Narrowboat Just Heaven

We left at about 8:30. It’s usually around 3 hours from Kinver to our home mooring and we wanted to be away home soon after twelve. However things didnt work out quite the way we had planned. When we got to the first lock, Whittington lock, we were third in a queue to go down. On arrival at Debdale lock we were greeted by a scene of chaos. There were four Black Prince hire boats in front of us (though one of them was simply moored having their breakfast and not waiting for the lock). The waiting space is fairly restricted here, so with four Black Prince, ourselves and then, a little while later, a Countrywide Cruisers boat all waiting to go down it made manourvering difficult. I breasted up to one of the Black Prince boats which I think unnerved them a bit, but there was nowhere else to go.

Some of the hire boats, though they had plenty of crew, seemed to be taking things fairly slowly. In particular they were letting young children wind the paddles. Now I’m all in favour of introducing youngsters to the cut, but if you have four boats queued up behind you then you need to work the lock as quickly as possible.

The queues continued at Wolverley lock and Wolverley Court lock, but they all stopped at Sainsbury’s in Kidderminster so we went straight into Kidderminster lock without a queue. We  winded by Tesco and then reversed back to the mooring, tidied up the boat and left for home at about 2:30.

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We were lying in bed at ten to eight when a boat went past. I looked out of the window and saw Terry & Chris going past on Arun, so we decided to get up and set off with the chance that we might meet up with them later. We were away by 8:15 and just caught a glimpse of them leaving Wightwick lock as we approached. There was one boat between us but we thought that there would be a good chance that would be able to have a natter later. Just before Dimmingsdale lock the boat infront moored up, but as we approached the lock we could see Arun leaving and another boat waiting to go down. There was a third boat moored on the offside mooring. As we joined the queue to go down the steerer of this third boat said that he was before us. Heddi had a free & frank exchange of views with him regarding lock queueing etiquette! Talking later to the crew of the boat infront of us it turned out that the other boat had tried to push in front of them as well.

As we arrived at Bratch Arun was just entering the top lock so we had chance for a natter as we went down. The rest of the day was spent queueing at every lock. The wait at the Botterham staircase was almost two hours. That gave us time to agree with Terry that we would have a few drinks together in a Kinver pub that evening, if we got that far!

The weather was pretty awful most of the day, with very heavy storms with queues at every lock.

We eventually arrived at Kinver just before six. Terry was waiting to work us through the lock. We found a space on the visitor’s mooring (just).

Later, in the evening we spent a very pleasant couple of hours in the Plough & Harrow.

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Up just after seven ready for an earlyish departure. We had told Angela & Mike on Levick that we would be away by 8:30 as they also wanted to be gone by then. We were now moored outside of them after the various boat manouverings following the pumpout & diesel servicing on Sunday afternoon. In fact we were ready to go by eight, so we bade our farewells chugged off.

Weather not so good today, a coolish breeze and some heavy showers. There was quite a bit of boat traffic about, though we  never had to wait for more than one boat at a lock. As we approached Otherton lock we could see the traffic on the motorway suddenly slowing down. As we went along the section of canal that runs parallel to the motorway we saw & heard the emergency services vehicles arrive and by the time we got to Rodbaston lock the traffice on the M6 was stopped. It was odd as this is usually a very noisy lock, but now it was almost silent.

A longish day today, but we wanted to get past Wolverhampton before we stopped. It was about five o’clock when we moored up just below Compton lock. We made a quick visit to the hospice charity shop, and then a walk along the disused track of the old Wolverhampton - Stourbridge railway. We were fairly tired so in bed by 9:30 !

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We arrived here on Friday morning. Andrew the harbourmaster had spent hours over his intricate mooring plan, which was throw into confusion by the lack of water. Because the levels were really low the deep draughted boats couldn’t moor up close to the side, so they were re-arranged to be on the outside. Also some of the bridgeholes on the approach to the club were so shallow that some boats had difficulty getting through. This was compounded by the coal motor & butty from Wednesday coming past and they also getting stuck in the bridges. Steve Haywood on Justice was delayed for several hours.

We have been here for three days. The weather has been really good which has meant that most of the time has been spent sitting around drinking and nattering.

The gathering has included about 10 boats & crew plus others camping/caravaning. The format has been fairly relaxed with some organised activities, mainly involving eating & drinking.

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As is my usual I was awake soon after six. I stuck my head out of the hatch and saw the steerer of the coal butty walking along the towpath. We thought that this may mean they are early risers too and we needed to be away before them! So we showered and got dressed and were on the move by 6:40. With hindsight I think that he was only letting his dog out for a leak, but it was a good morning and it meant that we could meet the other cutwebers at Tixall the evening before we were all due at Stafford Boat Club.

Fairly uneventful day, but the weather deteriorated and by midday we were getting heavy rainstorms and a very strong wind.

We arrived at Tixall Wide at about 15:30. I had already received a text to say breast up with Levick. We found the others (Andrew & Sheila on Uncle Mort, Angela & Mike on Levick and Barbara & Malcolm on Pilgim) at the far end of the wide. As I came in to turn the wind was blowing very strongly and it was a bit of a struggle to get it round, but we successfully breasted up to Levick and we were soon having drinks and a barbecue. The weather turned really cold around seven o’clock and we all retired to our respective boats.

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A rather frustrating day today with much queueing, but with lots of opportunity to chat with other boaters.

The day started off OK with good weather so we made an earlyish start at seven thirty. All was going well until just after the Bratch. The queues were begining to build up at each lock. We then heard from a boater coming the other way that a loaded coal boat had become stuck in Ebstree lock. As we went on through the next few locks we gathered more of the story from other boaters. It seems that the coal boat and butty had become stuck as they were very heavily loaded. In order to get over the cill they had to transfer some of the load from one end of the boat to the other. This together with their very slow progress was causing the queues.

We got chatting to the crew of NB Phoenix, they were next ahead of us in the queues. They were also heading for Stafford Boat Club as that is their home mooring. Though they were in no hurry as they didnt need to be there until Sunday.

Phoenix moored up for the night at Compton, but we decided to carry on past Wolverhampton to Coven as we were now a bit behind our schedule. Soo after leaving Compton lock we came up behind the coal boat and butty. They were going very slowly, only about 1mph. They were towing on a long line, so to pass them we needed a long, straight, wide section. There aren’t many of them of the Staffs & Worcs! We did eventually manage to pass them in cutting leading up to Aldersley junction.

The crew of Phoenix had told us that a good overnight stop would be between bridges 69 & 70. We stopped there for a while but decided that the motorway noise was too obtrusive. We went a little further and moored up just before br. 71, by the target golf range.

We were just having our supper when the coal pair came past again. We didnt want to be behind them the next day, so thought that we’d make an early start and hope to pass them before they were up.

After supper we went for a walk along the towpath past the ‘Hope & Anchor’. There was the coal pair, with the crew in the pub garden eating. We could see plenty of mooring space ahead of them so went back to the boat and moved the half mile or so in the dark to moor up again about 200 yds ahead of them!

A really good thing about getting up early is you get to see more wildlife. This morning we had a kingfisher flying along skimming the water infront of us for about half a mile. Each time he stopped on an overhanging branch I tried to get a photo.

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We are on our way to the Cutweb GIG at Stafford Boat Club. We need to be there by Lunchtime on Friday. That gives us three days, which should be OK.

Arrived in Kidderminster about one o’clock, but by the time we had loaded everything up, chugged round to Sainsbury’s and done the week’s shopping it was nearly four o’clock. It was a lovely summer’s evening so we carried on later than we usually do and arrived in Kinver just after six. I didnt expect there to be any space, but there was so we stopped on the visitor’s mooring.

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Back to Kidderminster, then Paul, Nikki & Izzy left at about 9:30 as Nikki had a ‘Hen Party Day’ at “Go Ape” in the Forest of Dean.

We decided to stay for the rest of the day and go back tomorrow. We spent the time doing jobs around the boat, popping down to the caravan shop at Stourport to look at Porta Pottis, nattering to Yvonne & Mike from NB Tetty and relaxing with a glass of wine.

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The best day weatherwise so far this trip. As we didnt need to be back in Kidderminster until Sunday morning today was going to be a relaxing day. We went down as far as Kinver and stopped on the visitor’s mooring below the lock. We were lucky, there was only room left for one boat. I have been surprised this week that there wasnt more hire boats about. It’s the first week of the school holidays for most people and the press keep saying that hire boat bookings are up due to the credit crunch making people stay at home for their hols.

We wandered up to Kinver high street to do a bit of shopping then plodded off slowly to Wolverly Court lock. This is a favourite last night stop of ours. It’s only about an hour from our home mooring, but beautifully peaceful and quiet.

Izzy had fun feeding the swans, well Izzy had fun watching Paul feed the swans.

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