they were beating us to the lock... not a good move when you think about it. they were waiting in the lock... for a 60ft metal torpeado everso slightly going fast and everso slightly crab wise.
I know if it had been my tupperware boat I would have said, "no after you sir" let the metal boat go in first then popped myself in when I was sure it was well secured inside the lock.
So with me not knowing the boat and its foibles, getting out of the cratch, climbing over the broken crew member and trying to get the front rope in time to grab the lock sliding cable was a bit of a failure. I got out alright but not before the boat had slewed across the lock and was threatening to crush said tupperware.
not the best of manouvers on my behalf but the lock keeper threw me a wee line to pull mine up with and we were sorted.
Those limehouse lockies are nice chaps.

The fun continued when trying to leave the lock the engine wouldnt start, due to a blocked fuel filter from all the turbulence on the way down.
So my final parting gesture before leaving them to go to work, was man hauling the boat out of the lock to tie up in the basin.
It seems that part of the canal system is intent on seeing me bow haul narrowboats nearly every time I visit it!

So, what a cracking cruise, great fun but Im not in a hurry to do the same with my own boat. I quite like the idea of taking my time through london on the canals. Narrowboats, choppy water and narrow lock entrances are only for those braver than me I think.

[img]http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p213/jaynetoyne/IMG00067.jpg[/img]

lucky escape

this is anecdotal and I dont have eyewitness levels of accuracy about this next entry but stick with it...

It was Sunday, I was expecting some friends on a boat who I met last year on the river Lee, they are a lovely couple and perhaps the only real boaty friends Ive made apart from the french yaching couple I met in Limehouse basin over the winter.

Anyway, this couple, I shall call them Mr n Ms Axe. They are heading up to a dry dock somewhere past Watford, so planned to meet up with me as I am just over at Rickmansworth at the moment.
Sunday I sent a text to see if they were on schedule and did they want anything from Tesco...

no reply. thats alright though, thats often the way, people are outside, locking, chatting etc, not listening for a phone.
later in the day I was wondering where they might be when I got a phone call from Ms Axe.

"the Plan isnt going exactly to plan... "

I said, "oh yeah thats narrowboating for you, where have you got to?"

"well, I fell in..."

"No shit! you fell in, well hows that stopped proceedings?" sounding bolshy and about to poke fun.

"I fell in a lock at the flight"

suddenly genuinely concerned"Holy shit, what the hell happened?"

" I was ahead of the boat, preparing the next lock and as I crossed the top gate i looked down and my foot went down a gap in the rails where the paddles go...."

gasp....then silence...

"then I got sucked under and went through the channel with the water flow..."

at this point I had to sit down and asked "what you mean you went through where the paddles open?"

"yes, and somehow, I dont know how, but Im still alive, My knee was dislocated and I think I chipped a bone but apart from that Im alright. maybe you could call and let him know Im alright, XXXXX XXXX etc"

After I managed to remove my heart from my mouth I gave him a call and he was as shaken as anything, but had had to leave at the hospital once he knew she wasn't in a life threatening way so that he could move the boat to a safer place.

Now I can't wait to see them both again to give them a hug and tell them how glad I am to have them as friends, it's moments like this that reminds me, you never know when your time is up, one small slip, one lapse of concentration, and its curtains.

I never knew anyone who fell in like that and survived.

the Refrigedaire experiment

Coming back from holiday nearly two weeks ago I was faced with a decision, 

Turn the fridge back on, or not?

If I turn the fridge on, I know that I need to charge the batteries almost daily which is expensive and annoying.  If not, well, could I live without a fridge? Warm sour milk for breakfast, cheese crawling out on its own, limp lettuce and other delicacies I'd rather not risk.
 

I decided to plump for the living without a fridge option.

Surprisingly it hasn't been as hard as I thought it might be. The fridge is still a fairly cool place to keep stuff as part of it is below the water line so it's a bit cooler down there, also the weather hasn't exactly been roasting.
So what in fact do I need a fridge for? I worked out that the butter ( at less than £1 per pack) and soya milk ( £2 for a 1ltr carton) plus odd bits of cheese and salad were costing me around a pound a day in fuel, charging the batteries to keep them cool.

Turn the fridge off and I only need to charge the batteries once per week. I'm saving £5 in fuel per week at the moment, but what have I sacrificed and is it worth it?

In short, I've sacrificed bugger all! Ok, I haven't bothered buying butter in as I use so little of it but the rest, well, my soya milk keeps perfectly ok in a cool area for three days, my vegetables and fruit are all the same. In fact nothing I use actually needs a refrigerator, as long as I buy fresh little and often who needs a fridge? Not me. I'm feeling smug. Can you tell?
 

It's quite a revelation, watching food, waiting to see how long it will last un-refrigerated. So far humous has been the shortest lived at three days when it started to go furry, but by that time I'd managed to scoff most of it. Cucumber lasts at least 5 days. So does Soya milk.
 

Drinking red wine instead of white is apparently more healthy for me too, so hurray for not switching my fridge back on.
My neighbours ( if I had any) would probably thank me too for this experiment as it means I don't risk breaking any waterways rules for the hours I run my gennie or engine at.
 

The only downside I can possibly see is the fact that if I buy ice cream I have to eat the entire tub... which is no good for my healthy eating regime.

barge poles

I returned home last night to see my boat not quite as i left it.

my barge pole had moved and was resting in a very strange place. I wandered around the roof looking down at the scene trying to work out why someone would move my pole and leave it in such a strange place when my questions were answered by a neighbour who trotted down the towpath to talk to me.

apparently my boat had come adrift and he had to punt it back to the side with my pole.

you could say i should have hammered my stakes in harder, or tied my ropes better, but in fact what had happened was a boat went past so fast it completely bent my piling hook straight and ripped it off the wall. Brilliant.
SO ive now got 3 bank stakes hammered in with nicely tied ropes and a straightened hook on the back of the boat looking useless.

I dont normally comment on fast boaters, but it must have been something special to rip that out.
thanks to neighbourly neighbours for putting it back yesterday.

I hope its still there when I get back tonight.