Having turned around the evening before, we are now heading back up the Grand Union. A sunny morning, we set off at 9.30am and start off going through Fishery Lock, alone as there are no boats about. In the morning we do meet a few boats oncoming, but continue to go up singly, not meeting any boats “going our way”. We speedily go by Winkwell and its Swing Bridge, meet a boat in the next lock (always nice as you don’t have to set the lock first). Since we were going up singly we could speed up through the locks - once the lock gates are closed you simply hold the boat fast on a lockside bollard and crank the sluices open. Doing this brings a torrent of water in, but so long as you keep the boat tight up then it doesn’t move about. I usually stand on the roof and use the middle rope to keep the boat against the side, adjusting constantly as the boat rises. It does look nice on the video too, though as we were not in a rush we only did it a couple of times.

The locks here have lower bottom gates so that when the lock is full it cascades over them - I guess this allows more water to flow down stream, but I could see a problem if boats left top gates open as it would shave an inch or three off of the water level in the pound between! The towpath crosses sides at Bridge 141 in Berkhamsted, so we paused briefly to pick up crew from one bank and deposit them on the other. Again we met boats coming down, and once we passed through Gas Lock 2 & 1 we moored up for lunch as it was almost 2pm.

Once we had refuelled ourselves, we made most of the sun and set off again. At some point we needed to have a pump-out. We could go a week or so, and whilst you could probably get away with lasting the whole 11 days, it wasn’t worth the risk leaving it (no pleasure in having to search for a boatyard when the tank is full) so decided once we found somewhere would get it done. As it turns out the Marina at Cow Roast has a self pump-out. So in we popped aided by the cross-wind, and then twenty minutes later just a quick manoeuvre of reverse and turn into the strong cross-wind and we were back out onto the cut.

It was now 16:45 and time to think about how long we were going to go. Off we went, zooming to Tring, and as we didn’t fancy stopping in a cutting we carried on. The Bulbourne Locks close at 5pm (part of the cunning plan to stop transmission of the nocturnal Blue-Green algae that likes to go on its jollies in the late evening only to find its scuppered by locked locks) and we would be cutting it fine if we wanted to go up. So instead we stopped at the Visitor Moorings near the BW Workshops. There is a pub here, so we could go out for a meal & drink, and it has free wifi so I could check my email. Cool, booze, grub, and surfing.

Thursday 13th September 2007: Today was the half way point of our holiday, so no matter what we needed to turn around at some point - though as we had gone up the Wendover Arm and had a couple of short cruising days, then it needn’t be during the day. It was a bright sunny morning so not wasting time we set off. Not for long as we came across a boat across the canal, which we at first thought was someone in trouble, until not seeing anyone shouting, waving arms or prancing back and forth with a barge pole realised it was a loose boat. So stopping we got off and went to secure the boat - the pin had been pulled out, probably one too many boats not slowing down. The hire boat coming the other way decided to squeeze past without a word - is cowroast a dodgy area? They’d have wound up their windows and push the door locks down if they could .

So after filling the empty Lock 47 (now we know why they sped off ) we went in, down and then into the full lock 48 (that’s a strange one, two locks the top was empty, so assume a boat had come down but the bottom full as if one had come up, but none in between??). This is a nice stretch of canal down through Berkhamsted, several locks mostly in pairs with a short pound in between. The town doesn’t encroach on it, much until you get into the town centre as it passes the railway station, but then only for a brief period. We caught up with a boat we’d met at Little Tring (Wendover Arm), they stayed there whilst we set off.

At lock 56 a heron had also heard about my time lapse videos, and wanting its 15 minutes of fame and flew over to the bank next to the lock and directly in front of the boat! Now those of you who have been on the UK canals will, if you’ve encountered herons, know they are usually more concerned at playing tag with boats - sitting on a bank/tree/etc until the bow of your boat draws level and then flying off a hundred or so yards and waiting for you to catch up, before again flying ahead. I suppose this heron could have been waiting for the bow of my moored boat to reach it, but I was surprised that it was quite tolerant of people walking by - I guess it was star struck. I guess news of my trip must have spread as two locks down, and low and behold we have a swan waiting by the lock and I could swear I heard it hiss “hello mum”. Next up Foam Lock, okay lock 59 isn’t named as such so maybe there’s a new boating campaign “hands that do lock winding can feel soft as your face, with mild green … “.

The morning sun continued, hard to believe that it’s the UK in September! We went through Winkwell, past Boxmoor, and thought about stopping at some point - near one of the supermarkets, preferably. Well according to my map there’s one at Lock 66, so we went down the lock and as there was just about enough room to wind here, passed a boat coming into the lock we just vacated before quickly turning and following them into the lock. There are moorings outside the supermarket below the lock, but the water point above meant that I could fill up the water tank whilst the crew went on the supply run.

It was mid afternoon and we could go back to Boxmoor, Winkwell, or even further … except … we went up through Lock 65 and as I was steering the boat into Lock 64 the engine cut out as something big had got hold of the propeller and wasn’t letting go! I’m just glad I was going very slow at the time since there was no way to stop the boat - I needed help of the lock sill for that. After a quick rummage down the weed hatch I found it was some sort of big sheet - well we may as well fill the lock - easier that way. It turned out to be a tent - one with a zipper opening and lines attached, and took around an hour to painstakingly remove. By now it was starting to get dark, and we just needed to find a mooring spot. The towpath side was fairly shallow here, and although we probably could have gone on the offside where the park area was, we carried on to just before Fishery Lock and moored in a space between two boats. Time to hit the pub.

Watch this video blog on the Youtube picture above or check my Stage6 page for higher quality/resolution versions.

A recent post by Andrew of Granny Buttons reminded me I had taken some similar “curious cows” photo’s a few years ago when we were going through a lock. So intent where they with watching that I had time to get off the boat as it was rising in the lock to take several shots!

I  wonder if its just that they have nothing to do all day apart from munching grass so it seems like a bit of excitement to them, maybe they are trying to fathom out how the boat goes up and down, or even whether two of them could fit in a semi-trad stern end and how they’d operate a windless?

So far I had worked out a good routine of doing my video-blogs. On the trips themselves its just a matter of setting the camera up and changing the battery every 2 hours (or just under) - this at least means it has minimal interference with the “holiday”; capturing the “video” doesn’t take over the holiday allowing you to enjoy the scenery, the peace, and the donning/shedding of waterproofs as is a necessity whilst outdoors in the British “summer”.

When I get home, I have a straight forward to produce the videos, using a few pieces of software, so that I can spend the time fiddling with how it looks (titles, etc.) and converting video when I’m off doing something. That is, until now. Producing the latest part (13th Sept) was going fine, all the preparation was done and I’d spent some time refining techniques (this video has a moving map like the 12th did but now the map moves too), but I couldn’t get the video to render out.

I’ve got the “export error- failed to return a video frame.” problem that seems to have several solutions. It seems to usually be based with source material. So I recreated the video segments (from the still shots) and still had no luck. I even tried exporting segments, which worked, with the idea of joining them up afterwards. This had two problems, the first is there was a slight pause where the segments joined, and second it still crashed on one segment. So through a series of iterations I exported a smaller and smaller piece until I got it down to under half a second. After cutting and deleting this segment it worked. Now I suppose I could have pulled the two halves together but the video was of entering a lock so would have looked like the boat jumped in. Still, not a problem but instead I created a small video clip from the 5 original photos that then fitted in the gap. Now the strange thing is they were the same photos that caused the problem, and compiled into a video sequence using the same software, but this time it worked. I can only think that even though I had tried re-compiling the whole segment from images, somehow Premiere got confused and associated the new complete clip with the old bugged one (maybe a memory bug??). Still glad that got sorted.

Hmm, seems I missed a day out …

Tuesday 11th September 2007: A trip from Leighton Buzzard to Marsworth. It was a sunny morning and we didn’t set off straight away, but as it was quiet thought we may as well enjoy the sun in a leisurely cruise. There’s seems to be a big redevelopment going on with several apartment blocks going up in Linsade and turning the old railway line into a cycleway will make it more appealing to those escaping the car. Went through Grove Lock and Church Lock singly, just met a couple of boats oncoming, but a fairly quiet stretch.

We carried on until Marsworth, stopping there at around 4.30pm and deciding to stop. Nice day, but not really eventful. Anyway, you can watch the trip for yourself.

Wednesday 12th September: Almost half way through our holiday, so maybe a trip down Aylesbury Arm. Hmm nope its locked - the dreaded Blue-Green Algae means only boats with moorings in the basin are allowed down! So much for the notices saying you just need to phone ahead.

Okay in reverse gear and turn to go up the GUC a bit further. Having stopped over last night and having a walk to Little Tring on the Wendover arm I thought we could go down there. We went up Marsworth locks by ourselves, everyone else deciding to come down - though traffic was light in both directions. This made a change, but there was quite a few walkers out - I guess it makes a nice stretch to stroll along. When we got up to the Tring summit you don’t see any signs about the restoration of the Arm, just the signpost pointing the direction of the Arm stating its original mileage and a BW notice on the bridge saying 1.5 miles is navigable. So I guess anyone with a map that doesn’t show the restoration, might be put off thinking winding may be hard or that they have to reverse up part of it.

Up the Arm we went, and promptly met a boat coming down - hmm not as secluded as I expected! A lot of “disused” arms usually get silted up, overgrown, or plastered in boats wanting mooring spots. This Arm has a nice rural feel, the slightly overgrown banks on the initial stretch don’t seem great to moor on (but why would you having just gone on it) but only as much as the main GUC line is on rural stretches. You pass an overflow into the canal, that’s actually a feed from the reservoir to pump water into the Tring summit level. Once round bridge 2 and a deceptively sharp turn the scene briefly turns into an industrial stretch with a couple of factories before once again you are back in a rural scene and easily pass the winding hole. Obviously not an official one but just where a stream feeds in and for 101 years the only place for die-hards to turn their boat on an adventure up the canal.

Next up we have the pumping station and round the bend the stop lock, now fixed open (with one pair of gates removed). Onwards through the reconstructed Little Tring bridge the canal becomes concrete lined. Visitor moorings here and a noticeboard outlining the restoration stages look nice, and just beyond a winding hole on the bend, so round we turned and then moored at the end for a spot of lunch. I had hoped to walk along the canal a bit further, but it was fenced off - either as a construction or maybe a public right of way path has yet to be agreed?

We had a respite of a few hours before deciding, at 4pm to head off back down and onto a spot to turn.

Off we went past the BW workshop and out into a nice wooded stretch of canal - that includes a tree blocking part of the canal - just enough room to squeeze past (a boat had warned us and informed us they’d phoned BW). It was a nice afternoon to be out boating, and we soon reached Cowroast Lock. Since we’d be heading back tomorrow we thought here would be as good a place to moor, so we turned and then moored back up on the visitor moorings. After noticing a no-fishing sign we set back off and thought we’d go through the lock - the boat is just pointing in the wrong direction - so backwards it be!! I suppose I could have gone down the lock backwards too, but I turned and went down normally. We then moored below the lock that allowed my father to do his spot of fishing.