Uxbridge to Rickmansworth

Wed 15th May

Our mooring had been very peaceful, with no traffic noise, Canada geese, or noisy people.

Moored below the lock at Cowley

We had a song practice today, to finalise the songs we plan to sing at the Rickmansworth Festival. The slot is only thirty minutes, so we had to whittle down the selection.

Interlock (BCF) went past with Dave and Cath. James helped them through the lock, as there were no volunteers today. They gave us ice creams on a hot day on the Caen Hill flight two years ago. We boaters look after each other!

Dave and Cath on Interlock

We had decided to get rid of our pallet on the roof, as it was falling apart and looked unsightly. She offered the wood to a passing boater who was pleased to add it to his pile on his roof. His name was Ed and his boat is called Sabai Sabai.

There was a person in the boat opposite who was calling out all sorts of obscenities and delivering a tirade of abuse for a full twenty minutes. We concluded that he must have mental problems as none of us had met him before.

Tranquil Rose went past so we said “hello” to skipper James. He is also going to be at The Rickmansworth Festival.

James on Tranquil Rose

This evening we had a meal at the Malt Shovel – very pleasant.

No boating today

Thu 16^th May

The man on the boat opposite was shouting again in the night on two occasions and then again in the morning. He appeared to be shouting at someone, although there was no-one there.

We managed to fix a date with Ed Boden for him to attend to our non-working bow thruster.

We set off into Cowley Lock, and James worked out that this is the 16^th time we have used this lock. WE then cruised slowly past long lines of moored boats to the next lock at Uxbridge.

Heading into Cowley Lock

Cormorants in formation

WWII defences in Uxbridge

Sabai Sabai with our wood on the roof

For Uxbridge Lock and Denham Deep Lock we were on our own but several people to chat to. When we reached Widewater Lock we discovered a lock queue. Interlock were in front of us, and Sprig 0 Willow was in front of them. The hold up was a working tug, which was pushing one boat and pulling another, and they couldn’t all fit in the lock together. The tug pushed one boat in and came out again. They manhandled that boat up the lock and onto the bollards at the top. Then they emptied the lock again and took the tug and the boat behind it up through the lock to reconnect the rig at the top.

The lock queue at Widewater Lock, hanging onto moored boats

We had the same again at Black Jack’s Lock, but we had planned to moor above this lock so that we could top up with water at Coppermill Lock in the morning, before the festival.

Black Jack’s Lock

Sharing with Sprig o’ Willow

Moored above Black Jack’s Lock

The river Colne flows off the canal near here, over a rectangular weir. James spotted a path on the map, which followed the Troy Cut, and came back along another flooded gravel pit further up, so he went for a walk to explore.

The weir

Inviting path

Being watched

Hawthorn

The gravel pits

Water art

There were swifts around, and at one point there was a hobby flying low over the lake. There was also a fine looking pochard. The evening sky had amazing patterns.

Pochard

Swifts

Mackerel Sky

5 locks, 5 miles. Dep 1005, arr 1405

Fri 17^th May

Today we had all the locks to ourselves. The first one was Coppermill Lock, where the river Colne joins the canal for a short while, causing flows from the right. Today the flows were light, so we had no problem.  We stopped at the water tap just below to fill up before the festival.

The Coy Carp pub and Coppermill Lock

As we were ascending the lock, two boats appeared below, one of which was towing the other, which appeared to be burnt out. A lady came to the lock to help, and it was Chrissie from nb Kinver, a member of BCF. She has a boat-moving business. Apparently, there were two wide-beams coming after her, so we had left just in time.

We passed this very damaged boat and guessed

it may have been hit by a falling tree.

We have never seen rhubarb in flower before

Springwell Lock

We arrived at the Festival and found our mooring: 22B. We were the second boat from the bank out of three. We put up our BCF banner and some bunting but couldn’t possibly compete with Stronghold and Chedoona, who had both been at Cavalcade, and were moored behind us.

Moored at Rickmansworth Festival

Chedoona and Stronghold

We went to find the waterspace tent and met Paul from Tafelberg, and helped him carry bundles of programmes from Batchworth Lock back to the tent.

Meal on board tonight. Eating from stalls over the next two days. Hazel is starting a cold, which is bad timing for our 30-minute gig tomorrow.

3 locks, 3 miles. Dep 1045, arr 1250.

Next: Rickmansworth Festival. We are due to perform on the Batchworth Lock stage at 1140, for thirty minutes, plus ten minutes changeover time. Then next week we head north again, with appointments to have our bow thruster looked at, a dinner appointment with friends, a financial affairs appointment, and a lift from a friend to our church in Aylesbury on Sunday.