From Heathdavid@aol.com Sat May  1 11:22:57 1999
Date: Mon, 8 Jun 1998 15:04:50 EDT
From: Heathdavid@aol.com
Reply-To: canals@blacksheep.org
To: Canals@blacksheep.org
Subject: Soared Round the Ring 3

Friday: It was bright and sunny and we have got up a little earlier and filled
up with water and talked to boat owners from Derby Motor Boat Club. We set off
at 920 and soon received a warning from upcoming boaters of dredging work
towards Leicester where they had been held up for significant amount of time.
We found that all the locks were against us and whilst the first three had
been refurbished, the remainder were very slow. It was time to get the anti
vandal key - sorry - the water conservation key - out . The people running the
dredging operation were friendly and helped us through the locks and we passed
the dredger without any difficulty. Coming out of a lock as we neared
Leicester, I heard a different noise from the engine and stopped to
investigate. As Tony and I  had our heads over the engine he suggested that it
might be to do with the gear change mechanism and I found that it was out of
adjustment. As I luckily had my toolkit, I was able to re-adjust it and we set
off again. On exiting Freeman's lock in Leicester, found I could not change
gear. The cable had snapped and so I briefed Mary on how to change gear on the
engine itself. I realised that I needed to give her and myself a little time
when I needed reverse. Having consulted our BW Grand Union North guide,  I
phoned Raynsway Marina and they offered to take me to get free cable the next
day. We continued using my verbal remote control and moored by the White Horse
pub at Birstall. The next boat  along on the moorings warned us that they had
been stoned by youths as they passed through Loughborough. We had never had
any problems there before and so decided to keep our fingers crossed for the
next day. Tony and Gina joined us in the White Horse and we ended up having a
relatively late night. 

Saturday: Having first woken up at five,  I then managed to over sleep and so
we had to rush to start off by 8.50 to go straight to the marina. We had
agreed with Tony and Gina at the pub the previous night that they out to
continue on their own as we didn't knot how long it would be before we were
fully mobile again. We arrived there just after 9 o'clock and they kindly took
me to a local specialists where I was able to buy new cable and had returned
to the boat and fitted it by 10.20. As we really wanted to get back to Redhill
that evening, we agreed that I would lock through Barrow deep on my own while
Mary went into Barrow to buy the makings for lunch. We decided to have lunch
on the move so a nice fresh French bread sandwich and a lager went down very
well. While I locked through Loughborough Town lock, Mary went into B&Q and
bought a hanging basket which we put on the roof of the boat (very NB). The
Sun came out later that day and we have day nice cruise back down the Soar to
our moorings.

You will probably gather that we prefer to be on the move rather than mooring
and discovering the places of interest. We had enjoyed our 8 days on the
"Ring". Isn't it strange that you only have to be out on the boat a couple of
days and it seems like a week. A week out seemed more like a month. After 164
ish miles and 100 locks (including the flood locks) we are keen to set off
again. It will be long weekends for a while yet though.

David Heath