Louise joins us for a cruise from Rugby to Atherstone

This week – Rugby to Atherstone, Oxford and Coventry Canals, 24 miles 5 locks

The beginning of the week saw me wander off ‘dan saff’ for a couple of days while Vic and his daughter Louise took No Problem in a northerly direction.  It was also a time too to say goodbye to Ann and Chas, NB Moore2Life, our travelling companions for the last two years.  They are heading back to Braunston to meet friends and to attend appointments.  It was the first time that Vic had taken our narrowboat along the canals without me about.. “Which way do I go?” Heh…  “Well see the way the boat is pointed?.. Just keep going straight on!”.. I got a friendly smack for that comment! .  Louise enjoyed a bit of steering.. a big boat to start learning on too..

Lucy also keeping a lookout for the many narrowboats that are on these canals.  In fact I forgot to say that on Saturday of last week I decided to count all the boats that came by.. (sad innit?!) well I was in for most of the day for a change.. I counted, give or take a few, 78 narrowboats past us while we were moored by the golf course at Clifton.  To be honest, I guess that is more boats in one day than we saw in the whole of the summer 6 months last year while we were in East Anglia.  What is scarey is that it is not even the school holidays yet.. Ho hum, I think that starts this weekend!

I returned to No Problem later in the week and met Vic and Louise at Hawkesbury Junction..

Here a nice pic from Louise’s camera of the famous bridge and junction.  We spent the evening in the Greyhound before pulling the pins and moving on northwards the following day..

We sure were lucky with the weather, no rain, or very little rain all the way.  The Atherstone flight of locks is looking wonderful with neatly cut verges and tidy well looked after locks… The lock cottage displays the weather forecast for each of the days of the week, and another sign tells us what to watch out for to give us some idea of the weather for the day.. “If the cows are lying down it will rain” “If there are a lot of insects around in the evening it will rain the next day” “A halo round the moon at night brings rain in the morning”.. Jeeeeeeez all that lot has been happening lately! .  But all the same a lovely area at the top lock..

 

Louise enjoyed locking down through this flight, although we only went down 5 I think, well 4 or 5.  Atherstone train station is right by the canal, and it was handy to stop close by today so Lou could catch her train back ‘dan saff’.  It is great to have the internet aboard, it is easy to organise visits from the family so they can arrive at one place and leave from another.  All the train/bus timetables are available online to be able to work it all out, so on this trip Louise joined us at Rugby and left at Atherstone, so she had a good cruise along the canal…

Here Lou putting some effort in to lift the paddles to drop No Problem down.. There isn’t that much room for the 67ft No Problem to fit in the locks compared with our old narrowboat which was some 12 ft shorter, so I do need to keep an eye on the back end to make sure she doesn’t sit on the cill..

Already this year I have run to shut paddles when a boat got caught on the cill.. that was at Napton while I was filling with water at the bottom lock, I heard some screams from the lock and went charging up there grabbing a windlass as I went, (habit when I hear screaming) .. sure enough he was on the cill.. but very quickly paddles were reversed and the boat was lifted again in the lock with no damage done.  It is all too easy to relax, maybe chatting to friends on the lockside and get caught on the cill.

Louise took some lovely photos while aboard, I really must make an effort and update my pic album.. I will do it this weekend, promise.. but here is one that is very unusual.. tis me inside No Problem doing a bit of ‘work work’ with computer, mobile phone and spreadsheet all in shot phoning daughter Wendie.. ha, just goes to prove I am not totally, entirely retired!

A great week with Louise, I really did enjoy and I know Vic did as well.  We were both sorry to see her leave, we enjoyed her company very much, great fun.. so now we head off to Gt Haywood to see Tim Salt at Staffordshire Canopies about our cratch and pram covers.. but not ‘till Monday, the weather is not good for this weekend.  We didn’t move today as it rained the whole day, but tomorrow we may drop down four locks and stay for the weekend, it really is lovely down there, the grass is neatly cut and it is very peaceful.. been to have a look this evening with Lucy.