Monday 7th May and after a lovely day on Sunday we set off in
reasonable weather but with a pretty rotten forecast and a boat came out of our
first lock just as we arrived, but we arrived at the lock just as another one
followed us to it! Keen young family in it, well the parents were at least, it
was their third boat hire in 6 months! Locks arrive thick and fast but after an
hour, so did the rain. The boat in front of us was a brand new Kate Boats hire
boat, not even sign written as they had only completed the boat the day before
the hirers picked it up. The hirers were a very unprepared couple, she 6 months
pregnant & with only a thin rain top, he had none at all, only a fleece.
She was very cold and miserable and wanted to stop, but we never passed them. We
however stopped for lunch and a warm up just before lock 48, hot soup made by
Carol did the trick.
Lily & a cottage incorporating the original barrel roof |
Some people just don't know how to park This was alongside the canal |
We came out into more heavy rain passing through the
one lock before a lock free section for some 3 miles. We passed over the
Edstone aqueduct, I’ll try for a pic from the towpath on the return trip, but
about half a mile further on we saw a good mooring and called it a day and lit
the stove. 12 locks and only 7 miles
The Edstone Aqueduct |
Tuesday 8th May and what a change, a lovely day and quite warm. Keen
to enjoy the weather we were away by 9.30, which is pretty early for us, and
enjoyed a steady cruise through the remaining 16 locks into Stratford. At one
flight of four we had cleared the first two, the third was set for the
on-coming boat with gates open, but they were making no progress getting into
the bottom lock. I toddled down to see what the problem was to find another
totally new hire boat with totally new hirers who were trying to get into the
lock with fenders down and it wouldn’t go in. I tried to put them right, but
expect we might meet them on our way back!
We stopped for water some locks before Stratford, getting
the water running just as another boat arrived on the way out from Stratford.
Full again we set off in the lovely sun using the facilities at the Valley
Cruisers boatyard to ensure we arrived empty. The bridges from there into
Bancroft basin were incredibly low, we had to take off the satellite dish &
Carol’s flowers on the roof got rather squashed, but sprang up again! We arrived in the
basin at 2.30 & pulled into one of the vacant moorings, at which Carol
decided it was time to find a Costa Coffee.
The oldest Costa building we have seen |
Having satisfied her craving I decided I wanted to
moor the other way round, but to achieve this, switched my brain off a bit, and
squeezing round Lily rubbed herself on the button of the neighbouring boat, but
also got her hull a bit personal with its hull, leaving a bit of a black paint
in its white counter......not just a white counter but a very newly painted white one. I felt a real plonker and was very upset, as they were. Fortunately 20
minutes work with turps and polish restored the stern to its previous condition
and I felt better.
I got talking to them, they are a couple from Boston
USA who spend 6 months a year cruising. Their boat, Spuyten Duyvel, and it has
a WhisperGen for the provision of heating and power generation, which have
always fascinated me as they use a Sterling engine and are supposedly very
quiet and to run for many thousands of trouble free hours before needing any
work. In the 8 years they have had this (from new) they have had to service it
frequently and undertake some repairs. He has bought a second hand unit for
spares, and now the maker in New Zealand has gone to the wall, partly due to
the earthquakes in Christchurch. Mike Goode had suggested we might fit one in Lily
when we were building her, but he never got round to saying they cost around
£7000!!! I’m jolly glad we would not have been able to afford one!
This is a sun dial where you act as the gnomen It is a memorial to 4 firemen killed in a nearby warehouse fire in 2008 |
Wednesday to Saturday were spent in Stratford, we having been told by the BW
bod on site that with the Avon in flood and very limited demand for moorings,
we could stay that long....we gather one of our near neighbours has been here
about 6 months. I do consider that BW should change the regulations such that
48 hours of free mooring is allowed, and after that mooring is chargeable.
The lovely swan fountain at Stratford |
We saw Twelfth Night in the main theatre, sitting in
the gods with limited view. We enjoyed it but wished we had studied the
synopsis before going, and then Richard 3rd in the smaller, Swan
Theatre. Upon reading it was to run for over 3¼ hours we thought we might not
make it, but it was performed by the understudy cast and it was absolutely
superb with some lovely humorous touches. We shall seek out similar productions
in future, especially as they only charged £5!
We also did some Shakespeare houses viewings plus some
shopping, mostly window shopping, but did avail ourselves of the Friday market
and bought the most enormous cauliflower for just £1, whilst Sainsbugs wanted
£1.35 for about ¼ of the amount.
Archaeology under way at one of Shakespeare's houses Note the wonderful wisteria |
Thursday was somewhat enlivened by a very good curry and couple of reasonably priced pints in Wetherspoons. Carol did have a sadness on Friday as Costa’s coffee
machine died & wasn’t repaired till late morning on Saturday, by which time
we had my cousin arrive for a visit. After lunch I enjoyed a ladies shopping
trip as Beverley was looking for something to wear to a wedding and Stratford
has many independent fashion shops.
Whilst the girls shopped I took some pretties |
Sunday 13th May and our youngest daughter is 40 today, we are off to
see her & family next weekend for her & husband Simon’s 40th
parties. It is also a Grand Prix day, and memorable as it was won by a Williams
car on the weekend when founder Sir Frank Williams was celebrating his 70th
birthday with all his family present.
Lily moored in Barncroft Basin with the Shakespeare Theatre behind |
After the race we set off up the first
four locks, following two Anglo Welsh boats. At the top of these locks we
stopped at the Valley Cruisers boatyard to fill & empty, but I noticed the
engine charging warning light was on. I expected to see the engine alternator
belt to have broken, or that there was a wire off the alternator, but all
seemed intact. This stopped our day’s cruising as we will get the boatyard to
check it out tomorrow.
Overall after a fairly busy start it turned out a lazy
but interesting and educational week.
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