28th & 29th November
Before saying anything else, I’d like to acknowledge the recent comments by Sarah, Nev and Mukiwa – it’s really good to know that not only are people reading my ramblings, they get some pleasure from them!
Yesterday, it was nice not to have to leap lightly out of bed first thing in the morning in case the boatyard staff wanted to access the boat. We had a lazy start and then pottered off to Marple to do some shopping. Granny Buttons was tied just before Bridge 2, and Hiraethlyn between 2 and 1.
We got supplies for lunch from the Co-op here – on the way back we noticed that Granny’s stern pin had started to part company with the towpath, so I banged it back in, and later dropped an email to Andrew to let him know. We did a return trip to town after lunch to get some meat, but the butcher’s was closed – must be Wednesday half day in Marple.
Then it was back to Deer Farm Bend for the night, noting that the batteries now seem to be charging OK from the TravelPower.
I made a note for this blog to say that we then had a quiet afternoon, well buttoned down in the boat as it poured with rain. Sheila, however, on hearing me mutter this to myself as I wrote, pointed out that whilst I might have had a quiet time, she finished repairing the crochet blanket for Jane Howarth, and then started an Aran jumper for Daniel.
In the late afternoon, whilst reheating the dinner (we’re still using up the stuff that got a bit defrosted whilst we were away), I made some more stewed fruit for breakfasts. I normally add a tin of fruit to the mix after stewing the dried stuff, and this time had a can of Co-op raspberries to put in. It was a case of opening it, tipping it out and then thinking “Where’s the raspberries?”
There were some, but there was a lot more juice. When I looked closely at the label, it said “net weight 260 grams, drained weight 116 grams”, so there was indeed more juice than rasps. A better description would have been Apple and Blackcurrant Juice with added Raspberries.
Today was a bright and sunny morning, but we still weren’t inclined to make a flying start. We eventually got underway at 9.45 (“Shocking,” I hear Elanor say; it’s hell having a psychologist for a father).
We stopped briefly at High Lane to buy a paper, and then rather longer at Poynton to top up the water tank. Mata Hari was on the water point when we arrived, and I had a chat with her steerer as we waited. They had had an interesting summer on the North Eastern waterways in the floods – sounded as exciting as our time on the Nene.
By just before 12 we were at Lyme View Marina, so stopped for lunch on the visitor moorings there, and then plodded on, on an ever colder afternoon, to stop again just short of Bollington, on the bit of towpath we used in the other direction on Bonfire weekend, so just over three weeks ago.
Looks as if the weather is going to be a bit wild and woolly for a few days, so we may well stay here until it improves next week, or we may go on to Gurnett Aqueduct tomorrow – depends how we feel really.
Thursday, 29 November 2007
Tuesday, 27 November 2007
A brilliant weekend
23rd to 27th November
What a good weekend that was, and I can remember almost all of it! (Must be getting old.)
On Friday, we got up early, breakfasted in the dark and set off to catch our train at Middlewood station. I felt very uncertain about this – the station just seems so improbable, a little two platform halt without even road access – you have to walk along the Middlewood Way to reach it – but at 9.59 almost exactly, a two coach DMU chugged up and we got on. When the conductor came round, he could not only sell us tickets to Newark from his little machine, he gave us a better price than the website had suggested, and took my credit card using chip and pin. It really felt like something out of 70’s sci-fi.
The journey then ran exactly to time, with no delays – who says trains haven’t improved? The run across the Peak District in the TransPennine Express is through excellent scenery, and the only downside was Doncaster station. A bitter wind was blowing, and Doncaster has always been a chilly station at the best of times.
We had packed sarnies to eat whilst waiting for the connection there, and we sat on the platform, guzzling them down as quickly as possible so as to be able to put our gloves back on. We’d chosen the route to Newark at Graeme’s suggestion – whilst waiting, the train we would have caught at Sheffield to go to Lincoln came through; it makes a bizarre trip from Doncaster back to Sheffield and then on to Lincoln for some reason, and it was an amazingly elderly looking two coach beast, packed to the doors.
Graeme met us at Newark after a very different sort of ride in one of GNER’s sleek beasts, and we were soon at Boothby Graffoe. It’s an amazing village with stupendous views off the Lincoln Cliff, an escarpment that runs across the Fens to Lincoln.
We had a great evening with Graeme and Cathy, and renewed our acquaintance with Daniel, who is nearly six months old now, and well grown already.
On Saturday we made a trip to a Majestic Wine Warehouse to let Graeme stock up for Christmas, and to buy some wine and beer for the weekend. I was pleased to find they stocked the Lebanese wine Chateau Musar, which is grown in the Bekaa Valley – it’s the only vineyard in the world where hoeing between the vines is made more dangerous by the unexploded cluster bombs. I’d read that it was a special tasting wine, and was keen to try it, so bought a couple of bottles for that purpose, and as an extra birthday pressie for Graeme.
We then had a relaxed day at home, reading papers and entertaining Daniel. It’s great being a grandparent – you get all the fun of playing with the sprog, then when things get fractious you can just hand them back to your immediate offspring to deal with. (Don’t want to take over, after all.)
Sunday we had a family outing to Gibraltar Point, the bit of land that sticks out South of Skegness and forms the northern tip of the Wash. It’s a really well done Nature Reserve, with large areas of sanctuary for birds coming to the Wash from all over the world, but with just enough facilities to provide for essential needs.
I was sceptical that the cafe and so on would be open at this time of year, but it was, and served us a very good lunch, as well as providing a high chair for Daniel, and all in a viewing gallery equipped with decent binoculars so you could have a good scan of the saltings before and after eating.
We were certainly grateful for the shelter – Skeggy is bracing at the best of times, and a bitter nor’ westerly was blasting across the scenery.
After lunch it was a little gentler, and we had another walk before heading back to Boothby Graffoe for tea. Afterwards, Graeme booted up his computer and lent us a memory stick (I’d brought one with me, but had forgotten that it was Mac formatted, and his Windows machine couldn’t see it.) We transferred some photos onto it – mainly Daniel, but one or two others as well. When I get a chance, I’ll put a photo gallery of Daniel up on the main website and link to it here for the family readers.
We had a bottle of the Chateau Musar that night – it is indeed a very nice wine, or at least the 1999 vintage is, well worth the money if you get the chance to buy it.
Monday morning Graeme had to go back to work, poor chap, so Cathy ran us to the station. The trip back was just as efficient as the trip out, but with less of the freezing wind. We bought some sandwiches in Doncaster Station cafe – pricey, but very nice. We got back to Middlewood pretty well bang on time, and were back at the boat by half two.
We found Ian Grindrod busy sorting the alternators on the engine, so moved onto the boat, relit the Squirrel, and then I helped him while Sheila sorted the domestic stuff.
The power had been on all weekend from the shoreline, but the freezer had defrosted just a tad. Our fridge freezer is a single sensor type, where the thermostat is in the fridge, so if the external temperature drops too far, the compressor never starts up (because the fridge isn’t getting warm) and so the freezer bit isn’t kept as cold as it should be.
Had I thought, there’s a button in ours to use in this situation, but like an idiot I’d forgotten about it until we got back. Nothing was actually defrosted, but I’ll use up the stuff that was in the top drawer as soon as possible, I think.
Today, Ian finished off the jobs on the boat, wiring in a DC socket in the engine 'ole for the new pump out pump.
After lunch we pulled out of the yard to let the latest shell come in – nice though it is being in the yard, it was good to be out and about again. We came up the canal through High Lane to Deer Farm Bend for the night, and spent some time finishing off putting the boat back into cruise mode and cutting up some wood.
Tomorrow we have to decide how to use the rest of the time up to Christmas, but there’s no rush – we want to be here or hereabouts for a while yet.
What a good weekend that was, and I can remember almost all of it! (Must be getting old.)
On Friday, we got up early, breakfasted in the dark and set off to catch our train at Middlewood station. I felt very uncertain about this – the station just seems so improbable, a little two platform halt without even road access – you have to walk along the Middlewood Way to reach it – but at 9.59 almost exactly, a two coach DMU chugged up and we got on. When the conductor came round, he could not only sell us tickets to Newark from his little machine, he gave us a better price than the website had suggested, and took my credit card using chip and pin. It really felt like something out of 70’s sci-fi.
The journey then ran exactly to time, with no delays – who says trains haven’t improved? The run across the Peak District in the TransPennine Express is through excellent scenery, and the only downside was Doncaster station. A bitter wind was blowing, and Doncaster has always been a chilly station at the best of times.
We had packed sarnies to eat whilst waiting for the connection there, and we sat on the platform, guzzling them down as quickly as possible so as to be able to put our gloves back on. We’d chosen the route to Newark at Graeme’s suggestion – whilst waiting, the train we would have caught at Sheffield to go to Lincoln came through; it makes a bizarre trip from Doncaster back to Sheffield and then on to Lincoln for some reason, and it was an amazingly elderly looking two coach beast, packed to the doors.
Graeme met us at Newark after a very different sort of ride in one of GNER’s sleek beasts, and we were soon at Boothby Graffoe. It’s an amazing village with stupendous views off the Lincoln Cliff, an escarpment that runs across the Fens to Lincoln.
We had a great evening with Graeme and Cathy, and renewed our acquaintance with Daniel, who is nearly six months old now, and well grown already.
On Saturday we made a trip to a Majestic Wine Warehouse to let Graeme stock up for Christmas, and to buy some wine and beer for the weekend. I was pleased to find they stocked the Lebanese wine Chateau Musar, which is grown in the Bekaa Valley – it’s the only vineyard in the world where hoeing between the vines is made more dangerous by the unexploded cluster bombs. I’d read that it was a special tasting wine, and was keen to try it, so bought a couple of bottles for that purpose, and as an extra birthday pressie for Graeme.
We then had a relaxed day at home, reading papers and entertaining Daniel. It’s great being a grandparent – you get all the fun of playing with the sprog, then when things get fractious you can just hand them back to your immediate offspring to deal with. (Don’t want to take over, after all.)
Sunday we had a family outing to Gibraltar Point, the bit of land that sticks out South of Skegness and forms the northern tip of the Wash. It’s a really well done Nature Reserve, with large areas of sanctuary for birds coming to the Wash from all over the world, but with just enough facilities to provide for essential needs.
I was sceptical that the cafe and so on would be open at this time of year, but it was, and served us a very good lunch, as well as providing a high chair for Daniel, and all in a viewing gallery equipped with decent binoculars so you could have a good scan of the saltings before and after eating.
We were certainly grateful for the shelter – Skeggy is bracing at the best of times, and a bitter nor’ westerly was blasting across the scenery.
After lunch it was a little gentler, and we had another walk before heading back to Boothby Graffoe for tea. Afterwards, Graeme booted up his computer and lent us a memory stick (I’d brought one with me, but had forgotten that it was Mac formatted, and his Windows machine couldn’t see it.) We transferred some photos onto it – mainly Daniel, but one or two others as well. When I get a chance, I’ll put a photo gallery of Daniel up on the main website and link to it here for the family readers.
We had a bottle of the Chateau Musar that night – it is indeed a very nice wine, or at least the 1999 vintage is, well worth the money if you get the chance to buy it.
Monday morning Graeme had to go back to work, poor chap, so Cathy ran us to the station. The trip back was just as efficient as the trip out, but with less of the freezing wind. We bought some sandwiches in Doncaster Station cafe – pricey, but very nice. We got back to Middlewood pretty well bang on time, and were back at the boat by half two.
We found Ian Grindrod busy sorting the alternators on the engine, so moved onto the boat, relit the Squirrel, and then I helped him while Sheila sorted the domestic stuff.
The power had been on all weekend from the shoreline, but the freezer had defrosted just a tad. Our fridge freezer is a single sensor type, where the thermostat is in the fridge, so if the external temperature drops too far, the compressor never starts up (because the fridge isn’t getting warm) and so the freezer bit isn’t kept as cold as it should be.
Had I thought, there’s a button in ours to use in this situation, but like an idiot I’d forgotten about it until we got back. Nothing was actually defrosted, but I’ll use up the stuff that was in the top drawer as soon as possible, I think.
Today, Ian finished off the jobs on the boat, wiring in a DC socket in the engine 'ole for the new pump out pump.
After lunch we pulled out of the yard to let the latest shell come in – nice though it is being in the yard, it was good to be out and about again. We came up the canal through High Lane to Deer Farm Bend for the night, and spent some time finishing off putting the boat back into cruise mode and cutting up some wood.
Tomorrow we have to decide how to use the rest of the time up to Christmas, but there’s no rush – we want to be here or hereabouts for a while yet.
Thursday, 22 November 2007
Two wet days
21st & 22nd November
A moist and misty morning arrived at the end of a broken night. I blame the cooking; of late, I’ve been stretching the dinosaur soup with extra veg, stock and chopped tomatoes, but the protein content must have dropped away rather. At any rate, in the early hours of the morning, Sheila and I were drinking glasses of milk in bed, and fairly promptly fell asleep afterwards. Memo to self – serve more meat.
Nocturne’s owners are due to take over the boat for her shake down cruise today (Thursday) so yesterday the yard was very busy giving her the final touches. Meantime, on Sanity, Sheila was progressing my new Guernsey to the point of finishing the second sleeve.
I spent the afternoon working on a document about sustainable funding for British Waterways. There’s to be yet another round of Defra cuts, as I commented in my last post, and the IWA are asking for input about better ways of achieving BW’s funding stream. I’ve sent it to IWA, and to Will Chapman of the Save Our Waterways campaign. I’ve put it up on the Sanity website for those who are interested.
Today was wet again. The Ecofan has been showing signs of age after three winters’ sterling service, so we’ve posted it off to Calfire to be refurbished.
Sheila finished sewing the sleeves on my Guernsey – it’s very smart indeed.
Both the restored TravelPower and our new DC pump out pump arrived this afternoon. The TravelPower will be reinstalled by me, but will have to wait till next week now – we’re off in the morning to spend the weekend with Graeme, Cathy and Daniel, celebrating Graeme’s 30th birthday.
The end of the afternoon saw us pulling Sanity out of the yard and back in again, to allow two of the other boats to be juggled round. Cala has gone into the paint dock, and Olivers Place came out.
There won’t be a blog post over the weekend – I’ll probably do a catch up on Tuesday.
A moist and misty morning arrived at the end of a broken night. I blame the cooking; of late, I’ve been stretching the dinosaur soup with extra veg, stock and chopped tomatoes, but the protein content must have dropped away rather. At any rate, in the early hours of the morning, Sheila and I were drinking glasses of milk in bed, and fairly promptly fell asleep afterwards. Memo to self – serve more meat.
Nocturne’s owners are due to take over the boat for her shake down cruise today (Thursday) so yesterday the yard was very busy giving her the final touches. Meantime, on Sanity, Sheila was progressing my new Guernsey to the point of finishing the second sleeve.
I spent the afternoon working on a document about sustainable funding for British Waterways. There’s to be yet another round of Defra cuts, as I commented in my last post, and the IWA are asking for input about better ways of achieving BW’s funding stream. I’ve sent it to IWA, and to Will Chapman of the Save Our Waterways campaign. I’ve put it up on the Sanity website for those who are interested.
Today was wet again. The Ecofan has been showing signs of age after three winters’ sterling service, so we’ve posted it off to Calfire to be refurbished.
Sheila finished sewing the sleeves on my Guernsey – it’s very smart indeed.
Both the restored TravelPower and our new DC pump out pump arrived this afternoon. The TravelPower will be reinstalled by me, but will have to wait till next week now – we’re off in the morning to spend the weekend with Graeme, Cathy and Daniel, celebrating Graeme’s 30th birthday.
The end of the afternoon saw us pulling Sanity out of the yard and back in again, to allow two of the other boats to be juggled round. Cala has gone into the paint dock, and Olivers Place came out.
There won’t be a blog post over the weekend – I’ll probably do a catch up on Tuesday.
Tuesday, 20 November 2007
Pottering about in the yard
19th & 20th November
It was a wild and windy night, with the boat rocking about even in the sheltered yard mooring, but we survived it. In the morning we had our first chance to chat to Iain and Luisa – they had got back on Saturday OK, but we’d left them alone to do all the post holiday charging about, and getting over the shock of leaving sunny Spain to come back to an England in the grip of an early winter.
We’ve agreed to help at Crick again next year, which is great. Next weekend, we want to leave Sanity over the weekend while we help Graeme ease through the transition to being 30. It’s the first of the “Big 0” birthdays – twenty just isn’t the same, as it’s caught between 18 and 21, both much more important, but after thirty, it’s a succession of those decade milestones hurtling towards you at seemingly increasing speed. Anyway, Iain and Luisa have agreed to let us leave Sanity safely in the yard, with a shoreline connected, which saves emptying the freezer and turning it off.
They are so good to us.
At lunchtime we found a good medium length walk, onto the Middlewood Way at Higher Poynton Station, and then South to Poynton Coppice, through some woodland and so back onto the towpath and back to the yard.
The afternoon was a quiet one in the boat – we’re still waiting for parts for the domestic alternator, and for the TravelPower to come back. We bought a couple of books on Amazon, one of them a book of Aran and Guernsey patterns for small kids. Sheila has this spare Aran wool to use up so it looks like Daniel going to get an Aran sweater in a bit.
Today we started the day by pulling Sanity out of the yard and onto the shop mooring to get a pump out. We don’t want to run the engine whilst the alternators are off it, so it was an interesting exercise with ropes and tiller pumping. Whilst we were out, Ian and Peter pushed Nocturne across to the other side of the basin; she needs her heel test soon, and the other side is set up to do that.
After the pump out we worked Sanity back into Nocturne’s previous place – we just have to remember which side to step off at the bow to avoid hilarious accidents.
IWA has emailed us asking us to write to MPs yet again. The newly announced further cuts to the DEFRA budget may well affect BW, which is already struggling to fund the consequences of the summer's floods and the huge breach on the Mon and Brec Canal.
Janet Dean, our MP in Burton, has always been very supportive in the past, so this is what we wrote, via the website writetothem.com:
Later in the afternoon, Austin and Liz Siviter turned up, just passing through. Austin has been on a boat painting course, and was justifiably proud of the roses which he’d painted on a pair of boards to cover the glazing in the cratch of Just Siviting.
We had a cup of tea with them, and then when they’d gone, I cut Sheila’s hair for the second time. I reckon I made a better job of it this time, though her hair has got a will of its own in terms of which way it wants to lie. When I complained about this, Sheila said cheerfully “Yes, that’s what my hairdressers have always said as well”.
Glad to know it’s not just my incompetence with the clippers.
It was a wild and windy night, with the boat rocking about even in the sheltered yard mooring, but we survived it. In the morning we had our first chance to chat to Iain and Luisa – they had got back on Saturday OK, but we’d left them alone to do all the post holiday charging about, and getting over the shock of leaving sunny Spain to come back to an England in the grip of an early winter.
We’ve agreed to help at Crick again next year, which is great. Next weekend, we want to leave Sanity over the weekend while we help Graeme ease through the transition to being 30. It’s the first of the “Big 0” birthdays – twenty just isn’t the same, as it’s caught between 18 and 21, both much more important, but after thirty, it’s a succession of those decade milestones hurtling towards you at seemingly increasing speed. Anyway, Iain and Luisa have agreed to let us leave Sanity safely in the yard, with a shoreline connected, which saves emptying the freezer and turning it off.
They are so good to us.
At lunchtime we found a good medium length walk, onto the Middlewood Way at Higher Poynton Station, and then South to Poynton Coppice, through some woodland and so back onto the towpath and back to the yard.
The afternoon was a quiet one in the boat – we’re still waiting for parts for the domestic alternator, and for the TravelPower to come back. We bought a couple of books on Amazon, one of them a book of Aran and Guernsey patterns for small kids. Sheila has this spare Aran wool to use up so it looks like Daniel going to get an Aran sweater in a bit.
Today we started the day by pulling Sanity out of the yard and onto the shop mooring to get a pump out. We don’t want to run the engine whilst the alternators are off it, so it was an interesting exercise with ropes and tiller pumping. Whilst we were out, Ian and Peter pushed Nocturne across to the other side of the basin; she needs her heel test soon, and the other side is set up to do that.
After the pump out we worked Sanity back into Nocturne’s previous place – we just have to remember which side to step off at the bow to avoid hilarious accidents.
IWA has emailed us asking us to write to MPs yet again. The newly announced further cuts to the DEFRA budget may well affect BW, which is already struggling to fund the consequences of the summer's floods and the huge breach on the Mon and Brec Canal.
Janet Dean, our MP in Burton, has always been very supportive in the past, so this is what we wrote, via the website writetothem.com:
We corresponded earlier this year about the impact of the then budget cuts on British Waterways, and from your responses at that time I have no doubt that you are already sympathetic to the purpose of this letter. That purpose is to ask you to raise with the minister our extreme concern about the consequences of any further diminution of BW's resources consequent upon the latest round of DEFRA cuts.
Recent events on the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal show how foolhardy it would be, indeed how downright dangerous to the public safety it would be, to reduce still further the funds available to BW.
Surely the time has come to insist that BW is removed from the blight of this toxic Department and managed from, say, the Department for Culture Media and Sport, or the Department of Transport, either of which would be just as logical a home for the care of Britain's inland waterways?
Later in the afternoon, Austin and Liz Siviter turned up, just passing through. Austin has been on a boat painting course, and was justifiably proud of the roses which he’d painted on a pair of boards to cover the glazing in the cratch of Just Siviting.
We had a cup of tea with them, and then when they’d gone, I cut Sheila’s hair for the second time. I reckon I made a better job of it this time, though her hair has got a will of its own in terms of which way it wants to lie. When I complained about this, Sheila said cheerfully “Yes, that’s what my hairdressers have always said as well”.
Glad to know it’s not just my incompetence with the clippers.
Sunday, 18 November 2007
A lazy weekend
17th & 18th November
With nothing much due to happen in the morning, we made a lazy start on Saturday. I’d recharged the hair trimmer the day before, and asked Sheila to give me a trim. Previously we’ve done this on the towpath, so that the trimmings just blow away on the breeze, but the weather was not encouraging of this solution this time.
So I sat on a footstool in the saloon, and had a number 6 all over. One thing was demonstrated by this – wood floors are such a good idea for our lifestyle. The hassle of cleaning up the hair from a carpeted floor just doesn’t bear thinking about.
Elanor turned up at about half six, after a good run up the M6. She’d spent the day in Burton shopping for bathrooms amongst other stuff, and brought us a stack of post, as well as my birthday present for last month, and Sheila’s ready for next month.
We had a pleasant family evening together, catching up from the last time we saw her.
This morning was another lazy start, although Elanor needed to get away in decent time as she’s going home via Lincoln to see Graeme, Cathy and Daniel, so it’ll be quite a trek.
My birthday present is a hilarious device, a light that goes on the underside of the loo lid. It shines green when the seat is down and red when it’s up. The idea is that it saves putting the bathroom light on in the middle of the night, and is typical of the kind of thing you can buy on the website I Want One of Those, or iwoot.com. I can heartily recommend it for those struggling with tricky Christmas presents right now – it specialises in “things you don’t need but really really want”.
The weather had been wild and windy overnight, and continued pretty disgusting all day – blowing, rain threatening to turn to hail, and gloomy with it. One thing – it demonstrates that Ian’s work on the prisms has been effective, as they are bone dry (well, bar the condensation, that is). Iain and Luisa must be regretting coming back from Spain.
Under these circumstances, there was nothing for it but to hole up in the boat with the stove well stoked. I did the routine IT housekeeping, and we read the papers and Sheila got on with her knitting. We’ve taken to buying the Observer rather than the Independent on Sunday. I did email the IoS to explain why I was giving up on them:
With nothing much due to happen in the morning, we made a lazy start on Saturday. I’d recharged the hair trimmer the day before, and asked Sheila to give me a trim. Previously we’ve done this on the towpath, so that the trimmings just blow away on the breeze, but the weather was not encouraging of this solution this time.
So I sat on a footstool in the saloon, and had a number 6 all over. One thing was demonstrated by this – wood floors are such a good idea for our lifestyle. The hassle of cleaning up the hair from a carpeted floor just doesn’t bear thinking about.
Elanor turned up at about half six, after a good run up the M6. She’d spent the day in Burton shopping for bathrooms amongst other stuff, and brought us a stack of post, as well as my birthday present for last month, and Sheila’s ready for next month.
We had a pleasant family evening together, catching up from the last time we saw her.
This morning was another lazy start, although Elanor needed to get away in decent time as she’s going home via Lincoln to see Graeme, Cathy and Daniel, so it’ll be quite a trek.
My birthday present is a hilarious device, a light that goes on the underside of the loo lid. It shines green when the seat is down and red when it’s up. The idea is that it saves putting the bathroom light on in the middle of the night, and is typical of the kind of thing you can buy on the website I Want One of Those, or iwoot.com. I can heartily recommend it for those struggling with tricky Christmas presents right now – it specialises in “things you don’t need but really really want”.
The weather had been wild and windy overnight, and continued pretty disgusting all day – blowing, rain threatening to turn to hail, and gloomy with it. One thing – it demonstrates that Ian’s work on the prisms has been effective, as they are bone dry (well, bar the condensation, that is). Iain and Luisa must be regretting coming back from Spain.
Under these circumstances, there was nothing for it but to hole up in the boat with the stove well stoked. I did the routine IT housekeeping, and we read the papers and Sheila got on with her knitting. We’ve taken to buying the Observer rather than the Independent on Sunday. I did email the IoS to explain why I was giving up on them:
“1) Ever since the latest make over, I've felt much less at home with the IoS. I really liked the previous incarnation, but this one is just so monolithic. It feels like there's almost nothing in the magazine section I want to read, and great chunks of the main paper are not my thing, but I still have to wade past them in search of the bits I do like. I particularly miss ABC [the Arts Books Culture section].But they didn’t reply.
2) It started before the makeover, but the campaigning has become more and more strident. Some of it, like the volte face on cannabis, I just don't agree with, but even things for which I have sympathy, like the military covenant (my son's in the Army), just go on and on and on and on. Seven pages counting the front on the "Remembrance Sunday Special Edition" - two or three fine, but seven?
3) The production quality, amazingly, is getting worse, and you should be ashamed to put it out on the streets. My copy last Sunday had four entire pages illegible - just a black inky smear over the whole print area. Other papers manage to avoid sending out such blatantly duff copies - why can't you? Similarly, both papers have a habit of screwing up the weather chart - this time, the highs and lows referred to in the text accompanying the synoptic chart were unlabelled, making interpretation a matter of guess work."
Friday, 16 November 2007
Pottering in the yard
15th & 16th November
It was the coldest morning yet, with ice on the inside of the Houdini hatch. We got up in good time, in case Ian wanted to shuffle boats in the yard early, but he wasn’t in any rush to do so.
I went down to the newsagent to get a paper, and to look for this month’s Canal Boat, since the Trading Post didn’t have one, but no copies were to be had there either. They did, however, have a Waterways World, so I got that instead.
Back at the boat, Ian produced the three prisms neatly reassembled with fresh SikaFlex. They need 24 hours in the warm for the SikaFlex to set, so we parked them, in their neat little homemade tray, near the stove. The weather forecast having improved, there was a good chance of getting them back in after that, as indeed proved to be the case.
Reg produced the finished cot side, and we put it in position for the varnish to harden before stowing it under the side berth. Looking at it, I think it’ll benefit from a couple more coats of varnish, but that can wait until the better weather, rather than having wet varnish making a niff in the boat. It’s quite tall, but that’s all to the good, as it means the side berth can function as a playpen for Daniel during the day
Late in the afternoon, we managed to shuffle the boats so that Sanity is now against the side of the yard, and Nocturne is down the middle. This means that Ian can take her out for a trial run without disturbing us, and we can rest here without running the engine until the parts come from Beta for the domestic alternator.
Just before cooking dinner, I went on the net and ordered a piece of software, Disk Warrior. This is a good friend to Mac users – it’s a general sorter out of disk addressing problems and the like. Essential in case of serious disk trouble, and useful in all cases, as it defragments the disk directories to give faster running.
Today we had a lazy start – nothing can be done to the boat until either parts arrive from Beta, or the prisms are ready to go back in, which won’t be until the afternoon.
Although I’d not ordered it until late yesterday, the copy of Disk Warrior arrived in the post – well done Amazon.
Mid afternoon, Ian put the prisms in, so hopefully we won’t have further trouble from them for a bit. We tried the cot side in its stowed position, where it seems to fit very neatly. Can’t be sure how much difference it’ll make to the hardness of the bed until Saturday night, when Elanor is due to sleep in it. Shouldn't be too much – it’s a case of a solid board instead of the hardwood slats.
Iain and Luisa are due back tomorrow, so I guess I’ll be making a curry for them sometime in the next week (maybe). Anyway, cooked a beef version of the one I’m planning with prawns for them, just to get my hand in.
Looking forward to seeing Elanor tomorrow, as well, so it’s going to be a sociable weekend.
It was the coldest morning yet, with ice on the inside of the Houdini hatch. We got up in good time, in case Ian wanted to shuffle boats in the yard early, but he wasn’t in any rush to do so.
I went down to the newsagent to get a paper, and to look for this month’s Canal Boat, since the Trading Post didn’t have one, but no copies were to be had there either. They did, however, have a Waterways World, so I got that instead.
Back at the boat, Ian produced the three prisms neatly reassembled with fresh SikaFlex. They need 24 hours in the warm for the SikaFlex to set, so we parked them, in their neat little homemade tray, near the stove. The weather forecast having improved, there was a good chance of getting them back in after that, as indeed proved to be the case.
Reg produced the finished cot side, and we put it in position for the varnish to harden before stowing it under the side berth. Looking at it, I think it’ll benefit from a couple more coats of varnish, but that can wait until the better weather, rather than having wet varnish making a niff in the boat. It’s quite tall, but that’s all to the good, as it means the side berth can function as a playpen for Daniel during the day
Late in the afternoon, we managed to shuffle the boats so that Sanity is now against the side of the yard, and Nocturne is down the middle. This means that Ian can take her out for a trial run without disturbing us, and we can rest here without running the engine until the parts come from Beta for the domestic alternator.
Just before cooking dinner, I went on the net and ordered a piece of software, Disk Warrior. This is a good friend to Mac users – it’s a general sorter out of disk addressing problems and the like. Essential in case of serious disk trouble, and useful in all cases, as it defragments the disk directories to give faster running.
Today we had a lazy start – nothing can be done to the boat until either parts arrive from Beta, or the prisms are ready to go back in, which won’t be until the afternoon.
Although I’d not ordered it until late yesterday, the copy of Disk Warrior arrived in the post – well done Amazon.
Mid afternoon, Ian put the prisms in, so hopefully we won’t have further trouble from them for a bit. We tried the cot side in its stowed position, where it seems to fit very neatly. Can’t be sure how much difference it’ll make to the hardness of the bed until Saturday night, when Elanor is due to sleep in it. Shouldn't be too much – it’s a case of a solid board instead of the hardwood slats.
Iain and Luisa are due back tomorrow, so I guess I’ll be making a curry for them sometime in the next week (maybe). Anyway, cooked a beef version of the one I’m planning with prawns for them, just to get my hand in.
Looking forward to seeing Elanor tomorrow, as well, so it’s going to be a sociable weekend.
Wednesday, 14 November 2007
Once more Into the yard
13th & 14th November
On a damp and windy morning, I winded Sanity in the mouth of the Middle Basin Arm at Bugsworth and took her round to the water point. Whilst I was filling the tank, Sheila went on to Tesco to get bread and a paper.
During this time, I had a phone call from Maria at Braidbar to pass on the diagnosis from Cox’s on the TravelPower. Both the alternator and the control box need attention, but the bill will be much less than replacing the units, so using Cox’s was well worth it.
After finishing watering, I set off towards the junction, collecting Sheila walking back when about half way there. We boated steadily on towards Marple, with the weather slowly improving. We stopped in Marple for lunch, tied next to Hiraethlyn, then plodded on to Poynton, arriving there at about three o’clock. I winded at the far end of the Deeps, and then we tied on the towpath to strip the roof. Maria had said in her phone call this morning that there was room in the yard for us now, but we can’t get under the towpath bridge with much on top.
Having made a pair of good demos of boat handling with my two windings, I promptly mucked up the final manoeuvre, overshooting the hole slightly, so that She had to do some energetic shafting to recover the situation.
This morning we had a meeting with Maria and Ian Grindrod to discuss what we needed doing. Main tasks, in addition to the TravelPower repair already in hand, are to reseal the roof prisms, check the state of the engine mounts and the alignment of the domestic alternator, and make a cot side for the side berth for when Graeme, Cathy and Daniel come to stay.
Things started with Ian checking the mounts, which, although a little worn, seem to be fine for a good while yet. The alternator alignment was another matter. Part of the cause of the belt dust sprayed around the front of the engine compartment is the fact that the drive pulleys are out of line by about 3 millimetres, but only when the belt is tensioned. Further investigation showed that the pivot bolts are a loose fit in their holes on the alternator body, so consultations are in progress with Beta Marine about the best way to fix them.
Meantime, Reg the joiner had agreed a design with us for a panel to act as a cot side, and made a start on creating it.
After lunch, Ian took the prisms out of the roof and sealed the holes with gaffer tape (however did we manage before gaffer tape?) They are leaking between the brass surround and the glass prism, probably as a result of the incredibly hot summer last year, when the metal just expanded more than the sealant could cope with – it’s unusual for SikaFlex to give up like that, but it can happen.
Main challenge after they’ve been resealed will be to spot another dry day to put them back in – it could be a while.
After this, I took a spray can of industrial strength cleaner and did what I could to clean the belt dust, oil and gunge from the face of the engine.
Tomorrow should be a quieter day, except that we may be shuffling boats in the yard again; always good for a laugh, as some of them can’t move under their own power, so have to be shafted out through the bridge. We just have to hope that it’s not too windy tomorrow.
On a damp and windy morning, I winded Sanity in the mouth of the Middle Basin Arm at Bugsworth and took her round to the water point. Whilst I was filling the tank, Sheila went on to Tesco to get bread and a paper.
During this time, I had a phone call from Maria at Braidbar to pass on the diagnosis from Cox’s on the TravelPower. Both the alternator and the control box need attention, but the bill will be much less than replacing the units, so using Cox’s was well worth it.
After finishing watering, I set off towards the junction, collecting Sheila walking back when about half way there. We boated steadily on towards Marple, with the weather slowly improving. We stopped in Marple for lunch, tied next to Hiraethlyn, then plodded on to Poynton, arriving there at about three o’clock. I winded at the far end of the Deeps, and then we tied on the towpath to strip the roof. Maria had said in her phone call this morning that there was room in the yard for us now, but we can’t get under the towpath bridge with much on top.
Having made a pair of good demos of boat handling with my two windings, I promptly mucked up the final manoeuvre, overshooting the hole slightly, so that She had to do some energetic shafting to recover the situation.
This morning we had a meeting with Maria and Ian Grindrod to discuss what we needed doing. Main tasks, in addition to the TravelPower repair already in hand, are to reseal the roof prisms, check the state of the engine mounts and the alignment of the domestic alternator, and make a cot side for the side berth for when Graeme, Cathy and Daniel come to stay.
Things started with Ian checking the mounts, which, although a little worn, seem to be fine for a good while yet. The alternator alignment was another matter. Part of the cause of the belt dust sprayed around the front of the engine compartment is the fact that the drive pulleys are out of line by about 3 millimetres, but only when the belt is tensioned. Further investigation showed that the pivot bolts are a loose fit in their holes on the alternator body, so consultations are in progress with Beta Marine about the best way to fix them.
Meantime, Reg the joiner had agreed a design with us for a panel to act as a cot side, and made a start on creating it.
After lunch, Ian took the prisms out of the roof and sealed the holes with gaffer tape (however did we manage before gaffer tape?) They are leaking between the brass surround and the glass prism, probably as a result of the incredibly hot summer last year, when the metal just expanded more than the sealant could cope with – it’s unusual for SikaFlex to give up like that, but it can happen.
Main challenge after they’ve been resealed will be to spot another dry day to put them back in – it could be a while.
After this, I took a spray can of industrial strength cleaner and did what I could to clean the belt dust, oil and gunge from the face of the engine.
Tomorrow should be a quieter day, except that we may be shuffling boats in the yard again; always good for a laugh, as some of them can’t move under their own power, so have to be shafted out through the bridge. We just have to hope that it’s not too windy tomorrow.
Monday, 12 November 2007
Enjoying Bugsworth Basin
11th & 12th November
A windy night led to a bright morning and we made a prompt start on a quiet canal. In fact for most of the day we saw nothing else moving al all.
Sheila was steering, so it fell to me to work the two lift bridges and the first swing bridge on the way to New Mills. As usual, the swing bridge was very reluctant to start moving, and gave Sheila a bad moment – because of the wind, she was trying to keep Sanity moving along the cut, and when the bridge didn’t appear to be shifting, it looked like she was going to have to do some swift reversing. Fortunately, it began to move in the nick of time.
Entry to New Mills is marked by a strong smell of childhood as you pass the Swizzels Matlow factory, home of Lovehearts and similar tooth rotting delights.
The next swing bridge is just before Furness Vale marina. Perhaps it gets more use, but it always swings more readily in my experience. Just before the bridge we passed Granny Buttons, Andrew Denny’s boat and star of one of the longest running boater’s blogs on the net.
There are no less than four Braidbars moored at Furness Vale at the moment: Dalliance, Arcturus, Carina and Betty Surtees.
Navigation on the other side of Furness Vale is complicated by a daft decision to plant the offside with bamboo, in a bit of the cut where the channel is pretty narrow to start with. I haven’t heard any account of why this odd material had been chosen – it doesn’t add very much, if anything, to the waterways scene.
There is a medium sized Tesco just at the junction where the arm to Bugsworth Basin, our destination, leaves the arm which goes straight on to Whaley Bridge. As lunchtime was now approaching, I hopped off here to get bread and stuff, and Sheila took Sanity on into the Basin, mooring at the water point just in the entrance.
By the time I got back with the shopping, Sanity’s water tank was well on the way to being filled. Andrew has commented on the rather unwelcoming signage about overstaying at this point. This feeling was confirmed by the members of an Inland Waterways Preservation Society working party who were about. Sheila tried giving several of them a cheerful greeting, but was met with rather grumpy stares. Perhaps IWPS doesn’t want boats messing up their nice basin?
It’s a shame they feel like that – the restoration is a remarkable achievement, and the basin makes a great base for several walks up into the Peak District, but you are only allowed to stay 48 hours or else incur overstaying fines.
We tied in the middle basin, handy for the pub but not right by it. Slightly to my surprise, there’s a good Vodafone signal here, but only a slow T-mobile connection.
We spent the afternoon finishing the family calendars, printing them off and tying them up – this involved another trip to Tesco (about ten minutes walk from the basin) as the hole punch we’d bought to replace the old one didn’t have a punching guide, essential for neat assembly of the calendars.
Today, it had been a bit frosty overnight, though the bright morning sun soon burned it off. We did a big shop at Tesco, then cleaned the boat.
Peter and Jan met us in the Navigation Inn at lunch time, where we had a really good meal, together with some excellent beer in the shape of Timothy Taylor’s Landlord.
The weather continuing fine, we took a protracted ramble round the basin before falling back on the boat for a cup of tea. Altogether a great day – tomorrow we head back to Poynton.
A windy night led to a bright morning and we made a prompt start on a quiet canal. In fact for most of the day we saw nothing else moving al all.
Sheila was steering, so it fell to me to work the two lift bridges and the first swing bridge on the way to New Mills. As usual, the swing bridge was very reluctant to start moving, and gave Sheila a bad moment – because of the wind, she was trying to keep Sanity moving along the cut, and when the bridge didn’t appear to be shifting, it looked like she was going to have to do some swift reversing. Fortunately, it began to move in the nick of time.
Entry to New Mills is marked by a strong smell of childhood as you pass the Swizzels Matlow factory, home of Lovehearts and similar tooth rotting delights.
The next swing bridge is just before Furness Vale marina. Perhaps it gets more use, but it always swings more readily in my experience. Just before the bridge we passed Granny Buttons, Andrew Denny’s boat and star of one of the longest running boater’s blogs on the net.
There are no less than four Braidbars moored at Furness Vale at the moment: Dalliance, Arcturus, Carina and Betty Surtees.
Navigation on the other side of Furness Vale is complicated by a daft decision to plant the offside with bamboo, in a bit of the cut where the channel is pretty narrow to start with. I haven’t heard any account of why this odd material had been chosen – it doesn’t add very much, if anything, to the waterways scene.
There is a medium sized Tesco just at the junction where the arm to Bugsworth Basin, our destination, leaves the arm which goes straight on to Whaley Bridge. As lunchtime was now approaching, I hopped off here to get bread and stuff, and Sheila took Sanity on into the Basin, mooring at the water point just in the entrance.
By the time I got back with the shopping, Sanity’s water tank was well on the way to being filled. Andrew has commented on the rather unwelcoming signage about overstaying at this point. This feeling was confirmed by the members of an Inland Waterways Preservation Society working party who were about. Sheila tried giving several of them a cheerful greeting, but was met with rather grumpy stares. Perhaps IWPS doesn’t want boats messing up their nice basin?
It’s a shame they feel like that – the restoration is a remarkable achievement, and the basin makes a great base for several walks up into the Peak District, but you are only allowed to stay 48 hours or else incur overstaying fines.
We tied in the middle basin, handy for the pub but not right by it. Slightly to my surprise, there’s a good Vodafone signal here, but only a slow T-mobile connection.
We spent the afternoon finishing the family calendars, printing them off and tying them up – this involved another trip to Tesco (about ten minutes walk from the basin) as the hole punch we’d bought to replace the old one didn’t have a punching guide, essential for neat assembly of the calendars.
Today, it had been a bit frosty overnight, though the bright morning sun soon burned it off. We did a big shop at Tesco, then cleaned the boat.
Peter and Jan met us in the Navigation Inn at lunch time, where we had a really good meal, together with some excellent beer in the shape of Timothy Taylor’s Landlord.
The weather continuing fine, we took a protracted ramble round the basin before falling back on the boat for a cup of tea. Altogether a great day – tomorrow we head back to Poynton.
Saturday, 10 November 2007
Coping with wet weather
9th & 10th November
It was a strikingly chilly night – the first that’s felt like winter. We spent the morning pottering about, still sitting on Ian Grindrod’s mooring. Stuff was taken to the local tip and recycling bank, and we started work on this year’s family calendar.
We do this in Excel, setting a picture for the month in the first (enlarged) cell, and then making a grid of dates below. It’s thus possible to have a calendar that shows all the family birthdays and anniversaries without recourse to special software.
We’d already made a shortlist of pictures from the year’s boating to use, and I had had them running as a screensaver on the laptop to let us think about them. After Sheila had created the main files, by modifying last year’s, we agreed this year’s 13 pictures (including one for the cover) and I spent a bit of time with them in Photoshop, tweaking them up and trimming off excess bits on the edges.
After lunch, I went round to the yard to discover that not only had my repeat prescription arrived, but the bed linen from Linen Store, and the memory foam mattress topper from Jonic had also turned up. Since they were ordered in the last two days, this is very good service indeed.
We duly changed the bed and looked forward to our first experience of sleeping on memory foam.
It proved to be a very comfortable experience indeed– the effect of a two inch topper is to make the bed feel a bit firmer; with the new fitted sheets as well, it will be much easier making up the bed .
This morning the weather was really quite yucky – we were committed to moving as we’ve arranged to meet Peter and Jan at Bugsworth on Monday lunchtime, so it was a case of getting dressed up in wet weather gear and plodding along the canal towards Marple. On the way we passed Braidbar 51, Cedar, going the other way. We got to Marple just on coffee time, did our shopping and had a prompt lunch. The weather was no better afterwards, but Saturday night in Marple can be noisy, so we went on out into the countryside for a bit. After two false stops, we found a bit of towpath deep enough to moor, just beyond Bridge 21.
On our way to it, we passed Braidbar 93, Hiraethlyn, again going the other way. This afternoon we put the chosen pictures into the calendar, so all we have to do now is print off the copies ready to send out for Christmas.
Still very damp out, so Sheila finished her Pride and Prejudice DVD and I had yet another episode of Blake and co – only one left of my Season 1 set, so guess what is on the Christmas list.
It was a strikingly chilly night – the first that’s felt like winter. We spent the morning pottering about, still sitting on Ian Grindrod’s mooring. Stuff was taken to the local tip and recycling bank, and we started work on this year’s family calendar.
We do this in Excel, setting a picture for the month in the first (enlarged) cell, and then making a grid of dates below. It’s thus possible to have a calendar that shows all the family birthdays and anniversaries without recourse to special software.
We’d already made a shortlist of pictures from the year’s boating to use, and I had had them running as a screensaver on the laptop to let us think about them. After Sheila had created the main files, by modifying last year’s, we agreed this year’s 13 pictures (including one for the cover) and I spent a bit of time with them in Photoshop, tweaking them up and trimming off excess bits on the edges.
After lunch, I went round to the yard to discover that not only had my repeat prescription arrived, but the bed linen from Linen Store, and the memory foam mattress topper from Jonic had also turned up. Since they were ordered in the last two days, this is very good service indeed.
We duly changed the bed and looked forward to our first experience of sleeping on memory foam.
It proved to be a very comfortable experience indeed– the effect of a two inch topper is to make the bed feel a bit firmer; with the new fitted sheets as well, it will be much easier making up the bed .
This morning the weather was really quite yucky – we were committed to moving as we’ve arranged to meet Peter and Jan at Bugsworth on Monday lunchtime, so it was a case of getting dressed up in wet weather gear and plodding along the canal towards Marple. On the way we passed Braidbar 51, Cedar, going the other way. We got to Marple just on coffee time, did our shopping and had a prompt lunch. The weather was no better afterwards, but Saturday night in Marple can be noisy, so we went on out into the countryside for a bit. After two false stops, we found a bit of towpath deep enough to moor, just beyond Bridge 21.
On our way to it, we passed Braidbar 93, Hiraethlyn, again going the other way. This afternoon we put the chosen pictures into the calendar, so all we have to do now is print off the copies ready to send out for Christmas.
Still very damp out, so Sheila finished her Pride and Prejudice DVD and I had yet another episode of Blake and co – only one left of my Season 1 set, so guess what is on the Christmas list.
Thursday, 8 November 2007
Pottering about at Poynton
7th & 8th November
The inverter/charger having behaved itself all night, in the morning I agreed with Ian Grindrod that I would take the TravelPower alternator off the engine whilst Maria arranged for its repair. In the end she used a firm recommended by Beta Marine called Cox Automotive, who will diagnose the faults and then quote for the repair. They wanted all of the kit, that is the alternator, control box and, if possible, the wiring loom.
Further consultation with Ian indicated that extracting the loom (a single armoured cable) shouldn’t be too difficult, and Sheila and I between us managed it. It involved a certain amount of hauling of drawers out from the wardrobe (which backs onto the engine room) and clearing out the cupboard under the washing machine (which badly needed doing anyway).
I then took it all round to the Braidbar workshop, and we packed it all up for despatch to Cox’s. Back at the boat I cleared up in the engine room, and cleaned up the various tools I’d used, and suddenly it was lunchtime.
After lunch we put stuff back in the wardrobe, and chucked out a bit of the stuff that had been lurking under the washing machine. We decided to stay on the shop mooring on shore line power for another night, so Sheila could do a second wash load, and even tumble dry some of it.
On the web, I looked up trains to Lincoln for three weeks’ time (we’re going to visit Graeme, Cathy and Daniel, hopefully), and Sheila ordered some new bedding, taking advantage of having an address to which to have it delivered.
Today we staggered out of bed at our usual time, and pulled back onto the water point to refill the tank after yesterday’s washing fest. Then we moved on to Ian’s mooring, since his boat is currently stuck in the yard with an alternator problem, and the weather forecast was not such as to encourage boating.
Sure enough it came on to rain and blow quite hard, so we were glad to snuggle down in a warm boat. Sheila had been investigating buying a memory foam mattress topper, and, finally giving up the attempt to make the relevant website accept our bed size, rang them up and placed the order that way. It looks like Braidbar are going to be bombarded with parcels for us in the next few days.
The weather had improved a bit in the afternoon, but not enough to tempt Sheila out. I left watching her Pride and Prejudice DVD,and knitting away, and went to explore the routes to Middlewood Station, which looks to be the best for our Lincoln trip.
There’s a good walking route called the Middlewood Way from Macclesfield to Marple, more or less paralleling the canal, and the station is just by it at Middlewood, would you believe. Unfortunately, they were doing some forestry on part of the bit I wanted to use, so the walk turned out a bit longer and more complicated than I had planned, but hey, that’s the joy of exploring.
I finally got back to the boat after about 90 minutes – it should only be around twenty one way if we’re able to use the direct route (and know where we're going). The station itself is really a halt – just two platforms and shelters. I suspect you have to hold your hand out to stop the train.
Sheila was still in Austen land, so I watched another episode of Blakes 7 before putting the dinner on – stew tonight, with celeriac and potato mash.
The inverter/charger having behaved itself all night, in the morning I agreed with Ian Grindrod that I would take the TravelPower alternator off the engine whilst Maria arranged for its repair. In the end she used a firm recommended by Beta Marine called Cox Automotive, who will diagnose the faults and then quote for the repair. They wanted all of the kit, that is the alternator, control box and, if possible, the wiring loom.
Further consultation with Ian indicated that extracting the loom (a single armoured cable) shouldn’t be too difficult, and Sheila and I between us managed it. It involved a certain amount of hauling of drawers out from the wardrobe (which backs onto the engine room) and clearing out the cupboard under the washing machine (which badly needed doing anyway).
I then took it all round to the Braidbar workshop, and we packed it all up for despatch to Cox’s. Back at the boat I cleared up in the engine room, and cleaned up the various tools I’d used, and suddenly it was lunchtime.
After lunch we put stuff back in the wardrobe, and chucked out a bit of the stuff that had been lurking under the washing machine. We decided to stay on the shop mooring on shore line power for another night, so Sheila could do a second wash load, and even tumble dry some of it.
On the web, I looked up trains to Lincoln for three weeks’ time (we’re going to visit Graeme, Cathy and Daniel, hopefully), and Sheila ordered some new bedding, taking advantage of having an address to which to have it delivered.
Today we staggered out of bed at our usual time, and pulled back onto the water point to refill the tank after yesterday’s washing fest. Then we moved on to Ian’s mooring, since his boat is currently stuck in the yard with an alternator problem, and the weather forecast was not such as to encourage boating.
Sure enough it came on to rain and blow quite hard, so we were glad to snuggle down in a warm boat. Sheila had been investigating buying a memory foam mattress topper, and, finally giving up the attempt to make the relevant website accept our bed size, rang them up and placed the order that way. It looks like Braidbar are going to be bombarded with parcels for us in the next few days.
The weather had improved a bit in the afternoon, but not enough to tempt Sheila out. I left watching her Pride and Prejudice DVD,and knitting away, and went to explore the routes to Middlewood Station, which looks to be the best for our Lincoln trip.
There’s a good walking route called the Middlewood Way from Macclesfield to Marple, more or less paralleling the canal, and the station is just by it at Middlewood, would you believe. Unfortunately, they were doing some forestry on part of the bit I wanted to use, so the walk turned out a bit longer and more complicated than I had planned, but hey, that’s the joy of exploring.
I finally got back to the boat after about 90 minutes – it should only be around twenty one way if we’re able to use the direct route (and know where we're going). The station itself is really a halt – just two platforms and shelters. I suspect you have to hold your hand out to stop the train.
Sheila was still in Austen land, so I watched another episode of Blakes 7 before putting the dinner on – stew tonight, with celeriac and potato mash.
Tuesday, 6 November 2007
Back at Braidbar again
5th & 6th November
The bumps and bangs of fireworks went on for some time after we went to bed, but didn’t stop us getting a night’s sleep. In the morning we chugged along the familiar route to Higher Poynton and Lord Vernon’s Wharf.
On arrival, we were able to get a mooring on the Deeps with no problem – apparently BW have been cracking down on the overstayers a bit: the winter moorers are beginning to collect near the bridge.
On enquiring at the yard, we were told the Iain and Luisa have just gone off on a fortnight’s holiday to Spain, so we had a natter with Maria, Peter who has recently joined the team, and with Peter and Gill, the prospective owners of number 106, Cala, which is in build at the moment. 105, Nocturne, looks nearly ready, and splendid in her new paint.
We can easily wait to see Iain when we come back about most stuff, but when she heard about our travails with the TravelPower and Victron, Maria asked Ian Grindrod to take a look.
He very kindly spent a couple of hours wrestling with the alternator, having discovered that it had shed two of the bolts which hold the two halves of the body together. Replacing them didn’t solve the main problem, unfortunately, so we need to put the Victron on a shore line supply to determine where the fault is.
During the afternoon I did an oil change whilst the engine bay was all opened up. The weather had become a bit off and on, rain wise, so we settled into the boat for the rest of the day. Sheila watched South Pacific on her DVD player, whilst I went back to Blakes 7 on the laptop, wearing my new headphones to avoid hearing Avon apparently performing “This nearly was mine”.
We made a late start this morning, with the intention of filling with water and diesel and then wandering off up the canal a bit. As we were watering, Ian G came by again, and suggested that, as the Trading Post won’t be open tomorrow, we can moor on the shop mooring tonight. He could then run a long shore line to us in the cause of advancing the diagnostic process re the power supply.
What helpful people they all are. We duly filled with diesel, and replaced a gas cylinder that ran out last night in the middle of cooking dinner. (It’s usually on a wet night, in the middle of cooking dinner.) Then we decided to go up to Marple and back for the sake of the run, and because Sheila wanted to visit the wool shop there.
This we did, getting there just before one. We had a successful shopping trip – the right needles were in stock, as well as some Aran wool Sheila’s been looking for to do a repair job on a crocheted blanket for Jane Howarth. A trip to the big Co-op here restocked the food cupboard, then Sheila gave a virtuoso performance of winding in the junction between the Macc and the Peak Forest, under the gongoozling eyes of some walkers who were passing at the time. It is nice when it works out like that – I usually panic and screw up in such situations.
We tootled back to HP, Sheila trying not to succumb to the cold as the afternoon darkened and the wind came up. Arriving back just as the Trading Post shut, She did another superb wind at the far end of the Deeps, and we came back onto the shop mooring we’d left six hours before.
Connecting the shore line demonstrated that the Victron inverter charger is behaving perfectly normally when fed with AC mains – so it must be the TravelPower that’s the problem.
Serious soup tonight – I want to run the freezer stocks down a bit, so I chopped up some beef burgers I had bought in against summer barbeques, and used them and a couple of cans of tomatoes as the base for a beef and veg soup, with added dinosaur from last time of course.
Martin asked in a comment to my remark about homeopathic levels of turkey what effect I thought it would have. Nice one, Martin – it seems to have had as much effect as any other homeo treatment does for me...
The bumps and bangs of fireworks went on for some time after we went to bed, but didn’t stop us getting a night’s sleep. In the morning we chugged along the familiar route to Higher Poynton and Lord Vernon’s Wharf.
On arrival, we were able to get a mooring on the Deeps with no problem – apparently BW have been cracking down on the overstayers a bit: the winter moorers are beginning to collect near the bridge.
On enquiring at the yard, we were told the Iain and Luisa have just gone off on a fortnight’s holiday to Spain, so we had a natter with Maria, Peter who has recently joined the team, and with Peter and Gill, the prospective owners of number 106, Cala, which is in build at the moment. 105, Nocturne, looks nearly ready, and splendid in her new paint.
We can easily wait to see Iain when we come back about most stuff, but when she heard about our travails with the TravelPower and Victron, Maria asked Ian Grindrod to take a look.
He very kindly spent a couple of hours wrestling with the alternator, having discovered that it had shed two of the bolts which hold the two halves of the body together. Replacing them didn’t solve the main problem, unfortunately, so we need to put the Victron on a shore line supply to determine where the fault is.
During the afternoon I did an oil change whilst the engine bay was all opened up. The weather had become a bit off and on, rain wise, so we settled into the boat for the rest of the day. Sheila watched South Pacific on her DVD player, whilst I went back to Blakes 7 on the laptop, wearing my new headphones to avoid hearing Avon apparently performing “This nearly was mine”.
We made a late start this morning, with the intention of filling with water and diesel and then wandering off up the canal a bit. As we were watering, Ian G came by again, and suggested that, as the Trading Post won’t be open tomorrow, we can moor on the shop mooring tonight. He could then run a long shore line to us in the cause of advancing the diagnostic process re the power supply.
What helpful people they all are. We duly filled with diesel, and replaced a gas cylinder that ran out last night in the middle of cooking dinner. (It’s usually on a wet night, in the middle of cooking dinner.) Then we decided to go up to Marple and back for the sake of the run, and because Sheila wanted to visit the wool shop there.
This we did, getting there just before one. We had a successful shopping trip – the right needles were in stock, as well as some Aran wool Sheila’s been looking for to do a repair job on a crocheted blanket for Jane Howarth. A trip to the big Co-op here restocked the food cupboard, then Sheila gave a virtuoso performance of winding in the junction between the Macc and the Peak Forest, under the gongoozling eyes of some walkers who were passing at the time. It is nice when it works out like that – I usually panic and screw up in such situations.
We tootled back to HP, Sheila trying not to succumb to the cold as the afternoon darkened and the wind came up. Arriving back just as the Trading Post shut, She did another superb wind at the far end of the Deeps, and we came back onto the shop mooring we’d left six hours before.
Connecting the shore line demonstrated that the Victron inverter charger is behaving perfectly normally when fed with AC mains – so it must be the TravelPower that’s the problem.
Serious soup tonight – I want to run the freezer stocks down a bit, so I chopped up some beef burgers I had bought in against summer barbeques, and used them and a couple of cans of tomatoes as the base for a beef and veg soup, with added dinosaur from last time of course.
Martin asked in a comment to my remark about homeopathic levels of turkey what effect I thought it would have. Nice one, Martin – it seems to have had as much effect as any other homeo treatment does for me...
Sunday, 4 November 2007
Cleaning the boat and stocking up on fuel
3rd & 4th November
First job on a damp morning was to boat round to the visitor moorings for Macclesfield town centre. I’ve ranted about the poor state of these moorings before, so I won’t go into all that again. We did the ten minute walk to the big Tesco, and did a good topping up type shop, especially for fruit and veg. Back at the boat, we pulled forward onto the water point and started refilling the tank.
Whilst this was going on, the working coal boat Anne went by, on its way to turn beyond Gurnett. Sheila told Mr Hooper that we were after coal, but that we would be gone before he came back and that we’d look out for him when we moored at Bollington.
Duly refilled, we went on to that village. We’d planned to moor at the second set of moorings, those by the aqueduct, as opposed to those by the Adelphi Mill, so as to have a view down the valley of any fireworks that might be about.
These moorings were full, however, with a load of what looked like very slowly cruising residential boats, so we plodded on, getting wetter and hungrier (it was well into lunchtime by now) and finally found a mooring just into the countryside beyond bridge 26.
After lunch, Anne turned up and we bought ten 25 kg bags of Pureheat from him. This also prompted us to sweep the roof again, it having been covered in yet more leaves whilst we were at Gurnett.
We did indeed get a good view of the local fireworks from here. We spent about half an hour standing on the stern, twisting our heads this way and that to see the bursts in the sky, and hear the oddly disconnected bangs and bumps from them.
Today we’ve carried on the cleaning theme, though I took the time (on a glorious, clear, cold morning) to walk back into the village and buy a paper, milk and bread. It’s possible to do a number of walks from here, utilising the Middlewood Way and the canal towpath.
We did a thorough clean of the inside of the boat, sweeping it through, damp dusting the surfaces and then washing the floor. This took us up to lunchtime. After lunch I took everything out of the engine room and gave it the same treatment, whilst Sheila sorted the office desk.
This way we can turn up at the Braidbar yard tomorrow and look them in the eye!
First job on a damp morning was to boat round to the visitor moorings for Macclesfield town centre. I’ve ranted about the poor state of these moorings before, so I won’t go into all that again. We did the ten minute walk to the big Tesco, and did a good topping up type shop, especially for fruit and veg. Back at the boat, we pulled forward onto the water point and started refilling the tank.
Whilst this was going on, the working coal boat Anne went by, on its way to turn beyond Gurnett. Sheila told Mr Hooper that we were after coal, but that we would be gone before he came back and that we’d look out for him when we moored at Bollington.
Duly refilled, we went on to that village. We’d planned to moor at the second set of moorings, those by the aqueduct, as opposed to those by the Adelphi Mill, so as to have a view down the valley of any fireworks that might be about.
These moorings were full, however, with a load of what looked like very slowly cruising residential boats, so we plodded on, getting wetter and hungrier (it was well into lunchtime by now) and finally found a mooring just into the countryside beyond bridge 26.
After lunch, Anne turned up and we bought ten 25 kg bags of Pureheat from him. This also prompted us to sweep the roof again, it having been covered in yet more leaves whilst we were at Gurnett.
We did indeed get a good view of the local fireworks from here. We spent about half an hour standing on the stern, twisting our heads this way and that to see the bursts in the sky, and hear the oddly disconnected bangs and bumps from them.
Today we’ve carried on the cleaning theme, though I took the time (on a glorious, clear, cold morning) to walk back into the village and buy a paper, milk and bread. It’s possible to do a number of walks from here, utilising the Middlewood Way and the canal towpath.
We did a thorough clean of the inside of the boat, sweeping it through, damp dusting the surfaces and then washing the floor. This took us up to lunchtime. After lunch I took everything out of the engine room and gave it the same treatment, whilst Sheila sorted the office desk.
This way we can turn up at the Braidbar yard tomorrow and look them in the eye!
Friday, 2 November 2007
Secrets of a happy marriage, or how to kill an earworm
1st & 2nd November
With the prospect of some serious boating to do, we leapt lightly out of bed (hoho) and were away by eight o’clock, working up the Bosley Flight. Sheila took the first six locks, and I did the other half.
We got into a really efficient routine, always a good idea when the locks in a serious flight are against you, as these were. Well, all bar lock 11 for some reason – funny how often you find an odd lock in a flight the wrong way round. In this case, number 12 had been full and 11 empty, which by all logic would require a boat sitting between the two, which there wasn’t.
Anyway, the problem with Bos is that there are no walkways across the double top gates. Originally, the boater worked the off side, and the lockkeeper the nearside, so there was no reason to cross over. In our case, in order to reduce the amount of walking up and down the locks, the lockwheeler (L) would go ahead to empty and open the lock above, whilst the steerer (S) waited at the top of the lock below to open the gates when it was full.
When L came back from the one above, the boat would just be leaving, so that L could hop across the bow to the offside gate and close it immediately behind the boat. If S let Sanity coast as she left the lock, L was able to nip back across the stern to close the towpath side gate and then go back to the lock above.
When the boat is in that lock, L closes the bottom gates and draws the nearside top paddle before going on to start setting the next lock. As the boat comes up the lock, S hops off and goes up to the head of the lock to draw the offside paddle, waiting there to open the gates when it’s full and so on we go.
There’s a service block on the offside at the top of the flight, and we backed in there and pumped out the toilet tank.
It was about 11 when all this was done, we having taken 2 hours to do the 12 locks, and then another hour or so to pump out and dump rubbish. We got to Oakgrove swing bridge half an hour later and decided to have an early lunch.
Then it was on to our usual mooring at Gurnett aqueduct. The weather still being fine, we hauled all the wood off the roof, swept off the leaves, cut up the wood and restacked it. By now we were quite weary, but still felt up to walking back along the towpath to the retail park by Bridge 45. There’s a Curry’s here where we found a portable DVD player we liked so we bought it – Sheila’s birthday has come early this year.
It’s a basic beast in that it plays commercial DVDs and music CDs and not a lot else (though it has a card reader for looking at photos) but it does have a decent size screen at 10”. Back at the boat, we found as we hoped that the earphone output would drive the boat’s radio system nicely, giving a high quality of sound without using earphones.
We had the first serious soup of the winter for dinner. I incorporated the frozen dinosaur soup from March, so in a sense we are still eating last Christmas’s turkey, though in homeopathic quantities by now.
Today we trogged down into Macc proper, buying a desk tidy and a load of stuff from Julian Graves for making stewed fruit and muesli for breakfast.
This afternoon, Sheila has been rewatching My Fair Lady as her first DVD on the new player. I surfed around the net trying to identify the song I referred to last time, which I have been burbling to myself ever since (and with Sheila beginning to look threateningly at me). It is, of course, “Lady Willpower” by Gary Pucket and the Union Gap, and it’s late sixties rather than 70s. I downloaded it from the iTunes Store (fast connection here at Gurnett), which seems to have abolished the earworm at last.
With the prospect of some serious boating to do, we leapt lightly out of bed (hoho) and were away by eight o’clock, working up the Bosley Flight. Sheila took the first six locks, and I did the other half.
We got into a really efficient routine, always a good idea when the locks in a serious flight are against you, as these were. Well, all bar lock 11 for some reason – funny how often you find an odd lock in a flight the wrong way round. In this case, number 12 had been full and 11 empty, which by all logic would require a boat sitting between the two, which there wasn’t.
Anyway, the problem with Bos is that there are no walkways across the double top gates. Originally, the boater worked the off side, and the lockkeeper the nearside, so there was no reason to cross over. In our case, in order to reduce the amount of walking up and down the locks, the lockwheeler (L) would go ahead to empty and open the lock above, whilst the steerer (S) waited at the top of the lock below to open the gates when it was full.
When L came back from the one above, the boat would just be leaving, so that L could hop across the bow to the offside gate and close it immediately behind the boat. If S let Sanity coast as she left the lock, L was able to nip back across the stern to close the towpath side gate and then go back to the lock above.
When the boat is in that lock, L closes the bottom gates and draws the nearside top paddle before going on to start setting the next lock. As the boat comes up the lock, S hops off and goes up to the head of the lock to draw the offside paddle, waiting there to open the gates when it’s full and so on we go.
There’s a service block on the offside at the top of the flight, and we backed in there and pumped out the toilet tank.
It was about 11 when all this was done, we having taken 2 hours to do the 12 locks, and then another hour or so to pump out and dump rubbish. We got to Oakgrove swing bridge half an hour later and decided to have an early lunch.
Then it was on to our usual mooring at Gurnett aqueduct. The weather still being fine, we hauled all the wood off the roof, swept off the leaves, cut up the wood and restacked it. By now we were quite weary, but still felt up to walking back along the towpath to the retail park by Bridge 45. There’s a Curry’s here where we found a portable DVD player we liked so we bought it – Sheila’s birthday has come early this year.
It’s a basic beast in that it plays commercial DVDs and music CDs and not a lot else (though it has a card reader for looking at photos) but it does have a decent size screen at 10”. Back at the boat, we found as we hoped that the earphone output would drive the boat’s radio system nicely, giving a high quality of sound without using earphones.
We had the first serious soup of the winter for dinner. I incorporated the frozen dinosaur soup from March, so in a sense we are still eating last Christmas’s turkey, though in homeopathic quantities by now.
Today we trogged down into Macc proper, buying a desk tidy and a load of stuff from Julian Graves for making stewed fruit and muesli for breakfast.
This afternoon, Sheila has been rewatching My Fair Lady as her first DVD on the new player. I surfed around the net trying to identify the song I referred to last time, which I have been burbling to myself ever since (and with Sheila beginning to look threateningly at me). It is, of course, “Lady Willpower” by Gary Pucket and the Union Gap, and it’s late sixties rather than 70s. I downloaded it from the iTunes Store (fast connection here at Gurnett), which seems to have abolished the earworm at last.
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