Greyhound Party and not a lot else.
Thursday 16th August
Well, well, would you believe
that I have now been back on board for six days and no blog written up. I have
to say that they have been pretty uneventful days, so not a lot to write about.
At Rugby Wharf I settled up my
mooring fee, which was only £5.00 per night – the cheapest that I have come
across so far. Obviously there were very few boats passing in and out of the
short arm and they were mostly hire boats, as this is the base for Willow Wren.
I motored back to Rugby to shop and paid two heavy trips to Tesco to stock up,
before heading north again towards Sutton Stop.
Just short of Ansty, there were
moorings on a bend with rings, between Bridges 14 and 15; not the best place to
moor on a bend, but there was little choice. The intention was to pay a visit
to The Ansty village club, which was well advertised along the towpath, so it
had to be open to the public. The main problem here has always been the lack of
moorings closer to this place, where there are positively NO MOORING signs all
along the embankment where the houses are, so the village discourages visitor
mooring and the club is asking for custom – a dichotomy indeed!
It seems that I haven’t missed
much in the past, as the club is fairly sterile with few customers in the bar.
Food is served at pub prices and there is a varied menu, but nothing out of the
ordinary. Two beers were on tap at slightly more than local pub prices, with a
third pump being off. Wi-wi was available, along with Sky sports and a full
sized snooker table. There were a few smiles at the bar when I asked for the
sparkler to be taken off, so they were aware of where I came from. So in
retrospect, I will happily pass it by next time.
Being only just past midday,
there were ample moorings to be had a Sutton Stop and I settled just before the
stop lock on Armco for a few days. Of course the places filled up as the
afternoon wore on, until they were all full.
The next day, I was taking a walk
up to The Greyhound for a late lunchtime pint, when I spotted nb Curraghmore
coming through the lock. Sue and Mike were very surprised to see me, although I
had heard that Mouse had made contact a few days before on the Trent and
Mersey, when he spotted their home mooring as being on The Wey. It seems that
the ‘Towpath Telegraph’ is as active as ever, but now even faster by mobile
phone. After they were moored, Sue and Mike appeared in the pub and we had a
good catch-up session of news.
The Greyhound is always busy, inside and out.
Friday 17th August
Getting short of supplies again,
so I walked up to the corner shop across the cut in the housing estate to see
what they had for a meal. Well, it is a good job that I picked up some salad
ingredients earlier in Tesco, because all this place had to offer in the way of
food was either frozen or in tins and the choice was abysmal. I bought some
tinned tuna to supplement the other fish that I had in a salad.
I had a message from Mouse this
morning to tell me that he was on his way back from The Caldon and would be in
Sutton Stop by Saturday, so I begged the waitress in The Greyhound to increase
the table count to five for the evening meal, which she managed to do with a
bit of table juggling. I look forward to it.
I caught up with some basic bits
that needed to be done, such as running some of Captain Tolleys Creeping Crack
Cure around the Houdini hatch, now that it was dry. Strange how the original
Silicone sealant fixed the leak from the end of June and now it has started
leaking again. Most likely it is to do with expansion and contraction of the
glass, considering the long heat wave that we had.
I also did some refuelling from
the 40 litre reserve that I bought at Braunston Hysterics. That will improve my
cruising time for another 40 hours. I have to say that the inline pump speeds
things up considerably compared with siphoning the diesel into the tank.
A pair of working boats passed by
this afternoon and I walked up to the stop lock to see how they did the turn.
They were motor Harrier and butty Lyra. Harrier being built in 1999 by Gary
Gorton, with a 1946 Kelvin J2 engine. However, Lyra was built in 1935 by
Yarwoods. https://www.reveriecanaltradingco.co.uk/
I had a brief chat with the crew
of three as they went through the lock and learned that my guess about the
Kelvin was correct, although I had only seen a few K2’s before. One of the crew
commented on Nuneaton and Brighton’s perfect turn at Sutton Stop a week or so
before. They also did it perfectly and got a round of applause from the
Greyhound gongoozlers. Both cross straps were in place on the turn and the
butty steerer was rowing the tiller like crazy.
Saturday 18th August
A lot of the morning was taken up
with internet stuff and fortunately I get a good wi-fi signal here from BT
broadband in the houses nearby, but for more secure connections, I use a
personal wi-fi router.
I went to the pub for one pint of
mild and had a text from Mouse to say that they had arrived and were below the
water point. I saw him walk over the bridge to the bins and gave him a shout,
so next minute he had a pint in his hands too. He had secretly been invited to
eat with my daughter later, which was to be a surprise and it certainly was.
What a great evening we all had and Toody had even brought a birthday cake for
Jim, which was brought to the table at the end of the evening by the waitress.
A great evening in The Greyhound.
Sunday 19th August
Mouse and Karen left rather later
than was announced last night, but I was up and waved them goodbye, before it
was my turn to leave, with the intention of heading up to Atherstone for the
night to do some food shopping, as I was now right out of anything to eat for a
meal.
An uneventful trip and passing
through Nuneaton was not the best of cruising. I spotted Terry and Chris’s boat
Grace, which was obviously moored outside their bungalow, before passing Charity
Dock, which is always good for a laugh and a few photos of the mannequins
dressed in various ridiculous outfits.
Charity Dock, Bedworth.
No problem finding a mooring at
Atherstone in the early afternoon, so I paid a visit to The Angel Alehouse in
Church Street, which is North Warwickshire Pub of the Year once again after
several years in succession. What an amazing selection of real ales and ciders on
handpumps. Being a CAMRA member, there was also a 20p discount off a pint. Recorded
music was being played on vinyl on a turntable obviously, which is a most
unusual sight nowadays, especially in a pub!
Monday 20th August
A heavy shopping session was in
order for today and the only two places to do it were The Co-Operative and
Aldi. Although the Co-Op was supposedly a supermarket, it was so disorganised and
almost impossible to find some items at all and if you did the choice was
abysmal. Had I gone to Aldi, as I found out later, it would have been a far more
rewarding experience.
The pub of choice this evening
was The New Swan, also in Church Street and although it is a Pubmaster house,
all three ales were from Church End Brewery, a favourite in my family.
Apparently the pub had recently been refurbished and a family were there to run
it.
Tuesday 21st August
Imagine my surprise when I
checked the batteries this morning, to see Karen Cook (NBT) moored behind me.
Her son James was with her and we had a conversation before they went into
town. Then at lunchtime, Andy Belton (NBT) moored in front of me with wife
Leslie, so another brief catch up was in order. Andy was previously moored at
The Pelican not far from Stronghold, but recently moved house, job and mooring
to Nottingham. Also moored close by was a Wey Navigation boat, that I had
previously seen at Triggs Lock on The Wey. In all, what a small world it had suddenly
become.
A few items were still needed in
the store cupboard, or should I say locker? So it was off to Aldi this time,
but not before a well needed haircut at Scissor Sisters, a male/female
hairdressers in Long Street. As I was now further up the cut, I decided to
investigate the train station and a way back along the towpath, which would be a
shorter walk than through the town. Being close to The Kings Head, it was an
opportunity to see what that was like after many years of closure. It was now
refurbished and pleasant inside and out, with a garden and canal side mooring
for one boat. Three ales were on and there was a varied menu of food available.
The staff were very accommodating, offering to pull another pint before I even
asked.
The steerer on this floating allotment cannot see astern and
has to peer alongside to navigate forwards. Quite a hazardous procedure, surely?
1 comment:
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