On Mon, 3 May 2010 20:31:57 +0100, "Jannock" <[email protected]> wrote:
>We arrived at Jannock and were off, heading North, by 9:45. By eck it's cold >at tiller. There was a very strong northerly wind that cut right through and >within the hour insult was added to injury by the first downpour. The >weather forecasters obviously got it wrong when they stated Monday would be >the best day for weather during the bank holiday weekend. We cruised up >through Bugbrooke, Heyford and Weedon with very little to comment on until >we reached Buckby locks. The boat that had been following us since Heyford >decided to wind between Diamond bridge (19) and Muscot Mill Bridge (18) and >so it looked as though we would be doing another flight solo. Every lock had >lots of foamy bubbles floating in it which multiplied when the paddles were >opened. Brenda discovered that if she squashed the foam between the boat and >the offside lock wall she could shoot it about using the exhaust as she left >the lock. We met three southbound boats but also had two downpours during >the flight and my waterproofs were wet inside as well as out because I was >so warm working the flight. Finally cleared the top lock by just after 3pm >and moored up for the next four days. Did a Di Blasi run back to Gayton (17 >miles) to collect the car and then had dinner aboard Jannock before setting >off homeward. What struck me at the weekend was the cold nights .... We took our barge Knocknagow to Killaloe, at the bottom of Lough Derg: the first time it has been there in its 100 years or so. I've avoided the place because it's often difficult to get a barge- (or narrowboat-) size berth and because it is a haunt of jetskiers, waterskiers, RIB-drivers and others, many of them unable to read the speed limit signs that say 5 km/h. Speeding here is not a matter of going at, say, 4 mph past moored boats, more like 40mph. Killaloe is the end of the navigation for hire-cruisers. The hire-firms allow hirers to use only one short length of quay above the bridge on the east side. Cruisers were stacked five abreast there on Saturday night: it seems that a large group had hired them for a wedding, the party being held in a nearby pub. The, er, music continued until 4.30am --- but happily we were some distance away on the far side of the river, tied at the Pierhead, which was the base for the steamers from the 1820s onwards. On our way down the lake on Saturday, we had heavy hail showers, but the sun came out later. A friend kept pace with us for a while in his cruiser and told me afterwards we were doing 6.8 knots at 1650 revs (no speed limit in the middle of the lake). We reached Killaloe in about two hours. The wind went to the north on Saturday night, and it became very cold. We have no heating (yet) and the cold woke me at 6.30am, at which point I decided I might as well get up. We visited the market on Sunday morning: I often go there by road during the winter so I know many of the stallholders and some came to see our boat later. Our berth was beside the Coast Guard base and some of their crew visited us too: our JCB engine was a major talking-point. In between visits we worked away on various tasks on the boat. Sunday night wasn't quite as cold and Monday morning was fine, although I was stuck in the forecastle cutting out lumps of foam insulation. It was cold again on Monday afternoon as we returned to base in Dromineer, but the sun came out as soon as we had tied up. Maybe next weekend we'll have sunshine while we're under way and rain only at night. And by June we hope to have some heating. bjg
