Fleur de Lys to below Wilmcote Bottom Lock 50
Another early start for us. With storm Austen on his way we were pondering whether we should make the most of what might be a lovely day today. Best to start early and see if we fancied doing more after a lunch break. The possible stopping places would be dictated by lock flights today.
We dropped down Lock 31 and pulled in at the water point to refill the tank, the washing machine is being kept pretty busy at the moment. Thankfully the water pressure was good so we were full fairly soon.
Onwards and downwards. Plenty of locks all at a walkable distance apart to keep us busy today. We’re back into the rhythm of such things, it’ll be a month before we have to remember how we go about doing the same up hill. The majority of locks were set against us, only those with very leaky top gates were full and waiting.
At Bucket Lock 44 there is a small aqueduct just above the lock. Back at the end of 2013 we hired a boat from Wooton Wowen in December and came this way, the leaf soup making for slow progress, I remember crossing this little aqueduct at total snail pace!
At Preston Baggot Bottom Lock we came across our first up hill boat of the day, a hire boat with three German men onboard, they seemed to like Baileys Irish Cream as there was a line of bottles on the stern. Once they had left Mick brought Oleanna into the lock just as I got a phone call. It was Jamie, the set builder for panto. They were in the middle of putting base coats on the set and he was questioning one of the Dulux paints I’d requested. Quite a few weeks ago I’d listed all the paints they would need alongside photos of the model. From last year I’d learnt to be careful with the names I used for colours as there had been a little bit of confusion, so I’d gone through my list carefully and checked it twice. With other things in life being more important at the moment, I believed I’d made a mistake. Why would I have given the code for a dark blue for something that was to be painted off white? I said I’d have a look at things once down the lock and apologised. Then the penny dropped, we did need that colour, once down the lock I checked my swatches and notes. Thank goodness I wasn’t loosing it at all, Jamie had misread my notes.
With a pound of around 3 miles ahead of us, I stayed on board, my knee requiring a rest. Regular applications of Fenbid were made with the hope that it wouldn’t become a problem. We pootled on in the sunshine, coats required, but it was still a beautiful day.
At Wooton Wawen we pulled up at the start of the aqueduct over the road, Mick went to see if he could find anyone from the Anglo Welsh base to see if they’d sell us some diesel, the sign said £1.35. The chaps were having their lunch, but all sprang into action to top up our tank for us. Across the aqueduct we moored up for some lunch. I’d originally imagined us stopping an hours cruise further on, but our going had been slow this morning. We considered what we should do. With the storm arriving tomorrow it would be better to be further on. But being further on would mean 11 more locks than orignally planned and a few more hours cruising. The sun was still out, we opted to carry on.
Just as we were about to push off a boat came past, would they be going as far as us? This would mean resetting 12 locks. Or would they be stopping earlier? At Bearley Lock I chatted to the crew, this was their last lock of the day, they’d be stopping above Wilmcote.
A short distance on is Edstone Aqueduct, which is the longest aqueduct in England at 176 yards long. It spans a valley with a railway and a road. I don’t like aqueducts that are this skinny, even the side with the towpath makes me nervous! Thankfully it was over fairly quickly.
We could now hear Tilly inside demanding we stop. The original plan had been to moor along this next stretch, which looked like cat heaven. Trees, sideways trees and plenty of friendly cover, the sort of place we’d be out calling for Tilly to come home after dingding. I promised that we’d make sure we stopped there on our way back.
We passed the boat ahead, we passed the last mooring before the Wilmcote flight. These should take about two hours to do the eleven locks, that would be just as the sun would be setting.
The locks come in three groups, a three, a five and another three. I set ahead whilst Mick started to empty the lock Oleanna was in, me returning to open and close the bottom gate. This all worked pretty well, most of the locks were full making the going quite easy. Someone appeared from a house, who opened a top gate for us, they then came back after we’d passed to make sure we’d closed up properly behind us.
On the last three locks there was a hire boat moored on the top lock landing. Should a single hander have arrived there would have been nowhere for them to tie up to work the lock. Inside the crew were looking at phones, then one of them disembarked with lots of bags and headed towards Stratford Parkway Station. The crew now got on with the remainder of the flight, half an hour before sunset just as we were tying up below.
Sorry Tilly, too late to go out. We had plenty of complaints from her.
We’d managed two days cruising in one day. There is still a way to go to get to Stratford and now two storms between us and the marina on the river. Should we have a day off tomorrow, give Tilly some shore leave, knees rested and catch up on bits and bobs? Or with high winds due would we be best moving away from the trees that surround us?
20 locks, 8.9 miles, 1 full water tank, 0 rubbish, 1 empty yellow water tank, 95.16 litres diesel, 1 hour behind, 0.5 hours ahead of sunset, 60cm bow, 1 dark blue most definitely not off white, 1 wet night, pair 137 cast on, 1 phone charger needing pat testing.
