Boo!

A quick PSA... I'm guessing anyone reading this will also know Richard & Sue on Indigo Dream. I note they haven't blogged in a bit, but just wanted to flag that ID, Richard & Archie were heavily featured on telly on Monday - James Martin cooked a couple of dishes on ID's prow as they bumbled around Birmingham's canals.

 You can watch it through the link below, or on telly with one of the new-fangled smart tvs, youview box or whatever gadget you choose to attached to your idiot box...

  James Martin's Great British Adventure, Series 1 - Episode 11 James visits the capital of the balti - Birmingham with food critic Grace Dent. James is inspired to cook his version of a chicken balti.

Me? Tortoise eventually sold, went to Rickmansworth, apparently. I'm mostly in Wales. ;-)

Lovely little boat for sale...

No surprise to one or two of you, but Tortoise is for sale; it's been twelve lovely years, but new adventures beckon, also involving woods & water, but a little more stonework ;-)

ad for Tortoise on VC Marine

Anyone who's followed this blog for a few years will know what a great little boat it is & the adventures I've had, very easy to single-hand and would be lovely for a couple, too.  Fine on all but virtually waterless canals, goes like a dream on the Thames - and very cosy when the stove is going.

I've no idea if anyone bookmarked the fancy web address of NbTortoise.org.uk, but that will disappear in a few weeks, but the 'proper' address of nbtortoise.blogspot.com will remain, and may even include news of other adventures in the future. I also note I have an unfnished draft of a guide to single-handing in Thames Locks, which I may finish - one day. ;-)

Meanwhile thanks to all I've met on the canals and through the internet bit thereof; still not averse to a bit of drinking (or lockwheeling, or even both), so shout if you're passing ;-)

Kennet & Avon V (Bedwyn to Teddington)

Putting posts together takes ages - I'd forgotten. I think Sarah on Chertsey has the right idea - the briefest of notes, daily, to be fleshed out later, Perhaps next time. As it is I expect these witterings to be fleshed out too. There are, after all, a record for me, really.

Kennet & Avon IV (Dundas Aqueduct, Bath, then back to Great Bedwyn)

Mon 1st Aug - Dundas Aqueduct to Bath (above top lock)

A gentle amble into town, the pretty way - the canal tries both sides of the Avon, so valley one side and hill the other. My favourite official long term mooring was at Murhill, on the offside - tucked into the bank, bit of grass, mostly tress. Perfect.

I'd already decided to stop at Bath, so not point locking down on to the Avon, but I found a nice mooring not far from the Top Lock.

Kennet & Avon III (Great Bedwyn to Dundas Aqueduct)

Where was I? Ah...

(these concrete things are on quite a few accommodation bridges, presumably part of WWII invasion preparations, along wth the pill boxes along the route. I like the message on this one...

Kennet & Avon - II (Newbury to Great Bedwyn)

Newbury is a nice enough little place, even if they do hide the boring but useful shops on the edge of town up a scary dual carriageway. The RSPCA shop looked packed with fun stuff, but failed to be open either of the (perfectly reasonable) times I was passing...

Kennet & Avon - I (Brentford to Newbury)

Well, I did mean to be a little more organised on this trip, but I'm at Newbury already... ;-)

The K&A is one the of canals I cycled, years ago, and the opportunity came up to take some time off and get over here, so I did...

The strat was a little delayed due to a collapsed water pump on the way down to Brentford; a replacement was ordered from Calcutt, naturally I have a non-standard pulley size, but after bending two gear pullers from Toolstation I took myself down to the huge MSO boatyard in Brentford, who sorted it for me with a certain amount of amusement - and that's without seeing the size of the boat.

Most pictures are on my phone - so may be added later, or maybe not - who knows...

Odyssey on the Troy Cut*

I know nothing about the Troy Wharf, or indeed the Troy Wharf Trust, so why not write a blog post about it...

It is an easy gentle walk up the south side of the Troy Cut, from above Black Jack's lock, only being forced away from the water just before the basin. Opposite is mainly fishing lakes, we spotted rabbits bumbling around, largely unworried by the 21st century.

I had no idea what was at the end - the basin & boats were a nice surprise. The Troy Wharf Trust Ltd don't really seem to exist on the internet, which is of course fine, the have a nascent website with nowt on it... they do have boats, though, floating...

...and less floating:

Acess seems to be through a gate (locked both times we visited) or through the back of a working granite/marble yard, who we decided not to upset. ;-). Photos are therefore taken through various wire fences, although we did have a good view of a very nice looking outdoor workshop setup:

. The cut itself is listed in Nicholson's as 'unnavigable'. It is certainly narrow and possibly shallow in places, but Mimas - visible in my photo a few weeks ago was spotted at Rickmansworth Festival last weekend, so I reckon it can't be that bad. I'm not convinced, however, there's space for a full length boat to turn, difficult to see on the ground, or indeed on google maps. Also visible is an ex(?)-CRT workboat and a bantam tug - can't imagine they're stranded, either. Couldn't see a name for the wooden boat being worked on, though.

I like that this exists, quietly, away from general radar. Who wouldn't want a quiet little wharf to play with old boats?

* - well, what did you expect? Would also like the offences of being disappointed that no boats are called 'Wooden Horse' (couldn't be more appropriate, bearing in mind their charity objectives, or lack of references to MilliHelens (the SI unit of beauty required to launch one ship to be taken into consideration, m'lud.

A new cup

I kind of hoped I'd get a matching teapot or something with the forth, but alas...

Con-stern-ation*

It goes without saying that Tortoise is a strange boat, and not least in the nether regions. The prop shafts slopes downwards, river-style (there's a bloody great universal joint just to the right of the picture). To the near right there's a plate that the shaft passes through, but serves no useful purpose, as far as I can see, but...

On the left, stuffing box & lock nut. That I understand.

Then - though, the collar with the overlong grub screws (must find some shorter ones), clamps on the shaft. Either side of that, there's a pair of big washers with a ball race in between. I can clamp the collar towards the stuffing box so that the left hand trio have some function, or towards the fixed plate so the other set does - but can;t see a way that both have use. It is possible that the fixed plate it supposed to interact as a sort of bearing, but it can't necessarily support the shaft.

So I'm guessing in the past it has been assembled wrongly, or possibly has bits missing (or even extra, or at least unrequired bits). I'll leave it for now toward the stuffing box as a kind of extra grease water barrier, but all a bit of a mystery.

Blacking soon, so I've the opportunity to at least attempt to replace the stuffing, and try to make sense of the rest of it...

* well, there was no call for a gland pun, was there?

The Shipping Forecast Radio

Quite often at a car boot I'll come back with something with no idea why I bothered to buy it, and this was one of those things. I think I had a vague thought about stripping a couple of bits from it. A closer inspection the following day revealed it was a bit more complicated than that, as the saying goes...

That's a timer added to the end, with familiar time settings:

Yes, it's been modified to automatically record the daily cycle of shipping forecasts from Radio 4 long wave, and presumably was used on board ship, or at the very least a shore base in communication with sea traffic. Note, though, the very un-Radio 4 errant apostrophe. ;-)

Sofa so good...*

On Wednesday it was a sad day for saggy my old sofa, it got dismantled, yielding firewood, springs and some very nice firewood.

I spotted a date printed on the inside cheek.

Ah, 1975, it's forty years old, I thought.

Febuary, right, ok.

The 4th. What date is it today? It was the 4th.

Yep, my sofa last exactly forty years between construction and destruction. Kind of like a Logan's Run for furniture...

(* always happy to sacrifice meaning for the sake of a pun)

Something worth regretting

I largely agree with whoever said that the only things you can regret are the things not done... and not stopping atVirtual Orchard cider for a couple of bottles was one.

I passed this guy merrily stomping apples in a trailer, with crates of apples next to him. It was early Tues morning - not yet nine, possibly.

I asked him how much he loved his job - he grinned and held out his arms as wide as they would go...

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Edit - here's their view from the wharf that morning - well before I passed and ruined the view:

Another perfect morning down at the wharf... pic.twitter.com/NcnajKvUDJ

— Virtual Orchard (@VirtualOrchard) September 9, 2014

Photo Opportunity?

The weekend of 18th/19th Oct, the "Great Western Society, based at Didcot are running steam railmotor trips down the line from Southall to Brentford, which closely follows the route of the Grand Union down to Brentford.

(I've nicked their picture, but probably fair use, as this is a plug for their trip - book here)

These steam railmotors ran on branch lines such as this from the turn of the 20th century. My mind turned to this picture, I've mithered on about before.

So... if anyone with an old boat, who fancied lurking about at Three Bridges that weekend for the fun of having a few photos? Just a thought...

You don't have you be mad to work here...

One of the few things in Stratford not entirely based on some bloke who wrote plays ( or extracting money out of those here because of him) was another highlight of the trip - The Mechanical Art & Design Museum, full of various machines and automatons - imagine a particularly vivid dream after playing Mousetrap...

a moan about CRT

On Saturday afternoon, just below lock 50 on the Stratford Canal, we passed a CRT workboat, locked up, spewing noxious smoke across the canal. On closer inspection I guess it was some kind of webasto style heater running very inefficiently, also drizzling tar down the outside of the boat. It was all locked up, of course.

I called the CRT emergency number on the back of the licence holder - and got through to a call centre who apparently couldn't care less. They tried to end the conversation before I'd given them the boat details/description, for a start. However, I'd done what I could - what more could I do?

This morning - late Monday morning, that is - I passed the boat again - still stinking the place out, still locked up. Yes, that heater should have run safely unattended, but it seems in a right old state. It's probably running as I type - and who runs a heater in mid August anyway?

A Little Dark over Bill's Mothers

(Actually, we were pretty lucky with the weather this weekend, but when have I ever let reality get in the way of a good title)

This isn't Mary Arden's house, in Wilmcote. It's indeed a very nice old house in the parish of Wilmcote, a stone's throw from the Stratford Canal, but Shakespeare's mother grew up, it is thought, in the slightly less spectacular one next door. Nevertheless, it forms part of a rather endearing complex that represented our one monetary dalliance with the local bardic tourist industry.

You can read more, by clicking on the bit that says 'read more'...

The Herbies Were Right

You be right in thinking the title goes without saying, but this time they were even righter than usual: -) There i was, bumbling through middle england when i noticed the charge warning light was on. I shrugged mentally (read that in any way you wish), revved the engine, it went off, and i forgot about it - until the next time, and the next. After a while it wasn't staying off, it would be only off on high revs... I was approaching Calcutt locks, and there's a handy boatyard half way down. I tied up and now whatever i did, that pesky charge warning light stayed on. This was at 4.30; by the time they closed an hour later Tortoise had a new alternator, and i was very glad i hadn't decided to press on and try to see if i could sort it... So yes, the Herbies where right. I'd link to the right post but i'm on a new fangled infernal contraption - which is also why i'm making do with a poor pic (although i was impressed, i'd never seen it go that far before...

Thank you British Waterways*

So, these new knobby handle things on the paddle pawls (I bet there's a proper name for them, but hey, there's a picture) have an interesting feature; they're just the right height to get stuck up the leg of my boating shorts as I cross a lock gate. Thankfully any results were comedic rather than tragic, but it could have all gone horribly, horribly wrong...

* I know. But they title refers to a rather jolly (if unrepresentative) song by Philip Jeays, which you can listen to here - but do try things like Richenda or Idiots in Uniforms too. So, the title stays, until Phil writes a song about Banal Liver Rust, which I believe is a minor disease that cattle get, spread by white Range Rovers (never has a car colour been so pointless - would anyone take it anywhere near the mud?)

Modern Canals

two pictures...

the Slough Arm, or is it the Sargasso Sea?

In Uxbridge, the canal so shallow at the edge that this guy's dogs could paddle in it. Not swim, paddle. Picture taken with permission.

More positive posts to come, I'm sure... ;-)