Crick planning

My passes for the Crick Boat Show arrived the other day; my mooring is booked and paid for, and crew to help me get there are lined up.  And the good news is that our journey should be much easier, thanks to BW relaxing lots of the restrictions on locks.  It's been raining so much that the reservoirs are recovering, so the Stoke Bruene, Buckby, and Watford flights will all be open longer (as will Braunston, Calcutt, and Foxton).  The Leicester Line is also reopening, which should ease the traffic coming from the south.

Eleventh Heaven on test

The June issue of Canal Boat is out, and includes my boat test of Eleventh Heaven, a Braidbar boat which will be at the Crick Boat Show.

Details

Something happened today which I haven't seen for a while: the sun came out.  I had an appointment with the boat painter who'll be giving Briar Rose a new look in October, so I set off at about 9.30.  The boats moored in front of the no mooring signs opposite the marina entrance didn't cause too many problems, and I was soon on my way.  Although the sky was blue and the countryside largely yellow with oilseed rape, there was a sharply cold wind.

At Baxter's, I pulled onto the wharf and tied up the boat, and Jon the painter had a good look at Briar Rose.  We talked about colours amd what would go where, coachlines, and non-slip surfaces.  With all the details sorted, I paid a deposit to firmly book our slot in October.  During this time, another boat from Thrupp Wharf turned up for diesel -- and once full took a good fifteen minutes to wind in the entrance of Kingfisher Marina.  Also, a wooden inspection launch called Kingfisher dating from 1928 came out of the marina and moored in front of the house alongside.  I was talking to the owner (although he's just sold it) who said he built the marina in order to have somewhere to keep the boat -- which explains why it's called Kingfisher Marina.

I turned in the marina entrance and set off for Thrupp Wharf.  I considered mooring up somewhere in between for lunch, but the wind was blowing away from the towpath so I thought I might struggle to get moored on my own.  Also, it appeared that the weather might get more blustery as the day wore on, so I decided to go straight back to Thrupp Wharf.  When I got there, the boat which had struggled to turn at Kingfisher still hadn't managed to get onto their pontoon, even though they'd had a head start on me of at least forty minutes.  In the end, I was moored up before they were.

After lunch, I went back to bed for a sleep as I'm starting night shifts tonight.  I had an easy drive down the M1 and past the illuminated arch of Wembley Stadium.  We'll be back at Briar Rose in a week's time for a few days out.

4 miles, 0 locks.

A visit

My parents were coming to visit today, and I'd emailed directions from their home to the marina.  My favourite concerned going through Milton Keynes, where they had to cross nine roundabouts.  They arrived at about 10.30 and we had teas and coffees before setting off for a little trip.  It was cloudy and cold, but at least there was very little breeze so the tricky left turn out of the marina was OK.

It was immediately obvious that the water level in the canal was much higher than normal.  Also, the River Tove which runs alongside for most of the stretch to Stoke Bruerne, had a lot of water in it -- and had clearly been much higher.  It runs through some grazing fields, and the sheep had lost more than half their space to flooding.

There was also a lot of water cascading over the spill weirs into the river.

Below Stoke Bruerne locks, the Tove crosses the canal, usually entering via the mooring arm, and leaving via the weir made of lots of low arches.  Today though, the river was also pouring in with some force over another weir that I haven't seen running before.  The flow on the canal was significant, and explained why we'd seemed to be making slow progress.

I turned in the arm below the locks and moored up on the 48 hour moorings.  I made lunch of roasted butternut squash risotto followed by apple and blueberry crumble, and then we went for a walk.  We'd loaded mother's mobility scooter into the cratch, so she rode that up the first couple of locks.  The potholed path wasn't ideal, but the scooter coped remarkably well; I had to give it a push only one, when it got a bit grounded.  We then walked the other way to have a look at the weirs.  Mattie, my parents' elderly dog who has diabetes and is virtually blind also seemed to enjoy exploring somewhere new.

It was nearly 4 o'clock when we set off back to the marina, and the return journey seemed much quicker, probably helped by the flow on the canal.  The sky also brightened, and for a couple of minutes there was even enough sunshine for shadows to appear.  The turn into the marina from this direction is difficult, because you're almost doubling back on yourself.  A boat has moored right in front of the sign that says 'no mooring -- winding hole and marina entrance'.  It didn't make much difference this afternoon, but will be in the way if it's still there when I want to get out again in the morning.  I reversed onto the pontoon and got the boat tied up, and my parents headed home.

10 miles, 0 locks.

New fenders

It rained an awful lot yesterday evening and overnight, and while I quite like the sound of rain on the roof, it doesn't make for ideal sleeping conditions.  I knew it was going to rain all night,because the Met Office website has a great new feature showing the rainfall.  You can play a sequence of images from the previous three hours, so you can see what's coming your way.

It was still raining this morning, but I could see that there was a dry spell on its way followed by another load of rain.  It was just as well, because at 9.30 Mick Betts was coming with our new fenders.  We'd feared that the old shackles might have to be cut off  because they were rusted solid, but I'd taken every opportunity to spray them with WD40, and Mick had also been up to the boat over the past couple of weeks to have a go at undoing them -- eventually with success.  It was just as well, because the anchor points on Briar Rose are very chunky, and Mick didn't have any new shackles big enough so had to reuse the old ones.  He'll come back next week when he's got some the right size, and swap them over.  Even so, the improvement is considerable.  Here are the before and after photos.

I particularly like the tipcat and button rather than a single button at the stern.  They'll take a few weeks to settle into their final position.

Not long after Mick had gone, the rain returned and really threw it down.  We'd been very lucky to have had a couple of dry hours, even if it was really cold.

I've spent the rest of the day reworking an article and making some calls.  I also checked the batteries, and made a crumble for tomorrow when my parents are coming up for a little trip.  This afternoon, the swallows have been skimming the water in front of the boat.  One sat for a little while on the tiller of the boat next door, although naturally he was facing the wrong way.

Counting

I came up to the boat this afternoon, as there are a few things to do over the next couple of days.  I stopped on the way at Tesco in Buckingham, which is only a couple of hundred yards off the quickest route between home and Thrupp Wharf.

It was pleasantly warm when I arrived, but I lit the fire anyway as it could get cold later.  Heavy rain is also forcast for tonight; let's hope it stops tomorrow morning, as the first job is an external one.

I noticed yesterday that at some point between Monday evening and Tuesday morning, the Bravenet counter passed the 50,000 hits mark -- which isn't bad for just over a year.  Blogger's own counter reckons we're already up to 57,000 hits -- which suggests that these counters really aren't to be trusted.

Annual Report

It was on 27 April last year that large amounts of money left our bank account and we became the owners of Briar Rose.  It wasn't until a couple of days later, Royal wedding day, that Adrian went up to Brinklow to take possession of the boat and go for the first trip.  I was delayed a couple more days, because of work getting in the way.

But in the first year of ownership we have covered 878 miles and 486 locks, and done 400.2 engine hours.  We have spent 95 nights on board.

We have travelled on the following waterways:

• Birmingham and Fazeley Canal
• Birmingham Canal Navigations New Main Line
• Coventry Canal
• Grand Union Canal Mainline
• Grand Union Canal Paddington Arm
• Grand Union Canal Wendover Arm
• Hertford Union Canal
• Lee and Stort Navigation
• North Oxford Canal
• Regents Canal
• River Avon
• River Severn
• River Thames
• South Oxford Canal
• Stratford Canal
• Tame Valley Canal
• Walsall Canal
• Wednesbury Old Canal
• Worcester and Birmingham Canal

Not bad for a year!