78. Narrowboat Living – Lessons learnt as the canals get busier.

Did anyone ask for Paul’s opinion of the Staffs & Worcester Canal? No, well he gives it anyway! We have a few locks to do in this weeks narrowboat vlog as we head towards Gailey to fill up with water. We learn a lesson or two as the canals get busier. Paul gets the mallet out to bash our front nose in an attempt to reshape it and a nice fishing afternoon is enjoyed.
Don’t, what ever you do ask Paul where we stayed in Otherton!!! ha ha ha how many times!!

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Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:42 Opinion of the Staff or Worcester
03:27 Lock Operation
06:09 Under the M6
07:56 Tea Break
08:50 Nature is Cruel
10:46 Onward
12:51 Mooring at Otherton Boat Haven
15:16 Lessons Learnt
17:02 Daunting Bridge
18:14 Are they in our Favor?
20:00 Gailey
22:16 Give it a Bash
25:55 Fishing & Outro

#uponreflection #narrowboat #narrowboatliving #boatlife

He’s only just put his fishing rod in and he’s caught something, I think he’s going to show us… Raspberry Jam, apricot Jam, coffee and tea Nice, right let me go and sort this lock out. [Music] [Music] So, we’re in exactly the same place as we left you last time.. just leaving Acton Trussell and on our way to Penkridge for water and to see where we get to. And to continue our journey onward, wherever that may take us, who knows! Nice to see you again guys. Even though we can’t actually see them. I can see them, there’s Harry at the back there.. Harry you’ve got Bean Juice, you got some Bean Juice down your collar! Stunning garden that is isn’t it, bet the upkeep’s quite a lot though. That’s a big Willow. You okay this morning Ernie? It’s a nice area. I really like this Canal so far. It’s been a good mixture, a little bit of rural and some lovely buildings and stuff. It’s all right, it’s been all right getting shopping and things like that it’s been a good Canal so far. Really enjoyed it. I like a bit of a mixture of ….you sort of after a period of time on the canals and that you kind of get to know what you like you know sometimes like the Ashby, for me, was a little bit too rural so I like to sort of be in the middle of something going on say a village over there and a village behind us or something and but we’re sort of in a little rurally area that’s what I like anyway. Don’t know if you asked or not but … Don’t think anyone asked but okay! Ernie and me are the opposite. Me and Ernie like the middle of nowhere, no one around except fields What a lovely area. yeah it’s lovely. The only thing I’d say is you’ve just got that rumble of the M6 over to your right Liz look. M6 is literally the other side of those trees. Apart from that it’s a really nice area isn’t it. We’re on the lock Landing. I go up and check what’s happening with the lock so Paul’s just steadying the boat because I’m emptying the water out and the boat does tend to move and removing the fenders from the boat. Getting ready to untie and off he goes. Lining himself up, ready to go into the lock. Coming in from this angle you can really see, you’ll get the sense of how narrow, narrow locks really are. You can see there, that’s why you always take your fenders up. It has been known for boats to be caught in locks because their fenders are down. [Music] Close the gates behind and go and open the paddles to let the water in. Now each lock is different so really look at how the boat is behaving in the lock and control the speed of water coming in by opening the paddles accordingly. Once the waters are level open the gate. Out she goes and close the gate behind. Always close the gate behind unless it states otherwise or unless of course there is a boat waiting to go into the lock. Our next lock is coming up just around that corner there. [Music] The man at the Lock, he’s ask me to keep the lock open so I’ve jumped back on basically…. what’s that? Anyway it’s a day boat and they do fish and chips on it. They have Curry nights and all sorts. This is a private hire so it’s obviously a large group they go up to the Moat House Hotel turn around come back go up to Penkridge and then turn around again. It’s all included you get your fish and chips so nice eh. There it is there the Day boat all enjoying their fish and chips. What would you do there Ernie? Would you jump over, under or go for a swim to get past that , what would you do? (Ernie) I wouldn’t bother, I’d turn around! And this is the M6 we’re about to go under. Hellooooooo It’s like a tunnel, are you alright? yeah I know but look at the width of it though, that’s my kind of tunnel if this is a tunnel! I just had a thought you know. You know we’re traveling quite a way today really for us and I said to you I’m going to use the bike to go back and get the car. yeah. How am I going to lift it over, get past that tree trunk that’s fell down fallen down. You’ll be all right, the dog and the dog walker managed to get over it you’ll be all right, less excuses! When I was a teenager I would have just sort of bunny hopped over it or something. You might find that you”ll do that anyway without wanting to! The M6 is this side of us now. Just approaching our next lock but someone’s ahead of us, the guy that was turning around at the other one so quick coffee I think and some bread and jam There’s air bubbles in my bread. Ernie what are you after? He loves your bread doesn’t he. The best one yet. Is it? Raspbery jam, apricot Jam, coffee and tea. Nice, right let me go and sort this lock out. oh that’s good, so just in the lock and as I shut the gate little duck family with chicks just there and when you open these the water sucks them in I didn’t want to be sucking any duckling in. Bless them. How many are there? Three. all right they’re far enough away now I think now oh dear are they okay they’re out there now Okie dokey. It’s a big old Gate Post isn’t it. Should be able to fit my bum on it… thats if I went the right way! oh there they are, Mum’s there.. Mom get in. You know what there’s a school there look she’s obviously dropped them off at school. Don’t film the school Liz please! Dad’s coming, dad’s coming oh good Dad to the rescue. and two more males have come ….oh they’re seeing off the mum, no what’s going on …oh now mom’s gone oh oh oh and the babies are left, I can’t, I can’t watch. Better stop filming then. Concentrate on the Lambs they seem in control. It’s okay mum’s back ,the two male are as well but mum is back, not sure what happened. She’s allowed to go out and have a bit of a break herself! She got chased out though. oh yeah. It’s not fair, I don’t like it, it’s horrible when you watch nature really isn’t it what happens it’s cruel. Cruel World Nature can be cruel [Music] [Music] Waterpoint done and now we know we’ve got a lock just around this corner which we will do and then who knows from there, we may do another couple of locks or we may stop depending on if we see a nice morning or not. Next lock underway. Another one done. Is that five? I don’t know, I don’t know. I think it’s five. Look at that, it’s got a spiral staircase and everything. Good job olde boy [Music] [music] yeah so we’ve moored up, we couldn’t do any more locks today, well I couldn’t, that’s me done really, got work up it! It’s also the fact we’ve got go back and get the car and we’ve be on the go for what 4 hours. yeah so Paul’s got a long cycle tomorrow Paul? Yeah your name’s Paul, thought I got your name wrong then! Definitely me cycling then, won’t be the first time. yeah so bit of a contrast of views from what we left but it’s it’s all about variety it’s all about variety just maybe for a night maybe two nights because we’ll get the car. Right, it’s one of them cruises guys we, we got four locks and then we’ve got some more water we’re going to put in and and then really the world is our oyster as they say. Yeah, yeah we don’t know where we’re going, we’re just going! We’re just going to keep going till we see a nice spot after the four locks and pull over there for a couple of nights or whatever but um yeah we’ve actually spent spent a couple of nights here next to the ofen Haven Marina Otherton oh Otherton Haven Marina No Otherton boat Haven! We’ve actually spent a couple of nights here opposite the hoffen NO Otherton! we’ve actually spent a couple of nights here outside the Otherton Haven Marina. NO It’s Otherton boat Haven! We’ve actually spent a couple of nights here outside the otherton marina, spent a couple of nights outside the Otherton boat Haven yeah so we went from lovely open fields Etc in our last mooring and we spent a couple of nights here and to be fair bit noisy, not too bad but little bit noisy but quite quite a bit of difference from what we was in the last time but we’ve enjoyed it. Not noisy, noisy it’s just noisy as in dogs and people walking past from the tow path. Yeah. So we’re all ready to leave, we’ve just untied the boat and we do see a boat coming in the very distance, so we pushed the boat out and then we had second thoughts and thought actually, we don’t like to be rushed so we’ll pull the boat back in and let that boat go ahead of us. That was a huge lesson learnt, because obviously this time of year the canals are busy. We’re used to the winter, where it’s not as busy on the canals. We let the boat go in front of us so all the locks were set against us and we had another boat come along anyway so we had someone behind us all the way! It was a huge lesson learned. no sighting of the word Marina! so we’re at the lock but there’s a couple of people in front of us well one boat, 2 people. Another one’s heading up now, this one’s just finished. it’s really slow because it’s leaking so it’s emptying out but it’s then filling back up again from the other gate. We have lift off. Here comes Paul. Gates have been opened you can see what I mean the Leaky gates look.. Welcome aboard again Elizabeth on the HMS Assumption is. Looks a bit intimidating going underneath this. I’ll slow down a bit now. It’s alright, it’s just a couple of pins holding it together I think at least! It’s because they’ve got the pole coming down right next to the edge of the tow paths makes it feel oh…. Chimney! Suddenly occurred to me that its going to be well tight with the chimney on. I normally take it down.. One job you’ve got! one job, take the chimney down! I’ve got more than one job! I’ve only got about 6 inches spare this side. Is Ernie’s head going to be okay? uh no I’m not sure about that. Hang on, I’ve got get Ernie. oh Ernie look at that that’s extremely tight anyway and it really puts you off with that pole being there. I couldn’t get, I couldn’t get Ernie down quick enough. Boat coming now so the next lock should be set for us. I’m glad I didn’t get off and walk, on the map it looks like it’s just around the corner, it’s quite a way. Unless that might have been set for the boat that’s all so they’ve used it so it might not be set for us we won’t know. This is true, this is true, it’s all guess work. It’s not set for us, so the little boat in front… Sorry to interrupt any chance you can spread your legs a bit My camera legs he’s talking about! Just in case it falls over. It’s not going to fall, I’m going to be 2 seconds it’s not set for us is all I’m saying so the little boat has jumped in that one. Never mind we’ll start again from the beginning. It’s all right. It’s all good practice for you me and Ernie don’t mind waiting around doing nothing anyway! It’s not me that needs practise! It’s not a racing car you know! I’ve just told you to go faster! We are skipping along all right aren’t we? That’s better. There’s a lock coming up anyway so I don’t see what the big rush is about. You just wanted to see a bit of speed didn’t you. I just wanted to hear the engine, I couldn’t even hear the engine. You’re missing your car. I mean in the car I tell him to slow down but on a boat ….boot it! I mean we are still going really slow guys we’re not we’re not really booting it, Next lock in the distance just there. Three locks done. Three done is it? Three done two more to go. Stunning lock entrance very nice. At the water point and Ernie and myself are going to walk to the bin part which is only there. Ernie’s filling up with water, well done Ernie! you make sure you keep an eye on that hose pipe. There, on the toe path if you can see it, there… it’s a black cat. We used to have two two cats, my brother’s got them since we moved on the boat, yeah he wasn’t a major fan were you Ernie.They didn’t really like him either which is strange because they loved our other dog, funny that a Ernie?!! Lovely stretch look at that, look at that sun. We’ve decided we’re just going to we’re going to stop outside just outside of the where we’ve just been the water Point really yeah seems yeah just going to stop here for a night or two yeah. He’s only just put his fishing rod in and he’s caught something, whether he’s going to show us… yeah nice, now put him back! I will He’s got his Jimmy shorts on here they called Jimmy shorts? Beautiful it’s gone behind a cloud at the minute but sun is shining. What’s going on here then? Trying to sort this Fender out it’s been bugging me since we had the boat. It’s the front nose yeah look you can see what the problem with it is it’s like how it’s I don’t know it’s almost like it’s sort of been moored up somewhere for some time lost its shape and just uh yeah that sort of curved area is obviously off center so it should be sort of more there so at the moment all that happens is that it just goes on the wonk all the time. see the difference already it’s already more Central. I’d understand if you can’t guys! No, look there’s the yeah you can yeah yeah yeah so I might bang that around a bit now. How you getting on? yeah alright. Oh it’s back on. I’ve connected that back up, it’s more Central yeah I’m thinking about doing a and also we haven’t got that silly bit of pink string there anymore. I think this side needs to be tighter doesn’t it this chain? so what we need to do is what I’m going to possibly do is I’ve got another bit of chain I’m going to cut it so it goes underneath there I think connect to there underneath there connect to the opposite side as well hold that like that you can’t tighten them anymore you won’t be able to get that on it’s not as simple as that I could do it if I got a adjustable ones actually I might go and get two adjustable ones of these you can actually tighten them up in that might just be the answer you know I’ll go and find there’s a Chandlery not that far away because we passed one that brand new one yeah but I’ll jump in the car probably get adjustable one I should do that that’ll be my job this afternoon then I can sit down, chill out , take it easy no no find something else to do? No. It’s dripping, does that mean it’s been in the canal ? yes it went in! I was, it’s quite they’re quite heavy when they’re only holding on by fingers on a little chain like that so I’m holding it like that and then and it’s just hanging on by that last little one I’m trying to get this through and it started going and it went and it went a boooshh! Looks good though and then it was even heavier to pull up. it looks much better position it is better position it yeah I’m pleased with it but that side looks higher so I’ll put new Shack Shack shackles they’re called these fixings shackless fixings Shackless bit of a weird name but yeah no it’s much much more heavy duty because I only had these small little Clips on that you know that they really wouldn’t have been strong enough to be fair so I’m really pleased with it and obviously the shape’s better, that’s Central now really pleased with it yeah very pleased with it actually. A job well done I’d say. Well done yeah now the sun’s come out I’m going to do a little bit of fishing for an hour yeah nice you got another one, let’s see oh oh what is he roach another roach how many is that? 2 Are you happy Ernie? yep Are you a good boy? (Ernie) I love fishing with my dad. He literally just sits there when I’m fishing, just sits there like that. Don’t go off, stay there! Glad you could join us again guys and anyone new, appreciate you watching I hope you enjoyed that we enjoyed making it. Did you enjoy making it? yeah yeah So still enjoying doing the vlogging so looking forward to the summer coming up and getting some great sort of footage on the Drone We haven’t had the Drone up for quite a while because of the wind so I’ll try and get that up this week and hopefully you’ll see some next week and hopefully we’ll be on the Shropshire next week Yeah we probably will won’t we actually. Yeah thanks a lot guys. (Ernie) Don’t forget to subscribe, hit the like button, do the ding dong Bell and leave them comments.. Thanks very much guys see you next time. Thank you Ernie, good boy. I don’t know if he likes doing it anymore does he? I don’t think he liked doing it in the first place!