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| Densie being carried to the engineering wharf. |
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| The Hole |
We were up early at 7 am to fill the car with the clothes, food etc we need to take home from the boat and empty the waste tank in preparation for Densie to be taken to the engineering wharf for repair.
The second picture shows The Hole after the patch was removed. The white stuff is the adhesive from the tape used to cover the hole.
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| Densie back home |
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| The patched hole |
Our concern yesterday was about the winds due today making mooring difficult. So after dinner when conditions were calm we started to make a quick cruise home at 7pm. However as the dusk turned duskier we moored up again and waited for the morning.
This morning we set off at 7am before breakfast and were able to get to our berth by 8am just as the wind began to increase followed later by a drizzly shower.
The next step is for Densie to be lifted out of the water. This is planned for Tuesday and so tomorrow we will need to make detailed arrangements and clear the boat. The next report will be on Tuesday when I hope to have pictures of the lift-out and possibly of the hole after the patch has been removed.
Weather: blustery, showery
2.39 miles, 55 minutes cruising
Total journey statistics
73.66 miles 126 locks 54.5 hours cruising in 16 days
average lock-miles: 3.66 lm/hour
average cruising time 3.41 hours/day
Today we were prepared for some hard work, as we had to ascend the 2 locks at Long Itchington followed by the 8 lock Stockton flight and with a push we could hve been able to complete the 3 Calcutt locks as well. How far we would be able to get would also depend on the forecast rain. However it all worked out far better than we could have hoped for.
We set off early at 8:35. Fortunately the first lock was aleady in our favour and once we had entered another boat turned up and we worked through both Long Itchington locks together. The other boat then stopped for water but a further boat, Slimline Tonic, joined us and together we worked though all 8 Stockton Locks helped very much by a CRT volunteer lack-keeper who walked on ahead of us to ensure every lock was open when we arrived.
After completing the Stockton flight Slimline Tonic left us to find some diesel. We carried on up the 3 Calcutt Locks. Again all the locks were in our favour being set by boats coming down.
We stopped at 12:30 having ascended 13 locks and cruised for 4.7 miles in just under 4 hours. We would have considered that a very fast speed even if we had not needed to travel cautiously.
But our day was not over. By 3pm we realised that the very gusty winds forecast for the time we planned to enter our marina could cause real problems. So we off again reaching the North Oxford Canal beyond Braunston at 17:15 after about 2 hours of lock free cruising. Fortunately the forecast rain never materialised.
Weather: some sunshine, but cloudy later on. No rain.
10.1 miles, 13 locks, 6 hours 10 minutes cruising.
Set off at 9:25 in bright weather. We ascended the first lock on our own and were joined at the second by another boat. They were happy to accept our careful approach and we stayed together for a total of 8 locks including the 2 lock staircase at Bascote. All the locks operated without any excess splashing or turbulence, which was a pleasant relief.
We parted company when we moored up at Long Itchington for lunch. The next task is to climb the 10 stockton locks but we thought there was not enough time to complete them before late afternoon so we will leave that until tomorrow morning.
We continue to remove water from the cabin bilges but the amounts now are very small.
Weather: bright and ewarm with sunny perionds
4.38 miles, 9 locks, 3 hours 30 minutes
Yesterday’s meal at the Cape of Good Hope in Warwick was very tasty as were the local draught beers. We would highly recommend the pub.
After writing yesterday’s blog the water seepages we hoped were minor turned out to be very worrying. This morning we were able to determine that the water was coming from the small amount of bilge space below the wood flooring which is mostly filled with ballast of concrete blocks. After taking out a couple of these blocks from an accessible area below the bed the space was completely replaced by water which was easily removed with hand pump and sponges.
After perhaps 90 minutes work the water is down to a quarter of its previous level and areas of the boat which had been damp ever since the water leak was found last Friday are drying out.
Between sessions of water removal we moved the boat in hot sunny weather from near the Cape of Good Hope, down the two Cape locks and on to Tesco at Leamington Spa. There we stocked up with groceries. After lunch on the boat we continued our journey out of Leamington and up the large ascending Radford Bottom Lock. This lock was worked slowly and carefully as we were concerned that swirling waters could cause further leaks from the patched hole in the front of the boat. The ascent went smoothly and we moored up for the night at 16:10.
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| Densie in Hatton flight |
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| View down the flight |
Then began the descent of the 21 large Hatton locks. A CRT volunteer lock keeper offered to help us down the full flight and of course we gratefully accepted. He and two corporate volunteers ensured that every lock was set ready for us to enter and all we had to do was to lower the paddles and close the gates when we we left. Many thanks to all involved. A mile further on we moored in Warwick for the night at 13:45 near to the Cape of Good Hope pub which we plan to visit tonight. Until this afternoon we thought our water leak problems were all fixed and the wet wood was drying out sufficiently until we can get the boat back to our marina. However we were disappointed to find further evidence that a small amount of water was seeping into the cabin. Hopefully this is just water in the bilges being disturbed as the boat moved around in the locks. Weather: Warm, dry and sunny 3.91 miles, 21 locks, 4 hours 55 minutes. |
Today we should have descended the 21 Hatton locks. But since the weather forecast showed rain for much of the day we decided to visit Stratford upon Avon by train instead.
We moved the boat a short distance further on to Hatton railway station in time for the 2-hourly train to Stratford at 9:50. The problem then was how to buy a ticket. The station is unmanned and the only way of buying a ticket there appeared to be a very old coin operated machine with a label indicating that "new" coins would not be accepted! Not having £12 in old coins the only way of avoiding a £100 penalty for travelling without a ticket was to use the online facilities of Chiltern Railways. We finally sorted out how to do this whilst sitting in the train as it left the station.
When we arrived in Stratford the weather was grey and drizzly. The town centre is uninspiring with many charity shops, restaurants/cafes and "attractions" for the tourists though the tourist information centre is some distance away near the river.
We were able to buy some herbs for our dinner recipes at a Tesco Express but were unsuccessful in finding suitable glasses to replace those broken in our crash although we did try most of the charity shops. Also we visited Bancroft Basin where we would have been moored had it not been necessary to return home. After 2 hours wandering around the town we called it a day and caught the 12:33 train back to Hatton and returned to the boat. The rain continued for much of the afternoon.
Weather: Damp
1.41 miles, 40 minutes cruising
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| Stratford Canal in the sun |
Yesterday, confident that the boat was as safe as it could be under the circumstances we started our journey back home. We will keep the speed down to engine tickover, say 2.1 mph and raise the paddles slowly when ascending locks avoiding excess splashing near the damage to the hull. After shopping at the nearby village shop and pumping out our waste tank we left Wootton Warwen at 11:30 and stopped for lunch near Preston Bagot. In the afternoon we ascended 6 locks mooring for the night at 15:30. Overall the time taken was not very different from what would be expected if we were not taking extra precautions. Today the weather had much improved with blue skies and no rain which helped make this an enjoyable trip. 11 ascending locks took us back to Kingswood Junction where we stopped for lunch. In the afternoon we left the Stratford Canal to join the Grand Union mooring just north of Shrewley Tunnel only 3 miles from Hatton Locks. Weather 7th August: Sunny and almost warm Sunday 6th August:3.58 miles, 6 locks, 3 hours 20 minutes Monday7th August: 5.49 miles, 11 locks, 5 hours 15 minutes |
Apologies for no news. The last 3 days have been very difficult. Now that we and understand and are coping with the situation I am able to write it up…..
On Thrsday 3rd I hit a bridge – a very solid hit that knocked a few cups and glasses out of a cupboard but apparently had dcaused no other damage.
So we set off happily on Friday morning reaching Wootton Wawen at lunchtime. When we had moored up Dense stepped down into the cabin to find it an inch deep in water and getting deeper. When I looked in the front hold of the boat I found about 1 foot of water. This area was in theory completely isolated from the rest of the boat.
Fortunately we had a hand pump on board so we spent about 4 hours pumping out perhaps 100 small bucketfulls of water. Oddly there was no evidence of any further water leaking into the boat. There is a boatyard at Wootton Wawen so we asked for help and one of the staff came over and ckecked everything he could think of. But he could find no obvious reason why the boat would leak in so much water which would then stop. At this point Denise’s sister left us as there was no further help she could provide.
On Saturday, after talking on the phone to a local narrowboat engineer we decided to carry on towards Stratford where there were facilities to carry out further investigation. However within a mile water was pouring into the front hold again. It was clear the boat only leaked when travelling at a reasonable speed. So we returned slowly to Wootton Wawen.
Back there Denise found the there was a small hole punched in the front of the hull about 2 inches above the waterline, which suddenly explained everything. At this point we called out River Canal Rescue (RCR) who sent an engineer equipped with a drysuit to get into the canal and patch the hole with tarpaulin and strong sticky tape held in place with large magnets. We were advised that this would enable us to get back to base where the boat could be properly repaired.
We are now on our way back, keeping to a low speed and being very careful when using the locks.
So ends our planned 6 week summer holiday.
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| Bridge 62 on the Grand Union |
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| Turning off the Grand Union at Kingswood Junction |
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| In lock 24 on the Stratford Canal |
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| Lock on Stratford Canal |
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| Typical Stratford Canal lock-keeper's cottage |
We set off in sunny weather at 9am and stopped a mile later at the village of Hatton where Denise’s sister joined us. Our journey up the Grand Union ended when we turned left at Kingswood Junction onto a short channel that brought us to the Stratford Canal.
The canal is very attractive with some features not often seen elsewhere. In particular the photos show an iron bridge with a gap in the middle to allow horse drawn boats to pass through without it being necessary to disconnect the horse. Another photo shows the interesting barrel roof design adopted for the lock keepers cottages.
Now travelling south we will be passing through 35 narrow locks which will take us back down to the Avon. Today’s journey accounted for 9 of these. We stopped for lunch after 6 locks and completed the remaining 3 in the afternoon mooring in in the village of Lowsonford where we will spend the night.
Weather: Varied, sunny, cloudy, occasional heavy showers.
7.17 miles, 9 locks, 4 hours 35 minutes
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| Moored above Hatton flight |
Weather: better than forecast but some showers and rather cool.
Today we ascended the 2 Cape locks in Warwick followed by the 21 locks of the Hatton flight. We had planned to do this tomorrow but brought it forward because of the forecast of heavy rain. That forecaset had changed with rather less rain but today still looked much more hopeful.
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| Approaching Hatton 2nd lock |
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| Densie and Awyganna sharing a lock |
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| Waiting for a lock to empty |
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| Denise driving Densie alongside Awyganna |
We set off at 8:50 from our Warwick mooring passing through the Cape locks on our own and reaching the bottom of the Hatton flight an hour afterwards. Fortunately there was another boat, Awyganna (Durham dialect for “Are we going?”), waiting to go up. So we partnered with them for the whole of the flight.
We reached the top of at about 14:00, filled up with water and moored up for the night immediately afterwards as we were too tired to travel any further.
Weather - dry cool, some sunshone, breezy
3.75 miles, 23 locks, 5 hors 40 minutes
Change of plans today. Originally we had intended to reach Warwick on Tuesday so we could ascend the 21 locks of the Hatton flight on Wednesday. Unfortunately the weather forecast is showing heavy rain all that day Working 21 wide locks is hard work, working them in pouring rain was an oiption we did not want to consider. So we have had no choice but to combine today’s and tomorrow’s journey into one day.
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| In the Bascote staircase locks |
We started early at 8:30.The first point of interest was the Bascote staircase lock where the bottom gate of the top lock forms the top gate of the second lock. Operating such locks require some thought as before the boat enters the top lock the bottom lock must be empty so it can receive the water released when the top lock is emptied.
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| The new HS2 railway will cross the Grand Union |
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| Radford Railway Bridge, now disused |
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| Crossing the Avon |
The staircase lock is immediately followed by two normal locks. When we were setting the first one another boat, Otter, started descending the staircase. We waited for them to arrive so we could descend all the following locks together speeding up our passage as we did yesterday. We quickly descended a further 6 locks together arriving in the large town of Royal Leamington Spa at lunchtime.
Here we split up as we needed to shop for groceries for the next 6 days. After shopping at Morrisons only 5 minute walk from the canal we set off again, crossed over the River Avon on a high aqueduct and moored up in Warwick at 4pm. It is a bit frustrating to realise that we will be ascending and descending160 feet before we meet the Avon again in Stratford.
Weather: some rain but mainly dry, cool and cloudy.
8.96 , 10 locks, 4 hours 55 minutes cruising
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| Densie and Florence descending the second Stockton flight |
There was heavy rain overnight but by 9:00 when we set off the weather was sunny and dry. after a mile we reached the top of the double width 8-lock, 54 foot, Stockton flight. We had just entered the top lock when hireboat Florence arrived with a crew of 5 and entered the lock next to us. It was great to see them as as not only would we have help working each lock, sbut omeone could go ahead and prepare the next one greatly speeding the descent.
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| Moored in the rain at Long Itchington |
The 8 locks were quickly followed by 2 further locks. Thanks to the fast passage we were now ahead of plan so we stopped for the night half a mile further on at 11:50 near the village of Long Itchington. After lunch the weather deteriorated and it started to rain.
Weather: bright and sunny in the monrng with a slight breeze, wet and cool in the afternoon
2.93 miles, 10 locks, 2 hours 50 minutes cruising
Our Summer 2023 trip will take us through Stratford upon Avon, down the Avon, up the Severn to Stouport and then into Birmingham for the IWA Festival of Water. The nwe go back to our home marina as quickly as possible.
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| Many moored boats as we enter Braunston |
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| Braunston Junction |
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| Passing below the A425 |
After spending last night on the boat at our berth we filled up with diesel and left the marina at 11:15 turning south towards Braunston down the North Oxford Canal. Before the village there are clear signs of ridges and fsurrows in the fields presumably dating from medieval times. At Braunston Junction the Oxford Canal joins the Grand Union Canal leaving it some 5 miles later at Napton Junction. There our route continued on the Grand Union towards Birmingham.
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| Waiting below Calcutt top lock |
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| Moored beyond Calcutt Locks |
We had planned to stop for the night just above the three lock Calcutt flight. However there was no satisfactory place to moor so we had to continue down the locks. Fortunately we were accompanied by another narrowboat, "Out of the Blue" which halved the work Denise would otherwise have done on her own. Not so furtunately we were delayed by a hireboat crew being trained on how to work locks and by a boat coming up the flight. We had hoped to then moor at the bottom, but again we could not find anywhere suitable and so had to carry on for anothe mile where we were able to tie up for the night, the whole journey taking 5 hours when we had only planned 3.
Weather: blustery showers and sunny intervals, fairly warm.
9.93 miles, 3 locks, 5 hours travelling.
Not really a voyage of Densie as she was not there. However we were so....
The rally of historic boats is an annual event taking place at Braunston. This small village in Northamptonshire is seen as the centre of the English canal system as major canals from the south, north, west, and north west meet in the area.
Commercial traffic on the canals cased in 1970 but there are dozens of boats from that era still afloat being maintained by enthisiasts. The Braunston Rally gives them the opportunity to how off the results of a great deal of hard work and expense.
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Historic boats at waiting to pake part in the twice daily parade
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| Narrowboat and Butty pair approaching Braunston Junction |
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| Turning left at the junction |
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| Reverse to the right and side |
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| Reverse around corner |
These pictures show how to turn a narrowboat and unpowered "butty" around at a T-junction. Each boat is 70 foot long and weighs about 30 tons. Manoeuvering such a pair takes significant skill by the two crew, especially when as we see here there are several other moored boats around.
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| View of historic Braunston Boatyard |
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| Old crane at BRaunston Boatyard |
The boatyard at Braunston was once the mainentance yard for a large fleet of commercial narrowboats but is now part of Braunston Marina.
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| Steam narrowboat Hasty |
Originally from the unception of the canals in the 1770s all narrowboats were pulled by horses. This method of propulsion was in use right up to the end of commercial carrying. From the early 1900s diesel engines egan to take over.
However for a short time some boats were fitted with steam engines. They were never successful for commercial carrying since the coal fuel required too much space that would otherwise be used for cargo. However they did find a use as tugs in the docks. Steam engines of that period, if any survived, could probably not be used now because of far more stringent safety checks.
However some boats have been reconstructed with modern steam engines. One such seen here is "Hasty" and another "Adamant" was also at the Rally. Steam boats unlike those with diesel engines require 2 crew, one to steer and the other to keep the boiler running. I did ask Adamant's driver how the he coukd speed up or slow down the engine. I was told this was done "digitally" with the steerer using his index finger to push a buzzer. Perhaps one buzz meant speed up and 2 meant slow down, I dont know.
Our first ever visit to the Historic Boat Rally was great fun and it is something we hope to do again.
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| Ascending Hillmorton bottom lock |
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| Wild orchids growing at Hillmorton bottom lock |
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| Moored in the marina - Densie is 4th from the left |
The picture shows a small part of the marina with about 1/6th of the total number of boats visible.
3 hours 25 minutes, 3 locks, 6.84 miles
Overall the statistics for our trip are:
14 days
43hours 55 minutes cruising
96.08 miles
8 locks
2 swing bridges
average distance+locks+swing bridges/hour 2.42 miles
average hours/day cruising 3.14
Tomorrow I will publish pictures of the Historic Boat Festival.
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| Meeting a boat between Brinklow and Rugby |
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| Same boat approachingWest Coast Main Railway |
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| Moored nose to tail at Rugby |
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| Old working boat passing our mooring |
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| Bridge 21 on the North Oxford |
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| Boatyard and hireboat centre at Stretton Stop |
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| Congestion near bridge at Stretton Stop |
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| Hawkesbury Junction - turning off the Coventry Canal |
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| Moored at Ansty on the North Oxford Canal |
There was heavy rain most of this morning but it stopped soon after lunch. As we needed to run the engine to charge the batteries we decided to move on, filling up with water at Hawkesbury, ascending the 1 foot stop lock, and travelling a few miles back along the Oxford Canal to the canalside village of Ansty.
2 hours travelling, 3.58 miles
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| Newdigate Colliery Arm junction with the Coventry Canal near Hawkesbury |
Yesterday I mentioned that the forecast thunderstorms had not appeared. As soon as I shut down the laptop we had a torrential rainstorm that lasted for several hourse.noticably raising the level of the canal.
This morning was dry but overcast. After setting out we turned right at the junction with the Coventry Canal to travel two miles through the industrial town of Nuneaton to empty our waste tank at a small boatyard there. No pictures of Nuneaton I am afraid as the canal scenery, mainly of estate houses and allotments, is of little interest. We then turned the boat around and headed towards Coventry, mooring back near Hawkesbury Junction at lunchtime.
This was a coal mining area and there were canal arms that went to indivual collieries. The photo shows the end of the blocked and abandoned Newdigate Colliery Arm. The colliery itself closed in 1982.
The weather forecast for tomorrow is heavy rain for most of the day so we may not move. We are a day ahead of schedule so there is no point in getting wet.
3 hours 20 minutes, 9.08 miles
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| Former working boat built in 1935 |
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| Moored at Birdge 3 on the Ashby just north of Coventry |
An overcast day with occasional showers. We continue our journey back home reaching Bridge 3 on the Ashby about half a mile north of Marston Junction where the Ashby Canal meets the Cooventry Canal. We arrived at 12:45 an hour before a forecast thuderstorm but this afternoon there has only been a few rumbles of thunder and barely any rain.
We had planned to empty our waste tank at Trinity Maina in Hinckley but found it closed until Tuesday. So tomorrow we will need to take a small detour up the Coventry to find somewhere else. As we are a day ahead of schedule this will not disrupt our plans.
3 hours 45 minutes 8.35 miles
