Birstall to Loughborough, 12 miles, 7 locks
Woke up to find that I had no hot water because the water heater had no power. This could only mean one thing, namely that the batteries were flat. I soldiered on, boiling the kettle, making breakfast and pretending that it wasn't as bad as I thought, but eventually could put it off no longer. Taking my jump-start battery with me, in the vague hope that it might help, on opening the engine room hatch I could see that the inverter had powered off. That had to be a bad sign. I switched it off and gave the glow-plugs 10 seconds of 'glow', then tried to start the engine. It turned over, but didn't fire. I disconnected the clutch and put the throttle into a more 'jaunty' position and tried again, but nothing. Resigned that I would need to connect up the jump-start battery, I opened the back-deck hatch and also the engine bay hatch. From there I could see the solar regulator, which suggested that the batteries had at least two 'blobs'. Thinking that this aught to be enough (how scientific is that?!) I realised that after moving the throttle, I hadn't given the glow-plugs their chance, so I gave them 10 seconds again, then fired. The engine turned over a few times, then burst into life. I was saved!
I figured that the battery was flat as a combination of not running the engine much yesterday, combined with the inverter being on all the time and Herr Aldi's fridge. Now that I had the engine running, I could afford to experiment a little, so I put the inverter into power save mode. This is where it checks to see whether anything is using electricity and if not, it switches off. It's also the thing that causes me bother with the hot-water, because the heater's ignition doesn't use enough power to start the inverter. I'd previously convinced myself that this wouldn't work with the fridge—although I hadn't tried it—and it turns out it works perfectly, kicking in the inverter when the fridge needs to cool itself, but letting the inverter switch into its low-power mode when it doesn't.
With the engine running it was time to set off. Today's target was Loughborough—a name designed to confuse foreigners just as "Leicester" used to confuse Wei Wei Wong who took over from Anne Aston on The Golden Shot. According to Canalplan AC, under my new revised settings, this was easily achievable in a day, so I was quite hopeful.
Just before I set off, the little plastic cruiser that had been moored in front of me had left and I was hopeful that I'd catch it up by the time we reached the first lock. By the first lock, I had caught it up and another cruiser had joined it. After checking that they were fine being in a lock with a steel narrowboat, in we went, but their captains talked to each other and largely ignored me. At one point I heard the captain of one cruiser ask the other whether he closed the lock gates behind him. When this happens, you can always tell that they're basically asking for permission to be lazy and break protocol, and the other captain replied that while he normally did close the gates, as this was a river it probably didn't matter so much. He also said that cruisers were a lot faster than narrowboats. As it happens, once the exit gates were opened, both cruisers left, leaving me to do the gates myself. Now call me old fashioned, but just because a Ferrari has a higher top speed than, say, a Perodua Kelisa, doesn't mean that it isn't subject to the same rules of the road.
Although they'd hared off, leaving me to tortoise behind at my (legal) top speed of 4mph (6.5kph), it was such a nice day and the journey and view were so enjoyable that I didn't mind. I was bothered to think of how I expected to find the next lock—empty, and with both bottom gates open—but it was really far too nice a day to worry. As it happened, when I finally did get to the next lock, they had both had to sit and wait while a boat came up and it came out of the lock as I approached, so I went straight in! This continued for the next few locks, with them roaring away and me closing the gates and plodding on behind, only to find that the next lock was set and I was first in by the time I arrived. Eventually we got to Sileby lock where one of the cruisers was going into the marina and the other was stopping at the pub at Mountsorrel. Both captains came over for a chat to tell me this and when they heard that my destination was Loughborough, they were unanimous in recommending the moorings outside the Albion Inn.
The rest of the journey was more of the same—lots of sunshine, easy locks and thoroughly enjoyable. Until, that is, I got to Barrow Deep lock. Nicholson's says this has a drop of 9'7 (1.4m) and I really didn't fancy climbing down the wet slimey ladder to rejoin Oothoon after emptying the lock and opening the gates. After mentioning this to the crew of one of the boats that was coming up, they kindly offered to do the lock for me. Once in the lock, I stood on Oothoon's roof, keeping everything under control using the centre rope wrapped round a bollard, and they did the gates and paddles. I'm sure they have no idea just how grateful I am about that, but it's a lot! Next after Barrow Deep is Pilling's flood lock, which is only used when the Soar is misbehaving. As it isn't, both sets of gates were open and I roared though. Such fun!
Loughborough is a bit odd in that it's the end of the Leicester section of the Grand Union canal and the start of the Loughborough section, which eventually becomes the River Trent. The junction is T shaped, with the canal going one way and a strange straggly bit going the other down to Loughborough Wharf. I'd hoped that I might be in Loughborough before 4pm, because I'd heard that there was a Sainsbury's right next to Loughborough Wharf, but by the time I reached the T-junction I'd missed it by 10 minutes. I headed down there anyway to see the lay of the land and wished I hadn't. Apart from the basin being an awkward shape, there's barely enough room to turn Oothoon's 67 feet around, let alone a 72-footer. Even then, it was only possible because the wharf was empty: if there had been boats there, I'd have had to reverse out. My advice: unless your boat is short and you need the pump out/water point/showers that are there, give the place a miss. Of course the wharf is overshadowed by a modern-looking block of flats and whoever did the fitting out must have chosen soft stone for the wharf edging because it looks nice. I don't think they've realised that the limited room means that boats will inevitably crunch into the sides and the edge is badly damaged and tatty.
After mooring outside the Albion (which was closed) I had a look on Google Maps to find out where everything is and whether there's an Aldi. Turns out it's the other side of the car park that's over the little stream thing that runs past the back of the Albion, or a few hundred yards away. I think I know where I'm going tomorrow then.
Dinner should have been pasta with prawns and pesto, but after talking to my friend Paul I was in the mood for chicken. I wandered back towards Loughborough Wharf because I'd seen a Carvery there, but it turns out that that's only in the afternoon on a Sunday. The rest of the time they have an amazing range of tribute acts appearing, all for a reasonable price and including a carvery. Next up: Cher, on 27th September! I eventually ended up at the Thai Grand. Not what I was after exactly, but nice enough. I tried to get the same thing that I'd had with Cliff at Paulino's and think I managed it, although I can't remember what it's called.
On the way back to the boat I realised that the Albion was open, so I popped in for a pint. All very friendly and with four ales that I'd never seen before. After asking which was a good one to go for, it was recommended that I try all of them, although I could give the 'weak' one a miss if I liked. First off was Albion Special, brewed specifically for the Albion by the Wicked Hathern Brewery. This is quite malt-y and very nice. Next was, er, an ale from Cornwall that was of similar alcohol level but more hop-y. Finally there was, ah, something from the Leatherbritches Brewery that I really can't remember the name of, but it was 4.4% and was very good. By then it was closing time so I bought a couple of bottles of the Albion Special to take back to the boat (in case of an emergency). I hope my head is going to be okay in the morning!
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