Kingswood Tuesday 27 August 2019

Day : Tuesday
Date : 27 August 2019
Start : 1015
Finish : 1615 Kingswood

I have uploaded our proposed route to CanalPlanAC if anyone wants to see where we are likely to be. It gets updated with actual position each night.

Well the old boat is falling apart a bit at a time, last night the bathroom light threw its hand in. I had been planning to convert this to LED and already had a few bits in hand, so this morning I removed the guts and fitted two flat LED G4 replacements of a bout 2.5 Watts each, I am not sure they are really bright enough through the diffuser so may add a third.

As you can see we were a good couple of feet out last night, but at least we didn't bang as boats went by.

After sorting the light we set off a little after ten and were soon passing through the broken Shirley Draw Bridge, which I understand had been given a good bang with a lorry, its split all the welds on the rails one side and distorted the bed.

Work at the Earlswood Motor Yacht club has progressed over the past 3 weeks since we passed last with the old club house gone as well as some of the buildings at the back.

We saw very little traffic until we stopped for lunch (and stock up with beer) at Hockley Heath then a boat moored in behind us, a little later another arrived so as we had finished lunch we moved off and let them have the space. As I mentioned before , we passed acres of Christmas trees growing alongside the canal.

I have noticed this under the bridge before but today I realised it is actually under two bridges which must make the boundary look interesting.

We didn't do very well at the Lapworth locks only meeting two boat and having a hire boat pull out in front of us after the second lock down. We just got to the bottom and it started to rain quite heavily and I expected a storm, but it only lasted a few minutes. Tonight we plan to eat in The Boot pub, we have heard good reports but have never been.

Today's Journey8¼ Miles 13 Locks in 5¾ hours