Wilstone (dodging the unmanned craft)

CRT barge on the loose at Wilstone

We had an easy weekend and decided to stay put at Broughton while Catherine came up from London on Saturday to see us.

Karen finished her latest creation whilst taking it easy over the weekend!

Sophie is interested in dyeing yarns, especially in the colours of various UK butterflies.  She asked Karen to test knit a shawl using yarn she had dyed in the colours of a male chalkhill blue.  I think they both did very well considering the amount of swearing I heard when Karen was trying to follow the pattern 😉

The vets called us on Monday to let us know that Buddy had passed his second titre test so we feel pretty confident that we can now get in and out of France without hassles whatever happens or doesn’t happen on 29^th March.

This all meant we could confirm the dates for moving with the haulage company and the boat yards where we are being craned out of and back into the water.  It’s beginning to get a bit scary as it’s just five weeks before we should be in French waters.

On Tuesday we decided to set out for Marsworth as we are beginning to get short of water and that’s where the nearest water point is.  As is usual for the last couple of months, I set off while Karen moved the car and then walked back down the towpath until we met up again.  At least once we’re in France we’ll be back to not having to move the car around the country with us as we have been doing since the new year.  Ironically, having to move a car around takes away a lot of our freedom 😀

It wasn’t long until I had cruised out of the last housing estate in Aylesbury and could see the open countryside ahead of me.

Welcome sight of the Chilterns in the distance

Just before the first lock I passed the only real winding hole on the Aylesbury arm closely followed by the only real permanent, offside, moorings on the arm too.

Nice large winding hole

All was quiet on the moorings; usually there are people happily waving from at least two of the boats.

The permanent moorings at Red House

Karen and I met up as I was coming out of the fourth lock and, as it was still earlyish, we decided to do another four locks before stopping for lunch.

Passing Jem’s boat yard, we noticed that he has got one of his restorations ready for launching. Until today’s mechanised cranes appeared, the old boats used to be launched sideways into the water.  The method employed by Jem seemed to be to have the boat placed on two steel girders which, I assume, would be jacked up until the boat gathered enough momentum to start sliding towards the cut.

Launching girders in place

A few years ago, Karen’s mum, Ann, was lucky enough to be down at the yard when a boat was being launched this way.  It must have been quite a spectacle.

During the cruise we saw the usual kingfishers but were also accompanied by a cormorant in its breeding plumage sporting a white bib.

I think you can just make out the white bib in flight here

Several of the locks on this stretch leak badly through the chamber sides into the surrounding ground.  Consequently, they have to be emptied when leaving the lock which is OK when going downhill as the lock is naturally empty.  Going uphill means you have to go back to the bottom gates and open the paddles up.  Not really an issue but a bit of a hassle when on your own as you have to make sure the boat doesn’t drift away when you’re at the other end of the lock.

Leaving Buckland (Arla) lock after opening the bottom paddles - chamber nearly empty already

We call Buckland lock the Arla lock as it stands next to one of Arla’s massive milk processing plants.  The lock collapsed in March 2013 and it took eight months to rebuild it.  About 20 boats were stuck the ‘wrong’ side in Aylesbury and were craned out and transported to Milton Keynes.  

The collapsed lock in March 2013

As we came out of Gudgeon Stream lock at Wilstone we came across a CRT barge at right angles across the cut.  

CRT barge on the loose at Wilstone

We managed to rescue it and pull it to the side, the trouble was though, there were no lines so we couldn’t secure it anywhere.  It did mean that another passing boater may have a similar problem, but it seemed very unlikely as we have only seen three boats on the move on the arm since we came down on December 1^st.  I rang CRT and they promised to get a team out to secure the craft.

Nearly out of the way 

Looking at the picture at the top you may notice that we have removed our chimney pot.  This is because the bridges are so narrow and low on the Aylesbury arm that there is very little room for a chimney on the side.  It's OK when coming down to Aylesbury as the bridges have the towpath on the 'chimney side', thus providing more bridge space, so we only have to remove it on the way out of Aylesbury.  

We stopped for lunch with just five locks to go before we got back to Marsworth. 

Moored for lunch above lock 6 at Wilstone

In the end we decided to stay put and get up to Marsworth on Wednesday.  It would all work out rather well as Lauren & Lewis are coming over for the weekend and Miranda next Wednesday.  Marsworth is easy for parking and also has the Red Lion.  They show the rugby in their back room so we will be there on Saturday to see the England game (or the Welsh game as Lewis would say).  Jules & Richard are due back through on their fuel run next Thursday so we should catch them too.

During the afternoon we put our SSR numbers on the boat, the final thing we have to do to make sure we are legal in France.  SSR stands for Small Ship Register and UK boats have to be registered in it before being able to sail in mainland European waters. 

We don’t display our UK registration number as it’s not a legal requirement, but we’ll soon be caught up by the VNF (French CRT equivalent) if we don’t display our SSR number.

Our new addition

On Tuesday we cruised four miles up eight locks.