Friday 2 May 2014

What no Wind and Boat Mangled - Thursday 24th April

We arrived at the marina about 11.30am and could not believe our eyes as there was no wind and the marina almost flat calm, one of those rare days in any marina.

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After unloading the car and stowing all the food and bit and pieces we had decided to bring, we had lunch and set off towards Hawksbury Junction passing the Boat Inn Cottage next to the bridge.

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A little further on we spotted this boat with an old fashioned Mangle fixed to the bow, did not realise that they still made them.

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Soon we turned the corner onto the All Oaks Wood straight which is now a delight to travel with the trees on the offside having been nicely trimmed back. There was even room to pass this canoe on the sharp bend at the end of the wood which is such a popular mooring spot.

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As we came to Rose Narrowboats, with their fleet moored 3 abreast just before the swing bridge, one of their employees kindly opened the bridge for us as he crossed over making it easy to negotiate and simple for us to close after passing through.

Why is that we always seem to find a boat coming the other way as we pass moored boats on the sharp bend through Ansty, Still it does make life interesting.

As time was getting on we decided to moor up just passed the Coventry Cruising Club (CCC) and found a nice spot in the evening sunshine. Low and behold who should come walking along the towpath but Pat and Sheila, (Nb. Fair fa, another Sandhills boat), and their two Elk Hounds who we had last met in Birmingham 2 years ago.

After mooring up and enjoying a G & T on the aft deck in the sunshine I wandered up to their boat and had a good catch up chat. They are on their way to do the BCN cruise, a great experience we must try and do.

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I then walked Jimmy up to the entrance to the CCC where he promptly fell in after walking along the bottom edge of the bridge, which tapered, and when he tried to turn around to come back fell into the canal. He will soon learn the pitfalls of walking where you shouldn’t.

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The club is very deceptive as you can only see a small part of it from the entrance bridge. However, if you take the footpath which follows the arm and takes you under the M6 motorway with the long stalactites suspended from its roof you can see many more boats moored in the small basin at the end of the arm.

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I also walked down to Tusses bridge where the pub has now been turned into a very lavish house with fancy entrance gates onto the road and a large garden currently being landscaped. A short walk down the road under the M6 I found a post office and general stores so June should be ok for her morning paper.

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