2013 June | Living on a Canal Boat

A two week cruise to the Ashby canal – Day Eleven: Coventry Basin

What a busy day we had yesterday. We cruised none stop from 8.00am until 5.00pm with just an hour’s break in the centre of Coventry.

Within fifteen minutes we were off the Ashby and back onto the Coventry canal. What a difference a little bit of water makes. I hadn’t realised quite how shallow the Ashby was or how much harder work cruising is when your boat’s constantly sliding across the bottom. As soon as we hit the Oxford James was far more responsive and far easier to steer.

The first point of interest was Charity Dock at Bedworth. I mentioned the Steptoe & Son style junkyard as we passed on the way out but I didn’t include any photo’s. Here they are. The dock may well be a well known landmark on the canal and worth a photo or two in passing, but I wouldn’t want to live anywhere near it.

Is it just me, or does the cowgirl look really good in a pair of jeans?

We stopped for five minutes just before Hawkesbury junction to allow Charlie and Daisy to burn off some energy before we headed into the centre of Coventry.

We experienced our first propeller snagging at the first bridge on the Coventry, bridge 11. I don’t know what we hit but there was a loud clang and the tiller nearly jumped out of my hand. I slowed down to tickover until we were away from the bridge. The boat was handling OK so we carried on.

The Coventry canal is shallow. It was as difficult to navigate as the Ashby. At three other bridges on the way in I either hit metal under the water or churned up plastic bags. The engine started to overheat about half a mile before the canal’s end which indicated that there was something wrapped around the propeller. I wanted to moor in the basin before I checked it out so I reduced speed, the temperature dropped back to normal and we carried on.

I’m delighted that we decided to explore this stretch of canal. Once I had accepted the fact that the canal was very shallow and that the less intelligent inhabitants of the city had a fondness for dropping things off bridges, I really enjoyed the cruise.

I know Coventry very well. I used to employ quite a few ladies from the poorer north of the city to work for clients in the wealthier south. I regularly interviewed them in their own homes so I knew that the canal passed through some quite rough areas. Along much of the canal you can’t see the housing at all and in one small section the canal was a riot of colour with stands of rhododendron and laurel and banks lined with yellow iris.

I loved the contrast between the flowers and the fools, beauty and the beast.

We saw regularly saw bags of rubbish hanging near pedestrian access to and from the canal. They’re put there by young offenders doing community service. We saw a group of three youths, dressed in bright orange bibs, supervised by an older official. All I can say is that, if the offenders put as much effort into litter picking as they did into walking along the canal with attitude, the waterway would be a much cleaner place.

Maybe if the litter pickers but more effort into their work I wouldn’t have had to remove the half dozen plastic bags from the propeller when we stopped.

During the two hour cruise to the basin, we didn’t pass any other moving boats. We had the waterway to ourselves so it was a real shock to see thirty children in canoes blocking the canal as I turned a corner close to the basin. After a few screams and a “Nice boat mister!” they paddled furiously out of harm’s way.

The basin itself was, to me, a real let down. I expected more. The basin itself is just two short catapult shaped arms with enough room to turn where the arms and the canal meet. There were just three boats there when we arrived, two Black Price hire boat and one other private boat. When we returned from our walk around the city centre, those boats had left and had been replaced by a Napton Narrowboats hirer and a fellow moorer from Calcutt Boats. As we cruised back to Hawkesbury Junction we passed just one boat coming in so the total traffic on the canal for the day, including James, was eight boats.

The canal basin is very quiet indeed. We were there in the middle of June. The weather was acceptable. But there was no one about. I don’t know how the businesses there survive. What an odd collection of businesses they were too; a Russian/Latvian food store, a tattoo parlour, Astral Gypsy Ltd (whatever that is) and a cafe with no one in it at all.

The basin is no more than half a mile to the north of the city centre just outside the ring road. The footbridge over the ring road is very odd. It appears to be made of concrete but sways as you walk over it. I thought I was having a dizzy spell.

We had lunch at one of the city centre Subway stores, did a little shopping at a Tesco Express and headed back out of Coventry.

On the return journey I tried a different approach to negotiating the piles of rubbish under the bridges. I guessed that, if the rubbish had been thrown off the bridge, most of it would be under bridges’ outside edges. I made sure that I was lined up for the bridge and that I had enough impetus to carry the back of the boat over the debris to the centre of the bridge and cut the propeller revolutions completely. Once under the centre of the bridge I gave the throttle a quick burst to correct the steering and to push me over the debris under the water on the far side of the bridge and stopped the propeller again. Once clear of the bridge I returned to normal cruising speed.

The tactics worked. On the way out we didn’t hit anything under the water and didn’t foul the propeller.

We wanted to find a quiet mooring for the night away from busy roads and railways. The first stretch of the Oxford canal after Hawkesbury junction runs alongside the M6 and then under the M69. We cruised past the motorways and through Ansty to where we hoped to stop overlooking Ansty golf course somewhere between bridges 17 & 19.

The overcast day had become a wet one towards the end of the day. The bank was inaccessible anywhere near the golf course and we edged, in increasingly heavy rain, past bridge 19 and closer to the West Coast Main line. By now it was 5.00pm, the rain was relentless and we both wanted to stop for the night, have a shower to warm up and get something to eat.

Consequently, we’ve stopped for the night at just the kind of place I hoped to avoid. We couldn’t get particularly close to the bank, have to use a plank to get on and off (and have to carry Daisy on and off because she’s frightened of planks) and from the window we can watch trains thundering past every ten minutes.

Even with the noise we both slept like logs. We’re not used to a full day’s cruising. Yesterday we managed 18 miles and one lock. It was a full and very enjoyable day. Although I don’t particularly like Coventry and didn’t get round to visiting any of the attractions while we were there, I’m very pleased we’ve paid the city a visit.

A two week cruise to the Ashby canal – Day Ten: Sutton Wharf To Marston Jabbett

The weather has turned. Rain is running down my office window as I write this post. The sky is a uniform dirty grey, I can hear trains thundering past on the West Coast Mainline less than half a mile away and there’s a row of electricity pylons marching across the landscape. Our mooring is the best we could find in the last hour of our journey yesterday.

I don’t know where the time goes when we’re cruising. We left Sutton Cheyney Wharf at 10.00am, covered just eleven miles but didn’t moor until 6.00pm. We were delayed in Hinckley for a while though, and had to stop for over half an hour to clear our first propeller debris of the trip.

We had just passed through a bridge hole when I heard a bit of a clunk. I felt some additional vibration through the tiller and after about five minutes noticed that the engine temperature had crept up to ninety degrees. I stopped as soon as I could, which of course, wasn’t as soon as I would have liked to because of the extremely shallow water next to the bank, and dived into the weed hatch.

I removed about six feet of tightly wound nylon rope with the aid of a sharp knife and some mole grips (both attached to my wrist with a length of parachute cord to stop me losing them when they slipped out of my hands. I’ve learned from previous mistakes). Just to make sure that I had all bases covered I checked the oil and water, then set off again after a quick cup of coffee. The engine temperature stayed at its normal seventy degrees so the rope appeared to be the problem.

We reached the Brewers Fayre in Hinckley just before 2.00pm so stopped for a sandwich. I don’t know why we bothered. We stopped there on the way up the Ashby and didn’t particularly enjoy the mixed grill we had. I don’t know why we expected the steak sandwiches to be any better a week later. They weren’t.

We had to stop anyway. Nottinghamshire Police divers were in the canal under bridge seventeen so all boats had been stopped until they were out of the water. The search was part of a murder investigation. I don’t know what they were looking for but if the murderer escaped by bike, they were in luck. They pulled seven bikes out of the canal in the thirty feet stretch they were searching.

Over lunch Sally and I discussed the police divers.

“How do they do it? Sally asked. “Their job must be very difficult. I don’t know how they find them.”
“Find what?” I asked.
“Small body parts.”
I was puzzled. “They weren’t looking for body parts.”
“Yes they were.” she replied, “The policeman we spoke to said the diver was doing a fingertip search!”

She was having me on of course.

After lunch we walked back to the boat, saw that the police divers had completed their search under the bridge, untied the boat and set off again. We didn’t get very far. The divers had stopped long enough to allow the waiting boats to pass before moving their search 200m further up the canal. We had to wait for half an hour for them to finish.

While we were waiting I chatted to the couple on NB Cream Cracker in front of me. They were enjoying their first season as both narrowboat owners and continuous cruisers. In March this year they both left their jobs, sold the contents of their house, moved tenants in, bought their boat and set off for a full summer’s cruise before looking for a winter mooring and jobs at the end of this year.

They’ve both thoroughly enjoyed the experience but they weren’t that keen on the Ashby canal. They only ventured as far as Sutton Cheyney Wharf before turning back. With a draft of 2’3″ they had been ploughing through the silt for most of the journey. I agree that the canal is very shallow in parts. It’s often difficult to pass another travelling boat without running aground but, with care, there aren’t any real problems.

The section which caused me the most anxiety was between mile post 2 and bridge 5. The canal has been cut through rock. Both banks and the exposed rock seemed perilously close as we edged our way through it. We didn’t pass another boat on this section. I would have slowed to tickover and kept as much as possible to the centre channel if we did.

We moored at Burton Hastings on our way up the canal, but yesterday those moorings were full. We tried to get close to the bank at several likely looking spots after that but the best mooring we could find last night was between bridges two and three. We’re a little to close to the busy railway line for my liking but I didn’t want to risk going any further, joining the Coventry canal, and having to find somewhere to moor close to Bedworth.

We’re off to Coventry city centre today. I want to cruise the route just to see what it’s like. I’ve had a look at the comments made about Coventry Basin on Trip Adviser so I’m not expecting a beautiful landscape or a clean canal. I’ll try to keep an open mind though.

A two week cruise to the Ashby canal – Day Nine: Gopsall Woods To Sutton Wharf

Do you know how many moving boats we passed yesterday? Go on, take a guess. No, you’re way out. In four hours cruising we saw just one other boat on the move. In four hours cruising along half the length of the Ashby canal in the middle of June there wasn’t another boat cruising apart from us and the one we passed. Of course, we met it on a bend just after a bridge and with boats moored either side.

We made an early start. Early for us on this trip anyway. We set off at 8.30. The day was overcast and rather cool. We lit the stove before breakfast and kept it going for most of the day. I wore a fleece hat and two fleece tops while I was steering. Maybe I would have only needed one top if I had been sensible enough to wear long trousers but my shorts come out of the cupboard in April and stay on until October. I can’t guarantee on the weather letting me know it’s summer so I have to rely on my shorts.

The first village after Gopsall woods is Shackerstone with its idyllic private moorings. I mentioned them in a previous post. I’ve taken a photo or two now though. I’ve added one below. What do you think?

We stopped again at Bosworth Wharf so that we could walk into the town centre for provisions. Sally is lactose intolerant so we only use Arla Lactofree semi skimmed milk. I’m used to the flavour now and it has the advantage of lasting far longer than normal milk. Unfortunately we haven’t been able to buy any since we left Rugby. Yesterday I thought I would try soya milk. I don’t know why. Early signs of senility or a tendency towards masochism maybe. I tried it in coffee when we returned to the boat. Never again. I’m going to feed the rest of the carton to the ducks and take my coffee black until I can buy some decent milk.

From Bosworth Wharf we travelled another hour to Sutton Cheyney wharf and our home for the night. The final leg of the journey had me dribbling all down my fleece top. We bought a chicken in Market Bosworth. Sally cooked as we travelled. The smell of chicken, rice and spices wafted over me as I stood on the back of the boat.

By the time I had tied the boat up for the evening, a steaming plate of spicy food was waiting for me on the table. I had topped up my supply of Theakston’s Old Peculiar in Market Bosworth’s Co-op so I was a very happy bunny.

We took the dogs for a long walk in Ambion woods after dinner. I wonder if they realise what lucky dogs they are. They usually do very well for walks but over the last week they’ve been able to run alongside the boat with Sally as I’ve cruised towards our new home for the night. I think the smiles on their faces and the sparkle in their eyes says it all.

We woke this morning to light rain. I suppose we shouldn’t complain. It’s the first we’ve seen for nine days. We plan to set off in about an hour for about four hour’s cruising. I’ll have an opportunity to try out my bomb proof Guy Cotten waterproof jacket and trousers.

If you’re reading this post in the blog section of the forum, you may not be able to see some of the pictures or may only see them as thumbnails. Click on the link below to see the photo’s on the original blog post.

A two week cruise to the Ashby canal – Day Eight: Congerstone To Gopsall Woods

We’re still having problems with excess water in the engine room. With the bilge pump not working, we’re having to bail it out with a measuring jug and a bucket. Yesterday we removed eight bucketfulls before we set off and then a further four when we stopped for the night. I think I know where it’s coming from.

James’ engine in raw water cooled which means that water is drawn in from the canal to help cool the engine. The water passes through a mud trap before it reaches the engine. The mud trap has to be taken apart regularly so that the debris it’s collected can be emptied out. There’s a valve on the trap which has to be opened after the mud trap lid has been replaced to bleed any air from the trap. Yesterday, I noticed a trickle of water from the valve outlet pipe just before I turned the engine off. I suspect that, even though the valve is fully closed, water is escaping through it when the engine is running. I’ll point it out to one of the engineers when I get back to the marina. In the meantime, Sally and I will be keeping a close eye on the bilge water level and we’ll be bailing the excess out daily.

We reached the far point of our cruise yesterday. The Ashby canal terminus. Some purists will argue that we haven’t fully cruised the canal, but I’m not a purist and as far as I’m concerned, we’ve done it.

We cruised gently from our overnight mooring at Congerstone and past the village of Shackerstone. There are some beautiful private moorings on the offside between bridges 52 and 53. They overlook a meadow, almost a village green, complete with a small lake sheltered by weeping willows. Sally and I really liked the look of them but decided that the daily commute to Calcutt for work every day would be a bit too much.

The winding hole after bridge 53 marks the start of the SSSI designated Gopsall wood. The wood stretches for two miles on either side of the canal. It’s a beautiful but rather shallow cruise as I found to my dismay when I ran aground when moving off the main channel to allow an oncoming boat to pass. The beauty of the Ashby canal is that you don’t pass many moving boats so I only ran aground in the woods once.

As the wood peters out, there another mile of beautiful countryside before a sign for the Globe pub and the start of the 250m Snarestone tunnel. This was our first tunnel since Newbold on the outskirts of Rugby. I forgot to mention that when we navigated the Newbold tunnel I bounced off the wall a couple of times because of two schoolboy errors.

The boat’s headlight is fine for illuminating the section of tunnel in front of the boat but doesn’t help me to see the tunnel walls either side of the boat for the fifty feet section between the headlight and the back deck. The simple solution is to turn all of the boat’s internal lights on and make sure that the curtains are open. I forgot to ask Sally to turn the lights on.

The second and absolutely unforgivable mistake I made – please don’t think any less of me if I tell you – was to leave my sunglasses on. We were three quarters of the way through the tunnel when I complained to Sally that the boat’s headlight wasn’t very bright. “You’ve got something in common with the headlight then, haven’t you?” she said as she pulled my sunglasses off. It’s going to be a while before she’ll let me forget that one!

The Snarestone tunnel, with internal lights on and sunglasses off, was a breeze. Another half a mile, two more bridges and we reached then end of the Ashby, or as close to the end of the Ashby as I could be bothered travelling.

There’s a 70′ winding hole just before the water and Elsan point, and then a new swing bridge followed by a 100m stretch of canal which was opened three years ago. The purists will suggest that, if you want to claim that you have cruised to the end of the Ashby, you need to open the swing bridge, cruise to the end of the new section, reverse back through the swing bridge, past the water and Elsan point and turn in the winding hole.

On a windy day and for the sake of 100m and probably 20 minutes faffing about, I just couldn’t be bothered.You can see the end of the canal in the photo above and the swing bridge just behind the boat.

The Elsan point, the brick building on the left hand side of the photo above, was the first BW facility we’ve used in the last week which has needed a key to unlock it. I had to spend 10 minutes searching for a BW key before I could empty our cassette even though I’m sure there are half a dozen on the boat.

Once we’d had a quick walk to the end and a quick browse through the books for sale in the unattended Ashby Canal Association hut, there wasn’t much else to do. We went back through the tunnel, stopped very quickly at the Globe for a toilet break before stopping for the night at yet another beautiful spot by the western edge of Gopsall wood.

We had the tranquil mooring to ourselves for about ten minutes before we were joined by two other boats. Three pairs of insular boaters made sure that there was sufficient space between moorings, set up camp chairs in the sun and quietly eat, drank and read until the sun went down.

Another day in heaven.

Travels of Joanie M. Life as a Continuous Cruiser @ Stratford

My last post had us stuck at Bidford on Avon waiting for the river level to subside. It peaked on the Thursday night but remained at that level for most of the Friday. The owners of the hire boat moored in front arrived to take it back to Evesham, which must have been an interesting, and fast, journey but we were surprised at the arrival of two boats up from Evesham. One was a Valley Cruisers hire boat who had instructed it to be left at the boatyard opposite and the other was a private boat, this being as far as they were going, not wanting to pass through the bridge until the level dropped. They brought news of a Viking Afloat boat that had gone onto the weir at Harvington Lock, one of the many weirs on the Avon being unprotected.

The river dropped some 12 inches overnight and the gauge showed about 2 inches of Amber so we left for Stratford. Hard going in places, especially through the bridges and narrower sections but we arrived at Stratford with no problems. The last lock is called Trinity after the nearby church from which the bells were pealing to welcome us – not really, it was the Coronation Peal! The river above the lock was a mass of swans, geese, rowing boats, canoes, motor cruisers with trip boats trying to thread their way through. The normal rules of keeping to the right don’t seem to apply here. We moored on the river opposite the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, paying £5 a night for the privilege.

I had booked tickets online for ‘As You Like It’ at the theatre so I walked over to the box office to collect them. On getting back to the boat I then found I had messed up and they were for Monday week so another trip to the box office to get the date changed.

The bandstand was only a few yards away and on the Sunday we were treated to the Stratford Concert Band. Not, unfortunately a brass band, but still a great day, sitting on the grass, eating ice cream and listening to music.

Monday was spent rubbing down some rust patches on the roof. Most of them emanate from the screw holes of the Houdini hatches. I will have to remove the hatches at some time. Not a job I relish. We removed one a couple of years ago. Several of the brass screws broke and I had to drill them out and re-tap them. I replaced them with stainless steel screws to prevent them snapping again. If we could be guaranteed about 10 days of no rain then I’ll get down to it.

‘As You Like It’ was great. Although in modern(ish) dress and stageing, the words were Shakespeares. The theatre was rebuilt a couple of years ago making an ugly building even uglier! The effect inside however is like the Globe in London with the stage surrounded by the audience so you really feel part of the play. We have been to more live theatre in the 6 years we have been cruising than in our previous 40 years of married life!

Tuesday was another hot day and after the usual trip to Sainsburys, M & S, etc. Jeannette decided to have her haircut. A few minutes late I saw her walking back across the park accompanied by Tom & Christine who we last saw in Limehouse in 2009, sharing the locks up the River Lee. We first met them on the Great Ouse in 2008 and have stayed in touch ever since. One of the great things about CCing is that you meet new friends every year and when you next meet up, maybe one or two years later, you have much to talk about. We knew they were nearby from our email exchanges. They had moored at Wilmcote and taken the sight-seeing bus to Stratford. When it stopped by the theatre they spotted ‘Joanie M’ and jumped off to surprise us. We sat on the grass over a cup of tea and spent the afternoon chatting.

We moved off the river into the basin on Wednesday and moored on an empty pontoon, next to the scruffiest boat with a licence dated 12/12 and a Patrol Notice stuck to the front. He left his engine running for about an hour whilst he left the boat before he returned and left only to moor around the corner. Our prescriptions had arrived at the Post Office so tomorrow we shall leave and moor near Tom & Christine.

2013 06 09 Newsletter – Cruising Notes For Narrowboat Owners

Living on a Narrowboat News 9th June 2013

What a wonderful week. I truly hope it’s been a glimpse into our future.

Sally and I have been travelling, ever so slowly from our home mooring on the beautiful Calcutt Boats owned Meadows marina to the head of the Ashby canal at Snarestone in Leicestershire. It’s not a long or arduous journey and cruises go; just 52 miles and seven locks. But, even though I enjoy every day I work at Calcutt, it’s been far more pleasant exploring rural England at a very gentle pace.

I know boaters who like to travel as far and wide as they can when they cruise. I know others who like to spend their retirement on a static mooring. Sally and I see ourselves somewhere in the middle. About a year ago I was introduced to the concept of snail’s pace continuous cruising. The idea is to stay as long as possible on a mooring but within the guidelines set by the Trust. The continuous cruising rules dictate that you should move to a new area as part of a progressive journey every fourteen days (which means that you can’t shuffle backwards and forwards between two points).

I know of one couple who travel continously but only cruise for three hours (about ten miles) every week. They then have seven days to thoroughly explore their new “home” before moving on to the next spot. I can’t imagine a better retirement.

Given that the average narrowboat engine uses less than 1.5 litres of diesel an hour, cruising at such a sedate pace would cost less than £5 a week for propulsion fuel. The canal and river network would take over four years to explore completely. I don’t know about you, but my memory isn’t what it used to be. Exploring the network every four years would be like exploring it every time for the first time.

I think that Sally and I are a couple of years off being able to afford to support ourselves comfortably in retirement. This cruise has been a little bit of a test to make sure that Sally is completely comfortable with the limitations of living off grid. I don’t think she is yet. She’s been suffering from acute vacuum cleaner withdrawal symptoms for the last week. For the last hour she’s been on her hands and knees muttering about “bloody dog hairs” and the “dirty filthy stove”. If we’re to avoid her having a dirt induced nervous breakdown we’re either going to have to invest in a suitcase generator or a more substantial inverter. Either that or install a central heating system and shave both dogs.

I’ve been on holiday for the last week so I haven’t had the time to write content for the newsletter as well sa writing the daily cruise updates. The seven blog entries are listed below in order. There’s some useful content in the posts about the ins and outs of managing a boat on the move so I hope you find the posts interesting reading. I also hope that my account of the cruise will stiffen your resolve to follow your dream and finally move into your own floating home.

Day One: Calcutt To Braunston
Day Two: Braunston To Brinklow Marina
Day Three: Brinklow Marina To Burton Hastings
Day Four: Burton Hastings To Stoke Golding
Day Five: Stoke Golding To Sutton Cheyney Wharf
Day Six: A Lazy Day At Sutton Cheyney Wharf
Day Seven: Sutton Wharf To Congerstone

Happy Birthday Dear Forum

The forum is now a year old. I set up the new section of the site on 3rd June 2012. Since then there have been 2,210 posts made on 388 different topics. I couldn’t be more pleased. I was in two minds whether to invest the time, money and energy into the installation and maintenance of the forum. I didn’t know whether any narrowboat enthusiasts would want to use yet another boating forum when there were one or two already in use.

I needn’t have worried. With the very genourous contributions from a growing number of very knowledgable boaters the forum has become a very well used resource for both new and established boaters. We have also been joined by one or two escapees from the other forums who have come here because they consider the response they get here to be far friendlier than they get elsewhere. All I can say is that all constructive contributions to the forum are very welcome indeed.

I’ve also received some very interesting emails from forum users. I received one from Roger Filler last week suggesting that a section where boat owners could add cruising notes would be a useful addition to the forum. Roger kicked it off by emailing me his cruising notes for the river Severn. I think his idea is excellent. There are more and more site users buying boats. The information they pick up as they cruise the network will be very useful to both new and existing boat owners if they add it to the new section.

I’ll be setting up the new cruising notes section when I return from my two week break. In the meantime, if you’ve done any cruising and have recorded any notes, please let me know. I’ll let you know where and when you can add them to the site.

There’s a list of the more popular forum topics below. If you can’t find the answer to anything you want to know about narrowboats in the existing topics, all you have to do is start your own topic. Remember, the only stupid question is the one you don’t ask.

Comprehensive Site Article Listing

There are dozens of helpful and interesting articles on the site, but have you found them all? I thought you might appreciate a list of the more popular articles that you can glance through and click on the ones that take your fancy. Here it is.

Useful Links

Living on a Narrowboat: The REAL Cost of a Life Afloat – Narrowboat costs explained in detail. My own maintenance and living cost on narrowboat James for a full year. Use this information to work out your own costs.
Find out what parts of the canal are closed and for how long. Essential cruising information for you.
Do you need to find a home for your boat? Here’s a comprehensive list of the narrowboat friendly marinas in the UK
Do you want to see where these marinas are on a map? Here it is.
Here’s a map of all the canals on the system to help you plan your route.
Newsletter Archive – Browse through a wealth of useful content in the newsletters over the last year.

A two week cruise to the Ashby canal – Day Seven: Sutton Wharf To Congerstone

After a very relaxing two days at Sutton Wharf we resumed our snail’s pace cruise yesterday.

We moored at the closest point to the town centre, on the visitor moorings just after bridge 42. Station Road is one of the main roads running into Market Bosworth so there was a fair amount of traffic thundering over the bridge. I made sure that we were far enough away from the bridge to deter the dogs from running onto the road when they jumped off the boat. Daisy is a nightmare. She’ll run for half a mile in any direction when she first gets off the boat so if we’re anywhere near a road bridge we make sure we put her on a lead before she gets off. Charlie (being a man and able to exercise a little more self control) runs around like a lunatic but never more than a boat length away… until yesterday.

Sally let the dogs off the boat while I shut the engine down. Within seconds Sally was hammering frantically on the side of the boat. Charlie had jumped off the boat and sprinted 400m to the road bridge. She knew that he was on the road because she could see that the traffic had come to a standstill.

I sprinted after him and found him shivering with terror but otherwise unharmed in the middle of the road. The drivers of two articulated lorries shouted pleasantries at me as I pulled him off the road and took him back to the boat. Charlie is such a loyal and loving spaniel. I couldn’t bear the look of confusion on his face as both Sally and I shouted at him. I didn’t enjoy being shouted at by the lorry drivers but I will be forever grateful that they were both vigilant enough to stop before they hit him.

Before we set off for Market Bosworth town centre, we chatted to the lady on the boat in front of us.

Her: “It’s a long way to the town centre. You’ll need to get a taxi.”
Me: “Where can we get a taxi from?”
Her: “You can’t. There aren’t any.”
Me: “We’ll have to walk then.”
Her: “It’s too far. Why don’t you try the farm shop at Congerstone?”
Me: “We might try it. If the shop at Congerstone is as good as the farm shop next to the Ashby Canal Centre, it’s certainly worth a visit.”
Her: “I’ve always wanted to visit the Ashby canal. I’ve heard it’s very pretty.”
Me: “We’re on the Ashby canal.”
Her: “No dear. We’re on the Coventry canal. The Ashby canal is much further on. You really must use a map if you don’t know where you are.”

After the trauma of Charlie running onto the road, the conversation was too much for me. We left for the twenty minute pleasant uphill walk to the town centre.

I thought, wrongly, that there was decent size supermarket at Market Bosworth. There isn’t. They have a reasonably stocked Co-op store, a butcher, a greengrocer and chemist a couple of cafes, a restaurant (Sofleys, offering afternoon cream teas for £21 a head – No thank you) and very little else.

The weather yesterday was pleasant enough with no rain, but not quite warm enough to sit at leisure and watch the world go by. We sat in the the Thistle Cottage tea room in the market square for a coffee and a piece of carrot cake before the long trudge downhill back to the boat.

I don’t know what it was about the inhabitants of Market Bosworth, but there seemed to be something not quite right about them. They were a colourful multi cultural lot, but they didn’t have much to say for themselves.

The visitor moorings at Bosworth Wharf aren’t our cup of tea. They’re far too close to a busy main road. We bypassed the congested visitor moorings just after bridge 44 and stopped at a perfect secluded spot just after bridge 46. The north easterly breeze made outdoor relaxing reading a little too unpleasant so we relaxed inside instead before the 7.30pm start of the Britain’s Got Talent final.

As a rule, I try to steer clear of television as much as possible. I would rather read but Sally isn’t quite as keen as I am, and she’s between books at the moment. However, I thoroughly enjoy Britain’s Got Talent (especially the egg throwing antics from one of the orchestra players). We settled down for the evening, me with a bottle of Old Peculiar, Sally with a glass of red, before an early bed and an early rise this morning.

It was a decidedly chilly start to the day. I lit the stove just to take the chill off before the sun comes out later this morning. The boat immediately filled with smoke indicating that the chimney was blocked. This is one of the maintenance jobs which probably needs doing more frequently if the boat is moved on a regular basis. The constant shaking, moving and banging had caused some of the crud which build up on the inside of the flue to shake free and partially block it.

I have a reel of parachute cord in the engine room. It comes in handy for all kinds of tasks on the boat. It was perfect for cleaning the chimney. I found a spare length of fender chain, tied it to the parachute cord and dropped it down the flu from the boat roof. Half a dozen passes up and down cleared the blockage and the smoke from the boat.

We’ve just enjoyed our Sunday morning treat, a full English breakfast. Within the next hour we’ll be off again. We’re only four miles from Snarestone and the end of the Ashby (or the Coventry, as one daft old bat likes to call it). The weather forecast isn’t looking very good for the middle of next week. I think we’ll get a bit closer to Calcutt before we have any particularly rainy days so that we can moor up if the weather is particulalrly unpleasant.

I’m not complaining about the weather. Quite the reverse. We have been extremely lucky. Up until the day we left last Sunday, we had rain nearly every day. Not a drop has fallen on us over the last week and I couldn’t be happier.

I must go now. Four miles to go to Snarestone and the Globe pub. I wonder if Sally fancies a night out?

A two week cruise to the Ashby canal – Day Six: A Lazy Day At Sutton Cheyney Wharf

We’re not playing this cruising game very well at all. We didn’t move at all yesterday.

I felt a little guilty for a while. How could we achieve the goals we had set for ourselves by moving just a couple of miles a day or, like yesterday, not moving at all? We want to tick the Ashby canal off our list and this involves exploring every inch of it, reaching the northern terminus and pushing the bow into the furthest point. Or do we?

I need to keep reminding myself that living on a narrowboat and cruising the network is all about enjoying the journey, not the destination. Yesterday we were still on the 48 hour visitor moorings at Sutton Cheyney Wharf. We loved the mooring, the location, the nearby facilities and the walk through Bosworth Battlefield Country Park so we decided to stay another day.

We had just about run out of food. We didn’t have anything to eat on board apart from our emergency tinned and packet foods but that problem was easy enough to deal with. We had lunch at Sutton Wharf cafe again.

The cafe doesn’t offer fancy home cooked food but on a beautiful, warm and sunny day like yesterday, scampi, chips and peas and a delicious cappuccino was more than acceptable. We sat at a table next to the water for nearly two hours eating, drinking and feeding the ducks (They quite like scampi batter, aren’t keen on peas, and positively dislike lemon).

We spent the afternoon and early evening walking the dogs around the park and sitting by the side of the boat in the sun reading. Sorry, I sat by the side of the boat reading. Sally decided that Daisy needed her coat cutting. It’s a big job for a hot summer’s day with a hyper active spaniel so Sally set up a tent between the boat and the pontoon hand rail to keep the sun off both her and Daisy for the two hours it took to cut her coat. I joined in for the last half hour to keep a rather fed up little dog still enough to work on.

We’re going to move on today. The plan is to get somewhere near to Market Bosworth so we can walk to the shops and stock up on food and drink. Whatever we end up doing, we’ll do it slowly and in a very relaxed fashion.

A two week cruise to the Ashby canal – Day Five: Stoke Golding To Sutton Cheyney Wharf

Oh dear! We’re not making very much progress. We managed a rather underwhelming two miles yesterday, but we had a great time.

The early morning was overcast and quite chilly so I lit the fire. By 11.00 the sun came out and rapidly heated the boat, in addition to the heat to the stove which also rapidly heated the boat. By early afternoon we were considering shaving both dogs to keep them cool.

Our (loose) plan for the day was to get somewhere near Market Bosworth so that we could restock with food. Before we left Stoke Golding we visited the farm shop about 200m from bridge 25. We bought a couple of steaks, a loaf of fresh baked bread, a few slices of local ham and a tub of Gospall Farmhouse raspberry pavlova ice cream.

Our fridge’s tiny freezer compartment door is broken so we couldn’t keep the ice cream for long. For lunch we had the ham, smeared with English mustard between thick slices of crusty fresh bread and a bowl of ice cream each. Marvellous. With the steaks in reserve for the evening there was no rush to get to Market Bosworth but we needed to get to Sutton Cheyney Wharf for the water point.

Before we left we needed to remove some water from the engine room. The bilge pump has stopped working. It’s badly positioned anyway. Water tends to pool towards the front of the engine rather than were the pump is at the back of the engine. For now, we have to make do with using a litre measuring jug to scoop the water into a bucket.

We removed eight bucketfuls of water. I don’t know where it’s coming from but it’s not filling the engine bay at too worrying a rate. The water we removed has been building up over the last five days. Repositioning the bilge pump is another job for when we get back.

Sutton Cheyney Wharf is certainly worth a visit. There are two water points just past the cafe, rubbish disposal, an Elsan point and, for those of us with cassette toilets and a tendency to use public conveniences as much as possible, a very clean and pleasant toilet block attached to the cafe. There are also some very pleasant 48 hour moorings next to the wharf backing onto Bosworth Battlefield country park.

We moved James from the water point to the 48 hour moorings and took the dogs for a very pleasant walk through Ambion wood to the Bosworth Battlefield Centre, back through the woods on a different path to bridge 34A and then along the towpath back to Sutton Cheyney Wharf and the boat. It’s a beautiful walk through ancient woodland and an important historic site.

There are plaques along the footpath telling visitors about the battle which took place over 500 years ago. There’s an open view next to one of the plaques which describes the movement of the armies during the battle. I tried to imagine thousands of frightened men hacking each other to death, the animal roars and the screams of the dying. I tried to picture open farmland strewn with over 1,000 maimed and bleeding bodies.

I’m afraid the task was beyond me. All I could see was stunning and tranquil English countryside on a perfect summer’s day.

I finished off the perfect summer’s day with a bottle of Ruddles County and a steak enjoyed al fresco next to the tranquil canal.

A two week cruise to the Ashby canal – Day Four: Burton Hastings To Stoke Golding

What a difference a day makes. The English summer has reverted to normal; a leaden sky and a bit of a nip in the air.

As usual, I was up at the crack of dawn but unlike the previous three days, the boat was cold enough to warrant lighting the fire. Oh, for the convenience of central heating! The stove takes a good hour before it’s producing a meaningful amount of heat. By then it’s often warm enough in the boat anyway if the sun is shining. Today was cool enough to justify keeping it going until late morning.

For the first four miles, the narrow canal winds through pleasant fields and woodlands. The shallow water makes mooring difficult but there are enough sections where the banks have been piled to allow the few boats on the canal tranquil and quite private resting spots.

The peace and quiet was shattered when we came to the busy A5 at Lime Kilns followed very shortly afterwards by Hinckley. I didn’t like Hinckley.

We pulled over, eventually, on the towpath just past Trinity marina. I couldn’t get close to the bank on the first couple of attempts because of the shallow water. Third time lucky, even if my backside was sticking out a little (I must cut down on the cakes.)

We stopped near Trinity marina so that we could have lunch at the Brewers Fayre. That’s two successive days we’ve eaten out now. It’s so much cheaper to eat on the boat, but so much more convenient to eat out. We decided to make our lunch the only meal of the day and had an acceptable mixed grill each, served by a very pleasant waitress with the loudest voice in the world. The restaurant was filled with mainly retired diners. The muted conversation was punctuated by our friendly food carrying foghorn.

We needed to stock up on a few provisions. I asked Miss Foghorn where the nearest supermarket was. “There’s a Tesco just around the corner. It’s about a five minute walk away. Take a left, then a right. You’ll see it just after Lidl.”

I’m now convinced that she was only vaguely acquainted with the concept of walking. Tesco was just around the corner from the Brewers Fayre in the same way that Penzance is just around the corner from London. After a quarter of an hour’s walk there was still not sign of either Lidl or Tesco, but we did see a Londis store. Unfortunately we needed salad and their display of a single soft tomato and two wilted spring onions didn’t inspire us so we pressed on.

After half an hour’s walk we came to Lidl. I haven’t shopped before at Lidl. I won’t be trying it again unless I develop a fondness for bumper packs of sweets I’ve never heard of before, or for people who twitch a lot and carry their teeth in a handbag.

From Lidl we could just about see the Tesco store in the far distance. It was at least another fifteen minute’s walk away. We gave up.

After an hour and a four mile round trip, we were back on the boat and heading north again. We needed to reach Sutton Cheyney wharf as it has the only Elsan point on the Ashby canal. Our Porta Potti cassette only had enough space left in it for one half hearted wee.

As we passed the Ashby Boat Co I asked if they had an Elsan point. They did and they were more than happy for me to use it. With the toilet emergency overcome, there was no rush to get to Sutton Cheyney. We stopped just a couple of hundred metres further on just after the entrance to Ashby Canal Centre at bridge 26.

That’s where we are now. It’s 8.30 Thursday morning. The sun has yet to make an appearance and the stove is on again. We watched the weather forecast on television while we had breakfast. Weather forecasters everywhere were standing in their T shirts under cloudless skies. I’m hoping that we will join them shortly.

While I’m updating the blog, Sally’s washing some clothes. We don’t have a washing machine fitted yet, or any means of powering it away from a shore line. Sally has been hinting more and more strongly recently that we need to be self sufficient in the clothes washing department. I’ve looked for a laundrette nearly but the only one accessible from the Ashby appears to be back at Trinity marina. Neither of us want to go back there.

For this trip, Sally is going to have to carry on washing clothes by hand. When we get back we’re going to have to bite the bullet and get a washing machine fitted. Sally isn’t happy with the machines at the marina. They’re token operated. Each token cost £1 and lasts 45 minutes. Some users limit their washing machine expenditure to just a couple of tokens rather than using enough tokens to complete the cycle. Consequently Sally is often faced with an empty washing machine half filled with dirty water. We have to use our own tokens to finish off the cycle before Sally can start her wash. She, understandably, isn’t too happy when she goes back to the washing machine sometimes to find that another user has taken the washing, including her underwear, out of the machine if the cycle has finished and left it in a pile on the work top for all to see.

Having a washing machine on board will be a far more convenient way of washing our clothes than either hand washing or relying on laundrettes. There’s a convenient spot to fit the machine under my office “desk”. Getting it working will involve running clean water to it, and grey water away from it. There’s a 230v socket nearby so access to the ring main won’t be a problem. Getting enough power to the socket for the washing machine will be a problem.

My inverter is 1.6KW. It’s not powerful enough to run the washing machine. On the mooring, running the washing machine won’t be a problem as we’ll be plugged in to the shore line. When we’re cruising though we won’t be able to use it unless we have a more powerful inverter – and maybe a bigger bank of batteries – or a generator. We’re considering buying a generator.

There are some adequate generators available for not a lot of money but they’re often large, noisy and very heavy. Popular opinion has it (confirmed by a review in Waterways World) that the Honda suitcase generator is the best you can buy. We’re considering this 2KW version.

In fact, I think there’s very little doubt we’ll be buying a generator and installing the washing machine as soon as we get back. As I’ve been writing Sally has been constantly scrubbing dirty clothes in the shower tray. She’s supposed to be relaxing on holiday. It’s not fair.

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