Mike Stevens' UK Inland Waterways Pages

TRIP REPORTS : THE FELIS CATUS II YEARS

A MARATHON WEEKEND

August 1996

On Friday evening we were moored near Old Turn Junction when we discovered an electrical problem that had for some days prevented any charge getting to our domestic battery which was now nearly flat. A fine way to start the Marathon, with no time to fit a replacement relay!

In the morning we set off at 08:11 and went round to Gas Street Basin, one of the official starting points, and found a good number of boats waiting, including two other London boats we knew, Ben and Pamela II. Gary from Pamela II lent us a spare battery and a generator with what he hoped was enough petrol to give us at least one good charge.

After a bit of posing for the Press, we were off. Press & TV wanted shots of boats milling around at the start, so we all went and milled. A trio of Wilderness Boats danced. The boats at our starting-point immediately divided into those going down Farmer's Bridge locks and those, including ourselves, doing the loops off the Main Line. At Hockley Port we met the Wilderness boats, plus Pamela & the 2-man canoe taking part in the Marathon. As the day progressed our schedules diverged and we'd find boats we'd seen earlier meeting us again from all sorts of directions, as well as boats that had started at other parts of the BCN.

After the loops we went up Smethwick locks and to the end of the Engine Branch. Coming backwards out of there we got something very nasty indeed on the blade, which turned out to be somebody's bow fender. I bow-hauled (stern-hauled?) the boat out backwards, with Ian steering with a pole while Wendy struggled down the weed-hatch. We had to moor on the Old Main Line for a further 40 minutes until she'd finished the job, so were now running late on our schedule.

In motion again at 13:00, our next target was the Titford Canal and Titford Pools. On our way up the locks we met the trio of Wilderness cruisers we'd seen earlier. [Click here to visit the Wilderness Club web site.] They were on their way down, and told us that the cut was blocked a little way above the locks by "a big boat stuck in a bridge'ole". Such an eventuality was not unexpected on Marathon weekend and we guessed correctly that it would turn out to be friends of ours in the ex-working boat Fulbourne. Someone from the crew (no-one we knew) came and asked us for a snatch and was a little surprised to get the answer "Well, I suppose so; it's nearly a year since we last pulled Fulbourne out of a bridge'ole". After pulling them out of the bridge'ole (towing in reverse gear is not something I'm in a hurry to do again), we were pleased to renew our acquaintance with Titford Pools which we hadn't seen since the 1978 National. On our way back down the Titford Canal, even we bounced on something in the bridge'ole where Fulbourne had been stuck.

Back on the Old Main Line, we had intended to go down the Gower Branch to reach Netherton Tunnel, but Brades locks were closed because of damage to a paddle, so we re-shaped our plans, not as efficiently as we could have done, we later realised. We had to take the longer route via Factory junction, passing the weekend's "mission control" at the old stables there and telling them (using our decorated megaphone) of our revised schedule (we were now running so late that hopes of getting back onto our original schedule were long gone). Once through Netherton Tunnel we ate supper on the move and moored overnight at Park Head Junction at 21:10. We had hoped to be further on, at the top of Park Head locks, but had lost so much time we made do with this. In theory we could make up the time next day. We ran Gary's generator for a couple of hours to give us some electricity.

Next morning's start was supposed to be at about 5 am, but Junior Cat hadn't got the message and was out hunting until 6:30 : at least that meant we could have a comfortable breakfast, but forced some more modifications to the schedule. Wendy walked up the locks at 04:40 and found a dry pound, but short enough to be dealt with easily.

Down the locks again, we turned back towards Windmill End, visiting the Bumblehole and Boshboil arms en route. The Bumblehole was very muddy and reedy: we were worried about mooring up here for the Festival. Wendy had difficulty winding because of (a) not much room between moored boats (b) shallows and (c) the sun in her eyes. At the Boshboil we came out backwards with difficulty because of shallows and grot on the blade.

We had originally intended to go to Hawne Basin, the current furthest navigable point on the Dudley No.2 Canal, but this bit of the plan was one of the victims of Orinthia's hunting trip, so we headed back through Netherton and turned left heading for Deepfields junction and the Bradley Branch (a.k.a. Wednesbury Oak Loop), which was just as tea-coloured as before with a deep, clear centre channel between weedy edges.. This Branch now terminates at BW's Bradley depot where we found they had fixed a chain across the cut (to prevent anyone stealing their work-boats?) just before the point where it's wide enough to turn comfortably. So we turned uncomfortably and headed back to the junction and the main line where we had some problems with boys throwing stones.

We calculated that we had time to go up Spon Lane Locks and down Smethwick locks (to score a few more points) and still have a chance to get back to Gas Street by the finish time. The timing went wrong, and we closed our Marathon log at Winson Green junction on the dot of 17:00 We tied up at Holliday Street aqueduct at 17:37 We returned Gary's generator, and he lent us a spare battery, although it turned out not to have much more charge in it than ours. Or else I hadn't got the terminals on tightly. While fitting it, I found the battery box full of water, which I took as further evidence that the cause of the electrical problem was the water that came through our air-vent from another boat's cooling-water outlet earlier in the summer.. We stayed just outside Gas Street Basin overnight and next morning went into Sherborne Street Wharf to have our electrical problem cured and leave Gary's generator and spare battery on his boat.