Granny Buttons

Granny loses bid for place on the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant

Dismay!  I learned yesterday that Granny hasn't been accepted for a place on the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant , the 1,000-craft procession down the river on 3rd June 2012.

I was quick off the mark to apply, six months ago. Indeed, my application was the 116th received, so was in good time.

While there's sadness, then again it would have needed considerable effort and organisation for Granny to take part. And it would have required setting off for London a month earlier than planned.  So, really, everything is for the best.

As a consolation prize, they have offered me two tickets for a 'prime viewing area', which presumably means the right to be close enough to actually *see* the procession.

My ideal vantage point would be on London Bridge, looking towards Tower Bridge. There is no greater river view in the world. 

But all bridges will probably be closed on the day. They must be. Just think of all the juveniles waiting to droll and spit on the royal barge as it passes beneath. If you haven't been spat on by a yob on a bridge, you aren't a real boater.

I was spat on by a yob near Salford Junction last summer, and the humiliation was compounded by drops falling into a pint mug of ale I was about to drink. 

Some years ago Granny was about to pass under a bridge in Manchester and I waved to two young boys, who waved back cheerily. As I came out the other side, a rain of maggots fell on my head, and the boys whooped with delight, waving their now-empty bait bucket.

Maggots found their way down my collar, and I had to stop, change my clothes and spend an hour sweeping up the wriggling detritus. I still found maggots in the bedroom as I was getting ready for bed, and dreamed of alien monsters for days afterwards.

Hmm, when I come to think about it, I'd rather be on the bridge than on the boat.

Granny does the Four Counties

Granny has begun a week's tour of the Four Counties Ring, setting off from Burton-upon-Trent today, and returning next year.

(Sven Latham has an excellent account of the Four Counties Ring from a week's trip he did back in 2007).

There's a sense of change in the air for me. This is the longest voyage I've taken in 18 months, and the longest one Granny has been on since it returned to Willington last year.

I'll endeavour to return to a daily blog. You know, the way Granny used to be. The good old days.

30 Canada geese in a row on the Isle of Wight

Did you ever see my photo of Canada geese at Windmill End, south of the Netherton Tunnel?  I took it in a cold, rainy dusk at the end of 2006, counting up to 18 birds, and at the time I asked if anyone had seen a longer line of such birds on the water.

A year or so later - as I remarked in Yes, 23 in a row is a record - Neil of nb Herbie said he'd seen 23 'Canada goslings' following a single parent.

Alan Weight wrote to me last week: 

I was sorting through my father's photos last week when I came across one he'd taken when out sailing off the Isle of Wight and thought you might be mildly amused.

I can count 30 geese in the pic (taken on APS film) but as you can see, they continue off either side of the pic, so who knows how many there might have been!

 

Any advance on 30?  What surprises me about this is that they are on salt water.  I know there's a lot of coastline in Canada, but I hadn't realised Canada Geese were also seabirds.

Max Sinclair completes the dream

I've been running back in my mind through the special things that have happened this year.  One of my favourites is accompanying Max Sinclair and his family up the newly reopened Droitwich Junction Canal on September 3rd, two months after the full route was officially reopened to traffic.

Max has campaigned for over fifty years to get the Droitwich reopened.  He started, he told me, with a letter to the Birmingham Mail in 1959, protesting at plans to close and fill in another stretch (I forget which,  but his sharp mind will tell you if  you ask).

Assorted work parties laboured casually during the 1960s to stop the route being completely overgrown and squatted-on by local farmers, who'd grown used to extending their fields into the line of the canal. 

Finally, in 1973 the Droitwich Canals Trust was established and restoration, rather than just protection of the route, began.

Read the history of the restoration on the Droitwich Canals Trust at www.worcs.com/dct/newhistory.htm, but it doesn't mention those first fourteen tough, lonelier years for Max. I'm not sure if there's a website that chronicles his own personal struggles at this time.

Sadly, his wife Jocelyn,who helped so much in the early years, died a few years ago, before BW committed itself to finishing the restoration.  But it must have been gratifying for him to have the rest of his family with him, and to complete this journey on her behalf.

The slideshow here hosts a selection of the photos I took, including operation of the sideponds on the top locks. When

I think this is the first time sideponds have been opened for public use on the UK canals in many years (apart from the Foxton and Watford flights), and may set a precedent for reopening many of the others around the country. I'd never seen these sideponds in operation before and was intrigued.

When the Droitwich Junction Canal opened in 1854 it must have felt like a demanding and thirsty cuckoo to the longer-established Worcester & Birmingham Canal that fed it. 

This is because the first three locks are twice as deep as the W&B's locks above. 

So it was inevitable that BW had to bring the sideponds back into operation, setting a precedent for all the others around the country.  As ordinary boaters learn to use these useful lock 'extensions' and more are brought back into use, it might help ease the water problem around the rest of the country.

Above: The side pond starts to fill at Lock 2 of the Droitwich Junction Canal. Note the boat still high in the lock.

Below: And - voilà! - the boat is almost gone from view, as half the water drains from the lock into the pond, ready to be reused to half-fill the lock again when the next boat comes up.

This allows almost half-a-lock of water to be reused for each filling, reducing the canal's thirst.

Anyway, such a pleasant and rewarding day for Max and his family.  They cruised on Horik, a boat that Viking Afloat granted to Max for a long weekend in tribute to his efforts.