Saturday 7 December 2013 Braunston

Firstly yesterdays little quiz, several replies and one almost correct, it is 15A.

Set off with another sunny morning just before 10-30am About half way passed All Oaks Wood there was a dead pony in the canal, not the best start to the day.

We called in at Lime Farm Marina for diesel but unfortunately they were closed so I filled up at Hillmorton wharf at 87p and I am now £240 poorer.

There are still a lot of Sloes along the canal on the offside so we pulled over and picked another tub full, that will do another couple of bottles of Gin.

We passed one moored boat with an interesting cratch frame, I wouldn’t want to have to make a cover for it.Coming up Hillmorton locks there was still a boat moored on the lock moorings, not the same one as last time, I do wonder if the boat yard use this as their waiting area for boats to have jobs done.  

There are now several wide beam boats in Barby Marina as well as lots of Narrowboats. The only pinch point I could see coming from Braunston with a wide beam is a removed bridge near Willoughby which looks about 12ft.

At Braunston Turn we turned right into Braunston and I have never seen the place so empty. There were only two boat on the 14 day moorings north of the A45 bridge, lots of spaces between here and the turn. We have only gone as far as the next A45 bridge on the GU section but there were loads of spaces here as well.

Friday 6 December 2013 All Oaks Wood

A bit of rain first thing but fine and sunny when we set off at 10am. One good thing about this canal is that the bridges are very conveniently spaced, so the crew can walk the towing path if they wish with lots of opportunities to pick them up. There are 66 of them in just 22 miles.

Out of interest does anyone know, without looking it up, the number of the first bridge that crosses the Ashby canal? No prizes, just a bit of fun.

It took us just over 2 hours to reach Marston Junction where we rejoined the Coventry canal turning left. It wasn’t long before we were at the wonderful Charity Dock where two chaps were cleaning the dry dock out. They will have bit of a problem using it as not only are there a row of cruisers moored in front of the entrance there is also a sunk Springer.

The number of manikins seem to increase every time we pass, they now seem to congregate at the south end of the site with just a couple of Jim’s hanging at the boat yard end.

We saw two coal boats on this section, one we met and the other was moored at the wharf by Hawkesbury Junction. The airgun range behind the lock cottage at Sutton Stop looks a lot more open than I remember.

Just round the corner from the lock on the North Oxford canal there was a horse and foal grazing. The horse was tethered but the foal running free. I guess it wouldn’t go far without its mother.

Some years ago British Waterways who were in charge of the canal system then, spent a lot of money removing a very poorly bridge, number 16 at Ansty, it was a handy bridge when it was open as it connected the visitor moorings with the Rose and Castle pub.
However the work they carried out to make the structure secure is not standing the test of time and already the offside abutment wall is cracking and splitting apart. 

We were now going along side the West Coast rail line, somewhere we did not wish to stop for the  night, there is just one spot where the canal wiggles away just a little bit from the line and that is where we saw the Rose Narrowboat work boat moored, the flat carrying the branch chipper is painted in the same livery so I would think they own them both, both ex BW and now on hire back to CaRT probably. The motors name is Slough and you can see Rose Narrowboats name painted on the side. They are even moored up with rope.
There would have been room for us to have tucked in here but it was half three and we still had some daylight left so we carried on beside the railway and between the long rows of moored boats to Rose Narrowboats yard at Stretton Stop, here they had another work boat moored, this one being a more modern push tug with a hydraulic coupling system, so maybe they are diversifying.

After Stretton stop the canal and railway part company and about a mile further on we tucked into the row of moored boats at All Oaks Wood for the night just on quarter past four and still surprisingly light.

Thursday 5 December 2013 Hinckley

When we got home from the pub last night it was dead still with frost on the car roofs, but I woke this morning to the sound of the gusting wind. At some point I lost the rain collector of my weather station, we didn’t notice until after we set off so it may still have been laying around where we moored.

We were away a little after half ten and travelling wasn’t to bad. The highest gust I recorded on what’s left of the weather station was 42.5 MPH.

When I pass something like this I always wonder what is behind it, was it an old solders favoured fishing spot, did he die here, who knows, I never will that’s for sure, unless someone reading this blog knows.

At Market Bosworth the workmen were hard at work in the wind, at least it was dry. This site is a bit unusual for a marina as the ground level is below the canal level so banks are having to be raised all the way round it with clay. As we were passing they had just picked up the hydraulic pile driver to drive more sheet piling into the ground.

There are even more leaves on the cut now and for non boaters let me tell you that is as bad as leaves on the lines. They slowly build up on the leading edge of the propeller and you lose a lot of efficiency, a burst of reverse normally shifts them and I was doing this every half mile at times. It looks very calm here, but you should have seen the tops of those trees to the left of the photo.

Passing a moored boat on the aqueduct at Shenton its bows came adrift, so with some effort I stopped beside the towing path (wind straight on the side) and went back to secure it. I had to donate a mooring pin to do it as they had tied to the wooden rail along the top of the sheet piling which had snapped. While we were doing this the only boat we saw on the move all day came by, a CaRT work boat.
The moorings on the offside at the battle field are now closed, there use to be a set of steps running down the bank but they look to have gone as well. Here is the CaRT notice about it.

Around mid day I saw this rainbow forming behind us, we were still in bright sunshine, however the rain was about to catch us up. Because of the wind it would have been impossible to eat lunch while going along, the fish would have had most of it so we stopped at the 48 visitor moorings at Sutton Wharf. These are build with plastic wood which is very flexible as well as having a slippery surface. I stepped off the stern and nearly fell in, the decking at that point was not fully supported.

We had just tied up before the rain started and as it was coming at over 40mph I didn’t really want to be out in it. It didn’t come to much and we were away again at half two.

A little further on the wind had dropped a tree blocking the towing path, not a problem for boaters thank goodness. I expect it will be gone by tomorrow lunchtime.

About 3pm the wind suddenly died away to nothing and boating became quite pleasant for the last hour in the day. we moored for the night on the first piece of piling we came to after about half three and that was just prior to Hinckley at Barn Lane Bridge No. 19.

As I write this at six thirty it has just started to rain again, but there is still little wind and the atmospheric pressure is rising steadily.

Wednesday 4 December 2013 Shackerstone

The workmen finished dead on 5pm last night leaving us with a quiet night. Mind you they started dead on 8am this morning with all their reversing bleepers and on bit of kit gave two bleeps followed by the instruction to “Stand Clear” it must send the people in the houses opposite batchy let alone the workmen. With so much plant going backwards so often I do wonder how effective the alarms are when they sound continually. By the time we left at 1030 they had started to drive some of the piling in  by the entrance, I wouldn’t want to be there when they are doing that all day.

Today was another clear sunny day but the breeze now has a definite nip to it, even though the actual temperature was 9° it felt a lot cooler. We continued to the end of the canal where we winded and filled with water. There are moorings all along this stretch with only a solitary cruiser moored opposite the winding hole fishing. I did notice that while we were filling with water he did draw forwards a few yards. We moored a few boat lengths ahead of him to eat dinner.

There is a short tunnel near the end of the canal, but its the bendiest one I know, about three quarters of the way through our tunnel light failed, I was pleased it wasn’t a long one.

On our way pack to Shackerstone we passed a shooting party about to take the last drive of the day, by the number of dogs they had I would say they were a very lucky group.

There are a lot of long term moorings at Shackerstone on nb.Tixal was on one of them, looking at her chimney I would say she is a steam boat.

We moored for the night just before bridge 52 on the 48 hour moorings in Shackerstone and this evening we will walk to The Rising Sun for dinner and maybe a pint.

Tuesday 3 December 2013 Market Bosworth

Again the weather was better than expected, rain had been forecast but it stayed dry all day, quite dull and turning cool this afternoon. We set off from out very quiet mooring at about 1030am, both pins were still well in which was good considering a boat passed in the dark, thanks for going slowly whoever it was.

We met a few boats in the course of the day, some I recognised and some I didn’t, I quite liked this sign as we approached The Barge moorings, I don’t really believe its a genuine CaRT sign.

The moorings however looked grand and if I was looking to base the boat in this area I would definitely make enquiries with them.

Is we made our way along the canal I was playing with my latest toy, a Rocket USB adapter external WiFi Aerial. It works quite well but most of the hotspots I hit were locked or too weak. We wanted to watch last weeks episode of The Last Tango in Halifax. We finally came across a good BTinternet signal at Market Bosworth so we moored there for the night where we were able to catch up before the third episode tonight.

When we moored up just passed the water point and bridge 42 we were greeted by a crater and a construction site. On the towing path side they are excavating a new marina. CaRT have a stoppage planned for early next year to connect it. So far its a big hole with no piling installed yet, although they were moving a few pieces this afternoon, but they have got the channel installed with the stop plank groves in it where it will tie into the canal.

They have also set an area aside for plants etc to mitigate the effect all the boats will have on the local SSSI. to the right of the bund, between the basin and the canal.

Monday 2 December 2013 Ashby Canal

It unbelievable how quiet the mooring is in Coventry Basin considering how close to the city it is. The only down side is the amount of light all night. We had to cover the bulls eye in the cabin roof and I woke to a Blackbird singing its heart out at about 3am this morning.

The day has been quite overcast, no wind and chilly, the forecast was for rain but it has stayed dry all day. Before setting off at 1030 we had a wonder round the basin taking a few photographs. 

There are 6 Valley Cruisers moored in the south arm of the basin and they have an office at the very end of the arm. The part of the basin in the photo on the right above is all no mooring so the only visitor mooring is in the arm on the right of the left hand photo above. Mr. Brindley still stands on the fork overseeing things.

For some reason this swan took a fancy to my boot while I was taking photos and kept giving me nibbles. The entrance and exit to the basin is via a bridge with no towing path and very high parapet walls. This was to make the goods offloaded secure from theft and no boats were allowed in the basin overnight.

Just outside the basin there are 2 water points but it looks as if CaRT have just replaced one and used the old cast iron design as opposed to the modern stainless steel ones.

About a mile outside the basin there are some houses on the north side of the canal, the top floor of these use to be weavers workshops and are known as Cash’s Hundred Houses, as you can see the upper floor has twice as many windows as the other floors to let the light in so the workers could see what they were producing on their looms. The council have tried hard to brighten the area around the canal up with statues of old cars and tools used to build the canal. They have also installed brightly painter iron railings and other features to the canal side.

It may be hard to believe but this boat is moored on an official 7 day mooring, on a bend just through a bridge.

At 1300hrs we were back at Hawkesbury Junction, exactly where we were 24 hours earlier but going in the opposite direction. We had the journey down to the terminus and back, so ten miles without a single visit to the weed hatch at an average speed of 2.5 MPH

We carried on east along the Coventry canal past the famous Charity Dock with its collection of not only boats, what looks like general scrap  and the most manikins I have seen outside a department store. We met one boat along here, our first today. At Marston Junction we made a very tight right hand turn, probably 110° down the Ashby Canal, we spent a bit of time under bridge 1 chatting with Maffi who was moored a bit further along the main line. Travelling down the Ashby we met our second boat of the day who we recognised from our time on The Great Ouse. We carried on for about 4 miles and moored in the middle of nowhere a short way beyond bridge 12.

Sunday 1 December 2013 Coventry Basin

Woke to another great morning, the rear fender was steaming with the heat of the sun. The day started cold 2° first thing but reached 12° as the day went on.

We met quite a few boats as we headed north towards Hawkesbury Junction.

Rose Narrowboats swing bridge looked grand in the bright sunshine and we had the good fortune of a walker opening it for us. He even closed it after we had gone through.

Just before Ansty CaRT or their contractors are cutting back some of the offside vegetation, unfortunately they left the sticking out willow on the bend in Ansty opposite the moored boats. The surprising thing is they are not using a fancy CaRT work boat with a pod on it but what looks like an old BW workboat now owned by Rose Narrowboats.

Work is also continuing at the new mooring that someone is building on the off side just south of bridge 26. The area is landscaped back to the railway line but no sign of a boat. I wonder if this is part of the route of the old canal?

As we left Ansty a lady asked us if we had lost a little dog, she had just fished one out of the canal and had it in her coat to warm it up, she also had her two dogs with her. We kept an eye open but didn’t see anyone looking for a dog.

On the approach to the outskirts of Coventry almost opposite Coventry Cruising Club several football matches were in full swing, hard to remember today is the first of December. A few boat were moored on the approach to Hawkesbury lock and one was leaving the lock just as we arrived which eased things along. Its an awfully lot easier turning down towards Coventry from the lock than it is to Nuneaton.

Here is a view of Hawkesbury Junction you don’t often see looking back under bridge 12 on the Coventry Canal, most boaters go the other way. I just love the steel work on the hand rails.  I didn’t realise that Coventry had fire hose access doors in their road bridges just like Birmingham, accept the Coventry ones are all bricked up and Birmingham maintain most of theirs. Note the silhouette map of the canal on top of the wall.

Both the lack of wind and good light gave this chimney gave a good reflection shot as we approached the bend it stands on. 

We met two boats as we made our way along the Coventry canal, one being Maffi who keeps a good blog, the other a shared ownership boat. When we arrived at the basin there was one boat moored in the north arm, one just outside the basin and one taking water, plus the Excellence Afloat boats that are now based in the south arm. I think I have seen more boats moored on the Coventry Canal today than ever before between the junction and the basin, there was even on on the mooring rings opposite the Ricoh Arena.

Saturday 30 November 2013 All Oaks Wood

What a corking day, blue sky, bright sun, no wind ant the temperature almost in double figures.

We left the mooring at 10 am and Diana spotted this chap sitting on a canal side fence post. He had been there when we moored up but the light was to poor to get a photo of him. He is obviously very use to people on boats.

The canal was quite busy and we met several boat as we headed northwards.

There are a lot of boats in Barby Marina now and one of them is a wide beam so I don’t know if risked coming up from Braunston or was craned in.

Approaching Hillmorton we could see a lot of construction work going on the the right which we suspect is by the railway.

The long term moorings above Hillmorton locks were almost empty, one boat by the bridge who was having insulation fitted to his boat, the company had their van on the road. A strange wide beam vessel which I understand is half a catamaran who normally floats around Wigrams Turn area and one other boat. There was a boat just leaving the top lock, but he didn’t see me so shut the gate, I was so close I had to go on the lock moorings to let him by. At Hillmorton Bottom Lock there was a boat moored on each of the lock moorings above the lock, but I have come to expect this.

We stopped a Rugby to visit Tesco, there was only one other boat on the 14 day moorings, never seen it so quiet, there were a few on the park on the offside which I see is now only 24 hour mooring.

Newbold Tunnel now has 3 out of 27 working, one of each colour. The 14 day moorings at Newbold were full but the 48 hour empty.

The moorings just north of Lime Farm Marina on the offside now have another new mooring dug out of the scrub.

By now the sun was getting lower in the sky so time to start looking for a mooring for the night. Passing along All Oaks Wood the sun was out of sight so we stopped on the first piece of piling after leaving the wood.

Lets hope tomorrow is as nice as today.

Friday 29 November 2013

Well what a pleasant surprise last nigh was. We walked to the Kings Head at Napton, its only about 5 minutes from the canal and they were pushed to find us a table. Its a Hook Norton pub so I expected the beer to be OK but I wasn’t sure about the food, our last visit didn’t want to make us hurry back, but what a turn around, a very good menu backed up with two very good meals, I can’t comment on the sweets as we didn’t have room for them.

This  morning we woke to(in no particular order) Ducks nibbling the weed, cars blowing their horns crossing the bridge, planes, helicopters and the sun shine.

We didn’t set off until 11am and again very few boats moored in the usual places, a few around Flecknoe but only one on the Puddle Banks and non opposite the long term moorings south of the Puddle Banks. We passed one unusual boat, a cruiser stern that has had the cabin sides extended to make it a sort of semi trad cruiser.

Although we started off in the sun shine it wasn’t long before it started to rain, but it only lasted half an hour.

We called into Braunston Marina for a pump out £12 DIY but that machine really sucks. Then back out and a coffee on Matilda Rose before heading up the North Oxford as far as Willoughby where we have moored for the night.

Thursday 28 November 2013 Napton Narrowboats

Well we are back aboard for a few days. It was dead on 2pm as I backed out of the Engine Arm onto the main line. A nice man from CaRT set Napton top lock while Diana took the bags from the car onto the lock side.

The CaRT chap was there as he suspects that the heal post on the nearside bottom gate is snapped, needless to say all the rest of the flight was against us.
I think this is the first time I have ever been down the flight and there not been a boat moored in one of the pounds. There were only two below the Folly Pub.

It looks as if the Lock Cottage by the bottom lock now has vehicular access, they have a drive way running down to a gate onto the entrance to The Folly car park. We actually met a boat on the move between here and The Bridge pub. Again very few boats moored, only 3 and one of them was a hire boat. We moored with a view of eating at The Bridge, they have all the signs out but the place looked deserted, the only lights on were the exit signs and none of the tables laid, also the bins were all empty so it didn’t look good. Working on this information we moved down to bridge 109 where we managed to tuck in to the piling for the night and will walk up to The Kings Head instead.