Going nowhere fast

Wednesday, 20 January 2010 09:15

We moved further than 100 yards today, but ....

Not very far. But what excitement: we actually cruised for almost one mile How many more miles of the BCN are awaiting us!

We decided to test out our engine under propulsion. Maybe it had forgotten what it is supposed to do. I think, in fact I know, that this is the longest we have been in one place since we left Pewsey on the K and A in August 2008.

So off we set towards Old Turn Junction, pushing a few bits of thinnish ice out of our way - it made an ominous cracking sound though. We crossed the Junction on the starboard side, as for some reason the other side is still frozen. Anyway it was the shortest route into the Oozells Street Loop.

It was all clear into Sherborne Wharf and we met one of our neighbours returning under Sheepcote Road Bridge entrance.

This is what we had come for

John keeps a calculation as to how much fuel we use, both under propulsion and when moored, using the engine to charge the batteries running the Webasto (diesel boiler). He thought we had about a quarter of a tank left - but we had a bit more when it came to fill up - so that and a replacement gas bottle didn't drain the exchequer too much.

This building by Sherborne Wharf is a bit of an anomaly

I suppose the writing is a reminder of the past, but the building is not one of the FMC ones. The Fellows Morton and Clayton boats would have been seen regularly here. The Loop was part of the original Line and there was a busy coal wharf and one of the last warehouses to be built for the FMC Company. Here are some ex FMC boats we have seen on the cut. Motor Towy (registered at Oldbury No: 4) and Steamer Monarch. 

Plover (registered at Birmingham)

Some of their distinctive boats were built in Birmingham, others in Uxbridge and Oldbury.

The two whitewashed buildings are original FMC

Nb Waterway Routes is still OK Paul!

We went to the other end of the loop in the vain hope that we could get out. One crunch of the bows in the ice told us that it was not worth trying!

Ice under footbridge and on Main Line

So John reversed along the line of moored narrowboats to wind by the wharf.

Thus we exited where we came in and went back to Cambrian Wharf via the water point. All other moorings are still occupied by "overstayers" due to the ice everywhere.

Speaking to one of the other boaters, who helped us wind so that we could moor stern in again, it seems that the Birmingham and Worcester canal is in much the same state as the Main Line. Although he said that a BW work boat had attempted to break through the ice to get to Selly Oak. How far did it get - who knows!

So it looks as if we are stuck here for a while longer and we gather it is "against BW policy to make boats move when there is a blockage on the canal" - this is a rough quote from another boater's answer from BW Head office about being asked to move on in the ice.

It certainly would be daft to move and one of the modern/traditional replicas moored here was unable to break through the ice even with his 30 ton boat and considerable horse power. His bow was up on the ice and he was "going nowhere", fast or slow, a few days ago.

Despite what Waterexplorer says we did not go through a lock. It is confused as we are moored parallel with Farmer's Bridge Top Lock and the maps assume we are in it!

Birmingham Canal Navigations, Birmingham and Fazeley Canal, Cambrian Wharf - Sherborne Wharf return: 1 hour 46 mins, 0.92 miles, 0 locks