Today Francine’s itinerary called for us to stop in Windsor. We set off reasonably early again and hit the first lock before the lockkeeper had arrived and whilst it was still on self-service. Franco disembarked to operate the lock.

Panic – the lock gate controllers were of a completely different design to those encountered so far. Naturally, the lock was empty and I needed to refill it. I couldn’t really see if the bottom gate sluices were closed, neither could I find a “close sluices” button. A light gleamed on the “open gates” button. I wandered up the the top gate controller and found no gleaming light whatsoever. A bold sign said, “if no light is on, use manual operation” Bugger!

The controller had a huge wheel with two levers to set what said huge wheel operated. I set the levers to the “open sluices” configuration and began winding. Darwin was it heavy, and I had to wind and wind and wind, seemingly interminably. There was no sign of anything lifting but after what seemed an age I saw water begin flowing into the lock. I continued winding wondering how I would know the sluices were fully open, there being no visible evidence of movement. After what seemed like another age and after changing arms several times, the previous arm having seized up, the wheel finally got even stiffer. I took this to mean the operation was finished, though a clue would have been nice. With no lights on, how did I know the lock was full? Darwin knows!

Finally, water flow seemed to calm down. Capt. Virginia turned up and wanted to try the “open gates” electric button. I pointed out the bold “if no lights … “ instruction but he’s American. He pushed the button. Nothing happened. I reset the levers to the “open gates” configuration. Once again, I wound the heavy wheel interminably. After a few minutes and a couple of heart attacks one lock gate slowly started moving. A few more arm changes, more heart attacks and several more ages of furious winding had just one gate open – enough for entry into the lock by a narrow boat. A small day boat joined Juniper.

A sour-faced lockkeeper seemed to have arrived (it was now just after 9:00 AM), but just wandered around us busying himself and saying nothing. Capt. Virginia volunteered to manually wind the top gate shut so I reset the levers for him and went to the lower gate. Finally the top gate was again closed and, in the land of electricity once more, I pushed and held the “open gates” button on the lower controller. To my relief, the gates opened.

Mr. Sourface approached but continued to say nothing. I decided to force the issue and said, “that manual operation wheel is a bear, I’m exhausted”. He looked a little quizzical and may have muttered his first word along the lines of, “why?”

“There’s no power on the top controller”, I explained.

“Yes there is”, he said, “but the bulb has blown”.

Ye Gods! Shit!! Bollocks!!! Given the permanent, bold “if no lights … “ instruction,  an explanatory sign would have been a considerate addition, I thought. I wanted to throw Mr. Sourface into his bloody lock. Fortunately, this bozo was an exception, all the other Thames lockkeepers have been perfectly personable.

Last night in Henley, we’d seen a marquee and an apparent finish line proclaiming Thames Path Challenge. A timing clock had been ticking on displaying a distressingly large number of hours as a runner drifted in. Leaving Henley this morning, we kept seeing almost constant bands of walkers along the Thames Path in various states of freshness/exhaustion.

Our fun and games with the unattended lock behind us, we stopped for our daily water fill-up where we were passed by yet more walkers. After what we’d seen yesterday, we asked if they’d been walking all night. “Yes”, they replied. They’d set out from Putney Bridge. “Strewth, bravo!”, was about all we could manage, or had time for given the speed with which our tank was filling up on the Thames.

After several more locks and yet more merry bands of walkers and a boat complete with guitarist for their entertainment, we arrived in Windsor and moored at about 3:00 PM. I simply wanted to sit and relax. Since Mrs. Virginia is suffering on the mobility front hip-wise, she was unable to investigate Windsor so we all stayed aboard drinking and watching aircraft making their final approach to Heathrow over Windsor Castle. If Ma’am can put up with a flight path, why can’t everybody else?

Another interesting issue is brewing in our race against the clock to get round the Thames Ring. The final Thames section, from Teddington to Brentford and back onto the Grand Union Canal through Thames Lock, is tidal and time dependent according to the state of the tides. Brentford Lock has limited working times around high tide. It’s about 90 minutes from Teddington Lock to Thames Lock, we think. Arrive at Teddington at the wrong time and you could lose a day waiting for the right time. Boaters are advised to phone Teddington Lock and Thames Lock to make arrangements.

After yesterday’s tingling throat, Franco was now beginning to cough, sniffle and splutter but gamely phoned Teddington Lock. We expect to go through on Tuesday when high tide would apparently be at 8:24 AM. If we could go through at about 8:00 AM we should be trying to avoid London on the GUC by about 10:00 AM giving a good length of day to make some progress back into relative civilization.

I also tried calling Thames Lock at Brentford but got an answering service. I left a message with my phone number. In the early evening, when I was really beginning to feel like shit and was taking a shower to try and improve my lot, the Brentford lockkeeper did call back. Francine answered and we were told to keep in touch, calling again once we were at Teddington.

We should arrive at Teddington Lock, which apparently has chargeable moorings, tomorrow afternoon.

Day 9 Map

After yesterday’s fun and games getting moored, Juniper was now facing the wrong way, i.e. back up river towards Oxford. I say wrong way, though personally I was considering returning the way we’d come in the knowledge that we could get back with a day or so to spare. Wimp! Unbelievably, though it felt as though we’d been afloat forever, this was only the first day of our second week aboard and we had Juniper booked for 2½ weeks. After a swift breakfast [Quelle surprise!] we cast off Juniper and Capt. Virginia performed another sluggish pirouette to get us underway heading back downstream and towards the first lock. After today, we’d be committed to finishing our circular route as originally intended.

We were underway at 8:00 AM, before the lockkeepers come on duty at 9:00 AM, so the first lock was set to “Self-Service”. Franco got to play with the sluice paddles and gate power buttons. Pressing a few buttons could make me soft – it’s certainly easier than the windlass winding and shoving of heavy gates approach necessary on the canals.

At our second lock we at last found a water supply and stopped to replenish Juniper’s tanks so that we could all take a shower today. We didn’t need Juniper’s hose ‘cos was a much heavier duty affair was supplied at the water point. Franco just about managed to cram the fat hose into Juniper and turned on the flow. Imagine our joy and surprise when Juniper’s tank was full in less than 10 minutes. Much better!

I was surprised to find that we were spotting the tell-tale vivid orange and iridescent blue flash of Kingfishers quite frequently as we cruised along the Thames. Trying to snag them at Capt. Virginia’s storming 6 mph was a challenge but we finally managed it, albeit from a distance. Cormorants drying their wings, on the other hand, were an altogether easier target.

Yesterday evening we had eventually managed to stop a little behind Francine’s calculated schedule based upon a published itinerary in the opposite direction. As we were travelling with the flow of the River Thames, our goal today was to get onto that schedule, which would have put us at Poplar Eyot, a spit west of Henley on Thames. However, we’d made good time and would be needing more supplies to get us through the sprawling mess that we call London. If we stopped at Henley, which boasts a Waitrose, Francine and I could do a food run in the early evening, saving a further time-wasting stop en route. We continued.

Given the popularity of Henley, I was a little concerned that the moorings might be full but, as we approached, we found that not to be so. We did, however, find it necessary to avoid some of the more difficult obstacles on the Thames – rowers and/or scullers. The elegant, very streamlined boats may be skinny things that cut through the water like a knife through butter but the blasted oars can span almost the entire river. It’s a curious mode of transport that doesn’t allow participants to look where they’re going, leaving the onus on everyone else. Capt. Virginia skilfully managed to avoid sinking any.

After 8½ hours and 10 locks we found a spot complete with mooring rings and snagged it. Actually, we found two moorings and moved from the first onto the second – a case of moor haste, less speed, perhaps? 😀

We’d completed what for us was a staggering 32 miles in 9 hours, such is the power of the River Thames compared to the canals. We were now on, or slightly ahead of, Francine’s calculated schedule; maybe I’d relax a little more. Phew!

We still had two days of supplies aboard but needed two more, we thought (!), to get through beyond London. Francine and I hit Waitrose, about a mile walk each way, to get two more meal options with suitably long shelf lives and, most importantly, two more days-worth of wine. It should be noted that the life expectancy of wine aboard Juniper was very short. 😀

Shopping completed and £9.00 mooring fees eventually paid, after a fight with the ticket machine (it seemed to accept only £9-worth of coins), we settled in for a more relaxed evening.

Oh, Francine and Franco are developing what appears to be a cold – sore throat and croaking. We think this was imported from the QM2.

Day 8 Map

Today we were heading through Oxford and into the unknown territory (for us) of the River Thames. Francine and I began again by walking ahead of Juniper, largely so we could prepare various lift bridges and locks before Juniper’s arrival.

Fresh water was taken on at Thrupp in a marina positioned on the inside of a sharp 90° bend in the canal – a mere 30 or so minutes this time. On the exit from the 90° bend was an electrically operated lift bridge requiring the BWB/CRT key [British Waterways Board/Canal and River Trust], the same one as is needed to unlock the water points.

Francine and I continued walking and operating locks for Juniper and few other boats that we met, until we reached the lock on the outskirts of Oxford immediately prior to the beginning of Duke’s Cut, one of two routes onto the Thames.

Our new lock buddies both chose to go down to the Thames through the Duke’s Cut, a relatively narrow, sinuous route, while Capt. Virginia elected for the straighter shot through to Isis Lock slightly further east on the Thames. A manoeuvrable plastic day boat approached us and first disappeared behind the drooping boughs of a weeping willow on the left of the canal, before suddenly popping back out from behind the willow right into our path … and Juniper’s bows. Its reappearance was so sudden that no avoiding action was possible on our part, not that the 62-feet Juniper would have responded fast enough anyway. Being plastic, the day boat bounced off us but seemed to suffer no damage. Juniper, with her bulletproof steel hull, was certainly undamaged and didn’t really notice.

The remainder of our approach to Isis lock was uneventful, though we did have to disturb one of Oxford’s homeless who was snoozing on the lock gate arms, apparently having chosen the Isis Lock as his home base. He was friendly enough though, especially as I apologized.

The turn after exiting the lock was even sharper than at the marina, >90°, and, of course, we met another boat approaching the lock in the opposite direction right at the turn – typical! There seems to be an unwritten rule of the water that opposing craft will be met in areas of maximum inconvenience, either a narrow section lined with moored boats or on blind bends, usually with a bridge built across them. The opposing boat having been avoided, a short run took us to another 90° bend and onto the River Thames itself.

This being a weekend, we were expecting the Thames to quite busy – boys out playing with their toys, etc. Our first encounter on the river was with a wide plastic bathtub of a cruiser that we met right by a fallen tree obstructing our side of the river. Capt. Virginia slowed as swiftly as Juniper’s mass and momentum would allow but decorated her with a fine collection of leaves and twigs. [Another good example of the unwritten rule.]

A further pulse-quickening event happened shortly afterwards when a very small inflatable powered by a small outboard motor approached and very suddenly chose to dive across our bows before stopping dead right in our path. Great! Capt. Virginia initiated what passes for an emergency stop when a boat weighing 16 tons is slammed into full-astern. Amazingly, Juniper actually did stop. The occupants of the inflatable blushed, apologized, announced that their outboard had cut out, that it had done so previously, and took to paddling furiously with a short pair of oars to escape. We proceeded wondering what might happen next.

What happened next was our first lock on the Thames. As the lock team, Francine and I were looking forward to a considerable rest because the locks on the River Thames are powered and operated by a lockkeeper. A license, which can be purchased from the lockkeepers, is require for cruising on the River Thames. We approached the lock and stopped at the so-called lay-by. I sauntered up to the lockkeeper, who was about to go for lunch but who graciously (?) hung around long enough to sell me a 7-day cruising license costing ~£70 – the exact price appears to be based on length of boat. He then switched the lock to “Self Service”, pointed me at the sluice and gate controller panels at either end of the lock, and wandered off to lunch. I switched from physical effort to mental effort while I tried to work out what to do. So much for the lock team getting a rest. 🙂

More supplies were needed and Abingdon provides excellent free moorings for boaters. We went ashore to take advantage of one of our favoured Waitrose supermarkets where it’s possible to shop in a civilized manner. Actually, Abingdon would have been a very pleasant place to spend a day but we were still not that sure of our schedule (more on this later) so, once restocked, we continued.

Travelling in the same direction as the flow of the River Thames, Juniper’s speed relative to the land pretty much doubled; Capt. Virginia had her doing a nimble 6 mph, albeit accompanied by considerable noise and vibration. I hope we weren’t upsetting the locals too much.

Later in the afternoon, we began looking at the river maps for possible overnight moorings. Two different publications disagreed precisely on where moorings might be found and some of those we passed looked too muddy and shallow. Cows standing calmly in the river might be a good indicator of a bank that is too shallow.

Eventually we settled on some apparent moorings just before our next lock. Three boats were already moored. Between two of the boats was a Juniper-sized gap followed by a further gap to yet another boat. Capt. Virginia headed for the first gap … and Juniper ran aground. Terrific! A good deal of manoeuvring, together with juggling of the throttle and tiller, got Juniper afloat again. Phew!

We had passed another apparent mooring option a little further back. Fortunately, the Thames is wide enough for a 62’ boat to perform a sluggish pirouette and return. We did return and found that a boat we’d crossed going in the opposite direction had snagged the better of the two options. Drat! We just about managed to get into another spot a few yards further back. The skipper of the boat having snagged our preferred spot approached to see if we were in a suitable spot, offering the possibility of rafting off him. What a nice man. He said he’d been looking for a mooring spot since 4:30 PM, had tried the place we’d just tried and similarly failed, and that he’d had this difficulty on the Thames every day. Rafting off him was unnecessary.

Mooring in the quiet countryside on the Thames appears to be fraught with difficulty so we resolved to stay at moorings in towns, paying where necessary, from here on.

Thames Ring Day 7

After our making little progress yesterday courtesy of a few necessary chores combined with deciding to have a relaxing lunch, we needed to cover a bit more ground today. At least, we thought we did.

A usual rental cruise on the canals is a there-and-back affair in which you cruise outbound for half the time, then turn your boat around and return for the second half. As long as you plan your “winding” [turning] point  – most narrow boats are longer than the canal is wide – all is well.

The trouble is that faced with a circular trip such as this Thames Ring, there’s no easy way of knowing where half way around is. Knowing is necessary so that, if you find you’re not going to make it, you can turn back and retrace your initial steps in time to return the boat.

Half way round in terms of distance means little, what is really needed is half way in terms of time. Each lock (there are 175 of them) typically takes 15 minutes. Since the number of locks on different stretches of the canal varies greatly, half way in terms of time is terribly hard to gauge. It can be estimated given the correct information but the estimate gets torn up if you end up following one or more boats into a section of locks – 15 minutes per lock can become 30 minutes or more. Recently we passed a boat heading north that had been forced to wait 60 minutes to get into one lock on a busy section – bang went an hour of their cruising. You begin to see the difficulty.

Prior to our leaving, Francine had found a published detailed itinerary for the Thames Ring, albeit in the opposite direction, clockwise, i.e south down the Grand Union Canal, up the Thames to Oxford and north up the Oxford Canal. Francine plotted the days on our route map, read it backwards ‘cos we were going anti-clockwise, and figured out that we seemed to be on schedule. We think we need to get through Oxford and onto the Thames on Friday (tomorrow), though. Hopefully our Thames section should be a little quicker than the published route because we’ll be going with the flow of the river rather than against it.

Last night, we’d moored near one of many lift bridges along the Oxford Canal. The bridges being a little more photogenic than locks, Francine had been eyeing it up hoping for some decent morning light, so her first order of business today was to get out and snag it.

Satisfied that we could proceed, Capt. Virginia’s first order of business, after breakfast, of course, was to perform the daily maintenance checks: engine oil, engine cooling water, rear bilges and a grease gland for the propeller. These done, we got under way.

Once again, Francine and I started the day walking ahead of the boat for 5 miles to a fresh water point which proved to be even slower than usual taking almost an hour, darn it. Then Juniper’s engine decided it didn’t want to restart. Juniper’s now unpowered bow drifted casually across the canal ‘cos silly ol’ Franco had cast off prematurely. Tut, tut! This is the third time Capt. Virginia has had difficulty starting so we called Wyvern Shipping to let them know. As it’s an intermittent problem so far, there’s little more to be done but we wanted to log it with them. Eventually the starter motor turned over and Juniper chugged into life. We continued, Franco having learned a valuable lesson – never cast of until the engine is running. Oops!

Locks were sporadic and, as usual, were set against us but the now efficient locking team of Francine and Franco kept our merry band moving. Then Franco gave Capt. Virginia a rest at the tiller – it’s mentally hard work requiring complete concentration – and Capt. Virginia switched roles to lock operator. We did catch another cruise boat for a few locks and had to wait for them to “lock down” before we could follow suit.

At one lock, Francine was spitting feathers because a brilliant blue and orange Kingfisher caught a fish and alighted about 6 feet from her while it stunned and consumed its catch – and there she stood armed with a windlass instead of a camera. Never mind, at least she had the privilege of seeing it, which is more than I did. Bother!

Towards the end of our cruising day, the Oxford Canal is actually a short stretch of the River Cherwell. What a difference that made. Juniper began moving a little more quickly and became noticeably more responsive to the tiller [Ed: mind you, that’s not difficult]. This, I’m told, is because the River Cherwell has a decent depth of water under Juniper’s keel whereas the Oxford Canal is very shallow. We won’t dwell on it but Capt. Virginia had run aground near the edge on a couple of occasions a day or so ago. I was convinced he had been trying to straighten Juniper’s rudder. 😀

We exited the Cherwell and re-entered the Oxford Canal proper, through a curious and heavily gated diamond-shaped lock, at about 6:00 PM and looked for a place to stay overnight. We were in a pleasantly rural and seemingly completely silent location above Kidlington. A lift bridge ahead of us was in the down position so we’d have to pull in anyway. We called a halt for a drink. There’s just one boat near us and I think that’s unoccupied. Blissful silence reigned.

In a reasonably trouble-free day we’d managed almost 18½ miles in a little over 9 hours. Clearly, 2 mph is all that can be achieved. Our Canal Companion suggests we are about 4 hours from the Thames but we’ll need our daily slow water fill up so it’ll probably be a good 5 hours.

Day 6 Map

Well, an early start was our plan and an early start we had. Somehow we managed to get our boatload of tourists up and ready by 7:00 AM. Wandering the short distance to our first lock of the day, Francine was inexorably drawn to a field full of cows and early morning mist. Our weather luck was continuing and yet another sunny day was in prospect but we are entering the time of year when misty mornings are common.

Photographic urges satisfied, we started off a little after 7:00 AM. Since we thought that the last moving traffic yesterday evening was heading up the locks, we were very surprised and a little upset to find that all five of the locks in the first flight were set against us – empty; Francine and I had to fill them before Capt. Virginia could slip Juniper into them. A flight of locks is where having two lock operators comes in handy: having started one lock, a second operator can go on to the next lock and prepare it before the boat arrives. After four days of practice, by now Francine and I were like a well-oiled machine and we did five locks in under an hour, a truly Olympic performance.

Since we had now used up all the provisions that we brought on board with us, today was always going to have to include a shopping trip. Every day has a water delay, too, and all the water taps we’ve found so far have been slow, taking between 30 and 45 minutes to fill Juniper’s fresh water tank. Added to all this, Banbury is a busy little town jammed with moored boats [no surprise there, then]. With an interesting waterfront anticipated, we decided to increase our time in Banbury even more by trying to find an interesting lunch venue.

Given the sequence of things along the canal, our first stop was our search for lunch. We moored just before the Banbury canal=front itself and sauntered in on foot. What we found was not quite what we expected. The first thing that we noticed was a pleasant enough bridge over the canal, a bridge very colourfully planted with flower baskets. So far so good. The canal-front had clearly been extensively developed with cleanly paved sides. Naturally all moorings here were taken. It was when looking around for the expected plethora of bars, cafes and restaurants that our surprise came. We saw just one cafe, and that with outside tables and chairs largely in the shade of a pedestrian overpass. One bank of the canal was given over to the back of a modern shopping centre, the only thing fronting the canal being the series of service bays for the shops contained therein. On the opposing bank, other than our Hobson’s choice cafe, there seemed to be just a car park and a block of flats. Perfectly pleasant though the flats were, this all felt like a completely wasted opportunity. Barking mad! [Left photo below, courtesy of Ian Rob, right photo below by Paul Gillett.]

The cafe that was present displayed a Greek theme and served Francine and I some very acceptable calamari whilst Capt. and Mrs Virginia chose a burger served with a strangely vivid beetroot mayonnaise [I’m sure it tasted good but it looked odd – this is why I am not a great fan of beetroot]. The waterfront, though, could have been so much more.

Appetite and thirst sated, our next stop was water. We’d hoped Banbury might have decent water pressure. Not so, 35 minutes. A passing narrow boat professional informed me that this was a slow tap. No kidding, aren’t they all?

Eventually we cut loose from the slow tap and went on to our third stop for food and booze. A few bridges further on we’d been told there was a Morrison’s supermarket within spitting distance of some mooring and the bridge. We duly moored, carried all our empty wine bottles (‘cos Morrison’s have recycling bins which is more than I can say for the Canal and River Trust) and went shopping for several days of food and replacement bottles of wine. As a special request from Capt. Virginia, we bought a pound of scallops for scallops with red peppers and rice. We successfully returned to Juniper with three more days-worth of food together with 21 more bottles of wine, too. Well done team!

By now the cruising day was almost over so we left Banbury behind us and found a spot of the canal that maximized our distance from the twin noise generators of a railway line and the constant drone of the M40. We were beside a photographically attractive lift bridge which Francine had her eye on.

In a whole day, we’d managed a staggering 12 miles. Darwin this mode of transport is slow!

Day 5 Map

Having moored overnight in a very rural part of the Grand Union–Oxford link canal, the towpath looked favourable so Francine and I decided on another start on foot. We cast off Capt. Virginia and walked 5½ miles into the Oxford Canal proper and onto a fresh water point. We walked mostly ahead of Juniper which was once again forced to travel slowly passing many moored boats. No locks were involved and walking pace again beat Juniper over our 5½-mile stretch.

In the early morning sun, Francine and I began disturbing a few dragonflies which, still not thoroughly warmed up, seemed keen to settle back on the hedgerow running beside the canal. One Migrant Hawker (Aeshna mixta) perched very prettily on some blackberries, perhaps hoping to snag a fly or two as breakfast. A late season Banded Demoiselle (Calopteryx splendens) also put in an appearance. Since my GPS was running to track our course, I started making dragonfly records for later submission as we went along.

All the water points on the system appear to be very slow and it took us about 40 minutes to fill our water tank. Dull stuff waiting for a slow hose. Finally filled with fresh water, we were heading straight into a flight of  five locks at Napton, followed by another two slightly further on at Marston Doles.

Whereas the Grand Union is a wide canal with double width locks, the Oxford Canal is a narrow canal with single width locks with just a couple of inches either side of the boat. Having had enough of walking, Francine and Franco leapt aboard and Franco took the tiller to have a go at rattling into the locks at Napton. I think my first approach was my best, what an airline pilot might call a greaser if he made a smooth landing. Beginner’s luck. On subsequent attempts, instead of getting better, boat rattling seemed to be on the increase, culminating in a bang or two in some cases, rather than gliding noiselessly into a lock.

The more experienced Capt. Viriginia and I both agreed that Juniper steers like a pig; she has a predilection to veer to port. Take your eye off the canal for a second and the bow veers left making la rive gauche approach alarmingly quickly. Slam Juniper into reverse and the bow seems to leap left, too. It’s a very peculiar trait and much less than relaxing; tiller work requires extreme concentration. We suspect Juniper’s rudder may be less than perfectly straight.

Following the locks and after about 12 miles of straight cruising, we were approaching another flight of 5 locks at Claydon followed by a short run and a further three locks to descend into Cropredy. We had a decision to make: start the locks or stay uphill of them? Our downhill run could be broken in between the two sections of locks but that was about it for choice. Since we were in a peaceful, rural location at the top of the locks, we decided to stop cruising and start drinking, leaving the locks for an early morning start. The theory of an early morning start (about 7 AM) was designed to enable us to run through the series of locks without hindrance from other boats.

We’ll see if our theory works out.

Day 4 Map

Having pitched up – well, moored up, I suppose, since we’re on a boat – about 5 miles short of Weedon Bec yesterday evening and, there being sunshine and no locks in the offing, this morning Francine and I decided to get some exercise by walking along the towpath to Weedon Bec. Weedon Bec was a suitable stop for two things, our daily water top up and a pharmacy for Mrs Virginia’s sinus problem/cough/cold (whatever it is).

Our morning walk was both very pleasant, being through open countryside in the early sunshine, and very educational. Francine was using her Nordic walking poles and set off a good pace, while I was just plain walking, complete with camera in rucksack, giving me a chance to get a different view of Juniper.

The educational bit was that our walk proved our suspicion to be correct – Francine and I beat Juniper to Weedon Bec by a good five minutes and that’s with no intervening locks to impede the boat’s progress. What does almost constantly slow the boat’s progress is the moored boats scattered liberally along most sections of the canal, so most of the time you’re on tick-over avoiding creating any wake. Once Juniper arrived, we waited between 30 minutes and an hour while our water tank filled painfully slowly.

Weedon Bec is an interesting place. It was apparently chosen as the place to hide King George III when Napoleon was conquering vast swathes of Europe. Fortunately, Napoleon was stopped in his tracks before that became necessary. As well as cough mixture for Mrs Virginia, it also supplied us with a dump for our rubbish.

Back underway, we eventually negotiated the seven locks up towards Braunston. We weren’t yet quite at Braunston, though, that required another 2000-yard tunnel followed by a further six locks down. Braunston Tunnel differs from Blisworth Tunnel in that it doesn’t drip water all over ones head. Navigating Blisworth Tunnel would have best been done in the company of an umbrella.

Braunston Tunnel was no problem and felt considerably shorter than 2/3rds of Blisworth Tunnel yesterday. The same could not be said for the six locks down towards Braunston. Approaching the first lock, we came across a canal-system blockage – workers had drained the top lock and intervening pound in order to perform some maintenance work on the lock gates. An hour delay ensued, assisted by wine, during which time six other boats queued up behind us. Ultimately, the work was finished, the lock and lower pound were refilled, and we continued on our way. At least we’d been at the head of the queue.

Naturally, a few boats had also been held up trying to lock-up so traffic levels were high; our down-bound lock full of two boats threaded its way between an opposing up-bound lock full of two more boats. I was glad I was operating locks as opposed to driving.

We eventually exited the last of the six locks and crawled past the floating city on the canal at Braunston Junction. It was not a pretty sight. We were happy to turn onto the combined Oxford/Grand Union link canal that would eventually lead us to the Oxford Canal proper before finding a calm, rural mooring place for the night.

The unscheduled Canal and River Trust lock maintenance had cost us an hour and a couple of miles; we’d covered about 19 miles in a little over 10 hours.

Tomorrow we’ll enter the Oxford Canal proper and hit a flight of nine locks.

Day 3 Map

Our first night aboard passed very comfortably courtesy of the two fixed-bed “staterooms”. [Boating people, at least American boating people, seem to refer to bedrooms on a boat as staterooms. Who am I to argue?]

Having learned our lesson that the galley [boating speak for kitchen] can really accommodate only one person at a time, we were underway at 8:02 AM, our first goal being to fight our way out of Milton Keynes.

We had not yet achieved our first goal when we came across a water point at Gifford Park. The water point in question was a very slow water point, we were told, and was already being used by the person who told us, so we were delayed waiting before we could even start to fill up our own fresh water tank. Taking on water is a daily requirement, especially with four folks using showers. After about 15 minutes, we got connected to the water ourselves and were filled up in about another 20 minutes.

With almost constant moored boats along the length of the canal, leaving MK had to be done at tick-over speed, which is about 2 mph. As we did achieve our first goal, we were overtaken by a Mallard swimming serenely along. 😀

Our main goal for the day was to get through the 3000+ yards of Blisworth Tunnel, which lies just a spit above Stoke Bruerne (home of the canal museum) and most particularly after the 7 locks that raise boats up to Stoke Bruerne. We joined up with one of Juniper’s sister vessels to go through the locks two by two. The extra pair of hands was welcome and our new friend seemed to appreciate the help and guidance, too.

At the Stoke Bruerne top lock, our activities generated lots of interest amongst the swarms of day-trippers; a lock gate competition developed between a group of girls on one gate and a group of boys on the other. The girls, however, did seem to recruit a little male support. Children, yikes, not Franco’s natural habitat at all.

After a brief pause in Stoke Bruerne to purchase a River Thames guide book, Captain Virginia negotiated Blisworth Tunnel very well, the darkness lasting about 35 minutes. An oncoming boat entertained us with some moderately loud music from Gladiator as it passed, which is an interesting experience in a 3000-yard, pitch black tunnel. It felt good eventually to break out into sunlight again after more than half an hour of disorientating darkness. Prior to internal combustion engines, I believe bargees used to traverse the tunnel by “walking” along the tunnel walls whilst lying on planks protruding from the sides of the boats. Just how ridiculously difficult and tiring that was, I can’t imagine.

Main goal achieved, we moored for our second night after 10 hours and 21 miles, about 5 miles short of Weedon Bec, for some well deserved pre-prandial drinks.

Day 2 Map

Provisioning Part 2 was done by yours truly and Francine in a dawn raid on our local Waitrose supermarket. Thank Darwin for civilized shopping. Realizing that our boat’s refrigerator would have a limited capacity, we bought food for two days … and another 6-bottle case of wine, just in case 20 bottles was not enough. 😯

As midday approached, the time at which we could take possession of/board our boat, “Juniper”, we swiftly spotted that we were not going to get 4 fully grown adults, their luggage, food and most particularly 26 bottles of wine into our car all in one go. Two trips would be required. How fortunate that we live just a mile or so from the Wyvern Shipping boat yard. We loaded the car with four adults, together with the food and booze and headed boatwards for the first time. Leaving two adults to pack the food and booze, the remaining two adults returned for the luggage and trip two.

Once fully loaded, a little instruction on the daily boat maintenance routine saw us cut loose onto the water, Captain Virginia manning the helm, and heading north towards Milton Keynes. Ah, so that’s the way we’re going round then, anticlockwise. This seems to me to be the sensible option, going downstream with the flow of the River Thames rather than upstream against it.

Dealing with a few single locks warmed us up, us being the lock team of Francine and Franco. dealing with the linked set of three locks at The Three Locks pub just north of Leighton Buzzard cause a little head-scratching but we got it figured out thanks to some on-board instructions: as you drain one lock you have to open the top gate paddles into the next lock down to stop the relatively small intervening pound overflowing. Tricksy!

The starter’s pistol had gone off at 1:30 PM. With our locking skills from 15 years ago being refreshed – that was the last time we did this narrow boat caper – in 5½ hours we’d negotiated 7 locks to race 10½ miles north up the Grand Union and to moor for night #1 in a strangely quiet part of Milton Keynes (it’s very difficult to get away from the drone of traffic anywhere in MK). What progress! A shopping trip in the car to Central Milton Keynes takes about 15 minutes. Had we been walking along the canal towpath, we’d have been about 4 miles further on. One begins to see why this mode of transport became outmoded.

I’m pretty sure this constitutes noticeably slower progress than our merry crew made 15 years ago. The main reason, I think, is that there now seem to be many more residential boats moored at irregular intervals along the canal causing a slowing of progress, from almost 4 mph to about 2 mph, as one passes moored craft.

I’m not sure that the published typical timings for cruising between certain points are actually any longer typical. We’ll have to keep our eye on them and see.

Day 1 map

Do you remember galoshes? No, neither, it seems, does anyone else – except Capt. and Mrs Virginia who were in search of a pair of waterproof overshoes for the Captain on his boating activities. We spent a good portion of Friday scouring various country supply stores, huntin’, shootin’ and fishin’ stores, and the like. Some came close but had nothing large enough whilst others simply raised a questioning eyebrow. Wellington boots are apparently a bad idea because, if one does have the misfortune to fall in, they tend to fill with water and drag one under. This is not a particular issue where a 3-feet deep canal is concerned but it can be a very dangerous solution on the River Thames, which is where we are hoping to head. Capt. Virginia finished up with some (supposedly waterproof) Gortex walking boots.

The rest of the day was spent buying wine, food, gin, food, wine, food and wine. We wandered out of a well known local supermarket with a shopping cart rattling about 20 bottles of wine against each other and muttering, “that should get us through the first few locks”. 🙂

“Doing the Thames Ring”, a circular route involving the Grand Union Canal, Oxford Canal and River Thames, is less than straightforward. The canal sections should be simple enough, apart from trying to find a mooring in the crowded stretches of Oxford and London, but the Thames is tidal at London which makes re-entering/leaving (depending upon direction) the Grand Union Canal time dependent. Since there is no quick way back once aboard a canal boat, timing is critical – one needs to get through the lock on a specific day or risk delivering the boat back late. How to win friends and influence people! One is advised to contact the Thames lock lock-keeper at Brentford 24 hours beforehand.

Our Captain found the tide tables and some lock times but not all was clear so he tried calling the lock-keeper’s number. A maintenance man answered claiming ignorance. We double checked the number, found it to be correct and were left hoping that the lack of enlightenment was due to our being a little late in the day and that the man in the know had left.

I hope someone is in the know. We’ll try again tomorrow.