In the end we went much further than we originally planned to.

(Boat Flamingo - posted by Cath)

Still cold enough here to need a coat on.

We agreed that we needed to get to Barlaston, to be at least on schedule. To go further would make it a long day, as there are places that we didn't want to spend a night. We either had to stop at Barlaston, or we had to keep going to get to Etruria in Stoke-on-Trent. We had a plan for Alan to do an oil change at Barlaston.

 

Unusually David is at the tiller here as we lock through Stone.

The Trent and Mersey canal north of Weston winds through fairly unpopulated countryside with locks well spaced out. The weather was fine, and we made good progress to Stone. At Star Lock, I walked a short distance to the Oatcakes and Milkshakes restaurant, and bought 12 fresh oatcakes.

 

At Meaford Alan worked the locks and Cath steered.

There were no problems working up through Stone, and we changed steerers afterwards - Alan is keen to do more lock working.

 

Flamingo was once a trip boat at Trentham - could this be where its base was?

The oatcakes were heated in a frying pan, with a bit of cheese - delicious. We saved half for tomorrow's lunch.

 

This still makes us chuckle.

We arrived at Barlaston at 2:45, and promptly decided that we would rather keep going - even though we knew that it was at least another 3 hours to Etruria.












 

Not all of the flight up to Etruria is picturesque!

In fact, we arrived on the dot of 6 pm - and decided that we didn't want to stop at Etruria either. It looked like all the long moorings outside the museum had been taken - we might have been able to fit in one, but it wasn't clear without actually spending ages taking Flamingo into the arm. So we set off again for Westport Lake arriving at 7:25.





 

The camera dial was mistakenly moved to one of the special effects........

 

....... but it doesn't seem that inappropriate for these subjects.

It's well worth a longer than usual day to moor up next to this.

The lake is beautiful, so we walked the dogs as the sun was setting, then had dinner, and collapsed into bed. A long day, but we have turned our half a day behind schedule into now being a day in hand.






Weston upon Trent to Westport Lake, Stoke on Trent
Miles 18.2, Locks: 16
Total Miles 99.9, Total Locks: 53

Alan shares his birthday meal with an abundance of dogs.

(Boat Flamingo - posted by Cath)

Richard brought us a couple of bags of coal, and a gas cylinder at about 8:30, as we were just finishing breakfast, so we set off towards Great Haywood fairly early, taking advantage of the locks that the Chamberlains had just come down through.

Turning from the Coventry to the Tent and Mersey at Fradley

The weather has picked up a bit from last week, but it's still a little cold. We haven't lit the stove, although quite a few boats have done. It was a day of mostly steering through the Trent Valley - flat meadowlands dotted with alder and willow trees, with dark forested hills in the distance. And not a lot of locks. The canal is winding and shallow - we are often going aground many feet from the bank, while the juvenile Trent winds alongside the canal for many miles.

At Rugeley we found a mooring for Flamingo, and Alan and I went to top up on a few supplies before we ate a quick lunch and headed off north again.

We are trying hard to share steering and locking duties.

At Great Haywood Lock an older woman boater asked 'Is this the Flamingo that was a trip boat at Trentham Lock?' Yes, it is. She then told us that she had known the boat well, and that the owners of it seemed to have quite a thriving business running trips during the 70s and 80s. She told us the names of two people who had owned the boat, but these aren't names that are known to us. Was Flamingo owned by more people during those two decades than we originally thought? Time for some investigations perhaps?

At Hoo Mill Lock we decided that, as it was Alan's birthday, we wanted to eat at the pub, so to make things easier I decided to go for my 'run' along the towpath, so that I could shower, and we'd be ready to go to the pub in Weston earlier.

We are back to regular locks, after many miles with very few.

I started the NHS 'Couch to 5K' programme' last week, but 'running' today was much harder than those I did last week. It was warmer, and the towpath was uneven and slippery - not really enjoyable. I used to run years ago, but under instruction from my doctor I'm being careful and getting back into running slowly - hence following the NHS podcasts.

We have worried about finding moorings for a 71' 8" boat, having found it hard enough on trips this way with a 50' leisure boat in the past, but so far we have been lucky, and we found a good mooring in Weston, with the boat well in to the side, and no worry about the dogs having to teeter on a plank to get to the bank. I rang the pub, 'Do you take dogs?' Yes, they did. So we set off.

"We are ringing up to check it is OK to bring dogs to the pub......" (!)

The pub was noisy, and the food a bit limited for vegetarians (I had forgotten that is was Sunday, and I'd read the normal menu on-line), but it was OK. What we hadn't expected is just how many dogs there would be in the pub. More and more dogs came into the pub with their owners so that in the end there was a melee of wagging tails and tangled leads. Trying to get them all to sit at the same time for a photo was impossible, they were so happy to be in a proper dog pack.

We spent time discussing where we need to be tomorrow night, and that we will have to have an early start and a long day to get through Harecastle tunnel on Tuesday. With planning stops you need to be aware that certain places are not the most salubrious to stop overnight, so because we didn't want to be in the vicinity of Trentham Lock overnight, we'll be having a short day tomorrow, then a long day on Tuesday.

Fradley to Weston
Miles 15.5, Locks:7
Total Miles 81.7, Total Locks:37

Washing day

(Boat Flamingo - posted by Cath)

We got going rather later than hoped this morning, then moored up a couple of miles later, shortly after Glascote Locks. I wanted to walk to a shopping centre in Tamworth to buy a few things that I thought we needed. 

Between Glascote and our stop at Fazeley Junction to go shopping.

As Alan and I set off to walk, I looked at the sky and decided to take my waterproof coat. I was surprised to find out how heavy it was, so looked in the pocket to see what I had managed to leave in there. What I found was a puddle. In the pocket. Enough water that I could go and pour it out onto the towpath. I was seriously impressed. The water had got there nearly a day earlier, and was still inside the pocket. I bought the coat in an end of season sale a year or so back, but I'll be on the lookout for other Brasher coats in future if even the pockets will hold a puddle overnight.

Then up to Ventura shopping centre, where we bought some more waterproof gloves, another knee brace for my dodgy knee (injured in a boating accident three or four years ago - the physio has said nothing more can be done for it, but I was encouraged to keep dancing, and run if possible). Having bought various things it was a toss-up between going back to the boat and trying to get ahead of schedule, or a coffee in Costa.

I'm on holiday, so the coffee won.

After lunch I started to sort out the laundry. We've only been on the trip since Tuesday, but if we let washing build up the problem is how to get it all dry - particularly in wet weather, so I took advantage of a longish lock-less stretch of canal to do the washing.

Laundry facilities on Flamingo

When we bought Flamingo there was a small automatic washing machine on board, but at the time Flamingo was connected permanently to the mains. The space for the automatic washing machine now has a calorifier (hot water tank) and a cupboard, and we have a cheap plastic twin-tub to do the washing. We had a smaller version of this on our old boat, Chalice, and despite being known by us as the 'Fisher-Price washing machine' it cleaned the clothes far better than our expensive automatic washing machine at home. The 'toy' washing machine fits neatly onto the 'seat' at the end of the small bath. It is a bit of a faff to do the washing, transferring wet clothing from washing to spinning, but we can cope with that when we don't need someone to do the locks. I felt very virtuous when I had finished and took Alan a cup of tea and took over steering for a few miles.

Lots of historic boats passed, but only Starling & Ethel caught the camera

As we approached Fradley we had a debate about where we might be able to moor. We've never been able to moor Flamingo on the approach to the junction, as all of the visitors' moorings have been full. However, this time there were only about four boats there in total - and we got the prime mooring spot, as near to the junction as possible. We filled up the water tank after the washing, ate dinner, and then took the dogs for a walk up to Shadehouse Lock, where we found our friends Richard and Ruth, who operate the fuel boats Mountbatten and Jellicoe. Nice to see them, and we arranged for some coal and gas in the morning.

Tomorrow we have to be at least as far as Great Haywood Junction, but we'll try to get a few more miles done to get a bit of contingency time. 

Alvecote to Fradley Junction
Miles 14.7, Locks: 2
Total Miles 66.2, Total Locks: 30

Variable Weather - Again

(Boat Flamingo - posted by Cath)

Top end of Atherstone flight.

We spent the night near Springwood Haven, a nice place to moor, good walks for the dogs, and quiet. We also set off a little later than planned this morning. It was dry but cloudy. The trees are green, but the hawthorn is laden with heavy blossom, as if a sudden snowfall has happened overnight.

 

Alan sets of to set up the next lock, ("Lock wheeling" as it is known)

We got to the Atherstone flight around 10:30. There were several 'vollies' (volunteer lockkeepers) working.

Alan and I have an agreement. We always used to swap over every 5 or 6 locks, but Alan broke his pelvis some years back, and since then I have done more of the lock working, and he has done more of the steering. We've now agreed that we both need the exercise, so we'll swap regularly - this is good for me too, so that I get more practice steering in flights of locks.

The dogs are doing what they are told they must do!

Alan did the first five locks in the flight, then we tied up, and went shopping. Atherstone looks interesting, but the shops actually seem to have no real content - large numbers of charity shops, and little else. We have too much clutter in the house already. We bought milk and a few other things in the Co-op, then back to the boat for lunch before I took over steering.

Steadily onwards - once a lock is done, dogs can run free.

The six locks that I steered were done in sunshine, so I thought that I was onto a winner volunteering to steer until Polesworth. I couldn't have been further from the truth. We spoke to friends moored a couple of hundred metres from the bottom of the flight, who were sitting in the sun - then as we headed off again the heavens opened. It was miserable.

 

Getting towards bottom of Atherstone flight

Rain dripped down my waterproof coat, down my waterproof trousers, and into my not-waterproof trainers. It coursed down the sleeves of my waterproof coat, and down inside the wrists of my waterproof gloves. The bottom of the canal is far too near the top, and the boat was dragging the bottom making steering hard work.

 

Odin pauses  for a breather - 2 locks still to do.

Then, just as we got to Polesworth, and Alan took over, the rain stopped. (Before you think Alan got away Scot Free, Alan wishes to point out we only currently have one pair of gloves, so he had to try to get his somewhat larger hands into the pair Cath handed to him soaking wet.)

 

Moored directly outside the "Samuel Barlow" at Alvecote.

Our plan was always to stop at Alvecote - there is a good pub there, with excellent food, and what is even better, somewhere for Odin the Dogge to swim in the woodlands.

I got changed into running kit - I'm trying to start running again, after a fifteen year break, now that I am finally, officially 'old'. I just couldn't face the idea that I wouldn't run again. So I've started the 'Couch to 5 K' programme - week one. I set off into the woodlands near Alvecote, and Alan and David took the dogs for a walk (and for Odin, a swim in the woodland lake). 

After a shower we headed off to the pub - we are moored about 10 metres away, so not difficult. A good meal, good wine, beer, etc.

Springwood Haven to Alvecote
Miles 10.3, Locks: 11
Total Miles 51.5, Total Locks: 28

Back on Track

(Boat Flamingo - posted by Alan)

About to pass through the swing bridge at Stretton

It was another damp day - not intolerably so, but one where we decided to rotate steerers pretty regularly to stop anybody standing out and getting cold and wet for too long.

Not a lot to report really, other than that we have made good progress, and after losing the majority of our first day we are now back on track, being roughly where the plans say we should be at the end of day three.

Entering our only lock of the day at Hawkesbury

I had my best possible chance yet of trying for a "round in one" 180 degree turn at Hawkesbury Junction - there were no other boats about to get in my way in any manner whatsover. However I still failed to get round by some margin. My only excuse is that Flamingo handles very sluggishly compared to an empty unconverted boat. I'm far from convinced I will ever achieve it with Flamingo, but no doubt some more expert than I am probably could.

Starting to make the 180 degree turn.

There has been a moment of humour during the day. I was taking a bath while Cath was at the tiller, and I became aware that we had stopped and pulled in to the side, and that Cath and David were examining the front of the boat.  Apparently some people walking the tow-path had told Cath there was a hole on the bow. Indeed there was - a neat square hole that is one of the vents for the gas cylinders located in the front locker. It's meant to be there of course!

I'd like to pretend it came around in one - it didn't unfortunately.

Sorry - no pictures of other historic boats today.  There were some, but I had left my camera inside in the dry. I certainly spotted "Beaulieu" on its home mooring, and fuel boat "Auriga" on the move - I'm always grateful to the coal boats for helping to "dredge" the channel for us!

Newbold to Springwood Haven
Miles 19.1, Locks: 1
Total Miles 41.2, Total Locks:17

A much better day - but damp!

(Boat Flamingo - posted by Alan)

Very old hire cruiser I used to work with - note gravity water tank on roof!

A fairly straightforward day, which somehow felt longer than the actual engine hours we recorded.  Possibly this was because it has rained on and off for most of the day, at times making being the steerer rather less attractive than it would have been on a decent day.

Hillmorton

The CRT volunteer unlocked the offending padlocks from yesterday a bit earlier than the published time, so we got going as soon as boats started moving.  It is unusual to make a passage of Braunston tunnel in May and to not share it with any other boats, but we did.  There was a very clear view right through the empty tunnel from the moment we entered it.  We also managed to dispatch Braunston Locks a fair bit faster than tends to be the case - usually "sheer weight of traffic" hinders things a lot, but today it was pretty good.

Middle locks at Hillmorton

We stopped briefly for a chandlers in Braunston before pressing on to Hillmorton locks, with Cath and me taking turns to get wet.  There were no delays at Hillmorton either, other than several paddles taped out of use.  We made a quick stop to replenish water, but I must remember the taps are slow, and try  to avoid Hillmorton as a water stop in future.

Next stop was for the supermarket at Rugby.  There were absolutely no tow-path moorings available, (probably for a 40 foot boat, let alone our 72 foot example), but unusually the offside visitor moorings were all empty, so we could use those.

It's a long old thing!

We did consider pressing on to somewhere like All Oaks Wood in a bid to catch up some of the time we lost yesterday, but it continued to drizzle, so when we spotted a suitable full length mooring at Newbold, we decided to stop here.  The catching up will have to wait for another day.










Once again we spotted quite a few "historics", including the lovely Thomas Clayton tar boat "Spey", only rarely spotted this far south.

Spey - well preserved wooden narrow boats are now quite a rarity.

Vesta - the tug I'd love to own if I didn't own Sickle.

Zodiac - A "Middle Northwich" like Sickle, but full length.

Greenlaw

Badsey and Angel

Buckby Lock 8 to Newbold
Miles 16.3, Locks:11
Total Miles 22.1, Total Locks:16

A Poor Start To The Planned Big Trip

(Boat Flamingo - posted by Alan)

We should have been away from our home mooring early, and on a fairly aggressive schedule. We are supposed to be going to the Historic Narrow Boat Club gathering at Hebden Bridge on the Rochdale Canal in around two and a half weeks time. This is a big trip, about 183 miles and 173 locks in one direction alone, and we are on a mission to get to Manchester, because passage over the Rochdale Canal requires travelling in convoys which the HNBC have agreed with the Canal and River Trust to try to work around the very limited water resources on the Rochdale.

Buckby flight

However we are not doing very well so far! When we came to light the gas fridge before moving off the moorings this morning, it completely refused to stay alight. No amount of coaxing would keep it alight, and the diagnosis based on a few internet searches and judicious use of a multimeter seemed to be a failed thermocouple - a fairly specialist item. "Universal" thermocouples can be bought at Screwfix or Toolstation, but they are not "universal" enough, as the one in the fridge is 140cm long, and "universal" ones are about 50cm shorter. A fairly local camping outlet could identify the part, but didn't have it in stock. Eventually I decided to drive there anyway, and see if we could improvise. I managed to buy something very similar, but branded Thetford rather than Dometic, which is what our fridge is. Could it be made to work? The short answer was "yes, eventually", but by now it was the afternoon.

About as far as CRT allowed us to go today.

We still hoped we might make it to Braunston, but that was not to be. Water saving measures at Buckby locks mean there are overnight stoppages from 5:00 pm to 9:00 am.  The last passage into the affected locks is supposed to be at 4:00 pm, but a volunteer keeper had chained one up long before this time. Eventually after a long wait we were allowed through that one, but not the one locked up after that, so our attempts to regain time ground to a halt. We are pretty miffed, because had the locks not been locked up before 4:00pm we would definitely have cleared them by 5:00 pm, and carried on to Braunston.

Anyway today was Cath's birthday, so we walked up the rest of the flight for a meal at the New Inn. In its usual style I would class it as pleasant enough, but certainly not exceptional. I would also like the New Inn far better if they did not now have a "no dogs" policy - it used to allow dogs in to certain areas, and is frankly large enough that they still could, and still have adequate "dog free" space.

Tomorrow we will need to consider the implications of not having even managed half a day's boating today, when we certainly needed to put in a full one.

However, winding back a bit, the short stretch of canal we travelled today usually has some fairly rich pickings for historic boat enthusiasts.

Here is a selection of most, (but not all), of those we saw, from the very shiny, to the very derelict.....

The unloved pair Bainton and "Berkhamsted" (actually believed to be the Ayr)

Until very recently another unloved boat - the Tadworth

Southern Cross & Cedar

Owl & Empress

Ian - a wooden boat

Mary

Seaford - like Flamingo a converted "Large Northwich".

William

Butty Bakewell, now paired with a modern boat.

High House Wharf to Buckby Lock 8
Miles 5.8, Locks: 5
Total Miles 5.8, Total Locks: 5