"Overstaying" again!

 Sonflower lies in Cambrian Wharf. 

Cambrian Wharf looks like a long term mooring. There are ten berths on finger moorings, surrounded by a fence that has a gate on which dangles a padlock, "operated" by a BW key. Except it isn't. The lock is rusted in the locked closed position and the mooring site apparently is a visitor mooring with four residential moorings. So the vacant finger mooring that we moored on thinking we had permission to use under condition 4.10 of the Revised Standard Mooring Agreement Terms and Conditions- April 2021 which states  "4.10 When cruising away from the Mooring Site you may temporarily use any vacant mooring spaces available at any other mooring site managed by us with our prior written consent. You must remove your Boat from any such temporary mooring it occupies when we ask you to do so." is not a vacant mooring.

I had written to CRT local customer support officer giving my understanding of the situation but received a "keep moving" email: a gentle reminder that the boat had been in one area for more than 14 days. I had a very nice conversation with Customer Support  giving my understanding and explaining that I had personal problems at home that required me to curtail our cruise and leave the boat for a period of time. I was very pleased to get confirmation that an "overstay" would be approved.

                                                                         Going nowhere: 0 miles   0 locks  0 hours

 

Warwick to Birmingham, the pretty way.

 Our last bit of boating was actually quite a time ago.


n 29th June we headed to Warwick and boarded the boat just after lunchtime. With a "full crew" which included Sue-percrew and Alex we set off just before 2.00pm to ascend the Hatton Flight. 

We are very familiar with these 21 broad locks. At that time of day it is very unusual to find a locking partner so we expected to be solo and working the near side of the locks. At the first lock we were met by a CRT volunteer who took our instruction not to open the off side paddle quite well, only opening it half way! He was full of information: only a widebeam in the flight and another single hander entering the locks at the top, he told us. Having done his not he left us to get in his car in the adjacent car park and drove away.

His information proved inaccurate. We were met by a widebeam and two narrowboats on the way up. These were a great help and we were soon into the swing of setting ahead and shutting behind. Our only delay was introduced by a boater who turned round our lock at lock 43 dismissing my renoinstrations that it was "our" lock. The Best mate was left waiting and stranded in lock 42 while we waited for their very posh faux rivetted craft to navigate down from lock 44. The skipper was very apologetic about the behaviour of his crew. 

So by  5 pm we were at teh top and thinking about a mooring and dinner. The Best Mate swopped the tiller for the galley and Sue took the tiller for a while. The weather dulled but stayed dry and we decided to get as far as we could before stopping for the night. 

We moored close to Rowington Hill Bridge 62 just afgter 6pm, very satisfied withthe afternoons work and settled down for dinner and bed.

                                                        5.1/2miles, 21 locks    4.25 hours

On the next day, 30th June we had boooked a table for dinner at The Drawbridge Inn, Shirley. So today was a dawdle! We did not set off until 7.45am and were very soon turning at Kingswauud Junction on the Lapworth Link. Joining the Stratford Canal we stopped below Lapworth Lock 19 to relenish the water tank.

The lock flight was ascended in reasonably good time. Here the pounds are short and we had to wait in a couple of locks for boats to get out of the next lock so that an interchange could take place in an orderly fashion. We decided to forgo a breakfast stop for a brunch stop just after the top lock. Bacon and eggs always taste good after a lock flight! 

A gentle cruise after brunch to a mooring just after the Shirley Drawbridge.  We moored onteh visitor moorings and were then surprosed to find a hire boat come and moor onthe drwbridge latby. There was a good reason for it though- a shredded alternator belt that required then to be close to the road. 

We checked out the pub abd decided to go to dinner a littel earlier than booked. No problem form the pub staff. 

A wonderfull meal was had by all. 

After dinner Sue and the yours truly went for walks. Sue did an canal/road circular whilst I walked to the shops near Shirley station for milk, bread and bargains at the Co-op.

                                                            8 miles, 19 locks, 3 lift Bridges    7 hours

On the 1st of July we completed the stage of the cruise to Birmingham, Cambrian Wharf. Only problem was a little veg obscuring the view at a bridge narrows.

 

 Letting go at a little after 6 am we achived the target at 10.20 and moored on a vacant finger mooring. This I choise becasue Cambrian Wharf is a Waterside Mooring Long Term mooring site and as long term noorers ourselves we have permission to moor in accordance with the Mooring Terms and Conditions. Well that is what I thought!      10 miles, 1 open lock     4.1/4hours

We locked up the boat and headed for the Station to return to Warwick Parkway to pick up the car. Our only battle was with the ticket machine! No one there to ask to assist us old people.

                                                

Celebration in Warwick.

 23 June 2021

Today is the Best Mate’s 70th birthday. The boat being in Warwick is for the celebrations this evening at Tailor’s in the Market Square. It is our favourite restaurant.

However, when we arrived at the boat we found that it had been moved. We carefully moored it just after 48 hours visitor moorings so on 14 days! But Kate Boats think they have a winding hole. It is not marked as such but apparently they think that warrants them moving our boat. So we are now on 48hrs and have been since who knows when. I have phoned the local customer support officer to explain what has happened. We have photographic evidence of where we left her.

After a quiet afternoon on the boat we got a taxi to the Market Place and our favourite restaurant for a celebration meal. Tailor’s offer a delicious and imaginative tasting menu with a good value wine flight. Follow that with cheese plate, with port of course, and coffee and a Laphroig for me and Cointreau for The Best Mate and there was a wonderful contented completeness about the evening. 

 

We hailed a taxi from the nearby rank and were soon snug in the boat. 

24 June 2021

After allowing early rain to clear we moved the boat 1.1/2 miles through Cape Locks to a mooring just around the turn at Budbrooke Junction. We met some nice boaters at the locks. One couple of exactlythesame age as us (I share my birthday with the gent who was on the tiller). The lady told me they had come up the Severn and had had this boat 15 years and others before it. This was the worst year she could remember for difficulties with lock operation which included a fall over a lock beam because one paddle mechanism was so stiff to operate. 

The second boat crew waiting were from N Devon and were interested in BCF as I was wearing a sweatshirt.

At the mooring I set about removing  a plastering of duck poo from the roof.

We then locked up and returned home. 

   1.1/2 miles, 2 locks, 2 hours

Sunrise to Sunset

We rose at 0420 as the light was just filing the eastern sky.

Sunrise was at 0444 and we let go at 0447 heading under cloud but in warm conditions. The temperature was about 11 deg C but the coffee that I had put in a thermos mug was still very welcome.  The cruise to Marton Doles was uneventful and very quiet. The scenery along this serpentine top level is beautiful and there is a wonderful vista across the Warwickshire plain at times.

Spot the black sheep

The sheep graze ancient ridged meadows ignorant that the scarred earthworks and heaped piles indicate that HS2 will soon be hurtling across the country side toward Birmingham and Manchester. 

We also passed others who enjoy the peace of this location. A narrowboat on its own pond in a field! Teepees for glamping with their wood fired hot tubs.

We filled water bottles at Marston Doles and then started the descent of the  Napton flight at abot 0730. I walked the first section from Marston Doles Locks 16 and 15 to lock 14 and was saddened by the state of the tow-path: soggy and overgrown. The canal was right to the edge of the narrow footway and the path was collapsing into the canal in places.

At lock 12 Alex was amused by CRT signage which asked us to wait on the towpath for an escort.

There was no work being done and it was thirty feet from the lock on the off side!

We had to be very careful at lock 14. A mother duck was fretting about three of her ducklings who were trapped in the lock chamber.

We used one bottom paddle and kept the ducklings in the bow triangle on the other side of the lock to ensure their safety. There was one duckling floating outside the lock who had already perished, sadly. 

Between lock 10 and 9 we met Sarah and James, on nb Nook and Cranny, returning from two weeks away from Tooley's boatyard. Good to meet friends.

After the locks we cruised to Bridge 113 where we moored for bacon and eggs for a very deserved breakfast at 0900.

Breakfast over we set off again. The next obstacle was how to join in with a conference call to the NABO Council meeting. I got on all right but amused the meeting as Alex impacted the bridge at Wygrams turn while entering the Warwick and Napton canal part of the Grand Union. (It was his first time doing this turn on his own.) I got off the boat at Calcutt locks with phone in hand and tried to continue the conference and work the paddles and gates. It was not very successfull as other boaters kept talking to me! At the middle lock the locking bracket would not stay on the spindle square so I had to hold the windlass and phone to prevent the paddle closing. All fun to be a boater. I soon lost signal all together and had to leave the meeting.

We caught up with another boat at Stockton Top and partnered Daniel and Ella on nb 23a all the way to the Blue Lias where they stopped for lunch. We had a good time together. These liaisons teach us how small the boating world is. They moor at Mid Warwickshire Boat Club and we have friends, who they know, there who also serve on the BCF Executive as do I. 

Having parted compoany with nb 23a we were on our own to The Two Boats where we moored and lunched on Kentucky Fried Chicken and chips left over from the night before. Delish.

After lunch we kept going. Bascote Staircase gives us no problems. There are instructions on a sign board there. However the only ones we saw were for going up and we were going down!

And so we soldiered on. We had small assistance from oncoming boats enabling us to leave gates open at a few locks but in the main we had to do all the work. We stopped after Radford Simele bottom lock and cooked pizza to eat on board. Where could you get a take away with pepperoni, "magharitta", bacon and anchovies? No only available on board!

After dinner all we had was flat water all the way to a mooring, on ring and piling, opposite Kate Boats.

We closed up and rang for a taxi! It started to rain!

Birds had been singing all day and we caught sightings of several birds of prey and heard a skylark on the Napton flight.

Total distance:  21.1/2 miles       Locks:32    Bridges:60    Elapsed time:15h39m48s    
Average speed:1.34 mph (3.38 lock/mph)

A short trip

 On Friday evening. 18th June, the rain that had been persistent and at times heavy all day lessened and we thought deeply about our options. We need to be in Warwick on Wednesday. The Best Mate suggested that Alex and I could leave her at home and take the boat as far as we could on Saturday. To do that we decided to go to the boat on Friday evening. 

As we drove to The Wharf Inn, Fenny Compton the rain stopped.

When we got to the boat we found the front mooring pin had been pulled out and the mooring line was dragging in the water. Thank goodness we had also moored with a centre rope. But rather than attempt a more secure mooring we decided to start the engine and cruise to a more place where we coould safely moor agaist Armco with piling clips.

We cruised for 45 minutes to just past Griffin's Bridge 131 where we stopped and settled down to watch England v Scotland. What a disappointment.

We retired for the night just after the full time whistle.

                                                                                                  2 miles, 0 locks  45 minutes

Summer, step one

 On Thursday (17 June) Sueper crew joined us to take Sonflower from her home mooring on the first step of her Summer cruise. We stopped for lunch at Cropredy but apart from that there was nothing that stopped progress to our goal of The Wharf Inn at Fenny Compton. We arrived at 5.30pm. It was a lovely day. The only downside was the inn was closed for refurbishment. As we drove away and we were considering our take away options, it started to rain. Heavily.

9 miles, 12 locks, 7 hours.

 As the weather was set fair we decided to take a day trip. 

Our expected crew of son and two grandchildren could not come but Alex decided to come along. We were glad of his enthusiasm as the temoeratures soared.

We let go at 1030h and stopped at the Castle Quay water point for a top up and a quick wipe down. Willow mast makes a mess. Getting inot the basin was interesting this morning. A boat's crew had already lifted the bridge but the boat master decided he did not want to exercise his priority and waved us forward. He backed toward a Naotin hire craft that was against the wall between the water point and the lock. I managed to avoid the congestion and neatly took up staion at teh water point and moored leaving the others to sort themselves out. 

After watering we drigfted over to the bridge landing to wait for the Best Mate. She joined us shortly bit not before another confised boater had entered the basin. We assured him we would let him go first . There was plenty of llock usage, up and down, and the wait was monimal. Plenty of gongoozlers too!

We moored just short of Samuelson Brisge to get provisions from Morrisons and having done that we sat down for a sald lunch.

After lunch we set off to The Pig Place. This is at Nell Bridge and we enjoyed a wonderful event free cruise in glorious sunshine. 

On the way we passed several moored boats whose crews were enjoying the sunshine under umbrellas and on the towpath. There is little room on an Oxford Canal towpath these days. The Best MAte asked me to look for a spot where we could stop for a cup of tea. There were no real opportunities. There were so many boats out today and most were sensibly mooried against the midday sun. We continued as "mad dogs" do!". At Kings Sutton Lock (Also apparently known as Tarvers Lock according to the signage) a single handed lady was deep insode when we arrived. It looked for all appearances that the lock was empty. I had forgotten how deep it is. The brave little lady opened the bottiom gate and proveeded to descend the ladder to her boats roof before dropping to her trad stern. She was so diminuative that she had a folding stepup and a box to stand on so that she could see over the roof of the boat!

We coversed with a Kings Ground boat  as we passed and I met with the lady of the crew again int he afternoon for a chat. Although KG are Oxford Canal based this couple had moved away to be nearer their home in Suffolk and this was a bit of a homecoming for them and the boat. 

The Pig PLace was popular and all the moorings were taken and one boat was breasted up. We turned at Nell Bridge winding hole and moored up just past the pold lift bridge narrows for thew promised cuppa. The single handed lady was taken by the Pig Place but could not see a way to get there. We told her she would need to go onto the main road from the lock and come back down the drive. We decided we did not want the walk in the heat.

 

After tea we decided to return the way we had come. 

I needed some excersise and decided to walk from Tarvers Lock to Twyford Bridge. It was along this section that I nmet the KG Crew again. Our conversation included discussion of the KG logo on the boat and whether the new CRT T & C's would mean they need express consent to leave it there! They said they had not had any advicer or ntice obout hte consultation on the new terms. It was nice to discover that they were NABO members.

I had to walk quite quickly to get ahead of SOnflower top re-board at Twyford bridge but I managed it and here is proof!

Alex is gently bringing her along side the bridge narrows so that I can hop back on. 

We stopped aftger Grants lock to cookl a steak dinner and two enjoy a bottle of Beaujolais. A delightful summer treat.

After dinner all that was reqwuired was to cruise gently back. We stopped at Banksoide Park narrows to recover a football for a group of lads and left them happily practising their moves ahead of the next day's England game.

Back at the hime mooring I met James, a cafe boat trader who was paniocking as sunset arrived. I suggested that he overnoght on the vacant berth inform=nt of Sonflowere and had a nice chat with him. He had come up the Thames from the K & A and a cruise from Bathhampton.He too had stopped at The Pig Place. He had boght a couple of pork chops and some pig's ears for his two whippets!Expensive tast these dogs! He is vegetarian!

So the end to a beautiful day.

The Best Mate was sunburnt!

Ship shape and ready

SONFLOWER is looking in real trim for cruising again.

We have been shuttling between dry dock and wet dock this Spring. Since March she has been surveyed, blacked, re-fendered, and had her gunwales treated to a nice matt black finish. 

While she was not being worked on over the late May bank holiday weekend we managed a short outing overnight to Cropredy and back. Here she is (with the gunwales half painted.)

There we had tea with a friend and at a meal with her on board. Sovereign Wharf's wet dock is only 45 ft long so Sonflower needed to be turned round to paint the gunwales at each end.

She was finished early in the day on Thursday and this gave an opportunity to take two grandchildren for a short ride to the turning point and back. 

Then, on Friday we came out of dock looking all spruced up. She was wiped down and Pumped Out. 

Now back on home mooring.                   9.1/2 miles, 6 locks           appprox 7 hours

On the button

 Our front fender was past its useful life and used to always move to port from a central position especially when coming into contact with lock gates.

Our good friends at Tooley's Boatyard have fixed a new support arrangement and supplied a beautiful new button.

Doesn't she look smart?

No smoke without FIRE!

 Mayday! May Day! We should be boating of course today. We decided to head for Cropredy just for the fun of it. On arrival at the boat it was still very cold so I decided that a fire was in order. One needs a nice fire in the boat to warm oneself up in a very chill factor 10 or 11 degrees. When the sun was out it felt a bit warmer but the air temperature remained cold. So a fire was set. 

My Villager Puffin has just had a new glass fitted to the door which looks very smart with a new white rope seal around the outside. However the seal leaked and the boat soon started filling with smoke. All windows and doors were opened, the houdini and swan hatches  were opened wide but the boat filled up very quickly. The best mate evacuated and I started removing sticks from the fire and throwing them through the swan hatch into the canal. It took about ten minutes for the fire to die down to smouldering embers and a lot longer for the smoke to clear.

We decided that a cruise was not on without a fire and turned at the winding hole to return the fire door to the boatyard. Being wonderfully accommodating they fitted a thicker seal while I waited. The door could not be re-fitted immediately as the glue needed an hour to set fully. We moved on throught the lock to Tramway. Passage through the lock was delayed because the boat ahead of us, which will not be named by us, had a crew member who only opened one bottom gate paddle "because it empties so fast". . .not! The Best Mate offered to wind the paddle gear up for her but her blunt refusal to use a second paddle led TBM to withdraw and wait. When we got to Tramway LT Moorings the said boat was occupying the Calthorpe winding hole. And it was occupying it for a long time. I stood to and waited for a while then decided to pull into a vacant mooring space and we had lunch. 

After lunch the fire was out and cool. We decided to inspect the flue to see whether the state of it was the reason for the smokyness of the fire. It was not that clean so I decided to pull a rag through it to remove some soot. This did not do much so The Best Mate suggested the hearth brush. The handle had a hole in it so I could attach the rope. I inserted it and promptly got it stuck, just inside the flue. The stiff brush bristle bundles were pointing rearward so I could not budge it to bring it back up. I tried hard but was defeated. Fortunately I carry length a 1" heavy wall galvanised piping for difficult occasions. Applying this weightily behind the brush and with The Best Mate inside pulling down on the rope removed it through OK and brought a bit of soot out with it. The Best Mate then came up with the idea of a  shower scrunchy. That was attached to the rope and worked a treat.

Our flue cleaned and the fire cleared, I re-fitted the stove door with a lit lantern torch inside the fire. We could see light through the seal! So still no working stove.

We moved on, turned without any problem and returned toward Banbury lock meeting Maffi's boat at the Town Wharf (ex lift bridge) narrows. Thence to the lock. We locked through without any problem and entered the pool to find an Oxford Hire Boat and our friends on Nook and Cranny. We left the lock gates open for the  hire boat to crash into the lock, and  chatted with our friends. I lowered the lift bridge after Sonflower as Matt emerged from Tooley's, after locking up for the day. I told him about the light I could see and he told me he would order some even thicker rope seal. Great service.

We returned to home mooring, surprisingly tired. We are out of practice at this boating thing                                                                                                    2 Miles, 2 Locks, 2 lift Bridges 5 hours