Tag: Droitwich Spa Marina

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Summer 2024 Cruise Part 8 – Last few locks to home

Bit of a lay in this morning no need to get away early as we have just about 4 miles and just 15 locks, 3 of which we will have welcome help from the CRT volunteers at Hanbury locks 1,2 & 3.

Lock one of the day is Stoke Top Lock, which is the first one of six lock in this flight.

Stoke Top Lock
Stoke Top Lock

The last lock in the Stoke Locks which FYI drops the canal 40ft (12.8m), is where we first hired a canal boat from Black Prince Holidays, which is also where we purchased our boat a few years ago.

Black Prince Holidays - Stoke Bottom Lock
Black Prince Holidays – Stoke Bottom Lock

We have done this trip a few time, and depending on timing we have moored up outside The Boat and Railway Pub where you can sit and watch the boats go by.

The Boat and Railway Pub
The Boat and Railway Pub
Astwood Top Lock

Next we have the Astwood locks, just 5 this time and they drop the canal 42 feet (12.8m), we met a family group who Sonia showed how the locks worked while getting the kids involved, once a teacher always a teacher.

These are our last locks before we turn onto the Droitwich Canal and we get to the Hanbury locks, where we meet 3 very helpful CRT volunteers. They are there to make sure the locks are operated correctly as they are more complicated than most with side pounds.

Then we are at our home base Droitwich Spa Marina for a Pump-out and fuel. We had used approx ¼ of a tank in the past 3 weeks, of not non-stop chugging.

Droitwich Spa Marina - Refuel
Droitwich Spa Marina – Refuel

This has been a good test for our up and coming gap year plans, with just the two of us most of the time. We have found that we need to plan what we are trying to achieve so that we are not overdoing it too often.

Next we have to clean the boat touch up a few scratches from earlier trips. We have lent the boat out a few time this year, and it is starting to show.

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Planning for Solar Panels part 8 – Buying Solar Panels and Mountings

When looking at Solar Panels I wanted a know brand and also ones with a strong thick tempered glass top, many of the people I had spoken to about the panels installed on their boats mentioned how easily they flexed and therefore worried about their ultimate strength (This could be a even bigger problem with tillable mountings?).

I had discovered while trawling the data sheets for solar panels, that they seemed to come with two different thicknesses of tempered glass, the cheaper ones had 1.6mm glass while generally the more expensive had 3.2mm glass.

I also noticed the ranges available for the cheap panels changed almost weekly, I would find and interesting panel and just a few days later they would vanish from stock.

In the end I decided to go with City Plumping, who always had stock available at some very good prices. I selected 2 of their 435W panels (LR5-54HTH-435M) from Longi Solar at £91.76 (£110.11 inc VAT) each.

435W panels (LR5-54HTH-435M) from Longi Solar

Best bit about ordering from City Plumping was free delivery 🙂 I had been quoted £50 for delivery and often at a price almost double for the same spec (lets hope I got a bargain).

Now that I know the panels are ordered and I have the final size of the panels, I can order the mounting and after much debate and costing up alternative solutions, I have ended up ordering the Semi-Permanent Adjustable Mounting from Midsummer, they cut them to length before shipping ready for me to install.

My panels are much larger, but the mounting will be like this.

After I placed the order online with Midsummer, I followed the order up and sent over a copy of the panels data sheet, which included all the dimensions they needed. Very quickly I got a response to says they had got what they needed and it would all ship ASAP.

I did also check with the Marina (Droitwich Spa Marina) that they would be happy to hold onto the panels for me, I would not be visiting for a week. As normal they could not be more helpful, always a good experience.

Also see
Planning for Solar Panels – Part 1
Planning for Solar Panels Part 2 – Panel Mounting Options
Planning for Solar Panels Part 3 – Types of Panels
Planning for Solar Panels Part 4 – MPPT vs PWM solar controllers
Planning for Solar Panels part 5 – Cable sizes, lengths and resistance.
Planning for Solar Panels part 6 – Panels in Serial or Parallel
Planning for Solar Panels part 7 – Buying the cable and Circuit breakers
Planning for Solar Panels part 8 – Buying Solar Panels and Mountings
Planning for Solar Panels part 9 – Wiring
Planning for Solar Panels part 10 – Drilling, Tapping and Fitting

Safety Disclaimer

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August 2023 – A little adventure, Droitwich to Birmingham

We only have about a week with all the family on the boat and we have decided to do a quick trip to Birmingham. Sonia, Mary, Obi (The Dog) and I arrived at the Droitwich Spa Marina on Sunday about 8pm we left home after Mary had finished her Sunday job working in the café of a local garden centre, Antony and Ellie arrived form Reading at around 10:30pm.

With the team assembled the plan was to get the boats waste tank pumped out at about 10am on Monday when the marina office opened, before heading off up the Birmingham and Worcester Canal.

Need to know when it is time to pump out, see our fool proof
method of knowing when you pump out before it is to late?

Monday morning arrived and we started late, lazily then decided to send Sonia and Mary off to McD for our breakfast, then we needed to head to Waitrose for supplies, and when we finally got to the pump out we had to wait for another boat. In the end somehow it was noon before we set off, we then had a little fun against the wind in the marina trying the back out away from the pump out dock and then turn around to exit onto the canal.

Nearing the end of our first day we passed our boats original home at Black Prince (Stole Prior) where we could see their new look Classic and Signature colour schemes

Black Prince at Stoke Prior

After a quite and uneventful trip and 4 ½ hours of chugging we had traveled just over 4 miles and completed 15 locks, our team had got the lock procedure well sorted.

Antony, Ellie, Mary and Sonia (I am behind the camera and Obi is on the boat)

But after the later than planned start we decided to get to started on the Tardebigge in the morning and so stopped for Pizza at The Queens Head, this seems to be becoming a tradition (They have a 2 for 1 deal on Pizza’s between 5 and 6.30pm Monday to Thursday).

So we set the alarm for 7am so we could get an early start up the Tardebigge.

Long term Moorings

Looking for a marina or mooring for you boat, take a look at our map with information on 1000’s of mooring in over 850 sites around the UK canal and river network.

August 2023 – Part 1 – A little adventure, Droitwich to Birmingham
August 2023 – Part 2 – A really Tardebigge adventure
August 2023 – Part 3 – Birmingham Engine Lows and Highs
August 2023 – Part 4 – Lost dog and diner out at Ju Ju’s Cafe
August 2023 – Part 5 – Screwfix almost saves the day

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Tug Boats at the Black Country Living Museum

Last year we had planned to visit the Black Country Living Museum while on our summer trip, but due to time constraints we had to motor past. Well this weekend we were on our mooring checking the boat over and decided we could make the trip, but this time by car.

From Droitwich Spa Marina it is just 22 miles by road up the M5 to BCLM, so after a slow start off we went, we arrived at approx 11am and found the overflow carpark, which with luck had a row of PodPoint electric chargers, so we plugged in and wandered in.

At £22.50 Per Adult it is not cheap, but as we found, there is a lot to see, with lots of work going on with new displays being built. I suspect this kind of museum is never finished, as you can see from the map below lots of areas for development.

Map of the current museum (There is lots in development)

I was not feeling 100% so this was going to a slow walk around, we also could not stay late as we had left Obi, our Sprollie dog, looking after the boat.

There is lots to see all arranged in areas around streets, we started will a look around Jerushah Cottage, inside the lady of the house was working on a Rag rug, cutting the material into lengths, she told us some of the fascinating history of the building and the how the family lived.

We then moved on to the The Workers’ Institute and Cafe for a well needed coffee in a tin mug, while Sonia had tea and a slice of Victoria Sponge.

A. Hartill Motorcycles

Then past the Elephant and Castle Pub popping in to A. Preedy & Son Tobacconists and the A. Hartill Motorcycles for a nose around, in which we found a early Seagull outboard motor, which was manufactured in the Sunbeamland Factory in Wolverhampton.

A. Preedy & Son Tobacconists

Then it was down to the canal for the main reason for out trip to see the old working boats that had come for a special weekend visit. We had a few chats to the owners and keepers of these fantastic old beasts, mostly tug boats used for pulling barges AKA ‘joeys’ around the local canals. We stopped and had a good look at Bitten a 1934 example which I was surprised to see had a draft probably 12″, 30cm, deeper that our modern boat.

Canal Tug boats and Joeys on the quay side

We walked around the quay side, had a quick look at a nail making demonstration, but it was hard to see as it was drawing quite a crowd. The on for a look around the Bottle and Glass Inn, then we could smell the fish and chips cooking just up the road at The Village Fried Fish Shop, unfortunately due to my diet, only Sonia could sample there wares, I did steal the odd chip and very good it was too.

The queue for the chip shop

All that had taken over 3 hours, and I would think we had still a good 60% left to see and sample including cakes and pasties from Veal’s Baker’s Shop and sweets from T. Cook’s Sweet Shop, all of which seemed very popular to the bank holiday visitors.

Due to out time constraints we started walking back to the entrance and the obligatory browse in the gift shop, not forgetting to buy a parking token so we could get our car out of the carpark.

With our entrance we got a full 12 months access to the Museum, but I suspect we will be back again in the not to distant future.

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The Hull Blacking Experiance

We decided we should get the hull blacked, as we did not wish to leave it too long and end up with more problems. I had checked around on the boat forums and Facebook groups so I had an idea of the costs involved.

We had initially planned to get the boat hauled out and do the work ourselves, all part of the boating experience, so we went to the Marina office to ask the costs etc, by the time we left we had decided to let them do everything.

We even went for 3 coats for extra protection. The cost including everything was estimated to be about £1200.00 Inc VAT.

After our chat I was very sure they would do a better job than me, far quicker, and with much less pain and effort on my part. The plan was they would move the boat to the slipway, load her onto a trailer and pull he out to be placed on blocks.

Stripped, ready for painting

After they cleaned up the hull ready for blacking, they noticed some pitting about midway along the hull, nothing major, but would recommend checking carefully next time. A recommendation was to fit some slim extra anodes fore and aft of this area, as you can see below. Fitting these cost an about £275 on the final invoice.

Blacked with extra anodes fitted

All looking good, she is ready to go back in the water

Back on the trailer

Slipped back onto the trailer and heading to the slipway

Back in the water

Now back in the water, it is an impressive trailer

All done with a tractor

As you can see, all done with the trusty aide of a tractor.

The final bill was £1507.70 including the new anodes.

Droitwich Spa Marina did an excellent job as far as we could judge, passing on the notes about pitting gives us more options for when we do this again. I must thank them for all the pictures and care they took with our boat.

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