Boats and Boaters

Were shuffling around a little in our cruising as we fill gaps in our filming when we have been rained off during our last cruise.

Today we passed Whittington and there was Jannock, with no visible crew, so I couldn’t call out to them as last time.

At least I got a picture of the boat this time, perhaps I’ll manage to capture both the boat and the crew next time.

Moored at Fazeley Junction I was looking out of the window and spotted a boat we had seen before.  It was Keith and Mandy on Takin’ our Time, with son and friend (whose names I’ve forgotten already - oh dear).  Just time for them to pull in behind us for a quick exchange of news.

We’re moored at Fazeley Junction, hoping to reach Atherstone and beyond tomorrow to complete another missing chunk of filming.  Then we’ll be returning to Fazeley Junction to see who else we spot.

Posted on Wednesday, August 5, 2009 at 20:18        Comments (3)
Category(s): Birmingham & Fazeley , Blog Readers , Coventry

Fradley Junction

We’ve had a lovely relaxing day today, moored at Fradley Junction. 

We’ve chatted to lots of people on the towpath, given out lots of our leaflets, and sold a few of our DVDs.

The sun tried to shine a little, but at least it was a warm dry day, for once.  It’s hard to keep remembering that it’s August now and these are the school holiday weeks when everyone expects sunshine.

The junction can be entertaining with boaters queuing for the locks on the Trent and Mersey Canal, with others heading on and off the Coventry Canal.

Quietly passing were Chris and Debbie on Ubique, almost unseen, but a quick grab for the camera made sure they didn’t get away.

We’re moored at Fradley Junction, hoping to return towards Fazeley Junction tomorrow if there’s a little sunshine for our filming to fill gaps in our earlier washed out cruise.

Posted on Sunday, August 2, 2009 at 20:36        Comments (0)
Category(s): Bloggers , Coventry , Trent & Mersey

We’ve been to Coventry

There was no blog yesterday as there was no mobile signal worth having - so a double issue today.

Susan joined us at Fazeley Junction where we filled up with water, or at least we put a little into the tank as is was a slow tap with not much flow and we gave up waiting.

We had two attempts to head under the bridge onto the Coventry Canal as a boat appeared the first time we tried.

The first two locks on the Coventry Canal were at Glascote and, like all those on the Coventry, they are quick enough to empty but take ages to fill.

Then on to the 11 locks at Atherstone and it felt like we were waiting all day for them to fill.  A brief pause in one of the longer pounds gave us time for shopping and filming in the town.

We eventually stopped a little south of Atherstone for a quiet night, then headed on, passing Hartshill first thing this morning.

With no locks this morning it was comparatively lazy.  We just followed the twists and turns of the canal to Hawkesbury Junction, then continued straight on to reach Coventry Basin.

We like to make sure that our DVDs cover the branches so we needed to cruise to Coventry Basin.  With the Bowcam DVDs we can’t just cheat and visit Coventry later by car to film the basin separately, but we need to cruise there ourselves.

Then a quick cruise back to Hawkesbury Junction to move onto the Oxford Canal.  There’s a stop lock there, where the canals are just a few inches different in levels.Some say this was to stop the later canal stealing water from the earlier one, while others say it was simply a miscalculation and the canals were intended to be at the same level.

We’re moored at Ansty, hoping to pass Braunston tomorrow and be well north on the Grand Union towards Birmingham on Friday.

Posted on Wednesday, June 3, 2009 at 21:28        Comments (0)
Category(s): Coventry , Oxford , Warwickshire Ring

The longest lock free journeys

While editing the BCN DVD recently I was trying to work out how long the Birmingham and Wolverhampton levels of the BCN were and how these compared to other long pounds.

Counting mileposts in the Nicholson’s guides revealed the following.

I think these are the longest distances (in miles) you can navigate without passing through a lock (or working stop lock) and without retracing part of your route.

42.8  Bridgewater Runcorn Basin via Waters Meeting and L&L Leigh Branch to Wigan bottom lock
41.2  Lancaster Canal Preston to Tewitfield
31.9  BCN Engine Arm Terminus via Horseley Fields Junction to Longwood Junction
31.4  Union Canal Edinburgh to top of Falkirk Staircase locks
29.2  Ashby Canal Limit of Navigation to Top of Atherstone Locks
28.8  Ashby Canal Limit of Navigation to Coventry Basin
28.0  Top of Tardebigge Locks via BCN Loops and Netherton Tunnel to Hawne Basin

Some of these distances are pretty close and we might need to have a recount for the first two places if we measure them again more carefully.  You can get a much longer journey on the tidal River Trent and the Yorkshire Rivers but they aren’t canals.

Have I missed any?  Or does someone have different measurements for the distances?

Posted on Monday, May 11, 2009 at 16:45        Comments (5)
Category(s): Ashby , BCN , Bridgewater , Coventry , Forth/Clyde Union , Lancaster , Leeds and Liverpool