Where does the time go?

Monday 26 March

It's unusual for the mooring at Bridge 80 on the Coventry to be empty, but lots of moorings we'd expected to find crowded had been deserted, so we didn't think much of it. A possible explanation presented itself this morning, however.

We were having a relaxed start to the day, drinking a cup of tea in bed and listening to Wogan wittering on. By eight o'clock we'd begun to think seriously of getting up when there came a faint sense of someone getting on and off the boat. I got up and went through to the engine room, where I heard someone outside saying something about "there's no response."

I opened the stern doors, and there was a contractor from the building site opposite. He'd been knocking on the doors, not realising it couldn't be heard further down the boat, not over Wogan, anyway.

It seemed that they were preparing to remove some trees from the offside, by the time honoured method of knocking them over with the digger, and were rightly concerned about the safety of the boat. I remonstrated about doing things that restricted the navigation without notifying BW, and he claimed that they knew all about it. The plan was to pile about 60 metres of the offside, and BW were coming out that morning to agree the line.

This makes three times recently I've had cause to complain about communication, or lack of it, from the West Midlands unit of BW, which has recently been combined with Central Shires as part of the cutbacks arising from the Defra budget cuts. I'll come to the subsequent email exchange later.

We dressed in a hurry and moved the boat down the canal to another section of towpath where there's reasonable mooring, where we had a now rather belated breakfast.

The rest of the day was comparatively uneventful - we stopped on the first water point in Fazeley and filled the tank, then boated on down to Alrewas, arriving there just on lunchtime.

The weather by now was glorious, so there was nothing for it but to take everything off the roof and wash it together with the port side next to the towpath. Barkeeper's Friend was used to clean the winter grime off the brass ventilator mushrooms and porthole rings.

I then sent the following email to West Mids BW:

Hi

Is there a problem with the West Mids Unit communications at the moment? I ask because

a) I had this autoreply from you on 15 March in reply to a query about the Armitage stoppage, but haven't heard anything further. (This one is now irrelevant, as we came round through the BCN anyway)

b) I emailed Jessica Black on 19 March about helping with the Towpath Tidy but haven't had a reply at all

c) Finally, we were dragged from our beds at 8 this morning by a contractor wanting us to move our boat. We'd tied on the rings at Bridge 80 on the Coventry at Whittington, and they were starting work on some offside piling right opposite us by pushing some trees over with a digger, and were rightly concerned that the boat was at risk. When I remonstrated that they shouldn't do that sort of thing without notifying Waterways, he said "Oh BW know all about it, they are coming out this morning to agree the line with us."

I take the email notification of stoppages, so I knew that there hadn't been a notice of restriction to navigation, and I've just cross checked Waterscape and it says "nothing notified" for the Coventry.

If this fall off in courtesy and communications is a result of the amalgamation of Central Shires and West Mids, perhaps we should include reference to it in the campaign against the DEFRA cuts?

When I do my next blog tomorrow, I shall be very happy to include any response you may make to this email ;-}

Cheers

Bruce

Feeling narked, I copied it to Eugene Baston, BW's Director of External Relations, since West Mids seemed a bit unreliable in the matter of replies. I duly had a friendly reply from him, of the "I'm sorry you had to write about this, but good to hear from you anyway" sort, and so far I've had this from the lady herself:

I acknowledge receipt of your email dated 26 March 2007.
We are currently investigating the details relating to your concerns and
a response will be sent to you as soon as a full report is available.
In the meantime may I thank you for making us aware of this situation.

Tuesday 27 March

A very misty start to the day, which was in many ways welcome in view of our intention to join the Willy Walk this morning. It doesn't set off until 1045, so we used the early part of the morning to buy a load of meat at Coates the butcher in the village, one of the best near a canal in the UK, I reckon. It's all local meat, killed and hung on the premises, and absolutely first rate.

Then we went off for the walk, which this time went up the canal a bit to Bagnall Lock, across country to the back of Fradley village, then down the Coventry and Trent and Mersey canals to Alrewas again. This was, of course, followed by a lunch in the pub.

The afternoon passed pleasantly (what was left of it), and we were joined by Elanor for dinner. Her route to and from Rugeley where she works from Burton where she (and officially we) lives passes right by Alrewas. These pleasures did mean that this blog didn't get done that day - the excuse for Wednesday follows shortly!

Wednesday 28 March

Definitely a leisurely start this morning - we were quite stiff after all that exercise yesterday, and in any event didn't have a lot of boating to do. We'd arranged with some fellow Braidbar owners, Graham and Carolann Richardson on Autumn Years, to meet for a pub meal at the Bridge Inn at Branston, about half way from Alrewas to Burton.

Worked down Alrewas lock onto the short section of the River Trent that links Alrewas to Wychnor. The boards were showing Proceed with Caution, and the river was quite full, but presented no real hazard to navigation.

We stopped at Barton Turns Marina to dump rubbish and recycling. I also popped into the chandlery to buy a spare oil filter. This marina used to stock some of the cheapest filters on the cut, but I paid £9.20 for this one, so maybe they've lost their competitive edge.

Filled with water at the water point below Barton Lock, and then went on to Branston Water Park. Again, this mooring which is normally pretty busy was very quiet, though it filled up a bit as the day went on.

We now had the starboard side against the towpath, so we set to and cleaned it, as we'd done the port side at Alrewas. Sheila also sawed up the remaining bits of wood on the roof, so that by the time we'd finished Sanity was starting to look much more like her summer cruising self.

Just as we finished, Autumn Years arrived. The sun was blazing down, so we sat in chairs by the towpath for tea and talk, later succeeded by red wine and talk. Suddenly it was six o'clock, and we parted company for an hour to get ready for the pub.

Seven o'clock saw us walk down to the pub, which proved to be a) smaller inside than it looks from the outside, and b) quite busy. After waiting for about ten minutes, we got a table, and looked at the menu. This was another surprise, as it was entirely Italian. A good evening was had by all, ending up back on Sanity until about 11.30.

Thursday 29 March

Another relaxed start! It was one of those mornings where you think "Why don't I feel worse than this?". We had an easy cruise down to the mooring by the bridge that takes the A38 bypass round Burton, from where it's a short walk to Morrisons supermarket.

After shopping, we set off straight away, arriving just before lunchtime at the Shobnall mooring by Marston's Brewery, the nearest approach to the centre of Burton.

After lunch we made a successful shopping trek into Burton, so that I could buy Sheila her wedding anniversary present, a pair of binoculars, and some boots and other stuff. (The anniversary isn't actually until July - we just seem to be well ahead of ourselves this year)

Back to the boat for a cup of tea and a chance to relax after all the gadding about. I felt sufficiently recovered by late afternoon to catch up with this blog, and to cook a chicken tagine for dinner.

Bad Birdwatching

Saturday 24 March

Started the day by carefully packing a load of carrier bags into one bag to take to Sainsbury's where they have a recycling bin for them (but not, that we can see, any other recycling facilities). Then got all togged up to cope with the still bitter East wind, and set off to buy my paper. Got about two thirds of the way there before realising I'd left the carrier bags on the bow of the boat..

Had to queue for quite some time at the paper and fags kiosk to buy my Independent - it's Saturday, so lots of people were making an inefficient donation to charity by buying lottery tickets. Back to the boat to find that Sheila had done all the getting ready to leave jobs like rolling the cratch cover. I know the original working boats travelled with the cratch in place, but modern vinyl cratch covers don't cope with being run into a tree the way the old wood and canvas constructions did, and boat handling is just so much easier if you can get on and off the bow without fighting your way out of the cratch.

Went round to the water point at Fazeley following Hyperion, Braidbar number 67. Thought at first she was going to stop at the services point outside Peel's Wharf, but she went on, and we did so instead. Connected the hose up and started a wash load. We often start a wash load whilst watering - it means that the first fill is replaced straight away, and the engine can be left running at the 1100 rpm it needs to be doing to cope with the heating phase of the cycle.

When the tank was full, we set off again, turning right at the junction to head for the foot of Curdworth Locks by Kingsbury Water Park. As we approached Fazeley Mill Marina, here came Hyperion back again - she must have winded in the marina entrance. As they passed, her steerer asked about mooring at Peel's Wharf, and I explained that it was a service point.

Duly arrived at the foot of Curdworth, winded and moored on the towpath a bit below the locks. We were the only one there at the time, but in the course of the day four other boats turned up - it must be a popular weekend jaunt, and suggests that the Dog and Doublet, the pub above the bottom lock, is worth investigating.

We then had a really good session of bird-watching. It should be explained that we are not twitchers, but what Simon Barnes calls bad bird-watchers, ie we don't take it seriously enough to keep records or travel hundreds of miles to see some rarity, but we do it just for the pleasure of the thing, as opportunity offers.

There are several excellent hides at Kingsbury, overlooking the flooded gravel pits, and in a bonanza session we recorded wigeon, tufted duck, teal, mallard, gadwall, shoveler, shelduck, Canada goose, greylag goose, cormorant, common tern, grebe, coot, moorhen and snipe. I was particularly pleased with the snipe - Sheila spotted them first, but I was the one to identify them, and even managed to get a half decent shot of them with the new camera, despite their brilliant camouflage against the browned reeds behind them.

We then retired to the boat for a well earned cuppa, and to upload the photos to the laptop.

Sunday 25 March

The hour went on over night, so it felt like a lie in even though we probably got up slightly earlier than usual. The forecast had been promising an improvement for a couple of days, and it did indeed seem perhaps a little milder, but the wind was still in the east, and heavy coats were still de rigeur. We were the first away from the mooring, and had an uneventful run back to Fazeley, Sheila on the helm and me pottering below.

Stopped on the shopping mooring again, and did yet another trip to Sainsbury's, remembering the carrier bags this time. By the time we'd done that it was lunchtime according to the new tariff, so we ate. Just as we were thinking of setting off, we heard a parp parp from an approaching boat. It proved not to be Mr Toad, but Mr Andrew Dyke at the helm of Lord Toulouse. He was on his way to the Cutweb rally at the Blue Lias pub by the Stockton flight on the Grand Union. We hadn't seen Andrew for over a year, so there was much shouting of greetings and exchange of good wishes before he revved up his mighty Hudson and shot off again.

Setting off ourselves, the weather did indeed slowly improve, until by the time we reached Whittington, where we had decided to stop for the night, it was seriously Spring like.

The moorings at the Fradley end of the village were deserted, and we spent the afternoon basking in the sensation of Spring having made a start at last. Tomorrow, we'll go on to Alrewas, finally finishing the trip that started at Poynton 15 days ago.

Eating at The Swan

Thursday 22 March

Today we planned just to boat to Huddlesford Junction, to meet Elanor and her boyfriend Stuart for a meal in The Plough. We set off at around 9, after I'd nipped back to Sainsbury's to buy a paper. It was a classic early Spring day, bright and breezy, but with a sharp edge to the wind that made it necessary to wear a quilted jacket whilst at the helm.

The stretch from Fazeley to Fradley is pleasant without being in anyway dramatic, unless you count the military range between Hopwas and Whittington. Most times we've been past, there have been locals walking their dogs on the edge of the range next to the canal, and today was no exception.

Whittington marks the point at which you come to the end of the Birmingham and Fazeley canal, although these days this section is usually referred to as the Coventry. It was meant to be the Coventry all the way from Fradley to, er, Coventry, but they started at the Coventry end and ran out of money at Fazeley. The canal remained incomplete for many years, thus failing to link the Trent and Mersey with the waterways heading south. In the end, in a rare bit of canal company co-operation, the T&M and the B&F agreed to build the missing bit between them, meeting at Whittington.

In later years, the Coventry Canal Company bought the stretch from Fradley to Whittington off the T&M, but the bit from Fazeley to Whittington remained part of the B&F until nationalisation. There's a marker by the towpath to show the old boundary. On passing it, we had therefore travelled the whole length of the B&F in one trip, from Farmer's Bridge to Whittington.

On arrival at Huddlesford, it was apparent that it was still very mucked about by the railway works going on in connection with quadrupling the West Coast Mainline, which crosses the canal here. There was nowhere to moor on the Fazeley side of the junction, and the moorings on the other side were absolutely chocker with boats which appeared to have been there all winter. The Plough looked rather forlorn, and it wasn't even clear that it was open at 11.30. Accordingly, we made a change of plan and carried on to Fradley.

The Fradley moorings, when we got there just after 12, were almost empty. We had lunch, and I walked over to The Swan to book a table for the evening. This may seem unnecessarily cautious on a Thursday in March, but several OwnerShips boats turn round at Fradley on a Friday, so there is always a risk that the pub will fill up with our former fellows in the scheme. In fact, when I asked in the pub, I was told that since its change of management, they don't take bookings.

We spent the afternoon cleaning the boat and loafing, and then wandered over at 6.30, to find the place very quiet. There were a decent number of locals in the bar, but the lounge was almost empty. We settled into a table in the non-smoking cellar, and just as I was getting the first drinks in, Elanor and Stuart walked in. A good evening was had by all. The food is reasonably priced and of a good pub standard, rather than dramatic or hugely fancy, and it's served with good humour. If you are looking for a decent meal, you could go a lot further and fare worse.

Friday 23 March

A lazy start to head back to Fazeley. We've got a few days to kill before we want to be in Alrewas, so we've decided to go back towards Curdworth to take a good look at the Kingsbury Water Park. We'll aim to be in Alrewas for Monday night, as there's a regular walking party on Tuesday mornings, setting off from the King William pub, and therefore known as the Willy Walkers. It's led by our good friends Will and Jane Chapman.

The weather started well, but by lunchtime was nothing like as nice as yesterday, and we managed to get back to the shopping mooring just in time before it turned wet.

A lot of traffic on the canal - the season is starting early this year.

Made another shopping trip for supplies and to get things like brushes and paint kettles from Focus. At the beginning of May we're docking Sanity to do her blacking - we've already bought the Comastic, and the best thing for putting it on is a masonry brush - the kind that's quite wide but with short bristles.

Got back to the boat with the booty at around 3, sorted stuff like the fire and put the cratch down and settled for another quiet evening after yesterday's carousing.

Farmer's Bridge not closed!

Tuesday 20 March

Yet another eight o'clock start - this is beginning to be a habit. The mooring had indeed proved to be fine and quiet (remarkably so, considering that you're in the very middle of Brum) but I'd still not slept all that well. At least two people had said, when told of our plans, "But isn't the Farmer's Bridge [lock] flight still stopped?" and although I'd checked the Waterscape site and been told no stoppages, it was still a relief to get to the top of the flight and find everything as normal, including a BW guy in the lockie's little house.

Set off down the flight in fine form - it was with us and so we made good time. I took over locking at number five, and found that nine and ten were empty, with a lot of building work going on in the Brindley Tower which covers those two. Presumably this is where the stoppage had been, while they set up scaffolding and dealt with some asbestos problem.

Got to the bottom without incident, and found Spring Dew, an OwnerShips boat, tied at Aston Junction. They'd stayed there because they'd been told Farmer's Bridge was shut. Off we went down the Aston flight, which was also with us, courtesy of Spring Dew having come up. Half way down we met a Canaltime coming up, which took one look at us and tried to turn in the short but wide pound between the locks.

"Did you mean to do that?" I asked as Sanity slid across behind him (he was now broadside on across the cut, with the bow well wedged on the offside bank)

"Not really, no" said the steerer. Sheila meanwhile had been told by the crew on the shore that a) there were another three Canaltimes behind and b) they thought they had to turn round because "Farmer's Bridge is shut, isn't it?" They also warned us that the pound below the next lock was very low, which indeed it was for some reason. Now, it is true that a stoppage on the flight had been extended by a week, but that was scheduled to end last Friday, and indeed had done so. Amazing, the power of rumour, when one phone call to the BW office would have made all clear.

After reaching the bottom of the flight, it's only a short trip to Salford Junction, the four way canal junction which is directly below Gravelly Hill Interchange (Spaghetti Junction). We turned half right and carried on along the Birmingham and Fazeley. This is not the most visually exciting bit of cut in the country, but eventually you come to Minworth locks and the beginning of the end of the urban canal. On a previous trip we'd tied just near the The Kingsley by Wigginshall Bridge, but a fellow Braidbar had an attempted break in near there one night last year. They came back from a meal in the pub to find the glass in one of the front doors damaged, but the boat had survived the attempt. Anyway, we went on to Curdworth, mooring in the cutting between the bridge and the tunnel mouth.

I walked into the village, found the PO and shop, but couldn't get an Independent. We had a quiet evening and an early night, having done 27 locks in the day.

Wednesday 21 March

We'd decided to have a lazy start this morning, so I set the central heating to come on at 7.30, rather than 7. Needless to say, we woke before 7 anyway, but at least could loaf in bed while the heating came on. This was particularly welcome as it had been a very cold night - in fact I later found ice on the inside of the lining of the Houdini hatch over the bed.

Finally set off at all of 8.30, in bright sun, but still a cold wind. Curdworth locks are one of the nicest flights in the country, all the more so because the B&F is such a utilitarian canal in other respects. I was locking first, and feeling too slow and stiff to bother getting the bike out, but after we changed over at lock five, Sheila got on it, and made short work of the next five locks, although the towpath was rather muddy in places. Our little folder with GP road tyres does struggle with unsurfaced towpath at times.

It was a glorious morning, sunny and with little wind, but still very cold. We made very good time and by 11.30 were heading for the superb double bridge at Drayton Manor, a swivel bridge which was standing open, with just before and above it the footbridge between two crenelated towers. One of the joys of the canal system is the preservation of these Victorian embellishments of functional structures, like the way in which many of the northern mills are decorated in a Gothic or Romantic way.

We got to Fazeley Junction just after 12, and stopped on the visitor moorings just before it to eat lunch. Then on round the corner onto the water point, before finishing the day's boating with a run round to the unofficial but well patronised mooring by Sutton Road Bridge. The point of this mooring is that there is a rough but well used footpath into a huge retail park which includes Sainsbury's, Asda, Boots and all the other usual suspects.

We made an initial foray to Boots for a birthday present for Elanor - her birthday was actually yesterday, but we're seeing her and Stuart, her boyfriend, tomorrow, so she can have her pressie then, and to Sainsbury's to stock up on groceries. Bought some nice fresh fish - Cajun fish stew tonight, I think.

Through the BCN

Sunday 18 March

Made a prompt start at 8 again and headed roughly South East along the summit pound of the Staffs and Worcs. By just after 10 we were at the foot of the Wolverhampton flight, which was against us.

Normally when boating we take it day and day about to steer, and the other one does whatever lock wheeling or bridge swinging proves to be needed, but with a heavy day like today, we usually work in blocks of five locks. It happened to be my turn to steer, so Sheila did the first block, locks 21 to 17. The weather steadily deteriorated, becoming windier, then hailing and finally snowing. These periods were punctuated by the odd spell of sunshine, but all the same it was pretty hard sledding.

We saw few other boats on the move, except a Canaltime about half way up. They were clearly novices and struggling a bit, so we didn't make too much of the fact that they carefully closed the bottom gates of the lock they were leaving and which we were waiting to enter. Sheila was however stunned to be told, firmly and with no question by the chap that, as they were out for a fortnight, they were going to get to Chester, or possibly even Ellesmere Port. Now, assuming they had started from the Alvecote Canaltime base, this is just possible, but would involve boating every daylight hour at this time of year, and completely misses the point of taking a canal holiday.

With a more approachable person we might have said a word of caution about not overdoing it, but, as I say, there was no opportunity to do so.

We got to the top at about 1.30, tired and hungry, there not being much chance to eat lunch when locking two handed. We'd been advised that there was safe mooring at the top, and tied on a bit of visitor mooring by some neat grass and flower beds on the off side. It didn't look all that sheltered, but the first thing was to eat lunch. Having done so, I did a quick explore, and found a much better mooring just through the Broad Street Bridge, again on the offside, but this time tucked under the road embankment, and only accessible by water (or perhaps by abseiling down from the road above).

The road noise was a bit obtrusive, but having worked the 21 locks meant that this was not much of a problem.

Monday 19 March

Another prompt start, though with the prospect of much more straightforward boating, with only three locks to do on our way to centre of Birmingham. We'd planned to water at a water point we've used before at Tividale aqueduct, so didn't bother reversing back from our overnight mooring to use the one in Broad Street basin, nor to go into the arm that leads to Dudley Tunnel, where there's a shiny new services block. I did walk up the arm, to see that there are still some useable overnight moorings there, providing another safe haven.

When we got to Tividale, the water point was gone.

On we went, with the weather deteriorating from its beautiful blue sky of earlier, and finally starting to snow as we went under the section of the Old Main Line that runs under the M5 motorway. There are three locks at Smethwick leading down from the Old Main Line built by Brindley to the New one engineered by Telford.

The first lock was no problem, but someone had left a paddle up on the bottom gate of the second, and, with the top gate leaking just a bit, the pound between was well down. In fact when I opened the bottom gate of the first lock, and signalled to Sheila to come out, she just shrugged her shoulders, and I realised that Sanity was in fact heeled over slightly, sitting as she was on the bottom of the lock chamber. There was nothing for it but to lift a top paddle and run enough water down from the pound above until the boat could edge her way out of the lock, down the now rather fuller pound and into the second lock.

We took it in turns to eat lunch as we went down the final section of the New Main Line, then went right through the complex of the Old Turn Junction, Gas Street and the Mail Box Turn (formerly Salvage Turn) to water at last at Holliday Wharf. Tank full again, I reversed Sanity back to the Mail Box, where the canal is very wide, winded with some difficulty in a brisk breeze, and then went back past Gas Street and the Old Turn to a mooring just beyond the Oozells's Street loop. In fact, in order to be pointing the right way in the morning, when we want to go left at the Old Turn and down the Farmer's Bridge flight, I winded again in the mouth of Oozell's Street and reversed, with a lot of bother in the wind, onto the mooring.

Settled at last, we went shopping at the Broad Street Tesco (both Birmingham and Wolverhampton have a Broad Street, just to be confusing). Our friends Roger and Sue Burchett have just turned up in Nackered Navvy, so we shall have a session of gossip after dinner tonight.

Heading for the BCN

Friday 16 March

Didn't get a response from BW yesterday to my query about the Armitage stoppage, so we decided to make the trip round by the Birmingham Canal Navigations anyway. Now the thing about the BCN is that some of it is 'bandit country', that is, the local youth cannot be relied on to adopt a socially responsible attitude to narrow boaters bringing welcome trade to their town. In fact, if so minded, they are quite capable of heaving a half brick at you, or of letting go (or worse, cutting) your mooring ropes at night.

Nonetheless, unless areas of the system are to be abandoned to these latter day escapees from A Clockwork Orange, it is important to continue to use these canals, though with caution and common sense. In particular, if touring the country in a camper van, one would not expect to be able to park in a city centre car park overnight and have a quiet night. Similarly, choosing an overnight mooring in the city is a matter of selecting somewhere not on a walking route from one pub to another, and where there are already other boats moored. Boaters' Groups such as the canals list ( http://groups.yahoo.com/group/canals-list/) are excellent sources of advice to the novice in such situations.

In any event, it's time Sanity encountered the heart of the system, so when we got to Great Haywood Junction today, we turned right onto the Staffs and Worcs canal, rather than continuing on our usual direct route towards Alrewas. We stopped for the night on Tixall Wide, a remarkable stretch which widens right out into a lake, and is well stocked with wildlife. There are conflicting accounts for this phenomenon, but the striking thing is that the water is deep right across; many other places have wide bits of canal, such as Poynton indeed, but these are caused by subsidence, and there is usually only a narrow channel down one side for the boats.

Saturday 17 March

We had a fair bit to do today, so set off at eight, in cool, breezy and cloudy conditions, though the forecast was much more positive for today, though not for Sunday or Monday.

The stretch from Tixall to Gailey, at the start of the summit of the Staffs and Worcs, has not been much changed since Brindley built it in 1772. It winds about a lot, and the locks turn up in ones or twos from time to time, of varying heights, and with basic gates and paddle gear. It is altogether a delightful canal, and was reasonably quiet this early in the year - at the height of the season it gets very busy. The weather did indeed improve, and by lunchtime we had reached Penkridge, the only town of note in this length.

Since we were making steady progress, and the facilities moorings were free, and the toilet tank getting pretty full, we took the opportunity to pump out, then had a late lunch on the visitor mooring nearby.

After a quick bit of shopping (there's a good co-op store here), we set off for the final stretch to Gailey for the night, being followed up the locks by a crew being trained in these dark arts. It seems that the Royal Bank of Scotland Boat Club has a couple of boats its members can hire, but they have to do a day's training course first.

We arrived at Gailey at about four without much incident, and proceeded to do a bit of wood cutting (Sheila) and cooking (Bruce) before settling down for the evening's relaxation.

Weather forecast for tomorrow is not very good, with a possibility of snow even, but we don't mind that under the circs. It will keep the youth of Wolverhampton tucked up at home in front of the computer, rather than out chucking things at us.

Tunnels, and Red Faces

Wednesday 14 March

Up bright and early, and boating by eight o'clock. Arrived at the tunnel to find we were third in the queue behind Dutchess of Marple and Thuis, and that a convoy was on its way through from the southern end. Harecastle is narrow, so the tunnel keepers at each end arrange the boats into convoys of up to eight at a time.

Went into the tunnel at about 9.15, and made a good speed through it, emerging 35 minutes later. Exchanged cheery chat with Ivor Bachelor, who was on duty as the South Portal keeper. We know Ivor from last winter - he used to keep a carrying pair in Braunston (Mountbatten and Jellicoe), but has moved them to the North West now.

It was a glorious day and we worked through Stoke in good mood. Just as we were passing the huge rubbish incinerator, the engine coughed a couple of times, and cut out. I quote Sheila's account as posted to the Braidbar Owners Group:

Yesterday we came through Harecastle Tunnel, worked down the Stoke flight and were cruising along heading for Barlaston and lunch when..guess what... we ran out of diesel! Our only excuse is that we had a full tank in mid January when we went into the yard and apart from a run down to Macclesfield for the protest we had hardly run the engine. It all went on the central heating.

We got off very lightly as the boat following us, Dutchess of Marple, very kindly towed us the mile or so to Hem Heath where there is a filling station. Even so it hurt paying road prices for diesel before we have to. £1 per litre, ouch.

I'm just trying not to think what it would have been like if we had run out in the middle of Harecastle!

Not to mention Ivor's telling the tale all round the system. We tied for the night at Barlaston, decided to do without the central heating, and had another peaceful night.

Thursday 15 March

Made a leisurely start, as it is but a short run from the Wedgwood mooring at Barlaston to Stone, and we wanted to arrive after Stone Boatbuilding had opened for business so as to get some diesel.

It was a rather cloudy and cold day, but dry, and it was very pleasant working down the Meaford locks and into Stone. Tied outside Stone Boatbuilding and gave them the glad news that they were about to sell us a lot of diesel. We also discovered that the next lock, Yard Lock, was stopped for adjustment to the newly installed gates, and that we wouldn't be able to get through until lunchtime.

Put 188 litres of red diesel into the tank - at 53p per litre, it came to very nearly £100. This is the first time in 30 year's boating I've run out of diesel - how embarrassing.

Then we went and joined the queue above the lock. Shared coffee and gossip with the others waiting there, and had a quick lunch. As they say, if you are in a hurry, you shouldn't be boating.

The lock reopened at around 1.30, and we all duly worked down. Moored on the visitor moorings below the last lock in Stone, did some shopping and checked the email. Apparently, another stoppage is over running on our route to Alrewas, at Armitage - I've emailed the relevant BW office to find out if there's a danger of further over run, as if there is, we may need to use a more circuitous route to get to Alrewas in time for our various check up appointments.

On our way to Harecastle

Sat 10 March

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

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

Sunday 11 March

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

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

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

Monday 12 March

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

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

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

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

Tuesday 13 March

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

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

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

Final days at Braidbar before setting off again

Wednesday 7 March

The day started with Reg the joiner putting the roof back together - you really can't tell it was ever in bits, and the aerial works a treat. I spent some time working on IT stuff for the Brycelands - getting your head round someone else's web authoring is interesting, to say the least. Sheila settled down to some serious crocheting - she's making all the porthole doilies and shelf edging for Boat 100, the Brycelands' own which is going to be their showboat at Crick.

Not a lot else to report for that day.

Thursday 8 March

Another morning wrestling with IT, this time with a laptop with very odd behaviours and some undoubted viruses. It became apparent that it was beyond my limited grasp of Windows (I'm a Mac man really), and also that there might be a hardware fault linked to it having been dropped, so after a couple of hours gave up and composed an email to the hardware supplier.

After lunch decided on a complete change of challenge and did a major engine service - the one due at 4000 hours, a little premature, but it seemed a good idea to do it before getting into the cruising season, and also to do it whilst in the yard with access to much wise advice and experience. All went well, and the sense of my strategy was confirmed when I couldn't get the drive belt to the domestic alternator tight enough. The answer turned out to be a crowbar to lever the beast out enough.

Friday 9 March

I'd planned to spend the morning having a final go at the IT bit - the main task now was to deal with the high levels of spam Braidbar are getting through the website address, and then we thought we'd borrow the car to go shopping. A little further thought brought the conclusion that shopping first was better, so we did a good round trip to Macclesfield (filled prescription, bought a new camera (YES!) and went to Julian Graves for packs of dried pulses and the like), to the Tesco at Handforth Dean (groceries for ourselves and the Brycelands) and finally to Lakeland the kitchenware place for anti-fungus stuff for us and a baby vacuum cleaner for Braidbar (to go on the hireboat).

Then after lunch the IT was duly beaten into submission in time to pull out of the yard at the end of the afternoon. Tomorrow we're off out of it, though only down to Lyme View, as we're meeting Sheila's brother and sister-in-law at the pub there, an excellent establishment called the Miner's Arms.

Boatyard stuff

Monday 5 March

After a quiet night at Lyme View, we had a relaxed start and boated back to Poynton, getting back into the yard at around 9.30. Had a chat with Iain Bryceland and agreed the work we're having done in this final burst. This will involve 1) installing a locking system on the diesel filler cap 2) installing a single diplex aerial for the FM/DAB radio, rather than the double arrangement we have at the moment and 3) fitting fairleads to the bow. This last item was done pretty well straight away.

I also plan on doing a major engine service while we're in the yard - it's not quite due, but it makes sense to do it now, before w e set off on the year's cruising.

We then endured a rather windy night, with the boat rocking and rolling in the gusts.

Tuesday 6 March

Up in good time, as Sheila had to go to Knutsford to liaise with her brother about opening an executor's account, and to help clear the flat and prepare it for sale. Ian and Andy Grindrod then turned up and had a look at the aerial job, which Andy and I then worked on for about half the day. It was only moderately tedious - as always, whenever you go to cut a new hole in the roof, a cross brace turns up, despite careful measurement and calculation, but thanks to Grindrod skill and expertise, all problems were overcome and the radio functional once more by tea break. This is a vast improvement on the old arrangement - the DAB aerial was a stick on the window type, and the tape had attracted a disgusting amount of dirt and block mould over three years.

Ian Grindrod had meanwhile finished the locking filler cap, so we're now at least a bit safer in anticipation of the day we have to start using white diesel.

Spent the rest of the afternoon sorting antivirus problems on the Bryceland laptops (or trying to) until Sheila arrived back at 5.

Save Our Waterways Blockade

Saturday 3 March

We'd promised to help with the Save Our Waterways stand in Macclesfield town centre, where Roger Olver, the organiser, had arranged for a replica Victorian steam launch to be the centre piece, starting at 10 am. Accordingly, it was up bright and early at 7, and Sheila set off boating while I breakfasted, and then we switched over.

Got to Macc at about 9.30, tied on the so-called Visitor Moorings, and made our way into town. The boat looked excellent, and was in a great spot in front of the Town Hall. We spent three hours getting signatures on the petition, with good support from the local boaters. At one point we had twenty clipboards in use, and we had to get some more petition forms copied courtesy of a helpful guy from the Town Hall. Packed up there at 1 and went back to the canal to take part in the blockade.



Not such a good turn out as at Bugsworth in November, but we still had around twenty boats, which made a convincing barrier. Duly listened to speeches from the local MPs, Sir Nicholas and Lady Ann Winterton, and two poems from Cheshire's Poet Laureate. It was all over by around three. The Puss In Boots public house supplied everyone with free teas and coffees, and even biscuits, so we decided to patronise them for a meal in the evening.

Good standard pub grub, and an excellent pint of Deuchars IPA, then back to the boat for a remarkably quiet night considering we were on a town mooring on a Saturday. It's just a shame that the canal profile of the Macc makes it so hard for BW and the council to install a decent edge to moor to.



Sunday 4 March

Woke to a windy morning, but after checking the forecast decided it wouldn't necessarily get any better, so decided to do some boating anyway. We were still pointing away from Poynton, and I didn't fancy turning in Macc Marina in the wind, so we went further on, beyond the Gurnett Aqueduct moorings to wind. Enough wind to make both boating and turning tricky, but managed both without mishap, the latter skilfully aided by Sheila with the shaft from the bow.

On the way back it started to rain, as well, so it became a bit of a test of dogged boating, keeping going, taking it in turns to lunch, and finally arriving at the Lyme View visitor mooring at 1.30. Despite the weather, it was good to get a decent run in. Only one more week, and we'll be off on our travels again, hopefully.

Boating again

Friday 2 March

Spent the morning watering, talking to Luisa Bryceland and Ian Grindrod about ways of installing an electric pump out facility, and then pulling out of the yard to get a pump out.

Having done this, winded at the end of the moorings ( a bit tricky in a gusty wind) and then went just a short way towards Bollington before stopping for lunch, it then being about 12.45. We did some internet research on the electric pump out question, without really finding any firm answers, and then boated on to Bollington aqueduct for the night.

The new connector for our Nokia 6234 to the aerial seems to work OK - it's attached by a piece of Velcro to the back of the phone over the internal aerial, so it doesn't feel as secure as the plug in ones. We shall have to see how it performs over time, I guess.

Tomorrow it's on to Macclesfield for the Save Our Waterways protest against funding cuts for British Waterways.