A break-in

This afternoon was washday at the laundrette on the nearby Woodloes housing estate; it’s about a ten minute walk away from the ship. My onboard washing machine has broken down and I need to have it repaired. But in the meantime it is a very pleasant walk to the shops, even on a cold day and I had quite an amount to wash and dry.

Because I didn’t think I would be long I couldn’t be bothered to lock up the ship for that short amount of time and so left all my keys aboard, expecting to find the yard still open when I came back.

Imagine my dismay and horror therefore, when I returned at around twenty five to five to find the tall yard gate with sharp spikes on the top, closed and well locked up for the night.

Initially I thought I would just have to wait for somebody else who lives in the yard to return from work; there are not a large number of residents here but certainly one or two I thought I had noticed in the past returning after five o’clock. I would just have to wait, as someone would be bound to arrive in the end.

But as the time ticked by and I was getting colder by the minute, I realised that I needed to get some shelter pretty quick otherwise I could die of hypothermia before rescue arrived. I considered knocking on the door of Mitie Security, in the unit next door to ask if I could wait there, but then, because the gate was hidden from their view, I wouldn’t notice when anybody did arrive, so that was no good.

Eventually I walked to the firm on the other side and trespassing over their private property through a yard and expecting at any minute to hear sirens ringing in my ears and having a big dog tearing at the seat of my trousers, I clambered over a high wall, teetering with my balance on the top and managed to drop down the other side with my black laundry bag, all intact. With my guilty furtive look and the bag, I must have appeared as your typical run of the mill burglar and the only effect that was missing was the clank of silverware from inside the grip.

However I had made it safely into Kate Boats' Yard. Nobody had noticed my unusual and suspicious behaviour. I was okay and was glad to get back aboard undamaged and to be able warm myself up. I shall always make sure in future to take my keys with me when I go ashore under any and all circumstances.

A cold but happy day in Stratford (again)

Moored just down the River Avon on their wide beam boat ‘Jacaranda’, at Bidford are two good friends of mine, Keith and Christine. They have been living aboard their ship for about the same length of time as I have and like me too are enjoying it immensely.

We met a couple of years ago on the Kennett & Avon Canal and enjoyed a great time together. Restricted by the width of the waterways they remained in the south last year while I was ‘(mis)adventuring’ up north and they have since travelled up the Avon from Tewkesbury having bravely and successfully taken on the Severn Estuary voyage from Avonmouth to Sharpness first!

They invited me to lunch with them yesterday at the ‘Bistro’ in Stratford-upon-Avon and within sight of the myriads of Swans, Mallards and Gulls squabbling noisily and vying with each other to grab the morsels of bread being scattered by the tourists onto the cold shivering river and also within sight of the shining white stoned Sixteenth Century Clopton Bridge, which was never designed to accommodate either the amount or the weight of traffic that continuously crosses it today, I enjoyed a wonderfully tender and mouth watering ‘Boeuf brasé’ with accompanying firm and succulent vegetables, while the three of us shared between us a bottle of the house French red. It was all very delicious and having started with a Lentil and Bacon Soup, by the time we said goodbye a couple of hours later, I felt very well nourished.....I didn’t need to eat another thing for the rest of the day.

It was cold travelling home though, with the raw and biting wind stinging me from the east, as I walked to and from the respective railway stations, and waited patiently for the train at Stratford to arrive, beneath a heavily leadened and overcast sky. Luckily when the train did arrive,  it was very warm as it rattled quickly along, and eventually when I slid the hatch back aboard ship again and went below, everything felt most cosy as the ‘Squirrel’ had stayed in beautifully for me.

No snow settled on un-insulated Engine Room Roof

The frozen canal through the porthole

Snow smoke?

Wild fowl watering hole.

Note where the thin ice has been drilled through with beaks.

Shakespeare

Yesterday I was treated to a fine experience by my brother when we attended together a matinée performance of the latest production of ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon.

I think it is most difficult to make this play convincing since the plot of a-play-within-a-play isn’t always totally believable or even understandable. Often the two do not seem to be related at all, especially in lesser productions (and who really knows what was in the Bard’s mind anyway when he wrote it, even if he did write it)... It is very challenging. Also the wooing and ‘training’ of Katherina, with its male chauvinistic implications, in today’s free society does not always ring true anymore.

However in this case it all did... Everything was superb, no doubt due to the efforts of its lady director Lucy Bailey. The production was a great success in every way and all the actors were able to convincingly ham their lines enormously, to the audience’s great delight. They did their parts so cleverly that Shakespeare’s original script seemed to me as understandable as modern English. The language seemed quite natural to them. The Production was lewd and bawdy at times, as I am sure it would have been in the Sixteenth Century but not shocking and even when at one point a heavy and unattractive naked male bottom pranced with vigour around the stage, it caused more hilarious laughter than astonishment.

It was all wonderful and I was sorry when it had to end. The day was very cold but the event had warmed us both up.

January

......... moves on apace! In fact the year is passing so quickly that the month is positively running away with itself.

Not a lot has happened here at Kate Boats since we arrived and yet I seem to have been very busy in the meantime, though there’s not a lot to show for it. In as much as I have been assured that a new one is on order, my old calorifier is still leaking, filling the bilge slowly with water and the Engine Room Deckhead is as yet unsheathed from its ordeal at Stretton Wharf.

But the quiet sojourn has enabled me to get away frequently to visit friends and family that sadly have become neglected since the last time I was here. Warwick Railway Station is only ten minutes’ walk away and already I have saved on numerous journeys, the price of my annual Senior Railcard.

Even when I have been aboard, the days have passed so rapidly and I have found myself busy doing something; on this ship jobs are always there to be performed and whenever I have found the motivation to write, some task has monotonously made itself more important. But I have to be careful to make certain my priorities are correct as lethargy can, easily in my case, be the enemy that will rapidly take over if allowed.

It is so easy just to spend all day just reading a good book or listening to the radio, though this in itself doesn’t sound too evil I know. I could be spending all my hours down the way at the ‘Railway Tavern’, which seems to be a very popular pastime around here, watching ‘LIVE FOOTBALL’ on a 42” screen between two teams I can’t even spell let alone know where they come from!

Though I enjoy the writing enormously, sometimes when the spirit is willing but the motivation weak, I think it would be so wonderful to have a secretary at hand; somebody whom I could rely on to write, with loving care and sensitivity, exactly  what I was wanting to convey without me having to even switch the computer on ..... But now I’m really being silly aren’t I?

But what I have been very positive about while waiting here for things to happen, is planning where this year’s cruise will take me.

Originally I had planned that we should travel south this year but owing to the fact that ‘Futurest’ and I had managed only a fraction of our arranged itinery last year, and also that this year could be far too busy down south because of the Olympics, I have decided to journey to the north again in order to see some of the places we should have seen last year.

Also my new friend Janis is taking a year’s sabbatical from work in order to do some travelling. During the northern winter she plans to return to New Zealand to visit her family and friends that she hasn’t seen for many years but during our summer months she plans to travel the waterways over here in her boat ‘Roots and Wings’.

We both decided that it might be pleasant to travel together ‘in tandem’ so to speak during this time. It would mean that we could be companions without living on the same boat. We would be able to divide the work of voyaging together, share the pleasures and yet still maintain our status as ‘single handers’, free to go our own way at a moment’s notice if we wanted to.

We’ve decided to give it a go anyway, so let’s see what happens. Janis’ year begins at the end of April so I said I would travel round and meet her at Newark for then.

So if we can manage to get underway from here by the end of next month I thought, in the meantime it would be a brilliant opportunity to return to my beloved South Oxford once more to revisit old friends in that direction.

New year, new beginning

After a week into the New Year I have just about caught up with myself and after the extended holiday, am now approximately back to normality.

A quiet winter mooring

The usual boat-side routine is clicking back into position slowly, though I tend to be sleeping longer in the mornings till it gets light. I am only following the rules of nature by generally staying awake during the daylight period, tending to experience early nights and later mornings. In the summer the rule is the same but the sleeping pattern changes. I enjoy going to bed about eleven at night and awaking for good at around four in the morning. During both seasons, the magnificent sunrises make it well worth the moment.

But having arrived in Warwick a month and a half later than I originally planned, Christmas seemed to be upon us almost immediately which was a bit unnerving and from which I have only just recovered.

I think Kate Boats are a bit stretched for staff, because their hire boat business is going so well this winter season. At this time for the last two years no boats have been able to go out at all, either because we have been iced in and/or lock gates have been taken out on either side of us at the Stockton flight to the east or the Hatton Flight to the west. This time things are entirely different for the company and though I applaud the situation for them, it does mean that the two jobs that I need doing rather desperately on board are very much put aside as a second priority.

Since I have been here, at the beginning of every working week, I have reminded the girls in the office that my jobs are of a high priority too, and each time they say: “Yes of course Mr. Hutchings. We’ll see to it.” And then promptly nothing happens for the rest of that week. I actually managed to get their engineer Rob, on one of the rare occasions that he comes here, to climb aboard to have a look at my leaking calorifier and to decide what needed to be done. He even managed to read the ticket on the side of the old cylinder for the details to order a new one, but I notice one hasn’t arrived yet, so I expect the whole idea has been put to one side again.

But as we still have another month and a half before I plan to cruise again, I am not too seriously anxious about the delay at this moment. I suspect that so long as I keep the pressure on, eventually the jobs will be done. Such is the nature of things on the waterway system and it’s no good whatsoever trying to change this philosophy. In any case, I know I am one of the keenest supporters of this set of values.

But here we are at the beginning of a new year. I have no idea what will happen but know for certain that it will be full of adventure and whatever happens I shall not be disappointed. The life will never get me down. In fact I am so glad that I have the opportunity to be part of this way of life. It brings me so close to Nature and other like minded people, who possess a similar viewpoint that makes the existence quite simply idyllic.

To the Rescue again

Well the Old Man’s been at it again! And for the last fortnight I’ve not seen hair nor hide of him.

He couldn’t care less about me.... And in my poorly state too!

Yes!  I’m....(sniff!) not well at all.

But somehow I manage to carry on you know.... Some of us have to!

Though my new engine is brilliant the engine room is an absolute mess. The deckhead is just bare steel and the tongue and groove sheathing that should have been put back before we left Stretton is just laying in an untidy pile on the deck for everybody to trip over. Most of it will need renewing anyway after the Skipper in his wisdom typically, just ripped it down without much thought or planning. There was some fibreglass insulation above the timber as well but this was playfully ripped to pieces by the neighbours’ two dogs at Stretton and strewn all over the yard so we need some more of that too.

But he was in such a tearing hurry to get back to Warwick before the winter weather broke that the job was all left unfinished.

Just before we left too, he discovered a leak in the calorifier. So ever since then we have had to turn the pumps off when they’re not being used in an effort to save the problem getting any worse, until we can have the job done here at Warwick.

So you can see I’m in a right state and he simply couldn’t care less. He skinned out at the earliest opportunity and off he went ashore to see his brother etc etc..... It was for Christmas you see.... Oh dear!

So I thought I had better extract his credentials from the mire yet again and write some long overdue blog for him before he loses what little readership he must now have left.

It’s dreadful and I wish the man had more savvy and guts. He’s always full of bright ideas but never carries any of them out. Always starts a job enthusiastically but then poof...... Very soon he’s away on yet another ghost train.

But I can’t do anything about it. I try to put good vibes into his head all the time but my telepathic powers are not that special you know.......

Well what do you EXPECT? I’m only a boat after all.....  And what more can he expect of me? ..... And it’s all after I’ve been so poorly too!

But I do my best.... Surely the whole world must see that I do my best! It’s a good job he’s got me.

Freedom at Last

‘Futurest’ and I are now at Warwick, having made the journey safely from Stretton Wharf to Kate Boats before any adverse weather conditions prevented it.

Suddenly after three months or so, it’s as if I’ve been released from gaol, so long have I been totally reliant on other people’s plans. The passage down was wonderful and the vibration of a large throbbing engine beneath my feet was magnificent. Wow! To be able to make my own plans and decisions again and under my own power is too heady for words.

Goodbye Stretton Wharf

However when I left Stretton Wharf on the Shropshire Union on Monday afternoon just over a week ago, heading for Warwick, I still had the anxiety of the winter weather, which had been good to us so far but couldn’t be relied upon surely for much longer. Originally I had decided to travel to Warwick via Stourport-on-Severn and the new Droitwich Canals in order to avoid the conurbation of Wolverhampton and Birmingham, even though it would have taken much longer.

The fisherman with his dinner in his mouth.

Though of poor quality a unique shot for my camera

A policeman on point duty at Autherley Junction?

However it was getting so late in the year by the time I left that I decided to brave the shorter Birmingham route, come what may, and in the end I didn’t regret it. I laid on the power a little too, so for most of the time my average speed was well above two mph, which is much faster than my customary cruising speed.

Because of a reputation for antisocial behaviour, the City of Wolverhampton was one place in particular that I had been warned not to stay at overnight. But by the time I had negotiated the Wolverhampton 21 Flight completely during Tuesday, daylight was failing and it was obvious that I would have to moor there somewhere.

I passed the recognised visitor moorings but they were very open and accessible to anybody in the centre of the city and though it was off season the fact that they were totally empty of any boats, warned me that they weren’t that popular.

I pushed on and found the British Waterways’ Basin a little further ahead. There is enough room here for just one 57 foot boat to take on fresh water and notices around boldly pronounced ‘Mooring restricted to 1 hour’ and ‘No overnight mooring’. However there was nobody around and the yard was locked up making a very secure mooring indeed, accessible only from the water. Furthermore it was unlikely that any other boat would require water at this time of the day since it was now quite dark, so I decided to break the rules and stayed there  snugly overnight.

I left the following morning as it was growing light and, as it happened, just as the BW staff was coming to work. They looked at me perhaps a bit oddly but didn’t say anything; I didn’t give them much chance anyway as I had reversed out and was away like a flash.

Sunrise on the Birmingham Main Line at Wolverhampton

The run across Birmingham along Thomas Telford’s New Main Line was as uneventful as it was straight and we finished up in the heart of the city, mooring quite safely for the night right outside the great National Indoor Arena.

Without succumbing to the exotic pubs and restaurants along this line of the canal, I had another early night and passed through Broad Street Tunnel and the much changed Gas Street Basin the following morning as it was getting light. We pushed on through gusty conditions, past Cadbury's at Bourneville, towards Kings Norton Junction and the northern end of North Stratford Canal.

Entering the guillotine lock on the North Stratford Canal

At the end of the useable day we tied up at Lapworth Top Lock, not quite on the lock landing and it took me all of Friday to navigate through the twenty locks down to Kingswood Junction.

There was a sharp frost on Friday night and at first light the next morning with great difficulty I let go the mooring lines which were behaving like sticks. They wouldn’t coil up at all and looked a mess as I tried  to manouevre them so they would  safely stay on the roof.

It was still a calm morning as the Sun rose and the exposed stretches of the Grand Union Canal were covered with quite a thick layer of ice as we made our way towards the infamous Hatton Locks.

It was here at the top that Janis met us. She had travelled all the way from Newark on Trent and volunteered to help with the passage down through the locks. She worked solidly at the heavy locks herself and in four hours with her help we had passed all the way down. Then another hour brought us safely to Kate Boats, for which I was very grateful. ‘Futurest’ and I had done the forty eight miles in thirty two hours; a very good passage. The weather had remained fair too for which I was most thankful.

Janis manning the heavy Hatton Locks

The expressive urban landscape of Birmingham