Coventry Canal Hawkesbury Junction

I think we had light rain most of the night and it was raining when we got up, so no rush to leave. it started to ease just after 11am and I had another fiddle round with the magnet for our lost stake without any luck. I cant quite work out how it ended up in the canal but the mooring line was still on the ground.
Very soon after we left the rain stopped completely and we set off just after another boat had passed and followed them all the way to Ansty where we stopped for water knowing its a reasonable tap.
Just before the Coventry Cruising Club we passed the Rothen Group work boat that we saw on a lorry last week, it looks as if they are carrying out tow path repairs.

A little further on last time we passed there was a cruiser sitting on the towpath, its now found its way back into the canal, it looks to be the same boat∟∟

 

that was sitting in the ditch at All Oaks Wood a year ago, It has been freshly painted blue. See Harnser's Travels: All Oaks Wood. We were hoping to moor just before Hawkesbury Junction but no space, some of the boats have been here a bit longer than 7 days. so it was into the lock, while Diana worked the lock I photo'd the level at the lock weir and it looks to be right on the crest, once through the lock, a 180° turn and we moored in the first available spot passed the water points. Since we have been moored up I have booked a table for tonight in the Greyhound.

Today’s Journey

8 Miles with 1 lock in 3¾ hours

l

All Oaks Wood

As I said last night we were moored just above the Hillmorton Locks, at 8-30 this morning a boat came by and moored ahead of us. We were on deck chatting about quarter to ten when a boat comes by and goes straight onto  the lock mooring. When the lock keeper arrived  the single hander at the front was away, I walked along to open and close the off side gate and didn’t even get a thank you. The other boat asked if we wanted to go ahead of them but 10 minutes wasn’t going to make much difference, plus one of their crew walked down to the middle lock and helped him on his way. We were away about quarter past ten, we had to wait for a boat coming up the middle lock and the Volockie at the bottom opened up for Diana to sail in. A lot more boats moored through Rugby this time and we met one right in the road bridge at the end, He warned us of a very low tree branch across the cut further along. Now reported to CRT.

The duck weed has got thicker in the past week with a nice green basket ahead of us, behind we cut a grove  through it.

I dropped Diana at bridge 51 to nip to the Co-op and I picked her up at the Barley Mow a few minuets later. Just before All Oaks we passed this chap, I hope this chap was happier than he looked.

There was no room to moor on the piling so we are on pins at the far end. Once settled I set to giving the part of the rook I treated for rust last week a quick coat of top coat, very rough and ready but hopefully will hold it until next spring. Around half five there was a tap on the cabin, a chap with a Beagle was there to tell us our rear pin was out, he pulled the stern in but the pin was gone. After thanking him and making a fuss of the dog I got the magnet out, I couldn’t find our pin but I did find two others.

Today’s Journey 8 miles with 3 locks in 3½ hours

Hillmorton Top Lock

You may recall that last trip ended slightly prematurely last week due to a burnt out 24 volt isolator, so the first job when we got onboard was to fit the new switch. I chopped the old one open and one pin had been hot melting the plastic housing so that it could move back and break contact.

Needless to say the new switch, a 400 amp one is a bit deeper than the one I removed so I had to make up a spacer for the box. That sorted we moved off round to the pump out point, from Satnav its a   quarter of a mile round the marina from our mooring . After that we were off, routes are still limited with boat Watford and Napton closed so its back up the North Oxford and moored at the top of the locks ready for them to open at 10 am. in the morning. Once we had moored up I wandered across the locks to check the level gauge. As you can see the Braunston pound is almost on level.

I would just like to recommend the café at Crick, we stopped for a coffee but also had a bite to eat, the salmon quiche and the Mediterranean Tart .were first class served with chips and salad. I must say I did regret having eaten any lunch while crawling round the back of the engine to fit the new switch

Today’s Journey

 

2½ miles with no locks on 1½ hours

Home Moorings

Well bit of a disaster and a change of plans. Yesterday evening I was sitting watching TV and Diana was just completing cooking dinner when the screen went blank and the induction hob fan fell silent. First thought the invertor shut down on overload, but it didn’t fire up again, I looked at the volt meter and instead of reading 26 ish volts it was counting down like a space launch. The reason, after a few check, the 24 volt DC isolator had thrown its hand in. With the aid of a set of jump leads 24 volt power was restored so dinner could be eaten. I then rooted through the odds and ends of cable shelf and found a nice length of reasonable cable with a lug on each end, but it was 2” too short, so a longer piece of 6mm had a yellow crimp fitted each and was used to connect the battery to the main fuse. The inverter now functioned so the fridge was running again but no way would that thin piece of wire give us full power. It also meant that the alternator was also connected to the 24 volt batteries. We then planed our trip home. Even this changed during the day.

This morning we were away at quarter to 9 on a lovely calm sunny morning heading for Hillmorton Locks. Again very few boats moored in Rugby. The water level against the weir there looked very good and the battery was charging nicely, I went below to check and the connections and cable were nice and cool.
We had just passed Clifton Cruisers when we caught up with a very slow hire boat but it was still before 10 o’clock so the lock still shut, When we arrived at the locks we were Number 4 in the queue so it was about 11 before we went up the first lock. Thankfully the abandon boat on the lock moorings below the middle lock has been moved out of the way. We must have met 10 or a dozen hire boats this morning.
Back at the marina we slipped into our berth and had lunch, even boiling the kettle for a cup of tea, our first since yesterday afternoon. That gone I disconnected the batteries and removed the master switches, both 12 and 24 volt as they are in a stainless steel box and brought them home to replace the faulty one.

Today’s Journey 6½ with 3 locks in 3¾ hours

Newbold

I checked the water level at the Sutton Stop lock bywash yesterday and it looked to be down by about

80mm. so far today we have had 50mm of rain added to it, so looking quite good.
Last night we ate at The Greyhound, we had planned to eat there Wednesday but couldn’t get a table so booked for last night, Just as well as it was full again.
This morning we set off in light rain and after a time it actually stopped, I thought we had set off too early again, but then it started to throw it down and as been on and off all morning.
Coming through Ansty the ground drilling is complete and the road open again, This is where they were boring beside the bridge on the off side with a stub of pipe sticking up .

The moorings at All Oaks Wood were completely packed with boats and a couple of chaps were burning the fly tipping that was there a few days ago. Someone has erected a little bird house along there.Bit of a sad site further on with a burnt out boat, I would imaging the inside is totally wrecked with smoke damage as the windows are all black, but the steel work looks sound. This was laying on the bank at the stern of the boat so I guess it was the cause or the fire.

As we passed Lime Farm Marina the canal was covered in Duckweed, but it was only in this area we saw it in and don’t remember it when we came the other way, a few days ago.

It then started chucking it down so it was quite nice to get into Newbold Tunnel for a short time, once clear of the tunnel and under the first bridge we were pleased to see an empty mooring by the piling complete with mooring rings, so that was it for the day.

 

Today’s Journey

 

11 miles with no locks in 4 hours

Hawkesbury Junction N Oxford canal

This was our mooring for last night, once tied up

Diana visited Gorety Portuguese shop for cakes and some lovely rice pudding and then Rudens Latvians store for pickled fish.
We were a bit hesitant about going out to eat due to the weather and it turned out to be right. We found an Indian Restaurant, Namaste Kerala quite close to the basin, but when we got there it was really a Takeaway with a couple of tables between the window and the counter, so we bought a takeaway and headed back to the boat. Value for money you will be hard to beat it and the taste, for £22 there was more than enough for two of us. Eating on board and the thunder, lightning and rain started again.
This morning it had to be Playwrights for breakfast,

a bit surprising that half the tables were reserved from 10 o’clock onwards but at least they were free to use before the booked time then into town just to get a couple of items. By the time we left at about 11 two of the other boats had already gone. The company on the other side of the basin have created quite a nice garden right beside the bridge .

There was a very tall tree beside the towpath in someone’s garden, I have photographed it several times, over the years they have slowly been reducing it hight.

The nice mural under the bridge of swans has sadly been defaced by spray paint yobs

Several bridges on the system have cast iron angles and some even have rollers to protect the bridge brickwork from the rub of the boat towing lines when boats were pulled by horses, this bridge has a strategically placed cast iron post to do the job. You can see the groves worn in it.

As you can see from this photo the water levels have improved dramatically since 3 weeks ago.

We stopped at the services at Hawkesbury Junction to unload a shopping trolley that I had rescued from the canal, there was no pound in it and then proceeded through Sutton Stop where there was a volockiy on duty much to my surprise. Clear of the lock we slipped into the water point and had plenty of time to eat lunch (last nights leftovers) before the tank was full, they a couple of hundred yards to moor on the towpath side for the night. At this point we hadn’t got wet, but Diana decided to go for a walk and inspect the fallen trees on the Coventry Canal and we had another thunderstorm. She was more than damp when she got back to the boat.

Today’s Journey

 

5¾ miles with one lock in 2¾ hours.

Coventry Basin

Only very light rain overnight but it kicked off this morning before we were up with thunder and a very heavy shower that then changed to steady rain. We were in no hurry and the app indicated it would stop about 11am. Wrong. After lunch at 1-30 we decided to push of with it still raining, but we left a quarter of an hour too soon, doing Sutton Stop lock, where the levels looked much better than last time we were this way and the junction in the rain, before we had reached the first bridge the sun came out. There is only one boat moored on the water point now andnone  opposite the entrance to Exhall Basin. We had a good run down the arm meeting one hire boat on the way who was coming in to moor at Longford visitor moorings, we also passed on who was about to leave those moorings and head down the arm, later we passed another hire boat who were pulling into the long term moorings at Red Lane to fill with water. The Offside vegetation is starting to spread half way across the canal so its just as well there isn’t much traffic. We arrived at the basin with the sun still shining, to find 4 other boats moored there, but my favourite spot next to the swing bridge was free, so after winding we slid in backwards and moored up for the night. The total rainfall for the day so far is 13.5mm according to my electronic rain gauge

 

Today’s Journey

5½ miles with 1 lock in 2¼ hours

Hawkesbury Junction

When we got up this morning there were a few spots of rain on the deck, but nothing like forecast. We were a bit later getting away this morning saying goodbye to the pile of fly tipping at about quarter to eleven by which time several boats had been by.

The sites o f the land slips in the narrows are looking better now than they have for years. The floating flower display that I mentioned last trip is still bobbing about but not looking so good. I may take a closer inspection on the way back.

There was another land slide further along but other than closing the towpath CRT haven’t done anything

about it. Of course the towpath doesn’t get closed for long before people just move the barriers away and make there way through. With the canal being a few inches lower than normal you can see the bank pushed out into the cut.

Ansty, much to our surprise only had three boats moored there, I wonder if its because there is no road access at the bridge, it’s completely closed to traffic now and they are drilling bore holes, both in the road and on the offside beside the bridge.

We were just near the Coventry Cruising club when I spotted a new one on me, put your boat on the towpath to paint it, at least no one can sink it there.

As we approached Hawkesbury Junction there were boats moored right round the bend but we carried on with a view to mooring on the Coventry Canal if necessary, but just passed a very smart ex BWB tug/ice breaker, Tycho there was a gap of about 65 feet, spot on.
Yesterday I mentioned I had been attacking some of the rust on Harnser’s roof, I should have undercoated it yesterday evening as things turned out. But while I was working on it the owner of Tycho came to mover her further on. For those that  don’t know Tycho this is her unique bow.As for the work on the roof, rain stopped play.

 

Today’s Journey 7¾ miles with no locks in 2¾ hours

All Oaks Woods mooring.

Well a few more boats arrived behind us last night so about 9am this morning we moved down to the lock moorings to wait for the flight to open. Its surprising with the canal level lower  there is no  cross flow from the back pumping, it just tumbles into the canal

A little before quarter to ten the Volocky arrives and sits on the lock beam after putting the names of the volockies on the board. about ten to ten he unlocks the top paddles and raises one. I have the engine running, then he sits and looks at his watch, two minutes to ten take the chains off the bottom gate and spot on ten o’clock opens the top gate.
Now they only have one of the middle locks operational, the one with a boat dumped on the lock moorings, it was there when we came up on the 2nd on August when we came up. Once down the flight we pulled over for water, its a very slow tap. While we were there another boater tapped on the roof to ask where he could get a “Fund British Waterways” banner, luckily I had a spare. We gave up before the tank was full and headed off, but only as far as Horton Bridge, I had to visit Toolstation to pick up a new galley tap. It’s only a 5 minute walk so dead handy. Then we were off again, this time just as far as Newbold where we stopped for lunch and then I spent a couple of hours sanding rust patches on the roof and treating them with Kurust, tomorrow I will slap some undercoat on and then the next day some top coat. We hadn’t planed to stay at Newbold over night so once I had finished we pushed on again, this time to All Oaks Wood and it looked pretty full. Boats moored before the wood as well as in the wood,  we stopped by the carpark and Diana walked ahead to see if there was any space against the piling, just one, she paced it out at 19 strides, we are 18, so that is where we are for the night.

Today’s Journey 7½ miles with 3 locks in about 3 hours

Hillmorton top lock

We didn’t really plan to visit this week, only decided yesterday so had to come via Rugby to stock up with provisions on the way to the marina. Once we were unpacked and eaten lunch we plodded off out of the marina heading south. Most of the empty offside moorings now display private signs and the fly tipping is still on the towpath, including an outboard engine.. As expected the canal was very quiet with Hillmorton Locks closing at 3pm. Once moored we wandered down to the top lock to look at the level. The Braunston pound is down by 120mm.

 

Unlike last time we were here there are very few boats moored and a queue of two for the locks in the morning, and we are the first.

 

Today’s Journey