Thursday was moving
day. First, I had to get up to Stoke
Wharf where there is a boat yard where I could get a pump out. We set off early as the wind was forecast to
get up in the afternoon. There are a few
boats on permanent moorings just up from where we have been moored and the way
this one is moored reminds me of the Swallows and Amazons series of books.
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Moored out of sight
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The other day I mentioned
about the large salt works that used to be by the canal and that the only building
left standing is the old pump house. Well,
the old entrance to the works from the canal is still there as it carries the
towpath. It is blocked off at the other
end but looks like it’s about 60’ long – fun place to moor if you don’t want to
be disturbed by passing walkers and cyclists etc. providing you don’t mind the
darkness.
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Entrance to the old salt
factory at Stoke Works
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| Ideal hideaway |
We soon reached Stoke
Wharf but had one lock to go up first.
Stoke Wharf is home to one of the bases of the Black Prince hire boat
company. When we used to hire boats we
often went with Black Prince as the boats were always fairly new, well equipped
and in good condition.
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The lock leading up to
Stoke Wharf
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The guys at this yard were
all really friendly and, as at most boat yards, made a great fuss of Buddy. The chap who did our pump out explained that
at the yard they build a new boat a month for the fleet and they currently have just over
90 boats across the different bases. As
they tend to sell them after five years I suppose it’s not surprising they have
to build a new one every month.
It reminded me of our
first boat, Chalkhill Blue, as we bought her from a hire boat company but she
was getting on for 20 years old so was very tired.
After the pump out and getting
rid of our rubbish and recycling I spun the boat round at a winding hole and
headed back down south again.
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Buddy waiting patiently as
I bring the boat back into the loc
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I was going to go back to
our spot at Stoke Prior but the front of the boat had been just under an
ash tree. Wood pigeons roosted in the
tree so the front of the boat was quite a mess and had taken me a while to
clean before setting off in the morning.
Because of this I carried on past our spot at Stoke Prior and moored
near the top of the Astwood flight.
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Our new mooring at Astwood
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Having turned around we
are now facing the wrong way but there is a good reason for that. Mike and Lesley are coming up for a cruise in
a couple of weeks to do the locks at Tardebigge with us. Tardebigge isn’t far from the boat yard and
there aren’t really any decent places for Karen to park so I had to come
back. We’re only five locks from the
next winding hole so on a nice day I’ll pop down them, turn and come back up
again.
I serviced the engine in
the afternoon; a job I love and hate.
There’s a good feeling when the job is done and I know I don’t have to
worry about it for another few hundred engine hours but something always goes
wrong. Yesterday I manged to spill some
oil when pumping out the gearbox. Fortunately,
not much, and I do keep a pack of disposable nappies handy in the engine bay for
such eventualities.
The wind really did get quite
strong in the afternoon so the tomato and chilli plants were soon off the roof
and back in the cratch.
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