With Verulam to Ricky

24th & 25th April

It was a wet morning from the outset, which at least saved the problem of deciding whether to put on the waterproof trousers before the boots. There's nothing more irritating than getting all booted up and then realising that it's going to rain and having to take them off again to put the trousers on. No, I tell a lie, it's more irritating to get to that point, decide not to bother taking the boots off, start putting on the trousers, get stuck, half fall over, pull the trousers off, and then have to take the boots off.

Actually that whole preceding paragraph is cobblers: in a world which contains Sally Ash, BW's "Head of Boating Development" (aka the Department of Stupid Ideas – think moorings auctions), there are many things more irritating than having to take your boots off again, but the boaters among you will know what I mean.

We spent a further four hours in company with Verulam yesterday, travelling from King's Langley to Rickmansworth in that time. The weather cleared up for quite a while, and it was a brilliant Spring morning, but just as we got into Ricky the wind blew and huge hailstones began to descend on our heads. High spot of the trip was a notice in the garden of some apartments "This garden is for flat residents only", leaving you wondering what the round ones are supposed to do for recreation.

There was plenty of room on the moorings by the Aquadrome, so we tied quickly and shot inside the boats to get lunch. These are some of our favourite moorings on this stretch. Ricky has a good range of shops, and there's a Tesco on the offside with its own mooring length. There's even a big recycling centre right by the canal, so we could offload all the accumulated oil, glass, paper, cans, cardboard and plastic bottles.

In the town we found a Boots to get some tubigrip – the tendons in my right thumb have been complaining for a few days now, and all the locking hasn't helped of course, so a bit of support bandage around it was very welcome. We also found a good range of books in the Oxfam shop, and spent around ten quid. Charity shops are our local library – buy a book for a couple of pounds, read it once or twice over the space of a month and then drop it off into another shop.

Today we are sitting tight. We did a Tesco shop, and washed the starboard side of the boat properly, using Autoglym detergent, rinsing it off and drying it. When my thumb's recovered a bit more, we'll be able to start cleaning the brass on that side, and hopefully lacquering it with Incralac – it's the side that didn't get done last year.

After lunch we set out to clean the inside properly, taking a break when Dave Ballinger showed up. He works in Ricky, and had looked for us yesterday, but must have come while we were in town. He and his wife have an order in for a Braidbar in 15 months' time, so we had a good natter about the joys of boat design.

Then we got on and finished the cleaning, and sat down and relaxed for a bit whilst running the engine and doing a washload: which brings me to a salutary point about engines. Over the last month or so, I've been wondering with increasing anxiety why the engine was sounding so noisy. Clambered all over it, listened to the bell housing with a screwdriver as a stethoscope, checked the mountings, all to no avail. After changing the oil the other day, it's been much better.

Moral – don't save money buying cheap engine oil from small back street shops, but stick to the reputable stuff. As the old naval artificer said "Oil is cheap; engines are expensive" and it's still true even when paying £15+ for 5 litres of it.

John and Nev are coming to see us again tonight, and we're going out for a meal, probably to the White Bear. We're told its new management are doing a good job, so I'll report back next time. Tomorrow we go on to Denham, mooring above the Deep lock for a couple of nights before making the final run into darkest central London. With luck we'll see Dave and Ann on Verulam at Denham, as they set off to go there today, planning to spend the weekend at that spot.