The Sumpners Afloat

I know it’s the same every year, but isn’t it funny how January seems interminable and then we race through diminutive little February like a dose of salts!

Since my last post, we’ve had a couple of trips home to see family and friends. The trips are always a giddy whirl of appointments and dates with mates. But the best bit is spending quality time with our Grandson – now 18 months and rocketing around, calling out for Graaaaandaaad! We love it.

I forgot to mention that, back in November, we had our very first BSS. The BSS is like an MOT – but for boats. It’s concerned with boat safety – to give it it’s full name – it’s the Boat Safety Scheme. It was introduced in 1996 by the Environment Agency and British Waterways (CRT’s predecessor) to promote boat safety on the inland waterways, focusing on installations and components. It’s aim is to help minimise the risk of boat fires, explosions, or pollution and a BSS Certificate lasts 4 years. You cannot buy a licence without a valid BSS, so it’s pretty important

Very simply, it looks at gas (number 1 cause of explosions on boats), heating, wiring /electrics, ventilation and safety equipment (e.g. fire extinguishers/smoke/CO2 detectors). The inspection is carried out by a certified BSS Examiner. There’s a list of the 10 most common reasons for failure here. It’s a nervous time – although as out boat was built by Ortomarine and we are gas-free, we were pretty confident that all would be well. And it was! No issues, no advisories! We are good to go for another 4 years. Hurrah!

We had a trip to the theatre in Aylesbury to see the touring production of Calamity Jane – one of my favourite films/stage shows. I mentioned on Facebook that I was going and one of my old pals, Linda Raddon (an ex PP member too) who lives near Aylesbury decided to book and meet us there. A lovely impromptu lunch and get-together made the day doubly exciting. We lunched at Aurelia – just opposite the theatre. Very nice too – although the service was a little haphazard. We made sure to tell our server that we had a deadline and arrived at the theatre in perfect time to take our seats – sadly not physically together (I’d booked back in July) but it was nice knowing she was there. Sadly no pics together – we were too busy yakking! We’d last seen Linda ion the boat near Marlow, back in August last year so there was plenty to catch up on!

The theatre is a stunning new (opened in 2010) theatre that presents a wide range of theatre/dance/comedy and music of all genres. I wish I lived in Aylesbury! It’s a cracker of a theatre. And the show was a joy – starring Carrie Hope Fletcher and a multi talented cast – all of whom sang, danced, acted and played one or more instruments. Awesome! It was very difficult not to sing along. Calam was the part that got away for me – I so wanted to play it, but it was not to be. It went to an older actor (too old in my young eyes!!) who did a great job (she said grudgingly). I was Susan in the production I appeared in – too many years ago to calculate! But loved the show and know every word of all the songs|!

It was a lovely day through and through and well worth the 3 hour round trip.

We very sadly had to go to a celebration of my younger Cousin Deborah’s life, near Bury St. Edmunds. She was diagnosed with the dreaded Cancer in August and passed away in January. Way, way too young to die but the event was very typical of Deb, who was a real character. We had a song sheet and all sang along to Rebel Rebel, Paint it Black and Lily the Pink. It was a long day, but so lovely to see so many of the Herefordshire family.

I made several good friends during our time at Droitwich Spa Marina, which we left at Easter 2022 after several happy years there. I have stayed in touch with them and it was time we met up. My friend Jayne had sold her boat and moved ashore and we set off on a very sunny Saturday morning (rare at the moment) to see her in her new shore-based home, near Pershore.

It’s a “park home” and a beautifully situated one at that, overlooking meadows and the beautiful Bredon Hills. A truly idyllic spot. And it’s beautiful inside too. I was bowled over by it. a lovely sitting room, great kitchen, decent size balcony/patio, 2 beds, utility room and good sized shower room. I’d be very happy to move in – when I’ve finished boating that is!

We had a lovely day catching up. We had coffee and a natter and them went out for lunch and a natter at the dog-friendly pub The Oak in Upton Snodsbury then returned to Jayne’s for a cuppa – and natter! I hadn’t realised how much I had missed her and her lovely dog Monty. I think the boys and Monty remembered each other and got on famously. We hope to see Jayne again for a day on the boat with Monty, later this year,

And speaking of Droitwich – we had a quick trip there in the last week of February. Ortomarine were carrying out a series of trials of different size and pitch propellers in conjunction with an electric engine. As it was an early start, we decided to stay over at the charming Hadley Bowling Green pub just outside Droitwich. We met fellow Ortomainers Dave and Roma Jesse of NB Perseverance there and had a very pleasant meal, joined by Rob & Caroline (Ortomarine), before retiring to our lovely dog-friendly room for the night.

We were up at 06;30 and sitting down to a lovely cooked breakfast by 07:15. A little TOO early for my liking! But it made a nice change. We arrived at lovely Droitwich Spa Marina just after 08:00, ready for the trials to commence. It was a lovely sunny day and not too breezy – perfect trial conditions. We were joined by Canal Vlogger, David Johns, of Cruising the Cut, who was there to film the event for his vlog.

The process was quite simple – Nick – the owner of Droitwich Spa Marina – dragged the boat out of the water, Rob and Ian from Ortomarine, then swung into action to remove a propeller. This is a fairly physical process involving heat and blocks of wood and a lump hammer. Once off, they fitted the new propeller and then Nick slipped the boat back into the water and the next test took place. The first test was a “pull test”. If you imagine the scales you use to weigh your luggage before you go on holiday, it’s a very similar process. A rope attached to the boat and to the “scales” and then the boat is put into drive. The “scales” measure the force (in Newton Metres, actually. None the wiser? No – me either!) – that the propeller is creating, at several different RPMs.

Next came the speed trial, which measured MPH and the revs, power and torque (ie. the force). It tested acceleration to maximum speed and typical cruising speed. It also took into account the helmsman’s impressions of noise and vibration for each different propeller. The same helmsman (Paul) was used for each of the trails. This process was repeated for each of the propellers (7 in total) in the trial.

The results were carefully collected and the boffins have now gone away to analyse and report back. The aim of the trials was to identify the most efficient propeller, in terms of speed and power usage and noise. The results will be presented at Electrika 2025, the Electric Narrowboat Show, which is being held at Brinklow Waterside and Marina in July (11th/12th). More details about Electrika can be found here.

We were starting to get itchy tiller syndrome. It’s not long now until we leave our winter berth for the summer. We plan to leave on Good Friday and head North. Our original plans have been scuppered by a breach on the Bridgewater Canal. The breach, which is pretty major, happened on New Year’s day and caused pretty bad flooding in the area, The Bridgewater is something of an oddity, in that it is not under CRT’s purview. It is maintained by a private company

It is 39-miles (65km) long and runs, lock free, from Runcorn to Leigh in North West England. It was built over 250 years ago by the Duke of Bridgewater to carry coal from his mines and is considered to be the first true canal in England. More importantly, it is a strategic link between the Northern and Southern canal network. It’s essentially a shortcut to Manchester. The long way round has many more miles and locks. Unfortunately, the breach will be an expensive and lengthy job to fix and there was initially some fear about whether it would ever be fixed, but things are now looking a bit more positive. One thing is clear though, it will make our trip to Manchester to see our niece unworkable this year.

We have a finite period between mid-April and early-July to play with as we need the boat back in Brinklow for Electrika. It seems like plenty of time. But factor in that we can really only cruise at weekends and it looks a bit more challenging. Canal Plan AC – our trusted route planner reckons the round trip to central Manchester would be just under 130 hours (240 miles and 168 locks) travelling. We have roughly 10 weekends in the period and while 13 hours per week travelling doesn’t sound too bad, it allows no contingency time whatsoever. Bad weather, lock failures etc could all have an impact. We are just not prepared to take a risk. The stakes are too high. This year.

But we do plan to head north, having a crack at the Caldon Canal and the Macclesfield and Peak Forest Canals. Once again, it’s been a fair old while since we cruised these waterways so we are looking forward to it. And then, once Electrika is out of the way, we will set off again for Summer Part 2, with a view to cruising the Avon and the Gloucester & Sharpness canal – we think? We can’t wait!

Looking ahead, we are planning another trip home, incorporating our winter/summer clothes changeover, and celebrating George’s birthday. We also have a week out on the cut and some maintenance planned – blacking and paint touching up, mainly. And we leave for the Summer Part 1 six weeks tomorrow, as I write this. Can’t wait!