0930 start this morning in bright sun following a light frost in the early hours. The Glascote Locks were of course against us and I don’t think we met any boats all morning. An hour and a half later we were swinging into the marina. The Swan now has three eggs in her nest, but she is making no effort to cover them. Someone has kindly put up a fence to keep dogs etc. away from the nest site, but it wouldn’t stop a Fox.
Today’s journey 3.56 Miles 2 Locks 1.75 hours.
Thankfully the geese slept late but the moorhens came for breakfast on the hull. We pushed off at 1030 back to Fazeley Junction where I made a better job of the turn, before stopping to fill with water. Once that was done we headed up the Coventry Canal for a few miles. CRT have cut back some of the offside vegetation but not done such a thorough job as they have elsewhere, so in places there are still things sticking out. The down side is they cut the overhanging branches from the Damson tree in Hopwas.
Just through Hopwas village a sight you don’t see very often, two horses being ridden up the towpath, they then crossed the bridge into Hopwas wood.
A little further on and a steam train with just one coach went north, by the time I had the camera ready the line was obscured by the bushes.
We winded at Tamhorn Farm Bridge and made our way back to Fazeley for the night. The woods in Hopwas are carpeted with small white flowers.
Todays Journey 13.3 Miles in 4.45 hours.
last night we had an Indian Takeaway from Ratna. Their prices have gone up a bit since last time we had a meal from there and we are not sure their adding up is spot on. However the food was great.
This morning was a late start at 11 am. as I attempted to make a few Phone calls, Our holiday to Ireland has been cancelled so I had to organise a refund and also order heating oil for home. Just passed the Polesworth mining centre we past a Kingfisher sitting on a twig over the canal, didn’t see him until we were level so no chance of a photo. Passing the marina at Alvecote we saw that there are now two eggs in the Swans nest and both Swans were on site. We continued on to the top of Glascote Locks where we stopped for lunch, left over Indian and home made soup. As we arrived we could see a boat going down the locks ahead of us, so we had that to look forward to this afternoon. I also noticed that the Ipad had not been plotting our route so no marked from Polesworth to Glascote.
After lunch we set off down the two Glascote locks and carried on to Fazeley Junction where I made a real pigs ear of the turn up the Birmingham and Fazeley canal. Thankfully I didn’t hit the glass wall.
We were delayed slightly at Fazeley Mill Marina, I could see well in advance that a boat was reversing out and having trouble turning so we waited for him to get sorted then when level with the marina entrance a boat came backwards through Coleshill Road Bridge and then passed a moored boat, so we held well back and waited for him. It was then a straight run to the winding hole just before Curdworth Bottom Lock where we winded before mooring for the night.
Todays Journey 10.2 miles in 4 hours with 2 locks
This is my first attempt at Blogging since I loaded Windows 10 so we will se how it goes.
We had a good run to the marina with fewer holdups on the A14 than in past trips, for some reason the M6 had a 60 MPH speed limit for miles for no apparent reason in very light traffic. Needles to say it started raining on the way and we still doing it lightly when we arrived at the boat.
I was a bit worried as we hadn’t visited the boat since of Christmas Trip and we have had several storms since then, at some point our stern rope had rubbed through where it passed through the mooring chain, but someone had kindly remoored us which was appreciated. Everything else was fine.
Once onboard the water system was refilled, the two solar panels had done a good job keeping the domestic batteries full and the engine started first shot. Buy the time we had eaten a bit of lunch and were ready to go the rain had stopped, so at 1415 we were away. A swan has made a nest right at the marina entrance, there was just a singe egg in the nest when we passed, I wonder if there will be more when we return.
Leaving the marina we turned right and had a steady run to Grendon where we winded and returned to Polesworth for the night. We saw a few boats on the move including friends of our being towed which was a surprise, but passing by we were unable to get any details.
We only did 8 miles which took us 2 hours and 20 minute, enough to warm the boat for tonight as we will be having an Indian Takeway onboard.
