Returned back to Hawkesbury Junction from the Ashby Canal, a trip that was made longer by one or two instances. The first was due to a puff of wind and involved R losing yet another hat in the canal. I was steering, talking to his aunt, so slightly distracted. When the hat went I thought it would just sink. However, looking back I could see it had floated very near to the canal edge, so I pulled over, R jumped off the boat and with litter picker in hand, ran back along the towpath and reunited with his hat before it had time to float out of reach!
Continuing on along the canal we made two brief stops at farm shops situated very close to the towpath, the second stop because I thought they had a cafe attached. Actually the advert was for ice cream! Still we picked up a cake to have with coffee on the boat and continued on until well after lunchtime so I suggested we moor up for a sandwich. R grabbed the midrope, jumped onto the towpath and as he tugged at the rope it caught hold of a heavy long metal bar that sits on the roof and, plop, it fell into the water. A few expletives – it’s the bar that secures the boat when no one is aboard for a period of time. Custom made, it would be tricky to replace. R started asking me if we had a magnet on board. I had no idea what he was talking about so suggested he go and look. Apparently he thought the boat might be supplied with one as they are very useful if metal objects go overboard. Accepting defeat we settled down for lunch, frustrated that the tally of items falling into the canal is steadily growing. Further along the towpath there was a very smart boat moored up so I suggested that R might like to ask them if they had a magnet we could borrow – the very affable and helpful man immediately produced a ‘Seasearcher’ which was exactly what we needed. A strong heavy magnet on the end of a rope which you sink into the water and see what it picks up. Within minutes R had located the metal bar and extracted it from the water. What joy! We thanked our neighbour profusely. He was glad to have been of service. The last time he had used it was to fish his mobile phone out of the lock. A few days in a bowl of dry rice and it worked perfectly. The only fiddly bit was trying to dislodge a grain of rice that had got wedged into the socket where the phone charger connects! We had a long conversation about buying a custom made narrowboat which he had done 20 years ago. He had washed it this morning and was painstakingly applying polish all over – I have to say it looked brand new!
The contrast of narrowboats boats on the canal is striking, from their size to the condition that they are in. We pass quite a few stretches of longterm moorings and often there are small gardens adjacent to the boats. It can be depressing seeing piles of rubbish or accumulation of junk (not that dissimilar to how are neighbours at home must have felt before G ordered a skip!) and then sometimes what you see is just so odd, such as the boats next to ‘Charity’s Boatyard’ this afternoon where the gardens were full of strange assorted paraphernalia!
Arriving at the Junction after a very pleasant day weather wise, none of the forecast rain appearing, we moored up next to noisy neighbours. That’s a first. Usually you hear very little noise coming from other boats. It quietened down when they went off to the pub and when they returned we braced ourselves for a late night party but actually they must have just retired to bed! Our usual evening entertainment of an episode of ‘Endeavour’, slightly late in starting because of a Zoom meeting first. And earlier, after mooring, I indulged in a very deep hot bath as we are next to a water tap! I did another bucketful of hand washing as I am trying to avoid having to use a laundrette – looking at our itinerary the closest we will be to one is a halfhour walk, so I think I shall try to eek out our clothes and arrive home with a great big pile of washing to catch up on.
NarrowboatTLC 