Leaving the big smoke

After a good family discussion around the round table the three of us decided that it would not be feasible to spend the winter months hanging out in London. I've not had a lot of luck with jobs I wanted and so to prevent hemorrhaging money where we've got none, we decided it is a good idea to get out of the big city.

By the looks of the mooring fees for winter we'd be looking at Paddington at £22 per foot or Hackney at £18 per foot. BW are being rather antagonistic in London about overstaying in area's requesting that you notify the local 'enforcement officers' if you get frozen in and can't move and they may still charge you, etc. Compare this to last winters mooring at £7ish per foot and no BW troops seen to hassle anyone.

We decided to go for a less stressful quality of life and on the flip of a coin, set off for a cruise. Delia put her point across stating that she would enjoy a little time spent in the countryside on a journey. We've decided to head back up the Grand Union Canal towards Birmingham. There maybe opportunity for work as last year, plus I can nip across to work in Nottingham for the day or two.

Delia came home from Saltdean a little bit fatter and happier from her holiday away. Today, however, we are wondering if she might like to return and stop being such a pain in the bum. She is enjoying the burner being on at the boat and is baking herself in front of it's red rays.

We set off on Friday morning from Paddington Basin and the change in scenery was dramatic....

This stretch to Uxbridge has no locks which made it a full day's cruising. We've been encountering problems with the gears when accelerating the throttle and thought it was the gear cable going. However after a guy from High Line Yachting came to do the job, we discovered that it is in fact the clutch belt that needs replacing. We are still no further than Cowley (just before Uxbridge) waiting to get the job fixed. Tomorrow, we should know a little more.

We are a little against the clock as on the 7th November, the winter stoppages begin and BW shuts access to some areas to do repairs. This might affect us further up the GUC but we have a plan B, as I'm learning we always need more than one plan in this lark.

On our first day's cruise, we passed a work boat and filled up the diesel as well as pumped out and got some coal. Just before we left, Dominic the owner showed me this quick and secure knot he had used to secure our boat to his...

Here is a step by step (and reminder for me!)

and to quickly undo just pull!