Steadily to Fazeley

We were tied almost straight across from the Samuel Barlow pub last night, which seems to have changed its character a touch since we were last there two years ago. It was certainly trading quite well and there were sounds of Muzak from the upper floor all evening, together with much merry laughter from a party on the upper veranda. It wasn't impossibly noisy but we were quite glad when it all quietened down by midnight.

Apart from that, we had a peaceful night, despite the proximity of the West Coast Main Line, and woke refreshed in good time this morning. As a result, we were on our way rather before eight for the plod through Amington. It was a pleasant morning, though it clouded over as the day went on. The Glascote Two were against us but were in better condition than they've been on other occasions and Sheila had no problem turning the locks.

Once down, it's a steady run through to the junction, with very little traffic on the move despite it being the weekend. We got to the Sutton Road Bridge moorings by ten, to find that they were all but deserted. It's one of those stretches that is either empty or full of liveaboards, just depending on where the local boats have roosted for the time being.

We had an early coffee then set off to Sainsbury's armed with a mixed shopping list. For once, we made something of an impulse buy in addition. We've been thinking for some time of getting a second handheld blending wand. The Bamix I've used for many years is excellent but now lives in the lodge where it gets put to use in the winter in the production of stocks and soups, mostly. The big Sainsbury's here has a substantial home goods section including a variety of such appliances.

I settled on a Breville beast complete with a chopping bowl attachment. It's a 500 watt motor so should cope with anything up to and including ice cubes (not that I often have cause to produce crushed ice, but you never know). It does mean that any substantial use will be better with the engine running, since pulling over 40 amps from the batteries for any length of time is not a good idea.

It's turned very breezy indeed since lunch – we're glad not to have to move this afternoon. Tomorrow, we'll carry on along most of the remaining Coventry canal, probably finishing near the new Kings Orchard marina.

Location:Fazeley

A bit of a pig out before Tamworth

We had another great meal at the Samuel Barlow last night; Sheila scoffed two chicken breasts stuffed with Brie whilst I had the slow roasted blade of beef on a horseradish mash that fairly opened up your sinuses. We reckoned we'd earned it having done another hour's geocaching that afternoon, including a walk up the spoil heap mound in the Pooley Hall wildlife sanctuary.

Today was another fairly relaxed start, getting going just on eight for the chug through Amington to the Glascote Two. The first boat of the day was rising in the top lock as we arrived, so good timing there. As we came out at the bottom another boat appeared in the bridge hole, so it could hardly have been better.

Glascote still needs a bit of attention, though, despite the sterling work done last time we were there. The bottom gates of the bottom lock leak so badly that the lock was three foot down in just the time it took for the upward boat to get up the top lock and us to lock down, maybe 15 minutes in all. As a result, the intermediate pound must get very low at times.

We had to wait on the towpath opposite Peel's Wharf for another boat to top up its water tank, then pushed across and filled up ourselves. It's very good pressure indeed there; we had less than half a tank left and wanted to get brimful so as not to have to take on too much at Fradley, where the water pressure is a strong encouragement to study Zen Buddhism.

I reckon we took around 400 litres in maybe 20 minutes.

A gentle plod round to the moorings at Sutton Road Bridge took another 15 minutes, maybe. There were three boats here when we arrived but they've all left since. We've indulged in some retail therapy, mostly in Sainsbury's with a side trip to TKMaxx and now look forward to another gentle amble tomorrow to Whittington. The weather was cool and cloudy all morning, but seems to be picking up now; long may it continue.

Things are looking up

11th & 12th May

Whilst we were cleaning brass and the like on Tuesday, the BW towpath came patrol came by, and returned a little while later. We had a chat with him, and he reassured us that we were OK to leave Sanity here for a bit longer. He explained that, having recently taken over this stretch, he was working on reducing the number of overstayers, for which this towpath has been notorious for years.

We tried running a washload with a pre-fill of hot water poured into the drum from a jug. This very much reduced the amount of time the machine stayed on heat, which can only be a good thing in terms of wear and tear on the charging system.

John and Nev on Waimaru rolled up just at lunchtime, having taken three hours to come from the foot of Atherstone. It made for a very pleasant afternoon, chatting and looking over each others boats as you do.

John and Nev came for dinner, bringing with them a bottle of pink champagne to christen Sanity Again, in addition to a christening present in the form of a tea bag squeezer. Maybe they think that we are so broke after paying for Sanity Again, we need to get much more mileage out of each teabag ;-}}

A very pleasant evening was had by all, as far as I can remember.

Yesterday, I woke early, despite having nothing special to do, drat. I guess I was still fretting over getting the ABNB contract signed and posted back to them. I needn’t have worried, of course. Elanor turned up in the afternoon with it, and stayed overnight. John obliged with witness signatures, and by half three, I was round to the Post Office to send it back Special D.

In the course of the day, the boat felt colder and colder, and in the end I lit the fire in the Squirrel. During the day, Bob and Annie Mayall on Amber Moon came by. They are stalwarts of the IWA National Festival team, and it was good to catch up and to show off Sanity Again.

Sheila has discovered that the cunning plan for fixing the mosquito nets in the side hatches, by sewing magnetic strip into the edges, wasn’t going to work. The strip isn’t powerful enough to work through a layer of netting.

However, in the course of the afternoon, I noticed some spring loaded expanding poles for holding up net curtains on Waimaru, which will do the job even better.

A quick bit of Googling ran some to earth on eBay, and I’ve ordered four.

We’ve had another good evening with John, Nev and Elanor. Today, we meet our buyer to show him how to work Sanity, and then we’ll be free to boat on at last.

Better, but busy

Thanks to the Campbells, things are a whole lot better here today, but by the same token we're very busy.

We managed to get the contract stuff fvia Elanor, John Campbell witnessed our signatures, and all the stuff was posted back to ABNB Special D.

Lots of socialization means not much time to blog, so I'll do a catch up as soon as possible.

Hanging about

9th & 10th May

I never thought I’d have anything in common with Gordon Brown, but all this hanging about is starting to get to me. We’re stuck here in Fazeley until we can have a meeting with our buyer to show him through Sanity now he’s bought it. Until then, with Sanity needing to go North and Sanity Again wanted in the South, there's no point in moving.

Meantime, we sit here; Sanity Again is keeping to the rules, but strictly speaking Sanity is overstaying. Hey ho, not much longer, I hope.

On Sunday, the weather had improved a bit, but there was still a cool wind. We set off at half eight to come back to Fazeley from Kingsbury, and had a pleasant run. I managed to reverse into Fazeley Mill Marina without too much problem, aided by stout work by Sheila on the long shaft at the bow.

We had a pump out and diesel. Must say, now Corinne has gone, the service isn’t as good. The toilet tank got a perfunctory rinse, and although I asked for a full fuel tank, he just filled it until the pump stopped, and didn’t bother to put that extra 10 litres or so in the needs a bit of care and attention.

We chugged on down to the junction, and tied on the Coventry, not far from the Peel’s Wharf BW office. Barbara of Chi-cheemaun came by and had a chat; another blogger to put a face to!

In the afternoon, Sheila got the brass polish out, and I made some rope loops use in the fender eyes. Later on, Sheila started work on the first of the mosquito nets for the side hatches, though the way this year is shaping up, I’m not at all sure we’re going to need them.

At the back end of the afternoon, Andrew Denny on Granny Buttons turned up. After he’d moored Granny, he came back and admired Sanity Again.

Yesterday, after a chilly night, I walked into Ventura Park, did a bit of shopping and then caught the 110 bus back. This works very well; the stop is outside Tolson’s Mill, right next to the junction.

A quiet pm was terminated by two calls from ABNB. In the first, Barry told us that he’d got the surveyor’s report, and that all was well, as we knew from the surveyor. He then told us that they will now post us a contract(?), which will need witnessing, as well as the Bill of Sale which will transfer ownership to our buyer.

We had a discussion about how to hand over the keys once the cash has arrived, which process is going to be facilitated by Elanor, allowing us to start out for Crick in Sanity Again once we’ve had this meeting with the buyer. (I don’t know yet if he’s happy to be referred to by name in this blog, hence the coy phraseology). Barry then indicated that things might take a bit longer than we had understood from our buyer; it all depends on the bank.

As if this wasn’t irritating enough, we had a second call from ABNB, not Barry this time, but Jackie. “Barry asked me to ring to say we need a copy of the Declaration of Conformity for the bank. Can you fax it to us?”

“We’re on a boat in Fazeley!”

“Isn’t there a shop that can do it for you?”

After she’d rung off, we realised that it should be OK to scan the thing and email it to them, so this we did. The whole thing is so reminiscent of selling a house. You think stuff is all sorted and going swimmingly, then there's a phone call about yet another problem.

AAAARGH!

I’ve more or less calmed down now, and when it’s all over, I’ll see if I can do a more measured assessment of what you get from ABNB in exchange for 6% of the price. Meantime, we’ve come off the mooring we were on, which was a bit noisy at night with the compressor in the chilled food store across the cut going off at irregular intervals.

We watered, went on down the canal and winded beyond Sutton Road Bridge, and came back tied on the unrestricted moorings. We’ve the prospect of John and Nev Campbell joining for dinner tonight; Waimaru was at the foot of Atherstone last night. At least that should cheer me up.

Boat cleaning and a survey

4th & 5th May

Yesterday we hopped out of bed quite early, though there was no particular reason to be rushing about. The boat batteries were quite low, not having run the engine the day before, so we started up as soon as it was eight o’clock.

I popped back to Sainsbury’s for a few bits and pieces, and Sheila ran a washload. Then we set off round the corner to Fazeley proper; by the time we got to the water point the washing was done.

Tank refilled, I boated on to the junction, making a much better fist of getting round than I’d done with Sanity on Monday. We tied Sanity Again just beyond her, and spent a fair bit of time removing yet more duck poo from both boats.

In the middle of this, John and Nev Campbell rolled up. They are supposed to be boating, but owing to a slight mishap with a window pane, they are having to kill time before they can set off. It was really nice of them to take the trouble to come and seek us out. They duly admired the new boat and we had a good old natter over a cup of tea.

After they left, we got back to work with the scrubbing brushes and sponges, and made the two boats look reasonably cared for again. As may be imagined, it was a quiet evening and an early night.

Today was survey day for Sanity. Eddie Freeman proved to be a nice guy, who made the whole thing as painless as possible. In addition, he expressed himself well satisfied with the state of the boat, so we can sleep more easily for a bit. It’s not that we had any doubts about Sanity’s condition, it’s just stressful having the result of six years’ care examined in that way.

Before Eddie came, we’d spent a bit of time cleaning yet more duck doings off Sanity Again, and I took down our Festival and other personal plaques from Sanity. Browsing the internet,I found the site where BW is actually consulting on next winter’s stoppages. This is a seriously good idea; it is so good when they get something right for once.

After Eddie had gone, we went for a stroll along the towpath; the weather is slowly improving again, as if Spring is reluctantly returning, like a sulky teenager coming back in from the garden for a meal.

Tomorrow, we’ll potter off to Kingsbury Water Park in Sanity Again for a few days; our next commitment is to meet our buyer here on Thursday 13th, so he can have another look round his new boat.

Busy, dozy, busy, dozy

2nd & 3rd May

It’s been an odd couple of days in a way, the theme being contrasts. First off, the weather. April having been remarkably warm and dry a lot of the time, May has come in wet, cold and windy. I feel really sorry for those taking a boating holiday this weekend; it’s not been nice at all.

The other contrast is indicated in the title of this post; we’ve either been scuttling about or dozing quietly. (Not much change there, some might say.)

Yesterday, we made a lazy start, loafing in bed until nearly eight o’clock, then pottering about in the boat until it was time to start shopping again. Catching up on other blogs meant that I spotted the sad news from Nev Wells that it looks as if OwnerShips is in such a financial mess that it will have to be wound up.

Allen Matthews’s death exposed a degree of financial mismanagement that is really quite shocking. Some people had been expressing unease to me over the last few years, but there was never any solid evidence that things were going wrong. We are very saddened by the turn things have taken, and for the excellent staff like Dave Taylor whose jobs are now at risk.

We do most sincerely hope that a way through can be found; the scheme and business model are just as sound as they always were, and had Ownerships stuck to its knitting, as they say, all would be well.

Slightly stunned by the revelations, we went shopping, making two trips to Sainsbury’s before and after lunch, so that the cupboards and wine cellar are fully stocked once more. The rest of the day was spent on board, trying to keep warm. I’ve been avoiding lighting the fire as far as I can, so as to reduce the amount of cleaning to do before Crick, and we gave the Hurricane a good work out as a result.

Today we had a relaxed start again; the main task was to take Sanity for a last pump out at Fazeley Mill Marina. When we came to move her, however, we discovered that some birds must have been roosting in the tree above, because her roof was an awful mess. It took a deal of scrubbing to clean it up.

Having got her reasonably clean once more, we toddled round to the marina and pumped out. We’ve taken her back to the towpath by the junction, handy for the surveyor on Wednesday.

After buying a paper, we walked back to Sanity Again, arriving just in time for lunch. Afterward, I gave in to necessity, dug out some kindling and the chimney from the bow locker and fired up the Squirrel. Things are much more comfortable on board; hopefully, we’ll see a return to milder weather soon.

We’ve spent the afternoon dozing and proof reading. I did stir myself to revamp the home page of the fixed website. The development of Web 2.0 means that it’s both easier and better to use the blogs and Flickr to tell the world what we are up to, as it lets folk comment on stuff as it appears, so the old site has become an archive of our life on board Sanity.

Tomorrow, we’ll move Sanity Again to join Sanity by the junction, ready for Wednesday. Once that’s out of the way, we’ll probably go off to Kingsbury Water Park for a few days.

On the move with two boats again

29th & 30th April, and 1 May

It’s been a good three days, with a brilliant evening with Gill and Des Barnard last night. In consequence, I’m a bit weary this afternoon, so forgive me if this post is short on flowery phraseology.

Wednesday night, Elanor came to stay, and we had a pleasant family evening. Thursday morning, the cunning plan was to be away at nine, so as to arrive at Fradley around 10.30, with the best chance of getting mooring spaces. This all worked out and came together very satisfactorily. Elanor steered Sanity and I took Sanity Again, whilst Sheila lock wheeled and got well exercised.

Elanor had been a bit unsure about single handing after a break from steering a boat, but in fact dropped back into the swing of it straight away, like the true boatwoman she is (she’s been boating, on and off, since she was six months old.)

The only tedious bit was one of the Hunts Lock moorers, Such As Life, who had decided to wash his boat on the special water point installed for them. Since that point is also the lock landing for Hunts, and there was a lot of traffic, it was, shall we say, not exactly considerate boating.

Safely tied at Fradley, we had a good session off loading all the rubbish that had accumulated whilst we were hanging around Alrewas. Elanor stayed for lunch, then set off to walk back to her car at Alrewas, just as the rain came on, naturally.

We took a walk in the rain ourselves, later on, just to get out in the fresh air, and ended up having tea and chat with Alan and Liz on Streamline, which was tied in front of the shop and pub.

Yesterday, we made an early start, as we wanted to move the two boats towards Fazeley. After downloading a nice email from the guy who is buying Sanity, I took Sanity Again up Junction Lock and round onto the Coventry to the water point here. Whilst the tank was filling, Sheila went back and fetched Sanity, then she led through to Whittington, where we were able to tie just before Bridge 80.

Elanor popped out to see us again, bringing our postal voting papers, then Des and Gill came along to inspect the new boat. As I’ve said, we went to them for dinner, and didn’t get back until after midnight.

Making a rather more leisurely start today, we’ve come across to Fazeley, tying by Sutton Road Bridge as usual. We’re the only boats here, but that’s probably because this is a continuous cruiser’s mooring. There seem to be a lot of hippy hutches lurking between Huddlesford and here, but they tend to congregate by road bridges that have handy parking.

We’ve done two shopping trips, and will fit at least another one in tomorrow. We need to take Sanity to Fazeley Mill Marina to get her pumped out, and maybe to make arrangements to leave her there whilst the survey and final paperwork is done to complete her sale; it all takes as long as selling a house, it seems to me.

Meanwhile, I've done a short additional post on Building Sanity Again, and put another five photos up on Flickr.

Two days blogger spotting

6th & 7th April

Yesterday morning was cool, but still sunny. The building site had started work at eight, so I didn't fancy the old route past the Simpson's warehouse, which involved cutting across the corner of the working site. Instead, I went onto the road at Sutton Road Bridge, walked down it to the entrance to the Jolly Sailor retail park, and so to Sainsbury's to get a paper and a loaf of bread.

I don't think it was any longer than our previous route, and had the advantage that it didn't involve a close encounter with the hedge, quite apart from dodging amorous earth moving equipment.

We then headed out, firstly for a call at the services point at Peel's Wharf, then to Fazeley Mill Marina for pump out and diesel. There was a boat on the water point at Peel's, so we stopped on the other side of the entrance to the little basin. I got off, carrying our bags of recycling, but was accosted by a woman whose aim in life seemed to be to prove that Norah Batty figures are not confined to Yorkshire. She didn't actually hit me with her broom shouting "Get off me step!", but informed me in no uncertain terms that this was private land, and that I couldn't get through to the BW office and service area.

Right enough, there's a substantial gate in the way, so I retreated to Sanity (and folk wonder why we named our boat what we did). By now, the other boat was finishing up, so we do-si-do'ed with them and unloaded our rubbish. I note that the Elsan point there now says "No self pump out". I'd always thought it was a marginal case, and now we know.

At Fazeley Mill we had our usual long natter with Corinne about boating, Purple Salute and the joys of having relatives in the Armed Forces (Graeme's on deployment at the moment).

Having got Sanity all filled up and ready to go, we headed back to the junction and turned right. We've decided to use the extra week we need to fill in before going to Norton Canes by taking a run up to Hartshill. The official excuse is that we can't find the right size watering can for Sheila to use on the flower pots, so we'll visit Dobbies Garden World at Hartshill to look for one.

We had a good run to Alvecote. Some kids turned up as we approached Glascote, but were extremely helpful both to us and the boat which followed us up the locks. On the way through Amington, we crossed with Gypsy Rover, then, just outside, who should heave into view but Andrew Denny on Granny Buttons.

There was only time for shouted greetings in both cases, but it's always good to see fellow bloggers out and about.

Today we had a relaxed start. It had rained hard overnight, but was now a bright if rather breezy morning. We made a water point stop at the foot of Atherstone, then as usual worked up the first six locks to tie between numbers six and five. It was perfect conditions for this lovely flight: sunny, just a bit of breeze, cumulus clouds drifting about against the cerulean arch above.

After we'd tied, I nipped off to the Co-op for a paper and some onions, and when I came back, there was Sheila chatting up some bloke on the towpath.

Typical, thought I, can't leave her alone for quarter of an hour without she's off. It turned out to be Andy off Khayamanzi, so this has been a couple of days of blogger spotting. He couldn't stop long, but it made another face to put to a blog.

After lunch we had another go at finding the elusive Twining's Micro cache. Between less cover in the absence of leaves on the trees, and my improving skill with the GPS, we went straight to it this time.

Very satisfying to locate one that's been eluding you.

Back at the boat we had a quiet afternoon, reading and doing internet stuff. We've downloaded a few more books from Project Gutenberg, some familiar, others just names we know. The great thing about doing your reading this way is that you can experiment with authors. All you risk is wasting a few minutes download and transfer time.

I've had a go at reading The Last of the Mohicans, for example, but Fennimore Cooper's prose is just too convoluted and flowery for me, so I've abandoned it in favour of one by Josephine Tey, an author I'd never come across until we started reading ebooks. Her style is very similar to Dorothy L Sayers, or the detective novels of Georgette Heyer.

Tomorrow we'll do the last five locks in the Atherstone flight, and toddle on to Hartshill for the night.

Yet more shopping, and then heading back to Alrewas

19th & 20th December

I seem to be seriously dopey today, so apologies in advance if this post makes even less sense than usual. For no good reason, I woke at 2.30 this morning, and slept only fitfully thereafter, using the extra time to worry about the water pump, where we'll get a turkey from this year, whether Elanor got home safely last night, and a few other things I don't now recall.

I burden you with these insights not in a sense of whimpering, but just to demonstrate to my non-liveaboard readers that the fact of living in paradise (as we still see and experience it) doesn't free you from the ordinary fears and anxieties of daily living and parenting.

Howsomedever, on with the blog: yesterday we had a relaxed start, lying in bed for quite a while before, according to my notes, "the earth moving started again". No, I don't mean that, this is a family blog, just that after a while the noise of the mega machines working on the new building site started to filter through and we felt obliged to get on with the day.

This was our last chance to do serious shopping for a while, so we did it in two sessions, either side of lunch. By the finish, we'd completed all the present shopping for Christmas, and stocked up in most of the goodies we want for the holiday season.

In the afternoon we printed off the remaining calendars, and Sheila punched them and tied them up with her specially made crocheted string.

During her lunch break, Elanor gave us a call from work and, finding that we weren't too far from her route home, agreed to call in for a chat. This made a very pleasant end to the day, though she couldn't stay for dinner on this occasion.

This morning it was quite damp outside. No earth movers, it being Saturday, so we were able to loaf in bed even longer than before. I'd had this worry session in the night, as I've said, and as a result, decided that as well as getting the newspaper from Sainsbury's before we set off, I'd invest in a ham and a frozen turkey.

In the event, I bought a small Christmas cake and some toothbrush heads as well. On return to the boat, I found Sheila trying to do some money moving before we left the good internet connection zone. Ironically, the connection was seriously playing up, running very slowly. This always makes for a particular problem when trying to deal with one of the banking sites, with their highly secure and error checked connection.

She managed to get half of what she wanted done before my unexpressed (but I'm sure apparent) rising irritation and frustration got the better of her and we set off.

It was her turn to steer, so I spent a bit of time below doing other, routine internet stuff like checking Google Reader for my RSS feeds, and downloading a detailed weather forecast.

The connection had got so slow it wouldn't even achieve either of these, so I disconnected, unplugged the modem and left it all for a bit. On reconnection, it was back to normal speed. I'd assumed that the previous slow behaviour was down to the high levels of voice traffic to be expected on the last Saturday before Christmas – all those calls from the supermarket aisles about what they've got or not got in stock - but it may just have been a chance duff link, I guess.

No matter, I knew what Sheila had been trying to do, with one of my accounts as it happens, so I quickly connected to the relevant bank and made the transfer without any trouble.

Whilst ahead of the game in this way, I also found the Jabsco on line shop site, in case we need to change the water pump (it's a Jabsco ParMax 3). This prompted me to check the state of the accumulator, which, ahaha, had lost all the pressure I'd put in the other day. I've pumped it up again, but it looks like it'll be the accumulator to change first, and then see if the pump needs doing as well. (We're looking at £40 as opposed to around £100, so it makes sense to do the cheaper bit first.)

It being Saturday, there's nothing to be lost by waiting until tomorrow to check the accumulator again – if it's lost pressure in 24 hours, the diaphragm must be leaking, and it'll have to go.

We've tied just short of Huddlesford Junction for a quiet afternoon and night. A text exchange with Elanor established that she'd like to come for dinner tomorrow night, when we should be back in Alrewas, and would like spag bol, so I'll cook the piece of boiling bacon tonight, and then we'll have some to cut cold during the Christmas period.

Back to Fazeley for pre-Chistmas shopping

17th & 18th December

We had a relaxed start yesterday after our busy day the day before. I went to the post office first thing to post a couple of parcels containing Christmas presents, then we set off down the locks in glorious sunny weather, fresh and frosty with a blue sky, making the most of one of our favourite lock flights.

At lock 7, a nice lady popped out of the house alongside to thank me for this blog, which had explained to her why the garage was flooded when they got home after a weekend away. Apparently, blocked culverts are a bit of a feature of life around the Atherstone flight; it's obviously not just the ground paddle culverts which were designed too small.

It's always a big buzz to meet someone who reads my ramblings, especially when they've been of some use!

We'd been running a sock load in the washing machine as we worked down, and by the time we got to the bottom they were all done. This meant that whilst filling the tank at the water point, we could start a towel load on the go as well. Then it was off again to Alvecote; we kept going with the aid of mugs of soup, and had lunch as soon as we got there.

It had been a brilliant days boating, with not another boat seen on the move all day. It's times like this that make us so glad to follow the lifestyle we do.

We had another busy afternoon, printing off copies of the family calendar and preparing them for posting today. I also got Sheila to give me a hair and beard trim, so that I shall look quite presentable over Christmas.

Today we set off in fine style, and soon reached the two mile stretch of suburbia that is the canal through Amington. This is another bit that's been tidied up a lot; time was when we could rely on getting a good supply of firewood in the course of a cruise through here, but on this occasion nothing presented itself until we started down Glascote locks, which did, however, yield a couple of bits of useful looking stuff.

We went straight round to Fazeley Mill to pump out and diesel up. They wouldn't let me make up the undercharge from last time, so I donated the cash to the Purple Salute charity, which is the brainchild of Corinne at the yard. Since we have a serving soldier for a son, it's not hard to persuade us to support such an organization.

After tearing ourselves away, we popped back up the canal to moor just before the junction. I took some calendars to the post office, then we had lunch before carrying on to the Sutton Road Bridge mooring. Things seem to be happening on the wasteland that adjoins this bit of the cut. There's some serious earthmoving going on, so presumably it's going to be developed in some way.

We've had a good trip to the shops to finish the pressie shopping; we plan to stay here tomorrow, especially as the forecast's not that good, and stock up on food and stuff, then plod on towards Fradley on Saturday.

Coping with the first ice of the season

3rd & 4th December

The cunning plan had been to make an early start, right after collecting some new sheets which we'd had sent to Will and Jane's, stop at Fradley for diesel, and then head on to Huddlesford Junction where I would buy Sheila a meal in the Plough as part of her birthday celebrations.

This proved to be a best laid plan in the Burns tradition, that is, it came unstuck at the first hurdle. The night before, we'd been on our way to bed when the boat started grinding as it rocked. My first thought was that the kids whom we could hear laughing and shouting under the bridge had raised a paddle on the lock, and the pound had fallen enough for us to grate on the bottom.

Looking out of the stern hatches showed that this was unfair; the problem was that the cut had frozen solid, and the noise was the rubbing strake grinding up and down on the ice edge next to it.

We therefore had a much more relaxed start first thing. I wandered round to Micklehome Drive to collect the parcel, did some shopping on the way back, and we sat around in the boat all morning. We weren't too worried, as the forecast was for a thaw within a couple of days, and we knew that there were at least two Shakespeare boats which needed to come past to get back to their base at Barton Turns.

One of these duly turned up mid morning: this raised the possibility that we could at least get up to Fradley Junction and refill the water tank. So we had an early lunch and set off at 12. Instead of eating in the quite classy setting of the Plough that night, we settled for the more rustic effects of the Swan.

It was none the worse for that; we had a great meal, all genuine home cooking, and entirely appropriate to the beer and the setting.

This morning the weather was indeed a touch warmer, but wet and windy with it. Quite yucky, in fact. Another review of the forecast showed that it was due to improve a bit as the day went on, so we decided to get the diesel and then set off for the shopping moorings at Sutton Road Bridge.

I don't know how much trouble mice do in fact have with their plans ganging aft agley, but this man is certainly having trouble with them this week. Swan Line didn't have any diesel.

Now we had a bit of bother with them with this last year, when they were having problems getting supplies delivered across the cut from the car park to the tank on the off side, but we thought they'd fixed that by moving the tank onto the ex-mud hopper they use as a services pontoon. This means that they can push the pontoon across the cut to refill the tank.

Running out now is just poor forward planning, and it's obviously no use relying on buying diesel at Fradley any more. The guy on the tow path who gave us the glad news was able to let us know that Fazeley Mill Marina is currently selling diesel cheaply, so, since we'd planned to pump out there tomorrow any way, we can fill up with diesel at the same time.

Sheila had by this time brought Sanity through the lock and tied on the pontoon, but with the wind blowing straight down the Trent and Mersey, she was able to reverse off the pontoon, and turn into the Coventry, once more demonstrating her skill at controlling seventeen and a half tons of boat with just a tiller and the engine.

Bow thruster, what's a bow thruster?

She then steered along the Coventry with the wind coming and going, whilst I got on with various jobs down below. I made a fresh batch of muesli, changed the drinking water filter (the flow has been getting very slow) and sorted the clock. When it gets very cold in the galley overnight, the bulkhead clock goes all wobbly on us. Specifically, the hour hand loses, but not the minute or second hand.

The only solution is to take the clock out of its case, set all the hands to twelve and then put it all back together again.

We had lunch on the way, and Sheila had just finished when we got to the mooring. This meant we could set off to do our shopping straight away. This trip was noticeable for a first in the forty-one years Sheila and I have been together.

Sheila needed some new boots. We had a look in JJB Sports, but they only do trainers and football type boots. Sports Direct next door, however, had some Karrimor fell boots on display. Sheila walked in, went over to the rack, picked a likely looking example off it and found that it was a) her size and b) was just what she wanted.

We must have been in and out of there in ten minutes.

Having set the tone for the session, we then got pretty well everything else we were looking for as well. We'll have a return trip to Sainsbury's tomorrow, then I shall have to try and do as well as Sheila getting in and out of Fazeley Mill.

After that we'll go up the Glascote Two, through Amington and moor for the night either at Alvecote or Polesworth.

One wet day, one sunny day

3rd & 4th June

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Off we go; we're stopping out for the summer

4th & 5th April

With some serious boating in prospect, we made a prompt start yesterday, and had arrived at Fradley Junction by 9.45. It was my turn to steer, so Sheila took the bike out and used it all the way to Fradley. This enabled her to note that, despite the reassurances when we reported it the other day, the rabbit hole in the towpath below Common Lock had not been filled in, and indeed is now big enough to take the whole of the front of your foot. This will be bad luck for the jogger who catches their toes in it.

The junction was in its usual mood of merry chaos, especially as, being a Friday, all the OwnerShips boats were turning round. We pulled round onto the Coventry Canal water point, and took a phone call from Will Chapman. We'd used their address for Sheila to order some crochet cotton for her current order, and it hadn't turned up until yesterday.

Will, being one of the best, drove over to Fradley with it and delivered it before we'd finished packing away the water hose. Then it was onwards, with that still present sense of adventure we get at the start of each year's cruising.

We decided to make it to the shopping mooring at Fazeley in time to do our main shop for the week at Sainsbury's, so chose to eat lunch on the move. This meant that Sheila was on the tiller as we went through Whittington, where she got to see the first ducklings of the year, looking very new and like little furry bath toys.

We got to Fazeley by two, and went straight to Sainsbury's – the cupboards had got quite run down during the week at Alrewas with access only to a small Co-op for our groceries, so we had two good day sacks full of stuff, as well as a shopping bag in each hand for each of us.

Sheila then improved the shining hour still further by cutting some wood with the new blade in the bow saw, in view of the weather forecast, which predicts a brief return to wintry weather over the weekend.

It's no more than you can expect in April, after all, hence the saying "Ne'er cast a clout 'til may be out". This doesn't mean 'don't throw away dishcloths until the end of May', but rather don't put your winter woollies away until you see the hawthorn (or may) in bloom. Since hawthorn is sensitive to average daytime temperatures, this is one of those old saws that actually works. We won't be getting the shorts and t-shirts out for a bit.

Nonetheless, it's good to see some warm sun from time to time, and to be able to sleep at night with the Houdini open over the bed.

We made an even prompter start this morning – we wanted to get up Glascote Locks before the Saturday rush, recalling our experience there last autumn, when they were filling so slowly. We were away before eight, stopping briefly at Fazeley services to off load the recycling, then Sheila boated slowly on whilst I popped into the Tesco Express to buy a paper, catching up with her on the visitor moorings just on the Glascote side of the junction.

This did mean we were passed by a guy single handing a bright yellow boat, but when we got to Glascote he was just setting the lock, and indeed, with a little help from me, worked up the two very efficiently.

When we left the top lock, we found that the offside top paddle wouldn't wind down. Sheila drove Sanity out of the lock, and I closed it up and drew a bottom paddle. Then I lifted the offending top paddle to see if that would flush through whatever was blocking it, but no joy.

Having dropped the bottom paddle again, I rejoined the boat, and once we were underway, called the BW emergency line to report the problem. Must say they were very efficient, and the inspector called me back within ten minutes to cross check the message. He said that it was probably a car tyre sticking in the mouth of the paddle culvert, and that "the lads" would be straight out to sort it.

I then settled below, the weather having turned quite cold and damp, but had to go back to Sheila when she called – a passing bird had blessed her on the collar of her fleece, and some energetic scrubbing with wet kitchen towel was required to clean it off.

A bit later, whilst she was below taking a short break, we went through the Alvecote base of Canaltime, with the usual scrum of boats all over the cut. Also much in evidence were the Narrowcraft private boats that they sell there. These are built in Poland to a standard design and shipped over, and they make a very economical, but basic boat.

Just beyond Alvecote is a stretch of restructured land – the relic of the coal field which used to generate so much traffic for the canal in the first half of the 20th century. It's characterised by occasional narrows – at one of these Sheila saw a boat coming in the opposite direction, but she was clearly nearer the restriction, so held her course.

Unfortunately, the guy on the other boat didn't see it like that, and made no attempt to slow down, such that, as Sanity emerged through the narrows, he hit her bow a resounding clang and forced us over into the offside hedge, scratching our paintwork.

"So sorry," he said as he went past, "That was my fault." (!) Narrowboating may be a contact sport, but you are supposed to try to avoid each other. Note that the other boat was not some tyro hire boater, but a privateer in a smart, not to say shiny, boat.

Polesworth was duly passed through; no need to stop on this occasion, as we'd stocked up so thoroughly at Fazeley. By 12.30 we'd worked up the first two Atherstone Locks, and moored in the long pound that comes between those and the rest of the flight.

After lunch, the weather having improved a bit, Sheila cut some more wood, and we cleaned the outside of the boat a bit – she'd got quite manky with bird poo and the like over the past few days, so it's nice to see her looking a bit smarter again. Soon we'll have to do a serious job of shampooing and polishing her ready for the shows.

Water, diesel, and back to Alrewas

23rd & 24th March

When we woke yesterday morning, it had been snowing overnight, and there was a sprinkle lying on the ground, but by the time we were up and about it had all gone. Nonetheless it was still chilly, though the wind had dropped away.

We pottered round to the water point outside the BW office at Fazeley, and set the washing machine running whilst we refilled a pretty empty tank. The pressure at this water point is so good, it had managed to fill around 570 litres before the wash cycle had finished heating. The odd thing is that the other water point nearby, opposite the junction, is so slow we'd probably have finished the entire wash load, including all the rinses, before getting the tank full.

As it was, I stopped the machine, turned the rotary control on to beyond the heating bit, and restarted it, so that the TravelPower wouldn't cut out trying to deliver enough juice for the heater whilst passing all the moored boats at tick over. Just shows again the virtue of the simpler control for our purposes.

I then made a slight bog of the turn into the Birmingham and Fazeley. It's a tricky turn at the best of times, with the bridge that carries the main road across the junction awkwardly placed, and I hadn't made sufficient allowance for what wind there was blowing up the stern and pushing the boat forward. It was only a case of using a bit of reverse helm and prop to ease Sanity round the turn, but it was enough to give Sheila an excuse to wind me up.

I did a better job of getting into Fazeley Mill Marina, I'm pleased to say, which is also a tricky turn, though fortunately sheltered from the wind on this occasion. We filled up with diesel, although the price was quite wince making at 80 pence per litre.

I then managed the reverse out of the marina reasonably well (I am informed by Sheila). Then it was back to the Sutton Road Bridge mooring briefly, in order to get a paper and a loaf of bread for lunch from Sainsbury's. I had thought of stopping at the junction – there's a Tesco Express by the road junction there – but the bread from Sainsbury's is nicer.

The only problem was, the Sainsbury's was shut. It seems they don't open at all on Easter Sunday, though we'd seen no signs up about it whilst shopping there during the week before, and they'd certainly been open on Good Friday.

There was nothing for it but to set out to get to Whittington in time to get bread at the Co-op there, which we managed to do, arriving at 12.30.

The afternoon was taken up in cleaning the boat in anticipation of Des and Gill's visit. It was a good evening, with the meal and wine and gossip all flowing freely. After dinner, I admitted I'd been pleasantly surprised that Sod's Law hadn't manifested itself – the current gas bottle must be getting low, I said, but it hadn't run out in the middle of cooking dinner.

This morning I got up at a relaxed hour, put the kettle on for tea, revived the fire in the Squirrel, walked back to the gas stove, and guess what: the gas had run out. Rather than half dress to go out into the cold morning to switch the supply over, we decided to do without tea in bed for once and got up straight away, sorting the gas as soon as I was dressed so that we could have coffee with breakfast.

We got away around nine, and Sheila steered back to Fradley, where the Bank Holiday had brought chaos in its wake, as per spec. There were boats all over the place, and a goodly crowd of gongoozlers, despite the cold weather (later it snowed), and BW had decided this was the ideal time to cut the grass. There were a Flymo and a guy with a strimmer, mixing it with all the visitors.

Who would have thought there'd be so many people around on Easter Monday, eh? Come to that, what's a supposedly cash strapped operation like BW doing paying double bubble on a Bank Holiday for routine maintenance work?

Our trip down Fradley locks was of course a bit slower than usual, especially as up ahead there were a couple of guys working an aged and definitely unconverted motor boat towing a pair of even more scruffy looking GRP minicruisers, aboard which one of them was living, seemingly.

One of the boaters going the other way coined the best description – "It's a skanky boat towing two more skanky boats" she said. Finally though, we got through even Bagnall Lock and tied by the bowling green for a very late lunch.

We were just finishing when Dan and Lesley Love made themselves known to us. They were boating past in the boat on which they are living whilst waiting for Kala, their new Braidbar to be finished.

We had a good chat on the towpath – they want Sheila to make some porthole doilies for Kala, which is to be this year's show boat at Crick.

Just as we were finishing our natter, Graham and Beryl came past on Priscilla. Priscilla is moored in Barton Turns Marina, and Kala will be in Shobnall, so there's a cluster of Braidbars building up in this neck of the woods.

Tomorrow we stay put – I've got an appointment at the surgery, and Sheila is going on the Willy Walk, then on Wednesday we are off again down to Burton for eye tests on Thursday.

On to Fazeley, wanted boats and shut marinas

18th & 19th September

It was a fine but very cold morning, so I lit the stove again when we got up, and we were glad of it for the rest of the day.

Stopping at the foot of Atherstone to water, we then went on through Alvecote and Amington, arriving at the top of Glascote just after 11. On the way we had a bit of excitement – there’s been an appeal amongst the online boating community for sightings of a guy who’s skipped bail in Gloucestershire by going off on his boat, and we passed a boat answering the description between Polesworth and Alvecote. I duly rang the poilice number supplied and reported it. Whether we ever hear the final outcome is another matter.

We’d heard that there continued to be a problem with the bottom lock of the Glascote two, and this was confirmed when we arrived. It seems BW have had three goes at fixing a leaking bottom cill, and now the situation is made worse by the fact that the top ground paddle culverts, never quick at the best of times, are partially blocked.

The upshot was that the lock was taking anything from 15 to 20 minutes to fill each time. Given the amount of traffic around at the moment, this meant that queues were building up, leading to people having to wait for up to two hours to pass the pair of locks. The worst of it had been during the Bank Holiday weekend, when waits had reached 6 hours, i.e. most of a day’s cruising time.

Part of the trick, we were told, was not to empty the top lock until the bottom one was full, thus reducing the head of water above the failing lock, so that it “made” (ie reached a level inside and out) more easily.

In the event, we got through just before 12, having waited about 50 minutes.

We moored just the Glascote side of Fazeley Junction. Dipping the fuel tank showed that it was about a third full, enough for another week or so if we pushed it, but it would be more sensible tomorrow to go down to Fazeley Mill marina, on the Birmingham and Fazeley canal, rather than tanking at Streethay next week, Streethay being rather expensive.

We used the afternoon to clean the inside of the boat, and had a lazy evening, including a fish and chip supper.

This morning we went round to the Mill Marina, only to find that it isn’t open on Wednesdays. It would be really helpful if they’d put that sort of info on the signs at the junction, so saving folks from going down there and having to do a tricky winding in the marina mouth to come back. Apart from anything else, if we’d known yesterday, we could have gone down there then and given them the business. As it is, we’ll have to hope that one of the working boats at the Huddlesford Gathering this weekend will have diesel for sale, or it’ll have to be Streethay after all.

We’ve come round to our shopping mooring by Sutton Road bridge (as I’ve said before, this bit of the Coventry was built by the Birmingham and Fazeley company, so the bridges are named, not numbered).

We did two lots of shopping – some Christmas present stuff and things in the morning, then food at Sainsbury’s after lunch.