What a year. We normally cruise between 600 to 700 miles a year. I don’t think we’ll make 200 this year. After scraping the bottom over the summer, and CRT advising us to find a safe place and stay put, we joined the queue to get through Glascote locks so we wouldn’t be trapped without facilities, we settled down at Fazeley Junction for August and Septemer. We ended up there until the Grand Union, Oxford and Coventry canals reopened on October 10th.
Yet we still didn’t know where to go, because the grand reopening notice was accompanied with a caveat……it might only be for 2 weeks to allow boaters to return to their marinas before the planned winter closures begin. And despite some heavy rain in parts of the country, the resevoirs feeding the Coventry and the Grand Union were still chronically short of water.
Usually during the late summer we start to talk about where we will be for Christmas. The winter maintenance plans have been published and we have time to cruise leisurely towards a region which will provided us with what we need -that’s enough distance to both cruise and moor whilst maintaining the 14 day mooring rule, and with easy access to services if we were to get frozen in. We’d tentatively talked about Milton Keynes for this winter. However, we’re cautious cruisers; we’ve opted for an easy lifestyle that doesn’t revolve around deadlines and restrictions, or for that matter cruising for long days in the rain just to reach a destination. The path towards Bedfordshire was not going to be plain sailing. The number of emergency closures and planned restrictions this year has sucked the joy out of cruising. It’s been hard work and frustrating.
Not knowing if or when or where we would be able to cruise helped us make the decision to put Firecrest into a marina from December. So for the next few weeks we are mooching around south Staffordshire bidding our time until all those cruising uncertainties no longer concern us. Ironically, this week CRT published another notice saying they wouldn’t be reinstating the closures on the Coventry and Grand Union, so we could potentially, with more room to roam, have remained on the cut over winter. But with the decision made – and the deposit paid, we are now enjoying one month of gentle meandering.
All that said, it wasn’t an awful summer. We made the best of what we had. And really, choosing to moor at Fazeley Junction for the duration of Lockdown 25 was a good move. Eric went out at 9am every day to measure the water levels.
And in true Eric style, he produced a graph showing the daily changes in water levels from the day we moored up on 21st August till restrictions being lifted on 10th October. We left on the 11th. With the Coventry canal closures actually starting on the 26th and the Fradley closures between 2nd September to17th September.
It was scary and unnerving. Our biggest fear was that with the boat resting on the bottom, it would tilt over making it horrible to live on board. And for us in particular, there wouldnt be sufficient water in the skin tanks to cool the generator, meaning we couldn’t keep the batteries topped up. We were able to avoid this by pushing the boat away from the shallow edge, but being on a boat that doesnt bob and rock just doesnt feel right. Others werent quite so lucky and several boats were having to use their planks to get on and off their boats or had just abandoned them altogether.
Unwelcome as it was, as far as Fazeley goes it’s an almost perfect mooring to be stuck at. We were in full sun so the solar panels were able to do their best, and Kat and Teddy on the fuel boat made it down to top up the tank one last time before they also got stuck.
We overlooked Peel Wharf and enjoyed getting to know some of the local residents as well as the stranded boaters. We were within walking distance of a choice of shops, buses and train services. It was close enough to the water point to barrel roll a few days worth of cups of tea
We even photo bombed a drone shot of a house that was being put on the market.
And of course guess what happened the day the drought restrictions actually started. Biblical rain that even Noah would have run from.
Once CRT had made the very overdue decision to also close the locks at Fradley junction the water levels started to rise almost as dramatically as they had fallen. But all the boaters were in agreement, we did not want navigation reopening until CRT could guarantee the levels wouldn’t fall again, leaving us stranded in a place without facilities. In fact we were so sceptical that the resevoirs would fill up, we started planning our Christmas party incase the restrictions weren’t lifted this year. Despite there being plenty to keep us amused around Fazeley and Tamworth, by October the canal water levels were more or less cruisable, mooring up might have been difficult in some places and going through bridgeholes is always a risky business because they naturally silt up and are shallower than the main cruising channel. And as soon as CRT lifted the restrictions on the Coventry canal we knew we would have to start complying with the 14 day maximum mooring rule again. Our itchy feet got the better of us- or rather, as one of my less delicate family members said, it was our itchy bottom that made us move. We made it all the way to Hopwas for our first night away.
And then we meandered along to wind just beyond Rugeley
Right now we’re now mooching around this area throughout November making the most of some gorgeous autumnal weather, and trying not to groan when it rains, because believe me, as continual cruisers we need the rain and we need it to rain heavily every night from now until spring if we stand any chance of filling up those resevoirs. Im going on record now to say we suspect there will be similar water level restrictions imposed next summer. In the mean time let’s enjoy autumn
we woke to the most glorious of days, so decided to make the most of what autumn was left. Today was a true Codiwomple To travel in a purposeful manner towards a vague destination. We would take a detour just for the pleasure of cruising and venture down the short Welford Arm.
First though, it was with great amusement (and smugness) that we cruised underneath the A14
As anyone from Suffolk knows there are only 2 escape routes, the A12 and the A14, both long tedious roads that are too small for the volume of traffic using them. We had crawled the A14 many a time on our way up to Braidbar and frequently stopped off at Welford to refresh our sanity. Seeing the A14 from the canal is much much prettier. 
Mind you we did have a moment when we thought the canal would grind to a halt, we had “leaves on the line” 
More in the lock than on the trees,
Although what were left on the branches were pure gold.
Welford itself has a small marina basin at the end of the line, we were able to moor up and head for sustenance, this time enjoying a huge bowl of homemade soup, in Totty’s tearoom. It’s a tiny place and the as the owner/cook/waitress chatted to us, she got Eric summed up in one, and offered him a second bowl on the house. Silly man, he was too full for the best coffee and walnut cake I’ve had for a long time, not that it stopped him having a piece. The light was going as we got back to Firecrest so we didn’t walk around the village this time. But this little detour was worth it. We will be back again to visit Welford and to explore properly.