Mike Stevens' UK Inland Waterways Pages

TRIP REPORTS : THE FELIS CATUS II YEARS

TO THE FENS AND BIRMINGHAM,
Summer & Autumn 1991

PART 2 : Buckby to the "National"

We resume the story at Long Buckby on the Grend Junction Canal.

Starting at 07:50 we ran to Braunston, and found that there is no longer a launderette there. Then we turned onto the northern Oxford Canal and stopped at Newbold wharf for a pub lunch. There was a launderette there (there is no more), but it was waiting for repairs

Before Ansty bridge we saw a familiar-looking boat. Wendy said "That boat's got a seat round the back deck just like the one we built on old Felis." I replied "There could be a reason for that." It was, in fact, our old boat, still owned by the same chap who had it after us and did a lot of work on the hull. He'd now also rebuilt the engine. We had a chat with him and his partner but didn't moor there because they had dogs whom we felt might not get on with our cats. So we went to the other side of the bridge. There was a road and houses, but the mooring was OK for the mogs & barbecue. We later made friends with Jeff Dennison (sadly now dead) who lived there. I wonder if he was there then? Arlecchino visited a feline friend, but came back a couple of times in the night and for breakfast.

An 08:14 start soon brought us to Hawkesbury junction where we used all the facilities and had breakfast. The steerer of Lady Godiva, a local community boat, gave us some rather unclear instructions as to where to find a launderette. Our first interpretation of his words was that it might be at bridge 10 at Longford, but it wasn't. We eventually found it near bridge 8 at Foleshill, over the bridge, on a corner by the second traffic lights. It was offering service washes. While Wendy was there, I did various jobs on the boat, including failing to find why the shower pump wasn't working.

We went on to Club Line, at Stoke basin and left the boat with them for a few days, as we wanted to go home (my brother & family were visiting from the states, and we were having a family gathering at my Dad's place) and needed somebody to sort out the problem with the shower pump.

48 hours later, Wendy, the cats & I came back to the boat at Club Line's base in Coventry. They'd not found anything wrong with the shower pump but suggested we didn't run it quite dry. One of the staff at Club Line admired our hull. At 14:47 we set off for Coventry Basin to provision for the trip. The shopping in Coventry was as hopeless as ever as regards bread and veg, but I did find some Angostura Bitters that we'd been looking for for a long time. That done, we retraced our steps and moored a bit beyond Hawkesbury Junction at 19:53. The cut was shallow and weedy from the Basin almost to bridge 11, and had many anglers, mostly good-tempered.

Both cats went out in the evening, Arlecchino after mice, Dido after moths. Both showed a tendency to dash off in all directions when strangers came along, especially vocal ones. We thought we'd have to keep them in their travelling boxes when the family come on board next day. The elex were feeble again in the evening.

We set off at 08:07 and passed through Marston junction onto the Ashby Canal, making slow progress because the Ashby is shallower and narrower than we remembered it. At the Lime Kilns Inn, outside Hinckley, we waited for our rendezvous with my brother and his family, who'd been delayed en route by road works. It was the first time they'd seen the new boat, and only the eldest, Samara, had ever known our old boat. Before they came on board the cats were put in travelling boxes, which they didn't like, to protect them from marauding small American children. The children met the cats in the front cabin, then the boxes were taken through and put on one of the bunks in the back cabin, where the cats would see out of the side hatch and have quiet visits from the older children from time to time.

Once we started, my older niece, Samara, then aged about 12, spent quite a lot of time on the steering deck with me, but mud & shallows made it not a good opportunity to teach her to steer. We stopped at the Stoke Golding field moorings for a barbecue, then winded at Sutton Cheney wharf and went back to the Lime Kilns Inn. There we liberated the cats from their boxes before going for a good dinner in the pub. After dinner the family drove back to Dad's place in Marlborough, the younger kids very sleepy.

Arlecchino was on & off the boat all night, but stayed ashore for the day, invisible & inaudible from 05:00, so I went back to London in hopes of picking up the proofs of Excalibur. The cat & I returned almost simultaneously, but too late for any cruising that day.

Arlecchino was back for breakfast at about 06:00 & we closed the exit. He was quite tired. We set off at 07:53 and didn't meet any boats on what was left of the Ashby, so had the narrow channel to ourselves. The day's theme was "hunt the pump-out". Magpie Line at Nuneaton were turning their fleet round, so couldn't do a pump-out until later. Our next hope was Valley Cruisers at Atherstone, but they were closed. We did mange to deal with other necessities (including elsan, so we were no longer quite so desperate) at Atherstone top lock. Then we continued, slowed to some extent by some wallies ahead of us, but helped by good interweaving uphill traffic. After the bottom lock I made some sandwiches on the move. Narrowcraft, at Alvecote, were closed when we got there. We moored not far from Tamworth, past bridge 75, at 18:38.

I felt cold, so we lit the stove, which made the rain showers later in the day more tolerable. The shower pump now worked OK, but in order to avoid running it dry we had to take out the last few drops of water using a mop. The day's boating began at 08:05 and it was not long before we passed through Fazeley Junction, where we saw our friend Peter Jackman who was taking Libby Bradshaw's Panacea to the National as his own boat, Triggs, was trapped on the Basingstoke which was closed because of water shortages.

Later we reached Fradley and turned north on the Trent & Mersey, where we found the locks in good condition, but the bottom gates very hard to close, and they didn't all have foot-grips. We stopped at Rugeley for shopping, finding a good new Safeway quite handy for the cut (possibly nearer bridge 66 than 67). Sadly it didn't have much organic food. As we started again we had the first day-time rain of the cruise. At 18:32 we tied up opposite Bishton Hall. There was a pretty harebell-scattered field, probably free from burrs, near the boat, where Arlecchino quickly caught a mouse. Then he crossed a spill-way to go hunting to a scrubbier bit of country, with lot of burrs! Dido was out and prancing a lot. The elex were getting worse.

By morning Arlecchino was more burrs than cat! We set off at 08:35 in pleasant conditions to Haywood Junction and the Staffs & Worcs. Anglo-Welsh, by the junction at last provided us with a pump-out & we took on water. We ate breakfast while they looked at our long-standing elex problem, diagnosed a dodgy battery and sold us a (second hand) replacement. Subsequent experience proved their diagnosis to have been right. We enjoyed a tape of medieval music over breakfast. While we wouldn't know until the next evening whether the elex problem was truly solved, it was good to have plenty of juice again when the engine wasn't running.

Our next stop was above Park Gate lock where we bought diesel at Teddesley Boats at a good price. We also bought various odds & ends at Midland Chandlers - expensive but a good range. From here we encountered long queues at locks (all the traffic heading for the "National") and got to know some of our fellow-travellers. We tied up for the night at 18:45 past Line Hill bridge and had another barbecue. This was another good cat place. We made extravagant use of elex to test whether they were now OK.

We started early, at 06:25, to try to get ahead of some of the queue, despite being slow getting up. The run to Gailey was consequently pleasantly crowd-free. We stopped for breakfast above Gailey lock and stopped at Hatherton junction to buy gas at Calf Heath Marina. At Coven, we copped out of the rat-race and tied up past M54 bridge for a long painting session on one side of the boat. Eventually we decided to stay here as it's not far from Aldersley, and freer of cattle, although the cats might not appreciate all the joggers, cyclists & dogs here. The cats didn't pester to go out until they realised it had turned into an overnight stop. Once again we barbecued

We aimed to start early, but not so early that we'd be the ones who had to deal with the usual overnight low pounds in the Wolverhampton flight. We were away at 06:57, soon passed Autherley junction and turned off at Aldersley to join the BCN. We were the 7^th boat in a procession up the locks but still found those low pounds in the middle of the flight. We were helped on our way by energetic lock-wheeling from old Canalway Cavalcade acquaintances Mr & Mrs Paddy Boyle on Salanste IV coming up behind us. Amazingly they, like us, were only 2-handed. At Wolverhampton top lock we had a pump-out by Associated Cruisers, then a heavy shopping trip. We noted that in future it would be better to go to Sainsbury's first.

Continuing on the main line, we found the usual summer weed between 'Hampton & Factory junction. We had thundery rain for much of this run, fortunately with a pause for Factory locks. We went down the locks, and turned off the main line at Dudley Port junction. At Tividale we did our final elsan, water & rubbish stop before arriving at the Festival, then we went through Netherton tunnel to Windmill End and to our Festival mooring before Powke bridge about a mile from Windmill End towards Hawne Basin. The rain stopped for a while after the tunnel. While we were waiting to turn into the part of the Dudley No.2 towards Coombeswood, we saw Anthony, one of the people who'd built the boat for us. We tied up there at 19:55, assisted by our friend Peter Jackman whom we'd seen a few days before at Fazeley. The mooring was not impossible for the cats.

We were at the National Waterways Festival at Windmill End, both involved in the Public Address and Awards teams. Dido had a cat-overboard incident on the Sunday evening. We were "lavendered" on Monday and the water tank lasted the Rally. Moored outboard of us was Tim Clarkson on Isis, who was trying to make up his mind where to take his boat and try to set up his decorative glass business. We encouraged him to come to London, where we have since got to know him quite well. He has since replaced Isis with a bigger boat, Maurice.