Saturday, October 31, 2009

A good time by all

Well can you believe it...Steve, Erica, Tanya and Zak are going home today and yep we woke up to rain, how lucky were they. Steve set of early to pick the car up by getting the train back to Broxbourne and back up to Hertford. It was £7.10 for a single, but return was £7.20, 10p more, what's that all about......
Well while he was doing that, the girls did some shopping and Del and Zak moved Derwent6 down onto the water point. We filled with water and when Steve arrived we loaded the car and said our goodbyes..Thanks guys for a lovely time....
We then tried to do a pumpout, but the card we had brought didn't work, so we tried the manual pumpout and guess what that didn't work either. We don't know why yet, but it must be something in the tank that has blocked the manual electric pump. We should be alright for a couple of days anyway.

We made our way through a couple of locks and got to one of the low bridges. Although we had filled with water and moved all the wood and coal as far to the bow as possible we still ended up taking the chimney off to get under it. The canal then opened up again and we moored up in the middle of nowhere. It was a lovely evening and Del played the guitar on the stern while Al read a book with the Halloween fireworks going off in the background.

Friday, October 30, 2009

Some break in's here! (inc fishing line)

We woke up this morning to bright sunshine again but also with the news that five boats had been broken into here and a car stolen. Nice area we thought... all six of us never heard anything. The guy Pete at the old lock keepers cottage was waiting for the police to turn up, and low and behold two hours later they did. We were just lucky we suppose and we thought we had better move on. It was a lovely day and the scenery just got better with the trees really starting to turn. We passed Posh & Beck's England home, but only just managed to get a glimpse of the house. The canal goes right around the grounds. We were cleaning the prop every quarter of a mile with a quick flick in reverse but it was only leaves. We made our way through some really low bridges with millimetres to spare but we made it through with out having to remove anything. We went through the village of Sawbridgeworth where Steve decided to go tree fishing and caught his line in a tree by the lock with loads of people watching. Here is a old picture of the lock cottage at Sawbridgeworth and then our photo of how it looks today and the date over the door. We then moored up for lunch and within minutes Derwent6 was covered in leaves. We watched a wedding go past on a wide beam boat and it looked like they were having a good time. Steve was giving tuition to some women who were out walking, on how to use a lock windlass.

The canal gets a bit shallower and a bit narrower and we get towards the terminus.We got into Bishop's Stortford at around 3.00pm and were surprised at the lack of boats in the basin. In fact we had not seen many boats all day, and the basin moorings didn't look like they were used very much. We had a look around and found the we were right along side a shopping centre and on the other side of us was a bowling alley, a cinema, Ummm and a couple of night clubs.... Well if this was Friday night we don't want to be hanging around here on Saturday night. It was all ok but we did have a lot of drunk kids walking along the towpath until late. We did all go to Pizza Hut for something to eat and then onto the pictures where Del and Steve went to see Saw VI. The girls watched a DVD inside cosy Derwent6. Saying all this we did have quite a quiet night. It's tiring work this canal boating lark!!!!

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Beautiful Stort

We were all up early this morning and set off from Stanstead Abbotts at around 10.00am. We followed the Lee to where it meets the Stort and then went up the locks. All the locks seemed against us, but with the extra crew and others making the tea, it made life easy. We were very surprised with the Stort. It is a lot more difficult to maneuver as there never seems a straight bit. It is also very narrow in places and we've got to say very beautiful... It goes past lots of old mills which have been turned into offices, pubs or houses. We did stop at one lock and Steve managed to catch his first fish...... We got to Harlow at around 3.00pm and the lads did some more fishing while the girls went Geocaching and did manage to find a couple. We then went over the pub (which was a old mill) and had a great time and a laugh as you can see, before coming back to Derwent6 for coffee.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Down the Lee with extra crew

Cloudy start today, and this morning was taken up with cleaning and shopping. Derwent6 got a good old hover through, as we had guest's arriving. Steve, Erica, Tanya & Zak arrived at 1pm, to stay for a few days. We set off back through the locks just as the sun came out, and had a lovely trip back to Stansted Abbotts. It didn't take us as long this time with the extra crew on board. We moored up around 4pm, and the fishing rods came out. Here's a sight you won't have seen before!! Del with a fishing rod in his hand!!!!
In the evening it was so warm we were all able to sit out on the towpath with a glass of wine and a beer of course. Later we went to the pub The Jolly Fisherman....

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Warning low bridge at Hertford

Well after cleaning Derwent6 yesterday.... yes it rained overnight. It was cloudy but we decided to move on today to the end of the navigation on the Lee. We set off up through the first lock and noticed some wood on the towpath so picked it up. You have to very careful through these locks because the gate paddles are quite fierce at times. We have been getting off Derwent6 and roping her down tight, before opening the paddles. We made our way through Ware and through the lock on the other side of the town.



We then passed the Intake house for the New river. This New river goes to Islington in London and you can walk or bike the whole route. This is a river made back in 17th Century and was used for getting fresh water to London after they thought the Thames was polluted due to the great plague. This fresh water was used right up until the 19th Century until they came up with some way of purifying water from the Thames.

We then stopped for water as there are not many spots to stop at. We did manage to have a manual pumpout as well.
We then got to Hertford town centre and were a bit shocked at how low the last bridge is before the winding hole. There was a two inch clearance on Derwent6's chimney and we don't want to lose another one of them..... you can't moor past the last bridge but there are a few visitors moorings just before you need to turn.

After mooring up we walked into town and had a look at the castle. We were also amazed at the number of shops here. We then had a coffee in a lovely little coffee shop in the square before heading back to Derwent6 (via Tesco's) before it got dark.
We had another result because we were able to log on to someones broadband signal here... we are quite liking the Lee.....

Monday, October 26, 2009

Let the train take the strain

Another beautiful day today. We just love Autumn with the mellow sunshine and the wonderful colours. Staying put today as Al made the most of the nearby train station and headed off to see her Mum & Dad for the day. A really easy journey from here.......30mins to Tottenham Hale, then tube to Victoria, and straight down to Kent. Del had a day to himself pottering about........yes you've guessed it....cleaning Derwent6!

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Ware and Why

What a contrast to yesterday...bright sunshine today, you can never get bored with the weather in this country. As it was so nice we decided to go for a walk into Ware. It was only a short walk along the towpath before we got to the town centre. Ware is a old coach house town and you can see this from the arches on the buildings where they used to enter the courtyards back in the 13th century. It is a lovely town with a lot of character.


After buying a paper we got back to Derwent6 just after midday and just read the papers in the afternoon. There have been alot of people walking around today and a few boats moving about. We did have this steam powered boat come past. Just chilled in the evening....