Sunday 1 December 2013 Coventry Basin

Woke to another great morning, the rear fender was steaming with the heat of the sun. The day started cold 2° first thing but reached 12° as the day went on.

We met quite a few boats as we headed north towards Hawkesbury Junction.

Rose Narrowboats swing bridge looked grand in the bright sunshine and we had the good fortune of a walker opening it for us. He even closed it after we had gone through.

Just before Ansty CaRT or their contractors are cutting back some of the offside vegetation, unfortunately they left the sticking out willow on the bend in Ansty opposite the moored boats. The surprising thing is they are not using a fancy CaRT work boat with a pod on it but what looks like an old BW workboat now owned by Rose Narrowboats.

Work is also continuing at the new mooring that someone is building on the off side just south of bridge 26. The area is landscaped back to the railway line but no sign of a boat. I wonder if this is part of the route of the old canal?

As we left Ansty a lady asked us if we had lost a little dog, she had just fished one out of the canal and had it in her coat to warm it up, she also had her two dogs with her. We kept an eye open but didn’t see anyone looking for a dog.

On the approach to the outskirts of Coventry almost opposite Coventry Cruising Club several football matches were in full swing, hard to remember today is the first of December. A few boat were moored on the approach to Hawkesbury lock and one was leaving the lock just as we arrived which eased things along. Its an awfully lot easier turning down towards Coventry from the lock than it is to Nuneaton.

Here is a view of Hawkesbury Junction you don’t often see looking back under bridge 12 on the Coventry Canal, most boaters go the other way. I just love the steel work on the hand rails.  I didn’t realise that Coventry had fire hose access doors in their road bridges just like Birmingham, accept the Coventry ones are all bricked up and Birmingham maintain most of theirs. Note the silhouette map of the canal on top of the wall.

Both the lack of wind and good light gave this chimney gave a good reflection shot as we approached the bend it stands on. 

We met two boats as we made our way along the Coventry canal, one being Maffi who keeps a good blog, the other a shared ownership boat. When we arrived at the basin there was one boat moored in the north arm, one just outside the basin and one taking water, plus the Excellence Afloat boats that are now based in the south arm. I think I have seen more boats moored on the Coventry Canal today than ever before between the junction and the basin, there was even on on the mooring rings opposite the Ricoh Arena.