29th & 30th July
The plan yesterday was to make an early start, as we'd estimated three hours from our overnight mooring to the shopping mooring in Rugeley, and we wanted to get there at around ten o' clock. Peter Mason planned to be with us at midday, which suited us well as we prefer not to overnight in the centre of that town.
None of this worked out quite as planned, but it all turned out for the best in the end. We had severely overestimated the time needed to get from Handsacre to Rugeley, so we made a halt on the water point between Hawkesyard Hall and the Ash Tree to top up the water tank. We still got to Rugeley in very good time but as usual there was plenty of room on the visitor moorings at that time of day.
We had a relaxed shop in Wilkinson's and Morrison's and were back on the boat by half ten. We put all the shopping away and settled to wait for Peter to show up. A couple of texts from him indicated firstly that he was a little later leaving Braidbar than planned and then that heavy traffic was slowing him down. In the event it was more like half one before he was with us.
We had a most excellent and useful meeting, and I'll try and give the highlights of it on the Building Sanity Again blog tomorrow. Peter didn't leave us until half five, by which time it felt too late to move on. Town centre moorings do not feel as threatening in the middle of the holiday season, when they are very busy. Our only concern was that today's cruising involved those major pinch points of the narrow canals, Colwich and Haywood Locks.
We dealt with this by making a flying start this morning. Sheila washed, dressed and started boating whilst I made a cup of tea, performed my own ablutions and ate breakfast. We then swapped over on the tiller so that Sheila could finish sorting herself out for the day and get her breakfast.
We made steady progress, although it was apparent that we had done well to sit tight last night, as all the places that we would have considered for a rural mooring were completely full. We got to Colwich lock at half seven and followed another boat up. At Great Haywood, once Sanity was rising in the lock, I nipped off to get a paper, there being no lack of assistance for Sheila with the lock since there was now a boat following us and one waiting to come down.
I caught up with Sanity at the junction bridge, and we were able to find a space on Tixall Wide at around ten. In fact we could have afforded to have arrived a little later, as by lunch time many of the other boats had moved off.
We've had a busy day. The engine hours counter was showing 6999, so after a leisurely coffee to allow the engine to cool, Sheila did a major service with my advice, thus reducing the strain on my slowly recovering shoulder. The main difficulty here was the discovery that Shobnall Chandlery had sold us the wrong fuel filter. Fortunately, Sheila had been able to remove the old one without damaging it so we just put it back on, but we still had the joy of bleeding it.
After lunch, we needed to complete an application form for my NHS pension. The only problem with this was that we discovered we needed a witness to my signature, and as a potential beneficiary, Sheila could not perform this office. We had a walk along all the moorings at Tixall and in Great Haywood without finding anyone we knew. This is, of course, about the first time in the last fortnight we've not bumped into an acquaintance.
In the end we went into the Anglo Welsh office where they know us as customers and one of the staff there was kind enough to oblige. The boating community is indeed a wonderful thing.
Back at the boat Sheila took photocopies of everything, sealed the application in its envelope and walked back to Great Haywood yet again to put it in the post. I cleaned up the engine room and put everything tidily away whilst she was gone. She duly came plodding back looking rather grim faced; the Post Office here chooses to have a half day on Thursdays.
No wonder the Royal Mail struggles to match its commercial competitors; none of them would consider for a moment being unavailable in the middle of the working week.
We are now in the happy position of having some time to kill, so we'll stay here tomorrow, I'll do the walk into Great Haywood this time and we'll get this application on its way.
Thursday, 30 July 2009
Tuesday, 28 July 2009
An extra day at Alrewas and then on towards Rugeley
27th & 28th July
We had a change of plan yesterday morning when Sheila woke with her sore eye looking and feeling much worse. It was clear she needed to see a doctor and so she repeated my trick of being on the doorstep of the surgery when it opened at 8.15.
This worked even better for her, as she got to see our preferred GP at half eight. Dr Mager Jones took one look at the eye and prescribed chloramphenicol. From here on things appeared to go less well. The pharmacy doesn't open until nine so she came back to the boat for a bit, and then we both went out to get the script made up and to buy some more meat from the butchers.
Despite chloramphenicol being a very common eye ointment, the pharmacy was out of stock and would not have any more in until five o' clock. Fortunately, we had already decided it was now too late to tackle Fradley with so much traffic about, so we made the best of a bad job by giving the boat a thorough clean inside.
These apparent reverses proved to have an up side in that we were able to have a long chat in the afternoon with the folk off Shiraz, and then have Elanor come to the boat with our post. It then transpired that Autumn Years with Graham and Carolann on board (and grandson Sam) had meanwhile tied just off the end of the lock landing.
When Elanor left us, therefore, we went back and had a glass of wine or two on Autumn Years and a substantial catch up session with her crew. In fact this session went on so long it was too late for me to start cooking when we returned to Sanity, and dinner had to be obtained from the chip shop.
This morning we made an early start, planning to tie at Kings Bromley. We'd had a phone call from Peter Mason at Braidbar last night and it seemed likely that we would be meeting him sometime this week, rather than next.
There was less traffic about than we expected this morning and so we made good time up Fradley locks, passing Leonard, Braidbar number 96, at the top. Whilst we were doing so, Peter left a message on our voicemail to say that tomorrow lunch time (i.e. Wednesday) would be the best time for him to meet us. It seems likely that this will be at Rugeley. We were making such good time that we've chosen to come on almost to Handsacre, so as to have a shorter run in the morning to Rugeley.
We've tied just before bridge 56 so as to have a quiet country mooring. Checking the geocaching website before lunch identified one cache just a little further back on the towpath and three near the village of Mavesyn Ridware. We did the first one to fill in time before lunch and have visited the other three this afternoon.
This last involved rather more road walking than we'd have liked but it still made for some very pleasant exercise.
Sadly, somehow in the middle of all this gadding about we missed a visit from Chris and Lizzie off Shim Shams just before lunch, which would have made a nice addition to our collection of Braidbar crews this week
We are now looking forward to a quiet evening and an early night after the exertions of the last couple of days.
We had a change of plan yesterday morning when Sheila woke with her sore eye looking and feeling much worse. It was clear she needed to see a doctor and so she repeated my trick of being on the doorstep of the surgery when it opened at 8.15.
This worked even better for her, as she got to see our preferred GP at half eight. Dr Mager Jones took one look at the eye and prescribed chloramphenicol. From here on things appeared to go less well. The pharmacy doesn't open until nine so she came back to the boat for a bit, and then we both went out to get the script made up and to buy some more meat from the butchers.
Despite chloramphenicol being a very common eye ointment, the pharmacy was out of stock and would not have any more in until five o' clock. Fortunately, we had already decided it was now too late to tackle Fradley with so much traffic about, so we made the best of a bad job by giving the boat a thorough clean inside.
These apparent reverses proved to have an up side in that we were able to have a long chat in the afternoon with the folk off Shiraz, and then have Elanor come to the boat with our post. It then transpired that Autumn Years with Graham and Carolann on board (and grandson Sam) had meanwhile tied just off the end of the lock landing.
When Elanor left us, therefore, we went back and had a glass of wine or two on Autumn Years and a substantial catch up session with her crew. In fact this session went on so long it was too late for me to start cooking when we returned to Sanity, and dinner had to be obtained from the chip shop.
This morning we made an early start, planning to tie at Kings Bromley. We'd had a phone call from Peter Mason at Braidbar last night and it seemed likely that we would be meeting him sometime this week, rather than next.
There was less traffic about than we expected this morning and so we made good time up Fradley locks, passing Leonard, Braidbar number 96, at the top. Whilst we were doing so, Peter left a message on our voicemail to say that tomorrow lunch time (i.e. Wednesday) would be the best time for him to meet us. It seems likely that this will be at Rugeley. We were making such good time that we've chosen to come on almost to Handsacre, so as to have a shorter run in the morning to Rugeley.
We've tied just before bridge 56 so as to have a quiet country mooring. Checking the geocaching website before lunch identified one cache just a little further back on the towpath and three near the village of Mavesyn Ridware. We did the first one to fill in time before lunch and have visited the other three this afternoon.
This last involved rather more road walking than we'd have liked but it still made for some very pleasant exercise.
Sadly, somehow in the middle of all this gadding about we missed a visit from Chris and Lizzie off Shim Shams just before lunch, which would have made a nice addition to our collection of Braidbar crews this week
We are now looking forward to a quiet evening and an early night after the exertions of the last couple of days.
Sunday, 26 July 2009
Some days are diamond...
25th & 26th July
I don't know if it is old age or what, but this business of waking early is getting out of hand. Yesterday was another day when, since we didn't need to leave to walk into town until nine, we could have had a nice lie in. Instead of which we were up and about early and found ourselves pottering about filling in the time.
Actually, as so often, this is unfair to Sheila, who was industriously crocheting, but you know what I mean.
We normally try to avoid Saturday appointments for things like the opticians since a) things are always busier on Saturday and b) it seems unfair to take up an appointment outside the working week which could be used by someone with less choice in the matter than ourselves. In this case however SpecSavers had given us little option in the matter.
At least the experience confirmed the wisdom of our normal strategy. The place was heaving and the whole thing took much longer than normal because the various peripheral machines were in heavy use. However, it was finally over and we were free to retreat to the boat.
When we got back to the marina, we found Shiraz in the service dock and Sheila went for a natter with them whilst I enquired for the drive belt we had on order. This hadn't yet arrived, so they are going to keep it for us until we return in a couple of weeks' time.
I'd had the dreaded pupil expanding drops in my eyes, so Sheila did the boating while I waited for my vision to return to normal. Typically, it was a brilliantly sunny day and I had to go about looking like some sinister character in The Sopranos or The Wire, wearing large lensed prescription sun glasses under a long peaked baseball cap.
We got to the Morrison's mooring a bit after eleven. By the time we'd had a cup of coffee it was half past and lunch time was appearing over the horizon. With a bit of shopping to do it seemed best to do some more pottering / crocheting and then to shop after lunch.
The cut was now very busy indeed, and it seemed very possible that there would be little or no mooring space near the water park. Accordingly, we stopped on the towpath below Branston lock, which proved a wise decision. After a pause to allow my eyes to become nearly as normal as they ever are, we set off to visit five geocaches variously located between the railway and the river on the far side of Branston village.
I'm pleased to say we found all of them including the two micros, in the course of about six miles walking. It was a great way to use the first decent day we've had for some time, and today's weather has only confirmed how right we were to do so.
I'd planned an easy meal, consisting of Quorn escalopes, new potatoes and broccoli so that at least we were able to collapse for a time when we finally got back to the boat.
Before showering and cooking this meal, I sat on a stool on the towpath draped in a blue polythene cycle cape, whilst Sheila reduced the length of my hair with the aid of the clippers. I'm sometimes tempted to whistle "Delilah" whilst this is going on, thus combining subtle Biblical references with Sheila's fondness for Tom Jones hits, but it seems inadvisable when she's trimming my eyebrows with a sharp pair of scissors.
We were up and about early again this morning (gosh doesn't Radio 4 have some odd stuff on at 6am?), this time with justification as we wanted to boat through to Alrewas to arrive there between ten and eleven, and we estimated this would take something over three hours including a water stop at Barton Turn.
We got away just after seven, and were not the first boat up the lock even so. In fact the traffic was such as you'd normally expect in the middle of the day at a weekend rather than first thing in the morning.
Our timings were about right, allowing for a bit of extra delay at the locks, and it was twenty to eleven when we tied on the visitor moorings by the water point, where there was indeed plenty of room. They have since filled up as we expected.
The only real incident of note involved a fisherman rather than a boater. Contrary to all the advice and instructions issued to anglers, he had chosen to fish from the bullnose below Alrewas lock, using two rods to cast into the river. As I've said, there was a lot of boat traffic and so I had to wait on the nice new moorings below the lock whilst Sheila assisted the boat ahead to lock up. In turn this meant I had to boat across his swim when the lock was ready.
He left it to the last moment to reel in, one of his lines tangled and jammed, and his float disappeared under Sanity's stem as I powered into the lock, resisting the potent cross current from the millstream which makes this lock approach so interesting even without the presence of idiots.
There was nothing either of us could do and he had to cut his line to save his rod. Once Sanity was rising in the lock I got the boathook and fished about under the stem to see if the line was still there, but it had gone, presumably swept away down stream as soon as it was free.
The rest of the day has been very quiet, raining on and off and with sundry boats travelling past being handled with greater or lesser degrees of skill.
Tomorrow we'll head on up through Fradley (another very early start, methinks) and plan to tie near Kings Bromley marina for the night.
I don't know if it is old age or what, but this business of waking early is getting out of hand. Yesterday was another day when, since we didn't need to leave to walk into town until nine, we could have had a nice lie in. Instead of which we were up and about early and found ourselves pottering about filling in the time.
Actually, as so often, this is unfair to Sheila, who was industriously crocheting, but you know what I mean.
We normally try to avoid Saturday appointments for things like the opticians since a) things are always busier on Saturday and b) it seems unfair to take up an appointment outside the working week which could be used by someone with less choice in the matter than ourselves. In this case however SpecSavers had given us little option in the matter.
At least the experience confirmed the wisdom of our normal strategy. The place was heaving and the whole thing took much longer than normal because the various peripheral machines were in heavy use. However, it was finally over and we were free to retreat to the boat.
When we got back to the marina, we found Shiraz in the service dock and Sheila went for a natter with them whilst I enquired for the drive belt we had on order. This hadn't yet arrived, so they are going to keep it for us until we return in a couple of weeks' time.
I'd had the dreaded pupil expanding drops in my eyes, so Sheila did the boating while I waited for my vision to return to normal. Typically, it was a brilliantly sunny day and I had to go about looking like some sinister character in The Sopranos or The Wire, wearing large lensed prescription sun glasses under a long peaked baseball cap.
We got to the Morrison's mooring a bit after eleven. By the time we'd had a cup of coffee it was half past and lunch time was appearing over the horizon. With a bit of shopping to do it seemed best to do some more pottering / crocheting and then to shop after lunch.
The cut was now very busy indeed, and it seemed very possible that there would be little or no mooring space near the water park. Accordingly, we stopped on the towpath below Branston lock, which proved a wise decision. After a pause to allow my eyes to become nearly as normal as they ever are, we set off to visit five geocaches variously located between the railway and the river on the far side of Branston village.
I'm pleased to say we found all of them including the two micros, in the course of about six miles walking. It was a great way to use the first decent day we've had for some time, and today's weather has only confirmed how right we were to do so.
I'd planned an easy meal, consisting of Quorn escalopes, new potatoes and broccoli so that at least we were able to collapse for a time when we finally got back to the boat.
Before showering and cooking this meal, I sat on a stool on the towpath draped in a blue polythene cycle cape, whilst Sheila reduced the length of my hair with the aid of the clippers. I'm sometimes tempted to whistle "Delilah" whilst this is going on, thus combining subtle Biblical references with Sheila's fondness for Tom Jones hits, but it seems inadvisable when she's trimming my eyebrows with a sharp pair of scissors.
We were up and about early again this morning (gosh doesn't Radio 4 have some odd stuff on at 6am?), this time with justification as we wanted to boat through to Alrewas to arrive there between ten and eleven, and we estimated this would take something over three hours including a water stop at Barton Turn.
We got away just after seven, and were not the first boat up the lock even so. In fact the traffic was such as you'd normally expect in the middle of the day at a weekend rather than first thing in the morning.
Our timings were about right, allowing for a bit of extra delay at the locks, and it was twenty to eleven when we tied on the visitor moorings by the water point, where there was indeed plenty of room. They have since filled up as we expected.
The only real incident of note involved a fisherman rather than a boater. Contrary to all the advice and instructions issued to anglers, he had chosen to fish from the bullnose below Alrewas lock, using two rods to cast into the river. As I've said, there was a lot of boat traffic and so I had to wait on the nice new moorings below the lock whilst Sheila assisted the boat ahead to lock up. In turn this meant I had to boat across his swim when the lock was ready.
He left it to the last moment to reel in, one of his lines tangled and jammed, and his float disappeared under Sanity's stem as I powered into the lock, resisting the potent cross current from the millstream which makes this lock approach so interesting even without the presence of idiots.
There was nothing either of us could do and he had to cut his line to save his rod. Once Sanity was rising in the lock I got the boathook and fished about under the stem to see if the line was still there, but it had gone, presumably swept away down stream as soon as it was free.
The rest of the day has been very quiet, raining on and off and with sundry boats travelling past being handled with greater or lesser degrees of skill.
Tomorrow we'll head on up through Fradley (another very early start, methinks) and plan to tie near Kings Bromley marina for the night.
Friday, 24 July 2009
A cautionary tale
23rd & 24th July
It's been a couple of days largely dominated by anxiety about internet access. As I've said before, the Burton area isn't great for connectivity but yesterday morning at Branston things became disastrously worse.
We were tied right outside the entrance to the water park, where the signal is weaker than at our previous location through the bridge, but this time when I tried to connect the modem, the laptop refused to believe that it was there at all. Over the next thirty-six hours a number of strategies were tried to recover the situation. The simplest, such as unplugging and reconnecting the modem and restarting the laptop, were used from time to time amongst more sophisticated strategies such as fixing disc permissions and transferring the SIM card to a phone handset to try to find a better signal.
All of these had only transient success.
In amongst this, we found time to have another chat with Tony and Chris on Louisiana II and to walk through to Branston village in search of supplies. This last was not much more successful than the internet efforts. The shop in Branston is essentially a newsagent with some basic groceries and we only succeeded in obtaining a copy of The Independent.
By the afternoon, Sheila was showing understandable signs of mutiny in view of my continued muttering, pacing about and demonstrating all the other symptoms of a stymied geek.
We therefore set out for a walk, and had made it as far as the Ice Cream Boat at the end of the moorings when it became clear that it was about to tip it down. We therefore bought ice creams and retreated to Sanity once more. After the shower (one of the heavy and prolonged ones) had worked its way through, we did manage to find a nice two mile walk around the lakes on the offside of the canal about which we had been told by Tony.
The modem remaining intransigent, I had a go at putting the SIM card back in the phone handset and using it as a Bluetooth modem. This too was unsuccessful, although that was more to do with my rustiness at configuring the phone than anything else.
We therefore abandoned the internet for the day, having decided to take the modem into the T-mobile shop here in Burton today.
This morning it connected without trouble for a time, but after we had boated through to Morrison's it had stopped working again. Having done our shopping, we came on to Shobnall for diesel and a pump out and have tied outside the marina for the night.
The process of backing out of the marina entrance and turning to go onto the moorings was completed just in time, as immediately afterwards we were treated to the sight of a boat trying to leave the marina, a privateer approaching from Branston and a Shakespeare hire boat coming through the bridge in the other direction all at the same time.
It's good to be able to report that everyone remained good tempered during the ensuing confusion, although it was clear that no one could understand the hand signals that any of the others were making.
Back on the boat after having settled the bill in the marina, it occurred to me to try changing the connecting lead between the modem and the laptop – and all was well.
The moral of the story is, when tracing a fault, especially an intermittent one, always start with the plug and lead.
This afternoon we've had a walk into Burton, and checked out the options for Pay As You Go mobile broadband with either 3 or Orange as a backstop for internet access. It's clear though that the price structures are such that it can't be made to work economically, though it is certainly an option for when the T-mobile contract runs out next spring.
As I've said, we'll stay here tonight for our optician's appointments tomorrow morning, and then probably go back towards Branston for the night.
It's been a couple of days largely dominated by anxiety about internet access. As I've said before, the Burton area isn't great for connectivity but yesterday morning at Branston things became disastrously worse.
We were tied right outside the entrance to the water park, where the signal is weaker than at our previous location through the bridge, but this time when I tried to connect the modem, the laptop refused to believe that it was there at all. Over the next thirty-six hours a number of strategies were tried to recover the situation. The simplest, such as unplugging and reconnecting the modem and restarting the laptop, were used from time to time amongst more sophisticated strategies such as fixing disc permissions and transferring the SIM card to a phone handset to try to find a better signal.
All of these had only transient success.
In amongst this, we found time to have another chat with Tony and Chris on Louisiana II and to walk through to Branston village in search of supplies. This last was not much more successful than the internet efforts. The shop in Branston is essentially a newsagent with some basic groceries and we only succeeded in obtaining a copy of The Independent.
By the afternoon, Sheila was showing understandable signs of mutiny in view of my continued muttering, pacing about and demonstrating all the other symptoms of a stymied geek.
We therefore set out for a walk, and had made it as far as the Ice Cream Boat at the end of the moorings when it became clear that it was about to tip it down. We therefore bought ice creams and retreated to Sanity once more. After the shower (one of the heavy and prolonged ones) had worked its way through, we did manage to find a nice two mile walk around the lakes on the offside of the canal about which we had been told by Tony.
The modem remaining intransigent, I had a go at putting the SIM card back in the phone handset and using it as a Bluetooth modem. This too was unsuccessful, although that was more to do with my rustiness at configuring the phone than anything else.
We therefore abandoned the internet for the day, having decided to take the modem into the T-mobile shop here in Burton today.
This morning it connected without trouble for a time, but after we had boated through to Morrison's it had stopped working again. Having done our shopping, we came on to Shobnall for diesel and a pump out and have tied outside the marina for the night.
The process of backing out of the marina entrance and turning to go onto the moorings was completed just in time, as immediately afterwards we were treated to the sight of a boat trying to leave the marina, a privateer approaching from Branston and a Shakespeare hire boat coming through the bridge in the other direction all at the same time.
It's good to be able to report that everyone remained good tempered during the ensuing confusion, although it was clear that no one could understand the hand signals that any of the others were making.
Back on the boat after having settled the bill in the marina, it occurred to me to try changing the connecting lead between the modem and the laptop – and all was well.
The moral of the story is, when tracing a fault, especially an intermittent one, always start with the plug and lead.
This afternoon we've had a walk into Burton, and checked out the options for Pay As You Go mobile broadband with either 3 or Orange as a backstop for internet access. It's clear though that the price structures are such that it can't be made to work economically, though it is certainly an option for when the T-mobile contract runs out next spring.
As I've said, we'll stay here tonight for our optician's appointments tomorrow morning, and then probably go back towards Branston for the night.
Wednesday, 22 July 2009
A celebratory day, and then back to Branston
21st & 22nd July
With no reason to get up early yesterday, naturally we both woke in good time. The first scheduled item of the day was the Village Walk, for which we needed to be in the car park of the George and Dragon at 10.45. The first half of the morning was therefore occupied in doing bits and pieces around the boat. In Sheila's case this was mainly crochet, whilst the most creative thing I managed was a short catch up post on the Building Sanity Again blog.
The fact that it had rained for the whole of this time, although it began to ease as we prepared to go out, emphasised the importance of carrying waterproofs, though it was warm enough to remain in shorts on the basis that bare legs dry faster than trousers.
With Will and Jane away on their summer cruise, the walk was led by Graham, who took around twenty of us on an ambitious route which was new to us and which took about two and a half hours to do just over seven miles.
It rained to a greater or lesser degree for most of the time, thus demonstrating the frailty of the old saw "rain by seven, dry by eleven". You could blame either global climate change or El Niño for this if you like.
Getting back to the pub at quarter past one meant that we were ready for a drink and a meal, though with our wedding anniversary to celebrate that evening we tried to refrain from over indulgence. This did not prevent it from being a very pleasant lunch, however, and it was gone half two when we left to return to Sanity.
Because there is no signal in the pub, I'd turned the mobile off and didn't bother to switch it back on until we were back on the boat. This proved to be a mistake, since, as soon as I had done so, a text message arrived to say I had a voicemail waiting.
The message proved to be from the physiotherapist to whom I had been referred for the shoulder pain which has been plaguing me ever since Knowle Locks. She was ringing to say that she was able to offer me an appointment at three o' clock as the result of a cancellation. When I'd finished playing the message it was five to three.
I'm able to tell you that with sufficient motivation you can make it from the Bowling Green mooring to the surgery in Exchange Road in seven minutes.
Fortunately, the clinic was running ten minutes late, so I was able to get my breath back and drink enough water to rinse much of the aroma of Marston's Pedigree out of my mouth before I was called in. I can also testify to the efficiency and competence of the physio, who proved to be the one who had cured Sheila's shoulder problem last year.
After a suitable recovery period on the boat, and a conversation with Tony and Chris of Louisiana II whom we last met three years ago on the Great Ouse, we set off back to the pub for our celebration meal.
The George and Dragon continues to hold its place in our regard as currently the best pub in Alrewas, both for the quality of the beer and food and for the pleasant atmosphere engendered by its friendly staff. It's also very reasonably priced; our two course meal with drinks cost just less than £40.
Having slept well last night (not surprising, really) we made a prompt start this morning. As I did the other day, I left Sheila with Sanity on the water point and nipped into the village to buy a paper and some meat from the butcher. We then boated back to Branston Water Park.
The cut is very busy this week, it now being peak season, and it's a shame that the weather continues rather dismal, especially when compared with the Mediterranean climate we had in June. Mind you, this can't be described as a recent phenomenon. Many of us recall the frustration of revising for and sitting exams in scorching June weather only to have it break up at the same time as school. It was sufficiently cold before lunch that we ran the Eberspacher for an hour to warm and dry out the inside of the boat.
It's been a quiet afternoon; we'll stay here at Branston tomorrow, despite the dodgy internet connection, and go on down to Shobnall on Friday.
With no reason to get up early yesterday, naturally we both woke in good time. The first scheduled item of the day was the Village Walk, for which we needed to be in the car park of the George and Dragon at 10.45. The first half of the morning was therefore occupied in doing bits and pieces around the boat. In Sheila's case this was mainly crochet, whilst the most creative thing I managed was a short catch up post on the Building Sanity Again blog.
The fact that it had rained for the whole of this time, although it began to ease as we prepared to go out, emphasised the importance of carrying waterproofs, though it was warm enough to remain in shorts on the basis that bare legs dry faster than trousers.
With Will and Jane away on their summer cruise, the walk was led by Graham, who took around twenty of us on an ambitious route which was new to us and which took about two and a half hours to do just over seven miles.
It rained to a greater or lesser degree for most of the time, thus demonstrating the frailty of the old saw "rain by seven, dry by eleven". You could blame either global climate change or El Niño for this if you like.
Getting back to the pub at quarter past one meant that we were ready for a drink and a meal, though with our wedding anniversary to celebrate that evening we tried to refrain from over indulgence. This did not prevent it from being a very pleasant lunch, however, and it was gone half two when we left to return to Sanity.
Because there is no signal in the pub, I'd turned the mobile off and didn't bother to switch it back on until we were back on the boat. This proved to be a mistake, since, as soon as I had done so, a text message arrived to say I had a voicemail waiting.
The message proved to be from the physiotherapist to whom I had been referred for the shoulder pain which has been plaguing me ever since Knowle Locks. She was ringing to say that she was able to offer me an appointment at three o' clock as the result of a cancellation. When I'd finished playing the message it was five to three.
I'm able to tell you that with sufficient motivation you can make it from the Bowling Green mooring to the surgery in Exchange Road in seven minutes.
Fortunately, the clinic was running ten minutes late, so I was able to get my breath back and drink enough water to rinse much of the aroma of Marston's Pedigree out of my mouth before I was called in. I can also testify to the efficiency and competence of the physio, who proved to be the one who had cured Sheila's shoulder problem last year.
After a suitable recovery period on the boat, and a conversation with Tony and Chris of Louisiana II whom we last met three years ago on the Great Ouse, we set off back to the pub for our celebration meal.
The George and Dragon continues to hold its place in our regard as currently the best pub in Alrewas, both for the quality of the beer and food and for the pleasant atmosphere engendered by its friendly staff. It's also very reasonably priced; our two course meal with drinks cost just less than £40.
Having slept well last night (not surprising, really) we made a prompt start this morning. As I did the other day, I left Sheila with Sanity on the water point and nipped into the village to buy a paper and some meat from the butcher. We then boated back to Branston Water Park.
The cut is very busy this week, it now being peak season, and it's a shame that the weather continues rather dismal, especially when compared with the Mediterranean climate we had in June. Mind you, this can't be described as a recent phenomenon. Many of us recall the frustration of revising for and sitting exams in scorching June weather only to have it break up at the same time as school. It was sufficiently cold before lunch that we ran the Eberspacher for an hour to warm and dry out the inside of the boat.
It's been a quiet afternoon; we'll stay here at Branston tomorrow, despite the dodgy internet connection, and go on down to Shobnall on Friday.
Monday, 20 July 2009
and back to Alrewas
19th & 20th July
Not stopping to wait for the supermarkets to open on a Sunday morning we set off in good time yesterday and Sheila boated under the A5 and on to the winding hole just before Bonehill Bridge. We'd had some concern that the area might be occupied by fishing persons, but in the event the only (minor) problem was that a privateer (who shall be nameless for two reasons, a) charity and b) I've forgotten it) had moored on the towpath opposite the hole.
Despite this, Sheila performed a master class standard winding, and was returning in the opposite direction before the boat which had set off immediately after us was anywhere near.
There followed an unexceptional but very pleasant morning boating back through Hopwas and Whittington to tie on the visitor moorings on the Fradley side of Huddlesford Junction. On the way we crossed with Peter and Gill on Cala and stopped with the two boats drifting side by side for a hasty exchange of news. This was terminated by the appearance of boats coming in both directions and there was a brief period of mild chaos whilst we all got ourselves sorted out.
After lunch we set off to find a geocache which Sheila had identified from the web site. The cunning plan was to do this before the rain set in, but in the event we spent about as much time sheltering under bridges from seriously heavy showers as we did walking or hunting for the cache.
A micro cache hidden in the middle of a hawthorn hedge, it was quite a challenge to find even though we were very sure we were in the right location. Our combined effort turned it up just as we were about to give it up, so we walked back, still dodging showers, with a great sense of achievement.
The weather now continued wet for most of the rest of the day, which we spent sorting out our nearly final ideas about Sanity Again, and e-mailing them to Peter Mason. I'll do a post on the Building Sanity Again blog just to summarise where we've got to.
Today was one of those when it seemed likely that timing would be moderately critical in whether we found a mooring in Alrewas. The peak holiday season has definitely started, so arriving at popular spots between ten and half eleven is the way to maximise your chances of getting a choice of mooring space.
Fortunately we woke in good time (i.e. before half six) and were under way by half seven. It was a gloriously sunny morning, summer on the cut at its best, and we made steady progress through Streethay to Fradley Junction. There we stopped to water before the swing bridge and did our good turn for the day by lending a tap connector to another boat crew who had just thrown theirs into the water.
Speaking of the swing bridge, it now sports on both sides of the bridge a notice which is either the apogee or the nadir of BW's obsession with signage. It says :
Bridge Operating Instructions
presumably in case the boater has not worked this out for him or herself. I am tempted to suggest that if this is their estimate of boater intelligence they should start putting lock operating instructions at every lock, but will not do so in case they take me seriously, BW senior management not having a good grasp of the concept of irony.
Water tank full and rubbish disposed of, we joined the merry mêlée descending Junction, Keeper's and Hunt's locks, crossing with boats coming up at each one. Similar conditions obtained at Common and Bagnall locks and we got into Alrewas just after half ten to find that there was indeed a good choice of moorings.
We've had a relaxed afternoon. Sheila has progressed the production of eight 15" porthole doilies by one further doily (two down, six to go) and I did some shopping and visited the post office.
We've had a chat with the current owner of Colne, Braidbar 14, which he tells us is now up for sale for family reasons. It's being sold through King's Bromley Marina if anyone is interested.
Tomorrow we stay at Alrewas to partake in the village walk and to celebrate our thirty-eighth wedding anniversary.
Not stopping to wait for the supermarkets to open on a Sunday morning we set off in good time yesterday and Sheila boated under the A5 and on to the winding hole just before Bonehill Bridge. We'd had some concern that the area might be occupied by fishing persons, but in the event the only (minor) problem was that a privateer (who shall be nameless for two reasons, a) charity and b) I've forgotten it) had moored on the towpath opposite the hole.
Despite this, Sheila performed a master class standard winding, and was returning in the opposite direction before the boat which had set off immediately after us was anywhere near.
There followed an unexceptional but very pleasant morning boating back through Hopwas and Whittington to tie on the visitor moorings on the Fradley side of Huddlesford Junction. On the way we crossed with Peter and Gill on Cala and stopped with the two boats drifting side by side for a hasty exchange of news. This was terminated by the appearance of boats coming in both directions and there was a brief period of mild chaos whilst we all got ourselves sorted out.
After lunch we set off to find a geocache which Sheila had identified from the web site. The cunning plan was to do this before the rain set in, but in the event we spent about as much time sheltering under bridges from seriously heavy showers as we did walking or hunting for the cache.
A micro cache hidden in the middle of a hawthorn hedge, it was quite a challenge to find even though we were very sure we were in the right location. Our combined effort turned it up just as we were about to give it up, so we walked back, still dodging showers, with a great sense of achievement.
The weather now continued wet for most of the rest of the day, which we spent sorting out our nearly final ideas about Sanity Again, and e-mailing them to Peter Mason. I'll do a post on the Building Sanity Again blog just to summarise where we've got to.
Today was one of those when it seemed likely that timing would be moderately critical in whether we found a mooring in Alrewas. The peak holiday season has definitely started, so arriving at popular spots between ten and half eleven is the way to maximise your chances of getting a choice of mooring space.
Fortunately we woke in good time (i.e. before half six) and were under way by half seven. It was a gloriously sunny morning, summer on the cut at its best, and we made steady progress through Streethay to Fradley Junction. There we stopped to water before the swing bridge and did our good turn for the day by lending a tap connector to another boat crew who had just thrown theirs into the water.
Speaking of the swing bridge, it now sports on both sides of the bridge a notice which is either the apogee or the nadir of BW's obsession with signage. It says :
Bridge Operating Instructions
- Open bridge fully
- Move boat through
- Close bridge securely
presumably in case the boater has not worked this out for him or herself. I am tempted to suggest that if this is their estimate of boater intelligence they should start putting lock operating instructions at every lock, but will not do so in case they take me seriously, BW senior management not having a good grasp of the concept of irony.
Water tank full and rubbish disposed of, we joined the merry mêlée descending Junction, Keeper's and Hunt's locks, crossing with boats coming up at each one. Similar conditions obtained at Common and Bagnall locks and we got into Alrewas just after half ten to find that there was indeed a good choice of moorings.
We've had a relaxed afternoon. Sheila has progressed the production of eight 15" porthole doilies by one further doily (two down, six to go) and I did some shopping and visited the post office.
We've had a chat with the current owner of Colne, Braidbar 14, which he tells us is now up for sale for family reasons. It's being sold through King's Bromley Marina if anyone is interested.
Tomorrow we stay at Alrewas to partake in the village walk and to celebrate our thirty-eighth wedding anniversary.
Labels:
Alrewas,
Huddlesford Junction
Saturday, 18 July 2009
Toddling to Tamworth
17th & 18th July
It's been a good two days boating, albeit over water we know very well. It's made a good break from the challenges of boating on moving water; knowing exactly where the good moorings are to be found, estimating how long a route will take, not worrying about the weather forecast other than to decide how much waterproofing to put on.
Yesterday we set off at a good hour. Sheila moved Sanity onto the water point whilst I nipped into the village in search of a paper and some fresh veg. It was early enough that the Co-op wasn't open, so the veg came from the butchers, but that's modern village life for you.
(Actually, I can recall a town in North Wales where the best barbers was also a licensed firearms dealer, so maybe it's not so modern after all.)
We then had the entertainment of boating up to Fradley Junction, which was having one of its Freaky Fridays, but didn't have to wait too long at any of the locks. Once clear, I retreated below and left Sheila to do the steady plod to Whittington, where we moored just this side of the first bridge.
The wreck has gone from the length before – some new fencing in the hedge by where it was suggests that they had to bring lifting gear across the field to get it out.
We spent the afternoon comfortably inside the boat whilst it rained, sorting out some stuff for the Braidbar Owners Group, such as the new order form for Braidbar clothing, and emailing the group about the way we might spend this year's Owners' Weekend.
It was all a bit of a struggle, not to sort the documents out but to get them up on the website, as the internet connection was not good at all, but we managed it in the end. It did mean that by the time I'd sorted it, I was too tired of the sight of the laptop to do a blog post, hence today's double ration.
Today dawned much dryer, and we had a very pleasant chug through to Sutton Road Bridge, on a bright but cool day which has improved as it went on. The building works which were in hand when last we were here turn out to be a new base for Audi UK, as part of which they've installed a new footpath through to the road, making it easier to get to the retail parks without fighting your way through a hedge or two.
We got some shopping done, then spent the rest of the morning on the boat. This afternoon, we tried to find a micro geocache, but it's gone, the tree stump where it should have been having been moved.
Other than that, it's continued quiet. My account with Google Reader, which I've been using to keep track of various other blogs, went all strange, and refused to load. Some investigation on the relevant forum showed that I'm not the only one afflicted by this. It will teach me to be lazy and just use Google 'cos it's there. Instead I've downloaded a new piece of software, Netnewswire, which is doiung the job very nicely, thank you.
Tomorrow we'll amble back towards Fradley, planning to be in Alrewas on Monday night so as to do the Village Walk on Tuesday morning.
It's been a good two days boating, albeit over water we know very well. It's made a good break from the challenges of boating on moving water; knowing exactly where the good moorings are to be found, estimating how long a route will take, not worrying about the weather forecast other than to decide how much waterproofing to put on.
Yesterday we set off at a good hour. Sheila moved Sanity onto the water point whilst I nipped into the village in search of a paper and some fresh veg. It was early enough that the Co-op wasn't open, so the veg came from the butchers, but that's modern village life for you.
(Actually, I can recall a town in North Wales where the best barbers was also a licensed firearms dealer, so maybe it's not so modern after all.)
We then had the entertainment of boating up to Fradley Junction, which was having one of its Freaky Fridays, but didn't have to wait too long at any of the locks. Once clear, I retreated below and left Sheila to do the steady plod to Whittington, where we moored just this side of the first bridge.
The wreck has gone from the length before – some new fencing in the hedge by where it was suggests that they had to bring lifting gear across the field to get it out.
We spent the afternoon comfortably inside the boat whilst it rained, sorting out some stuff for the Braidbar Owners Group, such as the new order form for Braidbar clothing, and emailing the group about the way we might spend this year's Owners' Weekend.
It was all a bit of a struggle, not to sort the documents out but to get them up on the website, as the internet connection was not good at all, but we managed it in the end. It did mean that by the time I'd sorted it, I was too tired of the sight of the laptop to do a blog post, hence today's double ration.
Today dawned much dryer, and we had a very pleasant chug through to Sutton Road Bridge, on a bright but cool day which has improved as it went on. The building works which were in hand when last we were here turn out to be a new base for Audi UK, as part of which they've installed a new footpath through to the road, making it easier to get to the retail parks without fighting your way through a hedge or two.
We got some shopping done, then spent the rest of the morning on the boat. This afternoon, we tried to find a micro geocache, but it's gone, the tree stump where it should have been having been moved.
Other than that, it's continued quiet. My account with Google Reader, which I've been using to keep track of various other blogs, went all strange, and refused to load. Some investigation on the relevant forum showed that I'm not the only one afflicted by this. It will teach me to be lazy and just use Google 'cos it's there. Instead I've downloaded a new piece of software, Netnewswire, which is doiung the job very nicely, thank you.
Tomorrow we'll amble back towards Fradley, planning to be in Alrewas on Monday night so as to do the Village Walk on Tuesday morning.
Labels:
Tamworth,
Whittington
Thursday, 16 July 2009
At Alrewas
15th & 16th July
Here we are again at Alrewas, the nearest thing we have to a permanent base. Yesterday was a straightforward and very pleasant trip from Branston, if you leave out the rain and the slog alongside the A38, noisy but unchallenging. We'd had a bit of a discussion about how long to allow for the trip, the aim being to arrive between half ten and eleven, thus optimising our chance of finding a spare mooring as boats moved off on thier own trips.
In the event, we didn't see many other boats on the move until Barton Turn, but after that there was a reassuring trickle of them coming the other way.
Having left Branston at ten to eight, we got to Alrewas lock at ten past ten. Since our consensus had been two and a half hours for the trip, this was pleasing. There were a couple of spaces on the moorings immediately above the lock. On arrival, we were assured by one of the other moorers that the totems showing 48 hour moorings didn't apply, which was not what we'd understood from the email exchanges with Robert Prigg at BW.
An email exchange with him since elucidated the explanation; they need planning permission to put up the extra two posts required to implement the planned restrictions, so it will be late in the year before the new arrangement is in place. In the meantime, the whole stretch remains a default 14 day mooring, despite the fact that some but not all of the posts have been uncovered and show 48 hours.
I've suggested that BW at least put up some explanatory notices on their notice boards, as many folk are now thoroughly confused about the situation.
As for the rest, things have gone well. I was able to get an appointment to see my GP this morning, by dint of being on the doorstep of the surgery when it opened at 8.15. We are now free to amble off for a few days, as the next port of call is Specsavers in Burton on Saturday the 25th.
I think we'll probably go to Fazeley and back, unless I get a call to see the physio about my still painful right shoulder in the interim.
Here we are again at Alrewas, the nearest thing we have to a permanent base. Yesterday was a straightforward and very pleasant trip from Branston, if you leave out the rain and the slog alongside the A38, noisy but unchallenging. We'd had a bit of a discussion about how long to allow for the trip, the aim being to arrive between half ten and eleven, thus optimising our chance of finding a spare mooring as boats moved off on thier own trips.
In the event, we didn't see many other boats on the move until Barton Turn, but after that there was a reassuring trickle of them coming the other way.
Having left Branston at ten to eight, we got to Alrewas lock at ten past ten. Since our consensus had been two and a half hours for the trip, this was pleasing. There were a couple of spaces on the moorings immediately above the lock. On arrival, we were assured by one of the other moorers that the totems showing 48 hour moorings didn't apply, which was not what we'd understood from the email exchanges with Robert Prigg at BW.
An email exchange with him since elucidated the explanation; they need planning permission to put up the extra two posts required to implement the planned restrictions, so it will be late in the year before the new arrangement is in place. In the meantime, the whole stretch remains a default 14 day mooring, despite the fact that some but not all of the posts have been uncovered and show 48 hours.
I've suggested that BW at least put up some explanatory notices on their notice boards, as many folk are now thoroughly confused about the situation.
As for the rest, things have gone well. I was able to get an appointment to see my GP this morning, by dint of being on the doorstep of the surgery when it opened at 8.15. We are now free to amble off for a few days, as the next port of call is Specsavers in Burton on Saturday the 25th.
I think we'll probably go to Fazeley and back, unless I get a call to see the physio about my still painful right shoulder in the interim.
Labels:
Alrewas
Tuesday, 14 July 2009
Going for a Burton
14th July
Sorry, couldn't resist it, feeble though it is. Blame it on the lack of sleep. I'd forgotten just how noisy Willington can be overnight if there's a lot of freight traffic on the move on the railway, and there was a lot of freight traffic. I suppose we should be glad that the recession hasn't bitten so deeply that there's still some movement, but on a hot sticky night it was a bit hard. On our way this morning, we noticed much quieter moorings out in the country, especially near Bridge 25, so we may well use those next time.
Never mind, today was mostly fine, though we've had the odd shower this afternoon, and after watering, we chugged cheerfully enough through the odd places on the border between Derbyshire and Staffs. It always seems strange to think that when you cross the River Dove, you are entering the West Midlands, but there you go.
We got to Shobnall before ten, and popped into the chandlery to get some oil and a couple of filters ready for the 7,000 hours service (at which we are changing the fuel filter as well as doing the usual oil stuff.) I asked about getting a replacement drive belt for the engine alternator, but even after nipping back to the boat to check the code number, they didn't have one.
No matter, they were very happy to order one for me, so we'll pick it up next time we're in Burton.
Then I brewed a cup of coffee whilst Sheila steered the short run to the Morrison's mooring, and having drunk it, we went to the supermarket to top up the stores. This did mean we succumbed to the temptation to buy a couple of their excellent pasties, as well as a beautiful loaf of bread.
During the lunch break we took a call from Elanor, and offered to stay where we were for the night if she wanted to pop in and see us. No, she said, she wanted to get in with housework tonight, so didn't want the distraction of visiting us.
On that basis, we set off for the Branston Water Park mooring, which is quieter, but less convenient for Elanor. There was a good bit of traffic around now, and we followed a boat up Branston Lock, and were followed in our turn. On the approach to the mooring, in came a text message from Elanor - could she change her mind?
Hey ho, yes of course she can, she'll just have to find us where we've tied on the newly refurbished moorings before the bridge and pub.
A brief excursion found another geocache, then we've hung about on the boat for the rest of the time. Tomorrow we'll go on to Alrewas, I guess.
Sorry, couldn't resist it, feeble though it is. Blame it on the lack of sleep. I'd forgotten just how noisy Willington can be overnight if there's a lot of freight traffic on the move on the railway, and there was a lot of freight traffic. I suppose we should be glad that the recession hasn't bitten so deeply that there's still some movement, but on a hot sticky night it was a bit hard. On our way this morning, we noticed much quieter moorings out in the country, especially near Bridge 25, so we may well use those next time.
Never mind, today was mostly fine, though we've had the odd shower this afternoon, and after watering, we chugged cheerfully enough through the odd places on the border between Derbyshire and Staffs. It always seems strange to think that when you cross the River Dove, you are entering the West Midlands, but there you go.
We got to Shobnall before ten, and popped into the chandlery to get some oil and a couple of filters ready for the 7,000 hours service (at which we are changing the fuel filter as well as doing the usual oil stuff.) I asked about getting a replacement drive belt for the engine alternator, but even after nipping back to the boat to check the code number, they didn't have one.
No matter, they were very happy to order one for me, so we'll pick it up next time we're in Burton.
Then I brewed a cup of coffee whilst Sheila steered the short run to the Morrison's mooring, and having drunk it, we went to the supermarket to top up the stores. This did mean we succumbed to the temptation to buy a couple of their excellent pasties, as well as a beautiful loaf of bread.
During the lunch break we took a call from Elanor, and offered to stay where we were for the night if she wanted to pop in and see us. No, she said, she wanted to get in with housework tonight, so didn't want the distraction of visiting us.
On that basis, we set off for the Branston Water Park mooring, which is quieter, but less convenient for Elanor. There was a good bit of traffic around now, and we followed a boat up Branston Lock, and were followed in our turn. On the approach to the mooring, in came a text message from Elanor - could she change her mind?
Hey ho, yes of course she can, she'll just have to find us where we've tied on the newly refurbished moorings before the bridge and pub.
A brief excursion found another geocache, then we've hung about on the boat for the rest of the time. Tomorrow we'll go on to Alrewas, I guess.
Monday, 13 July 2009
Wandering on to Willington
13 July
I was going to say "Meandering on..." in recognition of the boat I saw yesterday called Meander which had the explanation "Me and her" underneath the name just in case you were slow on the uptake, but the route here from Swarkestone is not that bendy.
The T-mobile internet connection here is rubbish, though it was fine almost until we got here - must be the difference between Burton and Derby. I'll keep this short, and folks shouldn't be worried if I miss a day now and then for the next couple of weeks, as we know from experience that the connection will be trouble all the time we're near the home of bitter beer.
It was a very pleasant run on an idyllic summer's morning – lots of fluffy cloud around, but it only got seriously wet this afternoon, whilst we were out geocaching. Braidbar 42, Shiraz is here too, and we've had a couple of natters with them already.
We found three out of four caches we looked for, so not bad, but still frustrating to miss one.
Mr Millin: thank you for your comment yesterday, and I'm sorry I've not posted anything on the Building Sanity Again blog recently, but that's because there's not a lot going to happen until we meet Peter Mason again, probably at the end of this month or in early August. I'll maybe do a brief bit about the Megapulse discussion we've just had on the canals list when I next have a decent connection.
Meantime, demands like that from someone who has to get someone else to post his pictures of his own build is really a classic piece of chutzpah even by your standards. The fact that you've run out of design ideas for Phoenix is not my problem.
(For everyone else, you can tell Roger and I are good mates. Can't you? Hope so anyway, cause it's true.)
Tomorrow, on to Burton, and then probably on through either to the Morrison's mooring or Branston Water Park, see how we feel.
I was going to say "Meandering on..." in recognition of the boat I saw yesterday called Meander which had the explanation "Me and her" underneath the name just in case you were slow on the uptake, but the route here from Swarkestone is not that bendy.
The T-mobile internet connection here is rubbish, though it was fine almost until we got here - must be the difference between Burton and Derby. I'll keep this short, and folks shouldn't be worried if I miss a day now and then for the next couple of weeks, as we know from experience that the connection will be trouble all the time we're near the home of bitter beer.
It was a very pleasant run on an idyllic summer's morning – lots of fluffy cloud around, but it only got seriously wet this afternoon, whilst we were out geocaching. Braidbar 42, Shiraz is here too, and we've had a couple of natters with them already.
We found three out of four caches we looked for, so not bad, but still frustrating to miss one.
Mr Millin: thank you for your comment yesterday, and I'm sorry I've not posted anything on the Building Sanity Again blog recently, but that's because there's not a lot going to happen until we meet Peter Mason again, probably at the end of this month or in early August. I'll maybe do a brief bit about the Megapulse discussion we've just had on the canals list when I next have a decent connection.
Meantime, demands like that from someone who has to get someone else to post his pictures of his own build is really a classic piece of chutzpah even by your standards. The fact that you've run out of design ideas for Phoenix is not my problem.
(For everyone else, you can tell Roger and I are good mates. Can't you? Hope so anyway, cause it's true.)
Tomorrow, on to Burton, and then probably on through either to the Morrison's mooring or Branston Water Park, see how we feel.
Labels:
Willington
Sunday, 12 July 2009
Back on the canals
12 July
It's been over a month since we were last on the main canal system, since we came through Leicester, in fact. This morning we left Sawley on a day that looked threatening, but in fact improved substantially as it went on.
Sheila had soon steered Sanity through the open Sawley Flood Lock, where the water levels were now well down, below the flood marker strip all together. It's always longer than we remember, the final length of the Trent from there to Derwent Mouth, but it was soon navigated, and we approached the three way junction: unnavigable Derwent to the right, final spur of the navigable Trent to the left, and the amazingly narrow looking Trent and Mersey Canal straight ahead.
Soon we arrived at Derwent Mouth Lock, and worked up off the river level onto the cut that leads to Shardlow. It's good to see that they have reopened the mooring on the offside by the pubs. For a while, there was this ridiculous belief on BW's part that erecting a low fence, to stop over enthusiastic customers of those establishments from wandering off the edge, meant that it was no longer safe for boats to tie there.
Since Shardlow is not well provided with mooring, and since it is an enduringly popular spot to stop (deservedly so) this was an especially daft decision. No matter, as I say, things have been sorted out, and you can now tie on that section for 48 hours.
We were joined in Shardlow Lock by one of the many Canaltimes we've seen about all day, Sawley being one of their major bases. This crew was an expert example of the breed, in their seventh year of boating with the company, so were just as skilled in their boat handling as the majority of privateers that we meet.
We chugged gently on, through Aston and Weston Locks, swapping partners between them as we went. It's a bit confusing for ageing continuous cruisers like ourselves that there are two Astons and two Westons on the T&M, one pair in Staffs and these ones in Derbyshire. It's hard enough to keep track of where we found what feature of the system, without there being places not too far apart called the exact same thing.
We've now arrived at Swarkestone, and managed to find a space on the visitor moorings above the lock, though it's very busy here. There are some towpath moorings just the other side of the narrows, so we wouldn't have been too inconvenienced if we'd had to go on just a little further.
We've spent the afternoon in a variety of improving activities.
First we went for a walk along the towpath and found a simple geocache.
Then I loafed and dozed whilst Sheila hunted about on the net, filling in all the answers we couldn't do in yesterday's Independent giant general knowledge crossword.
Finally, I cut Sheila's hair again. I'm beginning to get the hang of it, so that it doesn't just look as if she'd had an alarmimg encounter with a reaping machine, but I've got some way to go before I can look at it with any sense of achievement. It didn't help that we had a misunderstanding about just how much of her external pinna could be described as the "earlobe", but, fortunately, her hair grows quite quickly.
Tomorrow, we have a short run to Willington, and the chance to look for more caches, before heading into the great metropolis of Burton on Trent once more.
It's been over a month since we were last on the main canal system, since we came through Leicester, in fact. This morning we left Sawley on a day that looked threatening, but in fact improved substantially as it went on.
Sheila had soon steered Sanity through the open Sawley Flood Lock, where the water levels were now well down, below the flood marker strip all together. It's always longer than we remember, the final length of the Trent from there to Derwent Mouth, but it was soon navigated, and we approached the three way junction: unnavigable Derwent to the right, final spur of the navigable Trent to the left, and the amazingly narrow looking Trent and Mersey Canal straight ahead.
Soon we arrived at Derwent Mouth Lock, and worked up off the river level onto the cut that leads to Shardlow. It's good to see that they have reopened the mooring on the offside by the pubs. For a while, there was this ridiculous belief on BW's part that erecting a low fence, to stop over enthusiastic customers of those establishments from wandering off the edge, meant that it was no longer safe for boats to tie there.
Since Shardlow is not well provided with mooring, and since it is an enduringly popular spot to stop (deservedly so) this was an especially daft decision. No matter, as I say, things have been sorted out, and you can now tie on that section for 48 hours.
We were joined in Shardlow Lock by one of the many Canaltimes we've seen about all day, Sawley being one of their major bases. This crew was an expert example of the breed, in their seventh year of boating with the company, so were just as skilled in their boat handling as the majority of privateers that we meet.
We chugged gently on, through Aston and Weston Locks, swapping partners between them as we went. It's a bit confusing for ageing continuous cruisers like ourselves that there are two Astons and two Westons on the T&M, one pair in Staffs and these ones in Derbyshire. It's hard enough to keep track of where we found what feature of the system, without there being places not too far apart called the exact same thing.
We've now arrived at Swarkestone, and managed to find a space on the visitor moorings above the lock, though it's very busy here. There are some towpath moorings just the other side of the narrows, so we wouldn't have been too inconvenienced if we'd had to go on just a little further.
We've spent the afternoon in a variety of improving activities.
First we went for a walk along the towpath and found a simple geocache.
Then I loafed and dozed whilst Sheila hunted about on the net, filling in all the answers we couldn't do in yesterday's Independent giant general knowledge crossword.
Finally, I cut Sheila's hair again. I'm beginning to get the hang of it, so that it doesn't just look as if she'd had an alarmimg encounter with a reaping machine, but I've got some way to go before I can look at it with any sense of achievement. It didn't help that we had a misunderstanding about just how much of her external pinna could be described as the "earlobe", but, fortunately, her hair grows quite quickly.
Tomorrow, we have a short run to Willington, and the chance to look for more caches, before heading into the great metropolis of Burton on Trent once more.
Labels:
Swarkestone
Saturday, 11 July 2009
Nearly off the Trent
11th July
We thought we'd made a mistake stopping at Holme Lock last night, as the evening air was rent by the sound of someone setting up a pop festival, probably on the Racecourse. Not that I am biased or anything, but it was a case of demonstrating that volume and a random approach to what note to play next are not a substitute for talent and creativity. It all shut down fairly early, however – we've since been told that there's a do on in Nottingham today, so I think my first guess was right, that what we heard were the engineers setting up, and using stray demo tapes to do it.
Today we made a prompt start after a good night's sleep, getting away before eight. A steady chug up the river brought us to Meadow Lane Lock. As Sheila was setting it, the Shakespeare Classic Line boat Romeo came off the County Hall moorings just up river and joined us in the lock.
They were not, however, carrying on beyond Castle Lock, as they were meeting further crew there, so we went on ahead without them. At Castle Lock, a guy off Eight Lords appeared above it, and as soon as Sheila had more or less closed the bottom gates, whipped up the offside paddle with his long throw windlass.
Sheila shouted to say that the nearside paddle would have been better, as that would hold Sanity against the wall, and things degenerated into one of those distressing arguments about locking technique. He retreated to his boat in a sulk, and we finished working up and left him to it.
We later saw the boat below Beeston Lock, with him still muttering about not helping anyone ever again. He must have gone down Castle, winded, and passed us whilst we were tied at the Sainsbury's mooring. He was now planning to wind again, presumably to return to wherever he ties.
I was strongly reminded of Steve Haywood's piece in Canal Boat the other month, about the problems of dealing with people who live on a boat, but are not in any other sense boaters. From this guy's close conversation with another bloke at Beeston who was already well off his head on strong lager at eleven in the morning, it seems likely that he's part of that community that's using the cut as a cheap living space, but not part of it in any other way. He probably only ever works that one lock.
Ho hum, at least we can just move on and leave the bad feelings behind us.
Apart from this run in, we've had a good day, getting in a goodly supply of stores at Sainsbury's, and making a pleasant run up river to Sawley, where we've tied in front of fellow blogger Linda on Kanbedun Again
Sawley is very busy today, it being Saturday, but we were able to get a mooring on the visitor moorings with not too much trouble. In addition to the hire boat Romeo we've also seen our first Ownerships boat for a month, and of course no end of Canaltimes here by their base.
Tomorrow we'll carry on up the very short final stretch of river to Derwent mouth, and go on to Swarkestone for the night.
We thought we'd made a mistake stopping at Holme Lock last night, as the evening air was rent by the sound of someone setting up a pop festival, probably on the Racecourse. Not that I am biased or anything, but it was a case of demonstrating that volume and a random approach to what note to play next are not a substitute for talent and creativity. It all shut down fairly early, however – we've since been told that there's a do on in Nottingham today, so I think my first guess was right, that what we heard were the engineers setting up, and using stray demo tapes to do it.
Today we made a prompt start after a good night's sleep, getting away before eight. A steady chug up the river brought us to Meadow Lane Lock. As Sheila was setting it, the Shakespeare Classic Line boat Romeo came off the County Hall moorings just up river and joined us in the lock.
They were not, however, carrying on beyond Castle Lock, as they were meeting further crew there, so we went on ahead without them. At Castle Lock, a guy off Eight Lords appeared above it, and as soon as Sheila had more or less closed the bottom gates, whipped up the offside paddle with his long throw windlass.
Sheila shouted to say that the nearside paddle would have been better, as that would hold Sanity against the wall, and things degenerated into one of those distressing arguments about locking technique. He retreated to his boat in a sulk, and we finished working up and left him to it.
We later saw the boat below Beeston Lock, with him still muttering about not helping anyone ever again. He must have gone down Castle, winded, and passed us whilst we were tied at the Sainsbury's mooring. He was now planning to wind again, presumably to return to wherever he ties.
I was strongly reminded of Steve Haywood's piece in Canal Boat the other month, about the problems of dealing with people who live on a boat, but are not in any other sense boaters. From this guy's close conversation with another bloke at Beeston who was already well off his head on strong lager at eleven in the morning, it seems likely that he's part of that community that's using the cut as a cheap living space, but not part of it in any other way. He probably only ever works that one lock.
Ho hum, at least we can just move on and leave the bad feelings behind us.
Apart from this run in, we've had a good day, getting in a goodly supply of stores at Sainsbury's, and making a pleasant run up river to Sawley, where we've tied in front of fellow blogger Linda on Kanbedun Again
Sawley is very busy today, it being Saturday, but we were able to get a mooring on the visitor moorings with not too much trouble. In addition to the hire boat Romeo we've also seen our first Ownerships boat for a month, and of course no end of Canaltimes here by their base.
Tomorrow we'll carry on up the very short final stretch of river to Derwent mouth, and go on to Swarkestone for the night.
Labels:
Sawley
Friday, 10 July 2009
Heading for Holme
10th July
We'd planned, as I said last night, to split the difference between Newark and Nottingham by stopping at Gunthorpe, but in the event, we've done a bit more than that...
After a lazy start, and a quick paper buying trip to Waitrose, we boated gently up to Town Lock for nine, thinking that that was when its lockie came on duty. Esmeralda followed us up, working on the same assumption. In fact, he doesn't start until nine thirty it seems, so we hung around on the wall opposite the Castle for a bit, then Esmeralda's crew said they'd work the lock themselves.
Naturally, as soon as we'd all moved closer to the lock, the lockie appeared and started working it for us. Come to think of it, the exact same thing happened last time, four years ago.
We then had an uneventful run up a full but not ferocious river, through Hazleford and Gunthorpe locks. The weather was cold enough that I put the central heating on for a bit, thereby ensuring that the sun came out.
By now it was after lunch, and we thought that it would be better all round to carry on and get the big river stuff over with. Accordingly, we left Esmeralda watering at Gunthorpe, and plodded on up river, making around four mph over the ground with the engine turning over at 1300 rpm.
The weather continued to improve, but the river flow got faster as we got higher up, so that it was after half three by the time we were at Holme Lock, just short of Nottingham, and next to the National Watersport Centre.
It takes a while to pen up Holme as it's very deep; the canoe slalom course runs down past it, so a decent fall is needed. Thinking that a) it would be good to stop after over six hours boating and b) that the centre of Nottingham might not be the most peaceful mooring on the system on a Friday night, we've tied above the lock on the visitor moorings there.
We'll carry on up the last short stretch of river to Meadow Lane Lock in the morning, shop at Sainsbury's on our way through, and go on to Sawley for tomorrow night.
We'd planned, as I said last night, to split the difference between Newark and Nottingham by stopping at Gunthorpe, but in the event, we've done a bit more than that...
After a lazy start, and a quick paper buying trip to Waitrose, we boated gently up to Town Lock for nine, thinking that that was when its lockie came on duty. Esmeralda followed us up, working on the same assumption. In fact, he doesn't start until nine thirty it seems, so we hung around on the wall opposite the Castle for a bit, then Esmeralda's crew said they'd work the lock themselves.
Naturally, as soon as we'd all moved closer to the lock, the lockie appeared and started working it for us. Come to think of it, the exact same thing happened last time, four years ago.
We then had an uneventful run up a full but not ferocious river, through Hazleford and Gunthorpe locks. The weather was cold enough that I put the central heating on for a bit, thereby ensuring that the sun came out.
By now it was after lunch, and we thought that it would be better all round to carry on and get the big river stuff over with. Accordingly, we left Esmeralda watering at Gunthorpe, and plodded on up river, making around four mph over the ground with the engine turning over at 1300 rpm.
The weather continued to improve, but the river flow got faster as we got higher up, so that it was after half three by the time we were at Holme Lock, just short of Nottingham, and next to the National Watersport Centre.
It takes a while to pen up Holme as it's very deep; the canoe slalom course runs down past it, so a decent fall is needed. Thinking that a) it would be good to stop after over six hours boating and b) that the centre of Nottingham might not be the most peaceful mooring on the system on a Friday night, we've tied above the lock on the visitor moorings there.
We'll carry on up the last short stretch of river to Meadow Lane Lock in the morning, shop at Sainsbury's on our way through, and go on to Sawley for tomorrow night.
Labels:
Holme
Thursday, 9 July 2009
Getting things done at Newark
9th July
It's been a day of rest, and a day to get things done. We've spent it on the pontoon at Newark, and after a good night's sleep, began by sending yet another stroppy email to Birmingham Midshires about the fact that I've not been able to access my internet saver account for over a month now. We'd thought it was settled once, when we actually got a letter of apology from a manager, but they still hadn't sent the magic "access token" needed to regain the power to operate the account.
Having launched this missile, we went to Waitrose for the second time, only to discover that they didn't open until half eight, so a little hanging about was required. We also popped into the BW office here, and bought an electricity card, so that we could hook up to the power supply post. It cost £5.08 for a 12 credit card, each credit being worth 5 kWh. So far we've used just the first credit, so that's around 42 pence, including doing a wash load, rather than run the engine for around three hours and burning between three and four litres of diesel.
It's also good for the batteries to have a long slow charge from time to time to reduce sulphation of the plates.
On our return to Sanity, we checked the email to discover, hurrah hurrah, the access token had magically arrived. It's amazing what copying your complaints to the Financial Ombudsman will do.
Off we went again, this time into town, where we visited a string of shops, Newark being fairly comprehensively provided with most of the stores you'd expect, including a Julian Graves and a Marks and Sparks.
Back to the boat for coffee, and Sheila spent some time online, closing the BM account now that we have access to it again, and opening an Egg savers account instead, Egg currently offering one of the better deals for an instant access internet account.
It came on to rain for most of the rest of the day (I think the official phrase is "risk of showers, some heavy and prolonged") so we've not done a lot else, bar read the papers and magazines, do bits and bobs on the laptop and watch a variety of boats come and go.
This included a huge, Tjalk style Dutch Barge called Howling Gale.
It's going to be a quiet evening again, then the plan is to go on upriver to maybe Gunthorpe tomorrow, and Nottingham the day after.
It's been a day of rest, and a day to get things done. We've spent it on the pontoon at Newark, and after a good night's sleep, began by sending yet another stroppy email to Birmingham Midshires about the fact that I've not been able to access my internet saver account for over a month now. We'd thought it was settled once, when we actually got a letter of apology from a manager, but they still hadn't sent the magic "access token" needed to regain the power to operate the account.
Having launched this missile, we went to Waitrose for the second time, only to discover that they didn't open until half eight, so a little hanging about was required. We also popped into the BW office here, and bought an electricity card, so that we could hook up to the power supply post. It cost £5.08 for a 12 credit card, each credit being worth 5 kWh. So far we've used just the first credit, so that's around 42 pence, including doing a wash load, rather than run the engine for around three hours and burning between three and four litres of diesel.
It's also good for the batteries to have a long slow charge from time to time to reduce sulphation of the plates.
On our return to Sanity, we checked the email to discover, hurrah hurrah, the access token had magically arrived. It's amazing what copying your complaints to the Financial Ombudsman will do.
Off we went again, this time into town, where we visited a string of shops, Newark being fairly comprehensively provided with most of the stores you'd expect, including a Julian Graves and a Marks and Sparks.
Back to the boat for coffee, and Sheila spent some time online, closing the BM account now that we have access to it again, and opening an Egg savers account instead, Egg currently offering one of the better deals for an instant access internet account.
It came on to rain for most of the rest of the day (I think the official phrase is "risk of showers, some heavy and prolonged") so we've not done a lot else, bar read the papers and magazines, do bits and bobs on the laptop and watch a variety of boats come and go.
This included a huge, Tjalk style Dutch Barge called Howling Gale.
It's going to be a quiet evening again, then the plan is to go on upriver to maybe Gunthorpe tomorrow, and Nottingham the day after.
Labels:
Newark
Wednesday, 8 July 2009
Relief at Newark
8th July
Definitely a quickie this time, as I'm a bit weary.
There's no doubt about it, long tidal passages are stressful for this crew, and the Trent between Torksey and Newark is well up the list. It's the concern (only slightly exaggerated) about taking a bend too sharply and running aground, in addition to the usual worries about the consequences of engine failure, this time thrown into relief by yesterday's adventure with the drive belt.
We locked down at 0830, and made an uneventful trip to Cromwell Lock, enlivened though it was by Little Shuva shuving an empty gravel pan past us just as we got to Fledborough Viaduct, and a full barge coming the other way a bit higher up. In the event, neither gave us any bother, passing without difficulty.
It took a deal longer to come back up, despite having the flood tide behind us for the first couple of hours; five and a half hours as against four going down, but once above the effective range of the tide, Sanity was working hard to stem the flow against us.
Cathy and the boys came to see us on arrival - we had to moor on the wall at first, but later moved across to the pontoon.
We've done a first trip to Waitrose (Chinese banquet for two tonight), and we'll have a leisurely shop in town tomorrow.
Oh, one last wildlife note – there were a lot of Oyster Catchers about today.
Definitely a quickie this time, as I'm a bit weary.
There's no doubt about it, long tidal passages are stressful for this crew, and the Trent between Torksey and Newark is well up the list. It's the concern (only slightly exaggerated) about taking a bend too sharply and running aground, in addition to the usual worries about the consequences of engine failure, this time thrown into relief by yesterday's adventure with the drive belt.
We locked down at 0830, and made an uneventful trip to Cromwell Lock, enlivened though it was by Little Shuva shuving an empty gravel pan past us just as we got to Fledborough Viaduct, and a full barge coming the other way a bit higher up. In the event, neither gave us any bother, passing without difficulty.
It took a deal longer to come back up, despite having the flood tide behind us for the first couple of hours; five and a half hours as against four going down, but once above the effective range of the tide, Sanity was working hard to stem the flow against us.
Cathy and the boys came to see us on arrival - we had to moor on the wall at first, but later moved across to the pontoon.
We've done a first trip to Waitrose (Chinese banquet for two tonight), and we'll have a leisurely shop in town tomorrow.
Oh, one last wildlife note – there were a lot of Oyster Catchers about today.
Labels:
Newark
Tuesday, 7 July 2009
and so to Torksey
7th July
It was another good evening last night. I did a chicken tagine with cous-cous for dinner, and we sat about and nattered until eleven again.
This morning I walked into the village and shopped at the Mills newsagent and the greengrocers. Despite John's advice last night, I didn't find the Co-op. Apparently you have to go well past the chip shop and the village hall, and on round the corner to get to it.
Back at the moorings, we had a merry time winding Waimaru. The canal looked just about wide enough, but our first attempt ended with her stuck across the cut needing maybe another two foot to get round.
I reckoned that it was just that bit wider further up, so we all hauled on various ropes and moved along a bit, and sure enough, round she went.
The crew of a cruiser tied nearby were a bit mystified, and a bit anxious I think. They didn't seem to appreciate my explanation that I thought that the morning was a bit quiet and that we wanted to do something to liven it up.
Be that as it may, we said our farewells to John and Nev and set off for the routine plod to Torksey. A bit more than half way there, weird noises came from the engine. At first I thought it was something on the prop, and chucked back, but that didn't help.
Investigating under the engine boards showed the bad news; the engine alternator belt had jumped its pulleys and was rattling around. Even as I watched, the rev counter started to slow as the alternator ran down (the tacho is driven electronically from a winding on the alternator), and the warning light and siren came on to say that the start battery was no longer being charged.
I stopped the engine, and we coasted into the side. Sheila got off the bow, having first done what she could with the boat hook to clear away the rampant nettles on the bank, and took the centreline.
I got the engine boards up, and found that the belt had partly delaminated, so that it was no longer taut, and had a bit missing underneath, so it had come off the water pump pulley,which is the highest one it goes round. We had a spare, but that belt is the innermost of the three on the engine, and there was nothing for it but to take them all off.
This task was made more exciting by the fact that the engine was very hot, of course, but eventually it was done, and the new belt persuaded into place. Then there was just the fun of tensioning them all. The new belt was no problem, and the Travelpower belt is an old friend and soon co-operated, but the domestic alternator was its usual awkward self.
Meantime, it started to rain.
The last belt was finally tightened up, and the engine restarted. Sheila scrambled back on board, and took over the helm whilst I sorted tools away, tidied up and got washed. A check under the boards showed everything spinning round just as it should.
I then abandoned Sheila to her fate as it really started to rain, a torrential downpour. She was wearing a waterproof top and shorts, and got inside the back doors and just had to tough it out. On arrival at the Torksey visitor moorings, I took over the helm in the downpour, and Sheila hopped off onto the landing to take the lines.
After making all secure, we retreated below to dry off and (in Sheila's case) change shorts. At least bare skin is easier to dry than trousers, and it's just as well all this happened today, rather than somewhere on the tidal Trent tomorrow.
We're running a washload as I type, so as to give the engine some work to do and to check that all is hunky dory on the engine again.
I've been and spoken to the lockie just to cross check timings. The optimum departure for us is 0850, so we'll be in position waiting to pen down at half eight tomorrow. Newark here we come.
It was another good evening last night. I did a chicken tagine with cous-cous for dinner, and we sat about and nattered until eleven again.
This morning I walked into the village and shopped at the Mills newsagent and the greengrocers. Despite John's advice last night, I didn't find the Co-op. Apparently you have to go well past the chip shop and the village hall, and on round the corner to get to it.
Back at the moorings, we had a merry time winding Waimaru. The canal looked just about wide enough, but our first attempt ended with her stuck across the cut needing maybe another two foot to get round.
I reckoned that it was just that bit wider further up, so we all hauled on various ropes and moved along a bit, and sure enough, round she went.
The crew of a cruiser tied nearby were a bit mystified, and a bit anxious I think. They didn't seem to appreciate my explanation that I thought that the morning was a bit quiet and that we wanted to do something to liven it up.
Be that as it may, we said our farewells to John and Nev and set off for the routine plod to Torksey. A bit more than half way there, weird noises came from the engine. At first I thought it was something on the prop, and chucked back, but that didn't help.
Investigating under the engine boards showed the bad news; the engine alternator belt had jumped its pulleys and was rattling around. Even as I watched, the rev counter started to slow as the alternator ran down (the tacho is driven electronically from a winding on the alternator), and the warning light and siren came on to say that the start battery was no longer being charged.
I stopped the engine, and we coasted into the side. Sheila got off the bow, having first done what she could with the boat hook to clear away the rampant nettles on the bank, and took the centreline.
I got the engine boards up, and found that the belt had partly delaminated, so that it was no longer taut, and had a bit missing underneath, so it had come off the water pump pulley,which is the highest one it goes round. We had a spare, but that belt is the innermost of the three on the engine, and there was nothing for it but to take them all off.
This task was made more exciting by the fact that the engine was very hot, of course, but eventually it was done, and the new belt persuaded into place. Then there was just the fun of tensioning them all. The new belt was no problem, and the Travelpower belt is an old friend and soon co-operated, but the domestic alternator was its usual awkward self.
Meantime, it started to rain.
The last belt was finally tightened up, and the engine restarted. Sheila scrambled back on board, and took over the helm whilst I sorted tools away, tidied up and got washed. A check under the boards showed everything spinning round just as it should.
I then abandoned Sheila to her fate as it really started to rain, a torrential downpour. She was wearing a waterproof top and shorts, and got inside the back doors and just had to tough it out. On arrival at the Torksey visitor moorings, I took over the helm in the downpour, and Sheila hopped off onto the landing to take the lines.
After making all secure, we retreated below to dry off and (in Sheila's case) change shorts. At least bare skin is easier to dry than trousers, and it's just as well all this happened today, rather than somewhere on the tidal Trent tomorrow.
We're running a washload as I type, so as to give the engine some work to do and to check that all is hunky dory on the engine again.
I've been and spoken to the lockie just to cross check timings. The optimum departure for us is 0850, so we'll be in position waiting to pen down at half eight tomorrow. Newark here we come.
Monday, 6 July 2009
Farewell to the Witham
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Labels:
Saxilby
Sunday, 5 July 2009
A day at the Airshow, and then on to Lincoln
4th & 5th July
We left the boat on Friday afternoon, after charging the batteries as full as we could in the time available. After a very pleasant evening at Boothby Graffoe, in the company of Cathy and Cathy's mother and stepfather, Jane and Tom, we had a decent night's sleep, it having cooled down a shade.
In the morning, Tom and I went to Waddington Airshow, and had a real boy's day looking at the static displays and then watching the flying from the families enclosure. (Graeme is is out of the country at the moment.)
I had the chance of a brief chat with one of Graeme's colleagues, who had flown with him just a few days before. Meanwhile, the women and kids visited a playground and Sheila got some shopping in. It's not often that we have such a gender stereotyped day, but it's fun once in a while.
At the end of the afternoon, Jane and Tom kindly ran us back to Bardney Bridge, and we walked back to the boat above Bardney Lock. I'd been able to collect the spare part for the chair, which had been delivered to Graeme and Cathy's, but refrained from doing anything with it until today. In fact, we rather collapsed in the sunshine on the pontoon, drinking cold beers and eating a tuna salad.
Wildlife stories:
During Friday afternoon, as I was showering, a swallow flew in at the side hatch, round the saloon and out of the hatch again. I was left wondering what the strange noises were, but it turned out to be Sheila expressing her surprise at this event.
During yesterday afternoon, a pike took a fish just below the side hatch. There was a great swirling of water, followed by a lot of scales and some blood drifting about. Some junior pike were seen swimming around, so presumably they'd been getting a hunting lesson from the adult.
Walking back along the path to the boat, a guy sitting on the Bardney Bridge pontoon exclaimed at the sight of the seat part under my arm, which was comprehensively wrapped in bubble wrap and looked very white in the sunlight.
"I thought you were carrying a swan!" he said.
Today we had a fairly relaxed start, and Sheila boated up to Stamp End Lock. I finally got to unpack the chair bit, which is, happily, the right one. The only problem I have is that the swivel is attached to the underside of the bit I'm replacing with a tapered interference fit, and after five years of holding my weight up, it's very interfered with indeed.
I've tried some strategies involving propping it on two big hammers and hitting it with a smaller one, but it's not going to give in easily. What I really need is a small hub puller, to press the taper out of the holes, but that may well have to wait until we're up at Poynton, unless anyone at the IWA National happens to have one with them.
(Note to Bungle, Welsh Phil or other suitable wrgies likely to be at Redhill: the taper's around 20 mm dia, and is stuck through a bracket 65 mm by 50 mm, so I need a puller to fit those dimensions ;-} )
Following some email and phone calls, Waimaru has rendezvoused with us here in Lincoln, so we'll be eating with them tonight, and hearing their tales of travel to Liverpool and over the Leeds and Liverpool to the waters of Yorkshire.
I've already repaired their bow line with a short splice, after it was burnt through by some kids in Wigan overnight.
We left the boat on Friday afternoon, after charging the batteries as full as we could in the time available. After a very pleasant evening at Boothby Graffoe, in the company of Cathy and Cathy's mother and stepfather, Jane and Tom, we had a decent night's sleep, it having cooled down a shade.
In the morning, Tom and I went to Waddington Airshow, and had a real boy's day looking at the static displays and then watching the flying from the families enclosure. (Graeme is is out of the country at the moment.)
I had the chance of a brief chat with one of Graeme's colleagues, who had flown with him just a few days before. Meanwhile, the women and kids visited a playground and Sheila got some shopping in. It's not often that we have such a gender stereotyped day, but it's fun once in a while.
At the end of the afternoon, Jane and Tom kindly ran us back to Bardney Bridge, and we walked back to the boat above Bardney Lock. I'd been able to collect the spare part for the chair, which had been delivered to Graeme and Cathy's, but refrained from doing anything with it until today. In fact, we rather collapsed in the sunshine on the pontoon, drinking cold beers and eating a tuna salad.
Wildlife stories:
During Friday afternoon, as I was showering, a swallow flew in at the side hatch, round the saloon and out of the hatch again. I was left wondering what the strange noises were, but it turned out to be Sheila expressing her surprise at this event.
During yesterday afternoon, a pike took a fish just below the side hatch. There was a great swirling of water, followed by a lot of scales and some blood drifting about. Some junior pike were seen swimming around, so presumably they'd been getting a hunting lesson from the adult.
Walking back along the path to the boat, a guy sitting on the Bardney Bridge pontoon exclaimed at the sight of the seat part under my arm, which was comprehensively wrapped in bubble wrap and looked very white in the sunlight.
"I thought you were carrying a swan!" he said.
Today we had a fairly relaxed start, and Sheila boated up to Stamp End Lock. I finally got to unpack the chair bit, which is, happily, the right one. The only problem I have is that the swivel is attached to the underside of the bit I'm replacing with a tapered interference fit, and after five years of holding my weight up, it's very interfered with indeed.
I've tried some strategies involving propping it on two big hammers and hitting it with a smaller one, but it's not going to give in easily. What I really need is a small hub puller, to press the taper out of the holes, but that may well have to wait until we're up at Poynton, unless anyone at the IWA National happens to have one with them.
(Note to Bungle, Welsh Phil or other suitable wrgies likely to be at Redhill: the taper's around 20 mm dia, and is stuck through a bracket 65 mm by 50 mm, so I need a puller to fit those dimensions ;-} )
Following some email and phone calls, Waimaru has rendezvoused with us here in Lincoln, so we'll be eating with them tonight, and hearing their tales of travel to Liverpool and over the Leeds and Liverpool to the waters of Yorkshire.
I've already repaired their bow line with a short splice, after it was burnt through by some kids in Wigan overnight.
Labels:
Bardney Lock,
Lincoln
Friday, 3 July 2009
and so to Bardney
3 July
After another hot and sticky night, despite leaving the slide partly open as well as the Houdini, we were up and about early, it being a relief to get up and wash in cool water.
Not long after half seven, we set off to carry on up river. I was steering, as Sheila reckoned I'd had only a short spell yesterday. The time passed pleasantly enough, though again there wasn't a lot in the way of novel wild life to look at, bar an owl sat on a post as we approached Bardney Bridge.
It wasn't a Barn Owl this time, and it was unlikely to be a Tawny, as they are most reluctant to come out in daylight, so we reckon it must have been a Little Owl again. You can tell we're getting blasé about our birding, when parades of Great Crested Grebe with young in tow just lead to casual, 'Oh look, there's another one' type remarks.
A minor source of anxiety was the non-performance of the email connection. Sheila had been trying to send an email about our mooring at the IWA National. Elanor has got our mooring pack for us, but it doesn't confirm that we've got one of the worker's moorings, and we just need the reassurance that we're not going to spend 3 weeks having to come back to the boat to run the engine every day.
So, of course, it wouldn't send. By this time, I'd been steering for an hour, so the excuse to hand over and see what was going on was welcome. The connection seemed fine, it was just the Dataflame access that didn't seem to be working. In the end I abandoned it, deciding to wait until we were tied up before exploring it further or ringing the support line.
Working up Bardney Lock was no trouble – we're really getting used to its little ways – and we were soon watering whilst a washload finished. A check on the email showed that it had come back, so whatever the problem was, Dataflame must have got onto it. I continue to be impressed with them as an ISP.
We've tied on the long visitor mooring pontoon above Bardney Lock. There's not a lot here, though it's unusual in that it has card operated shoreline posts. Unfortunately, our very ancient BW card wasn't recognised by the reader. I'm not surprised particularly, it's one we've had for about three years, and they've changed the rules about card use at least twice in that time.
Tomorrow, I'm off to the Waddington Airshow, then on Sunday we'll set off again for Lincoln, Newark, Nottingham and Burton on Trent, a significant journey in the terms of the continuous cruising guidelines, I hope.
After another hot and sticky night, despite leaving the slide partly open as well as the Houdini, we were up and about early, it being a relief to get up and wash in cool water.
Not long after half seven, we set off to carry on up river. I was steering, as Sheila reckoned I'd had only a short spell yesterday. The time passed pleasantly enough, though again there wasn't a lot in the way of novel wild life to look at, bar an owl sat on a post as we approached Bardney Bridge.
It wasn't a Barn Owl this time, and it was unlikely to be a Tawny, as they are most reluctant to come out in daylight, so we reckon it must have been a Little Owl again. You can tell we're getting blasé about our birding, when parades of Great Crested Grebe with young in tow just lead to casual, 'Oh look, there's another one' type remarks.
A minor source of anxiety was the non-performance of the email connection. Sheila had been trying to send an email about our mooring at the IWA National. Elanor has got our mooring pack for us, but it doesn't confirm that we've got one of the worker's moorings, and we just need the reassurance that we're not going to spend 3 weeks having to come back to the boat to run the engine every day.
So, of course, it wouldn't send. By this time, I'd been steering for an hour, so the excuse to hand over and see what was going on was welcome. The connection seemed fine, it was just the Dataflame access that didn't seem to be working. In the end I abandoned it, deciding to wait until we were tied up before exploring it further or ringing the support line.
Working up Bardney Lock was no trouble – we're really getting used to its little ways – and we were soon watering whilst a washload finished. A check on the email showed that it had come back, so whatever the problem was, Dataflame must have got onto it. I continue to be impressed with them as an ISP.
We've tied on the long visitor mooring pontoon above Bardney Lock. There's not a lot here, though it's unusual in that it has card operated shoreline posts. Unfortunately, our very ancient BW card wasn't recognised by the reader. I'm not surprised particularly, it's one we've had for about three years, and they've changed the rules about card use at least twice in that time.
Tomorrow, I'm off to the Waddington Airshow, then on Sunday we'll set off again for Lincoln, Newark, Nottingham and Burton on Trent, a significant journey in the terms of the continuous cruising guidelines, I hope.
Labels:
Bardney Lock
Thursday, 2 July 2009
A hot run to Kirkstead Bridge
2 July
We had a quiet night last night, as expected, once the aircraft had stopped zooming in and out of Coningsby. I'd loaded some new books onto the Sony Reader, but otherwise it was a "do not much in the heat" sort of evening.
This morning, I was awake before Sheila, after we'd both had another heat disturbed night, and started trying to read one of the new books. The reader promptly froze, and only restarted after a bit of sulking. I had the same response with one of the other books, so left it until I could seek advice on the MobileRead forum.
I took an hour to run up to Kirkstead Bridge, though the wildlife watching wasn't a patch on yesterday's. We tied here around half ten, and after a restorative glass of squash, I walked the mile into Woodhall Spa for a paper and a loaf of bread.
The main entertainment on the way was the sight of a sign advertising ferrets for sale "for work or pet".
Back at the pontoon, things were enlivened by the arrival of the little steam launch Pod's Puffer. We had a good natter to her crew, who then went off to rendezvous with siblings, having first explained the difference between Tattershall and Kirkstead to them over the phone.
However did we manage before the advent of the mobile phone?
They were not long back from the pub when Copper Dragon turned up again, so we had another good natter with them.
It's still very hot, so not much more to report: the Reader is functioning again, after the deletion of the offending books, but I've not got to the bottom of the problem yet.
We had a quiet night last night, as expected, once the aircraft had stopped zooming in and out of Coningsby. I'd loaded some new books onto the Sony Reader, but otherwise it was a "do not much in the heat" sort of evening.
This morning, I was awake before Sheila, after we'd both had another heat disturbed night, and started trying to read one of the new books. The reader promptly froze, and only restarted after a bit of sulking. I had the same response with one of the other books, so left it until I could seek advice on the MobileRead forum.
I took an hour to run up to Kirkstead Bridge, though the wildlife watching wasn't a patch on yesterday's. We tied here around half ten, and after a restorative glass of squash, I walked the mile into Woodhall Spa for a paper and a loaf of bread.
The main entertainment on the way was the sight of a sign advertising ferrets for sale "for work or pet".
Back at the pontoon, things were enlivened by the arrival of the little steam launch Pod's Puffer. We had a good natter to her crew, who then went off to rendezvous with siblings, having first explained the difference between Tattershall and Kirkstead to them over the phone.
However did we manage before the advent of the mobile phone?
They were not long back from the pub when Copper Dragon turned up again, so we had another good natter with them.
It's still very hot, so not much more to report: the Reader is functioning again, after the deletion of the offending books, but I've not got to the bottom of the problem yet.
Labels:
Kirkstead Bridge
Wednesday, 1 July 2009
A bird and plane watching run to Tattershall
1 July
It was another quiet night at Anton's Gowt, apart from the cries of the rowers as they hurtled past the mooring. In one case, a pair stopped for what appeared to be the mother of one of them to come onto the pontoon and give him a pair of sunglasses. Not quite the Steve Redgrave touch, somehow.
I took a bit of time on a slow connection to fill in the questionnaire on the Cheshire Locks project site. This is a well worth while campaign to get the locks between Kidsgrove and Middlewich refurbished and repaired, and needs all the support it can get.
The other interesting thing about Anton's Gowt is that it did have a problem with youths swimming off the moorings. Not necessarily troublesome in itself, except that of course it didn't stop there, and there were soon complaints about drinking, bad language and all the rest.
So they've put up a lot of signage, locked the access to the main pontoon, so that you need a BW key, increased the police patrols in the area, and installed a mosquito buzzer on a pole.
This is one of these fiendish devices that emits a high pitched squeal. Older folk can't hear it, but it discourages youngsters from hanging about.
I'm not sure what I feel about that myself – I'd rather use education and relationship building to reduce bad behaviour, but the combination certainly seems to have done the job in this case.
We made an early start this morning, and Sheila boated gently up to Tattershall, watching for unusual birds as she went. We both did a bit of photography on the way, but the results are going to need a bit of work before I can publish them, I fear. We saw an unusual duck, a lot of the usual suspects, and several barn owls, in at least two cases, flying along with prey in their beaks or claws.
I can also report that the Packet Boat at Belle Isle is definitely open for business, and seemed to be well patronised.
As we got near Tattershall Bridge, the wild life was replaced by low flying aircraft. RAF Coningsby is obviously hosting a fair number of participants for next weekend's show. I've spotted any number of Typhoons, some F15s and lots of a delta winged, single tail finned beast I can't quite identify.
We've had a quiet afternoon, working on some more of the Braidbar quiz, alternately basking in the sun and retreating into the cabin, and anxiously refreshing the BBC website to keep track of Andy Murray's performance in the quarter finals.
Tomorrow we go on to Kirkstead Bridge.
It was another quiet night at Anton's Gowt, apart from the cries of the rowers as they hurtled past the mooring. In one case, a pair stopped for what appeared to be the mother of one of them to come onto the pontoon and give him a pair of sunglasses. Not quite the Steve Redgrave touch, somehow.
I took a bit of time on a slow connection to fill in the questionnaire on the Cheshire Locks project site. This is a well worth while campaign to get the locks between Kidsgrove and Middlewich refurbished and repaired, and needs all the support it can get.
The other interesting thing about Anton's Gowt is that it did have a problem with youths swimming off the moorings. Not necessarily troublesome in itself, except that of course it didn't stop there, and there were soon complaints about drinking, bad language and all the rest.
So they've put up a lot of signage, locked the access to the main pontoon, so that you need a BW key, increased the police patrols in the area, and installed a mosquito buzzer on a pole.
This is one of these fiendish devices that emits a high pitched squeal. Older folk can't hear it, but it discourages youngsters from hanging about.
I'm not sure what I feel about that myself – I'd rather use education and relationship building to reduce bad behaviour, but the combination certainly seems to have done the job in this case.
We made an early start this morning, and Sheila boated gently up to Tattershall, watching for unusual birds as she went. We both did a bit of photography on the way, but the results are going to need a bit of work before I can publish them, I fear. We saw an unusual duck, a lot of the usual suspects, and several barn owls, in at least two cases, flying along with prey in their beaks or claws.
I can also report that the Packet Boat at Belle Isle is definitely open for business, and seemed to be well patronised.
As we got near Tattershall Bridge, the wild life was replaced by low flying aircraft. RAF Coningsby is obviously hosting a fair number of participants for next weekend's show. I've spotted any number of Typhoons, some F15s and lots of a delta winged, single tail finned beast I can't quite identify.
We've had a quiet afternoon, working on some more of the Braidbar quiz, alternately basking in the sun and retreating into the cabin, and anxiously refreshing the BBC website to keep track of Andy Murray's performance in the quarter finals.
Tomorrow we go on to Kirkstead Bridge.
Labels:
Anton's Gowt,
Tattershall
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