Date: Wed, 3 Jan 2001 21:52:46 -0000 From: Andrew Dyke Reply-To: Canals To: Canals Subject: Christmas Cruise 2000/2001 [ The following text is in the "iso-8859-1" character set. ] [ Your display is set for the "US-ASCII" character set. ] [ Some characters may be displayed incorrectly. ] HI All, As Promised. Boxing Day -Tuesday December 26th 2000 Wendy and I left the house at 10.15am with 2 cars and drove to Whilton marina, where we left one of the cars and then drove on to Crick Wharf where One Moore is moored. It's a lovely winter day bright and dry. After loading the boat and the usual pre set off checks the engine started first time and we set off at 12.15pm. We do no intend to go far today, only to Norton Junction. The trip starts with a wetter than normal Crick tunnel but the view as we exit the other end is quite spectacular. The bright sunshine reflecting on the water, and then bouncing up again to illuminate the tunnel roof. There are more boats around than last year. We even pass one from Clifton Cruisers. Didn't realize that hire companies worked in the winter. At Watford locks, the top one is full and we go straight in. We descend quickly and are soon finished the 7 locks including staircase that make up the Watford flight. In the sunshine, its really quite warm, or is it the hot mulled wine that Wendy had prepared, keeping me content while on the stern of a cruise style Nb. We stopped at the Junction and moored up. The new Inn was the venue for our evening meal and very nice it was too. Wednesday 27th December 2000 We left the mooring mid morning and the weather was still very pleasant. We teamed up with another boat for the decent of Buckby Locks. It was a good job we did because the gates were very heavy and I had trouble opening some of them on my own. Once at the bottom it was only an hour or so to Weedon and the moorings by the Narrowboat Inn. We got settled in, tied up, TV ariel up and so on and waited for the others to arrive. First in the convoy was Badger who chugged on by informing me that the Narrowboat Inn was not open that evening and our party had been booked into the Globe Hotel at Weedon, some 20 minutes or so back up the cut. We were already pointing in the correct direction, having turned round at the winding hole before mooring, so we untied our mooring ropes and followed the convoy to the moorings by the Globe. The boats consisted of One Moore, Badger, Laplander, Thorn and Percyphone, Draco, Duplin, Raven, and 12 crew. Dinner was booked for 8.00pm. Wendy and I arrived late, having gone to the wrong hotel to start with. Sean was out looking for us when we got to the Globe. The evening started with a joke from the Wooding's son in law and continued with laughter all evening. The food was excellent and plentiful, so plentiful in fact that there were leftovers for the Wooding's family dog. A great evening. Thanks to all. Thursday 28th December 2000 We woke to a frozen canal and snow on the boats. At 9.30am or there abouts the convoy left in sunshine to head for Braunston. We were only going as far as Whilton so left later at about 1.30pm. It was a lovely chug. Sunshine and not really cold considering the freezing canal. We arrived at Whilton Marina at about 2.30pm having previously booked in for 3 nights. We moored up, hooked up to the electric and I headed for home, by car, leaving Wendy on board. She was planning to read, paint and generally chill out, while I went back to work. Sunday 31st December 2000 I returned to the boat at 4.00pm and found Wendy well and truly iced in. There had been a very cold spell in the last few days and although it was now a bit warmer, there was still about 2 inches of ice around the boat. We had planned to drive to Braunston and see the new year in with the 'gang' at the Plough but the weather was very bad and we decided, in the end, to stay put and see the new year in on board. At midnight, a boat across the marina let off some rockets and very spectacular they were too. Monday 1st January 2001 Our plan today was to move the boat up to the top of the Buckby Locks and moor by the New Inn. At 10.30am I flashed up the engine, which started fine and started smashing the ice at the stern with the boat pole. It was about 2 inches thick. Getting out was going to be a problem. The boat owner opposite us had a Dutch barge and seeing our difficulty opened up her own engines and the ice smashed with the force. This was a big help and enabled us to reverse out of our mooring and turn One Moore for the entrance. We crashed through the remaining ice and 30 minutes later turned onto the cut proper. On route the engine suddenly lost power and then was ok again. This pattern was to be repeated all day. The ice on the cut was still thick but broken, other boats had been passing through. The gates were even more difficult to move, due to the ice in the locks not allowing the gates to go fully home and the lack of grip for my feet on the ground. The temperature had risen to 10 degrees or so and it was not cold. The thickness of the ice was going to take some shifting even with the rise in temperature. We continued up the locks with care. Badger, with Mandy at the helm and Glen on lock duty were sighted at the second lock from the top on their way back home. We stopped at the top lock at 1.30pm and established that the pub was not open for food that night. We had 2 hours to get to Watford staircase before they shut, if we were to get all the way back to Crick that night, we had to get past the locks by 3.30pm. We decided to press on. The engine was performing ok at this point. We turned onto the Leicester section and all was well. There was still plenty of ice around and we crashed through it. Suddenly we lost all power again. The engine was ticking over but only just moving forward. We crossed our fingers and pressed on. Just before the lock the engine died all together. It started again and after a short rest, power came back. Up the locks we went and at the top stopped for dunny dump and water. All now seemed ok. As we left the top lock the same thing happened again. We were able to go forward but only just. Then the engine stopped again and we were left at the mercy of the wind, which pushed us across the cut and we run aground. This time there was no starting the engine. I fiddled with the wires, found a loose one on the starter motor and bingo the engine started. We proceeded, slowly all the way back, through the tunnel to Crick. We arrived at 5.00pm and were very glad to be home. We moored on the cut moorings, as to actually get into the Marina would have been a major feat. Paul from the marina helped us get tied up and suggested that the problem may have been water in the fuel. Another chum of mine said that the diesel may have been frozen and was not getting through to the engine properly. In the evening we walked up to the Red Lion in Crick and who should we meet propping up the bar, where else :-), but Malcolm Nixon. We had a few wets, as you do and Malcolm joined us for pudding. A great time had by all. On a completely different subject, we had a good find in the last few days. We needed some more coal for the fire and Wendy found some very good compressed hexagonal coal nuts that stayed in much longer than the larger ones we were using and made very little ash. It's called 'Pureheat' and is made by Aimcor. It's excellent. Tuesday 2nd January 2001 At mid morning we moved the boat back into her mooring within the marina, tied up and left for home, via Whilton Marina to collect our other car and purchase another couple of bags of the Pureheat. Another great Christmas cruise. 'Don't Fall In', Andrew e-mail - AndrewDyke@ThatCameraPlace.freeserve.co.uk Home Page and Evesham In Flood, Easter 1998 http://members.tripod.com/Andrew_Dyke/ That Camera Place Web Site http://www.thatcameraplace.co.uk e-mail - photosales@thatcameraplace.co.uk ---