Farncombe Boat House

Travelling back from a weekend seeing family, we stopped at Farncombe Boat House on the River Wey for lunch.  On the other side of the road is Farncombe Lock, the most southerly on the river.

After lunch, we walked the short distance along the towpath to Godalming Wharf, the head of navigation.

Norbury Junction Streetview

View Larger Map

Google Streetview has gone nationwide, and includes a nice shot of Norbury Junction. Given the number of boats in the basin, I'd guess that the shot was taken on a Friday, the OwnerShips handover day. Unfortunately the picture isn't good enough to see whether Debdale is there.

Braunston

A visit to Braunston yesterday, in the bitter cold.  The trip was primarily to see Caxton undergoing its stretch, but there was also time to chat to Dave Taylor of OwnerShips, and have lunch with Lesley and Joe at the Old Plough.  It was trying to snow by the time I left; further south it was snowing quite heavily.

Sarah's sticker album

Sarah from Warrior and now Chertsey has started a new blog, the Town Class Sticker Album, where she's trying to spot and photograph all the Town Class GUCC boats. It made me wonder how many I'd got photos of. The answer is nine ten that I can immediately lay my hands on, although there may be others that I can't identify. I know this is not really the point, because Sarah wants to see them all herself, but here goes anyway.

ALTON -- September 2009 at Bugsworth Basin. We bought a couple of bags of coal from Brian.


BALDOCK -- At the Canalway Cavalcade, Little Venice, 2008.


BARROW -- Braunston, 2008

BATTERSEA -- Braunston 2008

DOVER -- Braunston, 2008.

HADLEY -- With a wedding on board, Braunston, 2008.


NUNEATON -- Sarah's comment reminded me of this photo of Nuneaton, with the butty Brighton, stuck in a bridge hole, Uxbridge, April 2007.

NUTFIELD -- Braunston, 2008.

RENFREW -- Braunston, 2008.

SALTAIRE -- Black Country Museum, September 2008 (just behind President and Kildare).

Muscovy Duck?

If you've seen the comments on the previous post, you'll know that there's been some discussion about a duck (or possibly not a duck) which appears in my December photos on flickr. There are quite a few of these at Norbury Junction, and we've never known quite what they are. Halfie reckons they're Muscovy Ducks, and provides a fairly convincing case. Unless anyone else knows differently.

Photos

I've posted nearly 50 photos from our New Year cruise in a new set on Flickr.

Button End on test

The February edition of Canal Boat has been in the shops a week, but we had no post for several days last week because of the snow, so I've only just got my copy. It contains my test of Button End, a Goldsbrough boat. The test was done just a couple of days before we set off on our three week trip last September, and we had weather we can now only dream of: sunshine and warmth.

Button End is based on a previous Goldsbrough boat, Footsie 100. Imagine my surprise when just a couple of days into our September trip, we passed Footsie 100 moored just south of Stoke. I managed to grab a quick picture, which also makes an appearance in the magazine.

New Year Cruise - Day Eight

We were very grateful this morning that we'd taken the decision last night to get into the basin rather than stopping just short. The whole of Norbury Junction was frozen and it was snowing, with the snow settling on the ice.

I was glad I went out when I did to take photos, as a Norbury Wharf hire boat arrived back a little later, crashing through the ice. It took him quite a while to get alongside the wharf, and the noise from on board Debdale was tremendous. We were soon packed up and on our way home.

New Year Cruise - Day Seven

When we looked out just after midnight last night, there was already a very hard, sparkly frost, and ice was beginning to form in around the front of the boat. This morning, we were woken up by a tremendous cracking noise -- which turned out to be a load of ducks breaking the ice. It was a beautiful morning: cold, frosty and sunny. We set off at 9.30, breaking the relatively thin ice between Market Drayton and the Tyrley Locks. There were quite a few walkers about, and we all wished each other a happy new year. At the locks, there was quite a bit of ice about, and the frost was so hard it looked like snow.

There was no ice through the Woodseaves Cutting, but along the next stretch, towards Goldstone Wharf, the ice was up to half an inch thick. We could see that a boat had left the moorings there, so we were no longer carving a path through the ice. It turned out to be the Anglo Welsh boat we saw yesterday -- we met shortly afterwards heading back towards base.

By now it had clouded up, and soon started snowing. At first it was just a few small flakes, then the flakes got bigger and the snowfall heavier.



We stopped for lunch and a warm up at the Knighton moorings, where the sun came out again. After lunch, we continued back to Norbury, passing the miles of moored boats. At Norbury, we decided it would probably be wise to spend the night in the basin, as more freezing temperatures are forecast tonight. Even so, getting into a mooring alongside another OwnerShips boat, proved hard work. We had to smash lots of ice with a pole to get close, but if it freezes it will save even more work tomorrow morning.

11 miles, 5 locks. (35, 50)