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BCN Challenge


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Which looks verging on the un-navigable in parts of your video - is it as bad as it looks?

 

(Interesting choice of hire route too)

 

Not un-navigable at all, but there is a lot of rubbish in there, much much more than any other section of the BCN that we saw over the weekend (second was Tame Valley).

 

We had one weed hatch trip of the way up, did not dare have more as Tawny Owl was on our tail, and 3 weed hatch trips on the way down. To be fair on the way down, one was to clear a car wiring loom we picked up at the bottom of Ryders Green locks, and then one at Pudding Green Junction so we had a nice clear prop for a refreshing tank down the New Main Line.

 

 

 

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Nahhh, it's a bit slow, and Darlaston takes for ever, but we only had one weedhatch trip on that section, that was on Monday

 

Richard

 

Weedhatch? You were lucky...

 

We had about 5 or 6 stops to clear the weed with the cabin shaft, and countless reverses of the prop. We did about 45 minutes of bowhauling in total, too.

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Weedhatch? You were lucky...

 

We had about 5 or 6 stops to clear the weed with the cabin shaft, and countless reverses of the prop. We did about 45 minutes of bowhauling in total, too.

 

It isn't luck, it's planning :P

 

Richard

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Thanks to all who took the time to post pictures and video's -good stuff.

 

The hire boat in John's day two video is from Napton Narrowboats from their Elite fleet ?Victoria, we hired a sister boat last April - we didn't however do the BCN!!

 

We kept meeting the guys on Victoria. We met them at the foot of the 21 on friday night, again going south nr Darlaston on Sunday pm and much to our surprise we moored in front of then at the Dog and Doublet on Monday evening. We got chatting to them in the pub - they were a great bunch and had really enjoyed all the action around Walsall.

 

That bit is a "never do", I'm afraid. Apparently it's badly polluted up there, so it's out of bounds and I can't see it getting cleaned up in time for 2012. Team Tawny Owl went up there in 2009 (IIRC), and look what happened to them...

 

We pushed up to the end a couple of years ago - the middle section is very narrow and shallow. Its a shame the Ridgeacre Section was lost - there are a whole host of abandoned canal to explore around hilltop - about four or five miles.

 

Here's what we did, can't be asred work out all the points. It was just good fun to get stuck into some locks.

 

Boat...Dove, draught 36" Length 70-6", crew Me and Andrea.

 

Set off from top of Perry Bar locks 8:00

up Aston

up farmers bridge

new main line

All the loops

up Smethwick

old main line

up Oldbury locks

on to Navigation winding hole (question)

back down Oldbury

Down Spon Lane

Down Ryders Green Locks

On the Tame Valley

Up Rushall Locks

Had a kip. Now 12:30

On the W&E

Down Walsall Locks

Into Walsall town arm

 

Broke our record and did 72 locks in one day

 

Andrew

 

It was good to see you at Titford. We went on a lock fest and clocked up 86! (but 9 were duplicates which dont count for points)

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Wand'ring Bark had a great 1st Marathon. I have no idea how many points we managed but we passed through 90 qualifying locks (99 in total) and our route was:

 

Wolv 21

Tipton

Factory locks

Brades

Titford

Spon Lane locks

Smethwick locks and Engine Arm

The loops

Worcester Bar

Farmers bridge

Digbeth Basin

Aston Locks

Perry Barr and Tame Valley

Walsall canal to Town Arm.

 

My blog of the trip can be found here:

 

http://captainahabswaterytales.blogspot.com/

 

It was really good to meet to many people who love the BCN - especially the grizzly bits.

 

Found a lovely mattress with steel rods in the Tame Valley on the way out. I had the devil of a job to get it off, all in the pouring rain.

 

See you all next year. Maybe I need to do a bit more route planning.

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That's three of us that bloody mattress has had now!

 

Richard

I'll take some lifting gear next time we go up that way and remove it shall I.

 

Andrew

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No, it would be a pity to spoil the fun, chuck it back in when you've finished with it

 

Richard

But don't chuck it back in the same place, or it just wouldn't be fun...

 

Andrew

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But don't chuck it back in the same place, or it just wouldn't be fun...

 

Andrew

 

We need a new mattress for our fixed double... will it suit do you think..

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We need a new mattress for our fixed double... will it suit do you think..

Don't think so, it's been bladed three times and I ripped it a bit with the shaft.

 

Andrew

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So it wasn't a memory foam one then?

 

Ooh no, it was a pretty good quality sprung one from what I saw. With a length of twin and earth attached for some reason, which made removing it from our prop more interesting

 

Richard

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"With a length of twin and earth attached for some reason"

 

Richard

 

Oooh, don't be all coy Richard, you know what that was for... ;)

 

PC

 

Oh, sorry, this isn't the CWDF Libel Thread is it? ;)

  • Greenie 1
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Thank 'ee kindly for that. Went up a damn sight faster than we came down as a result. Even so, I didn't have a dry stitch on by the time we got to the top. After all that crawling up the Walsall it was nice to give it the beans down the Mainline so we could get home in time for some of Odana's chicken soup. Yum.

I'd like to thank you both for setting the locks for us going down the Ryders Green locks, it was a big help. You might be wondering why we didn't catch you up in the flight. We got stuck in the first lock and had to get BW out to free us (Two hours delay).

We had a great time over the weekend and hope to do it next year. Saw Team Tawny Owl in the pub and regret not introducing ourselves.

:cheers:

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I'd like to thank you both for setting the locks for us going down the Ryders Green locks, it was a big help. You might be wondering why we didn't catch you up in the flight. We got stuck in the first lock and had to get BW out to free us (Two hours delay).

We had a great time over the weekend and hope to do it next year. Saw Team Tawny Owl in the pub and regret not introducing ourselves.

:cheers:

 

I think Sue waved to you.

 

We're fairly harmless - as long as you aren't holding us up at locks....

 

Richard

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