I’ve had a busy few weeks, keeping myself occupied with various projects on the boat. The meters which monitor battery charging had become unreliable, so when the chance came of buying a new Clipper BM2 monitor for less than a third of the retail price I grabbed it and set to work fitting it along with two digital “Hall Effect” ammeters which just need the sensor to be slipped over the relevant cable.   I now have a redesigned monitoring panel for the electrical system   The Boat Safety Examination certification expires in November and as it is permitted to be tested up to two months ..read more

Tuesday July 12th – Whittington to Wolverley A more civilised start time today of 9:30 as we had only 3½ miles to cover and 3 locks. As we arrived at Wolverley Lock it started to rain so we tied up, but as soon as we did, it stopped and a boat came up the lock so we took advantage of that and went down to find a vacant mooring immediately. Wolverley Lock is in a desperately poor condition with the top gate paddle having been out of action for a couple of years to my knowledge and today one of the bottom gate paddles was out of action too, making it a very slow job. The balance beams on  t ..read more

Sunday 10th July – Compton to Swindon Yesterday afternoon we were joined on the mooring by nb Galene (Γαλήνη ) which unsurprisingly was owned by a Greek couple. [Wikipedia tells us “Γαλήνη Galênê means ‘calm weather’ or ‘calm, tranquillity’ in ancient Greek religion was a minor goddess personifying calm seas”] and Joy took this snap as we  set off as quietly as possible at quarter to seven to get our journey done in the coolest part of the day! By 9:15 we arrived at Bratch Locks where mercifully there were volunteers on duty to direct traffic & assist with the locks. At Wombou ..read more

“The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men. Gang aft a-gley” as  Rabbie Burns wrote! Monday 4th July – Fazeley Our plan was to continue our cruise to The Lime Kilns Inn near Hinkley for our Golden Wedding celebration, but a ‘Stoppage Notice’ from CRT advised that “We are currently experiencing low water levels on the Ashby Canal”. Given the fact that The Ashby is always shallow and another notice advised the same for the Coventry Canal above Atherstone Locks. Apparently the reason for the low water levels is because “the Griff Brook, where we pump water from, has run dry”. In view of this we ..read more

Wednesday 29th June – Shugborough to Rugeley I forgot to say that, yesterday, at Great Haywood Junction we joined the Trent and Mersey Canal. Just a short hop into Rugeley this morning with only Colwich Lock to work through, I tried to get a photo of Shugborough Hall as we passed but it hid shyly behind the trees. Click to view slideshow. Going into Rugeley we noticed the family of manikins was growing at Naomi’s Landing and the fake speed camera was still there to deter speeding boats. After some lunch we went shopping at Morrisons & the greengrocers then debated whether to spend the nig ..read more

Sunday 26th Jun – Compton to Gailey A rainy start to the day meant that we sat tight at Compton until 1pm, but spent the time joining Riverside Elim Church on-line when the sun appeared we set off for a lock free day along the summit pound. We stopped at Oxley Marine for diesel (£1.40/litre before tax) then passed through Autherley Narrows where we met just one boat at the last passing place. Being a Sunday there were several fishing matches in progress, but most were good humoured about us disturbing their ‘sport’. Just after 3pm we were passing The Fox & Anchor Pub but resisted the te ..read more

Friday 24th June Whittington to Swindon We left Whittington at 8:30 this morning and had a very good journey with most locks being empty ready for us, our second lock was at Kinver after which we stopped to re-fill our water tank and and empty rubbish. The weather was overcast and it threatened to rain from time to time, but Joy kept the rain away by putting  a coat & hat on! So we covered the 7 locks and 7 miles in a little over 4¼ hours. The only hiccup on the journey was when the lock-keeper at Stewponey (the only lock with a lock-keeper) decided to close the gates as we were ..read more

Stourport to Whittington The start of our Summer Cruise this year has been delayed by several factors, Chris has had a number of hospital appointments to attend and Jinty our camper-van’s MoT was due to run out at the end this month and she needed some major repairs which involved visits to Dursley and Rochdale!   Eventually the MoT was obtained and a hospital appointment in Birmingham was arranged which we could access from near Tamworth meaning that there was nothing to delay us any longer. Tuesday 21st June On returning this afternoon with a shiny new MoT we were so excited that we to ..read more

Saturday 23rd April Yesterday afternoon it transpired our solar panels had stopped charging to batteries and a call to the supplier of the Solar Controller was just too late to catch their Technical Team who finish early on a Friday! I made a visit to Asda before heading back down to Diglis where we were moored a few days ago. Sunday 24th April A hire boat moored up next to us last night & we agreed to go out onto the river together this morning as they were first-time hirers, so it was an early-ish start this morning just before 9 o’clock. We negotiated the two locks with the help of a f ..read more