Autumn Soddit Cruise – Day 2

Sunday 11th September

We decided last night that I would get up early and set off as a strong wind was forecast for later in the day and I wanted to wind in Braunston before it got too strong. Consequently I was up and away at 7:30 whilst Brian and Ian had a more leisurely start. There was sunshine, blue skies and little wind as we made our way down into Braunston. We passed Virgo, moored up just before the A45 bridge, which was sporting an enormous HF aerial attached to the rear of the boat. Guy appeared at the front doors complaining about us being up and on the move whilst he was just getting up.

At the Braunston sani-station I set up the self pump-out equipment only to find that the pump had sprung a leak as one of the diaphragms had perished. So I put it all away again and we then winded in the marina entrance to set off toward Wigrams turn and the Grand Union towards Stockton.

Once we had crossed the puddlebanks (and noticed that the old BW house at the turn is up for auction) we found that most of the offside trees and hedges between Wolfhampcote and Flecknoe have been removed and so the strong wind blew across the canal and took Jannock with it making steering very difficult. Luckily there were not so many boats about  today so we didn’t keep having to wait at bridgeholes.  At Wigrams  we turned under the bridge and arrived at Calcut locks just as nb The Angels Share caught us up  so we shared the flight with them. They were a newly delivered boat that was having it’s first long trip down to Stratford-on-Avon and back. Once through the locks we moored up for lunch and more fishing so I went and fetched the car from Brinklow using the Di Blasi.

At the end of the weekend, Ian had caught all the fish (eight in total), Brian won at Soddit  and I negotiated a deal for some special Cutweb beer to be sold at the charity auction next weekend. Result!

 

Graham

www.jannock.org.uk

Autumn Soddit Cruise – Day 1

Saturday 10th September

Last night we arrived at Jannock having visited the excellent fish and chip shop in Brinklow. They were definitely the best I have had since I visited Busy Lizzies in Skipton during 1995. We then loaded our provisions etc. aboard, cracked open the beer and the Soddit began and continued on till well past our bedtimes ;^)

Saturday morning dawned bright and far too early so we breakfasted and then departed almost immediately. This was un-usual because neither Ian or Brian set up their fishing rods prior to us setting off – they usually have a breakfast session before the off. Are they losing interest? During transit of the Newbold tunnel, Rule Britannia was played at full volume much to the amusement of a Black Prince hireboat that we passed mid tunnel. The family that were walking through using the towpath were not so amused though. We stopped near bridge 58 to fill with water whilst Brian nipped across to Tescos. Once on the move again we immediately passed Linda aboard nb The Busker and Sarah-May on nb Shelley-Anne. I called hello but Sarah-May only appeared as we had moved farther away and so a brief shouted greeting occurred. They are both en-route to the Cutweb rally next weekend as we are.

We stopped for lunch before Hillmorton locks and the fishists (well Ian) even managed to catch a few roach although he seemed to lose a lot of hooks in the trees opposite our mooring in the process. No queueing through the locks so a quick ascent was made using a lock  recently vacated by a northbound boat each time. All the time the wind was gradually increasing to I was glad to clear the locks and get up some speed again to fight the side wind.

On the Barby straight we passed Draco and Success moored up. I spoke with Mike as we passed but did not stop as I had just got past a very slow and unpredictable boat that had been ahead of us and I didn’t want him to pass me again. We finally moored up for the night in the shelter of a large hedge just past Willoughby Wharf. Ian cooked the dinner and then another evening of Soddit commenced finally giving up at about 12:30. There was a big full moon which kept it quit light all night.

Graham

www.jannock.org.uk

If it’s August, why are my fingers and toes numb?

Monday 29th August

An un-eventful days cruising in disappointing weather. The highlight of which was a concerted effort to get as many cooking apples as possible from the tree adjacent to bridge 3A.   Graham made a collecting device from his new bucket and the broom using a couple of cable ties to join them together. Initially he dislodged the apples using our short boat hook whilst attempting to catch them in the bucket as they were well out of reach. This was only partly successful and so he then used the bucket/broom to collect those he’d not managed to catch from the water where they had landed. During this activity we were passed by steam nb Tixhall, heading up the Ashby, who had a trail of three boats queued up behind him. All crews smiled and approved heartily of our scrumping activities. What is the adult world coming to? We should have had our ears boxed and given a severe talking to ;^)

Onto the Coventry canal and we travelled to Hawkesbury where we turned onto the Oxford through Suttons stop with no queues. We continued south meeting lots of northbound craft proving that the water shortages further south were encouraging people to try the north Oxford instead. After a couple of hours we tied up on a suitable 14 day mooring and Graham fetched the car whilst I prepared dinner. A tidy up and home ready for Graham to go back to work tomorrow.

Brenda

www.jannock.org.uk

You need a road name.

Brenda rant 29/8/11

Efficiency ; discuss- imagine you find some poor soul wandering through unfamiliar rural lanes not a million miles from a village, a small town and then a fairly well known city we’ll call Coventry.  You remember your first aid learnt in the volunteer sector so that’s a bonus for the tax payer, and assess his condition pretty accurately, not going to be violent, walking wounded; but not walking far enough for help not to be necessary. Help appears, ahh, the volunteer society again, it happens despite governmental policy gurus. Poor soul is delivered quite near to his place of safety, he just can’t remember exactly where he lives, whether or not he’s got to work tomorrow or even when his birthday is. He can, however, remember how to use his mobile phone to show us the picture of the scan of his baby-to-be. Ahh, sweet!

It’s time for the public sector to take over – thanks guys, you were great; all of you. The paramedic in his car, the three policemen in their two cars and the ambulance crew of two who came when the paramedic was able to concur with the cut on the head and concussion diagnosis – had it been worse than we’d thought he’d have needed - - - -  oh, an ambulance anyway. I presume the Police turned up to make sure that no crime had been committed; no crime was reported or even suspected. I bet someone somewhere was reporting their suspicions and being told that no Police could be made available until a crime actually happens as they are very busy. The police left once they had ascertained that no crime had even been thought about.

Now the daft thing is this – after dialling 999 all that rapid response, high tech professional and expensive help depended on one thing. It was close run; we needed a road name so that computer aided help could be dispatched. We knew which town we were in, we knew which pub and retail outlet car park we were in, we even knew which supermarket chain had it’s sole representative in that town just across the road, but until Graham ran around the area whilst on the 999 call, we had no idea of the street name. You see, if there hadn’t been a spare kindly passerby to do a quick local geographical survey they would not have been able to send a paramedic and two police cars to the aid of a poor bloke, covered in blood with no idea of what planet he was on, let alone where his mates had gone or even which way was up.

So if you plan to need an ambulance just be sure you know where you are on the map or get help from someone local who knows where they are. This has special relevance to us ‘canal users’. “We just passed the water treatment works outside the village with the fabulous church spire, after lock 3 but before you reach bridge 48”just ain’t gonna help in this efficient age.

Rant over

Brenda

www.jannock.org.uk

Jannock to the rescue – again

I got up and set off towards Snarestone at 8 am this morning whilst Brenda was still in her bed. By 9am we were passing through Bosworth Wharf which is the furthest we have been up the Ashby before and so we were now clocking up more new territory again – we’ve done well so far this year.

Shackerstone was busy with all the reserved moorings filling up before the festival next weekend. We continued on through Snarestone tunnel and up to the canal terminus where we winded to return through the tunnel and moor at the southern end in order to take Sunday lunch in the Globe Inn. An excellent roast dinner washed down with Brains S.A. and followed by home made plum crumble (that even had real stones in ;^)  This establishment gets a Jannock recommendation although their kitchens will be closed between the 6th and 12th of September due to staff holidays.

After lunch we returned through the Shackerstone chicane where we passed Nuneaton and Brighton moored in the reeds and even had to follow a reversing boat for about 1/4 of a mile as he looked for his mooring. We had one really heavy rainstorm during this exercise which lasted until we reached Market Bosworth again.

Upon mooring for the night at Dadlington wharf we decided to go for an evening constitutional around the village. It was at this point that the fun started. Having completed a walk around the village green we then headed down the Stoke Golding road hoping to find the canal in order to return to Jannock along the towpath. Halfway down the hill we came across a young man who was covered in blood and exhibiting signs of concussion. We persuaded him to sit on a bench seat and use my handkerchief in order to try and stem the bloodflow from a large gash above his left eye. It would appear that he had been riding an off-road motorcycle with a couple of mates and he’d fallen off. There was no sign off his mates now and he was wandering around looking for them. At that point a lady stopped her passing car and offered to help. Alex, the patient, said he lived in Hinkley and so she offered to take him home if we accompanied her. On arrival in Hinkley it became obvious that Alex could not remember where he lived and as all of our attempts to contact his girlfriend using his mobile had failed I decided it was time to dial 999 and get him some professional help. We were parked in the car park between the Windmill Inn and Halfords. The emergency services operator insisted on me giving a road for where we were. I had no idea as I’m not familiar with this area at all and so I ended up having to run out to the  main road in front of the pub in order to find the road name.

A paramedic arrived quite quickly closely followed by two police cars. It was decided that Alex required hospital treatment and so an ambulance was summoned. During all this time Alex spent his time either asking us who we were or else apologising to Brenda, me and the medic for inconveniencing us. By the time the ambulance arrived so had Alex’s missing mates, their mum, his girlfriend and even his dad almost filling up the car park. The manageress of the Windmill pub came over to explain that they did not have any CCTV cameras panned on the car park and so could not provide any evidence on what had happened to Alex. We re-assured her that the incident had occurred else where. At one point the paramedic said he needed to check Alex’s blood sugar levels. After searching through his pockets and scanning the contents he’d removed Alex admitted to the medic that he did not have any sugar on him.

Once Alex was inside the ambulance everyone seemed to just disappear and so the nice lady returned us to Jannock at Dadlington wharf in her car. What an evening!

Graham

www.jannock.org.uk

and onto the Ashby

Saturday 27th August

We set off and immediately ran straight into a Bank Holiday traffic jam, 4th in the queue for Sutton stop lock. Progress through would have been faster but for the two 60+ foot boats moored inside the turn outside the Greyhound pub (which we didn’t visit last night due to the persistent rain). They gave very little room for those needing to manoeuvre to ascend the lock. I think words were ‘had’ as the hire boat that seemed only to be there for fishing moved off all in a dither.

When we passed later they were moored up again, just up the Coventry canal, past the 14 day moorings and the rods were out again. The lads sat on picnic chairs on the roof were unhappy about taking their lines in as other boats passed so Brenda warned them about the risk of getting their tackle caught round a propeller – were they bovvered?

We moored up against Grace at the rear of the Rigden villa and went in for tea, cake and catching up. We were also treated to a scary movie that someone had taken of their attempt to enter the Great Ouse.

Then off up the Ashby and our first harvest of the year. The joy of scrumping apples and there is a great tree full of nice cooking apples on the offside at bridge 3A. Within one hour (i.e. 3 miles) they were stewed so think of the food-miles!

As we approached Stoke Golding we found ourselves tagged onto the end of a funerial procession of two cruisers following a very slow narrowboat. By the time we reached Bradfield Bridge the number of boats in the queue had increased and so we pulled over to moor for the night. Intelligence gained on Sunday showed that all three boats at the head of the queue were together and the narrowboat had an engine problem.

We spent an excellent evening on our quiet mooring glued to the television. Serial episodes of Last of the Summer wine' followed by the comedy prom on Beeb2. All in all a day of sunshine and heavy cold showers which required the cape.

Graham

www.jannock.org.uk

A very grey day

I took today off work to have a 4 day bank holiday weekend. We left home in the pouring rain hoping it would improve as the day went on. It was still raining when we arrived at Jannock and so we got wet unloading the car as well. We decided to have lunch before setting off and the rain stopped and the sun tried to come out whilst we were doing so, it dried up enough for me to be able to move the car to a safer parking place and return on the Di Blasi without getting wet. We set off heading North with the intent of doing the Ashby this weekend. I jumped ship as we approached Stretton stop so that I could walk ahead to get the swingbridge. Mean while Brenda had to pass a southbound Viking Afloat craft on the wrong side and wait whilst a narrowbeam barge was moved onto the slipway before she could move on. Both tasks were hindered by the Rose hireboats being moored two abreast between the railway bridge and the arm junction. Once passed Stretton the rain started again and so Brenda disappeared inside whilst I took the helm. We had passed through Ansty (including stopping at the water point and filling up) and were alongside the M6 before she re-appeared having fallen asleep on the sofa. She is still blaming the general anaesthetic she had ten days ago but I think that excuse is getting a bit weak now ;^)  We moored for the night on the visitor moorings before Sutton Stop so hopefully we will wander down the Greyhound later.

Graham

www.jannock.org.uk

What queues at Hillmorton?

Sunday 14th August 2011

When we arrived above Hillmorton locks last weekend (see Braunston was busy (and wet!) )  there were long queues to descend as one of each pair of locks had been closed to conserve water stocks.  This action has pro’s and con’s as far as I can see as you are less likely to have to turn a lock if both are in use but the queues of boats indicate that less water is being used as progress through the flight is much slower. In any case, we moored Jannock up and went home leaving the locks until our next planned day on board.

This Sunday we were accompanied by Gladys, our neighbour who feeds our cat for us when we have weekends and holidays away, and we arrived allowing plenty of time to get through the obstacle. As I was preparing to set off two boats passed us heading for the locks and when a third appeared further back along the cut I hastily cast off to join the queue. What queue? Both locks of each pair were in use and we just had to wait one boat before we could enter a top lock. It would appear that after the complaints received, BW were operating both locks between 09:00 and 16:00 at weekends and reverting to single lock operation for the rest of the time.

At each of the remaining two locks we entered a ready lock after an ascending boat had departed and so a good run down the flight was made. Brenda did have a steering issue exiting the second lock as were on the towpath side and the boat waiting to ascend insisted on parking himself right outside the lower gate giving her no room at all to get out. She finally persuaded him that moving out of her way would allow him to enter the lock quicker than just sitting there. Out of the bottom lock and both taps were in use and so we didn’t stop for a water fill. On through Clifton and Rugby with no problems until we were passing through Newbold tunnel. A hireboat approaching from the other end decided not to enter the tunnel but go into the offside bank just outside the northern portal. They managed to go aground effectively blocking the canal due to having two boats following them that now had no where to go. We stopped and waited whilst they got themselves unstuck and then informed them that the tunnel was wide enough to pass in.

As we approached Lime Farm marina a boat was coming out through the bridge so we stopped mid channel again and waited for them to finish their manoeuvre. Unfortunately as the bows came round to point south, their stern went aground on a large submerged obstacle that is against the piling at the north side of the marina entrance, and they found that they were unable to move at all. The marina staff came out and assisted getting them afloat again and off they went. I decided I’d take the opportunity to fill Jannock’s tank and so I reversed her into the marina. They take self declared tax splits here and so I put 100 litres of 60/40 in at £117.00p.

We said farewell and managed to get out without encountering any submerged obstacles and moved on until we found a suitable 14 day mooring. I then fetched the car from Hillmorton whilst Brenda and Gladys picked blackberries from the hedgerow. After dinner we cleaned up, locked up and headed home in time for my regular Sunday evening Soddit session.

Graham

www.jannock.org.uk

Braunston was busy (and wet!)

Sunday 7th August

We arrived at Jannock later than anticipated due to the queues of Fords that were completely blocking the A43 whilst trying to get into Silverstone. Their refusal to move over and queue in the left hand lane added 25 minutes to a 1 hour journey.  Simon and Lois were already on-board, having arrived some when after 3am and so the boat was open and ready on our arrival – however Simon and I did a car shuffle first as we had two vehicles available.

We set off at about 11am and went into Braunston tunnel which was remarkably dry considering the rain we’ve had recently. I got the impression we were following more than one boat through and we met seven coming the other way. Lucky for them this wasn’t a Soddit cruise with DJ Brian on board playing Jerusalem and the Dambusters march at loud volume during our passage.

We arrived at the top of Braunston flight to find ourselves fourth in the queue to descend. We paired up with nb Owl and shared the top lock after two lockings of ascending craft had passed.  In the next pound the two boats in front of us were waiting whilst more ascending craft were coming through their lock and it stayed like this for the whole flight.  Brenda  overheard   a woman walking up the towpath telling her friend that she was suffering from “water can envy” after she had observed the nicely painted cans on Owl’s roof.

We parted with Owl at lock 4 as an earlier singleton had broken up another pairing and so every-one was changing partners. The place alongside us as we descended lock 4 was taken by a Willow Wren hire craft with a 10 strong hen party on board – two of which seemed to know what they were doing whilst the rest just watched on in a bemused fashion. We were told that the ‘bride to be’ was still in her bed and was unlikely to surface before the bottom of the flight.  Seventy percent of the crew were still imbibing and getting worse, lock by lock. I’m glad I wasn’t at Hillmorton when they attacked those locks.

Above the bottom lock we found four boats waiting (and a moored butty) and so were unable to move out of the second  lock until two of them had moved into the bottom lock to go down. This also meant that the two ascending boats wanted to get into the lock we were still in. After the WW boat had moved out, one of the ascending pair came in beside Jannock so that the chain could move and Jannock could get out – you know, like one of those puzzles where you have to move the squares around inside a frame.  We then had to change partners again and the hen party went down with Owl who was now a singleton and we were joined by yet another partner – a bit like country dancing I suppose.

Whilst we waited above the bottom lock, the heavens opened with a really heavy rain storm so Simon and Lois rushed inside whilst Brenda and I got us down through the lock. By the time we were out, Brenda was completely soaked below the waist and so I sent her in to get changed and I took over the tiller. After all, I was in shorts and sandals below my waterproof coat so it didn’t matter about my lower half getting wet. I steered us past the junction and onto the North Oxford canal where we found ourselves ahead of a group of three boats.

The rain stopped and the sun came out again and funnily enough so did our crew ;^) and so it was time to teach Lois to steer Jannock. For a first timer she did quite well, only getting wobbly a couple of times when instinct says push the tiller when she really needed to pull it.  She appreciated my ‘New steerer top tip’ – point the wooden end of the tiller bar towards what you want to MISS!

We ended the day, after mooring up, with a nice hot curry that had been cooking away in the slow cooker all the time we were moving. A quick wash-up and lock-up before we took them back to Simon’s car and said farewell. They were heading back to Manchester and us down to Oxford.

Graham

www.jannock.org.uk

Jannock does the Nene – Day 13

Red sky at night …. is possibly a load of old twaddle!  Another red sky as we walked back from Little Houghton last night, another grey, cold and damp morning – Ahh high summer.

I reversed elegantly from our overnight mooring and fell in behind nb Toad of Toad Hall. We had been warned when we met Brian this week  that they were en-route between the Middle Levels and the Canal system. They were a pleasure to share with all the way today. We pulled onto the service point at Midsummer Meadows today hoping for a pumpout, but despite everyone's efforts no effluent was going anywhere. The pump appeared to be working OK and investigation beneath the man-hole cover above the sani-station showed that the drains were blocked because the man-hole was full up to the brim. We phoned Northampton council, as instructed on the signage, to let them know but they’d obviously all popped to the loo!

We went past the Carlsberg mass keggery to possibly the best smell in the world, spent hops and malt. It reminded us of our school days in Alton, Hants when there were three breweries active in one town.

We were pleased that nb Toad of Toad Hall went first up the Northampton Arm as they were 3 crewed and back-set all of the locks for us which made our passage that little bit easier.  At lock 14 we had to drag a ‘Yeti’ out of the way before we could open the gate.  nb Melaleuca warned us yesterday of low levels between locks 7 and 5 – Thanks.   Luckily, even though they appeared lower than when we came down, we had no problem as we don’t draw much which is why the wind blows us around so often.

Up to Gayton we went as we are going home one day earlier than planned. Due to the Aquadrive gaiter surrendering during our trip, Graham had ordered the repair kit on the internet and we need to fix it. Whilst I cleared up and made dinner, he went down in the engine hole and removed it in order to carry out the repair in the comfort of his shed tomorrow. He hopes to refit it to Jannock later tomorrow while I do the best part of two weeks washing.

To sum up – a busy two weeks, friends old and new well met, beautiful countryside, lovely villages and towns visited, disappointing weather – but then we didn’t get really wet as we stayed inside during the deluge at Elton. Wind burn rather than sun burn ;^)

Tree of the trip – Lime, the scent was gorgeous and reminded me of my mum.

Bird of the trip – the Terns were a real pleasure to watch, and a bit of a novelty.

Animal of the week – Matt’s kitten Mooshie who has had a car accident while we’ve been away and has had to have the top of his femur removed. Get well soon Puss!

Brenda

www.jannock.org.uk

Jannock does the Nene – Day 12

After a very peaceful night pegged to the bank just before Wollaston lock we set off at about 10 am. As we rose in the lock another upstream boat arrived and so we agreed to wait for them at the next lock. We had seen this couple aboard their anonymous boat at Aston lock last Saturday. At Doddington lock we settled inside the empty lock and waited for them to catch up with us. As we waited a down-stream boat arrived to pass through but the crew agreed to wait on the lock landing for our potential partners to arrive. This boat was an ex-Viking afloat boat on it’s way to Willy Watt marina for blacking  and I had a long chat with it’s owner about the stern fender as it was similar to the Black Prince style fitted to Jannock. Our partners arrived and we worked through the lock together. As we were leaving another up-stream boat arrived to share with the boat that had waited and so it all worked out OK in the end.

At Whiston lock there were lots of large weed clumps floating about in the entrance to the chamber and they prevented Jannock from entering alongside the other boat. I had to man-handle them out of the lock using the long shaft before we could get  in alongside the other boat. We took it in turns to stay and turn each lock as we passed through except for the two locks where we met boats going the other way – which definitely makes life easier.

We bade farewell to our partners at Weston Favell lock, just after the Northampton Boat and Shed club,  as they were continuing on to Morrisons in Northampton whilst we moored up opposite the Washlands again for the night. I used the nice pontoon mooring here to allow me to remove the middle bedroom window and re-install it in order to fix the leak we discovered during the heavy rain last Saturday. I’ll do the two on the other side of the boat later on this week.

This evening we walked across the Washlands to the village of Little Houghton, explored the village and finished off with a very nice pint in the Four Pears (NOT Red Lion as stated in the Imray guide) which appears to be an up-market gastro-pub, so up market that even the local vicar looked under dressed.

Graham

www.jannock.org.uk

Jannock does the Nene – Day 11

Last night we spent a very enjoyable evening with Terry and Christine aboard nb Grace catching up on the three years since we last met. They left the Denford mooring at 9:30 this morning and we set off in the other direction at 10:00.

Near Woodford we passed this Olympic athlete in training for the “Duathalon”. He had just completed the “Trudging with a heavy load” course and was about to start the fishing coarse!

After Upper Ringstead lock Brenda went inside for a bath whilst I remained at the tiller, passing time watching all of the fish in the perfectly clear water in this stretch. I spotted a couple of reasonable size pike within a couple of hundred metres of each other.

A flight of seven powered gliders flew overhead in something that loosely resembled a formation, obviously Air Cadet aircraft being dispersed to RAF stations ready for the impending Summer Camp season.

At Irthingborough lock it started to rain heavily and so once through, we tied up on the Rushton and Diamonds visitor mooring for lunch. The rain passed and so we continued on to Wellingborough where we stopped for water and a quick trip to Tesco.

Back on board, and still solvent, we continued up through Upper Wellingborough lock and then moored for the night against a bank just before Wollaston lock.

Graham

www.jannock.org.uk

P.S. Hello Simon from nb Melaleuca, sorry I was late posting tonight. Had to wash up first ;^(

Jannock does the Nene – Day 10

The volume of rainwater coming downstream means that we are now experiencing the ‘windlass free lock’. The lower guillotine gates do not require one and the amount of water spilling over the top gates means that there is no point winding up the paddles as the lock fills quite quickly without doing so.

As we approached Thrapston we found the big E.A. weedcutter  descending Islip lock. The crew were trying to move it downstream below Islip Mill footbridge, which is the lowest on this part of the navigation, before the levels rose too much. The driver reckoned he might have about 1-2 cm to spare

despite the funky  rising cab it is fitted with. Their technique to get it under the bridge was to shift all of the harvested weed on the conveyor forwards towards the cutters which made the front of the craft dip into the water. They then lowered the control cab to it’s lowest position and as they inched under the bridge they used the conveyor to move the weed load towards the rear at the same time as accelerating to dip the stern. They just got through. as we left Islip lock we were warned that the river levels are increasing and to be careful.

The truth about Rushton and Diamonds – straight from the E.A. The water and power to the services at R&D were cut off when the football club went into liquidation. The E.A. have not been able to get anyone to restore them and latterly have been refused access to the facilities. The E.A. is trying hard to be able to re-instate electricity, water and management of the facilities.

Lunch stop was the Woolpack in Islip in the company of nb Harnser’s crew, Brian and Diana, who turned up on cue as the coffee and cake was ready for us and the E.A. man. Two more cups please! A pleasant lunch was had by all. And then Brian exited the awkward mooring and went through the bridge in one go with much aplomb.

After that we set off for Denford moorings for another rendezvous. Kettle magic again – just as the tea had brewed the Rigdens pulled into the moorings behind us on nb Grace.

nb Melaleuca hoved into view a good few minutes after we’d heard his Lister engine. Honestly there is no pleasing some people. He asked if we were the Jannocks who blogged,  we agreed we were. “You’re going the wrong way then” he replied. – Readers, please keep up to date! we write this rubbish, the least you could do is read it on time ;^)  Joking apart, “Hi there Melaleuca crew, we may see you later as we’re now heading in the same direction”

Brenda

www.jannock.org.uk

Jannock does the Nene – Day 9

Graham’s grooming tips :- never perform your Sunday morning ablutions so vigorously that you get cramp in your neck and it gets stuck under your armpit!

At 08:30 I awoke enough to realise that Graham had gone on a goose rescue mission. A canada goose had got in a right pickle with cramp or some such. It was floating down the mill cut with it’s head stuck behind it’s wing and was fading fast. Nothing Graham or the fisherman on the opposite bank did allowed them to catch it and help. Eventually, just as it looked as if it’s goose was cooked, one last flap and kerfuffle saw the head pop out from under the wing. Goose paddled slowly off with a visible crick in it’s neck, now able to stay the right way up, breathe and feed. Phew!

Name that bird - please? Last night it was delightful to hear, at 05:30 this morning I wanted to shoot the bl@@dy thing. It sings from the treetops, loud short bursts of song, each repeated two or three times, each different and melodious. A warbler of some description? Unfortunately our Birds of Britain book doesn’t do audio snippets.

We strolled into Oundle and had elevenses (whilst sheltering from the rain) in a very nice coffee shop. It’s a very pretty town with most necessities. There is a decent Co-op as you enter or leave using the Ashton path. As we walked through the fields we were in danger of joining a ‘trudging team of the third age’. Later as we travelled up river we witnessed the extended sport, a duathalon of trudging (inc. hauling heavy trolleys and bags) and fishing. Surely a good bet for 2012?

The sunshine and showers turned to windy and heavy showers so I found it convenient to keep popping inside to wash and rinse the laundry whilst Graham remained doggedly at the tiller. We moored for the night on the 48 hour moorings below Titchmarsh lock in a howling gale and watched the water pour over the top gates of the lock. Telecommunications with Mr Holt of this parish informed us that the river was high enough further upstream to prevent narrowboats going under some bridges without damage, so an early stop gives a chance for the water levels to subside as long as it doesn’t rain more.

Brenda

www.jannock.org.uk

Jannock does the Nene – Day 8

The Crown Inn at Elton proved to be an excellent pub last night, go past the mill from the moorings, across the meadow and into the village. It’s down Duck Street to the left.

This morning we awoke to mizzle and breakfasted as the rain increased. By normal setting off time we chose to listen to classic FMs best, read Terry Pratchett, start and immediately get wrong an epic-strength cross stitch and check out the window leaks that became apparent during the downpour. Graham got cabin fever despite the activity and chose to prepare lunch – another historic meal; we are using up ye olde shippes provisions at a goodly rate. We also haven’t died of new fangled best before dates yet either. To ward off scurvy we opened Iris’ wonderful nutty and fruity cake, especially provisioned for the voyage.

We upped pegs and set off at 13:30 hours, our meteorology report having been phoned in by one Mr Holt, currently of this parish, who informed us that it had just stopped raining in Northampton. We met a group of very be-draggled young canoeists. They looked no more cheerful than the all England wet-weather under 18s trudging team who passed by whilst we were moored up after obviously camping out last night. That Duke of Edinburgh has got a lot to answer for.

nb Gower was leaving Elton as we did so we asked if they were happy to lock share. They said that they’d be winding before Warmington lock so we went on through only to have them turn up at the lock landing when we were halfway through because they’d changed their minds. When we arrived at Perio lock we sat and waited for them to arrive and shared. As we arrived at Cotterstock lock, a couple of cruisers crewed by some 20 somethings, beers in hand, were about to descend. We were about to pull onto the lcok landing but were pleased when they left the lock in our favour. In we went, they were even prepared to wait for Gower to arrive. We’ll admit we had to examine our predjudices. After waiting with no sign they decided to start the locking process but then Gower rounded the bend and so they raised the gate again and Gower slipped in beside us. Thanks, much appreciated.

After passing through Ashton lock solo as Gower moored up in the meadow near Oundle, we pulled into the mill stream and moored for the night in the same location as last Tuesday. Our second favourite mooring of the trip and luckily not restricted to 24 hours like our favourite.

Brenda

www.jannock.org.uk

Jannock does the Nene – Day 7

Out of the seven boats moored on the 24 hour moorings in Overton lake last night we were the last to leave. I took the opportunity of having a full length pontoon to polish Jannock’s paintwork. I then pushed her over to the next vacant pontoon and did the other side as well. Once I had finished then we set off and rejoined the river, turning up stream.

At Alwalton lock we brought Jannock in and two cruisers arrived on the lock landing. One was too wide but the other did not want to join us either. Just then another narrowboat (nb Tane Mahita) arrived and was waved past the cruisers to share with us. They were obviously disappointed not to over take the pair of us before Water Newton lock as they had to follow us through that one and did not even come up to the lockside until after we had left.  The next section was a lot longer and they were determined to overtake us so they despatched the fastest cruiser, with a single crew member on board, as soon as the lock gates opened and he overtook us just after Wansford Station. The other cruiser with the rest of both crews on board came steaming past just after Pat Buckles yard. We found the pair of them waiting at Wansford lock whilst yet another narrowboat was working through.

Brenda spotted her first Kingfisher of the year at Wansford today and also her Amarylis, which she bought with us from home, has opened two lovely flowers.

We moored for the night just above Elton lock where we have had to use our gangplank between the back seat and the bank. Brenda is grateful to the ‘Beale Park Woodpecker’ as we have had to pin the plank to the bankside to stop it slipping off.

Right, off to explore the pubs of Elton.

Graham

www.jannock.org.uk

Jannock does the Nene – Day 6

River Canal Rescue saves the day – Last night I found that the gaiter fitted around the Aquadrive universal joint had split and that it had sprayed the engine compartment with Molybendum grease. I cleaned up the best I could and then I fabricated a ‘grease guard’ from out of date RCR brochures which was the only source of stiff card I had and some parcel tape. This did the job of preventing it re-covering the engine bay whilst we continued to Peterborough.

We left Wansford station at 10 am and shared the next two locks with nb Great Escape but arrived at the 3rd lock to find another boat had just entered and so we bade farewell to Gt. Escape and shared with the new partner instead.

We continued on into Peterborough where we turned round and moored at the services on the Town Quay. I filled the watertank and did a pumpout before we moved to moor on the embankment and go shopping. If you need the rubbish disposal point here it is around the back of the building with the pumpout switch fitted on the wall. You’ll need an EA key to get at the bins and the door is not signed.

Brenda was not impressed with Peterborough market but the mains shopping streets have all the things we needed. Visit the cathedral and the old city square and shops before going on to Asda where we did our main food shop. There is also a Majestic wine warehouse at the rear through the car park.

At 4pm we left Peterborough and set off upstream to find a more peaceful mooring. We popped into Thorpe meadows for a look-see but decided we would not moor there for the night as the smell of chips from the Boathouse pub adjacent to the mooring was too much to bear. We passed up through Orton lock again and went into Overton lake where we have breasted up next to nb Bill Badger. Nb Great Escape failed to escape as we have them on the other side of us.

Oh dear. Brenda purchased ‘oven bake’ Spam fritters at Asda which  has really made my evening. They were so good I was grinning like a Cheshire cat for quite a while. After a fritterful dinner we took a walk around the lakes at Ferry Meadows park. It was lovely to see so many families out enjoying it at 7:30 on a Thursday evening. There were three groups of Guides, Brownies and Scouts having their ‘end of term’ parties, much laughter. As the evening drew to a close we wondered if it was a sunset we could see or the Brownies BBQs getting a little out of control.

Graham

www.jannock.org.uk

Jannock does the Nene – Day 5

Wildlife of the day – The Fotheringhay green woodpeckers.  We’ve seen more today than in a year at home and we have some nesting there!

Weather – Bah humbug Grey with a chilly wind causing more hassle.

As we left Ashton cut a boat had just arrived at the lock landing; goody a share. Wrong! I prepped the lock whilst Graham reversed Jannock out of the mooring. Older chap took his boat into the lock, younger chap helped me. His dad (on the boat) said he was a squaddie on leave. I was impressed with his battle fitness as he took no time at all to raise a paddle. Both boats were in and Graham went down to raise the guillotine gate. Deja vous as the tiller thumped me again as the rudder was forced over by the water rushing in through the still open paddle. Squaddie had managed about 1/4 open whilst impressing me and then carried on opening it when it was time to close them again. Orders were barked, he can at least take orders. At the next lock I got Jannock in, despite the wind, but older chap got in a real pickle and ended up across the river with a tendency towards the direction from whence he had come. That was the point he decided he was giving up and returning. Squaddie was having a muddlesome time throwing me knitting thinly described as rope but he eventually made their boat safe, pointing back up-stream, so that older chap could walk the dogs. His dogs were attached to frayed poly rope and out of control. The rope got wrapped around Graham’s leg at one point and he has rope burn now. It seems that older chap has spent three years fitting out his boat and it went into the water for the first time this morning. It seems he took none of that time to actually try boating and acquire some skill. I decided that the Army is a safer place this week, because a certain squaddie is on leave.

Later we caught up with nb Great Escape and spent the rest of the day and the locks with them. Their experience was very handy in the increasing wind. Moorings being few and far between, unless you are happy to pay £4 at Fotheringhay – no wonder Mary Queen of Scots lost her head – we found one boats length free at  Warnsford Station pontoon and so moored up two abreast just in time for the gents to get excited about seeing the last train of the day puff past.

There have been many lovely churches to see from the river over the last couple of days.

Brenda

www.jannock.org.uk

Jannock does the Nene – Day 4

You know your are rural when the spray-can graffiti on derelict walls goes thus “ UHT, use it when you like, it’s still milk”

Today we moved from the Nene (pronounced Nen) to the Nene (pronounced Neen) without needing our passports or having to pass through immigration!

We set off from our delightfully rural mooring, on the offside just  downstream from the Middle Nene Sailing Club, at 10am. As we approached Titchmarsh lock (and the Middle Nene Cruising Club) we passed nb Lexa’s empty mooring as Bernard and Sandy are off doing the Thames. At Waddenhoe we stopped on the Kings Head moorings  and explored the village, including the church and the dovecot, before having an excellent lunch back in the pub. Beers were Norfolk Wherry and Cocky Blonde – result! The food was very good as well.

Down through Waddenhoe lock and the head wind was getting up making outer garments essential. We saw two cock pheasants having a stand-off in the field alongside the river. Unfortunately the fight was over before we managed to get a photo. At Upper Barnwell lock, Brenda held Jannock on the lock landing whilst I set the lock. When ready, as soon as she loosed off the wind took Jannock’s bows straight across the river and all her attempts to counter it failed. The stern rammed into the bank and the tiller shot round and tried to knock her off of the back of the boat. With sheer effort she managed to stop it and then I was able to heave the bows back into wind to allow her to enter the lock. She was fair shook up by the experience and now has painful shoulder and ribs as a reminder of how close she came to being knocked into the river. A local boater waiting to ascend the lock told Brenda that this lock is an “accident black spot” in windy weather with many boats ending up across the stream. He said the locals didn’t pass through if the wind was up.

We called in to Oundle marina to see if they stocked Engine stop cables but they didn’t so we untied and continued on. We finally moored for the night in Ashton cut and walked up to the village for a look around. Nigel on nb Goosander said that the path to the village was blocked by a fallen tree last Thursday but it has been removed now, in fact we are moored in the exact spot that it fell – anyone want any free logs?

The Chequered Skipper in Ashton has 3 real ales on and offers two  meal courses for £10 Monday to Thursday (lunch & evening) and Friday lunchtime. Having eaten in the Kings Head at lunchtime we were tempted but resisted. The food being served looked good and we might try to stop for a meal on the return journey. The wonderful ambience of the village, built in 1900 by the Rothschild family, is enhanced by the number of Peacocks (& hens) strutting around.

Graham

www.jannock.org.uk

Jannock does the Nene – Day 3

All these wildfowl nature reserves are a bad influence on Graham. He was up with the lark today; he’d prepped breakfast, tidied away weeks of his “stuff” and finished washing the roof before I surfaced. To make matters worse he worked out how to secure the new washing line so that gravity is no longer a problem. I wouldn’t mind but I’m not even the ‘owl’ to his ‘lark’.  The heron in the picture here was just over the bank from our mooring.

We coasted into the Rushden and Diamonds FC moorings to find that the services are still closed as the football club has gone into administration. No, I don’t understand that either. The Doc Martins factory shop is also closed – manufacture moved to China. Onto the lock when Graham’s phone rang.  He was listening intently and looking negative. I assumed problems at home and cut the engine so that he could hear better. When it was time to re-start – no go! I went through the drill, No go! Much to my astonishment the engine stop button broke off in my hand. We pulled Jannock from the lock using the rope and lock wall chain and Graham went into the engine bay. The earth wire to the starter solenoid had broken, the problem and I’d just made it so that we could neither stop nor start now. Good thing Graham is an engineer because he held the earth wire to chassis and the engine started.

Oh, the phone call? The Environment Agency were letting us know that the dead fish were due to the weed cutting de-oxygenating water with already low oxygen levels. “One of those things, sadly” We were thanked for our call, the only one about the incident, the officer wondered how many people had seen the situation and done nothing. At Upper Ringstead lock the pollution plot thickened. Graham asked some E.A. weedcutters, taking lunch, if they knew of a chandlery and explained how our stop knob broke. They were most upset at weedcutters being implicated in the Piscicide as they routinely check Oxygen levels before cutting and knew that the small cutter at Whiston Lock to be less of a problem than their huge one. He demonstrated that the Oxygen levels could cope and asked us for our Incident number in order to check out the situation. He suspected sewage pollutants.

We stopped at Thrapston for water and provisions, a useful little town with most things you might need including a vet. Post Office on the river side of town, large Co-op and chippy at top end. Banks etc. are there to. We had to reverse into the Thrapston mooring in order to breast up to a boat already there. Frank and Sheila made us welcome alongside and put up with Graham fixing the starting and stopping mechanisms whilst the water tank filled. When I returned from the shops the beers had been broken out.

At Islip lock a rather tatty cruiser approached as we entered. We waited for them to come in and had to wave them alongside. Their refusal to share was based upon the advice given when they picked up this, their first boat. Never share with a narrowboat, they will crush you. We put them right, they joined Jannock and lived to tell the tale.

We moored for the night at another nature reserve which gave us the view shown below from our outside dining area (the fold down cratch table)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brenda

www.jannock.org.uk

Jannock does the Nene – Day 2

Sunday 10th July – Washlands to Ditchford

Last nights mooring was so peaceful that we felt no need to hurry away. We ate our Krispies watching the waterfowl go about their business. Our first guillotine lock was not as troublesome as expected, Brenda found she could counteract the forward surge as the gate started opening with a little blip of reverse so we gave up using ropes to check our forward movement. At Billing Lock I had to politely insist that some fisherdads and kids remove themselves from the lock landing as we were about to occupy it. There were two teens fishing in the lock who also ceased whilst we passed through. Although there was much huffing and tutting from fisherdads as they packed up so Brenda was waiting for the rude comments to start as she was raring to point out the large E.A. sign their chairs were in front of. The one that said, and even had a cartoon of, “No Fishing”. Those dads’ll wonder why their kids grow up with no respect for authority. As we left the lock we were amused to see a little cruiser approach from below to hold up the teens ‘in-lock’ fishing for another 10 minutes or so. We were even more amused when said cruiser completely trashed their keep-net which they had secured to the lower lock landing. Well they should have complied with E.A. instructions to Ho Ho.

After we’d passed through Cogenhoe lock we noticed a couple of dead pike floating in the weed, and then a few little roach and then literally hundreds of dead fish floating in the river as we approached Whiston lock. We reported this to the E.A. emergency line who rang back and were sending someone out immediately. The dead fish stopped as suddenly as they started. Pollution or de-oxygenation?

It was great to see so many out training for Olympic trudging today; hot weather training. We were joined for the last few locks by another narrowboat who kept having to dive down their weedhatch. Jannock has coped well with no visits down there today. At Upper Wellingborough lock, next to the prison, we came across three families picnicking and fishing in the side stream. Wine, cider and eats had all been supplied by Mr. Tesco, a five minute walk away.

We moored for the night on the left bank after the imposing viaduct , but before the water sports lake. This lake is shown in the wrong place in the Imray guide I purchased yesterday which does not seem very hot on accuracy of cartography. Once the British Olympic banana-boat screaming team had finished their days training it became another quiet spot with only the wildfowl and the occasional dog walker for company.

Graham

www.jannock.org.uk

Jannock does the Nene – Day 1

Gayton to Northampton Washlands

We made it to Jannock by 10:30 in spite of the British Grand Prix at Silverstone which meant a long diversion. Once everything was loaded and I’d topped up the diesel tank, Brenda set off solo to move the boat to Gayton Junction whilst I drove the Car to John and Angela’s  house at Gayton yard where I had been offered car parking for two weeks. When Jannock arrived Brenda performed a perfect manoeuvre onto the waterpoint right outside the Cheeseborough residence, where we then had a cup of tea in a lovely sunny garden whilst waiting for the water tank to fill.

Having said our farewells we moved down to the marina to purchase an Environment Agency key and a couple of Imray guides as our favourite, Nicholsons, don’t cover this river.  Whilst waiting for the office to re-open after lunch we took the opportunity to have our lunch as well before setting off down the seventeen narrow locks of the Northampton Arm to join the Nene. Most of the locks on this flight seem to leak water badly from the bottom gates so even though we met a couple of boats coming up the flight I still had to fill every lock bar two in order to descend. Just after Hardingstone lock we had a grass snake, who was swimming across the canal, decide to try and climb onto Jannock’s rear fender. Not being able to reach, it continued towards the offside bank instead. Jannock’s prop was increasingly impeded by weed. Eventually we had to stop and I pulled a load of weed, some rope and plastic bags off. Progress was slow until we got onto the River Nene proper although we did enjoy the novelty of being able to see the fish swimming in the clear water around the boat and the ability to tell the fisherpersons where to cast for hopeful fishing. In the distance we could see the Express lift tower, previously used for elevator testing and now a Grade 2 listed building.

Once onto the river Nene we picked up speed again. As you enter Northampton you pass this lovely old grain store which has been converted into domestic accommodation now. We continued on through Northampton hoping to find a peaceful mooring for the night.

We finally moored on a pontoon 48 hour mooring, tucked in behind a little island, at Weston Favell. A hasty supper was taken before we went off and circumnavigated the Northampton Washlands flood defences. It’s about a 4km walk during which we invented the Olympic sport of ‘Trudging’. We realise that all school children used to be trained for this sport, but were told it was a ‘nature ramble’. When required the Washlands will hold about 500 million gallons of flood water preventing it from backing up and flooding the surrounding areas. Just beyond our overnight mooring spot is the ‘Northampton Boat and Shed club’ – just go and see! The evening ended with a wonderful firework display across the washlands at about 10:30 – unfortunately only Brenda saw it as I was fast asleep.

Stating the ‘bleedin obvious’ sign day!

                             

     The Yellow sign on the small door states

  “This is a small space”

 

 

 

Graham

www.jannock.org.uk

Shady afternoon

Sunday 26th June

We need not have worried about any possible disturbance from the adjacent railway line last night. We heard one train pass just after we’d gone to bed and that was it until breakfast time. Talking of which, we were still full after last night’s Indian and so we postponed the ‘full English’ until lunchtime.  After a lazy start we set off towards Stowe Hill and Bugbrooke meeting many northbound boats, luckily none in awkward locations. Passing the new(ish) Heyford Fields marina near bridge 34 I noticed that their sign stated “One berth remaining” so it looks as though they are doing OK whilst others are complaining.

Just past Banbury road bridge we found Allan on nb Pengalanty and Toni on nb Snowdrop both moored up enjoying the lovely summer weather. Soon after that we decided to pull over ourselves and share a nice shady tree with the crew of nb Red Red Wine, another ‘ex-Black Prince’ craft. Once the promised full English lunch had been eaten, Brenda spent the afternoon sitting in the shade chatting to RRW’s crew whilst I returned to collect the car from Welton.  When I got back to Jannock we tidied and closed up and headed home. A short cruising day but very enjoyable.

Graham

www.jannock.org.uk

Only 6 months to Christmas

Saturday 25th June

Plant of the day – Lime trees with their wonderful fragrance.

Wildlife of the day – Bats flying in and out of the aqueduct over the river at Weedon.

We started the day with a visit to the Historic Boat rally at Braunston.  The parade of boats seems to get longer and longer each year. The English language needs a new word to describe very, very slow mayhem. Having watched most of the parade attempting to chug past we finally decided to return to the car the long way round. At the bottom lock we warned an emerging time-share crew that they’d be held up and would need to manoeuvre in very close quarters. The response was a very angry “ you pay good money and then you get this! I don’t need holdups and hassle” No appreciation for free entertainment and a colourful spectacle then. They obviously hadn’t realised that the canal system is there to be enjoyed by anyone and much of it’s attraction is provided by it’s users.  Should’ve gone to Disney land.

We made our way to Jannock and set off South towards Buckby flight which we shared with a boat that possessed a willing crew of 4. One lad, an Aussie, was a willing worker – steering, locking, holding ropes and even lighting a BBQ on the rear hatch top etc. The remaining 3 crew were willing to let him. To be fair, the other lad on board had a broken ankle but his attempts at steering were impeded by dis-interest and alcohol. The two women were chatting to each other, or into mobiles, for most of the time with lots of drinkies and one attempt to turn a windlass each.

Boats across the cut were ‘de riguer’ today, many new hirers out. I had to rescue a ‘moored’ boat (Dances with Ducks) which was only attached to the bank by it’s cable that connected it to a substantial land based TV aerial. It would seem the mooring rope had been snapped by the effects of passing boats – it wasn’t in the best of condition to start off. Luckily there was a chain dangling from the rear deck that I could use to moor it back up to the piling with.

 

We moored for the night on the off-side, next to the church at Weedon. We’d like to turn into the Jannock tourist board at this point. We encourage you to visit Weedon from the church end rather than from bridge 24. Go down the steps from the 48 hour mooring and it’s a short walk to a pretty village with it’s history marked by it’s architecture. In the main village you will find a Post Office, supermarket, chemist, green grocers and a couple of pubs – no food served unfortunately as we were looking for a meal. There’s a quilters and patchwork workshop too. Walk on up the hill and there’s a gem, the old ordnance depot, established when Napoleon threatened our security. On the right is an accommodation block reminiscent of Victorian Aldershot. Most of the barracks are gone now. On the left is the main depot through smart grade 2 listed gates with the storage buildings ranked either side of the very visible military branch canal.

We decided to try the Heart of England hotel for a meal but they had a 45 minute wait for food so we went to the Brinjol Indian restaurant next door and had a very tasty meal. Then back to Jannock, via ‘Bat Watch’ alley to sleep it off.

Graham

www.jannock.org.uk

Father’s day on Jannock

Simon (No. 1 son) joined us today for the short run through Braunston as we wanted to clear the area before next weeks Historic working boat rally.

We set off from Flecknoe following a Black Prince hireboat who had the misfortune of meeting all on-coming craft on bends or in bridgeholes. One of those was nb Shilling whose steerer announced that they were followers of our blog. Hello, nice to meet you briefly.

On we processed slowly towards Braunston building up quite a log-jam behind due to the amount of traffic going each way. I do hope they do not build any more marinas on this pound as it’s getting very busy at weekends now and being weekenders ourselves for most of the year we cannot avoid having to traverse it on a Saturday or Sunday.

We finally made it to Braunston where we passed Draco and Success, saying a brief hello to Krystina and then moved on towards Bottom Lock we met John  (nb Black Pig) for a chat as well. A single boat, Larry, was just entering the lock as we approached and so we shared with him all the way to the top of the flight. Once through bottom lock we found ourselves 6th in the queue for No. 2 and only experienced one other ‘straight in’ lock entry during the rest of the flight and that was the top lock.

Our passage through Braunston tunnel was missing one important ingredient. No, not oncoming boats because we met several of those, on this occasion the tunnel roof was dry. It’s not often you experience that lack of annoying drippy bits. I suspect it was because I had made the effort to rig up Jannock’s mega-torch aimed at the tunnel roof to assist me in avoiding them. Sod’s Law that is!

When we had finally moored up, Simon wanted to find a tree to hang his para-gliding harness onto so that he could adjust the straps to get them comfortable. No suitable trees were to be found and so he installed the gang plank into ‘diving configuration’ (see 2003 GiG day 1) and hung his harness from that. Job done.

Graham

www.jannock.org.uk

Across the summit

Saturday 4th June 2011       

Flower of the day – the dog rose.                                                                 

We arrived at Jannock and loaded up on the promise of sunny weather and 24 degrees. What we got instead was a cloudy sky and a very strong head wind. We left Claydon and headed towards the summit only pausing for while to allow a Southbound boat to get through Fenny ‘tunnel’ before we could pass through. We had no other problems all the way across the summit level meeting quite a few boats coming the other way but none of them at those awkward places like Griffins bridge corner. Speaking of there, we notice the old droopy wooden footbridge just before Griffins has been replaced since we last passed this way. The new one  is inscribed “Wedding Bridge MMIX” so was obviously put up in 2009.

After passing down through Marston Doles locks we spotted a small bird perched upon a branch, singing it’s heart out, that we definitely could not identify. Luckily we found it in the Birds of Britain book that sits on the shelf in Technocupboard which identified it as a Reed Bunting.

We moored for the night above Adkins lock, immediately opposite nb Harnser and nb Goody Two Shoes (both Cutweb members) where I did an engine oil and filter change as well as spending a few minutes chatting to Peter (off of the latter boat) who was also doing engineeringy things. It the first time I have managed to change the diesel filter on Jannock and not get a hiccup from the engine when it is run afterwards. I must remember the technique I used for the next time.

Graham

www.jannock.org.uk

And down the other side

Sunday 5th June 2011 

We only had to turn two locks in the Napton flight on our way down today, all the others had ascending craft as we approached. Once out of the bottom lock I re-filled with water whilst Brenda went and explored the Folly shop. Out towards the junction Brenda had to take pictures of the miniature horses in the field as they were moulting and looked really tatty just like our cat Oscar does.

We get used to seeing craft not displaying a current licence, we get used to boats displaying out of date licences but this was a first for us – a licence that has had the date obliterated, deliberately scratched out so as to be un-readable. They’d only done it on one side so by looking at the one on the other side of the boat we observed it was out of date by two years. Boat reg. number was 4000149  get your act together.  Guess what – it’s another BW craft. Rules is rules.

Here is the weather postcast :- the forecast was rubbish! Did we get the promised rain overnight? No.  Did we get the sunny intervals?  No. The scattered showers?  No. (thank goodness).  What we got was grey with cold gusty winds that impeded steering in tight situations. One of which was meeting Tony Brooks at a bridgehole on a tight corner. The briefest of chats counted as our 2nd Cutwebbery of the weekend.

Home via Elderflower picking so that Brenda can knock up another batch of Elderflower cordial.

Graham

www.jannock.org.uk