Crew - Graham, John H, Terry R & Rob R
Lesson of the day - steerers have to concentrate ALL of the time.

Crewed by Graham and three work colleagues, Jannock left Lapwork Link at 12:00 on Saturday and headed off towards Kings Norton junction. The novice crew soon knitted into a slick team and the nineteen Lapworth locks were cleared in three hours including taking on water between locks 18 & 19. Each of the novices steered through at least four locks with only a small amount of blacking removed. Once clear of lock two, we settled down for the seven mile, lockfree, session with only the occaisional lift bridge to pass the time.

(Rob) Once the concentration of passing locks was over we had plenty of time for beer drinking to commence. This left hardly any time for anything else.
(Terry) After a Burger King breakfast, arrived at Kingswood. Many locks, greasy arms and then 'pinball wizard' through the last few locks until 'FULL THROTTLE REVERSE' as I had decided to vary from the normal route and headed for a stationary boat! Fortunately missing it by inches. Retired to bar and all was well!
(John) First time on canal. Nineteen locks in quick succession meant that I got the hang of the windlass bit. Steering was a bit vague at times so I used the banks as bumpers - Captain didn't complain too much ... Ended up in Shirley - electronic bridge was good!

Our intended night stop had been the Blue Bell Cider House, but arriving there at 4 o'clock combined with the childrens playpark in the garden convinced us to press on to the Draw Bridge at Shirley. Once the evening meal had been consumed and cleared away, a vist to the aforementioned hostelry was made. The Draw Bridge is a modern(ish) establishment that did food and also contained a lively population of locals. The Marstons Pedigree was well kept and immensely quaffable. John had spent the evening telling us how he was going to get up early, the following morning, and go for a 6 mile run before we started. I secretly set the alarmclock, next to the sofabed, for 06:15 just to make sure that he wasn't telling us porkies! Retired to bed and slept like a log.

Crew - Graham, John H, Terry R & Rob R
Lesson of the day - having NO brakes requires even greater stopping distances.

The kettle was on when John returned from his 6 mile run at 07:30. We had all (even Rob) breakfasted and set off by 09:00. The first thing that we encountered on this section of the aestetically deteriorating Stratford canal was miles and miles of that red and white plastic tape that the authorities place around hazards to stop the public hurting themselves. Unfortunately, this lot was around our prop! Application of my shiny new 'engineroom' carving knife soon sorted it out and we managed to fill a Tescos carrier bag with it. I then spent the rest of the day singing " we've got miles and miles of poly round the prop etc. etc. ..............." much to the embarrassment of the crew. The next section involved a chicane through a 3 piece suite and lots of floral tributes floating in the canal.

Emerging from Brandwood tunnel, we found an Alvechurch hireboat 'Kingfisher' trying to unstick themselves from the bank. They did and we ended up having to slowly follow them into the stop lock, where they unexpectedly, and without warning, stopped in the middle of the lock in order to admire the historical engineering. I narrowly avoided crashing into their stern and then had to patiently wait until they had finished admiring said engineering. They then proceded to make a complete hash of turning right at Kings Norton junction and I had to take avoiding action again. Luckily, we were going left. There followed a relatively uneventful run down to Alvechurch which included the excitement (for the novices) of meeting a Black Prince hireboat in the middle of Wast Hills tunnel.

Link to Birmingham & Worcester/BCN Mainline page for the next part

=============================

Crew - Graham, Brenda, Simon and Matt.

It seems as if the rear slide leak has reared its ugly head, post list-cure. Poor Simon got dripped on all night; one mend promotes another fault. Such is the way of the world.
It was soooo dry today, the WETTEST place was in Wasts Hill tunnel, unlike yesterday when the driest place would have been in a tunnel. All in all, it is my observation that The Hoxfordshire Flyboat Co. lives.
Neil R. met us at the bottom of Lapworth flight. He'd set half the locks on his way down, took tea whilst we took on water and then helped us up the whole flight. We were able to admire his boat and butty as we passed. I, Brenda, lockwheeled most of the flight and let the chaps do male bonding. At a lock cottage I met a 'cottager' poking a very long stick down his chimney. He told me that Santa had indeed got stuck up the aforementioned and so Xmas is cancelled next year. At the top lock Neil's alliegance swapped, he found a much prettier lockwheeler on another boat and so offered them his services down the flight. How's that for keep-fit?

At Canal Cottage I bought a copy of 'Innocents Afloat, a yank discovers the cut', by Jeremy Scanlon. A very good read. It is available from England Afloat, 1 Canal Cotts, Old Warwick Rd. Lapworth, Solihull, B94 6BA send SAE and cheque £9.00 / Jeremy Scanlon, England Afloat 66 Old Holyoke Rd. Westfield Masschusetts 01085 send SAE and cheque $13/ Canal Cottage Press or £7.00 plus P&P from http://www.canalshop.co.uk. Prices as at Dec 02, we have no financial interest here, but these appear to be the only ways to get this lovely book. We look forward to the next installment .

On this the last day of the year I finally found the secret of good Yorkshire puds.....cook them on propane. Plan to open some bubbly later. . . . . . See you next year!

Link to next page of journey

=============================

Crew - Graham and Neil Arlidge.

Collected crew (Neil A) from Napton and returned by car to Hopwood. The weather was cold but the canal liquid and so we set off in a northerly direction towards Kings Norton Jnctn. We plunged into Wast Hills tunnel and emerged from the other end to find ......... Ice, thick Ice, thick, almost impenetrable Ice. We decided that as we were now in bandit country, and didn't fancy reversing all the way back through the tunnel, we would press on - or at least - try to.

We found we could push along quite nicely whilst we were travelling in a straight line, but as soon as we tried to turn a corner, or slow down to pass a moored boat, we would grind to a halt and have to reverse and try again. We used the barge pole to create weak spots in the ice to assist passage in the desired direction, this proved to be a very effective method of steering - until I got tired and dropped the pole! We eventually made it to the Boot at Lapworth ........ well, all bar a lot of the new blacking which was noticeable by it's absence. Neil Ratcliffe assisted us down through the last 4 locks and this time, claimed refreshment.

The evening 'Lapworth-O-Gig' was held in the Navigation and attended by Neil A, Neil R, Sean Neil, Andrew G.(fresh from Germany) Martin Wilson and myself. A good evening was had by all and Andrew G. availed himself of Jannock's sofa-bed.

Link to next page of journey

Back to Trip Page

Worcester & Birmingham Canal page

Grand Union canal page