Etruria Canals Festival 6.

Oops! I have just been brought into line by Lynne, who pointed out that Sunday was missing from this blog, so here goes.

A short lye-in was in order this morning listening to the birds singing as dawn broke over Stoke-on-Trent to another fine day, by the look of things – how lucky we were.

The usual busying about the boats tidying this and that and getting ship shape for visitors. Lynne was self appointed galley slave, whilst the boys got on with the things boys have to do, like fixing up a working bike out of the three on board, changing over batteries from one boat to another and emptying the loo.  At midday it was time for another parade of boats. This time John took the helm of Nuneaton and we took the longer route to the winding point.

John setting off.(photo by Lynne)

Towards the junction. (photo by Lynne)

At the end of the run, when all the participating boats had moored up, it transpired that the final winding operation had been a competition to see who was best. John was honoured to be called up to the presentation and thought that the worst he could do was third place. Much to the amusement of all, he was presented with the wooden spoon for the worst performance. Oh well, we could all be there, as so much is down to luck on the day.

The Captain and his harem! (photo by Lynne)

Back at base, I went to see the lady blacksmith to see if she could tidy up some welding to a weed cutter that I had previously made and welded in a hurry. She was most obliging, doing it for nothing and kept me there talking for a long time about how she started smithing etc. I had made a similar weed cutter for my boat and it worked so well, I thought NBT should also have one, as there is no weed hatch on Nuneaton and any debris has to be dragged away from the propeller from the bank. Fortunately, on this trip, it was not needed and when we got to see the different propeller that had been recently fitted, it became obvious that it was not going to pick up so much rubbish as the old one. When it did pick up a small amount, it was easily shaken off by chucking back in reverse. Maybe I had wasted my time – we shall see.

I did manage to see the last tour of the beam engine in the Etruscan  bone mill late in the afternoon. Beam engines I am familiar with, but the method of grinding bone to add to the potters’ clay was a revelation, as huge rocks were pushed around by beams in a brick lined pan and the bone and calcined flint was thus crushed to a paste. I had expected something akin to grinding stones in a flour mill.       http://www.friendsofetruriamuseum.org.uk/index.html

After a meal on board kindly provided by Graham, he and I went off to find The Holy Inadequate pub. A folk group, all two of them, were playing in the main bar and for a Sunday evening the place was well filled. An excellent selection of beers on offer to round off the day.

Etruria Canals Festival 5.

Saturday, the first day of the festival dawned bright and sunny and we were hoping for a good crowd to visit the butty cabin. John and I still had to cloth up the cratch on the butty and string the side cloths as well as try and insert the uprights, which make the top planks far more rigid to walk on.

Ray and John Mills sorting cloths.

Tightening the side cloth strings.

With top planks on, that is the quickest way to get from one end of the boat to the other, even though it takes some nerve to walk along a 9 inch wide board eight feet above an empty hold, let alone the water on either side!

John Stevens walks the top planks.(photos by Lynne Cannon)

Once done, we were open for viewing and had a steady, but thin stream of visitors to the butty cabin all day. At midday, the parade of boats began and despite me having been too busy to the briefing earlier, we decided to take the motor only, as the butty would not only delay us, but the other boats when it came to winding at each end. Stephanie Goodacre had joined us by now and was happy to take the tiller for the event.  It has become feature of The Narrow Boat Trust of late, to allow visiting members to take either the butty tiller or motor tiller, as and if they wish when visiting for a short period, thus giving them the opportunity to keep in practice. As previously, winding in the muddy edged basin with wind on the beam, caused difficulty yet again, but by using the power of the engine to gain enough speed to counteract it, we were soon moored back alongside Brighton. The afternoon sped pleasantly by with visitors wanting to know about the boats, until it was time for the Curry Night in the beer tent, which seemed to be enjoyed by all those there. A perfect end to another perfect and busy day.

Etruria Canals Festival 4.

Another promising day with weather and another early start, with four Stone locks and three more at Meaford before breakfast. A long pound preceded Trentham lock and then we were into the outskirts of Stoke-on-Trent, with all it's waste areas of old buildings raised to the ground.

At Stoke top lock, things became more interesting, as the turn into the Caldon Canal was far sharper than 90 degrees and the width of the cut there was about 100ft. I managed to get the motor round with only one reverse, but the butty was then stern against the bank. With a little more forward movement, John Stevens could then push off the bank and I could pivot the centre of the butty on the corner of the turn and get us both round.

Exit the lock and enter the Caldon turn - surprise!

That went well, but there was more to come, as we had to wind the pair of boats in a small basin with shallow edges. The harbour master advised me to wind the boats individually and pointed out the shallow edges. The butty was pulled round fore and aft and moored up and then it was my turn. Against advice, I decided to put the bow into the channel and let the strong wind push me round. This would have been OK, except that the stern was now in the mud at the side of the basin. With a bow line off and John pulling the stern round, we eventually got alongside the butty to moor up. What I have not mentioned is that the whole fiasco was being observed by Blossom Edge, Sue Cawson, John Yates et al! Why were they not watching on the turn, when everything went so well?

John and I spent the next three hours sorting out the right top cloths for each boat, which meant untying all the strings, laying the cloths on the ground and seeing which ones were the correct length for each boat. They were then folded and put in the hold of the appropriate boat, after which, the side cloth strings had to be retied over the top planks. Needless to say, after a hard days boating plus sorting the cloths, we were both cream crackered by 7pm and it was time for fish and chips in the beer tent and a little alimentary canal lubrication, by courtesy of The Holy Inadequate, a local CAMRA Pub of the Year.

Etruria Canals Festival 3.

At last, the day dawned bright and sunny, though still windy. We were heading for Stone and were away before breakfast, so as to get as far as possible, having made up 4 miles on our target the previous day.

It was a very pleasant run, with a short shopping stop at Rugeley, before crossing the Trent, which was flowing fast after all the rain. The views improved along the Trent valley now that we were out in the countryside again and we had a good clear run to Great Haywood, with few locks to interupt progress. We had a problem mooring in Stone, as there were boats there for the full seven days and probably longer. We did manage to overlap the waterpoint slightly, but not block it by any means and as we were to be off early again, it did not inconvenience anyone. The Star beconed for a meal, which came with a free bottle of very acceptable wine, if ordering for two people. Now this really was a first class pub, even though it was a Marston's house!

Etruria Canals Festival 2.

We were away from Alvecote at 9am, after a splendid breakfast of Shropshire oat cakes with cheese and bacon inside, which set us up for the morning. Weather was chilly, but mostly dry and we were aiming for Handsacre, which has a good collection of pubs. Glascote locks were a little busy and bow hauling the butty took extra time. After that there was the long pound up to Fradley Junction, where John Mills wound the motor round, but Graham cut the corner a bit too close on the butty. On through the Fradley three locks in the pouring rain and we were all pretty wet by then. It was just a few more miles to Handsacre and eventually we stopped at bridge 58 for an excellent home cooked curry made by John M, before visiting The Crown Inn. The beer on gap was Doombar, which went down a treat, but not a very salubrious pub and I suspect The Olde Peculiar might have been better.

Etruria Canals Festival 1.

This was to be my first trip with The Narrowboat Trust as a captain and I was looking forward to it with just a little trepidation. It was also the first trip of the season and the first visit to the 20th Etruria festival, as far as I was aware. Suddenly, the crew appeared as if by magic and my mentor John Stevens, wanted to know how it was that I had become the most popular captain in the Trust. Despite having about 120 members, several times each year we are short of members to crew the runs and now there was almost a surplus, not down to my popularity, but the attraction of going somewhere new. On the other hand, it could be that they wanted to see if I was up to the job, or going to make a hash of the whole thing. The pair of boats are moored at Alvecote through the winter months and a great deal of structural work had been done on the hulls, propeller and steering gear as well as internal maintenance by that ever happy band of Trust volunteers. Even though, as always on the first run of the year, there is a great deal to be done to get the boats shipshape, which kept John and I busy most of the afternoon, before John Mills and Graham Roberts turned up early evening. Normally, the top cloths would be removed when travelling empty, but the rain was persistent all day and the cloths needed folding up, so it was decided to leave them on for a while. The reason they are removed when empty, is that there is less wind resistance from side winds and less chance of being blown into the bank. We repaired to The Samuel Barlow for a meal and beers and in modern parlance a 'bonding session'. What an awful term! As always on these occasions, well lubricated talk turned to boating and the various experiences of each of us. Unfortunately, Bob Duncalf could not be with us, due to back trouble caused when making the bed! If you are reading this Bob, we wish you well soon.

Canalway Cavalcade - Finale

On Tuesday and Wednesday, nb Stronghold, nb Leo No.2 and nb Winging It stayed put, as we were going on the St Pancras Cruising Club outing to the Thames Barrier on Saturday. However, the weather forecast predicted winds gusting up to 30mph on the day, so we all agreed on Thursday that it was too risky to go under the circumstances and we would return to the Wey via Bulls Bridge and Brentford, which we did, stopping for the night at Bulls Bridge. The following day we got on to the Wey and Kathryn and I continued to the moorings at Warren Farm, where the Byfleet Boat Club have exclusive rights to moor at weekends. It is in a quiet backwater below Newick lock and in sight of Newick Priory - almost in the middle of nowhere really, although there is a mobile home park at the back through the trees. The commodores BBQ was the event at the time, which seems to be a club tradition after a new commodore takes office. A huge open log fire was in full swing, with an awning suspended from trees and a windbreak that caused so much wind turbulence that those behind it were in tears from the backdraft of smoke. It was a very enjoyable evening as the wine and beer flowed in abundance in the usual Byfleet Boat Club tradition. What a way to end an extremely enjoyable cruise. I would do it all again tomorrow!

Canalway Cavalcade 6.

Sunday dawned bright and sunny again and for me it was to be the day of the boat handling competition. One of the organisers had already phoned me to check that I was still entering and I was quite impressed by that, although I had no rules or map of the route. I got those immediately before it was my turn in the competition after Kathryn. 

On the way to Warwick Road Bridge.

It involved steering from the Horse bridge to the Warwick Road bridge, then stopping, getting off and shaking hands with the judge, before reversing back past the island and turning round in a clockwise direction for 360 degrees. A buoy represented a man overboard and had to be lifted up with a boat hook by my bow man, David and approved by the judge. The next manoeuvre was to pull in to the island pontoon, stop and shake hands with another judge, before departing down the Paddington Arm. I was very happy with my performance, but not worthy of a prize. 

Reversing back to the island.

360 deg. turn. (all photos by Betty Smith)

Kathryn, however, gained a prize for runner up, whereas last year she was top dog. Not bad for two years running.

Walking back to my boat later that afternoon, I stopped to chat to the crew of nb Take Wine as they were setting up lights for the illuminated boat procession and got involved with helping for a while. The crew later invited me to cruise with them in the procession, which was very welcome. We were hanging about below the Horse Bridge for some time until it was fully dark, then off we went with 21 other boats. I was totally amazed at the number of people assembled on the bridge and around the pool to watch. I had a seat and a glass of wine on the stern, until it became obvious that the foremost temporary mast was not going to clear the Horse Bridge, so I volunteered to go forward and remain on the cabin top during the event to lower the offending mast if necessary. After three glasses of wine, this was probably not a sensible thing to do, but it all worked out well. Rodney and Kathryn accompanied the captain, Victoria on the counter, giving advice where necessary, as steering in the dark without a head light is difficult enough, but with all the illuminations on top, it was doubly so. Back at their mooring, the malt whiskey was passed around to celebrate a very successful event and we talked all things boating until one in the morning. My thanks to the captain, Victoria and her crew of Peter, Tony and Linda and the two K9's for a wonderful evening.

I have to say that trying to place pics on this blogger is a nightmare and has taken so many attempts that I am seriously thinking of abandoning it entirely, but what else is there to take it's place?

Canalway Cavalcade 5.

Saturday was the day for the Pageant of boats and each boat was decorated in individual style, competing for the coveted prize. I had new bunting that I had never assembled on the boat, but had already made up the means of support. Assembly was a trial and effort affair and I was very pleased that I had bought along various bungee cords on the off chance. It worked out well eventually and I decided to add my green plastic bottle windvane that I made on a Spanish camp site about twenty years ago.

A rare outing for the wind vane, which was well photographed.

 The mounting was very makeshift and it blew over in the gusty wind as soon as I came out into the Pool, but I had to carry on down through Maida Hill tunnel and wind the boat at Cumberland Basin, two miles further on, where I pulled in to make modifications. It was a very enjoyable experience cruising through "Blowup Bridge" and London Zoo and back to Little Venice.

Looking good, but no wind vane!

On return to my mooring, the engine stop cable broke, but I managed to rig up a length of Kevlar to do the job temporarily. On mentioning this to other club members, I discovered that Dick King had a spare one, which he offered to sell to me. This was gratefully accepted and with a few modifications to the end part, it worked better than the original, as it did not stick in the up position. Such are the advantages of cruising with the boat club, as if something goes wrong, there is plenty of help to hand.

Canalway Cavalcade 4.

The boats left Bulls Bridge at 10min intervals, so as not to clog the entrance to Willowtree Marina, where we were to have lunch. Fortunately, they were warned of the mass arrival and there were sufficient moorings for all boats to get in. They had even moved the four hire boats outside on the canal bank.It was another gorgeous day, so we could all sit outside to eat in the sun.

Aperitifs before lunch in the sun. (photo by Betty Smith)

Lined up in Willowtree Marina

 Some time in mid-afternoon, we all moved off towards Little Venice and were well spaced out. After three hours on this very long pound, we caught up with the queue waiting for moorings - well, that's what we assumed. It turned out that this was it and these were the moorings, apart from those with allocated moorings in Browning's Pool and Rembrant Gardens who were directed forward. All in all, I was not impressed with the arrangements and I was not alone in thinking that. In other years, moorings were allocated to all participants, rather than a free for all. I took a walk as far as the end of the Paddington Arm and found a couple of people I know from past boating events and was surprised that some of the working boats were so far away from the Pool.