Imitating the Flying Dutchman

We’ve taken out time retreating from the western end of the canal with a night in Bathampton, and then a night at Claverton hoping to get a view of the waterwheel pump. Unfortunately its under renovation so we walked up (and I do mean up, its about a mile from the canal on a continuous rising 1 in 10) to the American Museum. We did the grounds but not inside the house as we had the girls with us. Then on to Bradford on Avon where we spent 3 nights and had a thorough investigation of the town. It is fascinating having a very old section up the hill (everything is hills here -a culture shock for us East Anglians) of old weavers cottages and its a warren of alleyways, stairs and passages just as fascinating as Bath but much more of a “lived in” feel than just a tourist hot spot.

From there an easy day travelling to Semington for a night and then on to Sneed Cleeve where we had arranged to meet Sarah’s goddaughter Anna. We haven’t seen her for 5 years and that was at funeral so it was great to catch up with her and hear about her experiences doing the Fastnet race a couple of times amongst other things.

This is where our relaxing trip back starts to go awry. The plan for the following day had been to go to Foxhangers then on to the bottom of the Caen flight and then tackle the flight the following day. In the event we decided not to stop at Foxhangers and go straight to the bottom of the flight but when we got there a couple of volunteers had just helped a couple of boats down asked if we wanted to go up. They were uncertain that there would be volunteers on on the following day and as the forecast was for that day to be a warm one we decided to take up their offer. So in the end we did 32 locks and 2 swing bridges that day, a new personal best!

We felt that deserved a rest so took the 72 hours available in Devizes and had a really relaxing time soaking up the sun although we were lucky to secure the last mooring at the wharf when we arrived and it remained full the whole time we were there.

So yesterday we left Devizes with the intention of going to Honey Street but on arrival there it was full - some sort of summer solstice celebration (apparently the pub is the centre for crop circle fans!) so we headed for Pewsey but on arrival there it was full so we headed for Wooton Rivers but when we got there - yes it was full. So we headed for some staging we had seen a couple of locks on but when we got there - you're getting the picture by now I hope and as to why this blog has the title it has- it was full. Not strictly true; it was very busy because there was a huge field of tents being erected and a band tuning up obviously for another summer solstice celebration so we didn’t thing it was likely to be very restful. So we headed for Crofton but when we got there - surprise, surprise -it was full. By this time is was 6pm (we had started at 8am) and we had had enough so we moored on the lock staging. Up early this morning in case anyone was wanting to use the lock and eventually a boat came off the moorings below us and we have taken their space so will recuperate for 48 hours and then move on to good knows where. We hope to moor in Hungerford but may well end up having to sail the K & A for eternity. The strange thing is that although all the mooring is taken, yesterday, in our 10 hour 17 miles and 10 lock marathon we only saw about 8 boats on the move. It will be interesting to see how many boats move off this mooring today. Given thats it's 48 hours it should on average be a half of them shouldn't it? Some hope.

Overlooking Bradford

Weavers Cottages in Bradford

Rooftops of Bradford

Typical Alley in Bradford "Newtown"

A proper coffee house - eat your heart out Starbucks

Inside Mr Salvats Coffee Room

Mr Salvat's modern writing implement

Back to Bath

Sorry its been a few days since I last posted, I’ve been so busy with the important things in life, sunbathing, sleeping, enjoying a beer or two, laughing myself silly at Germans falling into locks - more on that later - and just haven’t had a moment to spare

We did the Clifton Suspension Bridge on our last full day in Bristol, taking the girls on a bus - bus passes accepted for all 4 of us - and walked back along the Severn from there to the floating harbour. Again something worth seeing and another masterpiece from Brunel although it wasn’t really his design in the end and wasn’t finished until after his death.

That evening we had a great meal with Lynn and Ian from NB Travino at the bistro at the end of our jetty. As they were staying on for another 5 days or so it seems unlikely that we would meet up again so a farewell meal.

Thursday saw us leave Bristol to start the long journey back to Reading. An uneventful first day, mooring up again at Hanham lock for a meal at the Chequers.

The following morning gave us our first encounter with “The German.” Strictly the boat (which happened to be a yogurt pot -glass fibre for the uninitiated) was skippered by a Welshman with the German as crew but for the sake of this story its the German who has the staring role.

We decided to fill with water at the lock which meant turning around and going back 100yards to the landing stage and as we approached, the aforementioned boat was coming out of the lock and, understandably, they thought we were going in so did not bother to close the top gates. We had no problem with that other than the fact that they also made no attempt to close the paddles. Still it gave us something to do whilst filling with water and someone to grumble at. Oh, that that had been the last time we encountered them.

We went from Hanham lock to the moorings at Bitton where luckily there was one space left on the 24 hour mooring, the other being taken by a boat which our friends on NB Terino had seen there when they passed some 6 days earlier. (I’ll try not to keep harking on about overstayers I know you will all be bored to death by now but it is really, really, galling.)

Anyway, off the following morning to get to Bath with plans to do the first 3 locks in the flight (which included the 20ft deep lock) and then moor for a couple of days. Given the size and weight of Deep locks’ gates we truly hoped that we would meet someone to go up with. Well, we had 4 locks to negotiate before the flight so hopefully we would find someone. At the first lock just as we were emptying it to enable us to go in I saw a boat approaching in the distance, great news. Unfortunately it turned out to be a 15ft single handed inspection launch so not a great deal of help and very nerve racking to try and avoid crushing it in the turbulent lock. We decided to stop again for water after the lock (Sarah’s washing machine regime demands regular top ups) so that help disappeared over the horizon.

The next lock, just as we were emptying it, yes, another boat arrives, another yogurt pot but with a crew of two and a decent size so things were looking better for some assistance. Wrong! Not sure if either of them had been out before but both seemed clueless and it took ages to organise the lock and clear it. On to the next lock. Following them down the river to find that at the next lock they were turning round and heading back from whence they had come. Hey-ho on we go on our own. 

Through that lock on our own and towards the next lock and in front of us I could see another boat, This time a narrowboat. Hooray! A look through the binoculars confirmed that there were at least 3 adults on board. This looked hopeful. Mm, I suddenly became aware that we were catching them up quite quickly and had to slacken our pace to stop overhauling them. Anyway they moored on the lock landing and I pulled in behind them to let Sarah off the bow to hear that they asked her if she would mind doing the lock on her own as although the skipper was experienced the others were on board for the first time with two children. Any guesses as to what Sarah’s response was? Suffice to say she did one paddle whilst  a crew member from the other boat did the other. It also transpired that they were not going up the Bath flight so although in going through 4 locks with three different boats we were still on our own (we thought) for the Bath flight and deep lock.

( I haven’t forgotten about the German we are getting to that part soon)

As we were approaching the bottom lock of the Bath flight we passed the inspection launch we had gone through the first lock of the day with moored up but didn’t see any one aboard so assumed he was shopping (or something)

Up to the lock landing for the bottom lock to find a hire boat moored there with no one aboard. Have I mentioned how irritated I’m becoming with boats moored in the wrong place? No? I’m sure I have. Never mind I’ll leave it for now. Anyway I managed to moor up and we went into the lock to find hot on our tail the inspection launch. Well, at least some help. As we raised the water level and saw up towards deep lock there was a yogurt pot moored up on the lock landing at the top of our lock but facing up stream which turned out to be ??? Yes, our German and Welsh friends. “Ve do not wish to go up zee deep lock on our own so one of you vill come with us. You - pointing at us - are zoo big and you do not have any fenders down  (pointless really considering their boat looked as though it was shrouded in barrage balloons) You vill be ideal” - pointing at our inspection launch friend - To avoid a diplomatic incident we concurred. Yeh back to doing the lock on our own.

So inspection launch comes out of the lock and goes into deep lock. The Welshman has gone on to deep lock to assist with closing gates (wonders will never cease) leaving German to cast off and take boat into lock. Well, in an earlier blog I likened us to Tim and Pru but this guy had us well and truly beat. It take him ages to get off the mooring much revving of both outboard motors lots of smoke and eventually he manages it but has forgotten that his bow rope is still around a bollard. As it is not tied up it doesn’t stop him leaving so there he is trailing the rope with two hearty outboard motors ticking away. He arrives in the lock and decides that he needs to tie up so attempts to throw a rope up to Welshman on the lock. This is some 19 feet above his head. Given that the rope looked about 20 feet long I thought it was a mite optimistic and so it proved. After about 6 attempts it was on to plan B which involved getting the boat hook and hooking it around the lock ladder to pull the boat to the side. This he managed to do but then the classic; he lent over and grabbed hold of the ladder with the inevitable result that the boat moved quickly away from the side. Result? Yep. Splash! One very wet German faced with a 20 foot ladder to climb. This was really turning into an entertaining afternoon. So German is on the lock side, lock is filled. Unfortunately (!!) the two previous boats up had somehow managed to deplete the small pound above deep lock of water so that when the levels were reached the inspection launch which probably had a draft of about 6” got out of the lock Ok but the German yogurt pot ground to a halt on the cill. Instead of trying to reverse back into the deep water of the lock he kept the engines on forward and although, apparently they should raise if they meet an obstacle, one didn’t and it ceased functioning. Wonder why? Suggestions on a postcard to… Well and truly stuck on the cill we then had to raise the level in the pound so that he could get himself off. This took some 15 minutes but he then floated out  but made no attempt to close the gates or paddles behind him so left it to me to do. Sarah by this time had gone up the flight to see what was happening higher up and it transpired that the next pound was even lower. I didn’t know this at the time so closed the gates emptied the lock and brought Hoddy in to hear the news that no one was going anywhere for a considerable time until levels could be restored. So I found myself climbing out of the lock to while away a couple of hours whilst the matter was sorted.

Meanwhile our German/Welsh fiends (sorry, friends) were knocking on doors of local cottages to see if anyone would let them fill up their water containers so that the German could have a shower and wash off the canal water - whats wrong with our canal water?

The CRT man that Sarah managed to magic out of thin air did a great job in sorting things out, having put Sarah in charge of the top lock to forbid anyone to come down until he said it was Ok. No one did.

So four and a half hours after we had entered bottom lock we had gone up 3 locks and were moored up for the night. Inspection launch and our friendly tupperware had gone on and we just hope that having spent a couple of days here recovering we wont see them again.

Other than that it been a rather quite time, a bit more sightseeing around Bath, a re-provisioning of the beer cellar and we will be on our way tomorrow.

View up the Severn from Cliffton Suspension Bridge

Coffee break at the floating harbour (Hoddy in the background)

Ornate verandah in Bristol

Hoddy in the Floating Harbour

Pirates on the Bow! Actually a replica of Matthew the ship John Cabot bumped into Newfoundland with

At last a steam engine named after me! (At Bitton  Avon Valley Railway)

Our friendly inspection launch assistant

As it is in the beginning so shall it be at the end

We started our trip down the K & A on May 5th and ended it exactly 4 weeks later.

We started our trip down the K & A in a storm with winds gusting to 40mph and ended it exactly 4 weeks later in a storm with winds gusting to 40mph

We left Bath in a torrential rain storm (remind me - this is late spring/early summer isn’t it?) with NB Pema to share the locking with and we had a very pleasant (apart from the drenching) journey down onto the River Avon. What none the the guide books tell you is the severe paucity of mooring spaces. Once clear of Bath there are only 10 boat spaces spread over 3 locations before the Floating harbour at Bristol. We were lucky at Bitton as there was one space available so we breasted up with Pema and had a very tranquil mooring for the night, a really idilic spot. The following day we set off thinking that we may moor at Keynsham Thats spelt K E Y N S H A M (Anyone who knows what Radio Luxembourg was will understand what I’m talking about, anyone who doesn’t know what Radio Luxembourg was - lucky you for being so young)

There was one spot there and we pulled in but having investigated it decided it wasn’t ideal and lacked anywhere for the dogs so we carried on to Hanham lock where we found NB Pema already moored and joy of joys it had space and joy of joys it was 48 hours and joy of joys it was very near 2 pubs. So we stopped, had a great meal at the Chequers at Saturday lunch time and a good walk with the dogs both days. Checking the weather forecast for Monday showed that very strong winds were due around midday so we set off around 8.00am to try to get moored up before they arrived and that we did manage. We are tucked nicely into an inlet at Oporto Quay almost opposite the SS Great Britain. We are glad we are tucked away given the winds last night and today. In fact we saw NB Terino mid afternoon appearing to be leaving the harbour although we thought they were staying longer but an exchange of texts confirmed that they were purely moving to try to find more sheltered mooring as they were taking a battering where they had been.

This morning we finally succumbed to the cough that has been plaguing us both for the last 3 weeks and took ourselves to the local NHS walk in clinic and got ourselves some antibiotics which hopefully will stop us sounding like 40 a day smokers.

This afternoon we went round Brunel's masterpiece the SS Great Britain. A great experience and well worth it.

Tomorrow we remain here and will try to get up to see the Clifton Suspension bridge as we need to give the girls a day off from being buffeted around in the boat.

Breasted up with NB Pema at Bitton

Part of the magnificent engine of SS Great Briain

Such superb lines

From Brandon Park overlooking Bristol

Elegant town houses Queen Street Bristol