Log? More like a tree trunk!

Shortly after we set off from Gnosall this morning a man on the towpath warned us about an obstruction in the water. Some kids, he said, had pushed in a large log. This was what I call potential logs, in that it had not yet been cut up. The piece of tree - thankfully trimmed of all sticking out bits - was about 15 feet long and stretched almost from the moored boats on one side of the canal to the other.

We carefully nudged it out of the way, conveniently into a space between moored boats. Not, unfortunately, to the offside where our towpath walker was hoping to pull it into his garden. At High Onn (I think) we passed a boat with a device to catch and dispel the tar dribbling down the chimney.

A tray fixed around the base of the chimney collects the tar and feeds it into a hose pipe from where it drips into the canal. I think I have seen this arrangement before - or was it this same boat some time ago?

At Wheaton Aston we pulled in to stop for lunch just as Brian and Diana were winding in order to present the correct side of the boat to the pumpout. After the operation was complete Brian winded again to continue their journey north.

It was good to chat, albeit briefly.

The last of my photos today is of a peaceful scene south of Avenue Bridge.

We have stopped for the night at Autherley Junction ready for the Wolverhampton 21 tomorrow, and then on to Brum via the Old Main Line. That's the plan.

Curious flue arrangement

 I'm back!  That is, this blog is back - and I am going to try to keep it updated from now on.  I blame the pandemic.  Normal life stopped, very little boating was done in 2020 and I just got out of the habit of blogging.  Last year we boated more, but I found I had got far too far behind to write up the trips.

So here we are, on the Shropshire Union Canal in spring. We left our mooring in Market Drayton at 1045 and headed south.

Just below Tyrley Locks the tree man was keeping an eye on things, as usual.

For miles we were in sight of a distinctive hill to the west. It is, I believe, the Wrekin. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I had planned to get to Wheaton Aston in order to sample a curry at the Momtaj Spice, but it appears they are closed on Tuesdays. The phone number was "not able to connect". We stopped a little earlier, therefore, at Gnosall. On the way we encountered a tiny cruiser tied to the piling.

Its air draught must be no more than three feet, yet it has an enclosed cabin.

An unusual bird flew into a tree above us as we travelled along. It looks like a bird of prey - a hawk of some kind? This was the best photo I could get.

After tea we walked into Gnosall village. One house had a strikingly colourful display of flowers.

And the curious flue? This was attached to the side of a boat in a very sticky-out way. I wonder what it's for.

Autherley Junction tomorrow, but we might just nip up the Wolverhampton 21 as well to get slightly ahead.

Grand Union Gobio Gobio Society

What on earth is the Grand Union Gobio Gobio Society, I hear you ask? What, for that matter, is/are Gobio Gobio? Well, for those - like myself - not acquainted with piscatorial matters, gobio gobio is the classification of the freshwater fish commonly known as the gudgeon. And GUGGS is the name of the society dedicated to this one fish: fishing it, recording it and, of course, throwing it back into the water. And they do it just on the canals.

A couple of days ago Jan and I came across this fisherman, Neil Williams, trying out various locations on the Shropshire Union Canal. I got talking to him as he was fishing opposite our mooring in Market Drayton. He was very happy to tell me about GUGGS, despite my confession that I knew little about the art of angling. I suppose what caught my attention was that he seemed to be using a moderate length pole, dangling the bait just a few feet away from the bank. Not trying to get it to the opposite side, as most seem to do. As we were talking, he jerked the pole up. Dangling from the line was a small fish, a gudgeon, which pleased Neil greatly. He removed the hook and placed the fish on his scales. It weighed 41.6g - not even two ounces - but Neil was ecstatic.

GUGGS fishes only canals; the record for a gudgeon is only 50.8g* so this, as Neil said, made his day.

Neil caught several fish in the few minutes I was there, including a much more impressive (to me) perch. This was chucked back in with barely a glance. Our friendly fisherman had travelled from Tring to spend a week on this part of the Shroppie; after his "whopping" catch he said he would extend his stay by an extra day. He sent me two more photos of gudgeon he'd caught in the Woodseaves cutting since meeting me ...

... including one weighing in at 42.3g.

To add more interest, I suppose, any gudgeon caught over 30g is termed a specimen fish and can be given a name. If the tenths of a gramme is even it can be "male"; if odd, "female". And for fish caught in 2021 the names have to begin with "S". So Neil's 41.6g catch was "Sloppy". (I am not making this up - look at the website!) 

It was good to meet you, Neil, and I wish you good fishing. And thank you for inspiring me to resurrect this blog! I have fallen so far behind that I wondered how I was going to catch up. I don't think I will, quite, but I shall try to be a little more active.

All close-up fish photos copyright Neil Williams.

* According to the GUGGS website the UK record is 140g in any waters

(Updated to clarify information)

Winding paddles the right way first time

Yesterday we were the last in a procession of boats ascending the Audlem flight: I had to turn nearly every lock. Today we somehow found ourselves following a boat up the last two Audlem locks and the Adderley flight. We did, at least, meet three or four boats.

At one of the locks the top gate foot board had a piece of super-grippy pontoon-type covering rather than the usual strip of sandpaper.

 

How many locks have I worked in my life so far? Hundreds. How many paddles have I raised? Probably thousands. But it is only today, 10th May 2021, that I have realised that I can turn the paddle spindle the right way first time. How, you ask? By turning towards the pivot point of the pawl. It works on this type of paddle gear, at least, and I venture to suggest that it must work on every type with a pawl and ratchet.

In the case of the paddle gear below, winding anticlockwise raises the paddle.
 

We came through two or three heavy showers as we made our way back to Market Drayton and the end of this four-week trip. This rain cloud had just passed over.

Back at the mooring I changed the engine oil and filter. I also topped up the Webasto heating header tank and bled the radiators. The header tank took about three pints of antifreeze mixture. Where has all the water gone? (We hardly ever use the Webasto, the prime reason being that it doesn't fire up unless the engine is running to supply the heavy initial load.)

Strong bywash sucks boat off course

After Zoom church this morning we set off towards the Audlem locks. On the way we passed this boat with three large green barrels at the back.  The barrels have what looks like tyres on top; there are loo roll fenders and no visible sign of propulsion.  Unless that's the front - unfortunately I didn't take any more photos.

Another distinctive boat is Whitefield, which we passed near the bottom of the flight.

Our modus operandi here is that Jan (unusually) sets the lock ahead while I steer, closing the top gate as I leave.

As I positioned Jubilee in the head of one of the locks so I could lower paddles and close the gate, the strong bywash weir pulled the boat into the (off)side. I had to pull it away with the centre line before I could steer into the next lock. When single handing going upstream I always take the precaution of taking a few turns of the stern line round a bollard in case the boat drifts out of reach.

I don't know why so much water comes down this canal from above Tyrley Locks. Especially as it presumably ends up joining the water that comes down the Llangollen Canal from the River Dee. Then I suppose it's downhill all the way through Chester to Ellesmere Port, also down the Middlewich Branch and on down the T&M to Runcorn and Manchester. Perhaps that's why. There's a lot of canal to feed. We tied up with just the top two of the flight to go; we'll do these plus the Adderley five tomorrow and then we'll be back at Market Drayton.

Green canal water on Middlewich Branch

Another relatively early start today: we left Sandbach at about 0745. As we arrived in Middlewich we had a very short hail shower but, generally, the precipitation held off. We walked into the town centre and were saddened to see many closed shops. After lunch we set off again, planning to "get ahead" while the weather was fair. Tomorrow the forecast is dire.

We soon crossed the site of the breach of March 2018.  There's new concrete edging, smart towpath and new post and wire fencing, but nothing else to indicate the drama of three years ago.
 

Shortly afterwards we entered Stanthorne Lock, scene of another - shorter and much more recent - closure.

Above the lock we came upon a boat appearing to try to wind where there wasn't a winding hole. One of its mooring pins had been pulled out and the wind had done the rest.

We approached slowly and I pushed it by hand from our bow. When it was near the bank again I disembarked with a shaft and hooked the dangling mooring rope. Thankfully the mooring pin was still attached so I hammered it back into the bank and we got under way again.

As we approached Minshull Lock I could see a pair of old boats.  The one on the outside is Bargus, which we have seen delivering fuel on the Staffs and Worcs and on the Caldon canals.  I can't remember the name of the boat on the inside.
 

In the lock itself I was struck by how green the water was; especially visible in the bubbly foam as the lock filled.

The evening got better and better, with full sun and blue skies. It wasn't very warm, but these trees photographed nicely.

We had determined to get to Nantwich; as we neared we passed Mountbatten towing Jellicoe.

We found a space at the second 48 hour moorings beyond the aqueduct. We're planning to stay here during tomorrow's forecast rain - and Sunday morning's rain.

Rust affecting wood; crinkle-cut logs; normal trolley service resumes

Over the last few years Jubilee's wooden front doors have become increasingly difficult to open or shut. The threshold had bowed up in the middle, catching the undersides of both doors. I tried sanding the undersides of the doors to no avail. It was a problem we lived with, and one which more or less disappeared in the summer months. I assumed this was because the doors dried out and shrank in the warmer weather, combining with the steelwork of the boat expanding.

On Monday I found the root of the problem.  Our friends Chris and Di joined us for a (socially distanced, outside) coffee and I mentioned that I should have asked him to bring a chisel.  As we talked Chris pulled off the (loose) horizontal architrave immediately under the threshold.  The photo shows the bowed threshold with the architrave removed.
 

I could then see what was going on. The threshold sat on two wooden packing pieces lifting it off a lip of steelwork. The steel had rusted; the rust had expanded and pushed up the packing and, with it, the threshold. In the middle of the picture below is what's left of one of the packing pieces after I dug most of it away. You can see an extra-thick area of rust under it.

With the packing gone the doors work properly! I have inserted a thinner piece of packing; I will have to try to treat the rust to stop it happening again.

After lunch we continued south along the Shroppie to Brewood.  On the way from Wheaton Aston were several areas where trees had been cut down, leaving logs for collection.  They were mostly too big for us (with no chain saw on board) but I did find a few smaller pieces.
 

These I sawed up with a bow saw when we'd tied up at Brewood. The cut faces display a phenomenon I'd noticed before: a series of ridges at 90 degrees to the direction of cut.

Comparing the pitch of the ridges with that of the saw shows that there is a correspondence. I think what's happening is that the teeth set up a sort of resonance as I draw the saw to and fro.

We walked round Brewood before returning to the boat for tea, which was part two of the previous day's takeaway.

On Tuesday 20th April we continued our journey.  After leaving Brewood we saw another sort of brood - of ducklings.
 

As we approached Pendeford we saw that some things are returning to normal: the dumping of supermarket trollies in the cut.

We stopped at Bridge 2 to walk to Morrisons. Just over the bridge, by a children's play area, was a patch of snake's head fritillaries growing out of the grass.

With our supplies back on board we passed through the stop lock and turned left at Autherley Junction onto the Staffs and Worcs Canal. We tied up at Coven Heath, out of earshot of the M54. It was nice to hear one or two trains, though.

I'm almost up to date with this blog now.  Tomorrow I shall write about a close encounter with Nev, Rachel and Percy.

(Updated to correct a typo)

Gimme shelter

In my last post I somehow omitted to say that we stopped for the night at Norbury Junction. That's Friday 16th April. On the way there, in one of the cuttings, we passed an elaborate shelter (dwelling?) in the trees.

On an army-run boot camp thing in Thetford Forest many years ago I had to help construct something similar, but much more basic, from bits of tree and ferns. Four of us slept in it overnight. It was shower-proof and cosy!

On Saturday 17th April I calculated that we would be at Wheaton Aston on the Sunday, when Turner's (for cheap diesel) would be closed. I therefore reversed back to the boatyard at Norbury Wharf to fill up there. Had I known that an Anglo Welsh boat before me would take about 45 minutes to be pumped out I wouldn't have bothered.

Another short day saw us tying up at Gnosall. A lovely village, where a big effort has been made to retain its status as Best Kept Village. Even the water point was prettified with daffodils and planters.

We stopped on the 5-day moorings, near the old railway bridge. The former railway is now a path/cycleway which gives a good route in to the village. We watched HRH Prince Philip's funeral before looking round the village.

The next morning we "attended" church online via Zoom and moved on to Wheaton Aston where we got a takeaway from Momtaj Spice.

That will do for now. Tomorrow I will talk about how I discovered why the front doors have been sticking and how I solved that problem.

Diesel filter, batteries and boating at last

It seems I just got out of the habit of blogging. Well, here's the first of what I hope will be a restart, coinciding with the relaxation of lockdown (to the extent that we are allowed to stay overnight, self-catering, away from home) and BOATING! The first job was to look through the log to see when I last changed the fuel filter. Oops: it was 2.5 years ago! This is what the first filter looked like when I removed it.

I'd say it had been doing its job. I replaced that and the spin-on filter. The engine oil and filter had not many hours on the clock, so that was OK. We set off on Tuesday 13th April from our new mooring at Market Drayton heading north. We stopped for the night just above Adderley Top Lock having done all of threee miles. We were in no hurry. During the night the fridge struggled. A flashing red light indicated it wasn't happy with the battery voltage; when I saw that it had dropped to about 11V neither was I. The current (pun intended) set was six years old so time for a replacement. I ordered four 110Ah leisure batteries from Advanced Battery Supplies at 1155 on Wednesday; they were delivered at 0845 on Thursday which was pretty good going. These are the old batteries in situ ...

... and here are the new ones installed exactly the same way.

There's always a big flash when I reconnect the chunky inverter positive lead; I wasn't expecting the flash when I reinserted the fuse to reconnect the solar panels. I had taken the precaution of covering up the solar panels, so why the flash? Now we could set off again, this time southbound to meander round the Four Counties Ring with a trip up the Caldon Canal thrown in. That's the plan, anyway. It felt good to be boating again. This is Bridge 61 on the Shroppie.

We stopped at Tyrley Top. THe next morning the fridge was happy and so was I. The landslips at Woodseaves Cutting look worse every time we pass. Here the towpath is blocked to all but the most agile.

The caravan site at Goldstone Wharf looked busy.

I shall try to catch up by covering two or three days at a time - then it will be situation normal. Ha ha.