Mercia marina was awesome! We loved it, but we did not get a canal boat to sit around in a marina all day – oh no, we got one to sit around all day on the cut! Especially if we can find a pub to help with the sitting around! Alone came spring and we set off again! What a day! – loads of sunshine and plenty of gusts of wind too.
This is a short trip which is a weeks holiday for Dee to spend some time with us and the canal. We are planning to end up in Stone which is just before you get to Stoke on Trent. We are provisionally booked into a Marina in Stone as we need to pop back to Swindon for some medical stuff. This post will track the week.
The 1st of March is nearly upon us and we’ve been busy getting ready to sail. Arty is sporting 3 new AGM 110AH batteries, as the other ones were knackered! We also had the battery monitor rewired so it shows the charging state of the batteries correctly – so hopefully that will help the new batteries to survive!
We also had issues with blocked drainage holes on the prop shaft cover at the back of the boat, so the rain water was flooding into the engine bay. Still, its not like we’ve had much rain lately. We also had a problem with the central heating boiler, which turned out to be a fuel blockage in the filter! Still I am glad this all happened when we were in the marina, rather than in the middle of nowhere!
The river section at Alrewas is currently closed 😖
So, basically we are ready to get going. Dee will be here on Saturday and then we are off on Sunday! Of course, right now Alrewas is shut – and there is a ton of rain forecast – so it may end up a short trip. Anyway, fingers crossed we can get through!!!
We are going to set off again on Sunday the 1st of March. Right now, of course the whole of Derby feels like it is under water and there is talk of more rain to come! The road in Willington is flooded and a large part of the A38, which is the main arterial road around here is under water. The river Trent is very high and has broken its banks in many places. The canal is somewhat sheltered from all this water as it is managed and has flood gates to prevent it from flooding, but there is the river section at Alrewas, which right now is closed. So, when we set off, if nothing has changed we will not get very far!
As promised, I will update the blog much more often when we get going. The first week we will have Damara (my Daughter) with us – so I hope we can get to our planned destination of Stone. We are already booked into a Marina there as we need to go back to Swindon for medical stuff (all regular checks etc, nothing serous). To get to Stone we need to get through the Alrewas river section, and that is a long way from being open at the moment – so we have to hope for less rain to give the river a chance to drop.
With all this rain and local flooding we do feel lucky that we live on a boat! Especially as we are on a canal section and not a river. Where we used to moor on the Avon at Strensham we would be under water and unable to get on or off the boat right now.
Mercia Marina is great – really nice and a good place to spend the winter, but we are really starting to get cabin fever!! We will be setting off again in March and we are planning to travel up towards Leeds and Manchester via Stoke-on-Trent. Once we get going again the blog will get much more attention than of late – so watch this space!!
Say hello to Martha – our new furry crew member. She’s an 18 month old cross between a Belgium Shepherd and a Dutch Herder. She is very sweet and loves being on the boat. Her bum has been in the canal already! She looks just like a German Shepherd – just smaller . We got her from the RSPCA as a rescue dog. She’s spend all her life in a kennel and was very underweight. We’ve had her since December the 14th.
So, as we are moored now for winter, we arranged to go to South Africa for 3 weeks to visit my dad and get some winter sunshine. This is the reason why I’ve been so quiet on the blog recently. We have been to South Africa quite a few times over the years, and we were there around the same time last year. This year the first thing which struck us was how much greener and more lush the place was. This is because last year Cape Town was in drought conditions and everywhere looked very dry and thirsty!
A little Damn near to where Dad lives – we walked around here quite a few times!
Watch this post as I will be adding some pages for the different places we visited during our trip.
Mercia Marina – a great place to sit out the winter months
We are moored now for the winter in Mercia. It is a lovely marina, and absolutely huge! There are shops and places to get a coffee and a quick bite, as well as a lovely looking Indian restaurant which we can visit. When we arrived, we stayed on the service pontoon and got pumped out and diesel. Everyone we have met here so far have been absolutely great and really friendly. As we arrived at our birth we got chatting to a number of the ‘locals’ who basically live here. What a helpful and friendly bunch! I can see we are going to really enjoy staying here. All the facilities are great and the place is very well maintained.
Moored at Branston (yes, it is related to the pickle) on the 10th
So after that momentous sailing day to get past the river section, we now have a lot of time on our hands. Basically, here we are on the 10th October in Branston on the Trent and Mersey canal and we need to get to Willington for the 28th! That’s 18 days to do about 8 miles. Now, I like to take things easy and I certainly don’t rush about on the boat, bit even this is going to be a sllooowww cruise! Luckily, we have Burton upon Trent and a few other places where we can stop and take in the sights, so it should not be too bad.
Lovely little boat yard before you get to Barton upon Trent.
Branston is quite a nice place and there is a great little pub where we had a few beers and something to eat after the long day’s sail. Our plan at the moment is to go into the marina just before we get to Burton upon Trent and get a pump out and fill up with water and Diesel (not that we will need much) and then stay at Burton for a few days before moving on. We will go into the mooring a bit early (on the 21st of a few days before) and then go and see Ron and Lyn for a few days, the drive back to stay with Dee and catch up with everyone.
So now we have 17 days to do the 8 miles to the marina – I think we’re ok 😋
A quick update…it is now the 17th October and we are now at Willington, and we will go into the Marina on Saturday or Sunday, ready for our visit to Ron and Lyn and the kids.
As I mentioned, we have been waiting for a while now for the river section at Alrewas to open. I have been looking at the government monitoring station and the water level was on the way down quite consistently, and yesterday (10 Oct 2019) the level dropped below the flood line on the chart. So I turned to twitter!!
I tweeted (that sounds so effeminate) the CRT boffins and asked them what the situation was with the section. About an hour later, Bess replied telling me that it was now open, and proceed with caution status – so we decided to go for it!!
Wendy doing battle with a stiff lock gate
What a long sail that was! 11 Miles with 11 locks, some of which are really stiff. Wendy had hardly slept the previous night and was tired (and a little ratty), but I think all this exercise did her good. When we got to Alrewas we moored up right at the top lock and walked down to see if we had room at the water point, which is just before the river section lock. We need not have worried – the place was deserted! Not a single boat was moored on any of the 48 hour moorings and there were only a handful on the 14 day moorings. We’ve never seen it like this before! So, it seems highly unlikely that the section had just opened after over a week!! Someone has been yanking our chain!
One of very few boats we passed
After navigating the river section, which was calmer than when we sailed up it and way less flooded, we cracked on until we got to Branston. This is mostly to avoid mooring besides the very busy A38 which soon borders the canal after the river section and stays with it for quite a few miles, and also because Branston has a nice pub and we needed a drink!! One thing we did notice was how quiet the canal was – we hardly saw any boats in all 11 miles – so different to when we started out.
So now we have 17 days to do the 8 miles to the marina – I think we’re ok 😋
We are currently back at Handsacre waiting on the river section to open.
It’s below the flood line now
We have been waiting for a while now for the river section (see above in red) to open. The river levels have been falling and the river is now not considered in flood, so we think the section will open imminently – however at the moment it is still closed. We are looking at some options to do a bit of sailing (we get bored quickly) with the possibility of going down the Coventry canal to Tamworth. Of course, we need to ensure we can turn around and get to Alrewas quickly when it opens. We also need to ensure we have water and pump out available too – so it does take some planning.
I will keep this post updated with where we go to and what we find there. At the moment we are waiting to see if the river section is going to open, if it does our plan is to get through it as quickly as we can!
Back sailing – such a relief to get going again – Barton turn Marina was awesome though!
We are going into Mercia Marina in October to moor over winter. We are staying for 4 months (unless the weather is still crap). We went along to take the car to Mercia so we will have it when we stay there. Whilst we were there we had a good look around to see what the pontoons are like and what the services offer – and we are both delighted and impressed! We are actually looking forward to going there now.
We are currently at Handsacre and we will continue up the canal to Great Haywood, where we will turn around and sail back to Willington. The only fly in the ointment is that there is a tiny river section at Alrewas which is currently closed due to flooding and we need it to be open before we can get back to Willington and the Marina – so fingers crossed we get enough dry days for the river to lower. Here is what we did since leaving the Barton turn Marina.
A slight issue is that between us and our marina is a small river section at Alrewas and just after we sailed into Alrewas they closed it!! It had better open again before we need to get to Mercia on the 28th, and certainly before we fly to South Africa on the 13th! Fingers crossed
Artful Dodger 