Stage 3 - The Final Leg

Wilmcote Winding Hole

Mixed feelings about this weekend.  On one hand, “Angel” will be at her home mooring by the end of this leg of the journey, but on the other, it means the small adventure we have undertook will be coming to an end. Of course, this is the goal of this trip and it is in fact just the beginning of many trips ahead.

It felt a little strange however, to just be driving one car and not having to position cars at the start and end points, as we have been doing for the other legs of this journey.  We did stop at Saul before heading back to Wilmcote, just to remind ourselves which mooring we need to steer into!  We bumped into a very friendly chap, Frank, who is 80 years old, and who absolutely loves the boating life.  We fed the ducks and chatted for about half an hour before leaving, so we have already started making friends at Saul.  That’s what I really like about being on a narrowboat, on the whole, people are very friendly and willing to help.  It’s a real community.  Looking forward to many more evenings feeding the ducks and chatting with Frank!

Once again, pleased to see “Angel” is safe and sound where we left her.  I think she is a bit of a flirt as yet again, she is surrounded by other boats.  Cupboards have been restocked, beds made up and alarms set for the morning.  I’m glad we left her nearer a bridge as we had to carry an anchor on board tonight ready for the river Avon tomorrow.

Day 4

Wet, wet, wet (and we're not talking about an 80's pop band here!).  Well  if we’re ever going to test the new automatic bilge pump, it will be today!  It’s raining, the dog looks at Shelley in that all familiar excitable way, "I’m up, therefore it must be time for a walk".  As we had done so well yesterday, we didn't get up until 9.00am.  As it's Sunday, lashing it down with rain and Shelley will be out doing the locks in this beautiful English weather, I thought I should take Alfie out for his morning walk.  I don the water proof trousers, gortex coat and wellies, and leg it over to the bridge for shelter!!


At 9.30, we set off into the pouring, blustery weather,  a stark contrast to yesterdays start.  Of course, it's only the dies hards that venture out, those and the holiday makers that have to get their boats back by a certain time!

Well today was going to be one of those days.  Three things were going to conspire against me making a nice approach to the locks.  The wind, the spillways, and the rain on my glasses.  Never the less, after a couple of places where the wind pined the boat to the side making it difficult to move out, I found a new rhythm of driving the boat, which mostly meant driving it at an angle and correcting it at the last minute when approaching the locks.   


We also decided that we would use the two way radios and Shelley cycled on up ahead to do the locks, which seemed to work very well indeed (also saved the bike coming on/off the roof).   Alfie, however, started make a bit of a mischief of himself, running off up the towpath, so we decided to tie him up to the back of the boat.  


Unfortunately, as we pulling in towards the bank to let the lock crew off, Alfie jumps off the boat towards the bank but got pulled back by his lead and fell in, just as the boat was about to make contact with the bank.  Luckily I managed to lean over and drag him out just in time.  So he now looks sorry for himself, wet, but otherwise unharmed.

This is still a very pretty stretch of water, even when he weather is so bad.  And as the day progresses, it has eased a little.  There have been a couple of locks today that have been difficult to physically get the boat through due to the lock gates not fully opening.  A walk down the gunnels to lift the fenders was in order and even this wasn't enough for one lock, which I had to give quite a bi of power whilst three people were pushing the lock gate open.

We have been over a number of aquaducts todays, mostly smallish ones, but this one was a bit of challenge as I had to try and fight the crosswind and stop the boat banging into the side, which is very disconcerting when you are up so high.

Driving on yesterday was such a good move as it shaved off what would have been around 3 hours or more from todays journey.  We would have finished a bit earlier except we went straight past our stopping point and found that all the moorings the other side of the road bridge were private.  Next we were into the start of another lock system.  Bearing that these locks take quite a while, we had the prospect of going through them and carrying on until we did find somewhere, or turning around and heading to our planned stopping point.

We took the later decision as there were two winding holes not very far part.  I spun her around with almost perfect precision then we headed back the way we had just come.  At the next winding hole turned around again and then took 'Angel' to the stopping point for this weekend.

All parked up, we set to pack and clean her until next time.  We walked up to the road, I cycled off to find the car and then we loaded up.  Now the one mistake we made in the planning was to make sure that we knew exactly where the second car was parked.

When I say exactly, I mean SatNav reference.  I kmew once I got to the place I would recognise it however, we thought that Offchurch was the last place we stopped, but it wasn't.  The next mistake was checking we had fuel, I had 6 miles left and we were in the wrong village.  By being very careful, we finally managed to get back to where Shelley's car was and then head towards a petrol station, then home.






Yet again another totally fantastic journey, they feel like mini holidays and you feel so refreshed afterwards.  Looking forward to what could be our last stage next week, but we might split it into two more weekends.  we'l have to ring forward on the river  Avon and check if it safe to navigate.

Todays Map 

Day 3

Wide awake at 5.30am this morning, but decided to get out of bed at 6am.  The forecast was supposed to be better than yesterday (which was a day of heavy rain fall), but this morning was unexpected,  it was beautiful. 

 In fact, it was almost perfect. A very pink sunrise with only a few clouds in an otherwise clear sky, still air, and the morning mist rising randomly from the canal.  

We had left 'Angel' between Popes Bridge No.33 and the disused viaduct.  This was a great setting to leave a boat, near enough to a road bridge for access, but off the beaten track a little.  One of the things I enjoy about the canal is how the landscape around you changes and how boats cluster together.  It was nice to return and find that other boats had moored around 'Angel'.

After taking a few photos and walking Alfie, we set off at 7.10am, boys fast asleep. 

We set off quietly, gliding through the mist to a golden sunrise.  There’s something exciting about being up early, whistling kettles can be heard as we pass by sleepy barges and cooked breakfast smells waft through the air.

As we headed through Leamington Spa, we stopped at Tescos, as we need a mop & bucket (the decks are getting muddy).  Myself and Aaron set about cleaning the stern deck meticulously.  Shelley was gobsmacked as she has never seen a floor being cleaned at home by anyone else but her!

We left the Grand Union Canal at  Budbrooke junction and join the Warwick & Birmingham.  A beautiful day, thankfully as we had the infamous ‘Hatton’ locks to contend with.  The locks start with Bottom lock no.26 and ends with the top lock No. 46.  We shared this challenge with a friendly couple onboard  'Ariadne' and their dog Jess!  Alfie decided he wanted to bathe in the ‘lovely’ canal water and takes a dip, not by design, more by accident!  He is relieved to be hauled out, duck weed & all!

Hatton Locks TimeLapse Video

We made a relatively speedy ascent through the locks thanks to excellent team work and all the locks being in our favor, all in all taking about 3 hours.  We’ve seen the back of the most challenging part of today, so we moor up to enjoy lunch, and recharge. 

We prepare ourselves for the Shrewley Tunnel, remember last time we had a tunnel we lost a navigation light, well no need however, it’s only 433 yards, and all over before we know it!  You have to be a bit careful going through though as water was pouring out between the brickwork at one point.  Anyway, now all the tunnels are done, I really ought to fit the new navigation light.

We reach the planned destination by 3.35pm and decide to going as the forecast for tomorrow isn’t great and we would rather get as much done in the dry as possible.  

At Kingswood we join the Stratford canal, Kingswood, Lapworth and then South branches.  What a difference! it’s a smaller canal with one gated locks, low footbridges and the noise of the M40 in the distance!  It's a bit of a culture shock from all those broad canals and wide double locks.  Back to navigating into a lock with precious little space either side.

A couple of bridges were so low we had to take the chimney stack off (not just the hat!),  and was so low it meant the bike had to be lifted off the roof!  Also, these locks just work much slower than the GU ones and although the gates are smaller, they are harder to move!

This slowed us down, and with dusk rapidly descending, on goes the front light to help the lock crew see what they were doing.  Thankfully we  moored just after Rowington Lock 30 at exactly 7.10pm, which is precisely 12 hours of travelling, which meant we have already shaved 3 hours off tomorrows journey.   That to me equals a Sunday morning lie in, Yeah!  Only 10 locks to do, which is much easier than the 32 locks we moved today, no wonder we ache!

It has been raining tonight, but it’s snug in here.  We haven’t needed to light the stove as it’s not cold enough...... nothing to do with the fact that the coal is in the aft cupboard outside of course!  So glad we lugged two sacks of coal from the car along the tow path last night, oh well, we'll be thankful for that some other time I'm sure!

Todays Travel Map

Stage 2

Angel awaits....

It's been a long week counting down the days until we return to our journey.  The weather is not looking too good for the weekend so we have all togged up with full wet weather gear and dusted off our thermals. We have quite a schedule to keep, and I found last weekend that although I am pretty impervious to the weather, standing in one place from 7.00am for 10 hours, you do start to feel the cold.  On holiday this year, on the Llangollen Canal, we did have a very very wet morning and I was completely soaked to the skin, and not prepared for the weather at all, so now we are all ready to face the elements. We have 24 locks on Saturday and 22 locks on Sunday, so we can only hope that the weather isn't too bad.

All other planning has gone well, although after speaking to the Avon Navigation Trust, our hope of traversing the Avon and Severn in 3 days may be a little bit optimistic so we may be looking at doing the final leg over 4 days, but we'll look at that after this weekend.  Google street view has been very useful in helping identify where our stopping points are, and hence where we leave the cars.  It's quite amazing turning up somewhere you have never been to and not only recognising it but being able to navigate from memory.  We are both travelling from different start points today and hope to meet up at around 6.00pm, then we will leave one car and head back to Angel.  Let's hope my new iPhone SatNav app  (coPilot) works out!

I am planning on doing some timelapse photography of traversing the locks which hopefully I'll be able to post up here.  This worked quite well for our Llangollen trip but unfortunately I forgot to bring my memory cards and had to buy a smaller capacity one from Jessops which meant it kept filling up.  I really need to find some time to put all that together, but that's a subject for another blog!! 

Day 2

Before we start todays blog, we now have internet access and have therefore finished yesterdays blog with photos and the map!

Trying to remember the last time we were up at 6am on a Sunday morning, was probably the last time Christmas Day fell on it!  We're not the only ones up however, a boat has just gone by! Another cold start but with the stove lit, you already feel warmer watching the smoke chug out through the chimney.

[Shelley] Prior to the fire being lit, I was asked to 'put the heating on.  This has happened on both mornings and what I want to know is, why is the heating all of a sudden a 'pink' job? !

[Declan] Normally the creation of warmth by fire is a 'blue' job, but in order to invoke that primeval urge it must involve actually seeing the flames being created.  Diesel fire at the flick of a switch just isn't enough to activate my 'barbecue' gene, the boys are sleeping 50ft at the other end of the boat, Alfie is a dog, which leaves just one person to rise from the duvet and turn on the heating.  Anyway, after getting up I did see the to the pot belly stove (with Aaron), emptied out the ash pan and get it lit.  Incidentally, as soon as it was lit, and all that 'man fire' thing was over, Aaron went back to sleep, proving beyond all doubt that it is because of the 'barbecue' gene, which has duly been handed down the generations!

Anyway, after a coffee (powered by gas) we were ready to rock n roll.  With the engine started we can be more civilised and use the electric toaster; breakfast is always welcomed! With two cup of coffee, coats and gloves on, we set off at 7.02am.

We were able to pick up a bit more speed today, with some clear longer stretches! By 8.00am, we had left the Grand Union and turned on to the Warwick and Napton canal. The itinerary for today  includes 22 locks, from  Radford Bottom Lock 23 to Fosse Wharf, so the boys will be working even harder today.

The first three locks we did alone and then the next group of 5 we shared with a chap who was travelling alone.  Interestingly, he comes from Longhope, Gloucester, which is not that far from where we live.  Felt a bit sorry for him as he had to wait until he got through all the locks until he could have a cup of tea.  In comparison, we have it so easy, with a crew ready to help and share the load, yet he seemed so chilled and relaxed, something that would rub off on us today.  It was at one of these locks that I got talking to fellow boater, who after  a brief conversation, told me about Mexican

dominos, apparently it's a great game.

As there were so many locks to work in a short space of time, I have had time to practice how to pull the boat in at a steep angle and get the it parallel with the bank.  Point the bow at the bank, slow her down by giving a bit of reverse thrust, push the tiller  over and put on a bit of forward power, let her swing around, almost as she's there a bit of reverse thrust.  It seems to work, but maybe there is a better way.  I do feel alot more relaxed today and will not get flustered if something goes wrong, just slow down and take it at a different pace.

We have made such good time today, that we were able to stop and have lunch together.  Now on these boats you do find that if you are all on one side of the boat it will tend to lean slightly to that side. However, Ryan kept saying 'this boat does seem to be leaning over alot Dad', and he was right, it did seem like it was.  I went outside to have a look and sure enough, the boat had been pushed up and perched on the bank as another boat had gone by, a little push, and level dining was restored.

Now as we are leaving the boat for a few days, its important that the WC is sorted before we leave! As you may or may not know, this is most definitely a 'blue' job.  After trying to put it off, time was running out and Dec had to carry out his duties!  On return, Dec had announced "It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be".  This is now set in stone and will from this day on remain a 'blue' job!

It wasn't long before our travelling for this week had come to an end.  We made good time today and after deciding what to leave and what to take, we're feeling a bit deflated .  We've had a great time and it's hard to leave, but the first leg of our journey is completed and pretty much gone to plan.  We then had to go back to point A (Blisworth Marina), to pick up the other car and then head home in convoy.  We got back just after 9pm, all feeling exhausted but happy, very happy indeed.  This has been the right thing to do for us as a family and we have settled in to it very quickly.  Although it has been full on, we can't wait to get this week over and get back cruising.

Todays Travel Map

Day 1 - And we're off

Dawn over Blisworth Marina

6am the alarm on my ipod blurted the start of our return journey.  It’s a crispy cold September morning the moon out and the sun rising.

At 7.30 we started the engine and were off, only half an hour later than planned. The boys had around 3 hours before they would really be needed to operate the locks, so they lay in and enjoyed the views.  We joined the Grand Union Canal at Bridge 48 and headed off to a cold by cloudless sky with the sun shining on us, perfect.  ‘Angel‘ handles so nicely, smooth and quiet, not what we were used to from the hire boats we have had in the past. However it wasn’t long before I lost concentration and got attacked by several low flying trees, the new chimney hat only just managing to stay on. 

A nice feature of the waterways are the signposts and milestones.  I have formed a kind of love / hate relationship with them though.  “Braunston 15 miles”, but then don’t see another sign for ages and a few miles takes a long time to traverse!  Of course this is the real lure of the canal and it’s a case of re-adjusting timescales and getting in with the flow (and not comparing with an equivalent car journey).

It would be bridge 16 before we reached our first lock at Buckby bottom.  Now  these aren’t just any normal locks, they’re huge as this part of the Grand Union canal is wide and therefore two narrowboats can fit side by side in them.   The boys are working really hard, they are going to have muscles where they didn’t think they had them at this rate!  Alfie has assumed the position of ships mascot and proudly stands by my side sniffing into the air as we go along.  So far all is going to plan, even though we do appear to be losing a bit of time compared to the plan that we made,

7 locks later and we reach the infamous Braunston Tunnel, this took approx 30 minutes to transverse, 30 long, damp, dark minutes ..... I was relieved to see daylight, eventually!  


Sadly however, Braunston Tunnel claimed the life of one the navigation lights.  It sounded like we ripped apart the hull whilst we were in there, but luckily it was only the brass cased light that suffered.  


The escape vents didn’t put me at ease one little bit, no ladders!  “two narrow boats are able to pass”, cried a friendly boater, two boats, my ar**... well only just, with a piece of paper between us!.  

We then entered the 6 Braunston locks, two barges at a time.  I had a great conversation with the owner of a boat called ‘Vulcan’.  What was almost as interesting as the content of the conversation was the manner in which it was conducted. We would be talking then the gates opened, we stopped talking, and moved to the next lock, arranged the boats side by side, then carried on exactly where we left off, until the gates in front opened and our conversation paused again.  It was like “Satellite Delay” on a grand scale!!.  

A small while later, we came to a turning point labelled ‘Bridge 93’.  There were actually two bridges side by side one which was easy for us to turn in and one that was not.  Our directions had this down as Bridge 95 so by the time we worked out waht was going on, we overshot the easy turn and then caused a minor hold up to a pirate stag party as we swung her round,  winding up in the oxford section of the Grand Union.  

We stopped at our destination for the day, Bridge 102, at 5.45pm.  It’s a beautiful spot, the sun has shone all day, but it’s particularly lovely tonight, Shelley is peeling spuds looking out of the window thinking ‘it can’t really get any better than this’, of course there’s always tomorrow.  This morning I was a bit concerned that the canal plan we had made was over ambitious, as at one point we were lagging behind, but we have made our goal for today.  I don’t think the online canal route planner has taken into account slowing down for moored boats, so for next weekend we will put our speed in based on what we actually achieved.

We have had a great evening chilling by the pot belly stove, it’s so hot in here, we’re going out for air!  Alfie has thoroughly enjoyed today.  As I type he’s curled up by the back door (I think that’s the coolest spot tonight).  I even had to wake him for his dinner - so unheard of!

Shelley:

“We have another full day tomorrow, early night tonight, Dec is already snoring!!”

I don’t snore, and anyway, who’s fast asleep now? For me it has been a mixed day, mostly of enjoyment, but still can’t believe this boat is ours.  I did feel for one boater today as we came around a corner to find his barge diagonally across the canal while he struggled to pull it in with the middle rope and tie it to a tree.  Then I noticed it was a hire boat and felt very smug and righteous as I glided by in my non-hired boat.  Hmm, not such a clever thought and it wasn’t long before I got my comeuppance.  You see what I failed to mention earlier, apart from being attacked by trees, and knocking off a light in the Braunston tunnel, and missing a turning and making a right hash of correcting my position (even with bow thrusters) was that I grounded the boat after coming out of the tunnel, only slightly but enough to have to use the barge pole.  Of coarse, the icing on the cake was another boater gliding past me and saying “we’ve all done it”, and that’s the point really.  Even though we have made a few mistakes it’s nothing that others haven’t done before us (just a shame about the light).

I will now leave the nice warmth of the pot belly stove to go outside with the laptop, stand on one leg with might right hand holding the laptop in the air with the hope that I get a mobile signal and can send this tonight over the internet!

Today's Travel Map

All aboard!

It's late, it's been a long day, but we are finally aboard!  I underestimated just how much there would be to do today, but then this (hopefully) was the hardest day of the trip as it was akin to moving house.

Angel by night

I left home at 13:31 and thanks to clear freely moving roads, got to Blisworth at 15:40 (just as Shelley & the boys were leaving home).  It has been non stop since then.  First off, was the boat handover from the original owner, all fairly straightforward and very clearly explained.  As I got onto the boat I had a really good feeling and just knew we had made the right decision (bit late to change our mind, I know), but the reason I say this is because the second visit we made,  I just wasn't sure, but I put that down to general nerves when making such a commitment.

Next I unloaded my car and loaded the boat (what you can't cram into a mazda 3 is just not worth having!).  All pretty uneventful, and "pirate Jim" has been shown to his quarters, which is the small boat cabin at the back of the boat.  Then on to filling her up with diesel. Now you would have thought that I would have jumped at the chance of driving her out of the marina bay and parking her up for re-fuelling but strangely I felt nervous.  I think I feel happiest when my crew is aboard (and I can summons help in the form of "quick grab the middle rope" or "use the pole" or even "sh*t, sh*t  we're gonna crash" and having that moral support of everyone just waiting for the bump and looking at me with helpless eyes!  Actually to be fair, as close as I have been, I have not yet crashed on a narrowboat, touch wood.  Anyway, as the original owner has been a boater since he was five, I thought maybe he was better placed to swing her around to the pump, obviously so that I could observe how she handled, yes,  extended boat handover, that's what I call it!   So then on to filling her up.   Apparently, it was already half full, so we just topped her up with a mere 150 litres of diesel, that's right 150 litres. It was a good job my wallet was on a lead or it might just have run off, but at least that should see us through for quite some time.

Back to the marina platoon and again, I thought I would observe the handling as her previous owner parked her up!!  Next, the final phase of the purchase, the bill of sale, and as soon as we completed that, Shelley, the boys & Alfie (our dog), arrived.  Now the boys have only seen photos of the boat until today, so they were well excited.  They have both been little stars and helped pack and do chores without complaint which meant that they were able to turn things around with 35 minutes of leaving school.  They couldn't wait to climb aboard.

Now like I say, it has been non stop.  I was given the task, when I got here, of unpacking everything and hoovering the floors and cupboards.  Do you think I had time to do that?  Did I catfish!  So with the crew aboard we unpacked, whilst looking around the boat, pinching ourselves, and generally being very excited.  At this point I thought it would be a good idea to make a drink, something I was gasping for.  Aaron was given the task of setting up the telly (I think the goal is to have it ready for X-Factor, yawn) and Ryan has setup the fireside tools for the pot belly stove we have on board.  Shelley set to work to give the boat that "womens touch" and make her feel like home, and Alfie just tried out every possible corridor and place to lie down where he could cause us humans maximum discomfort when stepping over him!

We now needed to move one of the cars to where we are planning to end up on Sunday night.  As we hadn't eaten, we thought we might as well get a takeout (subway) and get a few last minute things from Tesco, you know things that aren't essential, but nice to have,  like say toilet roll!!  Yep, of all the things, we forgot to get toliet paper.  I blame myself for that (surprisingly).  You see, when we were looking at buying our boat, the kind and very helpful Saleswoman, Jan, explained to us the concept of pink and blue jobs.  Emptying of the toilet is, apparently, a blue job, which roughly translates to, my job.  Of course I am more than happy to do this, but for the sake of efficiency and in true blue workman style, I have duly declared the toilets as out of order.  This must have had the effect of wiping from all pink consciousness, the notion that we might actually need toilet paper!!  Anyway, problem solved, thanks to Tesco!.

We found a suitable place to leave the second car positioned for Sunday's rendezvous and so back to the marina we went.  All aboard again, now 22:50.  A clear night with full moon.

Full moon over Blisworth Marina

Still more jobs to do.  As we are leaving at 7.00am, I have decided to fill her up with water.  Also bike locked up ready for if we don't make our target on Sunday.  Boys beds blown up, in fact one of them literally, well more of a melt down as it was put too close to the radiator, but thankfully there was a spare duvet so all the crew will have a good nights sleep ready for tomorrows locks,  curtains drawn, time for a well earned rest.