Calcutt or bust

After all that exercise, we slept really well last night and had a relaxed start this morning. We'd hoped thereby to increase our chances of getting a locking partner up the Stockton flight, but it was not to be. Setting off at eight, we found another excuse to linger two locks up by topping up the water tank at the tap opposite the Blue Lias pub – good pressure there.

Still didn't work, so on we went. All the locks were with us except for a couple of occasions when we crossed with a boat going down. These locks are paradoxically easier to work than Hatton, though of identical construction, but they look much less cared for. The paint is peeling and the steel balance beams are rusty in places. We're now in the South East Waterways area rather than West Mids – maybe they have less cash to spend.

There was perhaps one day's usage left in the toilet tank, so a pump out today was a good idea. I'd wondered about the Kate Boats base at Stockton Top, well known to us from our OwnerShips days, but they don't open on a Saturday, so Calcutt it had to be. On and up we chugged, ironically getting a partner for the two locks up to the Calcutt service wharf.

Although Saturday is a turn round day for them, there was plenty of room on the wharf and we ended up laying Sanity Again alongside rather than the usual stern on arrangement. You do get a thorough rinsing there, which is just as well as £18 is at the upper end of acceptable for us.

It was now definitely lunchtime. There's no decent mooring on the section between the top lock and the junction with the Oxford canal, apart from a bit of Armco immediately above the lock which was already occupied, so we came on round the turn and have tied on pins just onto the Oxford.

Phone signals are only just detectable here – we had planned to go onto the moorings we know by Bridge 100 tomorrow, but there are a lot of weekending boats and hire boats about and it might be hard to find a space there now, so we may well sit tight here until Monday. I may say that the hire boats are going by at tickover but many of the privateers seem to think they are in some sort of race.

We've still got most of a fortnight to kill before we need to head to Crick, as we are planning to arrive there on the Monday before the show. We're thinking of taking a leisurely run up to Rugby to use some of it up, with various stops on the way.

Location:Napton Junction

Diesel at Calcutt, then a day at Braunston

8th & 9th May

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Twenty locks in two good days

6th & 7th May

We've had a couple of relaxed starts in the last two days, partly down to the knowledge that we had 10 broad locks to do each day. This may seem counter-intuitive, but unless you've prearranged a locking partner, it's a good idea to hang about below the first lock for a while to see if anyone turns up, and there's no point doing that much before nine.

Yesterday, this didn't work, admittedly, but it did give us a chance to have another look for the geocache we'd failed to find the day before. In fact, that didn't work, either, but you can't have everything. I mean, it wasn't actually raining, and although breezy, the wind wasn't by any means impossible.

Indeed, we then had a good morning's boating, chugging gently up the locks, holding Sanity against the side with a centreline around the middle bollard (no dispute about their utility in broad locks), opening just the one paddle on the same side as the boat and so onwards and upwards.

(For those not familiar with British wide canals, if you are alone going up a broad lock with a narrow boat, there's another piece of counter intuitiveness to be aware of. If you draw the same side paddle, the incoming water flows under the boat, bounces off the opposite lock wall, and holds the boat steady against the nearside wall. At least it does in the locks between Napton and Birmingham, and in a random selection of the other broad locks around the system. For the rest, you're on your own, and anything can happen.

This is particularly true of the locks between Barbridge and Chester, each of which has its own little peculiarities in this regard.)

We stopped just before lunchtime on the embankment before Long Itchington and the Two Boats pub. It's a good place to moor, except that there are no rings, just a nice clean concrete edge and a refurbished towpath. The towpath is so solid, belting a big, 30" x 1" diameter mooring pin (ex marquee peg type) with the lump hammer as hard as we could, many, many times, just about drove it in far enough to give some hope of security.

After lunch, we took a wander round Long Itchington, partly in search of a shop to buy bread for today, and partly just to rubber neck a stunningly attractive village. We may have taken the wrong roads, and a check of the First Mate Guide before leaving Sanity would have been prudent, but shops were hard to find. In the end, I asked the Garmin for advice, and it directed us to a little shop not far from Itchington Bottom Lock, where we were able to get what we wanted. They even had a copy of the Independent, both yesterday and today.

Back at the boat, we had a quiet afternoon and evening in this idyllic spot.

Lurking below the lock paid off today. Not only did we find a cache nearby, but a boat then turned up. Helmsman shared up all ten locks to Stockton Top with us, making the locking more straightforward, though we probably didn't gain a huge amount in time. What we gained in having two lockwheelers we lost in having to manoeuvre two boats into each lock.

Nonetheless, it's still worth doing. We've had a dry Spring, and the long range forecast for the Summer is warm and dry, so water conservation is already a wise precaution.

By 11 we were at Stockton Top, with loads of memories for us of our OwnerShips days, especially as it's a Thursday, when the boats come back to get sorted out ready for handover on Friday.

After lunch, we looked up a series of three caches hidden on the flight. Called the Top Shop series, they are puzzle caches, in that in order to get their co-ordinates, you have to walk down the flight noting a variety of numbers, and then plug them into formulae to get the co-ords for the first two caches.

Each of those contains a formula for one of the co-ords of the third cache. If it all sounds a bit complicated, it is, but it appeals to some folks, and is a way of making the game more interesting when the navigation aspect is bound to be a bit straightforward on a towpath.

We managed to find all three, so a distinct sense of achievement.

The rest of the afternoon has been quiet again. We plan to have a meal in the pub here, the Boat, for old times sake. Tomorrow we aim to toddle on to Napton, coming back to the top of Calcutt for Sunday, when we'll hopefully rendezvous with John and Nev on Waimaru.