Preventative Action

As anticipated, we awoke to rain and our 48 hours in Birmingham expired after lunch.  The first task was to dispose of the rubbish and then I prepared to visit Paul Balmer on nb Waterway Routes who was going to experiment with rolling flat the paint edge left by the marking tape.  Paul had already bought the roller and I wanted to observe his efforts.  He arrived at Waiouru before I could head to his mooring at Sherborne Wharf.  Waterway Routes is to be repainted in the near future and therefore provided an ideal canvas to experiment.  Paul had already painted several strips and then removed the masking tape.  We sat around waiting for a skin to form on the wet paint…….  and we waited around for a skin to form on the wet paint….. and we waited……   At noon I could stay no longer and had to leave Paul looking at the wet paint.  However I did ask him to send me a follow-up email on what he learned once the paint started to dry.

There had been frequent showers during the morning and I therefore decided to get into all my wet weather clothing and leather boots.  This preventative action was taken in the certain knowledge it would be sufficient to ensure the weather stayed dry and sunny!

We reversed back to Old Turn Junction and then turned towards Gas Street Basin.

Gas Street Basin

The Worcester Bar Stop Lock was built by the Worcester and Birmingham Canal Company at the insistence of the Birmingham Canal Navigation Company (BCN).  The latter had been completed in 1773 and when the Worcester and Birmingham Canal Company commenced their canal 22 years later the BCN wanted to protect their water source. There were company toll offices either side of the lock .

It’s a 90 deg turn at the Mailbox

We stopped for water almost immediately after the turn.  Water pressure here is very poor and we overstayed the maximum allowed time (30 minutes) waiting for the tank to fill.  It was a relatively slow cruise back to Kings Norton Junction.

It was a lovely afternoon and we decided to press on towards Alverchurch.  This involved passing through Wast Hill Tunnel.  At 2726 yards long it one of the longest in the country. 

We’ve previously been this way on a hire boat, but I couldn’t remember the tunnel.  The first thing I noticed today was I couldn’t see the far end which led me to assume it wasn’t straight.

Part the way through I noticed two other things.  There was graffiti on the tunnel wall.  There’s no towpath so this would have to be done from a boat?  I also noticed the evenly spaced iron “H” frames fitted to the tunnel roof.  I’m assuming they were for electricity and perhaps electrically operated tug boats pulled working boats through the tunnel?

The sky was threatening more rain so we moored at Hopwood.  Weather permitting, we will continue tomorrow.