TRIP REPORTS

SOUTHWARDS FROM BIRMINGHAM,
March & April 2006

(Part 2 : Braunston to Milton Keynes.)

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We resume the story at an overnight mooring at Braunston Turn.

We woke to find ourselves iced in. I went to Midland Chandlers and got a TV ærial (which had the wrong combination of plugs for our system, so we'll need to get a different lead) and a tall chimney (which proved not to fit, although it was nominally the right size). I failed to find a shore-power lead and a second light boathook. A passing boat broke the ice, which then melted pretty quickly, so we crossed over to the water point & filled up.

We set off at 12:35. There was work in progress up the locks installing a new back-pumping system, so it was only in one pound that Wendy could walk the towpath between the locks (although between the top two locks there was a convenient lane). At Admiral Nelson lock, another boater (single-handed) waited for us and we shared the rest of the locks. Nearer the top of the flight we met a couple of downhill boats that was very useful. We'd planned to go to Buckby visitor mooring, but at 15:15 we reached Welton Wharf where we saw Sue & Roger Burchett on Nackered Navvy so decided to stop there for the night. Across on the wharf, Rees and Di Jones were having some work done on their boat. After dinner, Sue & Roger came on board for drinks (tea, in Roger's case, as his medication prevents him from more than the occasional tot of malt), kindly bringing with them a bottle of Merlot as a house-warming present, and a couple of packs of Pringles. We arranged to go down Buckby locks with them next day - they had a friend (John) coming to help. They warned us of a mink in the vicinity, so we kept the cats in overnight. Fortunately before the dudgeon grew too great, we heard rain on the roof.

At 11:00 Sue & John set off to do a car shuffle while we & Roger cruised to the top of Buckby to meet them, with Ben (Nackered Navvy's dog) running along the towpath. The car-shufflers were sufficiently ahead of us to have the top lock ready and open by the time we arrived. Before we'd started, I'd found the battery-isolating switch in the bow-thruster system, so we were able to make good use of that down the flight. Compared with our recent cruising it was a luxury to have two steerers and three lock-crew, so we made unaccustomed good time down the locks.

Sue & Roger weren't certain how far they wanted to go that day and by the time Sue texted me to say they'd decided to stop at Weedon, we were already well past there. We stopped fairly early (15:40) on the pub mooring at the Wharf Inn, Bugbrooke, and ate there. I tried unsuccessfully to modify the new chimney to fit.

We made a leisurely start at 09:53. It was sunny and very windy indeed. It was good to see lots of snowdrops on those banks which looked inaccessible from both land and water. Wendy set a wash going before we started cruising. We stopped at Blisworth Tunnel Boats for a pump-out and to fill up with water - a very tight diagonal fit between other boats. Friendly people and dogs - one of unidentifiable breed who started off noisy but soon turned friendly, a black Lab who was friendly to start with and a pale-coloured retriever who appeared to large & too old to stir from its bed. Wendy at this stage was having a problem with the washing machine - she found it too easy to set the programme knob to 6 (long wash) when one wants 7 (dry only). Having done this, one needs first to switch to "drain only" and wait until that's finished before switching to "dry".

I steered through the tunnel, as Wendy's still wasn't sufficiently confident of her eyes. The tunnel was surprisingly smoky (misty?). We moored at Stoke Bruerne, half-way between the winding hole and the top lock, and I went to The Boat for a pint and a sandwich. Wendy stayed on board to eat because the drier was still running, so we couldn't turn off the engine. When she was able to turn off the engine, she became aware of a novel buzzing sound which turned out to be the bilge pump that had been switched in accidentally. After I had some shut-eye we set off down the locks in the rain, initially with a bad road until we crossed with Savoy Hill at the third lock. We stopped at 17:38 on the new visitor moorings below the locks as neither the weather nor the light was very encouraging.

We set off at 10:11 on a cold, blustery day, wet at times. At Wolverton station we made a short stop for urgent shopping, then continues to tie up at14:25 opposite Milton Keynes Marina. This is where the First Mate Guide recommends for buses to central Milton Keynes, so Wendy planned a dawn raid on Waitrose.

It was hardly dawn, but Wendy was still too early for Waitrose, which doesn't open until 09:30. She shopped at Sainsbury's instead and got a cab back. We moved off at13:30 for a short run to just before Fenny Stratford lock (arriving at 14:24), where we moored, as arranged in advance, outboard of Roger & Wendy Evans' Scythia on their end-of-garden mooring. They wired us up for shore power. They gave us a lift to the Bletchley Rugby Club, where I was giving a talk to IWA Milton Keynes Branch.I had a good audience, including quite a lot of people we knew - Mandy & Steve Morley, Glen Peckett, Vernon & Marie Draper, Brian & Marty Seymour, James Griffin and Graham Lockhart. Afterwards we went back to Rodney & Wendy's for coffee & scotch.

Rodney took me to Bletchley station for my weekly chores at the London Canal Museum, then helped Wendy move the boat across to the visitor moorings as there were rumours of a mink on their side of the cut, and we feared for the cats' safety. Wendy later met Susan from the boat moored in front of us, and her cat Smudge, an 18-year-old tabby.

Wendy also explored the local shops and found an idiosyncratic selection including Matalan and Tesco beyond the railway station. she tried cleaning the boat's windows, but only made them smearier.