Fly Run - 16th to 18th June 2005

President & Kildare did another 'fly run' in 2005, from London to Stoke Bruerne, re-enacting their normal method of moving high value or perishable cargos. Originally 'fly runs' would normally change crews and refuel with coke at locations enroute. For this run, the coal was kept onboard the boat and "Friends of President" had two crews aboard - A & B. The off watch crew trying to sleep inside Kildare.

Thanks to all those that supported us along the way.

When we were invited to attend the Blisworth Tunnel 200-year celebrations the organisers asked me if we could organise a fly run down from Birmingham. That was the first problem; the boats would be in London. Easy solved, we could do a fly run up from London. After consultation with Richard Thomas it was soon discovered that this would work out very well, as we should arrive in Stoke Bruerne at about mid day if we kept to the times achieved in previous runs.
So it was down to organising the crew and the food and the coal and the weather. It was early Thursday when Vic Fagence and myself found ourselves amongst the commuters on the train to London; we felt a bit out of place with the suits and the laptops. It was strange to reflect on what we were about to do surrounded with all these people on their way to work; there wouldn’t be many of our travelling companions doing anything so exciting.

We arrived at the London Canal Museum and loaded our kit onto ‘Kildare’. The boiler fire had been lit earlier so we soon were ready to move off through Islington Tunnel to City Road. We tied up next to the small park where we have started the previous ‘Fly Runs’. During the afternoon the rest of the crew arrived and we prepared the boats for the trip.

We let go from City Road at the traditional time of 7 p.m. and moved round to City Road Lock to begin the long climb up to the Cowroast. We changed the crews at the old F.M.C. places with Simon’s crew taking over from us at Greenford Road Bridge. At Uxbridge we took over again and I took to the bike for the next few miles and this was one of the highlights of my trip, starting in the dark with bats darting about and then dawn with the black and white world gradually turning back to colour. There is nothing like dawn in the summer with ‘President‘ steaming along the cut when you are on the towpath.

We continued to climb up the Chilterns arriving at the Cowroast in the early evening after another couple of crew changes. At Marsworth Top lock progress was halted for a few minutes for an alfresco meal prepared by Dave Stott. We took over from Simon’s crew just before Leighton Buzzard it was here on the first fly run that we encountered thick fog on the long bendy pound below Leighton Lock.
I was dreading a repeat but it must be a local feature; but this time we got fog and low water. After running aground a couple of times, the top lock at Soulbury was a very welcome sight. Stoke Hammond came soon after and we headed for the bunks. My crew took over at Wolverton for the run up to Stoke Bruerne, as we were going over the aqueduct I jumped off to set the lock at Cosgrove (forgetting the bike). As I walked along a young man on the towpath kindly let me commandeer his mountain bike for the run up to the lock. Martin turned out to be an engineering student who spent the next three hours with Dave in the engine room and has now joined FoP. We had a short stop at Cosgrove for some ‘housework’ and then made the final run into Stoke.

As we approached the bottom lock we got a taste of the welcome that waited us. Every lock was lined with people who were amazed that we had come from London in a day and a half. We cleared the top lock at 11.25 am just a few minutes late and moved to our moorings.

Thanks to all the crew who made this run possible and so stress free – when can we do it again?

David Powell