The visitors

Today in Braunston we had a lovely visit from some family friends. Leigh and I were given a wonderful gift by Fran which will keep the boat illuminated by candle-light and gently sway with the movements onboard.


After some exciting duck and swan feeding, a bit of noise making, collecting and preparing of plums to eat, some delicious banana-cake and talk of walking and writing it was time to think about moving on. We've got four miles to go to get to Norton Junction and then we are back on track to London. Let's start the engine!

Rugby to Braunston

We decided to wait until the festival at Braunston was over, so we stayed put at our Rugby mooring.


The past few days it has been rainy with a glimmer of sun and then plenty more rain.


Finding things to do, I got the singer out...


and completed some curtains to hang over the entrance to the utility room, saving space that a door takes up and it looks pretty! I also made some to hang around a unit in the lounge to tidy away some boxes of bits and records. I used some retro (well 70's) material from a second hand shop. They are vibrant and suited to the age of the boat.

We left Rugby today for Braunston.

We passed some delightful moorings at Barby, boats with small stretches of land that have fruit trees, log stores, vegetable patches, car parking spaces, sheds and one even had an outdoor pool. With an interest in self-sufficiency owning land like this would be delightful. We can dream....

Back on track almost!

We left Atherstone on Tuesday and stopped off to see our friends Rupert and Dylan at their mooring just before Hartshill.


After tea and cakes in the sun, lunch and more drinks, target shooting with a catapult, getting coal from a passing coal/diesel boat and visiting the local goats and horse...


and feeding them grass...


we realized we had better make a move.

The plan was to stop off at the marina to use the facilities and carry on back the way we came - towards Rugby. We said farewell to Rupert and Dylan, it was 4.15 and the marina would be closed soon. Delia was itching to get out the boat and stretch her little legs so we found a lovely mooring next too a wheat field and made dinner over a camp fire under the darkening sky.


We were soon enough back at the 180degree junction - Hawkesbury Junction where Leigh did a beautiful maneuver winding the boat in one great swoop to head straight in an empty lock. We cruised another mile until there was an almighty crunch and scraping noise in the engine bay. We moored up at a suitable point as soon a possible to discover that the drive belt from the pulley on the shaft to the alternator was twisted and the metal pulley had moved and was scraping against a metal bracket.

For those that have no idea what this is about, i'll quickly explain. The shaft from the propellor goes through the engine casing and at one end is the pulley (which looks like a big cog). A rubber band - the drive belt, goes round this to another smaller cog on the alternator. This movement of the cog on the alternator charges our batteries; the engine starter battery (much like a car) and the two domestic batteries (our brilliant 6v traction batteries) thus, we can start the engine and have electricity aboard.

Let me point out that neither of us are mechanics in any way. I might know how to change an inner tube on a pushbike but that is about it, Leigh has great instinctual skills but he is not experienced in tinkering away under a bonnet. After half an hour of trying to turn the belt round, we called up some more knowledgeable folk who advised on what to do. We slackened the alternator and popped the belt off. This was a new belt we purchased in March - when we had the engine serviced. Being made of rubber, the belt had softened and buckled being twisted on the pulley. It would no longer sit straight and we had to fix it back on at an angle until we reached the next boatyard to get a new belt. We carried on and then the heavens opened so we moored up for the night.

We reached the rose narrowboat marina the following day and picked up a drive belt. In replacing it, we discovered that the nut to secure the pulley was no longer tightening. On further inspection, the hole was threaded on the pulley and the thread on the nut was gone -it was an aluminium pulley with a steel nut as Leigh pointed out not a good combination. The pulley was beyond repair (unless it could be melted and reset - but who does that now?) so we looked into getting a new one.

By this morning we had our hands on a smashing new pulley and after a bit of brute force from Leigh we had it in place and the belt on by the early afternoon. During all this, we had it made clear that the cogs (alternator and old pulley) required different thicknesses of belts so with the new one we now had the right belt and the right sized pulley.

As as we set off for Rugby again, the rain poured and poured so we pulled over and moored and here we are on the outskirts of Rugby wondering if we should head through the festival goers and boats moored in threes at Braunston this bank holiday weekend or not.

A detour

We had the throttle cable replaced by an engineer from a boatyard just along the cut. He arrived an hour after I made the call to enquire about the job and he fixed it with no troubles. He also solved our faulty connection with the ignition too. By the sounds of it, the gear cable might be on it's way out also, but that will have to wait to be replaced at a later date.

I set off for Nottingham on Wednesday morning... After a long venture at work, I got home on Thursday night feeling weary and curled up on the sofa after dinner for a snooze.


So where are we now? Atherstone! Well, we needed to visit family here and it made sense to spend the beautiful day of Friday cruising so we prepared to leave our mooring.

There were lots of boats on the waterways and we had to wait for many boats to pass by before we could up the ropes and leave.

The route through Rugby was fine, wide canals with long straight stretches and not a lock for miles! According to the map we passed through an aquaduct going over the River Avon but I could only spot a fine trickle of water below us.


On this stretch of the Oxford Canal (heading North West) are a fine selection of beautiful bridges...


built by Horsely Iron Works.


After 7 miles we had reached the water point at Stretton Stop (the home of Rose Narrowboat HIre) which is close to the village of Brinklow and I jumped off to open up the swing bridge. We filled up with water and hosed the boat down - much to the dislike of a grumbling couple of boaters. I guess it is drinking water, but it is much easier to keep the boat clean and protect the paintwork using the hose at the waterpoint - what can you do?!

We continued along the way towards Bedworth sharing the steering. We passed an apple tree and I jumped off to run back to collect some but unfortunately they were sour and not yet fully sized.


The route skirted Coventry and stayed picturesque with the buildings on the horizon.


We reached Hawkesbury Junction...


and the tiny lock - which was our very first lock we ever went through when we first purcahsed the boat. This junction isn't an easy one especially for boats of 65feet!


Leigh had to wind the boat under the bridge to take us parallel to the route we had taken. We were now on the Coventry canal heading North for Atherstone.


This was a dramatic part of the journey as we passed a field on fire with large trees alight...


and two fire engines tackling the blaze.


The water was being pumped from the canal to extinguish the flames.


We noticed a firewoman working at the trucks too.

We passed Bedworth and Marston Junction - which takes you onto the Ashby Canal and continued to Nuneaton. It was in the thick of the town that we found a man collapsed on the towpath. We went to his aid along with other passers by and phoned for an ambulance. After the paramedics arrived we continued on the boat towards Hartshill.

Having stopped we were now against the clock to get to Atherstone before dark. By Hartshill the sun was low...


so we put the headlight on and continued along the route. Fortunately we know this stretch very well so were aware of the twists and turns. Leigh did brilliantly at navigating in the dark and we passed our good friends Rupert and Dylan at their mooring. By the time we got to Atherstone top lock it was 10pm and we were both hungry and tired. We moored up in a perfectly sized space for us and wandered to the fantastic chippy on the high street. We filled up and settled for the night.

We managed 25miles in the one day - the most we have achieved.

This weekend we had a visitor to the boat, Leigh's mum...


and had a lovely time in the blazing sunshine. Delia was so hot she rolled over to cool her fuzzy belly in the breeze.

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Nottingham to London day 10, 11 and 12

Over the past three days we have had collisions, groundings, locks, tunnels, queues, late nights, early mornings, miles of cruising, a broken throttle and intermittent internet access. We have been retracing our way down the GUC from when we left Braunston boat yard after our survey and welding work back in the spring of 2009.


We got ready to leave our mooring point at Welford Junction and to pull up the mooring chains before a boat came cruising round the corner. Here are our new mooring chains.


They are much better than the g shaped mooring pins we had that kept coming away from the metal guide allowing us to drift slowly away.


The route was becoming difficult to navigate as the reeds, bushes and trees were so overgrown - there was room, only just, for one narrowboat. We had many occasions meeting other boats and Leigh counted 6 times we got stuck running aground. On a bonus we had a stretch of 10 miles without a single lock. We moored at Crick just after the marina to pick up some food supplies. It wasn't Delia's favorite spot as it was a keen dog walking route.

The next day we headed straight into Crick tunnel where we had our first encounter passing another boat - a rather hair-raising experience that Leigh takes all in his stride whilst I quiver on the deck.




It is fascinating to think how they used to get boats through these long, bleak tunnels using the chains along the side of the wall to haul through.


Wouldn't it be interesting to see the 'trad' boats with their fancy brasses trying to do that now. Not such an idyllic lifestyle, eh?

We approached Watford locks just before Watford Gap service station of the M1 and joined the lengthy queue of boats to head through. I had enough time to scrub the roof down before we set off for the flight of 7 locks.






4 hours later and we were through. We carried on to Norton Junction and I managed the 90degree turn to take the GUC towards Birmingham - we are on a detour from this point!

We moored under a vast canopy of trees along the stretch to Braunston...


We set off...


and first thing this morning we had Braunston tunnel to head through.


Easy, I thought. We had done this before and what with the other tunnels down, this should be fine. How wrong was I! This tunnel is over 1 mile long and is wiggly like a worm to navigate. We passed 6 boats going through too.


After hitting the side and careering into an oncoming boat, Leigh took the tiller on to get us through.

We whizzed thorough Braunston locks, 6 in a row by sharing the locks with a family aboard. At one lock a house overlooks the canal with this delightful stained glass - it reminded me of my mum's creativity.


We passed through Braunston (a hub for traditionalists on the boats) sighting this delightful little boat and I thought of the time as a kid being called Mouse by my dad's best friend Mr Billet - that I still am.


At Braunston Turn we took the Oxford Canal heading for Rugby.

Passing the World Service radio mast extravaganza....


and we blitzed Hillmorton locks where our throttle decided to give up the ghost. We suspect it's the cable that's gone so will be on the hunt for a new one at the local boatyard tomorrow. We managed to get the boat round the corner where we moored up in the Clifton Upon Dunsmore area of Rugby.

Nottingham to London day 9

Today we set off at 9am. I booked us in with the BW lock keepers who have a system of listing boats wishing to use the flight and arrange who can go next etc. It was a short wait and we were soon enough following another boat up the flight. I planned to work the paddles and gates and Leigh would work the tiller.




These are narrow locks so only one boat can use them at a time. It meant the gates were lighter too - handy for me.


The rules of the locks in relation to the paddles are that you 'wind the red before the white and you'll be alright', if you 'wind white before red and you'll be dead!'



We were instructed up the first few locks by the lock keepers and then left to our own. As we stepped up each time the view on the horizon became more and more magnificent. Shame it was a little hazy but still, it was very atmospheric.


It was interesting to see how the simple engineering of the locks worked. As one boat entered the lock, the red paddles allowed the lock to fill with water from the pounds (small reservoirs opposite the locks.) The white paddles filled up the lost water from the reservoir, draining the lock above. This would set the next lock ready for the boat coming up. In this way you are able to directly follow a boat going up, which is what we did.


It took us about an hour to reach the top lock, where the BW guy gave us another helping hand.



We decided to carry on along the GUC, passing this lovely statue,


reminding of the days when horses would be used to pull boats from along the towpath.

This stretch was very picturesque, with rolling hills and leafy woods lining the canal edge.



We have done well and now it was a straight run for 5 miles without any locks!

Then we were on the approach to Husbands Bosworth Tunnel, 1166yards long.



I got prepared with my rain mac - so as not to get dripped on and set the headlight on. With a toot! of the horn we started going through.


This time, we had a boat following us from behind with a brighter than bright headlight.


It took about 12minutes to pass through. I tried hard to keep to the centre-right of the tunnel (as it is possible to pass another boat coming from infront) yet I did wriggle from side to side somewhat as it is rather tricky in the dark to work out where you are. I managed well though and think I am improving at navigating tunnels.


We left the tunnel and cruised for another mile, passed North Kilworth Wharf and found a lovely mooring just before Welford Junction. We moored for the night and did some well needed jobs about the boat - Leigh did a fabulous job at giving the chimney a good sweep!

Now we are settled for the night, we are making plans for me to get to Nottingham next week for a couple of days of work. As we are often in the middle of the countryside and I need to access some public transport to get there, I've got to consider how to do this. Leigh suggested a slight de-tour to Rugby where I can then get the train.

As I write this, our cabin lights are bright as buttons, with the 12volt battery fully charged by running the engine today. Leigh just pointed out how amazing it is that we live all our electrical needs off of one 12volt battery. Quite.