Almost back!

It was warm, cloudy and humid when we started out today. The moisture in the air held the smells of the countryside, and it was lovely - grass and leaves, hedgerow flowers, some wood-smoke from somewhere. Autumn's colours were beginning to take hold of the trees. It was a sensual morning.

We carried on down the Oxford Canal. The approach to Stretton Stop was lined on both sides by boats, the cutting beyond it bordered with ancient trees that formed a canopy over the water.

Beyond that, open fields, sheep and cows by the hundred, geese by the gang, a huge field of Christmas trees numbered in thousands.

We noted yet again today the huge increase in the number of women at the helm of their boats. Yet still we hear the old, sexist comments like the one to me; a man on a bridge, watching Grace drive Kantara into a lock below him who called out to me, "Bloody hell! Do you trust her to drive that?" To which I answered, "Why would I not?" His reply doesn't merit the space here.

Or the man at a lock telling me, "You shouldn't be doing that! You're the skipper."

"No," I said, "I should be doing this, and my wife's the skipper - as she should be!" He said nothing, but gave me a pitying look. The progeny of misogyny. 

Newbold next. The Quarry Pits, sadly hidden from view from the canal, then the 250-yard Tunnel, still without the coloured lights it had four years ago.

And on to Rugby, a 20-minute drive from the marina, but two days by boat on the winding canal.

After lunch at the bottom of Hillmorton Locks, I was greeted by vollie Maurice Farndon, "The Man with the Golden Windlass".

"Ahh," he cried, offering me his hand, "the man with his feet under water! Nice to see you again!"

I can imagine Marice is like that with all of his regulars. He sets the standard for volunteer lock-keeper service. That he liked my book makes him even more special!

Up we went, then, through the three locks - the busiest locks on the canal system, Marice tells me -  and on to Braunston, 7 miles further on.

Arriving there, we were surprised and dismayed to find the visitor moorings full, breasted two or three deep in places. There must have been a weekend event here. Roy and Lee were working on a boat moored next to Roy's' NB Wells Fargo, and Roy invited us to moor abreast it. We'd overshot by then, could have reversed, but carried on and nearly regretted having done so. All of the mooring spaces were occupied from the junction bridge to Butcher's Bridge, almost a mile. We passed Simon, fixing something on the Gongoozlers' Rest. Then we came to the very last boat length before Butcher's - and it was empty, and we took it gladly.

If we get up early tomorrow, we should be back at the marina by the end of the day.

Back onto the Trent & Mersey

Friday morning saw us heading into Lymm, with stops for water and Elsan on the way. We had to wait a while for water. Another boat had beaten us to it, and the flow from the tap wasn't best. The crew of the other boat had found a lay-by café van at the side of the nearby main road, and were filling their faces with the hugest breakfast baps I'd ever seen. I walked up behind one of them, and asked him how long he thought they'd be, unaware of the fact that he was eating. When he turned around, he simply couldn't speak because of the bap.

“It's OK,” I said, “we're in no hurry.”

We moored in Lymm, not intending to be long. We needed a few things from Sainsbury's there, and would look for some DVDs in the charity shops. TV at the moment seems to be all Olympics, Proms and repeats. 

The shopping took us longer than we'd anticipated, so we had lunch at the San Fairy Ann narrowboat café before continuing our journey.

Most excellent ham, cheese and tomato toasted sandwiches, chased by first-class cappuccino and tea. Fare which matches easily that served at Braunston's Gongoozlers' Rest.

It was very windy all day long, becoming particularly gusty mid to late afternoon. So we got blown down past Grappenhall and Thelwell, Stockton Heath, Moore and Preston Brook. There were far more boats about today, the GRP cruisers finding the wind rather hard going. Grace was now enjoying this rather more varied and interesting stretch of the Bridgewater Canal, having largely disliked it before.

Surely, moored boats CAN'T slow down!

At Preston Brook Tunnel, we joined NB On Reflection whom we'd met back at Plank Lane. They were waiting to go through, and we joined the queue behind them. The skipper's an interesting guy, having cruised a lot of the UK system, including the Ribble Link and Lancaster Canal - which I think we might well travel, now he's put our mind at rest about the rather scary-looking River Ribble! He and his wife live in an old lock-keeper's cottage that they bought at auction. It needed a lot of work doing to it, but they love it.

We had half an hour to wait for our allotted time for passage through the tunnel. Two boats emerged from the opposite direction in the last ten minutes, then through we went.

There's a shallow stop-lock at the other end that's a bit of a mystery. It's wider than a single lock, but too narrow for two boats to go in together. Very odd!

At this point, we were back on the Trent and Mersey Canal, leaving the Bridgewater behind. We hadn't been chased by Peelers, or stopped and fined. Grace breathed a sigh of relief.

After a search for good mooring at the end of the day, and after a couple of failures where the bank was too rocky or the water too shallow, we tied up in Dutton, between bridges 212 and 211.

Cruise to Warwick with Christine and Mike - return journey

Friday, 20th September - day 6 We had seen a demonstration of the use of crossbows and longbows (and other assorted medieval weapons) at the castle on Thursday, and the man responsible - a man of no mean skill with the bows, and a good knowledge of history) spoke of nearby St Mary's Church as being "the finest in Europe". While I took this to be hyperbole founded in his ignorance of all of the churches across so many lands, we all thought that it sounded worth a visit, so we set out back to the town to do some sightseeing.

Much to our disappointment, we found St Mary's closed for three days for the filming of a couple of episodes of "Songs of Praise". The best we got was a look down the nave through a glass wall just inside the west door. Grace and I will have to visit by car some time.

Returning to Kantara, we had lunch, then made our way the few miles to Bugbrooke Junction with the Salford Arm, where we winded and started our return journey to Yelvertoft.

We ended our day in the lovely rural setting of Bull Lane Bridge, no. 34.

On Saturday, we got off to a late start, stopping soon at Fosse Wharf for services. There we met an Anglo-Welsh hire boat which had broken down - overheated, with much water in the bilges. How very annoying for them. They can't have been out for more than two days.

We had an early lunch above Fosee Top Lock. The weather was warm and sunny as we climbed Bascote Locks, and we were hot and sticky when we moored past Bascote Bridge, no. 27.

An hotel boat

Sunday was hot and sunny from the start. We moved on to Little Itchington where the other three went to the local Co-Op for supplies, and I rested a back which was threatening to be a pain. The canal was really busy, and everyone was enjoying the improved weather. We had lunch at that spot, then ascended Calcutt Locks on far better weather than that in which we had gone down some days earlier. We went singly again. The weight of traffic was headed the other way from us.

Turning left at Napton Junction into that beautiful, wide stretch of the GU, we went to bridge 103, where we moored for the night.

Monday, 23rd - my 62nd birthday! The sky was full of white cloud, but the air was still, and it wasn't at all cold. Mike spent the day at the tiller under the watchful eye of Grace. He took us on to Braunston, then left onto the Oxford Canal. We had time to spare, so decided to do a bit of a detour here, before getting back to Yelvertoft. It was lovely to be on the Oxford again. It really is a beautiful canal at this point. 

We stopped for lunch at bridge 81, west of Barby, then moved on to the winding at Torry's Bridge, where we turned and returned to bridge 81 for overnight mooring.

We felt very sorry for a young man who stopped running to ask us if we knew exactly where we were. He was part of the crew of a hire boat waiting for him down in Braunston. They had left a windlass at the top of Napton Locks, and he was going back, hopefully to retrieve it. Unfortunately, we had to tell him that he had just run three miles up the wrong canal!

On Tuesday morning, we headed back to Braunston, the weather mild but overcast. We stopped to take on water, then moved on to moor outside Braunston Marina before having lunch at The Gongoozlers' Rest - the best bacon, cheese and mushroom toasties imaginable!

On to the Braunston Flight now, singly again, with Christine and me locking in increasingly hot and weather. Waiting for the bottom lock to fill - very slowly - I nipped in to the Boat Shop, jokingly to suggest to the proprietor that he had done something to the lock to slow it down, thus allowing boaters more time to buy more goods from his shop. Not recognising the humour, he assured me that he'd done no such thing, and that the lock had got slower over the years without any help!

We moored just a few hundred yards short of Norton Junction. It was a sunny, warm evening.

Wednesday started mistily, giving the canal an air of mystery.

With time on our hands now, Grace navigated slowly to the Junction and turned left onto the Leicester Line. The locks were ready for us to ascend. We stopped at the top for services, then made our way very slowly to Crick Tunnel. We moored past bridge 11. Later that evening, Christine and Mike took us for an excellent meal at The Moorings.

On Thursday, we left Crick fairly late, travelling the last few miles to Yelvertoft in twice the time it would normally take. We arrived at the marina in something of a strong breeze, but Grace took her time and backed Kantara into her berth with no problem. 60 miles and 76 locks. Christine and Mike left to return to Torquay within the hour. We'd had a really good time together. Our thanks to both of them for sharing it with us. See you next year, guys!

What's happening?

Well, there's not a lot to report since the last post. On Easter Day, we went back to St Albans to spend the day with the kids, and with our niece Kathryn, her son Jake, and boyfriend Alistair. Naomi cooked a wonderful meal for us all, and we enjoyed a really good day together. We've not seen Kathryn for some years, so there was much catching up to be done. Steve was recently back from a snowboarding holiday with friends in the French Alps, and he had a lot to relate. Then there was Jess with Said the Maiden news, and Naomi with her foodie and growing interests. Lots of chat and laughter!

Back on Kantara, the weather's been the biggest issue, as it has around the entire nation. We've had snow, bright sun and blue skies, but always a strong, biting cold wind, with frost most nights and frozen marina pound in the mornings. We're discovering how expensive it can be to keep warm in these conditions. We've used far more gas than ever before in the same amount of time. Likewise, diesel for the bubble stove, and electricity. We're using the bubble stove during the day, and the gas boiler set low overnight. A small electric fan heater raises the temperature in the bedroom quickly when needed.

We've been able to do a few jobs around the boat, but most of the remaining jobs on our list require better weather that we have at the moment. We went to Braunston today, to visit AJ Canopies, a company which specialises in making and repairing canopies of various kinds. Our cratch cover needs some minor repair, and we want to have fasteners fitted along the bottom edges so that it can be clipped to the hull, making it sturdier in strong winds and under the weight of snow. The office was unexpectedly closed, so we'll have to go back next week.

Over the past year or so, we've passed on a number of occasions a narrowboat cafe, The Gongoozler's Rest, which is permanently moored just outside Braunston Marina. Today, we went in for lunch, and were pleasantly surprised. Seating a maximum of just 14 people, it offers a good menu of breakfast and lunch food, and we were impressed with the size and quality of the toasted sandwiches we had. It's been busy each toime we've passed, and even at this time of year, and in this weather, there were ten of us eating there this afternoon. I'm sure we'll be back sometime.

Last week, we went to Rugby Cineworld to see "Trance", a strange but entertaining film with a twist or two - an afternoon well spent.

An art auctioneer who has become mixed up with a group of criminals partners with a hypnotherapist in order to recover a lost painting.

We also bought a new mattress for our bed. After a year of use, we finally decided that the one which came with the boat is really too hard.

It has to be said, we're getting restless. Having done the couple of days cruising to and from Debdale, we have a taste for more cruising, but the weather really needs to be more clement before it'll be enjoyable. Roll on real Spring!