Hawne Basin

 

Here I am Rune

Distance 12.1 miles 

Total 5346 Locks  439 Tunnels

Running total mileage 8056.9 miles

 

The final part of the cruise, back from Birmingham to Hawne Basin went pretty much perfectly except for one or two rain showers, but nothing to be concerned about. Stopped off at Bumble Hole for lunch and to fill the water tank and it seems that the strategy works. With a full water tank in the bows it lifts the stern an inch or so which means that we weren’t dragging the bottom quite so much through Gorsty Tunnel and in fact passed through in just over 16 minutes as opposed to the normal 20 - 25 minutes.

So we are back in time to help with the open weekend in the basin this weekend and heading back for home next Wednesday.

Birmingham

 

Here I am Rune

Distance 8.9 miles 

Total 5346 Locks  436 Tunnels

Running total mileage 8044.8 miles

 

So, once again, back to Birmingham City Centre where we intend to stay until Thursday with a few things we need to do whilst here. The forecasted rain didn’t turn up and it was generally an uneventful trip into Birmingham. Couple of observations in that they could do with tidying up a few of their ‘toll islands’, not so much the vegetation growing on them, but more the vegetation at the approaches. At the Engine Arm ‘toll island’ since nothing was coming the other way I went through on the ‘wrong’ side since the approach to the correct side was badly overhung with vegetation that I would have had to plough through, both going in and coming out the other side. I don’t look forward to going through Bromford Stop either since on the correct side there is a lot of vegetation added to which when you come out you then run aground, again I’m minded to go through on the ‘wrong’ side. The other place that could do with tidying up is around the exit from Galton Tunnel where a tree went down months ago. A passage through has been cleared but you have to go close to the towpath, and when you do the boat grounds.

Black Country Museum, Dudley.

 

Here I am Rune

Distance 5.9 miles 

Total 5343 Locks  435 Tunnels

Running total mileage 8035.9 miles

 

Well this was a ‘welcome back to the BCN' sort of day. Having travelled over 100 miles around the 4 Counties ring with just a single visit to the weed hatch, I’ve done under 6 miles of the BCN and been down there twice, once to ‘recover’ a shirt and a pair of trousers that had brought the boat to a complete stop. The other problem is that there is now so much weed growth that you cannot simply pull to the side to clear the prop, so find yourself having to do it in the middle of the canal. Fortunately, once again, there haven’t been that many boats on the move so by doing so I didn’t inconvenience anyone.

It is the delay caused by weed and crap around the prop that amended our journey details and we have now stopped for the night at the Black Country Museum, we’ll press on into Birmingham tomorrow, although the weather forecast isn’t so good.