To blacking: Day 2

It was very windy this morning, and we’d had some rain.  We set off about 9am, struggling slightly to get away from the bank against the wind. At least it wasn’t raining.

Most of the two miles has moored boats and had to be done on tickover.  It was particularly tight through Rugby boats.  Not sure whether someone thought it was a good idea to moor opposite breasted up boats, or whether they were there before the breasting up took place — but either way, it wasn’t very sensible.

We have delivered the boat to Weedon for blacking this week.  Today’s journey was less than an hour, so we were on the road back home in good time, and the weather got worse as we headed south.

2 miles, 0 locks.  (17 miles, 7 locks)

To blacking: Day 1

Adrian came up to the boat yesterday, with a holdup on the A34 making it a very slow journey. I came up after an early shift at work. It rained pretty much all night, and the forecast wasn’t good for today either. This morning started with a car shuffle, and on the way back we went to the Gayton car park where we picked up our friends Helen and Andy who were spending the day with us. We drove back to the marina, and set off. It was dry if gloomy, but still with some autumn colours.

At the bottom lock at Stoke Bruerne a couple of lockies emptied the lock for us. A pair of boats was coming down, so we could leave the gates open.

With crew and lock keepers we made good progress up the locks, with the cloud gradually clearing too.

The long pound was very low, which is unusual. At the top the headed straight into the tunnel. We passed two boats, the second of which hardly moved over at all, and gave us a significant whack as it went past. At the Blisworth side of the tunnel, the improvement in the weather was significant. 

We moored at Gayton for lunch — but while checking down the weedhatch, I managed to dunk one leg on the canal!  Not sure exactly what happened as I stepped onto the tow path, but I reckon it would have been worse had Andy not been there to grab hold of me. After lunch, Helen and Andy headed off to their car in the car park by the bridge. It had been a really lovely day with them. We set off again, to make the most of a lovely sunny afternoon. 

At almost 5.30 we were at Nether Heyford, with the sun beginning to disappear behind the hill. We moored up shortly after the narrows where there’s decent piling. 

15 miles, 7 locks. 

Tusitala on test

The November Canal Boat is out, and includes my boat test on Tusitala by Finesse Boats.

Annoying

This is really just to log a night on the boat.  I went to work yesterday from Milton Keynes station, and during my lunchtime walk my phone was snatched by a kid on a bike.  Very annoying.  Without it, I didn’t even know Adrian’s number!  The process of getting everything sorted was begun.  This morning, I did a few boat jobs, such as swapping some bulbs, sorting the loo, and sealing a couple of leaking mushroom vents, and then headed home.  It’s difficult to do anything without internet, and the weather for Monday (which was supposed to be a boat test day) is dire.

Step up

I came up to the boat after work — and the drive took ages. When I got to the marina, I could easily seen the water level was high. Then I found there was a step up from the jetty onto the boat, when there’s usually a small step down. 

September Cruise: Day 18

It rained a lot all night and was still going this morning, sometimes very heavily.  Having looked at the rainfall radar, we waited for a lull and set off at 8.45.  Really, it was the sort of day when you wouldn’t move unless you had to; unfortunately we had to.

The first lock was full — and the rest of the flight turned out to be too full.  Because of the way these Grand Union locks are designed, there are no normal by-washes.  Extra water goes through the ground paddle somehow, and if there’s more it goes over the top gates and over the bottom gates.  The gates are different heights, so if there’s water going over the top ones, the lock will never make a level and you’ll never be able to get the gate open.  So from the second lock down, I had to run water off by opening top and bottom paddles, to lower the whole pound.  Of course each time this just moved the problem further down the flight, so there was a lot of running off water.  It meant the five locks took us an hour and a half.

It had rained again while we were locking, but once at the bottom it had stopped.  It was also pretty warm as we made our way along the five familiar miles back to our marina.  I saw a couple of kingfishers, and there were what looked like hundreds of geese at Grafton Regis.

The last mile had a fishing competition, but at least they weren’t fishing opposite the marina entrance, so I didn’t have to annoy an angler by turning in.  There was no wind, so my spin and reverse into our berth was one of my worst.  Then our next door neighbour came out to tell us that the marina owner, Roy, had unexpected died a couple of weeks ago.  He was 80, and the marina had been his project since retiring from his farm, which surrounds the marina.  He’ll be sadly missed as he would come down to check on everything at least once if not twice a day.

Adrian had done most of the packing as we came along, so we had lunch, loaded up the car and I headed home — while Adrian began the journey to Warrington for work tomorrow.

6 miles, 5 locks.  (215 miles, 137 locks)

September Cruise: Day 17

Another day where the actual weather was better than the forecast, although it was a bit overcast when we set off a bit after 8.  I walked round the junction to the top lock while Adrian brought the boat.

A Weedon hire boat was coming up, so the lock was set for us.

The second lock was full and we met a couple of other boats on their way up, so we didn’t actually have to turn any locks.

We got to the bottom about 9.45, and began the five hour journey along the Stowe Hill pound.  It turned out to have its moments.  In the quarter of a mile between High House Bridge and the narrows, we passed six boats going the other way — it it would have been seven had they managed to get through the narrow bit.  Near Heyford Fields, a day boat from Gayton waited for us to come through the bridge, then got it all wrong and shot across the canal before heading straight for us.  Then in the narrow section before Bugbrooke, an enormous widebeam came through.  We pulled over to let it pass.

It took three people to steer it: one at the bow with a walking talkie, one at the stern with a walkie talkie who also dives back and forth looking down each side, and one actually on the tiller.  None appeared to be enjoying themselves much.  We carried on, and eventually went past Gayton Junction.

As we passed through Blisworth there was thunder rumbling around; thundery showers had been in the forecast, but originally for much earlier.  The rain came between the Mill and the tunnel.  We passed two boats in the tunnel and Mike’s trip boat, Charlie, came in and backed out again at the far end.  Much to our surprise it was sunny in Stoke Bruerne, and we shared the top two locks with the hire boat Sally.  The were lots of people about.

We moored in the long pound, just as there were more rumbles of thunder and some showers.

17 miles, 9 locks.  (209 miles, 132 locks)