Our last meeting with the Waiourus? And a good Sunday lunch in Stoke Bruerne

On Sunday we arranged to meet up with Tom and Jan of Waiouru at the Navigation pub in Stoke Bruerne for lunch. We left Jubilee at Gayton Junction and drove to the pub. There was no space in the car park so we parked on the road.

The place was heaving but our orders for lunch were placed reasonably quickly. Tom, I'm very grateful to you for helping me transfer - wirelessly - photos from my camera to Jan's mobile phone so that I could e-mail them to the BBC.

Our chatting while we waited for food helped to pass the time; when the roast meals arrived they were very good. My ordered chicken had mysteriously turned into beef, but I was so hungry I would have eaten anything. And the beef was very tasty, with plenty of nice vegetables - including RED CABBAGE! (one of my favourites).

Two Jans, Tom and Halfie

Tom told us a little about their plans for when they return to the other side of the world, so it wasn't a huge surprise when we read his post about Waiouru being for sale. Still, it will be a sad day when the deed is done and our waterways lose a lovely couple of people. I will especially miss your posts about technical matters, Tom.

We wish you both all the very best for your future travels.

What's the loudest thing in a tunnel?

The first job this morning was to visit the shop and get milk for breakfast and some Savlon for my cracked fingers. While there I crossed the road to the butcher's for a few sausages. Back at the boat I moved us over to the water point to fill up while we had our porridge. At Braunston Bottom Lock a team of CRT greasers was at work scraping off the old, hardened grease from the paddle gear and slapping on some fresh stuff.

At the top lock a team of volunteers was busy preparing the wood- and ironwork for painting.

It's a pity their banner puts canals and rivers in the plural. There's no excuse, really, as the CRT logo, with "Canal and River Trust" written out in full, is on the same banner. (Andrew Bomford's report on Radio 4 a couple of weeks ago made the same mistake.)

Braunston Tunnel was busy. I haven't passed so many boats in one tunnel for a long time - I think there were five. Two of them were Dane towing Clara. Bolinders in a tunnel are so LOUD! It was fine passing them; the trickier ones were the two who came to almost a complete halt.

Turning left onto the Leicester Line we encountered Thomas coming out and wanting to turn right. The man on the tug deck was giving orders to the woman steering; neither really acknowledged us. Perhaps they thought we just shouldn't have been there, getting in their way!

Recent posts have mentioned bloggers' boats; here's one which, these days, is a bit of a blast from the past.

I expect Andrew Denny will be at Crick with his Waterways World hat on (does he wear any other?).

Passage up the Watford Locks was reasonably swift, we were third in a queue at the bottom, but we didn't have to wait for anyone coming down. It was good to meet Graham on Alnwick.

And so we arrived at Crick at about 1500. We tried to get in to the side just beyond Bridge 14, in front of Derwent6, but it was too shallow even for us. Just the other side of the winding hole was where we ended up, with the back end on the last of the piling and the front in reeds. Oh, and the boat immediately behind us? Happy Daze. Nice to see Linsey and Paul again. And Del and Al on Derwent6, of course. And Derek and Judy on Firoza. And Stephen and Gwyneth of Chyandour.

As we came past all the moorings I saw the tiniest moor chick ever. It must have only just hatched - a fuzzy ball of black fluff being encouraged to swim by mummy moorhen. Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of that, but I was more successful with a line of two families of geese.

This evening we treated ourselves to a meal at the Wheatsheaf, the first time we've been there. My slow roast crispy belly of pork was good, as was Jan's chicken forestiere.

On the move again at last: now on the South Oxford

Having spent a week in Braunston it was time to move on. We're now aiming for Oxford. After watering up and emptying a couple of loo cassettes we headed for Braunston Turn ... but Braunston wasn't letting us go quite so easily. Just past the Boatman pub was No Problem tied up, with plenty of space in front. I stopped and invited Sue on board for a coffee. It was good to have a decent chat with her - Vic came on for a while too. As we were talking Moore to Life came and tied up behind us, then so did Seyella. We have met Chas and Ann only once, and have not met the crew of Seyella (Geoff and Mags) at all.

After a salad lunch we finally set off, just as it started to rain! The rain didn't last long and we cruised along the Oxford/GU towards a bright sun making the water sparkle.

On this five mile stretch we saw only our second batch of ducklings.

Carrying straight on at Wigram's Turn we were now on a waterway we haven't been on for a few years (we can't remember how long).

We managed to squeeze in to a gap in the moored boats just below Napton Bottom Lock when a boater kindly moved his boat a little to make room. There are lots of boats on the 48hr moorings - will there be queues at the locks?

Jan cooked up a lovely roast gammon meal, then we went for a walk up the locks. Back at the moorings below the locks the sun was setting over the canal.

The weather is improving: we had hardly any rain today and the sun shone for most of the day. We still have the cold wind, though ...

Oh, you will, of course, want to know how the alternator performed. Well ... there's not really much detectable difference between the new way of wiring it up compared with how it was immediately before. Which is a bit disappointing. And, until I get a relay, I have to open the electrics cupboard door and switch "on" and "off" the alternator manually every time I run the engine. I suspect another major issue is the batteries themselves. Although they are only a year old, they probably haven't been kept as fully charged as they should have been, so they now do not hold their charge. Why do I think this? The battery voltage has dropped to 12.1V off load after the engine has been off for five hours. When the engine is running the battery voltage goes almost immediately to 14.4V and soon after to 14.7V, with the charging current dropping to a few amps, then to zero. Perhaps the electrolyte has been "boiled off" - but I can't top up as the batteries are "sealed". Hmm.

Still piling on the coal ...

We had more weather today. Quite a lot of it. Mostly sunshine, sleet and rain, with possibly a bit of snow thrown in. It was more cold than warm - a lot more cold than warm - but it was nice when the sun shone. Our stove hasn't been out for days; we've already used up the bag of coal we bought as an "emergency spare". Fortunately Union Canal Carriers sells Supertherm so we have another full bag in the well deck.

When I opened the curtains this morning I was surprised to see this duck on the "wrong" side.

On our way to the post office (our forwarded post had come) we invited Lisa and Dave (What a Lark) for coffee on our return. It was good to have a long chat with them.

Then we had to move off our 48hr mooring, so we watered up outside the Stop House, then paused briefly at the Elsan point before tying up outside the Boathouse.

At the water point this lovely old clinker-built boat came past, turned in the marina entrance and went back the way it had come.

By the Boathouse we waved as No Problem went by heading north.

We had seen posters advertising a boat gathering at Braunston organised by the IWA Northampton Branch and decided we'd stay for it. I contacted the relevant people, got ourselves booked in and volunteered our services. Having done that we used Braunston Turn to cause Jubilee to face the opposite direction by means of forward and reverse gears, then cruised to a reserved mooring near the marina entrance. We spoke to Jill (Gill?) and Ian (Iain?) on Drifter in front of us, and put up our BCF banner and some bunting.

On Friday we shall be helping with marquee/tents erection and possibly helping behind the bar over the weekend.

We walked up a couple of locks to find Herbie with Milly M tied alongside and Melaleuca in front, so we called in to say hello to Kath and Neil, Simon and Anne and Maffi (again). They were just about to eat, so we walked back to the Boathouse where we enjoyed a carvery.

The evening sunshine lit up a couple of scenes for my camera.

As we walked past the church a couple of locals pointed out the peregrine falcons half way up the steeple, one enjoying a meal of freshly caught bird.

The light was fading - this was the best I could do:

So we're going to be in Braunston for another few days. There are worse places to be.

A flurry of bloggers; one came to tea

A lazy start today saw us leaving Norton Junction at about 1100. Just as we set off it started to rain, and this was more than a drizzle. Having met a few boats coming the other way I was surprised to find we had Braunston Tunnel to ourselves. The rain had stopped before we entered; on the other side it started again as we came down the locks. At Wharf House Narrowboats at the bottom lock I got a tin of red paint for the tunnel band. Now I need to find a day which is not too cold and when there is no prospect of rain. Not too difficult, surely? Oh, it is. Oh well.

Just past the chandler's was No Problem; Sue said hello and warned told us that there were several bloggers in the vicinity. We tied up at the first available mooring behind this boat.

We soon found that it was Milly M, aka Maffi's boat. Before long there were Sue, Maffi, Bones, Alex, Chas and Ann and us talking on the towpath.

It was the first time we had met Chas and Ann, good to see you, and Alex, ditto. It was a real shame you were on a flying visit, Bones, two minutes with you is not enough!

We were pleased that Maffi accepted our invitation to join us for tea. I remembered to take a photo.

We are having some post forwarded to Braunston Post Office which might be here tomorrow. If it doesn't arrive we'll stay another day.

Will this stop debris collecting round the bow?

After Clive did the pressure washing in cold but dry conditions yesterday (anything but dry for him), Dean gave Jubilee two coats of blacking in warm and sunny conditions today. The weather's getting a bit like it was two years ago when Dean did our blacking - not quite as warm, though.

The water pump hasn't leaked any more, so that's good. I rigged up a 12V fan in the water pump box to try to dry the woodwork out; that was very effective. The dark, damp stain has almost vanished and the wood is dry to the touch.

This is what our stem post has looked like where it meets the base plate ever since we've owned the boat.

The projection under the water line collects a good deal of what the bow meets in the water, usually reeds and small branches. This can slow progress considerably and has annoyed me many times. Every so often while under way Jan steers and I lean over the bow with a boat hook and hoik the debris clear.

I asked about getting this nasty jutting out bit of metal ground off, but Dean advised against it as it would mean cutting off the weld. Not a good idea.

This evening, though, while we are still in the air and after the blacking has been completed, I had an idea.

I scraped up from the concrete hard standing dollops of congealing spilt blacking and smeared them in the recess.

What do you think? I don't suppose it will last long, but we'll see in the next few days how effective it is. The Leicester Section, especially between Foxton and Watford, seems always to have lots of floating organic matter.

While Dean was spreading the black stuff around, a boat with a name I recognised from the blogosphere pulled up on the service mooring. It was What a Lark with Dave and Lisa. It was good to meet them; we had a good chat. Hope to see you again on the cut some time.

I did some preparation for touching up. This is the red tunnel band with splodges of primer.

Earlier I had scraped and sanded the rusty bits under the gunnels and above the rubbing strake (what is this area called?), then applied Fertan. I had expected to be able to do the painting tomorrow at my leisure, but we were told that the boat would be going back in the water at about 1000. Another early up for me, then, so I can get it painted (and replace the fenders - and weed hatch plate!) before that deadline.

Tomorrow should see the cabin bilge pumped dry again, some inspection of the water pump and a look at the charging system.

Container ship on the Grand Union; stern gland tightening

Kathryn D. came on the dot of 0930 for the promised coffee tea; we had a good long chat. It was lovely to see you, Kathryn, and may you continue to recover ever more speedily.

Tied up in front of us, but heading south, were Muleless and Oakapple, so I introduced myself to Gary and Della and Richard and Sharon. It was good to see you, and I'm sure our paths will cross again sometime.

I had another go at adjusting the stern gland. By "adjusting" I mean, of course, tightening. I had put an ice cream tub drip catcher under the gland; after yesterday's four hours' running it was full. Screwing down the greaser had stopped the dripping so the gland can only be leaking water when under way. When we stopped at Weedon Bec I found the drip catcher full to overflowing again, so I tightened the gland even more. I felt the resistance to rotation of the prop shaft before, during and after tightening - it felt moderately stiff at every stage, but the adjustment nuts got suddenly harder to turn so I slackened them off a flat. Is this right? Should I get a two litre ice cream tub of water from the gland after just a few hours' running? How close can the two "plates" get before I should replace the packing? There is now about 1 cm gap.

It was just after 1100 when I washed the grease off my hands, put on my hat and coat and steered into Blisworth Tunnel. There was another boat just exiting at the far end, otherwise we were the only boat in the tunnel. This meant I could steer to avoid the worst of the torrents of water. The tunnel seemed drier than last year - or am I just getting used to it?

Before the entrance, tied under the trees, was this curious container vessel.

It looks like the barest of modifications have been applied to turn a container into a canal boat. The only windows seem to be in the front doors, but I couldn't see the top so perhaps there are roof lights. I somehow doubt it. It also looks slightly too wide to be a "narrow" boat.

Propulsion is from an outboard motor, but where is the steering position?

I'd love to see a boat review in one of the waterways mags! Adam?

We went to the Brinjol Indian restaurant in Weedon - good size portions but I have had tastier food elsewhere. Next time perhaps we'll do a "two for one" at the Heart of England.

Shorts weather

Mid December and I'm back in shorts again.

Yes, the mild weather isn't only bringing out the daffodils, as reported elsewhere, but my legs too.

As you can see, I haven't quite forgotten how to blog. I find there's considerable inertia; when I'm in the habit of blogging, as during our long cruise this year, it's fairly easy - but having stopped for a while it became more and more difficult to summon up the will to do it.

Now I've broken my December duck we'll see if I can keep going - or if this is merely a quick single.

Windlass hands

Today it did not rain!

Doing the Buckby locks was a pleasure in the sunshine.

At the bottom we met Tentatrice on its way up the flight with Chris and Jennie.

It was good to meet you, if only very briefly and from the other side of the cut.

We ended up at Blisworth where Ally and Ben joined us for a meal in the Royal Oak pub. I don't usually go for curry in a non-Indian/Bangladeshi restaurant, but I saw - and smelled - what other people were eating and ordered a Beef Madras. It was rather good, with plenty of distinguishable spices.

As we were approaching Gayton Junction a helicopter buzzed low overhead.

We're nearly at the end of our six-month cruise with just seven more locks to go (eight if we go past Cosgrove). We have had a great time, and have met and made loads of friends en route. It will be quite hard to go home. But we will be able to visit the boat from time to time over the next few months, of course, even if we don't take it on such a mega cruise for a while.

Oh yes - I applied some of Capt. Tolley's Creeping Crack Cure to one of our windows this morning. We just need some rain (!) to see if it has cured the leak.

Nearly forgot: the title of this blog post. My hands, especially the right hand, have developed patches of hard skin from all the paddle winding they have done. I'm quite proud of them, although Jan isn't so impressed. Once we've got home I'll have to calculate the number of locks we've done; I'm anticipating quite a high number.

24 red shirts hanging on a line; and a blogger met at last

This has to be one of the more unusual sights on our travels.

24 red T-shirts hanging next to each other on one washing line by the Stratford Canal to the south of Birmingham. They all seem to say "A Support Team" on the back. Fortunately one has been hung up the other way round so I can see "Angel Canal Festival" on the front.

Having looked up the Angel Canal Festival I can see that it's "Angel" as in "The Angel, Islington". The T-shirts seem to be a long way from London.

We set off from Bridge 5 (Yardley Wood Road) on the Stratford Canal at about 1430, arriving at Hockley Heath three hours later. This is where we had planned to stop, so we could eat at the Wharf Tavern and be ready for the Lapworth flight in the morning. I got Jan to drop me off as we approached the moorings so I could see where the best place to stop would be. As I walked towards the pub three things happened more or less simultaneously. I recognised a boat (from photographs); I recognised a man (from photographs); said man greeted me by name.

The boat was Waiouru (in the middle, above) and the man, of course, was Tom. One of the lovely things about canal blogging is that we already knew each other despite not having met "in real life" before. I said we'd be eating in the pub; Tom said he'd see us in there later. Well, the food took a long time to arrive. Tom appeared before the food did so he had to witness us getting through it before we retired to Jubilee for more chatting.

It was good to see you, Tom, and we hope to meet (your) Jan in the morning.

Pottery workers take a break

Much better weather today saw us cruise from Etruria to Rode Heath. On the way we saw workers on a break at Middleport Pottery.

A familiar boat went past, No Direction, but in different ownership since bloggers Ray and Jayne sold it.

(Rubbish picture, sorry.)

As we went past Westport Lake a man untying his boat, Tilly May, called out to say that he read this blog. At Harecastle Tunnel we had a chat while watering up.

Chris and Jan, it was good to meet you. Our paths diverged the other side of the tunnel at Hardings Wood Junction as we carried down the Trent and Mersey while Chris and Jan turned onto the Hall Green Branch.

We stopped at Rode Heath where the moorings were pretty full. We tied up at the beginning of all the moored boats, had tea, then welcomed friends Martin and Buff - who live in the village - on for drinks.

At one point in the evening Jan noticed the sunset directly ahead of us. This is the view from the side hatch.

Our lunch stop, by the way, was at Red Bull, where we booked our passage into and out of Liverpool. This is now to be in on Wednesday 29th July and out on Sunday 2nd August, giving us three whole days there. I think that will be enough. This wasn't the perfect timing as we had hoped to meet up with Ally and Ben at Scarisbrick on their way to a wedding in Southport. Never mind, they will have to visit us in Albert Dock. I don't know where they will park.

Crick prepares

I forgot to mention in yesterday's post that we had an enjoyable glass or two of wine with Chris and Joy of nb Wrens Nest after our meal in the Boat House pub. It was good to meet you, and I'm humbled that you read my blog. I shall have to add you to my blog roll.

We made a leisurely start from Braunston this morning, stopping to top up with water before sharing the locks with Dunslavin.

Kevin and xxx (oops - we didn't discover Mrs Kevin's name) on Dunslavin were on their way back to Crick, so we followed them through Braunston Tunnel and up Watford Locks.

The tunnel was notable for two incidents; a passing boat suggested I should point my tunnel light up at the roof. Was I dazzling him? No-one has ever commented on my tunnel light before. The other incident was being hit by a boat despite my hugging the wall. Dunslavin was hit by the same boat.

At Watford Locks the boat in front of Dunslavin was the steamer Adamant. This would explain the smokiness of the tunnel. In this wonky photo Adamant has its funnel lowered as it enters the bottom lock of the four-rise staircase.

We were fortunate to do all the locks in the dry; it started raining almost as soon as we left the top lock. Then it hailed. Crick Tunnel came as a bit of a respite, feeling warm as soon as we entered. I thought it was rather misty in there until I removed my glasses. They had steamed up the instant we hit the warm air.

Immediately after exiting the tunnel the mooring restriction signs - for the Crick Boat Show - were in evidence. The temporary bridge to the show site looks a rather more elaborate affair than in previous years. The bridge was still being constructed, but I suppose they have a day or two to finish off.

The sky above the show site looks threatening, but I understand the forecast for the weekend is - at the moment - quite good.

The eagle-eyed will have spotted a certain well-known boat on the left.

To finish with today, the view from our side hatch now we are tied up past all the reserved moorings. This is Crack's Hill, up which we scampered this evening.

And a view from the hill itself: wind turbines and sky.

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.

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)

A Chance meeting and curry with Nev

We set off at 0830 from Willington, knowing that we would cross paths with Chance between here and Branston. Before we did so, we pulled in to Shobnall Wharf, the beginning of the former Bond End Canal, for diesel.

This was a delightful spot, and I'm pleased to say I made the tight turn without so much as a touch of the masonry.

The chandlery looked to have a huge range of stuff, only I couldn't think of anything we needed at the time.

A little later, when I was thinking "it must be coffee time", we saw the distinctive blue of nb Chance approaching. I waved madly whilst pulling in to the convenient piling - with rings - and then James saw the loonie was me and pulled in too.

Doug and James came on board for coffee, which turned into lunch. Fortunately we had a quantity of cold meats left over from last night's barbecue, and we had sufficient salad materials.

I set up my camera for a self-timed photo of us all - I haven't worked out how to lighten the image, Doug, I'm afraid you're a little in the dark. Sorry.

It was really good to see you both, and thanks for the wine. We talked non-stop, but eventually it was time to go our different ways.

It's nice to be back on a narrow canal again. This is Tatenhill Lock.

After a brief reprise of the Trent at Wychnor we arrived in Alrewas, where we tied up convenient for the curry house, seeming called merely "Alrewas".

We had arranged that Nev of nb Percy would join us. After a lemonade on Jubilee (yes, really) we walked over to the Indian restaurant. Jan was hoping for a "fruity Darjeeling" which she so enjoyed last time we were here, in Easter last year; we were dismayed to find that the place had seemingly changed hands since then. But they said they could make one, which they did, and it got the thumbs up.

It was excellent seeing you again, Nev - we had a really enjoyable evening. I'm looking forward to a look round Percy some time.

Here's the inevitable group shot (on a 1" exposure).

Now I'll see if I can get some sleep. We're moored under an oak tree which keeps dropping acorns with a "crack" on the boat. Hmm.