Canucks on the Cut- Part 1

[Steve Smyth]

Day One- We begin

 

After the prvious days festivities at the beer festival (Yay!) at Codsall, we were off to Brewood to begin our adventure. Lunch at the Admiral Rodney in Brewood, Great lunch, great beer, great staff- I made a comment about my buddy being a pilot and that we should have the Spitfire ale and all of a sudden, the Landlord gives him a free t-shirt, pump handle plates and all sorts of goodies. He was pretty chuffed and left happily with all his swag after a great lunch. It became the standard which we compared all the other pubs too for the rest of the week.

 

We left at 2.00 for Country Wide to pickup Sir Ulfius. They were very busy with loads of turnarounds but did their best to get us away on time. We stowed our groceries and beer (natch) and picked out our cabins. Sir Ulfius (referred to hereafter as Ulfy) was a lovely boat as promised with loads of room for four people and mechanically sound. William gave good solid instructions and the handover was complete by 4.00 pm. Marie stayed with us as we weaved our way down the canal to Wheaton Aston. The tiller steering proved to be a bit more difficult than I had imagined and I used all of the Stretton Aqueduct getting across the road. As you can tell from the pictures later, I looked pretty intense at this point in the journey. My buddy Kent, as mentioned before, is a pilot and quite used to rudders and things so he took to it like a duck to water. At this point, I wondered if I would ever begin to get the hang of steering it in a straight line.

 

 

Marie braved her way through the drizzle and potential disasters and showed us through our first lock at Wheaton Aston- by this time we decided that we should pull over for a nice nap and good nights sleep. We moored up on the path just past Dirty Lane Bridge and ambled off to the Hartley Arms. Seemed to be about 90 degrees in the pub and very crowded but the snacks were good and the ales went down nicely. We walked back to the boat in the dark with our new halogen flashlites for our first night afloat. After 3 years of planning and anticipation, it was great to be underway at long last.

 

Day 2- Wheaton Aston to Market Drayton

 

 

We awoke at 7.00 am to a calm and clear day by ducks quacking and by the sound of boats put-putting by. It was time for the first full day of “The Canal Experience”. Had a nice breakfast on the boat and away at 7.45 am. Lots of moored boats so we couldn’t make very good time but I was beginning to realize that really isn’t the point of the whole trip. Steering was still difficult for me and I had to take myself off to the side and give myself a good talking to. The idea was to relax and feel the boat and adjust accordingly. After realizing this, I was willing to give it another go. We stopped at Gnosall and walked into town to get more bottled water. Lovely little village with good supplies available at the Co-op. The bank machine was also handy for filling up on cash as we were still having problems using our non-chipped North American credit cards. Set off again and ran into quite a crowd at Norbury Junction. It was a bit unnerving steering through such tight confines so I let Kent take it most of the way. Feeling a bit more confident but to be safe….

 

Woodseaves Cutting was very narrow and crowded. A few bumps resulted at one place but no damage done to either boat. Scenery is exquisite and exactly what we were expecting from the English countryside. It was easy to pretend we were in another century until the British Telecom van went over a bridge in front of us and reminded us all that we were in the 21st Century.

 

Tyrely Locks went remarkably well once we remembered the order in which to open the paddles and flood the locks. There were a large number of people watching at the top lock which was a bit intimidating but we soon were through and heading into the lovely lower sandstone cuttings that formed the bottom locks. The Shroppie was proving to be a good choice of canals.

 

We stopped up at the BW garbage disposal at Market Drayton where a fellow was selling “canalia” . Marsha wanted a painted water bucket but I had to remind here that she would have to carry it home so she purchased some small souvenirs to take home.

 

Walked over the bridge to the Talbot Inn for dinner- food and service was slow and poor- Advertised as real pub food but everything was overcooked and cold. Service was bad- We learned the meaning of the great British word “naff”. Beer was off as well, all in all a good day of cruising with a poor finish. Had some Banks on the boat, played a few games of dominoes and had my first shower on the Ulfy. This presented a bit of a challenge but after getting the hang of it, we were off to bed to prepare for the Audlem flight the next day.

 

Day 3- Market Drayton to past Nantwich

 

Up at 7.15 and off we go to the locks. Pouring buckets by the time we reached Adderley Locks. Worked our way through in fast order and worked up quite a sweat. Sun cam out-rain gear went off; rain came out-rain gear back on. After doing this 3 or 4 times, decided just to keep rain pants on. I worked up a very good sweat underneath the pants. Turned out to be quite embarrassing when I removed them to find my pants soaked through to the crotch. We had first and only run in with a Challenger boat at Adderley bottom. He was clearly tied up and so I closed the bottom gate for the boat behind us- as we were moving away- he started gesturing rudely that we had closed the gates in his face. So, being a genial sort of fellow- I ran back and opened them for him. The fellow behind us happened to see the performance and gave the Challenger fellow what for at the next opportunity. Only overheard something about “bow thrusters and big heads”? :-)

The rest of Audlem was pleasant and orderly. One boat up, one boat down was the mantra we had been told and even on the busiest locks, it worked out well. The weather improved nicely so we stopped at Audlem for a pint or two.

 

We tried both the Shroppie Fly and Bridge Inn and both were nice-music was a bit loud at the Shroppie so we preferred the Bridge. Marstons and Flowers quickly becoming fast favourites because of flavour and consistency.

 

When we came back to the boat we found the pound had been lowered and we were hung up on the ledge. We broke a few wine glasses and a bowl when we jumped on because everything slid off the ledge in the galley. We headed for the water point below Audlem where we ran into another Mr. crabby pants who insisted we pinched “his” lock even though he was clearly moored up (at the water point, I might add) when we looked over and decided to flood the lock for ourselves.

 

After this incident, we made fine time through Hack Green locks and fine sailing to Nantwich. It was a bit windy as we sailed through Nantwich and very busy also. There was no where to moor up until well past town. We mugged and waved for the web cam as we sailed past. After seeing the views from this camera for so long, it was a strange feeling to see what was beyond the bridge and the canal junction and marina.

Moored up at bridge 96 for the night and enjoyed dinner and Banks’ on the boat. All in all, a great day of cruising and we went to bed tired and very happy indeed.

[DHutch]

Sounds like you had a good time anyway, thanks for the report.