Bletchley Park Museum

On Monday 6th we were moored at Fenny Stratford lock and as the weather was terrible it was an ideal day to visit Bletchley Park. It was only a 30 minute walk to the museum near Bletchley Station. It has received significant funding from the lottery and computer industry recently which has made a real difference.All the staff of which a lot are volunteers were very knowledgeable. A most interesting 4 hours was spent understanding what the 8000 staff achieved during the war years. At the time of the DDay landings they were decoding a staggering 18000 messages a day.

An Enigma machine that was used by the Germans to encode all the messages and which the staff at Bletchley had to crack.

A statue of Alan Turing made from slate who has now been recognised as a founder of computing.

A replica of the Colussos machine first built and operational at Bletchley in 1944. All the staff were very sad as the guiding light for building this machine had just passed away.

Cosgrove to Fenny Stratford Day7

 We went through Milton Keynes on Monday which was a very pleasant experience indeed with many different types and styles of houses. Very good tow paths and very clean. Today has been HORRIBLE rain and wind. It was a good day to go to Bletchley Park Museum. I will post some photographs of that later as I am having a little problem at present.

A few pictures from yesterday.



You don't see this very often a back to front pair of boats in a lock- the one facing forward was actualy reversing back to his mooring.

We moored at Wolverton to go to Tesco. Its around the old LNWRailway wagon and carriage works which have been converted to commercial use. The above diesel shunter was crossing a bridge and was giving way at a roundabout! When we walked to Tesco we crossed the line which had a road hidden by the fencing.

The Fenny Stratford Lock and cottages, we are moored just before the lock.

Day 5 Cosgrove

Day 5 Sunday grey and wet which is not a bad thing as far as the canal is concerned but it probably did not make any diffrence at all-it needs to rain for weeks- hopefully not before we are home in October.

We have moved from Bugbrooke through Gayton Junction and Blisworth tunnel. Total so far its 31 miles and 20 locks but no cappuccinos- its a wilderness out their. Once we are through Milton Keynes the locks start to come thick and fast.

Blisworth Mill once used by the GUCCC-Grand Union Canal Carrying Co now nice flats

I do like junctions this is Gayton- the left is the River Nene,straight on is the south

A very different aluminium boat-its not a Sea Otter -the owners are from SA with safari colours on the sides.

Inside the 3000yard Blisworth Tunnel opened in 1805. It was closed in the early 1980's for 3 years during which time they relined the centre section with concrete segmenst which you can just see in the boats light behind us. It takes 40 minutes to go through.

Amusing sign at Yardley Gobion Wharf

Another sign at the Wharf

Cosgrove moorings we are just on the bend

Day 3 Bugbrooke

Its Friday and we are now at Bugbrook making our way down the Grand Union, water levels keeping up- I sound like a TV programme that updates you after every break- sorry!! I have been having trouble with blogger- well I mean its me trying to keep up to date as they have changed the screen layouts which in fact do look much more user friendly and I have lost the picture heading which I am working on.

A few more pictures of things we have seen which always amuses me and sometimes Anne although our sense of humour can be at odds at times. There is never a dull time on the canal- thats what makes it so enjoyable.

Sheep come in all types and sizes- this one was opposite our mooring on Wednesday night in Braunston. It just had a lot of attitude and appeared to be looking down on all who passed.

The butty Dee with teddy bear bow button- should I report them to the RSPB

All boys must have sheds- this one is for a joinery business

Bows again the one on the inside is butty Gilbert the motor had no name

Coming into Weedon are acouple of moored working boats and on the shed are two examples of the old wooden rudders from buttys- its really shows how large they needed to be for the 70ft boats

We moored on Thursday night just outside Weedon  and I heard a lot of squealing around 7pm and couldn't work out what it was. It started again at 8am-it was these pigs on a small holding getting very excited as food was on its way!

Day 2 of our Autumn cruise

We have decided on an autumn cruise down the Grand Union main line hopefully as far as Rickmansworth providing the water levels keep up. The GU main line is not as bad as some of the narrow canals like the Oxford but as we came through the Braunston and Buckby flights BW had staff on hand to try and get all boats to double up- mostly successfully although some boaters didn't want to wait for another boater to come along. We have not been on the GU past Cosgrove as our friends Ray and Jenny brought BB up from London to Wigrams back in 2005.

We stopped last night in Braunston. At 09.00 this morning a lovely tug nb Albion Mills (fresh out of the paint shop) came along and we decided to share. Mike was taking her back to his mooring in Cowroast on his own so we decided to breast up the two boats through both of the flights. This enabled Anne and Mike to do the locks together whilst I did the two boats. All went well except for a few very shallow ponds in which BB struggled to move both boats along. A boater was very surprised to see two boats joined together until we explained the reason and then she saw the light. As we came out of the last of the Buckby locks at Whilton- 2 monks and a sister entered as they had just bought a boat and were now on a steep learning curve-the sister asked us to pray for them!!!!

BB and nb Albion Mills breasted up in the Braunston flight- a lovely pair of bows

Jobs in the sun and a short cruise

We went up to the boat at the beginning of August primarily to attend the BBQ at the marina on the 6 August. It also gave us the opportunity to do some more jobs on BB. I completed replacing the rope seal around the stove door and primed all the rust spots on the roof ready for it to be painted in October. BB is going into dry dock for a week at Stowe Hill for blacking etc.

The weather for the week was excellent but just before the BBQ was due to start the heavens opened for half an hour. It then stopped although it was chilly- a typical English summer evening- but the food and company was very good which made up for the weather- didn't leave until 11pm.

A few pictures of the week.

We were moored at one of our favourite spots near bridge 103 when we were nearly run over by a combined harvester!



A cool budha in the field near Braunston Turn

Working boats- Motor Seaford and Butty Alperton

The Welland Canal

I had to get a boaty post for the blog the above picture is of a boat entering a lock on the Welland Canal. The picture was taken from a coach as we crossed the canal- my excuse for the slight out of focus.

The Welland Canal started in 1829 connects Lake Ontario with Lake Erie which is 327ft higher. It was built to avoid Niagara Falls and to allow large ships to open up the interior of Canada. Its 26 miles long and 27ft deep with 7 locks averaging 47ft deep.


Not the canal but the Maid of the Mist approaching the Horseshoe Falls which are the ones on the Canadian side. With the spray from the waterfall its just like a very wet/windy day on BB except that there are 150 other people on board with you -it was brilliant.

An empty canal lock.

A view of Horseshoe Falls with the mist rising above them- you can see why they needed to build the Welland Canal.

A dumb barge that had lost its moorings a few years back that is left to rust away above the falls.

Nothing to do with canals- but something I saw in Jasper. The ideal gift for somebody who has everything. A John Dere moving hose sprinkler