Heading home

I had another couple of nights in Birmingham, visiting both the RSBA and Ikon galleries. Chris and Christine caught me up and we had a good night at the Fiddle and Bone open mic, where Chris played a few numbers. Once again all the musicians were very good. I met up with Luke's friend, Jane, the next day and we exchanged tips and stories about our forthcoming journeys as we were going in opposite directions. I moved down to moor at Bournville and spent a couple of hours looking around the village. I liked it. Why can we not build such user friendly villages anymore? I visited Selly Oak Manor which contains quite a lot of unusual utensils and tools as well as insight into Tudor life.

I took a couple of days to cruise the Stratford canal down to Kingswood Junction. It is a pretty canal and the only hardship for me was the two drawbridges where it is difficult for a singlehander to get to the "workings". The first one was possible to do by positioning Olivia across the canal, her bow pointing to the working side, me getting off the bow with the bow rope, opening the bridge and then slowly pulling her through using successive ropes until I got her completely through and tied the stern rope while lowering the bridge, hopping on the stern and driving off. As is usual, as soon as I had finished a boat with crew turned up!! The second bridge was less easy as a moored boat is close by. I did start to follow the same procedure but then one of the local boaters offered to help so I could drive through rather than pull her through. I moored at the top of the Lapworth flight of locks and started down the next morning.

I did the first four on my own and then I met up with a volunteer lock keeper who assisted with the next nine locks, I moored here near the pub (:-)) and cafe, finishing off the next six locks next day.

From my mooring at the junction I walked down to Lowsonford lock to see the Anthony Gormley statue and the sweet barrel roofed cottage.

The next morning, Monday, I was woken by a high pitched whine. It was like a strimmer on speed. I looked at of the window to see a camera drone "parked" next to my boat. Being nosy I had to find out what was going on. The guys operating it told me they were filming for Great Canal Journeys as Tim and Pru were around and are doing the Stratford canal for the next series. It was interesting to see how they go about the filming for the series and, although I didn't get to see the Wests, I did enjoy seeing the crew organising and filming segments for the show. I then discovered that the locks were closed due to a broken collar on one of the locks. This was significant in that Christine was now moored at the top of the locks and was due to come down to moor near me and from there to go for a meal at the pub. I walked up to see her and we found that a new part was being fabricated and should be fitted within the next three or four hours so we kicked our heels for a while, then went down to lock 10 to watch the guys fitting the part. Chris arrived from London and we helped Christine down the locks. We had a very nice meal at The Boot pub with Gary and Sarah from Lyons boatyard who are good friends of Chris and Christine.

The plan for Tuesday was to press on to Hatton locks where we were meeting Luke. We had gone down about 5 locks when Luke cycled up from Warwick. With Chris going ahead and preparing the locks and Luke shutting the gates behind us, we were able to get down the locks in good time. It is not a flight that I would enjoy doing alone. We moored at the Cape of Good Hope pub and had a nice late lunch. Most had pie and a pint for £10 but I had a chicken breast burger and half a pint. It was tasty and greatly appreciated. Chris went to the station to get his train home and Luke and I went into Warwick to do a quick round of charity shops and get some supplies.

When we started off through Leamington to Long Itchington, Luke took the helm. I thought he was going a bit fast and then discovered that he wanted to make the car boot sale at Long Itch that afternoon. We moored outside the Two Boats pub (think there is a bit of a theme going on here) and Luke went off booting. He found a few albums that he thought were worth buying and together with those I had picked up for him at Tipton he was laden with 40 albums when he biked back to Warwick for his train home. Christine and I went for fish and chips at the pub.

Thursday was to be our last day together as I was booked into Calcutt for a service and Christine had arranged to meet friends in Braunston. We had ten more locks to do and as we were being followed by a working boat and a hire boat we got plenty of help from their crews. At Calcutt I helped Christine through the last three locks, waved goodbye for now and took Olivia into the boatyard for "work". I knew I needed to do some remedial work on the gas locker but it needs welding so think this will be an expensive month.

A Slumberland Sprung Mattress

The long and the short of it all was that it took SIX hours to cut away all of the rubbish on my prop. There was a scary moment when we thought a hand was coming up through the water. It was a filled glove!!

In the meantime, Christine's boat had been extricated from the pools but not until she had emptied her water tank and cleared out the front locker to shift the weight from the bow of the boat. See what I mean, you need to be intrepid and NOT to go there without at least one support boat. Three of the boats ended up mooring at Tipton instead of the original destination of Bentley Bridge. Stuart and Marie did go to the latter but they didn't arrive until after 9pm. We all had supper together and recounted our stories and compared our cuts from the wire!

On the Monday we had to cruise for two or three hours longer than the rest of the group to try and catch them up. We did arrive at Pelsall Common but it was a chilly, miserable evening so most boats had battened down the hatches, lit their stoves and stayed in. In the morning I had more stuff around the prop but this could all be removed easily with my specially purchased bread knife. The offensive material was mostly plastic bags but also a school PE bag (no plimsolls inside). I travelled on Christine's boat up to Anglesey basin and back but it hailed (yes, it really did!!) when we got there so didn't get a chance to explore Chasewater. That night was fish and chips at Longwood Junction and five of us had a little ukelele session. There was also a raffle and I won a canal painting by one of the other boaters. Very nice too. We had a talk/musical performance about the BCN canals and their history by Phil Clayton.

The rest of the week went more smoothly and the weather was ok, too. We had a walk/history talk by Andy Tidy, a tour of Bradley lock gate workshop, a barbecue, a weed laden trip along the Walsall canal where I picked up a whole tent on the prop (luckily a bit easier to cut off than the wire had been). I would like to thank Chris for his help getting this off. At the end of the week we were back at Tipton for the canal festival. We had good hot weather so could enjoy the musical offerings and the craft stalls and so on. We had two meals at the Pie Factory - the Henpecked pie was wonderful - and those who had Mick's grill, served on a shovel, seemed to be enjoying it. Christine had two musical friends staying, Rick played banjo and Ellie played fiddle and with the rest of us on ukeleles we had a good session.

Birmingham cruising

I had stored Olivia at Hawne Basin while I went to Edinburgh festival for a week and then helped Luke cruise the Thames from Henley to Egham. Both were firsts for me. I absolutely loved Edinburgh! Five of us found wonderful accommodation just 20 minutes walk into the centre of things.

The view from our apartment:

The weather was fantastic, only needed my coat one evening when we had a bit of a chilly breeze. There was sooooo much to do and we found a few excellent shows. In fact I enjoyed all of those we went to except for one, a comedian who wasn't really funny. I would definitely go another time and this time I would be much better prepared.

The Thames was also fun (and reasonable weather too). Luke's little engine coped very well and held its own against the gin palaces :-).

The skipper:

I picked Olivia up at the beginning of September and moored back at Windmill End visitor centre. Next day I left the very friendly people that I met there and went through Netherton Tunnel, through Factory Locks and moored at Tipton. I liked Tipton, the water was very clear and there are a couple of good pubs about which more later. I discovered that Heather was coming to Birmingham to see Sylvie Guillem's last world tour so I managed to get a ticket for the same performance so that we could meet up. While staying at Tipton I got a bus to Walsall to visit the Art Gallery, which had a Jacob Epstein exhibition. Excellent. The next day I went on the Dudley Tunnel/Caverns trip. Wow. I didn't know there were such caverns. They are shortly to open a brand new visitor centre with restaurant/cafe.

As I was so close I went for a wander up to Wren's Nest where there are so many fossils, I searched for a Dudley Bug but only found one later (in the museum).

Heather had mentioned that Christine was coming up the locks at Aston/Farmer's Bridge so the next day I set off to help. She had got up the first five or six when she found an empty pound. CRT had turned up to help restore the levels and we were able to get on. When we reached the bottom of the Farmers flight, another boater had turned out to help AND there were three volunteer lock keepers, so the journey was very speedy indeed and Christine was able to moor at Cambrian Wharf before lunch. Heather arrived later that day and we went for a meal at the Fiddle and Bone as Linda was coming to play a spot at the Open Mic. Jim had driven Linda over so at the end of the evening Christine went back to Cambrian, the rest of us back to Tipton where Heather was staying on Linda's boat and I went back to Olivia. The next day Heather and I went back into Brum, met up with Christine for a meal in Chinatown and then we went to the Sylvie Guillem ballet. It was another excellent experience.

The next day I cruised into the centre of Birmingham where I met up with the BCN explorer group for the September cruise. We had a briefing and most of us ended up having a few drinks back in the Fiddle and Bone. On the Saturday, after a rainy night, we all started out for Titford Pumphouse. With twenty boats there were obvious delays at locks but it gave us the chance to get talking to each other. There were three of us single handing for the whole week and one single handing for half of the week. That evening, once we were all moored up, we had a Chinese meal delivered to us at the BCN HQ, a couple of musical turns from group members and a quiz.

On Sunday morning, the most intrepid boaters went up to Titford Pools. Hang on, I went, and I wouldn't say I was intrepid. Here are a couple of pictures from the Pools:

The reason for being intrepid is that very few people navigate the pools. We wondered why as they seemed absolutely fine. Ooops. On the way out my boat ground to a sudden halt with "something" around the prop. At the same time, Christine's boat grounded alongside mine. She was stuck in the shallows. Luckier boaters boarded our ships and attempted to help. I borrowed bolt cutters for what felt like wire arounf=d the prop and first me, and then Roland, had a go at removing the offending wire. However, the more we removed the more there seemed to be until we recognised that the wire was actually a sprung mattress!! In the meantime Christine's boat was trying to be towed by one boat, then two boats, forwards and backwards, but would not budge. I got towed back to the BCN HQ where several other people attempted to remove the mattress.

More later......

Photos from the past few weeks

As I haven't had my laptop with me while cruising I have only now got around to downloading my photos, so here goes. A veritable binge fest from Worcester to Netherton:

The swans at Worcester

Hmm. Could do with being rectified.

Lock on the River Severn (can't remember which one)

You can't better this mooring. Shame it is only 48 hours. It's close to Kinver.

One of the circular weirs common to the Staff and Worcs canal.

Someone has been busy!

The rock houses at Kinver.

Sad.

Delph lock flight. Magnificent.

Ah, so there is light at the end of the tunnel.

So peaceful here at Windmill End.

Windmill End.

I love the lighting in this shot.

So to the West Midlands

Can't believe that it has been three weeks since my last post. The first thing I did since then was a trip to London for Luke's "special" birthday. He always has a picnic in the park and about 25 people (maybe more) came to that, some brought little people with them. The weather was very kind although it was a bit windy. We all ended up having a bit of a musical evening with guitars, ukes, violin, a double bass(!!) and copious amounts of cider and other brews. I was driving so got Kate home and then I returned to Olivia. After a day or so I dared to face the River Severn and it was delightful. Olivia actually likes the deeper water and it was so nice to have lock keepers do all the work. I travelled with Tim on Mon Canard who just happened to be going the same way as me and that was really helpful when we got to Stourport as we could help each other through the two sets of staircase locks. I moored up through the next lock and stayed a couple of nights as I wanted to visit Bewdley. The first day I attempted to visit was Bewdley Regatta and I just couldn't find anywhere to park (I should have hopped on a bus) so I gave up and went to Wolverley and Cookley just to look at future mooring spots. The next day was a wet one so I tried Bewdley again as I found that I could park a little way outside of the town (at a picnic place) and walk in. I went to the museum which was celebrating the cherry season with bags of fresh cherries for sale and a school band playing two long sets. They were from Winterfold House School and with an average age of twelve were truly brilliant. I found a little shop selling reasonably priced books, many of which were music related, plus cards and gift items. I thought I had better start my Christmas shopping :-).

I cruised on up to Kidderminster which doesn't have an awful lot going for it. However, it used to be the centre of the carpet making industry and there is a Museum of Carpet. Ex employees within the industry run demonstrations on some old looms. One showed us how Wilton carpets were (are?) made and another demonstrated Axminster methods. I have a new found respect for why quality carpets are so expensive.

Next stop was Kinver which I liked very much. It has a high street full of small independent shops, myriad cafes and such rare outlets as butchers, bakers and greengrocers. It is known for the rock houses which are well worth a visit alongside a walk up on Kinver Edge where you get some 360 degree views of the area. Luke had spotted an advertisement for a boat that he quite fancied and it was moored a mile from where I was moored so I felt compelled to go and look at it. It was a lovely boat and I know Luke would love it, however he needs some capital in order to buy it so if 40,000 of you would each like to donate £1 he will be able to buy it :-) sigh!

The next area that I entered was the Stourbridge Glass Quarter, so having learnt all about carpets in Kidderminster I thought I had better do the same for glass in Stourbridge. My first visit was to the Red Cone where there are both craft/maker outlets and glass making demonstrations in the original cone (which I think is the only original cone left intact in the area). I then went to the Broadfield Glass Museum which is a fabulous old house containing a vast array of glassworks from many eras. This museum is due to be closed down and moved to a new museum that is currently being built at White Cone, which is next door to Red Cone. I suppose it makes sense to have it all on a single site but it will be such a shame to lose the lovely house, which is a mile or so further north at Kingswinford. I finally went to the Ruskin Centre which again houses many craft studios, not all were glass based but a good proportion were and the others were things such as enamelling, wood working, clockmaking, etc. Again there was a historic element at this site which was also an old glass manufactory and many of the original stuctures were still in place. I concluded that the glass making industry was a hard life as the heat in which they worked must have been unbearable.

On leaving Stourbridge I had a flight of sixteen locks to climb. At the first lock three or four lads aged ten and eleven helped me with the gates and the lockwheeling. They were very polite and interested in how it all worked. When I got to about the fourth lock I was adopted by Tom. Actually I think I adopted him. He was eleven years old and was fishing by the lock. He wasn't having a very successful haul and asked if he could help me up the locks. For a tiny lad he was brilliant at opening the gates, winding the paddles and running ahead to open gates for me. Again this lad was polite and showed a lot of interest in boat life. As I reached the top of the flight there were a couple of low pounds and a CRT guy helped me through one and I am glad he was there as more water need to be let down into the pound as I was stranded at the lock gate not able to push Olivia in. Leaving this flight I started looking for a likely mooring. There are not many places that were suitable. The Fens branch is said to be ok, but no one else was moored there, it was a bit too quiet and very weedy so I pushed on down towards the Delph locks. I tried pulling in at a couple of places but it was too shallow and I had been beaten to the only place that was ok by another boater. I ended up at the bottom of the locks with the bow tied to the lock landing and the stern pinned to the bank. There was no way I could face another eight locks having already done twenty locks and travelled for seven hours without a break. The next morning I nipped up the Delph locks and moored at Merry Hill.

Now Merry Hill was nothing like I imagined. I thought it would be buzzing like Gas St Basin but The Waterfront is a commercial centre and was dead as a dodo. Only the Wetherspoons and the Brewers Wharf showed any signs of life. There were no boats moored there either. The embankment above the shopping centre looks to be a good mooring and if you want food or shops Merry Hill has them aplenty. I also walked up to Brierley Hill High Street where there are more shops including lots of charity shops and a thriving market. I got a new looking pair of M&S black bootcut jeans from the hospice shop for £1.50 and had a jacket potato with tuna and mayo and a mug of tea in the market for £2.80. I know where my preference lies between the shiny shopping centre and the not at all shiny High Street.

This weekend I have been to Blisworth Canal Festival. The weather was just right for it and it was heaving with visitors. There were lots of stalls for both food and for gifts, clothing, etc. There were many trading boats, including Luke's. I particularly liked the sheep shearing demonstration and the other animals on show: sheep, goats, pigs, chickens, rabbits, parrots. Once again we finished with a musical session featuring several melodeons, guitars, ukes, a bodhran and some shakers :-)

Heading back into Birmingham now and then I will get the boat moored while I go to Edinburgh Festival for a week. Yay.

Worcester

I seem to be moving around very slowly this year but I am happy with that. This week I have moved three times, covered thirteen locks and found three friendly and helpful CRT guys, two were staff and one volunteer. I met the first when starting down a flight of six locks to be informed that the bottom pound was empty as paddles had been left up. The pound was about a mile stretch so it was a good couple of hours before it had enough water for us to cruise on. A hire boat had been left high and dry as it left the bottom lock and was stuck fast until the level had risen enough to refloat it. The unexpected break gave me a chance to sort out the anchor and anchor rode ready for the river next week. Dunhampstead and Tibberton are good mooring spots and there are several pubs in the area. I went to The Bridge where I had a decent enough pie, chips and peas. My next mooring was opposite Perdiswell Sports Club and it was a good spot. It was a bit of a trek into the city centre but it was a sunny spot and the natives were very friendly, stopping to chat as they walked their dogs or fetched their papers. This is where I met the second CRT man who gave me lots of information about the local area and the morning that I started out he helped with the gates on a couple of locks. In Worcester I spent a morning mooching around the museum/gallery; visited the cathedral and walked along the river to look at boats going through the river locks. It all seemed quite familiar as Sonia and I had passed through when we did the Severn Way walk a decade and a bit ago! And so I met the third CRT chap who looks after Diglis Basin's shenanigans. He told me everything I think I need to know about going on the river and he tells me he will be on duty next week when I go through, so that is very reassuring. Today I drove over to Upton Blues Festival for the day; it was only ten miles and would seem rude not to go. What a beautiful day it was too. Just right for the festival which has grown since I first went there, which I think was six years ago.

Collisions, sunken boats and days out

I started out from Birmingham on Monday 29th June and was pootling along nicely until I met a Birmingham trip boat on a bend. It didn't seem to be making the turn so I hugged the bank. It hooted but still did not start to turn. I realised that it was not going to make a turn before hitting me, I threw Olivia into neutral and then into reverse but too late, the biggest smack I have ever had from a boat. Several of the trip passengers were lifted inches off their seats. Once he was rectified and passing me by, me with a puzzled expression on my face, he says, "Sorry Love, I couldn't do anything, the engine cut out." He then added "I've just scratched some of your paint". I carried on as there was really nowhere to pull in. When eventually I did stop I found a blooming great dent in the bow and when I went downstairs, everything that was not tied down was piled on the floor including my oil lamp which luckily had not broken, although I had to put up with the smell of paraffin for a few days. I know we have a few scrapes on the boats but this was ridiculous. The next day as I approached Alvechurch there was a sunken boat (a nice looking vessel, it was too) with just enough room for a boat to squeeze between it and the offside bank. At least that put my dent into perspective :-).

The next day I had friends, Heather and Jim, come over to help me down the Tardebigge flight. We did 30 locks in just about three hours on what seems to have been the hottest day of the year so far. Good fortune had it that there is a pub at the bottom of the flight which served us ice cold drinks. Very nice and they went down a treat while we watched Heather Watson win her game.

The next day I went to visit Avoncroft Museum which is well worth a day of anybody's time. It seems an amazing idea to rescue condemned buildings of historic interest and reconstruct them on the museum site. I don't think that I have mentioned that I have had an oil leak that I've been keeping my eye on for a few days. Anyway it seemed to be getting worse so I arranged to have someone look at it and, for a change, it was fixed straightaway and did not break the bank. However, I now have an oily bilge to clear up when I can get the motivation.

On Saturday, a beautiful day - although fairly breezy - I popped over to the Stratford River Festival as Luke was trading there. It was busy busy busy, which is good as Luke made enough to keep him happy. A very good fireworks display but disappointing that only three boats entered the illuminated boats parade.

Farewell to Birmingham but I will be back...

I did enjoy the exhibition at the art gallery: Warhol and William Morris. What did they have in common? Well both had obsessions, one with Hollywood Stars and the other with medieval art and stories. Also both ran factories where their work could be produced for a mass market. The rest of the museum/gallery was interesting too. Later, in Centenary Square, a troupe of trampolinists gave us a comedic show. Other things that I have done this week: bought a ukelele for the boat, took a turn around St Chads catholic cathedral, bought a fridge magnet, visited the pen museum where I have never seen so many nibs all in one place (also ink wells and hand blotters),walked about eight miles to the University and back via the Barber Institute (what a fabulous place) and Winterbourne House (only £5ish to get in so worth a visit). It was an open day at the Uni so a very nice vibe with all the prospective students and their families milling around. I'd go there :-). I also went to the Last Night of the Summer Proms with all the flag waving and usual numbers. Free glass of Pymms was a bonus on a warm summer evening. Finally, yesterday I decided to visit the Thinktank, tag line, Birmingham's Science Museum. You enter on Level 2 and unless you have a child with you there is not much to keep you occupied and it was a disappointment that some of the interactive things i tried didn't seem to work. Perhaps I haven't got the same brain as a 21st century under 10. Anyway, the other levels are much more interesting and look at Birmingham's engineering past, its manufacturing background and at future research. The interactive displays on level 3 were fun including a robot thespian and a robot drummer and there was quite a lot on current research: nano technology, flight, medicine, etc. I also had a session in the planetarium which cost an extra £1 and was probably worth it. Not a patch on the London planetarium but I haven't been there for 30 years and I am positive that it costs a lot more than £1!! Anyway my 14 days in Brum is almost up so I must move on. .

Foxton Festival then back to Brum

I went over to Foxton festival last weekend as Luke's Record Deck was trading there and other family members and friends had said they were going along. The weather on Saturday was awful so I was glad I didn't arrive until about 3pm when it started to clear up. There were many stalls at the festival field itself as well as quite a few trading boats. My friend Kevin had a stall as he is now wood turning. He had some very nice designs and fine work. I met up with five family members and missed two others. I also met up with several friends. I must be almost local to Northamptonshire/Leicestershire now (after 36 years :-)) as I knew loads of people. Luke, Heather and I had a meal at the Black Horse in Foxton Village on Saturday night and very nice it was too. Huge portions and plenty of veg for a change. I stayed on Heather's boat and Sunday turned out to be a much better day weatherwise. Along with revisiting the festival, we also went to the museum which now has some good archive film material. I would like to see the museum improve its offering even more as it is quite expensive for a family to visit and really half an hour is the most time you could spend there.

I am now back in Birmingham where I am trying to visit some of the heritage properties. However, all the literature I had was out of date as Birmingham has a new system this season. Most of the properties need to be booked for a guided tour when you visit midweek and are now open 11 until 3pm rather than my publications 12 until 4pm. So I didn't visit Soho House or Aston Hall but did walk 6 and a half miles (pleased with that) and had a nice break in the gothic cemetary in the jewellery quarter. Last night I went to the open mic at the Fiddle and Bone. All the players/singers were excellent and we also had a poetry performance. It was a shame that there were so very few in the audience. I believe that this is a new venture so I hope word will spread and more people will go along and join in. Today I am staying in the city to visit the art gallery and maybe St Chad's and to use the wifi at the library (which is fab).

Birmingham

I quite enjoyed the Fazeley and wondered why so few boats moor along there. There are a couple of nice spots giving a country sojourn before reaching the metropolis. I ended up at Cuckoo Wharf where I was joined by Heather who had come along to help with the next 24 locks. A knock on the door next morning was from Bo who, with his wife Gina, I had met two years ago when we were doing the Huddersfield Narrow canal. It was great to catch up with you both and perhaps we might have a longer chat when we inevitably meet up as we are doing a reverse loop to each other. After Bo and Gina left, Jim arrived with windlass to also help with the locks. What a team! I hardly had to get off the boat (as Heather keeps reminding me :-)) and they got a good method going of setting the next lock so I just had to cruise on in. We did the 24 locks and 3 miles in three and a quarter hours. I think that is pretty good. I am having a great time in Birmingham. I have been up to the top of the library and had a nice sit in their roof garden, visited the National Trust's Back to Back houses, been to the gorgeous Everyman cinema to see London Road, called into the cathedral (which is undergoing a refurb so is currently full of scaffolding) where I had a treat as the boys'and mens' choir was rehearsing. Lots more to see and do so will get back to report more later.

Onto the Birmingham and Fazeley

I returned to Olivia after a short break and made the return journey down the Ashby. I called in at Bosworth Visitor Centre last Saturday as they were staging a version of Richard III. I was expecting crowds to be there but the audience only numbered about thirty. It was that very cold and windy day so I felt for the actors. The rest of my cruise, that is, between Marston Junction and Fazeley Junction, I have done many times. The weather was mostly good (although the mornings were a bit chilly). I lost my favourite windlass in one of the Atherstone locks but as it was the first one I have lost in ten years of cruising I don't suppose that is too bad. Now that I am well on the way to Birmingham I wondered why so few boats seem to use the Fazeley. Certainly there are very few boats moored up even though the Kingsbury Water Park offers many recreational facilities. I know the M42 accompanies much of the canal but that sound soon filters out. Hopefully this week I will be out and about around Birmingham so should have more to report then.

Up the Ashby

I seem to be making a slow start to the main cruising season. There have been two main reasons for this. One is that I was invited to play the bass with our local U3a live music group - that's what they call it - I call it a band and our performance was a gig ;-). The usual bassist was going to be away on the date of the gig and before I could even engage brain and think about the fact that I had not played for seven or eight years, my mouth accepted the invitation. I had four practices and learnt eight numbers so most spare moments were taken up learning the songs. I thoroughly enjoyed playing and I must say that we sounded pretty good. We also played four ukelele tunes with the uke group, too.

The second event that I was awaiting was the arrival of my second granddaughter. I was on call for minding the three year old while it was all happening. She decided to be nine days late and to put her Mum through a thirty four hour labour. She also decided that it would be fun if she broke the waters at 1am so Nanna had to drive down to London at that point, arriving at 3am!! It was a joy to look after Hollie and I was able to have lots of cuddles with the new baby, later named Alice.

The day after returning from London I was off cruising the Ashby. It is so quiet here with few boat movements. It is beautiful countryside with only Hinckley nodding towards any sort of urban living. I have found a couple of farm shops selling tasty delights (and not that expensive). I did come up the Ashby in 2012 but didn't go right to the terminus as it was the year that it rained and rained (Queen's Jubilee) and I gave up soon after Sutton Wharf. There is a newish marina at Market Bosworth and some delightful long term moorings at Shackerstone. The visitor moorings weren't too bad either. It's worth a look in the Ashby Canal Society shop at the terminus. It has a vast array of bric a brac, books and so forth. There is a fantastic bus that goes through Snarestone from where you can go to Ashby de la Zouch, Atherstone or Nuneaton. It goes through some wonderful villages and calls at Twycross Zoo. I am having a couple of days off while the weather is so wet and windy but the forecast from Wednesday onwards is looking good so, hopefully, I will fit in some nice walks before moving on to Birmingham and then Worcester.

Springtime

I have had a fantastic week mooching about on the Leicester Arm between Watford Locks and Foxton Locks. Foxton was really busy over Easter with some trade stalls and trading boats in situ. I should think they did a good trade after the "not so" Good Friday weather. I did lots of walking when not cruising including 10 miles on Tuesday! Olivia is behaving herself and so far the only niggle has been a leaky joint in the domestic water system which I think I have fixed with the help of ptfe tape. The poor old girl could do with a bit of preventive maintenance to the bodywork but I should be able to work on that throughout the summer. Today I went to meet the Friends of the River Nene who were having a barbecue at their newly procured mooring in Islip. We were lucky with the weather as it rained until about 10am but stayed dry (if a little breezy) for the rest of the day. They are a nice bunch of boating enthusiasts who are making a difference for the river and its facilities.

More adventures on the tidal Thames

Happy New Year to everyone. I was lucky enough to be invited to help crew on Bleasdale last week. I met up with St Pancras Cruising Club for the briefing and discovered that only four boats were travelling this time (unlike the seventeen that went out last summer). The purpose of the journey was to attend the boat show at ExCel. We started out shortly after 9am in pouring rain. Nine locks and three hours later we were soaked to the skin arriving at Limehouse. We had no time to stop as we were booked through the Three Mills and City Mills locks so had to press on. It stopped raining and the skipper had time to change her socks :-). The Thames was quite tame and although I didn't do much helming on this journey I did take her through the Thames Barrier and past the Woolwich Ferry. We moored close to the Emirates Airline (cable car) North side of the river. There were NO other boats in the dock for the boat show which is such a shame.

The Boat show doesn't have much for narrowboats but I enjoyed looking around the £1.6 million Sunseeker gin palace. I also had a cap made with the name of my boat on it! We all had a good time, staying for four nights and enjoying looking around an area I knew very little about. We had a tour of SS Robin, a 350 ton 1890 steam coaster, which is being restored at the Royal Docks and will, hopefully, be based there permanently when completed. It is the oldest remaining steamship in its class. There was another boat moored close by the ExCel and that was the Yacht Hotel. We went for a drink on board and it was reasonably priced. We also had a look at a typical room on board and it was very nice, much better than staying at an ibis or travelodge :-).

I met up with family on the Sunday for a meal at Covent Garden after which some of us went to Canary Wharf to have a look at the Winter Lights. These were installations of various light artefacts by artists. I liked the infinity pool and the heat bench while Hollie liked the pink fog and the light bench. It was very cold though so we didn't hang around for too long.

On Monday the wind was gusting and we weren't sure whether we would be allowed to transit the river. However, by 1.30pm we were given the okay and set off around 2pm. The wind seemed to drop miraculously as we reached the Thames and, as we were with the tide, it didn't take long to reach Bow Creek. All went smoothly and we tied up at Limehouse at 5pm and soon went searching for refreshment at The Grapes (amazing fish and chips, too).