Alrewas to Wolseley (11 miles, 8 locks)

We decided to hit Fradley before anyone would even think about it, so set off as dawn broke.  Predictably a boat was coming down already, but that meant the locks would be in our favour.
With the modus operandi changed, by getting the butty into the entrance of each lock as the big boat goes in, everything seemed to be working well!

4 locks down and as planned, we pulled around another boat to moor for water outside Fradley BW services. After an hour of waiting for the water tank to fill,  we gave it up as a dead loss, with the hope of filling up later in the journey.  I went to set up the lock on the junction, whilst Richard steered the boats in.  The dog, however, had other plans, as Richard pulled off, the dog had decided to disembark and sunbath on the path, oblivious to everything!
Opening the lock gates, I realised Richard was agitated about something, so ran down to be greeted with a sheepish Scooby, being midfuss by some passers by!  As he gets older, he gets more cantankerous!
Fradley, thankfully, out of the way, as it was starting to get busy, we continued straight on on the T & M for Woodend, totally beautiful stretch and moored up at Kings Bromley for the night.
2 loads of washing swung in the sunshine for the rest of the day and Richard's jumper neared it's completion....

Rugeley power station!  Should I be excited about this?   Apparently so, so there you have it!

Bread deficit was the issue, so we moored at peaceful Handsacre and walked into the village to find a small shop,  but ended up asking a randum person, as we couldn't find a village centre etc typical!
For future reference we clocked the chip shop.

I do think this part of the T & M is lovely, but very narrow and windy and there is always oncoming traffic when you least expect it!  People cannot comprehend that we are towing another boat, nearly as long as the motor and need perhaps a little more room if they change their mind ie stopping and getting out of the way!  So we decided that people in this region can be rude and inconsiderate, but Richard controlled himself being courteous in the face of pure stupidity, I couldn't ask for more!

Armitage tunnel was a challenge as it is very narrow and winds around the rocks for a stretch on exiting, which is one way traffic.  A boat was coming behind us, but we carried on at our slow pace, not ruffled by his need to 'press on'!
He passed us at the water point outside very beautiful Spode House, 'You are getting water then?'  - I was very polite back, not 'dur I am on the water point!

Rugeley was our next port of call in this 'hectic' day!  A small shop in Morrisons and a quick spend in the town (a hat for the forum banter!) and we were back to the boat.  The gardens are wonderful in Rugeley, leading down to the canal, pure luxury in my view, having a garden overlooking and accessing a historic canal!

Leaving the town, a right angle of a turn leads the boater over Brindley's Trent Aqueduct with pumping station above, gently crossing over the river Trent beneath.

As the sun shone, we moored up, (Kennet and Avon style!3 foot draft on the big boat means we can't get in to the shallow side,so front in, bum sticking out!) at bridge 69 outside Colwich and got the chairs out!

Wychnor to Alrewas (1 mile, 1 lock)

Big journey to Alrewas! Got blown sideways on the butty, on the approach to the lock as I just didn't manage to get off in time and pull into the side!  Richard ballet danced onto the roof of the butty to grab the centre line and saved me!
We moored up in a relatively empty Alrewas, (well it is March!), but we have managed to open the stall each afternoon as the sun has come out and had a really positive response.

I always love mooring here as it is chocolate box pretty with thatched cottages and the windy canal weaving through it.
Yesterday morning, we walked to the National Memorial Arboretum on the outskirts of the village, after only discovering how close it was days before.

A very sombre experience, but we managed to find out about the experiences of the many prisoners of the Japanese slave labour building of the Burma railroad.  In particular, we found Richard's Great Uncle's name on the list of those who died over there.

This is a section of the actual railroad on display at the Arboretum.

There were many other memorials dedicated to different conflicts,  causes etc, so it really was a moving visit, but we both thought it was something everyone needed to see, especially politicians!

Stenson to Wychnor lock (12 miles, 5 locks)

Monday morning, we moved off from Stenson lock, taking a leisurely, brief journey to south Derbyshire village of Willington.  Here we filled the water tank, dealt with the 'bucket and chuck it' and rubbish.  The joys of living aboard!

After a quick shop, we untied the ropes and carried on a couple of miles and moored in the noisiest place we could find being Eggington, alongside the A38.  Obviously we weren't thinking about the traffic noise at the time, but we wanted some time to do some jobs on the butty and make some more bits for the stall.

Finished the stool and Richard varnished it this morning.  We both had quite a productive couple of days making an awning for the stall and Richard making fenders!

This morning, the weather was beautiful as we sailed through Stretton and then the first single lock on the T & M at Burton on Trent.  This would mean we would have to separate the boats each time we reached a lock and do them both twice!  Good exercise, no need for a run these days!

Tatenhill lock, really picturesque and quiet from the A38 for a while!

This bridge before Barton Turns, is really narrow and was quite a challenge to get through unscathed, good job the fenders were up else we could have got wedged!

The Scoob loves the towpath, chasing the smells and racing along ahead of us!

Finally tonight we moored at Wychnor lock (near Alrewas), where Richard could play with the 'Sunset' setting on his camera....

Swarkestone to Stenson (3 miles, 1 lock)

A short trip from Swarkestone to Stenson took us a sleepy, windy route through scenic countryside, with me on the butty tiller and Richard on the big boat steering.
Bridge 18 woke us up, though, as the deep drafted motor boat lifted up about a foot out of the water as it negotiated a large object under the water.  We have no clue what it was, perhaps a coping stone off the bridge, the main thing was it didn't go near the prop!

We moored up after going through the deepest lock on the T & M at Stenson, quite close to the lock approach in order that we could open the butty shop the next day.
I took all day, virtually, pricing up items and setting up a display, but sold a few small items and was properly impressed with Day 1!
Sunday was a bit of a washout but came good in the end, with the fender situation being depleted severely! That'll keep Richard busy the next few days, as we move off for a good mooring sight for the following weekend's trading.

Sawley to Swarkestone (7 miles, 4 locks)

Yesterday we left Sawley cut in thick fog for the Trent and Mersey canal.  We had stowed the anchor (always get this out ready in case of incidents on the river!) and new  gas bottle and drifted slowly out of the relative safety of the cut for the junction of Derwent mouth the Trent and the start of the T & M canal.
The first double lock was empty and seemed so easy to navigate compared with the huge river locks.

I jumped on the tiller on the butty as we approached Shardlow and as I have called it 'carnage corner' - an 's' bend at the entrance to the village, but luckily without incident.  At this time in the morning there was no one about, what a shame as we navigated through beautifully and didn't hit a thing!

This is Swarkestone lock, very deep and very heavy gates.  When we arrived the lock was empty and some helpful bystanders opened the gates for us.  Not being a lover of heights, I hesitantly scaled the ladder leaving Richard in charge of the boats.  An old friend from Chapel Hill had moored his boat there, so we chatted for a while once we had moored the boats.

A lot has changed at this end of Derby since last we came through.  A short walk along the old Derby canal now opens out into a housing estate and shopping complex including doctor's surgery , chip shop (sampled - very nice!) and convenience store.  A helpful pleasant surprise for boaters as this stretch of the T & M is lacking in shops, the next one is Asda at Sinfin!

It will be amazing when the restoration is complete on the Derby canal, apparently progress is good on the planning side, then need to get those shovels out!  The canal itself is still visible, just some 60 year old trees to dig up and we're away, and some relocating work where the town centre now stands, but still optimistic for it's opening in our lifetimes!

Newark to Sawley (35 miles, 11 locks)

Gunthorpe Trent Hills
We pushed on through all the unmanned large locks on the non tidal Trent.  (Normally, there is a seasonal lock keeper on duty) Operating these large locks meant that Richard stayed on the boat holding the boats steady, whilst I slowly filled each one we came to without creating a wash to drown him!

We moored for the night at Stoke Lock, as it is so picturesque.

The weather had been beautiful so we decided to stay another day and just do nothing (which  includes painting items for my stall and Richard busy doing lots of technical things to the boats!)  Leaving Scoob on the boat (knackered legs)  we took a long walk exploring the adjoining nature reserve and another lovely viaduct, just look at all those arches! 

An early start this morning took us through Holme Pierrepoint lock and then into Nottingham itself.  We kept the boats breasted up and it worked really well until we encountered narrow bridge holes, but no damage done. 

Good job Scoob was steering!  

Tonight we breathed a sigh (relief because it is a large river, but fondness as it is beautiful) as we left the Trent for a while to moor at Sawley for a couple of days and get some jobs done on the butty, so that it can be used as a floating shop, when we go onto the Trent and Mersey canal.

In the meantime I need to paint else I'll have nothing to sell.....

Saxilby to Newark (26 miles, 3 locks)

Collected our last solar panel via the train from Saxilby and Richard installed it yesterday at Torksey, whilst we waited for the spring tide on the tidal Trent today, Saturday.

So total wattage now is 320 which gives us a maximum ampage depending on the sunshine obviously of around 20amps.  This is enough to enable us to watch tv and have lights on in the evening when we are moored, without us worrying too much the following day about running the engine if we don't want too.  The batteries soon recover the next day with 4 panels onboard.

This morning we witnessed the power of the spring tide aigor coming into Torksey lock and bashing the gates raising the water level instantly by about 2 feet.  Quite a sight!  The lock was very quickly up to the level to let us through onto the Trent from the Fossdyke Navigation and pushed us nearly all the way to Cromwell lock.

Fledborough Railway Viaduct passes over the Trent at High Marnham.

We passed through Cromwell lock and decided to carry on to Newark, although the weather was quite chilly,   Roll on summer.

Leaving Bardney for a while...(13 miles and 1 lock)

We had hoped for a good early start today, but the heavens opened and the wind howled!  Eventually we tiptoed off our mooring with the butty behind on cross straps headed for Lincoln.
Unfortunately, the butty had other ideas as the wind pushed it over the river making progress slow.  Richard swapped the straps over for tried and tested versions which seemed to work better but still the butty crabbed.

Arriving at Lincoln, we went through Stamp End lock with no trouble, pulling the butty alongside in order to fit in.  It was still very cold and windy but at least it had stopped drizzling!

Coming through the Glory Hole Richard spoke to the Police diving team, narrowly avoiding them as he aimed the boats around the bend.  Didn't look like they were looking for anyone(thankfully!), just training and they passed us later as we continued on towards Saxilby.

I jumped back on the boat as Richard came through into Brayford Pool.  Major construction works were going on in the Pool where the old Harbourmaster office used to be, so that will be interesting to see in a couple of months when we return for the South Kyme Regatta.
On the final leg before Saxilby, Richard decided to go on the tiller on the butty whilst I steered the big boat, which involved a balletdance along the roof planks on the butty to the stern.  He steered for a while, but then tied up the rudder so it could not crab and it worked a treat for the remainder .

We moored up in the peaceful village of Saxilby, ready to eat the jacket potatoes which had cooked on our old Lister all day, beautiful!

Prelude to the spring tour 2012

Only a few more sleeps to setting off on our spring cruise!
The past few days we have been preparing for our sailing on Wednesday this week for our spring tour around the system.  Weather has been the biggest item on the priority list; if it's too windy or wet we will sit still a little longer.  Good thing the forecast has been optimistic for the weekend when our booking to go through the lock onto the tidal Trent is scheduled.  Due to the deep draft of our hull, and the fact that we have the butty to pull, we need as much help as we can to get 'up river' with the tide in time to get into Cromwell lock and relative sanctury!

Today we took our much loved little car to the auction and gained a grateful lift back (via KFC) back home to Bardney with  Richard's parents.  Obviously, we have no need of a vehicle for the next 6 months, but we will start again in September with a new small engine car.
The solar panel we ordered hasn't arrived yet, but not a problem, we will get it soon to complete the team (4 @ 80watts each) and give us a formidable amount of electric each day....

Signwriting the butty

As I have two weeks before we sail, I decided to have a go at signwriting the butty!  I have made a start as below, first with the BW logo and the number in white and then pencilling in the lettering for the main name.

Then I painted 2 coats of cream on the lettering

the next part is the shadowing in dark green, but I'll have a look at that tomorrow! Looks ok so far though so I'll keep going I think.  

But Richard wasn't impressed with blending the shadow so the other side I did more traditionally..

Bit more impact I have to agree.  Just the 'Chamberlain Carrying Co' and scrolls to add when I have more time.

IT FLOATS!!!!!!!

Well the day came for the crane to come and swing the old girl back into the water.  I couldn't take any photos as I was at work and Richard was on his own so he didn't either.  The operation went well, but Richard spent the next few hours going back and forth checking for leaks, 'o ye of little faith!'

The paintwork would be finished when we have time as would the back cabin, but she is starting to look something like.  Now we were going to have to learn some new skills on the best way to move two boats around.  Breasting up is fine (tying them side by side) but we won't be able to do that on the narrow canals, so we might have to do a bit of long lining.....

This is fine but it means Richard can't get his drinks brought to him every 15 mins like normal!
I think we will cross strap it most of the time (tying behind the motor tightly)  He's used to shifting artic lorries about so I'm sure we will manage.

The Butty isn't so ugly

Well the butty came on leaps and bounds,well sort of anyway, we did what we could when not working.

I tried to make the front look the same as Numb, so they would look like they belonged together. Why does it always take longer than you think to do these things, but we think it looked fine in the end.

One more job off the list only 3 million more to do!
Like any long term project it was never going to be a five minute job, but if we could get it to a stage of water tight, the rest could be done on the cut. Winter would soon be coming and Richard was hoping to go back to British Sugar at Bardney.  I was getting really fed up with my place of work, Martin's fees were paid up and the pressure was off.  The butty was going to need a name and the great debate began! Some how I think it will have a Floyd reference.

Building the Butty

We are always looking at old boats out in the cut and often thought about having a Butty to sell my painted bits and bobs and Richard's ropework, but never found one at the right price. So why not build one!

"Richard can do it" I told him, so we brought the 'Ugly Butty' as he called it from Lichfield.
This was a new ball game and the first set of locks on the way back was Fradley Junction, on a Saturday morning 'o joy'!  Onlookers thought we'd negotiated locks before, no, first lock and no incidents!
Back to Chapel Hill near Boston and lift out with a crane and then the fun begins. Our friend Andy gave Richard a ton of help to get started.

Richard hired a big welder and ordered lots of steel and set to work. 

No fancy plasma cutters, jigs, years of boat building or fancy design, just a big welder and an angle grinder! Richard was not that happy with his welding as he says he's not a welder but a grease monkey, but it started to take shape. It was beginning to look like proper butty.  He constructed a stern with cabin above complete with rudder.  Not a bad job!

2011 Things can only get better

The end of 2010 saw us with a mooring at Chapel Hill, Lincolnshire.  It was not what we wanted, but it was very quiet and gave us time to regroup and get our thoughts back together as well as catch up with friends and family locally.
The River Slea at Chapel Hill is a lovely little river, which would have carried goods from Sleaford to the Witham and off into the big wide world.  Grain was it's  main cargo, but latter Beet, for the sugar factory at Bardney and then sadly, like most of the waterways, in fell in to disrepair.

There was a big problem with weed later in the year and where it is shallow in places. when you need 3 foot to move, can cause problems.We decided to stay for a year as Martin had mest up a bit at uni and was going to have to sit another year. This was not in the big budget and so we both needed to go back to work.(kids don't you love'um).


May Bank Holiday
Every May Day, the village of South Kyme has a village fete and boat gathering.  This has gone from strength to strength and 2011 was no exception. The weather was kind and was on during the Royal wedding and the whole place came alive. The villagers really make everyone feel welcome with offers of water and even electric.

More boats this year and the field that the fete was on was really well supported.

2010 Thames ,Reading to Brentford

May 2010 saw us going from Reading down the Thames to Brentford.  We only got a two day past for the Thames and I wish we had got longer, but Richard's brother had just been diagnosed with cancer, so it was going to be a mad dash for Leicester where he lived.
The rest of the journey was a bit of a blur.  We stayed a lots of places on the Grand Union, hired cars along the way, in order to visit Stewart.
Stewart died six weeks later.  We headed for Lincolnshire to be near Richard's parents.

March - May 2010 The Kennet and Avon Canal

The K and A was the route, so off we went towards Bristol. The plan being to see Martin our oldest who is at university there. The closer to Bristol you get, the more boats there are.

Miles off them!

There were loads more photos, but I lost  the camera in a lock! Luckily Richard had downloaded some to the laptop. Dundas Aquaduct near Bath - a marvel of engineering and a lovely place to stay.
There are two ways back from Bristol out to the River Seven or turn around and go back the way we came. So, to me, there was only way.back, the way we came! So we retraced our journey back to Reading.

Well 2010 was.......

Well it was.....It was one of those years - we had left Kings Marina at Newark at the end of March heading for the Kennet and Avon via the Oxford Canal and The Thames.  Richard had been working for British Sugar all winter and was getting tiller happy desperate to get the boat out and about.  The plan was to go along the Kennet and Avon Canal, so went down to Oxford.  This is a beautiful canal with heavy lift bridges and cummulating in our mooring in Oxford itself for a while. Due to high river levels on The Thames from Lechlade we had to sit and wait for the rain to stop and the levels to drop, which took all week.
Then down the Thames to Reading.

For the eagle eyed out there, this is going downstream, but there's a story behind that which we'll get to later.
When we turned off the Thames up the Kennet, it was still in flood and did we let the poor old Lister have it!  In the middle of Reading the river runs through the shopping centre where there is a traffic light system to control the passage of boats, as those coming downstream tend to be pushed along swiftly.We didn't see the switch for the traffic light, until we were level with them, so me on the tiller and Richard 'ballet dancing' on the gunwhale, we hovered at the side and pressed the button.  It was a good job we did as a narrowboat came broad side under the bridge from around the bend!  Missed us by about 2 feet!

The K and A is a lovely canal , the east side is not so busy and is showing signs of lack of use and maintenance.  I tended to be on the tiller as I found the locks too much like hard work!  We did do lots of cycling though in case it sounds like I was being a diva!