This morning we scraped ourselves out of bed just before the sun rose, whilst it was still around 4 degrees outside and set off towards Foxton locks. With 177 miles and 91 locks to go, we needed to cover some ground in order to have a chance of making it to Sheffield in time. The weather was better than the forecast had predicted, in that it wasn't tipping with rain. The wind, however, was rather strong and made for some interesting steering.
Nathan put me to shame and took the tiller for the early part of the journey, steering the boat through Husbands Bosworth tunnel without so much as touching the wall. The boy is a natural!
We made good time up to Foxton, arriving early enough to not end up queueing for the staircase locks, and were heading towards Leicester with full tanks of diesel and water and 10 bags of coal on the roof before lunch time - much earlier than I had anticipated. The wind made reversing and turning the boat rather interesting, but we escaped unscathed and wound our way through the reeds towards Leicester. Saddington tunnel became rather fun when the torch battery ran out, and I completed the second half of it in complete darkness, lining up the vent on the front of the boat with the tunnel exit in the distance in order to steer a (reasonably) straight line.
On the map, the locks heading towards Leicester appear to have small gaps in between, at least enough to catch your breath and have a cup of tea, however in practise they are really close together.....at least, all of them except the ones where I said to Nathan "it's OK, you bring the boat and I will walk to the next locks, it's not far". Unfortunately, it was quite far (about half a mile maybe) and I ended up running alongside the boat, unable to back on for all the reeds growing alongside the towpath. Still, I guess the exercise did me good and it gave us something to giggle at for a couple of minutes.
Pressing North towards Leicester, it became clear that we weare heading towards an urban area as we needed a British Waterways key to unlock the anti-chav devices on the paddles of the grafitti-covered lock gates. Even the sheep didn't have much respect for them (see photo).
The wind continued to blow, and we worked our way down the seemingly never-ending chain of locks until darkness, finally mooring near Wigston in Leicester as darkness fell. Within minutes of mooring it began raining quite heavily, and so we were both glad that we had stopped when we did.
Feeling rather hungry I managed to burn the sticky lemon chicken which I was cooking for dinner, but we were both so hungry it didn't really seem to matter. Our muscles are aching, our feet are sore, but we now have only 156 miles and 66 locks to go.
Fingers crossed that the weather man gets it wrong again tomorrow, as he says it's going to rain heavily all day tomorrow. I'd rather have the wind!
Anyway, that's enough for one night, we have a bottle of wine to finish before bed, and the river Soar to explore when the sun rises tomorrow morning. Oooh and maybe a bacon buttie.
Saturday, 4 October 2008
Friday night - takeoff!
After leaving Gap and making a brief call at Hillmorton, Nathan and I set sail Northwards.
The cruise to South Kilworth took about an hour, leaving plenty of time to chop firewood and check the route to the pub on the map before darkness fell. The path forked, and all we needed to do was take a left turn along a bridleway...what could possibly have gone wrong?! Personally, I blame my mum, as whilst chatting to her on the phone about the plan for the coming few days, we managed to miss the turning and walk round 2 sides of a triangle. Fortunately the walk was worth it as The White Hart in South Kilworth had locally reared 12oz Ribeye steaks on their specials board and some rather tasty Wythcwood brewery Big Bertha on tap to warm us back up.
The walk back to the boat afterwards was fairly uneventful, as we managed to find the right path and stumble along it in the dark back to the safety of Muddy Waters and build a fire.
The cruise to South Kilworth took about an hour, leaving plenty of time to chop firewood and check the route to the pub on the map before darkness fell. The path forked, and all we needed to do was take a left turn along a bridleway...what could possibly have gone wrong?! Personally, I blame my mum, as whilst chatting to her on the phone about the plan for the coming few days, we managed to miss the turning and walk round 2 sides of a triangle. Fortunately the walk was worth it as The White Hart in South Kilworth had locally reared 12oz Ribeye steaks on their specials board and some rather tasty Wythcwood brewery Big Bertha on tap to warm us back up.
The walk back to the boat afterwards was fairly uneventful, as we managed to find the right path and stumble along it in the dark back to the safety of Muddy Waters and build a fire.
Friday, 3 October 2008
Last minute mission extension
Wow, I have just managed to secure myself a winter mooring in Sheffield basin, which means I need to cruise slightly further up the tidal Trent than initially planned. So we have moved back slightly in terms of progress.
The mission now stands at 180 miles and 91 locks! More miles, less locks, but canalplan now says 8 days again. And the weatherman is still bringing bad news. Will I make it? Stay tuned to find out!
Thank you to everyone at Gap for the nice messages, card, wine and money - I will likely put it towards my anchor or some more wine for the journey.
Let the adventure begin!
Becky
x
The mission now stands at 180 miles and 91 locks! More miles, less locks, but canalplan now says 8 days again. And the weatherman is still bringing bad news. Will I make it? Stay tuned to find out!
Thank you to everyone at Gap for the nice messages, card, wine and money - I will likely put it towards my anchor or some more wine for the journey.
Let the adventure begin!
Becky
x
Thursday, 2 October 2008
A smell of adventure in the air
Tomorrow is my last day in my current job, before I move on to pastures new. Tonight was probably the hardest of all my evening cruising missions so far, despite not involving any locks, tunnels or other obstructions to delay my progress. It was also the most enjoyable in some ways.
After work, I drove to the next mooring spot, about 5 miles further North, and then cycled back to the boat. The thinking behind this was that I would rather cruise as the light was starting to drop than cycle on the roads, and I knew that I was pushing it for time as I was aiming to cover almost twice the distance I had managed last night.
Things started well - 45 mins to walk/cycle back to the boat seemed reasonable, considering that the towpath in some places wasn't really wide (or safe) enough to even walk along, let alone cycle.
Upon my return to the boat, I discovered that my mooring pins had been ripped from the ground, presumably by a passing boat going a little too quickly. Still, no harm was done and the wind was blowing in the right direction, pushing my boat against the bank.
I set off cruising, and made reasonable progress although the canal was quite overgrown and weeded up in places. The light began to drop, reminding me of the beautiful sunsets I have seen from these villages in the past. I took a few photos, and remembered the tree in Yelvertoft which I took a photo of last winter when it was bare of leaves, sitting against a pretty purple skyline. Today, that same tree is covered in greenery. I took a photo anyway.
As it got progressively darker, I realised that time was very much against me, again. The more sensible part of me realised that I could just stop, tie up, and continue to my car at sunrise before work, however there didn't seem much fun in that and the new box of firelighters was in my car. Also, the weather man isn't promising nice things for tomorrow morning, and so I suspect that a half-hour cruise at 6:30am might not seem too appealing.
I eventually arrived at my pre-determined mooring at 8pm, around 45 minutes after it had become what most people would class as "dark". The canal here is so deserted that it really did feel like I was cruising into the wilderness, miles from another soul. In reality, I'm only a mile or so from the nearest village, but it feels further.
There was a minor drama as I came to moor up, as my centre rope came loose from the cleat which attaches it to the top of the boat, whilst I was stood on the bank. Fortunately there was nobody around to see me fly backwards and land on my bum, so I got up pretty quickly and managed to jump back onto the boat and reattach the rope. Mental note to self: attach rope properly before going near rivers.
The fire is now lit, the lamb stew has been eaten (well, some of it), and the rain has begun pattering quite heavily on the roof. I'm glad I didn't plan on walking far before work tomorrow.
For the next week or so rain will be no excuse not to cruise, but right now I'm glad that I am curled up on my sofa, watching the flames in the fire and sipping a glass of red. It's a hard life, but somebody has to do it.
After work, I drove to the next mooring spot, about 5 miles further North, and then cycled back to the boat. The thinking behind this was that I would rather cruise as the light was starting to drop than cycle on the roads, and I knew that I was pushing it for time as I was aiming to cover almost twice the distance I had managed last night.
Things started well - 45 mins to walk/cycle back to the boat seemed reasonable, considering that the towpath in some places wasn't really wide (or safe) enough to even walk along, let alone cycle.
Upon my return to the boat, I discovered that my mooring pins had been ripped from the ground, presumably by a passing boat going a little too quickly. Still, no harm was done and the wind was blowing in the right direction, pushing my boat against the bank.
I set off cruising, and made reasonable progress although the canal was quite overgrown and weeded up in places. The light began to drop, reminding me of the beautiful sunsets I have seen from these villages in the past. I took a few photos, and remembered the tree in Yelvertoft which I took a photo of last winter when it was bare of leaves, sitting against a pretty purple skyline. Today, that same tree is covered in greenery. I took a photo anyway.
As it got progressively darker, I realised that time was very much against me, again. The more sensible part of me realised that I could just stop, tie up, and continue to my car at sunrise before work, however there didn't seem much fun in that and the new box of firelighters was in my car. Also, the weather man isn't promising nice things for tomorrow morning, and so I suspect that a half-hour cruise at 6:30am might not seem too appealing.
I eventually arrived at my pre-determined mooring at 8pm, around 45 minutes after it had become what most people would class as "dark". The canal here is so deserted that it really did feel like I was cruising into the wilderness, miles from another soul. In reality, I'm only a mile or so from the nearest village, but it feels further.
There was a minor drama as I came to moor up, as my centre rope came loose from the cleat which attaches it to the top of the boat, whilst I was stood on the bank. Fortunately there was nobody around to see me fly backwards and land on my bum, so I got up pretty quickly and managed to jump back onto the boat and reattach the rope. Mental note to self: attach rope properly before going near rivers.
The fire is now lit, the lamb stew has been eaten (well, some of it), and the rain has begun pattering quite heavily on the roof. I'm glad I didn't plan on walking far before work tomorrow.
For the next week or so rain will be no excuse not to cruise, but right now I'm glad that I am curled up on my sofa, watching the flames in the fire and sipping a glass of red. It's a hard life, but somebody has to do it.
I hate the BW mooring tender process
It's official, I hate it. Just lost out on the mooring I really really wanted up North, for the sake of a pesky £65. Not £65 a month, no, just £65 per year! Gutted.
Moorings are serious business. There has to be a better way of deciding who gets them. The amount I tendered was significantly higher than the guide price, but I would have happily gone up another £100 if I had known that it would be required in order to secure the mooring.
Worst of all, there are no other moorings up for tender in the area I need to be in, so I can't even have another go yet. Looks like I will continue towpath surfing for a little while yet, then...
BW are never going to read my blog or care what I think, but I really don't think tenders are a suitable way of distributing moorings. The idea behind it all is clearly to push the prices up and ensure that boating becomes an elitist rich-man's game, and that really isn't what it should be about.
Anyway, end of rant. I didn't get my mooring, and am somewhat annoyed as I lost out by such a small amount.
Moorings are serious business. There has to be a better way of deciding who gets them. The amount I tendered was significantly higher than the guide price, but I would have happily gone up another £100 if I had known that it would be required in order to secure the mooring.
Worst of all, there are no other moorings up for tender in the area I need to be in, so I can't even have another go yet. Looks like I will continue towpath surfing for a little while yet, then...
BW are never going to read my blog or care what I think, but I really don't think tenders are a suitable way of distributing moorings. The idea behind it all is clearly to push the prices up and ensure that boating becomes an elitist rich-man's game, and that really isn't what it should be about.
Anyway, end of rant. I didn't get my mooring, and am somewhat annoyed as I lost out by such a small amount.
2 long miles
The journey from Crick to Yelvertoft is relatively short (2 miles) by water. For reasons that escape me now, I decided last night that it made more sense to cycle back from Yelvertoft to Crick by road rather than following the canal. Perhaps I remembered the long, straight road that links the two being shorter than it actually is, but it was a LONG ride back, with the dark fast approaching and time not on my side. It's a good thing I have lights on my bike. Still, 2 more miles chipped off the total - only 156 more to go now!
Last night wasn't an easy one; I also ended up lighting my fire with kindling and BBQ lighter fluid as I had run out of firelighters. On the plus side, I managed to cook a rather tasty-looking lamb stew on top of the fire once it finally got going, and plan to eat it for dinner tonight - yum.
More items to add to the list of stuff I really should own for this mission and don't: Firelighters, bike pump, reflective cycling stuff, anchor, engine oil. stern grease, diesel, coal, lifejackets....
Last night wasn't an easy one; I also ended up lighting my fire with kindling and BBQ lighter fluid as I had run out of firelighters. On the plus side, I managed to cook a rather tasty-looking lamb stew on top of the fire once it finally got going, and plan to eat it for dinner tonight - yum.
More items to add to the list of stuff I really should own for this mission and don't: Firelighters, bike pump, reflective cycling stuff, anchor, engine oil. stern grease, diesel, coal, lifejackets....
Wednesday, 1 October 2008
Light at the end of the tunnel. Twice, in 2 days!
Following on from my success in Braunston tunnel on Monday, I continued my journey yesterday from Norton junction, up through the staircase locks at Watford, and then on through the 1528yd tunnel to Crick.
The journey up the Watford locks wasn't the most pleasant. I had a brief wait to allow another boat down the flight before I could begin my ascent, and then the heavens opened leaving me to work up the locks in the tipping rain. By the time I reached the summit I was more than ready to go inside and make a warm cuppa, but with time and daylight against me decided instead to push on to Crick.
Given that my torch ran out of power in Braunston, I was more than aware that the same would happen in Crick tunnel but decided to go for it regardless. This time, I didn't brush the tunnel walls once - an achievement, considering that it was this very tunnel that had destroyed the corner of my cratch cover last time I passed through and had contributed significantly to my somewhat-irrational tunnel phobia.
There are now only 158 miles and 89 locks to go, and the only tunnels left are relatively short in comparison to the two which I have just completed. Hopefully the tides and weather will be in my favour. The forecast still doesn't look promising, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
The journey up the Watford locks wasn't the most pleasant. I had a brief wait to allow another boat down the flight before I could begin my ascent, and then the heavens opened leaving me to work up the locks in the tipping rain. By the time I reached the summit I was more than ready to go inside and make a warm cuppa, but with time and daylight against me decided instead to push on to Crick.
Given that my torch ran out of power in Braunston, I was more than aware that the same would happen in Crick tunnel but decided to go for it regardless. This time, I didn't brush the tunnel walls once - an achievement, considering that it was this very tunnel that had destroyed the corner of my cratch cover last time I passed through and had contributed significantly to my somewhat-irrational tunnel phobia.
There are now only 158 miles and 89 locks to go, and the only tunnels left are relatively short in comparison to the two which I have just completed. Hopefully the tides and weather will be in my favour. The forecast still doesn't look promising, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
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