Home Moorings

A bit of frost last night but not a breath of wind and quite bright this morning, we were away at ten passing a field of swans. We counted 25 and I would estimate there were 3 times that number and and even more geese.

We stopped at Fazeley Mill marina to top up with diesel as we use about 12Lts per day this time of the year. That done we headed down to Fazeley Junction to fill with water, our water gauge is in desperate need of recalibrating and consequently we tend not to fully fill up. We had just finished when another boat arrived for water so he timed that well. Both the Glascote locks were against us and as we were leaving the top lock a CRT chap turned up to change the spindle on the top paddle as someone had reported it very warn. We carried on in the sunshine heading back to Alvecote, on the way we pass this end terrace house that the owner has had coated white, they have also gone to the trouble of doing half the chimney.

Back at the marina there was a chap magnet fishing from the towpath, he asked what I thought his latest find was, this conversation resulted me in leaving it rather late to swing into the marina and I had to turn a bit more that 90° to get in. There wasn’t a breath of wind as I turned round and reversed back down to our mooring slot, I think this is the first time I haven’t had to consider the wind.

Todays Journey

6 miles, 2 locks in 3¾ hours

Drayton Basset

It was new Years Eve yesterday and we could hear fireworks from about 4pm until 1am. At midnight there were some very large displays on the horizon in most directions.
This morning about 8am we actually had a boat go by, the only one on the move since half way up the 21.
We set off in the sun at about 10am heading for Curdworth tunnel, I must admit I didn’t bother fitting the tunnel light. Next stop Curdworth Top Lock, from here HS2 have had to install a temporary road access to the site of the M42 bridge as they have had to chop Marston Lane off where it crossed the M42 to push their new bridge in as as can be seen in this video

HS2 bridge going into place

Down at Lock 4 we could see the new bridge, I bet they take more than a week to put one over the canal.

Looking to the offside you can see the path of the new line running off into the distance,

As well as the route that have a large work area for building the bridge. Room to build a couple of supermarkets with car parks.

The Curdworth Flight consist of 11 locks, out of these 5 of them have paddle problems, I do wonder if CRT are hoping that HS2 put a stoppage on the canal before they have to due to equipment failure.
There may not have been any boats about but there were plenty of walkers, one wished us a happy new year and enquired as to whether we had seen any fishermen and was disappointed when I said no.
We cleared the flight and carried for about half a mile to moor just before Fisher’s Mill Bridge.

Todays Journey

5 Miles, 11 locks in 3½ hours