Windsong

We’re still catching up on the blogging from our trip on the Caldon Canal and the bloggers we met on the journey.

We’d been to the end of the Leek Arm and moored while Christine and Susan went shopping and I went filming.

When we say we’d been to the end we really meant it, and we were using our bow thruster to steer as we backed out.

With the narrow channel and the wind blowing sideways I was suddenly surprised by a head appearing from Windsong and Roger shouting "we read your blog".

We usually have to reverse back when caught like that, but this time we went forwards to say a few words to Roger, and to Pip who had appeared by then.

They are more up to date with their writing and have already blogged about our encounter on their site.

Posted on Wednesday, September 30, 2009 at 19:58        Comments (0)
Category(s): Blog Readers , Bloggers , Caldon

No Problem at Rothersthorpe

It was a trip on the train this morning to reach Northampton for a short walk down to the River Nene where No Problem was just arriving.

After spending summer on the rivers they were returning to the canal system for the winter and I was to help them work the 17 locks of the Rothersthorpe flight on the Northampton Branch of the Grand Union Canal.

There was just time for a little (or was it a lot of) shopping before leaving Northampton.

The first few locks near the town had anti vandal devices fitted.  I’ve seen many variations before but these are the first I’ve seen fitted with a Yale key rather than a handcuff key.  I assume it makes them harder for the vandals to gat around.

With Sue and Vic taking turns steering and working the locks and with help from Anne (from Moore2Life) and from me, we managed the flight in reasonable time.

I left them at Gayton Junction, shortly after the top lock to walk to Milton Malsor for a bus to Northampton and to return home by train. Sue had already written her blog by the time I had returned home.

Posted on Monday, September 28, 2009 at 22:56        Comments (0)
Category(s): Blog Readers , Bloggers , Northampton Branch

Northern Pride

On our recent trip to the Caldon Canal we passed several bloggers and we’re a little behind in posting about them.  Here’s one that took us by surprise.  It’s Northern Pride.

I was on the roof filming the bottle kilns alongside us and only looked at the passing boat when I’d taken the shot.

I was just in time to take a still picture of them disappearing into the distance.

Fortunately our Bowcam was running so I was also able to extract a still from that, although not such good quality.

We just had time to shout hello as we passed.  Hopefully we’ll have a longer chat next time we pass.

They were much prompter blogging about us. Their picture shows me on the roof of our boat, with a tripod so I could see over the wall at the side of the canal for a better shot.

Posted on Sunday, September 27, 2009 at 10:45        Comments (0)
Category(s): Bloggers , Caldon

Froghall Tunnel

There’s been rather a gap in our recent blogging as we managed to moor in a location with poor mobile reception every night on our recent trip.  One night there was no mobile, no data, no Freeview and no analogue TV. It was lovely and quiet at Consall Forge.

We’ve been filming along the Caldon Canal and wondering how far we would get as Froghall Tunnel, near the end, has an unusually low profile and many boats simply don’t fit through.

As you exit Flint Mill Lock, the last on the Caldon Canal there’s a gauge made of plastic sheets so you can check the profile of your boat and see if you fit through the tunnel.

We had stopped at the last water point to fill up the tank in our bows and had only one third of a tank of diesel at the stern to keep the front cabin corners, which are the highest part of our boat, as low as possible.  We just touched the plastic gauge which is said to be a few millimetres pessimistic so we might just fit.

With two crew members sitting at the front, and just the steerer at the stern we went in under electric power so we could go very, very slowly.

The tunnel gets narrower inside, as the photo shows if you click to enlarge it, and I’m pleased to say we got through the tunnel without touching the roof at all.  I’d been expecting to have to touch up the paintwork on the front corners.

The only problem was kneeling on the floor to keep my head low enough and holding a torch to shine along the roof to watch the front corners.

Having passed through the tunnel we could make the right turn onto the first part of the restored Uttoxeter Canal and descend the one lock to moor in the basin and take a photo to show we made it.

We passed lots of bloggers on our journey so now we’re home with lots of bandwidth I can publish some more posts to show who we met.

Now I’ve got a summer’s worth of filming to start editing to produce the next batch of DVDs during the winter.  Which shall I do first?

Posted on Wednesday, September 23, 2009 at 23:18        Comments (1)
Category(s): Caldon , Uttoxeter

Wrong DVD ?

Having just returned from the IWA National Festival at Redhill and checked our stock back in we’ve found a discrepancy which we think we can trace back to Saturday 29th.

If you bought a DVD from us at Redhill on Saturday 29th and your receipt number ends in 0005 then please get in touch as we think you may have collected the wrong DVD and we’d like to post you the correct one.

Please email us (paul@waterwayroutes.co.uk) or phone us (07961 701 702) and we’ll sort it out.

As you paid cash there is no way we can trace you, so please contact us.

Posted on Wednesday, September 2, 2009 at 16:49        Comments (0)
Category(s): News

IWA National Festival 2009 is over

Sunday and Monday at the IWA National festival seemed similar in terms of overall numbers, but on these days there seemed to be more locals keen on a fun day out rather than boaters.

They were enjoying the displays in the main ring, and the opportunity to meet the owls close up afterwards.

The occasional light showers drove a few visitors into the marquees but otherwise it seemed rather quiet.

We were packed up quickly on the Monday after closing time, it was just a question of remembering how it fitted into the car when we came and packing it the same way.

Here’s the empty space between our two neighbours after we’ve finished.

We’re looking forward to next year’s IWA National Festival 2010 at Beale Park.

Thank you to all the visitors who introduced themselves - it was great to meet you face to face.

Posted on Wednesday, September 2, 2009 at 14:38        Comments (2)
Category(s): News