I had arranged to have my Lister SR3 engine fully serviced by Marine Engine Services at Uxbridge. Peter Thompson thought it would be quick to get the engine out, but nothing is simple with Shoestring, so I set off early at 8am. Due to laziness I had to empty two elsans at the sanitary station here at Northolt, and then I thought I would have a go at pulling the boat to see how easy it would be. It was just to shallow so after messing about with ropes, I gave up, and continued on my way.

At Ruislip Road Bridge, I thought I would give it another go on the deep wall so rather than use just the middle rope, I jumped off with the stern, and bow ropes. This time the problem was that the stern rope was to short, so when I needed to pull on the bow rope to stop the boat from going in the wrong direction it slowed the boat back down again. I got up to no more than 0.8mph before giving up, and quite literally jumping back on board as the canal depth had reduced again.

Three boats (I think from the moorings at Hayes) came down the canal at the railway bridge before Bulls Bridge. On narrowboat was pulling a wide beam cruiser, and so I pulled right over, but for some reason so did he, so it scrapped on the canal bank as we passed.

Just before Cowley Peachy Junction I met a nice lady driving a tug pushing an empty pan as we passed I noticed Frays, the Land and Water sand barge, pulling out of the Slough arm. I shouted to her, “I wasn’t expecting them to come out there”, and she mentioned that they had gone in there to let her past. Unfortunately Frays was already out into the canal before I could by, so I had a slow tickover run up to Cowley Lock. They worked through the lock while I took some pictures, but once through, they stopped to pick up some sandwiches, so I was rising in the lock before they set off.

I wondered how difficult it would be to poll Shoestring, so along the last straight I gave it a go. I managed 0.8mph again which I thought wasn’t bad, but it was hard work and my arms started to ache quickly. The canal bed however was ideal, as all the deep traffic down this section had cleared away the silt in the middle leaving a hard gravel bed.

When I arrived at Uxbridge, Peter was out on an errand, and wasn’t due back until 3.30pm, thankfully at 2.30pm he arrived back, and he started in earnest to get the engine out. After cutting his arm on a small plate of aluminium I didn’t even know I had, by 4:30pm the engine was ready for out. This time, Alan Boswell, who is the only one who can operate the crane was nowhere to be seen, but he returned just before 5pm, and so the fun started…

We had hoped we could get the engine out by turning it to get one leg out, and then the other, but it was just to big and bulky so in the end the support legs had to come off. Not as easy as it would first appear as we had to remove the pulley wheel to get the back one off. Finally it was out by 5:30pm, so I had a quick tea (Toast – I had already had a large lunch). I started polling the boat passed some of the boats moored opposite Uxbridge, but once by this time I took the centre rope, and the bow rope. The centre rope was just long enough to get a loop around my waist, and still be level with the bow, and using this method I managed the 1 mile run down to Cowley lock at up to 1.5 mph!

According to my GPS:

1 hour 30 mins (this includes the lock), 
Total Distance: 1.07 Miles
Average Speed: 0.706
Max Speed: 2.29 – but I suspect this is lying due to poor signals under the bridges

I had arranged with Micks Tug Boat services (07811 987253) to pull me back, but since he was busy during the day with a run to Maida Vale for Westminster Council he had to do it out of hours. He thought it would be 2am in the morning, but he managed to move two pans together with a combined length of over 120 feet which saved him some time, and met me at Cowley lock at 10pm.

After chaining Shoestring to the front of his 85hp Ford tractor engined tug, and waiting for a local live aboard to reverse his boat down after filling with water, we were off. I made Mick a cuppa, and we chatted all the way back to Northolt. It seems he has led an interesting life, working for BW, Land and Water, and now himself. We talked about the useless design of the gravel barges, and the fact that a Land and Water manager wanted to load with to much cargo (80 tonne I think), and the barge managed to get stuck in a bridge hole (in Cowley I think). They already had another tug boat in attendance, but they needed the big BW tug, which finally managed to pull it though. He also said that after illegally digging out a turning point near their West Drayton depot, and then managing to wash away the towpath, BW now make them reverse up to Cowley to turn in the Slough arm, thus explaining what happened earlier.

Mick was also telling me about his other tug. He had ordered an engine from Ford that was the same as the one he had already purchased, but when it arrived it was different. After talking to Ford, the engine they found it was an engine costing £1,500 more. They finally agreed that Mick could have the engine for no extra cost, and so now Mick has an 18ft long tug with a 110hp engine in it!

We arrived at Northolt at about 2am, I tried to tie up quietly, but it’s not easy when you keep knocking the gravel on the bank side in. I plugged the power and phone back in, and started my web server again, and went to bed exhausted.

Mike