Narrowboat Just Heaven

Up and away early, the sky was lovely and clear so we thought that we’d get going.

Through the stop lock at Autherley and round the junction to see a heron perched on the signpost.

We stopped at Compton to go to the Daisy freezer centre for some barbecue food, and to Limekiln Chandlers for a jerry can.
The plan was to stop at the bottom of Bratch locks, on the mooring by the picnic site, for the barbecue. But we made good progress and were there by about two o’clock, so we carried on and eventually stopped just passed the vistors moorings below Greensforge lock. It wasnt as convenient a barbecue spot, but I cut down the grass, nettles etc and we managed OK.

Going down Bratch

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A little bit of drizzle on and off today, but otherwise not a bad day, though very windy.

The deep cuttings along this part of the Shroppie are quite interesting, but otherwise it’s fairly boring, particularly for the steerer as it’s just long straight sections with only the one lock at Wheaton Aston to break the journey.

We stopped for the night on the SUCS moorings just north of bridge 4. Like most this canal the side here suffers with the “Shoppie ledge”. A concrete ledge jutting out into the canal just below water level. This make mooring difficult. We had a high wind to contend with too so it took a couple of attempts to get properly moored up.

The evening was lovely (though windy) with a gorgeous sunset.

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We have moved today, but we’re back where we started. A pumpout and shopping needed today so an early start down Tyrley locks and into Market Drayton. We had intended to use one of the boatyards for the pumpout, but found a BW DIY machine so used that instead. Anyway the boatyard wasnt open when we arrived at 8:45.
After pumping out we went along to the visitor’s mooring by the aqueduct, we were lucky there was only one available space. After breakfast we had planned a shopping trip, but by now the rain was much heavier. The First Mate guide said 18 mins to the shops so we needed to get kitted out in our wet weather gear. We found Netto fairly quickly, but it was quite a bit further to the other shops. As we needed quite a bit of stuff we decided on Morrisons, which was the furthest of all!

It was still raining when we got back to the boat tired and wet. When we went to make a cup of tea, no water! With four of us and little Izzy on board we seem to use a lot more than usual. I reversed back through the bridge to the water point, topped up and returned to the visitor’s mooring. During which the heavens really opened and it poured down. Staying put seemed the sensible choice so we just waited. Then at about 3:30 it eased off a little and we decided to set off to get to the top of the flight.

The amount of extra water in the cut caused by the rain had made the lock by-washes very powerful, and the approaches into the locks very difficult. The only way to do it was to go fast aiming for the by-wash itself and then when the current pushed the bow over put the tiller hard over to stop the stern from being pushed over. The current was so powerful that the water came over the side of the bow and into the front deck. There were several hire boat crews who were finding the conditions particularly taxing.

We arrived at the top at about 5:30 and decided to stay there for the night. The rain had stopped and it was quite a pleasant evening.

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Weather fairly cool and cloudy today, with periods of rain getting heavier as the day went on.
We were going to have a pumpout at Wheaton Aston but the BW DIY machine was out of action (as was the toilet block) because of a sewerage system problem. We topped up with fuel at Turner’s garage and then chugged on to the top of Tyrley locks.
Here also BW was having plumbing problems. The water point was closed and the water in the toilet block was labelled unfit to drink. By late afternoon the rain was fairly heavy so we decided to stay here and go down into Market Drayton in the morning.

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Another rather wet, cold & grey day, where’s the summer gone?
The weather did clear a little in the evening and we decided to have a barbecue as this may be the only chance this week.
During yesterday and today we have had several re-occurrances of the fuel starvation problem. I decided to take out the water trap filter and see if it had become blocked again. There didnt appear to be much there, but I washed it in deisel and put it back in. When I changed the filters previously I had loosened the pipe on the outgoing side of the pump and turned the ignition key until the pump had primed itself and no air came out. However the last guy who serviced the engine said I didn’t need to do that. He said just turn on and wait a couple of minutes for the pump to prime itself and purge the air on the return line back to the tank. I tried that but it didnt seem to work. I tried my method again and that did work !
Whilst I was working down the engine hole I had this duck for an audience!

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Daughter Nikki, son-in-law Paul and grandaughter Izzy (10 months) arrived last night, did the shopping and stayed overnight on the moorings. We joined them about 10 o’clock and set off north. The weather was rather overcast with occasional rain. We stoped for the night at about 5:00 just past Greensforge lock. We had planned a barbecue, but the weather wasnt up to it so we put that off for another day.

Izzy seemed fascinated by the boat, the wildlife and just about everything. Nik & Paul weren’t sure how she would manage sleeping in strange circumstances as she likes her own bed, but she was very good to go to sleep, though she didnt always stay there as long as Nik would have liked.

Help with the steering!

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Just an overnight trip with the grandchildren Josh & Becca to make up for the weekend in January when we couldn’t go anywhere because of the frozen canal.

We arrived about 10:30 and plodded slowly up to the Lea Lane winding hole, turned and came back to Wolverley to moor just above the lock.

The afternoon was spent going for a walk, playing games with the children and indulging in clotted cream ice-creams from the lockside tea rooms. Then we moved the half mile or so to just below Wolverly Court lock and moored up for the night. The weather improved and we spent a lovely evening just chilling out.

On Sunday morning we headed back to Kidderminster, on approching bridge 17 we could see another boat stopped mid-stream. They were stuck on a shopping trolley. It took three of us pulling on the bow rope, one on the stern rope and a lot of pushing on poles to get them free. When we came through I approched it fairly fast then knocked the engine into neutral and glided over the obstacle.

WE packed up and headed home for a family barbecue.

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Just up for the day with friends David & Veronica. They live in South Africa and are over in the UK for the summer. David is interested in narrowboats and is considering one for their UK base, so we thought that a little taster by way of a day trip would be a good idea.

We arrived at Kidderminster just after 10:00. The owners of NB Tetty, which is also moored at Roundhill Wharf, also live in South Africa and happened to be onboard. So David & Veronica had a natter to them while we got the boat ready to depart. We then winded by Tesco and headed down to Stourport. The weather wasnt too good and it started to rain.

The narrow lock staircase was out of action as BW were replacing a cill on the lowest lock into the river, so we had to use the wide locks. This was a BW supervised operation requiring two boats to breast up in order to negotiate the tight turn in the lower basin. We went down with a Countrywide Cruisers hire boat. It took quite a while and it was just gone one o’clock when we got out onto the river. We had planned to go down to the Hampstall Inn for lunch, that was nearly an hour away and we were getting hungry. When we got to the pub we discovered that they dont serve food on Mondays!

So we headed off back up to Stourport again, by this time it was raining much harder. As it would take quite while to get back up through the two wide locks we moored up on the pontoons and went in search of lunch. The newly opened Windlass Cafe looked good so we decided on that. While we were in the cafe the rain suddenly started to pour even harder!. BW were only allowing boats through the wide locks in pairs so we had to wait for another boat to arrive before we could go up. After about 20mins an Anglo Welsh hire boat came up the river and we went up with them. They were novices and had done nothing like this before, but were willing to learn and did very well. As we left the top lock the heavens opened for the most amazing downpour. Veronica and I had gone ahead to set York St lock and had sheltered under the bridge, but Heddi & David got drenched.

We had noticed two Canaltime (or Canal Bost Club as they are called now) boats going up from the river just before us. When I got to the lock one was just leaving and the other was moored by the services block. I started to prepare the lock but a woman said that it wasnt our turn and we had to wait for their second boat as they were traveling together. I replied that as there wasnt a boat waiting on the lock moorings we assumed that the lock was available for use, and that their other boat was getting water or whatever. She then started complaining that no one told them they were supposed to wait on the lock moorings and that no one told them where they had to go after coming up off the river. I asked if they had a book (Nicholsons or Pearsons) but she complained that they hadn’t been given one. I then tried to politely give her some information about waterway operation & etiquette etc but she then remonstrated that they knew what to do as they had “been boating for years”.

The rain had stopped now and everything was OK until just after Pratts Wharf . There were several boats stopped and we got closed it was obvious why. There was a tree down across the cut. A couple of other boats were waiting in our direction and one the other way. I asked the guy on the baot nearest the tree if BW had been called, he said that they had. David thought that we might be able to move it ourselves so, with the help of a passing cyclist, we had a go, but no luck. I called BW thinking that a second report might speed them up, but they knew nothing about it! A BW guy rang me back about 5 minutes later saying that they would have a team there in about 30mins.

Fortyfive mins later two guys turned up, but with no tools or anything. The message they got said that boats were just squeezing past but needed assistance! One of them went back and returned about 20mins later with a truck and chainsaws etc. It didnt take them long to clear a way through and we were on our way.

We packed up and David drove home, getting back at about 10 o’clock - 3 hours later than expected.

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