30th & 31st December
The last blog of the year and, I think, a short one.
The downbeat mood of Saturday was continued by a phone call from Elanor to say that she and Stuart have broken up. This is a real shame from our point of view, as we really liked the guy, but of course there's no future in trying to sort out your kids' lives for them.
Sunday was spent quietly, doing the recycling, buying a paper and reading it. Otherwise it was a case of gentle pottering around the boat, as a parade of Sunday walkers/joggers/runners/cyclists went by.
We had a further call from Elanor on her way home from Stuart's to Burton, so were reassured that she was coping.
My main creative effort was to make turkey soup from the carcase of our bird – Elanor is bringing some spare turkey from their festivities, so I've not finished with the turkey recipes yet awhile.
This morning was similarly low key – we'd both had a restless night, perhaps not surprisingly; as a parent of adult kids you feel so helpless in these circumstances.
I went down to the post office to pay in a cheque to our Alliance and Leicester account, which claims that you can make pay-ins at the PO without charge. In fact what happened was that the guy gave me an envelope to send it to A&L, on which I have to put a stamp, so it's not quite the free deal as advertised, is it, A&L?
After lunch we went onto the water point to fill up and to see if there was a mooring nearer to the car park for Elanor's benefit. There wasn't, so after a double winding we've come back to Ian's – we'll probably have to leave this at around lunchtime tomorrow, as Ian will be coming out of the yard in preparation for normal working from Wednesday on.
All well, one good thing, we're on our way again tomorrow – the sound track to my life should be I was born under a wandrin' star, I guess.
Monday, 31 December 2007
Saturday, 29 December 2007
Life has ups and downs
28th & 29th December
We'd had an excellent evening on Sebeq, being entertained by Klaus and Helga, so made an easy start to Friday.
We'd planned to sit tight for one more day, then go to Marple for some shopping and the change of scene on Saturday. Checking the weather forecast, however, revealed that whereas Friday's weather was going to be a bit breezy, with gusts up to 30 mph, Saturday was liable to be even worse, with the wind gusting to 40 mph.
So we thought again, and by 10 o'clock were ready to set off. Fortunately, Klaus and Helga were up by then, as Sebeq was still moored outside us. The four of us gave a virtuoso performance of extracting Sanity backwards from inside Sebeq. There was, naturally, no audience to view it.
Arriving at Marple at 11.30, we did a first load of shopping, including more knitting needles from the Marple wool shop, Sew-in, so that Sheila can knit Daniel a hat just like the one she's given me for Christmas – she wanted to get it done to give to Graeme and Cathy when they came to see us for New Year.
After lunch, we were on our way back to the Co-op for a second load (mostly booze of various kinds, ready for Hogmanay) when the phone rang. It was Luisa to say that they were free that evening if we still wanted to give them a curry.
We certainly do, was the answer, so after finishing the shopping we set off back to Poynton for a seven o'clock rendezvous with them. We moored on Ian Grindrod's mooring, since his boat, Barbra Louise, is in the yard until the New Year for security reasons.
On the way back, we saw some young villains (around age 8, I'd say) throwing stones at the boats on the Waterside Moorings, but they were too shy to pose for a photograph. I also took a shot of the amazing hole which has just appeared in the towpath under the Bridge in High Lane.
We'd had an excellent evening on Sebeq, being entertained by Klaus and Helga, so made an easy start to Friday.
We'd planned to sit tight for one more day, then go to Marple for some shopping and the change of scene on Saturday. Checking the weather forecast, however, revealed that whereas Friday's weather was going to be a bit breezy, with gusts up to 30 mph, Saturday was liable to be even worse, with the wind gusting to 40 mph.
So we thought again, and by 10 o'clock were ready to set off. Fortunately, Klaus and Helga were up by then, as Sebeq was still moored outside us. The four of us gave a virtuoso performance of extracting Sanity backwards from inside Sebeq. There was, naturally, no audience to view it.
Arriving at Marple at 11.30, we did a first load of shopping, including more knitting needles from the Marple wool shop, Sew-in, so that Sheila can knit Daniel a hat just like the one she's given me for Christmas – she wanted to get it done to give to Graeme and Cathy when they came to see us for New Year.
After lunch, we were on our way back to the Co-op for a second load (mostly booze of various kinds, ready for Hogmanay) when the phone rang. It was Luisa to say that they were free that evening if we still wanted to give them a curry.
We certainly do, was the answer, so after finishing the shopping we set off back to Poynton for a seven o'clock rendezvous with them. We moored on Ian Grindrod's mooring, since his boat, Barbra Louise, is in the yard until the New Year for security reasons.
On the way back, we saw some young villains (around age 8, I'd say) throwing stones at the boats on the Waterside Moorings, but they were too shy to pose for a photograph. I also took a shot of the amazing hole which has just appeared in the towpath under the Bridge in High Lane.
Hole under High Lane Bridge
We had another excellent evening with Iain and Luisa (we always do), consuming Prawn Garam Masala and a sticky toffee meringue and strawberry dessert contributed by Luisa.
After two late nights in a row, we made a really late start this morning, not getting going until half nine. Whilst I went out to get a paper and some bread, Sheila made a start on cleaning the boat ready for the invasion tomorrow (Sunday) and the next day.
Just as we were eating lunch, though, Graeme rang up and broke the bad news that they are not going to make it. It's nothing serious, but Daniel has been suffering from the disruption to routine over Christmas, together with a cold and starting to teethe. As a result, none of them had had a lot of sleep last night, and to add in another trip just seems like a really bad idea.
We are bitterly disappointed, of course, but these things happen with small kids, and we just have to live with it. It did rather reduce the motivation to clean the boat, though. We'll still see Elanor, and will be delighted to do so, but we'll have to wait until some time in the New Year before seeing our ever growing grandson again.
We've spent the afternoon clearing up even so, and the boat is beginning to look a a bit tidier than it has for a while.
The decision about boating yesterday was justified, as well – the weather is now appalling out there, blowing and raining, but we have some hopes for a calmer period over New Year itself.
After two late nights in a row, we made a really late start this morning, not getting going until half nine. Whilst I went out to get a paper and some bread, Sheila made a start on cleaning the boat ready for the invasion tomorrow (Sunday) and the next day.
Just as we were eating lunch, though, Graeme rang up and broke the bad news that they are not going to make it. It's nothing serious, but Daniel has been suffering from the disruption to routine over Christmas, together with a cold and starting to teethe. As a result, none of them had had a lot of sleep last night, and to add in another trip just seems like a really bad idea.
We are bitterly disappointed, of course, but these things happen with small kids, and we just have to live with it. It did rather reduce the motivation to clean the boat, though. We'll still see Elanor, and will be delighted to do so, but we'll have to wait until some time in the New Year before seeing our ever growing grandson again.
We've spent the afternoon clearing up even so, and the boat is beginning to look a a bit tidier than it has for a while.
The decision about boating yesterday was justified, as well – the weather is now appalling out there, blowing and raining, but we have some hopes for a calmer period over New Year itself.
Labels:
Higher Poynton,
Marple
Thursday, 27 December 2007
Post Christmas Somnolence
26th & 27th December
It's not long before I shall be starting the 2008 blogs, and shortly after that it will be a twelvemonth since I started blogging. Amazing how time flies.
Yesterday we had a lazy start – it was just possible that the Brycelands and Nocturne's crew would turn up, but they didn't (Sheila and I had a disagreement about which day Nocturne was leaving – looks like I was right.)
It was a grey old day, which was a shame – there were, as usual for Boxing Day, a load of walkers on the towpath, and the car parks and local roads were jammed solid. When I walked down the road to get a paper later in the day, there were a lot of horse boxes around, too. It wasn't clear whether there was to be a hunt meeting, or just an organised ride.
We took a load of recycling to the tip first thing – it was very quiet at that point, though no doubt busier later in the day.
We didn't exert ourselves much beyond this – after lunch I did the catch up blog that I would normally have done the day before, but apart from that we read and ran a washload and stuff.
Today was a warm, damp start, after a windy night. About the middle of the morning Dave and Margaret turned up with family to take Nocturne away, and we had a chance to say hi to Iain and Luisa who were seeing them off.
During the morning I had a call from Klaus on Sebeq. They were moored at High Lane, and we arranged for them to come down and tie outside us once Nocturne had moved off.
Nocturne set off at around half eleven, winding outside the yard and heading for Macclesfield – they are planning a trip up the Llangollen. It wasn't a very nice day, I'm afraid, blowing with a steady rain, but they seemed cheerful enough. Once they'd gone, we backed onto the water point and filled up whilst running another washload. Sheila's washing schedule had got well behind during our ice bound stay on the Deeps, so she's trying to catch up before the kids descend for New Year.
By the time the tank was full and we'd pulled back onto the shop mooring it was lunchtime. In the afternoon, first Arcturus turned up looking for water, and shortly after, Sebeq. We had a quick chat with Phil and Pat on Arcturus, and then were invited for a) tea and b) dinner with Klaus and Helga.
During tea I showed them Elanor's fiendish bottle puzzle, but they were no more able to solve it than we have been. At this rate, we're not going to be able to do it before she arrives with the answer.
After tea we went back to Sanity, and I cut Sheila's hair before she had a shower. I'm going to extract the bottle from the puzzle in the cheating way so we can drink the contents tonight, and then put the empty back in the beast to keep working on it. Elanor may not be pleased but the wine looks too nice to resist.
It's not long before I shall be starting the 2008 blogs, and shortly after that it will be a twelvemonth since I started blogging. Amazing how time flies.
Yesterday we had a lazy start – it was just possible that the Brycelands and Nocturne's crew would turn up, but they didn't (Sheila and I had a disagreement about which day Nocturne was leaving – looks like I was right.)
It was a grey old day, which was a shame – there were, as usual for Boxing Day, a load of walkers on the towpath, and the car parks and local roads were jammed solid. When I walked down the road to get a paper later in the day, there were a lot of horse boxes around, too. It wasn't clear whether there was to be a hunt meeting, or just an organised ride.
We took a load of recycling to the tip first thing – it was very quiet at that point, though no doubt busier later in the day.
We didn't exert ourselves much beyond this – after lunch I did the catch up blog that I would normally have done the day before, but apart from that we read and ran a washload and stuff.
Today was a warm, damp start, after a windy night. About the middle of the morning Dave and Margaret turned up with family to take Nocturne away, and we had a chance to say hi to Iain and Luisa who were seeing them off.
During the morning I had a call from Klaus on Sebeq. They were moored at High Lane, and we arranged for them to come down and tie outside us once Nocturne had moved off.
Nocturne set off at around half eleven, winding outside the yard and heading for Macclesfield – they are planning a trip up the Llangollen. It wasn't a very nice day, I'm afraid, blowing with a steady rain, but they seemed cheerful enough. Once they'd gone, we backed onto the water point and filled up whilst running another washload. Sheila's washing schedule had got well behind during our ice bound stay on the Deeps, so she's trying to catch up before the kids descend for New Year.
By the time the tank was full and we'd pulled back onto the shop mooring it was lunchtime. In the afternoon, first Arcturus turned up looking for water, and shortly after, Sebeq. We had a quick chat with Phil and Pat on Arcturus, and then were invited for a) tea and b) dinner with Klaus and Helga.
During tea I showed them Elanor's fiendish bottle puzzle, but they were no more able to solve it than we have been. At this rate, we're not going to be able to do it before she arrives with the answer.
After tea we went back to Sanity, and I cut Sheila's hair before she had a shower. I'm going to extract the bottle from the puzzle in the cheating way so we can drink the contents tonight, and then put the empty back in the beast to keep working on it. Elanor may not be pleased but the wine looks too nice to resist.
Labels:
Higher Poynton
Wednesday, 26 December 2007
A Sanity Christmas
24th & 25th December
A quick blog this time to catch up and stop me getting lazy! And to start, for all you Marx Brothers fans out there, yes, I know there ain't no Sanity Claus.
I thank you!
Oh, well, please yourselves.
Christmas Eve began with a very mild morning, a noticeable change from before the weekend. We managed to beat the rain to get down to the shops to stock up on perishables like bread. I'm pleased with myself this year, I seem to have managed to avoid the siege mentality that normally overcomes me, stocking up with stuff as if we were about to cruise into some shopless hinterland for a fortnight. It's important to have enough in to get through Christmas with everything we like to have on that day, of course, but not to have the cupboards and fridge so stuffed that it all falls out whenever you open a door.
To be fair, just having the two of us around on the day helps as well, mind.
As we were settling to lunch, Cala backed out of the yard and set off on her maiden cruise at last. Peter and Gill have been amazingly patient (not that they had much choice) but could be seen to be sporting the Braidbar Grin, the expression on the face of anyone who's just moved onto their new boat, and which takes (in our experience) about 6 months to wear off.
We had decided to have a turkey on Christmas Eve this year, so the afternoon passed in making chestnut and sausage stuffing, and butchering the turkey in preparation for my experiment of cooking the legs separately.
This was accomplished without too much trouble, and with only one spill of cooking juices on the floor. It's certainly much easier than the usual hassle of trying to cook two totally different kinds of meat at the same time.
We had the breast meat for dinner, with stuffing, new potatoes and steamed sprouts.
The Internet had already gone very quiet, and we spent a relaxed (hup... pardon) evening listening to the rain falling outside.
I was briefly awake at 5 in the morning, and considered getting my revenge for all those years when the kids were small, by ringing Elanor and Graeme and saying "Happy Christmas... can I open my presents now?" Managed to resist it though, fell asleep again, and we had a very relaxed start, lazing in bed until 9, eating the usual breakfast and then making some Buck's Fizz with Aussie "champagne" and tropical fruit juice. Just as we were preparing to open the presents the kids started ringing up, and had to be told they were too soon for feedback on their gifts.
We duly rang Elanor back to congratulate her on two fiendish choices, a huge (as in six and a half foot square) crossword puzzle for Sheila, and a device of wooden blocks and cords holding a wine bottle tantalisingly fastened up for me. At time of writing (Boxing Day afternoon) I've still not got it open, and am nearly reduced to nutting the thing. Thank you Elanor.
We were feeling a bit cabin feverish before lunch (nothing to do with the Buck's Fizz) so went for a short walk to freshen up. Back at the boat I cooked our lunch of huge hip bone steaks, red wine sauce, baked potatoes and steamed Savoy cabbage.
The afternoon was spent in traditional fashion for those not cursed with a TV. We read, struggled with our puzzles and the Indy Quiz of the Year and eventually had a light supper of beer and turkey sandwiches. (Yes, I know, it's difficult to make a beer and turkey sandwich as the beer all dribbles out and makes the bread soggy.)
Graeme rang back, so we were able to thank him for their presents. We have been looking for the lesser known novels of Robert Neill (the Mist over Pendle guy) for some time and Cathy and Graeme had not only found two of them, Rebel Heiress and Black William, but the latter was a first edition signed by the author. It's going to have to be covered in brown paper before we dare read it.
And so we tottered off to bed at an early hour, after a quiet but eminently satisfactory Christmas.
A quick blog this time to catch up and stop me getting lazy! And to start, for all you Marx Brothers fans out there, yes, I know there ain't no Sanity Claus.
I thank you!
Oh, well, please yourselves.
Christmas Eve began with a very mild morning, a noticeable change from before the weekend. We managed to beat the rain to get down to the shops to stock up on perishables like bread. I'm pleased with myself this year, I seem to have managed to avoid the siege mentality that normally overcomes me, stocking up with stuff as if we were about to cruise into some shopless hinterland for a fortnight. It's important to have enough in to get through Christmas with everything we like to have on that day, of course, but not to have the cupboards and fridge so stuffed that it all falls out whenever you open a door.
To be fair, just having the two of us around on the day helps as well, mind.
As we were settling to lunch, Cala backed out of the yard and set off on her maiden cruise at last. Peter and Gill have been amazingly patient (not that they had much choice) but could be seen to be sporting the Braidbar Grin, the expression on the face of anyone who's just moved onto their new boat, and which takes (in our experience) about 6 months to wear off.
We had decided to have a turkey on Christmas Eve this year, so the afternoon passed in making chestnut and sausage stuffing, and butchering the turkey in preparation for my experiment of cooking the legs separately.
This was accomplished without too much trouble, and with only one spill of cooking juices on the floor. It's certainly much easier than the usual hassle of trying to cook two totally different kinds of meat at the same time.
We had the breast meat for dinner, with stuffing, new potatoes and steamed sprouts.
The Internet had already gone very quiet, and we spent a relaxed (hup... pardon) evening listening to the rain falling outside.
I was briefly awake at 5 in the morning, and considered getting my revenge for all those years when the kids were small, by ringing Elanor and Graeme and saying "Happy Christmas... can I open my presents now?" Managed to resist it though, fell asleep again, and we had a very relaxed start, lazing in bed until 9, eating the usual breakfast and then making some Buck's Fizz with Aussie "champagne" and tropical fruit juice. Just as we were preparing to open the presents the kids started ringing up, and had to be told they were too soon for feedback on their gifts.
We duly rang Elanor back to congratulate her on two fiendish choices, a huge (as in six and a half foot square) crossword puzzle for Sheila, and a device of wooden blocks and cords holding a wine bottle tantalisingly fastened up for me. At time of writing (Boxing Day afternoon) I've still not got it open, and am nearly reduced to nutting the thing. Thank you Elanor.
We were feeling a bit cabin feverish before lunch (nothing to do with the Buck's Fizz) so went for a short walk to freshen up. Back at the boat I cooked our lunch of huge hip bone steaks, red wine sauce, baked potatoes and steamed Savoy cabbage.
The afternoon was spent in traditional fashion for those not cursed with a TV. We read, struggled with our puzzles and the Indy Quiz of the Year and eventually had a light supper of beer and turkey sandwiches. (Yes, I know, it's difficult to make a beer and turkey sandwich as the beer all dribbles out and makes the bread soggy.)
Graeme rang back, so we were able to thank him for their presents. We have been looking for the lesser known novels of Robert Neill (the Mist over Pendle guy) for some time and Cathy and Graeme had not only found two of them, Rebel Heiress and Black William, but the latter was a first edition signed by the author. It's going to have to be covered in brown paper before we dare read it.
And so we tottered off to bed at an early hour, after a quiet but eminently satisfactory Christmas.
Labels:
Higher Poynton
Sunday, 23 December 2007
Soon be Christmas
22nd & 23rd December
After a cold start to the night, it was milder in the morning. The ice around us was starting to melt, causing some confusion to the ducks and swans, as it looked wet on top, but if they landed on it, it proved to be solid underneath. The swans in particular looked most affronted at this state of affairs, and sat around on a little spit of land glaring at the passers-by.
We made a long trip to the Poynton Somerfield, trying to finish getting stocked up for Christmas. On our way back, we stopped off for another natter with Peter and Gill on Cala, who are on their nice new boat but still stuck in the yard until the ice clears.
Back at the boat at lunchtime, the thaw continued slowly. As we were settling down to eat lunch, Mata Hari, tied just ahead of us, made an attempt to get away to go to the water point –they said they were right out. Unfortunately, the ice was just too thick to let them do it, and they gave up for a bit. Later in the afternoon, they had another go and were successful.
At four o'clock we got a phone call from Elanor, who was in the canalside car park, but needed a hand to carry all the stuff she'd brought for us. I put my coat and boots on and trotted down there. Mata Hari was still on the water point, I suspect getting some washing done whilst there.
Back at the boat, we had a very pleasant family evening, sorting out the stuff she'd brought and catching up on the gossip.
This morning it had been cold overnight again, and the cut had fully refrozen. We too needed to get some water soon, but crossed our fingers that there would be enough of a thaw during the day to let us move down to the water point and then tie on the shop mooring overnight. The shop isn't planning to open during the week of the holiday, only at the weekends.
Elanor needed to leave before lunch, so after a lazy start, I checked out some problems she was having with her MacBook (easily solved, I'm pleased to say) and then gave her a hand to lug a different selection of stuff back to her car.
On the way there we bumped into Peter and Gill again, just setting off to walk into Poynton for a paper. They told us that there was to be a shuffle of the boats in the yard at 3.30, when Nocturne would be moved out onto the shop mooring, the little day boat moved into the paint dock, Ian Grindrod's boat moved into the yard and finally Cala put back in the middle of the yard so that they could get away later if they chose.
When I relayed this to Sheila we agreed that if the ice had relented enough by then we would still go and water, and then tie outside Nocturne for Christmas.
After lunch it still looked pretty frozen, but by the time we were having a cup of tea, it could be seen to be improving (well it did to me – Sheila wasn't not at all convinced).
Shortly after this, Black Bess, that ties on the strip of moorings further up the cut called Mad Jack's (whether after the character in Paint Your Wagon I know not), came through the Deeps, winded at the end and went back. This just gave me enough leverage to persuade Sheila that we should put Plan A into effect.
The winding wasn't too difficult, although trying to reverse into a section of ice brought us up all standing. When we got to the bridge by the water point, Black Bess could be seen to be still filling up, so we lurked in the bridge 'ole for a bit until it was our turn.
We ran a wash load of socks whilst waiting and whilst on the water point, and then pulled forward outside Nocturne as we'd planned, albeit by the light of a very full moon.
So here we are, hopefully settled until after Christmas Day. I doubt if I'll get round to posting a blog on that day, when the next one is due, so I'll take this opportunity to wish all those reading this a happy and relaxing Christmas, and I'll be back on Boxing Day.
After a cold start to the night, it was milder in the morning. The ice around us was starting to melt, causing some confusion to the ducks and swans, as it looked wet on top, but if they landed on it, it proved to be solid underneath. The swans in particular looked most affronted at this state of affairs, and sat around on a little spit of land glaring at the passers-by.
We made a long trip to the Poynton Somerfield, trying to finish getting stocked up for Christmas. On our way back, we stopped off for another natter with Peter and Gill on Cala, who are on their nice new boat but still stuck in the yard until the ice clears.
Back at the boat at lunchtime, the thaw continued slowly. As we were settling down to eat lunch, Mata Hari, tied just ahead of us, made an attempt to get away to go to the water point –they said they were right out. Unfortunately, the ice was just too thick to let them do it, and they gave up for a bit. Later in the afternoon, they had another go and were successful.
At four o'clock we got a phone call from Elanor, who was in the canalside car park, but needed a hand to carry all the stuff she'd brought for us. I put my coat and boots on and trotted down there. Mata Hari was still on the water point, I suspect getting some washing done whilst there.
Back at the boat, we had a very pleasant family evening, sorting out the stuff she'd brought and catching up on the gossip.
This morning it had been cold overnight again, and the cut had fully refrozen. We too needed to get some water soon, but crossed our fingers that there would be enough of a thaw during the day to let us move down to the water point and then tie on the shop mooring overnight. The shop isn't planning to open during the week of the holiday, only at the weekends.
Elanor needed to leave before lunch, so after a lazy start, I checked out some problems she was having with her MacBook (easily solved, I'm pleased to say) and then gave her a hand to lug a different selection of stuff back to her car.
On the way there we bumped into Peter and Gill again, just setting off to walk into Poynton for a paper. They told us that there was to be a shuffle of the boats in the yard at 3.30, when Nocturne would be moved out onto the shop mooring, the little day boat moved into the paint dock, Ian Grindrod's boat moved into the yard and finally Cala put back in the middle of the yard so that they could get away later if they chose.
When I relayed this to Sheila we agreed that if the ice had relented enough by then we would still go and water, and then tie outside Nocturne for Christmas.
After lunch it still looked pretty frozen, but by the time we were having a cup of tea, it could be seen to be improving (well it did to me – Sheila wasn't not at all convinced).
Shortly after this, Black Bess, that ties on the strip of moorings further up the cut called Mad Jack's (whether after the character in Paint Your Wagon I know not), came through the Deeps, winded at the end and went back. This just gave me enough leverage to persuade Sheila that we should put Plan A into effect.
The winding wasn't too difficult, although trying to reverse into a section of ice brought us up all standing. When we got to the bridge by the water point, Black Bess could be seen to be still filling up, so we lurked in the bridge 'ole for a bit until it was our turn.
We ran a wash load of socks whilst waiting and whilst on the water point, and then pulled forward outside Nocturne as we'd planned, albeit by the light of a very full moon.
So here we are, hopefully settled until after Christmas Day. I doubt if I'll get round to posting a blog on that day, when the next one is due, so I'll take this opportunity to wish all those reading this a happy and relaxing Christmas, and I'll be back on Boxing Day.
Labels:
Higher Poynton
Friday, 21 December 2007
Coping in the cold
20th & 21st December
It felt very cold overnight, and sure enough in the morning we were frozen in again. The temptation in these circumstances is to hibernate, so we made a very late start indeed – breakfast was eaten to Ken Bruce (after 9.30 am for you guys elsewhere in the world).
On Wednesday I'd packaged up our marine VHF radio to send away for repair – it's taken to showing "wet inside" on the display when you turn it on, though it's never been in a situation to cause it to do so. I set off for the Post Office to despatch it.
As I got to the exit from the towpath to Lyme Road by the boatyard, there were a group of guys preparing to do some work on the towpath hedge. I was not surprised, more resigned when without making any attempt to dissuade me from walking through them, one started up the long reach chainsaw he was holding and started trimming the hedge top.
BW claims that it imposes equal health and safety rules on its contractors as on the volunteers such as those from wrg who help restore derelict canals. Either these contractors were simply ignoring the rules (quite likely) or BW's claim is not true. In wrg we go to great lengths to exclude the public from any sphere of operations involving dangerous machinery.
Anyway, down to the Post Office I went, despatched the radio by Special Delivery for a mere £4.75, and bought a copy of the Independent whilst there. Coming back, I nipped into the Trading Post by the boatyard and bought a copy of Canal Boat, and also picked up a copy of the freesheet Towpath Talk.
In this weather, a good supply of reading material is essential.
After coffee we both went down to the recycling centre and unloaded a lot of cardboard, plastic and paper. After lunch it was back to the investigation of things affecting the TravelPower, still following Electricky Dicky's advice (what a man). It didn't get much further, so I left the system battery charging from the domestic alternator whilst exchanging further emails with Dicky.
In the evening we planned our cruising for the New Year – down the Cheshire Locks to Middlewich, on to Preston Brook and onto the Bridgewater as far as Dunham Massey. Then back to Middlewich, through the Middlewich Arm to the Shroppie and up the Llangollen canal as far as Ellesmere. By then, we should be getting towards the end of the stoppage preiod, and can think about heading South.
Today we woke to similar conditions as yesterday, after another seriously chilly night. We set off to do some shopping, calling at Braidbar on the way to see if we could pay our bill for the work done in the last couple of months. They hadn't got it ready yet, but mentioned that they've checked over Skye, the hire boat, to make sure that it's OK for Elanor to use as overflow sleeping accommodation at New Year. How good they are!
In the town I made an impulse buy of a turkey. We're having steak from Alrewas on Christmas Day, just for a change, but it wouldn't be Christmas without turkey sandwiches later, so I've bought a small(ish) one. We'll probably have it roasted on Christmas Eve, then cut it cold on Christmas Day evening. I'm minded to try a trick I'd heard of the other year, and cook the legs separately from the rest.
This afternoon was yet more Victron experimentation, and then a phone call from the man. We're going to leave it be now until the New Year, so more of this anon.
Basically we've spent the rest of this afternoon huddled down in the boat – it's barely been above freezing all day, though there's been a bit of ice breaking movement past us on the cut. The forecast is for a change of weather to wet and mild over the next few days, which would be good from our point of view, as it'll make it simpler to get back to the water point to refill the tank.
Sorry kids – we'd rather not have a white Christmas!
It felt very cold overnight, and sure enough in the morning we were frozen in again. The temptation in these circumstances is to hibernate, so we made a very late start indeed – breakfast was eaten to Ken Bruce (after 9.30 am for you guys elsewhere in the world).
On Wednesday I'd packaged up our marine VHF radio to send away for repair – it's taken to showing "wet inside" on the display when you turn it on, though it's never been in a situation to cause it to do so. I set off for the Post Office to despatch it.
As I got to the exit from the towpath to Lyme Road by the boatyard, there were a group of guys preparing to do some work on the towpath hedge. I was not surprised, more resigned when without making any attempt to dissuade me from walking through them, one started up the long reach chainsaw he was holding and started trimming the hedge top.
BW claims that it imposes equal health and safety rules on its contractors as on the volunteers such as those from wrg who help restore derelict canals. Either these contractors were simply ignoring the rules (quite likely) or BW's claim is not true. In wrg we go to great lengths to exclude the public from any sphere of operations involving dangerous machinery.
Anyway, down to the Post Office I went, despatched the radio by Special Delivery for a mere £4.75, and bought a copy of the Independent whilst there. Coming back, I nipped into the Trading Post by the boatyard and bought a copy of Canal Boat, and also picked up a copy of the freesheet Towpath Talk.
In this weather, a good supply of reading material is essential.
After coffee we both went down to the recycling centre and unloaded a lot of cardboard, plastic and paper. After lunch it was back to the investigation of things affecting the TravelPower, still following Electricky Dicky's advice (what a man). It didn't get much further, so I left the system battery charging from the domestic alternator whilst exchanging further emails with Dicky.
In the evening we planned our cruising for the New Year – down the Cheshire Locks to Middlewich, on to Preston Brook and onto the Bridgewater as far as Dunham Massey. Then back to Middlewich, through the Middlewich Arm to the Shroppie and up the Llangollen canal as far as Ellesmere. By then, we should be getting towards the end of the stoppage preiod, and can think about heading South.
Today we woke to similar conditions as yesterday, after another seriously chilly night. We set off to do some shopping, calling at Braidbar on the way to see if we could pay our bill for the work done in the last couple of months. They hadn't got it ready yet, but mentioned that they've checked over Skye, the hire boat, to make sure that it's OK for Elanor to use as overflow sleeping accommodation at New Year. How good they are!
In the town I made an impulse buy of a turkey. We're having steak from Alrewas on Christmas Day, just for a change, but it wouldn't be Christmas without turkey sandwiches later, so I've bought a small(ish) one. We'll probably have it roasted on Christmas Eve, then cut it cold on Christmas Day evening. I'm minded to try a trick I'd heard of the other year, and cook the legs separately from the rest.
This afternoon was yet more Victron experimentation, and then a phone call from the man. We're going to leave it be now until the New Year, so more of this anon.
Basically we've spent the rest of this afternoon huddled down in the boat – it's barely been above freezing all day, though there's been a bit of ice breaking movement past us on the cut. The forecast is for a change of weather to wet and mild over the next few days, which would be good from our point of view, as it'll make it simpler to get back to the water point to refill the tank.
Sorry kids – we'd rather not have a white Christmas!
Labels:
Higher Poynton
Wednesday, 19 December 2007
Back to Poynton before it freezes again
18th & 19th December
We woke to find that there had been no further freeze overnight, and there was clear water between us and the water point. After a quick trip into town, we started up and pushed across to start watering and pumping out, at the same time running a washload.
Using the new pump out pump means that it only needs one of us to do the pump out, whilst the other one can keep her hands clean to handle the drinking water hose. We still didn't get the tank absolutely rinsed out – it's built up a bit in there, and will need several sessions to clear it properly.
When all was done, I took Sanity through the bridge and winded her with some difficulty, as there was still ice in the approach to the Marple lock flight, which stopped the bow from swinging round as easily as normal.
Whilst we were doing this, a guy on Poppy, moored on the towpath just through the bridge, popped up in his hatches to tell us of goings on further up the Upper Peak Forest on Monday.
We'd noticed that they'd stopped the canal for most of the day, and a police patrol had prevented people from going up the towpath. Apparently someone suffering from epilepsy had bought a boat about a month ago and started living on it in Marple Basin. After two weeks BW moved him on, and he went some way up the UPF to a towpath mooring.
He was then not seen for 16 days. The boater on Poppy became concerned and contacted BW, who rejected any responsibility for the welfare of boaters. (Tricky one that – they're not Social Services, after all, but they usually show some concern for our safety).
The guy on Poppy then conducted a search and found him floating in the cut (I presume, though don't know, that he was dead). BW then closed the UPF and police and fire service personnel recovered the body. It seems he'd had a stroke and fallen in.
Cheered by this jolly tale (not), we boated back to High Lane for lunch, then went on to Poynton, running another washload on the way. On arrival at Poynton we topped up the water again, and tied on the last available slot on the Deeps. The forecast is for another freezing spell, so it was good to get ourselves sorted, with a full water tank and empty toilet tank, somewhere handy for the shops and our friends in the yard.
Last night was a quiet night without too much frost in fact, and the ice had only spread out along the shallow portion of the lagoon we call the Deeps. After breakfast, we sorted some stuff to post, and I emailed Chris Daniels, the deputy editor at Waterways World, about the Upper Peak Forest business. I also had a nice comment on the last post from Sarah – it is good to hear from the select band of folks who follow my witterings on – what started as a way of keeping the family posted with our movements clearly also supplies a need in people for some vicarious boating. You are all very welcome, say I.
Then we went down into town, visited the Post Office and bought the usual daily supplies of bread, paper and some veg.
Back at the boat it was nearly lunchtime. After lunch, we settled down for a quiet afternoon. Sheila watched the DVD of Paint Your Wagon she got for her birthday, whilst knitting me a hat for Christmas, and I did some more emailing.
I'm having an interesting email conversation with a guy who rejoices in the nickname of Electricky Dicky – he's actually an experienced electrical engineer with an interest in boat electrics, so a good guy to know in these situations.
Meantime it's feeling colder and colder as I type this, so looks like we will see some more of the freeze up. Stewart Hooper off Anne tells me that the price of coal has gone up again – he's going to have to charge £8.10 for 25 kg of PureHeat in future. When we were first living on board in 2004, we thought PureHeat expensive because it cost more than £6 a bag.
We woke to find that there had been no further freeze overnight, and there was clear water between us and the water point. After a quick trip into town, we started up and pushed across to start watering and pumping out, at the same time running a washload.
Using the new pump out pump means that it only needs one of us to do the pump out, whilst the other one can keep her hands clean to handle the drinking water hose. We still didn't get the tank absolutely rinsed out – it's built up a bit in there, and will need several sessions to clear it properly.
When all was done, I took Sanity through the bridge and winded her with some difficulty, as there was still ice in the approach to the Marple lock flight, which stopped the bow from swinging round as easily as normal.
Whilst we were doing this, a guy on Poppy, moored on the towpath just through the bridge, popped up in his hatches to tell us of goings on further up the Upper Peak Forest on Monday.
We'd noticed that they'd stopped the canal for most of the day, and a police patrol had prevented people from going up the towpath. Apparently someone suffering from epilepsy had bought a boat about a month ago and started living on it in Marple Basin. After two weeks BW moved him on, and he went some way up the UPF to a towpath mooring.
He was then not seen for 16 days. The boater on Poppy became concerned and contacted BW, who rejected any responsibility for the welfare of boaters. (Tricky one that – they're not Social Services, after all, but they usually show some concern for our safety).
The guy on Poppy then conducted a search and found him floating in the cut (I presume, though don't know, that he was dead). BW then closed the UPF and police and fire service personnel recovered the body. It seems he'd had a stroke and fallen in.
Cheered by this jolly tale (not), we boated back to High Lane for lunch, then went on to Poynton, running another washload on the way. On arrival at Poynton we topped up the water again, and tied on the last available slot on the Deeps. The forecast is for another freezing spell, so it was good to get ourselves sorted, with a full water tank and empty toilet tank, somewhere handy for the shops and our friends in the yard.
Last night was a quiet night without too much frost in fact, and the ice had only spread out along the shallow portion of the lagoon we call the Deeps. After breakfast, we sorted some stuff to post, and I emailed Chris Daniels, the deputy editor at Waterways World, about the Upper Peak Forest business. I also had a nice comment on the last post from Sarah – it is good to hear from the select band of folks who follow my witterings on – what started as a way of keeping the family posted with our movements clearly also supplies a need in people for some vicarious boating. You are all very welcome, say I.
Then we went down into town, visited the Post Office and bought the usual daily supplies of bread, paper and some veg.
Back at the boat it was nearly lunchtime. After lunch, we settled down for a quiet afternoon. Sheila watched the DVD of Paint Your Wagon she got for her birthday, whilst knitting me a hat for Christmas, and I did some more emailing.
I'm having an interesting email conversation with a guy who rejoices in the nickname of Electricky Dicky – he's actually an experienced electrical engineer with an interest in boat electrics, so a good guy to know in these situations.
Meantime it's feeling colder and colder as I type this, so looks like we will see some more of the freeze up. Stewart Hooper off Anne tells me that the price of coal has gone up again – he's going to have to charge £8.10 for 25 kg of PureHeat in future. When we were first living on board in 2004, we thought PureHeat expensive because it cost more than £6 a bag.
Labels:
Higher Poynton
Monday, 17 December 2007
Icy boating
16th & 17th December
It was another icy morning but it wasn't as thick as on Saturday, and there was no frost. Nonetheless, there was no point in moving, as we wouldn't make it to Bugsworth in time for our 12.30 lunch date, and there was nowhere more convenient than High Lane to collect us.
I went up to the shop for bread and a paper, and at 12.25 or so we were collected by Peter and Jan from outside the Con Club on the A6. There was a remarkable amount of road traffic about for a Sunday, which had delayed them getting through from Stockport. Christmas shoppers, maybe.
It was well worth it though – we had an excellent lunch at the Navigation at Bugsworth, in a strangely quiet restaurant considering how close to Christmas it is getting.
Afterwards we walked down to the information point, where we found two hardy members of the IWPS toughing it out in the hut, with the door firmly closed against the biting wind whistling across the basin.
Then it was back to the boat for a cup of tea. After Peter and Jan had gone we had a quiet afternoon and evening. It felt quite cold, and we were grateful for the Squirrel blazing away. The air temperature outside was probably no lower than earlier in the week, but the wind was whistling around still, enough to move Sanity on her moorings.
It continued to feel cold overnight, and things were enlivened by the odd crashing noise through the hull. After some panicky thought I realised that sheets of ice must be forming further up the cut and being blown down onto Sanity. In the morning it was apparent that this was so – there were clear stretches of water visible in the cutting, and a thicker section of ice outside us and in the winding hole. Elsewhere the ice was no thicker than the day before.
As we were breakfasting, Enver came down from Poynton and winded opposite the arm into the North Cheshire Cruising Club moorings. It was hard work for him, as the ice resisted the lateral turning motion of the boat, and he had to go to and fro many times before he got round.
The weather was now quite still, and felt a little warmer than before. I went into the village to post the family Christmas cards, and to collect a prescription – High Lane has a combined Post Office and pharmacy, both very efficient. By the time I came back, the ice was looking very wet on top, and it seemed to us that by waiting another hour or so, we should be able to move off.
Accordingly, I did some emails, including one to a boat electrics expert of our acquaintance, asking for his help with our charging problem. Then we had a cup of coffee and set off at around eleven o'clock.
In places the ice was rather thicker than I'd hoped (comment by Sheila: "Typical") but it was possible to keep going, although steering presented a greater challenge than usual, especially on bends which had filled up with ice.
The main challenge came just as we approached Marple, past the Waterside Moorings. A huge cupressus tree trunk had been pushed into the cut, and was now embedded in the ice, and partly stuck on the bottom. It took Sheila several runs at it to get the right line between it and the moored boats. This wasn't helped by the fact that two of these boats were GRP cruisers. It's always a nervous business passing these in ice, especially when they haven't got protective boards down – hard ice can slice through the plastic with disastrous consequences.
Eventually we made it to the moorings in Marple, and found that there was a space opposite the water point. It then took another ten minutes of work to bring Sanity into the side, as the basin was full of quite thick ice still, which piled up between the boat and the bank. Whilst one of us swung on the centre line, the other went up and down the boat with the long shaft, smashing the ice sheets and pushing them out from between the side and the towpath.
At last it was done, and by 12.30 we were able to get lunch, including hot mugs of soup. Winter boating has its consolations. The blacking had in fact stood up to the ice remarkably well, partly because Comastic is good stuff, and partly because although the ice was thick in places, it wasn't more than only just frozen –it's the really cold ice that is extremely hard.
Since the forecast is set to be a little warmer again tomorrow and Wednesday, we decided to stay put for tonight and use the service block facilities tomorrow. The afternoon was therefore used to shop, especially for Sheila to get some more wool to finish the jacket she's currently making for Daniel.
Later in the afternoon, I went to the local autospares shop, hilariously called Harrods, and bought the oil ready for the next change – they do a good deal on AC Delco oil at Harrods.
It was another icy morning but it wasn't as thick as on Saturday, and there was no frost. Nonetheless, there was no point in moving, as we wouldn't make it to Bugsworth in time for our 12.30 lunch date, and there was nowhere more convenient than High Lane to collect us.
I went up to the shop for bread and a paper, and at 12.25 or so we were collected by Peter and Jan from outside the Con Club on the A6. There was a remarkable amount of road traffic about for a Sunday, which had delayed them getting through from Stockport. Christmas shoppers, maybe.
It was well worth it though – we had an excellent lunch at the Navigation at Bugsworth, in a strangely quiet restaurant considering how close to Christmas it is getting.
Afterwards we walked down to the information point, where we found two hardy members of the IWPS toughing it out in the hut, with the door firmly closed against the biting wind whistling across the basin.
Then it was back to the boat for a cup of tea. After Peter and Jan had gone we had a quiet afternoon and evening. It felt quite cold, and we were grateful for the Squirrel blazing away. The air temperature outside was probably no lower than earlier in the week, but the wind was whistling around still, enough to move Sanity on her moorings.
It continued to feel cold overnight, and things were enlivened by the odd crashing noise through the hull. After some panicky thought I realised that sheets of ice must be forming further up the cut and being blown down onto Sanity. In the morning it was apparent that this was so – there were clear stretches of water visible in the cutting, and a thicker section of ice outside us and in the winding hole. Elsewhere the ice was no thicker than the day before.
As we were breakfasting, Enver came down from Poynton and winded opposite the arm into the North Cheshire Cruising Club moorings. It was hard work for him, as the ice resisted the lateral turning motion of the boat, and he had to go to and fro many times before he got round.
The weather was now quite still, and felt a little warmer than before. I went into the village to post the family Christmas cards, and to collect a prescription – High Lane has a combined Post Office and pharmacy, both very efficient. By the time I came back, the ice was looking very wet on top, and it seemed to us that by waiting another hour or so, we should be able to move off.
Accordingly, I did some emails, including one to a boat electrics expert of our acquaintance, asking for his help with our charging problem. Then we had a cup of coffee and set off at around eleven o'clock.
In places the ice was rather thicker than I'd hoped (comment by Sheila: "Typical") but it was possible to keep going, although steering presented a greater challenge than usual, especially on bends which had filled up with ice.
The main challenge came just as we approached Marple, past the Waterside Moorings. A huge cupressus tree trunk had been pushed into the cut, and was now embedded in the ice, and partly stuck on the bottom. It took Sheila several runs at it to get the right line between it and the moored boats. This wasn't helped by the fact that two of these boats were GRP cruisers. It's always a nervous business passing these in ice, especially when they haven't got protective boards down – hard ice can slice through the plastic with disastrous consequences.
Eventually we made it to the moorings in Marple, and found that there was a space opposite the water point. It then took another ten minutes of work to bring Sanity into the side, as the basin was full of quite thick ice still, which piled up between the boat and the bank. Whilst one of us swung on the centre line, the other went up and down the boat with the long shaft, smashing the ice sheets and pushing them out from between the side and the towpath.
At last it was done, and by 12.30 we were able to get lunch, including hot mugs of soup. Winter boating has its consolations. The blacking had in fact stood up to the ice remarkably well, partly because Comastic is good stuff, and partly because although the ice was thick in places, it wasn't more than only just frozen –it's the really cold ice that is extremely hard.
Since the forecast is set to be a little warmer again tomorrow and Wednesday, we decided to stay put for tonight and use the service block facilities tomorrow. The afternoon was therefore used to shop, especially for Sheila to get some more wool to finish the jacket she's currently making for Daniel.
Later in the afternoon, I went to the local autospares shop, hilariously called Harrods, and bought the oil ready for the next change – they do a good deal on AC Delco oil at Harrods.
Saturday, 15 December 2007
Ice breaking and admiring a new boat
14th & 15th December
We woke to an icy morning – the frost was thick enough to make getting on and off the boat tricky, especially getting up on the bow to let the line go.
We backed onto the water point, still with the shell tied outside us, and started filling up. Meanwhile, Peter and Jack moved Nocturne out onto the shop mooring, then collected the shell from us and started poling it into the yard. There was barely enough clearance under the bridge to get the bow under, and then the stern stuck – without ballast or the engine in the stern floats slightly higher than the bow end of the cabin.
Numbers of staff had to be transferred onto the shell from the bridge to lower her in the water enough to get in. Nocturne was then moved back into the centre of the yard.
We then set off in Sanity to go to High Lane – the plan was to overnight there, and then wait for Peter and Gill Harper to come along in the morning, giving Cala her first cruise. There was a fair bit of ice on the cut still – I reckoned not enough to imperil the blacking, but Sheila was less convinced. We made it to High Lane and moored near Mata Hari and Penny Peace.
Inspection of the bow showed that I had (for once) been right – there was no sign of scratching to the blacking. It was apparent, though, that another cold night would cause more of a problem for our proposed cruise to Bugsworth this weekend.
Just as I finished the catch up blog entry, and we started to get lunch ready, Mr Hooper on Anne came through the bridge 'ole ahead of us. Since we were getting low on fuel, we flagged him down and bought another 10 bags of PureHeat. The price has gone up as he warned us it would when we last bought from him on Bonfire Night weekend – it's now £7.60 for a 25 kg bag, up 60 pence in less than two months.
Later in the day I was gratified to see that the Granny Buttons blog had referred to my hints in the post about passing the BSC – thanks Andrew.
Today we woke to find that the cut was just starting to freeze over. By the time we'd had breakfast it was getting thicker, such that the idea of boating through it for any distance did not appeal. Yesterday I'd booked a table for Sunday lunch at the Navigation at Bugsworth, for ourselves and Peter and Jan. Rather than cancel it, Sheila rang her brother and arranged that they will pick us up from here tomorrow. It's less than 15 minutes by car from High Lane to Bugsworth, though about three and a half hours by boat, even without ice.
I then spoke to Peter Harper on Cala. They were still in the yard, so we walked back to Poynton to see them. We had a pleasant session admiring the new boat (which is very nearly finished), drinking tea and generally nattering about Braidbars, other boats and life on the cut.
Back at Sanity we had a belated lunch and a quiet afternoon. I started the engine to charge the batteries, and found with a weary sigh that once again the Victron is not charging as enthusiastically as it ought. We know the TravelPower is OK, as we've just had it expensively fixed, and the Victron charges fine from a shoreline, so there must be something in the interaction between the two.
For the moment I went back to charging from the 90 amp DC alternator, but it looks like we need some seriously expert advice about what is going on.
There's always something when boating.
We woke to an icy morning – the frost was thick enough to make getting on and off the boat tricky, especially getting up on the bow to let the line go.
We backed onto the water point, still with the shell tied outside us, and started filling up. Meanwhile, Peter and Jack moved Nocturne out onto the shop mooring, then collected the shell from us and started poling it into the yard. There was barely enough clearance under the bridge to get the bow under, and then the stern stuck – without ballast or the engine in the stern floats slightly higher than the bow end of the cabin.
Numbers of staff had to be transferred onto the shell from the bridge to lower her in the water enough to get in. Nocturne was then moved back into the centre of the yard.
We then set off in Sanity to go to High Lane – the plan was to overnight there, and then wait for Peter and Gill Harper to come along in the morning, giving Cala her first cruise. There was a fair bit of ice on the cut still – I reckoned not enough to imperil the blacking, but Sheila was less convinced. We made it to High Lane and moored near Mata Hari and Penny Peace.
Inspection of the bow showed that I had (for once) been right – there was no sign of scratching to the blacking. It was apparent, though, that another cold night would cause more of a problem for our proposed cruise to Bugsworth this weekend.
Just as I finished the catch up blog entry, and we started to get lunch ready, Mr Hooper on Anne came through the bridge 'ole ahead of us. Since we were getting low on fuel, we flagged him down and bought another 10 bags of PureHeat. The price has gone up as he warned us it would when we last bought from him on Bonfire Night weekend – it's now £7.60 for a 25 kg bag, up 60 pence in less than two months.
Later in the day I was gratified to see that the Granny Buttons blog had referred to my hints in the post about passing the BSC – thanks Andrew.
Today we woke to find that the cut was just starting to freeze over. By the time we'd had breakfast it was getting thicker, such that the idea of boating through it for any distance did not appeal. Yesterday I'd booked a table for Sunday lunch at the Navigation at Bugsworth, for ourselves and Peter and Jan. Rather than cancel it, Sheila rang her brother and arranged that they will pick us up from here tomorrow. It's less than 15 minutes by car from High Lane to Bugsworth, though about three and a half hours by boat, even without ice.
I then spoke to Peter Harper on Cala. They were still in the yard, so we walked back to Poynton to see them. We had a pleasant session admiring the new boat (which is very nearly finished), drinking tea and generally nattering about Braidbars, other boats and life on the cut.
Back at Sanity we had a belated lunch and a quiet afternoon. I started the engine to charge the batteries, and found with a weary sigh that once again the Victron is not charging as enthusiastically as it ought. We know the TravelPower is OK, as we've just had it expensively fixed, and the Victron charges fine from a shoreline, so there must be something in the interaction between the two.
For the moment I went back to charging from the 90 amp DC alternator, but it looks like we need some seriously expert advice about what is going on.
There's always something when boating.
Labels:
High Lane
Friday, 14 December 2007
Towing a shell to Poynton
12th & 13th December
In view of the changed arrangements for the tow (i.e. not now happening until tomorrow) we were able to have a lie in, and then the prospect of a day to potter about.
I wanted to do some minor jobs around the boat, so I put the drill battery on charge whilst we made the long walk from Gurnett Aqueduct to Tesco. We’d normally access Tesco from the water point mooring (aka dog poo mooring) but didn’t want to boat up there on this day, as it’s quite noisy at night. Anyway there’s only the one decently deep length of mooring there and it had a boat on it when we passed the day before.
So we made a good walk of it, along the towpath back to aforesaid water point and then down Buxton Road, right into Fence Road and then across the park towards Tesco. Shopping done (two wine boxes in anticipation of the festive season, mainly) we trekked back in time for lunch.
In the afternoon I made a modification to the gas locker lid. When we first had the boat, there was a little wooden block on the foredeck which stopped the lid closing completely, so as to ensure good ventilation through the locker. Over time this broke up and disappeared, and Mike Carter had been unhappy that the lid now closed down tight when he did our boat safety examination.
He’d suggested drilling a hole through the deck and fixing a bolt through it such that it kept the lid a little open as before. I didn’t fancy the effect of the bolt head on the underside of the lid without some sort of padding, so I got a small piece of half inch reinforced water hose, drilled a hole through one side of it, and fixed the bolt through that, the other side of the hose thus protecting the bolt head.
The main effort involved was drilling through the deck, but by using my sharpest bits, and working up in 5 mm stages I did it at last. It’s good to know that the steel of which Sanity is constructed is so tough!
The other jobs were to fix the new smoke alarm to the ceiling of the study bedroom, and to mount, finally, the plaque we got for attending the Huddlesford Boat Gathering on the bulkhead we use for our collection of such things.
Yesterday dawned bright and cold, with just a thin skin of ice on the water here and there. The shell we were to tow was not expected to be put into the water until one o’clock, so we had another lazy start, and pottered about in the boat until half eleven, then made and ate an early lunch and boated round to the marina for one.
The shell was already there, with Iain and Peter working on the main job that must be done before launch, namely fixing the prop shaft and prop through the stern post. Peter announced that if we were planning to take the tow all the way to Poynton that day, he could come with us to help with the fending off and take his turn at steering. This was welcome news, as a third hand does make a difference to the job. Since the boat is a spec boat, there was no eager pair of future owners there to help.
Just as we were beginning to wonder about it, the crane turned up, and without too much further ado, the shell was lifted off the lorry and placed in the water. Iain and Peter shafted her out of the marina moorings as I reversed Sanity towards her. Iain then fixed the tow with cross straps.
This is the traditional way of close coupling an unpowered boat (normally the butty in the carrying days) to the motor boat. The line goes from the T-stud on the bow of the tow, round one side of its stem and fastens to the opposite dolly on the motor’s stern. It’s then taken back to the T-stud and round the other side of the stem to cross over to the other dolly.
This makes a sort of articulated tow, the towed boat’s bow tending to follow the stern of the motor very closely, so that the steerer of the tow only has to worry about keeping its stern following on. An empty shell makes a tricky sort of beast – unballasted, it floats high in the water, with not a lot of its rudder submerged. A rudder intended for a powered boat isn’t as effective without a prop wash passing it anyway, so it can be hard work making the tow go where you want it.
Fortunately, there was very little wind yesterday – we’ve done some tows for Braidbar in wet and windy conditions that made it very hard work indeed for the person on the back of the tow. As it was, it was a glorious day for boating, and we set of in fine style, only stopping briefly after the first, immediate bridge 'ole for Peter to nip back and get the tiller for the tow. (Ooops)
The Macc bridge 'oles are quite tight for a normal boat, so it's an interesting test of the motor steerer’s skill to get the whole thing through without too much bashing of the shell on the sides, or, heaven forfend, the arch of the 'ole. The trick is to slow down for the bridge in good time, and then wind her up as you get close to the 'ole. That way you have lots of steerage without going too fast.
By the time we reached Poynton it was getting quite dark, and I had the tunnel light on on Sanity to see my way through the bridges. This didn’t help Sheila on the tow, of course, and Peter earned his keep hopping off at each bridge and applying firm guidance to the shell as it passed though the 'ole. (He’s good at firm guidance, Peter is).
Arriving at the yard, we moored Sanity on the shop mooring, and put the shell outside her for the night. It was now gone five, and quite cold, so we were glad to go into the house for a cup of tea.
Then it was back to the boat for Sheila to take a shower, me to do a holding post on here, and then we treated ourselves to a meal at the Boar’s Head just down the road, not to mention some well earned pints of Black Sheep and Kronenbourg.
In view of the changed arrangements for the tow (i.e. not now happening until tomorrow) we were able to have a lie in, and then the prospect of a day to potter about.
I wanted to do some minor jobs around the boat, so I put the drill battery on charge whilst we made the long walk from Gurnett Aqueduct to Tesco. We’d normally access Tesco from the water point mooring (aka dog poo mooring) but didn’t want to boat up there on this day, as it’s quite noisy at night. Anyway there’s only the one decently deep length of mooring there and it had a boat on it when we passed the day before.
So we made a good walk of it, along the towpath back to aforesaid water point and then down Buxton Road, right into Fence Road and then across the park towards Tesco. Shopping done (two wine boxes in anticipation of the festive season, mainly) we trekked back in time for lunch.
In the afternoon I made a modification to the gas locker lid. When we first had the boat, there was a little wooden block on the foredeck which stopped the lid closing completely, so as to ensure good ventilation through the locker. Over time this broke up and disappeared, and Mike Carter had been unhappy that the lid now closed down tight when he did our boat safety examination.
He’d suggested drilling a hole through the deck and fixing a bolt through it such that it kept the lid a little open as before. I didn’t fancy the effect of the bolt head on the underside of the lid without some sort of padding, so I got a small piece of half inch reinforced water hose, drilled a hole through one side of it, and fixed the bolt through that, the other side of the hose thus protecting the bolt head.
The main effort involved was drilling through the deck, but by using my sharpest bits, and working up in 5 mm stages I did it at last. It’s good to know that the steel of which Sanity is constructed is so tough!
The other jobs were to fix the new smoke alarm to the ceiling of the study bedroom, and to mount, finally, the plaque we got for attending the Huddlesford Boat Gathering on the bulkhead we use for our collection of such things.
Yesterday dawned bright and cold, with just a thin skin of ice on the water here and there. The shell we were to tow was not expected to be put into the water until one o’clock, so we had another lazy start, and pottered about in the boat until half eleven, then made and ate an early lunch and boated round to the marina for one.
The shell was already there, with Iain and Peter working on the main job that must be done before launch, namely fixing the prop shaft and prop through the stern post. Peter announced that if we were planning to take the tow all the way to Poynton that day, he could come with us to help with the fending off and take his turn at steering. This was welcome news, as a third hand does make a difference to the job. Since the boat is a spec boat, there was no eager pair of future owners there to help.
Just as we were beginning to wonder about it, the crane turned up, and without too much further ado, the shell was lifted off the lorry and placed in the water. Iain and Peter shafted her out of the marina moorings as I reversed Sanity towards her. Iain then fixed the tow with cross straps.
This is the traditional way of close coupling an unpowered boat (normally the butty in the carrying days) to the motor boat. The line goes from the T-stud on the bow of the tow, round one side of its stem and fastens to the opposite dolly on the motor’s stern. It’s then taken back to the T-stud and round the other side of the stem to cross over to the other dolly.
This makes a sort of articulated tow, the towed boat’s bow tending to follow the stern of the motor very closely, so that the steerer of the tow only has to worry about keeping its stern following on. An empty shell makes a tricky sort of beast – unballasted, it floats high in the water, with not a lot of its rudder submerged. A rudder intended for a powered boat isn’t as effective without a prop wash passing it anyway, so it can be hard work making the tow go where you want it.
Fortunately, there was very little wind yesterday – we’ve done some tows for Braidbar in wet and windy conditions that made it very hard work indeed for the person on the back of the tow. As it was, it was a glorious day for boating, and we set of in fine style, only stopping briefly after the first, immediate bridge 'ole for Peter to nip back and get the tiller for the tow. (Ooops)
The Macc bridge 'oles are quite tight for a normal boat, so it's an interesting test of the motor steerer’s skill to get the whole thing through without too much bashing of the shell on the sides, or, heaven forfend, the arch of the 'ole. The trick is to slow down for the bridge in good time, and then wind her up as you get close to the 'ole. That way you have lots of steerage without going too fast.
By the time we reached Poynton it was getting quite dark, and I had the tunnel light on on Sanity to see my way through the bridges. This didn’t help Sheila on the tow, of course, and Peter earned his keep hopping off at each bridge and applying firm guidance to the shell as it passed though the 'ole. (He’s good at firm guidance, Peter is).
Arriving at the yard, we moored Sanity on the shop mooring, and put the shell outside her for the night. It was now gone five, and quite cold, so we were glad to go into the house for a cup of tea.
Then it was back to the boat for Sheila to take a shower, me to do a holding post on here, and then we treated ourselves to a meal at the Boar’s Head just down the road, not to mention some well earned pints of Black Sheep and Kronenbourg.
Labels:
Gurnett Aqueduct,
Higher Poynton,
Macclesfield
Tuesday, 11 December 2007
Passing the BSC sorted (phew)
10th & 11th December
One thing I forgot from last time – Cala is now out of the paint dock and looking seriously smart. This means that there are presently two brightly painted boats in the yard, Cala and Nocturne.
Yesterday (Monday) we were up in good time and went down to the winding hole, turned round and came back to the mooring we’d just left.
Sheila went off to get bread and the paper whilst I got the boat ready for her Boat Safety Examination. This mainly involved making sure that the gas locker in the bow was tidy and that the lid could be lifted easily. It gets opened so rarely that the hinges tend to gum up, so a quick application of WD 40 was called for.
After Sheila came back from the village and had a coffee she went back to the yard and collected a parcel that had arrived. It contained her Christmas present, in fact, in the shape of a pair of SealSkinz ultra tough gloves. We’ve been using the ordinary SealSkinz gloves, which are not, to be honest, all that they are cracked up to be. They are supposed to be hard wearing, warm and waterproof, but in our experience dipping them in the water results in wet hands, and both our pairs have worn out quite quickly through handling the ropes.
These new ones have an outer layer made from Kevlar, so we’ll see how they go.
Just as we were eating lunch we got the call to say that Mike Carter the boat surveyor had arrived. After we’d finished eating we pulled through the bridge, only to find that both the water point and the shop mooring were occupied, so we tied across the entrance to the yard.
When Mike had finished his own lunch (having examined Cala meantime) he joined us on the boat and took two hours with us. For something as inherently scary as a boat MoT, it was really a very good experience. Mike is very thorough, but he also took the time to chat about the boat, how we were getting on, and dispensed a load of extra advice as he was going round.
For example:
1) It’s a good idea to turn powder fire extinguishers over from time to time. If you listen to the side of the extinguisher as you do so, you’ll either hear the hiss of the powder falling from one end to the other, or a thump as the lump of settled powder does so. By turning them over and giving them a shake, the powder is kept loose and ready for action.
2) Turning the stern greaser down as you boat along is better than turning it down at the end of the day. The grease will be warm, and the motion of the prop shaft encourages the grease to flow along to the out board end of the stern tube, expelling any muck and crud which has got in there.
3) When doing an oil change with the sump pump, the pump will not remove any oil which has sludged or jellied in the bottom of the sump. It’s therefore a good idea from time to time (say every third or fourth change) to unfasten the connection from the pump at the sump end, and leave it over night for the thick stuff to ooze its way out. Mike admitted that this was an awful job, but all modern canal boat engines run under very light load most of the time, and oil sludging is a real problem
I can certainly recommend Mike to anyone looking for a BSC exam in the North West of England.
Whilst all this was going on, Sheila was moving the boat to and fro on the ropes, first onto the shop mooring to get diesel, then back across the yard entrance and then finally onto the water point to fill up. When Mike had pronounced himself satisfied, we set off again, winded at the end of the marina moorings and went on to moor opposite Lyme View marina for the night.
We actually had to use one of the new spaces through the bridge – there’s room for about five boats on the original moorings directly opposite the marina, but three boats had managed to moor so skilfully that they were using the entire length.
Last night was very cold, and it was quite a relief in the morning to see that the cut had not in fact frozen over. We knew (we thought) that we needed to be at Macclesfield today, ready to do the tow tomorrow, Wednesday. In fact it was a glorious boating morning, clear and cold, with cloud occasionally bubbling up and then dispersing again.
We stopped briefly at the dog poo mooring to buy routine stuff at the Co-op just up the road, and then went on past Gurnett Aqueduct to the winding hole beyond, winded and came back to moor on the Aqueduct.
After lunch we cut some wood, and I had a surf on the net looking for optical type smoke detectors, our intention to get one having been reinforced by Mike yesterday. He’d suggested either ScrewFix or B&Q. ScrewFix were out of stock, and B&Q had them, but not for online sale.
Further investigation showed that there’s a B&Q in Macc, about 25 minutes walk from where we are moored. It was only three o’clock, so I set off to get one, leaving Sheila on anchor watch.
Returning flushed with success (and the fact that I’d forgotten I was still wearing thermals from steering in the cold this morning), I was greeted by the news that the tow is not now until Thursday. Our routine email to Braidbar to check the arrangements for tomorrow had made them realise that each of several people thought we’d been told by someone else.
Fortunately this is a 48 hour mooring, so no big problem – it means we can have a lie in tomorrow.
One thing I forgot from last time – Cala is now out of the paint dock and looking seriously smart. This means that there are presently two brightly painted boats in the yard, Cala and Nocturne.
Yesterday (Monday) we were up in good time and went down to the winding hole, turned round and came back to the mooring we’d just left.
Sheila went off to get bread and the paper whilst I got the boat ready for her Boat Safety Examination. This mainly involved making sure that the gas locker in the bow was tidy and that the lid could be lifted easily. It gets opened so rarely that the hinges tend to gum up, so a quick application of WD 40 was called for.
After Sheila came back from the village and had a coffee she went back to the yard and collected a parcel that had arrived. It contained her Christmas present, in fact, in the shape of a pair of SealSkinz ultra tough gloves. We’ve been using the ordinary SealSkinz gloves, which are not, to be honest, all that they are cracked up to be. They are supposed to be hard wearing, warm and waterproof, but in our experience dipping them in the water results in wet hands, and both our pairs have worn out quite quickly through handling the ropes.
These new ones have an outer layer made from Kevlar, so we’ll see how they go.
Just as we were eating lunch we got the call to say that Mike Carter the boat surveyor had arrived. After we’d finished eating we pulled through the bridge, only to find that both the water point and the shop mooring were occupied, so we tied across the entrance to the yard.
When Mike had finished his own lunch (having examined Cala meantime) he joined us on the boat and took two hours with us. For something as inherently scary as a boat MoT, it was really a very good experience. Mike is very thorough, but he also took the time to chat about the boat, how we were getting on, and dispensed a load of extra advice as he was going round.
For example:
1) It’s a good idea to turn powder fire extinguishers over from time to time. If you listen to the side of the extinguisher as you do so, you’ll either hear the hiss of the powder falling from one end to the other, or a thump as the lump of settled powder does so. By turning them over and giving them a shake, the powder is kept loose and ready for action.
2) Turning the stern greaser down as you boat along is better than turning it down at the end of the day. The grease will be warm, and the motion of the prop shaft encourages the grease to flow along to the out board end of the stern tube, expelling any muck and crud which has got in there.
3) When doing an oil change with the sump pump, the pump will not remove any oil which has sludged or jellied in the bottom of the sump. It’s therefore a good idea from time to time (say every third or fourth change) to unfasten the connection from the pump at the sump end, and leave it over night for the thick stuff to ooze its way out. Mike admitted that this was an awful job, but all modern canal boat engines run under very light load most of the time, and oil sludging is a real problem
I can certainly recommend Mike to anyone looking for a BSC exam in the North West of England.
Whilst all this was going on, Sheila was moving the boat to and fro on the ropes, first onto the shop mooring to get diesel, then back across the yard entrance and then finally onto the water point to fill up. When Mike had pronounced himself satisfied, we set off again, winded at the end of the marina moorings and went on to moor opposite Lyme View marina for the night.
We actually had to use one of the new spaces through the bridge – there’s room for about five boats on the original moorings directly opposite the marina, but three boats had managed to moor so skilfully that they were using the entire length.
Last night was very cold, and it was quite a relief in the morning to see that the cut had not in fact frozen over. We knew (we thought) that we needed to be at Macclesfield today, ready to do the tow tomorrow, Wednesday. In fact it was a glorious boating morning, clear and cold, with cloud occasionally bubbling up and then dispersing again.
We stopped briefly at the dog poo mooring to buy routine stuff at the Co-op just up the road, and then went on past Gurnett Aqueduct to the winding hole beyond, winded and came back to moor on the Aqueduct.
After lunch we cut some wood, and I had a surf on the net looking for optical type smoke detectors, our intention to get one having been reinforced by Mike yesterday. He’d suggested either ScrewFix or B&Q. ScrewFix were out of stock, and B&Q had them, but not for online sale.
Further investigation showed that there’s a B&Q in Macc, about 25 minutes walk from where we are moored. It was only three o’clock, so I set off to get one, leaving Sheila on anchor watch.
Returning flushed with success (and the fact that I’d forgotten I was still wearing thermals from steering in the cold this morning), I was greeted by the news that the tow is not now until Thursday. Our routine email to Braidbar to check the arrangements for tomorrow had made them realise that each of several people thought we’d been told by someone else.
Fortunately this is a 48 hour mooring, so no big problem – it means we can have a lie in tomorrow.
Labels:
Adlington,
Gurnett Aqueduct,
Higher Poynton
Sunday, 9 December 2007
Pumping out in the rain
8th & 9th December
As feared, the morning was very wet, although the wind nothing like as bad as the day before. We therefore boated to Marple in the rain (as we oft had before, and it’s no, nay, never... sorry, slight attack of the folk songs there.)
The new pump out kit was duly inaugurated, and proved to be as advertised: effective, but slow. It was certainly much easier than the old manual gear, especially as with the mods I’d made to the pipe work, it was quick to assemble, and could be left pumping away without having to hold either the connection to the gunwale outlet or the bit that went in the sluice.
The rain if anything got worse, and threatened to turn to sleet, so we didn’t pursue things to the bitter end, that is rinsing until clear water came out of the tank. Next time, perhaps. It’s noteworthy that the Marple service block is one of the few in the country which actually says “Suitable for self pump out”. Normally, if it doesn’t say you can’t, you assume that you can. It would really help if all service blocks were labelled one way or the other.
There was a space on the visitor mooring opposite the service block, so when we’d finished we pushed across onto it. I stoked the Squirrel with a nice block of wood, and we went shopping, still in the rain, although it was easing all the time.
This had the great advantage that when we staggered back to the boat, it was toasty and warm. The afternoon was spent in our usual high output way – well, Sheila got a lot of knitting done, and I read the paper and did stuff on the laptop. The rain came on again, so it was really very pleasant to be tucked up in the boat.
The weather was much calmer, clear and cold this morning. Just as we thought about watering before setting off, Rainbow arrived from the Waterside Moorings back along the canal and tied on the water point. Heigh ho, we thought, by the time we’ve sorted the mess in the engine ‘ole, put the pump away (I’d left it out to dry) and winded the boat, he’ll be just about finished.
As if. He managed to take an hour and a quarter to fill his tank – it must be huge. Eventually he went off, and we pushed back across onto the water point, filled up and set off back to Poynton.
When we got here, there was just the one space on the Deeps, so we jumped into it. Mata Hari, who was moored just ahead of us, promptly set off. As we were mooring, Vic and Margaret from Cedar, Braidbar 51, stopped for a chat on their way back to their boat, which was tied just beyond where Mata Hari had been.
They tell us they are thinking of selling the boat, so I’ve posted this info on the Braidbar Owners list in case anyone there is interested or knows of someone who is. I’ve got Vic’s phone number to pass onto genuine enquirers, who can email me: bruce(at)nbsanity(dot)net.
This afternoon I had a burst of energy, and washed the anorak that got muddy at St Ives (you can see that energy in the afternoon is quite rare with me...)
As feared, the morning was very wet, although the wind nothing like as bad as the day before. We therefore boated to Marple in the rain (as we oft had before, and it’s no, nay, never... sorry, slight attack of the folk songs there.)
The new pump out kit was duly inaugurated, and proved to be as advertised: effective, but slow. It was certainly much easier than the old manual gear, especially as with the mods I’d made to the pipe work, it was quick to assemble, and could be left pumping away without having to hold either the connection to the gunwale outlet or the bit that went in the sluice.
The rain if anything got worse, and threatened to turn to sleet, so we didn’t pursue things to the bitter end, that is rinsing until clear water came out of the tank. Next time, perhaps. It’s noteworthy that the Marple service block is one of the few in the country which actually says “Suitable for self pump out”. Normally, if it doesn’t say you can’t, you assume that you can. It would really help if all service blocks were labelled one way or the other.
There was a space on the visitor mooring opposite the service block, so when we’d finished we pushed across onto it. I stoked the Squirrel with a nice block of wood, and we went shopping, still in the rain, although it was easing all the time.
This had the great advantage that when we staggered back to the boat, it was toasty and warm. The afternoon was spent in our usual high output way – well, Sheila got a lot of knitting done, and I read the paper and did stuff on the laptop. The rain came on again, so it was really very pleasant to be tucked up in the boat.
The weather was much calmer, clear and cold this morning. Just as we thought about watering before setting off, Rainbow arrived from the Waterside Moorings back along the canal and tied on the water point. Heigh ho, we thought, by the time we’ve sorted the mess in the engine ‘ole, put the pump away (I’d left it out to dry) and winded the boat, he’ll be just about finished.
As if. He managed to take an hour and a quarter to fill his tank – it must be huge. Eventually he went off, and we pushed back across onto the water point, filled up and set off back to Poynton.
When we got here, there was just the one space on the Deeps, so we jumped into it. Mata Hari, who was moored just ahead of us, promptly set off. As we were mooring, Vic and Margaret from Cedar, Braidbar 51, stopped for a chat on their way back to their boat, which was tied just beyond where Mata Hari had been.
They tell us they are thinking of selling the boat, so I’ve posted this info on the Braidbar Owners list in case anyone there is interested or knows of someone who is. I’ve got Vic’s phone number to pass onto genuine enquirers, who can email me: bruce(at)nbsanity(dot)net.
This afternoon I had a burst of energy, and washed the anorak that got muddy at St Ives (you can see that energy in the afternoon is quite rare with me...)
Labels:
Higher Poynton,
Marple
Friday, 7 December 2007
Dentistry and domestic stuff
6th & 7th December
I forgot to mention last time that we saw Kisimul’s Galley, Braidbar 30, at Kerridge dry dock as we passed. She’s not long been repainted, so presumably she’s waiting to go in for bottom blacking.
As we boated towards Poynton on a seriously wet morning, I phoned the Poynton dentist and got an appointment for 3.20 that afternoon. No sooner had I done this and gone to the back to tell Sheila, than she told me we’d just passed Sarah Kate, and Mike on board had called across “Hope the tooth is OK”. It’s an odd business, this blogging, but always flattering to discover people are taking an interest. Thanks for your concern, anyway, Mike – we must catch up one of these days.
We moored on the Deeps at Poynton by mid morning, had a coffee and then went round to the yard to see folks. Iain, Luisa and Peter were all there, and handed over a load of stuff for us. In exchange for their service as a PO box, we are going to tow the next shell from Macclesfield for them, next Wednesday.
The booty included the repaired Ecofan, some pillow cases and a mattress protector for the side berth, and the BW licence stuff sent on by Elanor. Must say the service from Calfire is very good – the fan is now spinning away brilliantly once more, and all for about a third of the cost of replacing it.
As far as I can see, the only reason we had to send back the BW licence document, given that we have signed a direct debit to take the money, is so that I have confirmed in writing that we don’t need a Boat Safety Certificate yet, which fact is apparent from the stuff we’ve already sent them.
In the afternoon, I went down to the town centre, stopping on the way to post the BW licence application, and to send two parcels. One was to Jane Howarth, containing her repaired crochet blanket, and the other to Graeme and Cathy. This was a typical grandparents’ parcel I now realise. It comprised a copy of the Terry Pratchett book Where’s My Cow?, for Graeme to read to Daniel, a pack of Bickie-Pegs, as he’s teething (Daniel, not Graeme), and the memory stick we used to transport the photos of Daniel.
The dentist turned out to be very good. She did an excellent job of sorting out my tooth – the only down side is that the Denplan cover is not as convenient as you might wish. I had to pay the fee at the dentist, and will have to get a claim form and reclaim it from Denplan.
I could at least download the form from the website, but guess what, it has to be signed by the dentist, thus requiring another trip downtown.
We had soup for dinner last night – it was scheduled anyway, but I was grateful for it, in view of my slightly battered mouth. World’s three greatest lies:
1) "Of course I’ll still love you in the morning"
2) "The cheque is in the post"
3) "This may be a bit uncomfortable when the anaesthetic wears off."
This morning we’d thought of going on to Marple to pump out with the new kit, but at 7.30 the wind was moving the boat about on the mooring something fierce, so I took an executive decision to stay put (Sheila was still asleep, but I told her I still loved her when she woke up) (I've been telling her this for just on 40 years now, and I think she may be ready to believe me).
I sorted out the Denplan claim form and then checked the weather forecast – it’s going to be windy again tomorrow, but with rain as well. Heigh ho, what can’t be cured...
We walked down into Poynton and dropped the form off with the dentist, and then tried out a different set of shops, a little way along the main road. It’s a case of a Somerfield rather than a Co-op, which store feels rather nicer – more spacious, and a better range of stuff, but further to walk. We got back to the boat by late morning, had coffee and sorted stuff out before lunch.
This afternoon I printed out a photo of Daniel to put in a frame on the shelf in the saloon, and made a start preparing the Christmas cards. This year we’re going to print our own onto WH Smith precreased card stock – we only send cards to the immediate family these days, as there’s no point in people trying to send cards to us – Elanor would get the benefit (?) of them all, and would have to lug them up to us just before the day.
Sheila got set up to cut some wood for lighting the fire – the usual flotsam which we'd collected as we boated along. She’d only got a few bits done before it came on to rain, so she packed up again. No sooner had she done so than it stopped raining of course. Nonetheless, she spent the rest of the afternoon knitting.
My mouth is now fully recovered, so goulash tonight, methinks.
I forgot to mention last time that we saw Kisimul’s Galley, Braidbar 30, at Kerridge dry dock as we passed. She’s not long been repainted, so presumably she’s waiting to go in for bottom blacking.
As we boated towards Poynton on a seriously wet morning, I phoned the Poynton dentist and got an appointment for 3.20 that afternoon. No sooner had I done this and gone to the back to tell Sheila, than she told me we’d just passed Sarah Kate, and Mike on board had called across “Hope the tooth is OK”. It’s an odd business, this blogging, but always flattering to discover people are taking an interest. Thanks for your concern, anyway, Mike – we must catch up one of these days.
We moored on the Deeps at Poynton by mid morning, had a coffee and then went round to the yard to see folks. Iain, Luisa and Peter were all there, and handed over a load of stuff for us. In exchange for their service as a PO box, we are going to tow the next shell from Macclesfield for them, next Wednesday.
The booty included the repaired Ecofan, some pillow cases and a mattress protector for the side berth, and the BW licence stuff sent on by Elanor. Must say the service from Calfire is very good – the fan is now spinning away brilliantly once more, and all for about a third of the cost of replacing it.
As far as I can see, the only reason we had to send back the BW licence document, given that we have signed a direct debit to take the money, is so that I have confirmed in writing that we don’t need a Boat Safety Certificate yet, which fact is apparent from the stuff we’ve already sent them.
In the afternoon, I went down to the town centre, stopping on the way to post the BW licence application, and to send two parcels. One was to Jane Howarth, containing her repaired crochet blanket, and the other to Graeme and Cathy. This was a typical grandparents’ parcel I now realise. It comprised a copy of the Terry Pratchett book Where’s My Cow?, for Graeme to read to Daniel, a pack of Bickie-Pegs, as he’s teething (Daniel, not Graeme), and the memory stick we used to transport the photos of Daniel.
The dentist turned out to be very good. She did an excellent job of sorting out my tooth – the only down side is that the Denplan cover is not as convenient as you might wish. I had to pay the fee at the dentist, and will have to get a claim form and reclaim it from Denplan.
I could at least download the form from the website, but guess what, it has to be signed by the dentist, thus requiring another trip downtown.
We had soup for dinner last night – it was scheduled anyway, but I was grateful for it, in view of my slightly battered mouth. World’s three greatest lies:
1) "Of course I’ll still love you in the morning"
2) "The cheque is in the post"
3) "This may be a bit uncomfortable when the anaesthetic wears off."
This morning we’d thought of going on to Marple to pump out with the new kit, but at 7.30 the wind was moving the boat about on the mooring something fierce, so I took an executive decision to stay put (Sheila was still asleep, but I told her I still loved her when she woke up) (I've been telling her this for just on 40 years now, and I think she may be ready to believe me).
I sorted out the Denplan claim form and then checked the weather forecast – it’s going to be windy again tomorrow, but with rain as well. Heigh ho, what can’t be cured...
We walked down into Poynton and dropped the form off with the dentist, and then tried out a different set of shops, a little way along the main road. It’s a case of a Somerfield rather than a Co-op, which store feels rather nicer – more spacious, and a better range of stuff, but further to walk. We got back to the boat by late morning, had coffee and sorted stuff out before lunch.
This afternoon I printed out a photo of Daniel to put in a frame on the shelf in the saloon, and made a start preparing the Christmas cards. This year we’re going to print our own onto WH Smith precreased card stock – we only send cards to the immediate family these days, as there’s no point in people trying to send cards to us – Elanor would get the benefit (?) of them all, and would have to lug them up to us just before the day.
Sheila got set up to cut some wood for lighting the fire – the usual flotsam which we'd collected as we boated along. She’d only got a few bits done before it came on to rain, so she packed up again. No sooner had she done so than it stopped raining of course. Nonetheless, she spent the rest of the afternoon knitting.
My mouth is now fully recovered, so goulash tonight, methinks.
Wednesday, 5 December 2007
Boating in the teeth of the wind, fractiously
4th & 5th December
With no great pressure to get up and get on, yesterday we loafed in bed until nearly half nine. After breakfast we ambled down into Macclesfield and had a relaxed bout of retail therapy – a new rugby shirt for Sheila, some stickers to enliven the cot side for when Daniel comes to stay, and a trip to Julian Graves for dried fruit and herbs.
The afternoon was spent on the boat, Sheila knitting and myself playing with an alternative mail client, Mozilla Thunderbird. The Mail application that comes with Mac OS X is OK, but a tad limited – you can’t use it to read Usenet newsgroups, you can’t request receipts to your emails, and you can’t use templates in your emails.
It’s always a hassle trying to use a new application when you’re well used to an existing one – time will tell whether this was worth it. At time of writing, I’ve got the main accounts sorted and email signatures created. The address book is sort of imported, but as always, the process has mangled some of the fields, so they’ll have to be corrected as we go along.
In the meantime, if anyone reading this is wondering why our emails have gone all strange, now you know. Normal service will be restored as soon as possible.
Today we sprang rather more readily out of bed and set off to go back to Poynton. This involved going on through two bridge 'oles to wind. For a change, the actual wind wasn’t helping, but I persuaded Sanity to turn round in the end and we set off back.
We stopped on dog poo mooring to do a bit more shopping at Tesco, and then watered before eating lunch.
I’d just taken a happy munch into my first sandwich when there was a sinister cracking noise from within – I’d broken the corner off a molar on a seed in the bap. It’s not actually fallen right out, but is sort of flapping about in there, so tomorrow’s exercise is going to be to find a dentist.
A quick search of the Denplan website shows that there’s a suitable practice in Poynton, so hopefully I’ll only have to put up with this until tomorrow.
We’ve come on to Bollington again for tonight – the weather remains very off and on (that is raining and blowing off and on) so short hops rather than epic trips are indicated for the rest of the week.
With no great pressure to get up and get on, yesterday we loafed in bed until nearly half nine. After breakfast we ambled down into Macclesfield and had a relaxed bout of retail therapy – a new rugby shirt for Sheila, some stickers to enliven the cot side for when Daniel comes to stay, and a trip to Julian Graves for dried fruit and herbs.
The afternoon was spent on the boat, Sheila knitting and myself playing with an alternative mail client, Mozilla Thunderbird. The Mail application that comes with Mac OS X is OK, but a tad limited – you can’t use it to read Usenet newsgroups, you can’t request receipts to your emails, and you can’t use templates in your emails.
It’s always a hassle trying to use a new application when you’re well used to an existing one – time will tell whether this was worth it. At time of writing, I’ve got the main accounts sorted and email signatures created. The address book is sort of imported, but as always, the process has mangled some of the fields, so they’ll have to be corrected as we go along.
In the meantime, if anyone reading this is wondering why our emails have gone all strange, now you know. Normal service will be restored as soon as possible.
Today we sprang rather more readily out of bed and set off to go back to Poynton. This involved going on through two bridge 'oles to wind. For a change, the actual wind wasn’t helping, but I persuaded Sanity to turn round in the end and we set off back.
We stopped on dog poo mooring to do a bit more shopping at Tesco, and then watered before eating lunch.
I’d just taken a happy munch into my first sandwich when there was a sinister cracking noise from within – I’d broken the corner off a molar on a seed in the bap. It’s not actually fallen right out, but is sort of flapping about in there, so tomorrow’s exercise is going to be to find a dentist.
A quick search of the Denplan website shows that there’s a suitable practice in Poynton, so hopefully I’ll only have to put up with this until tomorrow.
We’ve come on to Bollington again for tonight – the weather remains very off and on (that is raining and blowing off and on) so short hops rather than epic trips are indicated for the rest of the week.
Monday, 3 December 2007
Wild and wet and in a strop with BW
2nd & 3rd December
It was a wild night and a wild morning, so we stayed in bed as long as possible. When hunger finally drove us forth, we decided quite quickly to stay put until today (Monday) in the hopes of better weather. The limiting factor is, as so often, the state of the water tank and the laundry bag. If we don’t run a wash load, a full tank will last about five days, but sooner or later you run out of clean clothes.
I took advantage of a brief break in the rain to go into Bollington for a paper, but otherwise we settled down for a day in the boat.
Our BW licence needs to be renewed by the end of this month, and the documentation had arrived at Elanor’s. She emailed us the two numbers you need to renew online, so I started out to do this, feeling full of virtue at getting it done in good time.
But oh no, we can’t use the online facility. Because Sanity is less than four years old, we don’t yet need a Boat Safety Certificate, the waterways equivalent of an MoT. Instead, we are allowed to rely on the Declaration of Conformity to the European Directive on Leisure Craft. Boats in our position can’t be relicensed online (why?) so Elanor will have to post the documents to us care of Braidbar, and we will have to post them on to BW. In a word, AAAARGH!
To cheer myself up, I chose some of the best of the photos of Daniel that we had brought back from Boothby Graffoe on a memory stick and made them into a webpage. I’ve put them on the main site, here.
Later in the day, I had some email correspondence with John Denny, a new member of the Braidbar Owners Group. There’s a Braidbar for sale on the Boatfinder website, Gadfell, but it doesn’t feature on the Braidbar Boats Register that we keep. It must have been renamed at some point. We’re waiting to hear if anyone in the Group knows anything about her.
The weather this morning was completely different, bright and cold, so we set off for Macclesfield, with the intention of watering, shopping at Tesco and then going on to Gurnett Aqueduct for the night. On the way, we passed a kingfisher sitting in a bush by the side of the canal. It’s really unusual to have one sit tight and not fly on before you get there.
Sod’s Law being what it is, as we approached the water point, the heavens opened again, and we watered and shopped in a downpour. Heigh ho, what can’t be changed must be endured I guess, though it’s still hard to take that attitude to BW.
The other downer was the state of the towpath at the water point. I’ve commented before (along with others like Andrew Denny) on the poor mooring at Macc, but today the grass was decorated with more dog poo than I’ve ever seen anywhere else, and we’ve endured some dire encounters with it in our time. There was a heap every couple of feet for the entire length of the water point and visitor mooring. This makes positioning the hose tricky, to say the least.
After lunch we chugged on our way – the rain was a bit easier, and we moored at Gurnett in comparatively dry conditions. It is however, tipping it down again as I type this, so I suspect that we are here for a couple of nights.
It was a wild night and a wild morning, so we stayed in bed as long as possible. When hunger finally drove us forth, we decided quite quickly to stay put until today (Monday) in the hopes of better weather. The limiting factor is, as so often, the state of the water tank and the laundry bag. If we don’t run a wash load, a full tank will last about five days, but sooner or later you run out of clean clothes.
I took advantage of a brief break in the rain to go into Bollington for a paper, but otherwise we settled down for a day in the boat.
Our BW licence needs to be renewed by the end of this month, and the documentation had arrived at Elanor’s. She emailed us the two numbers you need to renew online, so I started out to do this, feeling full of virtue at getting it done in good time.
But oh no, we can’t use the online facility. Because Sanity is less than four years old, we don’t yet need a Boat Safety Certificate, the waterways equivalent of an MoT. Instead, we are allowed to rely on the Declaration of Conformity to the European Directive on Leisure Craft. Boats in our position can’t be relicensed online (why?) so Elanor will have to post the documents to us care of Braidbar, and we will have to post them on to BW. In a word, AAAARGH!
To cheer myself up, I chose some of the best of the photos of Daniel that we had brought back from Boothby Graffoe on a memory stick and made them into a webpage. I’ve put them on the main site, here.
Later in the day, I had some email correspondence with John Denny, a new member of the Braidbar Owners Group. There’s a Braidbar for sale on the Boatfinder website, Gadfell, but it doesn’t feature on the Braidbar Boats Register that we keep. It must have been renamed at some point. We’re waiting to hear if anyone in the Group knows anything about her.
The weather this morning was completely different, bright and cold, so we set off for Macclesfield, with the intention of watering, shopping at Tesco and then going on to Gurnett Aqueduct for the night. On the way, we passed a kingfisher sitting in a bush by the side of the canal. It’s really unusual to have one sit tight and not fly on before you get there.
Sod’s Law being what it is, as we approached the water point, the heavens opened again, and we watered and shopped in a downpour. Heigh ho, what can’t be changed must be endured I guess, though it’s still hard to take that attitude to BW.
The other downer was the state of the towpath at the water point. I’ve commented before (along with others like Andrew Denny) on the poor mooring at Macc, but today the grass was decorated with more dog poo than I’ve ever seen anywhere else, and we’ve endured some dire encounters with it in our time. There was a heap every couple of feet for the entire length of the water point and visitor mooring. This makes positioning the hose tricky, to say the least.
After lunch we chugged on our way – the rain was a bit easier, and we moored at Gurnett in comparatively dry conditions. It is however, tipping it down again as I type this, so I suspect that we are here for a couple of nights.
Saturday, 1 December 2007
Sitting tight in windy weather
30th November and 1st December
We’ve decided to spend at least a couple of days here near Bollington – we may well move on Sunday to take advantage of a forecast window of better weather, or else we’ll be stuck here until Tuesday, and would be a bit short of water by then. It’s always quite enjoyable sticking in one place for just a few days, reading and doing jobs around the boat.
I’ve been reading George R R Martin on Graeme’s recommendation. I’d tried one of his before, Dying of the Light, which is a quite weird sci-fi cum fantasy novel. It seems this was not what Graeme was thinking of – whilst at Boothby Graffoe, I started the first book of the Song of Ice and Fire series, A Game of Thrones, and got so far into it that I borrowed it to take home. I’ve just finished it, and will now have to wait until we see Graeme and Cathy at New Year, when they’ve promised to bring the rest of the series that's so far been published.
It’s a swords and sorcery type fantasy, but extremely well done – the nearest thing to Tolkien I’ve come across, partly because the background is so well developed, unlike so many Tolkien imitators. The characters are far more realistic than most, so that you really care what becomes of them. This can be hard - Martin does not believe in preserving characters just because they are popular or sympathetic, so turning the page to see what becomes of them can be hard at times.
Meanwhile, in the real world, we went to Bollington for basic shopping. Bollington is another of those villages of two halves – Upper Bollington above the canal and Lower or West Bollington below it. There are lots of footpaths and the Middlewood Way linking the two and the various access points to the towpath – if hanging about in this area, it’s well worth getting the leaflet about the Middlewood Way to explore the options thoroughly.
Anyway, on this occasion we went uphill, where there are a butchers, a bakery and a newsagent, along with sundry other cafes and hairdressers. We got a loaf, and a paper, and some meat to restock the freezer. The butchers is a branch of Heathcotes – there’s another in West Bollington, and one in Poynton. It’s not as good as Coates in Alrewas, but pretty fair.
In the afternoon, Sheila spent a fair bit of time sorting financial stuff on the web, and I prepared meat for freezing down. I like to check over stewing steak – the butcher often leaves it cut into very mixed size chunks, and then it’s a hassle when defrosting it, as you have to get it totally thawed to recut it before you can start cooking it. By making sure that the pieces are the right size, you don’t have to get it completely soft before bunging it into the pan.
I also dismembered a chicken, freezing most of the joints, keeping a breast fillet back for making tagine last night, and putting the carcass into the stock pot to make stock for soup.
It was a wild night last night, but a bright and cold morning, so we walked into West Bollington via the Middlewood Way, including crossing over the viaduct that runs right across the village. This half has another newsagent, a pharmacy and a Co-op, as well as the above mentioned butcher. There’s also a shop calling itself a bakery, but it’s more of a sandwich shop really.
Back at the boat we carried on with various domestic tasks as the weather closed in. We’re moored on pins here, as there’s no Armco piling to take our piling chains (better than hooks), but since we’re also sitting on the bottom (typical Macclesfield Canal shallow edge) it’s not proving much of a problem. In other situations, on a deeper and busier canal, mooring pins can be a right pain, as passing boats pull you to and fro and work them out.
We’ve decided to spend at least a couple of days here near Bollington – we may well move on Sunday to take advantage of a forecast window of better weather, or else we’ll be stuck here until Tuesday, and would be a bit short of water by then. It’s always quite enjoyable sticking in one place for just a few days, reading and doing jobs around the boat.
I’ve been reading George R R Martin on Graeme’s recommendation. I’d tried one of his before, Dying of the Light, which is a quite weird sci-fi cum fantasy novel. It seems this was not what Graeme was thinking of – whilst at Boothby Graffoe, I started the first book of the Song of Ice and Fire series, A Game of Thrones, and got so far into it that I borrowed it to take home. I’ve just finished it, and will now have to wait until we see Graeme and Cathy at New Year, when they’ve promised to bring the rest of the series that's so far been published.
It’s a swords and sorcery type fantasy, but extremely well done – the nearest thing to Tolkien I’ve come across, partly because the background is so well developed, unlike so many Tolkien imitators. The characters are far more realistic than most, so that you really care what becomes of them. This can be hard - Martin does not believe in preserving characters just because they are popular or sympathetic, so turning the page to see what becomes of them can be hard at times.
Meanwhile, in the real world, we went to Bollington for basic shopping. Bollington is another of those villages of two halves – Upper Bollington above the canal and Lower or West Bollington below it. There are lots of footpaths and the Middlewood Way linking the two and the various access points to the towpath – if hanging about in this area, it’s well worth getting the leaflet about the Middlewood Way to explore the options thoroughly.
Anyway, on this occasion we went uphill, where there are a butchers, a bakery and a newsagent, along with sundry other cafes and hairdressers. We got a loaf, and a paper, and some meat to restock the freezer. The butchers is a branch of Heathcotes – there’s another in West Bollington, and one in Poynton. It’s not as good as Coates in Alrewas, but pretty fair.
In the afternoon, Sheila spent a fair bit of time sorting financial stuff on the web, and I prepared meat for freezing down. I like to check over stewing steak – the butcher often leaves it cut into very mixed size chunks, and then it’s a hassle when defrosting it, as you have to get it totally thawed to recut it before you can start cooking it. By making sure that the pieces are the right size, you don’t have to get it completely soft before bunging it into the pan.
I also dismembered a chicken, freezing most of the joints, keeping a breast fillet back for making tagine last night, and putting the carcass into the stock pot to make stock for soup.
It was a wild night last night, but a bright and cold morning, so we walked into West Bollington via the Middlewood Way, including crossing over the viaduct that runs right across the village. This half has another newsagent, a pharmacy and a Co-op, as well as the above mentioned butcher. There’s also a shop calling itself a bakery, but it’s more of a sandwich shop really.
Back at the boat we carried on with various domestic tasks as the weather closed in. We’re moored on pins here, as there’s no Armco piling to take our piling chains (better than hooks), but since we’re also sitting on the bottom (typical Macclesfield Canal shallow edge) it’s not proving much of a problem. In other situations, on a deeper and busier canal, mooring pins can be a right pain, as passing boats pull you to and fro and work them out.
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