Narrowboat

My narrowboat, Silhouette, is actually a shared owned boat managed by Ownerships, and I’ve had a decade of good boating. At the end of April I found out that the management company was to be wound up, this was confirmed in a letter, for more details see this post on narrowboat world. I had invested in one scheme (the free management scheme as it seemed a good way to keep my annual costs down) so I suppose better than many who had gone into all the various schemes, but it did leave people in a lot of turmoil.
Owners on different boats (the company managed 100+ boats) have faced various problems, some have had considerate yard owners, others receiving unpaid invoices in the post, and some turning up to the yard to find their boat chained up and presented with a sometimes large bill needing to be paid before releasing their boat. This is on top of finding out any of their money the company held (e.g. for insurance, maintenance, licensing costs) is gone, and set adrift on how to progress.
Silhouette’s owners have been been talking by email, like many other boat syndicates, to try and save this years holidays and ensure costs are met – essentially managing the boat ourselves. Many of the Ownerships staff are still helping owners, even though they are now working unpaid, in the short term, and yesterday there was a mass meeting explaining why Ownerships was going to the receivers. I attended the 1200 strong meeting and came out fairly positive. Yes, money has been lost, but unless owners in any particular boat don’t want to be owners no more then some method of managing their boat needs to be found. I still want to carry on with my trips out on Silhouette (until I can afford my own boat I guess), so we’ll need some method of managing the boat whether this is the new mutual company, some other management company, or we go self managed will need to be decided upon at some future meeting.

Canalplan is quite a good website for planning your cruises, I’ve often used it to get an estimate of what distance needs doing, so I can judge whether I need to get up earlier the following day if I’m behind or want to get a bit further – conversely if I’m ahead and want to detour somewhere instead. Another feature is the Gazetteer that users can upload snaps of canal features they’ve taken. Since I have my camera on automatic, I have quite a few photos of features, so I keep adding some. Just added some from the first few days of my March cruise. Having a leader board of contributors is quite nice a spurns me on to add more – I’m 4th on the list so far edging towards 900 photo’s submitted. If you’ve some photos of a trip try uploading some. Does that sound like a big ask? There’s 250+ people uploading, uploading 2 will get you in the top 200, or upload a dozen and you get into the top 100. Then you may get addicted and start uploading more.

We stopped for a very quick lunch, see my previous post for details of the morning trip, it had being prepared on the move as we didn’t want to delay too long. Catherine-de-Barnes is seen as the last place on the GUC to be able to moor safely on non-secure moorings and advice seems to be to stop overnight before taking a full day to head into Birmingham. It was just after noon, was it too late to attempt, bearing in mind its March, so dusk is 6pm.

Well we weren’t going into the city centre and had used moorings at Aston Science Park before. Ideally, though, we were heading for Cuckoo Wharf and hope there’s space (previous times it’s being full, so maybe we’d ask to double moor if needs be). I’d been told at a push there was a secure pontoon at Camp Hill locks, so if we were delayed, that’s a back up.

So off we set, the weather was sunny, though the strong wind still gave a chill. For a few miles the canal is in a tree lined cutting, so it isn’t as urban as you’d expect looking at the canal on a map, though every so often patches of litter, would be urban lilly pads, greet you, and ever wary of getting snared and another trip down the weed hatch I put the boat in neutral and coast through. The canal then gets increasingly industrialised, less of the town houses hidden behind foliage, and more the warehouses and industrial units peering over the canal bank asking you “wot you looking at”. All this exposed industrial brickwork is a canvas, no longer blank, but covered in spray paint, by one time youths inking out where they was, though they are probably now settled down somewhere with a family and either a steady job or steady dole cheque.

Despite the urban and industrial surroundings, its a fairly quiet canal and a nice trip in the sunshine. We reached Camp Hill locks by 2.30pm, so carried on – still plenty of time. A British Waterways boat had just come out of the lock below when we got into the first, so it meant these locks should all be set for us. Camp Hill locks are on a strange S bend, which I assume means they were rebuilt at some point when the major A roads were modernised.

As we entered the last lock a hire boat came though Bordesley junction and then came up to the lock gate. I can only assume they thought we were going up, but at least we could say “Boo” when the lock gate was swung open. So which way now? As we hoped to go along the Tame Valley canal tomorrow, then continuing up the GUC seemed best. Next up was the litter collecting Garrison Locks, which we soon got through, though the strong wind was still present, so holding the boat from the tow path whilst waiting for the next lock did seem best on the exposed parts. It was now after 4pm, but we were almost there. Once through the locks it was the final stretch and although there were moorings at Star City, we opted not to use them (they were completely empty and the small gate-less fence meant it wasn’t convenient to access, nor was it completely secure. Round the corner, or round Salford Junction, was Cuckoo Wharf, which we reached just after 5pm.

I compiled Day 3 into a single video but as youtube has a 10 min max had to split the 16min video. I chose to render each half again instead of simply splitting the file, so I could add a proper end and begining to each part. I shall upload the second part today or tomorrow as I’te got it on a flash disc with me.

Each time I’ve gone into or from Birmingham taking a southern route , I’ve always taken the Stratford Canal route, which although longer does mean safe moorings are available a short day’s cruise from the city centre. This time I opted to take the Grand Union Canal route in, because we’re moving bases so it may be a couple of years before I go down the GUC again. The accepted wisdom is to stop is that Catherine de Barnes as the last real place before the city centre, to moor, save for some designated safe mooring sites. As I had booked in to spend the evening at the Waterman for Mothers Day, it meant that I was setting off from Hatton Top for Day 3, which is an extra 10 miles and 5 locks away, so extended the day somewhat (I didn’t really want to do just a short day again). Was I mad in trying to get to Brum from Hatton, or maybe I would only make it as far as the Camp Hill locks pontoon (a “secure” mooring as it has no way on or off to the rest of the world except by boat). It was, after all, only March and not a long summer day of July or August.
As this trip was to go through Birmingham and on to the Shropshire Union, I didn’t necessarily have to go via the city centre, in deed I preferred to go along the Tame Valley Canal because my camera broke last time I did it and really wanted another go at capturing that route. That at least meant I didn’t need to go right into the centre and I could go only as far as Aston Science park, where I’ve moored previously, or ideally to Cuckoo Wharf near Salford Junction as that would put me straight on the Tame Valley the next morning. Although I’ve been past Cuckoo Wharf before and it looks like purely long term moorings only, I had read that its okay for overnight visitors. So my plan, was to set off early and play it by ear hoping to reach Cuckoo Wharf before dusk and youths come out from the shadows like a scene from a zombie movie.
We got up, had breakfast, and set off at 8am. It was a bright, sunny, but distinctly cool morning. The canal was quiet and the sun was still half asleep and hadn’t risen far. We soon reached Shrewley Tunnel which welcomed us with a cool embrace and showered us with several water drips before bidding farewell. If I wasn’t fully awake before, I was now. We said hello to some lively ducks and we reached Kingwood Junction at 9.30. Last chance to chicken out and turn up the Stratford … The canal from here was all new to me, as I’d not done this stretch before. By 10am the wind had picked up and by the time we reached Knowle Locks there was a strong crosswind – not very good for a long boat at slow speed. After dropping off a crew member I backed up a little behind the shelter of the shrubbery until the lock was ready and open, then went ahead straight into the lock. As we were going up the first lock, another boat was coming down the second – perfect timing as it means we should both easily pass each other, if we set off together, and be able to do so with enough speed so that the wind couldn’t blow off course. We managed it, though I think I was travelling a little bit faster than I needed. I stayed in the second lock until the third was ready and open, although this way meant more walking for the crew, it did mean I was less affected by the wind. We made it into the top lock by 11am, so about 10 minutes a lock. After clearing detritus that had been accumulated by the wind across the top gate we carried on and an hour later we were approaching Catherine-de-Barnes. Lunch was being prepared so time for to moor for a quick lunch once it was ready, so that we could then continue. Was noon too late to be setting off from Catherine-de-Barnes? Here’s the video for the morning’s cruise: