Team Pugnipeek Virtual BCN Challenge 2020 Cruise Log

Keeping Up · May 7, 2020

I know you’ve all been wanting to see our unique model of the Bio-Electric Automat Sehnsucht Time-machine (BEAST) – powered not only by electrickery but also by alcohol and penguin; so while we were having lunch we took it out of the boat again and put it on a table to take its picture; and here it is. First, on the left there are the “Now” controls, with today’s clock and some matching golden gin for fuel as well as the rechargeable batteries (which we forgot to recharge 2 days ago). If you look carefully by the penguin’s feet you may also spot the “VSWR meter”– but more about that later.

On the right hand side are the “Then” controls, with the red backwards clock and matching-coloured rhubarb gin. You can also see the essential electronic component, the flux capacitor. For the technically minded, it is 3300 farads rated at 63 megavolts.

Finally, the overall picture shows how it all goes together.

You operate it by setting the two clocks and then feeding the penguin with the appropriate style of gin. This of course makes him rather unsteady on his flippers, so it is essential to monitor the two dials by his feet on the Virtual Stability Waddle Reduction meter; if there is any deviation from normal you MUST feed him some extra gin to stabilise him.

Keeping Up · May 7, 2020

It’s been a busy day today, and I haven’t had time (even using the BEAST – see previous post) to take many photos. Somehow after our trip to the pub last night we seem to have lost our Pole; I think I heard the Pole Dancing on the roof during the night, followed by a splash. Anyway this means that Pingu is having to work twice as hard to help us steer in reverse today.

Following the route that we had originally expected to take yesterday we travelled the Old Main Line to Oldbury Junction, exploring the Valentia and Houghton arms along the way as well as looping the Loop around Oldbury, before ascending the locks (they’re not bad, but not really anything to Crow about) and enjoying a trip to Titford Pools as well as the Portway and Causeway Green Branches, before returning to the main line and the noisy passage under the M5. The BEAST worked perfectly for us in the old sections of this route; it is lucky that so many other Challenge teams have already posted photos of these areas, for I completely forgot to use my camera while we were travelling (although I did take a couple of quick snaps as we passed both under the M5 and over the New Main Line). How much more peaceful it must have been before the Motorway was built; but by now we were in too much of a hurry to wind back the time and find out.

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Nops Enal locks were of course really easy, and after a quick helping of Green Pudding we trundled up to Green Ryders Junction then along the just-navigable section of the Old Wednesbury Canal to Swan Bridge Junction with the Ridgacre Branch where we have settled down to spend the night.

Copyright Wafflingdwarf on Canalplanac

Keeping Up · May 8, 2020

Before we set off this morning I took the time to polish our 4 smart silver-grey mushroom vents, and they looked so lovely that as we set off I decided to take this photo.

In the photo of our smart red cabin roof you can see our stern line neatly coiled on the sliding hatch, near the water can and mop. Of course most of the roof is taken up by our solar panel, beyond which you can see our spare bag of coal and a few small logs that I chopped up yesterday, and to my surprise we still have our Pole although it doesn’t seem to be doing much today apart from lying down on the roof. See how I’ve even polished the chimney so that the black paint is glistening in the morning sun; and our small tub of flowers blooms sweetly in this lovely warm weather.

Pingu · May 8, 2020

I hear that @TheBiscuits has rejected my claim against @TheBiscuits in the Stewards Enquiry thread. Well, honestly, who else but him would want to turn a nice cuddly penguin into a chocolate biscuit? Could there be a clue in his name? He should keep in mind the fact that the Wagon Wheels of justice turn slowly, and Nobody likes a Smartie (well actually I do but that's irrelevant). The Acid Drops of truth will emerge eventually (its a Snickers not a sprint) and will work their Black Magic throughout the Galaxy to Stop the Gobs of the Black Jacks. Then everything will be coming up Roses and there will be Revels.

Meanwhile I'll accept my "cold shoulder" punishment, it sounds like a Bounty to me.

Keeping Up · May 8, 2020

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Photo from Capt Baha’s blog

Edited May 8, 2020 by Keeping Up

Keeping Up · May 9, 2020

Scholar Gypsy · May 9, 2020

I enjoyed that, finding a technological solution as I did not have a mirror to hand. For those who are intrigued by the Dumaresq arm, the results of our own researches are here:

Keeping Up · May 9, 2020

As soon as we reached Bradley workshops, I disconnected the BEAST machine and threw it into the canal; immediately we returned to the present day to find a rather bemused engineer from MRP Gearboxes waiting for us. He jumped down into our engine bay and hit the gearbox smartly with his little hammer; instantly the reversing effect disappeared as the gearbox returned itself to neutral. “If only I’d known it was that quick a fix” I said to him. “Ah yes,” he replied “it’s very quick but it takes several years of training to know just where to hit it.”

Anyway this meant that I can re-post our day’s log, so now you can read it without the aid of a mirror.

Hoorah! The overnight weed growth to the North of Deepfields Junction won’t affect us today, thank goodness; we have enough problems to contend with already. Firstly the reverse-effect has totally taken over, as you can probably see (especially if you have a mirror available to put beside your computer screen). And secondly our BEAST penguin has drunk all the gin overnight and is lying senseless on the galley floor, snoring loudly. Until she wakes up we are stuck in the past, at a time which varies randomly throughout the 19^th century with each snore. I won’t be able to post any photos until she wakes up either, for each time we pass 1839 going backwards the camera’s memory card wipes its memory and forgets that photography has been invented.

At least the Gospel Oak Branch is in water, so we start our day by exploring it. At the end we see tantalising glimpses of the Dumaresq branch, but it keeps appearing and disappearing with each snore so we decide not to risk travelling along it in case we get stuck there. Instead we return to the Walsall Canal and complete the last half mile of our journey to Moorcroft Junction where we had hoped to meet up with KiwiBill for breakfast but we are about a hundred years too early so we miss out on our breakfast today. Climbing the old Bradley Locks Branch is fascinating and we wished we had time to explore the old basins, wharves, and arms there; but we must press on quickly in case the penguin’s snores take us back before 1850 in which case we may be stuck on dry land for the rest of the day.

Reaching the Rotten Brunt line we can almost see the finishing point at Bradley Workshops but we have plenty of travelling time to spare and decide to take a brief diversion. Turning southwards we follow the Old Main Line to Ocker Hill junction where we cruise the length of the old Branch before continuing down to the modern Main Line at Bloomfield Junction. We have an easy trip through Coseley Tunnel to Deepfields Junction, where we just manage to make it around on to the Wednesbury Oak Loop without getting tangled up in the blanket weed. We still have plenty of time in hand so we loop-the-loop around the Bradley Loop as well as taking a quick trip down the Bradley Marr Branch. Finally, utterly exhausted after our day’s travels, we reach the finish at Bradley Workshops and tie up at a safe social distance from the other finishers.

The camera is working properly too now, so I can take a picture of some lock gates at the Workshop

As this photo is included in the Feasibility Study for the Bradley Canal restoration, I had the idea to borrow someone else’s Laundromat machine and have a quick stroll along the arm to the top of the Bradley Locks back when they were still (just) navigable so I could take a final time-shifted photo.

Sadly leaving the world of Time Travel behind me I walked back to the boat to ask Pingu what we are having for tea tonight (I’m starving, we missed breakfast and were too busy to stop for lunch too)

Photo by Anthony Macdonald Smith on Canalplanac

Apparently the BEAST penguin re-surfaced holding these two fine specimens, so we will be having a seafood buffet later.

To celebrate our arrival here at the end of a gruelling week, Pingu and I decided to sing a little ditty in honour of our exploits while boating backwards

Keeping Up · May 9, 2020

AND FINALLY ....

Pingu has reluctantly cooked the lobsters (she prefers them raw of course) and assembled all the other ingredients for our seafood buffet. I think I have persuaded her that we can’t eat anything while it is still frozen and that some things will require further cooking. It should be delicious, accompanied by some fine Champagne and a bottle of our favourite white Chateauneuf-du-Pape (you can see our trained penguin waiter holding it for us).

While the final preparation of the meal takes place, we whet our appetites with a little vodka and caviar

Meanwhile Jessop the dog gets his just desserts

After the seafood buffet we will have our just desserts which were specially prepared for us by our grand-daughter this afternoon.

And finally, to round everything off properly, we have a Time-Travellers copy of the cake that we were given at our Ruby Wedding celebrations in the Samuel Barlow 4 years ago.

And that's all from us - I hope you've enjoyed reading all this hsibbur.

cheshire~rose · May 9, 2020

I am posting here because the time is now 6pm on Saturday 9th May 2020 and all virtual boating should now cease. Please ensure you boat is tied up securely and join us in the virtual beer tent for an evening of virtual celebration. We will be announcing the scores tomorrow lunchtime

Anything added to the cruise log after this post will not be considered in the judging

All the organisers (that is myself, @Capt Ahab and @Postcode) would like to thank this team for all their hard work in managing to virtually navigate around the BCN in these challenging times. We hope the team have learned a bit about the BCN, especially the lost 60 miles and we hope their narrative about their journey this week has instilled an interest in the reader too. We also hope the team and their readers have found the experience fun and I think we have all benefited from the incredibly informative, imaginative, dramatic and sometimes just plain silly posts that the teams have produced throught this week.

We sincerely hope that this will lead to some of you heading off (whether by boat or on foot) to explore these amazing locations in real life as soon as the retrictions on travel allow us to do so.

I think it is important to remember that this virtual event is taking place because the real BCN challenge could not. The Real BCN Challenge is an important event in the calendar of The BCN Society and, as their event had to be cancelled due to Covid-19 this year they are missing out on the entry fees of a lot of participating boaters and a lot of donations that the event would usually generate.

It is also fair to say that without this fine forum tolerating all these teams mucking about with their virtaul cruise diaries we might well struggle to work out how this event could have been hosted. It is free to join this forum and it is free to read it as well but there are costs involved in it's existance and it doesn't hurt to remind people that, if they can afford to do so, bunging the cost of a round of drinks with your mates into the frum coffers may just help it continue to be free for everyone to enjoy

It is with that in mind that I want to say, if you have enjoyed this event, either from the perspective of a participant, or from the perspective of an onlooker perhaps you would consider making a small donation, either to The BCNS or to the forum.

The BCNS do not have a clickable link where you can donate but you can do so via online banking by using these details:

BCN Society
Barclays Bank
Sort Code 20-84-13
Account Number 60176419

Or you may wish to consider becoming a member of their fine organisation and help to ensure that these amazing canals with all their wealth of heritage are looked after and restored where they can be.

To find out more please visit their website here:

https://bcnsociety.com/

If you wish to donate to the forum you can do so here:

https://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?/store/category/6-make-a-donation-to-canal-world/

There have been an incredible (or maybe barmy?) 14 teams of boaters who have been virtually haring around the canals of birmingham this week. Each of their cruise logs has it's own unique style. If you have enjoyed reading this one then why not dip your toe into one of the others - likes to them all are shown here:

KiwiBill · May 9, 2020

Thanks Allen for an entertaining diary. At 4:30 am New Zealand I needed a coffee. At Bradley 5:30pm I need a beer. I had worked out a system to read your post before you told me that the hammer man had made it unnecessary. Real coffee first. Virtual beer later. Your log later still.

Where am I? I thought I was commenting on Pugnipeek's log. NZ coffee now. I'll browse later. I have yet to master the fine balance between caffeine, the Baltika drive and marbles.

Edited May 9, 2020 by KiwiBill

cheshire~rose · May 10, 2020

Out of interest, did your team calculate the total miles and locks you covered during the challenge? If you have already mentioned it in the thread somewhere forgive me, I am asking because I am too lasy to go through 14 threads to find if the information has already been shared

Keeping Up · May 10, 2020

Sorry @cheshire~rose I forgot to mention it here.

In total we covered 65.5 miles (every single one of them backwards) and 83 locks (with a big discrepancy between Up and Down after our Spaghetti Junction incident on Monday morning).

By my maths I reckon that makes -273 points (or absolute zero if your name is Kelvin, and no I don't mean the engine maker)

Edited May 10, 2020 by Keeping Up

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