New Home for Tempranillo

It's been quite a while since my last update, for which I apologise if you have returned frequently with baited breath. I know the anticipation and excitement of what happens next can be overwhelming at times!!!
Sue and I came to the decision, for many reasons with which I will not bore you, to move Tempranillo to new moorings at the foot of the infamous Caen Flight Locks. The new marina there was so inviting with all the facilities any boater could ever need. And very helpful and friendly staff. (More later.)
Here is the link to their website and is worth a look: http://www.caenhillmarina.com
So we chose Easter Sunday to do the deed. This was perfect because firstly our current mooring contract expired on the 31st March (Easter Sunday) and secondly all but one of our lovely immediate family were able to join us that day to help with the 29 locks between Devizes and Caen Hill Marina.

16 of the 29 locks

The weather was also almost perfect, considering how bad the winter had been. It began as a bright sunny day with very little wind, though the air was a little chilly and we had to break some ice at the start of our trip . The wind did increase later in the day though. So much so that I wasn't able to reverse Tempranillo into her new moorings when we arrived at the marina in the early evening.

New mooring awaits the arrival of Tempranillo.

We cast off from our old mooring in Devizes Marina Village at about 11am with grandchildren Sophie,  Josh, Joe, Justin and Lucas breaking the thin ice inside the marina from the bow with barge poles and mop handles. Once out on the main canal the ice had melted earlier so we had a clear run into Devizes Wharf where we waited for a while to see if anyone else was about to take on the challenges of the 29 lock downward journey. But no-one arrived so off we set. Fortunately most of the locks were in our favour and the team, "advised" by Sue, soon got a system of working the locks under way.

Tempranillo awaits the locking crew.

The good weather had brought out lots of walkers and cyclists so we had quite an audience at many of the locks.

It wasn't too long before the workers need to be fed and watered so we tied up for a short while. 

Justin, Joe and Lucas enjoy a mug of homemade soup at their improvised table and chairs.

We also stopped for an ice-cream at the lock side cafe about halfway down the flight as it was an ice-cream sort of day. First one of the year for us.

Here we are emerging from the middle 16 and about to enter our 24th lock of the day.

The Caen Flight of locks were the last to be built on the whole of the 87 mile stretch of the Kennet & Avon Canal back in 1810 and needed side ponds because of the steepness of the hills. There was not enough space to build a pond between each lock as they are all packed into a distance of 2 miles. They were designed by engineer John Rennie and are designated as a Scheduled Ancient Monument, much the same as that given to Stonehenge, not too far away and also in Wiltshire.

What a perfect place to live if you own a canal boat with you own mooring....and like locks!

We had a very smooth run down through the locks and did it in an amazing four and a half hours, excluding our stops for refreshment, oh and a woman overboard just before the last lock. 

Emma with Sue before she fell in.

Our daughter Emma had been feeding bread to some ducks from the stern and moved down the port gunwale to brush off some crumbs from the roof when she lost her footing. Son Mark was steering and rammed Tempranillo into reverse whilst I rushed forward to get the lifebelt. Fortunately Emma is a very strong swimmer and was nowhere near the stern or, more importantly, the propeller. But by the time I got back with the belt Mark and Emma's husband Neil were pulling her out. Though Tempranillo was now close to some trees and shallow waters. As Captain, I rushed to the helm and avoided any more unfortunate incidents. Emma had a hot shower, a change of clothes and a mug of hot tea, and recovered very quickly, I'm pleased to say.

 Captain and 1st Mate Mark for the day. Not that warm, note the hat and gloves.

A fun time was had by all but the wind was getting stronger and colder as we approached Caen Hill Marina later in the day but the sun shone for most of it.

Nearly There.

It took quite a bit of my manoeuvring skills to get Tempranillo into her new mooring. I was hoping to reverse in but the wind was too strong for me to position myself accordingly. Even with our bow thruster at full throttle it was impossible, so I nosed her in and turned her around a few days later in much calmer conditions.

All 11 crew Shipshape and Bristol Fashion safely moored in Caen Hill Marina at the end of a wonderful family day. Something that doesn't happen often enough as the family is spread between distant parts of the country.

Since settling in we attended a Paella Party at the Marina which I will report upon very soon.

Do come back and find out how it went.

Our 2013 Blog Begins Here

Sue and I hope you all had a wonderful time over Christmas and the New Year. We travelled 1298 miles over that period but unfortunately not aboard Tempranillo. We drove a round trip that included Yeovil in Somerset, Gateshead, Glasgow, Loch Fyne, back to Gateshead and then back home to Devizes. Worth it though to be with close family members who are scattered around the UK.

A cold and windy Loch Fyne.

Our Grandson watches the waves.

So back to our voyage to Bristol in September. We had got as far as the outskirts of Bath and entered Bath Deep Lock that dropped us down the the lower level of Pultney Weir right in the heart of the city.

Tempranillo waiting for the water level to drop to allow us to pass under the white van men ahead.

This lock is the second deepest in England and Wales. At 19ft 5ins it has a rise and fall of only 3.5ins less than Tuel Lane lock on the Rochdale canal

The same lock looks like this as the water drops almost to the level of the River Avon.

The massive gates close behind Tempranillo.

One more lock and we arrive at the junction of the K&A and the Avon. We turned a very sharp right and headed up the short spur to moor just below Pultney Weir. 

The River Avon above the weir is navigated by boats but it is not possible to sail past the weir itself. This means boats on the upper part can only cruise on that stretch of water, so it is mainly hire boats found along there. We were met by a very helpful warden who very politely suggested that there would be a charge to moor overnight. A very modest charge considering the location. And a charge that reduced the more nights we moored. He also cycled off to his office and returned shortly afterwards with lots of leaflets and brochures about Bath and things to do therein. We didn't have the heart to tell him that we used to live in Bath and new it very well.

to be continued.......

We Will Be Back Soon

Another month gone and we still have lots of things to say about our voyage to Bristol. Please come back to see our next update. But in the meantime Sue and I would like to wish you a Very Merry Christmas and Health and Wealth for 2013.

For those who might be still interested!

Can't believe it's been over 2 months since I last updated this blog. How time flies. Today I spent the morning polishing Tempranillo in an attempt to add a little protection against the extreme wintery weather that is supposed to be arriving at any time now. She had her first annual engine service recently, yes it is over a year since the launch at Crick Marina, and the marine engineer discovered a broken air box on top of the engine whilst working on it.

Oops!

The engine has a 2 year warranty and Vetus, the engine makers, were fantastic. I e-mailed them with the problem and two days later a brand new replacement part arrived at our door. No quibbles. Brilliant.

So anyway where were we two months ago....ah yes. The Cain Flight. 29 locks of pure joy!!! We were on our way to Bristol which would eventually complete our journey of the full length of The Kennet and Avon Canal. We started that journey by turning off the Thames at Reading onto the K & A back in June this year. But at my last update we were moored at Seend and had just woken up to a misty morning.

Swan in the mist.

When the mist eventually cleared we cruised on to Bradford-on-Avon. The lovely weather had brought every boater out and we had to await our turn to get through the lock.

 Busy Bradford-on-Avon lock

A beautiful wooden hulled steam boat, 'Sarah Jane', passed us earlier in the day and we caught up with her at the lock. It was in perfect condition and the smell of steam was just lovely. Not sure the dogs on board were quite so happy with it though.

Next stop was Avoncliff where my sister Jill came to join us for lunch. Here the canal crosses over the River Avon and the mainline to London.

Avoncliff Aqueduct

 

 View from the aqueduct

This was to become a trip of nostalgia and reminiscence as we welcomed family, old friends, ex-neighbours and work colleagues from years gone by to join us aboard Tempranillo. Those of you who don't know our history, we regard the West Country as our home and my first full-time job was with West of England Film Studios in Bristol back in the 1960's. ( I started work at a very young age!)

Our next overnight mooring was in Bathampton on the outskirts of Bath. Right outside a pub. The George Inn. How did that happen, I wonder?

Bathampton

The canal runs close to the River Avon for quite some distance but most of the time they are not within sight of each other as the canal is much higher and straighter than the river. To the right, as you view the picture above, is a fast and furious weir on the Avon close to a very narrow toll road linking it to Batheaston.

Bathampton Mill

The toll bridge dates back to the early 19th Century. The toll house is a rectangular shape and two stories high with a large porch. It is still used by the toll collector when on duty.

Bathampton is also the place were William Harbutt lived. He invented Plasticine and his company produced it here from 1900 until 1983.

The weather again next morning was in our favour as got closer to the centre of Bath.

Bathwick from the canal.

It is really interesting to approach a city you thought you knew so well from a different angle. Bath was  the first place Sue and I lived after we got married but we never saw it from water level.

And we have never seen anything like this before.....ever....anywhere!!!

 Its name is 'Murdock'.

I think it is the right way up!!! Anyway we were about to start the climb down into Bath itself through a flight that includes the second deepest lock chamber on the whole UK canal network.

Come back soon and see how we got on as we continue our nostalgia trip to Bristol. 

Cruising Again...at long last.

It's been a while since our last serious trip. Last time our journey came to an abrupt end at Pewsey on the Kennet and Avon caused by a massive fallen tree completely blocking the canal. It had just happened the night before we got there and luckily no-one was passing when it happened. It was seriously large.
We heard later that it took 4 days to remove it before the canal was open again.

So here we are moored up outside The Barge Inn at Seend on the Kennet and Avon Canal. Yesterday we plucked up the courage...and strength to take on the mighty Caen Flight of locks. 29 in total.
Here is what you see before entering the top one.

It doesn't look terribly exciting at this point but....

The first lock dropped us very tightly under the road leaving Devizes as we head west.

Straight ahead are 16 locks. Once we started there is no stopping until all 16 were completed. Each lock has a side pound of water which allowed them to be built close together in a straight line down the steep slope. An amazing feat considering they were built in the 18th Century! In 1996 a new pumping station was added at the bottom of the fight to return the water to the top. It is capable of returning 32 million litres of water very day. Equivalent to one lock full every 11 minutes.

Here is the view from the bottom of the 16.

But we were not finished then. There are 29 and we had only done the 16, plus 7 before the flight. We still had 6 more before we could rest.

However we had paired up with Narrow Boat 'Camali' befroe starting the whole flight and Dave and Eileen along with their guest crew were very helpful. We did it in 5 hours, which is very reasonable.

Although it took most of the day, we had only travelled 2 miles, and we had dropped 237 feet in that distance.

We found the last mooring space at Sells Green and settled down to a beautiful sunset. But Sue missed it as she was so tired she was asleep by 8:45 and stayed that way for 12 hours.

We woke up to this:

Perfect.....cheers!

Where is the summer?

We are still waiting for the summer of 2012. Since we came home life has been hectic preparing for our daughter's wedding, amongst other things but now find myself with a bit of time to catch up on our voyage from a couple of months ago. Although I asked "where is the summer?" looking back at the photos below, it all looked very summery! How soon we forget.

Last post on here we were tied up at Napton Junction and about to start our journey south down the Oxford Canal.

Morning at Napton

We awoke to a fine day, filled everything up. Diesel, water, coal. Batteries were fully charged as we had been plugged in overnight. Sue even used the on-board washer/dryer so we had all clean clothes too. So off we went. We had done this stretch before during our first voyage after launching Tempranillo in late 2011 so we sort of knew what to expect but due to the water shortage, hard to believe there was one now, we could only enter the Napton Flight of locks between certain hours. Sue got very courageous. To save her walking the length of each lock to open and close the small double gates, she decided to 'fly' across them.

Shall I......Shan't I?

Steady does it!

Yesssss! Told you I could.

As you can see the weather was great that day and for the next few days too. We had lunch moored near Claydon the next day.

A lovely, quiet remote spot before reaching more locks where the water restrictions were controlled very strictly by a BW Official. The queue we passed  next morning going the other way was horrendous.

Part of the overnight queue for Claydon Locks.

We spent a night at Cropredy and were passed a few times by canoeists. They really 'rock the boat' when they pass. We Narrow boaters have the courtesy to slow when we pass other boats! 

Look how choppy the water is. Anyway it is good to see the canals being used so much.

Our next stop was Banbury. 

It's really good to be able to moor up right in the heart of a town. You step off the boat right by the shopping centre. We thought we should see Banbury Cross as we were so close to it but when we got there we found this:

Not what we wanted to see at all. Apparently it was being done up for the Queen's Jubilee celebrations the following month.

After leaving Banbury we passed under the M40. Here is the big and the small of bridges.

We also encountered some rather deep locks:

Somerton Lock. A big step down.

More of our journey down the Oxford Canal will be on here again soon.

Cruising onward...

Firstly here is our small contribution to the Jubilee celebrations, unfortunately dampened somewhat by the weather.

Since our last posting we visited Warwick Castle.

You may remember previously as we descended the Hatton Flight of locks the spire of the Collegiate Church of St Mary was visible from the top of the flight on the horizon. Here it is below in close up in Warwick's very pretty town centre.

Whilst in Warwick we enjoyed a visit from a work colleague of mine, Gaffer-Spark Derek whom I worked with on Dalziel and Pascoe a few years ago. It's always good to catch up on the industry gossip as and when the opportunity arises.

The next day we reached the junction where the Grand Union Canal meets the Oxford Canal at Napton on the Hill. We passed here last year on our very first long trip out on Tempranillo. You may remember the windmill on the hill.

It was time to top everything up, such as water, fuel, battery power, coal, elsan etc... so we stopped overnight at Wigrams Turn Marina where we received a very warm welcome and the staff there could not have been more helpful. I can highly recommend this marina for an overnight stop. And very reasonably priced too.

We plugged in for the night and enjoyed the sunset.

The following morning we set off down the Oxford Canal to meet the Thames at Oxford.