FRIDAY
12th August:
Arrived at the boats about 4pm - we sorted
ourselves out and set off about 5pm - first
stop fill up with water at Thrupp,
the motor ground to a halt, getting stuck
in mud but we soon sorted ourselves out, carried
on up the canal and moored just past bridge
215 for the night. The kids found a very rude
note attached to the top planks of the motor,obviously
left by another irrate pair of working boats
whilst the boats had been moored at the Jolly
Boatman at Thrupp....
Saturday 13th August:
Set of at 7am, made steady progress throughout
the day, we had sunshine all day but then
the heavens opened but we continued, mooring
at the bottom of King Sutton lock at
7.30pm..
Sunday 14th August:
Left at 7.30am, as we finished doing King
Sutton Lock and were opening the gates
and attaching the butty to the motor a boat
that was moored on the lock moorings (the
couple that were on it have never moved so
fast as they untied their ropes and the bloke
put the throttle in full pelt and charged
off in front of us and Rob called him
a ******!!) we laughed so much later on, because
later on in the day they were moored in Banbury
and we just chugged past....we also did shopping
in Banbury, before going on. Kept going
all day and moored about 8.30pm after doing
Claydon locks and we actually met up
with someone that we knew from our Basingstoke
Canal times.
Monday 15th August:
Left at 7.20am, we were chased all morning
by one particular boat, so close was he at
one time he could have come on board and had
a cup of tea!! When we arrived at Napton
we worked really hard to get the boats through
the flight the children were fantastic, it
was such a hot day as well and with this other
boat trying to rush us through the locks when
I got to the second to last lock with the
butty I had an altercation with this boat
owner and told him what i thought!! We moored
at the bottom for something to eat and Christopher
did some fishing and caught a "zander"
the boat that had been charging went past
but only went as far as the pub ,and we continued
on our merry way for a couple more hours and
moored at bridge 101 at about 8.15pm with
a beautiful sunset.
Tuesday 16th August:
Left at 8am, had scrummy egg sarnis and we
did Hillmorton Locks and did pumpout,
rubbish and water, stopped at Rugby
for shopping then carried on till mooring
at 7.45 after bridge 26.
Wednesday 17th August:
Left at 7.45, one of our first encounters
of the day was to do Hawkesbury Junction
and this was executed in great style and we
swung round on to the Coventry Canal
with out hitting anything!! travelled through
and stopped for lunch and icecreams at Valley
Cruisers near Nuneaton,the kids
spotted a mink!! and Chris did some
fishing.... Moored after Lock 5 on the Atherstone
Flight at 7.30pm..
Thursday 18th August:
Finished the Atherstone Flight and
met the harbour master from the Wendover
Festival and had a good laugh. We stopped
for a cuppa and then potter on but stopped
at bridge 69 at Amington and decided
that we were ahead of ourselves so we had
a well deserved rest and a pub dinner..
Friday 19th August:
Started at 8.20, and had great drama along
the way to Glascote Locks - first
a boat came up behind us and decided to overtake
us going full pelt!! I shouted at him
and told him it wasn't a bloody motorway and
Rob kept the motor in the middle because
with so much coal still on board he did not
want to get stuck. When we got to the lock
they were still going through and they could
not have looked more embarrassed if they had
tried.... then we had further drama in the
last lock a family of swans decided to get
in the lock with the butty and one of the
young ones promptly got wedged!! so Rob
had to coax it out, causing quite a hold up
for a time!! Arrived at our destination at
10.50am (Fazeley Junction) so we cleaned
the boats and Rob and Chris
did some fishing and we had a fantastic fish
and chip supper..
Saturday 20th August:
the boats were taken over by Blossom &
Dawn, Dave Vickers and Dave Davies
and we had our lift back to Hampshire
after a very rewarding and enjoyable time
on board.... I have to hand it to the kids
- they worked so hard all week with the locks,
bow hauling the butty and ropes etc.... we
had such a giggle along the way, but we are
going home for a rest now!!!
Mandy
Knight, August 2005.
