London / Sheepcote Street Bridge to Lister Street Bridge, Birmingham and Fazeley Digbeth Branch.
Another early start, a cuppa, a brief chat with Andrew and Jac and time for a cuddle with Finn their cat before we headed to catch a bus making our way back to Marylebone Station and then on to Birmingham. Another morning for an M&S sandwich brunch. I did pretty well with my knitting, however I discovered that I was about to run out of one of the colours, so I had to stop with only a few rows to go. More yarn was required from the big drawer under our bed on the boat.
Back on board Oleanna we heard what Tilly had been up to, something to do with Westlife coming round for some Dreamies, but I’m not too sure about that! A change of clothes and we were ready to push off, our four days mooring about to elapse, plus we also wanted to start our departure from Bumingham.
No news had come through about Lock 17 on the Lapworth flight, next update due tomorrow. If we set off in the direction of King’s Norton Junction it would be sods law that the lock wouldn’t be mended for another week. So instead we committed ourselves to the longer way round to reach the South Stratford Canal via the Birmingham and Fazeley, Framers Bridge, Ashted Locks, Ashted Tunnel! Then onto the Grand Union and Camp Hill Locks, Knowle down to meet the South Stratford at Kingswood Junction.
I walked ahead to get the top locks set for us whilst Mick paused to dispose of rubbish. Two CRT fundraisers were chatting to people at the top of Farmers Bridge, they’d signed four people up today, a reasonable day for them and so long as the sun shone it was fine. With the top lock full and the gate open I headed on down to set the next lock. Apparently there had been a boat a couple of hours earlier going down, the flight was to be their first flight, their first lock ever.
Soon into our routine for the flight, me walking down to the next but one lock to lift a paddle to fill it, on the way back the next lock was already full so the top gate could be opened, back to the lock above where Mick had brought Oleanna in, closed the top gate, lowered the off side paddle, then he lifts the one bottom paddle before stepping back on board. It’s quite a good division of labour, means I get lots of steps in and means you tend to make use of the water you are bringing down with you.
A lady stopped and opened a top gate for me then she walked up to give us a hand with gates. Her boat was round on Oozels Street Loop and she’d just been to the Pen Museum, one we’ve yet to visit. Thank you for your help and nice to have a chat for a while.
Obligatory photos were taken with the BT tower and Oleanna in her new livery.
The flats that had to have their cladding replaced are no longer covered in scaffolding. They now have a fake wood cladding, a section of which had already broken off.
At a couple of locks the boat ahead had left a paddle up, easily rectified. Another lock had a yellow CRT Aware label saying that the paddle was out of action. As I walked down past the lock under the building to the one below I could see there were three such yellow lables. One on the paddle, which was up, another two on the bottom gate beam and handrail. To me that meant the paddle even though up was out of action. The pound above was really low, by at least 3ft a sign saying to leave the lock empty at all times on the top lock beam. We’d need to fill the lock quickly and move down swiftly I thought, no setting ahead, well we were nearly down the majority of the flight anyway.
I set the lock filling and went back up to explain to Mick about the levels. I emptied the lock Oleanna was in. There was a shout from Mick, Oleanna was starting to list, sat on something! I closed the paddles, then gently let water back into the lock from above. I closed the top lock gate on the lock below. Then Mick suggested seeing if I could close the paddle with the yellow label on it.
Derrrr! Of course it closed, it had been left up by the boat ahead, possibly to help keep the lock empty or maybe just by mistake. If it hadn’t had the yellow label on it I’d have done it before now! We started to let water run down through the lock above to try to improve the level in the pound. I could now see another boat coming up towards us, best stop them from using the lock ahead of us. I went down to explain and suggested they wait in the lock they were coming up. One chap went up the locks to run more water down from above. Then a lady arrived, learnt what was happening, there was now another boat sat below the lock one boat was in, they’d be able to get both their boats in the pound for us to get passed. Hmm, maybe not such a good idea three boats in one pound!
The levels were starting to look better. I refilled the lock below, and opened the gate, then we gently emptied the lock Oleanna was in, me stood ready to close a paddle should she ground again. Thankfully no such problem this time, Mick moved her from one lock to the next. Phew! Now we just had to get past the other two boats. The one in the lock was brought out into the pound, their boat too long to pull into the towpath, but Mick managed to pull out of the lock and slightly across the way to then give them enough room to go into the lock above. The boat that had been sat below the lock gates, apparently in a narrow bit so it would have to come up (?) was actually pulled back out of the bridge hole to make room for us.
Both of the boats were Canal Time boats, far shallower draft than Oleanna. They’d be fine going up once the levels had been sorted a bit more. I reassured one lady who thought they’d be stuck mid flight overnight. It might take them a couple of hours to get to the top with both boats, but their pub meal and pints would be extra deserved this evening.
We worked our way down the remaining locks without incident. Another paddle having a yellow label as it was out of action. As we rounded the bend at Aston Junction we could see the narrowboat we’d been following down the flight. They’d just entered the top lock, 7 more to go before they’d find moorings by Rocky Lane Bridge. Not much further for us, we pulled in in front of Aston University Buildings, this would do us for the night.
Some lock crew baking was required, followed by a chicken going in the oven to roast, after all it had been quite a long time since our M&S brunch!
13 locks, 1.6 miles, 1 bus, 2 tubes, 1 train, 1 exited cat, 2 boaters eager to get on, 1 seriously low pound, 3 yellow labelled paddles, 2 uphill boats, 1 very tight squeeze past, 2 boy racers, 1 cake, 1 roast chicken, 2 boaters wanting a lie in please!
