Wednesday 11/5/11 to Tuesday 24/5/11 Including an Underwater Inspection of Hull!!

We stayed put today and got the bike out. Also found out that we had another funeral to attend in Reading and Margaret’s ear op had been booked for 21^st June, so B & B has been arranged at Amy’s. Thursday we were back at Guildford and took in an Alan Ayckbourne play at the Yvonne Arnaud theatre, v/g. Friday we ended up cycling to RHS Wisley. Quite good but pleased we didn’t have to pay as we had borrowed a card from my Uncles daughter in law. We also passed a little boat yard and for the benefit of Dragonfly and Lady G I bought myself a ‘Brolly Mate’. A T shaped bracket that slips over the tiller to hold the brolly over the helmsman when he’s steering in the rain. It wouldn’t work for the ladies as I have noticed that they don’t do steering in the rain. By Saturday lunch time we were sitting outside the Anchor at Pyrford just having lunch when DISASTER STRUCK. I need to set the scene….In order to facilitate the comfort of the crew when cruising it had been decided that a pair of chairs (the stacking type you see in schools and church halls, with all in one seat and back and metal legs) would be fitted, minus their legs, to the wooden stool type arrangement at the stern that we currently have. The said chairs had been spotted languishing and unwanted at the back of the N.T. workshop at Dapdune Wharf Guildford. For the princely donation of £5 to the N.T. coffers a pair had been procured. Yours truly made short work of dispatching the legs and fitting one to the driving position. It functioned just as a chair should, to make a more comfortable helming experience. By the time we reached the Anchor the passenger seat had also been fitted.

So there we were basking in the sunshine consuming our lunch time snack eased down with pint of Tangle Foot, with Mrs Helmsman sitting on my seat and me sitting on her seat next to the bank…..now that can’t be right.

As an aside there was a little tale on the side of the glass which I shall quote “ Many years ago the head brewer hosted a tasting to coin a name for his new ale. Several tankards were consumed and on rising to go he experienced a sudden loss of steering and so unwittingly fell on the perfect name for his legendary ale”

With just paperback in hand rather than plate and pint, the wooden stool bit fixed to the top of the metal upstands quite happily for the last 12 years decided to part company with the metal. The chair was only fixed very firmly to the wooden bit. Without any warning I executed a perfect back flip (no twist) into the canal. Chair and book both floated but I sank, the metal lining of the canalside removed a fairly large portion of skin from my head with a glancing blow, luckily, but I don’t really know what I hit my knees on but they both collided with something. With great restraint Mrs Helmsman assisted me to a somewhat soggy seated position on the edge of the canal, trainer shod feet dangling in the water. On looking later at the space between boat and metal edge I consider myself lucky to have escaped so lightly. As I sit here a week later the head and knees are pretty much back to normal. ‘No need of a trip to Norfolk Liz’. The fairly new iphone in the pocket may not have faired so well, although functioning at the moment the prognosis is failure eventually.

To the captains of Lady G and Dragonfly I say ….I can’t wait to hear how you may fall in!!

We spent M’s birthday on Sunday 15^th at CoxesMill just on the River Wey near the Thames, and had a Thai mealat lunch time in a nearby pub, in case the threatened evening rain happened. By Wednesday with the funeral behind us we left the Wey at midday and went back on to the Thames. Thursday we went to Hampton Court Palace, v/g, and by Friday afternoon we were queuing at Teddington Lock waiting for high tide and the 3 ½ hour run through London to Limehouse Dock Marina. All went well and we even arrived about ¼ hr early, the only tricky bits were identifying the entrance before we past it and getting in without getting swept into the starboard wall. The options were to hang a left and go straight in, taking account of the back eddy (who ever he is) or zoom past (the ebb tide was going at a rate of knots by then) and turn back and enter on a right hand at a more controlled speed against the flow, if we had enough engine power to overcome the flow. A guy at the other end says he always go straight in as its quite hard to turn in the flow so on arrival with the flow not looking too bad (so I thought) I went straight in. It was quite nerve wracking deliberately heading for a very large wall to the left of the entrance at speed (essential) trusting that the good old tide would ensure that I missed it. In the event I could have done with a quite a few more feet to the left as I only just missed being slammed into the far wall then almost hit the near wall in my efforts to avoid the far wall. The degree of lean that Sammy Jo developed was quite alarming, (Graham you would have been proud of me and all without a sail or keel) We had travelled down with the tideway with another novice and as we levelled out in the relative safety of the lock cut I saw him suddenly abort the intended left turn to follow me as he obviously wasn’t going to make it and he hastily signalled that he was going to turn. He pootled in a few minutes later in a very controlled manner but did afterwards say that he thought he was not going to make it against the flow and feared ending up out to sea. Today..Saturday we did a lovely walk all round the docklands unfortunately not the Docklands Museum as they wouldn’t let Charlie in. We continued a little further and then moored up just past the entrance to the Hertford Union canal, and our intended route to the Lee & Stort, some where near Victoria Park and Bethnal Green. On Sunday we moved on into London a bit more and walked into Camden Locks and the market, it was heaving. Monday we decided against staying and going to a show so we set off towards the Lee & Stort as the next part of our journey. Had to cope with a broken alternator belt and needed the bike to go in search of a new one despite having 5 spares on board as they none of them were the right size. Tuesday 24^th still on the Lee but not too impressed with it so far.

From Skipton to Godalming in 38 weeks

Wednesday 4^th we were in Runnymede again and walked to the Airforce Memorial.  It is set at the top of a hill and is dedicated to the lives of 20,000+ airmen who lost their lives in WW2 and who have no known graves.  15,000 were British and the others were from Canadian, South African, New Zealand and a few other countries.  We also went to the Magna Carta Memorial.  I had already sketched Emmy so continuing with my resolve to paint more this year I painted the river scene with Sammy Jo in the foreground.  By the end of play on Thursday we had left the mighty Thames and joined the tranquillity of the Wey Navigations which is owned and run by the National Trust.  Although we have enjoyed the Thames it was great to be back on a little canal which was not at all busy and very peaceful.  Our intention was also to visit the Basingstoke Canal which branches off the Wey but we may just moor up and cycle along it.  One reason is that we can’t get to Basingstoke at the moment as the Deepcut Lock flight is closed until next spring, for repairs, and we were also told that we would need our weed cutting gear (for the prop) and to watch out for ‘trolley fish’ and we would have to pay £12 a day for the privilege.  I also started another sketch, this time of Coxes Mill.  Friday I finished my sketch then we moved on to ParvisWharf where we had lunch then cycled to Brooklands Museum.  Really worth a visit, very interesting with lots of racing cars, vintage cars, vintage bikes, aeroplanes including a Wellington bomber that spent 20 years in a Scottish lock.  I hadn’t realised that they built aeroplanes there.  Also Barnes Wallis of bouncing bomb fame operated from there.  Some of the banked race track still survives, it closed in 1946 I think, and nearly all the old buildings are there with exhibits in them.  The workshops, fuelling buildings, club houses and offices all to look at .  They even have the last Concorde on display and a working Concorde flight simulator that was used to train the pilots.  Saturday we had a visit from my Uncle Ron and family who only live in Woking and were keen to see the boat.  A planned afternoon visit to RHS Wisley had to be put on hold as we got slightly lost on a walk with Charlie first and ran out of time.  Sunday we were still heading for Guildford but I managed to watch the second half of the Man U - Chelsea match.  We got to Guildford just after lunch on Monday as we haven’t been hurrying but we didn’t feel the need to visit the town or the cathedral as we have been before.  By tomorrow 10/5/11 we shall be in Godalming, the furthest South that we can go at the moment until the Wey & Arun Canal is restored.  38 weeks ago we were in Skipton almost as far North as we could go, with the exception of Tewitfield in Lancashire.  So far this trip we have done 47 hours on the engine and 49 locks most of those by the ‘nice man’ on the Thames.

Monday 18-4-11 to Tuesday 3-5-11

Monday we left Marlow and heading for Windsor to collect Luke and Harry, who were coming for one night and a day, from Heidi who had taken them camping for a couple of days, but on Tuesday before we reached Windsor it was decided that it was best to collect them from Bourne End as they were camping near there.  We took them to Cliveden, a NT house and grounds, and after lunch there we went on to Windsor to meet Sam who was coming up to collect the boys.  We stayed in Windsor until Saturday morning and took a guided tour of Eton College as we were so near.  Our next visitors arrived by 11.00am….Lyndsay & Chris.  We took them back to Cliveden House as we had booked a tour on the Sunday.  As the house is a working hotel the tour was quite short but the grounds were excellent and very extensive and Margaret was able to get her annual fix of Bluebells.  We walked a lot of the grounds during our 2 day stay at Cliveden  before taking L & C back to their car at Windsor.  By the end of the day  was feeling unwell and I had a cold developing which was causing a tooth (which is due for extraction) to give me a lot of gip.  Interestingly we met another Goldsborough boat owner, who knew our previous owners, and got chatting to him.  He had taken his boat down the River Severn from Sharpness to Bristol, something we want to do but in the other direction.  He had to have a pilot which is not cheap unless you can go in convoy and share.  He also went out of the Thames estuary and onto the River Medway at Gillingham and down to Tonbridge, and even took it across the wash ending up 9 miles out at sea!!  Tuesday to Friday I was fitting shutters near Woking with Sam and he stayed over with us as it was so near.  Meanwhile Margaret spent most of that time in bed with a temperature and swollen glands.  Friday still in Windsor, watched the wedding while we waited for Amy & Tim to arrive for the weekend.  As it was Emmy’s birthday on Saturday we had decorated the boat with balloons and a union jack for William & Kate.  We took them all to Runnymede where the Magna Carta was signed.  It was lovely weather still and the children had a great time on the river bank and we even played party games.  We took them all back to the car at Windsor on Sunday evening after a great weekend.  Monday I caught the train and bus back to the car to get some keys that we needed and Tuesday we went to Windsor Castle which was brilliant and very palatial and we finally left Windsor and headed off to London stopping at Runnymede again for the night.  All these stops are costing a fortune as we are having to pay at a lot of places compared to the canals which are mostly free.