Ermintrude...

.....what a cutie.

While at Hawksebury jcn. I managed to get one coat of gloss in the bow locker in between the rain showers, with gale Aileen causing no damage I could see locally but it was a windy night so I understand, I slept through it all, and the only evidence I could find was my TV ariel had been blown around to face the wrong way.

With the forecast not great over the next few days I decided to take advantage of what should be a reasonable morning and head for Nuneaton, so I cast off just before 9am.

The only lock of the day was just ahead of me and is a very shallow stop lock which prevented owners of the Coventry canal stealing the water from the owners of the Oxford canal, it’s only about 6” deep.

Stop lock just beyond the first bridge, the junction is ahead through
 the white bridge turning right for me, left for Coventry itself.

After going into the lock I was joined by a crewman off a hire boat who was coming from Coventry and heading back to Rugby, he offered to do the gate for me, if you are heading from the Oxford canal onto the Coventry canal going north you have to do a 180° turn right through the junction, there is plenty of room but it can be tricky if it’s windy or busy, there's a pub right there The Greyhound, so gongoozlers have plenty of entertainment especially if you get it wrong, and lots do, and as it happened he positioned his boat a little awkwardly so I couldn’t get round in one go, no problem though, a bit of reverse and then I was around.

I've done the turn and am now on the Coventry canal parallel with the Oxford
which is on my right

The hire boat has now moved into the lock opposite me.

So I am now on the Coventry canal heading north, a narrow gauge canal, no wide beam boats to contend with, and on a lock free section again, and to begin with (after passing all the moored boats) it was very rural and quite chilly especially as you pass through the Coalpit Field cutting which is tree lined.

As you approach Bedworth the canal side houses begin to appear although they are higher up so you only really see the different arrangements they have formed at the end of their gardens by the canal.

This brute keeps an eye out for trouble makers from the garden of one house.

You then pass ‘Charity Dock’ with its weird mix of mannequins boats and other strange objects on display. Some would call it an eyesore, others a fascination, I’m somewhere between the two view points.

Coming out of the Marston Junction off the Ashby Canal on a previuos trip, heading in the opposite direction to today, I sounded my horn and was met in the second  bridge hole by another boat who either never heard it or ignored it anyway causing a few minutes of consternation,  so today I was ready to sound it again as I approached, but there was no need, for as I got close a boat came through anyway, a quick burst of reverse to slow me was all that was necessary before it was clear for me to continue.

Thats the junction beyond this bridge.

It's a cutback right turn, quite awkward again.

The Ashby, not for me this trip.

Aaaawww here she is, lovely.

The run from Marston junction to Nuneaton is quite bendy and quite shaded, it does not float my boat as they say, and then you have to deal with the moored boats all around the Star Line boat yard, that bits quite nice if you don’t meet anything!

Approaching Start Line boat yard

Not the place to meet oncoming boats.

By now I was in two minds whether to stop or continue on a bit, it was getting cloudy and colder and my back was aching again, I’m a martyr to my body ailments J, coming around a bend I recognised a spot I had moored at previously which is opposite a park and decided stopping early had won today again!

Current mooring:

Totals today: 5 miles : 1 lock

I’m here ‘til I move which is going to be decided by the weather I think!