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Saturday 17 July 2021

Star City Birmingham

 Boy it was hot last night, we went to bed with the rear doors open and the  mozzie screen up, I expect today will be the same. 
Not a bad run up Curdworth the first couple of locks were with us, we met  a boat at lock 9 and then a clean run to lock 5. By lock 7 I noticed this marked into the concrete by the top offside paddle, not noticed it before.

I think it was the next lock up the wall between the tail of the lock and the bridge is bowed, its the only one like this. Of course its possible that the other walls have been rebuilt straight and this is original.
Lock 3 has this rather smart bag on it, but it actually needs a second as the top offside paddle is not connected to the paddle rod.I  think CRT may need a little more water going over the Minworth by washes to keep feeding this extraction pump, mind you the spuds do look good. Once clear of Curdworth tunnel we put the Bimini up to keep a bit of the sun off me as I was starting to suffer a bit with the heat.
We carried on along the B&F  to Salford Junction where its a very hard left turn up the Grand Union canal to moor at Star City for the night, these are 24 hr offside moorings against a pontoon so you don't get the towpath traffic passing, at the moment we are the only boat here but there is now a small community of live aboard boaters on the towpath side opposite, a few years back that was considered an unsafe place to moor.


Today's Journey 9 miles, 13 locks in 5 hours.







1 comment:

NB Holderness said...

Hi Both, Thanks for your various comments. The steel down the Farmers Bridge locks that is supposed to be for the scaffolding seems well over spec., especially as most in up already. Timber cladding was the 'big think' at one time, but funnily enough not anymore. I suppose as fire material it is more benign that dripping plastic etc, but still.
I reckon there is a bit of a rogue in you Brian, checking the securing arrangements of the soalr area and accompanying gear on the Curdworth locks. I confess to thinking how useful the black boxes may be, empty of course. If the system is to check on ground movements during the building of HS2 I wonder if it was because of experience following the building of the M42 which seems to be nearer?

Enjoy your boating. Tony and Helen.