North West Passage: Day 3

Another sunny day, which got really quite hot by the afternoon. We set off at 7.15, and weren't the first boat down Hillmorton Locks, which meant we had to turn them all. Adrian walked down to the locks, while I brought the boat. We carried on through Rugby, of course meeting boats at the busy Clifton Wharf, and at the moorings which are on a bend. At Rugby Wharf a Willow Wren hire boat was trying to get back into the arm, and failing. I'm not even sure how he got himself in that position in the first place, with bow wedged on the bank and stern stuck in the winding hole.

Typically, it was also busy at Stretton Stop, with a day boat going out and two boats coming through the narrows. The next bit of the North Oxford is rather dull, but the sun was shining and there was plenty of farming activity to watch -- harvesting, baling, ploughing, and tilling. Having passed next to no boats where passing is easy, when we got to Ansty with its bridges, sharp bend, and moorings, we met four.

A boat was just coming out of the stop lock at Hawkesbury Junction, so we could go straight in.

Adrian did a textbook turn through the junction, giving the many drinkers at The Greyhound nothing to comment on.

We stopped at one of the water points to top up the tank, and run a wash load. A day boat was moored right in the middle of the water point moorings having their lunch, but we managed to fit in behind them.

At Charity Dock, the manekins looked much more organised than ever, as if some thought had been given to the vignettes. A montage is virtually compulsory.

As we approached Nuneaton I texted my Radio 4 announcer colleague, Jim Lee, who lives nearby, and he walked down to the canal and jumped on board for it bit. It was great to see him, and as he grew up round here, he knew even more than the guide book about the quarries and the lost railway lines.

We carried on to Hartshill, mooring up at around 5pm. The boat ahead of us had come adrift at the stern, so we re-moored that, stopping it from drifting out across the cut.

25 miles, 4 locks. (58 miles, 24 locks)

East Mids Exploration: Day 20

We set off from Hopwas at about 8 this morning. It was pretty chilly to start, but the dramatic sky over Tamworth had just a hint that we might be in for a nice day.

When we got to Fazeley Junction, we stopped on the water point and while I dealt with filling the tank, Adrian went to the nearby Tesco to get some veg. Neither job took very long. As we approached Glascote locks, some ducks got a bit spooked, in the way they do. One of them took off alongside the boat, realised he was in trouble, took a couple of steps on the roof, and went down the other side. It reminded me of a triple jump.

A boat was just coming out of the bottom Glascote Lock when we got there. At the top lock, once the boat was rising, Adrian left me to it and walked up to the Co-op in what used to be The Anchor pub at the next bridge, to get the things Tesco didn't have. He reports that the Co-op is about four times the size of Tesco, and better stocked. At Glascote Basin, it looked to me as though Dave Moore was in attendance doing some sign writing.

The next stretch is through the back gardens of Amington, although it didn't seem quite so tedious today, perhaps because the sun came out. At Alvecote Marina, Chertsey looked very shiny. A little while later Bath passed us.

We went round Polesworth, then out into the country again, which looked very attractive in the sunshine.

When we got to the bottom of the Atherstone Locks, there was a boat going up, one to come down, and another waiting to go up. As it was 12.15 we decided to have lunch rather than following straight up. Of course while we were doing that, a single hander came past and started going up the locks, so when we were ready to go there were quite a few in front of use.

The single hander was very efficient, and kept catching up the couple ahead. We also helped each other out. Then two of the boats in front stopped in the long pound below Lock 5, while we carried on. It is a very attractive flight, even if the locks do take a long time to fill.

At Lock 3, we experienced rudeness without a word being spoken. We were just going into the lock when a downhill boat appeared round the corner, accompanied by three crew on the towpath. One of them walked straight past to the next lock without saying anything; the two women stood next to their boat, rather than coming up to the lock. I worked us through, opened the gate, wound the paddles down, and left the gate open for them. As I approached the women I smiled, and they looked at their feet, while the helmsman turned his back. He turned away from Adrian as he passed on the boat too. I don't think we'd done anything to upset them -- but they certainly weren't a good advert for the BCF, whose flags and stickers adorned their boat.

We cleared the flight in two and a half hours, not a record by any means, but not too bad considering we were following people up. We continued to a mooring we've used before, at Hartshill.

15 miles, 13 locks. (318 miles, 157 locks)

 

Going West: Day 22

Yesterday evening, Barry on AreAndAre arrived. Having filled up with water and moored up, he came on board for a couple of hours of chat; it's the first time we've had more than a conversation in passing, so it was great to get to know him better and hear all about the Home Brew Boat business.

There was lots of rain in the night and this morning was very dank and murky. We set off at 8, towards Glascote Locks. One of the boats moored at the club below the locks had come adrift and was almost across the cut; if floated back in when we went past, but I phoned the club to let them know. At the locks, we crossed with a boat between the two. At the top, the former SM Hudson yard is now run by Sarah Edgson as an expansion of Norton Canes, and will soon be offering all boatyard services.

It rained as we passed the back gardens of Tamworth, but as we moved out into the countryside things improved. Lots of harvesting has been done around here, with fields full of bales of straw.

The Atherstone Locks always seem to take an age, and today was no exception. We were following a couple of boats up, so we were all having to turn locks. After four of the eleven, we decided to stop for lunch to let the others get ahead a bit. They must have had a similar idea a little further ahead though, because when we set off again the same two boats were still just in front. At lock 5 Adrian dashed into town to buy some soap, while I single-handed the lock. Even though I'm not really very keen on this flight, it's still pretty.

We eventually got to the top and carried on to Hartshill, just short of the CRT yard, in a place where we've stopped a couple of times before. The sun has come out, but there are very tall clouds, some of which are black. It's been a day where coats and jumpers have been on and off every few minutes!

13 miles, 13 locks. (272 miles, 245 locks)

 

Big Trip - Day 4

This is another 'bonus' day on the Big Trip, as Adrian was originally due to be at meetings near Heathrow this morning.  But they were postponed, so he's been able to work on the boat all day.  We came up to Rugby yesterday from London -- Adrian in mid afternoon, me a bit later after work.  Using a car, a train, and a hire car, we ended up with everything where we needed it.

This morning, Adrian took the hire car back while I hoovered (making the most of being on shore power), and got the boat ready to cruise.  We paid for our four nights mooring (and can recommend Clifton Wharf), and set off at 9.20am.  A few boats had already gone by, including fellow Braidbar Cala, who are presumably going to the same place we are, and Festina Lente.  I reversed out of the arm and headed towards Rugby.  Shortly afterwards we passed Hadar, but Keith was too busy looking where he was going!

As this part of the network is very, very familiar to us, the idea was to get as far as possible, so we can spend more time in the places we haven't been so often.  At Newbold, the lights in the tunnel are now pretty pathetic, with only three still working.

The vegetation on the offside is seriously out of control in places, and the canal was also pretty busy.  We passed four boats in the narrow section through the cutting near Brinklow.  At Stretton Stop, a boat was coming through the narrow, so we then went through and closed the little swing bridge.

The only lock of the day was at Hawkesbury Junction, and even then it's only around a foot deep.  A disabled trip boat was just leaving the lock, another was coming through the junction, and another was behind it.  We worked through the lock, and Adrian did a great turn round the 180 degree junction, and on through the narrow.

The next bit is very dull, with long straight sections, and nothing much to look at.  But the pub at Bridge 14, which has long been closed and pretty much derelict, is being refurbished as homes, and is already partly occupied.

Charity Dock was its usual eccentric self, and we then passed Marston Junction, where the Ashby Canal heads off.  Nuneaton's allotments are still there, but there's also a lot of new housing which wasn't there when we last came this way a couple of years ago.  Springwood Haven marina looks even smarter than we remember -- difficult though that seems.  We carried on past the waterways yard at Hartshill, which looks rather unloved.

We moored up shortly after the next Bridge, at just before 5pm.

23 miles, 1 lock.  (57 miles, 24 locks)

Early August Weekend - Day 2

Last night, the music being broadcast by the boat permanently moored across the cut got louder and louder as the evening went on, being turned up even further when the three women on board went inside.  By 9.30, Adrian was trying to call to them to turn it down a bit; he was joined by the man from the boat moored behind us -- but they either couldn't hear, or didn't want to.  Eventually the man from the boat behind went to get his bugle (!), and a few blasts on that got them to turn the volume down a bit.  However, it was soon back to top volume again, and stayed that way until well after 10pm.  Surely the same rules should apply to music as to running engines -- in that neither should be heard by anyone else after 8pm.

This morning, we resisted the temptation to crash into the boat opposite as we left at about 8.45.  A boat was in the stop lock as we approached, but the one foot difference in level doesn't take long so we were soon entering the lock.

Once through the lock, Adrian did a great job of getting round the junction in one go.  Of course there was no-one around to see.  As we hadn't planned to come in this direction, we didn't have a firm idea of where to head for.  We considered turning onto the Ashby, but decided instead to carry on along the Coventry Canal.  At Nuneaton, we stopped at Boot Wharf and where diesel was a reasonable price, and they take any split declaration.  It turned out to be a very friendly and helpful place.  While we were there, there was a half-hearted attempt at a rain shower, but before long the sun was coming out.  We stopped for lunch at Hartshill, getting onto the end of the moorings just before Bridge 33.  It was such a nice spot that we decided we'd stay for the rest of the day, so we made a five minute trip to the winding hole just beyond the bridge, then came back and moored in the same place.

I Brassoed the mushroom vents (even though the roof was too hot to kneel on).  We then walked across the fields from Bridge 33, under the railway line, and along the road to Dobbie's garden centre, where we bought a few provisions including some cooking apples to go with blackberries we'd spotted in the hedgerow next to the boat.  We came back via the road, while eating an ice cream, to make a circular walk.  I then picked the blackberries.  I intended to make a blackberry and apple crumble, but it turned out we had no flour on board, so that turned into fruit and custard.

During the afternoon, we achieved one of the main jobs we'd had earmarked for this weekend: an oil change.  Adrian pumped out all the old oil, I got the oil filter off, and we put new oil in.  For a first time, we managed the whole thing without any drama, and without getting too much oil in the bilges.  No doubt the next time will be easier, because we'll know what we're doing.

We've had a couple of heavy downpours during the afternoon, and there's been a steady stream of boats by.  One of the most dramatic was an old working boat, with its unladen bow high in the air.  It certainly scared a group of Swedish people who'd just gone by on a hire boat, who must have panicked as they ended up across the canal.

9 miles, 1 locks.  (26 miles, 1 lock)