Signing off for the rest of the year.

Hello folks.



It's nearly November and we've brought Moonstone into the Saltisford Arm for the winter.

From now until March we'll only be floating out on an occasional (very) short trip; for the delectation of various visiting friends ... from as far as British Columbia and South Australia!

Since last May we have cruised: 844 miles of canals and rivers plus 37 miles of the North Sea; negotiated 573 locks (and over ten miles of tunnels!); visited castles and cathedrals, pubs and restaurants; met countless good-natured people; seen widely differing panoramas and vistas; and explored a great deal of our own country which we've never before encountered ... all from a point of view rarely experienced by visitors and tourists.

Now; before we hunker down for the non-cruising season; I'm adding the final episode - for this year - of Watery Peregrinations. For those of you who want to catch up from the earlier reports, just click on the appropriate month in the 'Blog Archive' at the r/h top of each page, or click on 'Older Posts' down at the bottom of each page.

Thanks to those of you who've written with comments or queries. Lyn and I will be back 'on the cut' in March; and I'll send a heads-up before we cast off!

Remember ... sometimes the light at the at the end of the tunnel ... 

is, actually, something coming the other way!

Good wishes to all of you. Tom.

Back to ‘narrow’ locks!

Apropos of nothing: we observed this in the cafe at Foxton Locks ... 

 ... and that's too good for them!

For the past couple of years; and for most of this Watery Peregrinations expedition; we’ve been experiencing ‘wide’ locks. ‘Wide’; in this instance; means locks about 14’ or wider, though – for the most part – still around 72’ in length. As Moonstone has a beam of barely 7’, wide locks are handy for two boats to share a lock, and imperative for a ‘wide-beam’ boat (i.e. wider than 7 feet). However; when there is just a single narrowboat negotiating a wide lock, the inconveniences become apparent. Rather than being encompassed, snugly, by the wall of the lock just inches on either side; the turbulence of the moving water requires that a line be secured on the shore – and attended to – whilst the boat rises and falls and attempts to drift sideways in the lock chamber. Additionally; the lock-gates (doors) are much larger on wide locks, hence much heavier for us to manoeuvre.

Nearly all of the locks in the southern part (England, South of Birmingham) of the canal and river system are of the wide variety and are – at least by your narrator and his travelling companion - not so well favoured as the narrow variety. On the way down the Northampton Flight; between the Grand Union Canal (Main Line) and the River Nene; all 17 locks were ‘narrow’; though the locks on the Great Ouse system where; in some cases; enormous. Likewise; all the locks on the Foss Dyke Navigation, The River Trent and its tributaries and, latterly, the Grand Union Canal; have been wide locks. We were surprised, and delighted, to arrive at Foxton to find that the flight was comprised of narrow locks.

Foxton was a famous (infamous?) ‘choke point’ on the system, in the 19th. and early 20th. century; by reason of the 10 locks being a mere 7’ 4” wide and arranged as a ‘staircase’ (immediately out of one chamber and into the next; with no passing facility.) This arrangement was hugely inconvenient, and inefficient; so much so, that the canal company devised a scheme to use (then) cutting-edge technology to by-pass the flight. This entailed the construction of a steam-driven contraption called the Foxton Inclined Plane to haul boats up the hill. The technology was, sadly, TOO 'cutting-edge' and did not live up to expectations. Consequently; it operated for a mere 12 years. Now that barely a skeleton of the original remains, this video of a model representation is the best illustration of its workings. Of course; there is an active society to re-install a full-size, working replica!!!

The horses which towed the canal-boats are memorialized in bronze

There are 3 tunnels on this stretch of the canal ... here's a shot of one ... 

There have been three tunnels over the past two days of travelling; totalling over two miles!

Ta-ta for now.

The season of mists and mellow fruitfulness ...

 ... to quote from: Ode to Autumn; by John Keats.

We're still enjoying fabulous autumnal weather -broken by just one day of rain (This is Britain, after all!); with foggy mornings giving way to sunny afternoons; or still, quiet mornings, with waters like mirrors.

I realise that you've seen plenty of castles in these reports ... but mooring right below the walls of this one, in Newark was quite special.

We're through Leicester (pronounced: lester); a singularly unprepossessing conurbation;

and our next objective is the famous Foxton Locks complex. More about that next time.

Hope you are all well and happy ... we are!

To Lincoln ... and beyond!

In my (childish) mind, Lincoln is inextricably linked to Robin Hood (The Merry Men wore 'Lincoln Green', y'know); and thence to Nottingham. Coincidentally; that's the route we've just taken. We're moored in Nottingham, but most of this edition relates to our exploration of the lovely old city of Lincoln. The images in the previous edition of this (b)Log were all taken by Tony O'Neill; I, having managed by dint of unbelievable prestidigitation. to erase all the photos I had taken on my own camera!!!  (Read: 'finger stupidity'.)

You may note that - unusually, for a Brit - I rarely comment on the weather. However ... the past week has been glorious ... most un-English weather. Quietly misty mornings, morphing into cloudless skys and mere mild zephyrs of breezes. I'll stop now and go for a lie-down. Canals, rivers, and all waterways, seem irresistibly attractive to our arachnid friends; a condition with which Lyn (a life-long arachnophobe) has been learning to come to terms. Proof of her acclimatization is that her finger was pressing the shutter for this first picture - taken on a beautiful, dew-laden morning ... 

Lincoln is a fabulous exemplar of Middle ages England and its architecture. Viz ...

LINCOLN CASTLE

... AND OPPOSITE ... THE ENTRANCE TO THE CATHEDRAL

N.B. the 'cloudless sky', about which I waxed lyrical.

THE METICULOUSNESS OF THE MEDIEVAL MASONS IS BREATHTAKING

As a long-time fan of Ken Follett's: PILLARS OF THE EARTH; I was enthralled with this opportunity. (8-part TV mini-series is highly recommended.) However; my admiration for the engineering splendour of flying buttresses was crushed when I learned that

 these were solely cosmetic!

However; my appreciation of the era was salvaged by our perambulations around the this photogenic remnant of a bygone age ... still a living part of a modern city.

And so ... onward up the Fossdyke navigation - only one thousand, eight hundred years old - towards the mighty (by British Standards) River Trent, Newark, and Nottingham ... next time.