Nervous day take us back to Fradley

Today – Rugeley to Fradley, T & M and Coventry Canals, 8 miles 3 locks
Sun 30th – Moored Rugeley, T & M Canal
Sat 29th – Haywood Junction to Rugeley, Trent & Mersey Canal, 5 miles, 2 locks

We needed Tesco to come bring us a delivery of groceries after having the family over for the few days earlier in the week, and found a spot for them to do just that by the industrial estate at Rugeley.  It was a horrid morning on Sunday and we had moored about 30 yards away from the road access because it was just a tad too shallow there.  We thought Mr Tesco would phone when he arrived for us to come and collect.. but a knock on the door, and two lads had brought everything to us.. “No don’t bother getting out in all this rain, stay there and we will pass it all to you”.. what service!!

So then tonight is the night…

But we are well away from the ghostly tunnels, especially Blisworth.. and away from the fireworks too here just south of Fradley Junction thank goodness.  Lucy gets very upset with them going off, and this weekend being in Rugelely has not been good for her.  Next weekend we will definitely find somewhere very rural if we can…

So some pics then of the new canopies.. A photo opportunity at the remote Woodend Lock on the Trent and Mersey just above Fradley..

Here the profile of the whole lot..

And here the back..

And one more from behind…

Vic and I are lucky in that we are errrr ‘little’ people , so the canopy should go under 90% of the bridges on the system.  The top of the canopy is only just higher than the chimney.

Today was a nervous day for us both.  We decided to leave the canopy up whilst travelling.  It is going to take some getting used to for sure, but given a week or so it will become second nature. I travelled much slower today learning a new way of steering a narrowboat.. watch the trees, watch the bushes, watch the passing boats, line it up correctly for the bridge.. it was just like starting all over with a new boat!

Still, we are here moored tonight, and no scrapes or bumps.. in fact I think I steered better today than any day before!.. Overall I am delighted with it.. we were on the back just in our jumpers today, while the flag on the front was fluttering quite hard and people on the towpath had winter coats and hands in pockets.. pity it didn’t rain though!!

Canopies Completed and British Waterways say Lower Rate Licence!!

Moored Great Haywood, Trent & Mersey Canal

Washing was the main priority today, oh and fixing our dripping water pump.  Tim of Staffordshire Canopies was passing Penkridge this morning and offered to pick us up a new bit.. well the diaphragm actually.. from Midland Chandlers.  We have never had to sort the water pump before, so I phoned SHURflo, and they were absolutely brilliant, describing in detail what we needed to do.

While we were at it, we decided that it was well overdue to check the filter.. no we didn’t ever clean that since we bought NP.. and what came out was an elastic band!!  Our first efforts at trying to keep the hose in the filler was to tie it up with an elastic band.. but one day it disappeared into the tank.. heh found it now though!

So that is all fixed now.. no more drips and a nice dry tool cupboard.

The back canopy is coming in handy already for drying washing.. a great place to hang all the shirts to dry while the rain poured down outside.  I didn’t take the finished product canopy pictures yet.  This last week was busy with the family visiting, and we had lots of things to do today.. might do them tomorrow if the weather is nice..

Here a couple of the front canopy.. showing how Tim and Lisa firstly make a ‘paper cratch cover’..

Then after Tim cut it out and Lisa completed the sewing bit,  back they came to put the fittings onto the boat and the fittings onto the cover in-situ again… To do the ‘watery side’ their narrowboat Hundred Akers was brought alongside so they could work off that to compete the job..

I was sitting out the back on Thursday last.. well trying to escape from my grandchildren for a few minutes  , and as I sat under the back canopy I thought it would be nice to have a skirt round the seating area.. wondered really if it would be possible.. so spoke to Tim that evening, “Yep, we will give it a go for you” was his answer.  He had never done one before.. but hey look at this!..

As Chas and Ann of NB Moore2Life said when I showed them the pic “Nice shoes Sue”  Ha.. yeah but nice skirt round the seats too!  Hides all the junk we keep under there…

Tim measured up at 9am on Friday.. then out came the paper again to make the pattern.. by 2pm it was fitted and finished.  There are buttons hidden on the inside bottom to keep it from moving about.

I am absolutely over the moon with the work that Tim and Lisa have done, as I said before their level of workmanship is high, completely as the customer would like, any changes no problem and their attention to detail is a priority to them.  This is one hell of a good canopy maker totally recommended to anyone thinking of having one done..

Well we are still at Great Haywood.. just hope the post arrives tomorrow then we can be off.. we are overstayed by one day here.. We arrived on 15th October..

But the best news of the week for us came on Thursday morning from Maffi with an entry in the guestbook to say that British Waterways are not now going to class our boat for a higher rate licence and not as they had proposed.. we will be in the lower rate after all!

1.3. The lower rate will be payable by people licensing the boat for
sole or family use.
1.4. The higher rate will be payable by people licensing the boat for
multiple users. Multi-use is defined as boats used for hire and reward
and any boats in multiple ownership for which the rights to use are
managed through a business or legal agreement.

The above is part of a press release from British Waterways.. We are both not only delighted but very relieved!

The Family visit at Great Haywood..

Since the last blog to today – Moored Great Haywood

Wendie, Danny and grandchildren Kiera and Niamh arrived last Sunday along with Tilly, the now very grown up 5 month old puppy, so no time for blogging!

In fact, no time for anything except enjoying them all being here. It was decided not to move as the weather was a bit hit and miss with showers, plus Tim and Lisa were doing the canopies.. but we all had a great time.. By day the littlens were suitable entertained the ‘country way’ with walks, duck feeding, getting muddy and all things to do with waterways and narrowboats.

A visit to Shugborough Hall was a ‘must do’ too.

I taught them a lot of narrowboat things like cleaning brasses..

Oh and Niamh’s sister was actually quite intent on using some serious elbow juice..

But it was quite stressful for the grown ups.. I very nearly took a tumble into the canal trying to shield the keen one (Niamh) from doing the same!

Once they were exhausted enough to sleep, the bar on NP was opened.. and the four of us enjoyed the social bit till the early hours on each day.. much to our regret each morning, as the youngsters were ready for another fun packed day by 6.30am!!

They left this morning for their 3 hour drive home, and by the time we had put NP back to ‘just us’ and topped up with water and diesel (46p ltr Anglo Welsh here at Gt Haywood) it was gone 5pm..  we just sank down in our chairs totally exhausted!

A great time was had by all!

Internet connection on a narrowboat has never been cheaper!

Connecting to the internet with Orange PAYG

I have been asked by many about connecting to the internet from a narrowboat.. so I thought I would do a blog about the latest bargain from Orange.

This will only work if you have a mobile phone or datacard (a normal sim card will go in those datacards) that will allow an orange sim card. Lots of mobiles are 'locked' into their networks, so if you have an O2 sim card, it is highly unlikely that an orange sim will work in it. Of course, it is well worth trying!

You could get your phone unlocked though, so you can use any sim card in it.. lots of markets have stalls that sell mobile phones and accessories, these guys will normally be able to unlock your phone for a fiver or so.. or look on the internet, there are plenty of places that offer an unlocking service..

Next you will need a data lead to go from your phone to the computer on your narrowboat. Or if your phone is bluetooth enabled then it is far better to get a bluetooth doggle thingy, which means that if the connection is not that good, you can move your phone anywhere on the boat within 10 mts of the computer without any wires.  I use Belkin, it comes with everything you need for a wire free connection, its brilliant..

Your phone instructions will tell you how to connect to the internet through a PC, but if you have any problems please feel free to email me.

So then all you need is a PAYG orange sim card, and they can be got from here.  Look at the extras you get with it too! 

Register the card and stick a tenner on it.. that way you will also get “free evening calls for five years”.. heh of course nothing is for free for real!.. so by ‘free’ they mean up to 600 minutes a month.. don’t go over that or they will charge you the normal rate.  (Do check the terms and conditions)

So with your new PAYG orange sim card registered, all you need to do is to phone 450 and choose their Orange World ‘Extra’.. You need to press 3,1,4,1 as the nice lady gives you options, then finally pressing 1 at the end.  It will automatically deduct a pound from your £10.  (the pound digit isn’t coming out right through my software, sorry).  You will be told that it has been activated and will expire at 23.59pm on that day. (More ‘extras’ here)

Just phone the next day and do the same again if you want to go online..

Now you can browse and download all you like from the internet.. there is NO LIMIT to the amount of bandwidth you can use.. The other day I tried hard to see if there was a limit.. I down and uploaded over 70MB.. bearing in mind that I pay 30 pounds or so on a monthly contract for a limit of 400MB… and I think Orange charge normally for gprs about one pound for 1MB of data on normal gprs rates, so you can see this is an absolutely fantastic bargain on PAYG.

If you want a program to be able to monitor your data usage, the best is DuMeter, it isn’t free, but its the best.

Hope this hasn’t bored too many people…

Fireworks at Great Haywood for Trafalgar Day

We missed being in the family 'home town' of Portsmouth tonight, with the Queen visiting. and all the celebrations.. but we did manage to watch the Trafalgar Day celebrations on BBC South Today from the sky satellite..

However, presumably here at Shrugborough Hall, there was a fantastic firework display, although it isn’t advertised on their website, it sure did explode over the top of the Hall!

 We didn't know about it until our peace was shattered at 10.45pm by the sound of cannon like fire!

Lucy wasn’t very happy about all the noise, but I enjoyed along with a lot of others out on the towpath tonight. 

Well we had our own little celebrations up here in Staffordshire.. a couple of bevvys from the bar of NP, and a wonderful firework display….

Staffordshire Canopies are doing us proud!

Thur 20th and Today - Moored Great Haywood, Trent & Mersey Canal

I popped into Stafford yesterday, had one or two bits and pieces to do. The bus is very handy, going every hour from just up from the canal.. on the way back the bus driver dropped me right by the bridge, even closer!

Yesterday too, Lisa was working hard on her sewing machine putting together the back canopy..

It is a credit to both Lisa and Tim how they can organize their life and actually make all this stuff on their narrowboat.. here Lisa at the machine during the late morning.. Tim will have already been at work within the boat with Lisa’s machine tucked in a specially designed cupboard, he has the whole floor space to do his cutting out. “Up at 5.30am cutting.. it’s the best time for me before everyone gets up”. Everyone, by the way, is Lisa, Tim and their two boys Adam and James.. Oh and there is a Herbert too! You can just see Herbert looking over the covers.. a golden Retriever.

“In the evenings when we have finished work I try to put the boat back to normal living”  said Lisa. This is a waterways trade from a narrowboat.. their attention to detail has been very apparent, they are obviously very proud of producing a high quality product. ..

This morning then.. in the rain unfortunately the fitting of the canopy started. Once the cover has been made the final fitting and adjustments can be made before the fixings are added while the canopy is in situ..

Lisa will make the eyelets while it is in place when Tim finds the best place to put the turn buttons to fix it to the rails or wherever.. more to come later

Spooky Blogs and THAT Waterways Licence Hike!

Moored Great Haywood, Trent & Mersey Canal

I don’t know if the writer of CanalCam Blog actually owns a narrowboat, but looking around for clues, maybe not.  But it is a very interesting blog with some great pictures.  The writer has a webcam set up on the side of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal.. He must have it well hidden surely! There is a link to it on the blog itself.

There are some lovely pictures on his blog, and I liked the black background with the white text on the layout.  It sets the pictures off beautifully too.. here is one I like..

Took the dogs out for a walk in the dark tonight.Had some fun taking long time exposure pictures and painting in the light with a torch.Here are some of the better ones. Flicking the torch around as both dogs run makes it look like a ghostly pack.The cloud cover across the moon behind the tree adds to the spooky effect (just in time for Halloween!)

Anyway, I have put it under ‘Boaters Blogs’ on the left for now.. although maybe that isn’t quite right for this one.

I was interested to read the article in the Guardian Unlimited (thanks Andrew) about the Proposed Licence Fee Increase.  Still the arguements go on, and there is more to read on the various waterways newsgroups and forums.  However, I was amused at this in the Guardian article…

Britain's canals have long been a home for a free-spirited band of "wild rovers"

If I am a spose to be a ‘wild rover’ then I think I am a bit of a fraud … so I will stick with the next bit..

These "continuous cruisers" - who inhabit 1,360 boats, according to British Waterways (BW), the custodian of Britain's canals - include many pensioned retirees..

That’s more like me!  

Towpath Telegraph have it on their front page at the moment, a good article too.  Towpath Telegraph is a smashing little newspaper that we pick up from time to time from boatyards and the like.  It’s a free publication and has got better and better the longer it has been running.

Well the report is due out from British Waterways on what changes they are going to make in November.. but I have heard from Braunston, that a person, who shall remain nameless, has said that BW has thrown out this proposal for us ‘wild rover pensioners’, although he would not name his source of information… It remains to be seen then

All stop at Great Haywood..

Sun 16th, Mon 17th and today – Moored Great Haywood, Trent & Mersey Canal

Tim of Staffordshire Canopies measured up NP’s stern on Sunday, and by Monday the paper pattern was taking shape..

After a very long discussion on Sunday night, we decided to have the back cover a foot lower than originally planned.  This, we hope will enable us to be able to travel quite happily with it up under all the bridges, or at least most of them. The top of the canopy will be the same height as our chimney less it’s hat!

Yesterday we had a surprise visit from Paul Balmer on his way to a meeting further north.  It is always great to welcome Paul aboard, we never seem to stop chatting!!

Although we are moored at the moment, I have kept myself busy.  I have been doing some research on the internet, and found that Orange are giving a rather good deal out at the moment which, in fact, might suit other boaters who have an internet connection and a phone that will take an Orange sim card.

On their PAYG sim cards they are giving an ‘extra’..

 “get a day's unlimited browsing to Orange World for only �1.”

Orange World is for the internet.  All you need to do is phone 450 from an orange PAYG and choose the orange world extra.  The �1 is deducted there and then, and you can browse the internet downloading as much as you want until 11.59pm.  Now this actually works out to be the same price almost as the monthly price plan that I am on.. but the difference is that I have as much bandwidth per day as I want, and am not restricted to so many MB per month..

If anybody wants more detailed information, please leave a comment with your email addy.

Friend Keith up in Scotland has confirmed that the hard drive in the old computer has in fact broken.. but he has very kindly sent me another out of an old laptop that he has for spares for the ‘Computers for Africa’.  I would have received it today, but there has been a power failure in the Post Office at Stafford, so no mail was delivered to the local post office.  Hopefully I will get that in the morning.

In the mean time, the new computer has a fault would you believe!

The cd drive is broken.. it will accept a disc, but immediately ejects it.  I phoned Acer, the maker, and I had no fight.. straight away they said “New replacement computer”.. great.. except that I will have to wait till we get back to Tamworth, the nearest Comet.. plus… I will have to reinstall all my programs AGAIN!!

Lucy recovers, so it's on to Great Haywood

Colwich Lock to Gt Haywood, Trent & Mersey Canal, 1.5 miles 2 locks

Well here she is this morning back out on the towpath where she loves to be..

It sure was busy today, we had moored for the night just below this lock.  Three times we went to pull the pins this morning when a boat came round the corner.  If there is one thing that annoys skippers is the sight, when approaching a lock, of a narrowboat pulling out in front of them!

So having let three boats go by we decided that it was going to be OUR turn next.. so we quickly pulled the pins before another came by.. it sure was busy at Colwich this morning.

We made our way to Great Haywood, Lucy demanding to be allowed to run the towpath.. I kept a good eye on her, and she was much happier this morning.  Just a mile and a half or so for her.. she enjoyed, but rested for the remainder of the day.

Great Haywood was busy too.. still lots of boats about even in the middle of October. 

We were very lucky to find the last space around the junction, and unbelievably the space was right in front of Tim and Lisa of Staffordshire Canopies.  They measured up NP this afternoon, and are going to set to work with the first stage of making our new cratch and back covers tomorrow..

Many, many thanks for all your phone calls, emails and comments sending good wishes to Lucy.. you know, it was really very nice of you all.

Lucy is poorly, so back to Rugeley in a hurry..

Taft Bridge (69) to close Colwich Lock, Trent and Mersey Canal, 1.5 miles 0 locks

We needed to get Lucy to the vet as quickly as possible.. she had been very poorly yesterday evening, and I stayed awake ‘till gone three this morning worrying about her. 

It hadn’t helped that I had been in an area where everyone was talking about Weils Disease (leptospirosi),  a rat urine related virus which can be picked up from canal water.  Yes, dogs can catch it!  I checked the symptoms on the internet.. no not quite how I saw Lucy, but everytime she went to drink some water, up it would come again within 10 minutes.  She was very lethargic and really was not interested in moving at all.

She is, of course, vaccinated against this awful disease, but it didn’t stop me from thinking she had it..

There was no turning point ahead of us until Great Haywood Junction, which was at least two miles and two locks away.. so I found the bus route to take her back to Rugeley, the nearest Vets, from a bridge just up from where we were moored this morning..

The vet was absolutely certain she didn’t have leptospirosi, just a very nasty infection of some kind or other, more than likely picked up sometime in the last seven days.  She had a high temperature, but had not dehydrated despite the fact that she had not been able to keep any water down for well over 24 hours, and yes I could take her home!

She is dosed with antibiotics now, and is quietly resting in her basket.  More antibiotics to give her this week too, but I am expecting a big improvement by tomorrow morning.. Phewwwww..

I am absolutely shattered now.. I was just so worried.  I think I thought the worst with leptospirosi still on my mind.. I was just so happy that she was alive this morning when I woke up, thats how daft I had got!

Anyway.. we just moved away from the main road bridge this evening to a quieter mooring close to Little Haywood..

We should have been at Great Haywood tonight, but hey so what… our little mutt comes before any timetables!

Click, click, forgot the link to 'here'!

Ha, I should have said…

…..This can then be transfered to a link… so today then we are here!

 

All clear at Armitage Tunnel on this occasion..

Fradley to Taft Bridge (69), Trent and Mersey Canal, 9.5 miles 2 locks

Thanks to Les and Paul Balmer for pointing out that the links to the October Picture Album were duff.. all fixed now though.

Paul also pointed me in the direction of waterscape.com and their mapping to show a location.. Although it does take quiet a while to download those maps for me on this slow connection, I have been playing this evening!

Richard Fairhurst was the main brain designing these excellent maps.. I didn’t know just how powerful they were until Paul pointed it out to me.  You can actually obtain a grid reference for any place on the waterways that the maps show by holding left key on the mouse and pressing ‘E’ on the keyboard, and hey presto up comes the grid co-ordinates.  This can then be transfered to a link… so today then we are here!

I will try and put this on the location page as well as the normal map thingy that I put on.. interesting stuff..

Today then has been much colder than of late.. Pulled the pins on Fradley Junction..

brrrr that northerly wind was a bit cutting, but we enjoyed being back on the T&M again, such wonderful countryside all the way through to Rugeley.  On the way is the rather difficult Armitage Tunnel.. well it isn’t a tunnel anymore..

The tunnel roof was taken back at the beginning of the 70s due to mining subsidence, but as you see from this photo looking back, if a boat is coming the other way, then somebody has a bit of tight reversing to do!

So Rugeley next, were I went off for an hour to do some ‘wish I had one of those’ shopping.. although I did return with a couple of delicious meat and potato pies from Morrisons..

Yesterday I was surprised to bump right into Kate and Pat of NB Shotley Shuttle who we met back in July on the Ouse.. said goodbye to them and wandered back to NP only to be stopped by Mike of NB Phonenixx who invited me on board for a coffee and chat. Mike has an awesome sound system on his narrowboat, surround sound no less but not only was that keeping me from returning to NP, but also he has a guitar.. and pulling it down from the wall I enjoyed a bit of a strum.. blimey not played the guitar now for quite a few years!

Cannock Chase is the area we are in now.. plenty of walking to be done around here for sure… but Lucy was a bit off colour this evening.. so decided that her run along the towpath today of some 9 miles was probably too much.. hope she is just tired.. 

Picture Albums updated...

Moored New Bridge Fradley, Coventry Canal

What a wet afternoon here.. but it gave me a chance to update all the picture albums..

Lucy missed out on walking today.. was too wet even for me!

A busy day on the Coventry, but Fradley Juction is sad..

Brookhay Bridge to New Bridge, Fradley, Coventry Canal, 2 miles 0 locks

I didn’t know Kevin (Scraggy) and his wife Viv, but I did hear on the ‘towpath telegraph’ last week that Kevin died of Weils Disease ( leptospirosi ), which is a rat urine related virus which can be picked up from canal water.  He felt a bit poorly on the Sunday, went to work on Monday, only to return in the afternoon feeling worse.  From there to doctors called out to intensive care, and by the following Friday he had died.. It’s scarey really when you think that this can be picked up from even wet ropes that have been in the canal on hands that might have a cut or graze on them.  I found out a bit about this awful disease here when I heard about Kevin’s death..

Anyway as we were close to Fradley I decided to moor just outside tonight as his funeral is tomorrow, and I thought there would be many narrowboats around.  Kevin’s boat, the old steam narrowboat Monarch, is now converted from steam to diesel.  I walked down to Fradley Junction this evening, and there she was in her normal spot.  Tomorrow morning they are using her as a hearse and transporting Kevin down the two locks on the Trent and Mersey before onward by road to Stafford.

I spoke with friends of Kevin, Sue and Mick at Fradley this evening, Sue was telling me that there will be a large gathering of people as well as quite a few working boats escorting Monarch.. and for sure there were many old boats about this evening.  We talked about the disease, and how it could happen to any of us really..

Mr Tesco duly delivered our order by midday today, and I spent over two hours tracking down the farmer who owned the field where the huge trees had been felled and left.  Eventually I found a retired farmer who knew the phone number of the owner.. “Yes help yourself to as much as you like”  Mr H said, Great stuff!

We left some though!

Actually this little lot were cut down by British Waterways.. I was told this by locals while I was trying to track down Mr H to ask permission to take some.. Mr H was quite upset apparently, because BW just cut these trees down and left them there without even consulting him I was told by locals.  The lovely trees were considered to be a danger to canal users..

I see Mike is moored near the junction this evening, narrowboat Phoenix is on my ‘boaters blogs’ list.  He wasn’t in when I passed earlier.. I might knock his door tomorrow.  He’s been doing a bit of DIY lately, and set off his fire extinguisher

“Don't really know what happened, but there was a loud noise and general chaos as the fire extinguisher dumped a Kilo of dry powder all over me. I dived off the boat coughing and spluttering, scaring the life out of an elderly lady walking her dog. Lord knows what she thought as this white apparition came hurtling off the boat.”

No that wasn’t me walking by either!! 

Do hope he is all cleaned up when I call tomorrow though!  

The Woods throw 'down' surprises around Hopwas!

Hopwas to Brookhay Bridge, Coventry Canal, 5 miles 0 locks

Awwww, here is the narrowboat I have been looking out for over the last 3 years..

..and as I went off for a walk with Lucy yesterday she came under the bridge.. Shalamar.  What a beauty.  We nearly bought her you know back in 2002.  It was a toss up between NP and Shalamar.  But we had only had experience of hire boats before then, this was something very different.  All wheels and sticks for making her go back and forth instead of just a simple throttle!

Lots of reasons why she didn’t become our home though.. that was one of them.  A very old engine, can’t remember what it was now, in it’s own engine room and the fact that the advertising bumph said 72ft.. The guy was half right when I called to him that we very nearly bought her “Ah you missed out” he called back with a wry smile.

The overwhelming reason for us to pass her by and decide on NP was the length.  For sure we would not have visited the Leeds and Liverpool last year, nor of course the Rivers of East Anglia this year.. but I did watch and ponder as she disappeared from my view with a beautiful “De Dump, De Dump” sound from that engine.

Anyway walking yesterday, hey look what I saw..

I didn’t remove the bits of dried grass from this before i took the pic because I wasn’t sure if the fairies had put it there for a reason, but I stopped a while and imagined ..

And this morning while we were having breakfast this happened..

I was very lucky over the weekend, no flags flying then!

Pins were pulled late morning to try find a place for Mr Tesco to come deliver us an order.  I have been along this canal many times, but for the life of me I couldn’t remember exactly what was where, so the plan was to travel until we found an appropriate place near a road, moor and then get on the internet and find post code, book a delivery slot for tomorrow then do the order.

You would not believe what happened today.. most odd!  We were just ambling along, as we do, when suddenly there was a thump on the roof.  I thought a small log type branch had fallen on the roof along with some leaves, well it was a bit windy you see.  Anyway the next minute, this ‘log’ scuttled along NP’s roof!  Then it rolled off the side into the water and swam to the shore!!.. It was a squirrel!!  You know, I had no idea that squirrels could swim.. I didn’t even have time to think about a rescue plan before it was out of the water over the towpath and up the nearest tree, no worse for its fall out of the trees above us!

I am off in the morning to find the farmer who owns the field just up from here.. he has some lovely wood that would do us just nicely to top up our supplies on the roof… Vic has sharpened the chainsaw in readiness!

Kathlyn takes shape and Sunday Roast at Hopwas

Goodness, I have just had a look at Matt’s new blog… It’s great, do have a look here.

I say goodness because Matt has taken on quite a task to get  Kathlyn in a cruising state, although he has been on a ‘maiden’ cruise already!

When I arrived I discovered that the spiders had already moved in, wow they are quick. I read somewhere that spiders on a boat mean that it is dry, don't know where I read it or if it is true.

Well we have tons of spiders on NP.. during the summer on the rivers this year I allowed them all to stay, and invited them to spin webs across the windows!  Keep ‘em all Matt.. until the winter of course when you can help them pack their bags!

Sunday roast for us today.. a short walk to Hopwas where I think we have the choice of two nice pubs.. Then it is a nice long stroll to walk it all off with Lucy.. I best not have my favourite treacle pud and custard for pudding.. I have planned a 7 mile hike for this afternoon.

Granny Buttons vs No Problem at Hopwas!

Nr Alvecote to Hopwas, Coventry Canal, 5 miles 2 locks

Now I don’t normally like to move on a Saturday, in fact it is very rare indeed that happens… but… The pins were pulled, would you believe at 8.30am, no that isn’t a typo, 8.30am!  The middle of the night for me that is by the way!

There was good reason.. Granny Buttons was just a few miles away, and would be turning towards Birmingham at Fazeley Junction, while we would be traveling straight across.  Trouble was, Fazeley Junction was ahead of us by 2 miles.  I knew that you see, because Andrew sent me an email last night wondering just how close we were to him.

It happened though…

Actually I quite enjoyed the early start this morning, was lucky too at Glascote flight of two locks, one had just come up, so both were ‘for’ us.

Then Fazeley Junction.. I always, always managed to bump the side on that bridge.  You know I can’t ever remember a time when I have come through there and not left a bit of paint.  I was trying very hard today to get it right, but I do have an excuse, a hire boat decided to come out from the water point just after the bridge and turn across my path to go to Birmingham, then decided better of it and reverse back… I really didn’t know what he was doing, and lost concentration at the last moment at THAT bloomin' bridge!.. 

After ‘doing’ the services we cruised on through Hopwas to one of my favourite spots on the waterways just beside Hopwas Woods.. I couldn’t wait to take a quick look on the bridge to see if the red flags were flying, and came back to NP with a big smile on my face.. nope they weren’t!.. Ah red flags flying in this particular spot means that the firing ranges within the woods are active.. tis then it is a no go area! Tomorrow it will be a go area for me and Lucy for a long, long wander

I was delighted to welcome Andrew onboard No Problem, and we chatted a while about this and that for an hour or so.. Nice guy is Andrew .  Oh AND… I felt very special to receive one of the delights of Granny Buttons… a packet of buttons… no not for shoving on shirts, but for eating… and they are all gone now.. yum!

More on the New Computer...

It also has a built in bluetooth application, and has Windows XP Home.. I do prefer XP Pro, but I will live with it.. for now.   Oh also it is centrino Mobile Technology which, according to those in the know, is better for a longer battery usage. 

My old comp would only ‘do’ about 2 and half hours (while it was young) this one does in excess of 5.. so engine hours are now cut by an hour a day, we have to run the engine you see to charge the batteries as well as charge computer and phones if needbe. 

The New Computer..

I have been asked by a few what it is… OK here are the specs then..

Aspire 1691WLMi
Intel Pentium M 725 processor
1.6 GHz, 400MHz FSB, 2 MB cache
15.4 WXGA CrystalBrite TFT LCD (widescreen)
60GB HDD
Slot Loading DVD-dual
512MB DDR2 (support dual channel)
802.11b/g wireless Lan

That is the specs.. here are some other bits in English

The battery life is 5.5 hours on using the CPU on mid speed and the brightness on 60%.  It has 3 USB ports which is very handy as I have a bluetooth thingy and mouse in two of them permanently, leaves room to plug in either the printer or camera without having to remove one of the other two.

It has wifi and infa red, and there is no tray to have to put a cd into like the old one, you just put it in the slot and it’s accepted.  It has a very handy ‘emergency eject’ which works well when I forget to take out the CD before switching off the computer… I can do it after I forget!

The only thing I don’t like is the delete button… its not in the same place as the old computer… I keep forgetting where it is!!

Alvecote, home of the new hirers..

Atherstone to close Alvecote, Coventry Canal, 6 miles 0 locks

Nice fishermen today on the bank   and those acorns clung on all night!

An enjoyable run down to close to Tamworth.  We were undecided this morning on whether to go on through Tamworth to moor at Hopwas, a place I particularly like.  It’s odd really, I can never remember the details of the different canals I travel if it has been a while since I have travelled them, but certain places do actually register in the grey stuff!

The Marina at Alvecote looks really nice, and on the other side is a huge base for Canaltime boats.  We moored about half a mile away from them on a very attractive straight stretch approaching Ammington, the outskirts of Tamworth. 

Lucy had trotted the whole six miles today on the towpath, her eye has cleared up completely by the way.  This gave me a couple of hours to dangle the rod out while Lucy was happy to snooze on the rug beside me.  Ha there were lots of ‘learners’ coming by NP having done their first half mile of steering a narrowboat.. They were doing just fine, and came past me at snails pace.. wonder if they will keep that sort of speed up going past boats later in the week though!

With fish not biting.. maybe they were hiding from the new hirers  …  , I put on my hiking boots and set off in the direction of Alvecote and the remains of the Priory which can be seen from the canal.. Alvecote is an old mining village, and looks like one too, although their village shop and Post Office has gone.  The whole area around Alvecote has now been lanscaped and turned into a nature reserve with large lakes and smaller ponds.. a good amount of wildlife can be seen, it’s certainly worth a visit if in the area.

Well with no shop locally to where we were moored, I had to search out another… we have run out of potatoes of all things!  It’s been a while since we last had a tesco order you see.  I must arrange one for next week somewhere.. Anyway I ventured the other way and found a nice Tesco Express right by bridge 66, so mark that on your good ol’ Nicholson’s Guide and take off the one at Alvecote.

I’m watching that Ronnie Barker tribute on the BEEB at the moment.. I do hope they show the sketch about the four candles… or is it fork handles?!!.. gonna watch the rest while this blog posts itself.

Chas and Annie turn back at Atherstone

Hartshill to Atherstone, Coventry Canal, 4 miles 11 locks

After meeting up with Chas and Ann on NB Moore2Life last week, they had to turn back today so they could ‘do the dentist’ at Daventry at the beginning of next week.. so after a fond ‘au revoir’ they headed to Braunston while we continued along the Coventry Canal towards our destination of Gt Haywood on the Trent and Mersey Canal.  We’ll meet up again soon on the Ashby I expect.

Lucy was fine this morning, and thanks too to Peter who suggested looking for one of those dreaded grass seeds in her eye.

“Lucy may have grass seed in her eye. Rinse it with cold tea - no milk or sugar - It can sooth the eye - my old springer cross was treated that way more than once.”

Some will remember back in the summer she had one of those pesky things in her foot which caused her to have to be put under by the Vet at St Noets to remove it when it travelled up her leg.  But she seems just fine now, her poorly eye is now nice and bright and fully open.

So after collecting post from Atherstone… oh and that was interesting too… the lady post mistress and her hubby had only taken over the Post Office a couple of weeks ago, and it was her first ‘Post Restante’!  “I had to get out the instructions” says she.. seemingly very proud to ask me for my ID.  Then she had some questions for me that weren’t contained in the instruction booklet - I gladly answered.  A very nice lady indeed.

Yeah, so after collecting post from Atherstone, we made our way down the Atherstone 11 locks narrow locks…

We enjoyed working through the flight together today, there were not too many narrowboats about, but we did bump into friends Pat and Shelia with NB Fair Fa heading up on their way to spending winter around the London area and later passing one of the readers of this blog, Terry with NB Albert also working his way up…

Apart from a grumpy fisherman complaining about Lucy being allowed to trot along the towpath beside NP, it has been a very relaxing day.  We stuck the pins in just below the flight around 2pm this afternoon, and spent the rest of the day just relaxing, and I finally caught up with getting this new computer to behave just as I want it to!

The only annoyance we have now is some rather large acorns dropping on the roof from the oak tree that we have moored under… I do hope we can sleep and don’t have to get up in the middle of the night to move away!  

A Dank Day on the Coventry..

Hawkesbury Junc to Hartshill, Coventry Canal, 8.25 miles 0 locks

I like Hawkesbury Junction, but come out along the Coventry Canal, OK the countryside is there to be seen from a narrowboat with trees and bushes very picturesque, but there are so many areas just behind that are just awful.  So much wasteland.. presumably relics from times past of quarries and in-fill with rubbish and just left.

I went walking around the area yesterday.. once again very difficult to follow the footpaths because there are no signs, but to be honest the whole area round Hawkesbury out of the canal view has just been left to go ‘rotton’.  A far cry from the Nene Valley where excavation workings have been turned into Nature Reserves

Today then, on came the winter stuff… it was a right dank morning more typical of November, and coming out of Hawkesbury most of the residential moored boats had their fires on, and the smoke hung in the sky.  First out came the gloves, then the scarf was found at the bottom of the boot cupboard covered in everything that had been dumped in there since last winter!!  Was OK though after Vic got the brush to it, and soon it was keeping my neck warm.. Gawd next it will be the good ol’ thermal underwear.. I have to remember where I put that first though!

Met Jennifer and Graham with NB Best O’ Mates before we left Hawkesbury having met them way back in August at Prickwillow on the River Wissey while Vic was painting the water tank.  They were off in the other direction to Coventry while we continued on through the horrible Nuneaton… Gawd that place is just awful.. all sorts of rubbish in the canal.. arm chairs included… darn it I didn’t take a pic of that for Furbs!  Sorry Furbs, I will take one on the way back!

For those that don’t know Furby has often commented about rubbish in the canals.  One comment from Furby suggested that I clean up the canals before taking photos!!   Ha, not the case, just I don’t ever think about taking photos of rubbish… I did on this occasion though last year.. see what we caught on the prop in June 04 in Blackburn!

So an uneventful trip to Hartshill today.. A lovely British Waterways Yard here..

I dunno, whenever I come past this place there is never a soul about, and today was no exception.  maybe it will get busy when the routine winter canal maintenance starts in November.  There does seem to be a lot of blue tugs moored up as you can see.

Lucy had only gone a couple of miles along the towpath this morning when I noticed she was rubbing her face on the ground a lot.  Poor lass, after getting her to get on the boat at the next bridge, only one eye was open.  I had no idea what was wrong, nor could I see anything actually in it, so this afternoon’s amble was called off.  By early this evening it seemed much better and she stopped rubbing it.  Seems OK now.  If it flares up overnight there is a vet at Atherstone to get it checked out.. think it will be OK though.

Slow slow, quick quick, slow boat to Hawkesbury!

Newbold to Hawkesbury Junc, Nth Oxford Canal, 11.25 miles 0 locks

I didn’t mind that tunnel at Newbold.  I think it is only about 250 yard long and no lights were needed.  It has a towpath alongside, and Lucy seemed more bothered about the darkness today than the Skipper!

So just how slow should one pass boats on canals?  Well that is debateable you know.  There are lines and lines of moored narrowboats, maybe there are more than last year on the canal, or maybe I just forgot after being away from ‘the system’ for six months.  At Welton I got shouted at.. ha I thought the guy was having a laugh.. just over tickover I was doing.. he asked me if I had read the guide book, and in his estimation I was “Full throtal”!

On tickover today I was holding boats up… so I went just over tickover smiling sweetly at boaters polishing brasses, fixing broken engines, chopping wood, mowing their mooring lawns… well whatever.. none shouted at me today.  Maybe the guy at Welton was taking the ‘P’.. maybe a ‘lady skipper’ was a good target for a bit of fun.. who knows, anyway my passing speed will be just over tickover for the canals.. On the rivers you can pass at normal speed you see.

First week of October and it’s still busy with hireboats.  The companies must have had a good year this year, but it wasn’t a hireboat that caused me a problem this morning.. a wonderful manover from a boat pulling out, just as I was approaching, determined to go across my bow to get the correct side of me to pass.. fine… but it was a good job they seemed to be aware that NP can stop extremely quickly!!

It’s been a lovely day on the canal today..

Hawkesbury Junction never changes, one of my favourite spots.  We were going to pop into the Greyhound here at the Junction this evening, but it was absolutley packed out, so decided to open the bar on NP instead. 

Probably call in on our way back from Gt Haywood.. Hartshill tomorrow all being well then..

Bloomin' Computers! - No Problem is through Braunston..

Today – Hillmorton to Newbold, Oxford Canal, 4.5 miles, 3 locks
Sun 2nd Oct – Moored Hillmorton, Oxford Canal
Sat 1st Oct – Willoughby to Hillmorton, Oxford Canal, 5.5 miles 0 locks
Fri 30th Sep – Braunston to Willoughby, Oxford Canal, 2 miles, 0 locks
Thur 29th Sep – Norton Junc to Braunston, Gu Canal, 4 miles, 6 locks
Wed 28th Sep – Nether Heyford to Norton Junc, GU Canal, 6.75 miles, 7 locks

Computer wise, an awful week..

Cruising wise, a great week!

After reformatting my computer last week and putting everything back on again, it suddenly died and refused to work however much I tried to persuade it to.  There was nothing for it but to do as my daughter had been saying for quite some time now and go halves with her for a new computer, giving her my old one.  Wendie has always wanted a laptop but didn’t want to spend a fortune, sooooo I have a new comp and Wends will have my old one.  I need to speak to my friend in Scotland to see if he can help me find out what is wrong before passing it over… Keith Help! ;o)

A lot has happened this last week since my last blog.. Leaving Nether Heyford on Wednesday we made our way up Buckby and Wilton Locks.. and what a surprise.. from under the bridge came Chas and Ann Moore, our great friends from NB Moore2Life. 

They had decided to come up from Braunston and meet us at Norton Junction to escort me through Braunston Tunnel as they knew I was really worrying about it.  We celebrated with a couple of beers in the New Inn at the top of Buckby Locks, we had plenty to chat about too!

Thursday saw us through Braunston Tunnel, Moore2Life went first, I was extremely anxious, but although there had been a lot of narrowboats on the canal, there was none coming towards me in the tunnel.  My ‘escort’ did me proud..

Friday I went to Northampton by bus to sort myself a new computer.  Finding a small ‘out of town’ shopping area I was able to compare and barter with PC World, Comet and Currys and found just what I wanted.  It took all day though, and it was very late when we moved out of Braunston to a quieter spot just outside of the busy junction on the Oxford Canal.

Logs and Sunday roast was on my mind next, so we moved again on Saturday to Hillmorton where I knocked the Farmer’s door and asked if we could have some more of the wood we managed to collect last year while we were here.  He remembered me, and said we could have as much as we wanted, so the chainsaw came out on Sunday morning, and by lunch time we had enough wood to last us a month or so!  Then it was time for a superb lunch at the Bristo by the locks.. just as yummy as ever too!

So just today to catch you up then… and today we pulled the pins, down through Hillmorton Locks… notice there are two side by side here which helps stop ‘boat jams’!

Then onward to Newbold, stopping at Brownsover for a few supplies.  Walking of late has been poor.. footpaths closed, impossible to follow and getting lost has made my favourite pastime disappointing.  It doesn’t help this time of year when the farmers have just ploughed the fields..  Newbold visitor moorings are surprisingly very full, but we found a space..

Well there you go, a blog of a whole week all squeezed into one.. hopefully now no more computer problems to have to contend with.. all I have to do now is catch up with a week full of emails!