Eggs Benedict & Inadiquate Females.

The Gatehouse, Rye House

Well, it's that time of year again, the snow has thawed and the winter is well and truly behind us.  This means that Spring is well underway and so are we,  on year 2 of our adventure through the Waterways of Britain.  I have been promised that this year will be a mission free year and I am well and truly looking forward to it as well as hoping against hope that that is actually the case!! Although I have fallen for that one before lol

We start this years travels at Rye House, where we picked up Yogis cousin Ed who has uprooted himself from Australia to come over here, buy a boat and live the river life himself!!  Crash coarse in lock wheeling is on the cards for Ed as the first leg of our journey through to Waltham Cross has 6 locks. 

After saying our goodbyes and till we meet again's we headed off.   Only to stop within the first hour as we had arrived at Dobbs Weir Cafe and the men needed a fry up before continuing lol.

Steve on the Tiller

Bellies full and brimming with enthusiasm we head off towards the Cross.  A brief delay while waiting for Steve and Liz on the coal boats to exit Dobbs
Weir Locks doesn't dampen Eds enthusiasm as he marches down to the lock to await instruction. It didn't take long for him to get the hang of it either.  A couple of times he forgot to close the paddles, or the gate.  But most of the time he was bang on target.

Tillergraph Article by Maffi Oxford

That evening was spent munching on cheese on toast and reading Feburary's copy of the Tillergraph where I found an article by Maffi Oxford. Reading it brought an age old worry back to the fore-front of my mind. 

He was writing about those of us who are left behind when their partner leaves or dies and you are the one left to fend for yourself.  It started me thinking, quite seriously about what would happen to me when I am left to fend for myself.  
I am lucky at the moment, I still have my other half, who takes care of all the 'man' jobs on the boat. But unfortunately he is most possessive of those jobs and approaching this contentious issue with him is always fraught with danger lol.

It doesn't stop me from trying to persuade him to let go of the 'tiller arm' as it were though and I think I may have got him to agree to teach me as long as I promise never to drive the boat until after he is dead!. I am glad that Maffi's article prompted me to broach the subject with Yogi because I feel a lot better now about the whole situation.   It's funny how a magazine article can effect you isn't it.



Eggs Benedict - YUM



After a breeze of a cruise from Rye House to Waltham cross and a lovely breakfast of eggs benedict at the narrowboat cafe in Waltham Cross.  I was pretty much ready to start the day.

We wanted to get to Ducketts by close of business and I knew it would be a hard day because according to C&RT both Stonebridge and Tottenham electric locks were being repaired so we would have to use the manual sides. 

Last year we got caught out on our way back from Braunston and I knew they would be knackering and I for one wasnt looking forward to it.  Ed's eagerness to have a go was encouraging but I KNEW that when he actually got there and had to wind both the gates and the paddles manually he would feel differently about them lol. 

Cheshunt Lock

I repaid my Bounty debt at Picketts Lock and we headed down to Stonebridge.  Lucky for us it was mended and Ed was most impressed at the push button lock.  No exhersion needed and we were all through in a blink of an eye.

Tottenham on the other hand was a different matter.  The towpath was closed and so was the electric lock.  This meant Ed had to walk a very wobbly plank to get back on the boat (I thought he was going in) to get back off the boat on the other side of the padlocked fence.  We then had to wait ages for three youngsters who were already in the lock to go through so we could have our turn. 

So the winding begins, its quite simple really, clockwise to open the gates, anti-clock wise to close them.  It is a simple operation, but after 20 mins of constant winding you tend to get your clockwises mixed up, well, Ed did anyway lol  It seemed like every time I looked over the lock to make sure he was ok he was furiously winding his windlass the wrong way.  Getting redder and redder in the face.  'Ed' id shout 'anti-clockwise to close'  he'd swear at me and start again the right way.  lol  I rekkon he will remember Tottenham Lock for a very long time :0)