TRIP REPORTS

WINTER 2005/6
The maiden trip of Felis Catus III

Part 2 - the maiden voyage to Oldbury

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A few of the pictures on this page also occur elsewhere on my site.

We spent Christmas on the boat where she had been built at Ashwood. The next task was to move her to Oldbury for the final painting and signwriting. We were due to start this move on the Tuesday after Christmas.

Frozen in. Ian said we wouldn't be allowed to move the boats through the marina until it thaws, but tomorrow's forecast is hopeful. So we had one last day to try to get FC2 shipshape, which we didn't quite manage. We put the cat-flap on its "in only" setting. Tilly came back in the evening and settled down a bit reluctantly.

Ian had some friends lined up as lock-crew for us, and the ice was beginning to break up, so the harbourmaster said we could move at mid-day. There's no room to wind within the marina, and FC2 was facing the wrong way so we towed her out backwards with FC3. On cross-straps she towed remarkably straight. At the mouth of the basin we turned south on the Staffs & Worcs and Ian's friends John & Elaine and their two kids proved an efficient lock crew for the two locks there and the four Stourton locks on the Stourbridge Cut, which we joined at Stourton junction. We reached the top of Stourton locks at 14:45. With the delayed start we obviously weren't going to get up the 16, and John's local knowledge said that the top of Stourton locks was a quieter overnight mooring than Wordsley Junction, so we tied the two boats up there and Ian, Penny, John, Elaine & family went home. Mike cooked a turkey casserole for dinner.

Quite heavily iced in when we woke up. Wendy went into the village to look for a shop, but there isn't one. Ian & Penny arrived, bringing a few items of shopping they knew we needed. Even though the ice here was beginning to thaw, Ian had looked at the 16, where it was still solid, so there was no chance of progress today. They drove Wendy into Kinver for some more of the shopping she needed - but she found no Guardian or Radio Times. Later in the day Wendy went for a walk, but had to turn back very soon as the light was fading.

Still heavy ice, so once again we couldn't move, which was a pity because it was the last day that John, Elaine & family would be able to help before they headed for Skegness for New Year, But the forecast for next day sounded useful, so Ian would try to round up some more helpers and rendezvous with us at 09:30 tomorrow. With a double Bank Holiday coming up, more provisioning was called for, so Wendy got a taxi into Stourbridge for the purpose.

Mandy was now getting desperate to go out, but we kept the cat-flap closed as we can't risk somebody being on walkabout when the weather clears enough for us to move.

Ian & Penny turned up as scheduled, but hadn't recruited any lock-crew, although some "might join us later". We set off at 10:00 It was sunny and cold. Much of the ice had melted but there were places where there was still some around. There was no sign of any lock-crew when we reached the foot of the locks, so we went on with Ian leading the way in FC2, doing a lot of his own lock-working, while Penny did the lion's share of the lock-work. Round about noon at Buckpool it came on to rain and got even colder. At lock 3, Ian's friends John & Annette joined us - it was Annette's birthday treat! We reached the mooring at Brettell Lane industrial estate at 15:15.

Ian's workshop here is in the same complex as the former Delph Marine boatyard where FC2 was built, and we were moored within a few feet of the end of their slipway with FC2 a few boat-lengths ahead of us, so our time with her was finishing within a few yards of where it had started fifteen years before.

Ian was able to provide us with shore power overnight. We had a quick drink on board before the others departed to their various New Year & birthday celebrations ashore. We had a lazy dinner and listened to a good radio documentary about Mozart, Ian and Penny had offered to come next day to help us up the 9 locks, but couldn't promise anything before lunchtime.

Ian, Penny and friend Mark arrived by car at lunchtime, Ian feeling the effects of a good New Year's Eve. Our bag of dirty washing was transferred from FC2 to FC3 and Ian disposed of our rubbish. We set of by boat at 13:28, the others by car to meet us at the locks. Wendy served coffee while we went up the flight. We reached the top of Delph locks at 14:28, tied up and warmed ourselves with my home-made carrot & coriander soup.

Later the others walked back down the flight to retrieve their car, while we carried on, planning to go to Windmill End. At Park Head junction we crossed a boat from Hawne Basin, whose people helped us work Blowers Green lock. By the time we'd come up the lock the light was beginning to fade, and we'd clearly not make Windmill End in daylight, Since we remembered no decent moorings between here and there we decided to tie up at the junction (at 16:11), in front of the pump House.

Three views of Park Head junction

Before starting we used the water and rubbish points and I took some photos. We were under way at 10:18 with little ice in the cut in places, but nowhere fully iced over. At Windmill End junction we didn't stop but headed straight into Netherton Tunnel. We were pleased with the performance of the tunnel lamp, and found that the top navigation light makes a very good foresight to keep the boat lined up properly. At Dudley Port junction we turned right on the BCN Main Line and right again at Albion junction onto the Gower Branch.

We'd been making good time until we went into the bottom lock of the staircase at Brade's and found that neither of the top-end paddles was working. On the towpath side the paddle stand was broken, so the pinion wasn't held in contact with the rack. On the off-side the paddle rack seemed to be disconnected from the paddle. So we 'phoned the BW emergency number, which got a couple of engineers to us in about an hour. First they used a big jack as a clamp to jury-rig a repair to the towpath-side paddle to get us through, then started draining the whole staircase to make a proper repair to the off-side paddle.

We'd lost so much time here that we decided to cut out our planned trip to the facilities point at the Black Country Museum for a pump-out and head straight for Valencia Wharf, so we turned left instead of right at arrived opposite the wharf at 15:30. Ian joined us, but there was an unexpected boat in his paint dock, so we stayed on the towpath side overnight, to move into the paint-shed the next day.