Hello Hemel Hempstead

Today – Bourne End to The Fishery, Grand Union Canal, 2 miles 6 locks
Yesterday – Cowroast to Bourne End, Grand Union Canal, 4 miles 11 locks

I didn’t put yesterdays run in, nor did I put in THE pic of the totem pole, so I have put both in now

Before moving this morning went for a stroll with Lucy, while waiting for the layer of ice on the canal to melt, and coming up the locks was a most interesting boat called “Tiger”.  Aboard, solo, was Andrew, and we started chatting at the lock he was working through.  I asked if he had a home mooring, and his comment was “No I am a continuous cruiser, and I do it properly”  This reminded me of a blog posting Andrew Denny at Granny Buttons back in November when he passed through the same place on his way to London for Christmas.

I enquired as to whether there were still boats moored outside B & Q, as I read in Andrew’s (Granny B) blog that there seemed to be a community of boats not too keen on moving. Andrew’s (Tiger) reply, “Ah you mean the ‘continuous moorer cruisers’ along there”   So they were still there, which sounded like we wouldn’t be able to moor to pick up the kitchen worktop.

Andrew (Tiger) has been living aboard his narrowboat for 10 years now, and obviously enjoys his life to the full.  Over the ten years he has amassed quite a collection of what I can only really describe as ‘stuff’ found mainly on the canal bed.  He showed me his collection of very old windlasses (keys that open lock paddles to let water into a lock), some must have been from the days of the working boatman for sure.

He was in good spirits although his dog had died a few days ago, a companion of 16 years, he says he might do a massive spring clean, blaming the dog on his laziness to keep absolutely shipshape!  Hopefully we will catch up with him again on our return trip and see him with a new rescue dog from the nearby dog home.

We found a load of timber near one of the locks, got the chain saw out and spent a good hour collecting and stacking wood for the next few weeks.  I was surprised to see so much lying around, especially with so many moored boats round here, but wood is going to be hard to come by me thinks as we get nearer the Capital.

After mooring this evening thought I would stroll down to B & Q and see if there is anyway we can stop there in the morning.  Sure enough the boats were still hogging all of the space outside.  But I think we can just about get the back end in as we pass under the bridge just before.  I will have to be careful not to get stuck on the motor bike and lawn mower that I saw laying on the canal bed close to that bridge!