30th & 31st October
It felt like sleeping in, but we woke at 7.30. I decided to make a stew for dinner, which meant buying potatoes, so I trolled back to Tesco, a walk of about 20 minutes from Hall Green. On the way, I found Frilford locking down the Red Bull Locks single handed, and stopped to close a pair of bottom gates for him.
It was a dry day after a very wet night, and the boating to the Little Morton Hall mooring at Bridge 86 was quite pleasant. We got there at around coffee time, and settled to a quiet day. Exercise was had by walking back to look at the restoration of the fancy railings by Ramsdell Hall, and to take some photos of the crazy situation a little further back by the Heritage marina.
Andrew Denny has given a full account of this in his blog, so I won’t go over the whole sad tale again – it’s basically a case of one NIMBY forcing BW to spend a load of money it hasn’t got, because he doesn’t like boats mooring within view of his house. BW has restored a reed bed (on the towpath side!) where it had made some handy moorings, and is now piling the bank on the other side of the bridge hole to replace the moorings.
Main internet event was an email from the IWA about the current plan by BW to raise boat licence fees by 9% above inflation for each of the next three years. Although boaters only account for a few per cent of the folks who visit the canals every year, it seems we are to carry the brunt of the funding shortfall caused by the reduction of grant-in-aid from Defra.
Today we made a reasonably early start, cruising to Congleton to do some shopping and look at the prices of DVD players in the Argos catalogue. At the moment we use the iBook to play DVDs, but this isn’t so good if one of us wants to do computer stuff and the other wants to watch a DVD. We are just at the stage of considering the options, but I can see us finding an excuse to buy a portable DVD player for Christmas.
After this we went on to the water point on the offside by Bridge 68, and made our lunchtime sandwiches whilst the tank was filling. Then it was off again to the foot of Bosley Locks where we are now. It’s a good mooring, except the Vodafone signal is absolutely dire, so any comms from the family will have to be by text or email tonight.
Other highlights of the day – collecting a goodly amount of firewood from the canal as we boated along, and seeing one of my favourite boat names.
The firewood included a huge chunk of scaffold plank. Sheila was steering, and I could hardly lift the monster into the bow. She put the boat over onto the towpath for me to try to lift the wood onto the roof, but I only succeeded in getting it onto the bank – the boat wouldn’t come close enough to lift it onto the roof with any safety.
So I lugged it to the next bridge hole, which was a narrow beast, originally a swing bridge but now a little foot bridge. At this point, She discovered she couldn’t get Sanity to come off the bank and we spent a happy few minutes with shafts and reversing manoeuvres until she consented to move along again.
Once in the bridge hole, it wasn’t too difficult to get things sorted out, and off we went again.
My favourite boat name here? Ferric the Red, just as you come into Congleton. There’s a few of these I look out for every time, like the one at Polesworth called Will Power. Only that one gives me what the Germans call an earworm for the 70’s (?) pop track – damn, there it goes again... “Will power/ it’s now or/ never/ pom pom pom.” I’ll be at it all evening now.
Late news - Andrew has published his Braidbar post on his blog.
Wednesday, 31 October 2007
Monday, 29 October 2007
Through Harecastle and onto the Macc
28th & 29th October
It came on to rain overnight, and we woke to a seriously wet day. What a good job we’d decided not to move. By mid morning the rain had eased, so we walked to Barlaston to buy a paper and some milk. There are two possible sources of these goodies in Barlaston – a Londis right by the canal, and another similar shop just a little further down the road in the other direction.
We had been boating past here for years before we bought the relevant First Mate Guide and discovered this other little parade of shops, including a butcher and a pharmacist.
Back at the boat, we settled down to enjoy a wet Sunday, reading, knitting and doing IT housekeeping. I use a free program called ClamXav to keep the nasties away from the iBook, and just occasionally take the time to run it over the entire hard disk, rather than just the usual data files. As a Mac user, viruses are less of a worry, as I’ve said before, but I still don’t want to be the unwitting cause of infection in someone else’s machine (by forwarding something that I hadn’t realised was infected because the virus is powerless against the Unix base of Mac OS X).
After lunch it brightened up a bit so we took another walk along the canal, just to stretch legs and avoid postprandial dozing.
Today, Monday, we made an early start, as we wanted to get right through Harecastle Tunnel and onto the Macc by the end of the day. We were away by 8, and up Trentham Lock by 8.30. One thing about going back to GMT, it makes it easier to get up early in the morning for a few days.
It was a cold but bright, sunshiny day, so boating was very pleasant provided you were well wrapped up.
When we got to the first Stoke Lock, Sheila got the bike out and cycled between the others. The first one was empty, but the rest against us, so we were pleased to make it to the top by 10.30, a time of two and a half hours from the Wedgwood mooring to the top of Stoke.
We stopped briefly above the top lock – the bow fender had snapped its strop (again) rising up the deep cill of the top lock, which instead of having a nice smooth rising board for the lower part, had a bunch of edge-on wooden sleepers, and the friction had been just too much for the strength of the strop.
We got to the South portal of Harecastle at 12, and had a brief (for him) chat with Ivor Bachelor, the tunnel keeper there. We (as many another) know him quite well to chat to, having been a customer of his in the days when he sold coal and logs from his pair Mountbatten and Jellicoe at Braunston.
There was no one else waiting at either end of the tunnel so we went straight in, taking 37 minutes to pass through. Sheila had her lunch as we went through, and I started mine as she steered the short pound from the North portal to the junction with the Macc at Red Bull.
We tied there while I finished my sarnies, then walked over to Tesco to do a supermarket shop. There’s just room for one boat on the towpath just on the tunnel side of the junction, and that’s the nearest approach to the Tesco.
Then it was merrily on, turn left onto the Macc, boat round past Red Bull yard and cross over the T&M on an aqueduct. Through Hall Green stop lock, and onto the visitor moorings just beyond.
As usual, these moorings were irritatingly cluttered with local boats overstaying. Polleeanna is a notable offender in this respect – she has a legit mooring just a bit further up the canal, but her owner seems to prefer to keep her on the 48 hour mooring by the stop lock. Boats with deliberately misspelt names irritate me anyway, so it’s doubly annoying.
On the positive side, we wouldn’t have got in here if it hadn’t been for the crew of Enchantress, who had just arrived on the last space, but proceeded to squeeze up so that we could get in too.
It came on to rain overnight, and we woke to a seriously wet day. What a good job we’d decided not to move. By mid morning the rain had eased, so we walked to Barlaston to buy a paper and some milk. There are two possible sources of these goodies in Barlaston – a Londis right by the canal, and another similar shop just a little further down the road in the other direction.
We had been boating past here for years before we bought the relevant First Mate Guide and discovered this other little parade of shops, including a butcher and a pharmacist.
Back at the boat, we settled down to enjoy a wet Sunday, reading, knitting and doing IT housekeeping. I use a free program called ClamXav to keep the nasties away from the iBook, and just occasionally take the time to run it over the entire hard disk, rather than just the usual data files. As a Mac user, viruses are less of a worry, as I’ve said before, but I still don’t want to be the unwitting cause of infection in someone else’s machine (by forwarding something that I hadn’t realised was infected because the virus is powerless against the Unix base of Mac OS X).
After lunch it brightened up a bit so we took another walk along the canal, just to stretch legs and avoid postprandial dozing.
Today, Monday, we made an early start, as we wanted to get right through Harecastle Tunnel and onto the Macc by the end of the day. We were away by 8, and up Trentham Lock by 8.30. One thing about going back to GMT, it makes it easier to get up early in the morning for a few days.
It was a cold but bright, sunshiny day, so boating was very pleasant provided you were well wrapped up.
When we got to the first Stoke Lock, Sheila got the bike out and cycled between the others. The first one was empty, but the rest against us, so we were pleased to make it to the top by 10.30, a time of two and a half hours from the Wedgwood mooring to the top of Stoke.
We stopped briefly above the top lock – the bow fender had snapped its strop (again) rising up the deep cill of the top lock, which instead of having a nice smooth rising board for the lower part, had a bunch of edge-on wooden sleepers, and the friction had been just too much for the strength of the strop.
We got to the South portal of Harecastle at 12, and had a brief (for him) chat with Ivor Bachelor, the tunnel keeper there. We (as many another) know him quite well to chat to, having been a customer of his in the days when he sold coal and logs from his pair Mountbatten and Jellicoe at Braunston.
There was no one else waiting at either end of the tunnel so we went straight in, taking 37 minutes to pass through. Sheila had her lunch as we went through, and I started mine as she steered the short pound from the North portal to the junction with the Macc at Red Bull.
We tied there while I finished my sarnies, then walked over to Tesco to do a supermarket shop. There’s just room for one boat on the towpath just on the tunnel side of the junction, and that’s the nearest approach to the Tesco.
Then it was merrily on, turn left onto the Macc, boat round past Red Bull yard and cross over the T&M on an aqueduct. Through Hall Green stop lock, and onto the visitor moorings just beyond.
As usual, these moorings were irritatingly cluttered with local boats overstaying. Polleeanna is a notable offender in this respect – she has a legit mooring just a bit further up the canal, but her owner seems to prefer to keep her on the 48 hour mooring by the stop lock. Boats with deliberately misspelt names irritate me anyway, so it’s doubly annoying.
On the positive side, we wouldn’t have got in here if it hadn’t been for the crew of Enchantress, who had just arrived on the last space, but proceeded to squeeze up so that we could get in too.
Saturday, 27 October 2007
A couple of lazy days
26th & 27th October
Yesterday was a day to take easy – we had no plans to move on from Stone, as boating on to Barlaston today and then through Stoke the next day would mean navigating Stoke at the weekend. Instead, we’re going to take an extra day at each location, and go through Stoke on Monday.
We’re not in a rush, as we want to be at the foot of Bosley Locks on the 31st of the month, so as to be out in the countryside during Trick or Treat time. It takes us two days to boat from Stone to the South portal of Harecastle Tunnel, and another two to Bosley, so no rush, folks.
All this is a justification for the lazy start we made, ambling up to the chandlery at Stone Boat Building during the morning, where we bought a new shower head, and then round to an automotive shop, where the basic engine oil was £13 for 5 litres, as opposed to £17.50 at Stone BB.
We took the booty back to the boat, and then did another trip to Morrisons for routine grocery shopping.
After lunch, we had an easy afternoon, with me surfing the web and Sheila knitting my new Guernsey. In the course of this, I came across a curiosity – Andrew Denny’s Granny Buttons blog had an article about Iain and Luisa Bryceland and Braidbar, according to the RSS feed I use to keep an eye on my favourite blogs. When I tried to click through to the actual page, so as to give a link for it here, it was gone.
Confused, I emailed Andrew to ask what was going on. Later in the day, I had a reply from that excellent gent, explaining that he had been working on the article with a plan to publish it later in the week, but had accidentally clicked the “Publish now” button by mistake. He’d realised almost immediately, and taken it down again, but not before the RSS feed system had picked it up.
When it actually appears, I’ll mention it again here.
Today, we’ve done some more boating, but it’s not been a high pressure event. We got away about half nine, and worked up the Stone and Meaford (pr “Mefford”) flights. The only excitement was that the bow fender got caught under the top cill on one of the Meaford locks, which are in poor nick generally. It stretched and partly broke the strop that holds the fender up, and I’ve had to replace it now we’re moored.
In addition, the towpath in the middle of the Meaford flight has been collapsing into the cut for as long as we’ve been going past on Sanity. Lengths of brightly coloured temporary net fencing have been extending further and further each year. This time, they’ve actually had to close the towpath it’s so bad. There is a stoppage listed for the flight this winter, but only to repair the lock gates – no reference to the urgent need to pile the canalside.
We’re now moored near the Wedgwood factory at Barlaston, and will stay here tomorrow, as I said above. We got some cutting of firewood and sweeping of the roof done before the rain set in, and hopefully will be able to do a bit more boat cleaning tomorrow.
Yesterday was a day to take easy – we had no plans to move on from Stone, as boating on to Barlaston today and then through Stoke the next day would mean navigating Stoke at the weekend. Instead, we’re going to take an extra day at each location, and go through Stoke on Monday.
We’re not in a rush, as we want to be at the foot of Bosley Locks on the 31st of the month, so as to be out in the countryside during Trick or Treat time. It takes us two days to boat from Stone to the South portal of Harecastle Tunnel, and another two to Bosley, so no rush, folks.
All this is a justification for the lazy start we made, ambling up to the chandlery at Stone Boat Building during the morning, where we bought a new shower head, and then round to an automotive shop, where the basic engine oil was £13 for 5 litres, as opposed to £17.50 at Stone BB.
We took the booty back to the boat, and then did another trip to Morrisons for routine grocery shopping.
After lunch, we had an easy afternoon, with me surfing the web and Sheila knitting my new Guernsey. In the course of this, I came across a curiosity – Andrew Denny’s Granny Buttons blog had an article about Iain and Luisa Bryceland and Braidbar, according to the RSS feed I use to keep an eye on my favourite blogs. When I tried to click through to the actual page, so as to give a link for it here, it was gone.
Confused, I emailed Andrew to ask what was going on. Later in the day, I had a reply from that excellent gent, explaining that he had been working on the article with a plan to publish it later in the week, but had accidentally clicked the “Publish now” button by mistake. He’d realised almost immediately, and taken it down again, but not before the RSS feed system had picked it up.
When it actually appears, I’ll mention it again here.
Today, we’ve done some more boating, but it’s not been a high pressure event. We got away about half nine, and worked up the Stone and Meaford (pr “Mefford”) flights. The only excitement was that the bow fender got caught under the top cill on one of the Meaford locks, which are in poor nick generally. It stretched and partly broke the strop that holds the fender up, and I’ve had to replace it now we’re moored.
In addition, the towpath in the middle of the Meaford flight has been collapsing into the cut for as long as we’ve been going past on Sanity. Lengths of brightly coloured temporary net fencing have been extending further and further each year. This time, they’ve actually had to close the towpath it’s so bad. There is a stoppage listed for the flight this winter, but only to repair the lock gates – no reference to the urgent need to pile the canalside.
We’re now moored near the Wedgwood factory at Barlaston, and will stay here tomorrow, as I said above. We got some cutting of firewood and sweeping of the roof done before the rain set in, and hopefully will be able to do a bit more boat cleaning tomorrow.
Thursday, 25 October 2007
Cold boating on a busy week
24th & 25th October
Wednesday was a seriously frosty morning, so we made a lazy start and finally got boating at 9.30. Deptmore Lock was particularly busy – you can tell that it’s half term and that we were on one of the most popular cruising routes in the form of the Four Counties Ring.
We got to Tixall Wide by 11.40, and I left Sheila mooring the boat – traffic notwithstanding, there were several gaps – whilst I walked the ten minutes into Great Haywood for a paper and bread.
After lunch, we realised that I’d forgotten to take two letters waiting for the post, so we both went back, taking the opportunity to walk down the visitor moorings to Haywood Lock. As last week, they were remarkably quiet, considering the number of boats passing by.
In view of the continuing cold weather, we did the follow up clothes sort, setting us up for the winter. This involves putting away the short sleeved shirts and pairs of shorts that had been in the wash when we did the first stage, and getting out gloves, warm hats and the quilted ski jackets.
After this we had a quiet afternoon. Elanor came by for a chat in the evening, having driven up from her work at Rugeley and then walked along from Great Haywood.
Today we wanted to get to Stone, not a huge day’s run, but we needed to water first, and the mooring in Stone isn’t abundant, so getting there in good time is a good idea. We couldn’t assume it would be as quiet as Great Haywood.
This meant an early start, and it was hard work getting out of bed when the alarm went at 7. It was still dark, and quite cold, the fire having gone out overnight. Nonetheless, we managed to be on our way by 8.15, following a Black Prince boat round to the junction and onto the water point.
They finished watering just before us, so we followed them up Hoo Mill Lock. We in turn were followed by Mercury, whose crew we’d briefly met at the do in Alrewas Village Hall the other weekend.
This turned into a steady chug, catching the BP boat up at each lock, and being caught up in turn by Mercury. It stayed quite cold, especially for the steerer, and I was glad that we’d got the ski jackets out. At Sandon there was a further delay – it transpired that when he boat ahead of the BP tried to leave the lock, it found it had managed to get its stern line caught in the bottom gates, so the lock had to be partially emptied again to release it.
In any event, we all rolled up at Stone by around 1.30. We found a decent space on the visitor mooring below the lock, and with a bit of juggling Mercury was able to squeeze in behind.
After a late lunch we did some shopping, and settled down to get the boat warm again for the evening. The fruit wood we’re burning at the moment is a hot wood, and very aromatic, but quite hard to get going.
Wednesday was a seriously frosty morning, so we made a lazy start and finally got boating at 9.30. Deptmore Lock was particularly busy – you can tell that it’s half term and that we were on one of the most popular cruising routes in the form of the Four Counties Ring.
We got to Tixall Wide by 11.40, and I left Sheila mooring the boat – traffic notwithstanding, there were several gaps – whilst I walked the ten minutes into Great Haywood for a paper and bread.
After lunch, we realised that I’d forgotten to take two letters waiting for the post, so we both went back, taking the opportunity to walk down the visitor moorings to Haywood Lock. As last week, they were remarkably quiet, considering the number of boats passing by.
In view of the continuing cold weather, we did the follow up clothes sort, setting us up for the winter. This involves putting away the short sleeved shirts and pairs of shorts that had been in the wash when we did the first stage, and getting out gloves, warm hats and the quilted ski jackets.
After this we had a quiet afternoon. Elanor came by for a chat in the evening, having driven up from her work at Rugeley and then walked along from Great Haywood.
Today we wanted to get to Stone, not a huge day’s run, but we needed to water first, and the mooring in Stone isn’t abundant, so getting there in good time is a good idea. We couldn’t assume it would be as quiet as Great Haywood.
This meant an early start, and it was hard work getting out of bed when the alarm went at 7. It was still dark, and quite cold, the fire having gone out overnight. Nonetheless, we managed to be on our way by 8.15, following a Black Prince boat round to the junction and onto the water point.
They finished watering just before us, so we followed them up Hoo Mill Lock. We in turn were followed by Mercury, whose crew we’d briefly met at the do in Alrewas Village Hall the other weekend.
This turned into a steady chug, catching the BP boat up at each lock, and being caught up in turn by Mercury. It stayed quite cold, especially for the steerer, and I was glad that we’d got the ski jackets out. At Sandon there was a further delay – it transpired that when he boat ahead of the BP tried to leave the lock, it found it had managed to get its stern line caught in the bottom gates, so the lock had to be partially emptied again to release it.
In any event, we all rolled up at Stone by around 1.30. We found a decent space on the visitor mooring below the lock, and with a bit of juggling Mercury was able to squeeze in behind.
After a late lunch we did some shopping, and settled down to get the boat warm again for the evening. The fruit wood we’re burning at the moment is a hot wood, and very aromatic, but quite hard to get going.
Tuesday, 23 October 2007
A quick chase over to Cannock
22nd & 23rd October
The nights are cold enough now that the drips from condensation on the Houdini overnight are getting a bit much, so we’ve taken to sleeping with the cover over it. There’s still a bit of condensation, but it gets caught by the cover, which can then be dried out during the day. This also means that it’s much darker in the bedroom, and we are more likely to sleep in.
As a result, we didn’t get started boating on Monday until 9, though since we were only going a couple of hours up the canal to Penkridge, this didn’t really matter.
We got to the Midland Chandlers store at Park Gate Lock by 10, and went and spent some money. Since getting the fancy double skinned stainless steel chimney last winter, we’ve been avoiding cruising with the chimney on, which looks a bit odd, and means that the fire in the Squirrel doesn’t burn desperately well.
At MC we found a short plain black chimney to use for cruising. We also got a litre of FuelSet for adding to the diesel, and a new mat to go in front of the stove hearth for the coal scuttle to stand on. It’s noticeable that where you used only to be able to buy one kind of high absorbency door mat, the Turtle Mat at around £30 each, it’s now possible to find similar beasts for much less, in this case £8.
It’s cotton, thus making it a bit less hazardous in front of the stove than a nylon or polyester one would be. We’re still a bit haunted by the Lindy Lou fire report, I guess.
On we went to Penkridge, getting there by about half eleven. We went into the village to buy bread and the like, and to find out where the bus stop was for the service into Cannock that we needed to use today. We thought we’d identified the right one in the village centre, but then on the way back out realised that there might be one nearer the boat.
Elanor had the day off to visit the dentist in the morning, and came to see us in the afternoon. She had a bit of a hassle finding the right road out of the village to get to us, which subsequently gave Sheila an idea about yet other bus stops.
Elanor brought a load of post for us, and some more books, and left about mid afternoon. Sheila then went exploring, and sure enough found the best located bus stop, about 5 minutes walk from the boat.
We needed to get to Cannock today because Sheila had a hospital appointment just after 10. According to the timetable on the bus stop, there was one at 9.39, and sure enough a bus appeared at almost the exact time. It was only £2.40 return to Cannock, and it took around ten minutes on the bus. Cannock proves to be rather bigger than we’d expected, and would certainly repay further exploration on another occasion.
The hospital was as efficient as the Burton one, and we got back to the bus station just in time to catch a 10.30 service back to Penkridge. As a result, we were back in the village shopping before 11, and having coffee on the boat by half past – altogether a much more straightforward morning than we’d feared.
This afternoon we’ve taken advantage of the continuing good weather to come back to Acton Trussell for the night. The Penkridge mooring just before Bridge 86 was fine, and there were plenty of other boats there, but it’s quieter out here in the country, especially as we are a bit away from the M6.
Tomorrow we’ll probably go on to Tixall, and then start heading North for Harecastle and the Macc for the first half of the stoppage season.
The nights are cold enough now that the drips from condensation on the Houdini overnight are getting a bit much, so we’ve taken to sleeping with the cover over it. There’s still a bit of condensation, but it gets caught by the cover, which can then be dried out during the day. This also means that it’s much darker in the bedroom, and we are more likely to sleep in.
As a result, we didn’t get started boating on Monday until 9, though since we were only going a couple of hours up the canal to Penkridge, this didn’t really matter.
We got to the Midland Chandlers store at Park Gate Lock by 10, and went and spent some money. Since getting the fancy double skinned stainless steel chimney last winter, we’ve been avoiding cruising with the chimney on, which looks a bit odd, and means that the fire in the Squirrel doesn’t burn desperately well.
At MC we found a short plain black chimney to use for cruising. We also got a litre of FuelSet for adding to the diesel, and a new mat to go in front of the stove hearth for the coal scuttle to stand on. It’s noticeable that where you used only to be able to buy one kind of high absorbency door mat, the Turtle Mat at around £30 each, it’s now possible to find similar beasts for much less, in this case £8.
It’s cotton, thus making it a bit less hazardous in front of the stove than a nylon or polyester one would be. We’re still a bit haunted by the Lindy Lou fire report, I guess.
On we went to Penkridge, getting there by about half eleven. We went into the village to buy bread and the like, and to find out where the bus stop was for the service into Cannock that we needed to use today. We thought we’d identified the right one in the village centre, but then on the way back out realised that there might be one nearer the boat.
Elanor had the day off to visit the dentist in the morning, and came to see us in the afternoon. She had a bit of a hassle finding the right road out of the village to get to us, which subsequently gave Sheila an idea about yet other bus stops.
Elanor brought a load of post for us, and some more books, and left about mid afternoon. Sheila then went exploring, and sure enough found the best located bus stop, about 5 minutes walk from the boat.
We needed to get to Cannock today because Sheila had a hospital appointment just after 10. According to the timetable on the bus stop, there was one at 9.39, and sure enough a bus appeared at almost the exact time. It was only £2.40 return to Cannock, and it took around ten minutes on the bus. Cannock proves to be rather bigger than we’d expected, and would certainly repay further exploration on another occasion.
The hospital was as efficient as the Burton one, and we got back to the bus station just in time to catch a 10.30 service back to Penkridge. As a result, we were back in the village shopping before 11, and having coffee on the boat by half past – altogether a much more straightforward morning than we’d feared.
This afternoon we’ve taken advantage of the continuing good weather to come back to Acton Trussell for the night. The Penkridge mooring just before Bridge 86 was fine, and there were plenty of other boats there, but it’s quieter out here in the country, especially as we are a bit away from the M6.
Tomorrow we’ll probably go on to Tixall, and then start heading North for Harecastle and the Macc for the first half of the stoppage season.
Sunday, 21 October 2007
Two glorious October days
20th & 21st October
It’s definitely a case of “winter draw(er)s” on, though actually it’s more vests just now. Saturday was the coldest morning so far this Autumn, and I used the excuse to get a good fire going in the Squirrel. The safety websites advise making sure you have the stove raised to a good temperature at least once a month, especially if you burn wood. If wood burns too cool, it deposits creosote in the flue, with the potential for a chimney fire eventually. Getting it properly hot regularly avoids this getting out of hand.
Going for a walk to buy supplies, we were surprised to see gulls that we thought might be kittiwakes fishing above the lock. We didn’t know that they came this far inland.
It was a brilliantly clear and sunny day, so having left the shopping on the boat, we went out again across the Shugborough Park and, by following the signs for the Staffordshire way up the road on the other side, came to an area of woodland called Coldman’s Slade.
I took a set of photos of the sun striking through the trees, but we were beginning to feel hungry, so saving further exploration for another day, we went back for lunch.
In the afternoon, whilst running the engine and doing a wash load, I spent a bit of time sorting photos and preparing some for upload to the blog. I did go back out to see if I could catch the kittiwakes on a photo, but they’d gone (of course).
This morning was less cold, but even mistier than before. I took the camera with me when I went to buy a paper, and was rewarded with the return of the gulls:
Then it was on to the water point to fill up. It’s just beyond the junction, so afterwards I pulled Sanity back and turned under the bridge onto the Staffs and Worcs.
It was misty enough to have the tunnel light on, and boating across Tixall Wide was very atmospheric. We saw New Dawn tied on the wide, and exchanged greetings with them – hopefully on a our way back from Penkridge we’ll have more of an opportunity to chat.
As the mist burnt off, it became another glorious day – in many ways Autumn is my favourite time of year for boating, especially when the light is just amazing in the morning as it’s been this week.
We did the steady chug round Stafford and past Stafford Boat Club to moor at Acton Trussell for the night.
This afternoon we got on top of a lot of IT type stuff, since we’ve got a fast connection here.
It’s definitely a case of “winter draw(er)s” on, though actually it’s more vests just now. Saturday was the coldest morning so far this Autumn, and I used the excuse to get a good fire going in the Squirrel. The safety websites advise making sure you have the stove raised to a good temperature at least once a month, especially if you burn wood. If wood burns too cool, it deposits creosote in the flue, with the potential for a chimney fire eventually. Getting it properly hot regularly avoids this getting out of hand.
Going for a walk to buy supplies, we were surprised to see gulls that we thought might be kittiwakes fishing above the lock. We didn’t know that they came this far inland.
It was a brilliantly clear and sunny day, so having left the shopping on the boat, we went out again across the Shugborough Park and, by following the signs for the Staffordshire way up the road on the other side, came to an area of woodland called Coldman’s Slade.
I took a set of photos of the sun striking through the trees, but we were beginning to feel hungry, so saving further exploration for another day, we went back for lunch.
In the afternoon, whilst running the engine and doing a wash load, I spent a bit of time sorting photos and preparing some for upload to the blog. I did go back out to see if I could catch the kittiwakes on a photo, but they’d gone (of course).
This morning was less cold, but even mistier than before. I took the camera with me when I went to buy a paper, and was rewarded with the return of the gulls:
Then it was on to the water point to fill up. It’s just beyond the junction, so afterwards I pulled Sanity back and turned under the bridge onto the Staffs and Worcs.
It was misty enough to have the tunnel light on, and boating across Tixall Wide was very atmospheric. We saw New Dawn tied on the wide, and exchanged greetings with them – hopefully on a our way back from Penkridge we’ll have more of an opportunity to chat.
As the mist burnt off, it became another glorious day – in many ways Autumn is my favourite time of year for boating, especially when the light is just amazing in the morning as it’s been this week.
We did the steady chug round Stafford and past Stafford Boat Club to moor at Acton Trussell for the night.
This afternoon we got on top of a lot of IT type stuff, since we’ve got a fast connection here.
Two pictures
As promised, here's the scary picture that's going to be in my passport soon:
Would you buy a used piece of firewood from this man?
A squirrel seen at Great Haywood.
Would you buy a used piece of firewood from this man?
To sooth the panicky screams, here's something a bit more pleasant:
A squirrel seen at Great Haywood.
Friday, 19 October 2007
The Joy of Autumn Boating
18th & 19th October
Thursday was a cold, bright, misty morning. I had a great time steering the lock free pound to Rugeley, where we stopped on the water point between Hawkesyard Priory and the Ash Tree pub. This is a useful stop, with a good pressure on the water.
We started a wash load whilst there, including my latest pair of zip off trousers/ shorts I’d bought at St Ives. I’d been wearing these when locking out of Alrewas, and had discovered too late that a balance beam painted the day before was still tacky, as a result, no doubt, of the severe dew fall overnight, not to mention rain. Mid Autumn is not a good time for outdoor painting, BW. We’d soaked the trousers, and Sheila then gave them a going over with an old toothbrush before we put them through the machine. This got rid of the white paint, but even a second treatment has left some black marks, curses, curses.
We did our usual shop/lunch/shop routine at Rugeley before going on to moor just before Bridge 70 at Wolseley.
Today we made a relaxed start at 9. It was quiet, very misty and cold. Autumn boating really pays off on days like these. We had no competition for Colwich and Haywood locks, although some say there’s no time of day or year you can avoid queues here. Unusually, there was a lot of room above Haywood. Whilst we were sorting ourselves out after mooring, Tony and Jane Smith came past on the latest Braidbar, number 104, Kate Mogg.
They were still grinning and very pleased with her. We had a good old natter on the towpath, merrily waving other boats through. Then on they went – they are mooring her at Ventnor Farm Marina near Calcutt on the northern GU, and want to be there by Tuesday, so they’ve got a bit of boating to do.
After lunch we went for a stroll to see how the marina here at Great Haywood is getting on – in fact it’s open, and selling diesel at 52 p per litre, which is worth knowing. On the way back, we called at the Canalside Farm Shop, and started buying some Christmas food stuffs.
Back at the boat, I took some pictures of the classic autumnal scene of a squirrel sitting in an oak tree scoffing acorns as hard as it could go. If I get a fast internet connection sometime soon, I’ll add one of the pics, together with my scary passport photo. Meantime it’s been GPRS connections ever since we left Burton.
Thursday was a cold, bright, misty morning. I had a great time steering the lock free pound to Rugeley, where we stopped on the water point between Hawkesyard Priory and the Ash Tree pub. This is a useful stop, with a good pressure on the water.
We started a wash load whilst there, including my latest pair of zip off trousers/ shorts I’d bought at St Ives. I’d been wearing these when locking out of Alrewas, and had discovered too late that a balance beam painted the day before was still tacky, as a result, no doubt, of the severe dew fall overnight, not to mention rain. Mid Autumn is not a good time for outdoor painting, BW. We’d soaked the trousers, and Sheila then gave them a going over with an old toothbrush before we put them through the machine. This got rid of the white paint, but even a second treatment has left some black marks, curses, curses.
We did our usual shop/lunch/shop routine at Rugeley before going on to moor just before Bridge 70 at Wolseley.
Today we made a relaxed start at 9. It was quiet, very misty and cold. Autumn boating really pays off on days like these. We had no competition for Colwich and Haywood locks, although some say there’s no time of day or year you can avoid queues here. Unusually, there was a lot of room above Haywood. Whilst we were sorting ourselves out after mooring, Tony and Jane Smith came past on the latest Braidbar, number 104, Kate Mogg.
They were still grinning and very pleased with her. We had a good old natter on the towpath, merrily waving other boats through. Then on they went – they are mooring her at Ventnor Farm Marina near Calcutt on the northern GU, and want to be there by Tuesday, so they’ve got a bit of boating to do.
After lunch we went for a stroll to see how the marina here at Great Haywood is getting on – in fact it’s open, and selling diesel at 52 p per litre, which is worth knowing. On the way back, we called at the Canalside Farm Shop, and started buying some Christmas food stuffs.
Back at the boat, I took some pictures of the classic autumnal scene of a squirrel sitting in an oak tree scoffing acorns as hard as it could go. If I get a fast internet connection sometime soon, I’ll add one of the pics, together with my scary passport photo. Meantime it’s been GPRS connections ever since we left Burton.
Wednesday, 17 October 2007
Final stuff in Burton, and then away from Alrewas
14th to 17th October
With not far to go on Sunday, we made a late start and went down to Horninglow for a self pump out. Horninglow is marked on the guides as a full length (i.e. 70 foot) winding hole, but I wouldn’t want to try it. The end on moorings make it difficult to get the stern round, and for once I took two goes to get it right.
Once alongside the service block, it’s great – you are parallel to the aforesaid moored boats, so passing craft have relatively little effect, which is always welcome when pumping the contents of the loo tank out.
Having given it a good rinse, after the two rather poor efforts it has had recently, we pulled across to the towpath side and moored for the night. Bits of Burton can be a problem overnight – there’s a good looking set of moorings at Shobnall Fields (see later) but the park they are alongside is used by two kinds of businesses at night – pushers and pimps - and it doesn’t make for a comfortable night.
There’s no problem at Horninglow, though, as there isn’t at the Shobnall Boatyard just by the Marston’s Brewery. The signpost by our mooring said 25 minutes into town, so we tested it in the afternoon by walking to the town centre Sainsbury’s. It took us 30 minutes of brisk walking, and then we were just on the near edge of the centre. On this basis, the moorings just mentioned near the Marston’s Brewery are slightly better for town centre access.
On Monday, I had two eye appointments, a visual fields test at 9, and a consultant appointment at ten past two. This latter had originally been for 9.30, which would have been great, but the clinic had had to reschedule. From where we were moored, we could walk in in 15 minutes, we discovered. Since we’d estimated 20, and allowed 30, we were there a bit early. No matter, the clinic was very efficient, and by half nine we were heading back to the boat.
We now had some time to kill before the afternoon appointment, so we moved the boat to the Shobnall Fields mooring, which are even closer to the hospital. There’s no difficulty mooring there during the day – it’s only at night that there’s a problem.
My second visit to the clinic was also handled very efficiently, and all seems to be well with my peepers, or would be if it were not for the drops they put in them. These dilate your pupils and prevent your eyes from focussing, so you go round in a blur and wearing shades for a few hours. The sun promptly came out in what was, I am sure, a glorious Autumn evening, but I was in no state to appreciate it.
We moved the boat (Sheila steering!) out of Burton a bit – we wanted to be in Alrewas by 10.30 on Tuesday, so as to take part in the Willy Walk for the last time this year. In fact we were able to get as far as Barton Turn. This is one of those place names that has changed itself with time. Officially, it’s Barton Turn, as it’s where you leave the A38 for Barton-under-Needwood, but the marina here calls itself Barton Turns, so most boaters call the whole place that. Very irritating to obsessives like myself.
My vision was slowly improving, but not enough to compose lots of this verbiage, so I just stuck a holding message on the blog and went back to reading in a dim light, holding the book in the one position on which I could focus.
Tuesday was a moist morning, but very pleasant. We got away by 7.50, me steering now my vision was back to normal, and arrived at Alrewas at 9. We tied on the water point, and I left Sheila watching the tank fill whilst I nipped in to the village for a paper and a last batch of pasties.
The walk was one we hadn’t done before, alongside the Trent upstream from the village, and then across country to Wychnor Church, and so back along the canal and river.
In the pub, since it was the last time for a bit, I had the mixed grill. These are often disappointing, but on this occasion it was just right, with a good range of bits of meat, enough chips and some green peas.
After lunch, it was Sheila’s turn to visit the hospital. That generous man, Will Chapman, gave us a lift back to Burton so that Sheila could have an X-ray of her stiff shoulder. As I’ve said before in this place, life would not be impossible without good friends like Will and Jane, but it would be a lot harder.
Today we had a relaxed and misty start. I bought a last bit of meat from the butcher – two enormous pieces of hip bone steak, one to have for Sheila’s birthday later this year, and one to have for Christmas. Then we set off with that sensation of release that always comes when we’ve finished with Alrewas for another six months. It’s a great place, but we are very much wandering stars, and it’s always good to be on our way again.
We stopped in Fradley to diesel up, and then came on to the towpath outside Kings Bromley marina, arriving just on lunchtime. Tomorrow we’ll press on through Rugeley and wend our way up to Great Haywood over the next couple of days.
With not far to go on Sunday, we made a late start and went down to Horninglow for a self pump out. Horninglow is marked on the guides as a full length (i.e. 70 foot) winding hole, but I wouldn’t want to try it. The end on moorings make it difficult to get the stern round, and for once I took two goes to get it right.
Once alongside the service block, it’s great – you are parallel to the aforesaid moored boats, so passing craft have relatively little effect, which is always welcome when pumping the contents of the loo tank out.
Having given it a good rinse, after the two rather poor efforts it has had recently, we pulled across to the towpath side and moored for the night. Bits of Burton can be a problem overnight – there’s a good looking set of moorings at Shobnall Fields (see later) but the park they are alongside is used by two kinds of businesses at night – pushers and pimps - and it doesn’t make for a comfortable night.
There’s no problem at Horninglow, though, as there isn’t at the Shobnall Boatyard just by the Marston’s Brewery. The signpost by our mooring said 25 minutes into town, so we tested it in the afternoon by walking to the town centre Sainsbury’s. It took us 30 minutes of brisk walking, and then we were just on the near edge of the centre. On this basis, the moorings just mentioned near the Marston’s Brewery are slightly better for town centre access.
On Monday, I had two eye appointments, a visual fields test at 9, and a consultant appointment at ten past two. This latter had originally been for 9.30, which would have been great, but the clinic had had to reschedule. From where we were moored, we could walk in in 15 minutes, we discovered. Since we’d estimated 20, and allowed 30, we were there a bit early. No matter, the clinic was very efficient, and by half nine we were heading back to the boat.
We now had some time to kill before the afternoon appointment, so we moved the boat to the Shobnall Fields mooring, which are even closer to the hospital. There’s no difficulty mooring there during the day – it’s only at night that there’s a problem.
My second visit to the clinic was also handled very efficiently, and all seems to be well with my peepers, or would be if it were not for the drops they put in them. These dilate your pupils and prevent your eyes from focussing, so you go round in a blur and wearing shades for a few hours. The sun promptly came out in what was, I am sure, a glorious Autumn evening, but I was in no state to appreciate it.
We moved the boat (Sheila steering!) out of Burton a bit – we wanted to be in Alrewas by 10.30 on Tuesday, so as to take part in the Willy Walk for the last time this year. In fact we were able to get as far as Barton Turn. This is one of those place names that has changed itself with time. Officially, it’s Barton Turn, as it’s where you leave the A38 for Barton-under-Needwood, but the marina here calls itself Barton Turns, so most boaters call the whole place that. Very irritating to obsessives like myself.
My vision was slowly improving, but not enough to compose lots of this verbiage, so I just stuck a holding message on the blog and went back to reading in a dim light, holding the book in the one position on which I could focus.
Tuesday was a moist morning, but very pleasant. We got away by 7.50, me steering now my vision was back to normal, and arrived at Alrewas at 9. We tied on the water point, and I left Sheila watching the tank fill whilst I nipped in to the village for a paper and a last batch of pasties.
The walk was one we hadn’t done before, alongside the Trent upstream from the village, and then across country to Wychnor Church, and so back along the canal and river.
In the pub, since it was the last time for a bit, I had the mixed grill. These are often disappointing, but on this occasion it was just right, with a good range of bits of meat, enough chips and some green peas.
After lunch, it was Sheila’s turn to visit the hospital. That generous man, Will Chapman, gave us a lift back to Burton so that Sheila could have an X-ray of her stiff shoulder. As I’ve said before in this place, life would not be impossible without good friends like Will and Jane, but it would be a lot harder.
Today we had a relaxed and misty start. I bought a last bit of meat from the butcher – two enormous pieces of hip bone steak, one to have for Sheila’s birthday later this year, and one to have for Christmas. Then we set off with that sensation of release that always comes when we’ve finished with Alrewas for another six months. It’s a great place, but we are very much wandering stars, and it’s always good to be on our way again.
We stopped in Fradley to diesel up, and then came on to the towpath outside Kings Bromley marina, arriving just on lunchtime. Tomorrow we’ll press on through Rugeley and wend our way up to Great Haywood over the next couple of days.
Monday, 15 October 2007
No post today
My trip to the Eye Clinic this afternoon has left me with very fuzzy vision, so I'm going to skip doing a long post today.
Tomorrow is a celebration, so I'm not likely to get much chance to do anything then either - I'll catch up on Wednesday, hopefully.
Tomorrow is a celebration, so I'm not likely to get much chance to do anything then either - I'll catch up on Wednesday, hopefully.
Saturday, 13 October 2007
Amazing Irish music, then on the move again
12th & 13th October
Friday was our last day of sitting about in Alrewas. It was a cool cloudy morning, spent mooching about doing things like getting a prescription made up and discovering that you can’t get passport application forms from a sub Post Office, only a main one.
Online back at the boat, I found out that you can, however, either order an application pack be sent to you, or start the app process on the website. I did the latter – they then post the completed form to you for signature and return with photos and whatever other docs you need to send.
After all this excitement we pulled the boat back half a length to within reach of the water point, and filled the tank.
In the afternoon we took a short walk, just to blow cobwebs away and stop us from falling asleep after lunch. Elanor and Stuart turned up for a quick dinner; they are together for a week’s holiday next week. They left us at 7 and we went round to the William IV to meet Will and Jane. We went on together to our Friday night entertainment in the village hall.
This was an Irish folk band called Last Night’s Fun, and if Braunston Pickle were good at the Huddlesford Boat Gathering, these guys were superb. I hadn’t given much attention to Irish music really, except as the accompaniment to Riverdance type stuff, but this was just amazing. The four of them played concertina, Irish pipes, bodhran and guitar, and the music just blew your head off. The basic themes are almost mathematical, but then go off into developments and riffs beyond belief, often with changes of rhythm to punctuate the evolution of it all.
It’s as if someone had got Johan Sebastian Bach out of his skull on whiskey, and then persuaded him to play some hot jazz.
We got back to the boat just on midnight, and by seven this morning were up again to start some actual boating. On a misty, murky day, we had a not especially fast run down towards Burton. For the first half we were following Love’s Labour, a Shakespeare Classic line boat. We got into an interesting conversation with her crew at the locks, as they came from Southampton, where we used to live. The guy in fact had a serious sailing background, and was enjoying (as is so often the case) the change of pace inland.
We arrived at the Morrison’s mooring just after 11. It was full when we got here, but a boat was just leaving as we arrived, so we got in anyway. This mooring is like that – either it’s empty, or it’s chocker.
The rest of the day has been spent restocking with two trips to Morrison’s, including getting some passport photos for me. You are now recommended to leave spectacles off when taking the photo, and that, combined with my present very short hair, made me look even more villainous than usual. “This man may be armed and dangerous, and if seen, the public are advised not to approach him.”
Meanwhile, Sheila’s been doing financial type stuff online. Not a fast connection, sadly. This bit of the cut is right by the Centrum 100 Business park in Burton, but neither Vodafone nor T-mobile have a very good signal.
Friday was our last day of sitting about in Alrewas. It was a cool cloudy morning, spent mooching about doing things like getting a prescription made up and discovering that you can’t get passport application forms from a sub Post Office, only a main one.
Online back at the boat, I found out that you can, however, either order an application pack be sent to you, or start the app process on the website. I did the latter – they then post the completed form to you for signature and return with photos and whatever other docs you need to send.
After all this excitement we pulled the boat back half a length to within reach of the water point, and filled the tank.
In the afternoon we took a short walk, just to blow cobwebs away and stop us from falling asleep after lunch. Elanor and Stuart turned up for a quick dinner; they are together for a week’s holiday next week. They left us at 7 and we went round to the William IV to meet Will and Jane. We went on together to our Friday night entertainment in the village hall.
This was an Irish folk band called Last Night’s Fun, and if Braunston Pickle were good at the Huddlesford Boat Gathering, these guys were superb. I hadn’t given much attention to Irish music really, except as the accompaniment to Riverdance type stuff, but this was just amazing. The four of them played concertina, Irish pipes, bodhran and guitar, and the music just blew your head off. The basic themes are almost mathematical, but then go off into developments and riffs beyond belief, often with changes of rhythm to punctuate the evolution of it all.
It’s as if someone had got Johan Sebastian Bach out of his skull on whiskey, and then persuaded him to play some hot jazz.
We got back to the boat just on midnight, and by seven this morning were up again to start some actual boating. On a misty, murky day, we had a not especially fast run down towards Burton. For the first half we were following Love’s Labour, a Shakespeare Classic line boat. We got into an interesting conversation with her crew at the locks, as they came from Southampton, where we used to live. The guy in fact had a serious sailing background, and was enjoying (as is so often the case) the change of pace inland.
We arrived at the Morrison’s mooring just after 11. It was full when we got here, but a boat was just leaving as we arrived, so we got in anyway. This mooring is like that – either it’s empty, or it’s chocker.
The rest of the day has been spent restocking with two trips to Morrison’s, including getting some passport photos for me. You are now recommended to leave spectacles off when taking the photo, and that, combined with my present very short hair, made me look even more villainous than usual. “This man may be armed and dangerous, and if seen, the public are advised not to approach him.”
Meanwhile, Sheila’s been doing financial type stuff online. Not a fast connection, sadly. This bit of the cut is right by the Centrum 100 Business park in Burton, but neither Vodafone nor T-mobile have a very good signal.
Thursday, 11 October 2007
Red Diesel, cratch covers and getting a bit lost
10th & 11th October
We’re still in hanging about mode, and Wednesday was the day this week we didn’t have any commitments at all. So we made a lazy start on a fine but cool morning. After shopping in the village and wandering back to the boat we had some lunch and spent the afternoon reading emails and cleaning the cratch cover.
There’s a lot of correspondence on the canals-list about the IWA National Festival and Boat Show at the moment. St Ives was, as far as we know, very successful from a commercial point of view, but a lot of correspondents on the list feel that it lacks appeal for the visiting boater.
The event used to be called the National Rally, and there’s a feeling about that it’s gone downhill since those days. One of the problems now is that it is one of the biggest events of its kind in the country, which restricts its options for location, and makes it attempt to be all things to all comers, with usual mixed success that attends such an ambition.
Cleaning the cratch cover was much more straightforward. Over the years, the pale inside of the thing has got scruffier and scruffier. We took it off the boat altogether, laid it out on the towpath and scrubbed the underside, rinsed it off and sponged it dry.
Then we put it back on the boat to dry, and sponged the nearside half of the black outside. Then I sprayed it with a vinyl feeder to discourage it from cracking. After all this, we worked out what books we’d like Elanor to bring us from our stock at her house, modified the spreadsheet where we keep track of it, and emailed it to her.
Today, the weather was even cooler and brighter first thing. The day's appointments at the surgery were at the end of the afternoon, so this morning we went for a walk, trying to retrace one we’ve done a couple of times with the Willy Walkers. We didn’t get it quite right, and ended up doing rather more road work than we’d planned, but it still made a nice couple of hours’ exercise.
We got back to the boat just on lunchtime, and treated ourselves to the pasties we’d bought from the butcher first thing.
In the afternoon, I composed our response to the HMRC consultation document on the loss of the UK’s derogation on red diesel for leisure craft. For many years, diesel for all kinds of leisure boats, both offshore and inland, has been taxed at the lower, agricultural rate. Now the EU has insisted that the UK stops this and charges the standard rate for propulsion fuel.
No one in the UK actually wants this, least of all the Revenue, who are faced with policing something that will bring in only a trivial amount of revenue in their terms (0.06% of all fuel duties), so the exercise is to find the least problematic way of doing it that will satisfy Brussels. There’s a link on the IWA website about it.
At the end of the afternoon I trotted round to the surgery and had a routine ECG and got a fresh prescription. No big problems there, though the folks in the surgery were tearing their hair out as the IT system had gone down at lunchtime, and at half four they were still waiting for their IT support people to come out to it.
We’re still in hanging about mode, and Wednesday was the day this week we didn’t have any commitments at all. So we made a lazy start on a fine but cool morning. After shopping in the village and wandering back to the boat we had some lunch and spent the afternoon reading emails and cleaning the cratch cover.
There’s a lot of correspondence on the canals-list about the IWA National Festival and Boat Show at the moment. St Ives was, as far as we know, very successful from a commercial point of view, but a lot of correspondents on the list feel that it lacks appeal for the visiting boater.
The event used to be called the National Rally, and there’s a feeling about that it’s gone downhill since those days. One of the problems now is that it is one of the biggest events of its kind in the country, which restricts its options for location, and makes it attempt to be all things to all comers, with usual mixed success that attends such an ambition.
Cleaning the cratch cover was much more straightforward. Over the years, the pale inside of the thing has got scruffier and scruffier. We took it off the boat altogether, laid it out on the towpath and scrubbed the underside, rinsed it off and sponged it dry.
Then we put it back on the boat to dry, and sponged the nearside half of the black outside. Then I sprayed it with a vinyl feeder to discourage it from cracking. After all this, we worked out what books we’d like Elanor to bring us from our stock at her house, modified the spreadsheet where we keep track of it, and emailed it to her.
Today, the weather was even cooler and brighter first thing. The day's appointments at the surgery were at the end of the afternoon, so this morning we went for a walk, trying to retrace one we’ve done a couple of times with the Willy Walkers. We didn’t get it quite right, and ended up doing rather more road work than we’d planned, but it still made a nice couple of hours’ exercise.
We got back to the boat just on lunchtime, and treated ourselves to the pasties we’d bought from the butcher first thing.
In the afternoon, I composed our response to the HMRC consultation document on the loss of the UK’s derogation on red diesel for leisure craft. For many years, diesel for all kinds of leisure boats, both offshore and inland, has been taxed at the lower, agricultural rate. Now the EU has insisted that the UK stops this and charges the standard rate for propulsion fuel.
No one in the UK actually wants this, least of all the Revenue, who are faced with policing something that will bring in only a trivial amount of revenue in their terms (0.06% of all fuel duties), so the exercise is to find the least problematic way of doing it that will satisfy Brussels. There’s a link on the IWA website about it.
At the end of the afternoon I trotted round to the surgery and had a routine ECG and got a fresh prescription. No big problems there, though the folks in the surgery were tearing their hair out as the IT system had gone down at lunchtime, and at half four they were still waiting for their IT support people to come out to it.
Tuesday, 9 October 2007
Walking in the rain
8th & 9th October
Not a lot to report this time. We’re going to be here in Alrewas until the weekend, because our various commitments in the village mean that it’s not worth moving the boat, especially now that we’re within reach of the water point (nearly).
Monday started with a visit to the dentist for both of us. For the first time for a while neither needed any work doing, so we were filled with a sense of righteousness, only partly undeserved.
Back at the boat on a fine morning, I tried out the newly varnished brush by sweeping the leaves off the roof. Normally, Sheila cuts our firewood, but she’s still on light duties whilst her shoulder finishes getting better, so I got the saw out and cut up some bits of wood previously fished out of the cut.
In the afternoon, it occurred to me to wonder what happened about the absconding narrowboater wanted back in Gloucester. A quick scan round the forums where it was originally reported, and then on to some local news sites, confirmed that he had been apprehended, though there wasn’t much more detail than that. He’s been remanded in custody for trial at the beginning of December, so must remember to check up on the outcome then.
Elanor looked in towards the end of the afternoon – she too had been to the dentist and had had a filling. It’s one of those unfair things – if anything she’s more careful with her teeth than we are, but that’s how it goes I guess.
Today, it rained first thing, and just a handful of us turned up for the Willy Walk. Nonetheless, we had a good ramble on a route Sheila and I hadn’t been before, down to Wychnor, out into the country and looping back to the canal.
We were joined in the pub for lunch by Mair, a good friend and former colleague of mine. She was in the area on business, and was able to find time to share lunch. It was good to see her again, and to catch up on gossip from North Wales.
We had the usual somnolent afternoon –me reading this month’s Canal Boat and Sheila finishing a book. The sun’s come out again, so hopefully we’ll have better weather tomorrow. We haven’t decided what to do with the day yet, but I’m sure we’ll find something.
Not a lot to report this time. We’re going to be here in Alrewas until the weekend, because our various commitments in the village mean that it’s not worth moving the boat, especially now that we’re within reach of the water point (nearly).
Monday started with a visit to the dentist for both of us. For the first time for a while neither needed any work doing, so we were filled with a sense of righteousness, only partly undeserved.
Back at the boat on a fine morning, I tried out the newly varnished brush by sweeping the leaves off the roof. Normally, Sheila cuts our firewood, but she’s still on light duties whilst her shoulder finishes getting better, so I got the saw out and cut up some bits of wood previously fished out of the cut.
In the afternoon, it occurred to me to wonder what happened about the absconding narrowboater wanted back in Gloucester. A quick scan round the forums where it was originally reported, and then on to some local news sites, confirmed that he had been apprehended, though there wasn’t much more detail than that. He’s been remanded in custody for trial at the beginning of December, so must remember to check up on the outcome then.
Elanor looked in towards the end of the afternoon – she too had been to the dentist and had had a filling. It’s one of those unfair things – if anything she’s more careful with her teeth than we are, but that’s how it goes I guess.
Today, it rained first thing, and just a handful of us turned up for the Willy Walk. Nonetheless, we had a good ramble on a route Sheila and I hadn’t been before, down to Wychnor, out into the country and looping back to the canal.
We were joined in the pub for lunch by Mair, a good friend and former colleague of mine. She was in the area on business, and was able to find time to share lunch. It was good to see her again, and to catch up on gossip from North Wales.
We had the usual somnolent afternoon –me reading this month’s Canal Boat and Sheila finishing a book. The sun’s come out again, so hopefully we’ll have better weather tomorrow. We haven’t decided what to do with the day yet, but I’m sure we’ll find something.
Sunday, 7 October 2007
A relaxed weekend
6th & 7th October
It’s been a relaxed weekend after all the charging around during the summer and the hassles of the last week. We made a lazy start to Saturday, ambling down to the village for about ten to get supplies of fresh food. The butchers, Coates, was particularly busy, as they deserve, but sadly didn’t have any of their excellent Cornish pasties in stock. So we got a big pork pie instead. I also bought 5 lbs of mince, and put four of them in the freezer when we got back to the boat.
After lunch I checked the engine over and ran it for most of the afternoon to recharge the batteries. We’d bought a new broom for using on the outside of the roof. Previously we’ve just got a cheapo beast from the supermarket, but we’d found one in the Rugeley Wilkinson’s with a proper wooden head and handle, the handle in unfinished white wood.
While the engine was running I dug out the tin of wood finish, and gave the handle a first coat.
In the evening we were bidden to dine with Will and Jane. Will had cooked a curry, and we ate this with some nice, meaty New World wines. Having put the canal world to rights, we wandered back to the boat just after midnight.
A brilliant evening – thanks a lot Will and Jane.
Today the lazy mood continued. Sarashay, the boat behind us, left in the morning, so we pulled back into their space to be nearer the water point. Whilst doing this, we were told that the boat nearest the WP, Timewarp, was going this afternoon. Later in the day, Tony off Timewarp confirmed that this was the case, and came and let us know when they were going. We’ve pulled out round Kingfisher that was between the two of us, and are now tied on the bit of the visitor mooring right by the WP, within reach of our hoses. This is handy as our various commitments in the village mean that we won’t actually leave here until next Saturday at the earliest.
Meantime, we'd been the beneficiaries of some more hospitality. Graham and Beryl of Priscilla moored just the other side of the bridge hole from the WP and invited us for a coffee just before lunch.
I continue to be bemused by some of the decisions BW take. We’d noticed a while ago that part of the long term moorings below Hunt’s Lock, the bottom lock at Fradley, had had some smart pontoons added, though the bank there is perfectly sound, deep and with piling in good condition.
Coming past on a walk on Friday, we spoke to Jan on Huff ‘n Puff, whom we know from when we were all at Crick Boat Show the year we moved on board. Jan tells us that BW had explained to them that they had £47,000 left over in the budget, so they’d spent it on this unnecessary bit of work, because it could be done quickly.
Just down the cut from these moorings is Common Lock, which has a really difficult top lock landing. If they wanted to spend money in this area, why on earth didn’t they put the pontoons there?
It’s been a relaxed weekend after all the charging around during the summer and the hassles of the last week. We made a lazy start to Saturday, ambling down to the village for about ten to get supplies of fresh food. The butchers, Coates, was particularly busy, as they deserve, but sadly didn’t have any of their excellent Cornish pasties in stock. So we got a big pork pie instead. I also bought 5 lbs of mince, and put four of them in the freezer when we got back to the boat.
After lunch I checked the engine over and ran it for most of the afternoon to recharge the batteries. We’d bought a new broom for using on the outside of the roof. Previously we’ve just got a cheapo beast from the supermarket, but we’d found one in the Rugeley Wilkinson’s with a proper wooden head and handle, the handle in unfinished white wood.
While the engine was running I dug out the tin of wood finish, and gave the handle a first coat.
In the evening we were bidden to dine with Will and Jane. Will had cooked a curry, and we ate this with some nice, meaty New World wines. Having put the canal world to rights, we wandered back to the boat just after midnight.
A brilliant evening – thanks a lot Will and Jane.
Today the lazy mood continued. Sarashay, the boat behind us, left in the morning, so we pulled back into their space to be nearer the water point. Whilst doing this, we were told that the boat nearest the WP, Timewarp, was going this afternoon. Later in the day, Tony off Timewarp confirmed that this was the case, and came and let us know when they were going. We’ve pulled out round Kingfisher that was between the two of us, and are now tied on the bit of the visitor mooring right by the WP, within reach of our hoses. This is handy as our various commitments in the village mean that we won’t actually leave here until next Saturday at the earliest.
Meantime, we'd been the beneficiaries of some more hospitality. Graham and Beryl of Priscilla moored just the other side of the bridge hole from the WP and invited us for a coffee just before lunch.
I continue to be bemused by some of the decisions BW take. We’d noticed a while ago that part of the long term moorings below Hunt’s Lock, the bottom lock at Fradley, had had some smart pontoons added, though the bank there is perfectly sound, deep and with piling in good condition.
Coming past on a walk on Friday, we spoke to Jan on Huff ‘n Puff, whom we know from when we were all at Crick Boat Show the year we moved on board. Jan tells us that BW had explained to them that they had £47,000 left over in the budget, so they’d spent it on this unnecessary bit of work, because it could be done quickly.
Just down the cut from these moorings is Common Lock, which has a really difficult top lock landing. If they wanted to spend money in this area, why on earth didn’t they put the pontoons there?
Friday, 5 October 2007
Two days in Alrewas
4th & 5th October
We woke to a bright and sunny morning, but with some concern in our minds about the postal strike in prospect. Sheila had been expecting an appointment for an x-ray for a stiff shoulder, and it hasn’t appeared yet. We trolled round to the surgery, where they admitted that the request had only gone in two days ago, although Sheila saw the GP over a week ago. First time the surgery has let us down.
Back at the boat, Sheila tried to ring the number she’d been given for X-ray appointments, but it was hopeless trying to get through. Furthermore, the auto answer said to leave a number and they would reply “within 48 hours” i.e. probably not before the beginning of next week.
Back she went to the surgery, got an appointment for later in the morning with the trainee, who when he saw her did a good job of examination and discussion. She’s got some anti-inflammatories to take which will hopefully let her get some sleep.
In the afternoon, we took advantage of the weather in different ways. Sheila, who’d had enough walking to-ing and fro-ing to the surgery, sat out on the towpath knitting whilst also running a wash load.
I went for a walk across the fields to Wychnor Park, round to the Wychnor moorings, and so back to the boat. I got a few photos of the route, but nothing spectacular.
The other thing of interest was an email to say that the IWA is consulting again on its governance structure. That makes two things I really must respond to (the other being the HMRC consultation on red diesel taxation). At least as we’re going to be around here for a few days more, I should get the chance to drive myself to do it, if only the weather wasn’t so fine!
This morning was seriously misty first thing. We had indeed had a better night, so we felt generally pretty cheerful. I took a pic of the mist through the side hatches, and we had breakfast.
We’re not planning to go anywhere this weekend, so thought that topping up the water tank while it was quiet would be a good idea. Only thing was, there was a Shakespeare hire boat moored on the water point. While I was looking at this and muttering, Jacqui off Timewarp, moored behind this hire boat, came out and we had a chat. She was preparing to water her own boat, and to run her hoses to the boat behind her. She suggested that we should, by joining a load of hoses together, get water to Sanity without having to move her, so this is what we did.
Having done that, we also ran the hose to Pilot, moored behind us, so that in the end, of five boats on this bit of visitor mooring, four had been watered without moving. Another great example of boater cooperation, which on the cut just comes naturally.
While we doing all this, the Braidbar hire boat, Skye, came past. They must be out for a long trip, as they were heading away from base towards Burton and the River Trent.
We spent the rest of the morning sitting out on the towpath, me reading and Sheila knitting, whilst we ran the engine for battery charging. Later on, I checked email and the uk.rec.waterways newsgroup. The Marine Accident Investigation Board report on the fatal fire on the Lindy Lou at Lyme View marina is out. It makes sobering reading. In particular, it’s not apparent that the boaters concerned had done anything especially foolish, in a newish boat that had passed the mandatory safety exams. Alright, they went to bed having had a lot to drink, but the stove wasn’t left open or anything, and one of them died as a result.
This afternoon, we took a walk, one of our favourites across the fields to Fradley Village and then back via the Coventry and Trent and Mersey canals. It remains amazingly warm, and we saw several buzzards, and a Great Spotted woodpecker flew across the towpath in front of us. It made a great end to the day.
We woke to a bright and sunny morning, but with some concern in our minds about the postal strike in prospect. Sheila had been expecting an appointment for an x-ray for a stiff shoulder, and it hasn’t appeared yet. We trolled round to the surgery, where they admitted that the request had only gone in two days ago, although Sheila saw the GP over a week ago. First time the surgery has let us down.
Back at the boat, Sheila tried to ring the number she’d been given for X-ray appointments, but it was hopeless trying to get through. Furthermore, the auto answer said to leave a number and they would reply “within 48 hours” i.e. probably not before the beginning of next week.
Back she went to the surgery, got an appointment for later in the morning with the trainee, who when he saw her did a good job of examination and discussion. She’s got some anti-inflammatories to take which will hopefully let her get some sleep.
In the afternoon, we took advantage of the weather in different ways. Sheila, who’d had enough walking to-ing and fro-ing to the surgery, sat out on the towpath knitting whilst also running a wash load.
I went for a walk across the fields to Wychnor Park, round to the Wychnor moorings, and so back to the boat. I got a few photos of the route, but nothing spectacular.
The other thing of interest was an email to say that the IWA is consulting again on its governance structure. That makes two things I really must respond to (the other being the HMRC consultation on red diesel taxation). At least as we’re going to be around here for a few days more, I should get the chance to drive myself to do it, if only the weather wasn’t so fine!
This morning was seriously misty first thing. We had indeed had a better night, so we felt generally pretty cheerful. I took a pic of the mist through the side hatches, and we had breakfast.
We’re not planning to go anywhere this weekend, so thought that topping up the water tank while it was quiet would be a good idea. Only thing was, there was a Shakespeare hire boat moored on the water point. While I was looking at this and muttering, Jacqui off Timewarp, moored behind this hire boat, came out and we had a chat. She was preparing to water her own boat, and to run her hoses to the boat behind her. She suggested that we should, by joining a load of hoses together, get water to Sanity without having to move her, so this is what we did.
Having done that, we also ran the hose to Pilot, moored behind us, so that in the end, of five boats on this bit of visitor mooring, four had been watered without moving. Another great example of boater cooperation, which on the cut just comes naturally.
While we doing all this, the Braidbar hire boat, Skye, came past. They must be out for a long trip, as they were heading away from base towards Burton and the River Trent.
We spent the rest of the morning sitting out on the towpath, me reading and Sheila knitting, whilst we ran the engine for battery charging. Later on, I checked email and the uk.rec.waterways newsgroup. The Marine Accident Investigation Board report on the fatal fire on the Lindy Lou at Lyme View marina is out. It makes sobering reading. In particular, it’s not apparent that the boaters concerned had done anything especially foolish, in a newish boat that had passed the mandatory safety exams. Alright, they went to bed having had a lot to drink, but the stove wasn’t left open or anything, and one of them died as a result.
This afternoon, we took a walk, one of our favourites across the fields to Fradley Village and then back via the Coventry and Trent and Mersey canals. It remains amazingly warm, and we saw several buzzards, and a Great Spotted woodpecker flew across the towpath in front of us. It made a great end to the day.
Wednesday, 3 October 2007
Good friends and sad news
2nd & 3rd October
It was a restless night – I kept waking up and listening to hear if the fridge had started, as a clue that the mains circuit was still live. When the fridge starts up, the inverter cooling fan runs for a bit – it was one of the first things to get used to when we moved on board. I could, of course, have just got up and looked at the mains panel in the engine room to see if the light was still on, but that would have been silly.
In the morning I made my dopey way to the surgery for the annual check up. All was well in general, although I got told off for drinking too much (28 units a week is now too much, apparently), and I’ve got a couple more appointments to keep as a result.
We’d planned to do the Willy Walk but not go to the pub, so as to move the boat to Burton in the afternoon, as I had an Out Patients appointment there on Wednesday (i.e. today). However, when Will and Jane heard of this, they suggested that Will needed to go into Burton tomorrow anyway, so could give me a lift.
This meant that we could follow the usual Tuesday Alrewas routine of walk, pub lunch, back to the boat, doze, light evening meal. In the evening, Elanor came to visit with our post. Sheila now has an appointment at Cannock Chase hospital for the 23rd, and we spent some time working out how we could get there. It is truly being a month for health care stuff, but at least it gets it all out of the way.
This morning we moved the boat onto the water point, and by the time we’d filled up, a boat had moved off from the visitor moorings just beyond. We put Sanity on the space thus left, and were soon ready to go to Burton with Will. What a good friend he is.
Burton’s dermatology clinic was very efficiently organised, and I was out not 20 minutes after my official appointment time. My mole is just a mole, seemingly, which is a relief, not that I was worried anyway (much).
When Will picked us up, he gave the shocking news that Mike Stevens, that doyen of waterways knowledge and expertise, and a very decent guy into the bargain, had died. Although no longer in the prime of life, we had no reason to suppose that he’d been ill, so it came as a dreadful surprise.
He and his partner Wendy had not long moved onto their new boat, Felis Catus III. All our thoughts are with Wendy at this sad time. Mike’s absence will take a deal of getting used to.
Phone Connectors again
Just a footnote to my last comment on these. The replacement bits of Velcro have arrived from BPC. They work much better than the originals, and I’ll comment again after trying them out on the phone.
It was a restless night – I kept waking up and listening to hear if the fridge had started, as a clue that the mains circuit was still live. When the fridge starts up, the inverter cooling fan runs for a bit – it was one of the first things to get used to when we moved on board. I could, of course, have just got up and looked at the mains panel in the engine room to see if the light was still on, but that would have been silly.
In the morning I made my dopey way to the surgery for the annual check up. All was well in general, although I got told off for drinking too much (28 units a week is now too much, apparently), and I’ve got a couple more appointments to keep as a result.
We’d planned to do the Willy Walk but not go to the pub, so as to move the boat to Burton in the afternoon, as I had an Out Patients appointment there on Wednesday (i.e. today). However, when Will and Jane heard of this, they suggested that Will needed to go into Burton tomorrow anyway, so could give me a lift.
This meant that we could follow the usual Tuesday Alrewas routine of walk, pub lunch, back to the boat, doze, light evening meal. In the evening, Elanor came to visit with our post. Sheila now has an appointment at Cannock Chase hospital for the 23rd, and we spent some time working out how we could get there. It is truly being a month for health care stuff, but at least it gets it all out of the way.
This morning we moved the boat onto the water point, and by the time we’d filled up, a boat had moved off from the visitor moorings just beyond. We put Sanity on the space thus left, and were soon ready to go to Burton with Will. What a good friend he is.
Burton’s dermatology clinic was very efficiently organised, and I was out not 20 minutes after my official appointment time. My mole is just a mole, seemingly, which is a relief, not that I was worried anyway (much).
When Will picked us up, he gave the shocking news that Mike Stevens, that doyen of waterways knowledge and expertise, and a very decent guy into the bargain, had died. Although no longer in the prime of life, we had no reason to suppose that he’d been ill, so it came as a dreadful surprise.
He and his partner Wendy had not long moved onto their new boat, Felis Catus III. All our thoughts are with Wendy at this sad time. Mike’s absence will take a deal of getting used to.
Phone Connectors again
Just a footnote to my last comment on these. The replacement bits of Velcro have arrived from BPC. They work much better than the originals, and I’ll comment again after trying them out on the phone.
Monday, 1 October 2007
Back to Alrewas: Death of a TravelPower
30th September & 1st October
The mooring by King’s Bromley proved to be as good as it seemed – very peaceful overnight, and strongly recommended. We wanted to get right back to Alrewas, so made a prompt start.
It was a great Autumn morning, one of my favourite times for boating. There was very little wind, a trace of mist drifting about and although it was nippy, it was nothing that a well-zipped fleece couldn’t cope with.
We got to the top of Shade House Lock just before nine, and followed another boat down to the junction, with a steady flow of boats coming the other way. By 10.05 we’d cleared Hunt’s Lock, so just over an hour for Fradley flight on a Sunday in September – it just shows the value of an early start, and having a lockwheeler (Sheila) who’s prepared to ride the bike from Woodend to Alrewas.
Alrewas was very busy when we got there at 10.45 – we tied near the road bridge and just behind Quidditch at first (when are you taking that boat back to its mooring, Mr Chapman?). While we were eating lunch, Graham and Beryl came through on Priscilla, and tied behind Shiraz a little further along. When they’d had their own lunch they came back for a natter, and kindly offered us some more of their logs. It seems Beryl is a great one for planting fruit trees and then cutting them down after a few years.
By now, there was a vacancy behind them, so we moved up to take delivery of a bag and a half of damson wood. Very nice indeed, thank you Beryl and Graham. While we were standing on the towpath saying cheerio to them, as they prepared to move back to their base in Barton Turns, an anonymous boat arrived being crewed by a couple of wrgie women of our acquaintance, in the shape of Al Moore and Helen Gardner (aka Bushbaby).
They tied in front of Shiraz, so I went up to say hi to them. Meanwhile Priscilla pulled out and Sheila moved Sanity forward to tie where Priscilla had been.
We also had a chance to talk to the owners of Shiraz, before settling into the boat for the night.
Today was one of those days which didn’t turn out quite as expected. Sheila had an appointment at the surgery in late morning, so I’d envisaged a lazy morning, but it was not to be. I gave the TravelPower belt a tweak to try and stop it squeaking, and then started the engine. Sheila said she’d like to run a wash load and then get a shower before going round to the doctors’. She came back from the engine room to report that the mains power was off.
My first thought was that descaling the washing machine yesterday had loosened some critical water joint and caused an earth leak, so I went back and disconnected the machine. However, the TravelPower then went out, and restarting it after a pause, with the washing machine out of circuit, led to the earth leakage breaker opening anyway. Meantime, I’d taken the lid off the washing machine, and there was no sign of water anywhere it shouldn’t have been.
I tried running the wash load with the TP off and the DC alternator on, and it was fine, so it looks as if the TravelPower has developed yet another problem. This time it will keep until we get to Braidbar, hopefully by the end of this month, medics permitting. Meantime, we’ll rely on the DC alternator and inverter to keep things going. It certainly meant that this morning was a lot more exciting than I’d planned.
We’ve since had a quiet afternoon, to make up. Tomorrow, it’s my turn for the surgery, then the Willy Walk, then on to Burton as I have a hospital appointment there at the end of Wednesday morning. Meantime, here’s a picture of Daniel in Sheila’s jumper (i.e. the one she knitted).
The mooring by King’s Bromley proved to be as good as it seemed – very peaceful overnight, and strongly recommended. We wanted to get right back to Alrewas, so made a prompt start.
It was a great Autumn morning, one of my favourite times for boating. There was very little wind, a trace of mist drifting about and although it was nippy, it was nothing that a well-zipped fleece couldn’t cope with.
We got to the top of Shade House Lock just before nine, and followed another boat down to the junction, with a steady flow of boats coming the other way. By 10.05 we’d cleared Hunt’s Lock, so just over an hour for Fradley flight on a Sunday in September – it just shows the value of an early start, and having a lockwheeler (Sheila) who’s prepared to ride the bike from Woodend to Alrewas.
Alrewas was very busy when we got there at 10.45 – we tied near the road bridge and just behind Quidditch at first (when are you taking that boat back to its mooring, Mr Chapman?). While we were eating lunch, Graham and Beryl came through on Priscilla, and tied behind Shiraz a little further along. When they’d had their own lunch they came back for a natter, and kindly offered us some more of their logs. It seems Beryl is a great one for planting fruit trees and then cutting them down after a few years.
By now, there was a vacancy behind them, so we moved up to take delivery of a bag and a half of damson wood. Very nice indeed, thank you Beryl and Graham. While we were standing on the towpath saying cheerio to them, as they prepared to move back to their base in Barton Turns, an anonymous boat arrived being crewed by a couple of wrgie women of our acquaintance, in the shape of Al Moore and Helen Gardner (aka Bushbaby).
They tied in front of Shiraz, so I went up to say hi to them. Meanwhile Priscilla pulled out and Sheila moved Sanity forward to tie where Priscilla had been.
We also had a chance to talk to the owners of Shiraz, before settling into the boat for the night.
Today was one of those days which didn’t turn out quite as expected. Sheila had an appointment at the surgery in late morning, so I’d envisaged a lazy morning, but it was not to be. I gave the TravelPower belt a tweak to try and stop it squeaking, and then started the engine. Sheila said she’d like to run a wash load and then get a shower before going round to the doctors’. She came back from the engine room to report that the mains power was off.
My first thought was that descaling the washing machine yesterday had loosened some critical water joint and caused an earth leak, so I went back and disconnected the machine. However, the TravelPower then went out, and restarting it after a pause, with the washing machine out of circuit, led to the earth leakage breaker opening anyway. Meantime, I’d taken the lid off the washing machine, and there was no sign of water anywhere it shouldn’t have been.
I tried running the wash load with the TP off and the DC alternator on, and it was fine, so it looks as if the TravelPower has developed yet another problem. This time it will keep until we get to Braidbar, hopefully by the end of this month, medics permitting. Meantime, we’ll rely on the DC alternator and inverter to keep things going. It certainly meant that this morning was a lot more exciting than I’d planned.
We’ve since had a quiet afternoon, to make up. Tomorrow, it’s my turn for the surgery, then the Willy Walk, then on to Burton as I have a hospital appointment there at the end of Wednesday morning. Meantime, here’s a picture of Daniel in Sheila’s jumper (i.e. the one she knitted).
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