Through the BCN

Sunday 18 March

Made a prompt start at 8 again and headed roughly South East along the summit pound of the Staffs and Worcs. By just after 10 we were at the foot of the Wolverhampton flight, which was against us.

Normally when boating we take it day and day about to steer, and the other one does whatever lock wheeling or bridge swinging proves to be needed, but with a heavy day like today, we usually work in blocks of five locks. It happened to be my turn to steer, so Sheila did the first block, locks 21 to 17. The weather steadily deteriorated, becoming windier, then hailing and finally snowing. These periods were punctuated by the odd spell of sunshine, but all the same it was pretty hard sledding.

We saw few other boats on the move, except a Canaltime about half way up. They were clearly novices and struggling a bit, so we didn't make too much of the fact that they carefully closed the bottom gates of the lock they were leaving and which we were waiting to enter. Sheila was however stunned to be told, firmly and with no question by the chap that, as they were out for a fortnight, they were going to get to Chester, or possibly even Ellesmere Port. Now, assuming they had started from the Alvecote Canaltime base, this is just possible, but would involve boating every daylight hour at this time of year, and completely misses the point of taking a canal holiday.

With a more approachable person we might have said a word of caution about not overdoing it, but, as I say, there was no opportunity to do so.

We got to the top at about 1.30, tired and hungry, there not being much chance to eat lunch when locking two handed. We'd been advised that there was safe mooring at the top, and tied on a bit of visitor mooring by some neat grass and flower beds on the off side. It didn't look all that sheltered, but the first thing was to eat lunch. Having done so, I did a quick explore, and found a much better mooring just through the Broad Street Bridge, again on the offside, but this time tucked under the road embankment, and only accessible by water (or perhaps by abseiling down from the road above).

The road noise was a bit obtrusive, but having worked the 21 locks meant that this was not much of a problem.

Monday 19 March

Another prompt start, though with the prospect of much more straightforward boating, with only three locks to do on our way to centre of Birmingham. We'd planned to water at a water point we've used before at Tividale aqueduct, so didn't bother reversing back from our overnight mooring to use the one in Broad Street basin, nor to go into the arm that leads to Dudley Tunnel, where there's a shiny new services block. I did walk up the arm, to see that there are still some useable overnight moorings there, providing another safe haven.

When we got to Tividale, the water point was gone.

On we went, with the weather deteriorating from its beautiful blue sky of earlier, and finally starting to snow as we went under the section of the Old Main Line that runs under the M5 motorway. There are three locks at Smethwick leading down from the Old Main Line built by Brindley to the New one engineered by Telford.

The first lock was no problem, but someone had left a paddle up on the bottom gate of the second, and, with the top gate leaking just a bit, the pound between was well down. In fact when I opened the bottom gate of the first lock, and signalled to Sheila to come out, she just shrugged her shoulders, and I realised that Sanity was in fact heeled over slightly, sitting as she was on the bottom of the lock chamber. There was nothing for it but to lift a top paddle and run enough water down from the pound above until the boat could edge her way out of the lock, down the now rather fuller pound and into the second lock.

We took it in turns to eat lunch as we went down the final section of the New Main Line, then went right through the complex of the Old Turn Junction, Gas Street and the Mail Box Turn (formerly Salvage Turn) to water at last at Holliday Wharf. Tank full again, I reversed Sanity back to the Mail Box, where the canal is very wide, winded with some difficulty in a brisk breeze, and then went back past Gas Street and the Old Turn to a mooring just beyond the Oozells's Street loop. In fact, in order to be pointing the right way in the morning, when we want to go left at the Old Turn and down the Farmer's Bridge flight, I winded again in the mouth of Oozell's Street and reversed, with a lot of bother in the wind, onto the mooring.

Settled at last, we went shopping at the Broad Street Tesco (both Birmingham and Wolverhampton have a Broad Street, just to be confusing). Our friends Roger and Sue Burchett have just turned up in Nackered Navvy, so we shall have a session of gossip after dinner tonight.