Another five weeks have dragged themselves boringly past. With one very bright spot I will write about later.
The hernia operation went well but I was ordered to do nothing but sit in a chair for the first two weeks, slightly less sitting in the chair for weeks three and four, less chair still for weeks five and six until TaRa!! by week seven I should be back to normal, although many would dispute the term “normal” to describe me.
The bright spot I mentioned earlier was a visit by pals Jan and Pete Caulfield who came for a weekend (stayed in a local B & B not on the boat) but came on a trip from the marina to Braunston and back a trip of twenty minutes each way in the car but at least two hours each way on the boat, but I know which is the more enjoyable. Particularly as, because of my convalescent needs, I just stood at the helm and let the others do all the hard work. Peter had a go at helming and did very well, it’s not easy the first time you helm a 52 foot long narrowboat in a canal generally 20/30 feet wide but at times just 10 feet wide, that twists and turns like a drunken snake .
Captain Pete
Peter has a YouTube channel - Grey Matters - and he has uploaded a 5 minute “catch up" video that I have added below
You can see part one of the interview Peter refered to here and part two here and to see other Greay Matters videos click here
I’ve also been passing the time doing a little fishing, had quite a lot of early success but that may have been the guy in the boat next door feeding a swim at
The (first) result of my first fishing trip since the 1960’s
the back of our boats for a few days before I started. Since he went home my luck has been far less.
The swans cygnets are, as said in the previous blog, now very big although still being carefully tended by their parents and all nine have survived. Sadly that has not been the case with the other birds, the coot pair that visit us regularly started with around eight chicks but are now down to two, the local crested grebe family started with five chicks and is now down to just one and the mallard duck mother (the father seems to have taken no part in chick upbringing) is down from five to a single chick.
We are waiting for the marina to do a couple of jobs, blimey they could tgive lesson on mañana to the Spanish. They have been “mañanaing" us since 13th April and we have now told them we are leaving on Monday 5th July whether or no the work has been done which has elicited a solemn promise that they will “probably” get it done. I leave you to draw your own conclusions and will not be holding my breath.
We have asked a pal, Mark, to come with us when we set off as my six weeks convalescence are not yet up and he can help us with the heavy work and, as he is a very experienced canal boater, he can hopefully pass on some hints and tips to make us more narrowboat proficient. He has said the jobs we have asked the marina to do are all within his skill set and we should cancel our instruction to the marina and he will do them as we travel. We are however fascinated to see if mañana (translation from Spanish - tomorrow) will become hoy día (translation from Spanish - today now) before we leave.
When we leave the plan, at the moment, is to travel south down the Grand Union Canal through London to the Lee Navigation. It may of course change in the next few days as it has changed in the last few.
I have done a route from Calcutt Marina to Bishop’s Stortford on the CanalPlanAC website about which CanalPlanAC say:-
“ . . . This is made up of 114 miles, 23⁄4 furlongs of broad canals; 11 miles, 3⁄4 furlongs of commercial waterways; 19 miles, 7 furlongs of small rivers; 125 broad locks; 7 large locks.
This will take 76 hours, 31 minutes which is 15 days, 1 hour and 31 minutes at 5 hours per day. For initial calculation purposes (before adjusting for such things as overnight stops) this is taken as 15 days of 5 hours and 6 minutes each . . . “
In summary thats around 145 miles with 132 locks and will take 76.5 hours. That averages out at 1.9 miles per hour. It will be fascinating to see the actual figures.
The route plan can be viewed by clicking here. Most browsers will open the attached pdf file in a new window but some may download it to your computer it all depends on the browser you are using.
This will give an average travelling speed of 1.49mph, while an average walking speed for our age group would be double that giving us lots time to stop and stare, it should be a good trip which we hope to relate on this site.