Cruising
A wander into Coventry
After yesterday’s exuberance we decided that we would have a quieter day today. Following a leisurely breakfast we walked along the towpath in the direction of Coventry until we reached the Ricoh arena. We killed a bit of time over a coffee in Starbucks before catching a train from the nearby station and made the six minute trip into Coventry. Sue wanted to visit the nearby Hobbycraft store and while she looked at knitting related items, I checked out the art supplies. In contrast to the day before, this Saturday has been a cloudy and drizzly affair but it wasn’t so bad that we couldn’t walk around the city centre. Lunch was taken at one of our regular haunts, The Establishment and we weren’t disappointed although it was rather busy and noisy today because there were a number of Saracens rugby fans there on their way to the match against Wasps at the Ricoh arena. A little more shopping after lunch followed and then we made our way back to the station and re-traced our steps back to our mooring at Hawkesbury.
Unlike yesterday when the blue skies ensured that the solar panels charged the batteries to 100%, today’s thick cloud prevented a repeat so we ran the engine for an hour to keep them topped up.
We’re on our way at last!
Caxton sits quietly waiting to begin the great escape.
Friday 5th May had eventually arrived, it brought with it my 55th birthday and my retirement date. Sue had cleared the apartment of the last few items that we would be taking on our journey and stowed them on board Caxton on Thursday afternoon. After eating in the nearby Marina restaurant, we returned to the boat and settled in for what would be our last night in Hinckley for some time.
When we awoke on Friday morning, the sun was already shining in a clear blue sky, it looked like we were going to have a perfect start to our trip. We made a final trip to the apartment to check that we hadn’t forgotten anything and that everything was switched off. We were back on board by 8.30 and after carrying out the usual startup checks, we untied, engaged forward gear and set off, leaving behind the mooring that had been our home for the last week. The next thing that had to be done was to turn around at Hinckley wharf and return to the marina to fill up with diesel. It was 10 o’clock when we were passing our mooring again but this time we really were on our way at last.
It remained bright and sunny all day but the cool north-easterly wind that accompanied us on our voyage meant that thick fleeces were the order of the day. We didn’t encounter many boats on the move as we made our way along the Ashby canal and it wasn’t any busier after we had turned left on to the Coventry canal at Marston junction. It took the usual three hours for us to reach our destination and we found a good spot to moor near Hawkesbury junction. It was time to start the celebrations and on this occasion we did so by popping the cork on a bottle of vintage champagne which had been provided by Sue’s son Brett and his wife, Kerry.
Sue had booked a table for dinner at the Greyhound so at half past five we took the short walk along the towpath to the iconic pub. As usual, the food and service were excellent and we washed it all down with another bottle of champers. A bit decadent of course but it had been a special day.
The final preparations are underway
We have entered the final phase before we begin the great escape, next week. I spent last weekend carrying out a few jobs on Caxton. An oil and filter change, fitting a new gas regulator and painting the inside of the gas locker after removing a bit of rust from it first. Sue, meanwhile has been moving stocks and equipment on board before stowing everything away.
On Friday afternoon we paid our final fees to the marina and pulled Caxton out on to the cut. We then cruised the quarter mile or so from Trinity marina to the towpath mooring closest to where we live. We still have a few bits and pieces to carry to the boat but essentially we are now living on board and we will continue to do so until we return from our travels sometime in October.
We had a peaceful night and slept well before we returned home for our morning showers. We’ll continue to shower at home until Thursday and that will conserve our water supply until we set off. The plan is to potter around and continue with our final preparations until Friday morning when we will at last be able to get going. Friday is my fifty-fifth birthday and is the day that I will finish work and retire. At that point we will join the ranks of the liveaboard early retirees and we are both very excited at that prospect.
Retirement Beckons
In less than a month we will be setting off on the longest boat trip of our lives! I will be retiring on my 55th birthday and to celebrate both occasions, we will be untying Caxton and then heading off into the wilderness for six months.
We’ve not published any blog posts since last summer because it would have been difficult to write without mentioning our plans. The company that I work for have known since November that I had planned to retire but the wider announcement has had to wait until now. The news is out now so there is no reason not to mention it freely on here.
We haven’t done much boating anyway, most of our time and energy has been devoted to making all sorts of preparations for this big change in lifestyle. We’re almost done now with only a few bits and pieces to complete before the great voyage begins next month.
Three men in a boat
Three men and Caxton
Stan, Dan & Derek
No, nothing to do with George, Harris and J as chronicled by Jerome K Jerome but all about three gentlemen from the USA on vacation here on a narrowboat.
Sue knits – a lot. Socks, shawls, scarves, dishcloths, if it can be knitted, she will knit it. She frequents the Knitting Paradise website and over the years has made many friends, learned new techniques and made a lot of her own contributions which have helped other fellow knitters and crochet enthusiasts. A few months ago she was contacted by a fellow crafter, Fran, from America whose husband was planning to have a narrowboat holiday with two of his friends. Fran wondered if Sue could provide some information for her husband, Stan and his two compadres which would help them with their trip. As it turned out, they were hiring a boat from Valley Cruises in Coventry so we were able to email them with a fair amount of information relating to the Coventry, Ashby and North Oxford canals.
Stan called on Thursday and we arranged to meet up on Sunday (today) at the Lime Kilns on the Ashby canal. These things can be difficult at the best of times but with none of the three amigos having a mobile phone (cell phone for our American friends), we hoped that it would all work out.
I was in Winchester on Friday night attending a retirement dinner and didn’t get back to Hinckley until Saturday morning. I pulled Caxton out of the marina and moored in the usual place on the corner by the apartment before returning home. We delayed our departure until after the televised football match between Manchester United and Leicester City. A defeat for the blues brought into question our decision to watch the game!
We were on our way by three o’clock and heading for Marston junction, the problem with heading in this direction in a 68′ boat is that it can’t be turned before the junction. No matter, we wanted to have a run out and fancied a night in the wilderness. We had to contend with a fierce wind as we made our way in a south westerly direction but with very few boats on the move, we were presented with no problems at all. We moored just after bridge three, had dinner and settled in for the evening.
It rained overnight, heavily and therefore noisily but by the time we were ready to set off at eight o’clock, the weather was cheering up a little. We made the short hop to the junction, emerged on to the Coventry canal and quickly turned around before slipping back under the bridge and back on to the Ashby. Sue, the galley slave, soon produced a couple of bacon sandwiches which were much appreciated by the crew in the engine room. Fully fortified, I steered Caxton to a good mooring on the visitor moorings opposite the Lime Kilns.
I walked home, picked up the car and a few bits and pieces before going shopping. On returning to our mooring I could see that the intrepid travellers had arrived and found a mooring space behind us and they were on the towpath talking to Sue. I joined them and we all had a a good chinwag inside after the gents had had a tour of our vessel.
Stan, Dan and Derek have been friends since their schooldays and despite them now being scattered from the east coast the west, with Dan somewhere in the middle, they have maintained their camaraderie over the years. Stan captains a tour boat on the Hudson river, Dan lives in Michigan and restores automobiles, Derek lives in California where he designs and builds sail boats. Stan brought me a book that he co-authored with Derek’s brother about the Hudson river as well as some yarn (hand dyed in New York state) from Fran – for Sue of course! There was also some of Fran’s home made “Apple butter”, a delicious spicy apple purée concoction that is proving irresistible!
We chatted for a while and then headed to the Lime Kilns where we had lunch in the garden. The time flew by as we talked about canals and listened to the boys’ stories, one of those afternoons that you wish would never end. But end they must and so we returned to the other side of the cut where we said our goodbyes to our new found friends. We have stayed tied up here but Derek, Dan and Stan have moved on now, we wish them all the best on the rest of their trip, it really was a pleasure meeting these three interesting characters – the three men in a boat.
A long and sunny day
When we looked at the weather on Thursday morning and saw that we were to expect rain and high winds on Friday and Saturday, we decided to make the best of the weather and head for home.
Nasty looking weather forecast
It was nine o’clock when we got underway, later than we would have been had we been planning to travel but still early enough to get some distance behind us. We weren’t alone, it seemed like fifty percent of the boats in Braunston had decided to leave the area at the same time so there was the usual chaos at bridges, water points and of course at the junction. The traffic soon settled down as we got out into the open countryside and although there were plenty of boats on the move, we encountered no problems and reached the locks at Hillmorton just two hours later. A sufficient number of boats and lock keepers meant that we cleared the three locks in forty minutes before pulling on to the water point. The great progress that we had made thus far was wiped out by the slow running water tap, taking almost an hour to fill Caxton’s tank. By the time we set off again, the sun was beating down and the temperature was soaring with just a light breeze blowing to keep things bearable. No mooring space at Rugby and nothing really suitable at Newbold although we did tie up temporarily before the tunnel for a shopping stop at the local Co-op. We were on our way again just after three and had decided to aim for somewhere between Ansty and Hawkesbury. Sue took the helm for a few hours to give me a break and we had a great afternoon. The miles and hours flew by as we listened to music in the afternoon sunshine. We passed through Ansty and sort of forgot that we should have been looking for a mooring spot, suddenly we were at Hawkesbury and had to stop for the shallow lock there. Safely and smoothly around the 180 degree turn in front of the Greyhound pub where the outdoor customers always take an interest in boats in the hope that there will be a mistake made. Their heads automatically turn towards the water but soon turn back again when they realise that there is no entertainment for them. Clouds were starting to build and the sun was getting lower in the sky by the time we turned at Marston junction on to the Ashby canal. Finally, we stopped and tied up just before bridge three, had something to eat and then flopped in our chairs for the evening. Our twenty six mile trip with its six locks had taken us ten hours, an average of three lock miles per hour – not bad going at all.
The rain came overnight, the heaviest being just before five o’clock but it had slowed to no more than a steady drizzle by the time we awoke on Friday morning. I got up and dressed at half past seven, Caxton’s engine burst into life fifteen minutes later and we were off. The cabin door opened a few minutes later and a coffee appeared, a short while later the door opened again and this time a bacon sandwich was thrust into my hand with the promise of another when I was ready. As expected, the trip back to Hinckley was quiet enough with only a handful of boats on the move, partly due to the time of day and partly down to the rain. We were back on our berth in the marina before ten o’clock and back home a short time later. Two hours of rain in two weeks is a pretty good result and we were glad that we made the long trip on Thursday because it has rained all day today.
A short cruise to Braunston
We had a peaceful night on our mooring last night and awoke to a beautiful clear blue sky. We only wanted to get to Braunston so we didn’t set off until nine o’clock, thinking that it would take about ninety minutes to get to our destination. In the event, it was ten o’clock when we arrived and we couldn’t see any spaces that were big enough for Caxton, so we carried on until we reached the second entrance to the marina and luckily enough, found the perfect mooring right on the end with a perfect view of the canal up to the bottom lock.
Last night, we encountered a couple on a hire boat from Kate boats, today we bumped into them again as we tied up. They’re thinking of buying a boat and have hired this week to see what it’s like to live afloat. Grab your dream folks, jump in, the water’s lovely!
We walked to the bus stop by the Boathouse pub only to discover that the services have changed and there is no longer a bus into Rugby from there. We walked up into the village instead and did some shopping before returning to the boat where we had a sandwich for lunch.
At four o’clock we decided to take a walk up the locks and ended up assisting a couple on a share boat up through the first three. We had an ice cream along the way and once we saw that the share boat had help from oncoming craft we retreated to the Admiral Nelson and had a refreshment or two.
We returned to Caxton and after sitting on the front deck for a while, we went back inside and settled in for the night.
More Expense!
One of the hidden joys of boating is the odd unexpected expense or two. Things go wrong, equipment fails, bits break off and they all have to be fixed. This happens in houses and with cars as well of course but with a boat it is different, with a boat, the cost is always eyewatering! We’ve already forked out nearly £700 for a new calorifier (hot water tank) this year and today another £300 went on a replacement water pump for the Hurricane heater. There’s a problem with the large domestic alternator which we’re hoping will be a cheap fix, if not, another four hundred quid will bite the dust.
After we moored up yesterday at Napton, I called Calcutt boats who are the UK and European agents for the Hurricane heater to see if they could take a look at the problematic unit. The result was that we would take Caxton there this afternoon. This morning, we took a walk up to the village shop at Napton, we first visited it about five years ago when it had just changed hands and what a transformation there has been since then. This once run down store is now a little treasure selling the full range of groceries and speciality foods. It’s a post office and a cafe too so well worth the ten minute walk from the canal. Once again we lunched at the Folly Inn before setting off for Calcutt, a destination that we reached just after two o’clock. After descending the top lock, we pulled on to the wharf and then sat in the sunshine as two engineers fiddled with and diagnosed the problem with the hurricane. Two hours, a new pump and three hundred pounds later, we were ready to leave. Before then, we met Barry and Sandra from the home brew boat who had pulled in for diesel and while we were waiting, passed the time of day with them.
We went back up through the top lock at Calcutt just before five o’clock and made our way back to Wigrams turn where we turned left and looked for a mooring. We found a spot, actually one of our old haunts near bridge 103 where have settled for the evening. There are tractors harvesting corn in the fields around us, the moon is almost full and we have seen a beautiful sunset.
The moon
The sunset
Harvesting
Tractor
Tonight’s neighbours
If the price of this lifestyle is the odd bill for a few hundred quid, it must be worth it.
Week 2
We had another day off yesterday, for no other reason than we could, so we did! We had booked a table at the Wharf Inn for Sunday lunch so after a lazy start, we got up and dressed and eventually made our way along the towpath to the pub and had a fabulous roast dinner each. The rest of the afternoon was spent just lazing around until it was time for bed.
This morning was a different story, we were awake early and moved on to the water point for seven o’clock where we brimmed the tank before setting off half an hour later. The weather was already amazing, blue skies and blazing sun with only a slight breeze to keep matters cool. The crossing of the summit on the Oxford is a bit of a chore as far as I am concerned and today was no exception. One overgrown blind corner follows another and there’s bugger all to see in between, making for a tedious passage to Marston Doles and the top of the Napton flight.
We made steady progress down, meeting boats at most of the nine locks so it all seemed very pleasant in the August sunshine.
The last couple of locks at Napton
With a bit of collaboration with the volunteer lock keepers, Sue managed to ensure that the elsan mooring was free for us as we left the bottom lock. It took us four minutes to pull over and empty two cassettes and be on our way again – the boating equivalent of a formula 1 pit stop. We rounded the corner and found a mooring straight away so we had no choice but to tie up and head to the Folly Inn again for lunch.
Today’s mooring
After lunch we went our separate ways, I wandered up to the village shop in Napton while Sue bought an ice cream from the Folly Inn shop for the kind lock keeper who had looked after us on the way down.
We’ve been leapfrogging nb Indigo Dream for the last couple of days and today was no exception.
Indigo Dream
Another one dives into the jungle
All that remained was for us to be entertained by the numerous boats which failed to take the bend behind us.
Tickover Alley
We pulled our pins out of the ground this morning at seven o’clock and started the long slog through Cropredy. As we got closer to the village, we saw more and more people, many with bleary eyes, yawning as they walked towards one of the many places selling breakfast on the festival weekend. The first three locks were in our favour but by the fourth, we realised that we were following another boat. As a result, we had to turn the next four but as we made our way up the five at Claydon, we started to meet oncoming craft so progress seemed smoother. We reached the summit just before eleven, ten locks – not a bad morning’s work! We made our way to Fenny Compton tunnel and although we had to wait for a couple of minutes until another boat emerged from the narrows, we made good progress, only meeting one more boat on the way and at a section that was wide enough for two boats to pass. We next passed Fenny Compton marina and crept around the final bend before the visitor moorings came into view. As we reached the end of the fourteen day section, we saw a space but were unsure if Caxton would fit but we gave it a go anyway. It worked and it was the tightest fit we have ever managed with the front fender ” button to button” with the boat in front and the rear resting on the stern of the boat behind. If the bank had been straight it wouldn’t have worked because our fender would have lined up with the one behind and there just wasn’t the space for that. I tied the boat up but in all honesty, we were wedged in and probably didn’t need to.
Wharf Inn Fenny Compton
We went straight to the Wharf Inn and had lunch by way of celebration, the meals being as good as they were a couple of days ago. Fed and watered, we returned to Caxton by way of the towpath – all 100 yards of it. Luckily enough, I had tied the boat up as the boat in front had gone and the one behind had moved forward a few feet so we were wedged in no more. I reconfigured our mooring lines and then we settled into our chairs on the front deck for another afternoon of relaxation.