David Morris – brassedoff.net

this was a quick and simple job. Pack, tidy the boat up, have breakfast, complete the PFCs (pre-flight checks) and get to the hire base by 9am. As it happens, Caroline was bang on the ball with her timings and we arrived at Wootton at 8:50. I managed quite a neat reverse into the moorings (no thanks, I didn’t need any help) only to have a helpful hirer tie the sterm rope up too tight so I couldn’t pull the boat around perpendicular to the moorings, despite me asking him not to tie it too tight for exactly that reason. He slackened it off when one of the AW staff pointed out that it was too tight.

No breakages to report, car loaded up and home.

A great holiday and Silver Crest was a nice responsive boat. We’ll be back.

As this was our last full day, we planned a restful day but one that would leave us within spitting distance of the hire base at Wootton for a 15 minute cruise on the last morning.

It was another stinky hot day. We needed provisions at some point, so decided to hit Wilmcote. In doing so, we had to descend through Brealey Lock and cross Edstone Aqueduct again. I miscounted the birdges though and instead of hitting the winding hole five minutes walk from Wilmcote, we hit the one 20 minutes walk away, and boy was it hot.

Anyway, we did the walk anyway, got essential supplies at the store in the village and had a pint in the Mary Arden (sprite and crisps bribed Daniel!).

On the way back (on foot) past the visitor moorings, I spied a chap practising his knots. I just happened to ask if he’d mastered a bowline yet only to be informed that after about an hour of messing about, that was the one he’d gived up on. I stopped for a while to offer some tips (rabbits down holes and trees may help) then caught up with the rest of the family.

We did Brearley Lock twice today and it was a cow both times. The bottom gate looked to have something stuck behind it so it wouldn’t close properly. On the way down, we saw a chap, as we thought at the time, messing around, so we went to have a nosey. It turned out that he and his grandson crew had been stuck for over 10 minutes in the gate. He was in a 34′ Sea Otter (nb Largo) so we had a chap about that whilst we were waiting for the lock to fill.

We did get stuck going out and I flagged a Canaltime hirer on the way up to lend a hand. I knew what we needed. If chappie could have given Caroline a bit of help easing the gate back, I wouldn’t have had a problem with the lock, but he turned out to be yon experienced hirer who had probably been hiring for years and what he didn’t know about…. “You need to have a run at it…”. No, I just need you to help my wife ease the gate back please. “You need to go at it full throttle…”.

Eventually, Caroline eased the gate back as best she could and I gunned the engine a bit. We left him trying to get his wife to give it some throttle whilst he peered over the edge of the gate. He obviously knew best.

If I ever look like turning in to him, someone kick me please.

We headed up north and spent the night moored near another AW boat about 20 minutes (two bridges) from Wootton and used the new pile hooks to secure us to the bankside. It was a much cooler night as well and probably the best moorings in terms of view of the countryside we’d had all week.

Day six saw us leaving Rowington on the GU and meandering our way back to the Stratford Canal. According, we left Rowington at around 10-ish and turned left at Lapworth, down the link, left again at the basin and started down Lapworth flight.

We moored up at a convenient spot and we had a saunter back up the towpath to the Canal Shop where we bought some bits for our aspirational boat – a couple of piling hooks for mooring and a long throw windlass for Caroline. A quick stop off at the village store at Lapworth for essentials, back on the boat and off down South again.

We planned this time to stop at the Fleur De Lys again at Lowsonford. We’d lunched there earlier in the week and it was pleasant. This time, we moored right across from the pub and have a pleasant evening.

After a night within spitting distance of the M40 (but not too noisy), we continued up to Lapworth with the intention of heading across to the Grand Union. The intention was then to go up to Knowle and possibly go up the flight for a look around, wind and come back down towards Wooton.

So far so good, but once we got to Knowle, Caroline wasn’t overly impressed with the idea of navigating the five broad lock flight on our own and I agreed. We did have a nice chat with the local BW official though who talked us through the lock operation.

The certainly look imposing, with the 1930’s vintage paddle gear which angles out from the vertical at around 10 degrees and has a look of some wierd sort of electrical insulator equipment from some old black and white horror movie. At 28 turns to fully raise the gear as welll, it wasn’t going to be an easy trip and much above Knowle was described as ‘bandit territory’. The same BW guy had been present at Hatton that morning. A local “ne’er do well” had gone missing and after draining three pounds at Hatton, the body had sirfaced in the fourth. Foul play was suspected and the Hatton flight area had apparently been crawling with police helicopters, police cars and scene of crime chaps. We’d heard about the incident from a BW guy out cutting the grass around Lapworth earlier so we knew something was afoot.

On the way up to Knowle, we cruised past the Black Buoy Cruising Club base and after reading lots over the past few weeks about boaters speeding past moored boats, it was a surprise to be thanked for not speeding past their moorings. I felt all virtuous!

At the bottom of Knowle, we’d moored up near the pink cruiser Thursday’s Child belonging to Brian Holmes who writes for narrowboatworld.com.

After a look at Knowle, we winded at the lock bottom and headed towards Hatton for no other reason than we’d got some time to kill and wanted to have a fairly lock-free day. We found the winding hole just before the Hatton flight fairly late on and on the way past I’d spotted moorings at Rowington which looked nice. It also meant two trips through Shrewley Tunnel which was a bit wet on the inside, but fun at 395m long. Distance is deceptive as the tunnel’s dead straight and you can see the end, but it only looks a few metres long.

We moored up for the night at the Tom O’ Th’ Wood moorings and had a pleasant dinner at The Wood at Rowington, less than five minutes walk from the moorings.

Despite the proximity of the railway, it was a quiet night.

After a quiet night near Brearley lock, we headed north back towards the hire base and Lapworth. The hire base told us there was a stoppage on Thursday at Lapworth which looked like pouring cold water on our plans to head across to the GU, but on further checking it was a lock 7 which wouldn’t affext us.
We stopped for lunch at Lowsonford at the Fleur De Lys – an excellent meal.
Back on the trail and more locks. We did have problems at lock 28 (?) where the gate didn’t open properly. Fortunately there was some help on hand from a group of hire boaters descending, so with a bit of brute force and having a run at it, we managed to get Silver Crest into the chamber at the second attempt.
Past Lapworth bottom lock and under the M40, we moored for the night three locks shy of Lapworth Junction and after a wrong turning or two, managed to find the village shop on foot. My blisters were giving me some grief so it’s back to my old trainers for today. Also, those big black biting flys (the ones about 1cm long) and buggers. There was one biting the palm of my hand as we walked back from the shop last night with hands full of carrier bags.

I think it was today where we got a family of ducks trapped in the lock with us – mother and nine youngsters. One of the ducklings tried to make a run for it down one side of the boat and the rest down the other. I got Caroline to drop the paddles and tried to save the majority by holding the boat away from the side whilst the crew encouraged them back with the pole. Once we’d got them back out with the crew under instructions to wave a pole at them in a threatening manner if they tried that trick again, the missing one appeared from in the ladder recess. Mummy Duck did us a favour by jumping on to the gate so her offspring could at least see and hear here. Amaxingly, we got out with no injuries, much to Daniel’s delight.

A leisurely trip up from Stratford after a surprisingly peaceful night in Bancroft Basin. We picked up a few provisions at Somerfields and Caroline invested in a floppy hat – a very sensible purchase bearing in mond the hot weather.
We filled up with water a spent a few minutes talking to another group who were heading for Stratford with seemingly little idea about where to go when they got there – talk about a voyage of discovery! That’s one of the thibgs missing I reckon on these boats – guide material. We brought all our own Nicholson guides, so we let them have a squint at ours and told them where they could get Avon river licences.
We moored up at Wilmcote on the visitors moorings and ruddy hot it was too – no shade at all – and had a walk up past .ary Arden’s cottage to the Mary Arden pub, getting there 5 minutes before they stopped serving food. Nice hot sandwiches and cool drinks followed, some essential supplies (ice creams) were purchased in the village shop and we strolled back to the boat. After an hour or so, in clear it was just too hot on the boat. There was no shade and no breeze, so we decided to move, ending up between Edstone Acqueduct and Brearley lock. Caroline cooked a spanish omlette for supper and we spent probably the most peaceful night of the trip so far.
Today, we’re heading for Laworth, having decided last night to head North on the Grand Union for a while.

So, our first full day starts with the compulsory bacon sarnies and tea, Once everyone’s up, it’s off from Wilmcote heading for Stratford. Caroline has to work hard as there are 14 locks down to Bancroft basin in the middle of Stratford and she does a fantastic job. It’s amazing that we seem to meet so many people and exchabge fleeting conversations with them, usually no more than a couple of minutes at a time as we pass at locks.
Bancroft basin is busy when we arrive after around five hours travelling and we end up moored alongside the quay (we tried double parking but it’s not allowed). After a wander around and a pleasant few minutes listening to the Birmingham City Brass Band, we manage to move to moor alongside one of the pontoons which is quieter and cooler.
It,s really pleasant sat watching the world go by over a glass of Shiraz, butt I’m hoping it doesn’t get too noisey later (apparently 4aturday night was bad). We passed two Sheffield boats on the way down – one of the couples live on the Medlock estate at Handsworth just up from my Mum. Small world, innit?!

After a drive down to the West Midlands in the worst weather for some weeks (I now know where all the evaporating water went), we arrived at the AW depot at Wootton Wawen in good time and only got lost once!

Silver Crest is.a lovely boat – nicer that Measham we had last year from Ashby Boats – a better layout for us..

After the usual customary walk around, we winded the boat and were off down towards Stratford. The plan is to head to Stratford, spend a day there, head back up to Lapworth and South on the GU for a while then back in time for tea!
Caroline has done her first proper acqueduct – Edstone – as the canal crossed both the road and railway (we missed going over a train by a ciouple of minutes which would have been fun) and we’ negotiated our first solo lock at Brearley. We moored up about 15 minutes walk from Wilmcote and spent the evening listening to what we thought was a UB40 tribute band in the distance but actually turned out to be UB40.
Lots of locks today as we chug towards Stratford.

After a drive down to the West Midlands in the worst weather for some weeks (I now know where all the evaporating water went), we arrived at the AW depot at Wootton Wawen in good time and only got lost once!
Silver Crest is.a lovely boat – nicer than Measham we had last year from Ashby Boats – a better layout for us..
After the usual customary walk around, we winded the boat and were off down towards Stratford. The plan is to head to Stratford, spend a day there, head back up to Lapworth and South on the GU for a while then back in time for tea!
Caroline has done her first proper acqueduct – Edstone – as the canal crossed both the road and railway (we missed going over a train by a ciouple of minutes which would have been fun) and we negotiated our first solo lock at Brearley. We moored up about 15 minutes walk from Wilmcote and spent the evening listening to what we thought was a UB40 tribute band in the distance but actually turned out to be UB40.
Lots of locks today as we chug towards Stratford.

As you can see below, I’ve got a posting into Wordpress from my Blackberry and email. Michael Scott, another Wordpress user has suggested some hacks to get this working, basically by looking for the base64 heading line on the message and decoding as appropriate.

His fix however looks for ‘BASE64′ in the posting and the one coming in from our corporate mail server has ‘base64′ (lower case).

Accordingly, I’d suggest Michael’s script be changed to read:

echo "Content-transfer-encoding: $content_transfer_encoding,";
echo "boundary: $boundary";
if (strtoupper($content_transfer_encoding) == "BASE64") {
$content = base64_decode($content);
}
echo "Decoded content:".$content.' <  p >';

I’ve added the strupper(…). That way, it matters not a jot whether your base64 header line is in upper or lower case, and it works for me…

The text editing has also made a bit of a hash of my tags. I hope it’s logical what I’m talking about… :-)

Thanks Michael!