Atherstone and then in the middle of nowhere

Yesterday we fetched up in Atherstone, after a cruise early in the day from just around the corner from Hartshill Boat Yard - the day before we had moored near the quarry and could briefly hear machinery before they stopped work. Nice cruise, lovely part of the canal, I think. Lots of bendy bits, lots of straight bits and some good views.

One thing I did notice was a huge workshop with enormous amounts of machinery in it and moored up alongside it over quite a substantial length of canal - it was Rothens workshop. Looking at the signage on the tugs and barges and cranes and dredges, Rothens is a company contracted to CRT to do canal maintenance.

Looking at the shiny state of their machinery, I cynically commented to David:

their machinery is too clean to be doing much work
so that's where the licence fees are being spent - on the establishment of a company to outsource maintenance to.

So let's not complain about the cost of a change of signage and interp from BWB to CRT. Let's focus on how much Rothens are being paid in their maintenance contract, what's included in the Service Level Agreements and what's not, and how much of it is actually being done and what is the cost per metre of canal. And is it more cost effective than when CRT/BWB did it themselves with their own equipment?

And the same goes for the lawn mowing and strimming of the towpath which are also now contracted out.

I'd be really interested to know how much the costs for both those sets of works have increased (taking inflation and wage increases into account) since the outsourcing.

From my experience in both corporates and government organisations, outsourcing is never cheaper. It is almost always a way to

cut staff,
change from having CAPEX items (equipment etc) to OPEX (the contract cost) because OPEX is easier to get because it doesn't go on the Asset Register and require depreciation or impact the bottom line ...and
shift costs from one budget line to another to make financial reports look better.
remove the costs of employing staff...

Of course, I've not seen any of those things actually achieved, apart from the CAPEX/OPEX swap and budget lines. When a firm takes on a contract as a service provider, they build the costs of employing people into their contract, PLUS a profit margin, and a contingency for risk. And they are always lookinmg for the items that are not included in the Service Level Agreements because they bring in additional income. And all of that equals no cost savings ...

Rant over, apart from saying I'd like to see more strimming done on the towpath so that there is more accessibility for walkers, cyclists and boaters. And let's not get trapped in the argument about providing habitat for wildlife - there is a balance achievable that would meet the need of all parties, including the insects, birds, voles, fish as well as people. My concern re the rampant growth on the towpath - particularly bad on the Oxford - is that some of the plants, if left, will become shrubs and trees and will, as they grow, damage the sides of the canal/blow over in the winter storms and block the canal - and end up costing more in remediation than trimming to a reasonable level on a regular basis.

OK, so my rant wasn't over ...

In Atherstone, we managed to get a mooring in between the last two bridges before the top lock - lovely, open, good sun, and even though the batteries weren't up to 100% because we had done some washing on the way, the solars did a great job of filling them up.

We headed off to the Coop - we remembered sort of where it was from our last trip. I was surprised to see there is an Aldi there too now plus a second Coop, if the teenager I asked was correct.

It's a nice Coop in the north end of town, and we asked a staff member if they sold coat hangers. No she said, but try the charity shops. Yes there were one or two open even though it's Sunday, she told us.

So off we went. And before we found a charity shop, we found the Turkish barbers. I bravely asked if they could cut my hair. Yes, because it's short. So we both had a haircut.

My turn - the young man had hardly any English but was most obliging and a good cutter.

David's first professional cut for many years - I usually do it, but this man did a far better job!

Stylish!!

Then we found it was cash only and we had none. We clearly look trustworthy because we had to go back to the boat to get cash and they didn't object at all.

I scored 4 coathangers at the Air Ambulance Charity Shop, and we went back to collect cash. Cash in hand (pocket) we headed towards the bridge and I noticed a teenaged boy and girl - he was squirting water at her from his drink bottle. I asked him if I could have the bottle - and because he was so surprised I think, he just gave it to me. 😮 I handed it to her and said "Now it's your turn - get him.' 😉😊😝😄

We had boated early because the forecast was for heavy rain in the afternoon - and it sure pelted down! Thunder, lightning, big fat drops of rain. Lovely to be in a warm dry boat!

Big rain drops!

The pram cover is an absolute boon! I was trying for a photo to show the rain on the canal surface but when I look at this photo I am just so impressed with the shelter we get from the pram cover!

And forward view from that fab pc...

I prepared three loaves of sourdough throughout yesterday, having left the starter to do its thing up in the pramcover the night before. And because I wanted to get the bread baked before I went to bed, I stayed up till about 10pm - very late for me. When I had finished ACP asked if there was a slice of fresh bread going. Nope!

There were eleven locks to do today, so I was first up, even before I had a cup of tea! I got the washing machine filled, 2 loaves of bread into the freezer, the pramcover down, fenders up and ropes untied while David was doing other manly chores. We moved off at 6.15 and it was immediately time to deal to the locks. As I approached in the boat, I noticed that the forward paddles were still partially up - from last night! Doh!! (We had seen the last boat go through that didn't wind, so we knew which one to look out for.)

That was the case on the first two locks, and in the first pound the water level was down about 18 inches below the 'high tide' mark. It was a bit lower in the second pound but not so extreme.

By the third lock they had worked out that they had made a mistake but didn't go back to sort it for the first two - oops.

I had been looking for the hire company to let them know their hirers needed better training, and couldn't find them on Facebook and their company offices are in Spain ... The 0800 number is not staffed at 6.30am for some reason!

But while I was looking for them, I found our friend Robert so sent him a friend request. Then I sent him photos of where we were and of David working.

I called him to get him to turn around so I could take a photo for Robert. He's walking although it does look like he's sitting on the lock arm.


Hydrangeas at Bridge 43, leaving Lock 5

He is letting me out ...

We caught up with the hirers where they were still moored this morning and I went back to chat with them. They were apologetic and very friendly. They asked for top tips, so I gave them a few:

stop the boat with the middle rope rather than the front one - parallel pulling works better than on an angle made by the bow and the canal side
wrap the middle rope twice around the bollard and then stand on the trailing end to bring the boat to a halt - keep your hands well away
stop for water wherever you see a tap
check for boats coming your way who may be able to use the water before you fill or empty
leave the gates open for approaching boats if they are within sight or only one lock away
if no boats close, then close all paddles, close all gates, unless the signage tells you otherwise

All simple stuff, but stuff that passes you by often when getting instructions from your hire company when you are on information overload...

Going down in the world - 80 feet down over 11 locks.

My friend the crow!

We moored up at 10.30 this morning about a mile out of Polesworth , in the middle of nowhere. We can hear the trains in the distance, but it's peaceful apart from multiple boats coming past. It seemed weird and a bit wrong or lazy to be finished up so early in the day. But we had already done over four hours of boating. So I just have to get over the puritanical thoughts of a full day's work, don't it? I know Mick and Julia would not approve though ...

And the weather was meant to turn a bit nasty, so getting settled before it did so seemed sensible. And we hadn't had breakfast either!

So moored, pramcover up, washing hung inside it and in the cratch, breakfast made (the leftover mushroom sauce on sourdough toast for David, berries, yoghurt and nut mix for me) and consumed. Then reading, blogging and blobbing. David though has been active - look at this: