Canal blockage at Alvecote!

Another cracking weekend down at Alvecote with Malcolm Burge’s supprise 60^th birthday. Dawn took me down on Friday night after work and came back as she had to go to work on Saturday so an evening in the Barlow was on the cards with the boys, and girls.  Saturday morning was spent polishing all the brasses both inside and out and by 2.00pm I had finished all my chores so toddled off to the pub to see what was going on and joined Matt Parrot, Sarah Parrot, Michael Pinnock Snr & Jnr for a chat and a beer or two outside the pub.  By 5.30 Dawn had arrived with our eldest grand daughter Sophie, who was joining us for the rest of the weekend.  The car was unloaded and all the stuff loaded into Darley’s back cabin then we returned to the pub as Malcolm was due to arrive.  Malcolm has always said that he wanted to walk from the towpath to the pub across the canal on loaded joshers, so Kestral and Verbena, Kangaroo and Australia and Emu were all breasted up outside the pub, completely blocking the canal and awaiting Malcolm’s arrival who was bringing a boat from home to the marina which he had been told was needed there as a customer was coming to view it.  The assembled crowd all made their way onto the pub’s balcony and a huge cheer went up as Malcolm came through the bridge ‘ole.  Suitably armed with a pint of beer he fulfilled his ambition and walked across the bows of the five loaded Joshers to more cheers from the crowd.

 (Photo by Vivvy Monarch, hope me daughter don't mind!)

The rest of the evening went off with music and beer in the upstairs room, a hog roast in the grounds and much frivolity and more beer.  Sunday morning saw more than a few sore heads, but even so we quietly slipped off with Darly at about 10.00am and had a very pleasant trip back to Great Haywood and our home moorings where Darley will stay for th next few weeks while i get her ready for our next outing to Shackerston at the end of next month so, as always, till next time

Don’t bang ‘em about.

Blossom.

Minnows, Dove’s and grey bearded bikers.

Got home from work last night and Dawn said she wanted to take the dog a walk down at Fradley Junction so after running the Hoover over and a couple of other household tasks we loaded the dog into the car along with salt, vinegar , a bottle of red sauce and a bottle of blackcurrant squash.  Set off down to Armitage and Michael’s chippy for two cod and chips and then continued down to Fradley and parked at Junction lock and ate our chips while the dog drooled in the back! As we walked up to the junction we were overtaken by loads of large motor bikes including several Harley Davidson’s and I commented to Dawn about the fact that all the riders of HD’s were grey beards, in fact when we got to the Swan car park there was about eighty bikes parked up and I would say the average age of all concerned was about fifty. (perhaps you are that old before you can afford one of these mighty beasts!)  As we got to the junction we could see that the new owner of our old boat Minnow has been very busy and the under cloth conversion was well under way, not my thing mind you and it saddened me to see her like this but----hey ho things move on and he owns her now and it’s his boat and decisions, but I still miss her.

 As we walked up towards  Fradley Middle lock a head popped out of the side hatches of Achilles and a familiar voice shouted Hey, what you doing.  It was Andrew off Josher motor boat Dove and so we spent the next half hour chatting about boaty things, as you do, he also informed us that Wednesday evening was bikers night at The Swan sometimes attracting over 100bikers. After our chat we decided to continue with our walk, besides the fact we were being eaten alive by the mossies.  Returning back to the junction we crossed Junction lock and walked up the Coventry to the next bridge ‘ole then re-traced our steps back to the junction where we left the towpath and followed the nature trail round the fishing pool next to the canal. Getting back to the car we loaded the dog back in and made our way back home.  What a pleasant evening we had and the walk was most enjoyable.  Can’t wait for tomorrow night as we are off down to Alvecote marina and bringing Darley back to her moorings at Great Haywood to get her ready for Shackerstone show at the beginning of September, so until then

Don’t bang ‘em about

Blossom.

In Need of a good rest!

The trouble with leaving blogging so long in between blogs is that there is so much to report on that a lot gets missed out but here we go;

Since my last blog we have had some hectic weekends, eaten loads of the wrong food and drunk far too many pints of beer & wine! But have had an excellent time doing it.

Over the years I have never been to Braunston by boat but have always driven down for the Saturday or Sunday and have thoroughly enjoyed the event.  This year we decided to take Darley, when we made the decision folks said “you won’t enjoy it Blossom” and how right they were.  We booked Darley in months ago and were looking forward to the event.  On arrival, after travelling down from Alvecote with Viv & Si off Monarch, we temporarily moored on the entrance to the marina bridge and found one of the yellow coated ‘organisers’ who stated we were to go back up the cut and moor abreast Whitby, but we told him that there was another boat against Whitby so were told to hang on a bit.  Minutes later Whitby came past having been moved to accommodate a pair, so that plan was scuppered.  After hanging about for about half an hour we were told there was no-where for us to moor and we would have to go below Braunston bottom lock, i’ll let you fill in my answer!  The only other option was that if we could find somewhere and sort ourselves out.  We went inside the marina and spoke to the lovely couple on ‘The Fudge Boat’ as to would they mind Darley and Monarch mooring on the pontoons behind them.  As they had no problems with that we reversed into the marina and tied up and that’s where we stayed for the weekend. On the Sunday afternoon we joined the parade and when we got to Braunston Turns we carried straight on heading for Newbold that night.  We went intpo The Barley Mow for a good meal, reasonably priced and were entertained by a 60’s Karaoke (and I mean the age of those singing) in the back room.  Our intention was, as we were on holiday, to have a relaxing jaunter back to Alvecote, stopping at Suttons and having an early tea/late dinner in The Greyhound, but that was not to be.  Earlier in the day, Kangaroo & Australia had left Braunston loaded with 41 tons of bagged coal and as we approached Suttons Dawn’s mobile rang.  After a short conversation she came to me on the back end and said “that was Laurence, he wants to tranship 4 tons of coal into Darley as he is stuck at Bridge 13"  thats OK but it’s past Suttons!  In just over an hour we were chucking 4 tons into Darley then we were off. 

What started out as an easy, lazy Day ended up as a 13 hour day and throwing 4tons into Darley at Griff, out of Darley at Atherstone bottom and back into Kangaroo, and all because some scroats decided to chuck the bridge parapet into the bridge ‘ole.  On arrival back at Alvecote we discovered that the Samuel Barlow was not open so having had nothing to eat all day we ordered a Chinese set meal for four and we all sat down in darley’s back cabin and pigged out.  As we were on holiday for another two days we stopped at the marina and chilled returning home on the Tuesday, only to return two weeks Later for the Alvecote gathering.

What a difference this boat gathering was. Arrived on Friday night and spent a very sociable evening in the Samuel Barlow amongst many friends drinking reasonably priced well kept Guinness whilst being entertained by the Marina’s sign writers rock band, which by the end of the evening had every body on the dance floor shaking their bits! The pub finally closed at about 1.30am so coalboys Tom and Jay came back to Darley and we continued to drink and chatt until 3.30 Saturday morning just as the sun was rising.  Needless to say Saturday morning brought with it a thumping hangover as I cleaned all the brass inside and out. 

As all the working boats were moored in the marina pontoons end on, it gave the public etc easy access to all the boats which numbered about 40 including

Joshers ~  Kangaroo & Australia, Kestrel & Verbena, Clover & Fazeley, Greyhound, Otter, Jaguar, Tench, Emu, Sunny Valley, Stafford,  Petrel, Dove, Monarch & Grimsby, Hare, Python, Panther, Madeley, Bream, Linda & Longton.

GU’s ~ Darley, Hadley, Cedar, Achilles & Ara, Nuneaton & Brighton, Thea, Chertsey, Victoria

Cowburn & Cowpar’s ~ Skylark, Swallow

As well as iceboat Laplander,FMC dayboat Elizabeth, Bantock Sucsess. 

Over the weekend there were lots of other things going on like morris dancers, welly wanging as well as trade boats and stands.. A competition was also  held for the best turned out historic working boat with every boat owner having to vote for their choice. The trophy, the Les Lapworth trophy was presented by the late boatman’s wife Alice and was awarded to butty Verbena which was a worthy winner (got my vote anyway)  All in all it was a brilliant weekend, but now I need a week off to catch up on sleep and dry out (alcohol)  And so to my final overall summary of the last two boat gatherings:

BRAUNSTON

Meeting and chatting with friends............................................great (if we walked to them)

Seeing all the boats.......................................................................great

Music in beer tent Friday.............................................................very loud crap

Music in beer tent Saturday........................................................even louder crap

Beer in beer tent.............................................................................overpriced crap

Food available on site......................................................................overpriced crap

Public/friends seeing Darley.........................................................didn’t happen

Will we go again................................................................................not by boat

ALVECOTE GATHERING.

Overall summary of the weekend:

Meeting and chatting with friends........................................great all weekend

Seeing all the boats...................................................................great all weekend

Music in pub Friday....................................................................excellent

Music in pub Saturday...............................................................good but very loud

Beer in pub.................................................................................. excellent and fair priced

Food available on site.................................................................OK but limited

Public/friends seeing Darley....................................................total access all weekend

Will we go again...........................................................................can’t wait till next year but until then, as always,

Don’t bang ‘em about

Blossom.