An episode in which, despite wind and rain, I boated on like a trooper to get from Otherton to Autherley, including the extremely narrow section that’s barely wide enough for one boat just before you get to Autherley.
Picking up from the previous video, I continue down the Staffs and Worcs canal from Acton Trussell, through Penkridge and moor outside Otherton Boat Haven. En route, I demonstrate how not to open a lock gate.
At the end of a very warm day in June, I set off from Shugborough to Great Haywood, turning there onto the Staffs & Worcester canal because from there down to Autherley is a section of canal I’ve never done before. I moored at Tixall Wide – beautiful – and then headed on around Stafford before being perplexed at what people have at the end of their gardens in Acton Trussell.
I know some folk hate these real-time bow camera recordings and would prefer the usual vlog with commentary – but other folk love them hence why I continue to upload them occasionally. If you’re one of the former, panic not; do not wail and gnash your teeth for another standard vlog will be coming along next.
After almost drowning in the sea of rain falling onto Fradley, a new menace threatened my journey as the furious weather switched tack, turning instead to attack me with blazing rays of sun at a million degrees. Parched, weak and craving to escape the furnace I hauled myself to the back of the boat and just about had enough energy to propel the boat in search of shade, even as my last drops of water were exhausted. This is that traumatic tale.
This is the vlog version of the trip shown in real-time in the last video; I leave Kings Orchard Marina near Lichfield and head north up the Coventry canal to Fradley Junction where it rains a lot and I moor above the locks.
A “slow TV” (real-time) bow-camera recording of the trip from Kings Orchard Marina at Lichfield to Fradley Junction on June 21st 2020.
On Wednesday 13th May, the lockdown restrictions on the English waterways were relaxed slightly to permit day trips for leisure boaters. So I took the opportunity to fire up the narrowboat and do a five-hour cruise down towards Fazeley Junction and back.
After crossing the Mersey estuary with Minimal List aboard NB Perseverance, we now had a 36-mile journey up the Manchester Ship Canal, to get to Salford. Also aboard, as before, London Boat Girl Lorna.
In mid-October I moored the narrowboat on the Macclesfield and hopped on a bus and a train to Liverpool where I met with Jo and Michael of “Minimal List”. They had a rather interesting trip planned, to take their narrowboat across the Mersey estuary and up the Manchester Ship Canal. Joined by Lorna (aka “London Boat Girl”), we got up at a ridiculous time of the morning and set off. This is Part 1 of that journey, covering the Mersey crossing.
