It’s a Cover Up
Fitting New Cratch & Pram Hood Covers
The next several days of sitting still at Shebdon Wharf whilst I had new cratch cover and a pram hood made were spent renovating the cratch window frames whilst I waited for the new cratch and stern covers to be completed.. The cratch frame looked as though it hadn’t seen a lick of varnish since new.
Renovating the Wooden Cratch Frame
Taking it to Pieces
The first thing I had to do was remove the center panel from between the two windows on the cratch. This panel would need to be replaced as it was rotting through at the bottom.
Removing the Windows
The second job was to remove the actual windows from the frame itself. This proved to be quite easy and before long I was sanding the frames back to bare wood. Once this was complete it was time to add the first coat of varnish. The difference between what the frames had looked before and after the first coat was amazing. I love working with real wood as the grain is fabulous. I get the same kit with my camera hide plates which are all made from natural wood.
Before
After
I gave each window four coats of varnish. They had taken a right beating over the years and had not been looked after at all.
Making the Cratch Cover & Pram Hood Templates
Once the old cratch cover had been removed Tony made a template. As you can see he marked out where the openings were going to be.
Making the pram hood frame
Tony constructed a solid aluminium frame and fitted it to the boat.
Once Tony had sorted out the aluminium frame he made the rear pram hood cover and popped it on. Below you can see it without the sides, which attach separately.
The view of the rear pram cover looking up from inside the boat.
The pram cover creates another complete space which is protected from the elements. This gives me somewhere to leave my wet gear other than the galley!
The pram hood folds down onto the boat to prevent accidental damage from low bridges!
Moored up on the Monty. I think the flowers just add the final touch to the front of the boat.
The cratch looking very smart with a newly varnished frame and cover. The roll up sides give great access to the cratch area.
Sydney Gives a Helping Hand
One of the local swans decided that my brush looked like a tasty treat and did his best to relieve me of it whilst I was varnishing the outer frame.
Recommendation
If you are interested in having new covers or your old covers replaced or repaired I can highly recommend Tony from Bethsaida Covers who operate out of Shebdon Wharf.
You can’t park that there sir!
You can’t park that there
Today was going to be a lot more relaxing as I was now within a few hours of my destination at Shebdon wharf. I still had two sets of five locks to negotiate but I quite enjoy the exercise. I still haven’t really mastered the art of mooring alongside the towpath and find that tying the boat up on the centre rope to be a pain in the derriere. This proved true at the first set of locks the by-wash was playing havoc with the boat, so much so that at one point I had to run back to the boat because it was pulling the mooring pin out of the ground; where are the mushrooms when you need them? Anyway having averted a potential swim I got the lock set and decided to walk up to lock 2 and set that one up ready so I could sail straight in thereby avoiding the hassle of having to moor up. Once I has the paddles open I ran ahead to lock 3 and did the same. At lock 4 another boat came down and left them set ready for me making it a very easy set of locks.
I then cruised through Market Drayton which was very pretty with a nice set of visitor moorings. However as I approached I could see that the cut was blocked by a boat attempting to enter one of said moorings. I initially slowed down and then came to a stop as the boat was not making any headway despite the pilot revving the arse off the engine which was producing climate changing amounts of black smoke from its efforts to propel the boat into what was obviously a very heavily silted mooring berth. Eventually there was just enough room for me to squeeze by so I edged past through the black haze and left the pilot still attempting to get a square peg into a round hole.
I arrived at Tyrley locks to be greeted by a CRT volunteer by the name of Chris who was very nice and extremely helpful. He helped me through all five locks in no time at all. Deciding that I was now well ahead of schedule I pulled over and topped up my water and had a spot of lunch before continuing onto Shebdon. Almost at my destination I came across a fishing competion. It was quite comical to see upwards of 30 anglers rapidly retracting their extremely long fishing rods which nearly reached the far sde of the canal. It appeared I wasn’t very popular with some but most of them exchanged at least a grunt when I greeted them.
Not long after that I arrived at Shebdon wharf and was greeted by Tony from Bethsaida covers. This was now my base of operations for about 3 weeks and would give me time to finish off the jobs that I hadn’t had tme to complete before leaving Elesmere.
Grindley Brook Staircase Locks
Grindley Brook and Other Stories
The following morning I was awake at 5.30, (that’s an improvement on 5am, right?), so I went for a wander to check out the staircase locks which I would have to negotiate later on that day. They were both impressive and intimidating at the same time. I made a short video because I cannot really describe what they were like. (You can find the video at bottom of the post)
The first thing I saw was a big blue CRT board explaining how to operate the locks safely. As a complete novice this was mildly terrifying!
I very quickly decided that I didn’t fancy doing these locks on my own!
I returned to the boat and had some breakfast and a cuppa. It was now 7am and I was resigned to kicking my heels until at least 8 when the lock keeper was due to appear to help folks navigate the staircase locks. However, about 7:10 a person wearing a CRT shirt appeared so I quickly exited the boat and made a beeline for him. On talking to him it turned out he wasn’t the lock keeper but he would happily help me through the locks as he could see I was eager to set out. Faster than you can say Llanfairpwllgwyngygogerychwyrndrobwlll I had the boat idling towards the top lock. It was a great experience going down these locks, they are very deep and have a cill which is more than half the height of my boat. Having an expert on hand to help me was brilliant as it allowed me to really savour the experience.
This is how they rolled back in the day.
The story after Grindley
Once through the staircase I immediately had to negotiate another lock, only a single but the first I have navigated on my own. To be fair it went OK, I took my time and made sure that I did everything in order. I had heard some horror stories about doing locks single handed, luckily they were just that, exaggerated stories. I negotiated several more locks including Povey where I made a rookie error by leaving my windlass on the support beam, however I didn’t realise until I reached for it at the next lock. As it happened I had a spare, but I felt like I had failed some initiation test by losing it so early on in my liveaboard life.
Undaunted I carried on and in the meantime I posted on Faceache in the hope that someone reading it would come across it and return it to me. As it happened in my haste my phone made some superb auto corrections to my post which caused a fair amount of hilarity for the group members.
Eventually a lock or two further on I was caught by another boat who started to help me with the locks. I jokingly shouted to the other crew asking if they had come across an orphaned windlass on their travels, to which they replied ‘is it blue?’ ‘yes! I confirmed‘ they told me that they had it onboard their boat having found it earlier. Bloody amazing, I didn’t really expect to see it again and my thanks go out to these honest and helpful boaters.
Fisherman Extraordinaire
I love nature and wildlife in particular and as a bird photographer I am always on the look out for my feathered friends. I had seen countless Chaffinch feeding on the insects as they darted out from the margins to snag a tasty morsel over the canal. I also saw Goldfinch, Chiffchaff and other small birds. Imagine my delight when travelling a quiet, tree laden section which was quite gloomy compared to the open sections of canal, a Kingfisher dropped down from a tree above the boat and shoot off along the canal in a streak of blue. The phone immediately came out to capture a quick video, (at the same time as my inability to multi task.) What I mean is when I am videoing I am unable to steer the boat at the same time. You will see evidence of this on countless occasions, I promise you 🙂
Anyway back to the story. I saw where the Kingfisher landed high in another tree so I was ready for another appearance, however he moved way before I was in range but as compensation a Heron took flight right by the boat and headed off in front of me. Now I was really excited. I had two birds to film, (and twice as many chances of crashing.) The kingfisher appeared again and flew from tree to tree for a while before finally disappearing off into the distance. I managed to video the Heron but totally missed a second Kingfisher! I wasn’t that upset I am sure it will be the first of many such encounters as I travel the network.
Eventually the Kingfisher landed and stayed put which gave me a chance to snap a few shots. Here is one of my favourites.
Narrowboat Chicken
Apparently narrowboat chicken is a real sport! As I am discovering there are some real mog’s, (miserable old gits), on the cut and I came across a prime specimen today. I was approaching a bridge and saw a boat coming in the opposite direction but a lot further out than I was. Technically it was my right of way although if it didn’t slow down it might be a problem. Anyway I decided that it was my right of way and held my line, unfortunately so did the other boat. It was also a lot closer than I had thought, or it had accelerated. It now looked as though we would reach the bridge at the same time and he was not showing any signs of giving me my right of way. I decided that backing off was better a far better option than a head on collision. I got her in reverse and started to slow my forward momentum whilst he just kept on coming. I had barely managed to get off his line before he came through the bridge, missing my boat by only a couple of feet.
Once I had extricated my stern from the reeds and silt I looked across and to see who was navigating the other boat and maybe have a few words. The MOG on the other boat had a face like a bulldog licking piss off a thistle. I smiled sweetly and without any sarcasm (not) thanked him for his good manners to which he rattled off a reply which lasted a good 30 seconds in what I assumed was English but could quite easily have been Latin as I didn’t understand a word. Ignoring him seemed to be the best option so I just carried on.
TV Personalities
My next encounter occurred a while later and was far more rewarding. I was approaching a wharf and could see someone jet washing what appeared to be a fuel boat. As I got closer I realised that I recognised the person as being John from the TV series ‘Narrow Escapes’. I shouted a greeting to which he responded in kind, I then informed him that he was far better looking on the telly, and left him laughing his head off.
Following all of this excitement I decided that I was too tired to go any further so I started to look for a place to moor, but my stubborn streak surfaced pointing out that I wasn’t that far from the junction with the Shropshire Union and I could make it that far and then stop for the day. What it failed to point out was there was a series of four locks immediately prior to the junction. Great!
Boating Spirit
Undaunted I rolled up my virtual sleeves and went to work on getting through the locks as quickly as I could. I was helped by another boat who conveniently left the gates open so that I could roll right in. I should have known it was going too well. I was in lock number 3 and whilst I was waiting for it to empty I decided to walk ahead to number 4 to check its state and set it up in readiness. As it happened I would need to fill it but I saw another boat approaching. I shouted across to make sure they were coming up, they confirmed and so I left it empty and then waited for them to reach the pound above that lock. However, for some reason they decided that they didn’t mind waiting, which made no sense to me, so I filled the lock anyway.
I returned to lock number 3 and noticed that the right hand gate had closed of its own accord. I opened it again but it immediately began to close again. This was going to cause me a problem because from the time I opened it again to the time I reached my rope and began pulling Araminta through it was shut again. After a few attempts, and a lot of swearing I managed to get the boat close enough to prevent the gate shutting by pulling the boat far enough forward to prevent it closing. Having solved this problem I entered lock 4 and went through the usual procedure. I noticed by this point that the waiting boat had moored up and all four crew were watching my struggles. To top it all off as I exited the lock one of them commented to me ‘that it looked really hard work on your own‘, I was flabbergasted and not trusting myself I simply replied ‘that it was a shame there wasn’t a boat with a crew of four who could have helped me!’
Greatly annoyed I turned right onto the Shroppie and soon found a place to moor, grabbed a quick bite to eat and then collapsed into bed.
Cruising the Llangollen
Cruising the Llangollen
Day 2 saw me awake at 5am, so very eager to be cruising. I bid Blakemere farewell, (I am positive I will be back), and started the long cruise down the Llangollen canal towards my eventual destination at Shebdon where Araminta was going to get a brand new cratch and pram covers. I was determined to get as far as I could by the end of the day, a very tall order as I am single handed and locks are particularly challenging and time consuming.
I pushed hard and eventually made it to Grindley Brook where I bagged one the last available towpath moorings. It was my intention to go for a walk with the camera but I was totally knackered! I have gone from quite a sedentary lifestyle to operating locks and manhandling a 49′ narrowboat with a piece of rope virtually overnight, talk about changing your lifestyle. Anyway I made some something to eat, had a cuppa and a quick read, but after about 5 minutes it was lights out for me as my eyes wouldn’t cooperate and kept on closing.
Leaving Black Water
Leaving Black Water – at last!
It has been a long time coming but the day had finally arrived when I actually get to leave the marina and start my Great Off Grid Adventure!
A bit of nifty reversing saw me out of my mooring berth and heading out of the exit and onto the Llangollen canal.