Onto the Grand Union Canal

We arrived in Rugby cruising in some decent weather, only a short cruise which included the 250yd Newbold Tunnel and took up what were nearly the last two moorings available on rings. Rugby is even more popular than it use to be when there was just a Tesco (supermarket chain) and two retail parks nearby, now there's a new large retail park even closer and with 14 day moorings the boats don't turn over very quickly. It has been quite a few days since we were near a large shopping complex so Rachael was ready to go in a flash!

We had a pleasant few days at Rugby and with the bank account a little more depleted but the cupboards full we headed for Braunston, my favourite shopping venue with two large chandler's. Heading out of Rugby, the birthplace of Rugby, the artwork is always a welcome change to the usual concrete and brick.

It's a four hour cruise to Braunston including three locks at Hillmorton. I'm sure Hillmorton is not a particularly important place to most people but the three locks here are the busiest on the canal system and generally quick to negotiate because they're duplicated, three pairs, so you generally catch one in each pair set your way. That's the last of narrow canals we will see for a few months now as we continue south towards London we will continue on broad canals from here on. No problems picking up a mooring in Braunston and first stop was Midland Chandlers where I had already negotiated a cheaper price on a new macerator toilet, by the time we had left with some extra bits and pieces it was near £650.

Our Braunston mooring, the tell tale double bridges in the background

It took Kevin (from NB Dunslavin) and I a full day to complete the installation of the new toilet, finishing about 9pm, the finished job included a major cleanup of the existing wiring. Kevin doing the bulk of the work while lifted heavy things!

It was another two day stay in Braunston before heading off up the Braunston Locks. Broad locks means we can move together in and out of the locks although not in the case of the picture below, it gets a little tight under hump bridges.

Getting out of Braunston means completing six locks and the 2040yd two-way Braunston Tunnel, all in quick succession. We stopped at Norton Junction Services for water and the bins where our old unreliable toilet was disposed of. One more lock, the first in the Buckby Flight calling it a day. There was time to give the gunwale another coat of paint before calling it a day. Got the paint on and had enough drying time before a shower of rain, we are still dodging the rain although the weather has improved. We spent the evening at the New Inn where we stayed until the 9:30pm closing, haven't done that in a long while!

An overnight stay before heading off not too early to finish off the other six locks of the Buckby Flight. Water saving provisions are in place on these locks so they were unlocked around 9:15am, we were the third pair of boats to go down, so a good 40 minute wait. We were heading for another small town called Weedon Bec and along the way the poppies are in bloom.

The lock queue, next to go!

Busy on the flight

At Weedon Bec several old work boats passed our mooring heading for Braunston. This weekend is the Historic Boat Rally, an annual event. This pic shows a boat and butty (non powered boat) passing, total length exceeding 140ft.

Just an overnight stop at Weedon Bec,  where there was a small Tesco, several take-away shops and a nice pub The Narrowboat where we stopped for a pint. I should also mention that it was the noisiest mooring we've had for awhile with high speed trains flying past every 10 to 15 minutes all day and all night, I still managed to sleep well.

Only one night on our noisy mooring before heading for Stoke Bruene. A couple of days planned at this mooring so I can paint the other gunnel with an added degree of difficulty. Along the way, a broad beam doing a pub crawl for it's patrons.

Passing through Blisworth, the old warehouses in the background.

Heading into the 3076yd Blisworth Tunnel, I remembered to don my raincoat, it was very wet in there.

We arrived at the top lock in Stoke Breune just after 3pm, these locks were due to be locked at 3pm for water saving reasons but we managed to go down the first two locks and moor in the long pound thanks to a friendly lock keeper.
 
We continue to dodge the rain but as I said above the weather has improved and there is a promise of plenty of warm days ahead.

Over Old Familiar Ground

It seems that the rain on the boat show weekend and the several wet days while on the dry dock were only but a promise of things to come. We have been dodging rain ever since and in fact it has gone on for so long now we have had to don the wet weather gear or simply not go anywhere. Currently, rivers we plan to cruise on later this season are in flood, that's the River Avon and the River Severn.

I can assure you the sun glasses are for distance viewing and not for the sun!

To get to where we want to go it means tracking over what is now very familiar territory and stopping at some places that have become regular stopping places for us. Great Haywood is one such place and walking the grounds of the Shugborough Estate enjoying what it has to offer. In this case, the Chinese House built in 1747.

Making our way on to the Coventry Canal after another rain delay, this time at Fradley Junction we trekked in the rain to Fazeley Junction for an overnight stop. We still couldn't crack it for any sunshine but the rain held off  as we passed through Tamworth and a canalside market of seven or eight boats selling from the towpath.

A little tight passing other boats, you can see one in the background, but narrowboating is a game of inches.

I attempted to get some paint on to the gunwales after we arrived in Atherstone early but just as I was finishing the clean-up another downpour. I was fortunate that the paint had dried sufficiently that it wasn't affected so, one more coat to go on the port side with starboard still with grey spots.

Another wet day of cruising, even fueling and pumping out the holding tank in the rain, we turned on to the Ashby Canal, I had heard it was a lovely canal and worth a look. The pic shows the boat entering the Ashby under the bridge and along a narrow part of the canal that looks as though it was previously a stop lock, probably for tolling purposes.

The Ashby is a one way canal so I had chosen a few alternative stops going up and back down but it didn't get to that, the rain was so heavy and consistent that we stopped at our first mooring for several days before turning around and heading back to the Coventry.

The weather forecast was and still is looking bleak so we need to keep some lay days up our sleeve. We headed off coming to the end of the Coventry at Hawkesbury Junction and going on to the Oxford Canal. Just a couple of shots, firstly the old toll office (circa late 1700s) for collecting the tolls and issuing coal orders for boats using these canals.

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And, Serafina passing through the stop lock, making it impossible for a boat to move from one canal to the other quickly enough to avoid the toll. The canal levels are different here by about one foot.

No rain today as we kept going as long as we could, making our way to arrive around one hours cruising time from Rugby where we plan to spend several days.

Serafina's Hull Gets a Spruce Up

'Earlish' Monday morning it was time to put Serafina into the dry dock ready for blacking. The dry dock was empty so first things first the dry dock was filled to match the water level of the marina pound. The dry dock takes a significant amount of water, probably around 250K litres or over 50K gallons so the pound dropped around 15cm or 6 inches. The pound in this situation included around 0.5 kilometres of canal plus the open space of the marina.

Once Serafina was in, it was time to empty the dry dock again. How do they do that? There's a large 'plug' that is pulled, draining the water back into the canal below the next lock, effectively no water is lost to the system. Keeping the boat in the centre of the dry dock she came to rest on four supports. A ramp was placed across and electricity connected and we were set for the work to be done while she was worked on for the week.

First the high pressure hose.

Next, the sanding.

Finally the blacking paint, like a liquid asphalt mix.

Having five days in the dry dock gave us time to do some work ourselves I managed to tidy up the tunnel bands on the stern of the boat, prepare the gunwales for painting later (the grey spots) and have some seats fabricated for the stern of the boat. So, after two coats of black, some work from Rachael and I and some fabrication work, the finished product looks like this.

I cleaned up the tunnel bands, some sanding and a few coats of paint.

And, the finished seats, I'll get some green paint on to the frame along the way but for now undercoat will do. The wood will get several extra coats of yacht varnish.

Friday and time to get floating again!

Nearly done...

Time to set off south on the this seasons' planned cruising.

Leisurely Cruising on the Trent and Mersey

A nice slow trip to Stone in Staffordshire where Serafina's hull will be blacked. Normally, we could do this in a day but it was a day in Trentham and then another nice mooring at the Wedgwood Estate where took a stroll over for a look at the fine china before sitting down to a cream tea. A few days in Barlaston where we completed a few minor jobs as well as doing a lot of walking.

We made our way down the Meaford Locks, four in total, before finally arriving in Stone in the five day visitor moorings. We still had a five day wait to go on to the dry dock at the marina so to fill in time we had planned a day at the Crick Inland Boat Show. Having been a few times before one day was plenty! We added in a hotel stay at Northampton, ten miles from the show and now with a hire car there was a chance to explore further afield.

When it did come time to move into the marina we had a slight technical hitch at the first lock. Mum and dad swan weren't particularly happy so with me holding the boat to one side and a passerby with some bread we managed to coax the cygnets back out.

The second lock, this one equipped with a tunnel for the horses to pass under the road.

And, waiting for Monday morning to go into the covered dry dock, just behind the boat.