Friday 27 September
We all gathered at the Marina and (mostly) listened to the do's and don'ts and elf n safety instructions.
All food, booze and bags were stowed on board. Siobhan presided over the kitchen area - carefully wedged behind the rail (in case of sudden bumps 😁) and flanked by Sally's homegrown cucumber and tomatoes.. 🥰
Then our Marina man steered us up to the lock so that he could turn us round to head in the right direction.
Our starting point was at the junction of the Shropshire Union canal and the Staffs and Worcestershire canal so we had to go through the lock into the S & W canal to turn round to come back onto the SU canal.. There was only a couple of inches difference in the water levels but it was a useful lesson for how to steer into a lock.
So that was it - we were off..
It was quite a busy canal but the art of steering soon came back to us.. well mostly except for the odd panicked moment where we went in totally the wrong direction.
We relaxed into the steering..
But we definitely weren't zigzagging and bumping off the canal sides as we had done on our first trip 😁
Such beautiful scenery.
Lots of bridges - many of them with a bit jutting out to one side for the tow path. Each successful navigation through the gap was met with a bobbing up of meerkat heads from the front of the boat and an enthusiastic round of applause.
It made us laugh but was much appreciated - I'm sure it was pretty scary at the front to see something looming straight ahead and then (most times!) see the crisis averted with the boat turning at the last second.
At one point the boats were moored four across with another one on the other side. Obviously the canal was quite wide at this point so we sailed serenely past them all.
A tiny aqueduct across a road 😁
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We soon settled into an unplanned rhythm whilst on the boat.
Myself, Carole and Linda steering and spotting. Jeanette and Sue on the maps. Trisha mop, pole and chief clapper duties. Sally and Chris on food and refreshments.
Everyone took turns on spotting if they were up at the tiller end. And everyone came up regularly to offer, food, drinks, encouragement and the occasional glasses cleaning services.. 👓
At least this time we remembered what we had been told on our first trip - that the centre rope was our friend! It did indeed prove to be our friend this time when we used it correctly.. 🤣
All non steerers quickly fell into their roles off the boat too and always pulled us in (or sometimes dragged us along like pack horses) and tied us up very efficiently. At the locks they opened and closed the gates, pulling, pushing, turning and winding as required. They made it look very easy!
Sometimes it was hard to see what we were coming up to. At one point all we could see was a sort of dark shape far ahead which seemed to be blocking the canal - but we didn't know what it was so we pulled over to the side and Chris jumped off to run along the tow path to investigate. Turns out it was an empty barge which had escaped one of its moorings and drifted across blocking the canal.
Chris managed to grab the rope and hang on to the barge whilst yelling for help from the neighbouring boats. Windows were open and smoke was puffing from chimneys but noone responded and we were too far away to hear or see what was happening.
Eventually several of our gang went to see why she was taking so long and they were able to help her to pull the boat in to the side and secure it so that it didn't drift off again and we could get past.
Well done Chris! Quite the adventure 😁
Most of the boat owners were lovely but there was always the occasional one.. such as the lady who, whilst we tried to move our barge away from hers when we'd drifted too far over, told us not to touch her boat with the poles but to push off with our hands!!. 🙄 Sort of a don't scratch my paintwork moment.. 😁
But then later one helpful man watched us do our emergency stop (well in slow mo obvs 😁) and told us how to pull our tiller over when we stopped - genuinely helpful!
As was the man who told us how to recognise if a boat was coming towards or going away from us (hard to tell sometimes!) - very useful info and something it had taken us 3 trips to learn!
Both tips learned on the hoof as we sailed past.
On we motored .. then it was time to navigate the lock..
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Quite scary trying to inch a 70ft boat into such a tight space.
All we could think of was 'Don't get stuck on the cill. Don't get stuck on the cill'.
These were pics of the cill markings in the rain on the way back. It wasn't so important then as the boat wasn't dropping onto the cill but rising towards it. I assume we were all too busy panicking about the cill rather than taking pictures of it on the way down the canal.. 🤣
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Linda held the boat perfectly so that it didn't bump against the lock gates at either end.
We navigated it really well and didn't get stuck on anything. Perfect teamwork with everyone playing their assigned role.
We got to Wheaton Aston and stopped for the night.
A lovely little mooring and just yards away from the pub!
The light went off on the boiler but after a phone call to the Marina Sally soon had it sorted.
From them on Sally was known as the Boiler Monitor. She got quite possessive about her boiler knob and as she knew what she was doing noone else was allowed to touch it.. 🤣
That was fine by us.. 😁
Then it was over the road to the pub where Linda had booked us a table.
Off we went - head torches and phone lights making little pools of light as we marched through the darkness.
It was nice to get into the warmth - and to be able to move our elbows whilst eating.. 🤣🤣🤣
Delicious food - a perfect end to our day. Everyone was quite pooped with all the fresh air and ready for an earlyish night.
A leisurely get up with Sally on breakfast duty. We set off at about 10.30.
Carole and I started healthily on our five a day - and then munched on bacon butties with butter and ketchup.. 😋
Sue (Maintenance Monitor) did her engineer checks before we went.
Quite a sunny day - a bit nippy to be outside on a boat but we had already mastered the art of layering up.. 😶🌫️
Sally successfully turned on the boiler.
We had remembered this time to take in the brass part and the pin from the tiller overnight.
It became a problem when we tried to reattach it in the morning. The pin went part way through and stuck. After a while we managed to pull it out and start again. Same problem. It took us a while to realise that that the hole in the handle was slightly tapered - once we turned it round the right way the pin slid through with no bother.. 😁
Pulling the boat.
Some interesting knots and way markers.
After her mishap last year Trisha (Mop Monitor) was very careful in getting on and off from the boat.
Whilst we were out 'on deck' chugging along normal life of cooking, cleaning and generally sorting out continued inside
'Ooh' said Sue 'I've found a stiffer one' Stiffer one what we wondered. Brush. To clean up all the mess we'd made.. 🤣🤣🤣
Life at the pointy end was calm between chores - well at least it was when they weren't being scared by us lot 70ft away veering into trees, other boats or tow paths.. 🤣
We motored on. Lots of herons, lots of falcons and those at the front of the boat even caught several glimpses of kingfishers.
We seem to have picked up Bjork along the way - or maybe Chris was auditioning for a remake of East 17's Christmas video??.. 🤣
Nonchalant steering.. 😁
.. no, just cold hands.. 🤣
Our boat..
Coming up to a bridge one the spotters would say to the steerer 'Can you see my sticky out bit?' then you'd know to head towards the other spotter for a bit of room to get under the bridge. It was usually if they had the sticky out tow path on their side.
Then there would be a bit of 'to me, to me' followed by a bit of 'to you, to you' followed by a few anxious moments until we saw the nose of the boat sail serenely under the bridge. It was a very technical business.. 🤣🤣🤣 and was usually followed by claps from the other end of the boat which we graciously acknowledged as we mentally ticked off another bridge successfully navigated.. 😁🤣
Here are some of the 'helpful' tips offered by men on the bank when they saw that we were a boat full of women...
'Slow down you're going too fast' said one man - but he only said when he realised it was all women, no men - and we weren't going fast at all!
For some reason they all felt that they had to offer an opinion!!
'Group of women?' - said another 'Where's your husbands, who's in charge??'
It didn't go down well with the 'group of women'.. 🤣🤣🤣 but luckily we couldn't get off the boat or stay stationary long enough to give him the lecture he deserved.
We went through a short tunnel.
We reached the turning circle and decided that changing direction required too much thinking and was a job for the next morning so we stopped at the water tap to fill up and then moored up slightly further along the tow path at the far end of the winding hole in front of another small barge - so that we didn't block access to the water for other boats.
The pulling the barge in and tying up team were once again spot on and did a great job.
At the Marina the man had told us that we'd need to fill up quite early as we'd need water after we'd all had showers. We just gave each other conspiratorial looks and decided that we wouldn't tell him that once we set foot on the boat we all went feral and that topping, tailing and wet wipes were the order of the day!
So this had been our only stop for water.. 🚿
We had plenty of time tonight for pre meal drinks which we had all thoroughly earned. Then it was another little walk across the bridge to the pub.
It was already dark as the forward party of me, Carole and Jeanette set off for the short walk along the tow path, up through the gate, across the bridge and down to the pub, tutting as we went past the boat which had arrived after us and had moored directly in front of the water tap in the space that we had vacated. (We knew that this was a definite No No as we'd done it ourselves on a previous occasion before we'd been told 🙄)
It was very dark and as we made our way up the short slope to the gate we suddenly all tumbled together like skittles as we bumped into Carole who seemed to be swinging on the gate. 'Got my boobington caught' she explained as we sorted ourselves out 😁🤣 No idea how!
We arrived at the pub without further incident and when everyone got there we enjoyed another first class meal - Linda had chosen well for both of our pub visits.
So, stomachs full of good food and wine we started to head back to the boat, head torches and phone lights all bobbing along in the darkness as we made our way up from the pub, across the bridge then through the gate.
It was a short walk down on the wet, slippery stone path so we all tottered along shouting encouragement to each other whilst waving the torches and hanging on to the wooden rail at the side.
Suddenly from the front of the pack there was a muffled but anguished yelp. Had someone fallen over and ricked their ankle?.. stepped in the thick mud?.. fallen in the cut?.. no.. Carole, whilst hanging onto the rail, had put her hand on a slug 🤣😨🤣
Sue shone a light onto the squashed, squidgy yellow mess of the remains of the slug.
So funny for the rest of us but Carole was traumatised. She walked back to the boat with the offending hand held high in the air..
..and when people asked what had happened she said 'I can't talk about it' in a strained voice.
Sally offered immediate medical assistance with a consoling, doctorly pat on the back 😁
As soon as we got to the boat Carole rushed to the bathroom to wash away the slimy slug goo..
.. and with clean hands a sense of calm and serenity was soon restored.. although tbf the slug probably wasn't feeling that same sense of relief. In fact he/she wasn't feeling.. 💀
Sunday 29 September
It was time for us to turn around and head back towards the Marina so we prepared ourselves for an early morning start.
Trisha having a Titanic moment.. 🤣
We were up and organised and there was no one around to offer 'helpful' opinions so we decided see if we could pull out and drift backwards towards the turning circle so that we could then chug forward and make the turn.
Turns out we couldn't.
The current didn't take us where we wanted to go and we couldn't afford to go further forward as we didn't want to have to go to the next winding hole a couple of miles further on.
So we pulled back into the bank and Chris went to the next boat. Before she could say anything the man said 'Oh you can't turn until we move can you? We're just having breakfast and then we're off'. Good enough for us so we decided to have breakfast ourselves whilst we waited.
After several backwards and forwards manoeuvres we had turned 180⁰ and were ready to continue our 55 bridge, 24 mile trip back to the boat marina.
Pole deployed.
As we were now feeling more confident in our steering abilities we calculated that we would be able to put our foot down and reach the boatyard by the evening.
Off we went.
Once we reached a long straight stretch with no boats, no obstacles and high, concrete sides I upped the speed. Bearing in mind that the maximum speed is 4mph we were hardly racing though we did have a bit of wash behind the boat.
A couple walking along the tow path waited until we had nearly gone past them - probably realising at this point that we were a boatful of women 🙄 - and then the man shouted 'You're going too fast, you shouldn't have a bow wash' then because we didn't react to him (other than to mutter swear words under our breath - we'd had enough of men telling us how to steer) he shouted a bit more, we ignored him a bit more so he whipped out a phone to take a photo.
Our first mansplainer of the day 🙄 but not the last.. 🤣
Swans on the canal.
One swan swam along most enthusiastically in our wake for a while.
As we reached the moorings at Goldstone Bridge we saw a small pleasure boat coming towards us as we approached the bridge.
We had priority as we were nearer but the little boat kept coming straight towards us not giving way at all - then suddenly it tried to swerve into a little gap on our right totally cutting across the front of us.
After our panicked reverse, reverse manoeuvre and a bit of a backwards/forwards dance we managed to get into a good position and a helpful man shouted us to up the revs and hold the tiller steady. 'Don't worry when you hit that boat' he said 'it's mine' - a genuinely nice man with useful advice. We appreciated that.
The man driving the little boat stuttered a meek 'sorry' as he passed us. We rolled our eyes and tutted, unaware of the conversation which had gone on at the front of the boat where the man told them he'd only just picked up the boat and was quite flustered. We let him off.. 😁
Onwards we sailed - straight into a fishing competition with at least 30 competitors based at 20m intervals along the bank.
They all had hugely long rods (ooer missus 🤣) which reached over the breadth of the canal to the far side where they were fishing for perch.
We steered sedately through them at a suitable walking pace, watching the rods in front of us being retracted at the last minute (well it was a competition 😁) only to be dropped back gracefully into the water as soon as the boat had passed. It was like someone wafting a gentle sheet over us.
Some of the men ignored us and others chatted as we went past.
'All women?' said one man. 'Are you a group of nuns on an outing?' .. another eye roll 🙄 from us. Not worth an answer.
Another fisherman complimented our steering saying that we were proceeding at an appropriate speed and that others had gone through as though they were on a ski holiday.
That was nice to hear.
We stopped for a short lunch break and a leg stretch. Navigating a 70ft barge for longer periods of time than we were used to was proving to be quite physically challenging as well as quite mentally draining with having to concentrate all the time. Luckily the three of us were able to take turns..
.. and it was lovely just to sit down for a meal already prepared by the others when we stopped.. 🥰
The mystery of the permanent smell of burnt toast was solved when Sally and Chris discovered a roll which had dropped to the back of the oven and had smouldered gently each time the oven was lit.
It was a tad overdone.. 🤣
The weather started to get more cloudy so we added layers of clothes.
We reached the lock and decided to moor up at the side so that one of our party could walk up to the top to see if there were any boats waiting to come down.
As we pulled ourselves to the side of the tow path the boat which had been following us slid in to the space in front of us saying (man of course) 'You don't mind if we go in front do you? My wife is already on her way up with the windlass'.
The cheek! But what could we do?! We added him to our list.. 😡
As we made our way into the lock the heavens opened and soon we were all soaked. Our boat length meant that we only had a very small free area at each end so Linda gently manouevred the boat away from the lock gate just a couple of feet behind us and Sally checked at the other end to make sure that we didn't venture near the cill at the lock gate just a couple of feet away too.
Sue made a new friend as she opened the lock gate - a young autistic boy who absolutely loved the locks and helped everyone as they went through - under the watchful eye of his dad.
Once we'd cleared the lock we motored onwards in the wind and driving rain. The light was slowly starting to fail so we decided to moor up on the proper moorings rings to give us the best chance against the wind.
It was lovely to get inside to the warmth of the heating - and to be able to dry off.
Sally, aided by sous chef Trisha cooked up some amazing frittatas with all the leftovers.
We were all tired so it was another early night.
Monday 30 September
After a night of torrential rain and gusty winds which gently dinked the boat into the tow path every few minutes we were all up early trying to see what was happening beyond the dark and rain splattered windows.
At least the wild wind had mostly dropped and the rain the had slowed to an annoying wet and soaking mist.
We were suitably attired against anything the weather could throw at us with all the layers we could find.. 🤣🌧️
We set off at 7.20 am and by 8.30am after steering the last couple of miles in the murky drizzle we arrived back at the Marina.
Carole quickly abandoned her plastic poncho which was practically shredded anyway when she kept ripping it on the tiller.. 🤣
Our last pull up and tie down.
What a great weekend! Very different to our previous Argy Bargy adventures - we'd travelled about 24 miles in each direction and navigated under 55 bridges - twice. Plus we'd gone through our first proper lock!
We'd had a little sunshine and lots of cold and wind and rain but we'd loved it!
Roll on Argy Bargy 4.. 😁
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