Mike Stevens' UK Inland Waterways Pages

TRIP REPORTS : THE FELIS CATUS YEARS

SPRING & SUMMER 1980

Part 4 : Main summer cruise

Click on a picture to see a bigger version with a caption

We started the cruise from Hawkesbury Junction.

Mike, Wendy & Caligula the cat came up from London in the morning to find the boat safe & well where we had left it at Hawkesbury junction a few days previously. We did some minor shopping at Sutton's Stop and I fixed a metal grille over the front cabin window to keep the cat in at night while giving us ventilation. Caligula was embarrassed by having to wear a harness.

We set off at 12:24, slowed by anglers. We made for Marston junction and passed onto the Ashby Canal, where we found more anglers, and now shallows as well, but remarkably pretty scenery. We stopped at Stoke Golding wharf and arranged a gas-bottle change for tomorrow. There were two beautiful dogs there, an Alsatian and a Pyrenean. We were offered a night's mooring but preferred to go on to the field mooring in case Caligula upset the dogs. We arrived at Stoke Golding field moorings at 17:03, both very tired. We walked into the village for an excellent dinner at The George & Dragon which now had Ansell's on hand-pump. The Landlord arranged to have a loaf for us tomorrow lunchtime. His father, whom we'd met and admired two years before, died the previous January, aged 92 and the oldest man in the village.

It was a beautiful morning and we started at 07:03. We saw lots of herons. There had been a lot of dredging on this canal since we were last there. We had breakfast on the move. By Bosworth Field we saw moored the Ashby Canal Association's trip-boats, a delightful looking push-tug arrangement. Just past this, many wild roses were blooming, all white! We winded at Shackerstone and saw several kingfishers on the way back, or one being ubiquitous.

We stopped again at Stoke Golding field moorings, went for a good salad lunch at The George & Dragon and picked up the loaf we'd ordered. Then we went back to the boat for a lazy time before moving on to Stoke Golding wharf to change gas-bottles and use their loo point. The last stage of the day took us to Limekiln Bridge, outside Hinckley, at 18:20, where Wendy cooked

We started at 07:06 under an interesting sky. We saw many lapwings but ran into rain just before Marston Junction, where we joined the Coventry Canal and headed for Coventry itself. As we passed Hawkesbury junction Wendy did breakfast.

On the run into Coventry

We moored in Coventry Basin at 12:19 and had lunch at The Dog & Trumpet, then did some really horrible shopping. There was a good shopping precinct & market but the weather too hot & thundery and the market was full of half-witted men who tangled their feet in the trolley wheels. Wendy cooked dinner. During the evening we met a nice man from the Coventry C.S.. Dave joined at about 22:00.

At 07:02 Wendy did a brilliant reversing manoeuvre around moored boats to leave the basin. At Hawkesbury Junction we used the sani station. It was good to get out into the country again as we joined the Oxford Canal. Wendy cooked breakfast & I did lunch, both on the move (malignant soup boiled over). We had good close views of many swallows. On the banks the purple & cream of willow-herb and meadow-sweet was broken from time to time with cranesbills. There was a profusion of yellow and purple vetch, ragwort and feverfew both here and on the Coventry Canal.

On the North Oxford Canal. near Brinklow near Harborough Magna

We stopped above Hillmorton bottom lock to visit John Etheridge, who then ran the shop there, and from whom we had originally bought Felis Catus. His new boat, Jemson 2, was now in the pale sludgey green and orange that our boat was when we bought it from him. Met Serendipity coming out of Hillmorton middle lock. We carried on to Braunston and moored near the Stop at 17:46. Dave & I went to the chandlery at Ladyline for more flourescent tubes. Dave started fixing them while I cooked, then we went to the pub.

Caligula took Wendy for a walk at 05:30, which was fraught with incident. He thought he'd forced a cow to retreat (he spat, she went & grazed elsewhere) but was rather insulted by a moorhen. He is getting far too sophisticated about his harness & cord - hence an almost Gordian knot to tackle in one of the locks later in the day. At 07:02 we made a start in beautiful rosy, misty conditions with very still reflections. Dave spotted a donkey on the towpath. We headed south on the Grand Junction Canal, and before lock 3 found ourselves helping a hire-boat with an electrical problem. Dave started their engine using our jump-leads, and diagnosed the fault, but it needs a part we don't have. We agreed to escort them through the tunnel so that they could 'phone their base at Buckby. We breakfasted off bacon butties & Guinness in the tunnel.

Braunston Braunston Turn the start of the Grand Junction

We took on water before Buckby top lock and continued, sharing locks with two other boats. We met the lock-keeper, Duggie, who'd not had the new plastic elbow joint's he'd expected, as his new doctor depends on a sensible regime and drugs. At Heyford wharf Wendy served lunch that she'd cooked on the move, then she had a kip when we started off again. We used the sani station at Gayton junction and moored for the night at 17:44 at Blisworth, bridge 50, whence Dave went off home. I went to the pub with crew of the boat we'd helped that morning.

We set off at 08:04 and had only a short wait to hand the boat over to BW for ferrying through the tunnel, then we were taken by minibus to Stoke Bruerne, where we had a long wait, with Caligula protesting at being is his basket and hissing at dogs. The BW man who brought the boat through said some flattering things about her, so we gave him coffee. At Stoke Bruerne Ian joined and we lunched at The Boat.

In the afternoon we shared locks with Fenny Drayton, one of the boats we'd locked with down Buckby the previous day. The wind made steering difficult. We used the sani station at Cosgrove and went on to Wolverton station, where we moored on the towpath side. Ian & I looked for a decent access point and found some steps on the non-towpath side, so Wendy brought the boat across there. Our colleague Peter & his girl-friend Ann joined and we went on to moor opposite The New Inn, New Bradwell, where Wendy cooked "battlefield fish".

It was sunny to start with and we were away at 06:42, which Wendy regarded as a civilised starting time. We used the sani station above Fenny Stratford lock and continued in cloudy, windy & showery weather to Leighton Buzzard where we had lunch at The Golden Bell and dealt with launderette & shopping. By the time we were ready to move off again, the weather cleared up again so we kept going quite late, to moor at 20:37 at the Ship Stores, Marsworth. I cooked dinner and we went to The Red Lion after it.

A favourable weather forecast persuaded us to head for Aylesbury and we set off at 07:41. On the Aylesbury Arm we met nbs Hadley Rail (with some new signwriting) & Duke coming the other way. At Aylesbury basin we used the sani station and Wendy left to go to Wiltshire for a few days. On the way back Ann served lunch on the move, and the day's cruise ended up at The Lock & Quay, Bulbourne. We went to a film show on Duke. The audience consisted mainly of owners of historic boats, and when we saw the film Painted Boats (filmed around Stoke Bruerne in 1948 or so) we played the game of spotting one another's boats. Then we had supper in Ken's pub. He has an excellent evening menu - much better than at lunchtimes. Caligula is now very much at home, although he keeps buried while we're under way. Hotel boats Mabel & Forget-me-not were also here. Mabel is a wooden No.1 boat, Forget-me-not, also wooden is a Nurser's change-boat, used at times by Joe Skinner. Both date from 1928. (This is what we were told by the hotel boat skipper - we heard a different version a couple of days later.)

It was a grey, drizzly start to the day. We started at 08:01 locked down to Berka with Halcyon, who managed to bend one of our rubbing guards by catching it in their air intake. At Castle wharf, Berkhamsted, I repaired the rubbing strake while the others shopped. Then we had beer at The Rising Sun followed by lunch on board. We spent afternoon & evening helping Mike Foster with ice-boat Samson on a derailed slip-way trolley. Owen & Iris Bryce on Bixwere also there. Dinner was a combined effort by Ann & me.

Through the last few locks we were well back in a queue behind Mike Stimpson's boat Spirit towing a large houseboat. They stuck under the bridge at Coppermill. By Widewater lock (seen right) we were ahead of them and waiting to lock down with Spirit when the broad-beam Farnworth (a converted Leeds & Liverpool short-boat) appeared coming the other way. We moored at 20:40 below Widewater lock and went to The Halfway House (since renamed) after dinner, which was cooked by Ann.

We started at 08:26 and Ian served breakfast on the move. At Cowley lock we flushed through our drinking-water system and used the sani station, then went on to Grand Union Cruisers (then a hire-fleet base at what is now The Turning Point) to buy diesel. Peter & Ann had thought of leaving at Hayes station, but decided to continue to Little Venice and made lunch on the move as we went down the Paddington Branch. We moored at Browning's Pool at 15:57. We all went home, then I came back as cat-sitter overnight.

Roger, Chris, Dave & I were on board preparing the boat for the National : miscellaneous repairs including rebuilding a whole section of dodgy hand-rail & a lot of painting. We took a beer-break at the Warwick Castle. Ian & I were on board overnight.

Wendy, Ian, Roger & I spent the morning doing more painting & odds & ends in less suitable weather than yesterday. We had lunch at The Warwick Castle before BW foreman Pat Hendricks chivvied us out of the Pool onto the visitor moorings. Wendy & I were on board overnight after a quick dash home.

We set off at 13:03 with Wendy, Roger, Ian , me & Caligula on board, used the sani station and headed east on the Regent's Canal, then via the Hertford Union to the River Lee and the National Rally site at Walthamstow Marshes, arriving there at 18:12. We were due to spend a few days as one of the check-points for boats arriving at the Rally.

Wendy left for home and the rest of us set off at 08:07 to go to Springfield Marina to use their facilities before coming back to the Rally site, where Dave joined. Then we moved down to the corner of the Lee and Duckett's, and started work as the check-point for boats arriving at the Rally.

Reliance

The day was spent on our mooring, checking in arrivals.

We set off at 09:03 back to our Rally mooring, then stopped being Harbourmaster's Assistants and became Lambeth Players, performing the Mummers Play, St George & the Dragon several times each day. In the evening Roger, Chris & various other folk came on board to take part in the illuminated procession.

Wendy re-joined. In the afternoon we took or colleagues from Lambeth Players' for a trip up & down the moorings, winding beyond Pond Lane at one end and Springfield Marina (where we used their facilities) at the other. On returning to our mooring we found the police there with an SOS from Mike Foster who wanted a rescue crew for a boat stuck in floods on the Nene. We managed to persuade the harbourmaster to give us an early departure slot to dash to Berkhamsted, and set off at 18:48, following nbs President & Northwich through the Hertford Union and moored on the Regent's above Old Ford lock at 21:05.

We started at 06:17 and had breakfast on the move. Chris left at Camden, Roger at Maida Hill. We joined the Paddington Branch and had lunch at The Hamborough Tavern, Southall. Then we went through Bull's Bridge onto the Grand Junction main line, stopped before Batchworth lock to use the sani station, then continued in company with Milton Lane in the cruiser Edward Bear, on his way back to the Leeds & Liverpool after winning the Robert Aickman Award. He had cruised to the National via a lot of European waterways. Both boats moored at 20:41 at Cassio Bridge, where we found the pub suburban & disappointing.

We set off, still in company with Edward Bear, at 07:25 and arrived at Castle wharf, Berkhamsted, at 15:19. Wendy, Caligula and I went off in the van with one of the boatyard staff to join Mike Foster at Irthlingborough on Grumbuskin. The story of our trip up the Nene in flood conditions can be found by clicking here.