Long lining with the Fullers

Having moved out of my University digs for summer on Sunday I drove stright over to the Fullers house in Stone  after being at home for about 12 hours (10 of which i was asleep) in order to go boating.

Roger had Ilford (A 1912 ex FMC Braithwaites Butty owned by Roger for the last 5 years) at Great Hayward with Southen Cross and Aquarious loaded the three boats with logs from a logging contract with the National Trust to removed around 100tonnes of logs from the Shugborourgh Estate by water.

After turning Southen X at the jucntion and having BBQ on the boats on the Monday night we left Hayward on Tuesday morning motored through to Alvecote with the three boats and Sweden heading towards Braunston for the Historic Working Boat Rally. The first day went well and saw us moor for the night in the basin at the Samual Barlow pub at Alvevote for Tea with Clover& Fazley (amungst others) alongside.

We left early Wednesday from Alvecote and had a clear run through the locks and another good day making Hawkesbury Jn the following evening where we Moored against the warlf alongside the pub and again took full advantage of the pub for food and beer. Two good days boating had seen us ahead of schdual and we spent the thursday morning moored against the Greyhound to watch the sport, with many boats passing through the junction, including Clover & Fazley as well as Hare and Cactus, who i pleased to say all made the turn as well as we did.

We then left Hawkesbury after lunch and boated down to the moorings at Brinklow where we ate onboard cooking a meal of Potatoes, Carrots and FrayBentos pies cooked on the range using reclaimed coal from the hedgerow and where joined by Hadley. Leaving Brinklow Matt walked up the arm to collect Sickle as we passed by and the boats made Braunston at around 2.30 to take up our mooring by the marina entrance.

Southen X and Ilford made the three locks at Hilmorton in 21 minutes start to finish.

Trent adventures

Got a phone call last night at about 7.

"Emilyanne is currently stuck on the mud 5 miles from Crowell on a falling tide can you think of anything clever to do"

Urrrm, not really! Fortunatly another canalworld forum member had do the same, in a simular of of the trent, just a few days earlier. So i got the low down of how it went for him and how quickly the tide came up and the like. He was luck enough to stuck at around midday so refloated around 5 in the evening on a sunday day. Where emilyanne has gone around on a rainy evening as was due to refloat at around one in the morning.

Anyway, they got off fine (at one, in the dark) and made a mile or so's progress towards Cromwell before sticking again. So are not waiting till two this afternoon to hopfully refloat for a second time and make it into Cromwell lock and on to Newark at last!

Emilyanne surround by Cows and very much on the bottom!

Wet weekend on the Chesterfield.

Locks at the top of the Chesterfeild

Well, ok its wasnt that, better than forcast but compaired to the week before it could have been february again!

After a week fo exams I (daniel) joined the boat just east of Worksop for two days off before my lasy exam. Progress on Saturday was slow, at times the weed was that bad it was faster to walk the boat through it than try and use the prop. Sunday went well untill around midday, when the heavens opened, and clear lock free sections started to show up our current coal and how little steam it seams to make us!

Still, the boat is now at Clayworth, and will progess further tomorrow while i revise for my last exam which is in friday.

Emilyanne on the Chesterfeild.Down the weed hatch...  (note weed on the right, this isnt round the prop as such, its growing there!!)

Sometimes this was the fastest way!The (unfortunatly broken) weed machine.

Nicely kept lock and lock landing.

IWA Campaign Rally

Rally was a great success, the boat arrived mid afternoon on the Saturday and a fuss was made all weekend with a great number of people coming to have a look at the boat, which was kept insteam throughout the weekend.

I joined the boat breifly for Sunday including and evening in the Beer tent before returning to Loughborough for another week of work.

Then today i had my first of four end of year exams, which i can report went well.

The boat is now in the Worksop area, and will be leaving the Chesterfield on the Friday or Saturday of this week going South up the Trent.

Boats at the Rally.

Rally Grounds in the Sunshine.