Crew - Graham, Brenda, Matt & Simon

The day dawned grey and damp in honour of the Queen Mum who died yesterday afternoon. Awoke at 07:30 to the sound of rain on the roof. By the time we had breakfasted and were ready to go, it had stopped and the sun had appeared. Turned left at Napton Jnctn. and travelled for my first time ever on the Grand Union north. Passed through most of the locks solo. Obtained milk from Calcutt and a nice Sunday Roast at the Two Boats, Long Itchington. We ate and drank all we could manage and the I was given some 'Burton' scratchcards with which we won 2 more free pints. Left the 4 boats the worse for wear and continued north (ish).

We ate the Easter cakes, that Pat had brought on Friday night, for pud, We decided to call it a day at about 5 PM and moored at Bulls bridge, just South(East?) of Leamington. Simon's friend Jo (tiller girl - post A level cruise) and her family went past in a Viking Afloat hireboat in the evening. They were pressing on in order to have an early start on Hatton. Another quiet night ensued after the traditional Sunday night game of Soddit. (Not quite the same with my 2 boys)

Crew - Graham, Brenda, Matt & Simon

Happy Birthday Brenda. (No mention of 'all fools' in our household) Raining when we awoke , but clear and dry when we emerged apre' breakfast. Started at 09:00 and then found shops by bridge 36 for bread for breakfast. Trolled through Leamington and Warwick ready for an assault on Hatton. At the bottom lock we teamed up with an 'un-named' hire boat from a covert Coventry fleet whose female section of the crew were obviously there for the ride. By a quarter of the way up they had witnessed Brenda steer and make hot drinks for the lockcrew at the same time, but still protested when their workers asked them to create hot refreshment. By halfway up, they had witnessed two crew rotations on Jannock (the only way of coping with the copious clouds of black smoke from the knackered injectors in their Lister SR3) and were grudgingly assisting with pushing gates. By the top of Hatton the 'Jannocks' and the male section of their crew had moulded into a mean team and we were catching up those in front. Having cleared Hatton, we stopped at bridge 56, Hatton station, and had lunch while it rained. The rain stopped and I then moved the car to Kingswood whilst the remainder of the crew moved Jannock through the tunnel.

Although I walked all round the junction, I was unable to locate convenient 14 day moorings so we moored on the 48 hour link moorings and waited to ask in the BW office the following morning.
(Matt) Moved on to a nice area to stop for the night, it's close to a railway line but it will do nicely. After an evenings windlass fishing Simon produced 4 windlasses to our amazement.

Crew - Graham, Brenda, Matt & Simon

A very pretty overnight stay, not too troubled by trains. The birdsong this morning was splendid. Our plans to move on, via more locks (Oh our aching muscles) were thwarted by the Lapworth locky who, replendent in Black boiler suit (grumble, grumble) said we could stay where we were for 14 days. Brenda found out why the cottages along the Stratford have such strange roof shapes - it's because they re-cycled the wooden bridge and tunnel formers as roof rafters. Clever Eh? We travelled home collecting Simon's metro from Cropredy on route.

Link to Stratford Canal page for the next part

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Post A level Crew re-united
- Simon, Kevin, Stuart, Jo, Cara & Gemma

(Simon) From Lapworth onto Hatton where we met with a bloke and his wife in nb Jakana Mist, very nice pair. Went into the Saltisford Arm to moor for Warwick exploration, but were told VERY RUDELY to leave as we 'weren't able to moor'. Not a lot in Warwick except a castle and an antique shop or two.

(Gemma) Who ever came up with the idea of a 24 hr Tesco is a genius! Funky bottle of Fat Sam's. Strange writing though, much like mine.

(Jo) There has been far too much deep theological/religious debate tonight, my brain has died, permanently. Stu's quote of the day; 'Simon, I'm analyzing.' I must say I revelled in Stu's love, it made me feel a lot better. And the lights flicker everytime someone uses the toilet. Hhhmmm....Stu & Cara are off for MORE wine. We may never see them again.

(Simon) Oops! Cara & Stuart forgot about Her Majesty's Licensing Laws forbidding the sale of alcohol after 11pm. Hee hee!

Post A level Crew re-united
- Simon, Kevin, Stuart, Jo, Cara & Gemma

(Simon) Lazy day today. Latestart and then 9 locks before filling up with water and moving on. Stopped at Long Ichington with the intention of lazing and going to 'The Two Boats'.

(Cara) Not a bad day really. Not bad at all. I went on a lovely walk through beautiful fields, enjoying the luxury of LOTS of space. This evening comprised of darts and - surprise, surprise - copious amounts of alcohol. We are about to embark on cheese and biscuits. In the words of Stu, " I wouldn't say no."

(Kev) Morning, I had a nice omelette for lunch, included tomato; bit cold but my fault as playing with a staircase lock. Got up early today and made everyone a cup of tea and washed up all day. Biks and cheese coming my way, so goodbye.

(Stuart) Well after a brief absense from the lovely logbook I'd like to say that today's been alright.I've managed to fit in 1 1/2 hours of trumpet related antics and we are on our second bottle of wine, after returning from the public house. Everyone likes cheese and biscuits, which is what we are having now.

(Gemma) Ditto, nuff said.

(Jo) I have spent a pleasant day feeling fairly ropey, culminating in a dizzy game of darts where the board was moving around a lot, muchus funnus. Slept a lot today - pancakes tomorrow. Ummmm... Stu has a really wierd veins. I'm quite tired now. Sorry about the cruddy entry, I'll try harder tomorrow. Night.

Post A level Crew re-united
- Simon, Kevin, Stuart, Jo, Cara & Gemma

(Kevin) Well I said it wouldn't rain this week when everyone thought otherwise, and I was right! It was only when Liz and Anna came up from Thame that the rain came briefly. The only thing to report today was Stuart's pinball method of getting into locks.

(Jo) Big massive respect to Kev for cleaning the whole boat, inside and out, single handedly. Thanks!

(Cara) Yeah, nice one Kev, a big hand from me too! We're all packed and ready to gonow, the week's ben really good. I won't miss the rocking feeling when it eventually subsides though! Bye-bye Jannock, we love you.

(Stuart) Must also add my applause to Kev's deluge of respect. Would also like to correct him on several counts. It rained big style for the first 2-3 days, I only pranged the boat because of another random boat being in the way, so it's kinda Kev's fault. Thanks for a wicked week.

(Gemma) I think Jo needs a warm round of applause too, as she did the skirting boards and bathroom. Yay, Jo! It's been another luvvly jubbly week, but must go now as I have 17 pages to go before I finish my book, and I have a reputation to uphold! XXX

(Simon) Short day to complete our journey. Stu's lock driving suddenly deteriorated,but the fire extinguisher refused to drop off the wall, so Cara won the driving competition with 20 points. great week guys, shame about the pancakes, huh?

Link to Oxford Canal for next day

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Crew - Graham, Brenda, Simon and Matt.

Today would have been suitable for the Uncle Mort Boat Club Commodore's Inaugural Cruise!
It was grey, dull, damp and miserable. Grand!
What worries me is that there were fishermen who obviously chose sitting out in this 'weather'. Why not just go to Tesco, buy a pack of fishcakes, sit in the caff for a couple of hours, mebbe reading t'Greyhound Times and then GO HOME, warm and dry?
All the recent internet prattle about commercial boats and Jannock's previous life as said craft has re-kindled Graham's thirst for flyboating. The combination of dark AND mud is very atmospheric.
We passed Laplander and Thorn plus Persephone on their moorings at Stockton.

Crew - Graham, Brenda, Simon and Matt.
Honorary crew for Hatton ; Sean, Dave J. and Val (plus dog)
Thanks Folks!

The day started grey and dreary. We had arranged for extra crew at about 11.00 at the bottom of Hatton.
Having breakfasted well at Tesco's, we then set off through the Cape. We picked Sean up outside the cemetary, and then Dave and Val at the bottom lock. The higher up Hatton we climbed the wetter it got. ( The towpath has been badly churned up, probably by cyclists, rendering it almost impossible for boaters to use safely.) Completed Hatton in 2 hours, 15 minutes.
We then fed and watered our guests during which time vast quantities of Xmas cake and moled (sic) wine were demolished. The latter had kept us warm most of the way up Hatton. Sean reckoned this to be a healthy eating regime, getting his 5 portions of fruit & veg from moled wine. Val reckoned Xmas cake also counted due to the generous fruit content. ---- I hate mud!! ---- We bid fairwell to our temporary crew members before proceeding to Lapwoth Link, arriving in the dark, again! (Viva le' flyboating!)

Neil R. had come and found us at the top of Hatton, just to make sure we were OK, for a drink at his local in Lapworth that is. After a white knuckle walk along the wet, muddy, unlit towpath (torch not helping much) we arrived at the Navigation, divested of coats and boots which were arranged tastefully around the logfire to steam. No-one complained! Warm! Dry! We walked back the long way round, a much better choice. Neil arranged to meet us next am. for our assault on the Lapworth flight.

Link to Stratford Canal for next day

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Crew - Graham and Neil A.

Andrew G. rose at 06:00 to go to work. He delivered me to Hopwood so that I could move the car to Lapworth. We left our overnight mooring and did the last 5 locks down on the advice given by a boat crew coming the other way. They had just abandoned going any further up Lapworth flight due to the thickness of the Ice. "It's not as icy as this further down" they said. How wrong they were!
Even though the ice on the Grand Union was thinner, it still managed to halt our forward motion when we slowed to pass moored boats. We set off down Hatton solo but soon joined up with a couple on an elderly springer at the 3rd lock down. No speed records, but with 2 steerers and 2 lock workers we made good progress. We parted company with them above Cape lock and continued on our own. Finally made the Two Boats at Long Itchingdon in the dark ( 9 hour days in winter are not good - however 56 lock/miles in that time is! )
The original GiG-ette plan was to meet Philip and Alan plus Roger in the Green Man for a meal, but when we arrived there we were told that they were not doing food that evening. We turned about and went to the Two Boats for an excellent meal. Roger came back to Jannock for coffee before departing back to Calcutt.

Crew - Graham and Neil A.

A leisurely start through the remaining broken ice and the last 8 locks of the trip. We were ice breaking on the Oxford canal when we got shouted at by the female owner of one of the wooden boats that was moored adjacent to the winding point. We had to reverse back past her again to moor due to all the 14 places being full up with boats awaiting the locks to be re-opened. We packed up, collected Neils car and went home.

Link to Oxford Canal page for next entry

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