24^th October - 7^th November -

DOWNHILL ALL THE WAY - STOKE TO SAWLEY

I really wasn’t in the mood to go boating: maybe because it was a necessary chore (to get the boat home), maybe because the weather wasn’t brilliant, maybe because I’d spent the morning going over to Middlewich for a second-hand starter and fitting it - I don’t really know. Anyway, having got Rumpus fuelled and paid my dues to Festival Park Marina, I was off on my way home. The Stoke flight has some very deep locks, mainly (so I’m led to understand) because the top and bottom ones have been re-built as a result of the construction of Queensway (the A500). Also, I was going downhill single handed, which is nowhere near as easy as going uphill. Nevertheless, I was able to “persuade” a good number of locals (including a courting couple, who actually did a couple of locks, and a pair of trainspotters near the station) to close the bottom gates for me, solving the one really awkward problem.

Having seen the trains back in service again (and the Stoke rush hour) I was away past the Britannia Stadium (and the site of its predecessor, the Victoria ground) into the suburbs. I got to Barlaston before it got dark, tied up near the “Plume of Feathers” and had dinner, whilst listening to the local yokels letting off fireworks (yes folks, it’s THAT time of the year again) and showing how loud their car stereos could be. I opened a bottle of fairly cheap wine and drank the lot - BIG mistake! I fell into a drunken stupor, awoke a couple of hours later to find all around me quiet and peaceful, managed to make my bed and stagger into it, and slept the whole night through!

6.1 miles, 6 locks

25^th October 2003

I awoke the next morning feeling far better than I had any right to, bearing in mind my overindulgence the night before. Having breakfasted, repaired the slide (which together with the rear doors is due a redesign this winter) and polished the brasses, I was off again, heading for Meaford top lock. Here, Rumpus took up a very curious angle as she got caught up between the lock side and the bottom gates: something sorted with a rapid bit of paddle work to refloat her. Keep her away from the bottom gates, Brian! Newcastle Road Lock at Stone was the place to pause for water, waste, Thetfordery and lunch, following which I set off under a glorious blue sky towards Great Haywood. Star Lock was interesting: I was hailed by the steerer of “Twelfth Night” “Is that the Rumpus off the newsgroup?” Indeed, it was. There was a couple taking a great interest in the operation of the lock - turned out they’d just bought a boat through Andy Burnett and “had decided they’d better see how a lock worked”. Out came the “other” windlasses and they got a swift practical lesson!

I always like the stretch between Stone and Great Haywood - the locks are well spread and the canal is very scenic, though a little close to the railway at times. I was impressed at how quiet the trains are on what is virtually a new railway - the new trains are much quieter than their forebears and the new track helps as well.

I had a very pleasant meeting at Weston Lock - who should be coming in the opposite direction but one Eugene Baston, (BW’s Customer Relations Manager) Stoke-bound with the Black Prince hireboat Grace. This was one of the boats used in the filming of the new Waterways Code video and Eugene has been moving it back each weekend - incognito! I know he’s enjoyed the experience and he’s got a whole load of tales which I hope he’s going to share with us. A pleasant few minutes were spent sharing a bottle of beer or two before we were on our way.

I was conscious of the need to press on and find a spot suitable for Susan to come and pick me up at so Colwich Lock was worked in the murk of dusk: had it have been lighter I would have spotted the bottom gate paddles that some twit had left up rather earlier than I did. Anyway, that sorted I pressed on through increasingly heavy rain (and fallen leaves - a perpetual problem, made worse by the fact that I couldn’t see when the exhaust went black) through Rugeley to my eventual destination at the Plum Pudding at Armitage, where I eventually arrived at a quarter to nine. For some strange reason, I had no problem going through Armitage "Tunnel"! I fed whilst Susan was coming over, then we unloaded and went in the Plum Pudding. What a surprise! What had been an honest-to-goodness pub on our last visit is now a Pub Brasserie, serving small portions of food at high prices (no main course less than a tenner, and puddings at four pounds, folks) and kitted out with leather armchairs which are a bugger to get out of and musak. Never mind, there’s a much better and cheaper pub across the road!

20.5 miles, 14 locks

31^st October

“The autumn leaves, drift past my window, Those autumn leaves, in red and gold.......”

I arrived at the boat at about 9-30, having elected not to stop on board the previous night, to save the battery. Having got everything on board, the engine cranked up (not without the usual protests) and I was off! It soon became very obvious that we were going to have Problems: the autumn leaves (whilst very attractive) cause absolute mayhem with your propeller! It’s all fine and dandy with a modern engine installation: pop the single lever control in reverse when the engine starts to grunt - problem solved! Rumpus has a small engine and trad-style controls, so she runs out of "puff" earlier (signified by a dropping engine note and black smoke from the exhaust) and a quick reverse is out of the question. Wind the throttle off, wait for the revs to die a bit, into reverse with the gear knob and wind the throttle back on again - all a bit of a ta-ta! This was happening every few minutes or so, except in those blessed places where the wind had cleared them. They were also having unseen effects, too................

As I came out of Shade House Lock, it was apparent that all was not well - the engine wouldn’t "go" and there were suddenly clouds of steam where there should be gushes of water. A glance at the water temperature gauge showed that it was registering - something it NEVER does normally as Rumpus is raw water cooled. Stop the engine, investigate the mud box. Lo and behold, them bloody leaves had clogged it up good and proper! No great problem: wash the filter under the tap, re-instal it and after the engine has cooled down a bit, start it and run it gently until water appears out of the outlet and the temperature gauge needle slinks back to its lower stop.

Approaching Fradley Junction, it became apparent that cruising was being slowed down by BW locking 3 pans and a tug down the locks ahead of us. One of the pans was only a titchy thing, about 30 feet long, so I offered to tow it down the flight to speed things up a bit. Thus it was that we passed the Swan with the pan firmly attached by cross straps: my first experience of doing this. It’s interesting when it bends in the middle.............. but so long as I took my time all went well, AND the BW staff worked the locks for me! I dropped the pan off by the BW Office and continued on towards Alrewas, where there had been the hint of a mini-GIG with Will Chapman, but he wasn’t at home so I pressed on to Barton Turns Marina for the night. After dinner I went to bed indecently early, like about 9-15....................

10.2 miles, 10 locks

1^st November

.... but awoke the next morning much refreshed, and to an absolutely glorious day, unlike the previous day’s cloud and rain. Having breakfasted, polished brasses and topped up with water at one of the two water points below Barton Lock, it was on under clear blue skies through Tatenhill Lock, where preparations for the stoppage starting the following Monday were well advanced.

I arrived at Shobnall, there to order the remaining plaques I need to cover this year’s cruising and to talk about using the paint dock next year. I was also able to observe some of my "trainees" winding Tamara there - well, I had told them I’d be out on the cut! Their reaction was "Oh no, not here, not now!" but in actual fact they managed very well and got a 5.9 from me. Pressing on to Horninglow, I met the Barneys, Christensens and Zwalockis on "Just Chugging" who I’d also trained last Thursday. I invited them for a coffee: they invited me for a beer. No contest! We spent the next hour or so in The Navigation, discussing (and sampling) both real ale and pasteurised beers and explaining why there were two rooms (bar and lounge, or in Derbyshire, Tap Room and Best Room), how England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales are all part of the UK but are separate countries as well, how the Prince of Wales got his name and "How should we think about Camilla" - all in all a fascinating hour.

However there was boating still to be done so I went back to Rumpus whilst the Americans headed Bass Museum-wards. The day was still gorgeous but as the sun started to dip towards the horizon it started to get increasingly chilly, so I was glad that the heating was working very well. I eventually arrived at Stenson just as the light was going, there to wait for Susan to arrive and whisk me back to Armitage for the car. Whilst I was waiting, I experimented with a little oil lamp we’d bought in Spain a number of years ago. i was surprised how much light it gave off: I may well instal a bigger one!

11.5 miles, 4 locks

7^th November

After a run over to Market Drayton to pick the starter up, I collected friend and sometime newsgroup lurker John to come and give me a hand with the stretch through the Six Big Locks - ones that I always like to get a hand with. Locking down Stenson having been completed, we were both amazed to see an apparently fearless kingfisher happily posing and perching on off-side branches as we came past, instead of flying away as normal. When he did fly away, he perched on another branch in full view of us. Maybe the relative lack of boats (seeing as now half term holidays in England have finished) means they are happier to be seen. Certainly these were the best and closest views either of us had had.

The weather was gorgeous (again) but there were still problems with "leaves on the line" and frequent bursts of reverse were needed to make forward progress at times. On one memorable occasion I didn’t “back off” as I usually do, just to see what would happen. The engine damn near stalled before I took pity on it - the black smoke trail was something else, too!

Canaltime boats were about, but much less than during the summer - there are only 12 boats in total going out from Sawley over the winter. We passed two which had come out on Friday morning (having arrived too late to go out on Thursday) and exchanged greetings and light-hearted banter.

Eventually, the sun started to dip below the horizon and it started to get cold - was I glad the heating was going full chat! We locked out of Derwent Mouth, at long last I was able to give Rumpus her head and the passage down to Sawley was completed in double-quick time. I got moored up at the end of the pier and watched a gorgeous sunset before going below for a coffee and tidy-up before wandering down to the main gate for Susan to pick us up.

10.7 miles, 6 locks

Total 59 miles, 40 locks