Cruising
Easter Monday
The wind had dropped and the sun was shining when we awoke on Easter monday, a complete and welcome contrast to yesterday’s weather. Sue had seen a laundry box on the Argos website so after reserving it online, we got ready and drove into Stafford to collect it.
We took a walk down Gaolgate street in the sunshine and stopped to listen to new boyband, The Secrets who were playing in the Market Place. They were very good and Sue has tipped them to make the big time!
We had lunch in The Butler’s Bell, a Wetherspoons pub which was very stylish and a credit to the company. After lunch we wandered to Argos and picked up the laundry bin before returning to the car. My phone rang and it was Libby at Braunston marina telling me that she had shown Phoenix III to a couple who wanted to make an offer on the boat. Libby told us that they were in a position to buy immediately, weren’t bothered about a survey and had gone for a cup of tea. We had a short discussion about what we were prepared to do with the price and within an hour, the deal was done! The couple had been back to Phoenix III with a marina engineer who started the engine for them and apparently they were full of beaming smiles when they returned to the shop. Everything should be complete by the end of the week which is great because it is one less thing to have to think about.
By the time all of that had been concluded we were back on board Caxton doing the laundry. A mundane task maybe but significant in our boating life since we will no longer be dragging clothes to the boat every time and then carting bags of dirty laundry home afterwards.
We were in no hurry to leave Caxton but we had to go home at some time so we picked up the two small carrier bags of bits that we had, secured the boat and left at 4.30pm.
We’ll return on Friday with some more of our belongings and stay for the weekend. That should set us up nicely for the following weekend when we will leave Stone and move Caxton to Braunston.
Easter – A new beginning!
Four weeks ago we had lunch in the Bistro at Aston marina and contemplated the purchase of nb Caxton. Not quite a month later and we are spending our first weekend on board familiarising ourselves with our new boat. It’s been a hectic few weeks for us because apart from clearing and cleaning Phoenix III in preparation for her sale, Sue spent a week in hospital having a pacemaker fitted.
Despite only being discharged on Thursday, Sue felt fit enough to travel on Good Friday so we packed the car and drove the fifty miles to Stone. After we arrived we spent the next hour unpacking and installing our bits and pieces, mainly bedding, towels and kitchen equipment, before making the short trip into Stone where we had lunch at the Crown and Anchor and then did a bit of food shopping in Morrisons.
We spent the rest of the evening just pottering about and generally chatting about how we would be using our new floating home, although we were briefly interrupted by a tap on the window.
Saturday arrived and we were pleased to have had a good comfortable sleep in our new bed. The shower was next to be tested, Sue can’t use it yet due to her operation but I am pleased to report that it does an excellent job. After a light breakfast we drove to Midland Chandlers at Penkridge where we bought a spare cassette for the toilet and a couple of other bits and pieces. We then drove to Sainsbury’s at Stafford where we had lunch and did some more shopping before heading off to another retail park to buy even more bits for the boat, little wonder that some say BOAT is an acronym for “Bring Out Another Thousand”! We had a late dinner, collapsed into the chairs and eventually headed for bed.
Sunday, Easter Sunday to be precise, came adorned with rough weather so Sue knocked up a couple of bacon banjos for me, no doubt trying to ensure that I was fortified for another round of retail therapy. Luckily, Easter sunday is a day when shops over 3,000 sq feet in area are not allowed to open so when we drove into Stone at 11am, nothing was open and we had to return to the boat and watch Liverpool beat Norwich as they edge their way towards their first Premier league win. We’ve just generally lazed about on board ever since, listening to the radio, reading, crocheting and knitting, well one of us has anyway.
Tomorrow is a bank holiday and in principle we should be returning home but neither of us are very keen, preferring to stay here on board Caxton.
Sue took some pictures which are posted here
Phoenix III is up for sale!
Regular readers may have wondered why we have apparently done no cruising lately, despite the reasonable spring weather. Quite simply, we have bought another boat and Phoenix III is now up for sale and that whole process amongst other things has kept us busy for the last few weeks.
We bought Phoenix III for leisure purposes in 2007 and agreed that we ‘give it a go’ for a couple of years. Six and a half years later and we have had many holidays, weekend trips and even weekends based in Braunston marina. With a new paint job and a replacement engine with gearbox fitted in 2011, we intended keeping Phoenix III until I retire when we would spend six to eight months cruising the system before deciding on whether we could become continuous cruisers and buy a bigger boat. At 52’, Phoenix III is just about big enough for living on board but to make the leap to CCing, most people would go for something close to 70’.
Despite our plan to wait make the final decision after our first summer ‘out on the cut’, we still regularly looked at brokerage websites in case that special boat was up for sale somewhere. It was always to no avail, there were a few contenders but there was always one thing or another that would put us off and as a result we got no further than looking at web pages on Apollo Duck.
I regularly peruse the pages of a canal discussion forum which is a bit like the proverbial ‘Curate’s Egg’, good in parts! Mainly, it’s crap, there are a handful of members who regularly hijack posts by arguing amongst themselves as they try to score points off each other. Some of these sad people have averaged more than 8 posts per day since they started on the forum but that’s my rant over. One of the good parts of this Curate’s Egg came on the day when someone asked about narrowboats for sale which were 45’ to 55’ in length. One response included a couple of links to boats that were for sale. One of the boats, Caxton, hadn’t been officially advertised and the owners included a link to the blog of the original owners who had carefully recorded the building of the boat.
When you imagine what your ideal boat would consist of, there are a number of big decisions to make, the stern layout, windows, engine and equipment to name but the basics. Caxton is a semi-trad and that was on our list. We like windows and a saloon at the front of the boat so that we can see along the canal. Caxton has portholes and the saloon is in the middle but those holes are large, there are two side hatches and a couple of Houdini hatches so we are happy with that, the engine is the bigger brother of what we bought for Phoenix III so that was OK too. The rest of the equipment swung it for us, engine generator, sine wave inverter, washing machine, tumble drier, dishwasher, full size shower cubicle, fully fitted bedroom, huge front deck, the list went on. It was easy to see that Caxton had been built to a very high specification with every piece of equipment given a great deal of consideration.
I realised that I had spent hours reading the blogs about Caxton so I figured that it was time to confess my obsession to Sue. She was impressed and intrigued and then we both spent an hour or so trawling Apollo Duck again but with the same result as usual, nothing that interested us.
The following morning, Sunday 23rd March, we talked again about Phoenix III, Caxton and our boating future before deciding to take a drive to Aston Marina near Stone where we could take a look at Caxton. We knew from their blog that the owners, Paul & Elaine weren’t around but it was a lovely day so we were happy enough to make the trip up the A5 into Staffordshire. We discovered that Aston marina has a Bistro and a farm shop so we decided to have lunch before walking around the marina to catch a glimpse of Caxton and she looked as good in real life as we had seen in the internet pictures.
I sent a text to the owners and arranged to return the following day to view the boat properly.
We met Paul and Elaine the following day, Monday 24th March and were given the grand tour of Caxton. Having pored over the blogs, it was all very familiar to us and we had very few questions to ask, Caxton was exactly what we expected to find and as a result we very quickly struck a deal to buy her from Paul and Elaine.
Although we weren’t dependent on selling Phoenix III for the purchase of Caxton, we wanted to get her ready to sell as soon as possible so we moved on board Phoenix III three days later. It took us another three days to remove all of our belongings, three car loads and a load into the skip before we were able to hand the keys over to the marina at Braunston to put her on brokerage. So despite the fact that storage on board was seen as being a restriction, there was a hell of a lot of stuff to remove.
It was a strange weekend, I was emotionally unhappy on Thursday, Friday and on Saturday morning, remembering and picturing the great times that we had enjoyed over the last six and a half years. Something changed in my mind as I drove back from Hinckley to Braunston on that sunny Saturday morning and I felt much more positive about the situation. Sue was quite bemused by my emotions since she had been unaffected by it all until the last few moments on Sunday when the final sweep through took place and she was suddenly overcome and cried unexpectedly.
We handed the keys over so Phoenix III is now up for sale and we have arranged to buy Caxton on Wednesday 16th April with the intention of cruising back to Braunston over the following week.
That plan went out of the window when Sue was admitted to hospital on Thursday where she is awaiting an operation, our trip from Stone to Braunston is on hold for the moment but hopefully not for too long.
As for this blog, I haven’t decided on its future. We had always thought that our CCing boat would be called BRAMLORE after the first two letters of our children’s names; BRett, AMy, LOuise & REbecca so maybe our new blog should reflect that. We have nothing against the name CAXTON but the name of that blog is already well known. The answer will come to us I’m sure but until then, we’ll keep posting here on applebeesfarm.co.uk
Winter is officially over!
We had a lazy start today, the sun was shining but it was still cool when we awoke. Being in no hurry, we had a couple of cups of coffee before we dragged ourselves out of bed.
It was still windy when we left our mooring but with no turning round to do, we were untroubled by it. Sue prepared dinner in the slow cooker as we made our way to Calcutt locks on what was turning out to be the first glorious day of the year. We were up and through the locks in no time at all, the first being our way and the other two needing to be emptied suggesting that we were following someone on the way up. By the time we left the top lock, it was warm enough to strip down to short sleeves, hard to believe how dull and cold we had been just twenty four hours earlier.
We had a pleasant journey back to Braunston and decided that we would make the most of the weekend by staying overnight and return home in the morning. After a short stop to take on water and empty the cassette we nudged our way into our berth in the marina. Our plan is now to have a walk before returning for our sunday dinner, a beef hotpot which is already smelling delicious. We have to get out of here before the aroma forces us to abandon the walk !!!
Climate change
It was quite cool inside the boat when we awoke this morning and a quick peep through the curtains showed us why. Thick dark grey clouds filled the sky and a strong wind whipped up the surface of the G.U. Canal.
It was eight o’clock so we got up and got dressed and prepared to cast off. I untied the back of the boat and immediately the wind pushed the stern out from the bank, not a good start but with a bit of muscle work Sue and I managed to get everything under control. We chugged along to the junction where we took on water before reversing into the wind and taking the left turn towards Napton.
The strong wind persisted with its cold blasts all the way to Wigrams turn and then as if we had entered a different land, we turned right and the sun came out. By the time we had reached the top lock at Calcutt, we were enjoying a beautiful spring day. We worked down the three locks on our own, crossing two boats on the way and by the time we left the bottom lock we were actually quite warm. We were soon on the way to Stockton where we have stayed many times before, this time would be slightly different for us because instead of turning at Birdingbury Wharf the following morning, we were able to turn at the arm currently being restored and developed by Willow Wren. After our turn we reversed four hundred yards or so back to a convenient towpath mooring.
After showering in the lovely, newly heated fresh water, we walked the two miles down to Long Itchington and had a late lunch at The Buck & Bell. We sat outside in the sunshine and marvelled at the contrast between the weather in the afternoon compared to the morning, that’s the sort of climate change that anyone would welcome!
After lunch we made a quick trip to the Co-op and started the long uphill trudge back to our mooring. Although the sun was still shining when we got back, it wasn’t quite warm enough to sit outside so we retreated inside and flopped in the reclining chairs.
Tomorrow is forecast to be sunny, we are pointing in the right direction and are only four hours away from Braunston so it feels like there is a very relaxing day in store for us.
All that remains now is to light the fire and then mellow for the rest of the evening.
Off we go again!
We haven’t been out on Phoenix III since last August for a whole host of reasons but with the first weekend of decent weather forecast, we decided that we had to embark on our first voyage of 2014.
I drove to Braunston from Basingstoke while Sue made her way to the boat from Hinckley, we arrived within a few minutes of each other, either side of 3.30.
After a hurried shuffling of stuff from car to boat followed by all of the essential checks and re-tying of mooring ropes, we slipped out of our mooring and let the wind turn us towards the southerly marina entrance where we exited on to the Grand Union and turned left.
Our cruise only lasted 10 minutes before we tied up as planned, right outside The Boathouse pub. We took a few minutes sorting ourselves out before disappearing into the pub for our evening meal. I’m writing this in the pub using their free wifi and enjoying a post-dinner pint of Amstel.
Going Home???
We decided to bring the boat back to where we live at Hinckley last weekend and then we took her back this weekend in the company of our friends, Cliff and Liz. The adventure began on Saturday morning when we travelled by car to Braunston and headed off on to the North Oxford canal. The weather was glorious and we loved our cruise to Rugby where we stopped briefly to top up the water and make a short shopping trip to Tesco. We carried on and eventually moored between Ansty and Hawkesbury, benefitting from a clear satellite tv picture and a strong broadband signal.
Sunday brought another glorious day so we made our way to Hinckley and moored opposite the Limekilns on the A5. After tying the boat up we walked home and watched Andy Murray win Wimbledon – Hurray! We later returned to the boat and moved it on to the visitor moorings at Nutts Lane where we stayed for the evening. The following morning we walked back to the house and after a shower I went to work, later in the day Sue visited the Trinity marina and arranged a mooring for us for the rest of the week.
On Monday evening we made a trip up to bridge 22 before turning around and returning to the marina. Along the way we saw Treena from Carpe Diem waiting for her husband Stu to return to their online mooring outside the marina. Getting into our temporary berth was easy enough and after we had sorted ourselves out we just walked home.
The following Friday afternoon saw us leave the marina and start our journey to the boat’s home Braunston. We passed our old mate Jim near bridge 13 and then we saw Mamta Boy Lee near Bulkington a short while later. We were surprised to find that there were many spaces on the approach to Hawkesbury Junction and we availed ourselves of one of them before walking to the Greyhound where we had dinner. We decided to move on after dinner and following a short stop for water when we rounded the bend we made our way back to the place that we had moored the previous Saturday.
Saturday morning was yet another sunny one and we were on our way just after eight o’clock. We had a very enjoyable cruise in the summer sunshine and stopped again at Tesco Rugby where we stocked up for our meeting with Cliff, Liz and Lucy later in the day. After a short break we were on our way again and reached Hillmorton just before two o’clock. Cliff arrived on ‘Stonewall Jackson’ at half past five and we then all ate yet another of Sue’s delicious meals
Sunday morning was a bit of a lazy start for all of us and it was 9am before we ventured up the locks. With Liz crocked due to arthritis and Lucy generally disinterested, Sue worked both boats up through the Hillmorton flight in just under an hour. The run back to Braunston was a bit of a slog because we had a number of boats ahead but eventually we reached the marina just after midday. We walked back to the Boathouse pub where we met up with Cliff, Liz and Lucy who had walked from their mooring at bridge 89 and enjoyed a drink together. We left an hour later and returned to the boat before clearing our gear and driving home. Cliff and Liz are planning to go to Peterborough so we look forward to catching up with them at a later date.
So that was it, our trip from the boat home to our real home and back was over and we had enjoyed our time out on the cut along the way.
Across the lonely summit
Our night at Fenny Compton had been a peaceful one and we awoke refreshed and ready to face another day. It was warm even at seven o’clock so we hoped that we might be enjoying some summery weather. We weren’t disappointed either, when we untied at eight the high hazy cloud was only just obscuring the sun as we picked our way slowly passed the long line of moored boats that are a feature of this area. We then started our long and lonely journey across the summit, the convoluted route totally disorientating us along the way. We didn’t see anything on the move for over an hour and after passing speeding Ashby boat, we caught up with a Rose narrowboat following a Viking afloat boat. The entertainment began at a bridge, where else? The Viking passed through and panicked when he met an oncoming privateer and grounded himself at the same time burying himself in the reeds and bushes on the offside. After allowing the private boat to pass under the bridge, the Rose narrowboat shot through, passing Viking just as he had almost righted himself. The Viking ended up back in the reeds again as a result! By this time we had stopped well behind to give them all time to sort themselves out and of course to get a good view of the action.
We now resigned ourselves for a journey on tickover behind the two holiday boats and then we would have the pleasure of following them down through the locks that lay ahead between Marston Doles and Napton. There were no more incidents on our slow chug to Marston Doles but we were delighted when both boats pulled in to take on water, propelling us to the front of the queue. With boats coming up the flight, the first two locks were easy but then we found ourselves following nb Wey with nothing coming up to aid the progress. Part way down we saw that ‘Wey’ were sitting in the lock ahead looking over the fields, it turned out that they we were watching a calf being born in the field. By the time we had moved down, the calf’s mother was licking and prodding her new offspring into life, everything seemed to be going alright as we passed on our way. We were being followed by nb African Queen, crewed by a couple who had recently sold their business and moved on to their boat, now embarking on a new way of life. With three of us following each other, we all helped with each others paddles and gates which seemed to pass the time if nothing else. Three locks to go saw a boat coming up which then opened up a gap between us and ‘Wey’ and with volunteer lockies manning the last two locks, our passage to the bottom was speeded up. We found a mooring around the corner so we tied up and went to the Folly Inn. The weather was still glorious so we treated ourselves to lunch in the garden.
On returning to Phoenix III we were in two minds as to what to do, stay put for the day or carry on in the sunshine? In the end we decided on the latter course of action and we cruised back to Braunston. All too soon we found ourselves back behind our Viking friend who was weaving his way along on tickover. We thought that we had seen the last of him when he weaved his way around a widebeam which happened to be winding at Wolfhampcote at the time. After allowing the widebeam to complete its manoeuvre, we passed by and then saw travelling in the opposite direction nb Aileen Rose, the boat that we had shared locks with between Warwick and Stockton a few weeks ago. Cheery waves and shouted hellos were exchanged as we passed each other. Then we caught up with our old friend the Viking afloat boat in the final straight before Braunston turn where the crew had decided to pull up, walk to the junction and ‘suss things out’ as they said when we eventually passed them by. It’s bad enough pulling up there at the best of times with boats travelling from three directions but with a CaRT barge tied up almost opposite, the obstruction was complete.
Once around the turn we made the familiar trip back to the marina, our progress only impeded by a boat trying to turn in the marina entrance rather than in the winding hole directly opposite, never mind, it’s all good fun when the sun is shining!
Once we were back on our pontoon we took advantage of the good weather and washed as much of the boat as we could before nipping up to the village shop and then settling down for the evening. We would spend our last night on Phoenix III in the marina before heading off home in the morning. This would give us a week before returning for the Braunston Historic boat rally.
Up the hill
We awoke just after seven and got out of bed an hour later. Knowing that we would be straight on to the locks that would take us up the hill, Sue made me a bacon sandwich and sorted herself out with cheese and tomatoes on toast. Once fortified we were ready to go and so we untied and left Cropredy. The first three locks presented no problems and we were accompanied by a team of three workers cutting the grass along the towpath and around the locks themselves. We took a short break before we reached Claydon bottom lock because there was a lone locker ahead and we didn’t fancy the possibility of working all of the locks twice.
Half an hour later and it was time to go again and we had a great ascent of the Claydon flight, meeting a boat on the way down at each of the locks. The sun was shining when we reached the summit and so we celebrated our ascent with a beer and a glass of wine. The three miles or so from Claydon top lock to Fenny Compton went by very quickly and we were able to find a mooring between the marina and the Wharf Inn. We visited the latter establishment and had fish and chips for lunch – very nice!
After lunch we made a slow return to the boat and settled down for the afternoon, nothing too exciting today but a lovely relaxing day nevertheless.
An eventful day
There are many times when I write this blog that no matter how long we’ve travelled during the day, nothing of note actually happens. It was very different in the early days because we were seeing and experiencing many things for the first time. Once you understand how ducks mate and then bring up their young and you know how a heron behaves when a boat enters its territory it’s not worth writing about. Of course you still see nature at work and it is still a wonderful spectacle but it becomes a bit repetitive when it comes to keeping a journal. It’s easy to resort to reporting the mundane things like filling the water, emptying the toilet and running a washload. That’s the funny part really, the boating lifestyle appeals because it is easy going, stress free and slow moving. For the journalist, desperation sets in, the desire to write about events on days when nothing much happens leads to a boring account that could have been copied and pasted from any other day.
Then you get days like today when there are a number of little events happen, none of them earth shattering in themselves but enough to give the amateur blogger something to write about. The day started off fairly unremarkably with a late and lazy lie in for both of us, it was raining and that seemed like a good enough excuse. When we did eventually get up we walked into town and had breakfast before doing some last minute shopping in Boots and M&S. It didn’t take us long to get organised once we had returned to the boat and we were soon on our way to Sovereign wharf where we took on some diesel. Leaving Banbury behind we were soon out in the countryside and at the first lock of the day. We had passed under the motorway and were in our usual quiet rural environment when we heard some sort of strange mechanical noise, it was the wrong side of the cut to be a train and it was getting too loud too quickly to be farm related when suddenly it appeared, a prop driven military aircraft flying at about 200 feet above our heads.
Later as we approached Cropredy we met a Calcutt hire boat at a bridge, he was travelling too fast of course but worse than that he was being followed by another member of the Calcutt fleet who was so close that it looked as if he was being towed by the lead boat. We pulled up and let them pass on the wrong side, shaking our heads as we went. The run in to Cropredy from the south is long and arduous as one passes moored boats for almost a mile. We saw a black cat walking along the towpath with a young rabbit in its mouth, no doubt taking taking its catch back to its home on one of the boats. Unfortunately this meant crossing another cat’s territory with the result that it had to drop the rabbit which until now had been limp and lifeless. As soon as it was free, the small rabbit sprang back into life and ran off leaving the two cats to argue it out between themselves.
As we had been preparing to leave Banbury we had been passed by the four old people on the college cruiser hire boat that we had met on our way out of Oxford on Saturday morning. We had briefly caught up with them at one of the locks but by the time we were on the final approach to Cropredy we spotted them attempting to turn at the wharf. According to one boater that we passed, they had been at it for half an hour, a bit of an exaggeration but they had made it difficult for themselves by shoving their stern rather than their bow into the winding hole.
We pulled up on the landing below Cropredy lock and I went to have a look to see what was happening. nb Mey from Clifton wharf in Rugby was rising in the lock and a Napton Elite hire boat was approaching from the other side. The Napton boat had a large crew who proceeded to tie their vessel very securely to the wooden posts above the lock or as the skipper of Mey said, “Looks like they’re tying up the Ark Royal!”. As the Napton boat approached the lock, one of the crew explained that this was their first narrowboat holiday and that they had chosen the boat because it had three bathrooms with the result that they had ended up with a seventy footer. In fairness the steerer did an excellent job of getting the boat into the lock although the crew had little urgency in working the paddles. The group of fifty-somethings were looking forward to replenishing their water supply before finding a mooring and then going to the pub, the steerer said that he was in need of a drink and I think that he probably deserved one!
We worked our way up through the lock and found ourselves a mooring in a prime position, the first one after the lock landing area. We secured Phoenix III on the rings there and then took a walk to the Red Lion for a cold beer and an equally cold glass of Sauvignon Blanc. Once our break was over we walked to the shop and bought some more beer and wine to keep us going over the summit in the coming days.
On our way back up the towpath we passed nb Moonshadow tied on the lock landing, Sue noticed a colourful teapot on board and remarked on how pretty it was. When we reached the lock we met the lone skipper whose name we discovered was John and Sue complimented him on his pretty teapot. “You should have taken it.”, said John, laughing. We dropped our shopping off back at the boat, grabbed our windlasses and returned to the lock to assist John through it. He surprised us by presenting Sue with the teapot explaining that he had bought another one to replace it just the previous week. A moment later and Sue had almost kicked the teapot into the lock by accident but luckily enough she didn’t so now Moonshadow John’s teapot has been cleaned up and has taken up pride of place on top of our Boatman stove.
All that was left for us to do was to get the chairs out, pour a drink and watch boats work their way through the lock. There was nothing dramatic or exciting to report about the comings or goings, we chatted to one or two of the crew members and also to some walkers on the towpath most of whom were boaters themselves. We had our evening meal on the back deck before the air started to get a little chilly at which point we retreated to the lounge of Phoenix III for the evening. On a day when we had made one of our shortest cruises we seemed to have had one of our busiest days.