A Sunny week in Warwick

 So we went from Leamington Spa to Warwick, with a couple of nights moored by a lovely canal side pub, basking in sunshine. 

We spent a whole day looking round Warwick Castle which dates back originally to 1068, when William the Conqueror built a wooden Fortress, upgraded by Henry VIII much later. It is a great day out, not just the castle, full of Madame Tussaud’s wax figures, but also a couple of medieval shows, including a falconry display. 

We stayed an extra couple of days round the bend in Saltisford Marina (thank you Margy!) and Andy’s girls drove up together and paid us a visit 

So after a week of laundry, shopping, and many pub lunches, we recognised that this was all an avoidance ploy as the next stage of our journey involved doing 21 locks in a row, the Hatton staircase! 

So Monday morning we were up bright and early, fenders down, Windlass located. All we had to do was empty our black water tank. The Marina crew were ready, when suddenly I realised we had lost power, and were drifting aimlessly between moored boats on either side. The staff looked quizzically on. More staff emerged sensing a calamity! All hands on deck, they took over, and secured us next to ‘Last Chance”. The engine cover magically got lifted up and a very able boatie diagnosed our problem. Some very  important bolts had sheared off, rendering the transmission inoperable. We weren’t going anywhere in a hurry. 

Suddenly I remembered that we had a breakdown cover plan with River Canal Rescue,  that I had taken out last minute before we left Heyford Fields Marina.   Relief all around as we realised that they would come to our aid, just like NRMA .  Sure enough, less than an hour later, a cheerful Dan the Man arrived and replaced our sheared bolts, for the cost of a mere £4.00. !!

The Locks awaited us at last.

We were in luck again, as despite our tardy start, another boat came along and we were able to share the hot work. As usual, Andy somehow engineered his spot in the driver’s seat (well, standing really) and I did all the winding 😮‍💨, but a lively volunteer on an electric folding bike helped us to make miraculously short work of the whole staircase! In fact it was exhausting fun!