On our way to Harecastle

Sat 10 March

After a night on the shop mooring, we set off shortly after 9 for the first epic stage of this year's cruising. Only not quite, as we had arranged to meet Sheila's brother and sister-in-law, Peter and Jan for one last meal together that lunchtime, and we had agreed to meet at the Miner's Arms at Adlington, less than an hours cruising away. It was still good to be going along knowing it wasn't just an out and back job, although there was a real sadness at saying bye for now to the Brycelands and the guys in the yard. It's been a strange sort of winter, but very enjoyable in many respects, despite its sadnesses.

After the usual great meal at the Miner's, we fell back on the boat for coffee and natter, until Peter and Jan had to go.

Sunday 11 March

After a leisurely start we headed off for Macclesfield. We'd originally thought of aiming to pass Harecastle Tunnel on Monday (during the winter it's only open Mon, Weds, Fri and Sat) but you have to give 48 hours notice on the winter timetable, and we'd forgotten to ring on Friday (BW offices don't open on Saturdays). Hence the leisurely progress.

We stopped on the Macclesfield water point for water and a quick trip to the local Co-op for a paper and bread, and then cruised round to the Gurnett Aqueduct mooring for the night. Gurnett is right by Macclesfield Garden Centre, so some time in the afternoon was usefully spent buying half a dozen primulas and potting compost to fill our two plant pots. Truly Spring has arrived.

We were pleased to see an OwnerShips boat, Chisbury, tied there, as it confirmed that Bosley Locks had reopened on schedule after their winter stoppage.

Monday 12 March

After a quiet night, we were up in good time, with the prospect of the first locks for four and a half months ahead, and 12 of them at that. The weather initially was quite wet, but cold, so it was a case of hunkering down in the back and plodding on. The trad design of Sanity's back end means that rain is no big deal until it gets to the point where the eyebrows fill up with water and vision becomes difficult.

Bosley turned up in due course, still where we'd left it in November, and we set off down the locks. Sheila worked the first half while I steered, and then we swapped over for the second half. The weather was improving all the time, and it was really very pleasant by the end. What's more, there was a socking great pallet fished out of the cut and abandoned on the bottom lock landing at 12, so we tidied it away onto the roof.

There's a really nice set of moorings at the foot of Bosley, where we stopped at 12.15, having taken just two hours to work down with all bar two of the locks against us (in other words, empty, so that each one had to be filled before we could use it).

After lunch, Sheila set to and converted various bits of wood on the roof into firewood, whilst I went and played with the new toy, ie my camera. As it happened, another OwnerShips boat, Stolen Time was coming down the locks, and I got some nice shots of her making the final turn into the bottom lock.

Tuesday 13 March

Woke feeling a bit stiff this morning, but not as bad as might have been expected. It was a glorious day, and after a leisurely start, we set off for the last stretch of the Macc. As usual, we stopped at Congleton Wharf and walked into town to do some shopping, including more rechargeable batteries for the camera - it's a fairly power greedy beast, and will clearly cost a lot to keep running on ordinary Duracells.

Got back to the boat in nice time for lunch, and who should turn up but Stolen Time again, having been passed by us earlier in the day. The nice chap on it came up and offered us some bits of wood he'd picked up in the canal-side copses, but wasn't going to be able to use before their cruise finished. We used to be OwnerShips owners ourselves, and it was good to share some experiences of the scheme with him.

After lunch we carried on to the last quiet mooring on the Macc at Hall Green. Harecastle in the morning.