From john@johnpb.demon.co.uk Thu May 6 21:08:09 1999 Date: Sat, 18 Jul 1998 00:46:45 +0100 From: John Bennett Reply-To: canals@blacksheep.org To: canals@blacksheep.org Subject: K & A Interim Trip report - (very long ) I'm posting this in one go "blind" to the list as my mobile link is very unreliable and I've got a good signal here. Unfortunately it's just not practical to download either the list or ng so I won't see any followups unless they're copied as personal Email. I'm now exactly half way through what was intended to be a return trip from Bristol to London. Sadly I've run out of time and will have to turn round (no worry about winding holes) and head back tomorrow. I'm writing this from a very expensive 24 hour mooring at Henley on Thames, really a most delightful place and some consolation for my failure to get all the way to London! There are hardly any boat movements anywhere on the K&A at the moment for some reason, which doesn't make working single-handed any easier. However as the convention on most of the K&A is to leave locks empty this does help a lot when locking up. I spent the first night at Seminton, 100 yards from the defunct junction with the Wilts & Berks canal. It's rather sad there and obviously it will be a considerable task to restore this end of the W & Berks. Problems were not to be far away. As I put the power on, coming out of Seend Lock, there was a horrible bang and the engine stopped dead! Visions of my trip being expensively cut very short with a broken engine thankfully proved unfounded when Dick on nb "Talifoo", who I was sharing the lock with, noticed that one of my centre ropes was tightly secured to something underneath the boat! Dick towed me the hundred yards or so to a most convenient mooring right outside the Barge Inn. I'd been dreading this moment ever since I bought "Jake B" a couple of Months ago but now I had to explore the very inaccessible weedhatch. With great difficulty (and some pain) I managed to remove the hatch and unwind said rope from the prop shaft. The engine, transmission (and even the rope) appeared undamaged. Lesson learnt (or so I thought)! The Caen Hill flight at Devizes was completed the next day and paired with another boat it isn't so much arduous as time-consuming. At Devizes Wharf I met up with John and Briony on wb "Stokie" and the next few days were most interesting. They were on their way to Aldermaston to tow "Longton", a historic wooden ex-FMC boat, to Honeystreet where it will be renovated and they invited me to come with them. There was also a ton of coal to deliver on the way. We left together in convoy but after a short while I realised the boat was taking in a lot of water - leaking weedhatch due to no seal was quickly diagnosed:-( It would appear that this was due to having removed it earlier and breaking the "rust seal"! Fortunately George Gibson's boatyard at Honeystreet was most helpful and ground the rust off the hatch cover. Luckily a fellow boater just happened to have some of the sealing strips on board. 2 more visits to the bilge and Jake B was watertight again. I was very glad this hadn't happened on the River Avon a week earlier! The following days we motored on relentlessly (passing several canalside pubs that I noted should be visited on the return jouney) mooring up at night at Pewsey Wharf, Oakhill Down and Newbury. wb "Lupin" was moored at Newbury awaiting orders to proceed with fibreway work. Apparently she has been contracted for use as a floating "tea hut" for the workers! Next stop Froudes Bridge, where a ton of coal was removed from Stokie's hold and duly carted in wheebarrow and sack trucks along the towpath, up the road and the bags emptied into the customer's coal cellar. This was my first taste of being a "working boatman" and my back ached for 2 days;-) Aldermaston is only 15 minutes away and we finally got to see "Longton". Many gallons of water were pumped out of her and John spent a day fabricating a tiller arm from a lenth of wood, temporarily "trimming" her up with bags of coal and ensuring she was in a satisfactory condition for the journey to Honeystreet. I saw Stokie and Longton off the next day and continued on to Reading, now feeling quite lonely after a very pleasant week spent with John and Briony. There are several large swing bridges on this section, some automatic, which involve stopping traffic on some quite busy roads. Fortunately the queuing drivers seem to be more bemused than impatient, watching a lone boater trying to work out how to open and close the bridges;-) I suppose Reading will be quite nice when they've finished building it?;-) The canal in the Town centre is bounded on all sides by the shells of the most enormous building project I've ever seen! Spotted what must be the Swann's boats in Reading, but I've seen no cut web symbols on boats at all yet. What a contrast it is coming out of Reading onto the Thames, wide and magnificent (and the sun was shining as well for a change). I've now traversed every inch of the K&A and it really is a most beautiful and interesting waterway. Only 100 locks to go now before I get home!;-) Cheers John -- John Bennett nb "Jake B" mailto:john@johnpb.demon.co.uk moored at Henley on Thames