The Price of Diesel

Took a short trip down to Fazeley Mill Marina yesterday for the usual services. Filled up with diesel @ 62 ppl as it all went into my heating tank in the front of the boat. I did not need any diesel for propulsion as I filled up in October and have not really been anywhere since so I signed the form as 100% for heating.

Now to the point of this post, supermarkets are now selling diesel at under £1 per litre compared to £1.05 at marinas. What (apart from the obvious hassle) is going to stop me filling my cans at the supermarket, and then filling up my engine tank with white diesel? How is HMRC going to know that I get my engine diesel from a supermarket?

Things can go wrong.......

Whilst we are moored up for the winter I like to run the engine for a couple of hours every 7 to 10 days. I put the key in the ignition and turned it, the starter turned but the engine would not start. It would appear that the starter motor was not working as it should.

Next were the options, take it to a boatyard where they would probably charge me an hours labour to take the starter motor out and another hours labour to put it back... there's a £100 pound gone before I start.

EXCEPT, the engine would not start so I could not get to the boatyard anyway. The other options were to call out an engineer (more expense) or take out the starter motor myself and get it fixed. Taking out the starter motor was very easy, disconnect a few wires, take out three bolts and there it was - out. Now, where could I get it fixed? Unfortunately at the same time as the starter motor on the boat failed the power assisted steering rack on my car decided to play up and failed the mot. Speaking to the chap from the garage who was fixing my car, he said, why don't you take it round the corner to Tamworth Auto Electrics - they will fix it.

It's encouraging when you go into a workshop and put this object on the counter and the chap behind the counter recognises exactly what it is and what engine it came from. A quick inspection and he said the clutch has gone. Would you like it fully reconditioned at the same time?

In for a penny, in for a pound so I said yes. Two days later I got a phone call to say my starter motor was ready for collection. I went to collect it and there was this object, all clean and shiny, repainted, and looking nothing like the sorry object I had taken in a couple of days previously.

For the technical boffins amongst us, the clutch had gone, the bushes were worn down to virtually nothing, and the armature needed regrinding or something! The chap said it was a wonder it had worked so long - I replied it was only 20 years old. At the end of the day I paid £120 for the repair and got something that resembled a brand new unit, which, apparently, I could not have got as they don't make them any more! He then said that the reconditioned motor would probably outlast me!

Today I refitted the starter motor, turned the key, and the engine started. I'm happy!!

The River Years

Has it really been that long since I posted something on my blog? It is amazing where the time goes when you are retired - how did we ever find time to go to work?

As promised, I am going to bore you all with tales from yesteryear. Due to circumstances Jennie and I can no longer go cruising for several months at a time so all I can do is reminisce about the good old years!

1958 was the year it all started, many years before I introduced my wife to a waterway life. Mum and Dad hired a converted lifeboat called GOOD FAITH from Robinsons Hire Cruisers at Maidenhead Court Boathouse. Murphy's law dictated that as it was October the river was in flood and we could not cruise at all. The owner however was very generous and as the boat was not booked out for the following week we could have the boat for nothing for the second week! However, Dad was on weekly pay and had to get on his motorcycle combination and ride back to Stockbridge in Hampshire to draw his holiday pay for the second week, then we could eat. We cruised all the way to Goring and back in a week and were well and truly bitten by the cruising bug. We never had a refrigerator on board, Dad kept his beer cold by putting it in a nylon shopping bag and hanging it off of the rear of the boat, and as for the loo, we had better not go there.

These being my childhood years I am a bit hazy about the years that followed or is that due to my advancing years?

After GOOD FAITH we really went upmarket and hired a cruiser, BELLATRIX STAR, from Bates Cruisers at Chertsey. This was a bit like going from a Springer to a Kingsground! There followed a succession of boats, GAY JACQUELINE, a 42 foot wide beam cruiser, brand new, hired from Bushnells in Maidenhead. Rumour has it that is was built in mahogany at Appledore in Devon. Somewhere along the line we hired JADE from Banhams Boatyard in Cambridge and cruised a lot of the fens. Then there was the week on SANS CELIA hired from Tovil Boatyard at Maidstone on the River Medway. Apparently the boatyard is still there but no longer hires out cruisers but still does day hire.

During those days I often looked at Maidline boats who offered canal cruisers such as MAID MARY SONJA. It is with regret that we never hired one of these and ventured onto the canals in the 60's as by the time we got onto canals it was the 70's and things had started to change.

As an aside, I noticed in Waterways World that a canal cruiser built by Maidboats was up for sale for the princely sum of £5000. To my mind that must be an absolute bargain.

Then there was the lads cruise, three of us hired a cruiser from Bushnells of Maidenhead in 1970. The boat was called GAY BELINDA, we were all 20 years old, who would hire us a boat these days at that age and who would have the nerve to call their boats GAY something or other?

Then I got married and boating holidays went on hold for a couple of years, until 1973 when our canal cruising started. The canal cruising started from Trevor on the Llangollen Canal with a 40 foot boat called HALTON. More of that, with photographs will follow.

Two minute silence

Hi, it's me again! Really surprised today! A boat came through the Lichfield Road bridge at Hopwas just on 11 a.m. today. The boat was n.b. BLUE ORCHID. The couple on board stopped the boat, turned off the engine and stood on the towpath for two minutes to observe the silence. Quite a poignant moment and one I have not seen on the canal before.

A long weekend away

We have just returned to our mooring at Hopwas after a long weekend away. We left Hopwas on Friday and cruised up to Fradley where we met up with some new friends we had made at the National Festival. We then cruised together to Alrewas and moored up for the weekend. A nice meal was had at The Crown in Alrewas on Friday evening, followed by a fairly long walk to the National Memorial Arboretum on Saturday. We ended up walking right to the far end of the arboretum as we had just started our new pursuit of geocaching.

On Sunday we both moved back to Fradley where I met up with Bruce and Sheila from nb SANITY. They were on their way back to Alrewas for a few days.

On Monday morning Sandra and Paul on nb KANDAHAR left Fradley to return to their mooring at Stafford. We left later to return to Hopwas.

To most people KANDAHAR is the second city in Afghanistan. BUT....HMS KANDAHAR was one of several K class destoyers built in 1938 and commissioned into the Royal Navy in 1939. After a relatively short service in the Indian Ocean and then the Mediterranean KANDAHAR left Malta with several other warshops to intercept an Italian convoy off of the coast of Tripoli, one of the warships, HMS NEPTUNE struck a mine and started to sink. KANDAHAR went in to rescue the crew and also stuck a mine. NEPTUNE sank almost immediately and KANDAHAR sank much later. Other warships were called back from the rescue because of the uncertainty as to where were the mines.

HMS NEPTUNE sank with the loss of over 700 lives, only one person survived. This was probably, and still is, the greatest loss of life in one warship in the history of the Royal Navy.

Anyway, we left Fradley, found a geocache near Fisherewick on the way back, and are now moored up for the best part of the winter.

IWA Festival Site, Pendeford Park + 7 weeks

I needed a few bits from a chandlery today, and, being a nice day, I thought it would be nice to go for a little drive with the wife and the dogs. First stop was Pendeford Park, it was amazing how nature is gradually taking back what we did to the site in under 3 weeks. Obviously the bit where the funfair drove in is a little bit muddy still, and the main entrance area still has some way to go, but the rest of the site already shows little evidence that we were ever there. The dogs, Lewis and Afie, enjoyed a good romp around the park, and then it was back in the car and down to Limekiln Chandlery to buy the few bits we needed. The weather was lovely, and Pendeford Park was drier now that it ever was during the run up to the festival. Murphy's Law I suppose!

Not long now before we are off cruising for the weekend, can't wait.

BW spending more money.....

For as many years as I can remember there has been one of those sort of zig zag gates on the towpath by School Bridge at Hopwas. It is one of those things designed to stop motorcycles using the towpath. I really should have taken a picture as a picture is worth a thousand words.... It has however not stopped the motorcycles as there was a 12 inch gap (30 cm for the purists amongst us!) between the woodwork and the canal. Today BW have fitted a metal extension to the gate, protruding over the canal slightly to stop the motorcyclists? or is it for health and safety reasons? My point is though, how long will it stay there. How long before someone decides to try and forcibly remove it. I'll give it six weeks at the most! Anyone wishing to start a book?

Not long now before we set off cruising again, albeit only for a long weekend. It will be good to be cruising again. We need diesel and a pumpout. Plus I have just taken out a second mortgage for four new leisure batteries so I will be interested to see if they work alright as the existing ones seem to be a little bit tired. We are not going far, probably as far as Alrewas to meet up with some new friends we made at the National. There is no doubt about the fact that canal boating is a very social event, and despite the bad press regarding the modern canal boater being anti-social, there are a lot of people out there who still talk to other boaters and still want to make friends. So, to all the friends I have made over the years and to the ones I will meet in the future, good health!!

National Memorial Arboretum, Alrewas

Whilst not directly connected to canals, the National Memorial Arboretum, http://www.thenma.org.uk/, is only a stones throw from the Trent and Mersey Canal, and the River Trent flows through the grounds, so in my view, it counts as a canal orientated site.



I took the old folks up there this afternoon for a couple of hours, just to get them out in the sun and fresh air, and we could easily have spent four or six hours there. It was really interesting and anyone passing through Alrewas on the canal should put it on their must visit list. Entry is free, the car park costs £2, blue badge holders park for free, basically the car park charge is to raise money to tarmac the car park.



I was not aware the site has been open for the last ten years and is gradually evolving. What really amazed me was the scope of the memorials, we are not just talking about WW2, there are memorials before and after that, covering everything from the Boer War to the recent troubles in Ulster.

What really amazed me was the Armed Forces Memorial which lists every serviceman who has died in the service of our country since 1945. The inscriptions are current up to 2007, but what really worried me was the vast amount of space available for future inscriptions.

All in all, it is well worth a visit.

Modern technology catches up with Guelrose

For the last 2 years I have accessed the internet world via a T Mobile datacard that cost me £20 a month and gave me a reasonable access to the web. Today, I bit the bullet, and have upgraded to a web'n'walk stick. Wow, what a difference, no need now for an external aerial (it cost me the best part of £70 - anyone want it?) and the new plan costs me £5 per month less. What a result! The new system seems to be much quicker and after 12 hours trial I have no complaints - yet!

Wednesday 17th September 2008

It is so nice to have a spell of fine weather at last even though I am suffering from man flue! This morning, Wednesday, we left our mooring at Hopwas and cruised down to Fazeley Mill Marina where we were taking part in a charitable cruise for servicemen injured on duty. The day was organised by Corrinne who manages the marina. Corrinne is actively involved in http://www.purplesalute.org/ a non profit making organisation giving the ordinary people of this country a different way of helping servicemen of all kinds. On our arrival a minibus had already arrived from the Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham, with three servicemen, Ally, Jim and Mike, together with an entourage of medics, nurses, and physiotherapists (these were also members of the armed forces) Three boats took part in the cruise, n.b. DIGITALIS (http://www.digitalis.org.uk/) , n.b. THE BLESSED BEE who may or may not have a website, and of course GUELROSE. We all set off in fine weather and cruised along the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal for about a hour as far as Kingsbury Water Park, where we winded and then moored up for a while, giving everyone a good chance to see the myriad of water birds on the lakes. Unfortunately one of our visitors was in a wheelchair and was not able to get off of the towpath to take in the views, a section of towpath having been washed away in the recent rains.

After a while we all set off on the return trip and just to make it all better the sun shone. Once back at the marina our visitors were transported to the Three Tuns pub in Fazeley, where the landlady, an active supported of The Purple Salute, lad on an excellent buffet. After a couple of drinks it was time for our visitors to board their transport and set off back to the hospital.

I am in no doubt that all involved, including the boat crews, had a very enjoyable day out. Our thank must go to Corrinne for organising the event.

What's happening now?

GUELROSE got back to it's moorings on 31st August and has not moved since. However, in the meanwhile, Jenny and I have managed a two day trip to Dublin, staying in a hotel overlooking the Grand Canal, there was a lock to the left of the hotel, a lock to the right of the hotel, and a tram station over the canal, but where o where were the boats?

I spent several hours longingly gazing at the canal waiting for a boat to appear (okay, maybe a few minutes) over a period of time but no boats were to be seen. The canal appears to be navagable and the locks seem to be in working order but where were the boats?

On Wednesday 11th September we returned to the boat and were amazed at the water level in the canal. It was at least six inches above normal. Bearing in mind that the pound we live in extends from Fradley to Glascote locks and also takes in the Brirmingham and Fazeley to Curdworth Locks, we are looking at some 15 miles of canal, multiplied by the width of the canal multiplied by the 6 inch increase, then we are looking at a serious amount of water that has to go somewhere?

That's it for now, our next cruise will be next Wednesday, 17th September, when we will be taking a client of the military hospital based in Selly Oak for a days cruise, more of that later.

What next?

I am now back at Hopwas and will not being venturing far over the next few months.

EXCEPT, there is one important event to still take place on Wednesday 17th September. Corrinne ,who manages Fazeley Mill Marina, has organised a day trip for soldiers injured in Iraq and currently receiving treatment in the army hospital at Selly Oak, we will be taking part by taking some of them on a cruise.

There will be several boats taking part (I do not yet know how many) but it should be a good day out for those taking part....

This reminds me of a friend of mine from Somerset who organises every year, a trip for widows of servicemen, who are having a holiday at the British Legion home at Weston Super Mare. We have taken part in the past and up to 20 boats have taken part. The day starts with a coachload of people coming to Bradford on Avon, being shared out amonsgt the various boats, and then going for a boat trip.

My memory of the only time I have taken part is receiving on board two Welsh sisters from the Rhonnda Valley who had us in fits of laughter all the time they were on board. We picked them up at Hilperton Marina and cruised to Bradford on Avon. A visit to the the pub where they and their manager insisted on buying me pints, was followed by dinner on board, then a cruise back to Hilperton where they then boarded their coach and returned to the home in Weston Super Mare.

Once all our guests had returned we all had a BBQ at the marina. Unfortunately the marina has now changed hands and, although the cruise still takes part, it has had to be altered considerably and the social gathering after the cruise is no longer what it was.

IWA National 2008

This shows some of the land based exhibits....

And some of the stalls.....

This is the lavendar boat, very important to us as it empties our loos and takes away our rubbish

This is the view of the boats on A section and the exhibitors moorings taken from bridge 2

This is the site as I left it, condensed down to a security fence around the tardis and a few bits and pieces....

And this is another part of the site, now deserted..

I will return to the site in a couple of months and take some more photos of how it is then....

31st August 2008

Fame at last!! Last night we moored on the approach to the aqueduct over the River Trent near Rugeley. A boat went by, n.b. 4Evermore, and said, are you the Guelrose with the blog! Everyone has their 15 minutes of fame, maybe that was ours.

We left Rugeley and got to Fradley where it took us two hours to work through the three locks!! Then it started raining!! Another three hours later and we were back at our mooring at Hopwas.

Tomorrow it is off to Portsmouth for a funeral, then a few days on the boat before we spend a couple of days in Dublin.

The week after we are taking part in a cruise for disabled military personnel from the military hospital at Selly Oak organised by Corinne from Fazeley Mill Marina.

Saturday 30th August 2008

GUELROSE is currently moored on the approach to the aqueduct near Rugeley. Signal strength for my datacard is very low so everything is taking a long time to download so no photographs tonight. Once I get back to base, and after a visit to Portsmouth for an unscheduled funeral, I will get down to entering a backdated log of the IWA festival with accompanying photographs.

We left Autherley on Thursday morning after spending the two days after the festival ended removing pontoons from the water on Tuesday, they had to be stacked three high and they were rather heavy! Wednesday was spent removing most of the fencing we had taken several days to erect a few days ago!

Thursday night was spent near to the M6 motorway between Boggs Lock and Rodbaston Lock. The evening was spent with new friends we had made at the festival. Friday night was spent at Tixall Wide, there were lots of boats there but for some reason 90 feet of space was left next to some other new friends we had made. It was a beautiful balmy summer evening, with barely a ripple on the water. A hot air balloon took off from Shugborough Hall adding to the entertainment. We spent the evening on the towpath, illuminated by scores of candles, had a couple of drinks and reminisced about the festival.

That's it for now, will not be able to publish another blog until Wednesday at the earliest.

IWA National Festival 2008

I know I have been a bit lacksadaisical about my post over the last few days bit I have been very busy helping to build the site, then I had to be q harbourmaster for five days, BUT, I have taken loads of photographs, and, if you will forgive me, I will do a backdated version of what has gone on over the last few days.

Despite the weather (the site is rather waterlogged) there is a social side to our gathering.

Tomorrow night is a cheese and wine party, I like cheese, I like wine, should be a good night.

On Wednesday Annie is organising a chinese takeaway for up to 100 people! The local takeaway should be boosting it's profits that night.

Which brings me onto the boost to the local economy, at it's height during the festival, there will be over 320 boats and an equivalent number of campers in the locality, they all have the eat and drink and the boost to the local economy must be good......

Speak to you soon

More marquees are appearing......

And more boats are arriving....

Problems are also arising, this afternoon I moved over to my official festival mooring but due to an underwater obstruction if I would have been where I was supposed to be my stern would have been sticking out six feet into the canal .... which would have meant that with triple breasted boats opposite there would not have been much of a channel for through boats to pass. No problem you think, just move up a bit, then everyone else has to move up and there is only a finite space available....

A few more marquees are starting to appear....

And a few more boats....

We have now moved over to our official festival mooring, well almost! Unfortunately there is an obstruction in the canal which would have meant that our stern was sticking out 6 feet further into the canal than it should have. No problem you would have thought but there is, that would mean the navigation channel would be severely reduced as there are the equivalent of triple breasted boats opposite. So yes, we could move forward but then so would everyone else have to... and is there the space available to do this? Thank god I do not have to reorganise this.

On the brighter side is the social side, tomorrow there is a cheese and wine party, I like cheese, I like wine, so I should be happy.

This picture shows the beer tent.....

So does this, you can see how big it is....

These are the pontoons where the exhibitor boats will be sited....

And now the pontoons are in the water (or rather a fraction of them)

Monday 18th August at The National

Things are moving a bit slowly at the moment. The inclement weather is not conducive to vehicles moving over the site to do what they have to do. However, I have been able to get on site and take a few more photos. I am going to try and download them onto the blog and get them into the right order with the right comments!

See you in a minute!!

Sunday 17th at The National

Hello, it's me again. I have to be careful as there are two of us doing blogs on the same subject. Luckily, however, although we work together some of the time, our end jobs are quite different. I will leave Bruce Napier on Sanity to do his side of the job and I will concentrate on mine. My main job is concerned with Waterspace, i.e. the mooring of visiting boats to the National Festival.

Overnight we apparently had quite heavy rain that has left the festival site quite waterlogged. I must admit that after all that fresh air, a days hard work and a little glass of red wine, I did not hear much overnight!!

So much so that the site today is waterlogged. Many of the marquues have been erected including the beer tent - I really must take some more pictures and put them on the blog. The rain has meant that most people cannot get onto the site to do their job. However, my task today was to help mark out the moorings for the visiting boats and as all that entailed was a pair of walking boots, a surveyors wheel, and a can of spray paint we were not hindered by the weather.

Tomorrow I do not know what I will be doing but on Tuesday I will have to go and check all the mooring sites on our section (the Shroppie), ensuring that they are all marked up appropriately so that when visiting boats arrive they will know where to go.

On Wednesday I will put on my other hat and become a Harbourmaster for A section. This entails greeting all the boats in my section, ensuring they moor in the right place and dealing with any pronblems/complaints they may have - if I canoot solve their problems then I always have my Waterspace Manager to fall back on!

I will try and take some more photos tomorrow - the site is progressing well - to quote Canal Boat Magazine www.canalboat.co.uk the boats are being craned in, exhibitor stalls are being lugged across the site etc. Maybe I am at a different site in a different world but what they say is not happening yet!!

Speak to you soon

IWA National Festival 2008 Day ?? whatever

I've lost count of the days I have been here, I have been so busy!

What amazes me about this event is the age of the volunteers who help to put the site together. I have been working with Roger, Bruce, Margaret, Bill, Tony, John, Martyn (hopefully I have not missed anyone out!!) and the age range is from the fifties to the seventies. What amazes me even more is that one of our crew works from a mobility scooter.

We are now known as the heavy mob!! If it needs shifting or lifting, be it sandbags, washing machines, ovens, fridges or freezers, just call on us and we will be there!!

I have a couple of days off from the heavy mob as I will now start to do the job I really was recruited for - i.e. working for Waterspace. Tomorrow and Saturday I will be helping to mark out all the mooring spaces on the Shroppie. I had started this earlier in the week and then BW came along and mowed the towpath and guess what happened to all my markings!!!

No more photos as yet, I must do some more soon, most of the marquees are now erected including the beer tent so the site is starting to take shape

IWA National Festival 2008

I have been hard at work again all day on the site. We have been erecting the security fences and because we are in a residential area we have had to put in a double security fence. That is all done now, I have no idea what is in store for us tomorrow.

The first of the marquees arrived today and it is marvellous to watch how they are erected. To me it seems like a giant jigsaw puzzle but all the pieces come together in the end.

I have taken a few pictures of the site as it is and hopefully will produce some more in due course.

This is the view of the main site.

The second picture shows where the funfair will be and most imortantly, where the beer tent is. The will have over 40 real ales on sale over the weekend. I wonder how many I will be able to sample!

I don't know why the photos are not appearing where they should, if you know how to do this pleae help me!!

Something is going very wrong here now as the picture do not seem to be appearing in the right order.

This shows my boat on what is to be the exhibitors site. i.e. all the new floating exhibits.

My last photo shows what is to be a marquee. Why oh why are my photos not in the right place!! Hopefully now sorted thanks to your advice)

Day 1 (for me) at the National Festival Site

At last we have had a day without rain!! Today was my first working day as a volunteer at the National Festival Site at Pendeford Park, Wolverhampton. No photos as yet - been too busy - hope to take some tommorrow although as yet there is little to show apart from the compound where all the materials necessary to build the site are stored. However, we did get the outer security fence installed today, tommorrow should see the inner security fence also installed. I wonder whether the fence is designed to keep us in or to keep others out!!

I have not previously been involved in setting up a site, my only previous claim to fame is being a harbourmaster at the 2006 National at Beale Park, Pangbourne. I didn't realize how involved it was. Today was also spent checking out one of the many mooring areas for visiting boats, seeing if we could fit in all the boats in that particular section and making out the limits of each boats mooring.

Tomorrow I think will involve more security fencing and maybe checking out and marking up another mooring area.

I am really enjoying working on the site and have met a lot of interesting people who have far more exeperience at this sort of thing than me.

Maybe I will be able to profile a few of them along the way!!

IWA National Festival 2008

Well, we made it to the site, eventually! We left Hopwas about 1000 hrs on Friday and had an uneventful cruise to Fradley passing just 21 boats in the 3 hours it took us to get there. Then our problems started, because of the number of boats it took us over 2 hours to cruise through the 3 locks. After that it was a bit easier. We reached Colwich Lock about 7 p. m. and there was no queue whatsover. It was nice to see a couple of hot air ballons floating in the evening air in the Colwich area. It was then onto Shugborough Hall to moor up for the night.

Next morning we decided on an early start, up and away by 0630 a.m. BUT, we were not the first boat to move, another one passed us just as we were about to set off and as we reached the junction at Great Haywood another turned onto the Staffs and Worcs in front of. That was to be the pattern for most of the day, one or two boats in front of us at every lock. Add the weather, sunshine very early, a lot of rain later, a dry spell and then more rain - what a day. BUT, that was the least of the problems. Between Shutt Hill Lock and Otherton Lock there were literally hundreds of fishermen practising for a forthcoming fishing competition.

BE WARNED, on Saturday 16th August between 1100 hrs and 1600 hrs there is a National Angling Competition being held on this stretch of the Staffs and Worcs Canal. I can also vouch for the fact that not all of them will welcome boaters!!

We finally arrived at the Festival Site just before 6 p.m. after eleven and a half hours cruising. Over the last 2 days we have cruised more than we would normally cruise in a week. Those were the days!!

Watch this space for updates on the growth of the Festival Site.

Guelrose on the move?

Next Friday n.b. GUELROSE will cast off from its mooring at Hopwas and over two days will cruise more miles and locks that she would normally cruise in a fortnight! We are off to the IWA National Festival at Pendeford Park on the outskirts of Wolverhampton. A chance remark made by me back in October last year and I am now enrolled into helping getting the site ready for the thousands of visitors expected.

What I hope to do, and you must understand that I am an amateur when it comes to blogs, is to try and record on my digital camera how the site transforms from an open park into a festival site. I will then try and download those photos onto my blog for all to see!!

Wish me luck - more to come later

No news is good news??

Hello again, I didn't realize that it has been so long since I last made an entry on my blog!

Obviously if there is not much happening then you cannot report much I had a quick chat with Andrew of n.b. Granny Buttons (www.grannybuttons.com) as he passed on his way south. We had a useful chat about boats honeypotting around mooring sites with adjacent car parks!

Over the last few weeks I have been trying to give one side of the boat a repaint. On the advice of a painter who used to work for a local boatyard I decide to give Rapidpaint of Birmingham a try, (it is very local to me and cheaper to go and pick it up rather than have it delivered). There narrowboat site is www.narrowboatcolours.co.uk ! I must admit that one side of the boat is starting to look rather shiny.

Soon I will be on the move (Friday 8th August to be precise). I'm heading for the National at Autherly Junction and have offered my help for a few days before the Festival actually starts. I only hope that they don't work me too hard!

I shall also be an assistant harbourmaster on the site at the festival so if any of you visit the festival, feel free to come and chat with me. The missus makes a mean cup of tea and has been known to bake some rather lovely cakes to accompany the tea!

Have BW got psychic powers?

Would you beleive it? The day after I posted my pictures of the vegetation growth on the Ashby Canal I was cruising near Hinckley and what did I see? Yes, you guessed right. There was the BW mower heading south on the canal! Murphy's law or what!

Veg Pledge continued

This has gone a bit wrong. The first photo shows just around the corner. I obviously have a few problems with my blogging to sort out!

I promised that I would publish photos of the vegetation growth on the Ashby Canal. Hopefully they are here. The first one shows my 70 foot mooring, kindly trimmed by a predecessor, hopefully future moorers will continue the trend.

My second photo shows just around the corner. Bearing in mind I have two golden retrievers, the vegetation is at least twice as high as them.

The Veg Pledge

Has the veg pledge been abandoned? It certainly seems like it if you cruise the Ashby Canal. Once you turn off of the Coventry Canal at Marston Junction the vegetation seems to take over. In some places it is four or five feet high and obviously has not been cut at all this year. I suppose I really ought to take a picture and attach to my blog - maybe tomorrow!!

Luckily on the approach to hospital bend at Burton Hastings someone with a 70 footer had been here before and cut back all the vegetation, I cut back a bit more with the pair of shears I always carry. Are we all going to have to carry strimmers in the future to do BW's job for them?

All I ask is that the next boater to use this mooring does his bit of gardening.

As for the weather, it's gorgeous!

Speak to you all soon.

GUELROSE is on the move!!

Having persuaded my sister to come up and look after the parents for a few days Jenny and I have taken the opportunity to escape on GUELROSE for a few days. Obviously we picked the right weather!! We left Hopwas on Saturday 7th June and had a long day of 4.25 hours to cruise to one of our favourite moorings in the middle of nowhere between Polesworth and Bradley
Green.

The next morning was her birthday (Heinz varieties is the obvious clue) and after a cup of tea, cards and pressies in bed it was back to cruising. We took a leisurely cruise up the Atherstone 11 and then moved on to Hartshill to moor up for the night. Tomorrow will probably see us going onto the Ashby Canal and probably mooring at hospital bend in Burton Hastings, another one of our favourite moorings. Our moorings are obviously dictated to a certain extent by our two furry friends, Lewis and Alfie, a pair of hairy golden retrievers.

Once again, it is soooooooo good to be on the move again.

SZpeak to you soon

Twenty Questions

Here are my answers to twenty questions
1. Macclesfield Canal
2. If it is a canal and has locks I love it
3. The wife obviously
4. Something by James Patterson, I can't quite remember the name
5. Dawn or dusk in summer
6. All those boaters who do not pay mooring fees and moor all winter round the corner from me for nothing whilst I pay my dues!!
7. Now but a few years younger
8. 1977 - they told me breakfast was served so I jumped for the bank with rope, mallet and mooring pin, ... and missed!!
9. A pilot in the RAF
10. I'd be insane
11. Different
12. A glass of sherry, a fine red wine with my dinner and good fishing.
13. Investment to protect something that is wonderful and could be even better
14. Who are you? (or words to that effect!!)
15. A combination of both
16. Once again, a combination of both.
17. Canals, if I wanted to cruise rivers all the time I would have a gin palace, (by the way I do have an optic mounted in the boat serving gin!)
18. Hopefully still cruising and living aboard.
19. Retiring at 49 and living aboard, having two lovely children and three even more lovely grandchildren.
20. Finding the satelite for sky television when England are winning -almost impossible

mobile phones

I know you are all eagerly awaiting reports of my cruise in 1973 accompanied by photographs but demands from my children required a visit to Portsmouth to do some decorating for one and to help install solar heating panels for the other!

The crux of this story however is mobile phones.

We seemed to be paying quite a bit for our mobile phone service so I wrote to our service provider requesting to cancel one of our contracts. A few days later I received a call from the service provider.... and, guess what, I ended up with three times the minutes at half the price! Obviously it pays to threaten them!

What's going on - nothing!

Jenny and I have been cruising the canals since 1973. We have been liveaboards since 2001 and therefore I have started this blog. Unfortunately due to family circumstances we are not able to cruise much at the moment and hence I am doing most of my cruising secondhand and have little to report. So...... at the expense of boring you all I am going to report on our cruises since we started cruising on the canals back in 1973 and will try and scan photographs onto the computer and then onto my blog, for instance, how many of you have actually cruised through the now defunct and dissappeared Thurlwood Steel Lock with photographs to prove it, I have, and somewhere I have a photogpraph or two which I will publish on the blog.

Were canal bridges made for this?

Hi, been a bit quiet of late as there has not been much to report until today!

Consider the scene, 1430 hrs, Monday 17th March 2008, quiet little village of Hopwas,

Staffordshire with a canal bridge over the Coventry Canal which carries the A51 road. The bridge has a weight limit of 7.5 tons.

I'm reliably informed that this little lot weighed about 80 tons, it obviously got stuck and closed the road for three and a half hours before they managed to get it moved.

Amazingly it seems that there was no damage caused to the bridge. Those canal engineers of two hundred years ago obviously knew how to make bridges!

Every man to his own trade

I suppose that to be p.c. I should say every person but I am from the old school! Now, my mooring is rather nice, at the bottom of mum and dads canalside cottage with all facilities on hand should I need them. There is however one big problem, or rather two of them, two large trees next to the canal and although canal frontage is over 150 feet, no matter where you position the boat, part of the boat is under a tree with all that comes with it i.e. sap, leaves, bird droppings etc. My son says no problem dad, I'll come up for the weekend and give you a hand to 'prune' the trees. The bonus from this visit is that I get to see my lovely daughter in law and even lovelier grand-daughter! Of which I have two I must add! I suppose I ought to mention at this point the lovely grandson as well - enough of all that - back to business. We started to cut bits off of the tree and then realised that it was not quite the simple task we had envisaged. Plan B came and went as did C D and E. We got as far as T and the Tamworth Herald - advert for a tree surgeon. A quick phone call - he'll come and have a look. We were expecting an exorbitant price but he quoted a price we could not refuse. When can you do we ask - now he says. All I wanted done was for the tree to be seriously pruned - I am quite happy to spend the next few days clearing up the bits. He came, he was quick, he was like a monkey swinging through the tree and within one and a half hour the paper stuff changed hands and he was gone. Now all I have left to do is cut up all the branches - come next year I will have so much wood to burn - and it is all free - well almost apart from the cost of the tree surgeon. Which brings me back to the point of this story - every person has their own forte and it is best left to let the professionals do the jobs that they do well. Now, what do I do well apart from........... I cannot think of anything at the moment!

Are BW still wasting my money?

Took a little trip out this weekend, left Hopwas with some friends, down to Fazeley Mill Marina for a pumpout and some diesel (68 pence per litre) and up to the bottom of Curdworth Locks. A nice walk round Kingsbury Water Park and then back to Fazeley for the night before coming back to Hopwas on Sunday. The temperature dropped to -7.8C and we had to do a bit of ice breaking on the way back!

Between Fazeley and Curdworth I notice several hundred yards (or metres) of bank protection works. These consisted of the rolls of coir with water plants planted therein to protect the banks. Great you would say. But, why place them on towpath banks that have been piled? Whilst I agree that steel piling is not the most aesthetically pleasing item in the universe I see no point in wasting money to protect steel piling!!! Maybe I am missing something here and would be most pleased if someone could enlighten me.

Back to the subject of cruising, it was cold and sunny, there were very few boats around - winter cruising has a lot to say for it and waking up this morning to see a heavy frost, the sun shining and ice on the cut takes some beating.

Fame at last

They say that everyone is entitled to their fifteen minutes of fame - I've just had mine - I got a mention on granny buttons log www.grannybuttons.com and got a couple of replies to my blog! It is good to share our problems with others of a similar persuasion. It has been a lovely week weatherwise, lots of boats passing by as it is half term this week for a lot of schools and the same next week for others. There have even been some hireboats and timeshare boats about but Canaltime are conspicuous by their abscence - has something happened to them? Maybe some lock closure has prevented them from reaching me. Challenger seem to be still cruising as do Shakespeare Classic and a couple of Anglo Welsh have passed by.

I managed to get away for a couple of hours the other day to cruise up to the winding hole and back, tomorrow it is out for a couple of days, down to the marina at Fazeley with some frineds out for a day trip, a pumpout and some diesel for the roomheater - what price will it be now? - a night away and then back to normal.

Granny says that to maintain a successful blog you must publish something at least once a week - I've made it just!! - I have lots to say and publish in the future so please keep logging into my blog. I may be a bit quiet on the blog next week as my daughter is coming to visit us on the boat, complete with granddaughter, grandson and dog - that will be three dogs - if you want an idea of what the dogs are like look back in Grannys blog to dogs on Guelrose.

Spring

What a lovely day it was today, almost like spring!! Cleared all the rubbish off of the roof and gave the boat a wash - looks like new again even though it is almost 19 years old. You never know, if tomorrow is the same I might even get round to cleaning the brass and taking a little cruise, just up to the winding hole and back.

Surprisingly there are a lot of boats about today, whilst I was cleaning the boat and working in the garden there must have been about a dozen boats go by, one of them was brand new, I saw it in the workshops at Harveys the other day and now it is cruising. It was called 'No Direction', hardly an appropriate name for a boat as far as I am concerned, it must be going somewhere!! As to where the rest of them were going who knows. Apparently it is half term next week for a lot of schools in the area so I will no doubt see lots of boats in the next week. Half of the enjoyment of canals is sitting and watching the boats go by.

Progress

Maintaining a blog is obviously a sharp learning curve. I have now figured out how include a link to another website in my blog. All I need to do now is work out how I can change the dates on my drafts to the dates they are actually published.

That's all for now, off to London tomorrow to see Mama Mia, it was a christmas present from the kids. Booked a hotel for the night through www.londontown.com at a great discount and got the train tickets through www.thetrainline.com - can you believe it was cheaper to buy two singles rather than a return!

Having a Stretch

Everyone knows that 57 ft 6 ins is the optimum length to cruise the Pennine canals, i.e. especially the Calder and Hebble and Huddersfield Broad. However, it can be done in a 60 footer - if you go the right way round. We did it in 2003 prior to having a 'stretch' in 2004. Now we are 70 feet long and cannot do the Pennine canals any more. BUT, by having a 10 foot extension we managed to increase our living space by in excess of 20%. And, if you are a liveaboard, 20% is a lot more space, bigger bed, by going across the boat you can have a 5 foot or even 6 foot wide double bed!!, extra wardrobes, extra drawers, second toilet, separate cabin for the granddaughter to sleep in when she visits, the list is endless, Do we regret it? No, we don't, it took longer than anticipated, cost more than anticipated but in the long run was well worth it. I also now have somewhere to escape to from her who must be obeyed! A picture of the boat after the stretch is available at www.flickr.com/photos/78944572@N00/438067925. Apologies for the advert!

Time for a change?

When we first became liveaboards we upgraded the heating system on the boat from an Alde boiler running finrads to a diesel room heater. The Alde system was fine in Spring and Autumn but was not man enough for winter conditions. At the time diesel was 22p per litre and the Alde was much more expensive to run on Calor Gas. How things have changed. The last time I bought diesel for the heater I had to pay 70p per litre. Whilst filling up with the diesel a chance comment by the boatyard employee ("Do you know it is now cheaper to use Alde central heating than to use a diesel room heater") got me thinking. After working out the sums I came to the conclusion that he could well be right. However, what alternatives are there? Working out the costs of various heating systems I came to the conclusion that with what I am paying for diesel per year would buy me 135 bags of coal!! Now, I don't know how many bags of coal you all use per year, and can you really find all that lovely free wood lying around to bolster the coal? Maybe the answer is a multi fuel stove with a back boiler supplying one or two radiators (would I need a pump?) By my reckoning the multi fuel stove might well pay for itself in two years.

Getting there slowly

I know that this is all a bit amateurish but we all have to start somewhere. I am learning, albeit slowly. I have now managed to post a picture of GUELROSE onto the blog. This photo was taken at Snarestone on the Ashby Canal. Further photos will follow which will hopefully be in keeping with the text! Unfortunately this blog will not be a blog of what we are doing now. Elderly parents needing a lot of care has curtailed our cruising so this will be a little bit more of what we and ours did over the years since GUELROSE was built. I have written a couple of small articles for canal society bulletins, I am not too sure of copyright laws but as I wrote them I seen no reason why I shouldn't be able to repeat them here, although in a somewhat abbreviated form.

How it all began

N.b Guelrose was built by Colecraft in 1989. It was originally 60 feet long but was 'stretched' to 70 feet in 2004. My wife, Jenny, and I have lived on the boat since 2001 and have extensively cruised the canls of England and Wales. This will be our story.

It all began for me in 1958 when we hired a converted lifeboat from a boatyard at Maidenhead on the River Thames. We later went on to do the Fens and the Medway. In 1973 we ventured onto the canals. This was to be my wife's first boat trip - we have not looked back since.