Saturday, 24 October 2020
These are no Ordinary Fish & Chips they are ...
Friday, 23 October 2020
Lock Miles & Gourmet Food?
There was a bit of a debate between Captain Neil and Sous Chef/Commander Stevie, about how long the journey would take. The best way to calculate distance and time on the canals is to use Nicholson's Guide, which shows you standard mile markers and the locks you have to pass through. Added together these give you lock miles, eg if the journey was 12 miles and you pass through 3 locks then you are travelling 15 lock miles. Divide this by 3 (mph) and it tells you how long your journey will take, in this example 15 lock miles = 5 hours. The calculation for today indicated 7 hours but Captain Neil was clearly expecting us to get a spurt on (within the speed limits of the canal of course) predicting 6 hours. Well the proof will be in the arrival time as they say. I'll let you know who was closest.
Thursday, 22 October 2020
Shore Leave & The Great Oatcake Grab
Yesterday, by October standards was a very busy day on the canal, it might have been the sunshine that brought all the fair weather boaters out, but this meant that we had a few delays at the several locks we passed through. Although we helped several people to fill and empty the locks, the knock on effect was that we lost time against our schedule and we had to miss our planned stop at the Bod in Baswich. We did however make it to Penkridge in good time and had a few beers in the Littleton Arms, before returning back to the boat for meatballs in goulash sauce and some red wine.
Tuesday, 20 October 2020
Canal Etiquette & The Racing Line
Monday, 19 October 2020
A Captain, a Sous Chef and Roger the Cabin Boy
Our plan for today is to continue along the Trent & Mersey to get to the Vine Inn Pub and Brewery at Rugeley for lunch time and discuss over a couple of beers whether to continue along the Trent & Mersey or head back to Great Haywood and take the Staffordshire & Worcestershire canal. So after a full English breakfast we set off for our day's adventure, with the added trepidation of not quite knowing where we were going to end the day, but more importantly if there would be a pub, open and waiting for us.
Sunday, 18 October 2020
4 Men 1 Boat and a Tube of Mastic
This year the boat is moored at Aston Marina near Stone in Staffordshire and although I believe we have a general idea of the route we are going to take, the direction of travel is pretty much determined by the availability of pubs en route.