Back on track

After our diversion up to Coventry, we're back on the well worn track that joins our two usual stamping grounds of Poynton and Alrewas/ Fradley to Crick. We needed to top up the water tank, so at half seven pulled out of the basin onto the water point just outside. It's a good pressure there, so we were soon on our way again. We stopped at Bridge 8 to visit the mammoth Tesco Extra; there is a bit of Armco piling on the Hawkesbury side of the bridge, and it's then a few minutes walk to get to the front of the store.

There is a walking route signed from some mooring rings further along, but if you use those, you end up having to walk all the way past the Ricoh Arena. We didn't feel altogether easy about leaving the boat unattended, so Sheila stayed on anchor watch whilst I raided the store. Fortunately, having done some shopping at Sainsbury's yesterday, one load was enough.

After that, it was just a superb day's boating in glorious sunshine at last. We paused at Sutton's Stop (aka Hawkesbury) to dump rubbish and recycling, then plodded steadily on down the North Oxford. There are lots of boats about on this stretch, so rather than hoping to find a mooring in Ansty as originally planned, we've stopped a bit short, on a chance found bit of piling a little way before the M69 crosses the canal.

Sheila had run a washload as we went, so that's drying on the whirligig now. It's a month since I last topped up the batteries, and of course the bank was now well charged, what with the solar panel charging it yesterday and the longish run today, plus more solar panel input as we ate lunch.

Once more, the process couldn't have been easier. It took a lot longer to get the pressure vessel out from its storage under the side berth and to lift the relevant engine boards than to top up 24 cells. They took a bit of water, just enough to suggest that a monthly top up would be a sensible routine, so I've set iCal on the Mac to remind me to do it.

I forgot to mention that we finally did the seasonal clothes swap yesterday; Sheila's been in shorts all day today, and after I've showered this afternoon, I might even leave my vest off.

/blush

Exploring Coventry

As planned, we've spent the day here in Coventry Basin, after a very pleasant pridian* evening nattering and drinking wine with Dave and Ann Ballinger.

Coventry has a substantial but confusing centre, partly thanks to the urban regeneration service of the Luftwaffe, but also because it's on some quite awkward, up and down terrain. The best way to get into the shops is to cross the footbridge over the ring road, and keep walking until you come to a main junction. Turn left here for the Transport Museum and Sainsbury's, or right and then left into the first of the shopping precincts. But there are small precincts and indoor malls all over the place, and if you want to visit a specific shop, it's probably best to Google for specific directions before setting out.

We had a pretty productive shop, and tottered back to Sanity Again just after eleven. After a restorative coffee, we decided to wind the boat, ready for our escape in the morning. It's always interesting turning in a Y shaped basin, but we got round in the end, and reversed back onto the moorings.

This afternoon, I took some photos of the place, and also went into the engine bay, doing routine checks, changing some nappies and tweaking up the stern gland which was dripping like fun again.

Here are the best of the pictures, starting with an entry for the all time silly notice on a waterway:

"Warning, please do not flush water onto the quayside it is porous"

and that stretch is right where you have to put the stern of the boat as you wind…

/no

Statue of Brindley, planning

The arch in the distance is the best way out on foot

Way out for boats

There's only the one boat exit, so all the signs point the same way...

This swing bridge over the other arm is locked and can't be swung,
thus reducing the available mooring

Actually, a couple of decent looking residential boats on that arm would do no harm at all, and would provide an even better feeling of security.

*Pridian: a very, very rare adjective meaning "relating to yesterday".

Change of plan means sore feet

We'd originally planned to boat as far as Marston Junction (where the Ashby Canal joins the Coventry), today, then come on into Coventry tomorrow. But I had an email from Dave Ballinger this morning, with a couple more entries for the Braidbar Owners' Pub Guide, and he mentioned that he'd stayed in Coventry Basin last night and was going to stop there tonight as well.

So we decided to boat on a bit, and come all the way into the city today. This we've done; it's the first time we've been here since the mid eighties, and I must say the canal is much improved since those days. Indeed, when we first came here, in 1976, the year of the big drought, it was such an effort, the Coventry Canal Society gave you a certificate for making it.

Some stretches of the water are still full of junk, but it's no worse than much of the BCN, or indeed much worse than the run through Nuneaton; in the old days, drunk yobbos would throw things at you from the towpath. The Ballingers' boat, Load of Hay, is indeed here, and we're planning to pop over there for a glass of wine later. (Speaking to Elanor on the phone at lunchtime, she complained that we set a very bad example to our children with all this merrymaking.)

/dignose

Meanwhile, when we were chatting to the Ballingers on arrival, they recommended the Museum of Transport, so we've been there this afternoon. For a free museum it is indeed very good, and we got quite sore feet going round it all. There's also a Sainsbury's nearby, so we may use that, rather than shopping at the enormous Tesco Extra which is canalside on the way in.

We're going to stay here for the two nights allowed, so as to have a duvet day tomorrow. It's quite secure, as there are CCTV cameras and a security patrol. Mind you, when we came back from the museum, Sanity Again's bowline had come off the bollard, but it's not clear whether that was  a passing humourist or just a slack line.

/hmm

Either way, I've re-moored her with a turn of the line round the bollard at both the bow and stern, and I've put the centre line through a ring.