Rainmakers on Narrowboat Jade -- Chapter 3
(Personal Account of Our 1997 Travels in England)
Note: If you missed Chapters 1 (Introduction) and 2 (The Plan Unfolds: May 9 - June 2) and want to go back, Click here.
Chapter 3 includes the following:
Linslade to Hemel Hempstead
Elaine's Ambulance Ride
Onward to London
London to Weybridge
Where passages are underlined, you can click on the underlined text to see a picture (usually jpg, 320x240 pixels in size, about 22 kb to download). If there is a thumnail image, you can also click on that to see the larger image.Linslade to Hemel Hempstead
3 June: We expected the weather to turn nasty, now that we were actually on Narrowboat Jade, but we had perfect cruising weather. We had a short day, stopping at Marsworth after doing 11 locks. Mary Anne and Warren were back into their routine by then, though these locks on the Grand Union were the double-wide type, so were a little different than what we've been used to on the narrow canals. Warren had to test The real purpose of the balance beam once or twice! I was practicing throwing the rope around the bollards to steady us in the locks, and successfully caught the last 4 in a row from the boat.4 June: After 7 locks early in the day (sharing on 4 of them), we reached Tring Summit, the high point of the Grand Union Canal. A lovely wooded cutting followed -- lots of flowers, including what looked like a huge version of what we call moss roses, the wild roses which are almost extinct at home because of weed-killers used along the roadsides.
Today's cruise took us past
Bulbourne Depot, where they still make lock gates out of huge timbers. Stopped at canalside Waitrose's grocery store at Berkhamsted, then Warren & I walked into the village, enjoying the shops, picking up a few little things to make life easier on the boat. We have learned to bring certain things (like a rubber scraper -- how do the British scrape out their cans -- pardon me, tins -- of food without rubber scrapers?), but it seems we can always find some little convenience to look for, so that gives us an excuse to go shopping. We moored below the Winkwell lock, and had supper at The Three Horseshoes Pub
by the Swing Bridge. Lots of activity here on a beautiful evening, so it was a bit noisier than we might have chosen, and rather slow service, but we weren't in a hurry. Also, it was not inexpensive by our standards, but who could resist a pub in a setting like this?
5 June: Wow, that mechanized swing bridge by the 3 Horseshoes Pub is a busy place! We waited for quite a while before there was a short lull in the traffic so we could open the bridge. I can't imagine what it's like when the canals are really busy -- there were at least 6 cars waiting before the bridge closed again as it was, and I imagine when there are several boats in a row, either the boats or the motorists get pretty impatient. I got to run the controls to open and close the bridge -- such a feeling of power!
We came across a crew laying the fiber optic cables along the canal near Hemel Hempstead. I know they're making a mess, and hope the towpaths get restored correctly, but I must say, this crew was very nice, and even apologetic for any inconvenience they were causing us.
Even with lots of population and traffic in the vicinity of Hemel Hempstead, we found the canal ride to be very pleasant, past lots of parks and well-tended gardens.
Sainsbury's Grocery had canalside mooring, so we patronized them and then ate lunch on the boat.
I didn't know it then, but the next lock was the last one I would do for a while!
Elaine's Ambulance Ride
Blame it on bifocals -- that's easier than admitting I was just clumsy. The grass wasn't wet, I wasn't climbing down a slippery ladder, and I was doing something I'd done hundreds of times over the last 3 narrowboat trips, but I was wearing my bifocal sunglasses, which I usually only wear when riding in the car.At any rate, I had missed looping the bollard from the boat, so stepped off, fixed the rope, and as the boat was sinking in the lock, I stepped down onto the starboard edge of the bow -- and my foot kept going. It hit the seat in the bow, my leg buckled under me, and as my right leg scraped along the metal seat (so I landed on the floor on my knees), my left arm caught the port edge of the bow. I must have looked like a rag doll being thrown into the corner of a toybox.
Mary Anne and Warren appeared at the edges of the lock, looking down at me in horror from above -- Paul, at the tiller, only saw that I had disappeared from view rather quickly. I said, "I'm o.k., just give me a minute to get over this feeling that I hit my crazy bone."
Then I mentally surveyed the damage: how much can I move this left arm? YIKES -- NONE!!!!! And this shoulder -- does the other one have a bony prominence there? Hmmmm, noooooo. By the time the others got the boat out of the lock, I had diagnosed myself as having a probable dislocated shoulder. Anyone who has had a similar incident knows the pain!
A narrowboat on a canal is not the most convenient place to have an emergency. However, if I had to do it, I didn't choose the worst possible place. Mary Anne and Warren ran back to the canalside shopping center, where the people at Boots Pharmacy advised them that beyond the next lock there was a road bridge over the canal, near the Red Lion Pub. An ambulance could come to that point.
Accordingly, they went on to a convenient mooring near the bridge, called 999 (British for 911) from the Pub, and soon (by their standards -- seemed like hours to me) David the ambulance man and his friendly helper appeared to haul me away.
The ambulance probably came about 2:30 p.m. By 3:00 I was at Hemel Hempstead Hospital; shortly after 4:00 I was in surgery, and I woke up about 4:30 from the anesthesia they administered so they could re-set my arm (I also cracked the humerus near the point of rotation). By 8 p.m., after a taxicab ride back to Narrowboat Jade, we surprised Mary Anne and Paul at the Red Lion, where they had already eaten their supper. We had fish & chips, but I avoided liquid pain-killer, as I had been given the pharmaceutical type and didn't think it would be wise to mix them.
Many people have asked, then and since then, about our experiences with the famous British socialized medicine. No, the facilities weren't as posh as ours (maybe ours are unnecessarily posh -- do marble floors and fountains in the atrium ensure better medical treatment?), but I have to say the people who worked with us couldn't have been nicer. Paul's experience wasn't as positive as mine, unfortunately, but I won't complain about my treatment at all -- I will only say that there are obvious budgetary limitations that undoubtedly make it difficult for the hospital staff to do the job as well as they'd like. They really took good care of me -- yes, I had to be kept in the hall because the emergency room was full when I got there, but they absolutely did everything they could.
6 June: I was useless, but thankfully there were three others who really can run the narrowboat perfectly well without me. I rode like Cleopatra in her barge, while they did everything on the boat plus quite a bit for me personally (have you ever tried to tie your shoes with only one arm?). If I would never have had the use of the arm again, I am sure I would have learned to cope, but I have decided the Lord gave us two arms for a reason, and that reason is NOT so that we would have a spare!
I did have several problems due to my disabled arm, not the least of which was the fact that most of the tops I had brought along to wear were the type that one pulls over the head -- impossible without using the shoulder! I wore Warren's spare pajamas, since my nightgown was useless. I couldn't wear my sweater, which is the type the British call a jumper, nor my warm turtlenecks. Fortunately I had two blouses which button (but Warren had to button them for me!), and a zippered jacket (which he had to zip -- I could run the zipper with one hand but the bottom wouldn't stay in place without being held).
Onward to London
The canal books had commented on the diverse nature of the boats moored outside of Rickmansworth, and we couldn't help but notice how apt their description was -- they called it a hotch-potch (hodge-podge to us). From double-wide houseboats to derilect-looking old skows, every imaginable state of repair was represented along this stretch. We moored at Rickmansworth, across from the canalside Tesco moorings.7 June: We saw the first narrowboat displaying the Cut Web emblem so far on the trip. We shared a couple of locks, includingStocker's Lock. It was Dave Green of Narrowboat Willy No-Name
. They were heading for the Lee and Stort Navigation.
Entering the Paddington Arm to head for London, we weren't surprised to see the signs of urbanization along the canal -- but we were surprised how much of the way still had a very rural feeling -- parks, woods, and the huge golf course were our canalside companions for much longer stretches than the occasional factory.
We had our first noisy night -- near Alperton, and apparently on a well-used path from some popular night spots, as more than once after midnight someone came by and pounded on the boat roof or made loud comments. Thankfully, they didn't untie us or do any damage.
8 June: Would Little Venice turn out to be like Alperton? Not in the least. After a very quiet cruise (surprising us because we expected a lot of traffic on the canal) we arrived about 10:30 a.m., and found a mooring spot with no trouble. What a beautiful, well-kept area, and what a base for exploring the wonders of London! We're glad we didn't shy away from coming to London by boat and mooring at
Little Venice.
London to Weybridge
10 June: Back to the Grand Union Canal and on to Brentford -- lunch on the boat as we cruised, so we could get to Brentford at the right time for the tide -- about 5 p.m. on this date. Narrowboat Binsey was waiting for us to share the Thames lock. They had gone this way last year, so we were relieved that we could follow them all the way to Teddington on this BIG waterway -- the Thames River approaching Richmond. We were doubly happy to follow someone else because the Nicholson's guide goes the wrong direction (very confusing) and we weren't familiar yet with the Thames guide.We shared the lock at Teddington with four other boats -- quite a change from the locks we thought were wide when we started at Linslade! The lockkeeper arranged for our license (we did have to pay the GBP 57 for a two-week license -- hire boats do not qualify for the exemption) -- and we moored for the night beyond the lock at Teddington.
11 June: We will never forget Shepperton, where we had a delightful lunch at The Crossroads. But it's not because of the lunch that Shepperton has a special place in our hearts.
Fortunately, it's also not because of a disaster.
No, it's because of the wine we saw in a store window. We love some of the names we see on bottles. They may have a few pedestrian names like our Bud Light, but they also have things like Scrumpy Jack, Old Peculiar, and even Old Fart. We thought that was the worst we'd see, but in Shepparton there was a topper -- Cat's Pee on a Gooseberry Bush!!We moored at Weybridge because we didn't want to buy a license for the Wey navigation until we had managed my follow-up check at Hemel Hempstead Hospital. This was quite a problem, since by now we were 40 miles from Hemel Hempstead -- several days in narrowboat time -- without a car. To travel by train, we would have had to go into London and make a connection, and my appointment was at 8:30 a.m. We ended up taking a taxi to the car rental location on June 11, renting a car, and driving to Hemel Hempstead the morning of June 12.
12 June: The doctor told me I was doing fine, the bone was "nicely in place," but for six weeks (not just three, because the bone was broken as well as the shoulder having been dislocated) wear the sling day and night (I had been, but had planned on only three weeks), don't move the hand away from the body (external rotation), and don't lift anything heavier than a teacup (he didn't say whether full or empty, and I forgot to ask). So much for helping with locks for the rest of the trip!
We finished at the hospital in time to return the car, take a taxi back to the boat, and have lunch on the boat. With Hemel Hempstead behind us, we were ready to go on to the Wey Navigation. Now surely only trouble-free cruising lay ahead -- or did it?
In
Chapter 4
find out what we left at the bottom of Stoke Lock.
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Warren and Elaine Larson
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1113 Kennedy St
Ames, IA 50010-4249 USA
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Bulbourne Depot
Little Venice
