Harnser's Travels

A few shots in Norfolk

2011-11-29T18:44:00.001Z

When we went to Gt. Yarmouth last week and there were several boats on the move. It looked as if a boat yard were moving several of their hire boat up the Bure

As we crossed Breydon Water I spotted a pair of cruisers breasted up heading down stream so we stopped at the Bure to try for a photo or two. It turned out to be a cruiser bringing a brand new shell for fit out.

Boats can only get from the Yare to the Bure at low water as they have to get under the old Vauxhall railway bridge which use to carry the railway through the town. The tide was still running out as these boats pushed their way up the Bure but even so there was a lot of mud to be seen in the river.

We also visited Ranworth where we climbed the church tower, you who follow me on Facebook may have seen the first photo before.

The views from the top are quite spectacular and you are free to clime the spiral stone stairs to the bell chamber and then up a ladder to the very top. Although you can do this at any time of the day I would suggest you avoid doing it just on the hour as it can be a bit noisy.

As you can see the weather was not the best but we still enjoyed some great views across the broads.

Floods Ferry 6 Nov 2011 Day 9

2011-11-17T21:30:00.001Z

Sorry this posting is rather late but just to close the trip off.

The moorings in March were very noisy last night with chanting and singing way into the early hours. We think people must have been on there way home from nightclubs.

We left the moorings in bright sun and had a steady journey back to our home moorings at Floods Ferry. This part of our trip takes just over an hour and a quarter. There were lots of fishermen out on the banks today including opposite our moorings, I did feel a bit sorry for those that pulled their gear in only for us to turn into our moorings.

We had planned to drain the boat ready for the winter but as the weather is still so warm and we are only a 2 hour drive from home we decided to leave the boat ready to go.

Until the next time.

March 5 Nov 2011 day 8

2011-11-05T18:43:00.001Z

As we arrived at Salters Load 2 MLC workmen were removing the wooden handrail beside the steps on the lock landing and replacing it with a steel one. Over the years the wooden one had suffered not only from damp at ground level but also repeated attacks from a powerful strimmer. After dark the house just the other side of the Old Bedford River had a bonfire and fireworks for their kids, us two big kids just sat and watched from the Ouse flood wall.

When we left this morning there were a group of fishermen on the moorings nearer the bridge, I thanked them for drawing their tackle in as we passed, but not a word or a smile from any of them. When we got to Upwell there they were, sitting on the moorings fishing, hoping for better luck.

It was a sort of nothingness day, damp, misty, the odd spot of rain and the sun trying to break through. For quite a length the north bank of Well Creak is constructed against a brick wall between Nordelph and Outwell. This bank is a good 2 foot higher than the south bank so it the banks were overtopped the flood water would flow south towards the other drains within the Middle Level.

We crossed the Middle Level Main Drain on the Mullicourt Aqueduct and this has been the only time we have crossed without the pump starting to bring water up from the Main Drain. Just west of the aqueduct there are some angling platforms, these are designed for wheel chair users but I have never seen any disabled people using them, there were no anglers there at all today although we saw lots between Salters Lode and March.

Marmont lock was full ready for us and i had rung Maureen to tell her we were on our way, Diana went over to ring the bell to let her know we had arrived and then opened one gate leaving the offside for Maureen. It wasn’t long before we were on our way down to deeper water. Then past the wind farm and into March. One thing that caught my eye as we approached the town was one of the buildings had a row of seagulls all the way along the ridge. We moored up on the town moorings at 2 30 pm. we will stay here overnight and that will give us an hours run in the morning back to Floods Ferry to top the batteries up after tonight's use.

Salters lode 4 Nov 2011 day 7

2011-11-04T17:07:00.001Z

There is only one restaurant at this end of Littleport and they do a fixed price 4 course meal for £39-50 but the cheese course is complimentary, I couldn’t quite work that one out. It only opens twice a week other than for private functions, last night was one of the function nights with about a dozen men sitting at two tables.

Overnight it rained almost constantly, stopping just as we pushed off at 9 am but starting again quite soon afterwards. The reason for our early start was that we had to navigate a very silted up Denver Sluice and I wanted to see at low water where the best channel was. Just as we moored at Denver the rain stopped and the sun came back out. The silting is so bad now that the lock is virtually unusable on a neap tide. When we visited 3 years ago 3 boats sailed straight out of Salters Lode on the level, up the Ouse and straight through Denver Sluice on the level. Today nothing bigger than a canoe would get through on the level with only about 4” of water between the sand banks.

The lock keeper was very doubtful that we would get out today as we would need about another 3 Ft. to do it safely. The seagulls could walk across the channel at the moment, but it was almost 4 hours to the top of the tide. One possibility was to go out backwards as far as the sandbank and then forwards between the sandbank on the left and the front of the sluice but he could not recommend it.

To waste a bit of time we walked around the area looking at the relief channel and where you locked down into it. There are 3 lots of moorings on the channel and a possible thing to do if we can’t get out.

At about quarter past two we went back to look at the water level, High Water at Kings Lynn was 1345 hrs. and we had gained about 12” but it was still rising very slowly. Chatting again to the lock keeper he enquired as to whether we had a Bowthruster, if so we could easy out of the lock, swing 100 deg to the left, slide along between the sandbank and the front of the sluice until we hit the New Bedford River and then sharp right downstream to salters Lode, but of course it was up to us and I was game. We we didn’t do this today we would be stuck here until next Thursday morning as tomorrow is the last daylight tide and its only about 6” more than today, also tomorrow wouldn’t be the resident keeper so the chances of sliding round the back would be less.

The lock keeper got the lock ready and I got Harnser ready and we were soon in the lock, as soon as the bottom gate was up I crept forward, used the bowthruster to pivot the boat round to the left with the stern at the lock entrance, then slowly forward towards the New Bedford River, easy to the right as I approached the channel to miss the sand bank on the point and then off down river to Salters Lode where Paul had the lock ready for us. I thought we were on slack water by now or even starting to run out so I swung hard left to line up with the lock entrance which points downstream, however the tide was still making slightly which caused me to cut the corner a bit and I had to give it a bit of welly to get her bum round before just drifting into the lock, it was now 3 pm. Paul locked us up and we have Moored for the night on the lock moorings as we wouldn’t get to Outwell before dark.

Littleport 3 Nov 11 day 6

2011-11-03T17:31:00.001Z

The weather was not so good this morning so we made a slow start at 1040 am. This worked well as we didn’t see any more rain all day.

The rivers are down by a good 4” as can be seen by the bottom of the air draught board below Prickwillow bridge. Just by this bridge is the Prickwillow pumping museum which houses a large collection of diesel driven fen drainage pumps. The museum runs these pumps on special days through the summer months.

Once back on the Great Ouse we turned left and headed upstream towards Ely. Its a long wide straight run alongside the railway line on the right and a road on the left. As you travel along this straight there is a good view of Ely Cathedral which looks as if it is standing on a high hill, not just the low bump that takes it above sea level.

We continued our journey through the town and went as far as Soham Lode which is not navigatable. We turned here and headed back to town, on the way we passed under the railway bridge that had a goods train derailed on it shortly before IWA National festival at St Ives. The result of this was that all visiting boats had to go via The New Bedford River.

We stopped in Ely for lunch, while we were there we decided to do a pump out and also fill the water tank. This unfortunately made us a bit late getting away and made our chosen destination for the night, The Ship at Brandon Creak just out of reach, so we moored for the night at the Station Road, Littleport moorings, these are the other end of town from where we moored to visit The Swan.

On this stretch of rive the Environment Agency have installed a couple of markers so that boaters can check their speed as they hammer down the straight.

Prickwillow 2 Nov 11 Day 5

2011-11-02T19:25:00.001Z

Last night we ate at The Swan, last time we visited it was called The Black Horse but its changed a lot since then and has been poshed up a bit. The restaurant is closed on both Monday and Tuesday evening this time of the year, but the bar meals we had were first class and at a reasonable price.

This morning we pushed off at quarter to ten following a quiet night on the moorings opposite The Swan. Unlike last night when there wasn’t a ripple to be seen, the wind was now picking up and would continue to do so all day. In spite of the wind the sun was bright and warm, again unlike last night when we had to get the winter duvet out.

We continued upstream for about a mile before turning left up the River Lark. We have done a bit of this river before but only as far as Prickwillow, today we planned to go to the head of navigation. As we were heading towards Mildenhall there were quite a few aircraft about including a refuelling plane from the American Air force, I know it was American because it said so on the side. I think the pilot has his sun glasses on, but that may just be the suns reflection.

There is one lock on the Lark at Isleham and unlike the EA locks on the River Nene the guillotine gate is at the head of the lock, not the tail. The lock is fully powered including the V doors and the Slackers, one thing that surprised us was that the controls for the bottom gates were not in a locked enclosure, you only needed a key to get in the control box to raise/lower the guillotine gate.
Just before we arrived at the lock there was a fare sized flock of geese sitting in the river. These were not your commonal garden Canada geese but real wild ones that took to the sky when we were still a good 200 Mt. from them
As we locked up a survey vessel that had been following us caught up and walked up to the lock. I asked if they were going through as well? It seemed they were, but as they didn’t know there was a lock they didn’t have a key. So we moored up and locked them up. We left them on the lock landing and continued on our way. A short time later we met a very smart EA patrol vessel complete with “go fast” hatching. I think they must have had a chat with the survey vessel and locked down again with them,as we didn’t see ether boat again.

From here the river is much bendier and on one of these bends we passed a wooden hut with
“Horseferry Lodge” written on the end of it, so maybe once upon a time this was the site of a ferry. The house beside it is “Gravel House” and on the house sign they have a picture of what I take to be their Narrowboat.

We continued on to Judes Ferry which is the end of the Environments jurisdiction, apart from the wind it was quite easy to wind here as there is a cut beside the pub which was probably at one time the ferry landing. We did consider stopping at the pub overnight, but the moorings are not very Narrowboat friendly, being not only a bit to high but also cantilevered out by about 18” so would rub the cabin sides, I don’t think even our barrow wheels would have held us off, so its on the list for next time.

From here we retraced our steps passing the Lee Brook on our left.
At the moorings below the lock there is an elderly boat and on the cabin side he has 4 IWA swords. At one time the sword in a clenched gauntlet was part of the IWA insignia and the sword was awarded to boats that covered the more difficult parts of the system. Many feel that the IWA should not have dropped it as it signified the fighting spirit of the organisation and had been there I think from day one.

On our way up we passed what I thought was a grave stone on the river bank, so on the way back down I watch out for it. It turned out that it is to commemorate the baptism of the Rev. Spurgon in May 1850.

A little further downstream there is an old pumping station that was built in 1844 on the wall is a plaque in memory of the first pumpman Joseph Flatt who attended the pump from when it opened until he died in 1900.
By now the it was getting cloudy and the wind continued to pick up as we made our way to the EA moorings at Prickwillow.

Littleport 1Nov 2011 Day 4

2011-11-01T19:21:00.001Z

Last night was not good, but not as bad as I expected, but the traffic really picked up first thing this morning.

9-30 this morning I pulled the front pin and walked to the stern to take that one as well, it was at that point I saw someone walking towards me, thinking it was someone of authority I walked to meet them only to find it was a friend of mine who moors his Wilderness boat at the caravan site. We discussed the possibilities of doing the river right up to Oxborough Ferry at a later date when there is a bit more water in the river. We finally pushed off at twenty to ten.

In the village of Stoke ferry we passed under a steel road bridge, on the down side there is a plaque saying it was rebuilt by Norfolk Council in 1899 and the surveyors name was a Mr. Heslop.

As we passed Stoke Ferry sluice I spotted Ivan catching us up in his Wilderness, it wouldn’t be long before he was to overtake us. Well with a 10hp outboard engine he has a better power to weight ratio than us.

As you travel along this river it is easy to think you are on the Norfolk Broads except for two things, the lack of other boats and the strong smell of onions you get as you pass the onion fields.

We passed a field of sheep that were doing there best to keep up with a nautical theme by have red and green rub marks on their backs, I am not sure of the significance of the blue ones.

I should add that while we were doing this river this morning it was raining from time to time even though the chap on radio 4 said it was going to be the best day of the week, I think he must have stayed in bed on Sunday when it was lovely.

Once back on the Ouse we turned upstream and the weather did improve a bit, we met 4 boats on this stretch which was bit of a surprise. The Air force were playing again just like yesterday making lots of noise, Quite often you could not see them at all and other times they were quite low but not duck down low.

At Brandon Creak we turned down left down The Little Ouse as I wanted to see where the floating dry dock was, its about half a mile down from the junction on the left hand side at Bank Farm. They also sell diesel at 90p lt at the moment as well as controlling over half a mile of moorings. We just managed to wind where one of the online moorings was vacant, I don’t think you would get a 60 footer round here. We were going to carry on to Brandon but as its 14 miles and it had already turned 2 pm we would not have made it before dark and we don’t know of any recognised moorings on the way.

Back at The Ship we again turned left and carried on to Littleport for the night mooring opposite The Swan, last time we were here it was called The Black Horse and we stopped for Sunday lunch, we will see what it is like this evening.

Whittington 31 October 2011 Day 3

2011-10-31T18:52:00.001Z

At about five to ten this morning I untied and started to move down to the lock landing, Paul called from his garden to go straight into the lock and he would be there shortly. Once in the lock with the gates behind closed it is immediately obvious the danger of coming up under the walkways attached to the gate. I am going to suggest to the MLC that they remove them as they serve no useful purpose now that the slackers are mechanised.

High tide at Kings Lynn was at 0853 hrs. local time so by the time we entered the lock it had turned but we still had to wait for the river level to fall further before Paul commenced filling the lock. A little after 1030 hrs. he cracked the first slacker, thank goodness it wasn’t the one on the side we were sitting as dark brown water fountained up into the air. I had already removed the stove chimney and at Pauls suggestion I also removed the exhaust. The lock slowly filled and Harnser rose closer to the arch of the bridge. By the time the lock had filled the phone aerial was bent over and the pigeon box was about 2 inches from the under side of the arch, the water was just lapping the top gates. The bottom guillotine gate lifted and we could see out onto the river. We still couldn’t go anywhere as the lock at Denver was not ready but not only that we still wouldn’t fit under the bottom edge of the guillotine gate, when the water had dropped about another 4” at about 1050 hrs. we were just able to slide out. Even so early into the tide I was surprised how fast the river was running . It took a lot of engine power to turn into the flow and start making progress to Denver. I was advised to keep the power on to get there as soon as possible as Denver has a big problem with the lock mouth silting up and the more water there when we arrived the less problem it was likely to be. I held to the right of the river until I rounded the bend and then made my for the middle of the sluices reducing power as we moved out of the flow of the river, when I guessed we were past the bank I turned left to the lock sliding in by the right hand wall.

After locking down onto the none tidal Ouse we chugged round to the left to fill up with water. There is a water point and a free pumpout just by the slipway almost opposite the lock that drops down to The Great Ouse Relief Channel.

With the water tank once again full we headed south until we came to the River Wissey where we turned sharp left and stopped at the GOBA moorings for lunch. There was one small cruiser moored right in the middle of the moorings, he shot out and offered to move up a bit, saying he had not expected to see another boat on the river, I replied neither did we. As the moorings are probably in excess of 100 Mt. long there was tons of room for us without him moving.

The next point of interest is the Sugar Beet factory, East Anglia has several of these and from September to spring time they can bee seen belching out white steam, they are often adjacent to rivers both for the water they use and in times passed transporting the sugar beet by boat. One thing that has changed since last time we were here is the old concrete bridge has had its deck removed.

We winded at what is classed the end of navigation where the river forks, I understand you can get a bet further TNC style. If the bank had been better I would have moored here, but we have to get the poor old dog off, I am sure it would be much quieter than our intended mooring on the GOBA moorings at the caravan park right by the road bridge.

The moorings are only about 70 ft. long so we have taken it all up, but I am not expecting any one to turn up in the dark. Once moored you have to report in at reception, as expected there was no one there, but a couple in a caravan, who I suspect live on site said they were then coming to see me as the site manager was away. I gave them my name, the boat name and my GOBA membership number and then settled down for what looks like being a noisy night on Harnser.

Salters Lode Day 2 30 Oct 11

2011-10-30T18:43:00.001Z

Yesterday evening we walked up to Weatherspoons to eat, on the way we discovered that the council has not only erected new CCTV masts but also new lighting. These look as if they are LEDs as they are a very bright white with very directional light, it’s just a pity they didn’t put one by the moorings to light the quay side.
This morning it was obvious that no one had told the duck that the clocks were going back last night and they were making their plans outside our boat at goodness knows what time this morning, it was not long after that that we heard a boat come chugging past, we didn’t feel it as we were on the bottom.

We dropped the ropes off at one minute to ten, one minute later there was a shout from the fisherman who was just off the end of the quay “TIME” and the fishing match started, if only had walked over and told me I would have set off ten minutes earlier and been out of their way. Having said that they were quite a cheerful bunch spread out from behind where we were moored and the town bridge. We met about three boats between March and Salters Lode which surprised us a bit. Once clear of March I rang Maureen at Marmont Priory lock to book our passage. It was quite breezy as we made our way through the wind farm and arrived at the lock to find it empty with the bottom gates ajar. I put Diana ashore so she could ring the bell to summons Maureen the lock keeper and then opened one of the bottom gates while we waited for her. The locks on this waterway are 12 foot wide, so we need both gates open to get in or out. It was quite a slow run from the lock to Salters Lode as its quite shallow and weedy, like last time, just as we crossed Mullcourt Aqueduct the back-pump started pumping water up from the Middle Level Main Drain to Well Creak, there must be a water level sensor there somewhere that we trigger.

We arrived at Salters Lode at 3 pm, there is already two narrow boats and a cruiser at the moorings. We tucked in behind the first narrow boat prior to the cruised, a chap on the narrow boat came and stuck his head out of his back hatch as we stopped, I though, are he is going to be friendly and come and offer to help us moor, but no, just a quick look before closing the hatch and doors to disappear back inside.

As we walked the dog we met another chap with two dogs and a stove shovel, most boaters with dogs use a stove shovel to clear up, but in this case it was not a boater but the lock keeper, we chatted for a bit before continuing with our walk down to opposite Denver Sluice.

March day 1 Oct 29 2011

2011-10-29T18:54:00.001+01:00

Well we are back onboard for a week or so. We arrived about half 3 and cast off at 4 pm. heading to March for the night. I tried to ring the lock keeper at Salters Load but didn’t get a reply. I have looked at the high water times at Kings Lynn and it looks unlikely there would be a PM passage tomorrow and the morning one will probably be before I am up, so we will chug gently to Salters Load tomorrow and see if we can get out Monday morning.

We pulled into the new moorings at March a little before 4 30 pm. I think we may have been lucky as just after we moored up two cruisers lashed together as a push tug came by and as it was getting towards 5 pm I guess he would have moored here if it had been vacant. This mooring definitely could do with a bit of dredging as we are siting about 6” out from the piling.

Walking the dog we see they have erected a large CCTV mast beside the river and foot bridge, so soon these moorings will be under 24 hour surveillance. I do wonder how much of a problem they have as there is no sign of damage or graffiti in the area.

A bit of painting 2-4 October 2011 day 2

2011-10-05T11:48:00.001+01:00

Last night we ate at Mamma Mias Italian restaurant which is right beside the moorings. This is an establishment that we will definitely visit again. The food was good and the service very friendly, we expected it to be empty on a Monday night but there were several people in there so I would guess that booking would be required at weekends.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mamma-Mias-Italian-Restaurant-March/126300994065016?sk=info

Overnight was the hottest night we have had onboard this year and we had to have the slide open which resulted in the street light shining in my face.

We left the moorings at 10 am heading east for about a mile where the waterway was just wide enough for us to wind. the water was quite shallow at the stern and the mud had a good whiff to it. We then retraced our steps back to the mooring by the park where Diana polished the port side of Harnser, I gave encouragement as I have done my back in and was only able to repaint the black as I could do it on my knees.

We left again heading back to our moorings at about 2 pm. As we passed the new Middle level Commissioners officers which I understand are locally known at the chicken shed there were two weed cutting boats attached to the landing. I wont say moored as the MLC didn’t install any mooring rings when they built their new quay heading.

We arrived back at our moorings at about 3 pm. The visitor moorings now have a nice new welcome banner inviting boaters to stop, I don’t now what they charge for an overnight mooring. By now the wind had picked up so I went slightly past our mooring slot before turning in and allowed the wind to take me sideways down the channel until I am directly opposite our slot and then its straight in. Once secured we set to packing things away and topping up with water.

Just as we were leaving the site we spotted two friends of ours who will be bringing their boat “Wandering Snail” to the moorings in the near future. It was good to see them again.

A bit of painting 2-4 October 2011

2011-10-03T18:38:00.001+01:00

We arrived at the boat Sunday tea time after visiting mum on the way. The afternoon was wonderful and we arrived before the sun was to low in the sky to make driving difficult but to late to really move off the moorings. One or two of the other boaters were sat on the back of their boats fishing with lots of small fish feeding on the surface. Suddenly they started jumping out of the water and this was pike about a foot long, it came completely out of the water and travelled about four feet in the air before dropping back in by one of the boats. We were to witness this another couple of times before darkness fell, but although it cleared the surface each time it travelled no where as far as the first jump.

We ate onboard and had a very quiet night other than hearing the rain at some point, these moorings are so quiet it is unbelievable, no road traffic and very few boats passing.

Monday morning we set off at about 10 am and an hour later we were on the new moorings at March. I hogged the centre of the moorings as it was very shallow at each end, but did shuffle backwards a bit to let a Springer moor ahead of us. The reason I moored here was to re-black between the rubbing strake and the gunwale.
I stood the tin of paint in a bucket which I filed with hot water to improve the paints fluidity and then set to with a disposable foam brush, unfortunately it was not up to the job and disintegrated about thirds of the way along the hull so I had to finish off with an ordinary paintbrush which was not so good.
After lunch Diana went to check out the town moorings and it wasn’t long before she phoned to say there was lots of room, so I moved Harnser along. We now had the port side against the bank. After a trip to the hardware shop where I bought a stiff tar brush and a very cheap set of paint rollers I set to on the port side, First I tried the fluffy roller which worked a treat so stuck with it, much easier and better coverage that ether the standard brush or the foam one. This was followed by putting some grey top coat on the patches of primer that I put on the roof last week. Its a real bodge job, just scraping the flaking paint, treating the bits with Kurust, a prime and top coat, not bothering with any sanding as the whole lot needs to come off and be done properly.

Following all this activity we thought it was time for a pint, so I did a Mike and walked across the road to The Ship in my slippers, here we were spoilt for choice with 6 bitters on the pumps at £2.80 a time. In the end we had Conker and Owl which finished the afternoon nicely.

Off to the Nene day 8

2011-09-29T22:59:00.001+01:00

Last night we walked into town wit the view to eating at Weatherspoons, however when we arrived it was pretty full so we looked elsewhere and ended up in Hubs Place. The menu was fine but we didn’t think the fresh vegetables really came up to scratch.

This morning started faster than planned, I had a call from my sister saying that our mother had had a suspected stroke, luckily it turned out to be a false alarm and the problem was her diabetes and sugar levels, but we decided we would head home anyway.

Last time we passed through Whittlesey lock we were unable to operate one of the bottom paddles or “slackers” so I emailed the Middle Level Commissioners and received the reply that they would investigate, well they did come and look and left the equivalent of a BW Aware notice on it, in this case a note in felt tip pen on the back of a site safety assessment sheet saying its broken stuck on with insulating tape.

The water was very clear and we were able to see the fish happily swimming around until a small pike wanted a late breakfast.

We saw quite a few boats on the move, well a lot for the Middle Level with 5 coming by while we were packing the boat up. We left the boat at about half one and called in to see mum on our way home, who by now was feeling much better.

Off to the Nene day 7

2011-09-28T19:05:00.001+01:00

After shampooing the starboard side of the boat with Phil Speight boat wash we were ready to set off at 10 am. Just as we were about to leave a couple came down to the pontoon with 2 canoes, they had planned to canoe to Peterborough and back, but I have doubts they got all the way there before turning round.

As we entered Waternewton Lock they came paddling up behind us and asked if we minded if they shared the lock as there is no porterage point, It made little difference to us so they joined us, heading away well ahead of us.The same thing occurred at Alwalton Lock, here the banks are particularly high for getting out of a canoe, but they have left a hole in the fence to pass the canoe down to the down stream landing. About a mile further on they had pulled over to have something to eat.

As we approached the entrance to Ferry Meadow lake and mooring we caught up with an ex Canaltime boat who turned into the lakes. We continued on down to Orton Lock and made it ready to enter, we had just gone in and closed the gates when I spotted a Narrowboat coming down behind us, so we waited and it was the ex Canaltime boat again, he had just been into the lakes for a look. He was very interested that I held the boat both to the side of the lock for him to come in and also held back while the lock emptied, he had never used his centre rope, both him and the misses had jumped off with a rope rope at each end. I didn’t like to tell him that if I had been alone I wouldn’t have used a rope at all.

Below the lock the new moorings and lock landings are looking splendid, the sign says it cost £800,000 to refurbish them which I quite believe. I would not want to be on the river if the water was high enough to have to use the high level landing stage and I would imagine for normal use it would be quite noise but fun watching the canoeists.

We stopped by the park to do a pump out, well its hard to pass by when its free and I have heard that the one in March is not to good in the suction department. While we were there the crew of Balmaha walked up to tell us they were moored against the park down stream of Stanground as there was a funfair on the park and we would be very welcome to join them for a cup of tea, as we had almost an hour to spare before locking through to the middle Level that is what we did.

Quarter to three saw us outside Stanground Lock waiting for Tina to lock us down, but she already had a Narrowboat in the lock coming up so we had to wait for them.

We had planned to stop in Whittlesey for the night on the visitor moorings by the Manor Sports Ground but there were already 3 boats moored there, one of them was there when we came up with no one onboard, so we have moored for the night on the other side just before the lock waiting landing. Shortly I shall be taking Diana out for a slap up meal at Weatherspoons.

Off to the Nene day 6

2011-09-27T20:26:00.001+01:00

Last night we walked to the Chequered Skipper for a meal. The normal rout for this is to walk along the weir stream, over the weir and take the right hand path at the junction to follow the mill stream. When we reached the mill at the end of the stream we found the path fenced off, after climbing over the fence we saw a notice other side saying “Private, No Entry”. So when we returned nicely full we followed the official footpath to the pedestrian bridge at which point we followed the track round to the left which eventually brings you back to the weir at the junction. There is no official footpath from the moorings to anywhere but the EA use the track to get to the lock.

This morning we woke to thick mist but it had cleared before we set off at 10 am but it was very overcast and still, This made all the cobwebs very visible with the light dew in their silky threads.

It wasn’t until almost noon that the sun came out, the skies cleared and it was a very pleasant day for a trip down the river as can be seen by these people on an open boat enjoying a day out.

We topped up with water at Yarwell Lock and the notice by the tap proves that not all information on this river is up to date. On our way we passed the boater who had been stuck in the lock on Sunday, he said he had been in there for two and a half hours.

We carried on round Stibbington again admiring the property that we think is next to Pat Buckle’s, it looks as it it should be a boat club but I think it is probably a private residence.

Just upstream of this there is a stone obelisk standing right by the water. I wasn’t able to see if there is any inscription on it, maybe a bit of Googling when we get home.

We carried on to moor again on the EA pontoon at Wansford Station. Although the railway is not open to the public today were quite a few members about and I did get a picture of the diesel crossing the bridge, some time later it came pulling a very smart break van and a Royal Mail carriage, unfortunately it didn’t cross the bridge with them but shunted them back off the main line. The Break van looks very smart in its fresh brown paint.

A little later I looked out, and no it wasn’t a plane I saw in the sky but a Virgin Hot Air Balloon drifting effortless across the sky, what a wonderful evening for it.

Off to the Nene day 5

2011-09-26T18:02:00.001+01:00

Well last night we ate onboard again last night as the pub doesn’t do food Sunday evening, nor on Mondays so we wont go back tonight.

We were treated to the most wonderful sky as it started getting dark, the only thing to spoil the evening was the cows on the far bank singing to each other. They continued well after dark before wandering off to another field the other side of the weir stream.

We had a few heave showers overnight I could hear them above the sound of the weir but by the time we were up the sun was out. As we were taking the dog for a walk a boat came up the lock, I expected him to be long gone by the time we returned to the boat at 1030 am. but he was just going round the corner and not travelling to fast so we decided to up sticks and try to catch up to him before the next lock. As we approached the Warmington ( no sign of Captain Mainwaring) the gate had just started to lower but after a couple of long blasts and a wave it was on its way up again. This is the first of the manual locks. The boat in the lock was “Shropshire Lass” and the lady onboard who we had not seen before is wheelchair bound so they have wheel steering so that she can drive from the wheel chair. We agreed to share the following locks, he set off first and we closed up, lift the gate etc. The church at Fotheringhay looked magnificent in the morning sun.

Just before Perio Lock there are parcels of land for sale 60ft by 80ft with fishing and mooring rights, car access and mains water. These are being sold by a local estate agent Woodford & Co Tel.01832274732

At Perio Lock we found our new friends sitting on the lock landing as there was a boat coming down, the only one we were to meet all day. There was bit of a delay as he came out of the lock as he realised he had left his windlass on the lock side. This was an easier lock as it is electrified unlike the last lock of the day Ashton Lock where we bid good by to our friends as they head off onto the canals.

Once out of the lock I reversed back into the weir stream and moored with our bows almost against the canal portage where we sat in the sun and ate lunch on the front deck.
Diana walked off into Oundle, it took her 20 minuets to get there to do a bit of shopping and have a look round town while I scraped off a bit more paint from the roof and treated the rust patches. I really need to strip the whole lot but I keep putting it off and doing bits. Just after she arrived back a second boat came downstream and moored in just behind us for the night.

Tonight’s plan is to eat at The Chequered Skipper in the village, I have already rung them and they do do food on a Monday evening and if its as good as last time I will be quite pleased.

Off to the Nene day 4

2011-09-25T17:22:00.001+01:00

Needles to say both the other boats had departed before we were up this morning. The cruiser just crept away, but the Narrowboat who was moored against us rattled well before setting off.

It was a bit windier still warm and sunny, I am keeping a close eye on the weather because I know the Nene can rise very quickly if they get any amount of rain further up.

Just before we set off the 10 am steam train crossed the bridge on its way to Peterborough at the same moment that a boat was coming under the bridge so a quick snap was taken, the angle could have been slightly wider to get more of the engine in.

There is a very smart building at Sibbington that looks as if it should be a boat club but I don’t think it is, I will try to get a photo as we head back down stream, its right beside what I think is Pat Buckle’s yard.
We made our way upstream through Wansford lock, just below the lock an Environment Agency weed cutter was moored up, this was much smaller than the last one we met on our trip down the Nene.

As we approached Yarwell lock there was a boat on the lock moorings and the guillotine was down. The people on the moored boat explained there was a boat trapped in the lock, they had gone in and tried to close the guillotine which dropped a few feet by its self and then wouldn’t move so they were stuck. EA had been called so we breasted beside them and had lunch. It wasn’t long before two EA chaps arrived and diagnosed a sheared bolt in the drive. A new bolt was fitted and the gate raised exposing the stuck boat. Just then another boat came upstream and past both of us who had been waiting some time and headed straight towards the open lock, I explained the situation but he carried on only to be stopped at the lock mouth by EA as they wanted to run the gate up and down before anything went underneath it. So boat number 1 who had been stuck since I don’t know when went up alone. This was followed by a boat coming down, the late comer still tied to the bollard at the lock mouth. I then dropped back to let the boat on the inside of us go in as he had been waiting longer than us fully expecting the other boat to slide in, but no, the crew came back and said we could both go ahead of them as they were only going to fill with water and then come down again. The fact we had been waiting 2 hours wasn’t mentioned.

Once up in the lock I left first, its not he easiest of locks to leave as its a very sharp turn to the left and the river flows across the mouth of the lock to the weir on the right, added to this there was a fair blow coming down the river and then I spotted 8 swimmers coming down stream who wanted to get out on the lock moorings, right where I wanted to go to fill with water.
Once they had crawled out and dragged their canoe out I pulled in and filled with water, this still left 2 swimmers and the back end canoe who hat to swim past me to get out.

Just past the lock on the right hand side there is what looks like an alligator on a stick, I spotted him last time we came this way but was to slow to get a photo.

I haven’t posted a plane photo recently so I thought I would include this shot of a powered glider just to make up for it. We moored for the night just above Elton Lock hoping that they are doing food tonight in the Crown Inn hoping its as good as it was last time we came this way.
We had only been moored up about half an hour when the other Narrowboat moored here started the noisiest petrol generator I think I have come across and there is a cruiser between us, so we are not close.

Off to the Nene day 3 part 2

2011-09-25T15:48:00.001+01:00

When we moored at Wansford Station moorings yesterday afternoon we were the only boat there, but I moored right at the back of the pontoon with the mooring ropes angled inwards to use a minimum of the bollards in case anyone else should arrive while we visited the Nene Valley Railway, it was just as well we did as when we came back another Narrowboat has squeezed on the end, I offered to drop back a bit more but they said the weren't stopping and were soon on their way. A little later a cruiser arrived and tucked in, it turned out that he had lost his reverse gear and was planning to leave early the next mooring before the wind got up and there were other boats about. About an hour after this a Narrowboat came down stream looking for somewhere to moor so we breasted them on the outside of us for the night. We got chatting and it transpired that he had bought the boat in Wigan and was making his way to Cambridge where he was attending college and intended to live on the boat while he studied and also did the boat up. I asked if had a mooring sorted to which he replied he was on the waiting list and had gone down from 100 to 67.

While we were visiting the Nene Valley Railway we noticed they had a steam special running to Peterborough and back leaving at 7 pm.
It was a “Banger and Mash” special with a quiz and I was hoping for maybe a good photo of it with the carriage lights on. Unfortunately for me they were 10 minutes late leaving and took a very slow trip to Yarwell eating their dinner before crossing the river to go to Peterborough. By then it was quite dark, to dark for my camera hand held to handle. If they had have been on time then there might just have been enough light just as there was for the shot of the signal box.

A short time after the train had gone two cruisers came down the river breasted together, one was in total darkness with no power whatsoever and the other one was relying on his cabin lights with all the curtains drawn closed, so just a glow.
It must have been about 10 pm before the train returned and all the party goers started to depart in their cars, this was the same time that we were taking Magic for his last trip out before bed, as we walked along the road the sky was clear with no moon and I spotted a shooting star, it definitely looked different to what I saw the night before.

Off to the Nene day 3

2011-09-24T18:53:00.001+01:00

The moorings at Ferry Meadow were as we expected quite quiet with the exception of the resident flock of Canada Geese that were swimming round our stern late at night, luckily they didn’t stay too long before moving off for the night. As we walked the dog I saw ether a shooting star or a bit of the satellite returning to earth. It streaked through a slightly cloudy sky but seemed to leave a burning trail as it went which was visible for several seconds.

The other bit of excitement was a burning haystack between the lake and the river which required the attendance of the fire brigade, this was still smouldering when we passed this morning

The island just behind the moorings is home to several cormorants and they could be seen sitting it the rather bare trees catching the morning sun. Some were all black while others had white chests.

With the moorings all full last night one Narrowboat just dropped anchor in the middle of the lake, there would have been plenty of room for him to have breasted up but once he saw 4 Narrowboats there already he didn’t even come close.

We set off at 11 am this morning, just as the cruiser who went through Stanground before us yesterday arrived, so I was able to tell him that there would be a vacant mooring in the next 2 minutes if he just hung on. No soon had we left than the boat that had been the other side of the pontoon pulled out as well. The other two boats were planning to stay for another day.

Once back on the river we turned left, upstream and could see 4 more haystacks, this are made from 3 large bails stood on top of each other and as we passed the farmer was carting them away, lifting a stack of three at a time.

We didn’t meet another boat until we reached Waternewton. The mill must be the prettiest building on the river.As we approached the lock I spotted a boat coming round the bends as we entered the lock. I am thinking to myself this will save stopping to empty the lock when we are through and raising the guillotine gate. We had just lowered the guillotine gate and Diana was lifting one of the top paddles as the boat arrived. It turned out to be friends of ours on “Dragon Lady” who we bump into about once a year. After spending some time catching up we pushed on to moor for the night on the EA floating pontoon just by Wansford Station the home of the Nene Valley Railway, as we came in to moor the steam train was was just returning back from Peterborough, I took a photo as it crossed the bridge but found I had a tree branch in the shot right in front of the engine, but as it was a weekend there was a regular service back and forth so I was able to get a better shot of the next one leaving.

As I stood on the pontoon I could see two chaps hard at work cleaning the signals at the end of the platform, they hadn’t been down half an hour and the next train sat in the station ready to depart belching smoke all over the nice clean signal.

Off to the Nene day 2

2011-09-23T19:34:00.001+01:00

The only problem with the moorings at Whittlesey is the close proximity to the railway, some of which found it necessary to blow their horn as they approached, however they didn’t keep us awake so maybe they didn’t run all night.

This morning we woke to bright warm sunshine with no wind, the water was like a millpond. As we didn’t need to be at Stanground Lock until 2 30 pm. we took a walk round the town. It was much bigger than I expected and it looks as if the moorings by The Manor sports centre are as close to the town as you will get. If you need a post box there is one just a few yards to the right of the main gate. The town still has several pubs including a Weatherspoons but we didn’t see much in the way of shops other than the Post Office. We spent a bit of time looking round the church where we were made welcome and given tea and biscuits. One of the things that caught our eye was a large patchwork completed in 2000 showing different scenes around the area.

Back to the boat and by 11 30 am we were away. The first obstacle was the Whittlesey bend, I didn’t negotiate this as well as I may have done but still, I didn’t bash the walls and I have an excuse, there were several people watching. At the end of the walled section I met a cruiser, I pulled well to the right but he still stopped mid channel and then reversed back as I approached before moving over to the side.

We we came this way last there was a sunken boat by the houses along Kings Dyke, its still there.

It wasn’t long before we pulled in to the lock moorings at Stanground Lock, it was only about 1 pm and Tina called out to ask if we were waiting to go through or if we were having lunch first. Thinking it was probably her lunchtime as well we said we would eat first. About quarter to Two 2 cruisers came up behind us and pulled along side, they were booked to go up at 2 pm but Tina came straight out and told them to go into the lock together, I wandered up and gave Tina a hand closing the bottom gates and she told me to enter the lock as soon as she had turned it, so it was now Diana’s turn to help.

There is a plaque on the lock wall indicating when it was lengthened in the winter of 1989 1990. It looks as if it could do with a bit of a polish but I thought better of mentioning it as I still wanted to get onto the Nene.

Just before we joined the main river I spotted a Kingfisher land in the bushes, I took a quick photo hoping for the best as I could not actually see it, luckily the camera could.

Again there was very little flow on the Nene and quite a few boats moored along the park. One of the cruisers that locked out ahead of us was now moored to the railings by Asda to do a bit of shopping, just ahead of them someone was feeding the swans.

There was a train “parked” on both the bridges crossing the river in Peterborough but as we passed under the second one the signals changed and he started to drive off, I wonder if he always drive with the door open.

Last time we were this way there was major reconstruction work going on below Orton Lock and a temporary lock landing stage had been anchored right back at the road bridge, I eased in and dropped Diana off onto the pontoon, no sooner had she gone than a smartly dressed chap informed me that the new lock moorings were now open, I suggested he didn’t mention it to Diana who by now had walked all the way round the back of the site. He was an Environmental Agency chap along with 3 other managerial types and asked if I would mind if he photographed me at the new moorings.
The work includes a lock waiting area, a lowered level for canal portage and then a short section of 24 hour moorings with tall sliding mooring posts to make it flood proof. There is even a high level walkway to get off your boat in times of flood.

As we passed the PYC i noticed a cruiser which I thought was listing a bit and mentioned it to Diana but she pointed out that there was a group of people onboard in the cockpit having a drink which what was probably the cause. As we passed a chap came out and shouted friendly greetings to us (makes a change) and wished us an enjoyable trip, it turns out he reads our blog. Just by him there was a very interesting boat moored up. It look quite a bit narrower than a “Narrowboat”.

We carried on a short way before turning sharp left into the cut leading to Ferry Meadows moorings. We have never been here before so didn’t quite know what to expect. What we found were two floating pontoon moorings about 70 foot long and one of them was vacant so we slid in and moored up. The only down side is they are covered in galvanised steel grating which didn’t impress Magic to much when he hopped off to go for a walk.

Off to the Nene day 1

2011-09-22T20:55:00.001+01:00

After unloading the car and topping up with water I backed out of the moorings at 1440 hrs. in a steady breeze which I needed to turn into, but it wanted to take me sideways faster than I could bring the bow round, so I had to cheat.

We headed off towards Whittlesey where we planned to moor for the night. Just west of our moorings you will find fishing peg number one, an hour later we passed number 150, thank goodness there was no one using them.

We did pass two fishermen opposite the Meridian sign who were quite chatty and friendly. We were only making about 3 mph with quite a bit of vibration on the tiller, that could only mean one thing but it would have to wait.

Between our moorings and Whittlesey lock there are 300 fishing pegs and not a single angler on any of them, however there was one on the lock landing with his net out and all his stuff strewn about and another 3 fishing in the lock its self.

As the bottom lock gates have to be left open I could drive straight in and Diana climbed the ladder so we didn’t squish the fisherman’s gear. The ones fishing in the lock packed up and left, I didn’t see if they climbed the railings or had a key for the gate.
It takes about 80 turns to draw the top paddles and of course the same to lower them before drawing the bottom one as the lock has to be left empty with the gates open and the paddles or “Penstocks” as they are called round here down. One of the bottom paddles we couldn’t move so this slowed things down a bit. We still wound the windlass some 420 turns.

Once through the lock we moored for the night at 5 pm. on the visitor moorings by the recreation ground. Once secured I set to and removed some black polly from the prop which should improve things tomorrow, I then changed the oil and filter followed by checking the water levels in the batteries. Once that was done I was able to sit down with a glass of red and some olives.

Cooking on a Back Cabin Stove

2011-09-03T14:14:00.001+01:00

I have read about the old boatmen, or should that really be Boatwomen cooking a meal in a bucket. I assumed that it was just a case of putting all the ingredients in metal bucket they already had onboard and standing it on the stove.

This week I visited the East Anglian Transport Museum at Carlton Colville and in the building displaying road repairing machinery which included a living waggon I saw this poster on the wall.

It is plain to see that this particular cooker was sold complete with a bucket for cooking in.

I welcome any comments as feedback on this topic.

Plodding on the Middle level 11/08/11

2011-08-16T18:29:00.001+01:00

Last night I did wonder if we had made a mistake mooring overnight here. I went to bed early but there was no chance of sleep, the Town Hall clock strikes the hour, the traffic roars round the one way system, then its 11 pm. The clock chimes 11 times, but that is the last time it chimes until 7 am. in the morning. The noise from the traffic drifts away to silence and I get a good nights sleep.

This morning we set off at 10 am. I know the time, the clock was chiming. As we made our way through the town we started to be aware that it was yet again windy. We passed this charming little boat before once more passing the Middle Level Commissioner's new offices. I don’t know why they put in all that quay heading because they didn’t put in any mooring rings or bollards.

As we approached Botany Bay bridge we spotted a rather forlorn looking tug, I guess it must be the property of the MLC but it doesn’t look as it had been used for several years.

From here it was only a short run to our moorings at Floods Ferry and at 11 15 am. we were sliding into our slot. The wind was blowing straight down the cut towards us as we approached the moorings which made things much easier as I just put the bows round to the left and we slid straight in.

Plodding on the Middle Level 10/8/11

2011-08-10T16:42:00.001+01:00

Last night we went to The Five Bells which was a bit disappointing. The general atmosphere of the place was quite dismal with light fittings that had no shades and more importantly no beer on the pumps, only pressurised stuff and ice cold larger, if I want to drink bottled beer I can do it much cheaper and more comfortably indoors. The food however that we had was very good and I must admit it came as a pleasant surprise. We both had stir fry spicy beef that was both tender and tasty.
We found the moorings quite noisy with a road both sides of the cut, it was a mixture of cars and lorries overnight and then tractors and trailers speeding through early this morning.

We didn’t get away until 1040 this morning, we took Magic for a walk first and came across 3 lovely pear trees growing on the side of the road beside a field, we stopped and picked up a few fallen pears but they are not ripe yet. By now the 4 boats that had joined us last night after 6 pm had departed and just as we left another boat arrived to take our place.
A phone call to Maureen to tell her we were on our way was only answered by the answer phone, so I guess she was out locking the other boats down. When we arrived at Marmont Priory Lock it was empty and while Diana rang the bell for the lock keeper I closed the bottom gates, we had drawn the top paddles before she arrived with 3 nice bags of ripe plumbs in her hand, one of which we bought. As we were leaving the lock another boat appeared behind us.
We were now back on the old River Nene which is both wider and thankfully deeper.

A short way past the lock are some farm moorings, one of the house boats moored her is a bit unusual as it has a Sedum roof on it, still the owner has a good supply of water to keep it moist.

but by the time we reached the wind turbines the conditions had freshened quite markedly and we were pushing straight into a good headwind.

The turbines closest to the water were quite audible with a slow steady beat in time with the vanes passing the pillar. I am glad I don’t live next to the ones at home.

We decided to moor for the night in March and there was about half a boat length free on the Town Moorings so with the use of a centre line and a spring holding the bows both in and back from the bow of the cruiser moored ahead of us. They may be more space the other side of town, but once you are passed and there are no other spaces it a long way to the next mooring.

We were securely tied up by 2 pm and wandered off into town to find where my mother was born. The house she was born in has been demolished and rebuild but we were able to find the premises where my Grandfather was an apprentice grocer which is now an estate agents.

Plodding on the Middle Level 9/8/11

2011-08-09T17:46:00.001+01:00

Last night I expected the wind to die away with the setting sun, I was wrong, it blew all night and at some time we even had a little rain.

This morning we woke to bright sunshine and the wind had moderated quite a bit but it was still breezy and it strengthened as the morning progressed. After ringing my grandson to wish him happy birthday we were on our way, back up to The Old River Nene and then sharp right at the wind farm. Yesterday I had rung the lock keeper at Marmont Priory to tell we hoped to be there about 10 30 this morning and as I only got her answer phone I left a message. What I failed to tell her in that message was my direction of travel and about quarter to ten this morning she rang me back with the news that she had a boat coming down about then so everything should be set for us. In the event we arrived about quarter past ten just as the other boat had entered the lock. Maureen the Lock Keeper was able to give us information about shopping in Outwell, I doubt we would have even looked for a shop without her information.

At Marmont Priory Lock the water way becomes Well Creak, but it is still the old River Nene and is quite a bit shallower than the rest of the Middle Level, also the water level is much closer to the top of the banks which means that the view is much better.

As you progress through Upwell and Outwell, the villages run into each other there are some very interesting old buildings along the banks.

We stopped in Outwell in what is known as The Basin, here there are free 36 hour moorings provided by The Well Creak Trust on the left. I think it would be possible to wind a 60 foot Narrowboat there, I did try it with Harnser just to see if we could get round.

You pass under a bridge just before the basin, it is one of the few arched bridges on the Middle Level and interestingly on the south Key stone it inscribed 1852 and on the north side one it is 1682 After a bit of shopping we decided to continue to Nordelph and wind there where the un-navigable section of Popham’s Eau joins from the right. On our return journey we noted that the staith on the right was actually a public staith, again with 36 hours mooring. It is right beside the main road but in the middle of nowhere about half a mile from Nordelph. This was before we crossed Marmont Aqueduct which was back pumping from the lower Middle Level Drain up to Well Creak

On the stretch between Outwell and Nordelph they were busy harvesting, I am not sure what they were cutting, it looked far to dark and brown for corn and far to short for rape, but the amount of dust coming from it was out of this world, its a good job the driver sits in an air conditioned cab, unlike my days when you sat on the front with a hanky round your mouth and a pair of government surplus orange goggles.

Once back in Upwell we moored for the night on the very pleasant town moorings beside the church, again these are free 36 hour moorings sponsored by The Five Bells pub where we will visit later

Question for today is this the fruit of the Monkey Puzzle Tree and would it germinate in the UK.

Thanks to Sean for telling me that yesterdays aircraft was a latest model RAF Hercules (six propeller blades -
the older ones have four)

Plodding on the Middle Level 8/8/11

2011-08-08T17:39:00.001+01:00

We arrived at the boat yesterday early evening and after unloading the car headed into March for something to eat at Wetherspoons. The one in March use to be the old Hippodrome cinema and like most old buildings that Wetherspoons have taken over has been very tastefully converted.

This morning we woke to a glorious,sunny day and after filling with water and walking the dog we backed out of our slot across the cut. By now it was quarter to ten and the wind had started to freshen, Diana said “which way are we going” as I crossed the cut the westerly wind caught the bow and we were heading for March. Through the first of many flat bridges, nothing like the nice brick ones on the canals, just a concrete deck on steel beams straight between the top of the banks. On out left we passed Botany Bay, It didn’t look much of a bay, just like the rest of the farm land around these parts.

We didn’t see any potatoes being grown, just corn and sugar beet, but them must grow an awful lot by the size of the stacks of potato boxes that we have passed.

As we approached the town of March we passed the “Middle Level Commissioners” new headquarters with about 300 feet of nice mooring outside, the only thing to spoil it was the “No Mooring” signs. This is not a bad project for an organisation that claims its strapped for cash.

Just after you go under the road bridge with a sign welcoming you to March you pass the “Middle Level Watermen's Club” They are members of AWCC so should offer reciprocal hospitality.

There have been some new moorings installed in March since we last passed this way. They are to the west of the town at a place called “Little London” just before the foot bridge. They are long enough for two Narrowboats and crossing the foot bridge soon brings you to Boots the Chemist, a nice Fish and Chip shop (we bought lunch there) and Lidl, its also handy for Wetherspoons, probably closer than the “Town Moorings” .

After lunch we continued on our way. There were only 3 boats on the Town Mooring and we did wonder about returning for the nigh, but if we did we would had to gone back a long way to wind.
There are lots of private moorings on the left as you make your way out of town, lots without any boats on them, but some may well be out cruising.

As we left the shelter of the town we found the wind had

freshened and had probably almost reached gale force, well there is a very good reason for all the wind turbines they have
erected in this part of the world. On the left hand bank someone has a collection of military equipment including a field gun. Once we passed the Twenty Foot river we started to look for somewhere to moor as not only was it blowing a gale, the sky’s were dark and it was threatening with rain. We passed one likely looking spot but it was right opposite the wind turbines and I don’t know how noisy they would be in the quiet of night. We pushed on and turned right into Popham Eau heading for Three Holes, by now the wind was full on our stern and the threatened rain started, luckily it didn’t last long, as we approached the first bridge I spotted a landing stage on the left hand side, I think this is probably the property of MLC and we are probably not suppose to use it, anyway I winded Harnser before we reached it and ran down onto it backwards so that we were bow to wind and we have moored with our bows against it, with the stern just clear of the bridge.

Since we have been moored up we have had several aircraft fly over us, some high, some low, sum fast and some slow, but all noisy.

The Big Move is OVER Floods Ferry

2011-07-22T18:22:00.001+01:00

After an undisturbed night by the rowing lake we woke to a sunny morning, again we had to set sail earlier than usual so after saying goodbye to our neighbours, well a wave, we were away by quarter to nine and heading out to the main river, down through the town and passed all the boats moored against the park who had not been cut adrift, set on fire, spray painted or even had the stuff nicked off the roof over night.

Opposite the park we turned right off the main channel down Morton Leam for about half a mile, passed Peterborough Boat Centre where diesel id 88p lt and a house that is obviously the base for the local pirates until we came to Stanground Lock. We arrived at 9 30 but were not booked through until 10 am. While we waited a second Narrowboat arrived and tied beside us, they were booked for 9-45 and as soon as the 9-30 boat coming off the Level left they were on their way down, closely followed by us. Chatting to the lady lock keeper I found out that the lock has been quite busy for the time of year and that she had another 15 boat booked for today.

It was very pleasant meandering down the Middle Level in the warm sunshine. There was not enough wind to turn the wind turbines and the smoke from the brickworks was slowly drifting skywards.

It wasn’t long after this hat we came upon another strange dwelling that caught my eye.I am not sure who the occupants are but I feel sure I have seen them on TV at some time.

The next place of interest is Whittlesey with its very tight right angle bend, it is possible to get a full length Narrowboat round it just, but you will probably need to use a rope or pole to do it. Just prior to the bend there are two pubs, just about opposite each other on ether side of Kings Dyke. One is The Boat and as you can see is bright blue the other is The Hero of Aliwa.

We stopped for lunch on the moorings just above Ashline Lock next to the recreation ground and while we were there several boats came up the lock and a Narrowboat went down, When the last pair of cruisers came up we went down, as its necessary to leave this lock empty, so it saved them the trouble of turning the lock after leaving.
The next part of the Middle Level is fairly straight with very little of interest until you come to the Meridian Line which is symbolised by a plaque. It was not much further to our new mooring at Floods Ferry. When we arrived there were several empty berths and we had no idea which was ours. so we slipped into a vacant slot and walked up to the office, unfortunately there was no one there so I have left a message on the answer phone and asked them to contact me when they return so that I can put Harnser into the correct spot.

The big move day 9 Peterborough rowing lake

2011-07-21T20:06:00.001+01:00

Last night we ate at The Crown Elton, this is probably the most expensive pub we have visited this trip but very enjoyable.
When we returned to the boat the wind had died right away and the water was like a mirror, not a ripple to be seen. Some chaps fishing below the lock caught a 15 1/2 lbs. fish just below the lock and the boats moored across the river looked as if they were floating on glass.

Today we had planned to leave about 9 am as we needed to get to Peterborough, as I walked the dog along the bank I met to fishermen, a few years older than me, one said “is that your truck” pointing to our boat, I had already overheard it was moored on his favourite fishing spot. I told him we would be departing as soon as I got back with the dog and he was very appreciative. By now it was quarter to nine and Diana wandered down to the lock to get it set ready, by now many of the boaters opposite were up and about, but we had a clear run.

As we made our way down stream we passed under a concrete bridge at Wansford which carries the A1 that stands on the old county boundary of Huntingdonshire and Soke of Peterborough with the information cast on each side of the river.

It has the date cast into the centre of the arch MCMXXVIII which I think is 1928.

Not long after this we came to what must be the prettiest mill on the whole river that stands beside Waternewton Lock.

As we pushed on we came to the Peterborough Yacht Club, a fine title for a fine body of people. This is a boat club on the banks of the Nene that not only sells diesel at a very fair price but they are also very welcoming to visiting boats and boaters. They have a section of there quay right outside their club house that is reserved for visiting boats with a big sign saying welcome to visiting boats, how different to some of the clubs we have passed with their Private and No Mooring signs. I stopped and filled up with diesel at 80p/lt but they only do a 60/40 split so not good for live aboard boats that don’t move much.
As we waited for Orton lock to fill we were joined by another Narrowboat, we had only seen one other all morning. Below the lock there is major construction work on-going and the temporary lock landing is well downstream of all the construction work. The water flow below the lock has very confused eddies which draws the boat out to the right as you leave the lock. The boat we shared with was going to moor for the night at the Rowing lake like us, but in our case we had to go into town first to pump out the loo tank. That’s one of the good things about this area, the pump outs are free, so we were able to give the tank a good flush out. Whilst there we also topped up the water tank, that’s one of the poor things, you can go a couple of days without seeing a water tap so you need to fill up when the opportunity arises. The one in Peterborough is like the ones on the Thames, a 1” fire reel so the tank fills in minutes. I wonder in fire hoses are made from food grade pipe?
This exercise was followed by turning round and heading back upstream for 20 minuets and then turning sharp right into the stream that runs alongside the rowing lake to moor at the end.

The big move day 8 Elton

2011-07-20T15:58:00.001+01:00

The boat we towed yesterday afternoon with no drive called out and joined RCR who fitted a couple of lengths of 15mm copper pipe in the feeds to his calorifier, the old flexible ones had sagged onto his gearbox coupling and worn through. He then traced the lack of drive to a lack of oil in the gearbox

Yesterday evening we walked into the village and had dinner at The Chequered Slipper in the village of Ashton. The history of the village is very interesting and worth a few minutes read.

Yesterday I posted this photo of a Kite which I thought was supporting wing tags, thanks to a posting from Dr Neill it looks as if this bird was tagged in Rutland If you follow the link you will see much more information on tagged Kites.

We set off from our mooring in the weir channel at about 10 30 am but it was 11 am by the time we cleared the lock, ahead of us was a Narrowboat with 2 ladies who pulled there boat into the lock on ropes and a cruiser sterned Narrowboat with a couple, the husband was 89 and was giving me nightmares. Both boats were well tied up before anything else happened. He had his own handle to fit the lock wheel but he needed spanners to remove it, so once the lock was open for them to leave we had to wait while he removed it. he then insisted his wife through the centre line over the other boat so he could pull her across once the other boat had left and so it went on. I was pleased there were two of them and I didn’t have to share with ether.
Once we left the lock I went at canal speed to ensure they got well ahead and when we arrived at the next lock they had gone.

There was no one moored at Fotheringhay above the bridge and only a few below. One of the boats moored below was nb. Moriarty who are the new occupants of our old mooring at Napton. As we approached Warmington lock we could see the two boat that we had been following above the lock, but they were both moored on the offside with no one on board, so I expect they have walked over to Eaglethorpe for lunch. The river use to run through Eaglethorpe in a large loop but the lock has now bypassed the village by quite a bit.

We carried on to moor just above Elton Lock, I think we have moored on the wrong side and should be on the same side as the old mill, but we have stopped just before the lock landing as the water is deeper and the land flatter for getting Magic on and off.

The weather today has been cool with a few light showers and very little sun shine, the other thing we have noticed today is more irrigation pumps sitting on the bank ready to water the crops.

The big move day 7 Tuesday

2011-07-19T16:08:00.001+01:00

After we had eaten dinner we walked up the hill and round the church, the view across the hills from the top is quite good. The overnight mooring was a very quiet, the only thing to disturb the evening was 3 people in a canoe coming by and back in the dark, not in my opinion the most sensible thing to be doing. our neighbours for the night were two long horn cows with a calf, but they didn’t disturb us at all.

This morning we were away at our normal time of about 10 am. the boat moored a little way upstream left at the same time so I went upstream to where he was moored to wind as the river was a bit wider there.
The morning started off very warm and it was strange to be going along with the hot sun on my neck and able to see the rain falling in the distance, it did manage to catch up with us about half an hour before we moored up for the day.

We have seen quite a few Buzzards and Kites today as the river ran beside the woods and I managed to get a few photographs, looking at them after we had moored up it looks as if this one has a pair of tags on his wings, but I may be wrong.

We met a couple of boats on our way down, the first was heading back to Milton Keens as they only had a weeks visitor licence, the second was on their way out from the Middle Level they had bought 3 one day licences at £7 to do the Nene and then two 1 month licences for BW waters.

We have moored for the night above Ashton Lock on the weir stream, This is quite long but there were only 2 spaces big enough for a Narrowboat when we arrived a 1 p.m. We luckily chose the first. After lunch the boat that had been moored in front of us last night arrived and as they had helped us moor I offered them to breast beside us, however they felt they could get in the gap further down, so we went to take their ropes. We got them in OK but then found there was a wasps nest right beside their fore deck, needless to say the decided not to stay and have moved to moor on the outside of a friends boat.

Since we have been here a wide beam has been down, turned round and left, we did offer him the chance to breast as he went by, which is much more than he did for us last night when he was moored outside the pub and we were looking for somewhere to stop.

A Moored Narrowboat has decided to move on, he untied got to mid stream and then lost drive. I started Harnser, untied and we went and got him and towed him back to where he was moored, so its gear box or drive plate problems for him.

We have had heavy showers with thunder and lightning and to top it all the EA managed to squeeze their van passed all the mooring pins to drive down to the lock and back.

The big move day 6 Wadenhoe

2011-07-18T18:03:00.001+01:00

It was a bit windy over night so we were pleased to have a secure mooring.

An early start was called for this morning as we were to meet Graham and Brenda at Thrapston for lunch. The morning show was was out as we were getting short of water, we had expected to be able to fill up here last night, but not only is the pump out not available, nor is the water point.

It was quite a bit cooler this morning, enough to need a jumper on as we set off at 8 15 am. We didn’t see another boat on the move all morning. As we approached Thrapston bridge I could see Graham moored on the visitor moorings up a small cut on our left. He had gone in backwards so I thought it best to do the same. It is a very tight entrance for a Narrowboat. The entrance turns across the flow through the multi arched bridge and then bend round almost 90 degrees so the mooring is almost parallel to the river.

View Thrapston Town Moorings in a larger map

The way I approached it was to just let my bows enter the navigation arch of the bridge and then start reversing towards the town mooring, I then used my bow thruster to drive the bows to the right and against the flow of the river. At this point I was travelling backwards, across the current and upstream but close to the bridge. It is not something I would have tried if there had been any more flow on the river. As I got further into the moorings I was getting clear of the river flow and just had to turn right and come in beside Graham.

Once moored we could refill the water tank again while we had tea and cake courtesy of Brenda with them and the local EA officer. Once this was all taken care of we went for lunch at The Woolpack They only do bar meals at lunch time but Brenda had a good pile of sandwiches made with brown bread, served with chips while the rest of us had ham, double eggs and chips. It was all very nice, washed down with a couple of pints of bitter.
After lunch we said our goodbyes after discussing the best way to continue my journey down stream. It was thought that to turn out or the moorings and go up stream, turn and then come down through the bridge, but I thought that as I had got in from having my bows under the bridge I should be able to get out that way. So I went out very slowly forward aiming straight across the river until the flow caught the bows and carried them under the arch, I put the rudder over hard to the right , gave it lots of power and went cleanly through the main arch, unlike the chap last winter who had to be rescued by the fire brigade when he failed to get through the arch.

We met our only boats of the day on the next stretch of river, 1 Narrowboat and the Environmental Agency’s weed cutter. This is an interesting craft as the wheel house is mount on hydraulic rams so that it can be lowered to pass under the many low bridges, there was only 2 Mt's headroom under Islip foot bridge when we went under it so it was less when the weed cutter came this way this morning.

There was quite a bit of water coming over the top gates of Titchmash Lock as usual, it was suggested that we may as well not open the top paddles as the lock would soon fill with the overflow. Once we were in the lock and it was empting we had quite a build up of foam around the back of the boat. While we were locking down the second Narrowboat of the day arrived below the lock waiting to lock up so we warned him about the weed cutter ahead. We had hoped to moor at The Kings Head opposite Wadenhoe lock but there was no space so we turned back upstream and moored below Wadenhoe Church for the night.

The big move day 5 Irthlingbourough

2011-07-17T19:16:00.001+01:00

Yesterday evening the weather improved quite a bit and by the time we went to bed the wind had died away and the moor was lighting up the sky.

We woke to a bright morning with little wind, the boat ahead of us had already left. I went up onto the flood wall to take this shot of our mooring. It was OK but we did hear the traffic on and off throughout the night.
We set off at our normal 10 am start and turned sharp left through the flood door and on to our first guillotine lock of the trip. Most of the gates are automated now and you just have to stand with your finger on the button for about 30 seconds to raise them, but before anything will happen you have to have the top mitre gates completely closed, If a bunch of weed gets between the top gates then the guillotine gate lifting mechanism is locked out. When you leave the lock you have to leave it with the gate raised. This means that going down stream you have to drop the gates and fill the lock before you can enter, but then you don’t have to hang about when you leave the lock to close it all up.
Just through the lock is the Northampton Boat club, this is an AWCC club but it doesn’t look very inviting to passing boaters with all its “No Mooring” and “Private” signs. A little further down stream and you are in Billing Aquadrome land, they have a marina, static caravan site, touring caravan site, Off road driving course and also host several large events, this weekend it was a Landrover gathering with dozens of them on the camp site and the more serious ones on the off-road course.
As we passed the entrance to Billing Marina a cruiser shot out behind us and followed us down stream so we were expecting to share a few locks with him, however as we entered the lock cut to Cogenhoe lock he turned round, but there was a narrowboat waiting to enter the lock, so we had someone to share with after all.

At Whiston Lock not only was there a boat about to leave the lock which meant we didn’t have to fill it it but there was quite a bit of flotsam in the river above the lock, I have no idea why this had all collected at this particular lock but it was quite thick.

At Earls Barton Lock we were watched by a family of rather fine horses, I take it this is where the saying “You scratch my back and I’ll scratch” yours comes from.

The other boat left us just below Woolaston lock to take up there new moorings in the weir stream and we spent the rest of the day travelling alone.

There were a few boats moored in Wellingborough by the park, but we didn’t fancy this as its right opposite the mill which emits a constant whine, so we carried on to the Irthlingborough moorings outside the Rushden and Diamonds football ground. The football club use to sponsor these moorings and there use to be a toilet pump out and fresh water point available on the moorings as well as showers and toilets in the club building. Unfortunately since the club has been in administration these facilities have been closed, a great lose to passing boaters. When we arrived there at 4 30 pm there were only one other boat moored here, by 7 pm there are 5 of us.

The big move day 4 Weston Favell

2011-07-16T16:04:00.001+01:00

We took Magic out for his late night walk down passed the lock, the lock was empty so I was able to see through the water to the bottom, the cill only being a few inches below the surface. This lock is home to the biggest Signal Crayfish I have ever seen, they are like small lobsters. I wouldn’t want to be swimming round with them nipping my toes.

Well last nights moorings were so quiet you would have heard a ghost walk by. We were not set adrift, nothing was pinched, we were not set fire to. The first thing we heard was voices as some people passed at 4 am. and I jumped out of bed with the shock. The next thing we heard was the rain on the roof and it was almost time to get up.

With the rain bucketing down we were not keen to get away, Diana took Magic out and he was well soaked when they came back. We pushed off about quarter to eleven and just as we were leaving the bottom lock of the Northampton Arm a boat came off the river to go up, so they should have a good but damp run.

I didn’t realise that the new marina was above the lock, I assumed that it was going to be built below on the park to the left. It looks quite nice with a powered sliding fence/gate to shut it off from the park.

Just above the first lock someone has painted the brick face of an old bridge on the off side so they must have done it from scaffolding or a boat. It was ten past eleven when we entered the first lock on the Nene.

By now it was raining harder and there were some poor chaps working on the roadway/towing path just below the lock, I think they thought we were mad being out in this weather for pleasure when they had to work in it, still we were better dressed for it than they were. It always amazes me how poorly lots of works dress for the British weather, very few have waterproof coats/jackets and you hardly ever see waterproof trousers, even the farm labourers and road workers of years gone by had a long coat to put on in the rain.

Do the rowers on this river have a death wish? We came onto the wide straight section that goes under the A45 road bridge and leads to Rush Mill lock when a lad rowing came towards us rowing right up the middle of the river so I kept well right to give him room to pass. After probably 150 Mt he turned and cam back down the river but this time not in the middle but right behind me. I had to blast the horn to stop him ramming me from behind. As we approach the A45 bridge a girl rower shoots out from my left across in front of us, as I had seen her coming I had slowed right down, as she was now on my side I stopped, she in turn straightened up and was rowing full chat up the wrong side of the fiver towards me ready to hit me head on. Do they not realise that 18 ton of steel is not going to bounce out of the way if they hit it. She looked round just in time to dig the blade in and slew it one side before sliding passed, nether apologised for there behaviour or causing me to take avoiding actions.

We pushed on through another couple of locks meeting a boat who had just left Abington Lock, for some reason they had made a half hearted attempt to close the top gate behind them, not enough so that a following boat would not have to walk up and close it, but to much for me to sail in without letting Diana off to open it first. There is a steady flow of water over the top gates of this lock but it only has a small fall so not much chance of swamping a boat coming up.

We then went through the first of the automatic sluices onto the Washland Flood relief scheme relief channel. The gate on this sluice lays on the bed of the channel and is hinged up on ropes in time of flood, but the actual gate is mounted the opposite way to what you would expect on a river as its designed to stop flood water coming upstream, not flowing down. At the far end of the relief channel there are 48 hour EA floating moorings about 150 foot long, as there was on boat on them already we tucked in behind them to stop for lunch at about 1 o’clock. Needless to say as soon as we stopped so did the rain.

This afternoon the sun has come out but the wind has freshened and while we have been moored here another boat has tried to get in, we said they could breast on us, but with the wind they were unable to get back up the arm.

The Big Move Day 3 Northampton

2011-07-15T21:18:00.001+01:00

Last night we went out for dinner with Richard and Rachel to The Heart of England which is almost canal side at Weedon. This is owned by the same brewery as The Boathouse in Braunston and although it was all right with good service we didn’t think it as good as the Braunston one.

This morning we said our goodbyes and set off at 0945 hrs. in pleasant weather. The first stop was Stowe Hill where we topped up with diesel at 82p.

On passed High House Wharf where the topiary is still being trained by the bridge

For those of you who know an old Springer Narrowboat called Badger, she is still looking splendid moored on the offside as you approach Gayton. She obviously went to a good home.

At Gayton junction we turned left onto the Northampton Arm and stopped at the services to top up with water. There is a metal box on the wall of the services that was put there by the Northampton Branch of IWA, you require a BW key to open the door and according to what is written on the lid it should contain guides to the Northampton Arm, unfortunately it was empty.

Just down the Arm on the right hand side is a rather strange summer house, well I assume its a summer house, it could be a granny flat.

We stopped for lunch opposite Gayton Marina, to get into the marina basin the swing bridge has to be opened, this is fully automated, complete with road barriers and audible warning bleeper, I don’t know if its normally left open to boat traffic or road traffic but I wouldn’t want to spend to long listening to it.

Gayton sell FAME Free red diesel i.e. it doesn’t contain any Bio Fuel. Bio Fuel can be hydroscopic and hold water which could lead to diesel bug. but at the moment it is 99p lt. for domestic and £1 49 for propulsion.

Following lunch we headed off to the locks, we couldn’t see anyone ahead of us but there was a boat following. We arrived at the top lock at quarter to three and as expected the lock was empty, with a single top gate and mitred bottom gates when they leak they tend to empty, but there was plenty of water in the flight so no problem. After doing the second lock we caught up with another boat. At first we thought he was single handed but as it turned out he had a disabled wife who used an electric scooter to travel from one lock to the next, she was able to stand to raise the paddle on the towing path side and push the gate open but was unable to operate the bottom gates or cross the lock. Diana went ahead and told them just to leave the bottom gates open when they went out as we would pick them up, but even so they were very slow and in most cases Diana helped to open the bottom gates as well while I waited in the lock above.
We followed him all the way down to lock 13 where he had pulled over as his wife was unable to negotiate the slope under the motorway and allowed us to pass him. In return we back set all the locks for him.

We moored for the night at quarter to seven by the flats just above the bottom lock as I didn’t fancy going out onto the river this late and then trying to find somewhere to moor e . The second boat to come by kindly informed my that a friend of his mate moored here last year and got untied during the night. I wonder how many places on the system some one has not been let lose at night and its only a canal, not a flowing river.

The Big Move day 2 Weedon

2011-07-14T17:53:00.001+01:00

Well to say last night was a mistake was an understatement, we walked up to The Kings Head at Napton, there was a car in the car park and I think there were 2 people in the bar. I asked if we could eat only to be told they had finished doing food, well it was 8 o’clock. They have more signs than any other pub in the area along the canal advertising how great the place is, no wonder its empty, I bet the Folly and the Bridge weren’t empty at 8 p.m. so it was back to the boat for a tin of stew and dumplings.
The moorings here are a bit shallow, I couldn’t get the back in, but by the time we turned in for the night there were 4 boats moored here.

This morning started early with boats passing well before we were about. the sun was streaming in and we pushed off at 9 30 am. Diana has a sniffle and I have the Flu, well I am a man.

BW are hard a work piling where the bank has collapsed but all there equipment makes looking through the bridge hole for oncoming traffic a bit difficult.

We made steady progress to Braunston where we filled with water and emptied the rubbish. The old boat on the puddle Banks has sunk again, but it now has a trade plate attached to the cabin side. The other sunken hulk is also still there.

As we made our way to the bottom lock two boats were coming out and a single handed lady waiting to go up so we slid in with her. We were lucky in meeting boats in most pounds but we did catch up with 2 boats going up at the third lock which was surprising. As we left the top lock the hotel pair Duke and Duchess were coming down. Braunston tunnel is the driest I have ever known it with only two drops of water on the roof all the way through. We didn’t meet anyone in the tunnel but we were following the boat that locked up ahead of us which limited our speed somewhat.

At Norton Junction we found “Sunset” a Rose hire boat moored up with Richard and Rachel on-board. We met them on there last canal holiday when they went south along the Oxford. After saying hello we both set off down the flight, the top lock was full and one gate was open so things were looking good. We met several boats in the flight, so we were saved shutting most of the gates when we left. One of the pounds was well down as can bee seen from this moored boat which is hard on the bottom with its propeller on view. We continued south both mooring for the night at Weedon. One things for sure, passing boats don’t slow down in these parts. We will have another try at eating out tonight, there must be somewhere in Weedon that does food.

The Big Move day 1 Napton

2011-07-13T19:37:00.001+01:00

We made good time getting to the boat, as we drove over the canal between Napton and Southam we spotted or friends from Suffolk on their boat, so a quick blast on the horn and pulled to the side of the road for a chat. It turned out they were only going as far as The Folly that night so we would see them later.

We left our moorings at about 4 p.m. for the very last time and moved down to the lock to load up following a Viking hire boat, this worked quite well because by the time it was our turn to enter the lock we has finished loading up.

We had a reasonable run down the flight having to turn a few locks and just over halfway down we were met by John, windlass in hand who had walked up from where he had moored to give us a hand. There were a couple of spaces on the bend by The Folly but it was a nice evening and we decided to push on. All the moorings by The Bridge were taken so we have moored just before Napton Narrowboats, surprisingly there is only one other boat moored here, its normally full when we pass and we intend trying the food at The Kings Head.

Canoe Trip from Geldeston

2011-07-01T18:35:00.001+01:00

On Thursday Diana and I hired a Canadian canoe from Rowan Craft at Geldeston for 3 hours. It was a bright sunny morning with little breeze. We set off from the boatyard down their cut and under the disused railway bridge. From here it was passed the 2hr.. visitor moorings that are very hand for walking into the village to visit the Wherry pub or buy home made chutney from the farm shop. It was a straight run from here to the junction with the river Waveney where we turned hard left towards Beccles. There was very other little traffic about but we had been warned that the Broads Authority weed cutter was out, this was one of the few boats we were to meet on our trip. When we did meet it they took the trouble to stop and tell us that a grass snake was swimming across the river, we stopped and it swam straight into the side of the canoe before turning round and heading back from whence he came.
Just after that we were overtaken by another canoe that had been hired from Beccles, it looked a lot easier to propel than ours did so I may enquire about hiring one of them next time.

The next vessel we saw was Big Dog Ferry, this runs from Beccles Lido to the Locks public house on a regular schedule.

The only other boat we saw was a small aluminium dingy powered by an outboard engine. There was only one chap on-board and the bows were well out of the water. We only went as far as the pump station before turning round and heading back upstream. There was only a light breeze blowing down the river but it made a surprising difference to our progress.
Back at the junction we turned left again to follow the Waveney towards it source and it wasn’t long before we reached the head of navigation, there is not chance of missing this as it has a low foot bridge crossing the river, this takes the footpath from the Locks pub to Barsham. It may be low and it may be the limit of navigation but in a canoe you can slide under it quite easily, which is just what we did and carried on upstream for about another three quarters of a mile. before turning round yet again. In years gone by sailing wherries you to go all the way up to Bungay and beyond. We are going to see how far we can get another day.
On our way back downstream we turned off to the left just before the bridge to see if we could get round to the tail of Geldeston lock, or to use its correct name Shipmeadow Lock. The bridge that marks the limit of navigation is actually on a new cut that by passes the lock. We were doing quite well round the horseshoe bend and probably over three quarters of the way there before our way was totally blocked forcing us to go back. We passed back under the footbridge and then up the old line of the river through the lock, this took us in front of The Locks inn and the BA 24 hr. visitor moorings before going through the old lock chamber and under another very low foot bridge, its hard to tell where the old navigation went from here as its so overgrown with reeds and trees, we did try creeping round to the right but still couldn’t join up with where we were earlier.
By now time was getting on and we headed back to base, On the way we met another group of boaters who we think had started at Beccles and were from Gresham School as their trail was at the boatyard when we arrived waiting for them, the only problem was that was not where they were heading for.

After leaving the Waveney at the Tee junction and heading back down towards the boat yard we turned left yet again down one of the dykes, this turned at right angles and ran parallel to the main dyke but turned out to be a dead end just short of the yard so for the fifth time we turned round and retraced our steps. Back on the main dyke it was hard left again towards the yard, but instead of going under the old railway we looped pound a short cutting and had a look round all the moored boats.
The railway bridge is far to low for anything larger than a rowing boat to pass under so it was necessary to make a new cutting round it for boats to enter and leave the yard.

We hired the canoe for 3 hours which cost us £22 and included the use of buoyancy aids and a waterproof bag for our valuables.

View the route of our Canoe trip in a larger map

Cotswold Canal Trust

2011-06-25T19:11:00.001+01:00

The Cotswold Canal trust plans to install a Hydro electrical generator at Dudbridge Lock. They are hoping to get help help with funding and needs your support. You have to register to support but that is easy with no personal info required. All the information is in the link below.

http://www.energyshare.com/dudbridge-locks-hydro/

Dudbridge Locks Hydro Scheme

Introduction

The Cotswold Canals Trust is working with the Stroud Valleys Canal Company to implement a small scale hydro power scheme to utilise surplus water flowing down the Stroudwater canal at the Dudbridge Locks near Stroud. Both organisations are registered charities.

The Cotswold Canals Trust is the largest canal society in the UK with nearly 6000 members and the Stroud Valleys Canal Company was set up in 2009 to take on the role of maintaining the canal and is effectively the canal landowner.

Aim of the Project

The aim of the project is to derive a long term sustainable income to help support the maintenance and operation of restored sections of the Cotswold Canals into the future for the benefit of the public and the wider heritage and wildlife environment. In the absence of any likely substantial subsidies from the public sector, this kind of innovative form of income will be important. We anticipate that the hydro scheme will generate a net income of about £21,000 of green energy per year and this will be supplied to the national grid. We expect CCT and community volunteers to help run and maintain the completed hydro scheme and its location adjacent to Marling School offers significant learning opportunities.

Technical Outline

The Dudbridge hydro scheme is reasonably straightforward and non-controversial in that it takes the water that currently cascades over two locks and generates power from it. The scheme has been fully discussed with both the EA and Stroud District Council and the necessary approvals are being secured.

The scheme has an intake above the upper lock and discharges immediately below the lower one. The fall is about 5m and the flow rates depend on the flows in the canal that derive from the combined flows from Painswick Stream and Slad Brook.

The analysis carried out in the design produced by HydroGeneration, a local company, proposes an Ossberger crossflow turbine with a maximum recommended flow rate of 0.700 m3/s but capable of operating efficiently down to 0.117 m3/s. This should generate a maximum of 23kW and 108,196 kWh in an average flow year.

The civil engineering element of the project is made more complex due to the nature of the site and the need for the scheme to be integrated with that necessary to restore the canal. It also means that the civil engineering works have to be undertaken at the same time as the canal works and these are schedule for later this year.

Marling School is adjacent to the installation site and the project will assist in teaching the pupils about engineering projects.

Financial

The budget for the whole scheme is £310,000 which includes a 15% contingency with the first £110,000 phase due to be completed this year to coincide with the canal restoration work. Capital funding is expected to come from a number of sources including grants, sponsorship, and, if necessary, a loan covering any manageable funding gap to be repaid using some of the hydro income.

We are seeking grants and sponsorship to help us bring this project to fruition.

Ken Burgin, Chief Executive - Cotswold Canals Trust 14th June 2011

Tel: 0752 590 0374 Email:ken.burgin@pikelock.com

Napton 20 June 2011

2011-06-20T20:52:00.001+01:00

If anyone is interested at 4-30 this morning the moon was high in the sky, the mist was rising off the canal, there was no wind and it was a bit chilly outside. Magic woke up, went down the front of the boat and woofed, last time this happened we ended up with a mess on the floor, so I was up, overalls on ready to let him out, what did he do, have a big drink, he also barks if he is thirsty. Once full of water it was down the towing path for several wee’s before he headed back under our bed and went back to sleep.

We set off at 10 am, the pound had come up since last night and we had drifted in against the side, now the ropes were slack and every passing boat caused a bump. I considered filling with water at the Cropredy services but as there was a boat already there and we met a boat that had just come down the locks we pushed on.
As we left Cropredy lock another boat pushed off ahead of us and started to come towards the lock so we were able to leave the gates open. As we departed I spotted this little chap enjoying a snail for breakfast.

The site of the proposed new Cropredy Marina is a sea of blue at the moment full of Linseed wavering in the breeze. As we approached the end of the straight I just caught sight of the back end of a boat ahead of us, as we came to Broadmoor Lock they were just leaving but there was another boat waiting to come down. The whole day went like this, meeting a boat just leaving a lock and another approaching as we left. We caught up with the boat ahead again at the bottom of the Claydon Flight, they went in just before we arrived and by the time we were ready to go up to the lock there was a boat coming down, again this was repeated all the way to the top of the flight. We had to close the top gate as there was no other boat in sight but a hire boat arrived before we got as far as the bridge.
The cottage at the top lock is selling organic lettuces, green or red, this week for 80p each and they are a nice size so we bought one.

As we came into Fenny Compton, stopped at the Marina having their lunch was the Hotel Pair that we have been seeing all week. We stopped for a chat with the skipper to see how things were going, I would imagine he had fun this afternoon pulling them round the bendy section of canal between fenny and Marston Doles. We expected to see him mooring opposite us tonight at the Engine Arm but there is no sign of him.

The visitor moorings through Fenny Compton were all full with even a hire boat moored on the water point (what’s new) so we decided to carry on back to our home moorings. As we chugged along I spotted my first Grass Snake of the season swimming happily along the off side bank and then Diana took over steering for a while wile I went below, I was aware of the boat not just slowing down to pass moored boats but stopping so I looked out of the front doors. There hard on the wrong side on a right angle bend was a hire boat, tight against the off side piling and going slowly backwards. When he saw us he stopped and waved us by, so we passed on the wrong side, as we went out of view he was still going backwards and forwards on the outside of the bend against the piling. He only needed to put his boot against the piling and push ether end out and he would have been away, but they just stood on the back deck going first forward and then back.

I didn’t photo any planes flying over today but I did get this one at Marston Doles on the ground, just before we stopped to fill with water, again all the moorings were full. Just as we had finished filling a boat came up the lock, Diana went to give them a hand which was handy as both the bottom paddles were still open. We met a second boat between the two Marston Doles locks and a third as we left so it was quite a good day for locking. We are now back on our home moorings for the night before heading back to Suffolk.

We have done 146 miles 63 narrow locks and 20 broad locks 78 engine hours

Cropredy 19 June 2011

2011-06-19T20:31:00.001+01:00

We started slightly earlier than usual. We moored just below the lock moorings last night and just as Diana was taking Magic out two boats came by, so I walked up to help the first one through, once they were on their way up Diana came back with the dog and I said to the second boat I better join the back of the queue, to which he offered me his turn so he could sit and eat his breakfast.
As we left the lock and thanked him the hotel pair turned up and they in turn followed him up. We continued on to Banbury where Diana made a quick visit to Morrison’s before we continued on to the town moorings, as I pulled in at Town Lock the hotel pair pulled in to the services, I would guess they fill their tanks every day.
We moored in the town to go for a Fathers Day lunch with my daughter, her husband and his parents and my grand daughter.

The town was empty of boats with only 4 on the visitor moorings in the centre of town and 1 on the moorings opposite Sovereign Narrowboats. There are only half a dozen boats on the Spice ball Park moorings but there is still one with his bows half way out under the foot bridge. We had a steady run from Banbury through to Cropredy meeting boats near each lock so gates were open of locks empty which eased our passage.
We had a chat with the chap who owns the lock cottage at Bourton Lock, someone smashed his front door in last week and stole his solar panels which hasn’t helped him. I would think the best thing he can do is move in as soon as possible. There is major earth works going on around the back of his cottage where that are building the Banbury flood relief scheme, This will be a large, normally dry reservoir that will be able to hold flash floods coming down the Cherwell and releasing them in a controlled manor. The pond through Cropredy was down by about 6”, better than when we came down, lots of the visitor moorings were free when we arrived at 6 pm but have filled up since, we weren’t able to get anywhere near with the first spot we tried, but now the bow is against the towing path and the back is not to far out.

I only managed one aeroplane photograph today and it was only a quick shot on the bend, coming out of Banbury with a hire boat coming the other way, so its not a clear as some of the others I have posted, but hopefully you will be able to identify them.

Kings Sutton Lock 18 June 2011

2011-06-18T22:04:00.001+01:00

We woke to a nice morning, the Hotel Pair came by at about 9 15, there had been boats going the other way but nothing else in our direction. We set off about 10 am just as the rain started. Diana and the dog were walking but Magic soon went off that idea, he tells you he has had enough by getting hold of his lead and heading back home or to the boat, so I had to pull over and pick them up.

As we approached Northbrook lock there was a boat locking down. They told us how low the next pound was, it was down by a good foot and even in the middle I was bouncing on things in the first section. At Dashwood Lock the hotel pair were struggling, they had boats coming down so they had to leave the butty on the lock moorings which went had aground while the motor entered the lock, it was not helped by them having a brand new crew who had only joined them the day before so the skipper was having to tell them all what to do. I think we must have been there for at least three quarters of an hour or more, time to photograph another three plane going over.

There were a steady stream of boats coming down and 3 waiting at the top. I dropped Diana off at the beginning of the lock mooring but I was unable to get anywhere near the side as it was far to shallow. We all made good progress after this with the rest of the pounds well up to weir. The hotel Pair pulled over for lunch by the Somerton Common which left us free to continue. The house on the off side has a rather smart summer house /tent. They have it out most years and they have a great view down the canal from it.

We stopped to fill with water at Aynho Wharf and while we were there I took the opportunity to fill up with diesel at 86p and self declaration. After filling both tanks we pulled over to the visitor mooring and I walked round to the Railway Tavern to book a table for this evenings meal, unfortunately the only time they could offer was 6 pm. much earlier than we like to eat so it was dinner on-board. As it was only 3 30 pm we decided to push on for a bit longer, finally stopping just below King Suttons lock for the night at 1730.
We were expecting the Hotel pair to pass us as they were planning to moor overnight at Twyford Bridge but so far there has been no sign of them and it getting dark.

Tackley 17 June 2011

2011-06-17T18:19:00.001+01:00

Last night we walked down to The Talbot for dinner, I was a bit put off when I didn’t see any beer engines on the bar, surly I wouldn’t be down to drinking fizzy stuff? But then I spotted them, 3 barrels sitting on a rack behind the bar, each with a tap in it and a thermal jacket on to jeep it cool. All was not lost after all. We ordered our meals which turned out to be good home cooked food. I had Shepard’s pie with lots of meat in it and Diana had Beef stew again with loads of good meat in it, we followed this up with slice of apple pie.

A bit overcast this morning but fine, everyone was saying how bad it would be today, but I looked on http://www.metcheck.com for Oxford and it didn’t look to bad and that is how it turned out.
After filling with water we headed for the lock at about 10-30 am which we shared with a Wilderness boat called Sloe, we told them that another Wilderness “Tardis” had just locked down a few minuets before they arrived. They stopped just below the lock so we carried on down the Thames alone meeting just one boat on the way before turning into Dukes Cut to join the Oxford canal at Dukes Lock.
At the junction of the Oxford and Dukes Cut BW have erected an A4 notice telling boaters that this is the last winding point on the Oxford Canal for boats over 52 feet, beside it is a second notice telling you how to wind below Isis Lock, this is an A3 notice so you need binoculars to read it or do what I did to photograph it and trapse through the jungle beside the bridge. The notice is only required because BW installed a pontoon that takes up 13 foot of water beside the lock entrance. Its still no help in swinging a full length boat to the right to go onto the Thames.

We met a couple of boats before Thrupp so that put the locks right for us and we experienced a couple of light rain showers. As we came under the Langford Lane Bridge and round the bend we saw “Butterfly” the boat that had been moored by us last night, so we stopped for a short chat. Before they left this morning they had given us a bead key ring spelling out Harnser. They told us we were about to catch up with a slow moving Hotel Pair that were making their way up the canal. Luckily for us the Bywater Hotel pair http://www.bywaterholidays.co.uk were tied up against the services at Thrupp wharf topping up their water tanks so we were able to get ahead of them for today. As Diana lifted Shipton Lift Bridge nb Butterfly came up behind us so were able to pass under the bridge with me, at Shipton Weir Lock we invited them in beside us. This was a good move because I ended up receiving 4 slices of home made cherry cake, as they are only about 35 foot long they fitted nicely in the side of the lock, and followed us out onto the river with us. They then followed us until we moored for the night at Tackley when they continued north.

Eynsham Lock Moorings 16 June 2011

2011-06-16T17:05:00.001+01:00

If anyone is interested the weather was very pleasant at 3 30 am. this morning and dawn was well on its way by 4 am. Magic has an upset stomach as we found out at 3 30 am. when I took him out while Diana cleared up. this was repeated at 9 am as well, so his next meal will be Uncle Ben boiled rice.

We were ready to go at 9 30 but it started to rain, the sky was bright with very little cloud so we decided to sit it out for 2 hours, its been fine and sunny ever since. We have met a few Narrowboats today heading up stream and a hire cruiser went by just before we set off going down, we also saw a couple of cruisers going back up to their moorings but far more Narrowboats.

There were a couple of interesting plane went over last evening but as I was inside no chance of a photo, today they have been doing continuous circuits (CCs ?) some not even lifting the landing gear.

Being June 16 there are fishermen all over the place and even a lady fisher person with two rods and all the gear at Babcock Hythe mobile home site. Just below one of the locks a whole group of fisher persons had set up camp by the weir pool and there was a somewhat unusual shed on wheels standing there as well.

We only went as far as Eynsham Lock where we walked into town to buy the rice for Magic’s tea, we still came back with two bags. There are some handy leaflets at the lock, “Eynsham Shopping Guide” which shows the town layout including shops, pubs, bus stops and point of interest. One of the things that interested me was this flowering tree growing by the entrance to The Elms, a early 16 century house, of course the Elms are long gone with Dutch Elm disease. I photographed the flower and leaves so hopefully will be able to identify it.

Morton 15 June 2011

2011-06-15T18:45:00.001+01:00

A late start today as a bit of shopping was called for to replenish stocks of fresh fruit and veg plus some bread flour. By the time we set off at 1130 AM it was a steady drizzle and very overcast

At St. Johns lock they had a couple of electricians working on the lock keepers outside light. EA rules require all contractors on site to wear a lifejacket, so these two were in the garden and up a ladder wearing lifejackets. I wonder it they would have needed them if they had been installing a new cooker?

Today has been the busiest we have experienced so far this trip and in our short day we have met some 25 boats, mostly Narrowboats but one wide beam and one inflatable. We did manage to meet a hire Narrowboat on a right angle bend and they were hard on the wrong side which lead to a bit of smoke from the exhaust as we stopped while running down stream. There is hardly any flow on the river at all but it still makes a marked difference to your progress once you are going down hill again.

Yesterday I posted that there was work going on at Radcot Lock weir, I managed to get a better photo of it as we came down stream today

I also managed to get a photo of the large bull we saw yesterday who was all by himself in the field, all the others we have seen have been with herds of cows. This chap was a monster compared to them, unfortunately he was just laying about to you don’t see him in his full glory.

There is a rather interesting structure at Shifford lock called “The Shifford Lock Insect Lodge” I don’t know who was responsible for it but its quite a grand structure, I hope the intended occupants enjoy living there.

We had to work a couple of locks ourselves as we caught them at lunch time and a 5 pm we moored against a concrete edge at Morton about half a mile above Harts foot bridge, no sooner had we tied up and magic hopped off than he found a dog biscuit on the path, a niece little bone shaped one.

The Head of the Thames 14 June 2011

2011-06-14T20:12:00.001+01:00

Next door left quite early this morning well before we were up. The sun was streaming in and we took Magic for a walk along the Thames path opposite the pub. It must be dog muck heaven, I cleared up 10 lots in the first 100 Mt's from the road access and none of it was there when we walked by yesterday tea time.

We were back on the boat a little after 10 30 and on our way upstream. The first lock we came to was actually “Self Service” as the lock keeper was sanding down and recoating the beams, unfortunately he had forgotten to turn the self service sign so he helped us through with both Diana and him working paddles and gates.

They are rebuilding the weir at Radcot Lock and have some serious lifting equipment on site including two large cranes.

Further on at Radcot there was a male swan with the ends of his wing feathers well worn protecting his territory from a young cob. He chased him round pecking at him but didn’t drive him off completely, once he turned back down stream he seamed happy and things settled down again, we also saw several Curlews with their plaintive call. They were sitting out in the grass until we passed by and then would jump and fly up the river. The other thing we saw were several bulls, the first was in a field by himself laying under a tree by the river, I think he was probably one of the largest bulls I have ever seen, the others were all with herds of cows.

We pulled in for water just above Grafton Lock and it would seem that the EA or probable the NRA as it was then, had more shackles than they knew what to do with so they welded two to every length of piling to support a safety chain.

We continued on winding at the head of Navigation where we expected to see a big notice saying “Entrance to the Thames and Severn” but there is nothing which when you consider that IWA are having a big campaign to pay for the restoration of Inglesham Lock that would have something to show boaters and their members where it is.

Tadpole Bridge 13 June 2011

2011-06-13T18:05:00.001+01:00

The weather didn’t improve much yesterday and was still blowing when we went to bed. This morning was much better, the rain had stopped and the wind dropped and shifted round a bit.

We set off about 10.15 AM at a steady pace upstream, we didn’t share any locks and only met a few boats during the morning. We pulled over for lunch about half a mile below Newbridge for an hour or so before continuing up stream.
We met a few more boats this afternoon, three of which were hire cruisers all with lady drivers but we met more narrow boats and also had a couple following us.
As we approached one bend I spotted a cruiser coming towards us and held back, then I spotted a Narrowboat bow coming round the bend with the cruiser overtaking him. If I had continued at my original pace he would have been on the deck by my garden bench now.
We spotted a white Egret feeding in the shallows on one bend, these are getting more common now, but its mainly been an afternoon of aircraft spotting.

At one point we passed a strange craft moored with a few other boats and what looked like a small funfair in the field.
What caught my eye was the bike, these are very common in Holland but I spotted one just like this as we came through Thrupp and as we are not a million miles away by road it could well be the same one.

We decided to moor at Tadpole Bridge for the night and eat in The Trout. There was already one Narrowboat on their moorings but we managed to squeeze in behind them, just.

PS. I see from Twitter that the boat is still aground by Oxford Common and has now been joined by a second one.

See http://yfrog.com/h0d56ruj

Windy Thames 12 June 2011

2011-06-12T16:48:00.001+01:00

Yesterday evening I was sitting in the lounge when the boat rocked, just like it does when someone steps on the front deck, I looked up and there was an oriental lady siting on our bench seat. She waved at me through the doors as I looked up, said sorry and goodbye before leaving again.

This morning we rigged the anchor ready for the Thames and set off backward passed all the residential moorings. It was 11 30 before we set off in steady rain that had been falling since the early hours. On our way back we spotted this pretty little craft moored amongst the wide selection of residential boats.

Since we were last here BW/EA have installed a row of buoys across the cut, there are still two boats moored below them but the buoys are in two staggered rows so I suppose they could get out between them if they ever wanted to.

As we traversed Sheep wash cut through the old railway swing bridge, the deck of the bridge is very clear to see, I think this may be down to clearing the undergrowth from around it. I hope this is not the first step to removing a bit more of the history of the canal. As you pass the old gear system for rotating the deck is very visible. There is a piece of old film on YouTube showing this bridge being moved in the 50s at http://youtu.be/Pt5Me7EyfRc

Once out on the Thames we turned right, upstream towards Lechlade, as we passed the meadow on out right this narrow boat was high and dry. When we reached Godstow lock I asked the lock keeper how long it had been there, her answer surprised me as it only went aground today, from how high it was out of the water he must have slid up at a fare lick, I thought he had been there weeks from when the water was much higher. We had just passed this when we met 3 people swimming down the river not far from the pub landing stage. Although the landing stage has now been rebuild and says “No Mooring” under the pub name, There are small signs on the actual decking and the down stream end is reserved for customers while the upstream end is “No Mooring” so we may be able to pay them a visit on our way down stream, if not we can turn into Dukes Cut and moor overnight on the canal.

The Lock Keeper at Godstow said she would let the approaching boat into the lock before us as it was a hire boat, what a wise young lady. They rocketed into the lock hitting the right hand wall, hard astern and swinging over to bash the left, stopping just before the gate. They finally tied up on the left and we slid in beside them. The offed to let us go first but I assured them they would be much faster than us so they shot off.

We saw this unusual craft moored at the Abbey ruins and the rest of the bank upstream from them looks to be occupied by long term moorers. We caught to the hire boat at the next lock which was on self service, they wondered for a while why the lock wouldn’t fill with all 4 paddles up. We left the lock first but they passed us by Dukes Cut with the bow wave almost up to the gunwales, we continued on at a more sedate pace until we decided to pull over on the right hand bank for lunch. I spotted a nice spot, right on the outside of a wide bend, the grass short and even a scaffold pole driven into the bank, I drew close, dropped the speed right down to zero and we were against the bank, bang, as if held by magnets. The wind is blowing straight across the river from the south pinning us hard against the bank, I would struggle to get away from here if I wanted to but the weather is so yuck we will stay until tomorrow.

Oxford 11 June 2011

2011-06-11T19:38:00.001+01:00

Another fine morning with a very picturesque mooring, the train runs behind the hill which dampens the noise quite a bit, also I suspect that they are shot blasting the railway bridge at Aynho so reducing trains at night. We decided to walk the dog towards Pigeon lock but as he showed no sign of wanting to return to the boat I walked back alone and finally caught them both up waiting at Pigeons Lock for me, about a mile for a 14 year old Lab is not a bad morning walk.

Once Diana and the dog were back on-board we pushed on to Bakers Lock where we dropped down onto the Cherwell, as we exited the lock there was a Hire boat with about 8 chaps on-board trying to round the bend by the bridge, they eventually sorted them selves out and headed for the lock we had vacated, surprisingly we met 4 boats on the Cherwell and still Shipton lock was empty.
I don’t know it its the dry weather but all the lift bridges on this canal seem a lot better balanced so are a lot easier to open.

We winded at Thrupp just before the electric lift bridge to visit the services for water and a pump out. Diana went and bought a card for £12 and when the hire boat that was there filling with water moved off we slid in to do the business. I put the card in and it popped straight back saying card empty, I took it back and exchanged it, the same thing happened, I went back for a third and the chap came back with me. Silly me, the first one had started the machine but I didn’t hear anything happen and I expected the display to say “card accepted” not just empty as it had just used the credit to make it work. We were hoping to moor for the night in Thrupp but all the moorings were full so we continued on to Oxford.
We had a few spots of rain between Thrupp and Oxford, not heavy but enough just to a jacket on, we passed two kids fishing with no umbrellas so one of them had but his chair on his head and the other had pulled her knees up under her jumper and done the same thing, unfortunately her chair had just fallen off when I took their photo.

here we had another interesting incident. As we approached Perry’s lift bridge there was a boat coming the other way, we both pulled into the moorings before the bridge and both had crews go to the bridge, the oncoming crew, after a bit of wiggling unlocked the bridge and opened it, the other boat came through so I started to head for the bridge, a passer by who had been there since the key was first put in the lock at this point, jumped up, grabbed the edge of the bridge and closed it down so that he could walk over to the other side.

There is a chap who acts as a volunteer lock keeper at Wolvercote lock, we have seen him before, I don’t know if he is official but it is handy as that is the first lock that the Collage Cruiser boats have to work as they travel north. We carried on into Oxford passing the mouth of Louse Lock to moor at the very end of the South Oxford canal, we will have to back out in the morning as there isn’t a winding hole at the end, this means that very few visiting boat venture up here.

Bridge 212 Tackley 10 June 2011

2011-06-10T19:47:00.001+01:00

Last night the owner of the wharf opposite dredged the winding hole out with his digger, he was probably at it for a couple of hours so hopefully boaters who try to turn there in the future will find things mush easier.

I also walked up on to the bridge where I found this old weight restriction notice on the south parapet wall, it is a shame that one of the voluntary canal groups can’t give it a quick coat of black and white paint.

The canal south of Banbury is much quieter than between Banbury and Braunston. We met our first boat as we were filling Kings Sutton lock, it was a shame they didn’t arrive 5 minutes earlier as it would have saved us filling the lock, but at least we could leave it empty. The next boat we met was this couple in their canoe who as they put it were out for a constitutional paddle. They went as far as Kings Sutton lock and then returned to Nell Bridge overtaking us on the way. By the time we arrived at Nell Bridge there was no sign of them.

As we approached Nell Bridge Lock there was a lady opening the bottom gates so I let Diana off before pulling back on to the lock moorings. Once the oncoming boat was in the lock the lady rapidly wound her near side paddle up, so Diana followed suit with the offside one. Sir on the helm seemed quite happy with this and was a local boater, but one of the results was a large plume of fine mist coming up from the paddle gear. I saw it with the lady drawing hers and manage to photograph it when on Diana’s side.

We had a morning of showers and as we approached Chisnell Lift bridge is started raining quite heavily, as it was lunch time we decided to pull over for a bit while we had something to eat and wait for the shower to blow over.

After lunch we moved off and had very little more rain, the down side was that we left just after a single hander who was moored on the other side of the bridge so ended up following for the rest of the day and before anyone jumps in, yes we did help him by opening the bottom gates and closing up after him.
Most of Oxfordshire Narrowboats were out and there was a crew waiting to set off on one of the few remaining boats. We caught up with our single hander and the last hire boat to leave at Dashwood lock where they were receiving their tuition before continuing south. We continued on to just through bridge 212 between Northbrook and Pigeon locks mooring up at quarter to seven.

Twyford Bridge 09 June 2011

2011-06-09T20:27:00.001+01:00

We woke to bright sunshine and rain, a fine combination, by the time we set off at 9 15 am. the rain had stopped and unlike yesterday the wind had dropped considerably. There had been several boats passed before we set off, most of them travelling north and we met another 13 by mid day, the afternoon was much quieter. The eighth boat we met this morning, on a bend ended up hitting us about 5 foot behind the bow. I had seen him coming as it was a clear bend so I held well back and hard in to the side to give him plenty of room. Obviously I didn’t hold back far enough as he started round the bend well but then ran very wide, I was in hard astern but it was to late to get clear of him, a bit more blue to touch up.

We had several showers in the course of the day but not enough to put a big coat on. At Claydon there was a boat just leaving the top lock as we arrived so that worked well and but the time we reached the second there was a boat in that as well. We caught up with a single hander half way down the flight on the bend. It was the first time we had seen him but he was a bit slow, even with us closing the gates for him when he left we still caught him up before he entered the next lock all the way to Cropredy where we were pleased to see he had pulled over.

In Cropredy the pound was well down and a lot of the moored boats to the south of Cropredy where hard aground with their counters out of the water. We met a few boats between here and Banbury where it rained a bit more. To the south of Banbury there was a pair of Hotel Boats Kerala & Karnataka moored and looking empty. Looking at there schedule next week they leave Oxford for Warwick, then just below Grants Lock we met Snipe but no Taurus in tow. We carried on a bit further to just before Twyford Bridge and pulled in for the night at 6 15 pm .

Wormleighton Mast 8 June 2011

2011-06-08T20:21:00.001+01:00

We arrived at the boat around 3pm and after winding, reversed back down to the lock to load up from the car, set off at 4 pm slotting into the flow of traffic all heading south. We had to queue at both Marston Doles locks and it wasn’t until we were on the summit we started meeting boats. We have had a few spots of rain but mainly sunny with a good breeze.
We moored for the night by the Wormleighton mast at 6 30 pm and there have been another couple of boat go by since we have been here. It not crowded but there are probably 6 of us moored here.

Tea and Sympathy the true canal spirit

2011-06-04T15:00:00.001+01:00

Those of you that read our blog regularly will know that last time we visited the boat our car broke down. To get home we had to call the AA as one of the rear air springs had burst.

I rang the AA at 9 am and they sent a man in a van to look, his first suggestion was to pick the back of the car up on his “Spectacles” That is a frame mounted on the back of the van where the car wheels sit in and tow the car backwards as far as Cambridge Services, the edge of his area, but on checking the vehicle spec he would be limited to 30 mph so he called for a lorry.

While we were sitting at the lock waiting for the lorry to arrive, Tony a boater who was moored below the lock walked up and invited Diana and I for tea of coffee. We declined his kind offer as the lorry would be her soon, only 2 hours from when the first man called for it. I then got a call to say the lorry would be there by 1pm (a little bit later). This was followed by a second call saying he was on his way but it would now be 1-15 pm. Not long after that we had another call to say it would now be 2-15 pm. before he was with us.

At this point I walked down to where Tony and Jackie who were on their boat Timewarp and asked if we could kindly take them up on their earlier offer as by now we were in need of refreshments.

We had never met Tony and Jackie before but they were kind enough to go to the trouble to invite us down for tea and make sure we were OK, the true spirit of the canals.

Thanks once again Tony and Jackie for your kindness. We finally arrived home at about quarter to 8 at night, it would have been later but the second lorry driver took us home before taking or car on to the garage.

Back at Napton 31 5 2011

2011-05-31T17:56:00.001+01:00

The sun was shining through the porthole straight into my face at 6-30 this morning, we moved off at 10 and by 10-30 it was raining, thankfully it didn’t last. We had to stop at Midland Chandlers to pick up the new Boatman’s Premier stove and we pulled in to MC wharf beside an New Zealand boat that was having a new set of batteries fitted.
The traffic was mayhem, a hire boat had stopped across the arm of Braunston Junction and wanted to tern round by backing up and just sticking his bow in the Napton direction, he may have made it if we and the other boat had not been there, eventually he conceded to listen and go forward towards Napton and then backwards on the other side or the triangle towards Braunston and then forwards again towards Rugby, where he had come from.
Next a Napton hire boat came from Napton towards Rugby, she was steering and he was operating the speed and gear control. not a good combination, not only did they hit another Napton boat but they looked as if they were playing that game where 2 players put there feet and hands on different numbered rings. This was rapidly followed by a Black prince going from Braunston to Napton at the same time as an ex Ownerships stopped with his bow across the junction, the BP hit the concrete edging and so it went on.

We collected our stove and headed off towards Napton in surprisingly light traffic seeing very few boats on the move at all. We considered mooring just past Napton Narrowboats to visit the Kings Head for lunch but the moorings were chocker block, we also met a BW tug pushing a flat at this spot with a load of what looked like stop planks on board. The next option was to stop at The Bridge where again surprisingly there were only 3 other boats moored.
Following a pleasant lunch and a pint we were on the move again only to have a chap tell us that there was a 2 hour wait at the Napton flight as he had just walked from there. On the strength of that information and the fact that 2 boats came by as I was waiting to push off we chugged slowly round the hill, passing BW installing piling just before the winding hole only to find that the boat ahead had moored up, the other was getting water, a third was at the sani station and the lock was empty, result, straight in and up, most of the locks were against us and we only met a couple of boats coming down, but by now the sun was out which made a big difference to the world.
We arrived at the top of the flight and winded in the engine arm before dropping onto our moorings at about 4-30. We will slide down to the lock later to unload the boat and fill up with water. Since we have been here there has been a steady flow going up and down plus a couple winding in the arm. Tomorrow its hopefully home with the AA.

60 Miles 22 locks and 2 AA lorries

Willoughby 30 May 2011

2011-05-30T21:20:00.001+01:00

Last night there were 2 fishermen set up for the night just through the next bridge complete with bivvie. When we passed them this morning it was all zipped up, the rods stood up and no sign of life so they were probably getting a bit of sleep, but what did strike me was they had a TV aerial erected on it.

Last nights moorings were quite close to the motorway and although the noise was not to intrusive we could hear it. When we woke this morning it was raining steadily and we could not hear the motorway at all, by the time se set off it was still raining, it rained all day, but again we could hear the traffic, so I don’t know if something happened that caused the motorway to stop for an hour or so

When ever we pass under bridge 24 I always wonder why it was built, there must be a good 30 feet clearance under it and it crosses both the canal and the railway, it looks a bit like a railway bridge or an aqueduct with what looks like a trough on a flat metal deck. I discounted aqueduct as its at least 30 ft. above most of the surrounding land.

We turned into Lime Farm Marina to fill with diesel, I think they are the cheapest in the area at 82p and tied up. I had enquired on our way north if they would be open today and John said it would be late afternoon as he was off to Crick, so we settled in for a long wait with a cup of tea. I just got all my wet clothes off and the tea in my hand when John walked up, he hadn’t even been to Crick yet so I was soon £137 poorer and on my way again.
As we approached Hillmorton locks a boat on the water point waved me in behind him and said “There is a queue because there is only one lock working” Diana and his wife both walked up with windlasses in hand and guess what, both locks were fine but everyone had been using just one as someone had said one was broken, this got things moving a bit and we were soon on our way. We had heard the boat ahead go by this morning, he has a twin cylinder Gardener that is only firing on one and is on his way to Tony Rendshaw’s to get it looked at. We didn’t meet any boats in the flight which speeded things up a bit but we did start meeting boats before The Royal Oak, so they had the whole flight with them. Its not possible to moor outside the pub now as its all used by Armada Hire Boats.
By the time we reached the Barby straight we had caught up with the boat with the sick engine, it didn’t matter as we were only going at tick over speed passed all the moored boat and I managed to get a couple of photos of the new marina, work has definitely moved on but there is still a long way to go.
Its a shame they left their tools out in the rain.

Just after this the boat ahead pulled over and waved us and the boat following us passed as they were conscious of holding people up, by now it had turned 6 p.m. and the weather was brightening, we carried on to just before Willoughby road bridge, the boat behind pulled in a short way ahead of us and then a little later the boat with a sick engine turned up to moor between us, all this was being watched by the cows opposite.

Sunday 29 May 2011 Coventry Cruising Club

2011-05-29T21:58:00.001+01:00

Last night just after we had gone to bed we could hear the rain of the roof but it didn’t amount to much, however the wind picked up quite a bit and the boat banged the hard edging a few times in spite of the fenders being down.

We set off this morning at quarter past ten, if was a bit warmer than the past couple of mornings but still breezy. We met quite a few boats one right under bridge 17 which has a narrow twisting approach from the north, luckily it was a hire boat with a steerer who did backwards.

We passed under the remains of the bridge leading to The Rose and Castle public house, this has recently been partly demolished by the brewery as it had been deemed unsafe. They have removed the main arch over the canal but the side pieces are still standing with a scaffold bridge spanning the cut. I think this is so the workman can access both sides as its covered with danger, keep off notices. I don’t know if they will require a further stoppage to complete the work, but I would not be surprised considering how close it is to the canal.

We had just passed through Ansty and under the M69 when we spotted a small goat with its head stuck through the stock fencing. It was to shallow to get the boat over so that I could get ashore to rescue it, but then a chap walked his dog by on the towing path and when I explained the problem said he would ring the farm when he got home.

We continued heading towards Hawkesbury Junction when we met nb.Copperkins II with friends of ours on board. I slipped into reverse and was silently congratulating my self what a neat manoeuvre it was and looking at the other boat, what I didn’t notice until to late was that the stern was slowly drifting into the offside bank, where I picked up the biggest blade full of willow root which after spinning round the prop was like an old piece of rope, it must have taken a good 30 minutes to cut it all away with a Stanley knife and drag it out, about half a bucket full in all.

The moorings in Hawkesbury were all full so we continued on through the lock dropping all of 9”. It is interesting that this lock like all other BW locks has a cill marking, a notice to tell you to keep ahead of the cill and a safety ladder to climb up if you fall in while the lock is at the lower level, as I said 9”. From here it is a very hard right turn 360 deg. onto the Coventry Canal running parallel with the lock we just left. We continued along the Coventry Canal for about two and a half miles, passed Charity Dock where the manikins have had a change of clothes since we last came this way and to Marston Junction where the Ashby Canal joins the Coventry canal. We turned round at the junction and started to retrace our steps as far as Bedworth where we stopped of to see friends for tea and delicious Apple Cake. We stayed with them rather longer than we should and I hope diner wasn’t spoilt because of us. We pushed off to find a mooring for the night at Sutton Stop, but no chance, nose to tail boats long the Coventry and the Oxford as far as the old power station and we didn’t fancy mooring opposite that so we carried on passed The Elephant and Castle to moor about 300 yards before the Coventry Cruising Club. As we made our way along the Oxford this twin engined bi plane passed over us and I just had time to get the camera for this quick shot. You can’t see it very well in this shot but from below it has very slender wings.

All Oaks Wood, Brinklow 28 5 2011

2011-05-28T18:30:00.001+01:00

Last night we met up with Pat and Sheila and spent the evening in The Boathouse. I must say for a chain pub I think the service is very good and friendly and the food fresh and tasty. All main courses are two for one so the price isn’t bad ether, its full table service so no trying to remember a table number and fighting your way to the bar only to be asked if the one of the dishes was chips or jacket. Even the drinks are brought to your table.

I woke early this morning to the sound of rain on the roof but by the time we got up it was a very light drizzle but quite breezy.
The first job was a trip to Midland Chandlers to get a refund on the smoke box I took back that I had bought for the Back Cabin stove and more importantly to buy a new stove with 15% discount this weekend.

We set off at about 10 30 heading north along the North Oxford, Braunston was quite busy and it would help if BW cut the offside bushes by the A5 bridge to improve the sight line, also the off side trees opposite the 14 day moorings to give a bit more room when meeting oncoming boats.
The rain held off and we met quite a few oncoming boats. Work is in progress at the new Barby Marina with the concrete entrance set in, but there is still a lot of work to do, including splaying the offside bank to give sufficient room to swing into the entrance.

At Hillmorton locks we found both locks against us even though we had met a steady stream of boats, we managed to cross with one in the middle locks but not only were both bottom locks empty, one side had the bottom gates wide open and the paddle still up, needless to say this wasn’t spotted by the hire boat that had been moored for lunch below the middle lock and Diana dropped the paddle before they tried to fill it, I don’t think they even noticed.
We stopped for water below the locks, the water flow/pressure is not to bad with just one of the standpipes in use but when someone uses the second the reduction in flow is very noticeable.
Once topped up we were off again, Clifton Cruisers were getting boats ready for the off with there new crews arriving as we passed, some of the boats moored two deep, but with no one approaching it wasn’t a problem. It was quite congested at Brownsover, again not helped by the trees on the offside and boats mooring on the bend right up to the bridge. I think the Rose Narrowboat coming towards us thought it was a driving test as he had to slide between me and the moored boats, he did touch them but only gently, but that is a price you pay for mooring on bends in my book.
We stopped briefly at Lime Farm marina to enquire if they would be open for diesel on Monday so we could fill up on our return and then pushed on to moor for the night just past All Oaks Wood at 1630 hrs. Since I have been typing this we have had several boats go by including a Rose day boat that was traveling a bit faster than he should passed a row of moored boats, I best go and check the stakes.

Friday 27 May 2011 Braunston

2011-05-27T18:01:00.001+01:00

Last night we visited The Folly to eat but they were full to the seams, its the busiest I have seen the place for many years, unfortunately it was so busy we went back to the boat to eat.

During the night the wind died away the barometer has been rising steadily leading to a fine but mainly overcast day. We didn’t set off until 11 am by which time most of the other boats around us had departed, I heard the first go well before we got up.

BW are hard at work (well the equipment is all there) repiling the towing path just to the north of the winding hole. This section has been eroding at a tremendous rate over the past couple of years and has been fenced off with no mooring signs for the last year.

We saw several small foals below the windmill with their short, spikey manes, looking like something left over from the crew-cut days.

The canal was quite quiet and as we approached bridge 102 I was aware of a cruiser coming up behind me, he followed me through bridge 101, not to close and round the sharp bends, I held well over in case he wanted to come past and as we cleared the second bend by the old railway bridge he shot passed us, between us and the moored boat I had slowed right down for and didn’t even acknowledge I existed. The moored boat rocked about a bit with the swell, we he had to pass quickly as there was another narrow boat coming the other way at the time.

We continued on into Braunston going down to the Marina entrance to wind. Some people have obviously missed the entrance big time as can be seen by all the missing bricks on the east entrance wall. Once turned round we retraced our steps hoping to moor opposite The Boat House, but by now both spaces had been taken and we pulled in just through bridge 91, however we had hardly tied up when a hire boat left the moorings right outside The Boat House and as we intend to eat here tonight we swiftly moved over into the spot they had vacated shortly after 2pm.

Since we have been here the sun has come out and its got quite warm, the canal is reasonably busy and most of the boats moored on the towing path opposite the pub have left to be replaced by new arrivals, I expect they had just stopped for lunch.

Thursday 26 May back on board

2011-05-26T19:32:00.001+01:00

We didn’t have a bad run from Lowestoft with intermittent very heavy shows. By the time we reached Napton I was in great need of a cup of tea so we stopped off at Bridge Nurseries for a cupper and some magic cake made from lemon merengue sponge.

We turned into the moorings and the car went into alarm as the rear suspension collapsed so it looks like we will be going home with the AA after the weekend.

As we walked to the boat it started to rain so we did a few odds and ends like making up the bed etc. before moving off down to the lock to load up. The canal is much quieter today than last time we were here and we were able to load up in peace before heading off down the flight. All the locks were against us until the last two where we met a couple of boats coming up the flight, there were no boats moored in the bottom pound but as the bottom lock sat open ready for us to go down I could not resist it.

We moored for the night on the visitor moorings between the Folly and the winding hole, taking up the last available spot on the straight edging just before 5 30 pm.

Braunston to Napton Sunday 8 May 2011

2011-05-16T14:03:00.001+01:00

After saying our goodbyes to every one we made ready to set off, we were moored just above lock two and we spotted a single hire boat coming down the pound and I gave them a shout as they passed requesting to share.

As the lock dropped with us both in it I could see the chap on a boat moored just below the lock scurrying around, well rushing would be a better description and just as our gates opened he rushed off to lock one before the pair of us could leave lock two.

As I had helped this boat down the flight at 7 30 on the Saturday night and now he had nicked my lock I thought it prudent to allow the hire boat to go ahead and join him, I may have been unable to hold my tongue.

Below the lock was crowed when we did finally get down, this was not helped by one paddle being out of action, slowing things down, its a big lock to empty though one paddle.

We pulled over at the Stop House and filled with water before continuing on our way south as far as Braunston Junction where we stopped at Midland Chandlers to buy a new smoke box for the boatman's cabin stove as the old one has cracked badly, probably due to rust caused by the rain coming in through the back hatch.

We had a duck hitch a lift as we made our way along the puddle bank and her mate joined her shortly afterwards, thankfully they both left without leaving any presents on the roof.

There were very few boats about and we were looking forward to a good run up the flight, even though we had not seen anyone ahead of us since we had been on the Oxford there was still a boat going up the first pound as we got to the bottom of the Napton flight. We were assisted with the first lock by a BW employee, apparently they now man the Napton flight at weekends.

Once at the top of the flight we moored towing path side opposite our moorings and drove down to see my son and his family for the afternoon, returning to the boat for the night.

Monday morning I decided to remove the Boatman's Cabin Stove and take it home to repaint it. As I looked at it more closely I could see that not only the smoke box was cracked but there was a crack in the stove top. When I got it home I removed the top, its only held on with 4 nuts and bolts, it was then that I discovered the front was also cracked and the oven box well rusted. At this point it was decided to scrap it and purchase an new one.
Hopefully now we have fit waterproof curtain inside the rear hatch the new stove will keep dry as we make our way along in the rain.

65 miles and 84 locks

Watford to Braunston Sat 7 2010

2011-05-13T19:49:00.001+01:00

We set off on the short run to the top of the Watford Flight, there were no other boats ahead of us, but we had to wait for 4 coming up. The first was a boat belonging to the LNBP with an all girl crew. This was followed by another all female crew an old 70 foot springer, with a well deck lower that the water level, as they made their way up the flight the well deck was collecting more and more water, by the top lock one crew member was baling with a saucepan.

Due to badly leaking gates part way up the staircase, for a 70ft boat BW have to empty the higher lock before filling the lower one which is the reverse of the normal procedure and wastes the water from the upper lock.
As the lock keeper was busy helping the longer boats through I assister the third boat up by operating the gates for him on the towing path side. This was all in the steadily falling rain. Once the forth boat was up we were soon on our way

A short way past the A5 I was informed by a man on a boat that we met that I was going far to fasted I was making a terrible wash.

At Norton Junction it was right hand down and off towards the tunnel and not another boat in sight. Then just as we got to the Welton Rd. Bridge 2 boats pulled out from the wharf on the off side and went through the tunnel ahead of us, so that is a queue at the locks. Half way through the tunnel a boat came in behind us and then we met an oncoming boat with twin headlights.
We approached the lock as the boats ahead were locking down and the boat behind pulled into the moorings. We had to wait while a boat full of pirates came came up the lock, by now the boat that was following and then moored had caught up with us. I appeared he had problems with his engine cutting out, once he was in the lock with us it was evident that he had diesel problems as his bilge pump was putting a slick onto the water. It was a slow run down as the two boats ahead held back two locks down under instructions from BW, but I think it was just because there were two boat entering the next lock down and coming up.

We only went down to the pound below the Admiral Nelson where we moored for the night.

welcome back Live Writer

2011-05-10T20:01:00.001+01:00

I have just re-downloaded the latest from Live Writer an am just testing a posting and spellchecking.

The photo attached is a very thin hulled boat at Long Itchington.

Crick, Yelvertoft,Elkington, Watford

2011-05-06T18:47:00.001+01:00

We set off just before 10 am. a warm morning but not so sunny as of lately. At Norton Junction we turned left up the Leicester Arm, the first port of call was to the houses at Watford Gap where one of the house holders sells home made produce at the bottom of their garden. The do some very niece chutneys. Then we passed the Thai restaurant just under the road bridge; unfortunately their quay heading is now so bad it’s impossible to moor here. We carried on to the Watford flight where Diana went off to find the lock keeper, as the bottom lock was empty and there were no other boats in sight I went into the first lock to wait instructions. We were to come up two locks to the bottom of the staircase and then wait for a boat coming down. By now there were two more boats behind us who in turn sent their crew members to book in with the lock keeper.
The lady from the third boat back stopped for a word as she returned to her boat, between us we had caused a bit of confusion as both boats are called Harnser. The other one is a Steve Hudson boat that was being built at the same time as I was fitting ours out. We almost bought a Steve Hudson hull so imagine the confusion if it had been two Steve Hudson boats called Harnser. We made good time up the flight with the volunteer Lock Keeper assisting us by opening and closing the gates on the opposite side to the paddle gear.
Crick Tunnel was quite wet as usual but very warm, we met two boats right at the far end, the second was entering as we left and they had a dog lose on the roof, it didn’t look at all happy with the situation and was cowering down. Once through the tunnel we were in bright sunshine and probably the warmest it’s been this year.
The new marina at Yelvertoft is looking fine with the banks all grassed and once passed there I pulled over to take some photos of the ruin brick buildings just before bridge 19 on the off side. I thought they may be an old lime Kiln but now I am not so sure. If anyone knows what they are I would love to hear from you.
We continued on to just past bridge 28 as that is the first winding hole after the one at Crack’s Hill, Crick.
Once winded we retraced our steps, meeting the other Harnser on the way to moor for the night between Watford Locks and Crick Tunnel, This time we didn’t meet anyone in the tunnel but a boat ahead left just as we entered, maybe it was something I said.

Big locks and a Tunnel

2011-05-05T19:38:00.001+01:00

We set off alone at 10 am. The pound had dropped between 10 and 12 cm overnight, that’s a lot of water on a pound that length. We had just passed The Two boats when we spied a boat ahead just pulling into the lock moorings and him and Diana went and drew the lock, needless to say as soon as it was empty a boat appeared above it to come down, still it saved closing the gates. Surprise surprise, the next lock was full; the boat ahead must have been moored in that pound overnight.
We stopped for water opposite The Blue Lias, I don’t remember there being such good pressure on that tap before, the other boat went on alone, but didn’t get far ahead as the flight was against them and when they saw us coming they waited in the third lock up. As we caught up the wife went on to set the next lock, Diana closed up behind us and we carried on like this all the way up the flight.
As we were working up I thought, wouldn’t it be good to meet a hotel pair now. We were just closing the top gates when Snipe and Taurus came into view. Why hadn’t they been an hour earlier.
A couple of days earlier Snipe had been moored just behind us, it was the same colour as this Snipe but it wasn’t the same boat, it must have been her predecessor which could lead to some confusion.
We both arrived at Calcutt bottom together just as a boat was exiting which was handy, then there were a pair coming down in the second lock and Diana when ahead to open the gates on the empty top lock. As we locked up the second lock a boat pulled out from Calcutt online moorings but he had the good manners not to go into the lock that Diana had opened up, but he didn’t lose much as there were 4 boats coming down.
We pushed on alone as the other boat stopped off to Wigrams Turn where we turned sharp left towards Braunston.

The sunken boat on the puddle bank is still there, but now is sitting alone with just a big blue drum sitting on the cabin top so you can see where it is.

I pulled over by the Stop House to drop Diana off to dump the rubbish and walk ahead with her windlass to set the bottom Braunston lock read for me, luckily just as I entered the lock I looked back to see a boat in the distance so while I waited in the lock Diana got the ice creams in. I knew there wasn’t anyone following us and this boat had pulled out of the marina after we passed.
We didn’t meet anything in the flight and had to turn every lock, we were working well but even so there was a Canal Club boat chasing up behind us with someone setting ahead.
We entered the tunnel alone and I could just see the boat ahead silhouetted in the far portal, then I spotted a headlight in the distance, we had reached the bendy bit before our paths crossed and they were sitting against the side not moving. By now I could hear the roar of the Canal Club boat behind us, it sounded flat out and doing at least 6 MPH considering how quickly they also passed the oncoming boat. As we left the tunnel the noise from their engine was just something else and it was not long before they caught us up with a fair wash.
From here to Norton Junction there were several moored boats and boats trying to moor on what looks a good edge but is very shallow, the Canal Club boat hanging on my rudder, I did wonder if he was going to try passing between the bridges as I slowed for the moored boats and boats on the wrong side of the cut, but he didn’t. At Norton Junction he turned left and we right, looking for a space to moor but were out of luck, so we backed up to the junction, through the bridge towards Braunston and moored on the rings just prior to bridge 10. As I turned at the junction I could see the Canal Club boat who was now travelling quite sedately.

Welsh road to Long Itchington

2011-05-03T22:10:00.006+01:00

As planned this morning was spent changing all the white blobs from yesterday into grey ones, and as you can see there were several of them.

We walked the dog up passed Welsh Road Lock where this strange craft is moored, its been in the area for a couple of years now and I think its an ex navigation buoy. I do wonder how stable it is to walk around on as the section of hull in the water is very narrow, maybe only 3-4 feet, the main belly is actually above the surface. It is displaying a BW licence in one of the very small portholes but I would be surprised it ties in with the registration number on the superstructure which is quite old, but then it may be the original superstructure with a new hull?
After lunch we made a move and took a slow run up to Long Itchington to moor just north of where we were at the weekend on the few mooring rings installed along that stretch. Just prior to the moorings we passed a moored boat with the hull so thin there are actually holes in it, if its like this above the water line I wonder what its like under the surface where you can’t see it.
While we were moored here I gave the roof patches another coat of none slip grey, its not meant to be none slip, but there has been so much rubbish blowing about that its quite rough, but at least it’s the right colour. I also fitted a new aerial for the car radio in the bedroom, but the reception is still as bad as ever.

This evening we went to eat at the Buck and Bell, probably the most expensive meal I have had in a pub but very good, I would defiantly go again. We walked back to the boat across the fields, leaving the footpath about half way to return to the towing path by the aqueduct where the sign says ”Access for BW only” I would love to know who did the design and supervision of the steps cut into the steep bank. The wooden edges to the steps in most cases have no back fill at all and if it is supposed to give a safe access and egress for BW employees who fills in the risk assessment when they visit the aqueduct.

A round trip to Radford winding hole

2011-05-02T18:58:00.001+01:00

We spent the morning sanding down the worst rust spots off the roof and treating them with Kur-rust. This exercise took us through to lunchtime after which we set off to Radford bottom lock to wind. We caught up with another boat at Foss middle lock and shared a couple of locks with them until at Radford lock we caught up with boat just entering the lock so we pulled over and waved the other boat passed so they could join them.
Once we had dropped through the lock we just went as far as the winding hole where we turned to retrace our steps back to Welsh Road locks to moor again for the night. We couldn’t get in as close as yesterday but its close enough for Magic to get on and off.
Once tied up I set to with the paint primer to give all the earlier treated spots a coat to protect them, hopefully tomorrow I will splash a bit of grey on them.

Bye bye beer festival

2011-05-01T18:21:00.003+01:00

Sunday 1 may 2011
Another sunny day and quite warm on the canal where we were sheltered from the brisk wind. We walked into the village to visit the car boot sale, not over exciting and we didn’t stay long. The next stop was The Buck and Bell who were running a BBQ serving some very tasty meals in rolls at a fiver a time, cooked by the restaurant chef while you waited. I had chicken and bacon with salad all served in a roll while Diana had steak with the salad in a roll, washed down with a couple of halves of bitter. We then wandered around a bit before going to The Green Man as they had a folk group playing in the afternoon. Can anyone tell me why people visit the room in a bar that has people performing with no amplification and then insist on talking to each other on loud voices to get over the music.

The farmhouse behind the church has changed hands in the passed year and they also own most of the fields between the village and the canal and also on the offside, he has had these all planted with trees so there should be some new woodland in a few years time.

We headed back to the boat and had a coffee with Andy who was now moored directly behind us before setting off at ten to four. The first stop was just through bridge 27 to fill the water tank, this is a very good tap with a very good flow but needs treating with care as the local bees use it as their watering hole.

We turned the bend just before the Bascote Staircase just in time to see a boat going down, by the time we arrived at the lock they had just gone into the bottom chamber and closed the interconnecting gates. As I dropped Diana off to refill the top chamber I noticed that the bottom paddle was still a few inches up. Diana went to close it which lead to lots of shouting from the boat below as they thought Diana was actually drawing it. We caught the other boat up just after the entered the next lock and shared the next couple with them. Chatting to them it turned out to be mum and dad, daughter and son-in-law and they had only just got the boat which they moor at Calcutt, the boat didn’t have any bedding and they were only meant to be out for the day, but now needed to go to Radford Bottom to wind. It should be an interesting night for them.

We pulled over for the night just below Welsh Road Lock to moor for the night, we were just tying up when a young couple stopped on bikes and ask if I could help as his pedal kept falling off, a 14mm socket spanner soon sorted it out for him.

Friday 29 Wedding Day

2011-04-29T17:18:00.003+01:00

First job today as we were not moving was to run the engine to charge the batteries up. This was followed by erecting the TV aerial, rotating for the best signal and tuning in the Freeview, you can guess why.

This afternoon involved a walk into the village to visit first The Buck and Bell to try two of the beers on offer and then to The Harvester (note this is not A Harvester) to try two more beers and a couple of buffalo burgers.

To get to the village we walked to The Two Boats and then along the main road as there is a sign at the end of the footpath by the towing path saying the foot bridge over the stream is closed, not true, we came back that way and much more pleasant than walking the road.

The first pub tried to sell us two commemorative glasses at £2 each to take from pub to pub with us, but carrying a glass around seemed a right pain in the bum, any way at £3 a pint they can wash up after me.

All the boats that use to be moored on the offside between The Cuttle Inn and the lock have been moved and are now moored towing path side. A local dog walker told us that this was due to a dispute with the shed making company that use the land which they use to moor against, but he added its not over yet as BW have told the shed company that they own the first 7 ft of the bank anyway.

As the afternoon has progressed there have been more and more boats joining us moored along the concrete edge between bridge 26 and the old railway bridge. Watching them trying to drive pins into the concrete just under the turf has added to the amusement.

Long Itchington

2011-04-28T19:24:00.001+01:00

Date - 28 April 2011
Day - Thursday
Start - Calcutt top
End -Long Itchington

About 1030 this morning we decided to move over to the water point and
top up before continuing on our way. Just before we did a boat cam
passed and tied up on the lock moorings, then nothing.

As we moved to the water point 2 boats came up in the lock, the lady on
the Canalbreak asked if we were going down and should she leave the
gates, I explained we were about to take water and would be a good 10
minutes before e we were ready to set off but the chap on the lock
moorings probably would. As they left the lock the other boat went in
and asked if we were joining him. I repeated the story and he said"fine, I
want a couple of things from the shop I will leave her here until you
are ready"
Once filled with water we went into the lock beside his boat, closed up
and a couple of minutes he returned.

We thought he was single handing, but actually he had a young lady with
him who was not an experienced boat, but her inexperience made no
difference to his efficiency. He was well set up with ropes with eyes
for the bollards and quite happy to both use one gate, at the first lock
he shot down and set the second ready.

As we cleared Calcutt he asked how far we were going as he was heading
to Bascote for the night. We were more than happy sharing with him so we
decided to do the Stockton flight together as well.

As we approached Stockton top, two hire boats just came out of the lock,
so we had a very good run down the flight meeting just one boat half way
down the flight.

We moored between The Two Boats and the lock, just in front of n.b. Lena
H, I had a quick word with Adrian before walking back to the Blue Lias
to talk to Fair Fa who were partaking of a couple of pints of Adnams.

The pound was very low and I was a bit concerned that if the water came
up our gunwale could get trapped under the top of the piling, so we take
a walk a bit further down the cut to where the concrete edging is and
decided to move down to the only set of rings available.

Harnser's Travels towards Long Itchington

2011-04-27T21:42:00.006+01:00

Date - 27 April 2011
Day - Wednesday
Start - Napton Top Lock
End -Top of Calcutt Lock

We arrived at the boat yesterday a little before p.m.. yesterday and moved down to the top lock to load up from the car, we then backed up and moored opposite our home moorings.
We went down to The Folly for dinner; it was not so busy as last time we visited. The menu had changed a bit since the last visit and we both had the chicken & Mushroom pie, which was very good.
They are still unable to take credit and debit cards as they are waiting for the machine to arrive.

Before we set this morning we did a bit of shopping so it was almost midday before we made the top lock. There was a steady flow of traffic but no queues and we only turned a couple of locks.

Once clear of the flight we didn't meet another boat until we reached Napton Narrowboats.

The view of the windmill on the hill was very good with the way the light was striking it.

One of the boats in the Napton marina was covered on one side with green netting, I can only think it was to keep the sun off.

On the towing path opposite Napton Narrowboats there was a Green Plover just sitting in the afternoon sun. I suspect it may have been nesting nearby as it took off and swooped around us quite closely several times as we passed.

We turned hard left at Wigrams Turn and moored for the night just before Calcutt top lock in warm bright sunshine.

I waited until things cooled down a bit and then set about some of the rust spots on the rear end of the roof, but its an uphill struggle as the more I sanded the more paint fell off. The only real answer is to sand it all off and start again, but I don't intend to do that, so its just a few more patches coming up.
I took a wander to Calcutt Marina to buy a new pressure cap for the header tank as the old one has fallen apart, I don't know how well it will work as its 7psi where as the old one 13 psi.

As the evening wore on we were treated to a glorious sunset over the reservoir.

Another post script

2011-04-14T22:33:00.001+01:00

Its 10.27 at night and some antisocial so and so moored somewhere close by has just fired his engine up.

Don't you love them.

Are he has just shut it down again.

We lose more black 14 04 11

2011-04-14T21:55:00.001+01:00

Last night while walking the dog I spoke to the boat moored ahead of us, he asked if we had seen where the two working boats were moored as he wanted to make sure he was ahead of them when he left in the morning.

This morning we heard he depart about 6 am. I worked on the principal that I would leave later and hopefully not catch them up.
We departed about 10 30 am. we had seen a few boats about but nowhere near as many as Tuesday and they all seemed to be going North.We had an uneventful run to Fenny Compton only meeting a couple of boats at the most, Fenny tunnel is much better since BW have cut the off side vegetation back.
We had planned to stop at Fenny to fill with water but both taps were in use so we carried on making our way around the Wormleighton bends. As we approached Marston Doles top lock we caught up to the motor and butty pulled over to the side with the stern line of the butty tied to the DIS lock marker. Just as my bow was level with their elm the woman on the butty untied it and the chap on the motor opened it up to pull away, I was by now already passing the butty and catching up with the motor still pulling and his bows swinging out across the cut, needless to say he took a bit more black off up with his bow just before I managed to get passed.
At Marston Doles there was a boat already setting the lock to go down and we pulled up to the water point, as someone had decided the best place to leave their boat was moored on the water point we were quite well forward. Someone had already pinned a note on his front door saying "Don't moor on water points" The motor laid beside him and the steerer walked forward to the lock asking if I was stopping for water, but not a word about pulling out as I was passing. Diana watered up while I went and helped the pair down through the first lock, for some reason Diana told the next boat they could also go ahead of us, by now there were three behind us and every one seemed to muck in working the boats down, of course we caught up with them at the next lock. Once clear of the locks we had a short run down to our moorings and with a good level in the pound got in without to much bother at about 4 pm.

I did one or two jobs to the boat including trying to get the weed hatch to seal, it does annoy me having a wet bum.
This evening we took a ride down to The Folly for a meal, the car park was pretty full and there were quite a few people there already, it was only just passed 7.30. The sell Hook Norton beer and the food was quite acceptable, at the moment they can't take credit cards, only cash or cheque's as they are still waiting for a terminal, but I will reserve judgement on what I think of the place until I have visited again, but lets say it didn't jump out and grab me.

Post script

2011-04-13T21:21:00.001+01:00

It was twenty past seven this evening and Diana was just putting the dinner out on the plates in the galley, we don't do silver service when afloat. We both looked up towards the side hatch as we both heard the sound of a slow engine working well. There about three feet five inches from the side hatch was the bow of a working boat, a working boat is about seven feet wide, those of you old enough to work in pre decimal numbers should be able to work it out. The ex working boat from Clattercote Wharf proceeded to run the length of our hull and then the hull of the boat moored ahead of us, she then dragged her butty the full length of our hull before starting on the one ahead.

I did consider redoing the blacking between the rubbing strips and the gunwale this week, I am glad I didn't bother.

Bye Bye Banbury Wed 13 April 2011

2011-04-13T17:49:00.001+01:00

I am always surprised how quiet it is moored in the centre of Banbury, after about 8 pm we didn't hear hardly anything, people, traffic, animals, nothing. Likewise this morning, no early morning hustle and bustle, joggers, dog walkers, just piece and quite.

We set off about 10-30 down through the lock, there were a couple of boats waiting to come up and as the lock was partly full two girls on the boat waiting to come up set it for us first. We had a gentle chug down to the winding hole, on the way I spotted this chap with no sign of a licence on display, not having a roof or engine I suppose he wouldn't need a BSS cert.

The winding hole below Banbury is a bit tighter on the mouth than most and leading into what could almost be described as a very short branch, we got round without to much bother, not one of my best manoeuvres and headed back up to the lock. When we arrived there was a boat waiting on the towing path, one on the services and one about to come out of the lock. After the boat left the lock the only movement was the boat on the towing path side adjusting his ropes. I enquired as to whether he was intending to go into the lock, his reply was the chap at the services was next. The chap at the services said he was about to fill his water tank and would be some time, so the first chap said he wasn't in any hurry and would probably moor in town so I might as well go first.

The house by the temporary bridge, between Hardwick lock and Tesco's , now makes and sells wooden tiller ends as well as tiller holders, the price looks very reasonable and there are several designs to choose from.

We met a few boats between here and Cropredy where we managed to overtake two of the three ahead of us when they stopped for shopping and water and the third one who moored just above Cropredy lock, we are out in front, all locks will be ours (we think).
Just above Broadmoor Lock we saw the award winning journalist, Steve Haywood, working hard cleaning his boat down so we pulled over for a few minutes to start putting the world right, but moved on when the boat following came out of the lock.
We continued our clean run of locks right into the Claydon flight, where it all went wrong and they were all against us. We didn't see the boat ahead until the second from top lock where we caught them up and that was the only pound in which we met a boat.

As we left the flight there was just one pack of cup cakes left for sale and with great willpower we resisted them and moved on a couple of hundred meters to moor for the night at 4-30 pm. just through bridge 144.

Strange goings on in the night

2011-04-12T19:52:00.001+01:00

Sometime last night I woke up, it was dark and I have no idea of the time, I heard voices and thought, that's a couple of the long term moorers off to work, why are they just standing outside our boat talking. I listened a bit longer, it sounds like they are listening to the radio. A this point I decided to get up and investigate, I went through into the lounge to find our radio had switched its self on, how it did it I don't have a clue, its a car radio and its never done it before. I stepped over the dog and switched it off and headed back to bed.

We woke this morning to bright sunshine and set off at 10 am right behind "Sunset", but we only went as far as The Wharf where we stopped to fill with water. This is quite a good tap with decent presser so it didn't take long to fill up. The second tap was also in use and when they moved off a third boat pulled in, just as we were finishing a forth turned up for water and waited until we moved off.
The weather was pleasant as we made our way through Fenny tunnel but the breeze was quite cool in the more exposed parts. We arrived at the top of the Claydon flight to find two boats waiting to go down and one just coming out of the lock. The lock cottage had a table by the top gates where they were selling home made cup cakes at £2 for 4, we found them very tasty. There was a steady flow of boats coming up the flight but they were mostly slow and a bit wide spaced so we ended up waiting for the oncoming boat above every lock. One of them must hold the record for the slowest entry into a lock.

We saw several hand written notices pined to posts and boards saying that the Country Life museum has now closed but no official notice. Once clear of the flight we were also clear of the queues, but all the locks were against us. The surprising thing was that we met 3 boats between Bourton Lock and the motorway but the next lock was still against us. There does not seem to have been any progress at Bourton Lock cottage.
Coming into Banbury we passed Sunset moored at Spiceball Park visitor moorings, we stopped at Sovereign to take on a 100 lts of diesel at 87 p lt, I stopped to have a quick word with Timothy West and thank him for introducing me to the canals many years ago with his program about the opening of the K&A
We were lucky enough to find a mooring between the foot bridge and the car park access bridge in Banbury at 5 pm. Since we have been here several boats have both left and arrived. Tomorrow we plan to drop through the lock and wind before retracing our steps to Napton.

Back onboard at last 11 April 2011

2011-04-11T18:46:00.001+01:00

We left Suffolk this morning in bright sunshine, it continued like this all the way along the A 14 to where we turned off at Junction 1, it even stayed with us until we reached Southam at 1 30 and then it clouded over with thick heavy clouds. These stayed with us until gone 4 pm.
We gave Harnser a quick check over and then turned her round to face south and moved over to the towing path side to load up and get the dog onboard. There were several boats travelling in each direction and we waited until the hire boat "Sunset" to pass before setting off ourselves at 2 pm. We followed "Sunset" up the Marston Dole locks and then passed them when they pulled in for water just above the locks.
It wasn't long before it started to drizzle but luckily it didn't last long. We met several boats as we made our way south, a couple of them in bridge holes of course. Oakfield was moored by the radio mast at Wormleighton and was mid way through an oil change as we passed, you can guess who was working the vacuum pump to suck the oil out.
We moored for the night a short way before Fenny Wharf at 5-30 in pleasant sunshine and it wasn't long before "Sunset" came plodding passed the row of moored boats only to meet a boat coming the other way as they were about to pass us, this wasn't made any easy by us being moored on the bend with our bum sticking out a bit and the hire boat going north being well away from the offside bank.
It was here that we saw our first clutch of ducklings of the season, unfortunately a swan took a great dislike to one of the parent ducks and tried its hardest to grab and drowned it.

Monday 21 February 2011

2011-02-22T22:19:00.001Z

I like the moorings right outside The Boathouse, it shields the noise from the road and is very handy for coming back after a pint and a meal.

This morning we woke a bit earlier than normal for us to a cold wet day. A quick walk round to Midland Chandlers to spend all of 50 p and back to the boat ready to set off at 9-30 am.
Spot on 9-30 am and our Belgian passenger was just across the cut taking my photo in the rain. He walked down a bit and we pushed off across the cut and picked him up. It was Michel Van den Berghe http://www.thebw.net/ who is photographing the British Canal System. We took him as far as Calcutt Locks so he could walk the GU.
Unfortunately the two sunken boats are still at Braunston are still there and I wonder if they will ever be lifted. I hope the second doesn't get vandalised before it can be lifted.
BW have been hard at work, or their contractors have cutting back the trees on the offside which is improving the viability on bends and at bridge holes quite a bit. Some one has also erected an owl box on the offside, it's the first I have seen in the area. Michel stood on the front deck all the way in the rain taking more photographs.
Over the years someone has been building a house and what looks like a smallholding near Fox Gate, it started off looking like a shed, then a barn, after this it went up a bit with a pitched roof and now its topped with thatch.
Work is still going on at Calcutt top lock with rebuilding the lower offside landing stage, I found it interesting to see the culverts that run the length of the lock from the ground paddles, these allow the water to enter the lock at 3 separate points and not all at the head as is common practice. The pond between the locks not only holds a great deal of mud but also several fenders and other debris. I wonder if any of this will be removed before the flight is refilled.

After saying farewell to our guest at the locks we winded and headed back to Napton Turn where we turned hard right and continued on to The Napton flight where we found all the locks against us as usual and raining. We made good progress and were soon in sight of the boat ahead and at lock 13 they drew the bottom paddles as they left for us. Then the strange thing happened, by the time we reached lock 14 there was no sign of them, we had been gaining on them all the way up the flight, the last but one lock was almost ready for us, but by the end of the next pound they had vanished.
We stopped in the top lock and unloaded into the car before taking Harnser back to her moorings and heading home .

Sunday 20 Feb 2011

2011-02-20T15:16:00.001Z

Well yesterday was another great afternoon and evening of entertainment with one artist just following on from the other. We nipped off about 6 to feed and walk the dog before heading back so as not to miss to much. We were going to eat on the boat, but the pub was doing meals in a bowl to bee eaten on your lap whilst being entertained, so it was two bowls of curry and chips.
All in all it was a very slick well organised event with only about ten to fifteen minutes between performers. Again Soundwave, the sound team did a wonderful job mixing for all the acts from solo singers with acoustic guitar accompaniment to full bands, even including a 9 strong shanty choir.

We pushed off about 10 this morning and by then several boats had been passed, Napton Narrowboats only look as if they have a couple of boats out but there were quite a few spaces in the marina. The moorings in Braunston opposite the Boathouse were quite full but nothing at Butchers Bridge. One hire boat found a good spot on the waterpoint and sani station to moor. We went into the marina and had a pump out, luckily they were open so that we could buy a £10 token, once that tank was empty we stopped just outside the marina to fill the water tank. While we were doing that a small outboard powered boat stopped for water, he had 9 fenders hanging on each side, but still managed to hit the hard bank with an unprotected bit of steel.
We moored for the night right outside The Boathouse door on their moorings as we will be eating in there tonight, we just have to put up with their music until closing time.

Saturday 19 February 2011

2011-02-19T12:08:00.002Z

Well no sign of the Aurora last night, no sign of the moon ether and at about half one this morning it started tipping it down with rain which continued most of the night.

We had a great night in The Bridge Inn last night starting with a meal at 6 pm followed by an evening of great entertainment.
It all took place in the dining room which is not the biggest venue in the world and with acts ranging from a female soloist to a 5 piece band the sound mixing guys and girls "Soundwave"http://www.soundwaveaudio.co.uk did a great job. The evening was supposed to wrap up at midnight but "Something Nasty in the Wood" were still hammering it out until about quarter to one, complete with bagpipes.

About 10 this morning BW contractors came past by on a work boat and have been hard at work cutting offside trees and scrub in the winding hole opposite the pub. There have been a few boats passed including a couple of hire boats.

I didn't do any photos last night after all and if I had I would not have been able to post them as I had a message from 3 saying I was approaching my data limit for the month.

Today the performances start at 4 pm so we are going to have to work out who we intend to miss while we have dinner and take the dog out.

For more information go to www.wff.me.uk

Friday 18 February 2011

2011-02-18T13:44:00.001Z

It was a full moon last night, but with a thin cloud cover, this not only kept it warm overnight but prevented us seeing the Aurora if there actually was one, maybe we will have better luck tonight.
The mooring was OK with only a slight problem, the rooks have claimed the tree opposite where we moored and were keen to tell us so at first light this morning.

We didn't set off until 10 15 am by which time it was one degree colder than last night, there was nothing moving down the flight so all locks were against us. When we walked the dog down late last night all the locks were well above weir but this morning all about 2" below, so the back pumps must have been running last night but off today.
We stopped at The Folly to fill with water, it still looks the same as it did straight after it closed down, even the empty kegs are sill in the same spot. Maybe it will be open for the summer. Once topped up we pushed on towards The Bridge Inn, on the way we passed two chaps trimming the towing path hedge, one with a long shaft petrol hedge trimmer and the other with a petrol blower to clear away the trimmings. We arrived at The Bridge Inn about 11 30 am and are on the first mooring from the pub ready for tonight's entertainment.

For more information go to www.wff.me.uk

Thursday 17 February 2011

2011-02-17T18:49:00.001Z

Well we are back onboard Harnser but only for a long weekend to visit The Bridge, Napton for the Winter Folk Festival.

We set off from the moorings at about 4 pm and stopped in the top lock to load the boat and get the dog onboard, he is now approaching 14 and doesn't cross lock gates any more.
Once everything was onboard we decided to carry on down the flight for a bit and moored between locks 10 and 11 at 5 pm.

While we have been away the minimum temperature in the boat had dropped to -3.3 C and outside to below -8 C so it was a good move draining down before we left. All we have to do now is to get the boat nice and warm again, the Dickinson is on in the galley and the fire alight in the Boatman's Cabin so hopefully by bedtime we will be nice and cosy.

Stone to Chester 1948

2011-02-14T11:02:00.001Z

Another video from Frances's grandfather, A family narrowboat holiday 1948. Stone to Chester.

An unusual View of The Norfolk Broads

2011-02-13T21:47:00.002Z

View Larger Map

If you are still wondering what it is visit this blog

http://xcentric-earth.blogspot.com/2009/06/two-headed-eagle-pond-near-hickling-uk.html

IWA Festival old footage

2011-02-13T21:05:00.001Z

Francis said this was a canal journey from Oxford through Braunston to Market Harborough.
Are they going to the first IWA boat rally Festival in 1950? Any more information welcome.

Old Film Footage of the K&A

2011-02-13T13:53:00.001Z

Scenery shots by Frances's Grandfather on the Kennet and Avon canal taken about 1948 - 1950

More old working boat footage with Sonia Rolt (Smith)

2011-02-12T21:30:00.001Z

Early canal footage of George and Sonia Smith on Narrowboats Cairo and Warwick taking cargo from London to Birmingham about 1948. Any more information welcome.

Old Boating video

2011-02-12T18:14:00.001Z

Early footage of George and Sonia Smith on Narrowboats Cairo and Warwick taking visitors of a tour of Regents Canal in about 1948. Any more information welcome.

2010 Basic Cruising statistics for NB. Harnser

2011-02-02T14:46:00.001Z

After seeing that some blogger's where including boating statistics on the bottom of their blogs, I thought I would just total up a few statistics from our cruising on Harnser over the past 12 months.

In the past 12 months Harnser has covered some 933 miles passing through 783 locks, or 1716 lock miles. At an average speed of just over 2.8 Lock Miles per hour (LMPH) against engine running hours.
Our true average speed would probably be just over 3 LMPH as some engine running is done without moving.

To do this we have spent 115 nights onboard and had the toilet tank emptied 5 times.

The engine has run for some 610 hours and we have bought 925 litres of diesel for which we paid an average of 69p/Lt before duty.

The diesel consumption including what has been burnt on the Dickinson stove averages out at 1.6 litres per engine running hour or 1 Lt per mile travelled.

Fri 28 Jan 2011 Napton

2011-01-28T20:37:00.001Z

Last night was interesting in more ways than one. We went to the Wharf as planned and when we arrived we found they had a function on. It was a talk and tasting session for Bombay Sapphire Gin including using it in cooking. The had take up the canal side end of the dining room. To demonstrate the use for cooking they had a portable gas ring,Unfortunately they had chosen to place this directly under the fire detector, luckily for them it was not a sprinkler, just a very loud alarm. So we had free entertainment for the evening. Since last night I have been thinking about the food we had, steak pie and game pie served with mash potatoes and peas. After a lot of deliberations I must say I think they were the best pies that we have had for a very long time, not only that but the mash potato was very good as well. O and we were drinking Hooky.
We returned to the boat and toddled off to bed, but not for long, Magic decided at 4 am that he was hungry and wanted his breakfast, this was followed at 6 am when he wanted a drink, after that it was under our bed and off to sleep.

We set off this morning at 9-50 to a bright but cold morning. A chap filling his water tank and extra containers told me that the new water point at Marston Doles was out of use, BW has only recently fitted a new tap stand so the information may be out of date.
We encountered the first ice at the winding hole and then broke very thin ice for about half our journey home. We didn't see a single boat all the way back to our moorings, once there we unloaded the dog and dirty washing to the car and then drained down the water system again, because there is still plenty of time for a lot more cold weather.The journey had taken us exactly 3 hours.

In the past 13 days we have done 130 miles and 26 locks clocking up 59 engine hours

27 Jan 2011 Fenny Compton

2011-01-27T15:25:00.001Z

Last night we didn't get back to the boat from my sons until after 10 pm and the temperature had dropped quite a bit, as we had not changed the heating setting the front of the boat was quite cool where as the boatman's cabin was cold. The wind had picked up and was hitting straight onto the back doors forcing its way in with us. The engine room was cold as the engine had been shut down from about 1 pm. so a hot water bottle joined us in bed. I think the wind must have gotten up to a full gale overnight and was enough to wake us up.

This morning was a late start, it was quarter to eleven before we left heading south. A boat had come down the flight but one had also gone up so we were more than a little surprised to find the Marston Doles locks both empty for us. We only met one boat all morning and the only ones we passed were long term moorers even if they weren't all on long term moorings.

We arrived a Fenny Compton Wharf at quarter to one and winded in front of the pub, this was followed by filling with water and then backing up passed a couple of moored boats to moor for the night.

I have just been looking at the forecast and the numbers -5 show for early next month for this area so make sure you keep those water tanks full and also keep warm.

Wed 26 Jan 2011 Napton

2011-01-26T22:44:00.002Z

Last night as planned we slipped across the cut and moored outside the door of The Boathouse, but even that close I was unable to pick up their WiFi in the boat. We went in for a meal and a drink and were quite impressed, still two main courses for the price of one, waitress service taking our order at or table and bringing our drinks over, the food was tasty and everyone very friendly. I think the other pubs in the area need to watch out.
I took a quick walk round to Midland Chandlers before pushing off at twenty to ten. The large building between MC and The Boathouse is now vacant with workman hard at it inside and on the canal side they were busy cutting back some of the trees.

Peter Boyce looks as if he is starting a collection of working and ex working boats, he now has one moored outside his yard completely wrapped in plastic, both hull and top sides, so I assume it must leak a bit. At Braunston Junction we turned left under the bridge towards Wigrams Turn. We only met a couple of boats and the weather was quite chilly with rain showers.

At Shugbrough bridge a boater has found he needed to moor with his bows almost in the bridge hole forcing boats to take a trip into the bushes to avoid him, there are miles of empty towing path on the other side of the bridge, its not exactly wall to wall boats this time of the year.

Over the past couple of weeks we have seen less than half a dozen hire boats about and lots of vacant visitor moorings, however the hire boat we saw this morning still found it necessary to to moor across the winding hole by The Bridge pub even though there was only one other boat moored there.
All the Napton Flight were with us which eased our journey and unlike when we went out there were quite a few boats moored by The Folly, I think there was only one here when we came down last week. We moored almost opposite our home mooring at just after 1 pm.

Tuesday 25 Jan 2011 Braunston

2011-01-25T15:51:00.001Z

It was reasonably bright first thing this morning, but by 10 am when we were ready to set off it was very fine drizzle, over the course of the morning this got worse and by the time we left Hillmorton locks it was raining. BW were hard at work in the bottom lock, there biggest problem seemed to be pumping the chamber dry and sealing the top gates by throwing hand fulls of ash or dust in to close the gaps, the bottom gates are still missing and they had two pumps running in the lock.
The tree by the long term moorings in the top pound now displays a lovely growth of fungi on its trunk.
The moored boat that was above the first lock has now gone as has the shared ownership one from the top lock, I think it was the same one that we saw outside The Boathouse at Braunston when we arrived, they have since left and we may move over into their spot..
Refurbishment work has started at The Royal Oak, Hillmorton with the painters hard at work painting the window frames on the outside and in the rain!

There was no sign of activity or progress at the new Barby Marina, but this could just be due to them waiting for the land to settle, but there is still a lot of work to do before it becomes a working marina open to boat. There is still the entrance to cut and the pontoons to build, let alone filling with water and leak testing, I don't know their latest proposed finish date but I would guess its still several months away.We met several boats on the move between here and Braunston. At Braunston Turn we branched to the left and carried on into the village, turning in the marina entrance.
The elsan disposal facilities and water point have now reopened with a brand new cast iron water point to replace the taps that were screwed to the wall, I would imagine this is to discourage people using the water point to flush their elsan equipment after use and improve hygiene as they would have to unlock the stand to use it.
As we passed the waterpoint a Buzzard landed in the bush next to the canal in the grounds of Braunston Manor Hotel. I have never seen one so close to the village before. We carried on under the A5 bridge and have moored opposite The Boat House, as we are planning to eat in there this evening I may just slip across and moor right outside the door.