Polesworth

Over Christmas we were in contact with friend who were not only on their boat but traveling in the same direction as us, we haven’t seen them in years, that’s how it goes with boaters. We decided to have a meal together on Boxing day, so I went on line and booked a table for 1845 on  line. Roll on until Boxing day morning and the Landlord rings to say the kitchen is closing at 1800, was that ok.
When we arrived at Hopwas our friends had already moored up and a little after 1730 we walked over to the pub. The dining room was empty, the Landlord had kept the kitchen open specifically for us. Now that is service above and beyond.

This morning it was warmer than yesterday and we set off about 1030 in almost still conditions, about half way to Fazeley we met a boat, I moved close to the off side and so did he, eventually he swung to his right while I did a dead stop. As he passed he asked me which sides boats should pass each other, he thought it the same as the road. Not meeting any moor boats and Neil about an hour ahead I felt sure that Glascote locks would be against us, then passing Tamworth Cruising Club we met Monarch, the ex steam Narrowboat coming towards us. Result. The bottom lock was empty, Moored below the lock was Minnow and as we worked the bottom lock, the top one turned and a couple walked down. It was Matt and Rebeca from Northwich Dry Dock so we had both locks with as and a few minuets chat.
Its surprising, well to me, how early the pussy willow is out.

As we approach Alvecote it started very fine rain and this continued quite lightly until we moored up at Polesworth, when we arrived we were the only boat in the town, but we have now been joined by a second.

Today’s Journey

8½ miles with 2 locks in 3¼ hours.

Hopwas

Woke to a lovely sunny morning, not a cloud in the sky, very little wind and a frost. around 10 am Neil and Linda came by and gave us a wave, we shall see them later.
We set off about half ten and have seen a lot more boats on the move. Most of the time the sun was right into my eyes so only a couple of photos today. At Brookhay bridge the sign for the up coming moorings is more to my liking than the other end. Please goes a long way in my book.

Not only were there more boats on the move but there was also a lot of walkers. We passed a boat we have seen many times before with some kind of attachment on its chimney, the owner told me this is the Mk6 and he gets 20 watts of power from his chimney, probably quite helpful this time of the year. It works on the same principal as the stove fans you can buy but many times bigger

We have had a slight problem with both leaves and the silt of many of the bridge holes on section of canal, when they dredged the reeds they didn’t dredge the bed. WE passed a couple of boats we know, but no sign of life maybe taking a Boxing Day walk.
We have moored for the night opposite The Red Lion at Hopwas where we will be having dinner tonight, I hope. Directly in front of us is Nb Ernest who will be joining us.

Today’s Journey

 

7 miles with no locks in 2½ hours

Fradley Village

Merry Christmas to all my readers

The plan for today was to just sit and chill, but by half ten we had an itchy tiller so set off for Fradley Junction, the weather was actually sunny and clear but only a few degrees above freezing. As we approached the new offside mooring just before Brookhay Bridge, please would have been nice.

It looks a bit different to last time we passed, now that they have felled lots of the trees and put in a concrete base and a wooden chalet.

We stopped for water just before the junction before heading through the swing bridge. I took that must have shot of the Swan public house but this

shot captured 52+ pigeons in it sitting on the wire suspended across the junction. The reminded me of a string of Christmas lights. In the junction I winded, watched by those sitting outside the pub drinking, before head back along the Coventry canal. We carried on for about half an hour before mooring in Fradley Village by bridge 90. To our surprise we are the only boat here.
Tonight we will have our Christmas dinner but we have started on the cake and Baileys.

 

Today’s Journey

4¾ miles with no locks in 2¼ hours

Huddlesford

Much brighter but cooler this morning with lots of blue in the sky and a bit of sunshine. A late start because we overslept a bit for some reason. Again just as we were about to set off 2 boats went by and we soon caught them up. The lead boat pulled over by the new housing estate and we were both able to pass, the other boat stopped at the Tame Otter so after that we were on our own.
I know its a bit chilly and damp now but I really wouldn’t advise this on the roof vents.

I am not sure what the crop was growing on the off side on a very wet field but it looks as if they are in the process of strawing it up. You can see the blue in the sky today much nicer

I thought I would take this view of the pylons all in line, for once it worked and I pressed the trigger at the right moment.

Yet another interesting chimney cover, a shiny brass saucepan. Like the chimney, well polished.

We did meet one or two boats but not many and all in easy places.
It was nice to see that CRT have dredger the reeds up at last a short way before Whittington, its been single file through here for years.

The footbridge at the Litchfield Cruising Club is still waiting repairs to the wall on the access ramp, I wonder who is responsible for doing it, CRT, the club or the local council? I feel sure it was like this last time we were this way. At least all the bricks are there neatly stacked and ready to go.
 

We had considered stopping near the Huddlesford Plough pub but went on a little further mooring about 250 yard before Orchard Marina’s entrance.
This is the spot where we will spend Christmas Day.

 

Today’s Journey

 

7¾ miles with no locks in 2¾ hours

Fazeley Junction

Another murky day, we could plainly see the trains passing but didn’t hear them at all, it shows what a difference wind direction makes. It was very slightly cooler but felt quite a bit colder, strange.
This week I have posted a couple of photos of unusual chimney caps, well here is another.

The flooding on the fields at Grendon was nowhere as bad as I have seen after other wet spells, maybe they have improved the drainage.

We had a good run as far as the weir just before Polesworth when we caught up with a motor and pair, so from here to Alvecote it was a steady 2.7MPH. where Malcom moored them up by the Samuel Barlow.

We chugged on meeting another boat just by the entrance to Alvecote Marina and then a clear run to the top of the Glascote pair of locks where there was a boat about to come out of the top lock, not only that they had weft the top gate of the second lock open as well. A Christmas present to us. We moored by the aqueduct about half a mile before Fazeley Junction, but as soon as were were off the boat we were aware of a very noisy generator on the boat a good 100 yards ahead, so we moved on, through the junction and moored at the far end of the visitor moorings for the night.

Today’s Journey 8¾  miles with 2 locks in 3½ hours

Bottom Atherstone locks

Another murky day with with very little boat movement. Arriving in Atherstone there were only a couple of boats moored above the locks on the visitor moorings but still one found it necessary to moor on the top lock moorings which is also part of the winding hole. Some of Atherstone inhabitants are welcoming Christmas canal side.

  We went down the first 5 locks before stopping for lunch and popping up to Tesco for a couple of final items, the place was heaving. That sorted we were off again to complete the flight, at lock 6 they have made a nice little seat in the access wall.

Needless to say all the locks except one were completely against us and we finally moored up just below the bottom lock at quarter to four.

Today’s Journey

4 miles with 11 locks in 3¼ hours

Hartshill

When I looked out this morning the sun was shining but when we set off at half 10 it was quite dull with no wind and not too cold, up passed Charity Dock

and on to Marston Junction, straight ahead to Atherstone where we stopped for a few minutes to catch up with Peter, an ex-boater who we have known for many years. I have tried many times to get a good photo of this house with a mirror on the balcony, not as good as in the flesh but trying to work out the roof line is interesting .

The CRT long term moorings at Tuttle Hill are now vacant, that must be a loss of income of about £12K a year to CRT I would have thought.

Our original plan was to go to the top of Atherstone tonight but as the weather started to close in and

get more murky we made Hartshill our new planned destination. I don’t think I would want to live on a boat opposite the bone factory or whatever it is. Yesterday I posted a photo of a hat on a chimney, today its a dog.

We carried on past the CRT Hartshill yard and moored for the night a short way before bridge 33.

Today’s Journey

 

7 miles with no locks in 2¼ miles

Bedworth

After we moored up yesterday we cleared up 3 heaps of dog poo by the boat, went to set off this morning and there was a fresh pile right by the stern mooring line.
Today was not as bright as yesterday but light winds and no rain, thankfully, A bit late setting off as the Christmas Lights had to go up first.
Once away it was the land slide at Easenhall Cutting, at the south end before the land slide the embankment is riddled with rabbit burrows, this can’t help stability. The site of the first land slide looked quite dry today, unlike yesterday when the water was gushing down into the canal washing right across the towpath. The photo was taken from under the bridge as the towpath is still closed.The northern landslide now looks quite well established with the grass growing over the works.

As we approached the swing bridge at Rose Narrowboats a dog walker kindly turned back from his walk and swung the bridge for us, his Spaniel didn’t look at all impressed having his morning walk disrupted. 
CRT have issued an alert for another landslide between bridges Nettlehill bridge, but this is an old slide, only now the water level is up about 3” the towpath round the front of the slip is underwater, last trip it was just covered in puddles.
We stopped in Ansty to fill with water, with the extra water in the canal its a little wider than normal here, there is normally a bit of flooding to the offside.

Once the tank was full we continuing on through Sutton Stop to the Coventry Canal. Passing the electricity Substation I spotted a deer in the brush, can you see it?

One of the long term moored boats has an interesting chimney cover, or rain hat.

Once on the Coventry canal we headed towards Atherstone, again both here and on the Oxford there were very few boats moored up. we carried on stopping a short way before Charity Dock.

Today’s Journey

10 miles with 1 lock in 4 hours

All Oaks Wood

Well it happened again, 10 o’clock, putting the tiller on a a boat chugs up behind and had a row of locks in their favour. Thankfully bot sets of Hillmorton locks are now open, last time we were this way the near side were all chained.The water level in the North Oxford is now on weir both above and below the locks. This is the weir above the locks.

As we went through the offside top lock I notices some animal droppings on the top of the mooring bollard, I tried for a photo as they were not dog droppings but was unsuccessful.  We met a boat in the middle lock so at least the bottom lock was with us and the boat we were following opened the gate ready for us. At the bottom lock I took another photo of the horse looking out of the door.

It looks as if CRT have put these yellow stickers on all their sign board now , large of small.

Although we met several boat it was surprising how few were moored in the normally busy places. There were only 2 above Hillmorton and 2 cruisers on the long winter moorings below the locks with a few beyond the winter mooring near Kent Road Bridge, hardly anything in Rugby and only a couple on the visitor moorings at Newbold, even so a couple have managed to moor on the water points. What I have not seen before is the number of boats moored to the towpath just before the railway bridge to the north of Falls Bridge boat yard.
The ex working boat that is permanently moored by Hungerfield Bridge is nicely decorated for Christmas and the hedge behind the towpath has been nicely layered.

There are several boats moored at All Oaks wood but they are well spaced out, luckily there was a spot at the end of the piling we could drop onto.
Once moored up I paid a visit to the weed hatch, things didn’t feel quite right, a found a short length of blue rope and some beads wrapped loosely around the shaft in front of the prop, I had to cut it to get it off.

Today’s Journey

8 miles with 3 locks in 3 hours

Hillmorton top of locks

What a day and what a journey. We set off from home at 10am. I always use Tom-tom if I am doing a journey of any distance as it alerts me to any holdups. Today it worked overtime. We hadn’t reached the end of our lane when I was told to turn right and not go straight ahead as normal. It then took us through Mutford as the road was closed in Hulver which I didn’t know about. At this point the weather wasn’t too bad, very slight drizzle and the wind had died away. Move on to the A14 at Newmarket and it took off onto the A421 as there are 2  of the 3 lanes closed  in Cambridgeshire. Even that wasn’t straightforward as that is being ripped apart and at one roundabout you are instructed not to follow satnav, so we followed the lorry ahead which brought us back onto the A421 about a mile further on. At the next roundabout said 3 exit, no  chance, barriers said ahead only so on we went, next roundabout do a 360 and go back to the last roundabout, no point, we couldn’t go anywhere from there, so on we went, navigated the Black Cat roadworks. By now it was chucking it down an limiting visibility. So we joined the M1, that must have been closed because there was no traffic at all  coming along when we joined. We finally arrived at the boat in the rain just before 2PM. Thankfully no frost damage but the boat was damper than I have ever known it, even the front doors had swollen and difficult to open.
Heating on, engine run, car unloaded, still in the rain, a bit of dinner and a change of plan. It was going to be the S Oxford but with the three stoppages, a damaged bridge and the Cherwell running fast  we are heading north instead. 3pm we slipped from our slot backwards, the wind wasn’t too bad but it did pin me to the bank as I turned out onto the canal. We went as far as the top of the Hillmorton Locks and moored for the night, needless to say, just after mooring the rains stopped.

Today’s Journey  2 miles with no locks in¾hour.

Home Mooring

A rough old night and woke to the rain several times but this morning was calm and clear so we set off a few minutes earlier than normal, reversing back to the junction and going round the triangle, rather than running all the way to the marina to wind.
I got a photo of the  new “winter mooring” signs as we passed showing the wording.

The water level gauge by Braunston Services indicates that the level is only a tine bit off  its

normal one, however this afternoon we took the car to Napton Reservoir to see if they had started topping it up, but its just as low as last month.
Just beyond bridge 90 where the canal starts to narrow there is a cruiser moored up, its not really wide but wider than a Narrowboat and where it is it will make life very interesting for any wide beam boats that want to get up there.

When I come this way I often try to take a photograph of Braunston Church through the arch of the bridge, I still haven’t taken that perfect shot.

Then it started to rain and then it rained harder, eased for a bit, but then it chucked it down. So far today we have had ½”. As we got to Dunchurch Pools it was nice to see the service pontoon empty and no gale blowing through. As we tied up even the rain stopped, double win. The improvement in the weather didn’t last. Back at our marina we needed a pump out, but there was already a boat on the services, thankfully he had nearly finished and we could draw in and do the necessary. While we were there I went and collected our new starter battery and loaded it onboard so that I could fit it this evening. Then it was round to our mooring and slide in for the night deploying our wooden fenders to prevent the gunwale sliding under the pontoon.

Today’s Journey

5 miles with no locks in 2¾ hours