19 - 20 March 2005
Calcutt to Radford Semele & back

(16 miles, 40 locks, 17.3 engine hours)

Our first overnight trip with guests! It was fitting that Des & Liz should be our first overnight visitors - we have shared enjoyable boating holidays with them over a number of years, initially on hire boats and then on Scimitar, the shared ownership boat we bought into with them.

For a change, we turned away from Calcutt Locks and headed towards Stockton - we were planning some serious lock practice over the next couple of days. As usual, Ian and Des took turns on the tiller whilst Liz and I worked the locks. The plan was to get as far towards Leamington Spa as we could - I had plenty of food on board, but if we saw an inviting pub we could always test it out.

Liz and I soon got back into the swing of things with the locks - well we had 8 to do one after another. We made good progress through the day and reached the winding hole between Bull Bridge and Radford Road Bridge late afternoon. We decided not to press on into Leamington itself for the next turning point so moored up for the night.

A convivial evening was spent on board. Ian and I were pleased to be back on board after nearly two months without any cruising. We have both been ill with flu, which turned into a chest infection for me - I had nearly three weeks off work, which is more sick leave than I have had in the last 10 years put together. Daughter Kirsty has been even more poorly with several stays in hospital. We hope she is on the road to recovery now.

Sunday saw us on the way back to Calcutt. Unfortunately, I didn't have the camera with me when we went through the staircase lock as we actually managed to cross with a boat coming down. Would have made a great picture.

The weather was kind to us and we made good progress. We stopped at the Blue Lias for lunch and, well fortified, Liz and I tackled the eight Stockton Locks. For some reason we had forgotten to take the fenders up and by the time we got to the top, we had lost four of them. We were going up the locks with another boat and Des and the other captain decided that they would come out of and go into the locks together - fenders fell off on entry and exit and sank without a trace. We have learned our lesson.

Per Angusta performed well over the weekend and the interior layout worked out how we had planned for 4 people on board. We are looking forward to spending as much time as possible on her in the coming months.

Return to top of page