Enjoying Bugsworth Basin

11th & 12th November

A windy night led to a bright morning and we made a prompt start on a quiet canal. In fact for most of the day we saw nothing else moving al all.

Sheila was steering, so it fell to me to work the two lift bridges and the first swing bridge on the way to New Mills. As usual, the swing bridge was very reluctant to start moving, and gave Sheila a bad moment – because of the wind, she was trying to keep Sanity moving along the cut, and when the bridge didn’t appear to be shifting, it looked like she was going to have to do some swift reversing. Fortunately, it began to move in the nick of time.

Entry to New Mills is marked by a strong smell of childhood as you pass the Swizzels Matlow factory, home of Lovehearts and similar tooth rotting delights.

The next swing bridge is just before Furness Vale marina. Perhaps it gets more use, but it always swings more readily in my experience. Just before the bridge we passed Granny Buttons, Andrew Denny’s boat and star of one of the longest running boater’s blogs on the net.

There are no less than four Braidbars moored at Furness Vale at the moment: Dalliance, Arcturus, Carina and Betty Surtees.

Navigation on the other side of Furness Vale is complicated by a daft decision to plant the offside with bamboo, in a bit of the cut where the channel is pretty narrow to start with. I haven’t heard any account of why this odd material had been chosen – it doesn’t add very much, if anything, to the waterways scene.

There is a medium sized Tesco just at the junction where the arm to Bugsworth Basin, our destination, leaves the arm which goes straight on to Whaley Bridge. As lunchtime was now approaching, I hopped off here to get bread and stuff, and Sheila took Sanity on into the Basin, mooring at the water point just in the entrance.

By the time I got back with the shopping, Sanity’s water tank was well on the way to being filled. Andrew has commented on the rather unwelcoming signage about overstaying at this point. This feeling was confirmed by the members of an Inland Waterways Preservation Society working party who were about. Sheila tried giving several of them a cheerful greeting, but was met with rather grumpy stares. Perhaps IWPS doesn’t want boats messing up their nice basin?

It’s a shame they feel like that – the restoration is a remarkable achievement, and the basin makes a great base for several walks up into the Peak District, but you are only allowed to stay 48 hours or else incur overstaying fines.

We tied in the middle basin, handy for the pub but not right by it. Slightly to my surprise, there’s a good Vodafone signal here, but only a slow T-mobile connection.

We spent the afternoon finishing the family calendars, printing them off and tying them up – this involved another trip to Tesco (about ten minutes walk from the basin) as the hole punch we’d bought to replace the old one didn’t have a punching guide, essential for neat assembly of the calendars.

Today, it had been a bit frosty overnight, though the bright morning sun soon burned it off. We did a big shop at Tesco, then cleaned the boat.

Peter and Jan met us in the Navigation Inn at lunch time, where we had a really good meal, together with some excellent beer in the shape of Timothy Taylor’s Landlord.

The weather continuing fine, we took a protracted ramble round the basin before falling back on the boat for a cup of tea. Altogether a great day – tomorrow we head back to Poynton.