The 50th Anniversary Trip - Day 2

 Saturday, 2nd October 2021

Before continuing with the account of the trip, it's time to introduce the crew.

Here they are, waiting for their meal in the Navigation at Lapworth.

Clockwise from the left:   Mark (the organiser), Pete, Clive, me, Hugh, Ken and Spike.  Missing is Duncan, who had to pull out at the last minute due to illness.  Hugh, Duncan and I had been on the 1971 trip. Mark, Clive and Ken joined in in the early 70s, whereas Pete and Spike are of a later generation of crews.

Day Two

On taking over the boat yesterday, we had assumed that the heating was on and working, although by the time we stopped for the night it was obvious that it wasn't. As it was time to go to the pub, we decided to leave it until the morning to do something about it. 

It was obvious that the boiler wasn't lit, but getting it to light was another matter. The handbook wasn't much help, as the section on the heating system appeared to have been written for a different boat. The engineer showing us over the boat had only made cursory reference to it as well.  After much head-scratching and discussion it turned out to be a two-man job, with Pete lying flat out on the floor, which was the only way to see what the pilot light was doing, whilst I bent over him to press the ignition and spark buttons until it fired up.  Job done...

...or so we thought, until a few hours later we had to admit that the boat hadn't actually got any warmer! After fiddling with the radiator thermostats and various levers in the boiler compartment failed to achieve a result someone realised that it was all very well having a tank of hot water, but it wouldn't find its way into the radiators of its own accord. Somewhere, there must be a pump!  It took a while, but eventually we found an unmarked switch, tucked away on the rear wall of the boiler compartment which, when turned on, led swiftly to a warm boat. It's just a shame no one at Willow Wren thought to mention it or include it in the instruction manual!

I have to admit that I don't remember a lot about the rest of day two. Earlier in the week I'd developed a sore throat and what appeared to be the start of a cold. I'd had a negative Covid test, so I knew it wasn't that, but now it was rapidly getting worse and as the weather had also taken a turn for the worse, I spent much of the day in the cabin with what became the cold from Hell.

I do remember Ken joining us at Stockton Brook, having made his way over from Wolverhampton by bus and train and arriving just a few minutes before the boat. This wasn't as lucky as it sounds. Being an ex-railwayman, Mark had devised a timetable for the trip, with timings down to the last minute. It said we were due at Stockton Brook at 10.24, so that was what Ken was successfully aiming for on a bus that arrived at 10.14.

Coming down Stockton Brook locks in the rain

Better weather (but no lock ladders) in 1971

I emerged from the cabin at Bascote, where a single-hander had been waiting for another boat to come along to go through the staircase locks with. I must admit that when he asked me if I knew how the staircase worked I thought he was making assumptions about ignorant hire-boaters, but when I told him I did he said "Oh good, I'm not sure that I do".  I told him to just stay on his boat and let us see him through, which he was more than happy to do.

The shopping needed to be topped up, so we stopped at the huge Tesco near Warwick. Our intended destination for the night had been Leamington, but we were ahead of schedule so decided to push on to the Cape of Good Hope, where we tied up on the moorings between the locks. Mark came back from a recce to the pub with "Good News and Bad News". The good news was that they were doing food until 8.30, the bad news was that they were fully booked for dining.  We decided to go over anyway and perhaps try and persuade them to serve us some food at one of the outside tables, but when we got there they told us that a large party was already half-an-hour late for their booking so if we wanted their table we could have it.

The beer and the food at the Cape were both excellent, but my cold was now so bad that after eating I had to call it a day and return to the boat for an early night.