Happy New Year.

            

We hope you will  enjoy 2014 as much as we will continuously cruising all through the year.

Greetings!

          

To all our friends and family, afloat and on land. We hope you have an enjoyable Christmastime together. Fellow bloggers have already taken a break from writing which we will also be doing overwinter as we will not be cruising so much. Thank you to all those who have taken time to post comments to us and I hope you have all enjoyed reading about our travels during 2013

Hillmorton.

     

Moving along to one of our favourite stop-overs we found out where all the boats were, There were about twenty here, when there are usually only a handful at the most..

Braunston.

   

We pootled along to the Stop House for water etc, not many boats along this section of the canal. Just after we disconnected the hose and stowed it away another boat was waiting to fill up. However we both had to wait for this boat with a shed on the back to pass and slowly turn around and come back past us. Then we were off and we could see up on the bank that the gales had brought down half of this magnificent tree..

  

When I had spoken earlier to the chap on nb Hephzibah he told me they very often get hit by boats turning or negotiating the marina entrance. Once they were hit so hard their drinks fell off the table, amazing! Gongoozlers Rest was busy with customers aboard when I bought some of their delicious cake to take-away. I collected the December Towpath Talk from the Stop House and had a chat with Jenni who volunteers to run the office, she also has her own boat.

Molly.

  

First to leave us was Derwent 6, then in the afternoon Maffi was off too. There was plenty of water overflowing the bottom gates at Braunston Locks, We fished Mary’s windlass out of the second lock first go!.

         

All the locks were against us, but even so we made it in good time to the top for tea on the Milly M, Molly was quite exhausted after all that hard work and was soon curled up in her bed snoring!

Tackling Litter.

Fellow boater and blogger Maffi is now continuously cruising on his winter holiday after having spent the summer working hard. Any litter that he sees on his travels he meticulously gathers into black sacks to stow on the roof of his boat ‘Milly M’ for proper disposal later. He has taken all this upon himself  quite voluntarily.The larger items he finds that he can’t deal with such as washing machines and televisions, he reports to the local council for them to deal with. Whilst on his latest foray along the Coventry Canal he has sought the help of the council and local newspaper to highlight their litter problem. Here is the link,

 http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/coventry-canal-view-blighted-rubbish-6414285

We hope that all his efforts will pay off with a positive outcome, we will wait to see what happens!

Meanwhile, most boaters and community groups do their share of litter picking too, but Maffi must be congratulated on his continual one man campaign against litter louts and fly tippers.

Instead of an award though, maybe the Canal and River Trust could issue him with a free boat licence, because he’s worth it!

Bloggersphere.

                                             

A four legged visitor trotted along to see us almost every day, I think she was trying to stowaway with us as her master sometimes forgets to feed her! Mid afternoon we were dazzled by a boat mooring up opposite which turned out to be Derwent 6. After a chat with Del and Al we agreed to meet up in the Boathouse for an evening get together as we hadn’t seen them for quite sometime. We arrived early and found a big table as Maffi and Mary were also joining us. Of course we had all met up before because we all write blogs, except Mary, but she quickly joined in with the merriment and it was lovely to meet her. There was plenty to talk about because we had all been cruising around  different parts of the country. Well, we had a nice relaxed three course meal and rather got carried away chattering about allsorts, not noticing that most of the other diners had disappeared. We all left after very politely being brought back down to earth by being ‘kicked out’. It’s fantastic when we boaters can spontaneously get together like this and one of the great advantages of being continuous cruisers!

Ahhh, that’s better now!

Stocking up.

   

Mark came by on Callisto to deliver our diesel and coal so we are all set for the weather to do it’s worst now.

  

Motorboat Kestrel with it’s Butty Northolt were moored nearby, the next day they had turned and were off past the junction heading northwards.

Leaving.

  

We were up at the crack of dawn to set off down the last lock at Napton and the man from the cottage came out to help us, how kind. He has made a brilliant job of restoring the cottage after it had been empty and boarded up for about 12 years. he remarked how nice it was to see our Christmas lights from his window. The lights on the tree at the pub were still twinkling away as we left. It brightened up after a while a rainbow appeared for good luck as it was Friday the 13th.

Napton.

           

Next morning was misty and very cold indeed, so putting on all our warm clothes we set off for the Napton flight. These locks have a nice safe enclosed winding mechanism which works smoothly. This old Willow Tree has fantastic deeply ridged bark, It reminds me of the Lord of the Rings film. If only we could travel around in trees striding through the countryside! We pulled up in the pound before the last lock all on our own and amazingly two boats came past. These three thought that I had come with their tea, but it said on the gate not to feed them.

           

The little shop by the canal was closed, so I went up to the one in the village. The Post Office part had closed, but they say it may open again in January. This house on the corner has many blocked up windows from the days when a tax was paid on how many windows you had. A brave chicken was crossing the road just there, why, only the chicken knows. Outside The Folly Inn there was an enormous Christmas tree adorned with dainty LED lights.

Napton, Adkins Lock.

    

Our new solar powered Christmas lights were looking pretty out in the cratch this evening, We’ve hardly seen any boats on the move recently, has everyone gone into hibernation early? On todays cruise we encircled Wormleighton Hill, with the Radio Mast appearing to stride over the landscape all around us like a Triffid. While we were waiting in Marston Doles Lock to go down I spotted this magnificent mangle over the wall. My granny had one of these and I was allowed to turn the handle for her on washdays. It was one of my favourite jobs as I liked hearing the cogs clanking together. I am reminded of this whenever I wind the gate paddles at the locks as they make a similar pleasing sound. The two locks here are so easy for me to operate and to step across the bottom gate opening. Once down Adkins lock we moored up overnight.

Claydon.

             

Another early start today after I’d taken the recycling over and bought milk from the Spar, at Bridge Stores.

  

We were doing nine locks today so I had an egg sandwich for breakfast. The sun slowly revealed itself on this special day for the Cabin Boy, but it was too chilly for him to be wearing his Birthday suit though! We saw yet another sunken boat which wasn’t there two weeks ago when we came down. What a shame.

             

The locks were mostly in our favour, we met a C&RT workboat and one other on the move, ‘Matilda Rose’! (Not the one that has a blog though) Then we passed Forge Farm at Cluttercote, with it’s wind driven water pump still standing intact in the field.

            

A bit of heavy pruning had been done along the towpath, then we reached Claydon Top Lock, our last one. We moored a bit further on in one of our favourite spots and collapsed in a gert heap with a cup of tea..