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Canal 2010

In 2002 we purchased a week on a Narrow boat in April, a lifetime of one weeks holiday a year on a narrow boat. The boat is Shakespeare Classic called Ophelia and is now moored at Mercia Marina, near Willington.

Day one - Thursday 1st April

We left home at 10.00am as we expected a lot more traffic as it was an Easter weekend, we went via the A34, M40, M42 and A444. The M40 was closed south of where we joined it so we had it to ourselves. We stopped at Warwick services for a bacon sandwich and arrived at Mercia Marina at 1.00pm.

Unfortunately Ophelia developed a fault in the heating system just prior to our arrival, we were offered Falstaff instead. As it was still being cleaned we went for a cuppa at the Tea Rooms, we then went back to the reception and sat chatting to Carol, until it was finished, we loaded up eventually leaving about 3.00pm, a little disappointing.

Once we had got underway the rain started and it turned very cold and wet. We eventually stopped at Horninglow Wharf at 5.00pm, we could have stopped 15 min earlier at a Mill House Pub but the greasy smell put Ann off.

What attracted us to Horninglow Wharf was the Navigation Inn with "good food" sign, however it turned out that they stopped serving food at 4.00pm. They did recommended the Plough Inn 10 minutes further north. On the way we passed a Fish and Chip shop, Ann really fancied some fish and chips so we ended up buying a helping each of cod and chips. We took them back to the boat and ate them out of the paper, we had too many chips just as well we ordered a small portion each on reflection one would have been plenty the cod was very good.

It was wet and windy overnight.
Television reception was Ok and Internet good.
No locks today

Day two - Friday 2nd April

We started off at 9.30am, progress was slow as we had a boat in front of us at each lock. We arrived at Branston at 11.00pm and Barton Turns lock at 12.00pm. By now it was raining quite hard so we stopped just before Wychnor lock for lunch at 12.45pm. We had tea and toasted ham sandwiches to warm us up.

After lunch at 1.30pm, we moved on to Wychnor Lock. Granny Buttons had pointed out in a recent blog, that the leakage from the double lock gates is high, so it was quite slow getting through. It was very windy at Alrewas Lock, the boat in front was half way across the canal, they were only using the centre rope. In such conditions one needs to tie up for and aft. We had to wait for a Canaltime boat to fill the lock from the opposite direction, the wind was making them go all over the place, which wasted time in the rain, lucky we had our waterproofs on but Ann must invest in some waterproof gloves she had used all three pairs today.

After clearing Alrewas Lock it started to hail so we decided to tie up for the day, it was 2.45pm. We had planned to stop at Fradley Junction, what with the rain and hearing from some boaters that it was bikers night at the Swan Pub in Fradley, we decided stay at Alrewas. The weather brightened up at about 4.30pm, with the sun appearing now and then during the rest of the daylight hours.

Ann had a shower and later we had a meal at the Crown Inn, Ann had ham, egg and chips and chocolate fudge for pudding, Edward had chicken masala and rice followed by apple pie. At 9.15 the gas bottle ran out so Edward changed it over, we must have used more gas then usual or the bottle was not full when we started.

Overall the day was wet not as cold as yesterday.
Television reception was Ok and Internet good.
Today we did 6 Locks

Day three - Saturday 3rd April

The day started sunny with no rain overnight, we were on the move by 9.00am.

Progress was quite reasonable up to Fradley Junction locks, then we picked up a queue of three or four boats ahead. We were in the 3rd lock, just before the junction, at 10.50am and the next lock at 11.32am. Queuing the boats along that stretch is difficult with all the permanently moored boats. Edward had to raft up twice to moored boats, which is not easy by ones self.

We cleared Fradley locks by midday and Woodend lock by 12.45pm, at the next lock the sun vanished so we pulled over for lunch just past Bromley Marina at 1.15pm. We decided to head on to Great Haywood as Ann wanted her steak, the guide suggested 3 hours, we forgot that the guide does not take into account the reduced speed past moored boats. We set off at about 2.00pm.

The sun came out again we had the canal to ourselves, the rain clouds looked threatening, but the rain held off. The sun made many appearances during the afternoon, overall it was pleasant and fairly warm. We were overtaken by a canal boat which appeared from no where, we let him pass on a convenient straight. It was surprising how his boat dragged our bow towards him, though the boats did not touch.

We arrived at Great Haywood at about 6.00pm, that was four hours from lunch, it had been a long day eight and a quarter hours, we were both tired.

Having got to Great Haywood we quickley changed and went to the Clifford Arms for a meal. However, they hadn't got a free table. We inquired about a takeaway, the nearest was Rugeley. The senior waitress suggested that if we waited an hour for a table may become free. We sat in the bar and in fact we only waited 30 minutes, so Ann was able to have her fillet steak and salad. Edward had the same plus tomato soup and apple pie and cream, but not in that order nor on the same plate.

TV and Internet were good.
The weather was cloudy and cool
We did 9 Locks today

Day four - Sunday 4th April

We got going at 9.30am, the weather was sunny but with a blusterous cold wind, we went through the first lock and pulled over for water at the water point by the junction to the Stafs asnd Worc canal.

Edward went to the Farm shop for bread they didnt have any so headed for the Spar shop which was on the raod towards Great Haywood about 5 minutes away. Meanwhile Ann finished filling up with water and put the hose away, Naturally while Edward was away with the key in his pocket another two boats arrived for water, Ann had to walk the boat out off the way.

We were on the move by 10.35am and had a leisurely cruise to Weston on Trent, naturally getting out of Great Haywood is quite slow as there are a lot of boats moored up for some distance. We arrived at Hoo Mill lock at about 10.55am, Weston Lock at 11.30am and Weston on Trent about midday. Overall it was pleasant cruise in the sun.

There were 4 potential mooring places available in Weston so we decided to go to the next turning point and turn round. This should have taken 30 minutes, but the turning point shown in the guide was not suitable for our size of boat. The newer guide doesn't show it at all, we had to go on to Sandon lock at bridge 83. At bridge 82 there were 10 or 12 Anglers which slowed us down some.

At 1.00pm we decided to stop for lunch just below bridge 83. We had poached eggs on toast and tea. Getting going again turned out to be somewhat muddy as the towpath was really water logged in places, Ann had decided to walk to the lock but had to be rescued by Edward with some difficulty because of the wind.

We were further delayed as a boat got into the lock ahead of us, we went up the lock and Ann kept it open while Edward turned the boat. Again the wind made the turn difficult in particular getting the stern into the wind.

On the return we had to crawl past the Anglers and then find a mooring at Weston. Ann picked out a gap three boats up which to Edwards mind and previous recollection was too short for our boat. Because of this Edward didn't get the boat lined up correctely and ended up on the wrong side of the canal. Edward tried to reverse but the wind took the bow in the wrong direction. After much thrashing he got the stern to the side and managed to pull the boat in with the centre rope.

By now it was just after 3.00pm, it was quite pleasant for a couple of hours with the sun shinning into the saloon with the doors open.

We had a good meal at the Saracens Head which is a few yards from the mooring, Ann had a starter, sirloin steak and chocolate fudge pudding. Edward had starter, ham, eggs and chips and pudding.

Television reception was Ok and Internet good after dark.
The weather was pleasent
We did 6 locks today

Day five - Monday 5th April

The gas went off at about 5.30am this morning, but Ann didn't notice so Edward connected up our last bottle 7.15am when he got up to make tea. When we travel during the day we normally turn the heating pump off, on Ophelia the wall thermostat effectively does that, so we use very little gas. The bloke who showed us around the boat said that was a bad idea, we should turn the boiler temperature control down to 1 instead, overnight we set it to 4.

Today we turned the boiler off to conserve gas, with the pump off the radiators naturally stay cold. However after lunch we turned the pump on and the radiators showed some warmth, so there obviously some connection with the engine cooling system. Edward hasn't worked it out yet as there must be some automatic valving to prevent the boiler from heating the engine and hot water. On second thought perhaps there's not, or its not working, which would explain the high gas consumption.

The weather was warmer today, though still windy, we started off at 9.30am and had uneventful cruise to Great Haywood, arriving just before 11.00am. When we got to the lock there were three boats ahead of us, the two boats were shorter and went in the lock together reducing our waiting time. We cleared the lock at about 11.30am and rejoined the queue at Colwich lock just before 11.45am.

One boat took about 4 minutes to get into the lock, it normally takes 60 seconds, after clearing the lock we soon caught up with the slow boat again, we pulled over for lunch at 12.40pm, near a pig farm between locks 69 and 68. Ann went on the Internet which was Ok, she caught up with her various sites, as she was not able to do this at Weston on Trent this morning. The rest of the trip through Rugeley to Handsacre was uneventful with no rain and some sunny periods. We arrived at 3.15pm.

Many of the boats we saw were returning to their base having spent the Easter weekend on the canals and Tixall Wide, the two short boats, mentioned earlier, turned out to be based at a private mooring near 62A.

The canal side Pub was closed for refurbishment but we had been informed the local Fish and Chip shop was very good so we decided to get food at there local, Edward had steak and kidney pie and Ann a Cornish pasty, we shared a helping of chips and mushy peas.

Television reception was Ok, the Internet was not usable.
The weather was good
4 locks today

Day six - Tuesday 6th April

We were on the move by 9.00am, the weather was overcast with a cold wind. Shortly after we noticed that one of the red battery charge lights was on, we decided to keep going and get the boat in a better place with road access. We soon arrived at Woodend Lock and had to wait for another boat going in the same direction. Progress through the first two Fradley locks seemed quite slow as we had to wait for approaching boats who seemed to have all the time in the world.

We arrived at Fradley Junction between bridges 51 and 50 at 11.45am, after tying up we called Donna at the base in Willington. She arranged for a engineer to come while we were waiting we had an early lunch, he arrived at about 1.00pm, he soon diagnosed that the domestic alternator had failed and arranged with Donna to find a replacement, their spare having been used on Shylock late last week.

We arranged to meet Richard at Alrewas and arrived at bridge 46 at about 2.45pm. By now the weather had warmed up but was still windy. Richard, and his apprentice arrived at about 4.15pm with a new alternator, batteries and a bottle of gas. Unfortunately the alternator didn't fit so he fitted two new batteries which had a better state of charge than the old batteries. He then linked the starter and new domestic batteries together so they would be charged by the other alternator.

We ran the engine for about half an hour then went to the George and Dragon pub, Ann had lamb chops, peas and chips. Edward had soup and chicken masala with rice. On our return we ran the engine again for half an hour to improve the charge. In contrast with yesterday there were very few boats moving about.

The Internet and TV were as always in Alrewas
Weather was good but windy
9 locks today

Day seven - Wednesday 7th April

We had a little rain overnight, as it looked like we would have more, we put on our wet weather gear. We had no trouble starting the boat after yesterdays modification. We left the mooring at 9.20am and moved up to the water point. At 9.45am we joined a queue of three boats at Alrewas lock which we cleared at 10.15am.

The sun came out at Wychnor lock and the rain held off all day, Overall we had an uneventful cruise to Burton on Trent, arriving at bridge 33 at 1.15pm where we stopped for lunch.

After a bacon and egg sandwich we headed for the marina at Willington. We made good progress until about 2.30pm when a boat pulled out in front of us and pottered along. We arrived at the marina just before 4.00pm, having started at 1.55pm. We phoned Carol to say we were at the enterence to the marina, she instructed us to move under the bridge inside, where one of the enginees would come and collect us, we had seen him going over the hill but couldnt get his attention he did an about turn and jumped aboard to bring us into the marina. As usual Donna was on hand to conect us to the land line electric, and gave us a bottle of wine for all the trouble we had with the alternator. I went to the shop and got some milk and a new shopping bag.

We went to the Green Man Pub where we both had beef chilli con carne and rice. There was a quiz night on and they stopped serving food 10 minutes after we had arrived. We went back to the boat and started to pack up everything for a quick get away in the morning.