29th & 30th January
It was a pleasant, unexciting but classic boating day yesterday. We made an average start, getting away from Marbury at around 9.30, and with Sheila at the helm, chugged steadily past Marston, Wincham Wharf, Broken Cross and Billinge Green.
There were as many continuous moorers at Marston as ever – I counted ten actually by the pub, and another half dozen within half a mile either side. Near Billinge Green, Up Spirits, Braidbar 102, came past in the opposite direction. Bob and Shirley said they were on their way to Northwich, so we should see them on their return.
We've moored at Croxton again, between the flash and the aqueduct. It's quiet here, yet within walking distance of the shops in Middlewich. After lunch we went there, getting as far as the Lidl, where we started to restock after the comparative famine of Barnton and Anderton.
We got back to the boat just as it started to rain, so had a quiet afternoon on board. It's a slow internet connection here, but adequate for email and relaxed web browsing.
This morning we made a very lazy start, and weren't really properly on deck before 9.30. After breakfast. two boats that have been leap frogging with us came past. These were Cat Flap and Tinky Mac's, and for the third time in as many passages they half pulled our mooring stakes out zooming past at cruising speed. Thanks guys.
I do aim to moor such that the pins will hold in almost anything, driving them well in and tying the lines as near as possible to the ground, but it was no good. Admittedly the ground is a bit soggy, but one of the pins is two foot long and an inch in diameter, for Pete's sake.
Apart from the irritation caused by these folks' thoughtlessness, it's been another tranquil day. We made another trip into Middlewich, going right into town this time to shop at Somerfield and Bargain Booze. After lunch I went and took some photos of the aqueduct and of the long term moorings by the council tip, sorry, household refuse site.
These used to be absolutely full of slightly dilapidated boats*, one of which was always covered in fender making stuff, but they've almost all gone. Possibly BW have moved them on for not paying mooring fees, but if so, they've not managed to relet the moorings.
Despite the presence of the tip, it's not a bad site – there's a handy road, the tip isn't obtrusive, and passing boats have to slow down because of the aqueduct at one end of the site. I guess the infamous trial of sealed bid tendering for moorings, rather than using a waiting list, means that it takes that much longer to relet the moorings. It must involve a loss of revenue for BW, as well as making less efficient use of the available mooring locations.
We plan to sit tight here for another couple of days, as the weather forecast is none too good for tomorrow and Friday – rain and gales, then snow.
*No, Elanor, the moorings were full of boats, not the council tip.
Wednesday, 30 January 2008
Monday, 28 January 2008
Barnton to Marbury Park
27th & 28th January
After I'd done the last blog, we settled down to a meal of haggis, neeps (and carrots) and tatties, having impulse bought a haggis at the Co-op yesterday. Well, it was Burns Night the night before, and we like haggis; it's just a bit strange to find it in a north Cheshire co-op, that's all.
Yesterday being Sunday, and with nowhere to go, we had a lazy start, and I wandered up to the village to get a paper at around 10. On the way back I noted that the two moorings in the basin between the tunnel mouth and the bridge were empty, so when I got back to the boat, we set off through the bridge and tunnel, and winded in the pool between the two tunnels.
We then had to wait before going back through Barnton, as the Challenger boat Charlton was just coming through. I must admit (to save Sheila commenting) that I hadn't really expected to find a boat coming the other way, and had to do a bit of an emergency stop in the tunnel mouth before backing out.
Finally back through the tunnel, we moored on the aforesaid spot in Barnton Basin. There was just time before lunch for me to go and take some pictures of the tunnel ventilators, one of which was looking quite dilapidated. Some of us have agreed to take shots of BW structures looking in bad nick, for SOW to use as propaganda on their website. If BW can't do better than this when they had got half decent funding, what's it going to be like now they are severely under funded?
After lunch I experimented with the PhotoShop web album facility again, but then we decided it was too nice an afternoon to rot in the boat all day, so went for a walk. We found part of a pleasant network of footpaths in the area, going part of the way over the tunnel, then down towards the river, and finally back along the riverside to come out at the pool between the tunnels.
Here we had a natter with a guy off one of the boats wintering in the pool. He'd been spending his time clearing the scrub away from some of the footpaths, thus making them less attractive to the local youth. They had clearly been in the habit of retreating there to experiment with various substances, judging by the presence of lager cans, lighter fuel aerosols, needles and syringes.
It just shows the importance of having some winter boaters around to discourage the development of potential no-go areas like that. As it was, a gang had, just the night before, pushed some of the coping stones off the parapet over the western mouth of Barnton Tunnel, so that they were now lying in the water in the tunnel mouth.
I hadn't got my camera with me, but did have the phone, so took a couple of shots with that. Back at the boat, I included those in the album with the earlier pictures and put it up on the website. I'm not sure about the PhotoShop web gallery facility – it takes more fiddling around in Dreamweaver to put my templates on the output satisfactorily, and I suspect it makes a bulkier folder compared to the more basic job that iPhoto does. I'll have to ponder this a bit more, I guess.
Today was another lazy start, as we had to wait for the Post Office to have had its mail delivery. When I called in at around 10, our letter had come from Elanor, so we could set off again on the next phase of the winter's boating, heading for Ellesmere on the Llangollen.
In fact we got as far as Anderton, where I winded Sanity to back onto the service point with the pump out hole next to the bank. There was another small boat already there, setting up to use the BW card operated pump out machine. They'd got two new cards, but neither was working. While we rigged our pump, the guy went off to consult in the BW office at the lift, and in a while came back with a fresh card.
It was still no good. By this time, our pump out was well on, so we offered to pump them out with our machine. This was accomplished by tying their boat outside Sanity, so that the pump would both reach their pump out fitting, and be able to run off its power supply in Sanity's engine room
While this was going on, a BW guy turned up, and admitted that the machine had been reported defective during the weekend. Eventually all was done, and it now being well into lunch time, we just pulled forward onto the visitor moorings for the time being.
After lunch, we winded again, and headed round the corner to the towpath at Marbury Park. Here we spent a bit of time sawing wood, and I gave the starboard cabin side a quick wash, as it was looking disgustingly muddy. We don't spend a lot of time washing the boat in the winter – there's no point, but it is nice to clean the mud and bird doings off it from time to time.
After I'd done the last blog, we settled down to a meal of haggis, neeps (and carrots) and tatties, having impulse bought a haggis at the Co-op yesterday. Well, it was Burns Night the night before, and we like haggis; it's just a bit strange to find it in a north Cheshire co-op, that's all.
Yesterday being Sunday, and with nowhere to go, we had a lazy start, and I wandered up to the village to get a paper at around 10. On the way back I noted that the two moorings in the basin between the tunnel mouth and the bridge were empty, so when I got back to the boat, we set off through the bridge and tunnel, and winded in the pool between the two tunnels.
We then had to wait before going back through Barnton, as the Challenger boat Charlton was just coming through. I must admit (to save Sheila commenting) that I hadn't really expected to find a boat coming the other way, and had to do a bit of an emergency stop in the tunnel mouth before backing out.
Finally back through the tunnel, we moored on the aforesaid spot in Barnton Basin. There was just time before lunch for me to go and take some pictures of the tunnel ventilators, one of which was looking quite dilapidated. Some of us have agreed to take shots of BW structures looking in bad nick, for SOW to use as propaganda on their website. If BW can't do better than this when they had got half decent funding, what's it going to be like now they are severely under funded?
After lunch I experimented with the PhotoShop web album facility again, but then we decided it was too nice an afternoon to rot in the boat all day, so went for a walk. We found part of a pleasant network of footpaths in the area, going part of the way over the tunnel, then down towards the river, and finally back along the riverside to come out at the pool between the tunnels.
Here we had a natter with a guy off one of the boats wintering in the pool. He'd been spending his time clearing the scrub away from some of the footpaths, thus making them less attractive to the local youth. They had clearly been in the habit of retreating there to experiment with various substances, judging by the presence of lager cans, lighter fuel aerosols, needles and syringes.
It just shows the importance of having some winter boaters around to discourage the development of potential no-go areas like that. As it was, a gang had, just the night before, pushed some of the coping stones off the parapet over the western mouth of Barnton Tunnel, so that they were now lying in the water in the tunnel mouth.
I hadn't got my camera with me, but did have the phone, so took a couple of shots with that. Back at the boat, I included those in the album with the earlier pictures and put it up on the website. I'm not sure about the PhotoShop web gallery facility – it takes more fiddling around in Dreamweaver to put my templates on the output satisfactorily, and I suspect it makes a bulkier folder compared to the more basic job that iPhoto does. I'll have to ponder this a bit more, I guess.
Today was another lazy start, as we had to wait for the Post Office to have had its mail delivery. When I called in at around 10, our letter had come from Elanor, so we could set off again on the next phase of the winter's boating, heading for Ellesmere on the Llangollen.
In fact we got as far as Anderton, where I winded Sanity to back onto the service point with the pump out hole next to the bank. There was another small boat already there, setting up to use the BW card operated pump out machine. They'd got two new cards, but neither was working. While we rigged our pump, the guy went off to consult in the BW office at the lift, and in a while came back with a fresh card.
It was still no good. By this time, our pump out was well on, so we offered to pump them out with our machine. This was accomplished by tying their boat outside Sanity, so that the pump would both reach their pump out fitting, and be able to run off its power supply in Sanity's engine room
While this was going on, a BW guy turned up, and admitted that the machine had been reported defective during the weekend. Eventually all was done, and it now being well into lunch time, we just pulled forward onto the visitor moorings for the time being.
After lunch, we winded again, and headed round the corner to the towpath at Marbury Park. Here we spent a bit of time sawing wood, and I gave the starboard cabin side a quick wash, as it was looking disgustingly muddy. We don't spend a lot of time washing the boat in the winter – there's no point, but it is nice to clean the mud and bird doings off it from time to time.
Labels:
Anderton,
Barnton,
Marbury Park
Saturday, 26 January 2008
Hanging about at Anderton
25th & 26th January
With no plans to move, we were able to have a lazy start on Friday morning. We walked to the shop, mainly for the exercise on a fine morning, but also to get a paper and perhaps a tin of fruit. This was just as well, as the shop, which was never a hugely well stocked emporium, has now just a few bare items, and seems to be doing more trade as a small cafe. It used to be a Post Office in days gone by, but that has gone altogether.
They had a handful of tabloid papers, and some tinned goods, including a small tin of pineapple rings which I bought so as to have something to show for the trip.
It was too nice a day to get upset, though, so after a coffee at the boat we set off for a ramble round the Anderton Nature Park. In fact, we found a route through the Uplands Woodlands ( a Forestry Commission area) and then across towards Marbury Park, rejoining the canal after about half an hour's walking, and taking as long again to get back to Sanity.
There wasn't a lot of wildlife to be seen, to be honest, but it was a nice ramble in a well restored area, which is also clearly popular with the locals.
In the afternoon, I tried creating a web album of the Preston Brook Tunnel photos using the Photoshop facility for so doing. Until now I've used iPhoto to do that, but these shots were defeating iPhoto's ability. I need to experiment a bit more with the PhotoShop process, but at least I was able to put something up on the website. They are not a patch on what Andrew Denny has been talking about, but have, I think, a certain artistic interest. (All this, and modest too).
Although today was a Saturday, we got up in good time, and were on the water point by nine, mooring behind a Community Narrowboat Project boat. Tank full, Sheila winded Sanity by reversing her back past the marina entrance and then putting the bow in there to bring her round. Despite a fluky wind, she managed this without any serious hassle, and with just a bit of prodding with the manual bowthruster (aka 10 foot shaft) by me at the start of the manoeuvre.
We made steady time back to Barnton, mooring this time on the new visitor moorings by the cottages before you get to the main road bridge. They are OK, but the channel is quite narrow, and the position of the loops in the concrete pilings such that we're moored very square, so passing boats, even those that have the courtesy to slow down, tend to move us about quite a bit.
We called at the PO whilst shopping in the village, making up for Anderton's deficiencies, but the forwarded stuff from Elanor hadn't arrived, so it's a case of hanging around here until Monday. I may well do the tunnel/wind/tunnel sequence tomorrow, to see if we can end up on a better bit of mooring.
It is at least a reasonable internet connection here, so I've been spending some time tidying up other bits of the website photo gallery, applying a consistent template to all the albums. Last year, Malcolm Nixon was kind enough to point out that using cascading style sheets would be more efficient, and he's quite right, but I got swept away by the joys of blogging just then, and haven't seriously looked at the state of the traditional site until this month.
One of these days/months/years I must get down to a complete reconstruction of the site on modern principles, learning from the examples Malcolm kindly sent me, but I've been having too much fun doing other boating stuff (and being scared out of my wits by the floods last year) to get my head round it.
With no plans to move, we were able to have a lazy start on Friday morning. We walked to the shop, mainly for the exercise on a fine morning, but also to get a paper and perhaps a tin of fruit. This was just as well, as the shop, which was never a hugely well stocked emporium, has now just a few bare items, and seems to be doing more trade as a small cafe. It used to be a Post Office in days gone by, but that has gone altogether.
They had a handful of tabloid papers, and some tinned goods, including a small tin of pineapple rings which I bought so as to have something to show for the trip.
It was too nice a day to get upset, though, so after a coffee at the boat we set off for a ramble round the Anderton Nature Park. In fact, we found a route through the Uplands Woodlands ( a Forestry Commission area) and then across towards Marbury Park, rejoining the canal after about half an hour's walking, and taking as long again to get back to Sanity.
There wasn't a lot of wildlife to be seen, to be honest, but it was a nice ramble in a well restored area, which is also clearly popular with the locals.
In the afternoon, I tried creating a web album of the Preston Brook Tunnel photos using the Photoshop facility for so doing. Until now I've used iPhoto to do that, but these shots were defeating iPhoto's ability. I need to experiment a bit more with the PhotoShop process, but at least I was able to put something up on the website. They are not a patch on what Andrew Denny has been talking about, but have, I think, a certain artistic interest. (All this, and modest too).
Although today was a Saturday, we got up in good time, and were on the water point by nine, mooring behind a Community Narrowboat Project boat. Tank full, Sheila winded Sanity by reversing her back past the marina entrance and then putting the bow in there to bring her round. Despite a fluky wind, she managed this without any serious hassle, and with just a bit of prodding with the manual bowthruster (aka 10 foot shaft) by me at the start of the manoeuvre.
We made steady time back to Barnton, mooring this time on the new visitor moorings by the cottages before you get to the main road bridge. They are OK, but the channel is quite narrow, and the position of the loops in the concrete pilings such that we're moored very square, so passing boats, even those that have the courtesy to slow down, tend to move us about quite a bit.
We called at the PO whilst shopping in the village, making up for Anderton's deficiencies, but the forwarded stuff from Elanor hadn't arrived, so it's a case of hanging around here until Monday. I may well do the tunnel/wind/tunnel sequence tomorrow, to see if we can end up on a better bit of mooring.
It is at least a reasonable internet connection here, so I've been spending some time tidying up other bits of the website photo gallery, applying a consistent template to all the albums. Last year, Malcolm Nixon was kind enough to point out that using cascading style sheets would be more efficient, and he's quite right, but I got swept away by the joys of blogging just then, and haven't seriously looked at the state of the traditional site until this month.
One of these days/months/years I must get down to a complete reconstruction of the site on modern principles, learning from the examples Malcolm kindly sent me, but I've been having too much fun doing other boating stuff (and being scared out of my wits by the floods last year) to get my head round it.
Thursday, 24 January 2008
Preston Brook to Anderton
23rd & 24th January
Yesterday was the second day in a row that I set the heating to come on at 7.30, rather than waiting to see when we woke up. (Oh, the stress of it...) This was because we wanted to get through Preston Brook Tunnel in good time, not because it was the first birthday of this blog, though that's important too. As it was, I had time to nip along to the shop and get a paper and some bread before we made the 9.30 slot for going southbound through the tunnel.
Sheila steered briskly along, and we emerged at 9.45. Spurred on by Andrew Denny, I tried taking some photos in the tunnel – it's a slow connection just now (though it was faster earlier), so won't try putting them up today, but if it speeds up again tomorrow, I might well.
In mild, calm weather, with no rain for the second day running (hooray) we had a good run back to Saltersford, arriving there just ten minutes before the 11.30 slot to go through. Just as we were about to set off, Baris Haven came up behind and followed us through.
We stopped in the pool between the Saltersford and Barton Tunnels, but Baris Haven carried on. On the way, I had discovered that we had a decent internet connection, so took the chance to upload the 2007 cruising album. It always seems quite odd, travelling along this 18th century canal using 21st century comms technology, but there you go. Later on, I updated the outline of our cruising plans for this year.
Today we had a more relaxed start. The mooring in the pool was quite sheltered, but walking up to Barnton village showed that some of the forecast wind was around, and the sky clouded over in a menacing fashion.
We checked in the Post Office that they still accept Poste Restante mail, as we need Elanor to send us some stuff to do with our finances, (they do) and went on up the hill to get supplies from the Co-op. On the way back, we called in at the butchers and got some more of their excellent stewing steak, paying £11 for 5 pounds weight.
Then it was off through Barnton Tunnel, in steadily improving weather. In fact it caused something of a problem, as I was dazzled by the low winter sun on the way in, and spent about half the time steering through the tunnel trying to ignore a purple after image floating just above the bow of the boat. Since, as I've said earlier, Barnton is not the straightest of bores (though nothing like as bad as its partner Saltersford) this was a bit of a challenge, but we made it through without touching the sides.
It was a pleasant run into Anderton, where we watered and then backed onto the 48 hour mooring just the other side of the Travel Reign marina entrance. The forecast is not good for the next couple of days, especially with regard to wind, so if necessary we can hunker down here while it blows out.
This afternoon, I've been tidying up some of the older picture albums, making them more consistent in appearance with the new one, and will carry on with that tomorrow, I expect.
Yesterday was the second day in a row that I set the heating to come on at 7.30, rather than waiting to see when we woke up. (Oh, the stress of it...) This was because we wanted to get through Preston Brook Tunnel in good time, not because it was the first birthday of this blog, though that's important too. As it was, I had time to nip along to the shop and get a paper and some bread before we made the 9.30 slot for going southbound through the tunnel.
Sheila steered briskly along, and we emerged at 9.45. Spurred on by Andrew Denny, I tried taking some photos in the tunnel – it's a slow connection just now (though it was faster earlier), so won't try putting them up today, but if it speeds up again tomorrow, I might well.
In mild, calm weather, with no rain for the second day running (hooray) we had a good run back to Saltersford, arriving there just ten minutes before the 11.30 slot to go through. Just as we were about to set off, Baris Haven came up behind and followed us through.
We stopped in the pool between the Saltersford and Barton Tunnels, but Baris Haven carried on. On the way, I had discovered that we had a decent internet connection, so took the chance to upload the 2007 cruising album. It always seems quite odd, travelling along this 18th century canal using 21st century comms technology, but there you go. Later on, I updated the outline of our cruising plans for this year.
Today we had a more relaxed start. The mooring in the pool was quite sheltered, but walking up to Barnton village showed that some of the forecast wind was around, and the sky clouded over in a menacing fashion.
We checked in the Post Office that they still accept Poste Restante mail, as we need Elanor to send us some stuff to do with our finances, (they do) and went on up the hill to get supplies from the Co-op. On the way back, we called in at the butchers and got some more of their excellent stewing steak, paying £11 for 5 pounds weight.
Then it was off through Barnton Tunnel, in steadily improving weather. In fact it caused something of a problem, as I was dazzled by the low winter sun on the way in, and spent about half the time steering through the tunnel trying to ignore a purple after image floating just above the bow of the boat. Since, as I've said earlier, Barnton is not the straightest of bores (though nothing like as bad as its partner Saltersford) this was a bit of a challenge, but we made it through without touching the sides.
It was a pleasant run into Anderton, where we watered and then backed onto the 48 hour mooring just the other side of the Travel Reign marina entrance. The forecast is not good for the next couple of days, especially with regard to wind, so if necessary we can hunker down here while it blows out.
This afternoon, I've been tidying up some of the older picture albums, making them more consistent in appearance with the new one, and will carry on with that tomorrow, I expect.
Tuesday, 22 January 2008
Lymm to Preston Brook
21st & 22nd January
After a quiet night's sleep, we had a relaxed day, recovering from all the excitement. We'd noticed that the boater's enemy, condensation, was appearing in the storage under the side berth once more. It's been better since we had decorative ventilation holes put in the drop down doors to the storage under there, but the recent weather, alternating pouring rain and brief cold snaps, has been too much even for Sanity's efficient spray foam lining. When we came to reassemble the berth in its normal mode, taking down the cot side, and uncovering the mattress so that it looks like a settee again, there were visible drops of water on the wall at the back of the storage.
We'd left the mattress standing on edge for 24 hours to ventilate the space, but it hadn't been enough, so we turned out the cupboards and mopped away the wet. Putting the cot side under the mattress , we took care not to push it right to the back, and did the same with the mattress itself.
Some of the cardboard storage boxes were damp, so we left them out in the saloon overnight to air. When I went to put them back today, things were much better under there, but what we really need is a decent spell of warm weather to give us a chance to air everything, and to really dry out the compartment.
Whilst shopping in Lymm, we'd noticed that the new Post Office come stationers did document laminating, so I took our new BW licences in there and they obliged. This had worked very well last year – in previous years, condensation has again led to the cards getting first damp and then mouldy, whereas last year they remained immaculate to the end of the year. It cost all of £1.29 ($2.53, €1.73) to do, so well worth it.
After lunch we made a trip to the local recycling bank, and otherwise loafed around in the boat (i.e. knitted, did the photo album, read books – it's all go really).
This morning, we planned to make a prompt start, so I set the heating to come on at 7.30, and we did in fact manage to get up before 8, just. I nipped out to get a paper and some bread from the nice bakery – it was good bread, which is just as well, as I paid more than £2 for a granary loaf for the first time in my life. In fact it was £2.16 ($4.23, €2.90) – and my back tooth broke on a seed from it at lunchtime, so a pricey loaf indeed.
(Don't worry – it's only the repair from before Christmas, and I'm not in any pain – it's a toss up whether I bother to get it patched again before we get back to Alrewas in March).
Back to the boating: we were away by 9.30, and I had a good morning's steering along the nice deep canal, despite the large amount of linear mooring with which the Bridgewater is blessed. By 12 we were back at Preston Brook, and popped into Midland Chandlers to pick up the shower pump impeller they'd got in for us. Then we moored just through the bridges, on the route to the tunnel, and had lunch.
This afternoon has been taken up with indoor activity again. I've now finished the photo album, but guess what, this is a very slow connection area, so there'll be a wait until I can actually upload it to the site.
After a quiet night's sleep, we had a relaxed day, recovering from all the excitement. We'd noticed that the boater's enemy, condensation, was appearing in the storage under the side berth once more. It's been better since we had decorative ventilation holes put in the drop down doors to the storage under there, but the recent weather, alternating pouring rain and brief cold snaps, has been too much even for Sanity's efficient spray foam lining. When we came to reassemble the berth in its normal mode, taking down the cot side, and uncovering the mattress so that it looks like a settee again, there were visible drops of water on the wall at the back of the storage.
We'd left the mattress standing on edge for 24 hours to ventilate the space, but it hadn't been enough, so we turned out the cupboards and mopped away the wet. Putting the cot side under the mattress , we took care not to push it right to the back, and did the same with the mattress itself.
Some of the cardboard storage boxes were damp, so we left them out in the saloon overnight to air. When I went to put them back today, things were much better under there, but what we really need is a decent spell of warm weather to give us a chance to air everything, and to really dry out the compartment.
Whilst shopping in Lymm, we'd noticed that the new Post Office come stationers did document laminating, so I took our new BW licences in there and they obliged. This had worked very well last year – in previous years, condensation has again led to the cards getting first damp and then mouldy, whereas last year they remained immaculate to the end of the year. It cost all of £1.29 ($2.53, €1.73) to do, so well worth it.
After lunch we made a trip to the local recycling bank, and otherwise loafed around in the boat (i.e. knitted, did the photo album, read books – it's all go really).
This morning, we planned to make a prompt start, so I set the heating to come on at 7.30, and we did in fact manage to get up before 8, just. I nipped out to get a paper and some bread from the nice bakery – it was good bread, which is just as well, as I paid more than £2 for a granary loaf for the first time in my life. In fact it was £2.16 ($4.23, €2.90) – and my back tooth broke on a seed from it at lunchtime, so a pricey loaf indeed.
(Don't worry – it's only the repair from before Christmas, and I'm not in any pain – it's a toss up whether I bother to get it patched again before we get back to Alrewas in March).
Back to the boating: we were away by 9.30, and I had a good morning's steering along the nice deep canal, despite the large amount of linear mooring with which the Bridgewater is blessed. By 12 we were back at Preston Brook, and popped into Midland Chandlers to pick up the shower pump impeller they'd got in for us. Then we moored just through the bridges, on the route to the tunnel, and had lunch.
This afternoon has been taken up with indoor activity again. I've now finished the photo album, but guess what, this is a very slow connection area, so there'll be a wait until I can actually upload it to the site.
Labels:
Lymm,
Preston Brook
Sunday, 20 January 2008
Dunham Massey to Lymm
19th & 20th January
What a good weekend that was - did I say I was tired at the end of the last post? You should see me now.
Elanor duly turned up for dinner on Friday night, bearing the usual collection of post and my replacement LavNav, the fiendish device she gave me for my birthday which then broke down and has been replaced without demur by IWOOT.com. It goes under the toilet seat lid, and shines green in the dark when the lid is up, but red if the seat is up as well.
Very useful in the middle of the night.
Saturday (yesterday) was a family event and a half, a postponed bit of Christmas, really. We already had Elanor with us, and then Peter and Jan came bearing some goodies for lunch, and finally Graeme, Cathy and Daniel rocked up for a late lunch. Not their fault, they'd had a very slow journey of it from Lincoln due to the Trent being in flood.
So we had a great family lunch on board, and Peter and Jan were able to meet Daniel for the first time. Daniel as usual was incredibly well behaved, and held court with aplomb.
After Elanor and Peter and Jan had left, we had a very pleasant afternoon and evening catching up with Cathy and Graeme. Daniel experienced his first night in the side berth with its new cot side arrangement – he wasn't too sure of it at first, but settled quite quickly and then slept well.
He also gave us a relaxed start this morning, waking at five or so for a nappy change, and then joining his parents in their bed on the saloon floor for about another three hours kip.
What a star.
After they'd gone, we boated on to Lymm, getting here in nice time for lunch. The forecast is a bit dodgy for tomorrow, but we can sit it out here with shops and stuff to hand.
The afternoon has passed in a bit of a daze. Sheila was knitting and watching a DVD Cathy and Graeme had brought, and I did some more work on the photo album of last year's cruising – I'm about half way through it now, dealing with the floods on the Nene.
Soup and bread for dinner tonight, I think, after the pig out of the rest of the weekend, and an early night.
What a good weekend that was - did I say I was tired at the end of the last post? You should see me now.
Elanor duly turned up for dinner on Friday night, bearing the usual collection of post and my replacement LavNav, the fiendish device she gave me for my birthday which then broke down and has been replaced without demur by IWOOT.com. It goes under the toilet seat lid, and shines green in the dark when the lid is up, but red if the seat is up as well.
Very useful in the middle of the night.
Saturday (yesterday) was a family event and a half, a postponed bit of Christmas, really. We already had Elanor with us, and then Peter and Jan came bearing some goodies for lunch, and finally Graeme, Cathy and Daniel rocked up for a late lunch. Not their fault, they'd had a very slow journey of it from Lincoln due to the Trent being in flood.
So we had a great family lunch on board, and Peter and Jan were able to meet Daniel for the first time. Daniel as usual was incredibly well behaved, and held court with aplomb.
After Elanor and Peter and Jan had left, we had a very pleasant afternoon and evening catching up with Cathy and Graeme. Daniel experienced his first night in the side berth with its new cot side arrangement – he wasn't too sure of it at first, but settled quite quickly and then slept well.
He also gave us a relaxed start this morning, waking at five or so for a nappy change, and then joining his parents in their bed on the saloon floor for about another three hours kip.
What a star.
After they'd gone, we boated on to Lymm, getting here in nice time for lunch. The forecast is a bit dodgy for tomorrow, but we can sit it out here with shops and stuff to hand.
The afternoon has passed in a bit of a daze. Sheila was knitting and watching a DVD Cathy and Graeme had brought, and I did some more work on the photo album of last year's cruising – I'm about half way through it now, dealing with the floods on the Nene.
Soup and bread for dinner tonight, I think, after the pig out of the rest of the weekend, and an early night.
Labels:
Lymm
Friday, 18 January 2008
Stockton Heath and Dunham Massey
17th & 18th January
We set off from Daresbury just after 9 with Sheila steering in windy but not impossible conditions, and had a fast run to Stockton Heath, arriving just after 10. The Pearson's Canal Companion gives 90 minutes for the run, but Sanity in deep water makes a good 4 knots. As Pearson says of the Bridgewater: it's usually described as the first successful commercial artificial canal in the UK, and it still has a good depth, so Cat Stevens got it right; the first cut is the deepest.
There's plenty of towpath mooring at Stockton, and a good range of shops down the hill towards the Manchester Ship Canal. In fact, if you cross the MSC, as we did, there's a big Morrison's just on the other side. Our return from there was delayed by a few minutes as the swing bridge was swung when we came out of the supermarket, albeit only for a little survey vessel.
After lunch we went shopping again – stocks had got pretty depleted since we were at Middlewich. There's also a very large recycling bank in the car park of the Somerfield on the Stockton side of the MSC, so we had a good clear out.
In the evening, Peter Mason collected us from the boat and took us to his house where we met his wife Susan for the first time. Peter is the new partner in Braidbar, so it was good to have a chance to get to know them, and in fact a brilliant evening was had, with great food, excellent wine and much humorous chat.
Perhaps not surprisingly, we had a relaxed start this morning, pulling along to the Thorn Marine service mooring and filling up with diesel at 65p per litre, which seems to be the standard rate these days. We always try to give Thorn some custom when we pass. They are in a very useful spot on the Bridgewater, a canal not oversupplied with services, but Peel Holdings, who own the Manchester Ship Canal Company, and so the Bridgewater, have been trying to get them out for at least the last five years.
They want to redevelop the site for housing, of course.
We set off again at ten past ten, and boated through very wet conditions to a mooring we've used before at Dunham Massey, getting there at lunchtime. After lunch, I went to check that the bits of parking space near the canal were still there, as Elanor is coming to us tonight, then Graeme, Cathy and Daniel tomorrow, and we're being joined by Peter and Jan for lunch, so we shall have a good boatful.
Just as well I checked – they'd gone. After a hurried conference, it now being after two, we decided to wind straight away, involving a short trip further along the canal, and then check out a series of alternates going back towards Lymm.
In fact the second of these, near Dunham Massey Hall, proved to be spot on, with some parking by the path up to the canal.
I'm now pretty tired – the last bit of boating was seriously demanding, in strong wind and rain, so will finish this now. More in the next instalment as they say, which hopefully will be on Sunday as usual.
We set off from Daresbury just after 9 with Sheila steering in windy but not impossible conditions, and had a fast run to Stockton Heath, arriving just after 10. The Pearson's Canal Companion gives 90 minutes for the run, but Sanity in deep water makes a good 4 knots. As Pearson says of the Bridgewater: it's usually described as the first successful commercial artificial canal in the UK, and it still has a good depth, so Cat Stevens got it right; the first cut is the deepest.
There's plenty of towpath mooring at Stockton, and a good range of shops down the hill towards the Manchester Ship Canal. In fact, if you cross the MSC, as we did, there's a big Morrison's just on the other side. Our return from there was delayed by a few minutes as the swing bridge was swung when we came out of the supermarket, albeit only for a little survey vessel.
After lunch we went shopping again – stocks had got pretty depleted since we were at Middlewich. There's also a very large recycling bank in the car park of the Somerfield on the Stockton side of the MSC, so we had a good clear out.
In the evening, Peter Mason collected us from the boat and took us to his house where we met his wife Susan for the first time. Peter is the new partner in Braidbar, so it was good to have a chance to get to know them, and in fact a brilliant evening was had, with great food, excellent wine and much humorous chat.
Perhaps not surprisingly, we had a relaxed start this morning, pulling along to the Thorn Marine service mooring and filling up with diesel at 65p per litre, which seems to be the standard rate these days. We always try to give Thorn some custom when we pass. They are in a very useful spot on the Bridgewater, a canal not oversupplied with services, but Peel Holdings, who own the Manchester Ship Canal Company, and so the Bridgewater, have been trying to get them out for at least the last five years.
They want to redevelop the site for housing, of course.
We set off again at ten past ten, and boated through very wet conditions to a mooring we've used before at Dunham Massey, getting there at lunchtime. After lunch, I went to check that the bits of parking space near the canal were still there, as Elanor is coming to us tonight, then Graeme, Cathy and Daniel tomorrow, and we're being joined by Peter and Jan for lunch, so we shall have a good boatful.
Just as well I checked – they'd gone. After a hurried conference, it now being after two, we decided to wind straight away, involving a short trip further along the canal, and then check out a series of alternates going back towards Lymm.
In fact the second of these, near Dunham Massey Hall, proved to be spot on, with some parking by the path up to the canal.
I'm now pretty tired – the last bit of boating was seriously demanding, in strong wind and rain, so will finish this now. More in the next instalment as they say, which hopefully will be on Sunday as usual.
Labels:
Dunham Massey,
Stockton Heath
Wednesday, 16 January 2008
Onto the Bridgewater Canal
15th & 16th January
Tuesday morning dawned wet, wet, wet (I was going to make a gag about whatever happened to them? but they've just released a new single). I nipped into the village to buy a paper – the nearest shop didn't have an Indy, so had to slog up the hill to the one we found the day before. Saltersford tunnel now has a timed entry control, from on the hour to twenty past for northbound boats, so we had time to start a washload before setting off at ten.
Must say the timed entry bit is a big improvement on the old peer in and hope system. The tunnel is so bendy, there's just a brief opportunity to see one end from t'other as you go in. It used to be standard to sound your horn with the bow just in the tunnel – if there was no answering squawk from the other end, you knew it was safe to proceed.
This didn't stop me from coming bow to bow with an OwnerShips boat in there once, mind you. I was single handing, so it was a bit fraught. When we finally emerged, I said "Why didn't you sound your horn when you heard mine?"
"Oh, we wondered what that hooting was."
A case of "We're on holiday, so we've left our brains at home" methinks.
By 10.45 we were passing the Acton Bridge yard at Bartington (no, I don't know why it's called Acton Bridge, that's down the road on the river). We had a bit of fun there – it's a big Black Prince hire base, and one of their boats (which were lining the banks solidly at this time of year, of course) had come untied at the stern, and blown neatly across the cut.
Sheila, who was steering, said "I thought as I approached that this was a bit of a sharp bend coming up." We helped the boat yard staff push it round again, and plodded on along a very pleasant bit of canal to a quiet mooring just before you get to Dutton stop lock and Preston Brook tunnel. It's just beyond Bridge 123, where there are rings in a bit of concrete edge.
The weather was now quite fine, so we cut some of the wood Peter and Jan had brought us, then I worked on the picture album illustrating last year's cruising.
I also had a reply from iCom, the VHF radio manufacturer to whom I had sent our handheld for repair just before Christmas. We hadn't heard anything from them, so I'd sent a polite enquiry. I got an email in reply, but unfortunately devoid of any actual message, just a signature.
Bit of an achievement for a comms company, really.
Today we wanted to be at the entrance to Preston Brook Tunnel in time for its timed entry. Being a longer tunnel, you only get a ten minute slot every hour, so it's a good idea to hit it.
I set the heating to come on at 7.30, and we were on our way by 8.50. This meant that we got through the stop lock and onto the tunnel mooring by half nine, so we took the opportunity to start a washload (again) as we were going to water later in the day.
By ten it had just finished the heating bit of the cycle, so that we could run the engine at less than 1000 rpm, and off we went. It was a reasonably fast passage of the tunnel, coming out of the other end at 10.15.
We called in at Midland Chandlers to buy an oil filter (even more expensive than the one at Heritage, over £10, ouch) and to ask about a spare impeller for the shower pump. The present one is doing fine at the moment, but it seems as well to have a spare to hand.
They hadn't got one in, but said they'd get one in time for our return trip after the weekend. It's a funny thing about MC. They have three stores, at Braunston, Penkridge (which is the head office) and at Preston Brook, and the staff are increasingly helpful as you come north. Never go in to the one at Braunston without a clear idea of what you want – they aren't rude or anything, just not as ready to put themselves out as the others.
Shopping complete, we went a short distance up the Runcorn Arm to the water point and filled up. I then backed Sanity to the marina entrance, persuaded her stern to go in there and so winded.
We'd planned to come on to Moore for the night, but as we were going along it started to rain seriously, it was lunchtime, and we thought why slog on? We've tied outside the Daresbury Nuclear Research station instead.
I'm still working on the picture album, but it'll be a couple of days before it's ready to go before the world, methinks.
Tuesday morning dawned wet, wet, wet (I was going to make a gag about whatever happened to them? but they've just released a new single). I nipped into the village to buy a paper – the nearest shop didn't have an Indy, so had to slog up the hill to the one we found the day before. Saltersford tunnel now has a timed entry control, from on the hour to twenty past for northbound boats, so we had time to start a washload before setting off at ten.
Must say the timed entry bit is a big improvement on the old peer in and hope system. The tunnel is so bendy, there's just a brief opportunity to see one end from t'other as you go in. It used to be standard to sound your horn with the bow just in the tunnel – if there was no answering squawk from the other end, you knew it was safe to proceed.
This didn't stop me from coming bow to bow with an OwnerShips boat in there once, mind you. I was single handing, so it was a bit fraught. When we finally emerged, I said "Why didn't you sound your horn when you heard mine?"
"Oh, we wondered what that hooting was."
A case of "We're on holiday, so we've left our brains at home" methinks.
By 10.45 we were passing the Acton Bridge yard at Bartington (no, I don't know why it's called Acton Bridge, that's down the road on the river). We had a bit of fun there – it's a big Black Prince hire base, and one of their boats (which were lining the banks solidly at this time of year, of course) had come untied at the stern, and blown neatly across the cut.
Sheila, who was steering, said "I thought as I approached that this was a bit of a sharp bend coming up." We helped the boat yard staff push it round again, and plodded on along a very pleasant bit of canal to a quiet mooring just before you get to Dutton stop lock and Preston Brook tunnel. It's just beyond Bridge 123, where there are rings in a bit of concrete edge.
The weather was now quite fine, so we cut some of the wood Peter and Jan had brought us, then I worked on the picture album illustrating last year's cruising.
I also had a reply from iCom, the VHF radio manufacturer to whom I had sent our handheld for repair just before Christmas. We hadn't heard anything from them, so I'd sent a polite enquiry. I got an email in reply, but unfortunately devoid of any actual message, just a signature.
Bit of an achievement for a comms company, really.
Today we wanted to be at the entrance to Preston Brook Tunnel in time for its timed entry. Being a longer tunnel, you only get a ten minute slot every hour, so it's a good idea to hit it.
I set the heating to come on at 7.30, and we were on our way by 8.50. This meant that we got through the stop lock and onto the tunnel mooring by half nine, so we took the opportunity to start a washload (again) as we were going to water later in the day.
By ten it had just finished the heating bit of the cycle, so that we could run the engine at less than 1000 rpm, and off we went. It was a reasonably fast passage of the tunnel, coming out of the other end at 10.15.
We called in at Midland Chandlers to buy an oil filter (even more expensive than the one at Heritage, over £10, ouch) and to ask about a spare impeller for the shower pump. The present one is doing fine at the moment, but it seems as well to have a spare to hand.
They hadn't got one in, but said they'd get one in time for our return trip after the weekend. It's a funny thing about MC. They have three stores, at Braunston, Penkridge (which is the head office) and at Preston Brook, and the staff are increasingly helpful as you come north. Never go in to the one at Braunston without a clear idea of what you want – they aren't rude or anything, just not as ready to put themselves out as the others.
Shopping complete, we went a short distance up the Runcorn Arm to the water point and filled up. I then backed Sanity to the marina entrance, persuaded her stern to go in there and so winded.
We'd planned to come on to Moore for the night, but as we were going along it started to rain seriously, it was lunchtime, and we thought why slog on? We've tied outside the Daresbury Nuclear Research station instead.
I'm still working on the picture album, but it'll be a couple of days before it's ready to go before the world, methinks.
Labels:
Barnton,
Daresbury,
Preston Brook
Monday, 14 January 2008
From Marston to Barnton
13th & 14th January
We made a leisurely start to Sunday, and after breakfast I trotted round to the local shop to see what paper I could get, having had to be satisfied with a Times on Saturday. It was closed altogether, just doesn't open on Sundays. It's also up for sale, which may have something to do with not being open when you'd expect a small paper shop and general store come cafe to be so.
I got back to the boat just as the weather started to deteriorate, and it proved to be the pattern for the day, getting steadily worse until the boat was bouncing about with the mooring ropes creaking. We know this as Onedin Line conditions, but that just dates us, I guess.
I spent a good chunk of the day on IT type stuff; the regular Sunday housekeeping chores, but also having some fun putting pictures up on the main website. I've put the images we used for this year's calendar and Christmas card up there, and I'm working on the annual choice of cruising photos.
Up until this year we'd supplied a page of text summarising the previous year's cruising, and linked pictures to it. With the blog covering the whole of last year, though, it seems redundant (not to mention a lot of work) to summarise it for the main website. What I think we'll do instead is to mount a larger than usual picture gallery, with at least one pic per month, and I'll put a decent piece of text about that month's cruising below it.
As a break from all this hi tech stuff, I made some mayonnaise with the Bamix magic wand, and sliced up some white cabbage and onion, which together with a grated carrot made a decent bowl of coleslaw to put in lunchtime sandwiches. It seems more appropriate than salad at this time of year.
Sheila meanwhile took advantage of the latest batch of knitting wool to arrive via Peter and Jan, and started a Guernsey of her own.
This morning it was still quite windy, but we needed to move on to keep our commitments to meet folks at various times on the Bridgewater Canal. I was steering, and in fact it wasn't too bad for most of the time. The wind, although gusty, was by no means the worst I've boated in, and for quite a while it was sunny in that pale blue winterish sort of way.
We stopped on the service block at Anderton, filled the water tank and did a very thorough pump out, there being a good pressure on the rinse out hose. We didn't manage to get the Tankwatch light back to green, meaning totally empty, but we must have made an impression on it. The bit that goes into the deck fitting has a sight glass in it, so you can see when you are extracting serious sludge: it does seem to upset Sheila if I say things like "Oh look, there's a bit of carrot" however.
After all this jollification, we went on to just before Barnton tunnel, mooring in the basin between the road bridge and the tunnel mouth. It was lunch time, and after lunch we walked up into the village to shop. The Co-op here has moved further up hill than it was – follow the signs for the Medical Centre and you'll come to it.
Barnton also has one of the system's better butchers, so we stocked up on meat supplies. We were served by a remarkable man who has one hand, and a double hook for the other, but nonetheless needs no assistance to handle the meat or those flimsy plastic bags that they put it in nowadays.
Then we boated through the tunnel to moor in the pool between Barnton and Saltersford tunnels for the night. The prop had been feeling odd, shaking and juddering after we'd gone through a bridge 'ole on the way here, so after we'd done a wash load and stopped the engine, I opened the weed hatch and had a feel around. Sure enough we had a black plastic sack down there.
At least Sheila will have full control going through Saltersford tomorrow, which is just as well in view of its bends.
We made a leisurely start to Sunday, and after breakfast I trotted round to the local shop to see what paper I could get, having had to be satisfied with a Times on Saturday. It was closed altogether, just doesn't open on Sundays. It's also up for sale, which may have something to do with not being open when you'd expect a small paper shop and general store come cafe to be so.
I got back to the boat just as the weather started to deteriorate, and it proved to be the pattern for the day, getting steadily worse until the boat was bouncing about with the mooring ropes creaking. We know this as Onedin Line conditions, but that just dates us, I guess.
I spent a good chunk of the day on IT type stuff; the regular Sunday housekeeping chores, but also having some fun putting pictures up on the main website. I've put the images we used for this year's calendar and Christmas card up there, and I'm working on the annual choice of cruising photos.
Up until this year we'd supplied a page of text summarising the previous year's cruising, and linked pictures to it. With the blog covering the whole of last year, though, it seems redundant (not to mention a lot of work) to summarise it for the main website. What I think we'll do instead is to mount a larger than usual picture gallery, with at least one pic per month, and I'll put a decent piece of text about that month's cruising below it.
As a break from all this hi tech stuff, I made some mayonnaise with the Bamix magic wand, and sliced up some white cabbage and onion, which together with a grated carrot made a decent bowl of coleslaw to put in lunchtime sandwiches. It seems more appropriate than salad at this time of year.
Sheila meanwhile took advantage of the latest batch of knitting wool to arrive via Peter and Jan, and started a Guernsey of her own.
This morning it was still quite windy, but we needed to move on to keep our commitments to meet folks at various times on the Bridgewater Canal. I was steering, and in fact it wasn't too bad for most of the time. The wind, although gusty, was by no means the worst I've boated in, and for quite a while it was sunny in that pale blue winterish sort of way.
We stopped on the service block at Anderton, filled the water tank and did a very thorough pump out, there being a good pressure on the rinse out hose. We didn't manage to get the Tankwatch light back to green, meaning totally empty, but we must have made an impression on it. The bit that goes into the deck fitting has a sight glass in it, so you can see when you are extracting serious sludge: it does seem to upset Sheila if I say things like "Oh look, there's a bit of carrot" however.
After all this jollification, we went on to just before Barnton tunnel, mooring in the basin between the road bridge and the tunnel mouth. It was lunch time, and after lunch we walked up into the village to shop. The Co-op here has moved further up hill than it was – follow the signs for the Medical Centre and you'll come to it.
Barnton also has one of the system's better butchers, so we stocked up on meat supplies. We were served by a remarkable man who has one hand, and a double hook for the other, but nonetheless needs no assistance to handle the meat or those flimsy plastic bags that they put it in nowadays.
Then we boated through the tunnel to moor in the pool between Barnton and Saltersford tunnels for the night. The prop had been feeling odd, shaking and juddering after we'd gone through a bridge 'ole on the way here, so after we'd done a wash load and stopped the engine, I opened the weed hatch and had a feel around. Sure enough we had a black plastic sack down there.
At least Sheila will have full control going through Saltersford tomorrow, which is just as well in view of its bends.
Saturday, 12 January 2008
Spending the weekend at Marston
11th & 12th January
Yesterday was a seriously frosty morning, but it proved to have been a ground frost only. This didn't stop it from having frozen the centrelines to the roof of the boat, mind, but at least the cut itself was still liquid.
While I walked back to Middlewich to get a paper and a loaf of bread, Sheila prepared the boat for moving on. It's a steady plod to the moorings at the Salt Barge at Marston, with the very mixed scenery that's typical of this end of the Trent and Mersey. Parts are idyllically lovely, and others distinctly industrial, as when you go through the centre of the big Brunner Mond works just before Wincham Wharf.
Still, it all adds interest as they say, and at least the weather conditions were pretty good.
On arrival at Marston, we found that what had been visitor moorings alongside the old, now derelict, Lion Salt Works, have been converted into formal long term moorings. However, the informal ones on the other side of the road bridge are still there.
I had a chat with some of the moorers there after we'd tied up. One or two of them have been living on this length since 1992, and don't see why they should start paying for the privilege now. They make the point that it used to be a problem area for mooring, with kids hanging around interfering with the boats, but now it's as safe as anywhere on the system, thanks to their presence.
Trouble is, the BW continuous cruising rules say very clearly that you can't stay more than 14 days in any one place if you don't pay for a mooring there.
I also discovered from these guys that the Salt Barge, that used to be a reliable eating pub, has gone seriously downhill, and now doesn't serve food at all. Since we'd been planning to eat there today with Peter and Jan, this was a problem. Sheila rang her brother, and we agreed that they would collect us from here and take us to a pub in Great Barford, just up the road.
This they did this morning, bless them, and we had an excellent meal at the George and Dragon. They also brought us some firewood from a tree they'd taken down in their garden, a consignment of knitting wool Sheila had ordered, and my repeat prescription.
After lunch, we went back to the boat for coffee and were joined there by representatives of the next two generations, in the form of Alastair (Peter and Jan's eldest), Alison his wife and Abigail and Joshua their kids. This made for a full but cheerful boat. Josh in particular had never been on board before, and was both amazed and, I think, quite taken with it. He spent a lot of time exploring up and down, overseen by his sister, and then staring out of the side hatches.
Fortunately, being Saturday, there was a bit of traffic up and down, and later, when we went for a walk, some swans.
After everyone had left, we relapsed quietly back into somnolent mode. The forecast for tomorrow isn't too good, so it looks like we'll be staying put and working in the boat. It should give me a chance to put some photos up on the main website, as we have a decently fast connection here.
Yesterday was a seriously frosty morning, but it proved to have been a ground frost only. This didn't stop it from having frozen the centrelines to the roof of the boat, mind, but at least the cut itself was still liquid.
While I walked back to Middlewich to get a paper and a loaf of bread, Sheila prepared the boat for moving on. It's a steady plod to the moorings at the Salt Barge at Marston, with the very mixed scenery that's typical of this end of the Trent and Mersey. Parts are idyllically lovely, and others distinctly industrial, as when you go through the centre of the big Brunner Mond works just before Wincham Wharf.
Still, it all adds interest as they say, and at least the weather conditions were pretty good.
On arrival at Marston, we found that what had been visitor moorings alongside the old, now derelict, Lion Salt Works, have been converted into formal long term moorings. However, the informal ones on the other side of the road bridge are still there.
I had a chat with some of the moorers there after we'd tied up. One or two of them have been living on this length since 1992, and don't see why they should start paying for the privilege now. They make the point that it used to be a problem area for mooring, with kids hanging around interfering with the boats, but now it's as safe as anywhere on the system, thanks to their presence.
Trouble is, the BW continuous cruising rules say very clearly that you can't stay more than 14 days in any one place if you don't pay for a mooring there.
I also discovered from these guys that the Salt Barge, that used to be a reliable eating pub, has gone seriously downhill, and now doesn't serve food at all. Since we'd been planning to eat there today with Peter and Jan, this was a problem. Sheila rang her brother, and we agreed that they would collect us from here and take us to a pub in Great Barford, just up the road.
This they did this morning, bless them, and we had an excellent meal at the George and Dragon. They also brought us some firewood from a tree they'd taken down in their garden, a consignment of knitting wool Sheila had ordered, and my repeat prescription.
After lunch, we went back to the boat for coffee and were joined there by representatives of the next two generations, in the form of Alastair (Peter and Jan's eldest), Alison his wife and Abigail and Joshua their kids. This made for a full but cheerful boat. Josh in particular had never been on board before, and was both amazed and, I think, quite taken with it. He spent a lot of time exploring up and down, overseen by his sister, and then staring out of the side hatches.
Fortunately, being Saturday, there was a bit of traffic up and down, and later, when we went for a walk, some swans.
After everyone had left, we relapsed quietly back into somnolent mode. The forecast for tomorrow isn't too good, so it looks like we'll be staying put and working in the boat. It should give me a chance to put some photos up on the main website, as we have a decently fast connection here.
Labels:
Marston
Thursday, 10 January 2008
Boating in the wet and the wind
9th & 10th January
With no plans to move and after a night punctuated by the noise of strong winds, we made a lazy start to the day. On the way down the towpath to the road at Wheelock, going to buy a paper, we found a tree down, almost but not quite blocking the path. It had also stopped just short of hitting the boat moored there.
When we got back to Sanity, I phoned the BW Wales and Border Counties office and reported it, having a very pleasant conversation with the woman who answered the phone. A bit later in the day it was gone, though we never spotted the blokes doing it.
Also later in the day, I was sitting working at the desk in the study bedroom when the boat started moving oddly – rocking and with odd noises from outside.
When I went out to investigate, there was a guy on the offside gunwale busy bow hauling the boat which had been moored behind us.
He apologised profusely, saying that he didn't realise there was anybody on the boat. This was perhaps a bit slow of him, since smoke was coming out of the chimney, but it seemed to be a genuine mistake.
He and his mate were moving the boat to Middlewich in this way. Apparently he'd been refitting it further up the canal when it sank – there was a small hole on the uxter plate (the bit of base plate under the counter), and the boat had slowly filled up and gone down.
He said in some surprise that they'd refloated it once already, but when they came back to it, blow me, it had sunk again. He didn't indicate whether he'd actually tried to close off the hole, saying "It's very small, only the size of a pencil".
I forbore to point out that even a small hole below the waterline, over a period of time, will let in enough water to sink the boat, steel not being famous for its buoyancy. The other sad thing is that it implies he bought the boat without a survey. It's very likely that, where there is one actual hole, there are many more potential ones, the steel having worn through over time (it was a pretty old looking boat).
The rest of the day was spent loafing, really, time being filled with internet activity, knitting, reading, and making a new ringtone for the phone.
Elanor had expressed some reservations about us using Waterloo as her personal ringtone, so I spent a bit of time in Sound Studio making a new 15 sec ringtone from the track Jose Cuervo, which Elanor likes for good reasons of her own. I did offer to use another Abba track, namely Knowing Me, Knowing You, in view of her recent break up, but I didn't happen to have it in iTunes, and it hardly seemed worthwhile buying it just for the sake of a joke in poor taste.
Today the weather looked distinctly dodgy, but the forecast was for an improvement, and I wanted to get down the rest of the locks to Middlewich – we are meeting Peter and Jan at the Salt Barge in Wincham on Saturday, and it's nice to have a day in hand for these things. I suspect that if it had been Sheila's turn to steer we wouldn't have gone, but there it was.
In the event, her scepticism was justified. It was really not a nice morning for boating, and we needed all the wet weather gear we had on. It rained fairly continuously, and from time to time it blew quite seriously as well.
We stopped on the water point to top up, and then it was the plod along the rather dismal pound that circumnavigates Sandbach without ever getting near enough to it to be useful.
Half way down Booth's Locks we crossed with an Elton Moss boat heading back to their base just above. This at least meant that all the locks would now be in our favour, which was particularly useful at Rumps. Sheila got off at the bridge well before and walked to it to get it open so that I could take Sanity straight in, despite the half gale that was by now blowing from behind me.
After that things weren't so bad, and Kings Lock was comparatively straightforward. The promised improvement in the weather was beginning to show up. Down the Middlewich Three we went, avoiding the broken down boat in the tight left hander pound between the top and middle locks. (OK, so you are broken down, but why not bow haul it up the last lock and get it out of everyone's way? You're almost certainly going to have to do that anyway.)
We stopped on the mooring beyond the Town Bridge, ate a belated lunch and then made a shopping raid on Somerfield, Bargain Booze and Rowland's the chemist.
Then we set off again, in pleasant sunshine now, and stopped briefly before Croxton Aqueduct to dispose of the old engine oil at the County Council tip there. Just across the aqueduct we finally stopped for the night. After I'd shut everything down, there was this persistent noise as of a pump or fan still running. It sounded as if the Eberspacher had tried to start itself up, and got stuck somewhere in its routine.
Sheila came and had a listen too, and we tried starting the Eberspacher in the ordinary way. This happened perfectly normally, and just as it was doing so, I realised that the manual override switch for the bilge pump was down. Sanity is such a dry boat, we never have occasion to use the bilge pump, and I just hadn't recognised the sound. A cheap disposable nappy (£2.50 for 20 from a supermarket) in the stern bilge is enough to absorb the bit of water that comes in past the stern greaser, being changed when I change the oil.
Just hope I haven't wrecked the impeller on the bilge pump running it dry for several minutes – better check it sometime, I suppose.
With no plans to move and after a night punctuated by the noise of strong winds, we made a lazy start to the day. On the way down the towpath to the road at Wheelock, going to buy a paper, we found a tree down, almost but not quite blocking the path. It had also stopped just short of hitting the boat moored there.
When we got back to Sanity, I phoned the BW Wales and Border Counties office and reported it, having a very pleasant conversation with the woman who answered the phone. A bit later in the day it was gone, though we never spotted the blokes doing it.
Also later in the day, I was sitting working at the desk in the study bedroom when the boat started moving oddly – rocking and with odd noises from outside.
When I went out to investigate, there was a guy on the offside gunwale busy bow hauling the boat which had been moored behind us.
He apologised profusely, saying that he didn't realise there was anybody on the boat. This was perhaps a bit slow of him, since smoke was coming out of the chimney, but it seemed to be a genuine mistake.
He and his mate were moving the boat to Middlewich in this way. Apparently he'd been refitting it further up the canal when it sank – there was a small hole on the uxter plate (the bit of base plate under the counter), and the boat had slowly filled up and gone down.
He said in some surprise that they'd refloated it once already, but when they came back to it, blow me, it had sunk again. He didn't indicate whether he'd actually tried to close off the hole, saying "It's very small, only the size of a pencil".
I forbore to point out that even a small hole below the waterline, over a period of time, will let in enough water to sink the boat, steel not being famous for its buoyancy. The other sad thing is that it implies he bought the boat without a survey. It's very likely that, where there is one actual hole, there are many more potential ones, the steel having worn through over time (it was a pretty old looking boat).
The rest of the day was spent loafing, really, time being filled with internet activity, knitting, reading, and making a new ringtone for the phone.
Elanor had expressed some reservations about us using Waterloo as her personal ringtone, so I spent a bit of time in Sound Studio making a new 15 sec ringtone from the track Jose Cuervo, which Elanor likes for good reasons of her own. I did offer to use another Abba track, namely Knowing Me, Knowing You, in view of her recent break up, but I didn't happen to have it in iTunes, and it hardly seemed worthwhile buying it just for the sake of a joke in poor taste.
Today the weather looked distinctly dodgy, but the forecast was for an improvement, and I wanted to get down the rest of the locks to Middlewich – we are meeting Peter and Jan at the Salt Barge in Wincham on Saturday, and it's nice to have a day in hand for these things. I suspect that if it had been Sheila's turn to steer we wouldn't have gone, but there it was.
In the event, her scepticism was justified. It was really not a nice morning for boating, and we needed all the wet weather gear we had on. It rained fairly continuously, and from time to time it blew quite seriously as well.
We stopped on the water point to top up, and then it was the plod along the rather dismal pound that circumnavigates Sandbach without ever getting near enough to it to be useful.
Half way down Booth's Locks we crossed with an Elton Moss boat heading back to their base just above. This at least meant that all the locks would now be in our favour, which was particularly useful at Rumps. Sheila got off at the bridge well before and walked to it to get it open so that I could take Sanity straight in, despite the half gale that was by now blowing from behind me.
After that things weren't so bad, and Kings Lock was comparatively straightforward. The promised improvement in the weather was beginning to show up. Down the Middlewich Three we went, avoiding the broken down boat in the tight left hander pound between the top and middle locks. (OK, so you are broken down, but why not bow haul it up the last lock and get it out of everyone's way? You're almost certainly going to have to do that anyway.)
We stopped on the mooring beyond the Town Bridge, ate a belated lunch and then made a shopping raid on Somerfield, Bargain Booze and Rowland's the chemist.
Then we set off again, in pleasant sunshine now, and stopped briefly before Croxton Aqueduct to dispose of the old engine oil at the County Council tip there. Just across the aqueduct we finally stopped for the night. After I'd shut everything down, there was this persistent noise as of a pump or fan still running. It sounded as if the Eberspacher had tried to start itself up, and got stuck somewhere in its routine.
Sheila came and had a listen too, and we tried starting the Eberspacher in the ordinary way. This happened perfectly normally, and just as it was doing so, I realised that the manual override switch for the bilge pump was down. Sanity is such a dry boat, we never have occasion to use the bilge pump, and I just hadn't recognised the sound. A cheap disposable nappy (£2.50 for 20 from a supermarket) in the stern bilge is enough to absorb the bit of water that comes in past the stern greaser, being changed when I change the oil.
Just hope I haven't wrecked the impeller on the bilge pump running it dry for several minutes – better check it sometime, I suppose.
Labels:
Croxton,
Middlewich,
Wheelock
Tuesday, 8 January 2008
Whirling down to Wheelock
7th & 8th January
One thing I forgot to mention last time; the strange phenomenon of the night time biker. Whilst we were moored at the top of Church Locks, normally a perfectly peaceful mooring bar the noise of the road a couple of fields away, I heard a biker pass by the boat at three in the morning. It sounded like a small engined bike – either a small trail bike or one of those "sixteener specials".
I lay and pondered it in the dark, and finally concluded, since it was Saturday night, that it must be some late night reveller, too drunk to risk riding on the road, and using the towpath. This theory was blown away by what sounded very like the same bike coming back at 4.30 or so, and then past again just before five. Certainly broke up my night's sleep, though Sheila kipped on through it all.
Very odd, not to say irritating.
Anyway, back to our Hassal Green mooring and yesterday, Monday. Since the weather forecast was dire for the day, and there seemed to be a window of better stuff on Tuesday morning, we decided to stay put. Thus we were able to have a lie in until gone 9, and then potter round the boat, cleaning mostly. The internet connection wasn't desperately fast, GPRS rather than 3G, but I did clock that I'd had a sudden burst of traffic to the site on Sunday. This is odd, as the weekend is normally quieter – methinks there's a good bunch of you out there reading this from work :-}.
Any way, it's good to know that there's a slow but steady increase of readers – I do this blog for fun, but if folks pick up hints and tips, or just enjoy some vicarious cruising, that's great. It also encourages me to sit down and get on with it on those days when applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair is a bit harder than usual.
It's also worth saying by way of reassurance that although the Sitemeter counter I use can tell me when folks are viewing the site, and what part of the world they are from, it doesn't enable me to know who they are – the IP addresses are anonymised. It is fun to know that, at times, about 30% of the traffic comes from outside the UK, though.
As well as cleaning the boat, we took the opportunity to turn out one of the lockers under the side berth in the study bedroom. We'd seen a bit of black mould appearing in a corner of the bathroom next door, and wanted to be sure that it wasn't coming from behind the partition.
In any event, it's a good idea to turn these lockers out occasionally, in order to remember what's in there. In fact all seemed to be well – there was a bit of condensation forming in the locker, but nothing drastic. In the Spring, it will be good to turn it out again and air the stuff that's in there, that's all.
The black in the bathroom must be condensation related too – it's the curse of a boat at this time of year, and by and large we keep it under control. It's just that there are one or two spots around the cabin where there's not much air circulation, and so condensation and mould can form.
I also turned out one of the kitchen cupboards, the one with most of the food cans in it. In accordance with the third law of thermodynamics, it had slowly disorganised itself over time, and it was quite satisfying to haul it all out and repack it neatly.
The only other thing of particular note yesterday was a woman walking two Samoyed dogs past the boat. For those who don't know them, Sams are delightful – white and fluffy and very human oriented. They were bred to share tent space with their Siberian owners originally. We used to keep them ourselves, but on a boat they can cause a bit of mess – mud dries in the coat and then drops off in a pile on the floor, and the coat itself has a soft white underlayer, like cotton wool, that sheds in all directions.
If you've ever tried to vacuum cotton wool off a rug or carpet, you can imagine the problem. Seemingly this woman goes boating with both these dogs, so must have been well used to extensive boat cleaning.
This morning we made an early start to take advantage of the "better" weather. In fact it rained for much of the time, and Sheila, who was steering, found the wind a bit tricky if she had to hover above a lock waiting for it to fill.
Nonetheless, we made decent time, starting just after eight, and coming out of the bottom of the Wheelock flight, ten locks later, just after 10. We went onto the water point, filled up and then Sheila reversed Sanity back to the visitor moorings we'd just passed.
It's been an afternoon for the internet. First I had a comment from blogger A Different Voice, admitting that she'd used a photo of mine in a post about a truly bad first experience of hiring a narrowboat. She draws some very sensible conclusions from it, though, and her blog is well worth a visit.
Andrew on Granny Buttons also referred to her use of the photo – thanks for the plug, Andrew – this makes a sort of three way family favourites hook up!
The other bit of excitement is that the well known and well established shared ownership scheme, Challenger Syndicateships, has gone into administration. I was commenting only a few days ago about the danger of the boating bubble bursting, and this could be one symptom of just that happening.
More bad weather forecast for the next day or two, so we may be here for a couple of days yet.
One thing I forgot to mention last time; the strange phenomenon of the night time biker. Whilst we were moored at the top of Church Locks, normally a perfectly peaceful mooring bar the noise of the road a couple of fields away, I heard a biker pass by the boat at three in the morning. It sounded like a small engined bike – either a small trail bike or one of those "sixteener specials".
I lay and pondered it in the dark, and finally concluded, since it was Saturday night, that it must be some late night reveller, too drunk to risk riding on the road, and using the towpath. This theory was blown away by what sounded very like the same bike coming back at 4.30 or so, and then past again just before five. Certainly broke up my night's sleep, though Sheila kipped on through it all.
Very odd, not to say irritating.
Anyway, back to our Hassal Green mooring and yesterday, Monday. Since the weather forecast was dire for the day, and there seemed to be a window of better stuff on Tuesday morning, we decided to stay put. Thus we were able to have a lie in until gone 9, and then potter round the boat, cleaning mostly. The internet connection wasn't desperately fast, GPRS rather than 3G, but I did clock that I'd had a sudden burst of traffic to the site on Sunday. This is odd, as the weekend is normally quieter – methinks there's a good bunch of you out there reading this from work :-}.
Any way, it's good to know that there's a slow but steady increase of readers – I do this blog for fun, but if folks pick up hints and tips, or just enjoy some vicarious cruising, that's great. It also encourages me to sit down and get on with it on those days when applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair is a bit harder than usual.
It's also worth saying by way of reassurance that although the Sitemeter counter I use can tell me when folks are viewing the site, and what part of the world they are from, it doesn't enable me to know who they are – the IP addresses are anonymised. It is fun to know that, at times, about 30% of the traffic comes from outside the UK, though.
As well as cleaning the boat, we took the opportunity to turn out one of the lockers under the side berth in the study bedroom. We'd seen a bit of black mould appearing in a corner of the bathroom next door, and wanted to be sure that it wasn't coming from behind the partition.
In any event, it's a good idea to turn these lockers out occasionally, in order to remember what's in there. In fact all seemed to be well – there was a bit of condensation forming in the locker, but nothing drastic. In the Spring, it will be good to turn it out again and air the stuff that's in there, that's all.
The black in the bathroom must be condensation related too – it's the curse of a boat at this time of year, and by and large we keep it under control. It's just that there are one or two spots around the cabin where there's not much air circulation, and so condensation and mould can form.
I also turned out one of the kitchen cupboards, the one with most of the food cans in it. In accordance with the third law of thermodynamics, it had slowly disorganised itself over time, and it was quite satisfying to haul it all out and repack it neatly.
The only other thing of particular note yesterday was a woman walking two Samoyed dogs past the boat. For those who don't know them, Sams are delightful – white and fluffy and very human oriented. They were bred to share tent space with their Siberian owners originally. We used to keep them ourselves, but on a boat they can cause a bit of mess – mud dries in the coat and then drops off in a pile on the floor, and the coat itself has a soft white underlayer, like cotton wool, that sheds in all directions.
If you've ever tried to vacuum cotton wool off a rug or carpet, you can imagine the problem. Seemingly this woman goes boating with both these dogs, so must have been well used to extensive boat cleaning.
This morning we made an early start to take advantage of the "better" weather. In fact it rained for much of the time, and Sheila, who was steering, found the wind a bit tricky if she had to hover above a lock waiting for it to fill.
Nonetheless, we made decent time, starting just after eight, and coming out of the bottom of the Wheelock flight, ten locks later, just after 10. We went onto the water point, filled up and then Sheila reversed Sanity back to the visitor moorings we'd just passed.
It's been an afternoon for the internet. First I had a comment from blogger A Different Voice, admitting that she'd used a photo of mine in a post about a truly bad first experience of hiring a narrowboat. She draws some very sensible conclusions from it, though, and her blog is well worth a visit.
Andrew on Granny Buttons also referred to her use of the photo – thanks for the plug, Andrew – this makes a sort of three way family favourites hook up!
The other bit of excitement is that the well known and well established shared ownership scheme, Challenger Syndicateships, has gone into administration. I was commenting only a few days ago about the danger of the boating bubble bursting, and this could be one symptom of just that happening.
More bad weather forecast for the next day or two, so we may be here for a couple of days yet.
Labels:
Hassal Green,
Wheelock
Sunday, 6 January 2008
Down the Cheshire Locks
5th & 6th January
First a follow on to some remarks in the last blog and a comment from Jeremy. Whilst it's true, as Jeremy says, that there can be advantages from a bubble for those to who see it through, in terms of benefiting from the investment made during the upside, my concern is that BW is making a fundamental error in its income strategy.
There's much more detail about this on the SOW website, but, in a nutshell, at present BW does not receive enough income to cover what it calls its steady state needs, that is, the cash it needs to maintain the system as it is. Since there remains a maintenance backlog, this is a potentially disastrous situation. Some of us can remember all too well the seventies and eighties, when significant bits of the system were cut off from each other by closed tunnels and the like.
BW's income comes from three main sources: income from boating activities, from its property portfolio, and a Government grant-in-aid. The present BW chief exec, Robin Evans, has explicitly stated that he wants to reduce dependence on the grant-in-aid. The trouble is, the vast majority of visitors to the waterways (about 97%) are not boaters, but are towpath walkers, cyclists, anglers and the like. There's no easy way to extract much income from these people, except indirectly from pubs and cafes and so on. Since income from boating already makes up at least 10% of BW's top line, many of us feel that substantial funding from general taxation via the grant-in-aid is only fair.
Meantime, of course, the property income has not kept growing as quickly as Mr Evans hoped, as the economic downturn starts to bite. I've done a longer paper on some of these issues – it's on the main website here.
Getting back to our cruising: yesterday we made a leisurely start, and wended our way through Hall Green stop lock to moor just before the junction with the Trent and Mersey to go shopping at the local Tesco. After an early lunch, we set off down the Red Bull locks, closely followed by a guy single handing Serendipity.
We both stopped for water, then carried on to the top of Church Locks for the night. Sheila got the bow saw out to cut up the bits and bobs of wood we'd accumulated on the roof. A passer-by (there were plenty of walkers out and about in the sun) gave her the benefit of his advice along the lines of "you need to have the wood higher so you can cut horizontally, and you need a new blade in that bow saw".
He then commented that he was probably teaching his grandmother to suck eggs, and Sheila, who at one stage worked in the School of Agricultural and Forest Sciences at Bangor, managed to avoid a pithy response (just).
Today was another day for a relaxed start, and we chugged off at around ten o'clock. It was an absolutely beautiful morning, sunny, no wind to speak of, and occasional patches of very thin ice on the cut.
We carried on down the locks – Church, Halls, the Lawton three, then a pause at Rode Heath to dump some recycling in the bins in the Broughton Arms car park, and to buy a paper at the handy store just over the road. After that it was Thurlwood and Pierrepoint locks before tying for the day above Hassal Green.
Serendipity had still been following on, and where appropriate we'd been setting a lock for him, especially where the locks were paired, as many of them are on this stretch. Thus if both are against you, and there's no sign of anyone coming up, it's only the work of a moment to draw a top paddle on the lock you are not using for the benefit of the boat behind. This is particularly appropriate when that boat is single handing as Serendipity was (unless you count his very laid back German Shepherd, which mostly sat and observed proceedings from the stern deck.)
I was just getting ready to do an oil change, when Serendipity came past. He stopped alongside, and gave us two crusty bread rolls, in appreciation of our help with the locks. "I usually do a baking on a Sunday", he said.
Now that's the spirit of boating for you.
First a follow on to some remarks in the last blog and a comment from Jeremy. Whilst it's true, as Jeremy says, that there can be advantages from a bubble for those to who see it through, in terms of benefiting from the investment made during the upside, my concern is that BW is making a fundamental error in its income strategy.
There's much more detail about this on the SOW website, but, in a nutshell, at present BW does not receive enough income to cover what it calls its steady state needs, that is, the cash it needs to maintain the system as it is. Since there remains a maintenance backlog, this is a potentially disastrous situation. Some of us can remember all too well the seventies and eighties, when significant bits of the system were cut off from each other by closed tunnels and the like.
BW's income comes from three main sources: income from boating activities, from its property portfolio, and a Government grant-in-aid. The present BW chief exec, Robin Evans, has explicitly stated that he wants to reduce dependence on the grant-in-aid. The trouble is, the vast majority of visitors to the waterways (about 97%) are not boaters, but are towpath walkers, cyclists, anglers and the like. There's no easy way to extract much income from these people, except indirectly from pubs and cafes and so on. Since income from boating already makes up at least 10% of BW's top line, many of us feel that substantial funding from general taxation via the grant-in-aid is only fair.
Meantime, of course, the property income has not kept growing as quickly as Mr Evans hoped, as the economic downturn starts to bite. I've done a longer paper on some of these issues – it's on the main website here.
Getting back to our cruising: yesterday we made a leisurely start, and wended our way through Hall Green stop lock to moor just before the junction with the Trent and Mersey to go shopping at the local Tesco. After an early lunch, we set off down the Red Bull locks, closely followed by a guy single handing Serendipity.
We both stopped for water, then carried on to the top of Church Locks for the night. Sheila got the bow saw out to cut up the bits and bobs of wood we'd accumulated on the roof. A passer-by (there were plenty of walkers out and about in the sun) gave her the benefit of his advice along the lines of "you need to have the wood higher so you can cut horizontally, and you need a new blade in that bow saw".
He then commented that he was probably teaching his grandmother to suck eggs, and Sheila, who at one stage worked in the School of Agricultural and Forest Sciences at Bangor, managed to avoid a pithy response (just).
Today was another day for a relaxed start, and we chugged off at around ten o'clock. It was an absolutely beautiful morning, sunny, no wind to speak of, and occasional patches of very thin ice on the cut.
We carried on down the locks – Church, Halls, the Lawton three, then a pause at Rode Heath to dump some recycling in the bins in the Broughton Arms car park, and to buy a paper at the handy store just over the road. After that it was Thurlwood and Pierrepoint locks before tying for the day above Hassal Green.
Serendipity had still been following on, and where appropriate we'd been setting a lock for him, especially where the locks were paired, as many of them are on this stretch. Thus if both are against you, and there's no sign of anyone coming up, it's only the work of a moment to draw a top paddle on the lock you are not using for the benefit of the boat behind. This is particularly appropriate when that boat is single handing as Serendipity was (unless you count his very laid back German Shepherd, which mostly sat and observed proceedings from the stern deck.)
I was just getting ready to do an oil change, when Serendipity came past. He stopped alongside, and gave us two crusty bread rolls, in appreciation of our help with the locks. "I usually do a baking on a Sunday", he said.
Now that's the spirit of boating for you.
Labels:
Church Locks,
Hassal Green
Friday, 4 January 2008
Down Bosley once more
3rd & 4th January
Needing to be up in good time, we'd set the central heating to come on at 7. Since the Eberspacher starting up sounds like there's a 747 in the engine 'ole running its engines up before take off, this makes an effective alarm clock.
By 7.30 we were getting up, and on our way by half eight. At 9.15 we were passing through the Royal Oak swing bridge, and were watering at the top of Bosley by 10.
The top lock was with us, but the next few were empty. An unconverted working boat passed us at lock 4, and said that there were some BW boats coming up behind them, so he'd been back setting some of the locks for them. This meant, since he'd got well ahead of them, that we had to turn number six around, which was a right pain, holding Sanity above the lock in a fresh breeze.
We found the first of the BW boats at 7, a guy on his own, bow hauling a flat. He seemed quite cheerful about it, saying that he was at least keeping warm.
By the time we had Sanity into 7, we could see activity at 8. It proved to be a second flat being push towed by a tug. The two guys on it then gave a short demo of total incompetence, such as you'd be mildly surprised to find in a novice, much less supposedly experienced boaters (pause for cynical laughter from some of my readers. BW staff used all to be ex-working boaters, and had indeed forgotten more about boating than I will ever know. Now, however, they have to employ whomever they can get, and since they only pay peanuts...)
The flat had the usual square bow, and lock 8 has steel frame gates. They'd managed to get the bow stuck under the beam of one of the gates, and as the boat rose in the lock, it had started to lift the gate out of its quoin. This had prised open the mitre between the two top gates, and the resulting flood of water into the flat's well deck had quickly reached the level of the ventilator in the bow door, and started to fill the cabin.
They'd had to close the top paddles and hastily draw the bottom ones to let the flat lower itself out from under the gate, and then reverse it away from the water still cascading through between the gates.
When I got there, one of them was standing on the lockside, shouting to his mate inside the cabin (the last place he should have been in a boat at risk of sinking). Eventually the mate emerged with a bucket, and they started to bail the well deck with it, until they could reach down to the drain hole through the hull side. This had been allowed to become blocked, itself an outstandingly stupid thing to do when locking a boat uphill – there's always the risk of shipping water into the well, even if you don't try to dismantle the top gates with the boat's bow.
Eventually they got their act more or less together, though it was left to me to draw the top paddles, despite the fact that one of them was wandering around with two windlasses (one for each hand?)
After all this fun, we got to the bottom just after twelve, having taken two hours for the flight including unscheduled entertainment. The only problem we had then was finding a mooring at the bottom where we could get a smidgen of phone signal. It wouldn't normally have mattered – we'd warned Elanor we might be out of touch, and anyone else in the family trying to get us would check with her if they couldn't raise us.
The thing was, we were expecting a visit from a guy called Andrew Wilkinson. Sheila had met him earlier on at Braidbar. He's doing a foundation degree course in photography, and for one of his projects is taking photos of people who live in boats. We'd arranged by email to meet him at the foot of the flight, and were expecting a confirmatory phone call from him during lunch.
I just about managed to get things working in time to speak to him, and he turned up just after lunch. We were glad we'd gone to the trouble – he's an interesting guy and it was good to be able to help him with his project. We look forward to seeing the final result in due course – since he's doing the course in Northwich, we should be able to meet up with him again during the winter.
I did a bit of photography myself just as he arrived – the bottom lock, 12, had the most amazing fountain of water emerging from the side wall; not the usual "pisser", which is where there's a void behind the brick or stone work of the lock wall. This fills when the lock does, and then when the lock empties, it, er, all comes out. There was a big one of those half way down the offside, Sheila said, but this other one didn't stop when the lock was empty, but kept on going – it must be fed from the pound above, so that it's running all the time the lock is empty, slowly wearing away the ground behind the lock...
After all the excitement we had a quiet evening, and a reasonably lazy start this morning. Even so, we were away by 9.30, and at Congleton by 11. We trekked down into town, looking for a copy shop type place to get our new BW licences laminated. This worked so well last year we want to do it again this, but Congleton doesn't quite run to such a thing. Nonetheless, we got some shopping done, and had lunch before plodding off again, into deteriorating and darkening weather.
We got to Heritage marina at last, and after a short wait, were able to get a pump out and to fill up with diesel. We needed 125 litres at 65 pence, plus £15 for a very average pump out. I also bought an oil filter, and in due course found myself keying in my credit card PIN for a bill of £105. And BW are massively increasing the licence fee and mooring fees over the next three years, saying that there's lots more boats coming onto the water, so people must be prepared to pay more.
I wonder if they've heard of that quaint old term in economics, a bubble?
We then chugged on to Hall Green moorings for the night – tomorrow the Cheshire Locks for the first time since we came up them in September 2005.
Needing to be up in good time, we'd set the central heating to come on at 7. Since the Eberspacher starting up sounds like there's a 747 in the engine 'ole running its engines up before take off, this makes an effective alarm clock.
By 7.30 we were getting up, and on our way by half eight. At 9.15 we were passing through the Royal Oak swing bridge, and were watering at the top of Bosley by 10.
The top lock was with us, but the next few were empty. An unconverted working boat passed us at lock 4, and said that there were some BW boats coming up behind them, so he'd been back setting some of the locks for them. This meant, since he'd got well ahead of them, that we had to turn number six around, which was a right pain, holding Sanity above the lock in a fresh breeze.
We found the first of the BW boats at 7, a guy on his own, bow hauling a flat. He seemed quite cheerful about it, saying that he was at least keeping warm.
By the time we had Sanity into 7, we could see activity at 8. It proved to be a second flat being push towed by a tug. The two guys on it then gave a short demo of total incompetence, such as you'd be mildly surprised to find in a novice, much less supposedly experienced boaters (pause for cynical laughter from some of my readers. BW staff used all to be ex-working boaters, and had indeed forgotten more about boating than I will ever know. Now, however, they have to employ whomever they can get, and since they only pay peanuts...)
The flat had the usual square bow, and lock 8 has steel frame gates. They'd managed to get the bow stuck under the beam of one of the gates, and as the boat rose in the lock, it had started to lift the gate out of its quoin. This had prised open the mitre between the two top gates, and the resulting flood of water into the flat's well deck had quickly reached the level of the ventilator in the bow door, and started to fill the cabin.
They'd had to close the top paddles and hastily draw the bottom ones to let the flat lower itself out from under the gate, and then reverse it away from the water still cascading through between the gates.
When I got there, one of them was standing on the lockside, shouting to his mate inside the cabin (the last place he should have been in a boat at risk of sinking). Eventually the mate emerged with a bucket, and they started to bail the well deck with it, until they could reach down to the drain hole through the hull side. This had been allowed to become blocked, itself an outstandingly stupid thing to do when locking a boat uphill – there's always the risk of shipping water into the well, even if you don't try to dismantle the top gates with the boat's bow.
Eventually they got their act more or less together, though it was left to me to draw the top paddles, despite the fact that one of them was wandering around with two windlasses (one for each hand?)
After all this fun, we got to the bottom just after twelve, having taken two hours for the flight including unscheduled entertainment. The only problem we had then was finding a mooring at the bottom where we could get a smidgen of phone signal. It wouldn't normally have mattered – we'd warned Elanor we might be out of touch, and anyone else in the family trying to get us would check with her if they couldn't raise us.
The thing was, we were expecting a visit from a guy called Andrew Wilkinson. Sheila had met him earlier on at Braidbar. He's doing a foundation degree course in photography, and for one of his projects is taking photos of people who live in boats. We'd arranged by email to meet him at the foot of the flight, and were expecting a confirmatory phone call from him during lunch.
I just about managed to get things working in time to speak to him, and he turned up just after lunch. We were glad we'd gone to the trouble – he's an interesting guy and it was good to be able to help him with his project. We look forward to seeing the final result in due course – since he's doing the course in Northwich, we should be able to meet up with him again during the winter.
I did a bit of photography myself just as he arrived – the bottom lock, 12, had the most amazing fountain of water emerging from the side wall; not the usual "pisser", which is where there's a void behind the brick or stone work of the lock wall. This fills when the lock does, and then when the lock empties, it, er, all comes out. There was a big one of those half way down the offside, Sheila said, but this other one didn't stop when the lock was empty, but kept on going – it must be fed from the pound above, so that it's running all the time the lock is empty, slowly wearing away the ground behind the lock...
After all the excitement we had a quiet evening, and a reasonably lazy start this morning. Even so, we were away by 9.30, and at Congleton by 11. We trekked down into town, looking for a copy shop type place to get our new BW licences laminated. This worked so well last year we want to do it again this, but Congleton doesn't quite run to such a thing. Nonetheless, we got some shopping done, and had lunch before plodding off again, into deteriorating and darkening weather.
We got to Heritage marina at last, and after a short wait, were able to get a pump out and to fill up with diesel. We needed 125 litres at 65 pence, plus £15 for a very average pump out. I also bought an oil filter, and in due course found myself keying in my credit card PIN for a bill of £105. And BW are massively increasing the licence fee and mooring fees over the next three years, saying that there's lots more boats coming onto the water, so people must be prepared to pay more.
I wonder if they've heard of that quaint old term in economics, a bubble?
We then chugged on to Hall Green moorings for the night – tomorrow the Cheshire Locks for the first time since we came up them in September 2005.
Labels:
Bosley,
Hall Green
Wednesday, 2 January 2008
First blog of 2008
1st & 2nd January
Must have been a good New Year – I woke in the night with that thought "If I'd known I was going to be this thirsty this morning, I'd have had more to drink last night." Nonetheless, the morning wasn't too painful: well, not compared to some Ne'er Day mornings I can hazily remember.
Sheila was less affected, but then she'd been more cautious with Elanor's main contribution to the proceedings (apart from her company, of course). This was some form of schnapps she'd acquired in Germany. Herb flavoured (it must be good for you, it's got herbs in it), it was all too moreish. Never mind, it was a good evening, all things considered, so mustn't complain.
As a way of getting fresh air we all made a trip to the recycling bank after a late breakfast. It was mostly full, but we managed to unload the glass and paper, which were the major items.
Shortly after lunch we moved onto the water point briefly to let Elanor unload and go, and then chugged round to Lyme View for the night. The weather forecast was not too good for the next couple of days, being a sequence of windy –> cold and windy –> cold –> windy, but we'll need to tough it out as we want to be down Bosley Locks before they close next Monday for a stoppage. Also, we need diesel and a pump out, and plan to get both at Heritage Marina at the end of the Macc.
In view of the weather, we'd planned an early start this morning, but in fact slept in a bit. Sheila dressed while I made tea, and set off boating whilst I ate breakfast. Then we changed over for her to eat, and thereafter made steady progress towards Macclesfield.
The main hold up was just before Hurdsford Industrial Estate, where we found a shell in the early stages of fitting out drifting in the cut. Its bow was still moored, and it was an interesting exercise in a cross wind to get on board and shaft it into the bank.
In this we were helped by a towpath cyclist (yes, a cyclist) who clambered round with the shaft to the shell's stern and poled it in. Turns out he was a boater himself, but it just goes to show, you can't assume anything on the basis of someone's mode of transport.
We tied on Macc town mooring, avoiding the dog muck for once, and did our usual Tesco run. By then it was lunchtime, and afterwards, just as we were preparing to set off for Gurnett for the night, Cala came into view heading back to Poynton after a fortnight's cruise. They've got the usual list of niggles to get sorted out, but remain very pleased with the boat.
Peter told me to make sure I got this blog done in good time, or Gill gets cross, seemingly :-}, so I'll just add a recipe for the pie we had on New Year's Eve and post it.
Put some olive oil in a pan (I use Stellar stainless steel casseroles on both stove top and in the oven) and fry onion and garlic until translucent. Add chopped cooked turkey and a tablespoonful of plain flour and stir on a very low heat until the flour has taken up the oil into a roux.
Stir in half a pint of ham stock and keep stirring until the stock has blended with the roux and started to thicken. Slice some sprouts into disks and some mushrooms, and add to the pan. Season with sage, salt and pepper.
Stir all together and put in the oven (transferring to a casserole first if not using a pan like mine) and cook at Gas Mark 3, 190 C for about half an hour, or more as timing suits.
Half an hour before serving, mix four ounces of self raising flour, two of shredded suet and about five tablespoons of cold water in a bowl. Season with salt and some thyme, and mix into a stiffish pastry. Twenty minutes before serving, remove lid from casserole and place rolled out disk of pastry on top of the turkey mixture.
Return to the oven and increase heat to Gas 5, 200 C until top of pastry is golden and crusty. Serve with mashed potato and a green veg – we had green peas, which worked well.
Enjoy 2008, folks!
Must have been a good New Year – I woke in the night with that thought "If I'd known I was going to be this thirsty this morning, I'd have had more to drink last night." Nonetheless, the morning wasn't too painful: well, not compared to some Ne'er Day mornings I can hazily remember.
Sheila was less affected, but then she'd been more cautious with Elanor's main contribution to the proceedings (apart from her company, of course). This was some form of schnapps she'd acquired in Germany. Herb flavoured (it must be good for you, it's got herbs in it), it was all too moreish. Never mind, it was a good evening, all things considered, so mustn't complain.
As a way of getting fresh air we all made a trip to the recycling bank after a late breakfast. It was mostly full, but we managed to unload the glass and paper, which were the major items.
Shortly after lunch we moved onto the water point briefly to let Elanor unload and go, and then chugged round to Lyme View for the night. The weather forecast was not too good for the next couple of days, being a sequence of windy –> cold and windy –> cold –> windy, but we'll need to tough it out as we want to be down Bosley Locks before they close next Monday for a stoppage. Also, we need diesel and a pump out, and plan to get both at Heritage Marina at the end of the Macc.
In view of the weather, we'd planned an early start this morning, but in fact slept in a bit. Sheila dressed while I made tea, and set off boating whilst I ate breakfast. Then we changed over for her to eat, and thereafter made steady progress towards Macclesfield.
The main hold up was just before Hurdsford Industrial Estate, where we found a shell in the early stages of fitting out drifting in the cut. Its bow was still moored, and it was an interesting exercise in a cross wind to get on board and shaft it into the bank.
In this we were helped by a towpath cyclist (yes, a cyclist) who clambered round with the shaft to the shell's stern and poled it in. Turns out he was a boater himself, but it just goes to show, you can't assume anything on the basis of someone's mode of transport.
We tied on Macc town mooring, avoiding the dog muck for once, and did our usual Tesco run. By then it was lunchtime, and afterwards, just as we were preparing to set off for Gurnett for the night, Cala came into view heading back to Poynton after a fortnight's cruise. They've got the usual list of niggles to get sorted out, but remain very pleased with the boat.
Peter told me to make sure I got this blog done in good time, or Gill gets cross, seemingly :-}, so I'll just add a recipe for the pie we had on New Year's Eve and post it.
Christmas Pie
Put some olive oil in a pan (I use Stellar stainless steel casseroles on both stove top and in the oven) and fry onion and garlic until translucent. Add chopped cooked turkey and a tablespoonful of plain flour and stir on a very low heat until the flour has taken up the oil into a roux.
Stir in half a pint of ham stock and keep stirring until the stock has blended with the roux and started to thicken. Slice some sprouts into disks and some mushrooms, and add to the pan. Season with sage, salt and pepper.
Stir all together and put in the oven (transferring to a casserole first if not using a pan like mine) and cook at Gas Mark 3, 190 C for about half an hour, or more as timing suits.
Half an hour before serving, mix four ounces of self raising flour, two of shredded suet and about five tablespoons of cold water in a bowl. Season with salt and some thyme, and mix into a stiffish pastry. Twenty minutes before serving, remove lid from casserole and place rolled out disk of pastry on top of the turkey mixture.
Return to the oven and increase heat to Gas 5, 200 C until top of pastry is golden and crusty. Serve with mashed potato and a green veg – we had green peas, which worked well.
Enjoy 2008, folks!
Labels:
Adlington,
Gurnett Aqueduct
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