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