The Sumpners Afloat

28th July to 3rd August – Ventnor Marina to Lowsonford

I had what I can only describe as a brain fart this week! To explain – when we have guests we can really only get enough food in the fridge for the weekend, so I usually place another order to arrive after they have departed. And that’s just what I did this time, after Jacquie and Craig had left us. I’d arranged it for between 5 and 6 and we got the usual call to say “I’ve arrived at the Marina – where do I go now?” call. right on time. We could not see him. And then the awful truth dawned – he was at Brinklow Marina but we were at Ventnor Marina. I had forgotten to change the address! What a doofus!

I have to say that Ocado could not have been more helpful and – although the driver could not deliver that evening – we got our delivery on Monday. That was a catalyst to stay another night at Ventnor and get some washing and other domestics done, which was a great call. The weather for the remainder of the week looked a bit iffy but all the washing dried in a couple of hours on that day. We even got all the bedding done and dried.

After another quiet night at this very lovely marina, I set off late morning with full batteries and a happy heart, although tinged with sadness at leaving this serene spot.

We can’t go too far today as there is a set of locks that needs 2 people, so we planned to pull an early start on Wednesday and get through a chunk of them – probably the first 8 of the 10 in the Stockton flight, stopping at the Blue Lias pub that day. .

It was a very pleasant cruise and our speed was notably faster, this being a wide and deep canal. I felt quite giddy with the rate at which we were scudding along! It felt a bit wrong compared to our normal sedate pace.

After a short while, I spotted a nice bit of “one boat Armco”, just made for us and we quickly moored up for the rest of the day. It’s our favourite type of mooring – not that we are anti-social in any way! But we do like a bit of solitude too.

The forthcoming couple of days will be quite lock heavy, with the remainder of the Stockton Flight, the Bascote pair, a couple of odd locks and then the Fosse pair and so on. A total of 22 to do to get to where we want to be on Friday evening.

We were up with the lark on Wednesday morning and set off at about 6:15 for the trip down to the locks. We passed Nelson Wharf, where we had both done our boat training – boy did it rain that day! And curiously enough, it was raining today! But not as hard and not for that long, but enough to thoroughly wet my hair! But this was no time for shirking. We had 8 locks to do to be “on plan” and we soon arrived at Stockton top lock. All the locks required filling before we entered, mainly because of leakage. Most were only partially empty. so it didn’t take long.

These are wide locks – room enough for two boats side by side. Unluckily, there was only us on the move, but we don’t need to open both gates, we can slip in through one. However, these locks – no matter how hard you try (and believe me I’ve tired every which way) – have an irritating habit of swinging open so that – even though you have only opened one gate, you need to close two. It’s a pain but there’s nothing to be done, you just have to grin and bear it.

The boys really seemed to enjoy the early morning start. They were running up and down the towpath and playing chase and just generally having fun. Just like when they were younger dogs. Can’t quite believe they are 6 already.

We slipped into the top lock at 06:45 and had completed the eight by 08:00. Not too bad. We met a CRT person who was clearly about to inspect the flight. We were able to report all was well, no low pounds and he went off happily. I think we might have saved him a job? Maybe?

We were planning to moor at the Blue Lias pub, where we have a table booked for dinner tonight. Unfortunately, the only space was under the Weeping Willows, which is usually a no-no for us, but Skip was quite philosophical about it all. We’d definitely slurp up some solar if there is any about, as the front half of the boat is more or less clear. It’s a bit gloomy so it won’t be a big numbers solar day! I suspect that we have already seen our record day (11.42 KWh) for this year.

!!! IMPORTANT MILESTONE ALERT !!!

I clean forgot to mention that we went through the 6 MWh of solar garnered mark last weekend. That’s an awful lot of free energy! To put that into context, it means we could have continuously boiled a 3KW kettle for 20,000 hours! Or for 2.3 of our nearly 5 years aboard!!

Blue Lias, by the way, is a type of limestone. It’s very famous for fossils and we are near Wilmcote, after which one of the layers is named. Wilmcote Limestone was laid down some 200 million years ago, in the very early stages of the Jurassic Period.

“Geologists think that the Wilmcote Limestone originated as layers of fine-grained mud on the floor of a sheltered, shallow muddy sea or lagoon that covered parts of central England at the dawn of the Jurassic Period. Very little life could tolerate the stagnant conditions on the seabed. As a consequence the mud was seldom disturbed, which is why the fine, paper-like layering is preserved“.

And there are thus very few fossils in Wilmcote Limestone layer, unlike the later Charmouth Lias layer which, as you know is riddled with them. The pub has a very friendly looking dinosaur on its sign. Blue Lias is used as a building stone.

We have booked Friday night on the Saltisford Arm, in Warwick. This is a first for us as we usually stop at the Cape of Good Hope pub prior to tackling the Hatton flight of locks, which we normally do very early, if we are locking up (as we are this time). This means we can reward ourselves with a lovely breakfast roll from the cafe just below the top lock.

The Saltisford Arm is managed by the Saltisford Canal Trust, a group of volunteers who have worked tirelessly over the years to turn a derelict canal arm into a vibrant and thriving boating community. They provide moorings for visiting boaters and we are long overdue for a visit – and we’ll get our shopping delivered there too (I checked it was OK). We are really looking forward to it.

By the way – I am noticing that the sloes and other berries are numerous this year.and ripening very early – It’s not even August yet and there are blackberries to pick already. The lack of water seems to have done them no harm. I’ll get a picture next time I see some.

We had dinner in the pub and it was – OK. Certainly filled a gap! Had a few games of Cribbage while we were wailing. Got back to the boat at about 7:50 and were a tad irritated to note that one of the boats moored opposite started his engine and proceeded to run it until just before 10pm – bang out! Selfish and also in contravention of his licence – which pre-supposes he has one.

Schedule 5 of the “General Terms & Conditions for Boat Licences clearly sets out a boater’s responsibilities in this respect. We all know the rules and it’s anti-social to flout them in our opinion.

Rant over!

Another early start today, the plan being to get below the Bascote flight of four locks, which includes a staircase. I think there are only 10 sets of staircase locks in England and Wales, so they are quite a rarity. I think we have done all of them, although not in Old Nick.

But first we had to finish of the last two locks in the Stockton flight. As we slipped out from underneath our leafy hideaway, it was a grey morning – a little chilly but no coat required. We spotted the only other Old Nick on the canal system – a historic boat built by Braunston Boats. The name implies that it was originally a boat and butty, but I can’t find any info to that effect. But she does look sadly neglected.

All the locks were fully against us today, so the process was a bit slower, but we managed the 6, over a distance of 2 miles in almost exactly 2 hours. Happy with that. We met a boat on the move at the bottom lock. Hirers, who had to be back at Napton by Friday. They’ll have a long day! And Paul had to have a stern word with one impatient hirer. All his crew were off and approaching the lock but he could not be bothered to wait. He just barged the gate open. Paul explained that was very poor behaviour indeed and asked him to consider what would happen if every boater did that. I think he recognised the error of his ways. We certainly hope so, but who knows what he did, once we were out of sight?

Well that was a lovely spot – apart from the flies which pestered us all flipping day. But where there’s livestock, there’s gonna be flies, so we had to grin and bear it. Paul got the Exterminator out and despatched quite a few in to the long sleep, but even with Paul’s flyicide attempt, there was one that kept flying in my face in the night.

We had a bit of a lie in Friday morning as it was Paul’s day off, but were still in the first lock of the day by 07:45. We had 8 locks to do before we arrived at today’s destination – 6 this side of Leamington and 2 on the approach to The Cape of Good Hope. They were all against us but we did manage to save some water on 5 of the 8 locks we did by sharing with another boat.

We saw the dreadful despoil caused by HS2 and noted a few changes since we’d last been through, which we think was 2021?, new-builds, new Lidl (we think?) and a rather fine disabled access point, at Bridge 35 in Radford Semele. There was new Armco going in just below Cape Locks. The dredged mud was almost pure black. They were infilling as we passed. It’s going to provide some decent moorings below Cape Locks. Oooh and we also spotted fellow Ortomariners aboard Sloop John T at Radford Semele. Heading in the opposite direction.

We arrived at our destination at about 13:30 and received a warm welcome from the moorers and volunteers. It’s such a lovely spot! They have all that a boater’s heart could possibly wish for and more, in terms of facilities. And there are beehives and they also host facilities for injured or orphaned bats. It is all beautifully kept and we really can’t quite understand why we’ve never been before. But I suspect we’ll be back. It’s £12.50 plus electricity and you just ring to book. And – it’s just a ten minute walk in to Warwick town centre. I think you can describe us as new fans!

The alarm went off at 06:00 on Saturday morning and we very quietly slipped our moorings at lovely Saltisford, ready to tackle the Hatton 21. We hung around at the bottom for a good while, hoping to be able to buddy up and save water but no one showed up, so we cracked on. As it happened, the next boats up were a boat and butty, so we would not have been able to share the locks anyway, which somewhat assuaged our slightly guilty consciences, at this time where water is a more than usually precious commodity. .

All went well until the pound between Locks 3 and 4, where the pound was very low indeed. Someone was moored in the pound, but had had the good sense to moor on slack ropes, Very prudent as it turns out! I went aground mid-channel so we had to flush some water down which soon got me off.

We soldiered on until we got to Lock 10, which was still locked (as we knew it would be), so we pulled over and had our first breakfast – the health(ier) one. Fruit, Greek Yoghurt and home-made Granola. We still had our hearts set on getting our jaws round a cooked breakfast sarnie from the cafe at the top – let’s call it brunch?

We had over an hour to kill and used the time to do a bit of tidying up and blogging – what you’re reading right now, in fact! We also did a bit of logistical planning, working out where we will meet Bruce for his forthcoming visit, provisioning for that visit, where we are going to get our prescriptions sent to etc. etc.

The vollies rocked up a little before 09:45 and we made our way up at a slightly faster pace, as we had also picked up a short (and noisy!) boat to lock up with. The Hatton locks (among others) are weired (no – not weird!) – to explain – they were once single gauge locks but were widened in the 1930s as part of the Grand Union upgrade programme, which was extensive, and the old, redundant single lock was turned into an overflow weir. There seemed to be plenty of water coming over the top of them, that’s for sure!

As we neared the top, we saw Sara – a lovely CRT fundraiser, who had attended Electrika and with whom I had got chatting to there. We saw her once going through Warwick on Friday and again this morning at the CRT welcome point on the flight. We both said – simultaneously – “Are you stalking me?”. Very funny.

We rang ahead and ordered our brunch and by the time we arrived outside, they were ready to collect – and devour! Very nice indeed!

I need to mention our new mugs. You know how it is – you make a coffee and then stuff happens and when you remember it, it’s cold. Not really a problem for me as I can drink coffee in all states from hot to iced. But Paul is not a fan. These new mugs keep it at the right temperature for hours. I had a coffee yesterday morning that was still pretty warm at teatime. Paul is very impressed. This could revolutionise our beverage-drinking habits! Brilliant buy! You can’t beat a NInja product. Not cheap but really excellent bits of kit – and I got a great 20% off deal when I bought them. Ninja Heatstore Mugs – I reckon every boater could do with one of them!

The sun came out at the top and we had a lovely cruise, passing through damp little Shrewley Tunnel (not so sunny in there!) and on. up towards Lapworth, where we’d eventually leave the GU and join the South Stratford canal – another heavily locked section. But that will be tomorrow. Today, we planned to moor somewhere nice and quiet and relax for the rest of the day – and that’s just what we did!

By the way – we think we have brought some of the flies from earlier in the week on a little holiday. They’ll probably live to regret that! Or probably die, if Paul has his way!

We had an utterly delicious beepy that afternoon. Most restorative – hopefully, anyway as we need to at least start the South Stratford locks (36) tomorrow. Thank goodness they are narrow locks! And we have the joy of the Edstone Aqueduct to look forward to, too!

We had a lovely peaceful night and caught up on our sleep. The weather for Sunday was looking a bit iffy and we deduced we would probably get wet at some point.

We had another go with our new egg boiler and this sadly, would be its death knell. After years of perfectly boiled eggs from our old boiler, this new one really does does not cut the mustard. We had a disaster on its first outing last week and this week was no better. The times in the instructions are way off and we had another set of partially raw eggs, despite cooking them for far longer than they advise. That’s it. It’s going in the bin. We’ll buy a like for like replacement of our old one, despite the annoying limit of 7 eggs!

We set off along the route to Kingswood Junction, passing Brinklow friends Del and Ali on our way. We stopped at the water point and did all the domestics, before setting off on the Lapworth flight, with me lock-wheeling. It was quite busy on the flight, with boats going up and down and all was working well until a boat saw us working the lock above them and quickly nipped out in front of us. A little bit cheeky in my book.

We had bright, hot sunshine and showers as we progressed down the flight. The locks are narrow but often quite tough. The South Stratford is famous for its split bridges. The bridge holes are much narrower than usual, with no towpath, meaning fewer bricks – hence cheaper. The bridges were instead built with a split in them for the rope from the towing horse to pull through, saving the need to unhitch. It’s also renowned for its barrel-roofed cottages. The picture below gives the absolute full flavour of this lovely canal.

We pulled over at Lowsonford and that was our second week of “Summer Cruise Pt Deux” done, And a great deal of progress made! The going has been much better than we were expecting – long may it continue that way!

Looking ahead, next week will see us arrive in Stratford upon Avon and thence onto the beautiful Avon itself, where we will make our way to Shakespeare Marina to meet Bruce and Len on Monday week. Interesting fact – we were the first visiting boat at this Marina – just as it was opened, back in May 2022. It wasn’t fully ready, so they had to jury rig some leccy and did not charge us for our stay. I think it’ll be a bit fuller this visit! Sue & Paul Rogers joined is there, on that occasion.

Period	Miles	Locks
28 Jul to 3rd Aug	22	52
Cumulative 2025	295	178