Laundry on camera

Thursday 20^th August; Tardebigge top pound to Stoke pound

And what a lovely day to do the Tardebigge flight!  This was the view at 7.30 as we had breakfast –

The insides of the cratch covers were running with wet so they got thrown over the top board to dry off before they got rolled up.  All the wet stuff from the last few days had been drying, but not so as you would notice, so the waterproofs were hung from the lines in the well deck, wet socks etc (they had been washed since my feet got wet!) from a hanging dryer and the larger items like towels were pegged to the poles above the windows.

We left at 8.40 – it’s a long haul, but as long as we had reached the bottom of the flight by mid-afternoon we’d be happy.  We were the first boat away, although as we worked down the first lock the bywash started running so we knew one of the boats above the top lock was on its way too.

There were few people about and no boats for a long time.  We have an excellent routine for flights like this, where the locks are close enough for easy locking ahead, and were making steady progress in the sunshine.  Worcestershire’s plums were ripe and delicious and we picked a generous potful.

If we hadn’t been going home in a couple of days I would have picked more and made some jam.  There are several excellent plum trees along this flight, conveniently placed at the locks.  Around the half-way point were the volunteers.  We weren’t sorry to see them, though we could easily have finished the flight on our own.  But they had a special request - would we mind waiting in a lock a bit further on, as there was some filming going on and they’d like to get two boats crossing in a pound?  Of course we didn’t, we weren’t in a hurry, the weather was lovely and it’s good that a boat was coming up – less turning of locks to be done!  So on we went for a couple of locks to the noisy-dog-house, which is down to just one dog now, who sits in his sink looking mournful. 

Meg always stays on the boat round here as she is scared of them appearing over the wall shouting the odds at her, so I don’t know whether this one still barks at canine interlopers.  I opened the top gate for Dave (the volunteers were closing up the previous lock) and chatted to the one of the film crew who was waiting with a drone on the grass.  They were filming Robbie Cummings on Naughty Lass for Canal Boat Diaries.  Exciting!  I went down to prep the next lock for him and then got out of the way.  Here he is in the lock below, talking to the other members of the film crew, about what they would be doing.   

Dave was one lock back by the dog house, and I was by the empty lock.  I was going to stay out of the way but the offside gate kept closing itself so I couldn’t.  Here is Robbie getting more instructions. 

You can just see Dave waiting above.  Once the lock was filled Robbie had to wait for the drone to be in position before he would get the signal to move.  Up went the drone, right above the dog house.  I took a magnificent picture of the sky with a bit of aerial but I won’t trouble you with that!  The walker who had stopped may have done better but neither of us could see our camera screens in the bright sunshine.

Instructions were received, Robbie waved goodbye …

Then back he came – the sun had gone in and that didn’t suit the filming!  At last off he went while Dave awaited his instruction to move.  Robbie made for the towpath side rather than carry out the ‘normal’ passing manoeuvre in the middle of the canal which you would have expected – presumably so that he could get a good shot of Dave (and the photogenic Meg, posing like a good ‘un) as he passed.

And that was the last we saw of him.  The film crew was nowhere to be seen.  The series is due to be shown on BBC4 in December.  Will we survive the editing? Maybe not in close-up as the towels were hanging in the well deck with the still-unrolled cratch sides flapping gently above the top board!  We do know they had lots of shots of the CRT volunteers so we’ll at least see them. 

Bye Robbie

All a bit anti-climactic after that but there was work to be done!   There were no problems with water levels – I got my feet wet for the umpteenth time this trip, but this time from crossing over the top gates.

After a while a hireboat came up and took our volunteers with him.

In spite of the 20-minute delay during the filming we were down the flight (excluding the top lock) in under 3 hours and moored up in good time for lunch.  After a while Acorn, which had stayed above the top lock last night, came down.  We compared filming notes and will all be watching in December!  During the afternoon there was nothing for it but to get on with the jobs we had been putting off.  Dave carried on with prepping and painting on the outside, and I toothbrushed the grot from the port side window-frames before taking all the hopper windows out for a thorough clean.  In the evening we crossed to the Queen’s Head where we sat in the garden and enjoyed a pint of Doom Bar (brought to our table of course) while we waited for our take-away pizza.  Their Covid system was impressive; they even had door staff to make sure you used hand sanitiser and gave your contact details before you went through, much better than the Wharf Tavern in Hockley Heath.  The food was better, too.

2 miles, 29 locks, Naughty Lass, pizza, yum!