Busy few days….

Saturday was car collection day again, courtesy of Enterprise at Lichfield. A bit of shopping, then relax before a demanding day on Sunday.

We were in Sheffield at 08:45 on Sunday and on the way back by 11:45. In the interim I’d competed in the Great Yorkshire Run, a city-centre 10k.  I say compete… Though not bad I suppose. 800^th overall and 15^th in my age group.

And I didn’t get overtaken by any running bananas or Mr Men! That’s a result in itself!

After my previous post mentioning overstayers at Fradley I felt a bit hypocritical when we did the same on Sunday night. Though in my defence it was mid-afternoon by the time we got back, then I had to shower, eat, take Meg for a walk, eat again and by this time it was starting to get dark. I couldn’t face the 3 or 4 locks that would drop us down to Alrewas.

We moved down to Alrewas on Monday, Meg and I taking the car there first then walking back to bring the boat down.

We went up to the wharf for water and tank emptying, up Junction Lock, winded and came back down again, then through Keepers, Hunts and Common Locks before mooring up above Bagnall Lock on the edge of the village.

Leaving Fradley

Windy at Common Lock

We all piled into the car in the afternoon and drove across to see my folks over in Sileby near Loughborough. I was able to pick up my new camera while we were there, so the pictures might improve a bit. Not necessarily the quality, but the composition should be better now I can see what I’m pointing the thing at! The LCD backlight died on my old one coming across The Ribble Link.

Yesterday we went up to Yorkshire, lunch with Mags’ grand-daughter Nichola and her husband Arthur, then to the clinic for Mags’ annual review with the Doc. All’s well, she’s not to go back till next April for another check-up.

Unfortunately we left Bentham at a quarter past four, reaching the M6 as the traffic started to build up. The weather was a bit grim, too, rain and drizzle being sprayed up from all the vehicles. It must have caught someone out; both north and southbound carriageways were closed following an accident near Warrington.

We diverted off to skirt the east side of Manchester and drop down through the Peak District, but there were a lot of others with the same idea, making progress slow.

We finally made it back to the boat at 20:15, 4 hours to cover 150 miles.

We’ve had a day off today, whether we move or not tomorrow has yet to be decided. See what the weather does.

Locks 5, miles 2  

A bevy of bloggers….

We spent yesterday watching some pretty miserable boaters cruising past. Mainly hirers, they were stood out on exposed cruiser sterns with faces screwed up against the horizontal rain. It didn’t rain all day, but when it did it certainly put some water down.

This morning we headed back up to Fradley, but first had to cruise to Alrewas and drop down Bagnall Lock to the winding ‘ole. The wind was a lot quieter today, and overnight rain had cleared so conditions were much better.

We arrived at the lock as a boat was coming up, then took our turn going down. With no-one behind us I intended leaving the bottom gates open for our return, but as we left a boat came around the corner to claim the lock.

Dropping down Bagnall Lock

Graham and Jill on NB Matilda Rose.

We exchanged shouted greetings, then turned around and followed them back up the lock.

We passed the smart NB Sanity Again with Bruce and Sheila watching the boats go by, then carried on the Fradley Junction.

Bruce and Sheila and NB Sanity Again

We followed Matilda Rose up to Fradley where we were lucky to snag the last space on the moorings, just above Keepers Lock. Very busy here as usual, and there seem to be a few boaters here who don’t understand that 48 hours max. means only 2 days. They were here when we left on Wednesday….

Graham and Jill were heading around the corner onto the Coventry Canal, aiming for beyond Streethay tonight, but they pulled in and walked back to join us for a cup of tea. Needing to push on, they only stayed for an hour. Next time we’ll try for longer, eh. Good luck, you two.

Oh, and I almost forgot. Thank you to the gentleman on NB Brindley for saying hello this morning.  I get a real buzz out of meeting people who actually read this stuff!

Locks 5, miles 2½

Don’t you just love British weather.

Well, I guess that’s it, interlude over. From nearly 30º at the end of last week to maybe 12º at the end of this. Still, it’s been nice while it lasted. Had a chance to top up the tan before we’re dragged kicking and screaming into the winter.

Yesterday we rejoined the rat-race for a few hours, taking a hire car up the M6 for 140 miles to Yorkshire for Mags’ visit to the clinic. Not a lot of fun; I’d more rather do our habitual 2½ mph than 80 mph. Tense shoulder muscles and a headache, stress related, by the time we got there, then we had to come back again! No, I don’t enjoy driving any more…

Today we dropped down 3 locks out of Fradley, mooring on the straight before Alrewas. First, though, we had to reverse to the service wharf for water and other basic essentials.

The wind was a bit gusty but didn’t actually cause any trouble. With Mags on the tiller and me on bow with the long pole we made it back with just a couple of judicious punts off the canal bed to keep us straight. The worst bit was timing our manoeuvre to slot in between the convoy of boats coming down through the locks.

Looking back to Common Lock

We’re going to hang around the area till this time next week. I’ve got a 10k run in Sheffield on Sunday, then we need to repeat yesterday’s drive so Mags can see the Doc for her annual review. Deep joy!

The wind is going to be quite strong at times over the next few days, in fact it’s picking up now. Not a good time to be mooring under trees! Should strip off the last of those pesky acorns, though.

Locks 3, miles 1    

An unexpected visitor and a simple repair

Where we’d moored on Saturday afternoon was OK but a bit narrow alongside. With the traffic volume likely to be high on Sunday we decided to move on to a wider spot I’d spied when out with Meg.

So we pulled pins at around 10:00 and headed the ½ a mile around the corner to the new mooring. Would you believe it, someone was just tying up there. The cheek of it! Anyway, we had to motor a bit further and moored for the rest of the day near Kings Bromley Marina.

Another problem with the mooring near Handsacre was the overhanging oak tree. It must be a good year for acorns. Every hint of a breeze brought a shower of them down onto the roof, sounding like a machine gun going off!

Unfortunately the mooring near Kings Bromley suffered the same drawback. It’s a pity that acorns aren’t good in a pie, we had plenty of them.

This morning it was a fairly short trip down into Fradley Junction. Off at about 09:30, through Ravenshaw Wood and arriving at Woodend Lock soon after 10:00.

Ravenshaw Wood.

It’s above Woodend that the proposed HS2 rail link will cross the canal the first time.

Around here somewhere, out of the woods, across the field, over the canal…..

….then again, through the woods on the left and over the canal the second time as it heads for Shadehouse Lock.

I’m not going to comment on the rights and wrongs of the project. Plenty of people, with far more knowledge than I have, have already done so….. Pros..... Cons

Leaving Woodend Lock with a short queue going up.

We dropped down the locks to the junction, through Junction Lock and moored on the VM above Keepers Lock.

Mags keeping the gongoozlers entertained in Junction Lock.

On the services was NB L’Atitude Adjustment, heading back to Pilings Lock Marina after a summer down south. They are a Canadian couple who we’ve moored next to when we’ve used the marina as a base.

Just got tied up and a gentleman came along the path, saying how much he enjoyed reading the blog. Good to meet you Roger. The kettle went on and we spent an hour or so chatting about boats and things generally.

Then it was down the engine ’ole to have a look for a dodgy alternator. One of the charge warning lights was glowing this morning as we headed down. Not as much of a problem as you might think. With the Stirling AtoB battery manager one alternator will still charge both banks, it just takes longer.

We have a bad one, it’s only chucking out around 12 amps although the voltage is OK at 14.2v. On with the spare and everything is hunky-dory. We seem to have alternators fail with monotonous regularity. The charge controller makes them work harder and I reckon there’s maybe not enough airflow around them. They do get mighty hot! I’m going to look at ducting some cool air, fan driven, to them. The fan will only run when the engine is running.

Another winter project.

Locks 4, miles 3½

Roll on Winter!

No, I’m being entirely selfish. But it has been VERY busy today. Every man, his wife and his dog seemed to be out on the water. This is probably the last warm weekend of the year, so who can blame them?

Dawn today, wonderful.

Literally

There have been some high spots. Thanks to the chap from NB Bijou who complemented me on the blog this morning. This is the second time in a couple of days. The crew on NB Cleddau  hailed us yesterday as our boats passed in opposite directions. Thanks, folks. And we got moored up in Rugeley just past the bridge up to Morrisons, so didn’t have to walk miles with the shopping.

Leaving Rugeley moorings we caught up with a couple of boats. A canaltime hire boat followed by a day boat were going so slowly that I had to keep dropping out of gear.

We got us a (slow) convoy.

This is so unusual. These types of boats usually don’t have a slow speed. Full throttle in forward or reverse is the more normal operating protocol.

When the day boat decided to overtake near the Ash Tree pub, the hire boat swung out and hit their stern.  

We pulled in on the Spode Hall long term moorings to fill with water and allow them to get ahead, and were overtaken by another, not particularly old, boat. Either he’d a ring gone or a clogged injector. The blue haze in the opened out Armitage Tunnel was thicker than this morning’s dawn mist!

Queueing for Armitage “Tunnel”

Smokey one is in front.

We hung back, staying on tickover to let the convoy get ahead past the Armitage Shanks factory.

We kept meeting boats coming the other way, generally in the most awkward places, at blind bridge holes or narrow bends.

There are some sections of very restricted channel along here.

One of the narrow bits.

We toddled on through Handsacre and moored just out of the village. We’d planned to get to Shadehouse, but with this many boats about the popular moorings above the lock are likely to be full.

Locks 0, miles 6¼

The Trent and Mersey is 93½ miles long from Derwent Mouth to Preston Brook, and climbs 320 feet through 40 locks. Then it descends again from the Stoke summit, 340 feet through the remaining 36.

The lock count per mile is considerably higher on the northern side to Preston Brook, averaging around 1. Most of these are concentrated in the section from Harecastle Tunnel to Wheelock, averaging almost 4 locks per mile. In contrast the slope from the summit to Derwent Mouth is gentler and more consistent, so the locks are spaced more regularly and at greater intervals. This is because the canal follows the natural course of the Trent valley, rather than an artificial route selected for the needs of industry. See, nature knows best….