June 7th 2011 - To Birmingham and a day of disaster!

Ok, I know now that it was a stupid idea to push on to Birmingham a day early! I set off at 0500 in clear skies with the mist hanging over the water, it was wonderful. A pleasant cruise to the very pretty and totally deserted Knowle locks, no lock landing at the bottom and all 5 were very hard work, a wind had got up and it was difficult to get the boat to hang at the top gates to allow me to close them. Still, 10 miles of lock free cruising now. Passed a couple of boats coming the other way, and had another set off behind me at Catherine De Barnes. A spooky section of the GU this, dark cutting, overhanging trees and the beginnings of urbania, junk in the cut and graffiti. (see picture).

So the pleasantness came to an end with the appearance of Camp Hill locks, a flight of 6 on a twisty, turny bit of canal, quite a challenge in the strong breeze and I was just managing to keep ahead of the following boat. The occasional shower of rain also adding to the delights of Camp Hill.

Camp Hill done, so on through the Warwick Bar and to Ashted locks, another flight of 6, this time going upwards. Not very enjoyable with all sorts of unsavoury looking characters about, a sign warning us to beware of the Somalian mugger and me having to leave the boat unattended to set locks and stuff! Still, all was well until the third lock, I had been ahead to set the fourth and was on the phone, looked back to see boat at alarming angle in lock, immediately dropped top paddles and opened bottom, heard very loud crash from within boat to be relieved when boat didn't seem to be sinking. Quickly checked that no water had got in through the vents and went to investigate source of noise to find entire contents of food cupboards and glassware in a big pile on the galley floor. I was actually not bothered as I still had a floating boat! I left the mess to clear up later.

So, Ashted completed on on to the 13 Farmers Bridge locks, hard going now as I'm very tired (8 locks Sunday, 35 Monday and 30 today) It's quite interesting coming into Birmingham this way, it starts off really grotty and gets a bit better each couple of locks until Brindley Place, which if you haven't seen it is quite stunning. Anyway, back to the locks. A number of the Farmers Bridge locks are under buildings and in long bridges with a fence to stop Joe Public from falling in, not much use to Joe Boater! The boat was in such a bridge at the tail of lock 12, I was climbing over the fence to get back onto the boat, slipped and splash! Now I was really happy with life!! Anyway I squelched my way to lock 7 when Chris appeared and gave me a hand through 7 and 6, then the remainder of the flight was completed without incident. Ok, lets tie up and assess the damage! Bugger! No moorings, drove round a bit, just what you want after 12 hours cruising and eventually squeezed onto half a bollard on the main line moorings.

A jar of pasta sauce, a bottle of whisky and half of my glasses lay in a smashed heap, after picking a can of tuna from the bedroom and washing said sauce off the contents of the food cupboards, I promptly cut my self on one of the broken glasses, Chris turned up near to the end of the clear up (good timing!) we had a beer and went to the pub. And the Indian restaurant. And a couple more pubs. And a nightcap on the boat. The day was done and a very important lesson learnt. Oh, and the pong in the fridge seems to have gone away - a bit.

Today:  18 miles - 30 locks - 12.5 hours
So Far: 40 miles - 73 locks - 27.5 hours