High Line

Today's Canal : Slough Arm

The Slough Arm was one of the last canals to be built in this country and was specifically intended to transport bricks, along with sand and gravel, from new works at Slough, into London to feed the rapidly expanding suburbs. Although the terminus is only just over a mile from the River Thames, there never was much of a business case for building it. Initially, the markets were well accessed from the Grand Union and it was the downturn in that market, in competition with the railways, that led to canal's demise. Whilst there is a sort of plan to make the link for leisure purposes (and it would probably be very popular, making the network north of London more widely used, giving the Slough Arm a real purpose) it awaits 'a better economic climate'.

We thought that we had only a modest task today and that we might have a lazy afternoon. Alas, no! We set off a little later than usual on what should have been barely an hour to the end of the arm, which we can only recall only ever visiting once before.

Yesterday we commented on the lack of duckweed and that we made quite good progress, if not as fast as on the Main Line. However, as we neared Bridge 10 we slowed right down, almost coming to a standstill at times. We were not sure whether it was a lack of depth or something around the prop. Half way between Bridges 10 and 11 we gave in and came to a proper stop in a reed-narrowed section in order to investigate down the weed hatch

We cannot really complain as it was the first time on a long while - in fact we cannot recall having to do it this year. The weed proved to be the bottom growing long, thin matted stuff. Ugh! Some plastic was ensnared in it but most of the problem was the weed itself.

Our hopes of regaining the earlier speed were quickly dashed as we again made very slow progress until just after `Bridge 12, the last one before the end. We did speed up somewhat for the final stretch so it must have been both prop and depth.

To our surprise there was a boat moored at the end - they were doing quite a bit of 'spring' cleaning. We also realised that it was a liveaboard couple that we had met briefly a few times already this season.

We turned our boat around since we had reached the end of the line. Pleasant surprise - there was plenty of room and depth to complete the manoeuvre. We did not moor up - we might just have taken  on water if we had seen the tap and that there was room to do so.

The run so far had taken about 1 hour 50 minutes so we headed straight off back to the High Line boatyard. 

The return trip ran through much the same experience - soon we slowed right down and eventually stopped to de-weed. A bit more to take off tis time but the  main issue was an item of red clothing wound in to a tight ball. Initially we were still to make slow progress but at least the engine, gear box and prop were not in obvious distress.

We had met this single parent family, with 10 now adolescent children, earlier.

The reeds at the edges of the canal in the further part of the arm have been allowed to run riot and reduce the visible channel to little more than the width of a narrowboat. This did not prove a problem for us, we were already travelling slowly because of the shallowness, but if not attended to soon there could well be one.

About an hour and 40 minutes this time, back to the boatyard where we pulled in to the service point. We had already been told that we could load up the car from there and take as long as needed to fill with water - it was a  very slow tap but at least it hid the fact that we spent the first part having our lunch. Indeed, we had loaded up the few things that we need to tack back (apart from the fridge contents)

We were also told where we were to moor. All of the moorings here are double banked (apart from wide beams) and very few gaps. As we suspected, we were placed right at the far end - it takes about 20 minutes to walk the length of the moorings so we did not want to do that any more times than necessary.

As we had arrived from the Slough end we were facing the wrong way to go onto the mooring. We had already decided that if were were placed less than half way back we would reverse but otherwise, as in this case, we would go on a short distance to a winding hole and then come  back again.

Eventually we spotted our slot, came alongside and tied to the inner boat. At this stage there was no-one on boards but the boatyard were expecting someone later, We also managed to hook up to an electricity supply.

6.6 Miles - 0 Locks