Busy Friday, quiet Saturday

4th & 5th December

We’ve had a busy day yesterday and a quieter day today. On Friday morning we tried a new order of events. Last week I’d planned to go and get the newspaper after we’d done our visit to inspect progress on Sanity Again, but we spent so long doing that that it was lunch time by the time we’d finished, and too late to get a paper. Sheila’s neat idea this week was that I should go and get the paper first and then she met me at the yard with my camera.

This worked well, as I was only ten minutes early at the rendezvous, which gave me ten minutes to stand on the towpath bridge and gloat over the prospect of the new boat.

I’ve given an account of that visit on the other blog and posted some more pictures on Flickr.

We didn’t take quite so long this time, so had time to get on with some housekeeping jobs before lunch. This boat work continued after lunch and with pauses for IT stuff and the like took up the rest of the afternoon. It included leaving the mooring to get water, diesel and a pump out, the latter two of which we seem to need about every fortnight at the moment.

Today we made a leisurely start on a rather better day, weather wise, than we’ve seen for a bit, although we’ve still been plagued by sudden showers. We had quite a lazy morning, frankly, but did go out for a walk in Lyme Park after lunch.

The forecast for tomorrow is pretty good as well, but less so for Monday when I have my next physio appointment in Marple. We may well boat part of the distance tomorrow, and overnight at Deer Farm Bend. Depending on the weather we may then go on to Bugsworth for Tuesday night. This could make for difficulties getting an internet connection on Monday, so don’t be surprised if my next post is a day late.

Marple under mildly difficult circumstances

2nd & 3rd December

We made a prompt start yesterday on our delayed trip to Marple. The weather, although dry and reasonably calm, was bitterly cold. Sheila had prepared for this by wearing fleece lined trousers and a fleece gilet under her usual fleece jacket. I was very happy to leave her on the back by herself for much of the time.

On arrival at Marple we found, as Caxton had warned us, that the work on the towpath edge just to the west of bridge 2 meant that little mooring was available; furthermore, the BW work boat was tied on the service block wharf whilst it unloaded some huge boulders. Sheila had handed over to me for mooring, so it fell to me to wind in the junction and then reverse up the Upper Peak Forest to a mooring on the towpath opposite the marina.

It’s never very deep just there, and there are no rings, but we were able to get reasonably close and we drove two substantial pins into the rather muddy towpath.

There followed the routine of shopping, getting back to the boat for a coffee and a warm, and then shopping again. We had planned to treat ourselves to a haggis in belated recognition of St Andrew’s Day but Whites the butchers was closed.

I then did my share of steering in the cold, similarly attired. Back at Poynton, we followed The Big Boat to the winding hole and winded just after her. She went on back to Skye’s mooring (which she seems to be using all the time now) and we waited just a few minutes for fellow Marineville moorer Carbis to finish watering, and then replaced her on the water point.

I took the opportunity of collecting our post from the yard, which included a new toilet seat. Back on the mooring there was just time for the straightforward task of swapping loo seats before I had a shower and cooked dinner.

Those with experience of DIY will recognise the implicit irony in the foregoing statement.

Sure enough, I was just putting one of the fixings onto its thread when it slipped from my fingers and fell into the back area of the porcelain. This wouldn’t have been a problem as it only meant removing the ply board from behind the toilet to get access, which involved taking out four small screws. However, as I lifted this piece of ply clear it fouled the power supply to the macerator and pulled the cable out of its isolator box.

I won’t go on, it’s too painful to recall, and it only took another half hour to sort it all out.

Today is Sheila’s natal day so we’ve had a quiet day after she’d opened her presents this morning. We’re going out for a meal tonight. The weather hasn’t been good enough to allow for more than a brief sally out with the recycling this afternoon. We’ve both been doing our proofreading bit and Sheila has continued to work on the set of coasters she is crocheting for Sanity Again:




Tomorrow we will make our weekly visit to the new boat and I’ll upload a fresh set of pictures as well as doing a post on the other blog.

Still snuggled down

30th November & 1st December

We changed our plans once more over the last couple of days, again in the light of the weather forecast. We’d planned to go to Marple today (Tuesday) having decided that Monday was going to be too cold and windy. However, we woke this morning to find some ice on the cut and a forecast giving strong wind and rain later in the day.

By contrast, the forecast for tomorrow is quite reasonable at least until mid afternoon, so we shall go then.

Meanwhile, yesterday had its interesting moments. We were nicely settled down pursuing our literary interests when Peter Mason rang to discuss the best location for the VHF antenna and the solar panels on the roof of Sanity Again. This is where our earlier research stood us in good stead. We had soon decided that a single large panel would work best, identified a possible unit, printed out the technical information about it and were able to go across to the yard for a discussion.

I’ll put more detail about this on the other blog on Friday; we’ve actually ended up with a different solar panel, because the manufacturer of our original choice, Kyocera, does not extend a warranty to mobile applications of their products.

I’m still researching the issue of the best co-ax connector for where the VHF antenna lead goes through the roof; it’s important that this is of the right quality or we shall lose transmission power and therefore coverage.

My discovery of a new, multi platform piece of software for formatting e books, Sigil, means that I have joined Sheila in the interesting exercise of preparing ebooks for use. Sheila’s contribution is as part of the Distributing Proofreading Team (in fact the Canadian branch) which prepares the text of scanned books for publication by Project Gutenberg.

Sigil comes in once Gutenberg has distributed the resulting text. It is very much still a work in progress, in fact its creator describes it as an alpha version, but even so it is reasonably stable on the Mac (that is, it doesn't fall over more than twice an hour). It allows you to take the HTML version of the Gutenberg text, tidy it up and output it in ePub format which is becoming the standard for ebook readers.

The aim is to be able to use it in WYSIWYG mode, but at present some of the tinkering has to be done in code view. Anyone with experience of producing web pages will find little difficulty in getting to grips with the variant of XML which is ePub.

The other thing to report is that on my way back from getting a paper and a loaf of bread, I found Caxton filling her water tank. I made myself known to Lesley and Joe and we had a good chat before they set off for Bollington and I went back to Sanity.

This afternoon has seen the weather deteriorate somewhat, though nothing like as much as forecast. Nonetheless, it is still very cold and we’ve been glad to keep busy inside the boat.

A brief excursion

28th & 29th November

When we got up and checked the weather forecast yesterday morning, we had a serious ponder whilst drinking our matutinal tea. As I said at the end of the last post, we’d planned to boat to Adlington in time for lunch, meet Peter & Jan at the Miners’ Arms, and then go on to Macclesfield today, Sunday.

However, the forecast indicated a return to the strong wind and heavy rain which has been such a feature of this month. Monday afternoon and evening were scheduled to be calmer but only at the price of a severe frost on Monday night. Faced with this programme of being blown about and then possibly frozen in, we decided that a return to the comfort of the home mooring after lunch would be a better plan.

Accordingly, having consumed a leisurely breakfast we went down to the water point, filled the tank and dumped rubbish before ambling on towards the visitor moorings opposite Lyme View Marina.

Lunch at the Miners’ was a success as always, although the puddings took a long time to arrive. Peter and Jan came back to Poynton on the boat with us and having had a cup of tea we all set off to walk back towards Adlington. Sheila and I turned back at bridge 16 and left Peter and Jan to complete their walk back to the car in what was by now a crepuscular light.

On the way down to Adlington we’d stopped briefly alongside Stewart Hooper’s coal boat, Anne, and asked him to deliver ten bags of mixed ovoids to our mooring. He was happy to do this, but indicated that it would be Monday before he dropped them off. We were, therefore, slightly surprised to see ten bags of coal stacked on the wharf edge when we looked out first thing this morning.

Stewart, we knew, was an early riser, but we’d understood that he was planning to get our coal as part of a fresh load from Stockport. No doubt when he calls to collect his money he will explain the change of plan.

I took advantage of a lull in the weather to go and buy a paper and a loaf of bread, but by the time I got back it was raining again. We therefore postponed organising the coal to our satisfaction until after lunch and a postponed assault on yesterday’s general knowledge crossword from the Independent.

It’s still an enjoyable task, but the quality of questions was even worse than last week. One of the answers was Wanderoo, the question being “Monkey, Macaca silenus, of India and Sri Lanka”. The Macaca silenus is in fact the Lion tailed Macaque, which only occurs in the Ghats of southern India. "Wanderoo" is a Sri Lankan name for the Tufted Grey Langur, whose systematic name is Semnopithecus priam.

It's bad enough having these obscure, Wikipedia stretching questions, but they might at least get it right.

By the time we’d done all this, the sun had popped out to tease us again, so we took the opportunity to get the coal organised. We took the two remaining bags of Excel off the roof, moved the tarpaulin to a convenient location under the hedge and then stacked most of the coal on it and folded it over. Two of the bags of ovoids having split, we put them straight into the coal box in the well deck.

We’ve spent the rest of the day on our usual activities. We expect the weather to be unpleasant again tomorrow, so that will be a case of more of the same. It’s scheduled to improve on Tuesday, so we shall probably take a run down to Marple for restocking on that day.

A quick update

26th & 27th November

Just a quick update: I’ve already added two sets of pictures to Flickr (well, one proper set, this week’s Sanity Again progress photos, and an extra set using the standard shot from just inside the bow doors, week by week, which will build up to show the fit out as it develops) and I’ve done a blog on the other side.

Yesterday we walked down to Poynton, shopped and caught the bus back again. This is proving a good way of getting a mid week top up for the stores. Otherwise we stayed snuggled down in the boat, doing our usual stuff.

Today we went round to the yard and spent most of the morning there, talking to Peter and Susan, drinking coffee and taking photos inside the shell. Soon it won’t seem right to call it “the shell”; once the linings are in and the bulkheads start going up she’ll look much more like a boat.

This afternoon the weather turned horrid again, so more time indoors, doing internet stuff and reading.

Tomorrow we’re going to boat down to Adlington and meet Sheila’s folks in the Miners’ Arms for lunch. If the weather holds, we might put in a bit of walking afterwards.

See you on Sunday; we’ll either have gone on to Macclesfield, or retreated to the mooring.

Fending off cabin fever

24th & 25th November

It’s been a couple of days for lurking inside the boat. The only significant boating activity has been an oil change yesterday afternoon. We change the oil and filter every 200 engine hours, so just a bit more frequently than once every two months at this time of year, and more often in the summer when we are boating about.

I’m going to use the rest of this post to outline the challenges of coping with the sort of weather we’re getting just now, and then I’ll mention a broader issue at the end. It’s a matter of concern to us always that people inspired by the Waterworld programme or by reading the classic book Narrow Boat by Tom Rolt may get a romantic, not to say rose tinted view of the lifestyle.

I hope that this blog gives a better picture of the joys and tribulations of living on board; as I’ve said before, November is the toughest month, especially when dirty weather keeps us “cabin’d, cribb’d, confined”.

To start with the oil change, the great strength of the traditional stern is that we were able to do it with the back end all closed up. I hate to think what it would have been like in a semi trad or even worse a cruiser sterned boat.

The bad weather means that we can’t put the perspex in the side hatch, and the cabin lights are on almost all day. This is adequate for most purposes but things like needlework just have to wait for better weather.

We’re also glad of the cratch which gives us a porch area in the bow, protecting the coal box and the stack of cut wood and kindling from the elements. The coal box was pretty empty this morning, so we picked our moment just after lunch to nip out, open up the tarpaulin on the roof and lift down another bag of coal to fill it up again. We’re down to just two big bags left up there, so the next time we see Stewart Hooper we must ask him to deliver us some more. No sooner were we back in the cabin than the wind howled once more and a fusillade of rain beat upon the roof.

Apart from all this, Sheila has finished the side fender she was working on. I am quite pleased because I made a grommet to be worked into the end as the hanging loop. To do this I found a piece of rope three times longer than the circumference of the loop I wanted to make, unlaid it into its three component strands and then laid up one of the strands round itself twice thus creating an endless loop in the manner of a deck quoit.

Sheila then incorporated this into one of the final rounds of half hitching just before she did the decreases to finish the end of the fender.

The rest of the time, we mostly read and surf the net, and of course Sheila always has her proof reading.

Finally the IWA has circulated the following appeal concerning a petition against the Treasury requiring British Waterways to sell of its property portfolio. The text is self explanatory and I hope readers in the UK who haven’t already done so will feel able to sign the petition. Its already got more than 2000 signatures and is in the top fifty petitions on the site. The aim is to get it in the top twenty five. Clive Henderson, National Chairman of the IWA, says:

You may know about the media speculation that the Government intends to
include the British Waterways property portfolio as a component of the
£16bn asset sale.

The Government has made no announcements and is steadfastly refusing to
be drawn on the subject.

We have been using this period of silence as a window of opportunity to
lobby Ministers. We have orchestrated a political lobby in both the
Commons and latterly the Lords to pressurise government, and briefed
radio and national TV, using an array of reasons to support the argument
that a sale would be in no-one’s interest.


We stand the best chance of preventing this sale if the government can
be persuaded not to do this during this period of Ministerial silence.
Whilst no announcements have been made, it is easy for government to
back away as it involves no public reversal of policy.


However, an e-petition has appeared on the 10 Downing Street website;

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/protectourcanals/


IWA supports the statements in the petition. The worst outcome now that
this is in the public domain, would be if this petition receives scant
support. That might give Ministers the impression that there are few
waterways supporters who care very much about the issue. On the other
hand, if it well supported, the Government, this close to an election,
is very sensitive to actions it might take which lose votes and would
probably take notice .

I am therefore urging you to sign up to this petition -if you agree
with it, and ask that you encourage everyone that you know, to also sign
up.

We need more signatures than the total number of boaters in the UK – So
please ask all of your colleagues, friends and family and e-mailable
contacts to help us today! – and ask them to pass this message on as
well- we need all of the UK to know about this and to respond on line .


The future of the waterways could depend on your actions today – please
act, and pass this message on.

Through dirty weather to Marple and back

22nd & 23rd November

It’s going to be one of those shortish blogs today because we’re both very tired. Yesterday, we made a very lazy start in the face of rather uninviting weather. After lunch, we wandered down to the tip with our bags of recycling. On the way back, we took an unscheduled peep inside Sanity Again, she having been spray foamed the day before.

Everything is indeed covered in dense yellow foam, and I don’t envy the boatyard guys the job of cutting it all back to reveal the battens again.

The rest of the day was spent lurking in the boat. Sheila got a bit more fender made and we both did various things on the net.

For a number of reasons neither of us slept particularly well last night, which was awkward as we needed to make a decent start this morning. Fortunately, the weather, although still not pleasant, had moderated sufficiently to make boating reasonably feasible. At half eight I backed Sanity off her mooring and we made brisk progress to Marple, arriving just before ten o’clock.

This meant we had time for an initial shopping trip and then a cup of coffee before I had to get ready for my physio appointment. Whilst Matthew was hauling my bones about, Sheila paid another visit to the shops so that we are now more or less fully stocked again.

When I told Matthew that we lived on a boat, he looked at me a shade suspiciously and asked “Do you write a blog?”. It seems that he had been googling “Marple physio” and had been a little surprised to find my blog mention of the other week.

I’m happy to say that not only was I able to be complimentary about the practice on that occasion, I can be so again. Matthew proved to be as helpful and effective as his colleague and my shoulder is showing the benefit.

Back at the boat, we had lunch and then Sheila winded Sanity, an evolution which was even trickier than usual because of the cross wind, which forced her to turn clockwise in the junction when she has a preference for going widdershins at that location. Nonetheless, she got round without hitting anything and we then sat on the water point for half an hour or so whilst the hose dribbled into the tank.

On physio days Sheila steers back so as not to stress my newly hauled about shoulder. She certainly got the worst of the deal today as the weather enthusiastically reverted to its wet and windy mode. Typically, when she handed over to me to dock Sanity, the wind died away, it stopped raining and Sanity slid into her berth in a single smooth move. Since then we’ve devoted our time to tea drinking and recovery.

We’ve no very firm plans for the rest of the week, apart from the usual Friday inspection of Sanity Again. Looking at the forecast I suspect we’ll be having a pretty quiet time in the haven of the cabin whilst the wind and rain do their worst outside.