The Bona Boaters - Pete W & Ernie

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1996 - Ernie's Family Trip with Pete W.

Crew : Ernie & Jennifer, Ruth, Helen, Pete W

Boat : Wild Chervil IX

From : Calcutt Boats , Calcutt near Napton Junction.

Route : Calcutt > Rugby > Hawkesbury Junction > Atherstone > Fazeley Junction > Birmingham > Kingswood Junction (via the N. Stratford Canal) > Warwick > Leamington > Calcutt.

Notes : We did The Warwick Ring anti-clockwise. This was the year when a member of Ebor Morris said that he had friends in Utrecht, and that he would organise a dancing trip to Utrecht for some time in August. As is necessary with his work, Pete W had had to book the required August week off about 9 months earlier. The proposed Utrecht trip did not then go ahead so Ernie, who had also booked the same August week off kindly offered to take Pete with him on his family trip, and of course, Pete would also be an extra pair of hands on the locks. Pete has very few photos and even fewer memories of this trip other than getting held up at Swing Bridge No.2 at King's Norton while BW hauled a car out of the canal, and suffering a 'total immerion incident' in the canal at Lapworth. He fell in - well, he didn't actually fall in - once he realised he would end up in the water, he jumped.

Saturday

Afternoon / Evening - Somewhere near Rugby. We left the boatyard with the aim of getting to The Boat at Newbold-on-Avon. With the reduced crew of 4 as opposed to the usual 7 or 8 and with evenings getting darker much earlier, this proved a little too ambitious.

Mid afternoon and Pete goes on ahead to see if it's clear to negotiate Braunston Turn.

Pete can't remember much about where we stopped, but it was twilight when we decided we'd have to moor up. We probably couldn't have got any further than somewhere near Rugby. We certainly didn't reach The Boat at Newbold, but instead went to a big posh family-eatery sort of place somewhere near the canal. It had no proper beer and Pete had to drink Guinness, much to his dismay. The food was OK though.

Sunday

Lunch - Hawksbury Junction. We arrived at The Greyhound at Hawkesbury Junction in time for lunch, which consisted of numerous pints of Theakstons Mild.

Liquid lunch in The Greyhound at Hawkesbury Junction.

Evening - Atherstone. The evening stop was most likely Atherstone but Pete can't recall anything - probably due to the surfeit Theakston's Mild at lunchtime.

Monday

Lunch - Fazeley. We arrived at Fazeley Junction where we moored up and went looking for a pub. Despite Pete saying that he didn't know exactly where we were going or how to get to the pub, he somehow managed to lead everyone straight to The Three Horseshoes. He thinks he must have subconsciously remembered how to get there from our last visit back in 1994.

Fazeley Junction.

Despite not remembering where the pub was, Pete still led everyone straight to The Three Horseshoes.

Evening - Minworth / Tyburn. Initially, we moored behind some houses on the approach to Minworth with the intention of going to The Boat Inn. The presence of the boat however soon attracted the attention of some local children. At first, they were quite young and just interested in why we were there. A little later some older ones arrived. We then decided that it may be prudent to move on. We moved as far as Tyburn, and ate at Tyburn House. It seemed rather posh and the food must have been OK, but Pete does recall however that it didn't have any proper beer.

Tuesday

Lunch - Can't remember. Don't recall whether we stopped for lunch or not.

Afternoon - Near disaster on the Framers Bridge Flight. On entering one of the locks on The Farmers Bridge flight, we managed to catch something on the prop, which stopped the engine dead in its tracks. Ernie went down the weedhatch to see what it was. It was big whatever it was - far too big to come up through the hatch. Ernie struggled with it for some time, eventually declaring that he thought it might be a car seat as he could feel springs, leather and steel rods. He eventually got it off the prop, but we couldn't get it out of the canal, as it had sunk to the bottom of the now full lock. We decided to advise the boat waiting to come down to watch out for it, and to see if they could maybe get it out once the lock was drained.

Ernie trying to clear the car seat off the prop on The Farmers Bridge Flight.

Evening - Birmingham. Almost certainly Birmingham but no one recalls anything specific.

Wednesday

Morning - Delay near King's Norton Junction. Having left Birmingham, we headed for King's Norton Junction and The North Stratford Canal. We suffered another hold up at the swingbridge (Br.2) near King's Norton Junction. There was a van in the canal and contractors were in the process of hauling it out. We had to wait some time until this was done as they needed to keep the swingbridge closed to canal traffic while they hauled it out.

There's a van in the cut...

...but they have straps on it, won't be long now...

...and it's out.. and we're off again.

Lunch - Can't remember. Probably Earlswood.

Afternoon - A "total immersion incident" at Lapworth. By the August of this year there were some water shortages around the system, and The Lapworth Flight was one the flights that were affected. It had had restricted hours imposed in order to try to save water, and queues of boats would form as boaters would rush to get through the flight before it was locked for the evening. On our arrival, there was already a long queue. We pulled in to the side, but it was on a bit of a bend. When we came to move off, Ernie found he couldn't get the bow off the side so Pete went to give him a push off. Unfortunately, at this point the bank was sloping down and having got hold of the boat, Pete realised that he couldn't get back upright, and could not get back on the boat either - so he pushed off as hard as he could, hoping to push himself backwards, but failed. On realising that he was going to fall in, he decided to step off the bank and go into the water upright and in control rather than fall in horizontally out of control. This is why he's not wet above his chest level. Having struggled back to the bank, he then found that he couldn't climb out as there was nothing to get hold of and nothing to climb up, so he walked along the canal in the water to the front of a boat moored nearby and used its mooring rope to haul himself out.

Pete had to walk along the canal in the water to find

somewhere that he could haul himself out.

Once out of the water, he had a shower and change of clothes. He then rinsed the wet things to get the smell of canal water out of them, but still needed to dry them. We improvised a washing line from the laces of his trainers, which were also wet and couldn't be worn anyway. It was tied from the bow stud to a point on the roof, and the wet clothes were hung up while the wet trainers were put on top of the engine to dry. Meanwhile, He had to borrow a pair of Ernie's shoes for the evening.

Evening - Bottom of The Lapworth Flight. We could not ascend The Lapworth Flight as we arrived after the locks had been locked, so we remained below the flight for the evening. Can't recall where we ate.

Thursday

Lunch - Can't remember. Possibly The Navigation at Lapworth or Tom o' The Woods at Rowington ?

Afternoon - Hatton Locks. We descended Hatton Locks during the afternoon.

Looking down Hatton Locks.

Evening - Cape Locks, Warwick. We stopped close to Cape Locks and went to The Cape of Good Hope for the evening. Pete recalls watching a chap in the pub who was not only rather the worse for wear, but he also had only one leg. As it was starting to get dark, he left the pub and wobbled over to the canal on his crutches. He then crossed the canal on the lock gates. Everyone watched in amazement expecting the worst, but he didn't fall in.

Friday

Lunch - Can't remember.

Evening - The Blue Lias at Long Itchington / Stockton. Not sure exactly where we stopped, but we did go to The Blue Lias for the evening. It would have made sense to climb Stockton Locks, moor at the top and walk back down rather than mooring at the bottom as it would save us over an hour getting the boat back next morning.

Saturday

Back home again.