Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2000 13:40:26 +0100 From: Andrew Dyke Reply-To: Canals To: Canals Subject: Trip Report - From The Cut 4 [ 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, Forth report on the way and at the GIG. Continued:- Later,- in fact much later, as I am typing this at 8.55am on Sunday 20th at the GIG. Wendy is still in her bed. What a splendid night last night was, but I digress, back to Thursday night. - We left for the pub at 6.30. The Woolpack we thought we were going to, turned out to be the Saracens Head. This pub is not mentioned in our Nicholsons. It is a short step from Bridge 80, past the chickens, that run free, on the small green outside a large white house. The pub food menu was excellent as was the service. Mixed grill for me, rack of lamb for Wendy, roast beef with all the trimmings for Janet and fish for John. All very nice. It was one of those occasions when the discussion got a little heated. John, Wendy and I like a good old debate but Janet was, for some reason unhappy with some of the comments and left the pub earlier than the rest of us. I'll move on. Friday 18th August. We get up leisurely and leave the moorings at about 9.ooam. Today its overcast and soon the drizzle turns into rain. We soon hit our first lock just above bridge 79. Its against us so we moor up and help those coming through. Its now our turn and John brings the boat in to the lock. Its now raining hard. This is the picture for the rest of our trip to Great Haywood junction. John and I stand on the stern, John steers and I keep him company. Just before bridge 74 a small Nb gets closer and closer, going the other way. Its Rumpus. I shout to Brian. We will see him later at the GIG, 'yup sure will'. At the junction we stop for water and Wendy goes shopping. Its stopped raining, hoorah. Nb Shy Talk takes a lot of water. Its amazing how much of the stuff we all use. We then turn right onto the Staffs and Worcs. We stop again, after some tricky boat manovering to get into the marina, for some Diesel. 24.5 pence per litre. Shy Talk takes 20.00UKP and is now full to the brim. Off again, we have been stopped about an hour. It's a great shame that the sun is not shinning because the trip through Tixall Wide is lovely, but we enjoy it all the same. A boat appears behind us and seems in a hurry so we wave it through. Turns out be Mr Toad also off to the GIG. We soon reach Tixall lock, number 43. Its raining hard again. The girls stay inside, I set the lock and John continues to Steer. The canal gets narrow in places along here and the River Sow keeps us company one side and the railway on the other. The trains rattle past every now and then. John says 'it's a long time since he has seen that many virgins', I reply with the old joke about, no good getting a virgin train - they wont go all the way. We chuckle like schoolboys. I take over the steering. The canal weaves and winds and the trees and bushes overhang the water in lots of places. As we approach Stafford Boat club I can see other boats in the distance that have a familiar shape. Yes its Raven and Spey. We turn in to the marina and are directed to our mooring, by John Watson, resplendent in his designer harbour master uniform We moor about 3 quarters up on the right. There is room to turn and I slip in without incident. We have arrived. There are shouts of hello again, nice to see you. Hands are shaken, people are kissing and hugging in welcome. The tea appears and we gather in and around Tony Mealing 's caravan to eat drink and Chat. The rain comes and goes. Rumpus arrives to much cheering and then Thorn. At about 5.15 Brian and Mary, who are the owners Shy Talk, arrive with Mary's Mother, who is visiting them from Scotland. Mary's Mum has never seen the boat and she is give a short tour. In the evening we wonder up to the clubhouse, Whisper arrives at about this time and glides gently and quietly into her mooring. The clubhouse has been built by the members and we have an excellent evening meal of fish and chips. Members of the club play and sing for our enjoyment. Its then back to the boat. John Wendy and I have 'just the one' on the stern and are joined by John Watson. Its midnight now and we turn in. Saturday 19th August. At 9.30am Brian arrives to take John and I to Rugeley to collect our cars. We are leaving Shy Talk at Stafford Boat Club and returning by car to Evesham after the curry tomorrow. Brian will collect Shy Talk next weekend and return her to Rugeley. Janet insists that she wants to go home today. She is in another of her moods and John reluctantly agrees to go home early. First though we take advantage of the 5UKP mobile pump out at the club. Shy Talk has 2 bathrooms and 2 holding tanks and therefore requires 2 pump outs. Reaching the boat is fine for one side but I have to move the boat for the second. Sean and Malcolm help with the transfer. We then move the bow fender up a little, so that its protection factor is more useful. This is quite difficult to do and once more help is in full supply. We succeed up to a point. The fender is higher but not as central as we would have liked. Years of the fender being in the wrong place are difficult to undo. Put up our tent, without the walls for use as a sunshade. The sun is shinning and it's a glorious day. Its now early afternoon and J&J leave for home. Shame for John to miss the rest of the weekend. The ferret racing starts. I have never seen this before and its great entertainment. 4 of the 41 ferrets Sheila has bought with her race at a time. I expected them to go off like rockets down the tubes, but no, they saunter out of the starting traps and eventually one of them reach the end and win the race. Wendy and I go in the car in search of some money and a newspaper and take Stan Voets with us on the same mission. We now relax, and miss the 'school photo' being taken. We were there honest. Its now time for the BBQ. We collect our packs from the clubhouse. We of course have extras as J&J's packs have been pre paid. Bangers, burgers and trimmings all provided, cooked by the individual. Lovely. Next came the quiz. Our team Jack and Shirley from Poppy and Malcolm Nixon from Duplin. 6 rounds pictures, music, cryptic and 3 general knowledge. Very good fun. There then followed singers, a fiddle player, story tellers and an assortment of jokers that kept us all entertained until nearly midnight, when it was time for us to turn in, for others the fun continued in the early hours. Sunday 20th August. A late start was followed by an excellent breakfast in the clubhouse. In my case 2 breakfasts because I used one of the spare pre paid tickets left by J&J. Its hot and sunny today. At 12 noon the auction was in full swing. Auctioneer John Watson doing a fine selling job with items donated by various people, including some for charity. Its now 1.20pm. This afternoon there will be various team games. If previous years are anything to go by great fun will by had by all. Wendy and I are going home tonight after the curry. A smashing week. 'Don't Fall In' Andrew >From the Cut andrewdyke@thatcameraplace.freeserve.co.uk ---