Saturday 9 May 2009

Diesel at Calcutt, then a day at Braunston

8th & 9th May

We ate in The Boat the night before last, as a bit of nostalgia; we used to eat there regularly in our OwnerShips days. The meal was OK, rather than exciting, and frankly a bit overpriced for what it was, certainly by comparison with Alrewas.

We both had the steak and ale pie, which was certainly home made, as advertised. None of the suppliers of precooked food like Bookers or 3663 would have turned out such weird pastry. The menu said "None of your air filled tops here" and how true this was; it was like a piece of well boiled leather.

Nonetheless, it was very pleasant to have a quiet meal in an unpretentious setting. In the morning we made a relaxed start, as we wanted to get diesel at Calcutt, since they do allow a self declared split. We followed a Rose Narrowboat all the way to the bottom of Calcutt, thinking that we 'd have a partner up the first two locks, but they stopped for breakfast just before we got there.

We had seen a Black Prince boat following, but it was nowhere in sight, so we worked up the two alone. Then there came the tricky turn and reverse onto Calcutt's service wharf between the top and middle locks. Sanity was a bit reluctant to go all the way back, and eventually had to be hauled into place with the stern line.

We had excellent service from the cheerful staff at Calcutt, despite the fact they were in the midst of Friday morning turn round chaos. They charged 59p for domestic diesel, so by no means the cheapest on the system, but a lot better than Kate's 90p, 60/40 split, take it or leave it attitude.

Incidentally, I've still not heard from HMRC in reply to my email (thank you to those who've posted encouraging comments!) I'm going to give it a week, and then decide on my next move, which will probably be to get RBOA on the job.

Leaving Calcutt was a bit tricky. Whilst we'd been getting filled up, the Black Prince had arrived and worked up the first two locks, so it was ideal timing to share with them up the top one. Only thing was, Sanity didn't want to go. Sheila shafted the bow round to point at the lock, and I engaged forward gear and applied gentle revs. Nothing happened, as her stern was well into the mud.

I got off the back and shoved her forward, but still no dice. In the end I had to use the short shaft off the back to get her clear enough for the stern to float, a bit, and let us progress. It just shows the value of keeping a short shaft at the back for the steerer to use in these circs.

We chugged on towards the junction, officially Napton, but commonly known as Wigram's Turn. It soon became apparent that we had a little memento of our stay at Calcutt coming along with us, as the tiller was shaking, and we were making very poor time.

We stopped just before the turn, and I removed an interesting bundle of rope, string and a bit of sweatshirt from the prop.

After that things went much better, and we fairly zoomed along the section between Napton and Braunston. It's one of those minor paradoxes of the system that if you are going north from Oxford/Banbury to Coventry along here you go the way we were headed, but if you are going north form London to Birmingham, you go the other way along this stretch.

Arriving at Braunston, Sheila found us a good mooring before the water point near the A45 bridge, just within reach of the tap if we used two hoses. This was a relief, since Braunston was fairly jumping, and it was a case of grab a mooring when you see one.

Having filled the tank and eaten lunch, we went to Midland Chandlers to ponder their displays of cookers and fridges, and then up into the village to get bread, meat and pasties, coming back via Butcher's Bridge.

In the afternoon, Colin off Alison, Braidbar 50, dropped in for a natter. Then we had a quiet evening, and a good night's sleep, disturbed only by courting mallards all over the roof as it began to get light around 4.30.

This morning was a bright start, so we hopped out of bed quite early. A good chunk of the morning was given over to finding the Braunston Tunnel cache, which is another of the puzzle type, though not so demanding on the grey matter as Top Shop the other day.

On the way back we called in to Wharf House chandlers. Here I bought a couple of oil filters, which they seem to manage to get much cheaper than anywhere else. Genuine Beta parts, they charged just £6.70 each. We also had an interesting conversation with them about wind generators. This reminds me, I haven't done a post on the Building Sanity Again blog for a while – I'll try and get one in during the next week.

Back on Sanity we relaxed with the papers, then ate the pasties for lunch. We've spent the afternoon in an excess of energetic activity (must be the pasties), first cleaning our boots, then giving the inside of the boat a good spring clean.

Tomorrow we'll head back to Calcutt and rendezvous with John and Nev Campbell.

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