Sunday 19th August 2007

Location: Marston Jabbett, Warwicks

Today: 11 miles, 11 locks. Total distance: 440 miles.  Total locks: 381

Cloudy in the morning, rain late afternoon. Good t-mobile 3g reception here.

Pulled the pins at 07:20 this morning to head up the 11 lock Atherstone flight. All was going well until the half way mark when the boat in front could not exit the lock due to lack of water. Apparently, a boat that had just gone down had left some paddles open somewhere ahead which caused the loss of water in two or three of the up hill locks. All in all, it only caused a half hour delay while the water levels were restored so it gave us the opportunity for a coffee break.

While waiting for the water levels to be restored, two unusual boats arrived behind us. One was steam powered, fired by diesel, the other had an old diesel engine that seemed to fire about once a second on tick-over.

We actually passed Laplander a few weeks ago, she was moored up on the Caldon and looked unattended at the time. Some photos below. Some details found on the web: Built circa 1830. Documented in BCN records from 1858 until sold in 1963. Converted to trip boat on the Ashby Canal. Bought in need of restoration by present owner in 1987. Re-cabined and re-engined 1988-1991. Re-boilered 1999. Boat now has Clarkson Thimble Tube Boiler 1944; Bailey Single Cylinder Engine circa 1900; Slip Eccentric Reverse; Stuart 2 Cylinder Generating Set.

We headed on down the Coventry then turned off up the Ashby where we moored for the night after a short distance. Five minutes after we had moored, the heavens opened and it rained for most of the rest of the evening.

Laplander steam boat

Laplander

Laplander steam engine

Laplander steam engine

Tug No.1

Tug No.1

Tug engine

Previous page -|- Next page -|- Index page

Material Copyright © 2007 Ernie Williams
This page last modified on: 22 April, 2014 6:03 PM