Mike Stevens' UK Inland Waterways Pages

TRIP REPORTS : THE FELIS CATUS II YEARS

LEICESTER & THE TRENT, SUMMER 1997

PART 4 : THE MAIN SUMMER CRUISE -
The run back south,

We resume the story with the boat at Alrewas on the Trent & Mersey Canal.

Once again I seemed to feel that I'd already got enough photos of most of the territory we were passing through, the one exception being Coventry Basin, which had changed a lot since we'd last been there.

At 08:03 we set off and at Fradley junction we turned into the Coventry Canal. At Streethay Wharf we stopped for diesel @ 90p/gallon. Ray Bowern (an old acquaintance from Canalway Cavalcade) only had time for a very quick word as he was due somewhere else. On the Coventry we found a lot of shallows and we were in a slow queue up Atherstone locks, so we decided to stop just past the top lock at 19:07 rather than look for somewhere prettier.

Coventry Basin

We made a similarly-timed start (08:01) to the previous day. It was yet another very hot day : they mostly were, that trip. We passed Marston and Hawkesbury junctions and found the run from the latter to Coventry Basin trouble-free: perhaps C.C.S had a clear-up working party recently. It was sad to see the Coventry Climax factory disused, but we liked the new development at the Basin itself: mainly craft shops and the like, which provided Wendy with some presents for the family. We were surprised that the one space not occupied is the one earmarked for a pub or restaurant. I left for London. Ian & Wendy shopped at a rather uninspired Sainsbury's but did find a reduced-price frozen free-range turkey for the hordes we were expecting on Sunday.

They set off again and saw a kingfisher near Foleshill: very encouraging in so urban an area. At Hawkesbury junction they took on water (it took a long time) before turning into the Oxford Canal. At 19:22 they moored south of Tusses bridge, with good depth & bank, but quite a noisy road.

Only a short trip was planned for the day, as they planned stopping at Tesco at Brownsover the next day. An 08:11 start was followed by at stop at Rose Boats at Stretton Stop where Wendy bought some more presents & post-cards, but still had no luck looking for a better boarding-plank.

The overnight mooring was at 12:25 at Newbold Wharf, where the depth wasn't as good as Wendy remembered it. There was, however, good hunting for the cats. We had inadvertently moored next to a very drunk and noisy boat. Wendy noted that the launderette here was no more : it was now a video shop.

It was a late (08:20) start because Orinthia was too busy to come back earlier. At Brownsover they just found room to moor on the picnic site past the bridge leading to Tesco, and noted that this picnic site has rubbish & elsan disposal. They shopped. This Tesco is huge and very good. It has rabbits in its grounds.

The re-start was also delayed by Orinthia hunting. She came back with a large mouse. They reached Braunston at 16:24 and found a mooring near bridge 91, so decided to grab it while they could and leave the marina's services for the morning.

Orinthia returned just as they were about to go into the marina without her (to pick her up later). They took the boat into the marina, and discovered that their pump-out was DIY and the wrong side for us, so went back out again to wind and come in backwards. While they were doing this, I arrived from London, with my brother Derek and his family (wife Phyllis & kids Samara, Josh, Brian and Alex) who'd travelled from my Dad's place in Marlborough and picked me up at Rugby station.

After slow facilities at the marina we set off again. Braunston locks were slow. Samara's asthma was bad, so she wasn't very active. We'd forgotten Phyllis' phobia about tunnels until she had a panic attack going into Braunston tunnel. Lunch was eaten on the move.

Buckby locks were also slow, so we moored opposite Whilton Marina at 18:43, all pretty exhausted. The marina gave us the 'phone number of a taxi for me to go with Derek and get his car, then the family left. A smell of diesel in the engine room, which we had noticed a bit in the last few days, became much stronger during the day. If bad weather had forced us to close the hatches, the back cabin would have been fairly unpleasant to sleep in.

Wendy & Ian started at 08:12 with me still horizontal, as the cats were both back in good time. At Stoke Bruerne Ian & I went to the Boat Inn for lunch, where we happened to met Howard Bowden (formerly from Mountbatten, with whom I had locked for most of a single-handed weekend on old Felis Catus some years before : see here for details) who has now a boat-repair business, so asked him to look at our diesel problem. It turned out to be a broken fuel overspill pipe. Howard might be able to get a second-hand replacement next day, but said it wouldn't be dangerous if we continued for a while with it as it is until we can get it fixed.

I went to the museum to see what was new. In the evening Ian & Wendy went to see Mikron's show about the Newbury by-pass while I first washed up then went back to the Boat for a progress report on Howard's chasing of the necessary part. It sounded as though he should be able to fix it next day.

Howard arrived mid-morning with a selection of pipes, one of which fitted. There was still a slight weep from one of the joints which he couldn't cure as there was a washer missing. But as the whole job will need to be done properly soon to meet the Boat Safety Standard, this isn't a particular worry.

We set off at 11:55 with hardly any wait for a lock-partner, which turned out to be an Alvechurch hire-boat meeting their first lock They were a pleasant couple with a sub-teenage daughter not really big enough to handle these big locks. They want to do more canalling, so we recommended them to stick to narrow canals until the girl's a bit bigger. We stopped at Yardley Gobion wharf for a pump-out and got them also to pump-out the engine drip-tray that had a lot of diesel in it from our broken pipe. Keith Baxter was running the wharf, while Alan Paine was building a marina in the field next door. For the pump-out we had to moor outboard of Alan's ex-Grand Junction Canal Company inspection launch Kingfisher which seemed a bit like lèse majesté.

At Wolverton station Ian left for home. Wendy shopped at Tesco before we continued to the New Inn at New Bradwell where at 19:08 we moored to the pub garden (good depth and sturdy mooring-posts) and I went in for a drink before supper. I thought it a pleasant, ordinary pub with a reasonable menu of bar snacks and an upstairs restaurant.

We waited to go to the Post Office (just across the bridge from the pub). Then we had to wait for Orinthia to finish exploring the pub garden. Finally we were able to start at 10:10. There were lots of anglers out. We passed through Fenny Stratford lock solo, then had to queue for water, so I went for a pub lunch in the Red Lion (which had hardly changed at all in 20 years). While I was there, Tyseley came through carrying the Mikron Theatre company.

After lunch we were slowed again by anglers, moored boats & waiting for lock partners. None materialised at Stoke Hammond, but a downhill boat assuaged our conscience. We did have a partner, Suric, at Soulbury, after a long wait. Then we had a hearse-race to Linslade, where we moored at 17:26 at The Globe, The moorings here were now good. We moved back to the mooring closest to the bridge so that (a) there was width to barbecue and (b) there was space between cats & cars. In fact the cats decided to explore the other side of the bridge where there were fewer people to disturb them. I visited the pub and thought it quite good, but very food-centred and crowded.

A leisurely start at 9:10 brought us to Leighton Buzzard's Tesco for shopping. Martin Ludgate 'phoned to arrange to transport his & my computers to Henley the next day (for us to use at the National), so I would have to go home for much of the day.

Before re-starting we again had to wait for Orinthia. On the climb up the Chilterns we had a lot of waiting around for lock-partners, and quite a general post of who locked with whom. We seemed to be alternating with nb B-Hive (with whom we had locked up Devizes in 1994) and Suric, until the latter went onto its mooring at Pitstone Wharf. At Peter's Two we caught up with Brian and Jean Stark on nb Perseverance (from Wooton Rivers) and Chatterbox, a Wilderness boat, and we all fitted in together.

We moored at 18:38 at the Ship Stores, Marsworth. The Ship Stores is now a private house and was being re-thatched. The Red Lion had changed landlords but not changed in any other respect. I might have spent a long time there were it not for the arrival of a coach-load of loud-voiced ladies filling the place. Mikron are due here tomorrow night (with their other show Wendy didn't see at Stoke Bruerne), so it would be good to try to get back in time to see them. I tried to book a cab to go to the station in the morning, but the numbers we had either weren't answering or didn't have a car available at the right time.

There was still no luck with the cab firms, so we decided to boat to Tring station instead, thus jettisoning any chance of seeing Mikron this evening. We set off at 8:34 to fit with the advertised restrictions. In fact we could have started much earlier since, although the locks are time-restricted, the restriction is applied at the top lock. We forgot this until it was too late to make any difference. We reached Tring station bridge at 10:46 and I went home to load the computers, returning in the evening. It was too hot for the cats to stir until midnight.

The cats enforced a late start. because the hunting is so good here. At 11:22 we went into the marina for a pump-out and a few odds and ends of chandlery. An inspection-type launch called Mole was being craned back in (we later learned that it had been moored there for the week and the level had dropped, stranding it on the slip-way and bending its skeg). By the time some uphill boats had cleared the lock, Mole had joined us. They were changing their moorings from somewhere in the midlands to the K&A following a house move, going via Henley, where Peter Nicholls was exhibiting the boat. The people were Brian, Jean and daughter Joanna.

Both boats wanted to shop, so we did so at Waitrose in Berkhamsted then continued together again. We remembered that there were good moorings below Winkwell locks, so stopped there at 17:46 with Mole, arranging with them to set off together at around 09:00 next day (cats willing).

The cats brought in a prodigious number of corpses overnight, and were ready to start on schedule at 08:56. It was yet another very hot day. Both boats stopped and queued for water at Apsley. Wendy & Jean did some odds & ends of shopping. Below Nash Mills locks I went to the Red Lion for a drink with Mole's people. Wendy stayed on board and was so engrossed in the papers that she didn't notice that the rope strop to which we'd tied our stern line had broken and our stern had drifted across the cut.

We moored opposite Frogmoor wharf in Rickmansworth at 18:59 at the end of another exhausting day and we were glad to stop here, our two boats either side of the cut to the lakes.

We started at 09:31, still cruising with Mole until Uxbridge lock after which, knowing that we were going onto our mooring, they tied up at the Swan & Bottle for shopping. We reached our mooring at Hillingdon Canal Club mooring at 13:10 with great relief to have finished in all the heat and went to the General Elliot for lunch.