My conservatory.
We travelled from Ansty to Coventry today encountering a lot of rain on the way. I have decided that I am not very good at driving the boat when it is raining so I let George drive most of the way while I sat in my conservatory drinking coffee and knitting. We passed a man who was walking along the towpath taking pictures and he waved and smiled but thinking that I could not hear him, he shouted to George ” I see she has got the easy job “…cheeky bugger, hope his camera gets wet.
By the time we got to Coventry basin it had stopped raining so George announced that he would take me out for lunch and then said that we could have the rest of the green soup for tea…….I think that he is delaying the consuming of the rest of the green soup.
Green Soup.
We are sitting at Ansty watching the boats passing by, some of them a bit too fast. They are receiving my icy glare, but the buggers are not turning to stone.
While we were travelling I made some soup which consisted of watercress, onion, garlic, spinach, peas and some vegetable stock. When it was finished,I whizzed it up and added some low fat creme fraiche and my green soup was delicious. I thought that it would be a very healthy lunch for us and if only I had stopped at that it would have been fine, but no…. I had a scone with jam and clotted cream too……It was bloody lovely though.
I am sitting in the conservatory now enjoying the sunshine whilst doing some knitting and drinking coffee……..Ah, this is the life.
Rugby to Ansty
Caxton sitting ready to leave the embankment in Brownsover park
We had a peaceful night at Brownsover, unlike the last time we overnighted here (Read about it here). With little urgency required, it was almost ten o’clock when we set off on the next leg of our journey. Shortly after, Sue presented me with a bacon sandwich and took over the steering while I scoffed it down, finishing it just before Newbold tunnel. Sue took us through the tunnel now lit only by one coloured floodlight and then went off to make her own breakfast.
Leaving the Newbold Tunnel
There weren’t that many boats on the move as we made our way along the north Oxford but we did pass a modern boat pulling an old butty near the bridge that carries the West Coast mainline over the canal. There was the usual long line of moored boats just after the bend at All Oaks wood, most of which were GRP cruisers, 9 in all. It got me wondering about the collective noun for a gathering of such craft. I know that it’s probably fleet or flotilla but I’m kind of thinking that it should be a Tupperware party.
Tupperware Party ?
Caxton passes its first home!
After passing through the swingbridge at Rose narrowboats, Sue steered while I went for a shower. Eventually, we were re-united with the WCML as we passed under the M6, all three routes will take you to Manchester or Liverpool, it just depends on how quickly you want to get there!
We passed through the golf course and decided to pull up on the visitor moorings behind the Rose & Castle at Ansty. Once secured, we had some green soup that Sue had made which was very good. We then sat in the cratch enjoying the sunshine on this the last day of August. This is the same spot that we had occupied with Phoenix III when she was iced in during the winter of 2010/11 (Read about it here and here). Working close by, I came and checked the boat over regularly but on the first occasion I thought it would be a good idea to heat up some soup and have lunch on board, I have never been as cold as I was on that day.
Braunston to Rugby
We were awake at half past six which was too early but what can you do? We had a coffee before getting up and getting ready for the first day of our trip. After filling the water tank, emptying the cassettes and throwing our rubbish in the bin, I disconnected the shore lead and took the electricity meter to the shop to be read. We had a cheese omelette for breakfast then the engine checks were done, the ropes untied and we were off!
Caxton’s last day in Braunston marina.
Nb Alfresco was winding hastily in the marina entrance as we approached the iron bridge but that didn’t impede us or hold us up in any way as we made our way out on to the G.U.
It was a windy morning but the few boats that we met were not encountered at bridges or narrow parts of the canal. We’ve travelled this route many times in the past and it’s not always been without incident. I was thinking about one of those trips as we neared the junction and I noticed that Tony and Paul Redshaw have left their premises. I checked later and discovered that they have moved to Daventry. Previous adventures here and here.
We caught up with nb Alfresco again outside Braunston where he had managed to get grounded, he was so far over that we couldn’t get near enough to help him unfortunately. He waved us on but even as we passed, our wash made no impression on the stranded boat. As we made our way between Willoughby and Barby, we passed by a number of boats preparing to leave their mooring and by the time we were approaching the Barby straight we had a Napton narrowboat, a Rose narrowboat and a privateer in tow. The Napton boat had been travelling very close behind us for half an hour so with the Barby straight in view, we slowed and signalled to him to pass. He was wearing a captain’s hat after all and therefore outranked me. Actually, he was wearing a white jacket too, Sue guessed that perhaps he thought that he looked like Richard Gere – sorry mate, the similarity ended at the clothing!
The real Richard Gere
He didn’t pass but drew closer so that his wife could inform us from the bow that they were about to stop for lunch. We increased our speed again and they then turned into the unfinished Barby Moorings marina. By the time we had reached the end of the straight, crawling past the moored boats, the Rose narrowboat, Fanfare, was right behind us asking to pass. We let them go at the next opportunity, they explained as they passed us that they had to get their boat back to the hire base and they were short of time. Would you not get up early rather than wait until 10.30 or so to leave your mooring. Anyway we caught them up at the top of the Hillmorton flight and travelled down in parallel with them before theyo zoomed off into the distance.
Caxton at Hillmorton with nb Badsey and butty Angel in the background.
Our descent of the flight had been relatively easy with enough boats coming up to halve the amount of work involved. As we worked the final lock, Richard Gere arrived in style by crashing into the gate of the other lock, there seemed to be a bit of confusion as they tried to work out that they had to run water into the chamber before using it. Presumably they had met ascending boats at the previous two locks and hadn’t had to think about the process. We finished our day’s travelling with a further forty minutes before we tied up next to the park at Brownsover. A short trip to Tesco followed and then back to Caxton for dinner – sweet and sour pork with rice and excellent it was too!
We’re on the move again!
It’s exactly a month since Caxton was last out on the cut and a lot has happened in the meantime. However, that’s not for publishing on this blog so I’ll get straight on to the events of the last couple of days.
We drove to Braunston as we have done most weeks this summer, sadly the summer is ebbing away now with cooler temperatures and slightly shorter days. I went to work on friday and then took the car home to Hinckley where I abandoned it on the driveway for the week. My plan was to travel to Braunston using public transport, the first part of our mission to bring Caxton to the Ashby canal. The first part of the journey involved catching the Arriva 158 bus to Nuneaton. No problem with that until the bus reached Nuneaton town centre and it became evident that the bus driver had never driven the route before and subsequently got lost with the result that I missed the train to Rugby. Sadly, I could do no more than to spend forty minutes killing time in the local Wetherspoons, The Felix Holt! An hour later than intended I boarded the train that would take me to Rugby. It was a couple of minutes late but I still made my connection with the bus to Braunston. I boarded Caxton at quarter to five where Sue had thoughtfully poured me a glass of beer. We had dinner and then settled down for the evening, our last one in Braunston marina.
The morning after
Last night went well. The storms finally passed and the sun came out in time for our guests, the crews from Yarwood and What a Lark! to walk to Caxton. Sue had prepared a cold buffet so we were all able to sit and talk and eat and drink and laugh and then a bit more talking and then some dessert and then more talking and a little more wine, a few more laughs, a lot more talking and then three hours had passed. It must have got dark at some point but nobody had really noticed with the time zipping by as it had done! All that remained was for the four amigos to take a sobriety test before they made their way back to their boats, this being the torchlit walk along the slender pontoon, eighty feet of it flanked on one side only by a sixty foot boat. Needless to say, they passed the test and made it to the bank.
Following a cool clear night, we were greeted by blue skies and sunshine when I awoke at six and accidentally woke Sue twenty minutes later. She demanded to know why I had woken her in the middle of the night but was pacified when I brought her a coffee a few minutes later.
We had asked David and Lisa if we could pop round and have a nose around their boat this morning so we got ready and presented ourselves for the grand tour at nine o’clock. It certainly was a grand tour and we admired the high standard of workmanship throughout the beautifully designed boat. Our tour ended in the cratch where the four of us sat and had a cuppa as we chatted for the next couple of hours. What a Lark! Is heading in the direction of the Ashby canal so we’re hoping to catch up with David and Lisa in the next week or two.
We returned to Caxton and after we had eaten lunch we had a tidy up before we headed back to the house for the rest of the day.
Thursday, Friday and sliding gently into the weekend.
On Wednesday night we accepted an invitation by text to join Joe, Lesley, Richard and Sharon for dinner on Thursday evening. We looked forward to that although there was the small matter of getting through the day first. We dragged the kids out of bed at half past six in the morning before packing them and their belongings into the car. We reached their home in Sheffield just before nine where they were re-united with their mum, Kerry. We said our goodbyes and made our way to Meadowhall where, after a coffee, we parted company for the day. Sue was left to trudge around the giant shopping mall while I got all of the fun, attending a site meeting to the north of Wakefield some forty miles away.
I collected Sue at about half past three and we began our journey south again. The trip was fine until we were just south of Leicester and the heavens opened. The rain flooded the M1 to the extent that it was almost impossible to see more than two car lengths ahead. The noise was horrendous but fortunately everyone behaved themselves and there were no mishaps before the storm had passed over us.
We got back to Caxton and relaxed for a couple of hours before venturing up the hill to The Old Plough to meet the others for dinner. The four were already in the lounge bar when we arrived so we had a drink as we got through the introductions. There we were, the owners of three Barn Owl boats, could this be the nucleus of some owner’s club? Maybe, but we were soon informed that Richard and Sharon are going to have a new boat built and it’s not a Barn Owl! Ah well, never mind, we hope that they get what they want from the new design.
The six of us had the restaurant to ourselves for the evening, perhaps the noise we made kept everyone else away! In any case, the conversation flowed and the time flew by as we worked our way through a couple of courses each, a couple of the greedier, managing a dessert on top!
All too soon it was time to go so we left the pub and went our separate ways. Despite the fact that we were all heading for the canal, the three Barnowls were spread over a distance of about a mile.
Friday saw me spending a couple of hours at the garage with my car while they investigated excessive oil consumption before driving over to the office in Coventry. Eventually, I was able to escape and drove to the marina about five o’clock. We stopped off at Yarwood on our way to Daventry where we needed to do some grocery shopping. While we were there, our two minute stopover was extended a little as somehow Sue found a glass of wine in her hand – again! I still haven’t figured out how that happens but it seems that every time she descends those steps into the bowels of that boat, she ends up with a glass in her hand, she doesn’t seem to complain though. We caught up on the alteration work being carried out on Yarwood and we made arrangements for Saturday evening. Joe and Lesley are coming round to Caxton with David and Lisa from nb What A Lark! for a drink and something to eat. We haven’t met David and Lisa before but we follow their blog and are looking forward to a great Saturday evening.
It was quite late when we got back from Daventry so once the shopping had been put away, we flopped in the chairs for a little while before heading to bed.
We had a really lazy start to the day on Saturday, Sue made breakfast for me and then baked bread while all that I have done is catch up on the blogging.
Evening Cruise
As Sue has already mentioned, two of her grandchildren, Liam and Chloe are with us for a few days. After work, I drove to Braunston and within half an hour we were out of the marina and heading towards Braunston turn. Opposite the Boathouse pub we saw nb Oakapple and had a passing chat with Richard and Sharon about following each others blogs. Once we had turned on to the G.U. Oxford section, Chloe took the tiller for a while and steered us to just beyond the Wolfhampcote winding hole.
Chloe at the tiller.
We tootled along until we reached bridge 107 where we turned around and headed back in the direction of Braunston. It was soon Liam’s turn to take the tiller, something that he was reluctant to do.
Liam steering.
Nevertheless, he did it and turned out to be something of a natural, needing very little coaching as we passed moored boats and eased under a couple of bridges.
Chloe making pizza for dinner.
Chloe had meanwhile been making pizza dough so that by the time we pulled up near bridge 99, we were able to sit down to dinner.
Setting up.
Liam and Chloe then had a go at fishing but came away empty handed, thankfully we hadn’t been depending on them to catch something for supper!
Waiting for a bite
After an hour, we untied and completed our journey but not without incident. As we passed Oakapple, we were harangued from the cratch by Joe, who along with Lesley was visiting Richard and Sharon. Joe’s mock tirade consisted of him telling me to slow down and that I was not steering a banana boat now!
Another ten minutes and we were tying up to our pontoon in the marina.
Midweek boating
Two of my grandchildren are stopping with us for a few days. They are growing up now and it might not be much longer before fourteen year old Liam just wants to be with his friends all of the time so I am making the most of it. When we were at home yesterday I taught eleven year old Chloe how to make bread and she is so enthusiastic about everything that she really is a pleasure to teach.
Yesterday afternoon, the four of us came over to stop on the boat for a couple of days. Today George has gone off to work today but he is finishing a bit earlier and we are taking Caxton out for a few hours to let my grandchildren do a bit of fishing out on the canal.
At lunchtime I took them both to The Admiral Nelson for lunch and when we arrived at midday we were the first to order. The food is very good but we had to wait 50 minutes which I felt was a long time considering that we were the first to order. I know that the food is cooked to order but 50 minutes for two lots of chips, one garlic bread, one burger and a cold ham meal is stretching it a bit.
We are now sitting in the cratch enjoying the glorious sunshine waiting for George to arrive home.
nb Sonia Louise – a new blog to follow!
Following on from our meeting on Sunday, Martin & Caroline have started their boating blog. Well done and a great first post!