Bye Bye Curly

On Thursday we left Braunston and headed towards Newbold on the other side of Rugby.

 

On route we came across this hold up. The boat on the right was aground and the other boats were trying to pull him off. After many minutes of trying they eventually pulled him off. It turned out that the boater that got stuck was Terry Darlington from Waterworld and Narrow dog to Carcassonne fame......... Oh well it happens to the best of us.

 

Our mooring at Newbold. We were very lucky to get it as moorings on the northern Oxford canal  are as rare as Hens teeth. It was right outside of the Barley Mow pub and the landlord kindly let Chloe park the car there.

                                  Sunday soon came and it was time to say goodbye to Curly.

We have had a very good two and a half weeks with Curly and she has been the perfect little shipmate. So it was tears all around (even me) when she left....Love you Curly and see you soon...........and you Chloe xxxx

Later that day as soon as one went another arrived. number 1 son Jamie. And it wasn't long before he was on the tiller.......A natural just like his sister.

                                                                 Double trouble .

A boat name my Dad might like.

 

               Passed this tug boat on the way. What a good place to keep the generator.

On Monday after saying goodbye to number 1 son we spent the night at Hawkesbury junction where the oxford canal joins the Coventry canal. We were not at all impressed with this part of the Oxford canal . It is very badly overgrown and it looks like no maintenance has taken place for many years. There is also a great lack of moorings. Lets hope the Coventry canal is better than this one.

 

 Tuesday morning and we pulled pins at 08.30 and went through the lock at Hawkesbury junction. It drops you the great distance of about 18 inches and then it was a right turn on the Coventry canal towards Atherstone. What a great improvement from the Oxford. Not so overgrown and plenty of moorings available. Above is a canal side garden complete with loads of statues.

                            The same garden with a policeman telling boaters to slow down.

                                                            Anyone fancy a project.

                                                                       Or maybe this one.

                                        Passed this takeaway on the canal. What a great name.

  We found this sign when we stopped for water at Hartshill ............  I think you should be OK to cross Carolyn.

                                Inca with washing out on our mooring for the night at Atherstone.

 A picture for David . Carolyn's galley. Same as a kitchen in a house .It is hand built out of solid oak with Pippy oak inlaid panels just like the the rest of Inca. We have all the mod cons. There is a 4 burner hob , oven with separate grill , full size fridge , microwave and loads of storage. Although a bit small Carolyn can cook some amazing food in there.

 With winter on the way and not much sun for the solar panels we thought it best to get another means of producing electric. Instead of running an expensive boat engine just to charge the batteries we now have the benefit of this new Honda generator. It will run for up to 10 hours on 4 litres of fuel so is fairly frugal on fuel.

Tomorrow we intend to have an early start as right in front of us is the Atherstone flight of 11 locks that will drop us down the 80 feet on our way to Fazeley junction and then up to the Trent and Mersey canal

                                                Happy days

 

 

Braunston

It was an early start on Saturday morning as we wanted to get through Blisworth before the festival started.

           07.00 on Saturday morning coming up through the top lock into Stoke Bruerne.

We got through Blisworth tunnel without meeting another boat and soon got through Blissworth although it was tight in places with boats moored 3 abreast.
We topped up with water at Gayton junction and then moved on to Bugbrooke.

 As soon as we arrived at Bugbrooke Curly wanted to go on a bike ride and look at the trains. So we rode back to the footbridge which crosses the railway.

 The leaning Pendolino trains travelling at over 100 mph.

Monday morning and it was off again, this time heading to Whilton where we wanted to pick a few things up in the chandlers. On route we stopped off on the moorings above the church at Weedon bec for Carolyn and Curly to pick up a few supplies in the village.

                                             It looked like someone was living on this boat.

We forgot how noisy it was to moor at Whilton as you have the M1 motorway on one side of you and the railway on the other so it was an early night on Monday and an early start on Tuesday as we wanted to get to Braunston . The journey involved 13 locks and one tunnel.

                                            Duck on guard at the Buckby flight of 7 locks.

                                             Curly thought this poster was very funny.

                    And Carolyn thought this boat name was funny ........   but I don't get it .

We met 4 boats going through the 2024 yards of Braunston tunnel and the first one we met was right on the kink in the tunnel. Even with us going at tick over and the other boat going very slow we did touch our bows.  We soon arrived at the top of Braunston locks . The 6 locks drop you down 35 ft into the village of Braunston. There was a cart volunteer on duty on the flight but all he did was stood back and watch us lock all the way down through the flight. Most of the volunteers we have met elsewhere have been very helpful.
When we eventually arrived at Braunston we managed to get a mooring just along from The Mill house pub .So the evening was spent having a meal in the pub.

On Wednesday we walked the half a mile into Braunston village to get some meat and home made pickle at the local butchers.

                                    Curly under going training by her expert Nan in how to shop.

It was then back to Inca and we pulled pins at 10.30 and left The Grand Union canal and headed north on the Oxford canal towards Rugby.

                                    Our mooring for the night just before Hillmorton locks.

Tomorrow we will go through the locks and travel through Rugby as on Friday we have number 1 daughter Chloe coming to pick up Curly. So we will soon have to find somewhere safe for her to park my old car. (did I mention before she got it for free).

See you on Friday Chloe...............

                                                        Happy days

Stoke Bruerne

On Tuesday morning it was an early start as we wanted to cover the 14 miles to Cosgrove. On route we stopped at Fenny Stratford to take on water and get rid of rubbish .

Just as you leave Fenny Stratford you pass this factory which makes flavourings for foods. You get all sorts of lovely aromas when you pass.

 What a name for a boat. We passed this boat at Milton Keynes (Apparently it's the name of a beer from the USA)

 

On route we had another run in with a Wyvern hire boat. This idiot pulled into the side to moor up. So we passed him in the centre of the canal. He then changed his mind and decided not to stop .The idiot pulled out and went into the side of us. Yet another scratch to be filled in.

 

Then it was all the way around Milton Keynes with a stop at Wolverton for Carolyn and Curly to do a Tesco shop.

                             Curly with no fear of heights going over the Cosgrove aqueduct.

We had a quiet night at Cosgrove and on Wednesday we had another early start to travel the short distance to Grafton .

Soon after mooring at Grafton it was out with the fishing rod and Curly soon started catching fish. We spent most of the day fishing and ended up with over 20 fish mostly small Bream, Roach and Perch.

The evening was spent having one of my famous (burnt) barbecues.

 

                                    The evening was rounded off with a spot of Bat watching.

Friday we moved on to Stoke Bruerne as we wanted to have a look around the canal museum.We got a good mooring 2 locks below the village on the 24 hour moorings.(There are signs up to say that Cart (Canal and River Trust) will soon be charging £25 a night if you over stay!).

                                                       Our mooring at Stoke Bruerne.

        Carolyn in the Canal museum imagining what we would have looked like a 150 years ago.

                                    Curly enjoyed looking at all the old painted canal ware.

The day was rounded off with Carolyn riding on Curly's electric scooter. She enjoyed it so much now she wants one.

We plan to make another early start tomorrow as after the 2 top locks at Stoke we have to go through the 3000 yards of the Blisworth tunnel and there is also a big canal festival on at Blisworth this weekend .So the canal is going to be very busy.
 We then plan to move onto Bugbrooke where we will remain until Monday.

                                                   Happy days

 

                                       

Bye mum

On Saturday morning the girls had a bike ride up to the shop in Stoke Hammond to get some milk and a newspaper for me.... Just 2 items.

After an hour they returned with milk but no newspaper "Oh we forgot it, We must do a list next time" they said ......

                                        The afternoon was spent doing towpath hairdressing.

                                                                 That looks better.

     Sunday morning arrived and it was time for Chloe to go back down to Devon....Bye mum see you in 2 weeks.

                                          When we got back to Inca this boat passed us.

                 The owner says he uses the back as a wine cellar.....Now that's got me thinking.

                                       Please Carolyn.........."Can I have one of those for Inca"

After a couple of hours of fishing for fish and catching nothing Curly decided to do some magnet fishing. This is done with a sea searcher magnet which is very powerful.

                                              And all she caught was a few rusty nails.

With rain being forecast for Monday we have decided to spend another day at Stoke Hammond but will move on Tuesday when the good weather returns and head towards Cosgrove. We will need to refill with water and get rid of rubbish so hopefully we should be able to do it on our way through Fenny Stratford.

                                     SOLAR UPDATE

 

With the rain on Monday it gave me the opportunity to fit an extra battery to the domestic battery bank. I have fitted an additional 110 amp battery . With the solar panels fully charging the batteries by mid morning in full sun it seemed a shame not to harness the energy.  We now have 5 batteries at 110 amps giving us 550 amps of power when fully charged. The only thing you have to be careful with is that you do not let the batteries go below 50% of charge as this will damage the batteries. So in reality we only have 225 amps of power to play with.We still have not needed to run the engine on days we stay still and we have really noticed how little diesel we now use....Result!
 
                                                Happy days

The visit

We had a very good weekend at Cowroast and had a lovely Barbecue on Sunday night with Keith and Lorraine of nb Kimberley Jo .
Monday morning and it was across Tring Summit and to the top of the Marsworth flight of locks. There was a queue of boats when we arrived at the top lock. Two boats had got stuck coming out of the second lock down. They had both gone into the lock with large fenders out and got wedged solid. Then one of the crew decided to go down the lock ladder to try and push them out. Matters got worse when he fell in the lock and had to be fished out. The lock keeper thought it was really funny, but it could have been a lot more serious.  After an hour or so the situation was sorted out and we got on our way.
We then spent a couple of days just along from Pitstone wharf where we spent the time polishing and sorting out all those boaty things on Inca.

A leaky lock at seabrook , due to a road cone stuck in the bottom of the gate.

 

  

On Wednesday it was an early start as we had 10 locks to do on the way to The Globe inn at Linslade as on Thursday we had number 1 daughter Chloe and number 1 granddaughter Abbie (Curly) coming to visit us.

As we approached Leighton Buzzard we met our good friends Stuart and Fran with their dog Zeb of nb The Boat. The decision was then made to spend the night here then move on in the morning. We had a good evening aboard Inca and had a good old chin wag, Oh! and a good old drink or two.
Thursday morning and Carolyn and Fran went off for some retail therapy while myself and Stuart stayed with the boats . When the girls returned we said our goodbyes (Hope to meet up with you again soon) and moved on to Linslade .

 

Passing the Wyvern hire boat base. We counted 14 out of their fleet of 35 boats on their moorings. We would have expected them all to be out at this time of the year. Checked their website and there are boats available including this one, a 4 berth available for the 2nd of August for 1 week at £1120. Maybe we should start renting out Inca at those prices.

                              After a 4 and a half hour journey from Devon Chloe and Curly arrived.

After even more shopping on Friday morning we eventually left Linslade and it wasn't long before Chloe jumped on the tiller. It was her first time travelling and steering a narrowboat and as the hire boat people say to all their customers after 5 minutes tuition you are so good at this you must have been born to captain a boat.

                        Chloe doing her first lock at Soulbury 3 locks under expert supervision.

We managed to get the same mooring we had last time at Stoke Hammond and wasted no time in chilling out next to the towpath.
And it wasn't long before we heard two speeding boats approaching us. It was two Wyvern hire boats racing and overtaking each other. As they got level with us they ran out of room and the one nearest to us hit the Bow of Inca. They were just having a bit of fun but i was quick to tell them (shout at the idiots) this not just our boat but it is our home. Luckily they only took a bit of paint off and no real damage was done.

We had planned to have a Barbie but as the wind had picked up we decided to cook aboard Inca. Curly was still so full of energy she didn't go to sleep until after 11 o clock.  Just wait till we get her working the locks. Then she will be begging us to go to bed early.

                                                 Happy days