Canal Boat magazine

Friday was a busy day and I’m still busy downloading photos and catching up with the blogging.

We were honoured with a visit from Kevin Blick and David Oakes, the editor and photographer from Canal Boat magazine.

They joined us at Great Haywood Junction in the morning and we cruised to Tixall Wide and back in search of sunshine and the great photos which I’m sure David will have captured.

We paused at Tixall wide, during the showers for some inside shots and a bite of lunch.

Kevin was making lots of notes for the feature and asking lots of questions about the unusual features of the boat, like the electric motor and we spent most of the day travelling near silently under electric power.

 

Kevin took the tiller and was soon at ease with the electric controls as you can see in the top photo.  His left hand is lightly touching the electric controls for fine adjustment with just a slight movement of his fingers.

David got the most exercise walking briskly along the bank to capture photos from the bank, from the bridges and anywhere he could.

Everyone worked hard for a successful visit.  Look our for the October issue of Canal Boat magazine.

Posted on Saturday, July 28, 2007 at 21:28
Comments (2) Category(s): Recent

Hadar

Hadar was re-launched early in July - you can read the full story of Hadar in their blog.

Yesterday, Sue from No Problem, reminded us to keep a look out for Hadar as we passed through Stone, and it’s a good job she did.

I was casually looking around and spotted the shiny new nose with the name “Hadar” peeping out at the end of a row of boats at the side of the canal,

Slowly my brain made the connection with Sue’s comment yesterday and I grabbed the camera.  Too late to shout hello, but at least there’s a photo of a fellow blogger’s boat.

Posted on Saturday, July 28, 2007 at 20:43
Comments (0) Category(s): Recent

Sophie-Jane No 2

Yesterday, Sue from No Problem brought four visitors along the towpath to meet us.  They are readers of both of our blogs. They were (I think) Dave, Jen, and, oh dear, I can’t remember the other two names.  I hope they will leave their names in a comment.  It is so nice to be able to put faces to what would otherwise be anonymous readers. This morning we returned to Tixall Wide to complete the filming for that part of the Four Counties DVD as the sun was shining and we passed them again - and their boat, Sophie-Jane No 2.  I wonder what happened to No 1.

Posted on Saturday, July 28, 2007 at 20:15
Comments (1) Category(s): Staffs & Worcester , Trent & Mersey

No Problem at Great Heywood Junction

We’re heading round the Four Counties Ring, going anticlockwise from Autherley Junction.  We’ve been heading east along the Staffs and Worcester and would normally turn left at Great Heywood Junction.

But we turned right.  Not a navigation error, but deliberate because we knew who was to the south of the junction.

There was No Problem, with a space for use to moor just behind them.  The eagerly awaited rendezvous with Sue, Vic and Lucy.

Sue and Vic knew we were coming but Lucy didn’t.  At first we were just another passing boat then, suddenly, we were recognised and she was charging along the towpath to give us the enormous welcome she reserves for her friends.

Time for a good gossip and a tour of each others boats and, of course, time to get the cameras out.  The curve of the canal made it difficult to photo both from the towpath but when the sun came out Andrew soon took the hint and set off with his telephoto lens to the bridge to get both boats fully into shot.

And it didn’t take Lucy long to get everyone trained into throwing sticks for her to fetch.  When Christine opened the side doors to see what was going on she was soon presented with a stick and joined in.

Now Christine has fed all six of us well and Sue, Christine and Susan are off Geocaching before it goes too dark.

Tomorrow we are expecting Kevin Blick and David Oakes from Canal Boat Magazine.  We’ve not featured in a magazine before so we’re not sure what it involves.  We’ll be able to tell you more after tomorrow.

The forecast is good so we hope there will be some good opportunities for photos somewhere near here.  Perhaps the junction or Tixall Wide will be a good spot for some photos.

Posted on Thursday, July 26, 2007 at 19:22
Comments (0) Category(s): No Problem , Trent & Mersey

Back in the Middle

Moored at Sherborne Wharf.  Heading for Wolverhampton next Monday or Tuesday.

It’s been rather quiet on the boating front since we arrived back at Sherborne Wharf in the middle of Birmingham

A few odd jobs to do around the boat and some work on the electric motor.  A test drive along the new main line confirmed all was well with the motor.

And success with the battery monitor, a Victron BMV501 which has never given sensible readings and advice from Victron, whose representative even visited the boat, was that there was a fault in our wiring.  Now we have a new monitor it gives sensible readings (without changing the wiring) and we could have saved ourselves a lot of bother by simply replacing it a lot earlier.

Then I did the 250 hour service on the diesel engine.  I had watched Ron, from our builders, do the 50 hour service to make sure I knew what to do.  Once I had managed to release the old oil filter (which was done up very tightly) there weren’t too many problems, although it’s surprising just how many places you can drip oil.  I expect I’ll manage less drips next time.

Now we’re ready to head off next week for the next filming expedition covering a figure-of-eight around the Four Counties Ring (anticlockwise) and Cheshire Ring (clockwise).

Posted on Friday, July 20, 2007 at 12:34
Comments (0) Category(s): BCN

On the Move

We were stopped on the Shropshire Union on Thursday by a pollution incident (described in our previous post).

After oxygen levels had risen to satisfactory levels the Environment Agency allowed BW to open for navigation at 08:30 on Friday morning.  The oxygenating equipment was removed and the first boats, including us, cleared the Adderley flight around 09:30.

Our news and photographs made the front page and breaking news section of Narrowboat World.

And we also get a mention on Granny Buttons for our reporting of the stoppage.

Now we are well on the way towards our moorings at Sherborne Wharf in Birmingham.

Posted on Sunday, July 8, 2007 at 18:36
Comments (0) Category(s): Shropshire Union

Stopped on the Shropshire Union

We are moored at the top of the Audlem flight on the Shropshire Union Canal, and have been since 14:00 today, on our way back to our Birmingham moorings.

A man from British Waterways was walking down the Audlem flight and instructing every boat to moor up and not go any further. 

There was a pollution incident immediately above the next flight of locks at Adderley and navigation was stopped each side of this until the incident had been dealt with.

There were long queues starting to build up in both directions on this July afternoon. 

I took the folding bike and went to have a look - and to take some pictures.  The towpath soon became so muddy that I would probably have made better progress without the bike.

There were lots of fish gasping for oxygen above the top lock and these were being collected and sent over the by-wash to the pound below where the ample flow of water was creating lots of oxygenated water and the fish looked much happier.

Other staff from British Waterways were organising generators and oxygenating equipment which were soon blowing plenty of air into the water.

Staff from the Environment Agency had just arrived and were doing the same.  They were also about to start taking samples to identify the source of the pollution.

The BW Website shows the closure as lasting all day tomorrow, with a review taking place tomorrow morning.

After dinner Christine and Andrew walked up to see what the latest news was.  The pollution is thought to be some form of chemical, as yet unidentified.

Readings will be taken of oxygen levels tomorrow morning and we have a number to phone after 08:00 for an update.

Out thanks go to Steve Bignell, Dave Bailey and the others from BW and EA for their considerable efforts to contain the problem and their tireless efforts to politely explain what is going on to everybody. 

Posted on Thursday, July 5, 2007 at 20:08
Comments (0) Category(s): Shropshire Union

Spotted Again

Just as a boat passed us a few days ago the crew shouted “We read your blog”.

“Great” I shouted, “Leave me a comment”.  I tried to look back to catch the name of the boat but it was disappearing out of sight and I couldn’t read all of it and, by the time I went to write blog that night I couldn’t even remember the part I had read.

I didn’t have time for any sort of conversation or chat as we passed on the Llangollen Canal and I thought the contact might have been lost.

Fortunately Elsie from Bendigedig left me a comment this morning so I can now write this post.  I guess from that Elsie’s blog that she found ours from reading the Sue’s excellent No Problem blog.

Hopefully we will get a chance to chat next time we pass.

Now I just need to work out the significance of the name Bendigedig.  I suspect it might have Welsh connections and mean something like wonderful or blessed.

Posted on Thursday, July 5, 2007 at 18:13
Comments (1) Category(s): Recent