Packing up for winter

Monday 13^th October; Hanbury Junction to the marina

We awoke to fine drizzle, not the best weather for packing up!  We stayed where we were for a couple of hours, getting most of the packing out of the way, and once the drizzle had cleared Dave did some outside stuff too.  The damage from the bottle strike is much less obvious than it was although it still needs a bit of work, but at least will be protected over the winter.  A swan family was hanging around, but paddled off once it was clear there would be no food forthcoming.  I think it’s the family from the marina. The cygnets have a lot of white feathers now and I’m surprised the parents haven’t seen them off yet.  The swanlife website suggests it’s the development of the white feathers that triggers the territorial instinct in the parents.   

By the time we moved down to the marina the vollies had arrived on the Hanbury flight and were fully occupied with three boats all going down – we were the middle one.  We stopped at the wharf to fill up with fuel and do a pump-out before slipping into our berth.  There was very little wind which made it fuss-free.  Dave spent an hour or so down the engine-hole making sure everything was all set for winter.  I took the first trolley-load of bags to the car, the contents mostly from the galley cupboards which are now empty apart from a few tins.  I discovered the car was filthy, the windows so covered in dust that Dave had to take a bucket up to give it a clean before we could leave.   Because of the dry weather the dusty element of the ballast-type surface of the roadway round the marina gets kicked up every time a car goes by.

It took till four o'clock to finish cleaning and packing up.  As usual, we wondered whether all the bags and bedding would fit in the car and leave enough room for us, but it always does – just.  With everything turned off that needs to be for winter, taps open and the water tank virtually empty, I just needed to close the cratch cover.  The new zips are great (winter winds would have quickly ripped the fabric of the old ones which had started rotting) and the replacement Velcro too, except for one little bit.  I think the canvas must gradually shrink just a little as it ages; I seem to remember it was like that on Chuffed too.  I might try adding an extra bit of Velcro next year – I’ve still got the canvas-mending tool I bought to repair Chuffed’s old cratch cover.

It wasn’t that grubby when I took it in for repair, honest

On past form it’s unlikely we’ll be back before the New Year, but you never know.

Trip stats;

Worcester and Birmingham canal, Droitwich Junction canal.

34 locks, 19 miles, all but half a furlong on narrow canals – only the basin at Diglis (where we winded) is classed as broad because of the locks going down to the Severn.  2 tunnels – Dunhampstead, once each way.

A very short cruise to the junction

Sunday 12^th October; Dunhampstead to Hanbury Junction

It was cold and grey this morning with a dank autumnal air.

Not so gloomy that people won’t get out to enjoy the water

After a while the air was dry enough for Dave to do a bit more work on the bottle-damaged area of the starboard side while I started work inside on removal of the drifts of dog-hair which always accumulate no matter how little she seems to shed day-to-day.  We set off mid-morning for the short hop to Hanbury Junction.  Just beyond the visitor mooring at Dunhampstead is the previous home of Trinity Boats, whose hire and boat-building business has now moved to the old Anglo-Welsh base at Tardebigge.  Yesterday was the official opening of the new business whose principal work is fit-outs. 

A rogue apostrophe I think

The café/trip boat Patricia is currently moored there, but has just gone on sale with Evesham Marina. 

The picture was taken from their Facebook page.

It was an uneventful cruise to the junction apart from a hold-up at one of the bridges, where a dangling bramble swiped at Dave’s head.

Hey!  That’s mine!

So there was a slight delay while we reversed back to the bridge hole to retrieve it.  I had the grabber in my hand in case his hat fell into the water, but the bramble wasn’t giving its trophy up easily.  I got the secateurs and snipped off the dangling bits I could reach before we moved on. 

Expert reversing!

We had the pick of the moorings at the junction so chose the best bit - furthest from the noisy road bridge and away from the overhanging trees which make the other spots rather gloomy.  It may be overcast today but at least here there is a trickle of solar for the batteries.  I left Dave getting on with various jobs and made the trek to Waitrose for milk and some snacks for our journey home tomorrow. 

We didn’t do much after lunch.  Dave took Jess for a decent walk but I was tired, having walked as fast as I could for the 3 mile round trip to Waitrose and back with a heavy(ish) rucksack.  Instead I looked up the opening hours of the carvery at the Eagle and Sun back at the bridge as we didn’t have anything planned for our evening meal and I didn’t feel like cooking.  It is under new ownership and their grand opening is …. in a couple of days’ time.  Never mind, I had the ingredients for pastry and made an onion quiche so at least it wasn’t beans on toast again.

There was quite a bit of boat activity with hire boats on their way to and from Black Prince to the north or ABC, Diamond Resorts and Canal Boat Club in Worcester to the south.  We didn’t bother to look but could hear several boats turning at the junction, to or from the Droitwich direction, too. 

Less than 2 miles, Dunhampstead tunnel, 1 hour’s slow cruising.

Too much water now!

Saturday 11^th October; Perdiswell Park to Dunhampstead

It was another quiet, grey and cloudy day.  Dave took Jess for a decent walk in the park while I went up to get bread and the paper in the retail park.  I noticed when we drove through Droitwich on our way to the marina, when we came through Bilford top lock and also here, that the lamp-posts on the main roads are all adorned with St George’s flags.

I’m not passing any comment here on the motivation of the people putting these flags up.  But I was always taught that flags are only flown at half-mast to show respect for someone who has died.  I think these rows of half-mast flags look a bit daft and slightly creepy.

We set off mid-morning, knowing that the locks would not be in our favour, as two boats had already passed this morning.  The top paddles on Blackpole and Tolladine locks were very stiff, no change there.  It’s less than a mile then to the bottom of the Offerton flight.  I turned the bottom lock, left Dave to close up at the top and walked the couple of hundred yards to the next lock.

A splash of autumn colour in the gloom at bridge 23

As we were working up the second lock (no 5) I could see activity at the next (no 4), so walked up to ensure they left the bottom gates open for us.  A hire boat was moored on the lock landing above it and all four crew were straining every sinew to open the top gate against the water flooding over it.  The levels just would not equalise.  There was so much water coming down that one of the crew had already been back to the lock above (no 3) to ask – beg! - the crew not to let any more water down until their hire boat had got in, descended, and left lock 4.  Two of the four were owners - their own boat had been trapped above Knowle locks because of the low water levels, scuppering their summer cruising plans with friends.  As they are booked in for a repaint at the end of the month they weren’t going to risk getting stuck below the locks so they had hired instead.  They got down eventually, then it was our turn.

The crew above had opened their paddles by now

Thankfully the excess water was soon spent and we had no further trouble.  There was another boat on its way down too which had added to the problem.  By the time we reached the top of the flight it was lunchtime, so we went on to the Tibberton moorings for a break.  The Bridge pub, canalside at Tibberton, had re-opened in the summer and we toyed with the idea of staying for a meal tonight though we really wanted to be a little further on.  I wandered up to have a look at the menu but found the pub closed and dark, the new management clearly not having been able to make a go of it.  We carried on.  We could have squeezed in to moor at Oddingley, but went on a little further to Dunhampstead where we knew there was a good edge.

Scots Pines at Oddingley

Dave needed a good edge so he could start repairing the damage sustained when that lout chucked a bottle at us on the last trip.

A reminder of the damage.  Vactan has been protecting it since then

He used filler on the bigger areas but will see if paint on its own will deal with the small chips of the splatter pattern.  He also put a strip of masking tape along the very bottom of the tumblehome so he could paint a straight black line along the gunwale edge – when we bought the boat the edge of the cream paint on the side was rather ragged and he was keen to neaten it up at last.

4½ miles, 8 locks

 

Back to the park

Friday 10^th October; the Commandery to Perdiswell park

We uncharacteristically slept in this morning, so were all behind like a cow’s tail for a bit.  We had a think about how far we wanted to get today (not very) and what else we needed to do (bits and pieces).  Dave wanted to get on with refreshing the paintwork now the starboard side is accessible, so first I got the milk from the handy garage above the canal on the way to Diglis Basin.

Take care!  The canal is down behind the wall

Then Jess and I went for a walk to Fort Royal, not far away.  These days it is a pretty municipal park on a steep hill overlooking the Severn and the city, but on 3^rd September 1651 the Battle of Worcester, the last major battle of the Civil War, raged all around.  Worcester was in the possession of the Royalists, and Charles Stuart, then only 21, watched the battle’s progress from the tower of the Cathedral before spotting an unguarded flank and leading an attack in person.  But eventually the Royalists were forced back into the city, and Fort Royal was stormed and captured by the Parliamentarians.  Its cannon were then turned on the city.  The battle raged until the Parliamentarians triumphed late in the evening.  Charles escaped to France but many thousands of Royalists were not so lucky.

Nowadays there is a peaceful view across the Severn valley to the Malvern Hills

The main attraction for Jess though was the squirrels, which are hard at work hiding acorns and other goodies for the winter, and she got far more exercise running back and forth staring up into the trees as she did from walking.  We slipped our moorings at 11, going up one lock to the bollards at bridge 5 where Dave set off to find Screwfix for a replacement galley tap – the leak in ours is getting worse and it will be easier to replace than repair.  

There is some excellent artwork under bridges, part of the Worcester Paint street art festival last year.

Then we went a little further on, past the ABC hire base to a small park ideal for a lunch stop.

Slightly blurred action photo

After a quick lunch we set off again, now in sunshine.  The remaining four locks were quickly dealt with.  At Gregory’s Mill top lock was the last of the floating pennywort we saw on this trip – a little pile on the lockside, to which I added the floating bits I could reach.

Floating no more

We arrived back at Perdiswell Park by 4.  I gave Dave a hand for a while polishing off some of the paint restorer until my arm got too tired (I blame the wretchedly stiff paddle gear on some of these locks).  He did the lion’s share though.  By evening the clear skies meant the temperature was dropping, but the sun had warmed the boat and we only needed to run the Eber for an hour – it did need testing before the winter, after all.

2½ miles, 5 locks

 

Into Worcester

Thursday 9^th October; Perdiswell Park to Diglis Basin and the Commandery

It was jolly chilly this morning and I should have put my thermals on.  Dave wanted to do a few things on the boat so I took Jess for a very brisk 40 minutes in the park to try and warm up.  The place was heaving with dog walkers, mostly very cheerful and friendly.  We met a huge pack of people and hounds, which Jess studiously avoided, keeping a tight bite on her ball.

The tail end (ho ho) of about 30 walkers and their dogs

The golfers were out in force too.  I have friends who enjoy this strange sport, don’t understand the attraction myself.

An odd pastime

I had finally warmed up a bit by the time we got back to the boat, to find Dave already in a T-shirt wielding the paint restorer.

Working hard

It was after 10.30 before we got going, under brighter skies, although it was a while before I started to remove layers.  Some of the paddle gear was quite stiff, which helped with the warming process.

Bilford bottom lock

Below the Bilford pair and the two Gregory’s Mill locks the dreaded floating pennywort rears its ugly multi-head.  The weed boat had clearly been through since we came off the river in September, when huge rafts of pennywort were drifting across the canal, but banks of it were building up again where the weed boat couldn’t quite get in.

The heron seems to find it useful

At Blockhouse lock, our last for the morning, there were a few loose bits of pennywort still floating about, so I did my duty and hooked them out.

Every little hinders – who knows how big these bits would have grown if I hadn’t pulled them out?

The Commandery moorings were free, so we stopped for lunch as it was already 12.30.  The canal had been very quiet – apart from a flurry of boats yesterday evening (new hirers going out) there had been no-one on the move.  Even so, we thought we’d better get winded and moored again sooner rather than later, so set off down Sidbury lock to Diglis Basin straight afterwards.  Not a moment too soon!

Just in time to wind before these two boats had come up off the river

One of the two, an ABC hire boat from Worcester, moored behind us at Commandery.  They had hoped to get to Stratford along the Avon from Tewkesbury, but it all turned out to take a lot longer than they had expected so they didn’t.  They had had a lovely time, which is what matters, of course.

I walked back down to Diglis Basin to dispose of the rubbish and have a look at the river, which was flowing serenely past the end of the canal.  The lockie on duty said it had been a very quiet day, just 3 or 4 boats in all.  We bought some cake from the Commandery tea-room to eat later, as they close at 4, and did little else after that (apart from eat cake.  And then tea, and watch football).  We lit the fire for the first time this autumn.

3½ miles, 7 locks.

The baffle plate lives up to its name

Wednesday 8^th October; Oddingley to Perdiswell Park

It was grey, quiet and dry this morning when we left our mooring.  No-one about except the ladies in the field opposite and they were too busy eating to be speaking to anyone.

Good morning

It drizzled as we passed through Tibberton, just enough to need waterproofs, but the heron didn’t seem to mind.  Perhaps it was digesting a good meal, I can't think it was fish-spotting from 20 feet up a tree.

Hello up there!

The drizzle had stopped before we got to the top of Offerton locks.  The top lock wasn’t quite empty, and as I filled it the volunteers emerged from their hut, one to go down to set the next lock and the other to join us at the top.  We were down the flight of 6 in half an hour, probably the fastest we have ever done it – they aren’t particularly deep, but one of the pounds is quite a long one, too far to lock ahead if you have no-one else to help you.

Thanks!

There was just enough time to boil a kettle, make tea for Dave and a pot of coffee for me before we arrived at Tolladine lock.  It started to drizzle again on the way.

Undergoing repair?  Yeah, right

I looked back at my blogs and found a photo I took of the same paddle taken in March last year, 18 months ago.  I refer you to Neil’s summary of the recent CRT survey.  The lock took ages to fill of course, being a deep one, so I amused myself by stretching to reach a large section of floating reed to add to the heap that had already started building up.  I was holding on to the gate, since you ask. 

Back on the boat once more, my insulated cup kept my coffee warm as we worked through the last lock of the day, Blackpole.  Luckily a boat had just come up so I only had to push the gate open and we were down in a jiffy.

This top gate swings open a bit – someone has fashioned a prop from available materials.  Very helpful, if you can remember which way round it went.

Our favourite Worcester mooring at Perdiswell Park was free and we were all tied up by midday.  The contractors were out between Tolladine and Blackpole locks doing their annual edge-to-edge cut, and it looks as though they have been here too, but only with the mower.  They were strimming everything in sight back there, so why didn’t they trim the nettles by this mooring I’d like to know!

The resident swans were rushing along the canal towards us as we moored.  Too impatient to paddle all the way to the bridge behind us, they had suddenly burst into frantic action and took off for a bit.

I missed the lead one.

Then all they did was paddle about behind us, pecking at the greenery.  It took us a little while to moor, as the sun had come out and we wanted the best spot for the solar.  Jess started agitating for a visit to the park before we had finished lunch, so Dave did that while I went off to the supermarket for some bits and pieces.  Then he went to Halfords while I prepared to do battle with the flue pipe.  We still haven’t got around to getting ourselves a proper flue brush, so it would have to be a bunch of holly as usual.

Prickly, but effective

And as usual, the stopper was the baffle plate.  Before I started, I donned Dave’s engine-hole clobber  – bitter experience tells me I will get soot all over my arms.  There must be a knack to getting the baffle plate out, but I haven’t found it.  The plate has a screw at one end, which drops through a hole in a lug projecting forwards from the back of the fire.  The plate sits on lugs on the other three sides to hold it above the fire.  It's purpose is to direct the heat forwards to the glass and the room before it goes up the flue and away.  And you can't clean the flue till you've taken it out.  ‘Just lift the screw out of the hole’, the instructions said, and ‘tilt the baffle plate’ above the lugs to drop it down and remove it.  There seems to be no space to tilt it, and it kept getting jammed, but I managed it in the end - I wish I knew what I did!  I dragged the holly through the flue a few times, cleaned up the soot and it was as easy as pie to get the baffle plate back in again.  Why?

The screw is rather long.  I wonder why?  Maybe we’ll bring the bolt croppers next time and trim a little bit off.

Jess and I went for a walk in the sun afterwards to soothe my shattered nerves.  Dave had been busy working on the port side with some paint restorer stuff he got in Halfords, followed by T-cut, which is bringing up the paintwork quite well.  But the sun went, and by the time we should have been admiring tonight's Harvest Moon there was a thick blanket of cloud.  To start with it wasn't cold enough to light a fire - later on we wished we had.

4 miles, 8 locks

 

 

Autumn cruising

Tuesday 7^th October; Droitwich Spa marina to Oddingley

We drove up to the boat in calm grey weather for what is probably going to be our last cruise for this year – we often think we’ll pop up for a few days before the winter sets in, but we almost never do.  We were ready for the off by about 3.30.

Windlasses at the ready as we turn towards the marina exit

The bottom of the three Hanbury locks is very close to the marina entrance, and any volunteers often spot boats about to leave the marina.  Would there be any vollies still around at 3.30?  In summer they are here till at least 4 in the afternoon  …  today we saw one on his way home along the towpath before we had even left the marina, they'd obviously already decided to call it a day.  At least the three locks were almost ready for us, just needing a little water letting out.  At the top of the flight is the electronic river conditions board.

At least there has been some rain

The conditions on the Severn are academic for us – we had hoped to cruise the Droitwich Ring, which goes north on the Severn from Worcester and passes through Bevere lock on its way to the start of the Droitwich Barge canal, but the lock is out of action at the moment for repair.  So we’ll potter down to Worcester and back, and maybe then go northwards towards Stoke Works.  It all depends on how long we hang around the Worcester area. 

Rounding the tight turn towards Worcester

It was still sunny and pleasantly mild as we tootled along past the Hadzor moorings towards Dunhampstead tunnel.  There was only one other boat on the move – a hire boat who arrived at the tunnel when we were about half-way through and waited for us to emerge before they started.  It’s only a short tunnel so they didn’t have long to wait.  The weather seemed to have suddenly got colder as we negotiated the last few bridges to Oddingley where we slotted into a space after 2 hours’ cruising.  But it wasn’t quite cold enough to light the fire.

3 locks, 2½ miles, Dunhampstead tunnel

Back to Droitwich Spa marina, and an explanation

Wednesday 3^rd September

It rained a lot overnight and was still a bit drizzly first thing, but the sun came out by breakfast-time.  This mooring is rather shady and we’d rather have been in the sun, but as everything outside was soaking wet we did some packing before we set off to descend Hanbury locks.  The forecast for the afternoon is atrocious so we wanted to be packed up and ready to drive home before the weather arrived.

The start of the Droitwich Junction canal.  The boat roof shows the result of mooring close to trees at this time of year.  It's clean, but cluttered.

When I met yesterday’s lockies they told me the morning procedure if we went down before today's had arrived – check the two pounds between the locks, and if they are low don’t use the side ponds, just lock down as normal and you should have enough water in the lockful you take with you as you go down.  By the time we moved off this morning, the two on duty today had already checked water levels and were filling the top lock for us.  We were their first boat of the day.

The bottom gates on this flight have to be propped open to stop them swinging closed.  This year smartly painted new props have been made – by a volunteer, of course.

Apart from the brisk breeze, the weather was perfect – warm and sunny, although the lock beams remained wet and I quickly got a damp bum.

Nearly there - entering the bottom lock

Jess likes to be off the boat when we're locking, but she has to be on the lead here because Saltway, one of the main routes out of Droitwich, runs very close to the towpath.  Once the boat is in the bottom lock she goes back aboard for the short trip into the marina – it’s a very long way round on foot, which wouldn’t worry her in the least but is not practical for us.  We only had one lockie at this point so I stayed off to give him a hand.

The pound below didn’t need any extra water, so he opened the side paddles first.  This saved half our lock water in the side pond, ready for use the next time the lock is filled.  This will save depleting the pound above.

He had spied a boat on its way out of the marina, so we left the gates open and I got back aboard from the steps before we went into the marina to find our berth.  I had checked it out on foot yesterday and thought I knew which it was – there were only two empty berths along the whole pontoon, either side of a distinctive boat, it should have been easy!  I chose the wrong one.  So after executing a perfect entry Dave luckily spotted the (admittedly rather small) number … and had to reverse out again.  The wind was so strong that rather than shuffle around to get into the right place, he returned to the wharf area to turn and make a fresh attempt, again smooth and successful.  We have realised over the years that loading and unloading our boat is a great deal easier and quicker from the bow, so we rarely reverse in.  We left for home at 12.30, which was very good going I thought.   Apart from an hour or so's driving in torrential rain our journey home was easy.  Bonjour is now in her winter mooring, but we plan to be out again around the end of the month, depending on water levels of course. At least we should have more options than if we had stayed at Calcutt, where we would now be stuck until that stretch of the Grand Union opens again.

Now, you may remember we encountered a tug moored inconsiderately at Blower’s Green, on the day we went down the Stourbridge 16 (26^th August, posted 1^st September).  NB Rune had the same problem just the other day, 2 weeks later, so yesterday I wrote to the Dudley Canal Trust to ask for it to be moved, saying it was “an example of extremely bad mooring practice and is a great irritation” - polite I think, but clear. 

The offending tug

Within two hours Becky from the Trust had got back to me, promising that it would be moved today.  It is one of the historic boats owned by the Trust, and is normally moored in a short arm at the junction but this had been blocked by a fallen tree, hence the emergency mooring - though it should still have been at one end of the bollards!  It had been escorting the electric trip boat in case it ran aground and needed assistance in the low water conditions on the Wolverhampton level.  She emailed again this morning to say the trip boat was on its way to collect it, and by the time this is posted it should back at the other end of the Dudley tunnel.  OK the skipper should have known better, but what a swift response when it was brought to their attention!  Thanks and well done Becky.

Today’s stats; 3 locks, half a mile.

Trip stats

Thanks to canalplan.uk for the calculations.

95½ miles, made up of 20 miles 6½ furlongs broad canals, 61 miles 6¼ furlongs narrow canals and 12 miles 7¼ furlongs large rivers.

128 locks; 45 broad, 80 narrow, 3 large.

3 lift bridges – 28 and 26, both manual and Shirley Drawbridge, which is electric, all on the North Stratford.

1 aqueduct large enough to be noticed, over the Avon on the Grand Union at Leamington Spa.

9 tunnels; Shrewley (9433 yds), Brandwood (353 yds), Edgbaston (105), Broad St aka Black Sabbath (83), Galton (122), Netherton (3027), Dunsley (25), Cookley (65) and Dunhampstead (230), a total of 2 miles 3¼ furlongs underground.  This figure does not include the Black Sabbath bridge in Birmingham, as it’s technically a road bridge with buildings along one side – at least canalplan.uk doesn’t think it should be included.

Waterways in order of passage; Grand Union, North Stratford, Worcester and Birmingham, BCN main line, Dudley numbers 1 and 2, Stourbridge, Staffs and Worcester, River Severn, Worcester and Birmingham again, Droitwich Junction.