Narrowboat Just Heaven

Fairly short trip today, only about a mile.

We wandered up to the High st in the morning and bought some stuff for a barbecue. The bucher had an array of exotic sausages including ostrich, kangaroo, wildebeest, etc. We bought a selection including kangaroo.

We did a few jobs around the boat in the lovely sunshine. A group of teenagers arrived and began to take their clothes off! They then started jumping into the river (some of them fully clothed) from the bank by the entrance to the narrow lock. Boats were coming and going and it was getting a bit dangerous. A boat arrived up river and moored in front of us ready to go up the staircase. The teenagers started jumping on and off the boat despite the boater telling them to get off. What started as a bit of boisterous fun was begining to get out of hand. Several people had a word with them, including a BW man, and they eventually wandered off.

We went up through the staircases and York St lock and moored up for the night near the disused railway bridge on the outskirts of town.
The weather stayed fine and we had another barbecue.

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Yet another trip to the shops in the morning, then up the river to Stourport.

We stopped on the pontoons between the wide & narrow locks. The only space available was right by the outflow from the basins. There was a lot of water coming down and I thought that the noise might keep Nikki & Paul awake at night, but no these youngsters sleep like logs !

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We moved down to the moorings by the Commandery. I say ‘we’, but actually the others did all the work as I was down below working on my laptop trying to solve a problem with a customer’s server.

The rest of the morning and part of the afternoon was spent wandering round the shops. Then we moved round to the visitor’s moorings on the river by the rowing clubs.

Heddi & I then walked across the footbridge to Homebase where we bought a sheet of perspex which I intend to fit into the hatch opening so that we can have the light without the cold and rain. Nik & Paul went back into town to recce likely eating places. They found a really nice Singaporean restaurant where we had an excellent evening meal later.

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By the morning I could tell that I needed to do something about my hand. I thought that I had seen a doctor’s surgery in Tibberton, so decided to walk there later.

We took on water by bridge 42. There was a village map there showing a doctor’s. So I set off in search, while Nik & Paul went to look for the local shops. At first they didnt want to treat me at the surgery and said that I should go to the minor injuries unit at Bromsgrove Hospital. But when I explained that I was off of a boat and had no means of transport the nurse agreed to dress it for me.

We had a pumpout at Brookline at Dunhampstead. Why the guy was so miserable when I was giving him £15 for 10 minutes work I dont know.

There was so much water coming down the Otherton flight that it was overflowing the locksides.

We first stopped for the night just before bridge 22. We had just settled down for the evening when we were plagued by people, both aduts and teenagers, tearing up and down the towpath on motorbikes and quad bikes. The adults even had small children balanced in front of them on the fuel tanks!

We discovered that they were from a large gypsy/traveller camp just the other side of the hedge. We didnt feel safe, so moved on to just after bridge 16 opposite the sports ground. We have stayed here before and know it’s safe.

The reeds on the towpath side were higher than the boat, so I cut down two patches at the front and back so that we could get on and off.

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A long day today, 35 locks. We came down the Tardibigge and Stoke flights. We got into a pretty good rhythm with the 3 1/2 of us (Nikki was only winding the easy ones and taking a rest every now and then). With one ahead setting the next lock we only had to wait when there was a boat coming up.

The weatther was good, so a tiring but pleasant day until the evening.

As we were mooring up I managed to damage my hand, removing most of the skin between my thumb and finger, while trying to put the head back on the lump hammer.

We didnt have a suitable sized plaster onboard so had to improvise with some smaller plasters and a piece of towelling.

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The plan was to spend tonight in the centre of Birmingham in the Gas St area, but that didnt work out.

We set off at about 8:30 (Nikki & Paul still in bed!), past the new “Waterfront” area. There are plenty of moorings here, but a nearby club with a big sign saying “Open until 2am” means we wont be overnighting there!

Soon after setting off we encountered an engine problem, it was struggling to give any power. We have had this before and it seems to be fuel starvation. Usually I knock it into neutral and rev up a bit and it cures it. I assume because the fuel pump pulls some more fuel through. This time that technique didnt work. But after struggling with it for a while it seemed to improve enough to carry on and eventually went away.
We went up through Blowers Green lock and were now at the highest point on our journey and it would be downhill all the way to the Severn.

We went through Netherton Tunnel with Heddi steering, she doesnt like tunnels, but if she’s steering it takes her mind off it.

We arrived in the centre of Birmingham about 3:30, it was packed with boats. At first we thought that we wouldn’t be able to find anywhere to moor, but there was one space at Holiday Wharf by the water point.

We wandered around the shops, bars & cafes for a while soaking up the atomosphere in the warm sunshine. Where we were moored wasnt ideal for an overnight so we decided to press on stop just outside Birmingham.

In contrast to yesterday - only one lock today.

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The plan for the week was to do the ‘Stourport ring’. Daughter Nikki & son in law Paul were due to come with us this week on Symphony and had booked their holidays accordingly. Now that we no longer had to be back by Friday morning we could go more leisurely over eight days instead of six.

We knew that the first two days would be longish with quite a few locks to do. Nikki was 8 months pregnant so would be limited in her paddle winding abilities.

The original aim for the first day was to get to the top of the Stourbridge 16, but I was advised that this wasnt a good place to overnight, so we went on to the top of the Delph flight and round the corner a bit, just before the Merryhill shopping centre. The mooring is very safe here with street lights and CCTV.

We did 33 locks today and surprisingly we didnt have a single one against us that we had to empty. On a couple of occasions we had to wait for a descending boat, but other than that they were all empty!

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Heddi, Nikki and I arrived soon after lunch, unpacked the stuff and then drove to Sainsbury’s to stock up for the week. We didnt go by boat as we had to wait for Paul to join us after he finished work.

While we were waiting I did a few odd jobs around the boat and in the engine hole.

Paul arrived at about 6:30 so we went up through Kidderminster lock and moored for the night just above Wolverley Court lock

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During the morning I fitted the battery after a visit to B&Q  for some bits and pieces.

Physically getting the battery in there went easier than I expected, but doing the electrical side was a bit tricky becuase of the limited amount of room to manouver the thick cables.

I’d completed it by about 12:00 (meanwhile Heddi was doing some cleaning & painting), so we went for a short run up to Wolverly and back to charge up the batteries.

Back home in the evening.

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For some time I have been thinking of adding an extra battery to the domestic bank. JH has only two 135Ah batteries on the domestic side, which is rather less than most boats.

We called in at Limekiln Chanlery in Stourport and picked up a new 110Ah battery and a battery box to put it in.

Did a few odd jobs on board and stayed at the mooring overnight.

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