Repatriation: Day 7

Finally another sunny and warm day — which was just as well because we have travelled some very familiar and rather dull waters today.  We set off just before 8, and were soon passing the back gardens and allotments of Nuneaton.  We passed Marston Junction and Charity Dock, then arrived at Hawkesbury Junction.  Adrian jumped off to work the lock while I took the boat round the 180 degree turn under the junction bridge.

A boat was coming down the lock, but as the fall is under a foot it didn’t take long.  We then had ahead of us the long straight sections of the North Oxford Canal; we treated ourselves to a mid morning crumpet.

We plodded on through Ansty, Stretton Stop, and past Brinklow.  As we went into Newbold Tunnel, a boat at the other end panicked and was soon right across the canal.  It was a Willow Wren hire boat, and by the time we passed them the couple were having a discussion about really needing a map.  I pointed out that the tunnel can fit two boats inside.  At Rugby there were plenty of moored boats and plenty of traffic.

When we got to Hillmorton Locks, there was a boat in front of us waiting to go up, and one already coming down.  Then another downhill boat arrived, so it was a while before we could start ascending.

Only one lock of each pair was being used; it turned out the others were closed for social distancing reasons.  The volunteer lock keepers thought this was ridiculous, and so did we when we found three boats waiting in front of us, with very little movement at all.  Adrian made use of the waiting time by going across to the cafe to buy Magnums.  Then he went up to the second lock to help out, as did the teenage boys from the boat behind us.  More and more boats were coming up the bottom lock, so eventually one of the volunteer lock keepers came and opened the other locks to get things moving.  All in all, the three locks took longer than some much lengthier flights we’ve done.  We moored at the top of the locks at about 4.30, and immediately got out the bucket, the sponge, and the polish, and did the other side of the boat, so we no longer look like a disgrace.  Adrian had made a moussaka as we’d been coming along this afternoon, and after that I have a union meeting by Zoom.

23 miles, 4 locks.  (120 miles, 63 locks)

Autumn Cruise: Day 3

It was incredibly quiet above Braunston Locks, but I didn’t sleep particularly well.  Consequently it was about 7.45 when I got ready to leave, and walked down to fill the top lock.  While that was happening I went down to the second lock, which just needed topping up, so I could soon open the gate.  With the top two locks set, I left the mooring bang on 8am.

While working the top lock, I was surprised to recognise a jogger going by — the owner of one of the boats we did a boat test on last Wednesday.  When the lock was empty, I pulled the boat out and closed the gate behind it, bu which time the stern was at the bottom of the steps and I could step on.  The third lock was almost full, so when the boat was two thirds of the way down the second one, and I could be confident it wasn’t going to drift back over the cill, I walked down, topped it up, and opened the gate.  The cottage alongside has bird feeders which were busy with great and blue tits.

The fourth lock down was empty with a bottom gate open, as someone was just setting off from the moorings in that pound.  I left the gate of my lock open for them.  By the time I was in the fourth lock, another boat had arrived and the crew worked the lock for me.  The fifth lock, by Crooked Cottage, just needed a top up, and there was a boat coming up the bottom lock so I could again leave the gate.  There was a volunteer lock keeper at the bottom lock, who opened the gate for me.  I’d had a pretty good run down, getting to the bottom at 9.30.

As I left the bottom lock, I could see a long tug deck poking out of the marina exit, and then reversing back in again.  I wasn’t quite sure what was going on but I held back.  He wanted to turn left, but his angle of approach meant quite a lot of to-ing and fro-ing was needed.  The delay actually worked in my favour because I was looking for a mooring and no-one seemed to have left yet.  I’d been too efficient down the locks!  But a hire boat was preparing to set off, so I waited and slipped into their space.  “It’ll be tight” said the woman on board, looking at the length of Briar Rose; it was, but there was just enough space.

Having moored up, I walked back to the shop at the bottom lock for some postcards, then across the field up to the village to get some dinners for the next few nights from the butcher.  I walked back down to Butcher’s Bridge, completing a circular walk.  Most of the time I was out it was drizzling.

A bit later I had a clear out of the out of date packets and jars in the cupboard, and headed down to the rubbish bins.  It was good timing, because on the water point I found Del and Al from Derwent6, with their friends John and Louise on Ploddin’ Along, who also have a very excitable new puppy.  It was really good to see them, and have a quick catch up.

I walked across the marina heading for the post box on the main road but got waylaid again, this time by Phill Abbott from Wharf House Narrowboats, who’s now based in the marina.  We had a chat and he showed me the boat he’s currently refitting.

Back at the boat I made myself a sort of packed lunch to have en route, and set off at 12 noon.  It takes ages to get out of Braunston because of all the moored boats.  At the junction, a boat was coming from the Napton direction so I held back until they had made the turn.  I was going straight on towards Rugby.

 A boat was coming through Bridge 88 as I approached, and this seemed to set the pattern for the journey: I met boats at bridges, but I was always just far enough away for it not to be a problem.  Looking back from Bridge 88 you get the classic view of Braunston.

Soon after this the sun came out, although it has been very blustery.  The countryside is pretty and I enjoyed the journey.  As I passed the entrance to Dunchurch Pools Marina, the wind whipping across almost pushed me onto the bank on the offside.  I ticked off the bridges, then after the two big rail bridges at Hillmorton is the first sign of the new town being built on the old radio station where the dozens of masts used to be.

I could have moored before Bridge 72, but you need stakes there and mooring up is enough of a faff single handed — so I took a gamble that there would be space immediately above Hillmorton locks.  The first gap I tried to get into with the help of another boater was about a foot too short.  The one the other side of the same boat was shorter.  But there was a space right at the far end.  I was button to button with the boat already there, but am on rings at both ends — the bow being on the very first ring of the moorings.

This afternoon I have scrubbed the towpath side of the cratch cover to try to make it look less green. Lots of green has come out, but I suspect it will still look a bit uncared for when it dries.

8 miles, 6 locks.  (33 miles, 20 locks)

North West Passage: Day 2

We are on a bit of a mission this weekend, and fortunately I'm in the habit of early starts this week, so I was up at 6 and set off at 6.45. Adrian stayed in bed a little while longer. It was a lovely morning -- chilly but bright.

It took the expected time of just over four hours to get to the bottom of the Buckby Locks. The only slight delay was that just after the massive earthworks for the new Flore-Weedon bypass, there was a clunking noise and the tiller became very hard to move. I pulled over, at which point whatever has caused the problem seemed to fall off; I had a poke about with the pole and down the weedhatch, but couldn't find what the problem had been.

At the locks, we shared the bottom one, but they had friends waiting at the next one, so we were left alone. I wasn't too disappointed, as they were borrowing the boat and had little idea what they were doong, but it did make for a slow ascent. There was also quite a bit of traffic coming down, so there was a fair bit of waiting around. It was a lovely sunny warm day, so not much of a hardship. We've done this flight so many times I took few photos, except of a butterfly.

At the top lock I chatted to some people on the last leg of the London Ring, returning to Blisworth. We turned left towards Braunston at the junction, and had lunch on the move before the tunnel. We passed lots of boats on this stretch, including Ryan on Southern Cross, and in the tunnel we passed three more almost immediately. That end of the tunnel is very uneven, and each boat seemed to be at a kink. Two of them had nav lights, and I realised how much easier it is to judge where boats are when they have them.

As we got to the top lock, two boats were just going in to go down. We'd arranged to meet Catherine, Nigel, Grace, and Matthew -- who only got back from two weeks on their share boat, Rowington, yesterday, but always seem up for a bit of locking. There had been no-one visible behind us in the tunnel, so we eventually set off alone; once again it was slow going, with all the traffic down hill. Another boat started to come down the top lock, so we said we'd wait for them in the second, but then another boat joined them off the moorings, so we went ahead ourselves.

At the bottom of the locks, we all had an ice cream from the shop, then we gave the family a little trip down to the junction. Along the way we passed Waterway Routes, and had a quick chat with Paul. After we dropped off Catherine and co, we had an interesting few minutes. Through the road bridge, where it's pretty narrow anyway, there's a burnt out Sea Otter at the start of the moorings, then a couple of old boats usually seen in the Rugby area were being hauled along the outside of the moored boat, followed by a hire boat. We reversed a bit to get out of the way, then another boat came along after we'd set off again, which meant a visit to the offside bushes for us. After that, the canal was pretty quiet and beautiful.

We carried on as it was a nice evening, right the way to Hillmorton. We stopped before Bridge 72, just in case there wasn't room after it. We'd been on the move for almost exactly twelve hours, but by turning off the engine during the longer lock waits, we had only 10.9 hours on the engine.

24 miles, 13 locks. (33 miles, 20 locks)

Going West: Day 24

The Coventry Basin moorings are surprisingly quiet. We slipped away this morning at 8am in sunny but chilly conditions. By Bridge 2 are the Cash's Hundreds weavers' cottages. They used to have accommodation on the lower two floors, and looms on the top floor. A hundred were planned, but they actually built only around half that number.

Just beyond Bridge 8 we made a brief stop, so Adrian could go to the nearby Tesco, which is huge. I got the boat tied up and started some washing, and then Marilyn, David, and Lesley went by on Waka Huia so I had a brief chat to them. Before long we were approaching Hawkesbury Junction, which is much easier from this direction as you don't have to double back on yourself.

Adrian worked the lock, which has a rise of less than a foot, and we were then on the North Oxford. Thanks to improvements in the 1830s, this canal has long straight sections which combined with the fact that we used to moor round here and travelled it frequently, makes it rather dull. There were some moments of interest, though, provided by wildlife. I saw what I'm pretty sure was a water vole; it set off from the offside, swam right into the side of the boat, looked confused, and then went round us as we went past. Later some sort of bird of prey flew overhead and settled in a tree. I had very bad photos of each of them.

At Stretton Stop, Adrian jumped off to open the little swing bridge, which is used by staff at Rose Narrowboats.

We passed the entrance to Brinklow Marina, where we moored when we first bought Briar Rose. Not a single one of the coloured lights in Newbold Tunnel is working any more. At Rugby, building work is well advanced on the new retail park near Tesco; and there's also a lot of building work going on a Clifton Cruisers.

It was still relatively early, so we decided to go up the locks at Hillmorton. A big change since we last came this way is that all the masts from the Rugby Radio Station have gone. A volunteer lock keeper emptied one of the pair of bottom locks for us. At the middle pair, Hillmorton Church looked rather nice in the sunshine.

There was a space on the piling at the top of the locks, so we pulled in and moored up. As we were reasonably close, I phoned the Canal Shop, which supplied our composting loo, to see whether they had any cocoa shell in stock. This is one of the best things to use as a base in the loo, but we've never been able to find any. They had some, so I walked along to buy a couple of kilos -- I had no idea what a kilo would look like, and it turns out to be quite a volume; 2kg should do us for about six empties of the loo.

Later, just before 6pm, Brian and Diana on Harnser went past. I went to chat to them as they went down the top lock.

21 miles, 4 locks. (307 miles, 249 locks)

 

March weekend - Day 1

We came up to the boat yesterday afternoon.  I met Adrian at his work at 3pm, and we had a remarkably good journey, considering it was Friday afternoon.  We were at Brinklow at 5.30pm.  Having this weekend on board was a late decision; we'd been due to go to some friends for dinner, and as their plans for Saturday included driving to Hull, we asked if they'd like to come to the boat for dinner and stay the night.  They arrived at 7pm, and we were soon having a chili I'd made in the morning and brought with us.

This morning was very murkey, and the forecast wasn't very promising (especially for tomorrow).  Brian and Mike left after breakfast, and we prepared Briar Rose for the off.  By the time we got to Newbold, the mist had turned to rain.  There was another shower as we passed through Rugby.  The moorings by the park had only one boat on them; I've never seen them so empty.  At the golf course, we passed Derwent6, and waved at Del.  Below Hillmorton Locks, we passed Oakfield and Piston Broke moored up.

At the locks, there was a boat going up in front of us, so we had to turn the lock.  At the middle lock, we waited for a boat which was just coming down the top, which gave us a chance to look at the work going on at the neighbouring lock.  It's all fenced off and completely empty, so you can see the paddle culverts.

At the top lock, there was another boat coming down, so we could go straight in, and another waiting.  By now the sun was trying to come out, so we had another look at the forecast to see whether it had improved.  Tomorrow is still due to be heavy rain, so we decided to stop above the locks rather than leave outselves a lot to do in the wet tomorrow.  We went along to the winding hole by Bridge 74, where I made a very efficient turn.  Then we came back and moored before Bridge 72, in more or less the same place we used in January.  Since then, the willow trees by the bridge have had a rather drastic haircut.

After lunch, with the sun now fully out in a blue sky with white fluffy clouds, we walked into Hillmorton to see what's there.  Not much is the answer, apart from rather non-descript housing.  We did find a paper shop, though, and came back to the boat a different way.  Since then, I've checked and topped up the batteries, and I've started dinner: lamb shanks which are slow cooking on top of the stove.  There have been a few boats coming past, making the most of a lovely sunny afternoon.

8.5 miles, 3 locks.

January weekend - Day 1

Never let it be said that we don't make enough use of Briar Rose.  The forecast for this weekend was good (cold but sunny), and Adrian's been working very hard the past few weeks, so we thought we'd have a short trip.

We came up to the boat last night.  I was on an early shift, so got home at 8.15pm; we set off ten minutes later and arrived at Brinklow at 10.45pm.  The car said the temperature was -3C, and inside the boat it didn't feel much warmer.  We got the fire alight, moved the oil filled radiator (which is fine for use on shore power) to the cabin, and put the kettle on for tea and hot water bottles.

This morning we woke to a very hard frost, crisp clear blue skies, and not a breath of wind.

After breakfast, we walked round to the other side of the marina to see Doug and James on Chance, where we had tea and coffee, and a full briefing on their January cruise.

Back at Briar Rose we got the boat ready to go, and reversed off the pontoon at 10.45.  Out on the cut, there were patches of thin ice, but nothing to get concerned about.  At Rugby we passed Oakfield and Piston Broke, then a bit further along at the golf course moorings we saw Derwent6, with its highly polished portholes gleaming in the sunshine.  There were no signs of life on any of them.

At Hillmorton, all the locks were in our favour.  At the middle lock, the open one has changed to the offside of the pair, from where you get a much better view of the church.

BW are clearly going to do some work on the other lock, with a workboat and pumping gear moored in front.  This gate leaks like a sieve, but there was no sign of a new one; the flat contained a new balance beam for one of the top locks, No7.

The sky was a perfect blue as we headed for the top of the flight.

The top of the locks was our target for this unambitious day's cruise.  In any case, we were cold and it was lunchtime.  We moored up just though Bridge 72, opposite the masts of the old Rugby Radio Station, which are soon likely to be demolished and replaced by 6000 houses.

We've never stopped here before (it's too close to base for most trips out), but it's a nice spot.  We have the trains as neighbours, but we've already stopped noticing them.  In fact, at this point the Virgin trains are behind the embankment; it's only the London Midland services which are visible.  As befits somewhere with a huge mobile phone mast a couple of hundred metres away, we've got a great mobile and internet signal.  We briefly talked about going for a little walk to have a look at Hillmorton itself, but in fact we've just enjoyed being on board and relaxing.

6.5 miles, 3 locks.