Victor continues around the Four Counties - Upsetting the 'trad' lot

Upsetting the 'trad' lot

At the risk of upsetting the traditional crowd, I do see the sense in such a precaution when there is absolutely nothing protecting the steerer from falling in from a trad stern, as did the steerer who drowned.  The Cart man also pointed out that the quicker you go the more easy it is to keep a straight line, something the steerer behind obviously did not comprehend, as he fell further and further back, and we could see his light swinging as he obviously hit the sides. The Cart man at the other end told us we did it in 31 minutes—with Jan steering—then shut the doors again as the one following was far behind.

So into Stoke and a lesson learnt not to cruise too close to homes with balconies overlooking the waterway.  For as we approached a block of flats out came a baby's steel cot from the top floor of the one pictured, straight into the man's obvious 'rubbish bin' of the Trent & Mersey.  He did bother looking to see if there was a boat, just slung it from the doorway without looking.  We were hoping that the baby had been taken out.

So through Stoke and to the obviously rebuilt lock by the railway station, and it was so slow emptying a paddle must be blocked.  However, Jan reckons the gates were the best hung of any so far—swinging with just a touch.  So obviously someone can get it right!  And as can clearly be seen they are nowhere near little gates, as it is a deep lock, possibly the result of two being turned into one.

All aboard!

Just how many people can travel on one of those fairly new little boats that Cart use to push its work boats about?  How about seven?  All the people in the picture arrived at their destination outside Aston Marina on the boat shown!  Depositing three on the towpath and four on the work boat.

I see that following in the footsteps of Mercia Marina, Aston Marina is extending its already many facilities again, with a new building going up.  When we visited a couple of years ago it had a farm shop and a bistro and other things, so I had a look at its website and clicked 'what's happening' to find out what the new building was going to be.

Useless information

Alas, another whose facilities do not include good web information, for all it told me was that Father's Day was on 21st June, Christmas Day—would you believe—was on 25th December, and the last item that Boxing Day was on the 26th December! Wow!

Then alas Jan had some very bad news and Thomas was left alone below Stone, but notwithstanding dire threats not to move, he tried his hand at single handed working down to Haywood Junction, thoroughly enjoying himself in the process.  Then alas, others took over bringing the boat back.

Finally

So what of our latest cruise?  I make no apologies for my constant complaints about the lack of maintenance, it really is dire.  Cart should surely attend to its core responsibility and attend to the upkeep of its waterways, as British Waterways did when we first started boating 22 years ago, and not the many unrelated activities  it now delves into that turn out to be little more than a waste of money.

In those far off days, everything would have been put right at the start of the season and not left until it failed.  There really is no excuse for leaving locks with only one paddle working on gates at the very start of the cruising season, this guarantees stoppages, and not only very inconvenient for boaters, but must be hell for the struggling hire companies attempting to get their boats back to base.

I had great hopes when the new man, Richard Parry took over as Chief Executive, but I am afraid those hopes have been sorely dashed.

Victor Swift

[Updates will commence on Wednesday.  In the meantime emails cannot be attended to, sorry.]