Engine stops dead - carpet round the propeller!!!

Over the last week we have travelled from the Welford Arm towards Atherstone.

The length of the Welford Arm is only 1.6 miles long, a lovely canal with only one lock. CRT services, a pub and a marina at the end.  This was the first time we have navigated the arm and we were pleasantly surprised.   A short walk into the village takes you to a small convenience shop.  

Nugget meets Postman Pat in Welford

Back on the  Grand Union Canal, we made our way to the top of the Watford Locks, very close to Watford Gap Services.  There are CRT services here and a book swap which was handy. The flight is one single lock, a staircase of four and two single locks.  Once again these are run by volunteers who were very helpful. Descending the flight took just 45 minutes.  The locks drop 52.5 feet in total.  We moored near Weltonfield narrowboats for the evening.

The next day we passed through Braunston Tunnel, which took us approximately 25 minutes.  All the tunnels on this trip have allowed boats in both directions at the same time.  As long as you go slow and keep to your side, you pass each other just fine (usually!).

After descending the 6 locks into Braunston, once again with volunteers help, we popped into the village.  It is a lovely place with a great butchers (couldn't resist this wonderful 'homegrown pork pie'), convenience store and traditional pubs. 

Helen revisited 'Serendipity' a fantastic art shop run by Heather, who is so helpful and friendly.  After topping up Helen's art supplies we headed back to tuck into the scrumptious pork pie! 😋

The following day we cruised through to the top of Hillmorton locks and enjoyed a tasty curry takeaway from the village (a 10 minute walk from bridge 72).  The next day we descended the Hillmorton Locks early and headed into Rugby to top up our supplies at Tesco's.

The following day we headed towards Hawkesbury Junction passing by the crackling pylons at the electric distribution station.  We managed to use the CRT facilities at Sutton Stop Lock and moor  near Hawkesbury Hall just before the heavens opened and the rain begin in earnest!☔

Heading towards Atherstone, we had to do an emergency reverse, approaching bridge 30 (best to pay attention when narrowboats from the opposite direction sound their horn!) The engine abruptly stopped,  proving the auto stop was working. Several minutes later after a lot of huffing and puffing, Chris managed to remove a large piece of carpet some person must have thrown from the bridge. Thankfully no damage. 

It was deemed the carpet wouldn't clean up to use, so was bagged up to be disposed of correctly!. Along the canals we sometimes see mattresses, supermarket trolleys, bicycles etc that have been thrown in the water, removed and just left on the tow path. Unfortunately this can result in them being thrown back in and as well as being disgusting, this can lead to serious damage to boats.  Thankfully after removing from the weed hatch, we were on our way again.