Larry Jeram-Croft's Blog, page 24

New book

Finally the new book 'Siren' is available on Amazon today.  This a is a departure from all my previous ones, it's pure Science Fiction.  It's based on an idea I had many years ago when I was growing up in Winchester.  There is an old stone age hill fort there called St Catherine's Hill.  All sorts of strange stories are told about it, for example there is meant to be a buried chapel right at the top but there is no sign of it.  Just to one side of the summit is a path cut into the ground in a strange pattern, locally known as the 'Miz Maze' it may have had hedges there in years gone by. Another story is that a pupil from Winchester College hanged himself there.  The hill is a strangely regular shape.  As a boy, I fantasized that a space ship was hidden underneath.  Later, I wondered what would happen if I woke it up.  This led to me speculating about how I would cope with suddenly being given effectively God like powers.  Its not an easy question to answer and so eventually Siren was born.  How would you save humanity from itself without being corrupted yourself or causing catastrophic damage?  The book proposes one approach and allows me to murder some sacred cows on the way.  As ever, if you do buy a copy, a review on Amazon would be greatly appreciated.

Edit: apologies -  the current new book pages on Amazon are bit muddled with the cover image in the wrong place - a rude email has been sent and I'm waiting a reply. 





St Catherine's hill, just south of Winchester in Hampshire, spookily regular in shape, are there aliens beneath???

And now for something completely different

Yes, a post that has nothing to do with boats, electrics or ducks today.

Some may remember a while ago, some posts about my latest book.  This is a Science Fiction novel and very different to my others.  Its actually based on my first ideas for a story which I had many years ago.  On the basis of all the good reviews my published books have on Amazon, I thought that  an established track record would be a  selling point with mainstream agents.  On spec I sent it to two who specialise in Sci Fi.  One rejected straight away the other took ages so I kept counsel just in case it was being considered.  After almost three months and some nagging,  I got this:

'It’s certainly pacey stuff and you do well to create visual world, it really came alive as I read. However, it’s not quite as literary as I look for.'

Apart from the dreadful English - it's the first time I've had that sort of praise for one of my books even if its not 'literary' enough - whatever that means.  So give me a few days to finish polishing and the novel 'Siren' will appear for sale on Amazon worldwide.  As usual, I would really appreciate feedback on Amazon or to me directly. 
For those of you who have been asking about a fourth naval novel - it's well underway - about a third complete although the RN are being a bit anal about some of the subject matter so I might have to do some tweaking when its finished.

Back to ducks and the canals next time.



The latest epic out on Sunday.

Ohm's law should be repealed

So we pootled into the little village of Hopwas near Tamworth for a day and ended up staying longer than intended.  The engine charging system had been doing odd things for  a few days so I decided to have a look see.  The problem with a boat that someone else has wired up is that its  *****y hard to work out what all the wires are actually doing.  Ohms law is no help whatsoever even though I had an ammeter as well as volt meter.   However, much to my embarrassment in the process, I discovered that I had wired up my battery monitor incorrectly and also managed to open circuit my Alternator.  That may not mean much to readers - to me it meant £135 to get it repaired.  Luckily there was a local firm who collected it and did the business.  However, with it rebuilt and a fair amount of the electrics redesigned, its all working rather well.
We have also decided on a strategy - to be called the 'Sunday Roast challenge'.  Every Sunday we will ensure we are near a pub and give their Sunday lunches marks out of ten. Something to really look forward to!! The first contender, the Red Lion in Hopwas, only got four as the veg was undercooked.  That said, the beer was fine. 
We've now moved on and are in the village Atherstone in the middle of a flight of eleven locks.  We'll soon be on the Grand Union with wider locks and more boats but hopefully, warmer, less fizzy beer.


Sorry for the boring photo of an alternator but it caused me so much grief it had to be named and shamed.



One reasonably fluffy Cockapoo.  Five minutes later the silly ass fell into the canal by a lock when trying to lean in for a drink, almost got run over by the boat and I had to fish him out.  He probably won't do that again.

Serious navigation

We came across a junction yesterday and actually had to make a decision about where to go.  Should we go straight on or turn right into the Coventry canal?  We turned right but not for far as Fradely Junction was a very pretty place with several cafes and a pub.  Not only that but they served Marstons Pedigree without one of those horrible little nozzles most of the pubs have that make the beer fizzy to give it a head.  Today we pootled a few hours and stopped in a nice little village who's name escapes me but its only a few miles form Tamworth.  Unfortunately my alternator charging system is playing up and I need to service the engine anyway so tomorrow is going to be Sunday Lunch in the pub, the Canadian Grand Prix and an oil change - not necessarily in that order.


The signpost helped.  (Don't get those in the middle of the Atlantic) - Fradley Junction



And for all of you who gave me grief the other day when I described a Swan as a duck - see I'm not the only one!!

Up the creek with a paddle

Carried on pootlin' today.  The sun hid until we stopped and then came out.  We leave the Trent and Mersey tomorrow and turn off  into the Coventry canal to continue our epic voyage south.  One of the things I wanted was to get more exercise while away. My knee doesn't like running anymore and my bike wouldn't fit into the hire car on the way back to the boat but my inflatable canoe would.  I actually blew it up several days ago but wanted a quiet place with no onlookers to watch the inevitable cock up followed by a large splash.  Well ta da! I stayed dry.  Best fifty quid I've spent on Amazon, so within only a few months I will have the physique of an Olympic rower!!

Something very strange has happened

Yes, just look at the photo below and tell me what is totally wrong with it:



Yup - not one cloud in sight - something that hasn't happened in this country for years.  What a beautiful day as we headed further south and finished the day in the little village of Great Haywood.  I even had slightly sun burnt arms, last time that happened I was in St Lucia.  We are right next door to the Sugborough Estate which is a beautiful old country house straight out of Jane Austen Land (for you Red Dwarf fans) so we decided on a quiet day to look around.



Fi trying desperately hard not to show her disappointment when after an hour or so there was no sign of Colin Firth climbing out of a lake.

I also did some boat work and fixed a problem with the generator as well as some varnishing - its all work on the canals.


But I did take some time off to feed this large, hungry, white, duck.

Pottering through the potteries

We left the 'Festival' on Sunday morning and joined the queue of other escapees waiting to lock down.  It took a while but we were glad to get away.  Imagine a rather low average village fete with a few narrow boats and that was it. What's more there were no painted flowery watering cans and the beer was average.  On top of that we were on a busy towpath with every man and his dog looking in on us.  So off we pottered and stopped in the spot in the photo below.  Very pretty and quiet.  Had I actually taken a shot from the other direction you would have seen the word 'Wedgewood' on top of a very large building.  Guess what?  Its where they make pottery.  Actually the Trent And Mersey canal was built for the pottery industry and Mr Wedgewood himself was one of its sponsors.  Fi went off to the museum and factory shop and came back with some really nice pasta bowls (shame they had the words 'TESCOS Homeware' on the back).  We won't tell any guests, just that they are the real thing, as long as I can get the stickers off..  We're now in the little town of Stone a couple of hours further on and its very picturescue.  Now that we have some idea of our progress we've decided not to do Birmingham as it involves 20 locks to get in and of course the same ones to get out.  Also I do want to get to London to do the tidal Thames, so we're heading off to the Grand Onion to head south.



An idyllic spot with loads of people making pottery behind me.

Its scary underground

What a difference a day makes.  Last night we moored up in a little village somewhere and it peed down as we did so and we even lit the fire. 
This morning the sun was out and after a very early start - about 1000, we pootled in glorious spring sunshine, down the last bit of the Macclesfield canal to enter the Trent and Mersey for the dreaded 'HARECASTLE TUNNEL' da da dahhhh.  Luck was with us as they hold boats to go through in batches and we were able to join in at  the end of the train so didn't even have to wait.  Its two miles long, very low in places and very, very dark.  Tigger hated it but I was manly and brave, Fi comforted the dog.  We then meandered into Stoke on Trent which is actually alright from the canal, only to find that there is a narrow boat festival on here at a junction with the Caldon canal.  Having travelled at least fifteen mile this week we've decided to stay for the festival.  We will be looking for a watering can painted with flowers and probably some beer.


An amazing feet of engineering - built by Telford - two miles long and all done by hand.


 Moi, scared??!!

Literally the light at the end of the tunnel after half an hour in the dark.  Tigger's new cruising position, except in tunnels of course Oh and for my Australian friend on his sieve, oops, catamaran - we don't have a spinnaker and Fi's back is fine now!!

Day one - a voyage of epic portions

So we left today with a full water tank, full fuel tank and empty toilet - I think that's the right way to do it.  We also have loads of scoff and the odd libation or seventeen.  Mind you the forecast was right - it is raining and Fi put her back out but we went anyway All in all we made at least three miles before deciding to stop for lunch and now we're staying here - er wherever it is.  With five months to do a few hundred miles we are going to have to slow down a lot, even compared to Caribbean sailing where we were hardly in a rush. 


Took the dog for a walk and saw this chap fishing, might have to get my rod out.  If he thinks there are fish in there - there probably are.

So thats all the gardening done then

Back on the boat now and final preps for leaving tomorrow.  Two troughs of flowers and herbs are now on the roof to provide some colour and flavour.  We'll be heading back towards the Trent and Mersey but not going quite as fast as we came up it - fast being a relative term as in a shallow canal like the Macclesfield we are hard pushed to get over 3 knots anyway.  We'll head down towards Birmingham which is meant to be really good these days and probably to London before heading back up the Thames to Oxford.  Had a really good party to go to on Saturday and even today on Monday I'm feeling the effects.  Guess I'll stop drinking for a week or so (yeah right).
So question of the day:  we're leaving tomorrow - guess what the forecast is? - B***dy rain all day.