Journal

Welcome Quintessence!

Here we are at Harefield Marina near Uxbridge and Adnan is the new and proud owner of the traditional narrow boat ‘QUINTESSENCE’! A fine day to pick up the boat, the sun was out and there wasn’t much wind either.

Some more fuel and we were ready to cruise towards Uxbridge Boat Centre for hull blackening, an essential part of boat maintenance. Firstly the hull will be pressure cleaned and then layers of black bitumen put on it. This process is ideally done every 2 years.

Adnan elegantly manoeuvred his new princess out of the marina, let’s not forget boats are addressed as female and the avid boater doesn’t talk of ‘it’ but of ‘her’.

Anyway, this is the first of many cruises to come. Hitting the Grand Union canal we slowly cruised towards our final destination. Natascha was amazed about the clean water, she only knows the Regents Canal in London, as she lives near by and the water quality there is far from acceptable. She often referred to it as ‘a floating rubbish dump’. Little did she know at this point.

 

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Log

Journey to Uxbridge Boat Centre

Cruise summary

This is a trip of 3 miles and 2 locks from Harefield Marina to Uxbridge Boat Centre travelling south on the Grand Union Canal (Grand Junction Canal – Main Line – Gayton to Brentford).

This will take 1 hour and 25 minutes.

Route

Grand Union Canal (Grand Junction Canal – Main Line – Gayton to Brentford)
From Harefield Marina (Musk Marine Sales. Braunston 79 miles) to:
Denham Visitor Moorings

14 day moorings (£25 per day for overstaying)
1 mile, 2 furlongs, 0 locks
Frans Tea Garden ¾ furlongs, 0 locks
Denham Boat Services ¼ furlongs, 1 lock
Denham Marina 7½ furlongs, 1 lock
Swan and Bottle Visitor Moorings

24 hour moorings
¼ furlongs, 0 locks
Swan and Bottle PH

Chef & Brewer<BR>24 hour moorings
¼ furlongs, 0 locks
Uxbridge Visitor Moorings

14 day moorings. Also known as Uxbridge
¾ furlongs, 0 locks
The Dolphin PH 3½ furlongs, 0 locks
The General Elliot PH

14 day moorings
½ furlongs, 0 locks
Uxbridge Boat Centre ¼ furlongs, 0 locks

Totals

Total distance is 3 miles and 2 locks. There are at least 2 small aqueducts or underbridges.

This is made up of 3 miles of broad canals; 2 broad locks.

This will take 1 hour and 25 minutes. For initial calculation purposes (before adjusting for such things as overnight stops) this is taken as 1 day of 1 hour and 25 minutes.

The trip can be done in under one day, so no overnight stopping places have been calculated.

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Quintessence comes out of the water

It was in early May when buying ‘Quintessence’ became serious. Adnan arranged a hull survey and for that Quintessence had to be taken out of the water. James his mate went along, after all he’s called the “Tall Bastard” and his opinion and word can be trusted! Always!

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