May Cruise - Day 1

The original plan was that I'd come up to the boat today and do a boat test tomorrow. Then Adrian would come up tomorrow evening, and we'd have a weekend on board.

In reality, Adrian came up to the boat last night, and has been working remotely. My boat test has been postponed because of tomorrow's dire forecast, which means we'll have a bit more time on board. I drove up at lunchtime, and had one of the longest journeys ever. A car and caravan had come to grief on the A34 so I spent an hour stationary, then another hour covering the three miles to the accident. In all, the normal two hour journey took four.

By the time I arrived, it was quite a nice afternoon, with blue skies and some sunshine, so we decided to set off straight away. It was a bit blustery at times, but nothing too bad. Within fifteen minutes of my arrival, we were heading towards Cosgrove.

At Cosgrove lock, there was a boat just preparing to come up. As he came out the lock the wind caught him and he gave us a bit of a clonk. I was expecting it, though, as it's a tricky enough lock to get out of when there's someone waiting, even without the wind.

At Wolverton, Nutfield and Raymond we moored up, looking a bit incongruous among the modern flats.

I was aiming for Bridge 75 at Stantonbury, but could hardly believe my eyes when we came round the corner: there were loads of boats moored here, far more than I've seen before. There was room for us on the end, so I pulled in, with the line of boats stretching away in front of us. Most of these can usually be seen more into Milton Keynes.

Tomorrow's forecast doesn't look so bad for here as for further north. Adrian has to work, but if the conditions aren't too bad I'll take us through MK, which is all on the level. If it's really blowing a gale, we can easily sit it out here.

5 miles, 1 lock.

Swamp Frogs on test

The June issue on Canal Boat is out, and includes my review of Swamp Frogs, by Milburn Boats, which will be at the Crick Show at the end of the month.

More Cavalcade

At work on a sunny Bank Holiday Monday, so I couldn't resist another lunch break visit to the Little Venice Cavalcade.  Phone photos only again, I'm afraid.

Canalway Cavalcade

In my lunch break this afternoon I went along to Little Venice, where the IWA Canalway Cavalcade is going on all weekend.  It was very busy, both with boats and visitors.  One good change, though, is that lots of the stalls have been moved off the towpath on the south side of Browning's Pool up onto Warwick Crescent, so it's slightly easier to get around.

April weekend - Day 3

Our mooring at Nether Heyford was very quiet and peaceful, and we slept well.  First thing this morning, the sun was shining; by the time we set off at 8.30 the cloud had moved in and it was pretty overcast.

After Furnace Lane Wharf we passed Morgana Le Fey moored up, then at Bugbrooke we passed Lois Jane and I was able to have a quick chat with Debbie as we drifted by.  Next we passed Baleine, and Toby and Susan came out to say hello and goodbye.

Along this stretch there are a variety of bridges, some of which are impossible to see through.  The worst (perhaps not surprisingly) is Skew Bridge.  It's not too bad from the other direction, but heading south there's no visibility at all.

We saw our first ducklings yesterday, and there were more today.  One clutch were being particularly closely marshalled by mother.

After a couple of hours we were at Blisworth Tunnel.  Just as we turned in, we could see a light reflecting on the wall, and sure enough there was a boat about forty yards or so from the portal.

We didn't pass another boat until right at the other end.  En route, we got very wet thanks to all the water pouring from the roof, and we managed to spot the side shaft (but not get a photo of it, this time).

We went down the first two locks, and moored for lunch in the long pound, which was virtually deserted.  At the second lock, a boat arrived to come up.  The crew came up to the lock, and I left them to it as Adrian brought Briar Rose out.  Next thing, the crew shut the gate on their own boat, and started filling the lock!  The steerer wasn't impressed.

We'd just finished washing up after lunch when a boat passed heading for the next lock down, so we got organised and joined them.  In fact, we'd probably have made quicker progress on our own.  At the penultimate lock, Adrian spotted a familiar figure parking a car.  It was Richard from Indigo Dream doing a car shuffle.  He chatted to us as we dropped down the last lock, then went off on his bike to meet Sue and the boat, heading our way.

We moored up on the first bit of piling we saw after Bridge 56, and waited for Indigo Dream's arrival, which happened within a few minutes.  Sue and Richard tied up behind us, and we had a brief towpath chat, and a show around Briar Rose; they haven't seen her since we've owned her.

Sue and Richard had an appointment to keep in Stoke Bruerne, so headed off after fifteen or twenty minutes.  It's amazing how much catching up you can do in such a short time, and it was great to see them.

By now the wind was really strong, and at times during the rest of the journey, the direction of steering and direction of travel had little in common.  We crabbed along the canal, battling the wind.  The turn into the marina was very tricky, and I had no choice but to plant the nose and turn that way.  But the wind was straight down the pontoons, so I took the decision to spin the boat and reverse into our berth as normal, and it all went surprisingly well.

Adrian had been packing up as we came along, so we were soon ready to leave.  We set off in the car at 4pm, and got home a couple of hours later.

15 miles, 7 locks.  (31 miles, 14 locks)

April weekend - Day 2

We were up in good time this morning, and set off from the marina at 8.30.  Fortunately, it wasn't too windy, as that can make the turn towards Stoke Bruerne a bit tricky.  It was overcast and chilly, though.  Adrian stayed inside, making some oat biscuits.

There were lots of fields of lambs, including a couple for whom the field wasn't enough:  they were through the fence and right next to the canal.

We got to the bottom of the locks at 10am, exactly on schedule, and we could see our visitors walking down the path.  My second cousin, Catherine, her husband, Nigel, and their children Grace and Matthew, had come to give us a hand.  Matthew, who's 4, was particularly keen to help.

There were quite a few boats coming down, so all the locks were in our favour;  at several we could swap with the other boats.  At one, we passed the steam boat, Hasty, who blew their whistle for us.

Near the top of the locks, just a few moments after the sun tried to come out, the hail stones started.  Then there was a shower of sleety rain.  In the long pound, we heard then saw a cat up a tree.  A woman was coming down the towpath with a boat pole, saying she was going to try to rescue the cat, which was hers, and stuck.  She was successful, apparently having given the cat a bit of a poke with the pole.  The woman, her dog, the cat, and the pole, all crossed the lock gates while we were coming up.

At the top of the locks, we moored for teas and coffees before going through the tunnel.  The tunnel itself was the source of great excitement.  Grace and Matthew sat on stools in the cratch, and had a torch so they could look at the walls.  Before entering, we had to wait for the trip boat to reverse out, and we also passed two boats inside.  From the helm, I could hear lots of excited child noises echoing along.

At the Blisworth end of the tunnel it was sunny.

We moored and dropped off our visitors, who'd left a car in the village.

We had lunch, then continued northwards.  Just before Bugbrooke, I spotted Baleine coming towards us.  We both did an emergency stop so we could have a quick chat.  We continued to High House Wharf, where Stanton sticks well out into the canal -- and is apparently a lot less loaded than normal.

We turned at the winding hole and returned half a mile or so to moor overlooking Nether Heyford.  We washed one side of the boat, then had a cup of tea with a couple of the fantasic chocolate cakes that Catherine had brought us. Adrian started a chili which has been cooking all afternoon, so we'll have that tonight.

16 miles, 7 locks.

Annual report

Our second year of owning Briar Rose is now complete -- and circumstances meant that we used the boat a lot less than during the first year.  Adrian spent most of his spare time with his mum as she was ill, and we didn't get our usual long break in the autumn.

As a result, during year two we covered only 310 miles, passed through only 100 locks, and clocked up just 183.4 engine hours.  We (actually, mostly just I!) spend 61 nights on board.  The furthest north we went was Crick and the furthest south was Grove Lock.

However, we're planning a much more ambitious programme of travels this year, including four weeks in September.