Date: Wed, 09 May 2001 11:59:36 +0100 From: Andrew Fanner Reply-To: Canals To: Canals Subject: Mini Trip, Semington to Newbury Or A Chapter of Accidents? Friday morning started well, on the road with the boat by 09:45, heading for Tranquil Boats at Semington. After some less than brilliant signposting around Warminster we arrived by midday and Harry Bell had put Water Ratte into the water, all gear loaded, by 13:00. Back to Portsmouth with the trailer, change cars and up to meet Heather at Newbury, running a bit late now due to traffic but still on course to moor up outside the Barge at Seend Cleeve. Leave the Escort at Newbury and pile into the Mazda. Not far from Silbury Hill there is a ping sound and a lot of dashboard lights shine red. A belt has snapped. Two hours later we are on our way again, into the gathering dusk. Instead of Boating from Semington the unit will be showing ^ÓFitting an alternator belt just East of Marlborough^Ô. We finally arrive; toss the remaining kit into the boat and mooch into Devizes for a fish ^Ñn chip supper. Paul is normally resident in the Middle East and has developed cravings for fish and chips, pork products and beer. Back to the boat after closing time, pile in and move across to the towpath side from the slipway dock. The motor is playing up and won^Òt run at tickover in gear. Fix it in the morning. Saturday morning. 07:00. Brilliant sunshine, so shorts and, in Paul^Òs case, a sarong. I think he has gone a bit native! Set the GPS for imperial measurements and put in some waypoints. Fix the engine by tweaking the mixture and idle speeds. Sweet as a nut and we are off. A forlorn glance at the Barge as we pass and I work the lock, then I get back aboard and start making breakfast. Beef and horseradish sausages and decent filter coffee from the now working machine. Half an hour later I notice the lack of phone at my belt. No phone. Assuming it is in the fore cabin I call it from one of Paul^Òs battery of phones. No answering sounds from the boat but a passer by answers from Seend Cleeve and promises to drop the phone off at the pub. I mutter curses and we set to doing Caen Hill. We are all three of us familiar with the system and there are no other boats about for most of the trip. It transpires we are chasing a single boat about three locks ahead, they won^Òt stop and locky seems unconcerned so we press on reasonably effectively. The Black Horse disgorges Stuart, the fourth crewmember, looking like a man who spent too long at the Reading Beer festival the night before. Onlooking foreign tourists are fascinated by Water Ratte as she looks rather tiny in a chamber, compared to the other traffic of the day, a Dutch barge and a couple of full length narrowboats. We tie up at Devizes Wharf at 15:15. I pop into the chandlery to get some rope and 2 stroke, the rest of the crew very decently go and buy two full tanks of petrol, all 12 gallons of it.. Off to Honey Street for tea and the other crewmembers start to see why I call the Long Pound ^ÓThe Empty Quarter^Ô. Of course, even by Honey Street they have yet to see the isolation of Burbage! We arrive at Honey Street and some very tired people decide that even if the pub is running a midnight closing time we are too tired to do anything more than eat and sleep. Naturally a couple of beers and some food revive us and we stumble aboard at well after midnight. Sunday Dawned rather cold and miserable, a canopy up sort of day. A mild disaster is that nobody remembered to buy any mushrooms for breakfast but whisky-enhanced coffee from the magic machine soon quells the rebels. Fixing speed at 4mph exactly on the GPS we note that there is no real wash at all (and far too much throttle movement left over). Out of Bruce tunnel and the climb down towards Newbury. But I can smell coal smoke and recall that the pumping station will be open. Anyone who has not been, it is quite superb and we spent a lot longer than planned. The coldness of the day and the warmth of the buildings are not unconnected with the length of stay! But enough and we press on to the planned stop of Kintbury to meet friends. The friends advise that they are not going to make it, just as well as we are going slowly as it is cold and the food supplies are low so Hungerford is rescheduled as target for the night. The food rebels demand that we stop for provisions so we moor briefly at Great Bedwyn. Naturally GB is shut, as is Little B, which is a place for those who find the pace of life in GB too fast, but we tried. Heather, in jumping onto a disinfectant mat, loses her shoes to general merriment.. Hungerford Marsh Lock, the one with the swingbridge, has the bridge chained open. Not F & M but ^Óunsafe operation^Ô. There is general speculation on the sight of a narrowboat with a swingbridge on the roof. A slap up feed at the John of Gaunt and we leave, reluctantly, at closing time. Back to Water Ratte for another session of rather inferior wine and some infinitely better beer. Monday Dawned better than Sunday. A party had visited town and returned with breakfast materials so I fired up the stove. I discovered that the oven FFD seems to have go foo (Flavel fixing, any experts?) so its juggle the frying pan, kettle, saucepan and grill. Thousands of calories later (yes, bread fried in bacon and sausage fat) the final rebellion in the crew is dissolved in the coffee and whisky for post breakfast drinkies. Last of the whisky too. Easy locking into Newbury, apart from some closed towpaths here and there. We pass Water Ratte^Òs normal mooring, planning to go to Greenham to dump the dunny and the rubbish, turn round and come back. Disaster, Paul gets caught in the West Mills stream and clouts the concrete very hard indeed, while avoiding another craft. One of the fenders goes down the stream but another is easily obtained. We tie up above the lock to assess and I^Òve got a bit of glassing and gelling to do, a crack/split about a foot long under the flare of the bow. And I need a new set of letters for the name, some of that has been trashed in the process. Much cursing under my breath but its done and is repairable. We will haul out and bring the boat to Portsmouth for a few days to fix the damage with power tools and no water about. All grp experts send advice now, please. I^Òll be getting matting and resin/hardener etc from Netley Boat Jumble, I hope, rather than Halfords! But, to polish up what could have been a lousy day, my phone was in the Barge and so was some very nice beer. Need to be back afloat for Reading towards the end of June and hopefully long before that. Andrew Fanner mc Hole in the Bow _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. ---