TRIP REPORTS

SPRING 2007 — SOUTHWARDS FROM BIRMINGHAM

Part 2 - Lapworth to Leamington

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

We resume the story after a few days lay-over at Lapworth.

I was very slow getting going, so Wendy decided to go to the shop. Much conversation in the village shop about the man who'd been killed by the tree very close to his home. He was a third-generation timber merchant killed by a tree. Revenge? She found the electrical shop open and was able to buy a spare battery for the big torch. With the complicated loo playing up and the simple one nearly full we decided on a drink at the Boot in order to use the loo there, before setting off at 13:44. Our first stop was at Lapworth facilities point to empty the elsan & take on water. I 'phoned Lee Sanitation about the flush loo problem. They agreed with me that it was some kind of blockage, but didn't know what yards in our area might be familiar with that model. Wendy 'phoned Delta Marine who put her on to Kate Boats, who said they could have somebody look at it next afternoon. Continuing , we went through the Lapworth link to join the Warwick & B'ham, and moored just before Turner's Green bridge near the Tom o' the Wood at 16:25. Mandy and Tilly each brought home a mouse during the evening.

We set off at 09:41 thinking we'd started at a reasonable time.Thanks to a long wait (nearly two hours) for a partner we were later than we'd hoped starting down Hatton locks. The partner was Peckham Poppy, two-handed like us but our crews were augmented by the half-expected arrival of Aidan & Sarah for the first half of the flight. We were delayed by the second pound down being about three foot down which meant that both boats grounded in the middle of the pound until some more water was let down. After that all the pounds were well up to weir, some of them wiering over the top gates. We passed through Budbrooke junction, where Peckham Poppy went straight ahead to overnight in the Saltisford Arm, while we turned left onto the Warwick & Napton Canal .Wendy 'phoned Kate Boats, but we were too late for them to attend to our bunged-up loo, so we'd have to go there on Monday. We tied up at the top of Cape locks at 16:08 and had a good dinner at the pub. I managed to get a good mobile connection to the Internet here.

After a lie-in, partly caused by the clocks changing, at 11:00 we were getting ready to leave when Peckham Poppy came past so we shared Cape locks with them. As we passed Kate Boats we saw a possibly winding place among their moorings when they aren't full up. In Leamington there were a number of underwater lumps we rode over. We turned at the winding hole south of bridge, with some difficulty, grounding the stern almost in the bridgehole. Back toThe Moorings, Leamington where we tied up outside the pub at 12:45. Wendy shopped while I did a lot of work on the computer - another good Internet connection here. We decided to stay where we were & have dinner at the pub, but by the time I'd. finished work I was too tired to eat a full meal, so Wendy went to the pub on her own before making me a sandwich.

We set off at 10:50 and soon reached Kate Boats, Warwick, where one of their engineers sorted out both our blocked loo (easier than expected and not at all messy) and our non-functioning tunnel lamp (broken & corroded junction behind the deck fitting). We also took on water, emptied the elsan and disposed of rubbish. When winding in a space which was deceptively smaller than it looked, I accidentally backed into the side, the stern fenders rode up over the coping and the rudder got a nasty bang. We went back to Kate Boats. The tiller was out of true and there was a very stiff spot in the steering. Kate Boats engineer said we'd probably bent the rudder stock and this could be put right fairly easily if we stopped at their other base at Stockton top when we're there next week. In order to stop the newly-positioned tiller from hitting the back doors, we removed the wooden tiller-handle. We set off again and got back to The Moorings,by 15:30. Shortly after we moored Tim Lewis and Helen Dobbie came past on Helen's boat, and Tim looked in to say hello. Later I set of to Leamington station to travel (via Coventry and Milton Keynes) to Berkhamsted to take part in a planning appeal over the next couple of days.