Boat launching ramps on the Dudley No. 2 Canal

This morning we had a leisurely breakfast, but then returned across the grass to help with the final phase of clearing the site after the festival. There was still the kitchen marquee to take down and load into a trailer and a container. We got away (at last) just after midday, when we boated down to Hawne Basin to get diesel and gas. The diesel was got, but the gas wasn't as they'd sold the last cylinder this morning.

On the way down I spotted something I don't remember seeing before: wooden ramps leading from the bank into the canal.

I was told these are ramps used to launch boats made in the boatyard there. There is little other evidence of the boatyard remaining; the area has returned to woodland.

The sort of boats constructed were, I am told, Joeys (or dayboats), an example of which is tied up by the former Stewarts and Lloyds Tube Works.

It was about 4pm when we got back to Windmill End Junction. As we were in no particular hurry to get anywhere we decided to return to our festival mooring for the night. Many of the BCBF team were still hanging around; we found ourselves invited to an impromptu al fresco meal of faggot, baked potato and veg. It was most pleasant sitting in the evening sunshine enjoying a glass or two and a chat.

I don't know why everybody looks so glum in my photo!

After that Tim and Tracey of Sola Gratia came over for drinks. We have more or less decided to go to the Tipton boat festival this weekend so we'll probably head there tomorrow.

How many volunteers does it take to empty an Elsan tank?

One thing we've been doing at the Black Country Boating Festival is running the boat race game. This is primarily intended for children, but when a pair of PCSOs walked past it was too good a photo-opportunity to miss. The idea of the game is to use a straw to blow a boat along a miniature canal, and get it to the other end before your opponent.

This was yesterday, when the weather was again very obliging, encouraging the crowds once more.

In the afternoon Jan and I were brought to the main marquee on some pretext … and we found ourselves being presented by the Mayor of Dudley with a trophy for "Volunteer of the Year"! This was completely unexpected. Indeed, there were plenty of other volunteers equally - or more - deserving of the award, so I accepted on behalf of the team.

We'll have to come back next year, if only to return the cup. (But we have already booked in as this is one of the best festivals on the calendar.)

As usual there are few photos of me actually doing anything as I'm usually the one behind the camera. So this is the dismantling of the marquee on Sunday evening by some of the other volunteers.

It was good to get it down and packed away in the dry; last night it rained. Today we continued with the break down. One part of this was to empty and rinse out the Elsan disposal container. This attracted a surprising number of volunteers simply looking on.

What is the attraction of poo? There were even more observers who didn't make it into the photo.

Perfect conditions bring out the crowds at the BCBF

What a day! Day one of the weekend Black Country Boating Festival and it's been perfect. Warm and sunny, but not hot and with little breeze. The punters flocked in, some of them playing the "boat race" game on the Boaters' Christian Fellowship stand outside our boat.

We had valuable help from BCF members Stephen and Gwyneth who brought the game, Tony, and Malcolm and Steph.

This gives some idea of the popularity of the festival - the crowds are mainly locals who love the event.

One of the trading boats had a proper pizza oven in the cratch. The pizzas were reportedly very good.

Business at the festival was so good that some stands sold out. Opposite us the cup cake stand shut up shop with a sign reading "Sold out. Back tomorrow."

Next to it the hog roast had also run out of roasted hog.

Tomorrow's forecast is for slightly cloudier and cooler conditions, so perhaps it won't be quite so busy.

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.

Overcharged

The computer's battery died without warning last night so here are two days' worth of blog posts in one. Yesterday morning started with sunshine (we had a small amount of rain later); here is Nansen II preparing to tow Leo from the Black Country Boating Festival.

The butty looks huge compared with the tug.

The combination will steer better with a tiller; it took a moment or two for the steerer to realise that the rudder was still tied back to the stern.

This is what I have been doing a lot of over the four and a half days we've been here at Windmill End: litter picking.

Jan has done a lot too, as well as helping in the office, table clearing and cleaning, marquee dismantling etc. Yesterday was a rubbish day. I shifted vast amounts of the stuff into skips.

In the evening we went for a meal at Ma Pardoe's, aka The Old Swan, in Netherton. I had an excellent lasagne which came with a load of delicious molten cheese on top. Barry and Sandra from the Homebrew boat Areandare joined us for drinks later.

And so to today. We went down to Hawne Basin for diesel and gas. Poor Jenny, who was manning the shop, was struggling with the computerised system and managed to overcharge me by mistake for the fuel - to the tune of £23. I realised only after we had returned through Gosty Hill Tunnel. We stopped and I phoned her; she apologised and implied I wasn't the only victim of the computer problems. I'll have to phone again tomorrow to give them my contact details and sort out how I can be refunded.

As we approached Gosty Hill Tunnel we observed two people acting strangely by the portal. At first we thought they were graffiti vandals; when we got closer it seemed as if they were inspecting the brickwork. When I asked them what they were doing they told me they were geocaching.

Jan steered through Netherton Tunnel; on the other side and all the way to Birmingham I saw quite a few herons. Most were on the bank; this one was high in a tree.

A minute or two before we arrived at the services at Cambrian Wharf we found ourselves under a sudden thunderstorm. The lightning and thunder were accompanied by heavy rain. We tied up on a pontoon at the wharf; shortly afterwards the rain stopped.

Black Country Boating Festival: the Sunday

The weather was much better for the traders today, being warm and sunny. First, though was the service in the beer tent at 1000 led by the local churches. This was a more muted affair than last year as one of the participating churches had had a lot of musical equipment stolen. Nevertheless we attempted to raise the roof.

This give some idea of the crowds of visitors to the site today.

One of the volunteers, Pauline, was singled out as having worked exceptionally hard. She was in charge of catering and put in long hours. One of the local mayors presented her with a trophy.

In the evening, after the public had gone and after making a good start on dismantling marquees etc., we had more of Pauline's fine food. Just for my benefit really, here are some of the main people of the Black Country Boating Festival: Paddy, Peter and Mark.

Paddy is the boss man.

Black Country Boating Festival

No post yesterday as I didn't finish helping with fencing etc. until after dark and I was whacked out. We arrived at Windmill End on Thursday lunchtime, tied up and had lunch, then I went off to assist with whatever needed doing. This included stage erection, bunting tying, marquee erection, fencing etc. Oh, I've just remembered - I think I've already said all this. Anyway, yesterday was more of the same, plus tables/chairs shifting and cleaning And testing. I seat tested every chair in the beer tent.

Today the site opened to the public (where did all the traders' stands come from?) and I busied myself with litter picking/bin emptying for much of the time. Why do people drop litter?

David of Kew was making sure the boats game was working ...

... and Alison brought Josiah for a visit. Here are Frances, Eileen, Ally and Jan, with Josiah asleep in the buggy.

There are fewer boats here this year compared with last year. The view from Bumblehole Junction Bridge towards Windmill End Junction doesn't change, though.

After a good meal from the catering team (I had steak and ale pie; Jan had pork casserole) we sat outside talking, before the main band of the evening came on stage.

The Reflections were good, but loud (of course).

Official graffiti?

As we came to the Farmer's Bridge flight on Tuesday I took some photos of some artwork I hadn't seen before. This one has presumably been here long enough for the undergrowth to become overgrowth.

A few yards further, immediately below the bottom lock, is this welcome.

The CRT logo indicates that this is "official" graffiti - or should I call it a mural?

But that was two days ago. Today we moved from the top of Farmer's Bridge Locks to Windmill End ready for the Black Country Boating Festival this weekend. On the way I took just two photos, including this of Bromford Junction as we passed.

Once we'd tied up on our allotted mooring we had lunch, and then I went over to the festival site to see what I could do. I helped with setting up a stage, putting the framework of a marquee together, putting sides on another marquee, shifting a load of chairs and tables etc. etc. I didn't finish until about 1930; tea on the boat followed; then we met up with Andy of the Jam Butty, Barry and Sandra of the homebrew boat and others for a walk to The Old Swan, aka Ma Pardoe's, in Netherton for drinkies. Tomorrow there will be plenty more to do.

Bin bagged out

Day two (or is it three?) of the Black Country Boating Festival, and I've been busy, busy, busy. Not this morning, though, when we went to the service in the beer tent, part of the Churches Together in this part of Dudley/Sandwell. The talk, loosely based on the parable of the Good Samaritan, was good but a little long.

The service included a collection for Syria; at the end everyone was given a helium-filled balloon with a message attached: "Pray for Syria" (in Twitterspeak). It was a good ruse to get everybody out of the marquee promptly so that the tables and chairs - and stage - could be reset for the next band and so that the bar could reopen.

On a countdown we all released our balloons.

I wasn't too comfortable with the prospect of littering the countryside with rubber and an invitation to pray, but I joined in with the crowd. Have I just shouted "Free Barabbas!"?

After lunch I saw the state of the ground outside the beer and food tents and got to work with a litter picker and a bin bag. I also did more replenishing of loo rolls, and assisted with clearing chairs and tables at the close of play. I think I'm probably quite tired.

The festival officially ended at 5 pm; boats began to move away.

I shifted Jubilee to a better mooring, away from the "hooting bridge". Perhaps we'll get more sleep tonight - I was woken by a car hooting at 0220 today!

David, Mary, Richard and Peter joined us for a meal on board, then I went to the beer tent where a debrief was in progress. I discovered that there would be a breakfast for volunteers/staff at 0800 tomorrow - mustn't miss that!

Black Country Boating Festival

It was the first day that the public were invited in to the BCBF, but I started the day in more potentially back-breaking labour. I helped to erect the second stage, which involved a lot of screwing, unscrewing and rescrewing nuts and bolts holding lengths of stage "scaffolding" together. This is the finished result.

After a coffee back on the boat I treated myself to a wander round the festival site. By this time the rain had stopped and the sun had come out, bringing the crowds with it.

Jan and I spent some considerable time litter picking in the afternoon. Oh, I also restocked the loos with loo rolls more than once - they get used up almost the instant they are replaced.

For lunch Jan and I went to the nearby church which was providing good value food (I had a bacon and sausage cob, quiche and salad, chocolate cake and tea. The tea was made with UHT milk - I couldn't drink more than a couple of mouthfuls).

I saw Andy and Helen on their Wildside (boat) stall; also Barry and Sandra on their homebrew (boat) stall. BCF boat Kew had a good central location and was doing a fair trade in showing people round the boat.

Tomorrow - well, I'll write about tomorrow tomorrow, when it will be "today".

edited for corrections

Lifting. Some of it heavy.

After breakfast I was going to go volunteering. Only before I'd even had a cup of tea we became aware of a boat in difficulty by us. Therese, on a boat with no name, had her bow in the reeds and obviously didn't know how to extricate herself. I offered to help, and found myself accompanying her to the next winding hole and back. When she was safely tied up alongside us I had my cold toast and tea and went to see what I could do at the festival site. As there was nothing specific for me to do I took it upon myself to hoik flotsam out of the canal for a couple of hours. I filled a bin liner with plastic bottles, bags and a wheely bin lid. Oh, and a clip board and two highlighters.

After lunch I did a lot of metal fence moving and more rubbish operations before treating myself to a pot of tea.

Then I chatted to Andy Tidy before meeting up with Jan and others for the evening meal from the boaters' on site catering facility. We had the pork stew, which was very good.

In the beer tent we talked to Simon of Lady, a boat I'd seen moored up on the site.

Sorry there are no photos today - I thought my camera would get in the way of jobs.

Tomorrow the Black Country Boating Festival is open to the public.

Festival volunteering

The weed was less of a problem today as we made our way back to Factory Junction and down the three Factory Locks to the New Main Line. In fact, my first trip down the weed hatch was just after emerging from Netherton Tunnel, when I tried to slow down to see if we were on the moorings allocation board for the Black Country Boating Festival. (We weren't, but I'll come to that.)

When I pulled out a large sheet of rather clean polythene it was the biggest single haul I'd had for quite a while. It stayed on the bow deck until just before Gosty Hill Tunnel on the Dudley No. 2 Canal, when a man out litter picking offered to take it.

He and his wife look after the area to the north of the tunnel, conveniently right outside their house. They've made a good job of the information sculpture thing.

We had stopped there for lunch; I took the opportunity to cycle to Tesco. I'd been given the directions; what I wasn't told was that the route involved cycling to the top of the hill and down again, doing another climb of the hill coming back! Still, with only the three locks today perhaps I needed the exercise.

One bonus of the ride was seeing the air shaft in someone's front garden. What a strange feature to have!

This is the same shaft as seen from the tunnel.

We went to Hawne Basin for diesel which, at 49p per litre base price was an opportunity not to be missed.

Back at Windmill End we found our mooring and tied up the best we could. The back end is about three feet out from the bank owing to all the detritus in the canal. I pulled out a car tyre and a long piece of metal but it made no difference.

We weren't on the list, by the way, as we had booked only yesterday. Our mooring is down the Dudley No. 2, near a bridge where it seems it is obligatory for motorists to sound their horns in the most annoying way possible. At least it's all quiet now - I expect it will start up again early in the morning.

I had indicated my willingness to volunteer at the festival; we just about managed to get to the 5 pm meeting on time where we were able to introduce ourselves. Jan has a job lined up for tomorrow helping to make up the boaters' packs; I don't know what I'll be doing.

I have already made a start, though. After tea I armed myself with a boat hook and a rubbish sack and spent some time pulling out floating drinks bottles and plastic bags from an area where they had collected. Jan joined me with a litter picker device. We gave up when it got too dark.

On the way to that (unofficial) job I saw Wandering Bark and the Jam Butty arrive and wind. We said hello to Andy and Helen; I saw Barry of the Home Brew boat later too.

More tea, vicar?

All right, it's lunch, not tea, but there's never any shortage of food at a BCF Barbecue, especially when it's at The Taft. And you won't be surprised to learn that there are a few retired vicars and other church ministers in the Boaters' Christian Fellowship. I can think of at least three who were at this year's barbecue weekend.

Before lunch Martin (one of the retired vicars) led a service of communion in the marquee. I'm sure God was laughing with us (and Edwin) when Martin drew attention to Edwin in his Sunday best suit.

Later, David B. presented Peter and Julie, our hosts for the weekend, with a teapot. It was actually one of their teapots, but filled with cash donations from all of us who had enjoyed their hospitality. And we all had.

As the weather was so good, David L. took to his canoe for a paddle on the canal.

Then he went for a dip in the neighbouring River Trent. He reported the current as being too strong to swim against (we had noticed a couple of days ago how much water was in the river).

Tomorrow we'll leave The Taft and head for the Black Country Boating Festival. We've left it too late to book a mooring, so we'll have to hope we can tie up beyond all the booked boats somewhere - and get wristbands for the evenings. We have now planned our schedule for the rest of our six month jaunt; it sees us return to the south midlands for some work to be done on the boat and to be near our winter mooring. Neither the work nor the mooring has been finalised yet.