Narrowboat Free Spirit

So, we are 6 days in and this is the first update – sorry we have just been having too much fun to be updating a website!

Day 1

Day 2

Day 2 becoming familiar now, down through Marsdon Doles locks and then the Napton flight, then onto the Grand union and through the Calcut and stockton locks.

Day 3

Day 3 continues along the Grand Union and we head towards the Hatton Flight where we hope our friend Tim will meet us to lend a hand.

Day 4

We arrive at Hatton, sure enough Tim is there nice and early, we fly through Hatton until one of the volunteers catches a bot up with us so we can go two at a time – saves water but can get messy! The new boat arrives and says – “Ive only just bought this and never shared a lock before!”. Still we manage to get to the top and pull over for a spot of lunch. Tim stays with us for another hour or two as we move through the countryside.

Day 5

So after our success at Hatton we move on towards Birmingham, we then realise we didn’t go far enough yesterday to keep up with the plan so we put in a long day. Its all getting quite industrial as we head towards Birmingham, still the last set of locks sound nice “Farmers bridge”, well here is a photo, turns out the canal was in the way of a building so then built over it!

Day 6

We move away from Birmingham and onto Huddersfield. We planned to stop at the top of the Huddersfield 21 – a 21 lock flight but the moorings were full so we started our way down, a few hours later we were at the end. We have stopped on the Shropshire Union Canal overnight, we covered so much ground that we can have a short day tomorrow.

Here are some pictures of the holiday so far

Here is the route for our 2021 holiday.

For the full route plan you can click here

Here is the map of the day

Stats

Total distance: 6.53 miles Elapsed time: 5h29m50s

Locks:12 Bridges:13

As I was starting to get the boat ready I heard a bit of a noise and then saw this…

Once we got going today has been an easy one, after an hour or so we left the Grand Union and joined the Oxford canal.

Soon after joining the oxford you get the the Napton Lock flight, here is a photo of the first lock

We know this flight really well, it was busy today but once at the top we have cruised to one of our favourite mooring spots.

Here we will stay for tonight and probably tomorrow.

Here is the map of the day

Obviously with today being a Sunday we tuned in to the St Johns live stream, the first one to have members attending in church as well.

Here is our view of Lu

Its so good to be able to join in from where ever we are (Internet permitting!)

We have been weaving our way along the Grand Union – Warwick and Napton canal.

19 locks in total today – all double width meaning heavy gates and paddles!

Wendy took control again though some locks while I did the walking, its good for us both to swap now and again!

Before we were lucky enough to get our own boat we did a bit of hiring, today we saw one of the first boats we hired – now in private ownership

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Here are some pictures of the day

Day 22

Here is the map of the day

Hatton!

We Started about an hour away from the famous Hatton locks – A 21 lock flight

Once through the locks we found the first good mooring and stopped for the night!

Day 23

Here is the map of the day

A fairly short day, all started well until we got the the outskirts of Leamington Spa when all the batter charge warning lights came on, we found the first place to moor and stopped – one problem – the engine wouldn’t stop!

A quick SOS to my chap that services the boat and he told me where the manual leaver was to stop the engine, so once stopped it wouldn.t start – no ignition lights are any sound when moving the key.

So this was me at the side of the canal – all the tools out!

I eventually found the culprit a broken wire that supplies power to the ignition key and panel, here are the remains

I didn’t have any heavy duty wire, lucky enough Halfords was only 30 minutes away, so I went for a walk.

I managed to get some bit to fix it and within an hour or so we were off. While stopped, as we were close to a Tesco superstore Wendy stocked up with some essentials, including caramel ice cream

Here is the map of the day

So today we completed the Stratford on Avon canal and rejoined the grand union, the completes the loop of

Stratford on Avon Canal – River Servern – River Avon – Stratford on Avaon canal!

Here is the video of the boat turning from Stratford on Avon canal to the “lapworth link”, Its a tight turn for a 68′ boat into a very narrow bridge

Shortly after another turn required from the lapwork link to the Grand Union.

So now we just retrace our steps home. We are about an hour away from Hatton locks again – Wendy is looking forward to that tomorrow. Our holiday is now officially extended due to the various hold ups, unfortunately we both have some commitments tomorrow so will be on “teams” calls in the morning.

Here is the map of the day

We continue our journey up the Stratford upon Avon canal.

It was a bit of a rainy day so we had a short day. There were two aqueducts to cross today

The first of these – one of the highlights of the day – was the Edstone Aqueduct.

Here is the map of the day

Quite a short distance but we had some interesting times

We started the day outside the RSC at Stratford on Avon, there are a few swans there on the river so we gave them a feed, we then popped into town for a bit of shopping and while there popped into a 1940’s themed tea shop for a coffe for Wendy and a Cream tea for me!

From there we took a left turn into the lock that gets you on the the Stratford upon Avon canal, the lock is covered with people watching so a good one to get right!

Here is the video – speeded up!

You then turn right and go through some of the narrowest bridges I have ever seen as you make your way out of the town.

A few locks up and we were confronted – just after this maconalds – almost a drive through!

– with a boat 90 degrees across the canal. No one was doing anything so we moored up and sorted it. Turns out it was an unoccupied boat that someone had moored up badly, the mooring pins had pulled out and it was drifting!

We carried on and soon met the Wilmcote lock flight of 10 locks. Wendy was feeling brave so decided to drive the boat up the flight while I did the locking. A top job she did as well – more walking for me in the future!

All was going well until we got the the top lock, the bottom gate wouldn;t shut, we called Canal and River trusts and were waiting when another boat came up the flight – clearly more seasoned that us he contructed a tool from a long pole and a garden tool to scrape the lock cill (the concreate ledge the gates sit on) It took a few goes but he did clear it the gate closed and we could move on.

It was getting late so the first mooring we could find we have stopped for the night, so just about covered 5 miles today!.

Here is our final view of the day

Here are some more pics from the day