What A Crick Up

However there were some good points about the Crick Boat Show and I will start with them!

• Saturday was dry!
• As "exhibitors" (i.e. helping on the Bath Narrowboats stand) we did not have to queue to get in and could park in the trade parking!
• Nb Echo Rivendale is a beautiful boat and both Bath Narrowboats and the owners should be and are proud of her.
• We were in great company - the BN team of Richard, Jon, Dave and Angie were really good fun to be with for the weekend.
• We saw a number of narrowboaters we know, including Del and Al from Derwent 6, friends from Pewsey and others. Unfortunately we did not make the canalworld forum banter as we were too busy on the stand.
• There was some serious enquiries from potential customers.
• We bought some bargain fenders!
  

So the "Crick ups"?

• Sunday was wet, wet, wet
• There were less of the usual boat builders and more of the new ones.
  
• There seemed to be less trade stands, but I didn't get much time to confirm this - too busy!
• Monday was squelch, squelch, squelch.
  
• Monday was a disaster for traders and serious customers alike. The show opened officially at 10 (although they were letting in people from about 9.30) and CLOSED at 10.30.
  
• It was too windy - the organisers were concerned for accidents. They were covered by insurance.
• Traders were not necessarily covered for loss of sales. They need to register for loss of earnings - considerable if they planned to close a sale that day.
  
• Customers were unable to look again and make their final decisions or buy the bargains they had planned on the day before.
  
• Event tickets for Monday were useless. Maybe it cleared up but the traders had cleared up too!

So what of next year? How many will book stands? How many builders will there be? Who will attend?

3 wet years on the trot means there is a new term for the weather forecasters - Crick weather!

What a shame for all those involved. Hope this is not too crickital!

Painting Football Fan

So I confess I am writing this with half an eye on the match - Man U v Chelski! I am not really a football fan - more a rugby fan, but if they can go half the way around the world to play I suppose I can keep half an eye out! John is the fan!

I arrived home to a smarter boat! John has painted the port side gunnels and down to the rubbing stake. He also had the blue gloss out for the stern hatch, engine room hatch, the bows and finally to finish the paint off and with my help, the blue on the pole and the boat hook! Still more to do but that will wait until the next batch of decent weather! It has been lovely here today.

Maybe it was because of the very kind words on "Dogsontour". Thanks Sarah. I love your style of writing! Maybe it was because we like to keep Epiphany looking decent. Left too long and you never do it, as is evidenced by some of the boats we see!

For the second time in two days we have been asked the meaning of Epiphany. If anyone is curious have a look at out home page!

Hear Ye Hear Ye - BW News

Oh Yeah, Oh Yeah. Hear this!

Virtual Ring Ring

Have you seen this man?

Coming to a venue near you!

Meet him and greet him!

Grill him and make your feelings known!

A Not To Be Missed Opportunity!

Hear Ye, Hear Ye!

Virtual Ring Ring

Robin Evans is on "Walkabout". He is staging a number of public meetings for anyone with an interest in canals. He is in Devizes on Friday 13th June (is that an auspicious date?). Venue the Bear Hotel, The Market Place, time 5 - 7.30. He is travelling the country, see the venues and dates here.

Are you really concerned about The State Of Things? Do you care enough? Speak out - now is your chance. Passive resistance is not always the answer, nor is active indifference.

Weekend Bits And Bobs

A busy weekend - no cruising but good all the same!

Friday we met up with Jon from Bath Narrowboats and the owners of Nb Minty, built after Epiphany, who are down on the K & A for a while. It was a good evening! We will be on the BN stand at Crick helping out again. BN are taking an "all singing all dancing" narrowboat with some lovely features. Worth a look if you are there!

Saturday was an inside "spring clean" well, floor and dusting and windows! Now we are no longer using the Morso it is not such a thankless task as there will be less dust! A dose of Dr Who - really funny I thought and then email catch up.

My best and longest friend (in time that is!) is now in email - yeah! We have known each other since we were 3, and both married Cornishmen! They are in Canada and not having a land line any longer meant we were not able to gas for hours! So we are able to be in touch now although I think she is on a steep learning curve - "go Ray"!

Today we put on our glad rags for Church and then had a drink in the Waterfront - some wondered what the occasion was! Back to the boat and immediately into jeans - I am able to relax then.

As it was sunny I cleaned off the tar on the roof from the chimney and polished the red rails. They will need a paint soon - red is the worst colour for fading. I also had to get rid of duck poo as we seem to attract it at the moment! That's when a water spray comes in handy as it seems to be effective to get it really wet and then blast it with the jet spray from the ironing bottle! As I don't iron it has come in useful.

We see Nb Alacrity has a picture of Epiphany in the distance and we also spotted Nb Ten Bob Note further up the moorings this weekend. So the K and A is popular with bloggers again this year. We await Nb Petroc's arrival!

So the forecast looks reasonable for this week. Is Crick going to be dry - I dare not hope too much!

Travels Of A Different Kind - Pewsey To Spain

Ten days since our last blog - have you missed us?!

We have been away as you may have guessed. Actually out of the country - our good friends invited us to test run their new apartment in Spain. So we went out with them last Friday and returned here on Wednesday.

The area we travelled to is called the Costa Calida in a region called Murcia. As yet a very undeveloped part of Spain. Polaris World (Jack Nicolas advertises them on the box) are there, as are a couple of other big developers - mainly around golf courses. Our friends apartment is in a block that is in a very Spanish village named San Cayetano and not at all a touristy part!

We visited a few places, enjoyed Spanish food and picked up the odd Spanish word!

Cabo de Palos where I paddled in the Med!

La Manga del Mar Menor - a finger of land between the Med and the Mar Menor (Inland sea) is in the background of the above and in this photo of John also taken at Cabo de Palas.


La Manga Golf Resort is where the rich and famous go for their golf! We passed the gates but being poor and infamous did not venture in!

This little cove reminded us a bit of Cornwall - apart from the palm trees and black sand!


We also took a train journey to Cartagena, which has quite a history.

The Roman amphitheatre and bombed cathedral are being restored - slowly!

We enjoyed the short trip although it was hotter in the UK than there! But as I do not do really hot it suited us and our activities. John says he is never going to have a Vesta paella again after tasting the real thing!

Save the Continuous Cruiser

From the NABO website

"THIS IS URGENT - NABO is on a BWAF panel to discuss future licensing and, between now and the meeting on Monday 12th May, wants to give its members and other boaters a chance to answer the two questions posed by APCO in its petition/survey regarding 'Continual Cruisers' and wide beam craft.

Just three clicks are needed on this very short web form please."

If you are a continuous cruiser the first question is particularly important -

The two questions asked are:

1. Do you think that Continual Cruisers (sic) should pay a higher licence fee equal to the cost of combining the average linear mooring fee with a private boat licence fee?
2. Do you think that wide beam boats should pay a pro-rata licence fee (Length by breadth)?

Of course, if continuous cruisers don't have web access, they won't have a vote, will they? OTOH, non-cc-ers with broadband will. Hardly democratic, then, but nevertheless a vitally important vote.

Trouble On T' Cut. Breeding Swans, Moorhens Et Al

8.78mls, 4hrs 19mins, 2.03lmph

We woke to rain this morning and had a leisurely breakfast. The rain began to clear up so we thought we would move before lunch.

Nb Juno passed us, pretty speedily, but John managed to get a photo.




A few minutes later a look out of the bow windows and the camera was out again! Ahead of us The Apple had been moored: a very big wide boat built by Blue Water Boats – we have encountered it frequently this year! Oh dear look what happens when boats pass others too fast!



The Devizes Marina Day Boat had a problem. No room to pass. However, they were able to moor and pull The Apple back in. We hoped they had made it secure in case the same happened again.

After that we set off and despite a small shower the weather was warm and even became sunny and hot! When we pulled in to Gibson’s at Honey Street for some diesel it was very hot and we had a good chat to George as we filled up.

At Woodborough Fields Bridge I took some photos of the views where we had moored our first night. Klein Active was obligingly moored to add to the view!

Pickled Hill

Woodborough Hill

Just past Lady’s Bridge the swans had produced! Ahh…..



Dad was on patrol and I think it must have been him I saw on the floating nest when we passed before – he was on guard distracting us from the important event!

There were also some squatters next door!



Another mum was on her nest too – we spotted her back near Honey Street.




So on to Pewsey Wharf for water and the elsan and then up to Milkhouse Water winding hole to turn around for our journey back to Pewsey. The Waterfront Bar and Bistro were very busy and everyone was watching the boats – even the boaters on the moorings!

So now we are settled – we hope to see Sally-Ann and Mike later, show them Epiphany and then go for a drink! Work tomorrow – ugh!

Devizes To All Cannings - In The Rain

6.11 miles, 2h 19m 27s Locks:0 Bridges:14 (inc: 2 swing bridges)
Average speed:2.63 mph (2.63 lock/mph)

Moored at Devizes

Yesterday we went shopping in Devizes for a few items including some sealant for the shower, which John plans to re do this coming week. The afternoon turned out fine so I planted out the French lavender,

saxifrage

calibrachoa

I bought all these a week or so ago to replace the violas and bulbs

Our mooring was opposite Lower Wharf where there is the Canal Forge with a Blacksmith. Despite the proximity of Town Bridge, the main road out of Devizes, it was a quiet night.

We stayed overnight and this morning set out for All Cannings – in the dry at first, but before long the rain came!


John reversed back to the winding hole and winded. It was a perfect job and one of the other
owners asked him to do his boat too! But we wanted to get on our way! Passing all the Devizes
boat club boats, moored for another night I suspect.

There were quite a number of boats moving today. We passed a number of familiar boats going the other way! We passed Nb Juno who asked John if we knew Dave from Nb Arcona – a similar boat with a Gardiner engine. Answer – yes, we came up Caen flight with them in September! I forgot to get a photo of Juno, but will if we see them again!

I opened Bishop’s Cannings swing bridge (133) for them and then we passed them at the fuel boat. We left them to it and continued on our merry way.



This canoe raft seemed like fun – I suppose you have to all paddle as one otherwise there could be a problem!

We moored at All Cannings in the dry! I got rid of the rubbish and also some recycling – they have skips for plastic bottles and cardboard here. Why no cans and paper too?

We shall stay here for the night and then cruise back to Pewsey tomorrow. We have visitors in the evening – Sally-Ann and Mike from Cornwall. Fellow bloggers – one of my favourite blogs as it reminds me what Cornwall is like!

Sun and Showers - Woodborough To Devizes

8.93 miles: 3h 24m 20s Locks:0 Bridges:20 Average speed:2.62 mph (2.62 lock/mph)

After a really quiet night we woke to sunshine. A hire boat passed us at 9am and then Nb Tickly Too who we have met in the past and has a local mooring. After a few jobs we set out. The temperature varied between 18 degrees and 16 depending on sun or shade.

The stretch between Honey Street and Woodway Bridge (128) was a bit slow going as once again there were a fair number of moored boats. Although there were no boats moored at The Barge Honey Street, unusually.

All Cannings moorings (bridge 128) were full, including Nb Tickly Too. I said “Hi” to Baz and Rosemary was just about to join him. I kindly opened Allington swing bridge (130) for a hire boat – they cracked on, maybe in a hurry!?

We passed the fuel boat moored up.

They had been at Pewsey on Monday at 78 pence/litre

The price has gone up to 82 since then!

At Horton Chain Bridge Nb Sunseeker was preparing to cruise to Devizes for the Boat Club get together. Hmm – maybe there would not be any mooring available today!

A family of ducklings were gathered at Horton Bridge (134), only counted 10!

A short time ago there was a towpath leak near Devizes Marina – it has now been repaired

It now started to rain – heavy at times. I went below to make a cake and left the Skipper to it!

The moored boats started again, on and off all the way into Devizes. The 72-hour moorings opposite the wharf were full of Devizes Boat Club boats but fortunately there was an Epiphany sized space just before Kennet Lock (50) the first of the Devizes flight.

No more room now for any boats unless they double up, rather hard luck on those tired crews who come up the Caen Hill flight hoping to be here tonight. The rain has passed and maybe we will have another fine evening.

Cruising Again - Pewsey To Woodborough

2.07 miles: 1h 0m 28s: Locks:0 Bridges:7
Average speed:2.05 mph (2.05 lock/mph)

A lovely evening to begin our early May cruise. The sun shone as we set off towards west towards Devizes. We were hoping to moor away from it all after a couple of hours.

There are quite a few moored boats at Wilcot. The sheep in Stowell Park seemed happy. I am not sure what the one by the fence was trying to do!



More boats were at Wide Water, we see these four regularly moored together on the stretch towards Devizes. I think that Russell (BW Patrol Officer) must have been around as all the continuous moorers have moved a bit! The four boats at Wide water had about 6 dogs and at least 1 cat between them.

There are now two swans nesting there by Lady’s bridge, one in the usual spot and one almost floating at the edge of the canal. I will try and get photos on our return journey.

We spotted a deer at the edge of the woods not far away but at the noise of the boat it bolted. When we were on our way back from Westonbirt last week we herded one along the road until it managed to find a gap in the hedge. They seem to appear in the evening – maybe they think we have all settled down by then!

There is a fairly straight bit after the moorings beyond lady’s bridge and we moored half way to Woodborough Fields Bridge. To our starboard a field of rape seed, Pickled Hill and Woodborough Hill; to our port a field leading to Lambpit copse – a picturesque name?

The sun was still shining and it was sooo quiet! No phone signal either!