When is a boat with no propeller not a butty?

When it is a paddlewheeler.

I remember seeing this boat on the Grand Union in the Milton Keynes area in the early 1980s. I thought even then, with few lockmiles under my belt, that it was a strange craft. Some years later we got to know the owners who lived in our village near MK. A short while ago I received an e-mail from them saying that advancing years - theirs, not the boat's - were forcing them to downsize.

The most notable feature of the boat is the propulsion system: a large stern-mounted paddlewheel. It's protected by a wire mesh cage above water so there should be little danger of getting anything caught in it. And, of course, there's no chance of getting anything caught round the prop as there isn't one.

This is from the broker's website (Virginia Currer Marine):

Savernake is most unusual, being powered by a stern mounted paddlewheel that is driven by a Lister SR2 diesel engine. Originally built by Fernie Boats and fitted by Foxton Boat Services, she has been extensively refitted internally by the current owner. The base plate has been overplated in 2005, together with the bow and stern sides. The vessel has been in the current ownership for 36 years. Originally built with a composite superstructure, this was replaced with conventional steel in 2008.


Savernake is 49 feet long, was built in 1974 and is for sale at £27,500. Here's a shot of the saloon, taken from the broker's website.

There are more pictures on Virginia Currer's website.

Oh, the downsizing? Our friends have bought a Wilderness Beaver.

Autumn colour

When we left the Black Country Boating Festival after helping to pack it up we headed back to Yardley Wood. Then we set off for a BCF social event at Fazeley.

Coming down the Farmers Bridge locks Jan had to steer round an ex-working boat coming up the flight. There wasn't much room.

The small yellow and red berries were out in profusion along the Aston Locks.

Pyracantha, I believe they are.

This was September 13th. (Six weeks later I am still in shorts.)

Black Country Boating Festival 2017

We didn't get to Windmill End as early as we had intended this year for the Black Country Boating Festival. Our delay was on account of all the work we were doing at the Birmingham house, mostly painting. We left Cambrian Wharf in time to arrive at the BCBF at 1100; we immediately got stuck in to helping.

At one point we were asked to move the boat from its original mooring at the junction to just a little further on, opposite the main festival site. There we are, with the bunting up (such as it is).

Galileo was looking very good.

On the Sunday (10th Sep) Jan led a short BCF service in the beer tent. This year, for some reason, the local churches didn't get involved and the congregation was consequently small.

We had a good time at the festival despite the showery conditions, and resolved to do it all again next year. When the rain really fell down on Sunday afternoon that was the signal for the crowds to melt away - if that's the right phrase, dissolve might be more appropriate - and for the traders to pack up.

Here are David and Mary leaving on Kew.

Now I must go on the BCBF website and book 2018 ...

It's been too long!

I somehow got out of the habit of regular blog posts, which I shall try to rectify. On the boat we had run low of data which meant that I couldn't upload photos, then we were very busy at the Birmingham house. When I wrote last we were on the Stratford Canal at Yardley Wood. From there we went to the Black Country Boating Festival, then back to Yardley Wood, then to Fazeley for a BCF event. Jubilee is still there, on a friend's end-of-garden mooring. We are now at home in Norfolk.

I shall try to revisit the last couple of weeks of the summer's boating, with photographs, over the course of the next few days.

Meanwhile here are some photos of the strange sky we had on Monday. The light had exactly the quality of the light either side of a total solar eclipse (which we witnessed in France in 1999). I don't think it fooled the birds, though.

orange sky at 1752

the sun at 1522

eerie daylight at 1719

For a really good shot of a red sun see Erin Mae's blog.

CRT apologises for dozens of duplicate e-mails

A couple of days ago we were having our sandwiches in a break from painting when my phone pinged to indicate the arrival of an e-mail. Nothing unusual there. It was a standard notice alert from CRT. Again, nothing to merit comment. But my phone pinged a few seconds later with the same message, which I immediately deleted, as I had the first one. The phone then pinged again and again … and again and again and again with barely a pause. Something was clearly going wrong and there was little I could do about it. When my phone eventually stopped pinging I counted 120 duplicate e-mails (I might have missed some). Later a fresh e-mail from CRT apologised for the disruption caused to some people by a bug in the system. Let's hope it doesn't happen again.

We are now at the Black Country Boating Festival at Windmill End Junction - we could hardly be closer to the actual junction. We made an early start from Cambrian Wharf and got here at about 1000. I then spent a considerable amount of time scrubbing (notionally) white plastic tables, setting them out in the main marquee and putting chairs round them.

This evening we enjoyed an archive compilation film on boating in the midlands in the company of (among others) Andy Tidy, Barry and Sandra of the Homebrew boat, Brian and Diana of Harnser, David and Mary of Kew and Peter of Solar Kingfisher.

I expect tomorrow will see us with litter pickers in hand helping to keep the site clean.

On our way to the Black Country

Jan's using the laptop so this will be another post devoid of photos, sorry. After spending five days at a house we let in the Birmingham suburbs painting and cleaning ready for a new tenant, we have at last been boating again.

We left Yardley Wood at 1500 and arrived at central Brum at 1745. I dropped Jan off by the Mailbox so she could go to Tesco and I carried on to the services at Cambrian Wharf. There was space against the bank in the wharf so that's where we now are.

Tomorrow we'll probably make an early start as we head for Windmill End and the Black Country Boating Festival.

Fazeley to Yardley Wood in one day

It's the sort of cruising we might have done in our shared ownership days. We set off from Fazeley at 0630 and didn't stop until we reached Lyons Boatyard on the Stratford Canal, 23 miles and 38 locks later. We have a change of tenant at our house near here and wanted to check the place over. We are going to have to paint every room and organise replacing carpets. We'll be very busy for the next few days.

Again, apologies for the lack of photos. I don't think I've described our journey from Ilkeston. We did the first leg with son Andrew. He'd driven down from Sheffield; we did a car shuffle and boated to Shardlow. The next day we stopped at Barton Turn. Not the quietest of moorings, especially as there were night-time resurfacing works on the road bridge above us.

Leg 3 was Barton Turn to Fazeley. Having read Derwent6's blog we stopped at King's Orchard Marina for gas and diesel. Not far from there we encountered Del and Al in person. Del was hard at work on their battery problem but we chatted to Al for a while. Del did poke his head out of the engine room for an exchange of greetings.

And the last leg I have already summarised. We met Lisa and Dave on What a Lark near the top of the Curdworth flight - good to see you again.

Our next scheduled port of call will be the Black Country Boating Festival next weekend; we're hoping to be able to get there a day or so early in order to help set up, as in previous years. We'll see how we get on with jobs at the house.

IWA Festival of Water, Ilkeston

We've come to the end of a hot and tiring festival here on the Erewash Canal in Derbyshire. This post is by way of a stopgap - a fuller report with pictures will follow when we have more data available. We got to our mooring last Tuesday. I helped with marking out the site over the next three days; we have both been doing stints on the BCF stand and I have been helping out on the rope throwing stand. Tomorrow we shall start our return journey down the Erewash and onto the Trent and Mersey.

What CRT does with a settee in a lock

After visiting the large new Lidl very near where we were moored at Sandiacre we carried on up the Erewash to the IWA festival site in Ilkeston. We stopped at what I thought would be the beginning of the moorings and cycled up to look for a harbourmaster so I could find out where we were meant to be. I soon came across some blueshirts marking up the moorings, and discovered that our spot was 47B, even further back from where we had stopped. They were able to tell us that the boat on our inside had gone up to wind, so we decided to do the same. That way we would be bow-to-bow and stern-to-stern, which would probably make it easier to get on and off.

At one of the locks we went through was a CRT drop-side truck with a settee which they had removed from Stenson's Lock, a little further than we were going.

Some people appear to have no brain.

Me. I should have walked round to the other side of the truck to take the photo. Well done CRT for hoiking it out.

We winded immediately above Green's Lock in an unofficial winding hole (not marked on Nicholson's) at the entrance to the bywash. There was a fair amount of boat juggling, with two boats waiting to go down the lock and us and another boat wanting to wind. It all worked out in the end, and we returned to the festival moorings. The single boat ahead in the photo is Alice, against which we moored.

The canal was covered in a white powder which someone said was ash.

It's been humid and warm today, but with no rain. Until now. It has just started.

This afternoon I helped with marking out the site for the locations of the marquees and catering stalls. We were quite surprised when we got here today to see the field completely empty of anything. The marquees etc. arrive tomorrow - no doubt I shall help with putting everything up.

We got us a convoy ...

We left Willington at 0900 and continued our way down to the Trent. We managed to share all the remaining locks, initially with our friends Alan and Glenda on Tranquility and then with Keiwa. On the way I touched up paintwork on the wooden front doors.

On the Trent I was looking forward to opening up the throttle but there was a slow boat in front of the boat in front of us.

He waved us on after we'd passed through Sawley Flood Lock.

We almost flew between Sawley Lock and Trent Lock - and suddenly we were on the Erewash Canal. There were two volunteer lockies at Trent Lock. The older one evidently hadn't operated wide locks before. He raised the ground paddle on the opposite side to the boat, causing the bow to swing over across the lock. The younger volockie gently instructed the older one how to do it, and we ascended the lock with no further problems.

A boat was tied up at the water point meaning we had to use our long hose. It had been there all day, apparently, and the volockie phoned CRT to ask if they could move it out of the way. There will be a large number of boats wanting to top up there over the next few days on their way to the IWA festival at Ilkeston. The message came back to move it, so the volockies and another boater did so. I was staying well out of it.

At Long Eaton Lock I saw an iPhone abandoned on a bench. There was no-one around, so I took it. At the next bridge I cycled to the police station in order to hand it in, but the police station was shut. Outside was a yellow phone for contacting them, so I tried but there was no reply. As I was hanging on the iPhone rang. On the other end was the owner. We arranged a rendezvous; a few minutes later he turned up and was reunited with his phone. He was understandably grateful.

We made slow progress along the pound above Long Eaton Lock. At the next lock I removed a large amount of plastic sheeting and a fair amount of weed from the propeller. This made an appreciable difference to our speed.

Sandiacre Lock

We tied up in Sandiacre and I cycled back to Swarkestone to get the car. Tomorrow's leg is very short, we should be at the festival site with the car shuffle complete by lunchtime.

Electric narrowboat

Not long after setting off this morning we met Arabia, a shortened 1907 Josher. And very nice it looked.

We have seen a few boats called Black Swan; this is the first real black swan I can recall seeing.

It was at Horninglow Basin, where we'd stopped for water and Elsan.

We saw our friends Chris and Joy on Wrens Nest at Willington, so we tied up and Jan went for a cup of tea on their boat while I cycled back to Branston for the car. On the way I stopped to talk to the owner of this boat, which appears to be called Ovaltine but which doesn't appear in the boat listing. Neither does the registration number. (To the right it says "Bob up & down".)

Anyway, Ken was very happy to talk about his boat which has an interesting drive train. The clue is in the signwriting: "Drink delicious Ovaltine for an electric experience"(!) This is what caught my eye as we cruised past. Yes, the boat is electric, in that the propeller is driven by an electric motor. Where there would normally be an engine there is a large diesel generator; where there would normally be a gearbox is the electric motor driving the prop shaft via a belt with a 3:1 reduction achieved by the size of the pulleys. There are four crates of lithium ion batteries, each crate not much bigger than a conventional lead-acid battery. The batteries are what are used in electric cars. The motor runs on 110VDC. Ken runs the generator, a "site generator" only while the boat is stationary and only for about three hours a day. He cruises on battery power with just a faint whine as the only noise in addition to the prop wash. Ken has installed a multiplicity of meters to monitor voltage, current, amp-hours and temperature. And probably a few other things which I didn't notice. I'm afraid I can't remember the amp-hour capacity of the battery bank, nor the power of the motor - although I think the generator is capable of 5kW and the motor might be similarly rated. The motor, by the way, looked fairly insignificant, certainly compared with the vast generator. One thing which surprised me was the almost complete lack of solar panels on the roof. Apparently they would have introduced too much extra complexity to the charging system.

I'm sorry I didn't take any photos "under the bonnet". I suppose I didn't want to intrude. I'd never make an ace reporter.

Thank you, Ken, for taking the time to talk to me about it all.

Keeping with the electric theme, after I dropped the car off at Swarkestone, my route back to Willington took me past the former power station's old cooling towers. A notice states that permission was being sought for their demolition between January 2017 and July 2017.

Well, they are still there, still dominating the landscape. I think they should remain. The power station itself seems to have been reduced to a few lumps of concrete.

Balance beam causes loss of balance

More shower dodging today as we moved from Alrewas to Branston. We didn't get to Willington, as I'd planned, because we drove to Newcastle-under-Lyme to visit fellow BCF member Chris in hospital. In operating a bottom gate at a lock she had fallen down a six feet drop onto the ground and sustained some nasty injuries. I understand that she lost her footing trying to negotiate round the end of the balance beam where it projects beyond the masonry. She is likely to be unable to be boating for quite a while - a bit of a problem as she and Adrian are liveaboards. We were glad to be able to visit, and I think she was glad to see us.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. We were ourselves visited this morning, by Alan and Glenda on Tranquillity, also BCF members. After coffee we set off, descending Alrewas Lock onto the river section.

At Tatenhill Lock we passed Hadley in its idyllic-looking setting. Not quite so idyllic-sounding with the A38 dual carriageway not far away. I have left my camera in the car - this is an image from the timelapse recording.

At some point we passed another blogger's boat, or should that be former blogger? Yes, Granny Buttons was moored up in the locality.

I didn't have quite so far to cycle to retrieve the car - just six miles to Alrewas. My satnav doesn't have the new road at Branston, so I couldn't find how to get to the Bridge pub. In the end I picked Jan up from Morrison's and we drove straight to N-u-L from there. On the way back from the hospital visit we stopped off at the Wetherspoon's in Uttoxeter for something to eat.

A lot of effort for no gas

Our first task today was to get gas and diesel at Fazeley Mill Marina. We had overshot the marina yesterday so that we could tie up on the piling with other boats (and go for a curry at Kudos) - so we went to Fazeley Junction, winded and retraced our steps to the marina. Shared ownership boat Sorceress had just beaten us to it;' we had to wait while they had two pumpouts and a diesel fill. Meanwhile I opened the gas locker and removed all the things which are not supposed to be in there so I could get at the empty gas bottle. You know, the anchor with its chain and warp, the hose, an old barbecue, a hose reel, another old hose and a few spare pipe fenders. I undid the connector and lifted out the empty bottle. When Sorceress slid out we took its place and I told Jackie I'd like gas and diesel. Ah. She had sold her last gas bottle yesterday. Hmm. Now I had to put everything back and do it all over again when we found some gas. The moral of the story: check there is actually gas available before getting the old bottle out.

We were glad we got diesel, though, as it took 82 litres. This meant that there had been only 18 litres left in the tank where I thought we had about 50 left. It must have been all the upstream river cruising we did since the previous fill.

Back at Fazeley Junction we turned left from the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal onto what most people call the Coventry Canal. It is, in fact, still the Birmingham and Fazeley for another five and a half miles, splitting the Coventry Canal into two chunks. On my cycle back to get the car I found the place where the "detached portion" of the Coventry Canal meets the Birmingham and Fazeley.

The plaque below the ancient-looking boundary marker talks of it being "sponsored" by the local branch of the IWA. Is it not the original boundary stone? It's obviously been remounted but it looks genuine enough.

A certain blogger was not in as we passed through Fradley Locks this afternoon.

A shame not to see you, Nev. Percy's paintwork is very smart.

We stopped at Alrewas where there was plenty of space. I counted 30 boats on the move that we met today, surely a record for us for this year. (I counted them on a replay of my timelapse recording - I've had the camera going since Droitwich. The uploads will have to wait until we get home, and I hope I can remember how to do it.)

My cycle back to get the car from Fazeley seemed longer and more arduous today. Perhaps it was the wind. Strong and wrong direction. Even the drive to Alrewas seemed far further than it should have been, but I kept a close eye on the satnav and the route was a sensible one.

A milestone reached

Yes, almost literally. But first to today's cruising.

At Minworth Locks there was work going on to improve the towpath for cyclists. As one who often uses towpaths for this very purpose I have to say that a wide metalled surface makes a huge difference. In all the car shuffling I've been doing this year I have so far cycled from Fazeley to Gayton Junction via Birmingham, Stratford-on-Avon, Tewkesbury, Droitwich, Birmingham again and Leamington Spa. All the cycling has, of course, been done in shortish stages and in the opposite direction to the boat.

I should have taken a photo of the finished path. It looks rather clinical freshly blacked (you'll have to take my word for it). More like a footpath in a brand new housing estate than a towpath, but it'll soon acquire a used look, I'm sure.

Speaking of which, just before Minworth Top Lock was a new housing estate. The building on the right is what's left of the Cincinnati Building. Just discernible on the faded huge sign are the letters (N)CI(N). It looks as though a new wall has been built where the building has been cut in two.

After a wet start the weather improved, with plenty of sunshine. It was a bit breezy, though. Here Jan is looking after Jubilee through one of the Curdworth locks.

Now to the "milestone". No, it's not my birthday. The Volvo 240 reached 200,000 miles on the clock as I was driving between Tyburn and Fazeley.

This is a mile later, where the numbers have more or less settled down.

We bought the car 20 years ago at 65,000 miles, so we've done an average of 6,750 miles per year. I do far fewer in the Amazon, something like 1,000 miles per year.

I suppose the next boat "milestone" will be 5,000 hours on the engine hours counter. Tomorrow we will put a few more on as we travel from Fazeley to Alrewas.

Busy, busy, busy on the BCN - and a picture teaser

We made a late start to our boating today as we went to the funeral of a BCF member three miles away in King's Heath. Being at the basin at the top of Camp Hill Locks was very convenient. I spoke to the person on the boat in the arm, to our relief he was very happy for us to breast up to him. We did not want to hog the water point.

After yesterday's lonely boating up the Grand Union to Camp Hill it came as something of a surprise to find we were in a queue of boats waiting to go down the locks. There were three ahead of us and one came along behind. Two or three boats came up the flight while we went down. I've never seen these locks so busy.

At Bordesley Junction we turned right under the towpath bridge in the photo below.

The Garrison Locks were quicker as the slow hire boat (two in front down Camp Hill) had gone on on the Digbeth Branch, leaving the shared ownership boat Wigston in front.

Here's a picture teaser for you, spotted as we did this section.

Around the Nechells area I saw these large things in a secure compound. At first I thought they might be something to do with bridge supports, but then I wondered if they are part of high voltage distribution equipment. The "danger of death" sign might be a clue.

We stopped on the bollards by Butler's Bridge, Tyburn, on the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal, having made the sharp right turn at Salford Junction. After a brief shower of rain I cycled back to Camp Hill for the car.

We have now booked in to the IWA festival at Ilkeston so that's where we're heading. Have I already mentioned that?

Cleaning up the side ponds at Knowle

From Kingswood Junction we took the alternative route into Birmingham, on the Grand Union Canal. This starts off pleasantly enough, but above Knowle Locks the canal is in a cutting for many miles.

The side ponds seem to be getting some attention at Knowle Locks; this one has scrubbed up well.

The long summit pound above the locks was 6" - 9" low. A better photo to illustrate this would have been an overspill weir, but I neglected to take one.

Nearing Camp Hill - and out of the cutting - this warehouse dominates the scene.

It's still in use for something, despite many of the windows being broken. A steel mesh covers both broken and unbroken windows now.

We stopped for the night at Camp Hill Top Lock, on the secure mooring by the water point. The only boat to have come past while we've been here hasn't wanted to stop, so we haven't been in anyone's way. We hope the same will hold for tomorrow morning, when we have to go to a funeral in Birmingham. In the morning I shall investigate whether it might be possible to moor in the arm behind the boat already there.

To retrieve the car from Lapworth I cycled back along the towpath. This started well, with a good surface, but it began to get dark at the same time as the surface got rougher and rougher. In the end it took me more than an hour and a half to cycle the 15 miles, so my average speed was less than 10mph. I've managed to park very close to the basin here. There should be some car news in a day or two.

Fender the offender

We drove to MK to visit Ally, Ben and Josiah yesterday, hence no blogging. This morning we set off reasonably early (0830) from Wootton Wawen to get some locks under our belt. The first few were against us, and then we were asked to wait below a lock while a CRT man fished around in a bottom gate recess with a giant aluminium and steel keb. That's it, resting on the wooden bollard.

The gate had been reported as giving problems opening sufficiently. All that was dredged up was a pile of twigs and a broken fender. A boater coming down the locks looked at the fender so I told him it was "fenders keepers". That's him, walking away on the left. He didn't want it.

Still, now the gate opened fine for us, so we were off again. Now we were catching up with a boat in front - all locks having to be turned until we started meeting boats coming towards us.

These sunflowers might look pretty at the lockside ...

... but not to a single hander trying to haul their boat in or out of the lock.

We stopped to chat to fellow BCF members Maureen and Peter on Blue Roan - thanks for the tea and lemon meringue pie. Then we completed the South Stratford Canal, turning right at Kingswood Junction onto the link to the Grand Union. We tied up, and I cycled back down the towpath to retrieve the car from the car park of the Navigation at Wootton Wawen.

This is Wootton Wawen Aqueduct from below ...

... with its fine plaque.

The drive back seemed to take just as long as my cycle ride and was rather less pleasant. I ended up parking at another Navigation pub, just round the corner on the GU.

We shall see if the trains passing overhead disturb us tonight.

Where's the balance?

We had a "day off" yesterday, i.e. the boat stayed on its pontoon mooring in Bancroft Basin, Stratford-on-Avon. We walked around the town dodging (other) tourists in the day, and enjoyed a more peaceful walk along the river in the evening.

This morning I took a photo of our spot in the basin after some boats had left, then we left too.

The third lock up, Lock 53, has an unusual bottom gate balance beam. Actually, that's a misnomer. The metalwork at right angles to the gate - to avoid fouling the bridge - hardly balances the weight of the gate at all, making it very hard to move.

We watered up and emptied the Elsan at Valley Cruisers. The boatyard seems to share the CRT facilities. Then we moved across to the towpath side where we tied up, had lunch and went to the nearby Aldi. When we got going again we caught up with a newbie hireboat crew attempting their first lock. They did quite well, getting through the lock quickly, but they left the top gate open and a paddle up. At the next lock they'd improved - they just left the top gate open. The locks were all in their favour, and against us, of course, so it took four or five locks before I could gently educate them in some lock etiquette. Above Lock 43 we were relieved to see that they were tying up. The next locks were now in our favour - hooray!

I tried a different shot of the Edstone (Bearley) Aqueduct.

Just south of Wootton Wawen a new marina is being dug out. Very red soil here.

The rain held off and some late afternoon sun lit the trees nicely.

We stopped at Wootton Wawen and ate in the Navigation Inn. I had a good mixed grill (steak done to perfection: a proper "medium-rare" resulting from the requested "rare").

Look up in the lobby by the loos next time you're there and you'll see this rather good stained glass skylight.

Navigating the Avon upstream of Stratford

After a look round Bidford-on-Avon this morning we set off on the last leg of the River Avon. We saw more wildlife, including a sunbathing turtle ...

... and another stationary kingfisher. I think this is my best kingfisher photo so far.

It was stationary for a couple of snaps, and then it took off. I flukily pressed the shutter at that precise instant.

Its feet are still on the branch.

There was a lot more flow on the river today. Perhaps it was yesterday's rain working its way through the system. Together with the generally narrower river in these upstream reaches it meant that sometimes we were doing only 2 mph.

And suddenly there were people. Gongoozlers at the last proper river lock, people in the park and little boats on the river. Yes, we'd arrived in Stratford.

We carried on past the parkside moorings and under the Tramway Bridge to explore the Avon upstream of there. We hadn't done this bit before, so here was more new water.

A mile and a half from Tramway Bridge was this interesting modern structure, "Riverside", a conference centre.

The two guides we have suggest that it's best to wind before the last half mile to Alveston Weir, so we did just that, at a left bend. Ahead in the photo below is the bend ...

... and this is us mid-wind. Apart from one moored narrowboat near Stratford we were the only narrowboat on this section. Has any reader done this bit? How far did you get? Could we have got further than we did?

It was a lot quicker returning to Stratford with the current; we turned right under the Tramway Bridge to go up into Bancroft Basin.

We're back on a canal at last! With narrow locks! We've managed to get ahead of schedule - we could have saved ourselves £10 and got a one week permit for the Avon rather than two. It's a shame it's not transferable.