Wednesday, October 18, 2006
The journey ahead
We have an ambitious maiden voyage planned on Loki. She is currently moored at Braunston, near Daventry, on the Grand Union Canal. The marina there doesn't have anywhere to keep boats out of the water over winter (they mostly cater for narrowboats, and I'm guessing they can be wintered in the water). We've been told that GRP* cruisers should be wintered out of the water at least every other year - although Loki has been in the water for the last three years and, according to the surveyor, hasn't come to any obvious harm.
Anyway, we need to get Loki to her new home at Penton Hook, near Chertsey, to get her lifted out. Our original plan was to do this in the second week of November, but we then discovered that a lot of the locks on the Thames are closed after 1 November for winter maintenance, so we start our trip this coming Saturday instead.
There are two ways of doing the journey. Option A is to take the Oxford Canal down to Oxford and then down the Thames to Penton Hook. Option B is to take the Grand Union Canal to Brentford and go up the Thames from there. Option B involves navigating a short stretch of tidal Thames, which has to be timed carefully as access is only possible around high tide. It also involves about 40 more locks than option A, and a couple of long, scary tunnels too. Given that this is going to be our first trip of any length on any kind of boat, we don't see the point in making our lives any more difficult. The Oxford Canal it is.
We've been planning carefully. The excellent Canalplan AC route planner tells me that the journey involves 135.37 miles (47.24 miles of narrow canal, 5.50 miles of broad canal, 3.50 miles of small river, 79.12 miles of large river); 67 locks (38 narrow locks, 2 broad locks, 27 large locks); 21 moveable bridges (of which 16 are usually left open); and 3 small aqueducts or underbridges. One bridge causes me concern. Yarnton Bridge in Kidlington, just north of Oxford, has 6'6" of headroom. The official specification of the Viking 26 says its height above water is 6'8". I've been on various messageboards and discussion forums and established that, if we drop both the canopy and the windscreen (and fill the water tank to add a little extra weight) we should be ok. I hope so - by the time we get there, it'll be too late to turn around and try option B again.
I'd also be a lot happier if the weather forecast didn't promise rain for the entire week.
*Glass-reinforced plastic - boating jargon for fibre-glass, apparently
Anyway, we need to get Loki to her new home at Penton Hook, near Chertsey, to get her lifted out. Our original plan was to do this in the second week of November, but we then discovered that a lot of the locks on the Thames are closed after 1 November for winter maintenance, so we start our trip this coming Saturday instead.
There are two ways of doing the journey. Option A is to take the Oxford Canal down to Oxford and then down the Thames to Penton Hook. Option B is to take the Grand Union Canal to Brentford and go up the Thames from there. Option B involves navigating a short stretch of tidal Thames, which has to be timed carefully as access is only possible around high tide. It also involves about 40 more locks than option A, and a couple of long, scary tunnels too. Given that this is going to be our first trip of any length on any kind of boat, we don't see the point in making our lives any more difficult. The Oxford Canal it is.
We've been planning carefully. The excellent Canalplan AC route planner tells me that the journey involves 135.37 miles (47.24 miles of narrow canal, 5.50 miles of broad canal, 3.50 miles of small river, 79.12 miles of large river); 67 locks (38 narrow locks, 2 broad locks, 27 large locks); 21 moveable bridges (of which 16 are usually left open); and 3 small aqueducts or underbridges. One bridge causes me concern. Yarnton Bridge in Kidlington, just north of Oxford, has 6'6" of headroom. The official specification of the Viking 26 says its height above water is 6'8". I've been on various messageboards and discussion forums and established that, if we drop both the canopy and the windscreen (and fill the water tank to add a little extra weight) we should be ok. I hope so - by the time we get there, it'll be too late to turn around and try option B again.
I'd also be a lot happier if the weather forecast didn't promise rain for the entire week.
*Glass-reinforced plastic - boating jargon for fibre-glass, apparently
