FINALLY A WEEKEND AWAY

Last weekend, with the Aqua Vita being available and with such glorious weather forecast, we thought we’d take the opportunity to enjoy the fruits of our labour and have a family weekend away on the new boat (well there has to be some perks of the job!). I’d managed to arrange with the hirer’s of our other boat H3O to collect her a little earlier so we could get a few hours cruising in before dusk fell. For once the forecast was correct and we had a beautiful sunny afternoon -perfect cruising weather and not too busy either. We decided to head for our normal weekend route of Great Haywood, the kids love Shugborough Hall, and as we’re National Trust members we get in free which is a big bonus too… means we can spend a little extra in the Tea Rooms next to Great Haywood lock!

Left:

Passing through
Wolseley Bridge moorings

After a few hours cruising we moored about 1/2 a mile away from Colwich Lock and decided to do the last hours cruise up to Great Haywood on the Sunday mooring. Sunday started earlier than planned when at 5.30am I was woken at by a passing boat going a little too fast. Some folk get up incredibly early to miss the ten o’clock rush (well saunter) to the locks! After a couple more of hours snoozing, and a scramble for showers, we set off at just before 9 and within a few minutes got to Colwich Lock. We’d timed it perfectly as a boat was just emerging out from the bottom gates, and with no else waiting, we went straight into the lock – excellent.

Left: Crew abandon ship
near Great Haywood.

As we got to Great Haywood a little earlier than planned (and also knowing that Shugborough doesn’t open until 11am) we decided to carry on through Great Haywood lock, turn at the winding hole at the junction with the Staffs & Worcester canal and then moor above the lock. As usual the moorings above the lock were busy. There were around eight or nine boats waiting to go back down the lock, with some breasting up and others waiting in between moored boats. This can make it pretty difficult to work out who’s waiting for the lock and who’s moored or in the process of mooring. In the end I had to pass a couple of waiting boats explaining to them as i passed that i was mooring up and not queue jumping!

Once moored we headed off to Shugborough and spent a few hours exploring the house and grounds. After which time we’d worked off enough calories to enjoy some goodies at the Lock House tearoom! We set back off to Kings Bromley Marina at around three in the afternoon, finally arriving back at about 7.30pm. It was another beautiful afternoons cruising with bright blue sky’s and glorious warm Sunshine – the kids were happy, Jane and I had wound down from the normal stresses of family life, work and running a business – pure bliss. It’s at times like that that we stop to realise just how lucky we are.

Left:
The Hudson-Oldroyd
clan on Shugborough
Hall steps.

Left:
Colwich Lock

Left:
The Apprentice in training

PRIZE WINNER ON BOARD

You may recall that just before Christmas we ran a competition to suggest a name for our new hire boat. The prize was a free short break on board the named boat – the name chosen was Aqua Vita which was suggested by Philippa of Sandhurst, Berkshire. Well, Philippa and her family arrived for their short break last Saturday. Their destination for the weekend was Great Haywood but as they were complete novices I took them in the opposite direction towards Fradley Junction so i could demonstrate the workings of a lock. I do this with all novices as our nearest lock going north is around 31/2 hours cruise away and a very long walk back for me!

Unfortunately the winding hole at Fradley is at the junction with the Coventry Canal which means that three locks have to be descended before the boat can be turned back in the right direction. The junction can get busy and there’s always audience of pub goers outside The Swan waiting for you to make a complete hash of it, so I stayed on board to help guide Richard (Philippa’ Husband) through the manoeuvre. He did a grand job of the turn but we just missed out on soaking couple of bystanders with our prop wash (it was pretty breezy) better luck next time!

Above – Presenting Philippa with a bottle of Champagne to ‘Officially’ launch Aqua Vita.

Philippa and family arrived back at the marina on Monday evening and although the weather was a bit dreary they still had a wonderful time. This was there first time on a narrowboat and first time exploring the canal network, and they remarked on how friendly and helpful canal folk are. I think they may have been bitten by the infamous Canal Bug (and no I’m not talking about Weils Disease!). It was nice that the prize was won by a family that until now wouldn’t have considered our canals as a holiday destination – more folk to spread the good word about our canal network!

Many thanks for your suggestion Philippa and here’s to ‘Aqua Vita’ plus many more ‘Water Life’ boats in the future!

Justin.