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......