A Touch of Frost
Woke this morning to the first frost of the season. Emerged from under the tonneau to find Gecko crusted with white frosting. On our way to Wolverton received a text message announcing the arrival of a daughter to friends who live in Fenny Stratford. Wonderful news so had to stop to shop by the new flats on the site of the Wolverton Rail Carriage Works. Hopefully we will still have time to drop into the Rohan outlet shop at Giffard Park before we moor at Peartree tonight for a carvery.

Libel
It has been pointed out that, contrary to my report yesterday, Corona and Victoria did in fact join the Jam 'Ole Run at Atherstone. The reporter responsible has been disciplined and I apologise for any embarrassment her dodgy information may have caused.

Jam 'Ole Run 2010
Every October a group of ex working boats re-enact the coal run from Atherstone to the Kearley and Tonge jam factory in Southall.








From here









To here







We moored at Norton Junction to let them pass. The first three came by fairly promptly.





Victoria













Corona











Stanton







But then we had a long wait for the other half. When they did turn up we learned that a cow had jumped into the cut in front of Renfrew near Barby and it had taken an hour to get it back on dry land.




Renfrew













Dove











Archimedes









But we can reveal here that Corona and Victoria did not start at Atherstone, they only joined the run at Braunston.

The Deserts of Lincolnshire
Question: If you own a defunct tileworks and need a wall around your yard what do you do?
Answer: Build a wall with the tiles you can't sell.

This is on the banks of the Humber not far from Barbara Castle's bridge.








Question: If you have an 1890 G.E. Railway carriage and no railway, what do you do with it?
Answer: Sell fruit from it for 60 years and then set up a tea shop.


















Curent resting place is alongside the six-sail post mill at Waltham near Grimsby.










Question: What do you call it when you have sold out of everything but jelly and ice cream?
Answer: A Desert

There is More to Grimsby than Fish.
This is specially true for canalaholics or the lesser mortals who enjoy but do not inhale.
Some of the highlights of our weekend studying industrial history in and around Grimsby were the bridges.
In the city the Corporation bascule bridge is in regular use.









At Keadby, near Scunthorpe, is this Scherzer rolling lift bridge.






Built in 1916 it takes the road and railway over the River Trent but has not been opened for the passage of shippng since 1956. The bascule was originally powered by large batteries but was converted to mains electricity later.







Where the Doncaster to Scunthorpe railway crosses the Stainforth and Keadby Canal there is too little headroom for boats to pass under.


The railway crosses at a considerable skew and so when a boat needs to pass through the whole railway slides to the side.
Winches housed in the grey shed pull the bridge with cables and it rolls back on small wheels and rails of its own.
Not having a boat with us we could not persuade the bridge operator to move it over for us.

Sign of the Times?

A Tale of Woe
I hope you have the tissues ready....
Over the past five years we have had intermittent problems with water seeping in through on of the windows. Various measures have been tried but as we leaned recently, they have not been very successful. With winter approaching we decided to get professionals to look at the problem. So we are in Blue Haven marina near Hillmorton (Rugby). The first job was to remove the window frames from inside which exposed the fittings. These windows are are supplied with 18 little clamps to hold the window in position tightly against the bodyshell. The boatbuilder had seen fit to use only seven of these and none at all along the top edge of the window. So we found the cause of the leaks.

Whilst the repairs are taking place we have no window in the dining area. But undeterred, i work on to bring this blog to you.


With luck we will be away from here on Wednesday and move on to Braunston for a few days before heading down the Grand Union.

Meanwhile, She who must be obeyed has been in to Rugby to buy essential supplies and take a tour of Rugby School. Photos may follow!

10/10/10
On this day in 1911 the Qing dynasty in China was brought to an end by the Wuchang Uprising and the Republic of China (now known as Taiwan) was founded. Double Ten Day is therefore their national foundation day. The tenth day of the tenth month of the tenth year however is not so special as one might expect because the calendar in Taiwan started in 1911 so next year will be more significant to them.
I was going to write a piece about the Panama Canal as we have a diary entry which says that that canal was opened on this day in 1913. I am not sure if that is correct so I will check this before I subject you to my photos of that amazing canal.

Tete-a-Tete with Granny Buttons
This posting is for Chris and Paul somewhere in France on nb Dream On.
The engineer brought our domestic alternator back on Friday evening with the comment "the regulator was not connected to anything. Where did you buy it?" Not being as au fait with Severn Valley Boat Centre as some of us he was surprised when I said it was fitted when the boat was built and had not been touched since then. Anyway it is now back in situ and all seems well. (!)
This morning we made our way down to Rugby, topping up with diesel at Rose Narrowboats. On our way we passed several groups of photographers waiting for a steam loco to pass by. We managed to be in the only place it could not be seen when it did pass. No pictures from me, then.
Approaching Newbold Tunnel - the short one with pretty lights and room for two way traffic- a second hire-boat came racing past us in a hurry to nowhere. We could see a boat coming through the tunnel towards us and were wondering why Jenson Button had overtaken us at this point. I think they may have asked themselves the same question a few minutes later when they managed to obstruct the tunnel portal preventing the oncoming boat from leaving.




This tunnel ain't big enough for the two of us!






Soon after mooring and re-mooring, the place we had vacated for a better one was taken by nb Granny Buttons. For those not acquainted with Granny Buttons a visit to the blog is worthwhile.
Those who follow that blog will know that the boat has been hi-jacked by antipodeans.
Even wihtout his boat he gets 50 times as many readers as me! :-(

Weekend Away
When we moved up from Coventry basin to Sutton Stop on Thursday there was an extraneous noise emanating from somewhere in the engine region. We called out RCR for the first time since subscribing to their emergency service over four years and they quickly identified a fault with the alternator which supplies power to the domestic battery bank. Friday to Monday night we were away on a study weekend in the Grimsby area with 24 others from WADIHS. On Tuesday at 8am the engineer removed the alternator to get it repaired or replaced. Our next task was to recharge the batteries using our on-board generator. This would not start: completely dead. This left us with low battery power and no way of recharging it and hence no way of cooking dinner for Ali and Elaine who were coming that evening.
In the event our generator man came and fixed that problem and our guests could not make it due to unforeseen circumstances.
So now we are almost back to normal, just waiting for the alternator to return.
Ali and Elaine are coming for dinner tonight and I shall put up some information about our study weekend in the next day or two.