In the end we had a few good days at the park moorings at Yeading. We were told about dog fights and unruly behaviour ,but in the end we enjoyed our stay and even had a few field mushrooms from the football pitches above our mooring.
Beware if this boat ever speeds past you . For some bizarre reason it will not slow down when passing moored boats . What's even more bizarre is that it’s a Canal and River Trusts boat who’s rule states, pass all moored boats on Tick over. In total it went past us 4 times over the next week or so and speeding every time. Once it even had a senior manager from CRT on board ,obviously out on a jolly !!!!! Needless to say I have put a complaint in. Watch this space..
Time to move and we pulled pins at 08.10 and with the need for water after doing four or five loads of washing after our time in London, we tried to stop on this new water point on the Paddington arm. Believe it or not there is a tap in the middle of all those Swans.We tried to get in ,but just had a load of abuse from the angry hissing Swans. The problem is that although there’s a sign saying do not feed the Birds the local Asian community come down with sacks full of food to feed them.
Moving on and luckily we managed to get on the water point at Bulls bridge. This is a first for us as every other time we have been this way there has been boats moored on the points.
The first time we came down to London this Factory at Hayes was in full production producing Coffee. In its heyday in the 1950s, the factory employed some 2,000 people. Many of those currently working there have done so for more than 25 years.But unfortunately it is now closed and the site has been bought by a property developer.
Reaching Cowley and it was always our plan to turn left and head up the Slough branch as it’s an arm we have never done. We turned in to the arm and then looked at all the weed in the canal. After mooring just past the arm we walked up to see that it was weed from bank to bank and after talking to a local boater we decided to give it a miss.
Never mind we picked up this mooring opposite Packet boat marina where we will spend a week or so. With Uxbridge only a short Bus ride away Carolyn is more than happy to stop here.
As well as shopping and spending all my our money Carolyn is also in to keep fit and if she can she will join a group where ever we are. At Uxbridge they run this work out session in the local park which is run by an ex Army Instructor. Not being a lazy old Git like me she soon joined up and enjoyed her time working out. It looks like this will do us until we are ready to continue our journey North
Happy Days
Hi Gary,
ReplyDeleteI think you mentioned some time ago that Carolyn has a windlass holster. Santa is making his lists and is wondering which sort she has - does it have an anti-vandal key attachment too?
Debby
Hi Debby , This is all that Carolyn has.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.google.co.uk/search?q=wondlass+holder&rlz=1C9BKJA_enGB666GB666&oq=wondlass+holder&aqs=chrome..69i57.9139j0j4&hl=en-GB&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#imgrc=sA6NBHbp8wu56M%3A
The only time that we have really found the need to use the anti-vandal key is when we were up the Erewash. I think it was about £ 7 . Do a good stocking filler !!!
As one of the volunteers who sometimes drives CRT boat Jena, I am sorry to hear that she passed you at an unacceptable speed. One or two "trainee drivers" have been on the boat recently so maybe it was one of them. I can't recognise who it is from the photo, a number of us are old enough to have grey hair, and old enough to know better than to speed past moored boats! I will pass on your complaint to my colleagues and call for improved behaviour. I suspect that the senior CRT person on board was not on a jolly, but in the last couple of weeks they were going up and down between Brentford and Ricky, looking at mooring locations. If you would like to let me know what date the incident(s) occurred I might be able to home in on who was driving that day.
ReplyDeleteHi Neil , Many thanks for your comment . The picture on the blog of Jena was at the beginning of the Month and was at the park moorings at Yeading . As you can see from the wash from his prop he wasn't hanging around. The next time was when we were moored at Cowley . Not as fast as the first time ,but nowhere near tick over speed .I referred to it as a Jolly because that's what it looked like. There were 8 CRT staff / volunteers on board including Matthew Symonds. There is in fact a picture on one of the Facebook boating groups of them going up Denham lock on that day ,I think about the 8 th November. I think the problem is that the person steering doesent realise what an effect it has on moored boats , Jena is a big boat and so has a big displacement which at speed is what causes the problems. I probably wouldn't have mentioned it on the blog ,except for CRT have just done a survey about speeding boats and in the last few days have released their findings, where I think most people said tick over past moored boats should be common practice ..
ReplyDeleteKind regards Gary
Thanks Gary. I passed on details of your complaint to fellow volunteers and CRT staff today, and judging by the flurry of emails it generated it has not gone unheeded. One of the volunteers reported seeing Inca adrift at one point and stopping to pin her back in, so maybe we weren't the only boat causing the problem. Anyhow, we have all reminded ourselves to be more careful.As you say Jena is a big boat and she can create a lot more wash than a narrow boat would at the same speed.
ReplyDeleteCheers
Neil
Many thanks Neil , Your actions are much appreciated .....
DeleteGary and Carolyn