Thursday 4th August 2005
Warwick - Calcutt (14½ miles, 22 locks)
Jen and I worked the last three locks of the Hatton flight without waking the kids, and we moored just before Bridge 50A near the centre of Warwick. We all walked into the town for breakfast at the "Coffee Shop". Jen did her usual tour of the charity shops while I bought glue to repair the stools, one of which had collapsed the previous evening. Another design triumph from Ikea.
There were no other boats around as we travelled down Cape Locks and we had a quiet trip as far as Bridge 46. As we came through the bridge, a hire boat was approaching at speed in spite of the moored boats and blind bend. They made no attempt to slow down and we only just managed to get round the corner without hitting them or the moored boats. The other boat hit the bridge, but nothing too dramatic. After that there were no more boats for miles. Why do boats only meet at bridges on blind bends?
Just before Radford Semele, we passed Th'Ilsen Giant who were preparing to leave their mooring. They didn't speak much as we passed them, but set off behind us, presumably to share the locks with us. They were a couple in their sixties with a young lad who turned out to be their grandson. Like Harriet No 12 the day before, theirs was a traditional working boat, beautifully painted and looked after, with the familiar sound of a Lister 3-cylinder engine. Once we were both in the lock, I tried to start a conversation with the man at the tiller. It was like trying to get blood out of a stone. Then I asked him if we could enter the next lock as a pair rather than me go first and mess around with ropes. His whole attitude changed and he told me that was the way it should be done although he didn't ever suggest it to status symbol boaters or hire boats. Once he started talking, he was a different person, and went on to tell me about left and right-hand props and how boats behave in close proximity. He was sixty-three years old and had been on working boats from the age of six. I couldn't take everything in and wished I'd had a tape-recorder when he started on the rhymes about the lock flights out of "Brumaggem". It emerged that they were Tony and Jo Ball, and that Jo was suffering with rheumatoid arthritis. I think they will be devastated if they have to give up their lifestyle because of Jo's health. In the meantime, they were having a string of grandchildren to stay through the summer holidays.
At Welsh Road Lock, a hire boat was coming down but didn't leave the lock because he hadn't finished his mobile phone conversation. Tony used his klaxon but to no effect. The man on the phone was even oblivious to the shouts from his crew. He was lucky that he wasn't hung-up on the cill since can't have been paying attention whilst the lock was emptying. Tony fixed the problem by starting to enter the lock. The man panicked and hastily put his phone away and started to move his boat. He made a complete hash of things as he banged uncontrollably into the side while leaving the lock. Tony told me afterwards that he had used his prop and rudder to blast a jet of water sideways at the stern of the hireboat to deliberately mess up his exit, and I got the impression that this was his standard punishment for people who don't play fair.
We met another boat going our way at Bascote and I explained to Tony that we would be stopping for water soon, and did he want to go on ahead with Endeavour, a Napton hireboat. "Not bloody likely". They wouldn't wait to share a lock with them earlier in the week, plus they had no control over their boat (which they then went on to demonstrate). They asked us to share, but we said we were paired with Th'Ilsen Giant. We parted company at the top of Bascote and Tony told us our kids were a credit to us. I had previously told Tony that there were some comments in the diary from other part-owners saying that Hawksmoor had a poor reputation on the "Towpath Telegraph". He said that anyone bad-mouthing Hawksmoor would have to answer to him. I hope we meet them again.
We filled with water at Bascote Wharf and shared Stockton Locks with Graculus who were returning from Stratford to Braunston. It turned out that they had seen the same play as us in Stratford. They were pleasant company and we were soon saying goodbye at the top of Stockton Locks. We decided to carry on up to Calcutt where we winded outside Calcutt Marina and moored a few hundred yards later, facing back towards Stockton. This is a peaceful spot where we have moored before.
I had forgotten to take any photographs today, so I have cheated and used a picture of Rosemary feeding swans while we filled with water near Bridge 63 on the Stratford Canal.