Tuesday 31st May 2005
Kingsbury - Anchor Bridge (16½ miles, 13 locks)
We treated ourselves to a lie-in after the exertion of the previous day and had breakfast sitting on the towpath in the morning sunshine.
We set off towards Fazeley and turned on the Coventry Canal towards Tamworth. There was a queue at Glascote Locks and the short pound was very low. A man in baggy trousers, braces and waistcoat all printed with a multicoloured balloon pattern appeared out of the cottage by the bottom lock. We assumed he was a clown on his day off. He rushed inside to find a windlass and went off to let some water down from the top lock, still in his clown costume. While we waited, Jen overheard a child on one of the boats ahead of us say to her dad “Be careful, we mustn’t scratch Granddad’s boat”. We were to meet up with Wild Swan again later.
We moored at Polesworth and walked into the village for shopping and then ate our lunch sitting in the sunshine. When we set off again, we got to within a mile of Atherstone Locks when I was suddenly aware of a boat chasing up behind us. We recognised the turquoise colour of Wild Swan, who we must have passed when they moored for lunch. The boat seemed to appear from nowhere. I switched on my hand-held GPS to check my speed (okay, so it’s a bit of a nerdy toy) and we were travelling at 3.7 mph. I would guess that Wild Swan must have been moving at nearly 6 mph as she rushed up behind us. I slowed down to pass a collection of moored boats and tried to ignore how close Wild Swan was behind us. We were now close to the locks, so we assumed that they were trying to intimidate us into letting them jump the queue. I had to slow down again for another moored boat, and Wild Swan came within three feet of us and the woman on the front shouted “You’re going too slowly and we need to get past. Our boat cannot travel this slowly”. I replied that we were almost at the locks and they should call out an engineer if their boat cannot go less than 5 mph. The people on the moored boat looked on in disbelief at this incidence of "canal-rage". They, like us, were probably also concerned about the young children dangling their legs over the side. Not a good idea, especially if you are intent on ramming another boat. Unable to pass, they slowed right down, and stopped about 50 yards back from the first lock, obviously embarrassed at their arrogant behaviour, or perhaps worried that Granddad might hear about it. Would he be shocked or did he teach them everything they know?
There were plenty of boats coming down the Atherstone flight, where the locks fill slowly but empty quickly. The crew of Wild Swan stayed out of our way, but Jen relayed the story to all the boats coming down.
We moored for the night past the Anchor Inn but decided to eat in. Wild Swan crept past slowly, and I innocently asked the helmsman if he had fixed the speed problem. He mumbled something and shuffled uncomfortably as their boat slid past.