Monday 30 June 2008

and so to Saul

29th & 30th June

A quickie blog post this time, squeezed in between getting Sanity all clean and shiny as we are tied on the towpath here at Saul, and going out for a drink after dinner with the wrgies that are here already.

Yesterday was a day for exploring Gloucester – an excellent city, but very quiet on a Sunday. The National Waterways Museum is good value – much better than either Stoke Bruerne or Ellesmere Port as we last saw either of those.

I've taken a load of pictures of Gloucester Dock and the Johanna Lucretia, a topsail schooner apparently abandoned there. I'll have to do a serious photo gallery after we've finished at the Festival here.

Apart from that, the dock is a great place to sit and watch the world go by on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

Today, we left the dock as soon as Llanthony Bridge could be opened (not during the rush hour), and boated steadily down to Rea Bridge, from where you can access the Tesco at Quedgeley. It's a bit of a trek – about 15 minutes, and the First Mate's Guide map is invaluable.

Fully stocked up, we set off again at around 11, and arrived at Saul Junction a bit over an hour later. We found our mooring OK – one of the other two boats sharing it with us, Callum and Sue on Kalamazoo (nice one, guys), were there already. The third boat should be Nackered Navvy with Roger and Sue Burchett, but they are still tied nearer the junction at the moment.

We've spent the afternoon cleaning and polishing, as I say, then we wandered down to the show site and made contact with the folks who are there already.

When I've finished this, I'll cook the spare perishable food for our last dinner on Sanity for a week – we'll be eating on the WRG camp from tomorrow. I'll try and keep to the regular posting schedule, but they'll be brief bits, I expect. Normal service should resume in the middle of next week.

Saturday 28 June 2008

Merrily down the Severn

27th & 28th June

Yesterday was one of our early start mornings on a bright day. The engine started with no trouble at all, and we worked down the York Street Lock onto the service point and rigged the self pump out gear. My repair to the connections on the pump seems to be working, but it did take it a long time to empty a very full tank.

Whilst this was going on, Shiraz came up from the river and tied alongside to get water. We were able to bring them up to speed on plans for the combined Braidbar Open Day and Owner's Club get together on 20/21 September, and generally catch up with their doings.

Then we chugged round to the set of two pairs of staircase locks that take you down onto the river from the basins and by nine o'clock were on our way downstream. We had the river to ourselves until Holt Lock, where we caught up with a Viking Afloat boat struggling to get sorted in the lock. Since they'd been first in, we let them go out first, and then followed them as they meandered their way very slowly downstream.

There was no point overtaking them until we'd cleared Bevere Lock, as we'd just have had to wait for them in the lock if we'd got there first. Below there, Sheila went past and we proceeded rather more quickly to Worcester.

At present, the mooring options at Worcester are to stop on the rather scruffy race course moorings, for which the council will charge you, to lock up onto the canal and find a towpath mooring, or to do what we did. This was to go below the entrance to the canal at Diglis and tie on the new pontoons that have been installed as part of the building works going on around Diglis Basin.

It's not clear what will happen to these when the development is finished. At the moment, they are fenced off with Heras temporary fencing, so you can't leave them, but on the other hand they are perfectly secure. Since we didn't need any supplies, this worked for us.

There's a typical Severn flood bank, covered in nicely mown grass, above this pontoon, and in the course of the evening we found out how it stays so neat despite being on the edge of a building site. As it got cooler, a whole group of swans (and Worcester is one of those places well supplied with swans) got out of the water and started grazing this grass. After a while, they settled down for a post prandial nap, all spaced out along the bank. I got a photo of them, so when I get a faster connection and do some more pictures, I'll try and remember to include these swans.

This morning we had a lie in, as Diglis River Lock was just below us, and didn't open until eight. There was a brisk wind that gave me some trouble in the lock – it was bouncing off the wall I was trying to tie to, and we had quite a struggle to get Sanity to lie against it. At one point I was ready to give up and let her drift across to the other wall, but the boat sharing the lock with us chose that moment to come in there.

We got sorted in the end, and set off downstream once more for a good six hours steady boating, through Upper Lode Lock just below Tewkesbury and on down to Gloucester. Most of the Severn is not challenging boating (when it's not in flood, that is), but that brings its own problem – it's a bit like a stretch of motorway, and the difficulty is to maintain concentration.

The bit below the Upper Parting is much narrower and windier, though it's still clearly a major river. You have to phone Gloucester Lock at various points to let him know you are coming so that hopefully the lock is open and ready when you get there.

On this occasion this didn't quite work, as the locky was half way through locking someone else up as we approached, and we had to hang onto the chains on the wall above the lock for a while as he turned it round. I'd thought that the whole point of the phoning was to avoid this happening by holding folk in the lock for you to catch up, but there you go.

You certainly don't want to get too close to the lock whilst this is going on; grab the chains as soon as you see them, and wait until all is ready and the green light on before setting off to enter the lock. There is, as the books warn you, a strong current towards the weir to the right of the lock, and you have to enter the lock with a fair bit of power on to cope with it.

Once up the lock, the basin itself is very welcoming, with loads of places to moor, shops nearby and folks to chat to. We plan to spend tomorrow here, resting and recovering from all the excitement and exploring a fascinating bit of the waterways scene.

Thursday 26 June 2008

Down to Stourport, and an unscheduled pause

25th & 26th June

Yesterday the engine decided to start without any trouble (lots more about this later), and we got away around eight o'clock. Kidderminster is one of those places that is very handy for the benefits of civilisation, but not particularly welcoming, somehow – it always rather reminds us of Stoke on Trent.

There's a very handy Sainsbury's, right by the towpath, and with trolleys you can bring to the side of the boat. This is, of course, extremely useful, especially when the store cupboards are seriously depleted, as ours were after the trip away from the boat, but it does explain why progress through the water hereabouts is interrupted by serious scraping noises under the boat on a regular basis. An attack of the BCN Clean up type operation would be good along here.

There's a sign at each exit from the car park saying "Thank you for not taking your trolley beyond this point", but no other disincentive to do so. The whole thing demonstrates the truth of the maxim that exhortation to good works is a worthy but not sufficient device as far as good behaviour is concerned.

Some of the guide books actually warn against leaving the boat unattended here – Jim and Liz Lehman in Flimby were just ahead of us at the mooring, and Jim was kind enough to volunteer to watch both boats so that Sheila and I could shop together.

Also at the location is a selection of other out of town type stores, so I was able to nip into Halford's and get some more de-ionised water for battery topping up purposes.

On we went after this burst of retail therapy, past the alternate moorings where there is a Tesco, a Marks and Sparks and various other stores. The canal below Kidder is not quite as nice as that above, which is almost without compare, but once you are clear of the town it's pleasant enough.

Stourport was very busy – I passed up the first slot on the visitor moorings, as it appeared that there were spaces beyond the last bridge before the lock down into the basin. Sheila on the bow suddenly started making stop, stop signals – she'd been able to see that the towpath curves just through the bridge hole, and that it was absolutely full.

The wind promptly got up, and a bit of backing and filling had to take place until we could get back to the mooring we'd first thought of. The new long shaft got some use, as well as the short one we now keep at the stern.

Finally moored, we had lunch then took a stroll round the basin. Progress on the new (or re-excavated) basin is quite slow – there's a load of Barratt homes going up, but only a few men working there, an example of the effect of the housing crash, no doubt.

Stourport itself is a great place, always very clean and tidy, with a lot of small shops in the main street, as well as a decent choice of the usual suspects like Lidl, Tesco and Boots. In particular, there is a great variety of butchers for some reason.

The old Tontine Hotel is now being converted to apartments. The ads say 'from £149,000 upwards', and we had thoughts about enquiring about the potential for buy to let there, but it soon became apparent that only one pokey little one was at that price, the rest being a lot more expensive. It'll be interesting to see if the price comes down at all in the future as the developer gets desperate.

Later in the afternoon a space became free through the bridge, and we nipped through onto it to get away from the car park and recycling centre next to where we had first moored.

Today we leapt lightly out of bed first thing, the cunning plan being to go straight down through the lock onto the service point, pump out and then be out on the river in good time for the first river lock to open at eight.

Only thing was, when I went to start the engine, it whirred sadly for a couple of times, and then the whole thing died quite comprehensively. This is the first time we've had to call out RCR, and I must say at 7.20 the woman at the other end of the phone was bright and cheerful. Having got the details, she got one of the engineers to call back a couple of hours later, and we had someone actually looking at it by 11.30.

In due course he diagnosed a completely knackered battery, as the engine started perfectly well from the leisure bank. One of the heavy earth return cables had chafed where it crossed the engine containment wall, and although that hadn't caused any obvious problems (since that steel is earthed anyway) he thought it possible that that had confused the alternator controller so that the start battery hadn't charged properly.

Whatever, I got a new battery from Lime Kiln's new chandlery in the basin (£56) and fitted it this afternoon. We'll try again tomorrow morning; it's a good job we'd got a couple of days in hand.

It's been a fairly quiet afternoon apart from that as we recover from the trauma of Sanity not doing her stuff. Sheila took advantage of a good internet connection to do an on-line tax return, and I rigged the anchor ready for our river work tomorrow and Saturday. Hopefully, my next blog post will be from the Gloucester and Sharpness.

Tuesday 24 June 2008

Boating along a great piece of canal.

23rd & 24th June

Our night at the top of the Bratch wasn't quite as peaceful (once the wind had dropped) as we expected – no big deal, but for half the evening we had a pair of young manic fisherman apparently conducting their own two handed match, roaming to and fro along the towpath, casting here and there and shouting encouragement to each other.

They wandered off eventually, and we were quiet for the remainder of the evening, and the early part of the night. I woke at half three, however, to find that we were under duck attack. Some were ferociously pecking the hull side, whilst others stomped about on the roof.

Finally they too went their ways, and we were able to get a little more sleep before leaping joyously out of bed to greet the nearly-new day. By eight we were waiting on the lock landing; the locky was already about, and we got straight in, arriving at the bottom in twenty minutes, thanks to Sheila's energetic windlass winding.

She was able to have a good natter with the locky, too, about routes back from the Severn to Autherley Junction (about which more anon) and the best place to moor for a quick trip into Wombourne for supplies.

This was the further set of bollards on the left after the bottom lock. From there I walked up and then briefly downhill into Wombourne, which proved to be a very useful little centre, with an interesting looking butchers and bakers as well as a greengrocer, a newsagent and a Spar.

There followed nine more locks until we stopped by the picnic spot based on the remains of an old round house just below Gothersley Lock and before the Devil's Den, that strange boathouse in a cliff before Stourton Junction.

This is a very peaceful spot, if you don't count the manic cyclists whistling past from time to time, though unfortunately it has very poor phone signals, both voice on Voda and data on T-mobile struggling to get through.

It's a bit of a feature of this, one of the most beautiful canals in the country – probably the great lumps of sandstone sticking up out of the scenery all round do not help.

In the afternoon I did an oil and filter change, the engine having just reached 5600 hours.

Today we managed an even earlier start, getting away just after 7.30 on a fine and dry morning. It was great weather for a great bit of canal. From the boating point of view it's quite challenging, due to aforesaid lumps of rock all over the place, so that the channel is often narrow and winding, and you can't always pass another boat on these blind bends.

Fortunately, as Sheila was steering, we avoided any dramatic encounters – she always shows far more patience in these conditions than I do, so is able to avoid collisions, where my style of hacking in does on occasion lead to fender-to-fender confrontations.

High spot before reaching Kinver was the sight of a pair of young weasels bounding along the track just below a lock – no more than four or five inches long and mid brown all over, they were quite unmistakable.

Two hours brought us to Kinver, where we raided the Butchery for pre-War sausages as well as the more usual mince and stewing steak. We also got enough routine supplies to see us through to Kidderminster's supermarkets tomorrow.

Just after leaving Kinver we passed Dalliance going in the opposite direction. This was a bit strange, since we last passed them going up Atherstone Flight, when I'm sure they said they were heading for the Thames, with the intention of visiting the K&A. Either they changed their minds, or they've done the length of the K&A, the passage from Avonmouth to Sharpness, the length of the Gloucester and Sharpness and the length of the Severn.

I think they probably changed their minds.

We've now moored above Wolverley Lock, still in fantastic setting. The last few mornings, Sanity has been a tad reluctant to start, the starter whirring without properly engaging the flywheel. My suspicion is that the start battery is feeling its age, but I took some time this afternoon to check out all the connections and so on, all of which look OK. The battery itself is sealed, so I can't check its electrolyte or anything. I'll just have to see what its voltage is tomorrow before we start up again.

Finally, a word about my description of the area around Autherley as bandit country. I've been taken to task in a comment on the last post about this, not for the first time. I can only repeat and dilate on what I've said before – I wouldn't advise anyone to avoid any piece of canal just because some of the locals can be a nuisance, but there are areas where it pays to show some caution, and I believe it would be remiss of me not to point them out in this blog.

We've been through Autherley/Aldersley loads of times, in all directions, and never had a problem with the passage. But, we wouldn't choose to stop there overnight, and we are a bit concerned about the IWA National Festival there this year.

The area is surrounded by four large housing estates, and the hire yard at the junction has had more than its share of trouble with vandalism. At one point, they had to resort to storing the customer's cars in freight containers to protect them, and even so on one occasion one was set alight. There have also been incidents of boats being set alight in that area.

Our own policy is to start/stop from Coven, Brewood, Compton or the top of the Wolves 21, depending on route, and so far, as I say, that's been enough to avoid any trouble. People do moor in the area overnight, and mostly get away with it, but it's noticeable that a lot of the long term moorers choose to cover their windows with steel or wooden sheets.

Hopefully, the security and police presence at the National will be enough to avoid any incidents, but as I say, I'm frankly surprised that the site has been chosen for the Festival. Nonetheless, we'll be there working to make it a success, as usual, and I expect it will be another great event – I look forward to meeting readers of this blog there, or indeed at Saul in a couple of weeks time.

Sunday 22 June 2008

Boating in the rain and wind

21st & 22nd June

Midsummer's Day was not a case of flaming June, except in the pejorative sense – the forecast had been for wet weather getting wetter, and that's what we got. We set off around eight, planning to be at the narrows of Pendeford Rockin' by nine. In practice, it took more like an hour and a half. It's not like us to take longer than the Pearson's guide predicts, but there was already sufficient traffic about that blind bridges had to be approached with caution, and there are a number of longish bits of offside mooring to be crept past.

On arrival at the start of the Rockin' we could just see a boat coming towards us, so I hovered for a few minutes whilst he cleared the narrows and then went in. At least we had his assurance that there was no one close behind him.

(A propos of nothing, on Sanity we refer to a boat creeping along in front of you as a snail, and a boat crowding up behind as a porpoise – see the end for an explanation.)

By eleven o'clock we were at Compton, and worked down the lock whilst conversing with Sue Burchett, Nackered Navvy being tied above the lock. The night before the starboard gas cylinder had run out for the second time, so when we stopped at Lime Kiln Chandlery for diesel I asked for a replacement, but they were sold out.

70 litres at 77.9 ppl later we pushed across to the visitor mooring between the lock and the bridge, and went shopping, stopping briefly to chat to Sue again, who was just returning with her load.

We got supplies to see us through to Kinver, where there's a better range of shops, and went back to the boat just in nice time for lunch. In the afternoon, we discovered a problem with mooring at Compton – the phone signals were very poor indeed. I couldn't get online to any useful purpose – the modem would make the connection and then drop it again, and only the Sony Ericsson phone, which is our most sensitive in poor conditions, could get a Vodafone signal.

It was thus a quiet afternoon of reading and writing (but not fainting in coils - sorry that's anticipating the bit at the end).

After dinner we went back up to Nackered Navvy for a couple of drinks and a lot more talk. Sue and Roger are an endless source of entertaining anecdote about previous IWA Nationals, and many other things.

This morning was dry, but very windy. With Sheila clinging grimly to the tiller, we set off for the top of the Bratch, via the two Wightwick Locks, Dimmingsdale, Ebstree and Awbridge. Highlight of the trip was a flock of swallows swooping about the boat below Awbridge, a few of whom perched on an overhanging branch on the offside as we went by, giving us the most amazing close up of them.

Mooring was tricky, and we had a certain amount of debate about whether to stop by the cricket field and risk a ball flying over the hedge, on the bend at the start of the visitor moorings, or on the straight bit with some willow trees directly opposite swaying and shedding chunks of branch over us.

As Sheila was steering, it was her call, and she opted for the trees. This felt a little nerve wracking, so when the boat behind pulled out, we thankfully moved back out of range.

In the afternoon we took a walk down the flight with the camera: here are a few representative frames:

Looking up the flight

















Is this a tree? I don't think so - it's a phone mast.

















Sanity on the safe(r) mooring

















Warning sign at the Cricket Club - why not just put some netting up?














("Will you walk a little faster?" said a whiting to a snail.
"There's a porpoise close behind us, and he's treading on my tail."

Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)

Friday 20 June 2008

Back on board and on our way to the Severn

17th to 20th June

The trip to Lincoln went very well, thank you for asking. As with the last time we travelled went there by train, the journey, although involving two changes, went smoothly, with all the trains on time, clean, tidy and not overcrowded.

I know it's not always like that; the last stage of the return trip was from Birmingham New Street to Penkridge on a service going to Liverpool Lime Street. As we waited to depart, the station announcer informed those waiting for the Aberystwyth service that today their train was starting from Wolverhampton, and so they should take our train to that station. The carriages promptly filled up, of course, with people heading for Shrewsbury and points west.

On arrival at Wolverhampton, they were told that in fact the mid Wales service was now starting from Shrewsbury, and that they'd have to change again there. Even the conductor on our train thought it a bit much.

On arrival at Penkridge, we did some essential shopping at the Co-op, and then slogged it out to the yard. It's not a huge walk, and we only made one wrong turning, which we were pretty pleased about. I should explain that we'd been given a lift into Penkridge on Tuesday by a very kind man from the boat next to us, so we had to find our way back on the basis of our memory of the map and of what we'd seen through the car windows.

As I say, it worked out very well: almost too well, as I'd hoped to use the experience as part of the evidence for buying a handheld GPS. Hey ho.

We got back just too late to go into the office and claim our fiver back for the non-functional electricity card, of course, so Otherton is better off by that amount. On balance, the Boat Haven was no more than OK – they were perfectly polite and did what we asked, i.e. kept the boat safe while we were away, but there wasn't much of a welcoming atmosphere, either from the yard staff or the other moorers, with the exception of this guy of Rivendell, the shared ownership boat, who gave us a lift.

The big effort last night was cleaning the fridge freezer before turning it back on. Sheila heroically washed the whole thing, boiling kettles of water to do so, as of course there was no hot in the calorifier, and I didn't want to use amp hours running the Eberspacher. We finally got it back together and restarted. I'm pleased to say that the batteries coped well with the extra load overnight as it froze down again.

Today we got an early start at eight, working up the five locks to Gailey with a fair bit of traffic about already. By 10.20 we'd got to Bridge 76, just before Hatherton Junction. This is a pleasant country mooring, and has the advantage that we can make another early get away tomorrow and get through the bandit country around Autherley and Aldersley junctions in good time. The aim is to be at Compton in time to do some more shopping for lunch – obviously we only bought immediately necessary stuff yesterday, with over a mile to carry it in addition to our overnight things, so at Compton we'll be able to get back to normal catering.

Another advantage here is a waymarked walk along the towpath and back round some minor roads. The waymarks are little interpretation boards – well done to BW for a good bit of added value the canal side scene.

Sadly, it's not possible to walk up the remains of the Hatherton Arm. When restored as part of the Lichfield and Hatherton Canal, it will make for a really useful connection across the Northern part of the BCN to Huddlesford Junction on the Coventry that we know so well. It would be a good PR boost for the L&HCT if it was possible to explore the line at this end in the way that you can at the other.

My thanks to all who have made encouraging noises about the pictures I posted last time. I'll try and put some more up in due course, though it does depend on quality of connection. Blogger is real pain to upload photos to if the connection is at all iffy – I don't know what other blogging services such as WordPress are like for that.

I've got some photos of Daniel on his first birthday, and some I took while we walking today, so I may well put them up by uploading them to my main website and then cross linking them to the blog, once we get a good connection again – it's very slow and erratic here.

Wednesday 18 June 2008

Some photos to keep you going

As promised, here's a scheduled post to fill in while I'm away in Lincoln. I don't often do photo blogs, but thought I'd make an exception this time. All these were taken around Penkridge last weekend.


This is a pic of the state of the bottom gates at Longford Lock, and a good illustration of the lack of maintenance that BW's cash shortage causes. The lock starts to drain down as soon as the top gates are closed, wasting a lot of water in the course of the day.

Now for another example:


For quite a while, BW has been avoiding routine maintenance by just fencing off the area with orange netting. Here they've gone a stage further and erected a wooden fence around a collapsed section of lock landing.



Why didn't they just restore the path by backfilling behind the piling and resetting the bollards? It wouldn't have taken much more effort, surely?



More cheerfully:



There's a load of frame bungalows on the offside as you approach Penkridge Lock. I spotted these Peeping Gnomes lurking in the garden of one of them.


Here's a pic of the two fenders I've made recently, one with the Fender Book top (on the right) and one with the improved top:



I think they're really smart, but time will tell how they stand up to being used.


A close up of the tops. The problem with the Fender Book one is that the whipping you can see works its way up in use, and then the whole thing looks tatty.

By working the ends back down into the fender, I avoid that, but lose the stripy effect. I've got a further idea for improvement, but it'll have to wait for the next fender.


Normal service will be restored on Friday, hopefully.

Monday 16 June 2008

A day of boating jobs, and then into Otherton

15th & 16th June

Yesterday was a staying put day, as we didn't want to go into Otherton Boat Haven until this afternoon. We made a lazy start on a bright day. The only downside was that the loo has decided to be stroppy about flushing – pushing the air button doesn't always make the flush cycle start, which is a bit alarming.

Last time this happened, I had to replace the switch itself – the air button works by blowing a puff of air down a tube to move a diaphragm in the switch proper, located in the bowels (and I use the word advisedly) of the toilet.

To get at it, you have to dismantle the toilet, which is half a day's job, usually. It's working enough to be bearable for the moment – I really don't fancy starting in on it just before going away.

It being Father's Day, Sheila said that as a treat I could make another fender (we don't take Father's Day terribly seriously on this boat). I actually managed to do it in a morning, making another of the two tone ones, this time with a more solid finish to the top. I've posted a pic of both the recent fenders in the delayed post that will hopefully appear on Wednesday afternoon.

In the afternoon, I took a walk up to Penkridge Lock, and took some photos to use in the aforesaid delayed post.

When I got back I was still full of beans, so we set to and polished the brass that hadn't yet been Incralaced. Sanity is thus looking quite smart for her spell in a proper marina, sorry, Boat Haven.

As we were doing this, Roger and Sue Burchett came by on Nackered Navvy, on their leisurely way to Saul, so we'll see them there.

Today was another bright start. We both made the trek into the village to get a few supplies to keep us going until tomorrow lunchtime. Whilst there, we were accosted b y an elderly guy coming out of the paper shop. Seeing my Waterway Recovery Group fleece, he said that he'd pay for whatever I was planning to buy in the shop if I could tell him exactly where the idea of WRG was conceived, and by whom.

I said London and by Graham Palmer and Harry Arnold, this being the tale told to me by Harry. "No" he said, "Graham Palmer and I were sitting on the balance beam of lock 12 of the Stourbridge 16 when we concocted the idea of the Navvies Notebook, as a way of gathering together all those with an interest in restoring canals."

He then gave us some reminiscences of the Stourbridge confrontation, and of the early days of the Lappal Tunnel restoration plans before going on his way.

Oh, and his name? Stan Thomas. (No, me neither)

[Added 23/12/2008: Harry Arnold has just called in to correct the impression that this story gives. For the sake of historical accuracy, it was the concept of a magazine, Navvies Noteboook, that emerged from the discussion at Stourbridge, to promote the various restoration efforts then going on. WRG itself didn't follow for a few years. It was decided that WRG wouldn't be a subscription based organisation, but that anyone who subscribed to Navvies Notebook, then shortened to Navvies, would be on the list of folks available to help.

I hope this keeps the record straight!]

Back at the boat, I'd been struggling to upload the pics for the delayed post, on an internet connection that claimed to be fast, but in fact was a bit erratic. I finally managed it, and we then took an early lunch.

We worked up the Longford and Penkridge Locks, and started to pump out at the Sanitary Station. At this point, things took a turn for the worse. After doing most of the tank, the pump decided to stop working. At first I thought it was a blockage in the tank, but no, the pump was declining to pump canal water. I tried a quick dismantle, but there were no obvious problems, so we abandoned the attempt and set off again for Otherton. (It later proved to be a bad connection in the waterproof switch.)

There was a good queue for Filance Lock, and things were made more interesting by the fact that the pound below was about a foot down, so that Sanity kept running aground. In fact, when it was my turn to go into the lock, she wouldn't move, and Sheila had to run some water down to get us afloat again.

We chugged along to Otherton, where they'd forgotten we were coming. No problem, there was plenty of room, but it's obviously one of the more laid back operations.

It was only a fiver for an electric card, so I bought one as an alternative to defrosting the freezer. The distance from Sanity's back end to the meter was just too long for the main power cable we carry, but I was able to make up an extension from some plugs and cable I had spare.

Connected it all up, and guess what: the card wouldn't work. Went back to the office, to discover that it had shut half an hour before. Looks like we're defrosting the freezer anyway, as the office doesn't open until we've left to catch our train tomorrow. I'll email them to let them know we'll be claiming a refund.

That's all for now, folks. Hopefully the photo blog will appear on Wednesday, and I'll resume regular blogging when we're under way again on Friday.

Saturday 14 June 2008

Shopping at Midland Chandlers, then to Penkridge

13th & 14th June

Yesterday we made an early start, winding in the Wide at 7.30 and going back to Great Haywood for water and to dump rubbish. Whilst Sheila kept an eye on that, I nipped into the village to buy a paper and some bread. I got back to Sanity before the tank was full, then we set off again through the elegant junction bridge and across the Wide once more.

There was evidence of traffic starting up, and we had to queue briefly at Tixall Lock. The wait was enlivened by the German Shepherd dog on the boat in front taking exception to its owner feeding bread through the side hatch to a pair of swans and their cygnets. The dog, barking wildly, stuck its head out of the hatch, whereupon it got well pecked by one of the swans and retreated in some confusion.

In rather cool conditions we carried on along the Staffs and Worcs, passing the large well kempt garden just before the Sow Aqueduct. Sheila went to the bow to keep an eye out for boats approaching the narrow aqueduct from the other end, but was not, in the event, needed. This was just as well, as she was totally distracted by a buzzard which emerged from the woodland on the off side, flew over her head and perched in a tree overhanging the towpath, from where it observed us passing by.

Sheila tried to draw my attention to this, but since I hadn't seen the bird at all, being quite preoccupied with steering the boat round the tight bend and into the trough of the aqueduct, I had no idea what she was on about. Since it seemed unlikely that boats were approaching at head height out of the trees, I took no notice, and had to be enlightened rather later.

There followed the plod past Stafford. It's not at all unpleasant; the northern end of the Staffs and Worcs is by no means its most picturesque section, but still highly enjoyable – just a pity the cold wind had us huddling in our fleeces.

As expected, it was extremely busy past Stafford Boat Club, with boats moored along both sides of the cut, two deep in places. This confirmed the wisdom of our choosing to pay to use Otherton Boat Haven next week, rather than trying to find a space amongst all these at SBC.

There was a serious queue at Deptmore Lock, two waiting below and more than that above as we got there. Sheila took advantage of the towpath telegraph to discover that the latch has been replaced on Great Haywood Lock, not that we've had any thanks from BW for drawing it to their attention.

We stopped a bit short of Acton Trussell village – there's a lot of useable Armco on the run in, and it's quieter than being actually in the village. At least it would have been had we not found a bit that was not only rather shallow, but had a lump of rock in it, by the sound of the grinding noise that echoed through the boat every time another one went past.

There was a good internet connection, however, and I spent a bit of time researching mobile phones. Vodafone had cold called me the other day to remind me that I was eligible for an upgrade. I thanked them politely, but declined for the time being.

It looks as if our low usage means that we could do better elsewhere, possibly even on PAYG. Since our Voda contract doesn't actually expire until the end of August, we've got a bit of time to suss out the options.

I also used the fast connection to tweak this blog site: I've updated the cruising plan bit, and added a short blog roll, concentrating on the canal related blogs that get updated reasonably regularly and which I particularly like reading. Lots of folks seem to go for all inclusive lists, but these for me are less helpful than a shorter list of more active blogs.

Today we set off in fairly leisurely fashion, as we wanted to arrive at Park Gate Lock at Teddesley in time to shop at Midland Chandlers. This worked quite well, although Sheila's enthusiasm to start boating meant that we got there just a little early. No matter, we went in as soon as they were open and bought two shafts, one a 14 foot boat pole and the other a broom handle to replace the one on our steel boat hook, which broke the other day whilst being used to clear nettles from the path at Tamworth.

We marched these back to the boat, stowed them inside until we could treat them, and went on to a mooring below Longford Lock, just short of Penkridge. There is plenty of mooring in Penkridge itself, of course, but a) we're not in a hurry, as we don't want to be at Otherton, just the far side of Penkridge, until Monday afternoon, and b) it's a Saturday night, and I suspect even sedate Penkridge might be just a tad noisy in the middle on a fine summer's weekend evening.

There's a path from here onto Teddesley Road, along which 10 to 15 minutes walk takes you into the centre. I duly did this to buy a paper and some pasties and bread from Jaspers, the excellent baker.

Back at the boat, it lacked half an hour to lunch, so we took some time to search for the sandpaper which we both remembered stowing somewhere on the boat. The plan was for Sheila to rub down the existing deck furniture whilst I fitted the new handle to the boat hook.

The sandpaper was nowhere to be found, so one up to benign senile forgetfulness. I fixed the boat hook anyway, and we had lunch. Afterwards a first coat of Cuprinol was applied to the new stuff – the rest will have to wait until we get some more sandpaper.

Then it was a case of sitting out enjoying the sunny intervals and the variety of performances of boats working up and down the lock. In due course a second coat was applied to the wood, and I further improved the shining hour by cutting Sheila's hair.

Tomorrow we'll stay put, I reckon, before working up the last locks into Penkridge, pumping out at the sanitary station, and finally going into the Boat Haven (so much nicer sounding than 'marina'). I'll do another blog post then, and maybe try setting up a scheduled post for Wednesday, so that regular readers can still get their fix (see how I look after you, Greygal?) without me worrying about tearing myself away from the festivities at Lincoln to do it.

Thursday 12 June 2008

Flexible planning is the name of the game

11th & 12th June

Colwich Lock can be one of the most congested on the system, so, although we didn't plan to go far, we made an early start to get through before the rush. This worked reasonably well, although we still met a boat coming down – they had the same philosophy as us (early start, early finish) and were headed for Rugeley, now three hours boating away.

High spot of the cruise was the sight of a heron confronting a cormorant on the towpath, and forcing it to disgorge its catch of four fish. The cormorant then flew sadly off, whilst the heron scoffed three of the fish and flew off with the remaining one in its beak, presumably for its offspring.

We've never seen such a thing before, and in fact never used to see cormorants much around the main system, only near the Fens.

As we went along, we decided to modify the cruising plans a bit, based on the fact that the toilet tank gauge had turned amber overnight. We reckon on having another week's use after the amber light comes on, and the calculations didn't quite work for leaving it until after we come back from Lincoln. It would be better, we thought, to go onto Penkridge to pump out before coming back to Stafford to leave Sanity.

We therefore carried on up Great Haywood Lock, with the aim of spending the night at Tixall, and going on to Penkridge over the weekend. I nipped in to the shop near the lock to get a paper, and then stayed on the bank to take rubbish to the bins beyond the junction whilst Sheila went on with the boat.

Great Haywood Lock was missing the latch on the top ground paddle rack, so you had to hold the paddle up whilst the lock filled. After we moored, I emailed BW West Midlands office about it, but at the time of writing have had not so much as an acknowledgement. In the days when the Fazeley Office was the hub of the Central Shires Waterway Unit, you used to get an excellent and courteous service from them, but since the amalgamation with West Mids, it's gone to the dogs.

There was a bit of a hold up at the junction, whilst boats manoeuvred in the Anglo Welsh lay-by beyond, then we were through and had no trouble finding a space on the Wide.

Just before lunch there was a knocking on the roof, and there were Gordon and Jean off Langley, Braidbar number 73. They were having some work done to her when we first moved on to Sanity, so we shared the dock at Poynton for our first days of living aboard.

We had a good old natter, in the course of which they mentioned that the area around Stafford Boat Club was already solid with boats double moored on both sides of the cut.

At their suggestion, we enquired of Otherton Boat Haven if they could take us, which they can, so another change of plan. It's costing us £36 for the four nights, because they have a minimum booking of a week, but it's still worth it for the peace of mind.

Later in the afternoon we were sitting out on the towpath, me working on the second fat fender and Sheila knitting, when Gordon came back with a booklet about the Severn and the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal, they having just been down that way. Aren't people kind?

Today was an amazingly damp start. We've decided to spend it here at Tixall, then pop back to the junction for water and supplies first thing tomorrow before going on to Acton Trussell for the night, thus getting past Stafford BC before the weekend.

Then we'll go to Teddesley to do some Midland Chandlers shopping (shafts, mostly), and to Penkridge for Sunday night, preparatory to arriving at Otherton (which is just up the cut from Penkridge) on Monday afternoon.

Today has been a wet day, good for staying in the boat, apart from an early walk to the village for a paper. I've made another side fender (all in one day, I must be getting better at it). I had some short lengths of natural sisal left, so made this one from that and two long lengths of the Victory Black, so that it's a two tone fender, very stylish.

Tuesday 10 June 2008

Heading North in the sun

9th & 10th June

Having gone to Will and Jane's for dinner on Sunday night, it was well past our usual bedtime before we were back on the boat, but nonetheless and with amazing fortitude we got up early to be boating by 7.30.

The reasoning for this, according to Sheila (who as steerer for the day made the decision) was to get well on with the Fradley locks before it got too hot and too busy. This was a good theory, I must admit, but by the time we'd worked down Bagnall Lock, and She had winded below and come up again, there was a fair bit of traffic about already.

It also got very hot very quickly, so it was a case of taking it steady and accepting that no records were going to be broken for the run from Alrewas to King's Bromley.

It actually made for very pleasant boating. Although there were a fair number of novices around (both hirers and privateers) almost everyone seemed to be in a good mood, so we just plodded steadily upwards through Common, Hunts, Keepers, Junction, Middle and Shade House. It was only at Woodend that we actually had to queue for a significant time, and Sheila took advantage of this to start a washload, which was virtually finished doing the water heating bit by the time she needed the engine for motive purposes again.

The only downside was that Nemesis struck me down for making a mock of Graeme the other day. When last he rang, he described having to push his bike three miles home after getting a puncture (despite Kevlar reinforced tyres what's more). He admitted that when he came to do the repair, he realised that previously he'd been sticking the wrong side of the patch to the glue (no Graeme, not the rough side, peel the backing off the smooth side and use that.)

I set out to ride our folder from Bagnall to Common, but instantly got that "I'm riding up a steep hill" feeling, and on investigation found that there was no air at all in the back tyre. After lunch I took the wheel off the bike and the tyre off the wheel. There was no obvious hole in the inner tube, and immersion in a bucket of canal water finally found a leaking seam right by the valve.

It was an absolute pain of a situation to get a patch on, especially as the weather was now so hot the rubber solution was drying as soon as you put it on the inner tube, so that by the time I'd got the stupid backing paper off the patch I had to put more solution on the tube, and the patch then skidded about instead of sticking quickly.

Finally got it all done and wrestled the wheel back onto the bike. Rear wheels are always more of a hassle on a derailleur geared bike as the gear change mech gets in the way, and everything has to be lined up just so or the chain will jump off the cogs when you change gear.

In addition, handling the spanners had become an exercise in masochism, as they'd been lying in the sun getting fiercely hot. Sheila, who thought I'd been a bit harsh with Graeme, helpfully said, as I squealed and dropped yet another ring spanner, "You should have put the tool box in the shade."

Time alone will tell if the repair will hold air, of course. If not, I guess it's new inner tube time.

On the way to a mooring by King's Bromley Marina (there's some good Armco between the marina entrance and bridge 55) we passed Delft, Braidbar number 29, going the other way

During the afternoon, I staggered as far as the main road at bridge 54, and walked up it to find the garden centre that's marked on the Pearson's. We've often meant to visit it, but have never done so. It proved to be a fairly basic one, but with a lot of camping and caravanning stuff as well – folding chairs and basic supplies of loo blue and the like, so would make a good source of hose connectors or whatever if you were stuck for something.

The side road from bridge 55 is actually better as a route to it, though – the main road is very busy, and there's not much of a verge to stagger along.

Elanor took advantage of our proximity to her route home from work in Rugeley to stop by in the late afternoon - we'll next see her at Cathy and Graeme's house on the 18th of this month, when we are celebrating Daniel's first birthday.

After all the exertions of the past couple of days, we had an early night, and woke refreshed and raring to go this morning. The weather was now cool and cloudy, but still very pleasant, especially once the sun started breaking through. We've come on through Rugeley (water stop at the Spode House moorings, shop at Morrison's) to tie at Wolseley for the night. Tomorrow, another early start, I think, so as to get up Colwich Lock before the queues start.

We're planning to leave the boat by Stafford Boat Club for our trip to Lincoln next week, so we'll probably spend a couple of days at Great Haywood, and the weekend on Tixall Wide.

Sunday 8 June 2008

Summer in the village

7th & 8th June

Oh my word, but it's hot. Gosh, it's hot. Did I say it was hot? Well, it's hot. This could be a very short blog post, as I'm melting in here trying to type it. The sooner I finish it, the sooner I can get outside to sit in the cool breeze blowing up the towpath. Why ever was I rude about people who want air con on their boats?

Yesterday was nice, but not as hot as today, in fact it became cloudy, cool and damp as the day went on, and we felt quite disappointed, not knowing what the weather was going to be like today, i.e., hot.

In the morning, I finished the fat fender, and took all the old covering off the other one, rinsed it off and put it on the roof to dry out, which it has now done. First thing I'd gone to the shops and got some meat supplies from Coates the butcher, but managed to forget to get any bread, so before lunchtime I had to trog back, across the playing fields, turn left into Fox Lane and then right into Main Street.

It's not a bad walk, except when you have to keep doing it because you've forgotten stuff. It at least gave me an excuse to buy pasties the second time round.

After lunch Elanor rolled up and we all went to her house to inspect the new cat, Jocelyn, and to collect a new set of books from the store we keep there. Then we went back to the boat where I set to and cooked a lasagne for dinner. It was nearly ready when we heard a tooting from outside and looked out to see Granny Buttons going by.

We had a natter with Andrew, and then worked him down Bagnall Lock – he was planning to spend the night in Alrewas before heading back to Streethay.

Today we woke to another sunny morning, which then turned rather... all right, I'll shut up about it. I got a paper and stuff from the village, then Elanor and I had a session with her new computer. She's been having a bit of a problem sorting out her email sending since she went over to the 3 mobile deal, partly because 3 don't have their own SMTP server and partly because Vispa were being a touch useless yet again.

We got it all functioning, so she went off reasonably pleased with herself a lunchtime. Meantime, we'd had a chance of a chat with Graham and Jan on Huff 'n Puff - we met at the first Crick Show we all worked at, as we were showing our respective boats. They've continued to be involved with Fernwood, just as we have with Braidbar.

We've spent the afternoon doing not a lot, hiding in the cabin having a siesta some of the time, and sitting out on the towpath the rest – there is a bit of breeze now, so it's quite pleasant.

Tonight we go to see Will and Jane for a curry (seems very appropriate) and he and I will talk about SOW policies no doubt. Tomorrow we set off back up the Trent and Mersey, making for Great Haywood and the Staffs and Worcs.

That's all for now, it's too hot.

Friday 6 June 2008

Sunny boating back to Alrewas

5th & 6th June

Just as we were settling down to make a salad for dinner the night before last, there came a knocking on the roof, and there was Helga from Sebeq (Braidbar no 77). They had snuck in and moored behind us with out our noticing.

After dinner, therefore, we went round to Sebeq and had an evening with Klaus and Helga. Elanor is getting quite used to getting text messages from us saying "Don't bother to ring, we are out drinking with friends." It all just reinforces my comments the other day about our expanding circle of friends on the cut.

Sebeq is on her way to the Thames for a few weeks – they tried to cruise that river last year, but were caught up in the floods for quite a while.

In the morning I went back to Argos and collected our folding chairs. The system actually worked very well. I used one of the Quick Pay terminals, entered the reservation number I'd got off the website, paid with my credit card and five minutes later was staggering out of the store with two cardboard boxes each weighing 4.5 kilos.

Getting back to the boat via the rather overgrown footpath from the Retail Park was a bit of an adventure, but I made it at last, and we then realised that it would be prudent to assemble the things before boating off into the distance with them.

This is why at 9.30 the four of us (Klaus and Helga weren't going to miss such a good piece of entertainment) were busy putting two Director's Chairs together on the Coventry Canal towpath by Sutton Road Bridge. All was well, and indeed we are very pleased with the result. They take up less room when open than the two camping chairs we've been using as extra seating up until now, and will be useful both on the towpath and inside.

By 9.45 we were off again, heading for Fradley, though in view of the substantial traffic about, we decided to stop a bit short, rather than risk not finding a mooring when we got there. There's a place about half way between Streethay Wharf and Fradley Junction, where BW load work boats from the minor road that runs by the canal just there.

It has a notice asking you not to leave boats unattended, which is fair enough, but as it wasn't in use by BW, we borrowed it for the night. On the way there, we passed Granny Buttons at Huddlesford, all closed up and patiently waiting for her master.

A few of the other boats at Huddlesford have been there for at least two years to our knowledge, sitting either on the 48 hour mooring or a bit further along, where they are limited to staying for no more than 14 days. I believe that BW are planning to improve the way in which they monitor mooring use, and might be prepared to make more use of their power to charge an overstaying fee of £25 per night, but at the moment they don't seem to have the resources (or the will, perhaps) to do so.

In the afternoon, I started the process of recovering one of the big side fenders I made with a rolled up rubber mat as the core, and half hitched over. I first tried making these this time last year, using some sisal fender rope I had. They've worked well, but the sisal has rotted a good deal, so I'm starting all over again with the new "Victory Black" synthetic stuff we got at Braunston.

Today we made an earlyish start, in case BW turned up to use the mooring, and set off at eight for Fradley. Just as we got there, sure enough we passed a BW tug pushing one hopper and towing another. It made for some interesting boating, as we were alongside the large number of moored boats on the approach to the junction at the time.

After watering, we went down the Fradley locks, Sheila lockwheeling on the bike as she likes to do on this stretch. It was a sunny if cool morning, very pleasant for ambling down to Alrewas, where we've tied above Bagnall Lock.

This means that we can wind in the hole just below the lock when we leave, rather than going down into the village and having to choose between reversing round a bend and under a road bridge to get to the winding hole, or else going down the river section and below Wychnor Lock to turn.

It proves to be a good place to stop on a sunny Friday. There's a lot of traffic up and down, there's room on the grass verge of the towpath for our chairs and table, so we've spent the afternoon sitting there, me fender making and Sheila crocheting, whilst others do the sailing as the song says.

The big fender is nearly finished, but I want to do the final bits in the morning when I'm fresh. Then we are going to Elanor's to examine the new cat, coming back to the boat for dinner.

Wednesday 4 June 2008

One wet day, one sunny day

3rd & 4th June

After I'd posted last time, I discovered by chance the links option that lets you see when other blogs have linked to your own. This made me aware of the kind things being said by Greygal in her Dogsontour blog – thanks Greygal. I've now set up an email alert that tells me when such things happen , so that I can get the ego boost as soon as possible.

Yesterday we woke to a very wet morning, and took our time getting ready to go. By nine o'clock we were on our way, with Sheila all togged up in wet weather gear on the back, and yours truly finding stuff to do in the cabin, like checking emails.

Arriving at Atherstone locks, I didn't bother to put waterproof trousers on – the rain was quite warm, so wearing shorts was the answer, skin drying faster than cloth. There were a lot of other boats on the move, probably because everyone had chosen to try to wait out the worst of the rain.

It took quite a while to get down the five locks to our preferred shopping mooring as a result – lots of the boats were being steered by novices, or folks who don't get much chance do a lot of boating, so patience was the name of the game. It makes it more interesting in its way, though as always, it really really helps not to be in a hurry.

I nipped into town to get basic stores and a prescription filled, then we had lunch accompanied by mugs of soup. (June, and we're still drinking soup for lunch). After that we went down another four locks to moor between locks nine and ten. When we got there we were on our own, but by dinner time, several other boats had turned up.

There are visitor moorings at the very bottom of the flight, but this stretch of Armco by the disused footbridge is nicer in that it's less shaded, and you're not opposite the long term moorers on the offside, many of whom have little air cooled gennies they like to run in the evening.

(You know: NEEEerrrrrrr...eeerrr......EEEEERrrrr...eeeerrrrr, on and on and on and on....)

It was cold enough and soggy enough that we lit the stove and dropped the cratch cover. Typically, this meant we were sitting around in t-shirts and shorts with the side hatches open and the fire burning, but it does both dry out and cheer up the boat so much.

I finished making a second fender, so we now have a set to use while I recover the big fat fenders. After dinner we were sitting around trying to find the motivation to do the washing up when there came a knocking on the roof, and a cheerful face appeared in the side hatches. This proved to be Bob off Amber Moon.

Known as Plumb Bob because of his role at the IWA National Festival (it involves a lot of water pipes), he and his wife are good examples of the kind of vital support the IWA relies on to deliver that Festival. Ann does the personnel stuff so they are both 'blue shirts' in the jargon.

Naturally we invited them in for a drink, and a merry evening was had with aid of a couple of bottles of wine. I used to worry that our chosen lifestyle would seriously reduce our circle of friendship (there's some research that shows that health in later life is greatly affected by how many friends and relations you are in contact with) but this sort of incident shows I didn't need to.

If anything, we engage in social activity with a lot more people, albeit often in an unpredictable way like last night, than we did when we were stuck in one place all the time.

Today the weather couldn't have been more different. It was a gloriously sunny morning, so we made a cracking early start, setting off down the last two locks in the flight at 7.30. Then I steered us along what must be the best bit of the original Coventry Canal, through to the start of Amington. We were held up for a time by a couple of Rose Narrowboats ambling, or indeed tacking, along, but in due course they let us by, and we were soon enough at the top of the Glascote two.

We got straight down, and tied on the service point at Peel's Wharf to fill the water tank and dump some recycling. No bins for cardboard or clothes there, though, so that had to wait until we were tied by Sutton Road Bridge, access point for the retail parks.

After lunch we got rid of the rest of the recycling, browsed a few shops and then raided Sainsbury's.

We're presently looking to replace our folding chairs, and Sheila had found some likely ones on the Argos website, but when we went into the Argos store here we couldn't find them in the catalogue. Back at the boat, I checked the website again, and was able to reserve them for collection from the store, so that's a job for the morning before we go.

Monday 2 June 2008

Two days in transit

1st & 2nd June

It's been a couple of days of steady boating along well known waters. After the excitements of recent weeks, it's very pleasant to travel canals we know well, stopping at familiar places, being able to work out a cruising plan without much hassle or frantic thumbing through the guides.

Yesterday, we made a leisurely start: I went to the shop to get a paper, and took a load more recycling to the bins on the way, and then we were off along the North Oxford for All Oaks Wood, just an hour and a half away. The take off from Newbold wasn't quite as flawless as it might have been. As I untied the bow and prepared to push off, I put my foot down one of the gaps between the boat and the bank formed by the odd shaped piling they have there.

I put my lower leg into the water, sat down suddenly, then lay back and waved my legs in the air to show that I wasn't badly hurt. (I'm not sure Sheila was all that reassured – she probably just thought I'd banged my head or had a fit or something.)

Fortunately, since I was wearing shorts, only my trainer and sock got wet, (apart from skin, obviously {sigh}) so I took both off and went around barefoot in my clogs until we were ready to moor at All Oaks.

There are a couple of new marinas along here, both based in old arms of the canal left over from the straightening exercise in the 19th century. Just past the second of these, we came across the final stages of a Coventry Canal Society social – they were taking down a set of gazebos from the towpath, and one of their number was reversing slowly towards us in order to wind in the entrance to the marina.

Signwriting on the side of a couple of the boats indicated that they were based in the Wyken Arm. As we boated along, Sheila and I had a relaxed discussion about just where that was – it's one of those names you know you've heard, but can't quite place.

I said "As it's the Coventry Canal Society, it must be one of the colliery arms on that canal." I should have known better. Checking up later in that ultimate reference book, Jane Cumberlidge's Inland Waterways of Great Britain, I discovered that it's that short arm of the N Oxford not far south of Hawkesbury Junction that you can see from the M6 if you are quick. But it is an old colliery arm, at least.

When we got to All Oaks Wood, we found the moorings quite busy. Sheila was steering, and I was on the bow, playing the game of "Is this next gap sixty feet long?"

There are two high probability outcomes: one is that you decide that it is, and it turns out to be 2 foot short, whereupon the steerer curses you as she has to back out of it without hitting the boats at either end. The other is that you decide it isn't long enough, and then realise a) yes it is and b) it's the last decent one before you run out of good edge to moor against. In this case the steerer curses you again as she tries to make seventeen and a half tons of steel stop dead and then move sideways.

In this case I went for the second option, with the added lagniappe that there was a boat coming the other way, and Sheila had to hover on the offside whilst he went past with a heavy boat in a narrow channel (with all the effects that had on us) and then persuade Sanity to move into the slot without clouting either of our new neighbours.

Fortunately, being a boatwoman of no mean skill, she managed this without seeming effort, and we were soon neatly secured on a slightly overgrown towpath. (OK, I'm brown nosing, but she was really quite restrained in her remarks under the circs.)

We had a quiet afternoon. I finished the fender I started yesterday, Sheila got on with her knitting and we watched a seemingly endless procession of boats going by in both directions. It's been a while since we spent the summer half term week on a main route – usually after Crick we've gone up to Welford or Market Harborough and laid low until the rush is over.

Today the plan was to get right through the conurbations around Coventry and Nuneaton and moor at Hartshill, so we started the getting up process at six, and by 7.15 were on our way.

Stretton Stop, Ansty, Suttons Stop (Hawkesbury), Charity Dock, Bedworth, Marston Junction and Nuneaton were all traversed without too much drama. Since we were out of bread, I made some half baguettes with a cheese and onion bread mix we'd bought the other day. In the end, the mix came out a bit soft, and the results were more like flat bread than subs, but as Sheila said with satisfaction, it gave more area to spread the filling on.

By 12.45 we were tied just off the end of the disabled angler moorings here at Hartshill, and proceeded to make pigs of ourselves with the bread.

To avoid dozing off, we walked down to Dobbies in search of seeds to replant the 'cut and come again' salad box we got at Little Venice. The original plants are looking a bit sad, despite Sheila's tender care. The lollo rosso has gone, the red chard is struggling, and both the rocket and the frizee are shooting, no doubt as a result of the hot dry spells we've had between the monsoons. Only the land cress is really thriving.

Be that as it may, we found some replacement seeds ok, and I got some breakfast supplies of dried fruit and muesli additives at the Julian Graves concession. Sadly, having praised the butcher here in the latest Waterways World, the food shop has closed for the time being, and is due to reopen "in a few weeks" as a Dobbies Farm Shop.

Whether this has anything to do with the fact that Tesco have just bought out Dobbies, I don't know, but I have my suspicions.

Tomorrow we go down Atherstone, and then the rest of the week will be a steady progress to Fradley/Alrewas.

Endnote: just as I was proof editing this, two boats came by, a privateer called Venus, and a hire boat. Venus scraped all down our offside, partly as a result of not slowing down enough in the narrow channel. The hire boat gave a demo of the virtues of not being in a rush, and came nowhere near us.