To Birmingham today for a boat test — the first time we’ve ever done one in the city centre.
I’d stayed on Briar Rose overnight and met up with Andy the photographer at Bicester so we could travel together. The weather didn’t entirely play ball, with the sun only really coming out once the boat was heading off down the locks, where we have the owners a hand with the top couple.
Came up to Briar Rose after work as I need to be up this way on Tuesday. I’ll do tomorrow’s shift in London by getting the train from Milton Keynes.
The August Canal Boat is out, and includes my boat test on the Crick Show winner, Eventide by Oakums Narrowboats. Plus there are mini reviews of all the other Crick boats.
It rained on and off this morning, often much more on than off.
As I didn’t have any particular need to go anywhere, I spent the morning pottering about the boat, enquiring about blacking which needs doing, and chatting to my friend Orna in Manchester, and Adrian who’s having a day in Nashville. Around lunchtime I almost set off a couple of times, but each time it started raining again so I ended up having lunch first. When I finally go going, at about 1.45, it had really brightened up a lot, and all the Canada geese were in the water having a right go at each other.
I went along to Stoke Bruerne to turn around below the locks. There was a massive widebeam getting ready to leave the water point, so I was glad I managed to get round before he set off; I really wouldn’t have waited to be behind him.
The afternoon got better and better weather wise. I moored up just before Bridge 63, in a spot I have used before. This morning’s rain had washed off quite a lot of the dust from the side of the boat, but I still got out a bucket and gave it a bit of a going over, and it did look better once it was done. Then I thought I’d better go for a walk, as I hadn’t really done anything all day. I knew there was a path on the opposite side of the canal, so I walked along to the bridge and turned onto it — only to be defeated by massive thick stinging nettles. There were some very delicate seed heads on the towpath though.
Instead, I walked down to Bridge 60, by Kingfisher Marina, and took a path which looped across fields. One of them was full of very tall grass.
Another had what looked like thistles in it, and the route of the footpath wasn’t clear. I walked around the edge instead, and eventually found Bridge 59, the one the other side of Kingfisher. For a while, I’d been able to head a boat engine, and eventually cause up with Hood, a Samuel Barlow boat which had been at Braunston.
I said they’d done well to get so far, but they explained that they’d left the rally early yesterday. I got to Briar Rose before they did, and as he went past the helmsman said he could have given me a lift!
6 miles, 0 locks. (9 miles, 0 locks)
A beautiful sunny morning to start, and after breakfast I washed the towpath side of the boat, as there’s clearly been some very dusty rain in the past week. The other side is even worse, but that will have to wait until I have turned around. At about 9.30 I set off walking back to the marina to get the car, and drove up to my second cousin Catherine’s house in Norton. From there we all went in one car to Braunston. Catherine, Grace, and I all got out there, while Nigel and Matthew carried on to Watford, where there was a classic car rally. The three of us walked down Dark Lane to the bottom lock, and then down the canal to where all the historic boats were moored up.
We wandered round the marina, where Catherine went to speak to her favourite canal artist, Pete Tuffrey, in the Guild of Artists tent. Round the other side of the arm was Lamprey, owned by Sarah Edgson from Norton Canes. A parade of boats was fairly imminent, so she asked us if we’d like a little jaunt on the boat; she was going to head home, so she’d drop us off after the junction. So once she got the all clear from the organisers (in spite of appearances, there are organisers of the parades), we jumped in the hold and set off.
We got off at the road bridge just beyond the junction, and walked back to the junction bridges to watch the boats which use the triangular junction to turn around. Quite a few boats were heading off, though, it being past lunchtime on the second day of the event. We saw Ryan and Southern Cross and Alan and Kath on Sickle. The stiff breeze across the junction didn’t help many of the boats do their manoeuvres.
We walked back up the canal to the marina, mostly to see the chaos in the narrow sections, where historic boats in each direction are also passing moored boats. There was a bit of gridlock for a time. We had very nice bacon rolls from a van in the marina, and found some chairs so we could watch boats coming back into the marina. Once Nigel and Matthew had joined us we had an ice cream, and did another circuit down to the junction and back, before heading for the car which was parked up in the village.
I drove back from Norton to our marina, dropped off the car, and walked along to the boat. It was about 4.15 by the time I got back, so I quickly made some tea and got ready to set off. I just did 2 miles to Grafton Regis. Much to my surprise, my favourite spot, with views on both the canal and the towpath side was free so I pulled in and tied up. It’s been a really lovely day, and thoroughly enjoyable.
2 miles, 0 locks. (3 miles, 0 locks)
I have been at work today, and didn’t get to the marina until after 6pm, having stopped at Tesco in Wolverton for some shopping on the drive up from London. I had brought with me a load of things that we’d borrowed from the boat to take to the Black Deer music festival last weekend. Once I was unpacked, I put a centre line on, did the engine checks and pulled out of the marina, turning towards Stoke Bruerne.
I wasn’t planning to go far, just past Bridge 63. When I got through the bridge I could see that someone was already occupying my favourite spot, where you can line up a window with the gap in the towpath hedge, so I stopped at a bit of piling before there. Someone has obviously moored here in the not to distant past, as the very long towpath grass is trampled down for about 60ft. Tomorrow I’ll be walking back to the marina to get the car, to head to Braunston for the historic boat rally with my second cousin, Catherine.
1 mile, 0 locks.
