Date: Wed, 8 Aug 2001 15:32:00 +0100 From: Ann Harvey Reply-To: Canals To: Canals Subject: Amos on the Shroppie Part 1 [ 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. ] For those who like trip reports, here's the account of our first 'real' cruise of this year. Saturday July 7th After shopping and making a start on brass cleaning reversed out of the mooring at 12.30 and made our way up to Greensforge lock. A small contretemps occurred with a fisherman and his two lads who were fishing from the bollards on the lock landing. I pulled in and Ken told them that they shouldn^Òt be fishing there, and one of the boys got his hook caught on the centre rope that Ken was holding after it caught his hand. The father angrily denied that it had been caught up but Ken showed him his lad^Òs line ^Ö minus hook. He was (or claimed to be) completely unaware that he was fishing in a wrong place. Ken advised him to look on his fishing permit, secure in the knowledge that he hadn^Òt heard of one of them either. We moved through the lock and up to Swindon where we moored up at 2.00 pm. Our pints and cobs and chips were waiting for us at the Bush along with Pat and Tom and Penny and Patrick. We had as enjoyable Saturday lunchtime as usual. Tom told us about his visit to Elsmere Port last weekend, where he took up the invitation, (issued to older brother Leslie and himself before Les^Ò death this January,) to steer the Towy. Towy was their father^Òs boat and is now based at the boat museum at Elsmere Port. It was a very traumatic event for him, as Les was not now able to be there too, and their father had also died before the Towy was rediscovered. It was also a great thrill for him to steer his father^Òs boat, on which several of his brothers and sisters had been born (and also himself IIRC). Back on Amos we set off a little lethargically at 3.30, feeling the effects of our lunch and the fact that 3.30 is the time of lowest energy. We made a brief pause at Giggety Wharf to chat to Paul and Carol. We bought a tube of brass cleaner that had been reccommended to us called Peek. We shall try it and see. We moored above Bratch at 6.00 pm. We were only the 16th boat to go through Bratch today, which only included one hireboat. This is dire for this time of the year. We dined on a ready cooked chicken and fresh crusty bread bought this morning before setting off and accompanied it with a glass of wine and some trifle and cheesecake. I did switch on the TV to see what the Wimbledon results were and found to our surprise that the Men^Òs semi-final which we^Òd missed yesterday was still being played as it had been rained off yesterday. Unfortunately it was again rained off for the rest of the day. How one loses touch with everyday life when on the canal. Sunday 8 July I woke at 7 am after a good sleep, to the sound of rain ^Ö so I did the sensible thing and went back to sleep for an hour. I got up at 8 am and it was drizzling on and off. When Ken woke at 9.15 the weather had brightened a little, but we decided we weren^Òt in any hurry. We eventually set off at 11 am after the Archers and had a good run all the way up the S & W. We met Cygnus at Ebstree Lock on her way home but there are very few boats on the move. We stopped briefly at Compton for Ken to get a paper and some stern gland grease. As we passed the junction with the Wolverhampton 21 Richard ^ÑBlack hands^Ò was just emerging. We moored at Brewood at 5 pm after a little juggling so that Richard could have our first mooring place, while we moved up to a smaller slot. The weather has alternated between sun and clouds bout as we neared Brewood it seemed to get colder. Ken dropped the mooring hook in the cut and had to get out the magnet to retrieve it. I spent a quiet hour on the front deck doing my cross stitch, before we ate our dinner. We then took a walk along the Staffordshire Way into the top of the village and had a couple of nice drinks in the White Swan, before returning and having a quiet hour before turning in for an early night. Monday 9th July A shady mooring didn^Òt give any clues when we woke except that it wasn^Òt raining. After a chat to the owner of nb Olly moored in front of us we set off at 9.30 am in pleasant but mainly overcast weather. As we were nearing Stretton Aqueduct I spotted a terrapin sitting on a rock. It was too late to get the camera out, but I^Òll be ready on the way back in case he^Òs there again. We moored up at Wheaton Aston at 10.45ish and took on water while breakfast was prepared. We just managed to eat it before having to vacate the waterpoint at 11.15 and went on to Gnosall stopping for a pint at the Navigation Inn at 1.30 pm. While Ken finished his pint outside in the sunshine I went to the ironmonger^Òs to buy a new knife to fit the new cutlery drawer, which is one inch shorter than the present carving knife. At 2.30 we moved on to Norbury, and moored up for the night at 3.15 pm, near Mal Edwards the Fenderman. As this is a relaxing trip, we did just that for the rest of the afternoon, and after a late meal we went into the Junction Inn for a couple of pints and then back for another early night. ---