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).

Ups and downs but still afloat

Following the survey Olivia was booked in for the welding work. When I picked her up I was a bit disappointed that the engine room was left dirty (more than her usual state) and I noticed there was more water in the bilge than usual. After emptying the bilge I moved her on a few miles and left her for a week. On my return I discovered that the bilge was full again and it was then that I noticed that the stern gear was leaking. So this week Rick came over with various tools, tightened the stern gear and repositioned the greaser tube that had split so that grease was not going where it should have been. It's all looking a lot happier now. Alongside this there was also a leak from the stove chimney/flue inside the boat. Copious amounts of sealant have improved that situation. I was lucky over the past few years as Olivia hasn't needed much work so I think all these problems have just been maintenance catching up with me. Hopefully we will be cruising happily throughout 2015.

Surveyed and blacked

I had to get Olivia hauled out of the water for a hull survey to fulfil the requirements for the insurance company (as Olivia is now 30 years old). She wasn't in bad nick but I will have to get someone to look at the weedhatch and do a spot of welding. I also need to attend to the washbasin waste outlets where they exit through the hull. While she was out of the water I had her blacked and very smart she looks now. I have booked her in for a service and then she'll be all set for facing up to winter.