Paint it black
One little job that has been going on is painting the hatches black. This has taken place over the last few weeks when time and the weather have permitted. The finished result doesn't look too bad as shown here.

Continuing with the black theme is a new kettle bought for me by my sister as an early christmas present. In recent years there seems to have been a slight pattern of Beck buying me things that never get used. Some of them have gone on to enhance peoples lives in exotic locations such as Reading and Frankfurt. Still, I've actually used this and have even made Mary a cup of tea with it.

Now I can put it on ebay (just kidding).

The final black thing is this moorhen (coot actually, see comments), one of several that cruise around here.

Time
I've been thinking its a while since my last update, I was hoping that more would've happened (on the boat front), but a social whirlwind of weddings/parties (well, one of each)has prevented much boat activity. There has been some painting of hatches going on, I also lined the hatches to try and keep the cold out. Further insulation is planned before it gets too cold, some of the original insulation will get replaced with more modern materials.

I've also been working on trimming the lower part of the side hatches, two down, one to go.

Somewhat out of sync, here is a picture of IRIS arriving in her new home a few weeks ago.

So far its seemed pretty nice there. A big supermarket and a DIY store are five minutes walk away, and driving wise its closer to the office and central London.

'Give me convenience or give me death' - who said that?

London calling
Well, I'm finally here in IRIS at her new mooring in West London at Willowtree Marina. We got the boat here lat last sunday afternoon after about 6 hours coming up the canal from Brentford, there were 10 locks to go through. Apparently it was hard work, which I managed to avoid by playing the 'I need to drive the boat' card. Mary did it all really. Still, it'll keep her fit.

The trip from Penton Hook to Brentford was not without problems. I arrived there last friday night and had a pleasant evening watching the sun set etc. I was up at 6:00-ish on saturday morning and was underway by 7:10am. The Thames was lovely at that time with the sun coming up and the water completely still.

My aim was to be at Teddington locks where the tidal part of the river starts by 13:00 in order to catch the tide. I was there at 11:30, but was told that the river was shutting at 12:15 in order to allow a boat race to start ( the great river race). I rushed through the lock and was down by Eel Pie island when I was stopped by a Port of London Authority boat and told to wait. It turns out I had to wait for almost two hours while they started various boats off racing down the river.

I had actually decided to head back to Teddington, as I barely had one hour to get to Brentford lock before it shut for the day. I phoned the lockeeper at Brentford to let him know and he told me that the Thames would also be shut on sunday, as they were closing the Thames barrier and there would be no tide in the river!

So I turned round and ran flat out for 50 minutes in order to get there. This is all relative, but for a canal boat it was fast as the tide was ebbing too. In fact I was worried I'd be carried past Brentford and out to sea, as the boat may not have enough power to turn round and go into the lock.

I made it to Brenford lock at about 15:12 - the lock closed at 15:15. Still, nothing like a little drama eh?

Farewell Reading

I've lived round the Reading area for about 5 or so years now. It wasn't really planned, just worked out that way. Anyhow, for a number of reasons, its time to move inside the comforting embrace of the M25.

Famous citizens of Reading include Kate Winslet and Cabin Boy Mat, there are probably more, but they're the only ones I remember.

So last saturday morning, we waved goodbye to my neighbour Dave and headed out of the marina.

It was also time for a last look at the twin (gas) towers, will I see the likes of their rusty magnificence again?

It was a long trip down the Thames over two days, I think we did about 28 miles on the first day, passing through the center of the known universe Henley. This is IRIS going under one of the arches of Henley bridge.

Speaking of bridges, there was this impressive one in Marlow, sort of like a mini-Clifton bridge.

This is another I K Brunel wonder (did he never relax?), apparently its the widest single span brick bridge ever, still being used by loads of trains, most of them only slightly newer than the bridge itself.

Windsor was interesting the next day, loads of tourists wandering around. They may have taken the UK as a theme park concept too far with the ferris wheel though.

Finally we ended up at Penton Hook lock where we left IRIS for the week.

I've just returned, getting up early tomorrow to do the final leg on the Thames (including the tidal part to Brentford), then it'll be onto the Grand Union canal.

Rest of the trip
The rest of our trip didn't go quite as planned. The Environment Agency (which looks after the Thames) has a couple of warning boards they put out at locks to indicate conditions on the river. Yellow means proceed with caution, and every lock we went through had one of these until we reached Northmoor lock, one of the remotest on the river. Here the lockeeper handed me a red card, to match the red boards he'd hung out. This advised us not to continue navigating the river until the stream had abated.

Since the flood in july, the land is so waterlogged that every time it rains, its runs off into the river and causes increased flow. This picture shows how high the waters had been.

After thinking about it over a cup of coffee, I decided it would be a good idea to listen to the advice of the EA and stop there. We moved IRIS forward out of the lock onto the waiting moorings just upstream. There were a few other boats trapped there too, a German family on a hire boat and an old couple on a little 20ft cruiser. They'd apparently been stuck on the river at various points for five weeks. The old boy seemed to be reveling in it - very much the battle of Britain spirit. However when his wife started to tell Mary about their sanitary arrangements (or lack thereof), Mary made her excuses and hid below. Here is IRIS on the lock mooring, with the 'red board' on the right.

I optimistically hoped that we could proceed the next day (friday) as we were trying to get to Lechlade in time to meet my sister and her family who were coming up camping for the weekend by the river. However, it soon became clear that we weren't going to be going anywhere soon. We arranged for my brother in law Steve to come and get us and we could join everyone in our tent, which luckily was on the boat. In the meantime, the sun shone and we did some more painting.

Camping in Lechlade wan't much better really, it rained or was overcast the whole time, but we entertained ourselves. My nephews had not been camping before and were quite excited about the whole thing. We introduced them to the concept of 'wine pillows' - as in inside each box of wine is a magic pillow that can be used (once the previous contents have been emptied) for a variety of purposes. I hope they'll remember that when they're students. Dave Williams was the inspiration behind this one, many years ago in NZ.

Here Mary and William are modeling the translucent variety.

I wandered down on saturday afternoon while Steve went fishing to see St. Johns lock, the last on the Thames. The old man of the river was there, so I complained about the summer, but got no response.

William and I also found this nice bike. Could I look any more suspicious?

Mary's brother Steve came up from London for the saturday night and we all went out for a curry, apparently the same place Kate Moss goes to when she's up this way. The boys had never been to a curry house before, so all in all it was a big weekend for them. I think they enjoyed the experience.

After brunch on sunday at another Kate Moss local - the Black Cat Cafe, we all headed back to the boat, had a cup of coffee and then the others left Mary and I to sit it out.

The relief lockeeper seemed quite keen for us to move on, so as the river was only on yellow boards downstream, we headed back to Pinkhill at a much higher speed now we had the current with us.

We were joined on monday morning by Nev, who was on his way back from working at the V festival. He stayed to help us back down through Osney, which had only just come off red boards that morning, so was still going very fast. This is us at Kings Lock (I think).

I don't think this picture really captures the thrill and terror of piloting a 16 ton boat down a narrow fast moving river with side currents from weirs etc. but you'll have to take my word for it. It was kind of scary, mainly as once committed, there wasn't really any easy way we could stop. Mary and Nev had phoned ahead so the lock was open and ready for us, so we didn't get pulled onto the weir by slowing down.

Once that was out of the way, things became easier. We cruised downriver and found a mooring for the night 30 feet from a pub - how handy. Nev decided to stay the night, and so became the first person to try out the guest accommodation. Here Nev demonstrates while I light some candles to set the scene.

Nev left the next day (was it something I said?) and we carried on downriver. The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful, apart from the fact that the good weather never materialised. We stopped in Goring for the last night, mooring just in front of the lock.

After that, it was back to Reading and then the three day festival, culminating with Nine Inch Nails and the Smashing Pumpkins on the sunday night. All very Rock'n'Roll.