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On Saturday we moved to a
lovely spot below the Bascote flight
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You may remember that in
the last blog entry I mentioned that we took ourselves for a tour around some
of the historical sites of Leamington.
We had a look at, what we were told at the visitor information centre, were
Leamington’s oldest houses. Despite all
the research before and afterwards we were unable to find out when they were
built so I wrote to the district council.
Their response came through within two hours but they said, “Sadly, the exact age of these houses is not known as no
records were kept/exist
from that time.” Strange that they know they are the oldest houses.
With
cold weather forecast for the coming week we thought we ought to fill up with
water in case we’re frozen in for a while.
As it was such a glorious day we decided we would then cruise on down
the Bascote flight and moor either there or at Welsh Road lock. We have always wanted to moor at the bottom
of the flight where there is room for just one boat but every time we have been
the spot has always been taken by another one of the local continuous cruisers.
First
we went for a walk down the flight and then on to Welsh Road lock and saw both
places were empty and, with the ice on the canal, they were likely to stay
empty so we set off once we were back.
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Taking
on water at Bascote
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I had a chat with Ade and
Nessie whilst filling up with water.
They both live on boats that are permanently moored by the water
point. Buddy loves it when we see Nessie
as she has a three year old black Labrador called Daisy and they play really
well together. Mind you, the first time
we all met, Daisy ended up in the water because they were being too exuberant.
The canal was still iced
over but it wasn’t very thick so we decided to carry on after filling up with
water. Our alternative had been to
reverse back to where we have been moored for the past few days.
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Karen
took a windlass and set off with Buddy to get the top lock set
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The top lock is a
staircase lock but is only a short one, just two locks. Karen had got it all set by the time I
arrived. The top lock has to be full and
the bottom one empty. I then take the
boat into the top lock and Karen then empties the water into the bottom lock.
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In the top lock and Karen
starting to let the water out into the bottom lock of the staircase
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In the bottom of the
staircase, once the water has been let out, waiting for the gate to open
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Climbing down to get the
boat at the bottom of the flight
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‘Our’ spot was still empty
so we moored up for the day – see photo at the top. Saturday night was the coldest we have had up
here this winter but, to be honest, we have had a pretty mild winter so far
really.
It seems that the south
east has had colder weather to date but they have had lovely clear skies. It doesn’t look like we’ll be travelling
today but it gives us a chance to have a good walk.
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Frozen in on Sunday
morning
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