Stratford ....well not quite!

Tuesday 11th April saw Maria Jessie leaving Napton for her first proper trip of 2006. Heading off up the Grand Union the plan was to go to Stratford and meet up with Claire and David who intended to come up the Avon from Stourport. Tuesday evening, moored at Offchurch, saw me with a raging toothache and feeling pretty miserable.

A phone call to my dentist in Kenilworth first thing on Wednesday got me an appointment late afternoon the same day - so we took the short trip to the mooring adjescent Tescos in Warwick to wait the day out from where I could get a lift to Kenilworth. We popped into Tescos during the morning and there we saw our friend Alistair - we invited him and Debra to drop by for a cup of tea. They arrived at lunchtime, we told Debra our plan was to stay there overnight once I had been to the dentist. "Are you sure it's safe here" she said. "No problem" we said. Not totally convinced Debra called her son who is a policeman for his opinon. "No problem" he said. Dental visit over we invited Alistair and Debra back on board for dinner in the evening. It had just gone dark when there was a bang on the door of the boat. Standing there was their son, complete with bullet proof jacket "just checking up" on us!. We slept well that night knowing that Warwickshire Constabulary were protecting us from bandits! .

Having lost Wednesday as a cruising day we realised that we were not going to be able to get to Stratford and back in the time we had allowed for our trip. Val called Claire and found they were having some problems with their boat so they would not make Stratford either but would drive to join us on the Friday.

Thursday saw us climb the Hatton flight in high wind and rain, thankfully we paired up with another boat to share the workload. We made our way up to the Black Boy pub where we turned and moored up for the night, and thankfully the rain had stopped and the wind abated.





Gluttons for punishment we made our way back down Hatton on Good Friday, ably assisted by Clare's husband David. We met Clare at the bottom and had a beer at the Cape of Good Hope folllowed by a nice meal at the Waterman.

Saturday saw us go back through Leamington , and we moored up for the night just short of Long Itchington. It's a really nice place to moor - highly recommended.

Sunday was the last day of our trip, and we were joined by my Mum and Dad and James. We climbed the Stockton flight and rewarded ourselves with lunch at the Boat - Sunday lunches there are excellent, and good value too. Then the short hop back to Wigrams Turn, and the end of our first trip of 2006.

Anyone seen spring?

Wait until the weather is better in Spring we said back in January. Should be warmer by mid March we all agreed. And so it was that we invited four friends to join us on Maria Jessie on Sunday 12th March. The central heating had been on for hours so at least it was snug and warm inside but no-one seemed hugely enthusiastic about joining me out on the stern in this resurgence of mid winter. As we left Wigrams Turn heading for Braunston Chris and Graham did join me. After a while the back door opened, just a crack, and three coffees were passed out, very welcome, but the elements seemed to take the heat out of them in seconds. Through the snow flurries we reached Braunston, moored up and went for a very welcome lunch and a chat at the Millhouse which helped the thawing out process.

Then back on the boat, turned by the Braunston marina and headed for home. Chris manfully stayed the course with me, Graham went back inside “to check the girls are OK”. Polly and Maureen each appeared for five minutes, declared it was great fun, then went back inside again. Val’s head kept popping up from time to time offering me cups of tea. Almost back to base, frozen to the bone again, at a bridge with a right angled bend. Almost at the bridge entrance when a hire boat came through, full throttle, and on seeing us made not a single change of course or speed – Maria Jessie went hard astern missing him by a cats whisker. “You’ve got good brakes” said its helmsman as he belted by with throttle full forward!.

It was good to see our friends on Sunday, but I think I’m going to wait for Spring now

Roll on spring

Three months ago I promised myself I would be more diligent with this blog, and since then I'm ashamed to say that I have only posted once. I put this down to the time of year, work commitments, age and general forgetfulness. We have been on Maria Jessie most weekends but have not strayed too far - I particularly enjoyed a couple of Sunday trips we did in December, the 90 minute run from Napton to Braunston, lunch at the Millhouse then back before all remnants of daylight disappear.

Only being weekend boaters for now I'm finding the diesel central heating fantastic. Just setting the timer for the heating to come on a couple of hours before we plan to get there means it's as warm as toast when we arrive, making a very cosy welcome.

We're busy making plans for our summer cruising and minimsing our work commitments to get in as much boating as possible. We're planning to take Maria Jessie to the IWA Festival at Beale Park so a 3-4 week trip later in the summer doing the Thames Ring to incorporate the festival. Other trips are still at the planning stage - I think this is half the fun.

There seem to be more and more boat blogs; I see that Quidditch ,which moors across the marina from us, now has one too now. Still leading the field in quality, content, and commitment are Retirement with no Problem and Granny Buttons Well done Sue and Andrew respectively; it's good to catch up with what you are doing whilst I am slaving (sic) over my PC.

A lovely day around Napton

Cruising down Napton Locks on a beautiful autumn afternoon. What could be better?

To the City of Dreaming Spires

Saturday 15th October saw us leaving Napton for a nine day trip to Oxford and back. A lovely warm autumn day and some friends hitched a ride with us as far as Fenny Compton.

After a nice meal in The Wharf we set off the next morning for Banbury. Great moorings in the town centre and on Monday morning we stocked up at Somerfields in the Castle Quays shopping centre. Stupidly forgot to bring the charger for my camera with me so this picture from Banbury is one of very few I got on this trip. We moved on to Lower Heyford to moor overnight, very near to a busy railway line. Tuesday was the final leg into Oxford. No winding point for a 57 foot boat at the end of the Oxford Canal so went through the lock onto the Thames to turn, and then straight back onto the canal. Not too many good moorings in Oxford, but we found a nice spot by Bridge 240.

Wednesday morning exploration of Oxford with some really heavy showers, got soaked walking back to the boat - then chugged up to Thrupp for dinner in the Jolly Boatman. Thursday was a gorgeous day and we cruised to just above Sumerton Deep Lock where we moored in glorious isolation. The following day as different again, we woke to a howling gale and heavy rain and had just resigned ourselves to a day without moving when at 10am the sun came out and the wind dropped just a bit. We headed off, only to come to a grinding halt after five minutes with something entangled on the prop. Inspection through the weed hatch showed we had picked up a thick woollen blanket which only came away after some painstaking dismemberment with a stanley knife. We cruised on back up to Banbury, but the high winds made getting into locks and through narrow lift bridges pretty tricky.

Saturday saw us retrace our steps back to Fenny Compton where we ate once again at the Wharf - this time we were joined by our friends Bill and Elaine and Vals' cousin and husband, Clare and David. C & D have a 70 ft. Northwich Trader which is moored in the same marina as us at Wigrams Turn.

Sunday and the last day of this trip. Some other old friends, Nigel & Moira joined us for this leg. A very pleasant day, and we were safely back at our mooring just after 5pm. Special thanks to Ray at the marina for hanging on until after closing time to do a pump out.

Didn't touch the sides! (for once)

Our trip with Dave & Karen.Dave bravely stood on the lock gate with his brand new camera to get this one! - trusting I would stop in time. And here's a nice shot at Newbold Tunnel

I should be better at this!

Everytime I read the blogs from No Problem, Moore 2 Life and Granny Buttons I think I could be doing a much better job with the Maria Jessie blog so I have set myself an autumnal resolution, particularly as my brother in California likes to know what we are up to, and I know some of my former colleagues in Germany also log on. For the timebeing we are principally weekend boaters, but we have been out every weekend since our trip to Preston Brook.

Two weeks ago our friends John & Jackie came from Somerset for a weekend with us, and last week Alistair & Debra came with us. Alistair has an offshore cruiser at Hamble with loads of speed and horsepower ( and the fuel cost to go with it!). I think he actually enjoyed chugging along at 4mph in a "ditch crawler" with us. Well he said he did, and he bought us lunch in Braunston!.

This weekend our old friends Dave and Karen joined us and we headed off up the Oxford to Brinklow. Dreadful weather yesterday, but it made up for it today. Dave took loads of photos so I hope he will send me one or two good ones to post here. We saw Chas and Ann on Moore to Life yesterday in the rain, and today moored at Braunston. Pity there was nowhere to stop and say hello, but Ann took some pictures as we passed and posted them to their blog. I've pinched this one from their blog!

IWA Festival Preston Brook

We have just completed our first major trip in Maria Jessie, we went to the IWA festival at Preston Brook. There we met up with Val's cousin and husband on their Northwich Trader "Isambard".

It was probably a bit adventurous in the time available to us, we had to press on and cruise for mostly nine hours per day. We made the trip into a ring route, travelling from Napton on the Oxford, then the Coventry before joining the Trent & Mersey to make the run north. We

arrived at Preston Brook on Friday evening, eight days after we started.

We only stayed at the Festival until Sunday morning, leaving the site before most people were up and about. We decided to make the return route down ther Shroppie, and this we really enjoyed. We arrived just short of Wolverhampton on the Wednesday evening in pouring rain.

We had heard much about the reputation of the Wolverhampton 21 so decided to tackle this early in the morning, we were through the flight by 10 am. We then went down through the Black Country to Gas Street Basin interestingly we only saw four moving boats all day. A night in Gas Street before heading off down the Grand Union in the direction of home where we eventually arrived on Sunday evening.

The trip was a "baptism of fire" for both of us. We don't think we will go to such time pressure in the future; there seemed little time to enjoy some beautiful surroundings, but we're really looking forward to the next trip.

Had a couple of great days with the guys exploring the Grand Union, through the Braunston Tunnel and a bit of the Leicester Arm. Here I am with my brother Nick, his son Sebastian, and my youngest son James. My old schoolfriend Bill lives about 200 yards from the end of Braunston Tunnel so he dropped by, took this photo and mailed it to me.

My brother Nick lives in Los Angeles and is in the UK on holiday with my nephew Sebastian so we took them, along with Mum & Dad up the Napton flight today. Weather a bit iffy, but we had a great time, still getting to know the boat