Wetter outside the tunnels for a change

Wednesday 19^th August; King’s Norton to Tardebigge flight, top pound

The forecast was for non-stop rain today from about 9, so an early start was indicated.  We aren’t going far, but with tomorrow’s weather looking to be dry we want to be ready for an early start on Tardebigge.  At 0659 I was third in the queue outside the King’s Norton Co-op waiting for them to open up.  On the way back to the canal, the Navigation pub looks very sad though the ‘welcome’ sign still facing the road looks new.

By 7.30 we had had breakfast, Meg had been walked and we were preparing to leave with full wet-weather gear at the ready.  We were inside Wast Hill tunnel by 7.55 and out within half an hour – straight into the rain.  Should we moor at Hopwood?  The rain wasn’t heavy, so we thought we’d go on to Alvechurch.  The rain got heavier and we closed up the back to keep indoors dry – the top step mats are still not quite dry after we were caught out by the downpour the other day.  We had hoped to stop at Alvechurch visitor moorings opposite the Crown but they were full – then so was the stretch before the marina – but the short space opposite the wharf was free.  We had to bang in pins as there is unfortunately no Armco or rings, but were inside and peeling off our waterproofs by 10.  We could have gone on and been at our destination by lunchtime but we were a bit fed up with the relentless rain.

So we relaxed with the paper and some coffee and watched the day-boat hirers arriving and being shown the ropes.  They were beaten to the off by the day-boat from Anglo-Welsh between Shortwood and Tardebigge tunnels.

There were no other boats on the move once the Alvechurch day-boat had gone dripping off towards Shortwood tunnel.

Every so often the rain eased off a bit and the engineers from the boatyard came out to work on a narrowboat out of the water.  They were having trouble fixing the sliding hatch which wasn’t sliding – it was open an awful lot, so I hope their top step didn’t get too wet!  Of more interest was the propeller which was whizzing round (we couldn’t really hear the engine above the rain) – how long can you keep the engine running when the boat is out of the water?

Most of the jobs that need doing on Chuffed are on the outside and it hasn’t been a good trip for painting anyway – too hot or too wet – but I tidied the cupboards in the  galley and Dave refilled the grease gun.

 

We had lunch, then Dave finished painting the end of the tiller arm – which he had remembered to bring inside – and I cleanied through the boat.  A few boats started to go by, people needing to be somewhere, and then the dayboats returned from their damp days out – just as the rain stopped, poor things.  I hope they had managed to enjoy themselves.  Dave grabbed the chance to take Meg out, then as it was still dry we got togged up again (just in case) and went on through the tunnels to stop at the sanitary station above the Tardebigge flight.  We were surprised to find all three tunnels today almost completely dry inside – after the intense recent heat, the rain must still have been working its way through the ground.  At the sanitary station I binned the rubbish as Dave held the centre rope, then we swapped over while he emptied the cassette.  It was starting to rain again.  We could have pushed across to join NB Acorn above the top lock but you need to use pins there, so as we had our wet-weathers on we went down the deep top lock and had moored on the rings in the top pound by 6pm.

When I went shopping in Stratford M&S I found a bottle of this –

and very nice it was too.

8½ miles, 1 lock, Wast Hill, Shortwood and Tardebigge tunnels.