6th March 2014

At last the final day of my journey. I had listened to heavy rain most of the night and thought that it had gone passed. Unfortunately this was not the case and I had to don waterproofs from the start as it was quite wet. There are no locks from Fazeley Junction to Fradley Junction where the Conventry Canal meets the Trent & Mersey Canal and so I was able to slid down into my rubber suit and keep out of the worst of the rain.

The birds don’t seem to notice the bad weather and I was given a very loud chorus for most of the way. Lots of robins, blackbirds, tits, thrushes, woodpeckers (only heard these not seen), and too many ducks, swans and geese. Spring is definitely here and each female mallard had at least two males vying for her attention.

There was a display of canalside fly-tipping too. I passed three fridges, three televisions and other galley type white goods. I thought at first it was another unfortunate storm damage event but didn’t come across a likely boat, so can only assume that someone just jettisons the items instead of taking them to a tip.

Anyhow I reached Fradley at 1.30p.m. and awaited Emma to arrive having kindly agreed to collect me on my phone call. I decided to leave the boat there for a couple of days (48 hrs mooring) as the advertising can’t do any damage. So there ends the trip. I will collate a few statistics over the next couple of days, once I get caught up with what’s to do at home. Thanks very much for any comments I’ve had and I hope it’s been interesting for anyone reading my short stories.

5th March 2014

It was a pleasant start to the day even though I was faced with 6 locks to commence activities. I met several boater who were eager to talk about nbMercury and what we were doing. Everyone who gets talking about our idea seems to like it. I live in hope that one day someone will hit upon the best way of marketing the idea. We haven’t found that yet and although we’ve had lots of inquiries the conversion of those into fixed booking is slower that we would have liked. Nonetheless we have three weeks booked and still others being discussed. It’s still early days and hopefully word of mouth will take over as things get moire known. The problem is that the people who are looking for a Narrowboat Holiday don’t want Skipperhire and the people who might want Skipperhire don’t look for Narrowboat holidays because they are not able or confident to do it. Bit of a reverse Catch22. Time will resolve it I feel.

Anyway the six locks passed fairly quickly once I got moving and I then had a seven mile journey and two more locks in Fazeley to my next stopping point. I moored up opposite the C&RT offices and got talking to a nice couple (Richard & Chris) who were steadily drifting, visiting relatives along the canal. I had a cuppa with them then excused myself to get back on board and have a bite to eat. Will probably see Richard & Chris later in the month as they are following me at a slower pace but will get to Willington eventually where I will probably be moored for a short time.

 

4th March 2014

Having reached the end (or beginning) of the Oxford Canal my journey now continues along the Coventry Canal. It’s very different on canals compared to roads where the junctions are by some undignified roundabout or flyover, but on the canals we have glorious entrances declaring “The Ashby Canal” or a distinguished junction like Hawkesbury where history as been recorded over 400 years that canals have been used initially for goods and now more predominantly for pleasure.  Of course this is now a seamless conversion from one canal to another but in days gone it would have been the point of transfer of tariffs for using the canal. Depth measuring to ascertain the amount of cargo would have been translated into coin values payable to the controller at that station. No such delay for me as nearly all navigable waterways are now controlled by one organisation Canal and River Trust to whom we all pay a fixed sum based upon length and breadth of our boats. The southern rivers Thames etc are under the control of Environmental Agency who levy other charges for use of those rivers – when navigable!

Any how onto the Coventry and head for Nuneaton first where I thought the weekly market would be on display. Wrong by one day unfortunately. It is on Wednesdays. I purchased a pork pie and a few bits of fruit and carried on my way. A beautiful day too and I made reasonable progress hoping to get through Atherstone locks by end of play. Unfortunately the time delayed at Nuneaton cost me and I only completed the first 5 locks (of eleven) before the light begun to draw in and so I conceded defeat and moored in the long pound between 5 and 6 locks with the unfortunate sound of traffic a  little louder that I would have liked. I had a bit of help from a boater of some years past (40 years ago he was using wooden boat) and passed an interesting half hour listening to him talk of the ‘old days’ in the 60’s.

3rd March 2014

Catch-up day. After yesterday’s half day I set a target of getting to Hawkesbury which is a long way but luckily not many locks. There are three locks at Hillmorton.

Anyway the day went easy, if not boring, and I have to say that I was glad when the journey was complete. It rained steadily from mid morning until 5.00p.m. and once again the heaters became my best friends when the work outside was done.

A bit of good news today was received by text from Emma. She’s landed a job working with racehorses somewhere near Retford or Newark. I’m so glad she’s got something especially with horse as well. Let’s hope it’s as good as it sounds and that she can demonstrate her talent with horses. Well done Emma.

I was beginning to count down towards Hawkebury and for those who don’t know, the bridges are numbered for a location aid. I noticed something that I hadn’t considered before. The bridges are numbered unlike our present day motorways where the junction numbers start from London out. The numbers on the Oxford Canal start at Hawkesbury (so maybe they weren’t of the opinion that the capital is where the world begins and ends!) and when I first started my ‘countdown’ of bridges it was 39. 38 more bridges and raining all the time. Anyway my dismay was somewhat lifted by the fact that some of the bridges were missing and the numbers came down reasonably quickly getting me to my destination by 5 o’clock and I looked for somewhere out of earshot of the close-by motorways M6 and M69.

One more complete.

Another day over and safely moored.

2nd March 2014

It’s about 8 miles from Napton Bottom Lock to Braunston Junction and by the time I got there the change in weather, especially from Saturday, was such that I’d had enough. Not only rain but the worst of all for boaters – wind. I decided to stay moored and call it a day. Braunston is a pleasant village for a steady walk round and I passed several hours just sauntering along the towpath and through the village. It seemed like a reward for the previous days work.

There were lots of boats out too. The previous day’s weather had probably attracted extra to the normal Sunday cruisers and it was amazing considering I’d had days of seeing no other boats on the canal. They’d missed the best of the weather though, and the wind would spoil things.

Anyway I spent the rest of the day reading and watching a bit of tele. and getting things tidy. Good fun eh?

1st March 2014

Awake early, probably due to the knowledge of the days work ahead, I was outside looking at a heavy frost and wondering about the icy sides to the locks that would make progress slow, if not a little tricky. The first problem was the ropes. They were hard frozen and the knots had to be covered in hot water to have any chance of unfastening.

As it turned out things soon thawed and the sun proved more than a match for the frost. I had a funny incident at one of the early locks where a labrador with a very intelligent look, crossed over the lock gates to where I was tying the rope to prevent the boat reversing back along the lock at the first surge of water ingress. As I wrapped the rope around the post the dog looked repeatedly from the rope to me and back to the rope. His owner casually said ‘he’s checking you’re doing it right’ and it looked for all intents that he was! As soon as the knot was tied he gave it a last check and then turned round, crossed the lock gates and never went on his way. It held so he must have been right. Nice dog.

The day was the best of the trip. It was bright sun all day and the work passed quickly. I completed 19 locks and 15 miles, stopping just below the bottom lock at Napton. There were very few other boats on the cut and I did was lucky with many locks being set ready for me on the way up. By the time I got to Napton the boat looked like it had had a mud bath. Whyen single-handing, I turn the engine off and haul the boat through the locks with the centre rope. Inevitably the rope goes into the canal and the added sediment from the recent high water levels gets picked up by the rope and when this comes into contact with the paintwork, on a hot day, I made one more muddy mark. Anyway I finished the day by giving the boat a good clean on the towpath side.

I slept well that night with that huge day behind me and the prospect of a fairly easy day to follow.

28th February 2014

Last night I moored above Somerton Deep Lock. The weather had taken a turn for the worst and from the start until around 4.00 p.m. I was soaked. I wanted to get through Banbury before the weekend and so pushed on from 7.00a.m. making good time through 8 miles and 5 locks, reaching Banbury by approx 2.00p.m.  Banbury has a lock and lift bridge together and the lift bridge is not single-hander friendly. The winder is on the side where the access in limited by moored boats and I got through easier by asking a pedestrian to lower the bridge for me.

It’s about two and half hours to get to Cropredy and that seemed like a decent stop-off point especially as I’d bought some lovely homemade bread last week when Sue was over and thought I’d pick-up another loaf this week. The rain was still coming down until I reached the outskirts of Cropredy and by the time I nipped into a spare mooring, just before the lock, it was quite a nice afternoon. Trouble is most of me was freezing from the constant downpour. To add more misery there was no bread left and so salad again!

I finally moored for the night above the lock and settled down with all heaters going to get everything dried off. I knew the next day was going to be a busy day with many locks to be passed through so after a bit of tele watching the Voice I climbed into bed with the alarm set at 6.30a.m.