Birmingham

Here I am Rune 

Distance 11.7 miles 

Total 5346 Locks  442 Tunnels

Running total mileage 8068.6 miles

 

So, first trip out since June and where do we go? The good old faithful, Birmingham. In fairness we have a few things to do whilst here so will probably be here for a week or so before going off for some pottering around. We need to be back in Hawne Basin by 3^rd October so we’ve only got 19 days to play with, and if 7 or so of them will be in Birmingham, that drops it down to 12 days. Anyway it was just nice to get out on the boat again.

For once it was quite busy from the basin out to the other side of Netherton Tunnel as the Boat Festival was just finishing at Bumble Hole, and the place was rammed. Going through the tunnel there were two boats ahead of me travelling in the same direction and one behind, and we passed one coming the other way. Quite ‘sociable’ really because usually I’m on my own in the tunnel.

We had a variety of warnings about Gorsty Tunnel but had a pretty average passage through, clattered a few bits of wood but otherwise a passage of 19 minutes is pretty much par for the course, I have on occasions taken 25 minutes or more to get through, and even longer when I’ve got stuff wrapped around the prop. Checking through my cruising notes I find that was the 56^th time I’ve gone through Gorsty Tunnel, is there some award for that!!

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.