Stoke Pound

Captains Log Canal Date 29th October 2010 Travels 8 miles 12 Narrow Locks Current Location Stoke Pound Bottom of Tardibigge Flight (Outside the Queens Head Pub) OS 962 679 Time to move on, batteries are getting low and there are a few more locks to do, there are plenty of them on this section of the canal. We waited for better weather; I see no point in travelling in the cold and wet when it is not necessary. The most unusual and strange thing that happened on this run is that all 12 locks were set for us. I have never known that to happen before, they are nearly always set against us! Of course, we had to try out the pub, I mean, mooring so close and not calling in just does not seem right some how. The food was very good, well worth a visit. But you do have to pay a bit more for it. Well that is the way of the world; you tend to get what you pay for. This time we had 3 course meals and drinks, the bill came to £17.00. Now my math skills have diminished since the invention of the calculator but even to me this was not right as the meals were £15.99 each. As we enjoyed the meal so much, we did the honourable thing and pointed out that perhaps they would like to look at the bill again. They did and still did not get it right; it was a bit closer this time so I paid it. Travelling at this time of year is just beyond belief. The autumn colours are truly spectacular. The down side of course is that it is getting colder by the day, and the fallen leaves do tend to fowl the prop from time to time. A small price to pay for art work by nature! What a pity it is so short lived, just a week or so before the remaining leaves will fall and we enter the long black & white of winter. (Wow, that’s almost poetical) We will remain here until we have built up enough enthusiasm to tackle the remaining 29 locks of the infamous Tardibigge flight, 29 locks in 2 miles, it’s easy for me on the back of the boat but poor old Pam will be busy. It’s nice to know that this will probably be the last set of locks for us this year. Captains Log Canal Date 24th October 2010 Current Location Tibberton (Outside the Bridge Inn) OS 905 851 On arrival we could not get either satellite or terrestrial TV. The hedge row is just too high to the south. After a little investigation it appeared that if we moved the boat backwards there is a drop in the hedge that may just be low enough for the satellite system to work. Low & behold, we now have TV. Result! I forgot to mention that on the river trip I was experiencing more vibration than normal from the tiller. This partially cleared when reverse was selected but not completely. As the boat was behaving well apart from the vibration, I decide that it would be safest to do any investigation once we were off the river and in the comparative safety of the canals again. When I did lift the weed hatch I was amazed to see the extent of the fowling of the prop. It had collected a good length of black nylon webbing, bits of rope, plastic bags and all sorts. All very tightly wound around the prop. I am surprised that it worked as well as it did. The water is very cold, cold enough to make it quite painful to keep your arm in for more than a few seconds. The rope and webbing was not going to come off with out a fight. After about 15 minutes of pulling, twisting and hacking, most of the obstruction came away. I could then remove the trapped bits of plastic with relative ease. I did wonder if the feeling would ever return to my hands. When we moved on – no vibration, I am getting good at this mending and maintaining game. Whilst we have been here we have had two sets of visitors, our old friends Bob & Marg on Saturday and on Sunday Annette & Brian from the hospital. This of course did mean that we would have to try the pub out on Friday to make sure that it was OK for us to use on Saturday. It was in fact very good food at lower than average prices. The roaring log fire made it even more welcoming.