George
The Long Weekend
It had seemed like a very long week, having made business trips to Yorkshire, London and Birmingham so it was off to Braunston on Thursday after work. We had dinner at the Boathouse pub before getting to the boat around six. We had brought the ‘new’ chairs with us so spent an hour swapping them over with the old ones. That might seem like a long time but it did involve a bit of carrying between car and boat as well as dismantling the old and assembling the new.
Next morning, I was up and about and off to work, leaving Sue to give the boat a thorough clean through. I returned to the marina at four and by five o’clock we were out on the cut. Sue had some news about our mooring, following a visit to the marina shop earlier in the day. When we return on Sunday we will be berthed on the same pontoon that Phoenix III occupied but on the other side where Caliburnum used to be before it was sold last year. It won’t change our decision to leave the marina in the autumn but it will make the remaining months at Braunston easier for access to the facilities. The main thing is that we will have ringside seats for the historic boatshow in three weeks time.
We motored on around Braunston turn in the direction of Napton and found a great mooring close to bridge 103. We spent the rest of the evening just lounging in the cratch or as Sue has taken to calling it, the conservatory!
Saturday morning brought heavy rain, so heavy in fact that by eleven o’clock we were pretty much resigned to staying put for the day. An hour later and the weather had changed so we decided to untie and press on. Of course there was no pressing reason to do so, it was just about playing with the boat and all too soon we reached Napton. We turned Caxton and tied up for an hour, the sun was out and it was hard to believe that only a few hours earlier we had been sitting inside being battered by the rain. Our rest over, we untied again and started our journey back to Braunston, the weather was absolutely glorious and after we passed under bridge 103 we saw that the spot that we had occupied the night before was still vacant so we pulled over, tied up again and enjoyed another sunny evening out in the cratch conservatory.
Sunday brought more blue skies but since we knew that we were only 90 minutes away from base, we were in no hurry to set off. Eventually we did set off though but only as far as bridge 99 where we stopped and had one of Sue’s succulent cooked breakfasts – Mmmmm
We did more lazing in the Conservatory and then set off again around half past one, this time we only got as far as the Boathouse pub mooring where we pulled up again and spent a couple of hours more in the cratch / conservatory (delete as applicable). We’re going to eat in the pub in a while and then return to the marina where we will stay overnight before going home and then to work in the morning.
Of course this means that we have slept more than half of the week on the boat rather than in the house and whilst that was inevitable at some point, we hadn’t really expected that it would happen as soon as it has.
It’s been a long short week!
No, I’m not trying to write a new Beatles song, it’s just that despite being a short working week, it seems to have been a hard slog getting from bank holiday monday to this weekend. It hasn’t helped that I have had a cold/man-flu and that I have had a fair bit of travelling to do. Sue did some “half-term grandchildren visiting” and stll managed to go for a tune up at the pacemaker clinic.
We decided to leave our trip to Braunston until Saturday morning so there was time on Friday evening to deliver a car boot full of pallet blocks to Jim who was moored by Trinity marina, he won’t need to burn many in the coming months (we all hope) but it’ll give him a good start on the autumn.
Saturday morning dawned and I felt that my cold was on the way out, sadly it seems to have found Sue who awoke feeling the effects of the early symptoms. Nevertheless, we stuck a few bits and pieces in the car and were on the road just after nine o’clock. We stopped off in Rugby to do a bit of shopping and then completed our journey by eleven.
We had brought and bought cleaning materials to give Caxton’s paintwork a good going over but neither of us were really in the mood for it, both being a bit under the weather.
We did, however get a couple of other jobs done in the early afternoon. Silicon spray on the brass runners to make the slide glide easily, the Desmo bases removed so that they can be countersunk into the oak floor and a proper mobile internet connection installed. We did this before on Phoenix III but in that case we had a fixed antenna. This time around, we have used an antenna with a magmount so it sticks to the roof. This has saved drilling a hole in the roof and the antenna can be brought safely inside when we are not living on board. The cable was threaded from the lounge to the cratch by attaching it to the end of a redundant tv aerial cable and gently pulling it until it emerged at the front of the boat. Once in place, it was only a matter of connecting the antenna at one end, the Huawei dongle at the other and switching on the TP-Link router. Once activated, I tested the connection and was pleased to see a very healthy 4MB/s download speed.
After clearing up and enjoying a celebratory beer, wine for Sue of course, we went for a stroll around the marina where we dumped the aforementioned redundant cable in the skip before walking up the towpath to the bottom lock. We took a quick look in the chandlers there and then returned to our boat for dinner.
And so back to Braunston
Another peaceful night’s sleep before early morning coffee and then up and ready for our voyage back to the marina at Braunston. That was as exciting as it got, the weather had turned drizzly again but not so heavy as to make the trip an unpleasant one. The steerer was kept fortified with bacon sandwiches and tea being passed out from the galley by the Chief Steward, she certainly knows how to keep the crew motivated! There were a lot of boats on the move including a widebeam dutch barge that we met near bridge 107, it was absolutely massive thankfully we didn’t meet it at the bridge! The only other bit of excitement came when a dog being walked along the towpath decided to rejoin its owner on his narrowboat by jumping in and swimming over to it. A heartstopping moment for everyone (except Sue of course, who is now bionic in that respect!) as the steerer was trying to position himself near a bridge to let an oncoming boat through. It all worked out in the end with the mutt being dragged out of the cut by the scruff of his neck.
It has been the weekend of the Crick boat show and once again it seems to have had terrible weather. I have looked back through the blog to check out the weather on the spring bank holiday weekends.
2008 High winds and heavy rain, Crick show cancelled for 2 out of 3 days.
2009 Sunny and Warm
2010 No record
2011 No record, boat in paintshop
2012 Queens Diamond Jubilee, heavy rain
2013 Sunny
2014 Two days rain, one day of sun
Maybe the Crick show organisers should consider moving the show to a later date or perhaps as a nation we should move the Bank Holiday?
Too much excitement for a Sunday!
We awoke to more heavy rain but by eight o’clock it had all stopped and the day was shaping up to be a nice one. After the obligatory cup of coffee, we got up and attempted to leave our mooring at nine o’clock. I say “attempted” because as I untied Caxton, four boats passed us in convoy also heading towards Wigrams turn. We took our place in the convoy and were soon joined behind and in front by boats leaving their moorings and travelling in the same direction as us. Despite the number of boats on the move, our trip to Napton was actually an uneventful one and we reached the winding hole below the locks an hour and a half after we had untied. The boat behind us waited patiently while we turned Caxton and then we found our mooring just one boat length back from the post marking the no mooring area opposite the hole.
The entertainment began immediately with a Canaltime boat reversing back from the bottom lock and then thrashing its way backwards and forwards at full pelt, crashing into every available bank until it finally managed to escape the winding hole with its red faced, embarrassed crew.
We locked Caxton up and walked to the Folly Inn, dropping a bag of rubbish at the bottom lock facilities along the way.
After a quick wander around the little shop we went into the pub, ordered some drinks and enquired about lunch. The girl behind the bar seemed almost apologetic as she told us that they were “only” serving roast dinners. Reluctantly we ordered two roast beef dinners and then sat down outside. Within ten minutes we were presented with two large plates filled with roast beef, yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes, new (jersey royal) potatoes, red cabbage, cauliflower cheese, carrots, peas and gravy with a small dish of home made horseradish sauce. It was a bit of a hardship but we managed to scoff the lot! It was actually one of the best, if not the best, pub lunches we have ever had!
We walked back to Caxton hoping to settle down for the afternoon in the sunshine but unfortunately we had to endure even more entertainment around the winding hole. The problem is actually a restriction of passage up and down the flight due to a collapsing lock wall meaning that some boaters are changing plans and turning around, mainly hire boaters with limited time. First on stage was a Viking narrowboat who made the earlier attempt by the Canaltime boat look quite professional. They completed their crash-bang-wallop manouvre by mooring opposite the winding hole. We sat hoping that the next boat to turn would be as inept as they had been and therefore include a bit of boat crashing too. We were disappointed, the next boat to turn was another Viking boat and they knew what to do, after they had turned, Viking number one also left, leaving the winding hole clear again. Save for a conversation with a couple from Bedworth who were on an Ashby boat, our afternoon basically consisted of us just dossing out on the front deck of our beatiful boat in the late May sunshine.
Busy doing nothing
It rained hard during the night but although noisy, it didn’t prevent us sleeping until almost 8 am. A couple of cups of coffee saw us through the next couple of hours before we got up, showered and dressed. A few boats passed by in both directions, crews suitably attired for the pouring rain. We’ve been there and done that but not today, instead we listened to the radio and had a big brunch at eleven o’clock. Afterwards we have just lazily relaxed inside the boat. I’ve set up the internet router and ordered a new antenna so hopefully next weekend our on-board high speed mobile broadband will be fully operational.
The rain stopped around three o’clock and we contemplated walking up to the pub in Flecknoe for dinner but decided against it because the menu didn’t appeal to us, probably because we were still full from our mid morning meal.
As the afternoon wore on, the weather improved but we did no more than open the hatch on the wet side and let some fresh air trickle inside.
So that was it, we have busied ourselves doing nothing, just like in the Bing Crosby film.
Braunston to Flecknoe
The day started with the alarm clock going off at 6am, reminding me that I had to get up and go to work. We very often did this when we owned Phoenix III but getting up and going to work then wasn’t a great experience because of the lack of space. Today was a completely different prospect, in fact my departure wasn’t too different from any other day at home.
I did my work and then returned to Braunston where Sue had also been working hard cleaning and tidying Caxton from stem to stern and very good the boat looked too. No sooner had I boarded Caxton than the heavens opened and we had a good downpour for an hour or more. We decided to wait until after dinner before making our final plan for the day, we were hoping for enough fair weather to let us escape from the marina.
By six thirty we had eaten and the rain had stopped so we made our preparations, untied and left Braunston marina, heading towards the junction.
We turned left at the junction and boated in the direction of Napton. It was still cool and overcast but still dry as we pulled up and moored just before bridge 102 near Flecknoe. We fed a duck and her brood of ten ducklings before settling down for the evening.
The weekend starts here!
It’s a bank holiday weekend so of course the weather is a bit mixed but we’re spending it on Caxton anyway. Despite the fact that I have to go to work on Friday, we decided to pack our stuff and drive to Braunston after dinner at home.
We arrived at the marina just after half past six and carted all of our stuff to the boat. With Caxton being much longer than Phoenix III, we have to moor in a different part of the marina and park in a different car park and as a result we have to carry our stuff much further than before. Anyway, we moved our stuff then nipped up to the village shop and then returned to the boat.
Sue put most of the bits away and re-organised the fridge using some new containers while I installed a USB charging point which utilises a spare 12 volt supply under the bench seat. My kit built bedside clock from Phoenix III got a new plug and is now in place too. All in all a productive evening!
Sue is planning a big clean up tomorrow while I am at work and when I return in the afternoon we will set off for the weekend.
Mission Accomplished
I woke at half past six to discover that Sue had been awake for ages and was now getting dressed. I got up too and we were ready to tackle the locks by ten to seven. Not only were we first up the flight, all the locks were our way with the result that we were leaving the top lock twenty minutes later. We met a few oncoming boats near the Hungry Horse pub but other than that we enjoyed a nice cruise in the early sunshine. Sue had a shower and then while pottering around in the kitchen, produced a couple of breakfast rolls stuffed with bacon and sausage – just the job for a hungry steerer!
A little bit of congestion at Willoughby called for a bit of deft manouvering but we all got where we wanted to go. There was a similar encounter by the services near Braunston turn but again it all worked out in the end. We tied up opposite the Boathouse and walked to the marina where we checked out our new berth. After returning to Caxton we drove back along the cut and under the cast iron bridge that spans the marina entrance. There are currently a lot of boats moored here making it almost impossible to turn into the main area and as a result I managed to clip the end of the dockside with Caxton’s bow. Ah, well if it hadn’t been that it would have been one of the other boats! Anyway, we made our way into the second basin and reversed on to the berth. We drove to Midland Chandlers where we bought a few bits and pieces and after we returned to the marina we carried the two bags of stuff that had lain in the car since we left it there almost two weeks ago. After that it was a bit of the usual stuff, fill the water and empty the cassette as well as some new stuff, putting the canvas covers on the cratch, the houdini hatches and over the back deck.
As we drove out of the car park we realised that this was the end of our adventure, we had completed the mission that we started on May 6th and Caxton was safely ensconsed in Braunston.
Sun Run to Hillmorton
It was just gone half past six when we awoke, the sun was shining and the sky was blue so we got up, got the kettle on and set off. Sue sorted out a bacon sandwich for me and thus fortified, we made our way to Ansty. By the time we reached said village it was just after eight o’clock and one or two hire-boaters were starting to stir.
We continued through the golf course and under the M6, eventually getting to Stretton stop. We shook off the two boats that we had in tow, a couple of Rose Narrowboats returning to base. With light winds and temperatures in the low twenties, we enjoyed our morning cruise. There was a bit of congestion after we exited Newbold tunnel but nothing serious and then it was clear to Rugby. Boats were moored both sides at Brownsover but we managed to tickle Caxton past them and a couple of oncoming boats before we saw Bruce & Sheila on Sanity Again tied up on the Tesco side of the canal. We had a brief conversation with them and then carried on to Hillmorton where we tied on the visitor mooring.
Off we went into the village, did some shopping in the Londis and then called in the Stag & Pheasant to carry out some research. I had a couple of pints of Stella, Sue had a glass of wine. The staff were pleasant and friendly and we had a sandwich each, pretty basic but at £4 for both of us, no complaints.
We wandered back to Caxton, opened the Houdini hatches and the cratch covers, poured ourselves a drink and started to relax. Minutes later we were joined by Bruce and Sheila who had moved on from Rugby and were now moored a few hundred yards behind us. We had a drink and shot the breeze for an hour before they returned to Sanity Again. Sheila had brought us some chilli plants so we are now looking forward to a crop of spicy peppers later in the year.
Afterwards I put up a couple of artistic works that personalise Caxton for us.
Tomorrow it will be on to Braunston where we will find our new mooring before returning home. Funny really, normally we take the car to pick up the boat, this time it is the other way around!
Cruise Resumed
Hurray! It’s Friday and time for us to resume our trip from Stone to Braunston. We boarded Caxton at half past two, completed our pre-departure checks and chores before leaving Trinity marina. Sue waited on the bank for me after she had returned the key fob to the shop. As I neared the exit, Sue informed me that there was a model boat stranded directly opposite the marina, that explained the concerned look on the face of the bloke standing next to her. I avoided smashing the model to smithereens but later discovered that the owner was hoping that Sue would somehow rescue it for him! Anyway, he had to walk over the bridge and retrieve it himself in the end. I picked Sue up outside the Brewers Fayre and then we exchanged pleasantries with Jim again who was moored nearby before passing under the Coventry Road bridge.
We passed nb Sunny Brid between Nutts Lane and the Limekilns so Sue was able to re-aquaint herself with the theatre assistant from Glenfield hospital.
We pootled our way down the Ashby to Marston junction in what we would describe as perfect boating weather; warm with cloud cover and only light winds.
At the junction we swung left towards Hawkesbury, when we used to do this with Phoenix III we could make it in a single sweep but it is a different matter with Caxton. We got around without trouble and carried on down through the Charity Dock and then passed what was once the Navigation pub and is now a beautiful house, well done to the new owners.
We hadn’t expected to get a mooring anywhere near Hawkesbury on a Friday evening and we were right so we carried on through the junction and stop lock. The turn was a potential source of entertainment for the many patrons of the Greyhound pub but they soon lost interest when it became obvious that we knew what we were doing.
We passed through the lock and then slipped between the boats moored on both sides of the cut. We noticed that the Elephant & Castle pub has gone the way of the Navigation and is also a private house now. A few minutes later and we reached our mooring for the evening, close to the M6 motorway but from past experience, a peaceful one.