Hawne Basin

 

Here I am Rune

Distance 11.9 miles 

Total 5346 Locks  451 Tunnels

Running total mileage 8114.4 miles

 

So the final day of the Autumnal Cruise takes us back to Hawne Basin. It was a novelty to be cruising back up Birmingham New Main line at normal cruising speed after having to reduce speed due to shallowness on the North Stratford, although there were some parts of the New Main Line that were surprisingly shallow. After passing under the M5 there was a section up to my dreaded Bromford Stop where it was so shallow that I had breaking waves on both sides of the canal even though I was only doing 2 mph.

I was a bit puzzled coming through Netherton Tunnel as there was duckweed inside the tunnel from end to end, why it hasn’t died in the darkness I have no idea. Once back onto the Dudley No 2 Canal from Bumble Hole it was back to reduced speed due to shallowness of the canal. Funny really as we approached the tunnle portal for Gosty tunnel we were going to slowly I though to myself,”I could bow-haul the boat quicker” so got off and tried, and yes, I did manage to bow-haul it quicker than it was going under engine power!

So now back in the basin and off on a holiday to the Continent on Tuesday.

Birmingham

 

Here I am Rune

Distance 9.8 miles 

Total 5346 Locks  448 Tunnels

Running total mileage 8102.5 miles

 

A continuation of the very pleasant Autumnal cruise with excellent weather today. Sadly we have still failed to see any Kingfishers this year, both on this trip and the earlier one in May/June, I don’t know where they have all gone. Today’s trip went ahead with no real dramas, we caught up with the heritage boat ‘Buckden’ that we gave a tow to yesterday (currently moored opposite it outside of the Utilita Arena. It seems that the engine problem that he had was a stuck exhaust valve which was why he was only firing on one cylinder (but it still ran!!). Now that is fixed he is on his way rejoicing to the meet at the Black Country museum this weekend.

For us it will just be the trip back into Hawne Basin tomorrow as we are off to Belgium/Germany next week.

Shirley

 

Here I am Rune

Distance 6.2 miles 

Total 5346 Locks  445 Tunnels

Running total mileage 8092.7 miles

 

A very pleasant Autumnal cruise along the North Stratford Canal today. Originally the weather forecast for today didn’t look too optimistic, but the rain came early in the morning and the rest of the day has been generally fine and sunny. For such a good day for cruising, there weren’t many boats on the move, only two and one of them was only moving ‘cos we were towing it! A couple of heritage boats passed us on our mooring last night and we caught up with one of them poling past a moored boat just as you leave Hockley Heath obviously with a bit of a problem. Spoke to them and it appears there was both a problem with the engine and something around the prop. The second heritage boat seemingly hadn’t realised there was a problem and had gone on ahead so was about a mile further up the canal and they were trying to bow haul the second boat up to it. Seemed only reasonable to offer them a tow (might need someone to give me a tow someday) so hitched it up and towed it up the canal to the second heritage boat. They are supposedly going to the Black Country Museum for a meeting of heritage boats so I hope that they can either get the engine and prop fixed, or the second boat can tow him to it. My ‘good deed’ for the day done anyway!

We didn’t get quite back to where we moored on Monday night, found another mooring just short of that where there was armco. Tomorrow, all things going to plan, we hope to be back in Birmingham.

 

Quick update;- the boat we towed has just come past us at 4.55pm still heading towards Brum. It was called 'Buckden' and is currently running on one cylinder!!