Well, I have been putting this ‘final’ post off for many
months but it must be done, so that’s been occupying me since Christmas. We had hoped by now to have had a couple of
cruises on a new (to us) boat, but instead it’s been a frustrating year with anything suitable
sold within hours of becoming available, including Chuffed of course, so
we shouldn't have been surprised. But
semitrads are few and far between compared to cruiser sterns, and ones with
bow-thrusters and reverse layout scarcer still.
At times we wished we hadn’t parted with Chuffed, and certainly
regretted not buying Tentatrice when we had the chance, but regret gets you
nowhere so we keep looking forward!
A favourite mooring at
Flecknoe
It’s a long post, and mostly for my benefit, so please enjoy
the photos if you can’t be bothered with the words ….
We were not alone in having our Christmas plans scuppered by
Covid or other illness, though thankfully no-one has been too poorly. The children had devised a fabulous present
for us - a gorgeously illustrated hard-cover book which they had concocted from the
Chuffed blogs and got printed. Our son wrote a script to
scrape (technical term) selected highlights and photographs from the 620 blogs (there were over 400,000 words and 5,000 images to choose from).
At 150 pages long it’s a wonderful
reminder of our time aboard, full of happy memories and lovely photos. The photos they chose were all instantly
recognisable and the text takes us straight back to the time and place where it
was written.
'Canal regeneration' - taken 5 years ago, has
anything happened yet?
Our first canine companion was our dear old Tess, who was with
us from 1995, and on every cruise until the summer of 2013.
Faithful Tess enjoying
the sun at Hillmorton. She was succeeded in 2014 by lovely Meg, who took to boating
like a duck to water.
Meg taking charge on
her first cruise
And now for the stats, which run from 2012 to 2021. The mileage figures are only a rough
approximation – it turns out that I was less than consistent in my record
keeping, for instance in the early days I didn’t record narrow and broad canals
and locks separately. I do like things
to be reasonably accurate, so over the last few days I’ve spent quite some time
rectifying this with Canalplanner, though there are limits to the desire for
accuracy - the furlongs are mostly rounded up or down to the nearest quarter
mile and the results shown as decimals.
|
Narrow
canals
|
2568.65
|
|
Broad
canals
|
1177.69
|
|
Gloucester
&Sharpness
|
30.75
|
|
Rivers
|
719.69
|
|
Total miles
|
4466.23
|
|
Engine
hours
|
2806
|
Most years we spent approximately 3 months cruising, from a
few days to 3 weeks at a time. My
records show a total of 711 nights aboard, but Dave recorded 762 days,
which included those when we cruised and left for home on the same day, and his maintenance
visits during the winter. We travelled
nearly 4,500 miles, visiting places like Braunston many times but others only
once, such as Huddersfield and Bath.
The Great Wall of Tod
– Todmorden, Rochdale canal; visited only
once (so far) How many have I contributed
to the thousands of boaters' photos of Braunston Church?
It took us ages to lose the ‘hirer’ mindset, where you
aim for full-day cruising to achieve your goal and get back to base by the
deadline – as hirers and sharers we cruised the Four Counties ring in a week
more than once, and thought nothing of it. Although we knew perfectly well it
was up to us when we finished our trips, it was years before we felt truly comfortable
with short days.
Relaxing on a hot day,
Wedding Bridge, S Oxford – footbridge a mile or so north of Fenny Compton
I love doing locks, though as we all know some are more
taxing than others! The variety of
paddle gear and gate types is fascinating and some took me a while to get used
to, such as the Calder & Hebble Spike, or the chains to open the bottom gates
on the Rochdale Nine (2015).
|
narrow
locks
|
2783
|
|
broad
locks
|
1368
|
|
large
locks
|
78
|
|
total
locks
|
4150
|
Using the handspike at
Salterhebble top lock
Guillotine gate at
Todmorden, Library lock
And some lift bridges are a pleasure to use, though I know
many of us have struggled with some on the way into Oxford. I recorded 285 moveable (swing or lift)
bridges, but only tended to note the ones which require action from crew – I
don’t see the point in recording those which are usually kept open, or even
completely out of use. Mill Lift Bridge in Lower Heyford,
now operated with the BWB/Watermate key, the Key of Power, used to be a nightmare
for smaller folk like me.
The (then) truly horrible
Drinkwater’s bridge, near Oxford, 2019
Some required planning and a deal of skill to negotiate – going downstream at
Woolhampton, on the K&A, the steerer must hold the boat in the lock while the
crew holds up the traffic at the bridge, as if you try to hold steady in the
stream before the bridge is fully open you will be pushed to the side by the
current. You have to really open up the revs, and to add to the excitement, the bridge is on the skew. I seem to
remember it was very difficult to get back on again after I had closed the
bridge, because of the strong water flow.
Racing through Woolhampton Bridge
Tunnels varied from wide and spacious (Blisworth) to narrow
and cramped (Harecastle), some very short and scarcely worth the name (Broad Street in Birmingham) to the epic (Standedge, the highest, longest
and deepest canal tunnel in Britain). To look at the eastern portal of Standedge,
you would hardly believe the statistics; 5675 yards, or over 3 miles long, so
much more impressive in old money don’t you think? the deepest (with up to 636
feet of rock above you, that’s roughly 3 football pitches stood on end), and
highest above sea level (645’).
Emerging from Standedge, June 2015
Canalplanner tells me we traversed 204 tunnels, though many of those
would have been duplicated on there-and-back cruises, such as Dunhampstead on
the many times we popped down to Worcester.
As for aqueducts, we love them, though I have to say I would
feel a lot less relaxed on a cruiser stern!
Among the 24 recorded (counting both directions of course), we have
crossed the magnificent Pontcysyllte several times, and you don't need my snaps of that, but we also have a soft spot
for the tiny Yarningale on the South Stratford.
Pretty little Yarningale aqueduct
We had our fair share of rubbish round the prop, from the
almost ubiquitous poly bags to a martial arts type padded jerkin on the Rochdale and a reinforced knobbly bike tyre on the BCN
main line. Everyone has their own horror
stories about rubbish, so you don’t need to see my pictures of it too. I won’t dwell on our various mishaps either,
I prefer not to remember them! thankfully there were no serious injuries
involved, though on occasion a fair amount of cash was required. We had to call out CRT once to haul us off a shopping
trolley on the Walsall, but trolley trouble
along there is no novelty to anyone who ventures that way!
We haven’t yet visited all seven Wonders of the Waterways
though we’re over half way - we’ve covered the Pontcysyllte aqueduct, Anderton
Boat Lift, Standedge Tunnel and the Caen Hill flight.
On the Caen Hill flight 2013 - roped up to
nb Kyakatina, with a snapped gear cable!
On our very first canal trip, way back in the mid-1970s on
the Leeds and Liverpool, we crossed the
Burnley Embankment, but we don’t remember that at all. At the end of that trip, our knowledgeable
friend Ron insisted we all drove to see the Bingley Five Rise staircase. Of course at the time I had no notion of its
significance, and we still need to visit in a boat! And the Barton Swing Aqueduct remains to be
crossed as well.
I do hope we get the opportunity, and soon, in our own boat. We’ll keep looking ….. wish us luck!
Waiting for the off - below Claydon locks, summer 2019
A happy new Boating Year to you all!
