Bedworth to Sutton Stop

We spent the night tied up alongside Grace, then went to All Saints' Church in Bedworth with Terry and Christine this morning.

Bedworth is full of bright flower beds; this was in front of the church.

After lunch with Christine and Terry we fired up Jubilee and set off. We didn't go far; we stopped at Sutton Stop for an evening meal at the Greyhound.

Tomorrow we have arranged to meet Ally in Rugby so we have to get our skates on. It's 13 miles and one lock, which I estimate will take about five hours if we don't stop.

Atherstone Locks to Bedworth for a dinner date

We went up the nine remaining Atherstone locks and continued to Nuneaton, where we tied up for lunch.

Jubilee heading for Lock 3

We stopped at Bridge 23; while Jan was getting some salad together I nipped to the handy Nisa supermarket for a newspaper. After lunch I checked the oil level as it was the first run since I changed the oil and filter yesterday. I topped up the oil slightly to bring the level midway between the max and min on the dipstick.

We didn't see any cygnets today, but there were several broods of ducklings.

In Bedworth we tied up outside Christine and Terry's house; they joined us for a meal on board. Just after stopping a family paddled by on their inflatable canoe.

After the meal we went for a short walk along the towpath, then had a pleasant evening chatting in Christine and Terry's sitting room.

It hasn't rained today, but it's been rather windy and a bit chilly. I get the feeling summer might be around the corner, though. Just don't ask me when.

Aargh! This is why the stove kept going out

We filled up with diesel at Fazeley Mill Marina this morning: 70 litres after 69.6 engine hours. The one litre per hour rate of consumption is much less than our overall average last year of 1.24 l/h. I put this down to a lot of stationary engine running to charge batteries.

Just outside the marina we saw a pair of swans with a young family. I counted four cygnets on one parent's back (only two are visible here).

Just east of Fazeley Junction on the Coventry Canal is a lovely pile of old paddle gear. It's on the offside by a work boat and has been there for at least five weeks.

And now to address the title of this post. For a few days the Morso Squirrel stove has been very difficult to light. The newspaper would burn, and sometimes the kindling too, but logs just wouldn't catch. Opening the door would release a great cloud of smoke into the cabin.

Today the same thing happened. Scrunched up newspaper burnt, but the kindling was barely even charred when I looked at it after a few minutes. On feeling around the baffle plate I immediately discovered the cause of the problem. Great rusty flakes from the inside of either the flue or the chimney were on top of the baffle plate blocking the flue. I cleared all the rubbish by hand and relit the fire. Success! It's drawing fine now and the fire lit easily.

If it hadn't been raining I would have swept the flue. I'll do it tomorrow (if the rain holds off long enough).

We do have a carbon monoxide detector, but this could have been dangerous. Memo to self - and you - check the flue is clear if the stove doesn't seem to work as it should.

We stopped for today after the first two locks of the Atherstone flight.

Inadvertently pushing floating rubbish before us as we cruise

We wanted to get to Fazeley today so we motored on through several showers of rain and, at one point, hail. Jan made a nifty turn at Fradley Junction into the Coventry Canal. Look how black the sky is behind the Swan.

We stopped at Whittington to have a look round the village. The church was unlocked; one of the few to have been so this trip. This restored post office cart looks splendid (with the red phone box) in the village green.

The polling station behind indicates that today people have been voting in the general election.

After one shower passed overhead there was a strange rainbow. I don't recall seeing one this low in the sky before. I'm sure there's a good explanation.

Further on Jan pointed out how well a tree in a field of oilseed rape was being lit.

One thing Andrew Denny of Granny Buttons always used to say - and probably still would if he were to resume his blog - is how he photographs the light in a scene.

Finally for this post, each time we stopped I had to remove a branch or a mass of twigs/reeds from where the bow meets the water. There is a projecting piece of the base plate which seems to collect any flotsam which gets in the way. The effect, of course, is to slow the boat down and increase fuel consumption. This lot was after just three miles.

Other than constantly looking over the bow as we cruise along - and hooking any detritus out of the way - I don't know how to fix this.

Presumably there's a reason for the base plate projecting like this, as I have seen it on other boats.

Staffordshire school has real narrowboat in playground

We had promised Peter and Julie that we would call in on them at The Taft, an hour and a half further along the canal, so we had to get going even though the wind was creating breaking waves on the canal and it was raining. Ordinarily we would have stayed put until the weather calmed down a bit.

After taking on water at Great Haywood Junction we continued down the lock and past Shugborough Hall.

It was good seeing Peter and Julie - thank you very much for the excellent lunch.

We stopped briefly at Rugeley for provisions, choosing Aldi over Tesco this time. Walking up from Bridge 67 we were surprised to see, in a primary school playground, not a mock-up of a narrowboat but the real thing. It is painted green with a yellow coachline, properly signwritten and has a ladder up to the deck at bow and stern.

Discovery Deck was built in 2014, painted by staff and parents and craned into the grounds of Chancel Primary School to be used as the library. The money came from a £10,000 lottery grant (so I don't suppose they bothered with an engine).

The school's website has a good series of photos from shell to fitout. What a great idea, and a fun environment for reading in.

We tied up for the night just above Wood End Lock; we'll do this and the other two before turning right to go up the Coventry Canal tomorrow. The sun shone for a while this evening - long enough to tempt us to go for a walk. Almost as soon as we'd left the boat the sun went in. Above Middle Lock we found Bendigedig and I said hello to Eric through the window. We hadn't met him and Elsie before, so they kindly invited us in for a cuppa. It was good to see you both, and I hope you get your travel pack problem fixed very soon.

In the Swan I had a very nice pint of Flipside porter.

Stone to Great Haywood - old lock gates and a deceptive bridge

This will be a very brief post as it is late. We have just got back from an excellent evening with Martin and Margaret on their boat Erin Mae in Great Haywood marina. Thanks for the food and conversation.

On our way here we passed through Aston Lock. These must be some of the oldest bottom gates on the system. Yes, they're made of steel, but can they really be 42 years old?

If I remember correctly the next lock, Sandon Lock, also has steel bottom gates. These are dated 1974.

At Salt Bridge we stopped to have a look round the pretty village of Salt.

The bridge looks to have a very low arch, but it's an illusion. There's actually plenty of headroom.

That's it; bed time.

Old friends, new friends and excellent ale in Stone

We stayed put in Stone today, as predicted. I did a few jobs around the boat, including locating and repairing two punctures and making a boat hook.

I made the boat hook from a broken cabin shaft - the end had rotted and fallen off earlier in the trip - and a hook which my magnet had dragged up some years ago.

I whittled the end of the shaft down and jammed the hook on, securing it (I hope!) with screws through the three holes. The shaft, without the hook, was used yesterday to recover Jan's hat which had blown off into the cut at Meaford.

We knew Harnser was likely to be passing today, so it was no surprise when I got a message from Jan (out on a stroll while I was doing bike maintenance) to say that Harnser was approaching Star Lock. I went down to help them through; Brian and Diana then came for a cup of tea. Good, as always, to see you both.

I came across Fizzical Attraction's blog yesterday and read Yvonne's review of the Borehole, a new pub in Stone with lots of locally brewed ales. Having read her clear directions of how to get to the pub, and with Jan wanting to go for a walk, we set off along the towpath.

I was a bit surprised to see Fizzical Attraction itself just up the towpath, so I said hello and told Roger that were going there.

Well! What a find! If you like real ale you'll love the Borehole. Many of the ales are brewed a stone's throw away (sorry!) in an industrial estate on the edge of Stone. The pub is a former National Rivers Authority building at the entrance to the industrial estate and has been open for just six weeks; the brewery is Lymestone Brewery. The pub has no music and no games; there's a "no swearing" policy. For a rather inconspicuous building with just a small board outside it was amazing. The first thing that struck me was just how many people were there at about 4pm, sitting outside and in, where a log burner was blazing away.

We sat down with our drinks sharing a large round table with four other people who were already there. We soon got chatting to locals Dave, Linda, Monique and Andrew and had a great time. It would have been so easy to drink and talk the night away ... but we hadn't eaten and so we left to find sustenance.

Here we made a mistake. We ate at The Star, taking advantage of their 2 for 1 Monday night deal on steaks. My rump steak was tasteless; the chips were not much better. A good job it cost only £10.45 for the two of us. (Sorry Dave, we know you recommended the Crown of India for a curry - we should have listened!)

We'll leave Stone in the morning and head for Great Haywood where we have a meal lined up courtesy of Martin and Margaret on Erin Mae.

(Thanks to Jan for both of the photos)

Moon and Star at Stone

This morning we went to the nearest church to us, Trentham Methodist Church, where we received a warm welcome. Then we piled our plates* at the Toby Carvery, after which feast we returned to the boat and continued our journey southwards.

This is an unusual sight: Jan working a lock. Our normal practice is that I operate the locks and Jan steers in and out of them.

Trentham Lock

Today's weather was that British classic: sunshine and showers. One deluge came at an awkward time; I was passing moored boats on my right while passing a boat coming towards me on a bend with trees on the left. The wind was doing its hardest to blow me into the trees as I struggled to get a coat on. In the end I let the boat look after itself as I tried, unsuccessfully, to keep dry. The boat was going nowhere so I went in and changed out of my soaked shorts. A shove with the cabin shaft got the back end into deeper water and I was able to carry on.

We used the facilities block at Stone; here is Jubilee emerging from Newcastle Road Lock with its separate horse tunnel under the road.

We tied up shortly afterwards at the 24 hour mooring on the offside just above Star Lock. Not the most scenic spot - we're right next to a car park. If one of the boats on the 48 hour moorings opposite moves off tomorrow we'll take their place. That's if we decide to stay a bit longer here.

The (almost full) moon looked good rising above Jubilee and the Star Inn.

At 1 second exposure the moon is just a fuzzy blob, but the fairy lights above the canal have come out all right!

* I piled my plate; Jan says she had a normal size portion