• 09/03/10       The long way home

    • Monday 8th March 2010
    There’s still no bus service from Braunston on a Sunday so I had to wait until Monday morning before heading home.  It didn’t help a lot when I woke after 7am, as I was intending to get the 07:34 bus to Rugby and then train home.  But at what price?
    (Another train fare [...]

  • 07/03/10       Fosse Locks to Braunston

    • Sunday 7th March 2010
    Another cold start to the day. This time minus 9.5 and enough to freeze the canal yet again.   I certainly broke some miles of ice today!
    Not much to say about the journey though, as it all went like clockwork.  I started very early and arrived at Long Itchington about 9am, just in time to [...]

  • 06/03/10       Tom O’the Wood to Fosse Locks. Water everywhere!

    • Saturday 6th March 2010
    Zulu started first time this morning.  That is the good news.
    The rest of the day has been very watery indeed.  I needed an early start to get through Hatton so 6:30 am it was.  Beautiful chilly morning with a lovely blue sky.
    Wateryness Number 1.
    By the time I got to Shrewley tunnel [...]

  • 05/03/10       Flat batteries at Lapworth

    • Friday 5th March 2010
    Ah well it had to happen sooner or later.  After 10 days at Lapworth Zulu has consumed every last bit of battery power and I really can’t work out why, as the isolator was off leaving only the bilge pump to drain them.  The starter battery is also isolated from the cabin [...]

  • 04/03/10       Hatton here I come!

    • I have recently been praising the power of blogging as a means of on the spot reporting, and thanks to another blogger I can rest easy that Zulu is still safely moored at Kingswood Junction having seen her photographed by John on Epiphany on Monday morning.  “On the left, a fellow bloggers boat” -  that’s [...]

  • 03/03/10       Have you chosen Internet Explorer as your browser?

    • Well I feel sorry for those of you who say “What’s a browser?” or “What is internet explorer?”  I suspect a huge number of people will be saying just that this week.
    Microsoft have just implemented the patch to beat all patches.  It’s job - to satisfy the EU Regulators that users of Windows have had [...]

  • 28/02/10       Take no notice. What stoppages?

    • Last week we came down the 19 frozen and snow covered Lapworth locks from Birmingham and I meant to mention the notice pinned to the balance beams of lock 20, the bottom lock of the flight if arriving from the Grand Union.  I knew it to be untrue, having just arrived from the other direction but [...]

  • 23/02/10       Viking Warrior - was that Zulu’s long lost sister?

    • In the 1980s Zulu Warrior belonged to the Royal Navy as one of two narrowboats based at Uxbridge on the Grand Union.  They were basically hire boats, available for Navy personnel attached to the nearby “Stone Frigate” HMS Warrior, otherwise known as Northwood HQ near Rickmansworth.  The staff at Uxbridge Boat Centre still remember having [...]

  • 22/02/10       Lapworth top to Lapworth bottom

    • Sunday 21st February 2010
    I looked out at 7am just in time to see the tail end of a snowstorm which had added at least another two inches of fresh snow overnight but at least this meant the temperature was on the rise after hitting minus 5.5 during the night.
     
    I therefore got my lie-in and got [...]

  • 21/02/10       Birmingham to Lapworth

    • Saturday 20th February 2010
    Woke up to a very cold Birmingham and all thoughts of a dawn departure vanished into duvet land.
    Good old Zulu’s 37 year old engine was good enough to start first time after two weeks resting and we set off to Cambrian Wharf for water, and then to Sherbourne Wharf for coal, to [...]

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