Leaving Poynton at last

22nd & 23rd September

We'd been warned that the pub would be busy on a Sunday evening after seven, and for that reason stopped serving food then. We all rolled up at six, and it was indeed very busy, but mainly with diners getting an early meal, several groups being families with comparatively small children.

We managed to get a big enough group of tables together for the twelve of us, however, and were able to order from a menu that was getting shorter by the minute.

Nonetheless, we all had a good meal, together with a couple of rounds of ale. By eight, the place was in fact quite quiet, with only ourselves and a bunch of regulars round the bar still drinking.

Later, we ambled back to the bungalow at the boatyard, and in a while there was a hard core (Peter, the Calas, Sanitys and Sebeqs) left, drinking Peter's wine and playing with Maria's toy remote control helicopter, as bought from eBay for £6.99.

Truly adolescence is a lot more fun the second time around (not least because you are in no doubt as to whom you are going to bed with when it's all over, which I reckon is a major component in teenage existential doubt).

Next morning I had a quick maintenance job to do on Sanity, as the galley sink had decided to stop draining last thing the night before. It proved to be a simple blockage which fell out when I took the pipe off the underside of the plughole.

We did a fair bit of hanging about during the morning, culminating in an epic session of boat shuffling, aimed at moving those boats which had only been in the yard for the Open Day (Braidbar 100 and Sanity) out onto the mainline, moving Bella out of the paint dock and moving in those (Calm Down and the shell for the next build) which needed the workforce to get on with them.

In addition, the hire boat, Skye, needed to come into the yard in mid cruise to have her Webasto diesel heater fixed, so she was run down the middle between Cala and the shell, and her crew invited to look round the other boats by way of a diversion.

We finally left just before lunch, going down to the end of the moorings to wind (when you come out of the yard, you always end up facing towards Marple) and then gently boating to Adlington for the night.

It was a wrench to go, but all good things come to an end eventually. By the time we got there it had turned determinedly wet again, giving us all the excuse we needed for a very quiet afternoon and evening.

Today was a pretty relaxed start too. On a dry but cool morning, Sheila steered the familiar route to Macclesfield whilst I browsed the net, did a bit of emailing and caught up with a newspaper.

The moorings by the water point in Macc were full, as ever, but we managed to moor on pins between the water point and the bridge. There was just time to go to Tesco before lunch, which we took where we were, then after refilling the water tank we came on to Gurnett Aqueduct. It was pretty full here, too, with just a couple of 60 foot spaces left, one of which we took and the other of which filled up in mid afternoon.

The weather was now sunny and mild, and Sheila sat out on the bow knitting: until the boat in front started its engine for battery charging purposes.

We've relit the stove now – these Autumn evenings are too cool for comfort once the sun goes down, which it will do in about an hour from now, having just passed the Equinox.

We're going to stay here tomorrow, doing some big town shopping in Macc, then heading off for Bosley Locks on Thursday, windlasses out for the first time in three weeks.