Voyages of Gabriel: Riley Green to the Blackburn Canal Festival

Fri 22nd July Riley Green to Blackburn

Towpath near Riley Green

Watership Down?

Moored at Riley Green

Tortoiseshell butterfly

There were six boats moored at Riley Green overnight: Bright Angel, Joamela, Helen, Willow, Morgana (with 4 cats) and Gabriel. Joamela and Helen went fairly early. Another boat came past later, and Morgana cast off to share with them. We found that Bright Angel was not going, so that left us by ourselves.

We had called Hugo, who was absent, and were waiting for him to return. Another boat went past, and we said to them we were heading off soon, and could we share the locks with them? With a brief “OK” ringing in our ears, we walked round the field again in the wet grass, calling and banging Hugo’s dish, with no sign of him. We scanned the opposite bank in case he had taken a swim in the night, and even checked the side of the road that crossed on the bridge further up, in case he had had a mishap.

Meanwhile a widebeam went past.

Twenty minutes later, Hugo appeared as though nothing was amiss. Somehow his fur was completely dry, so we guessed he had been in a nearby garden in a shed or similar.

We set off as fast as we could, not really expecting our boat share still to be waiting by the locks four miles ahead. We made good progress for the first three miles, and then caught up with the widebeam, which slowed us down a bit. It wouldn’t have been polite to rush past and then take over the locks, so we followed behind. As we arrived at the locks, to our surprise the narrowboat was waiting for us. The widebeam went up the locks first, and we followed, sharing with John and Maggie on Andante.

Sharing Blackburn locks with Andante

Two locks up there was the facilities block, where the water tap was almost inaccessible. We decided we could manage with the water we had, but we emptied cassettes and rubbish, including our rooftop flowers, which had seriously declined over the last week.

Facilities on the Blackburn flight

Two locks further up the flight, we saw the widebeam having difficulty with something in the water. Also the pound was fairly low, so we made sure that we used the next lockful before the boats entered the pound. Meanwhile John had produced a rond anchor and managed to drag the tent out of the water. We proceeded with care and were soon at the top of the locks.

Tent in the canal

Tent retrieved

Approaching the top lock

We spotted a large B&Q with a garden centre, so while Andante went on ahead, Hazel went off to find some suitable plants for the roof. Sadly there was nothing much available. Meanwhile James had removed some assorted items from the propeller.

After a further mile, we arrived at Eanam Wharf, the festival site. Andante was already moored, and we tried to moor behind them. However, there was a lot of weed in the canal, and we couldn’t get in to the side, despite having people pulling on three ropes. We tied alongside Andante, and a team set to work to clear the weed.

Weed problem

Weed team

John lost his rond anchor in the canal, so our magnet was put to work, and it was successfully retrieved, to the surprise of some. Sadly our boat hook could not sustain the weight and the hook snapped off the shaft. A guy called Pete was there. He was the chap who recommended the Top Lock pub at Johnson Hillock Locks, and the chap we had towed in his canoe rig when his outboard packed up. He kindly returned a favour by whittling our boat hook pole and fitting the hook back on the end.

Meanwhile, deprived of his boat hook, James took our secateurs and garden shears, and removed some brambles from the waters edge.

Gardening

What a lot of weed

When the work was done, Andante moved back to the cleared mooring, and Gabriel went in where they had been, behind .

Both boats in to the side

We visited Morrison’s for a few items. We were hoping for flowers for the roof, but everything was tatty. We did have the last pack of wholemeal muffins.

We had a meal at Calypso, a Jamaican restaurant on the quay. We had a set meal with a selection of starters and main courses. It was very good. We looked online later and saw that the food hygiene rating was only 2, but we are still alive and well.

6 locks, 5 miles

Sat 23rd July Blackburn

Good weather for a canal festival. We put out chairs and tables on the towpath, with a range of leaflets and some Bibles. We put the Boaters Christian Fellowship up on the roof. We sat down and chatted to people as they went past. We had a good position, with not too many people at once, and there was time to talk to most of the people.

We had some very good conversations, and gave out plenty of literature including several Bibles.

Table laid with literature at Blackburn Canal Festival

David and Carole arrived, and joined us for lunch on board. Overheard through the side doors as a young couple went past: Her: “Look, there’s a Christian boat!” Him: “Oh, God!”

David and Carole Brennand

We were also pleased to see BCF members John and Gillian Speight, who we saw in Stratford last year. They are looking for a boat of their own after sharing a boat for some years, so we showed them round Gabriel to get some ideas.

John and Gillian Speight

After a busy day we went to watch a band in the evening. Very entertaining.

No boating today

Sun 24th July Blackburn

The weather was very different today. It was raining a lot of the time, so we didn’t get the literature out As an exception for us we didn’t go to a church this morning. We thought it was more important to be around at the festival. We had a wander round the other stalls and the photo exhibition. There was a walk-about drama going on describing the history of the canal.

Kennet on show

Drama on the footbridge

For some reason origami swans featured on the advertising, and the programme could be folded into a swan shape. There were some large ones floating on the canal.