Single handing in the wind

30th & 31st January

A further examination of the weather forecast yesterday morning confirmed that I had a two day window to get to Rugeley and back if I wanted to do so in ice free conditions. Accordingly I was underway by nine.

Incidentally, this reminds me to say that I've changed my favourite weather site. I used to use the main Met Office one, having flirted briefly with Met Monkey (too funky for me). Recently, though, I've come to prefer Met Check; it does a daily summary, and the info for a given location is more detailed, and goes further ahead. The site loads much faster, as well.

It was a damp and breezy day, so I wrapped up well. Leaving the towpath at Tixall was simple. Having started up and put the tiller on (always a good idea before letting go), I released the bow, nipped down to the back and untied there. It was a bit of a scramble to get the piling chain out before Sanity left without me, but I got there in time, hopped onto the stern and put the tiller down.

The bow was already well out, and so she made a very satisfying turn under a fair bit of power to start heading for Great Haywood. Once off the Wide, the wind was no real problem at all, and I made good progress down Great Haywood and Colwich Locks, arriving at Rugeley by 11.15, just nice time for a cup of coffee before shopping.

That took me up to lunchtime, and having fed, I set off again to the winding hole just beyond the railway bridges. There was a bit of traffic about – I was the middle one of three in succession turning there, but it all thinned out and I got to Wolseley Bridge in solitary state.

Just the two of us were moored on the rings south of the road bridge, there being three more on the other side. Well satisfied with the day's endeavours, I had a quiet afternoon and a good night's kip.

Today I got away just before nine again, in weather much as before, though if anything the wind got gustier as the day went on. This was to have its main effect at the end of the day, but for most of the cruising was still not a problem.

Back at Great Haywood, I stopped briefly above the lock to get a paper. Single handing tends to mean that this sort of thing just takes a lot longer than it would if accompanied; I had to stop the engine, tie properly and lock the boat up just to make the five minute trip to the shop. Normally, I'd have left Sheila on board, probably with the boat on a centreline, assuming I hadn't just abandoned her working the lock and gone to get it.

Arriving at the water point, I found two boats already in possession, but only had to wait a short while before it was my turn. I used the interim to make a cup of coffee and dump the rubbish and recycling.

Reversing back off to make the turn under the junction bridge was a bit trickier than usual in the wind, but not a big deal, and I was soon back on the Wide. Here the fun began. I'd already prepared the centreline with a big piling hook strung on it, and as I came back to more or less where I had been, I hopped off the slowing boat and shoved the hook into the Armco.

A period of epic struggle then commenced ( I was going to say titanic, but there weren't any icebergs, yet). The wind was blowing straight off the towpath, and Sanity really, really wanted to go and see if there were any swans in the reeds on the other side of the Wide.

I managed to get her so that the bow was touching the bank and the stern only about six feet out from it. I tied the centreline to the piling hook, and went and deployed the bowline through its piling chain. Then I got back on the boat, walked through to the stern and motored it in.

It's in these circumstances that it's good to have confidence in your lines and the knots you've used to tie them. Once the stern was against the bank I leapt off, stern line and piling chain in hand. Having managed to get the chain secured to the Armco and the line through it, only having to stop twice to haul the stern back in, I dropped a clove hitch onto a stern dolly and heaved a sigh of relief. I wasn't finished yet, but at least the situation was now well under control.

Fenders were clipped to the gunwales, the bowline adjusted and finally the stern line hauled in again and tied properly. The main risk in all this, apart from putting your back out, obviously, is to your fingers. It's essential not to let them get into any of the loops as you tie off the ropes. Get it wrong, and you risk being left short handed.

One other boater's dodge I used is worth mentioning: when hauling in the boat, having got the line through a piling hook or ring or whatever, it's easier to hold the line in your left hand and pull up with your right on the rope where it runs from the hook or ring to the boat, as if you were pulling a bowstring. Then, as you let go, pull the rope thus gained through the ring with your left hand. Repeat apparently endlessly and you will haul the boat in to the bank more effectively than just pulling straight on the rope.

Having done all this, and tottered about tidying up inside, I went to check the email and found that, unlike last time, I was still on a slow, green connection. After lunch, I experimented moving the laptop so that the modem was in the side hatches rather than the study porthole, and got a fast, blue connection.

With T-mobile, it seems that the further west you tie on Tixall, the better the connection will be. I wasn't going to move the boat again today, but thought that I would do so tomorrow if the wind had dropped but the ice hadn't yet appeared.

When I came to do this blog post, however, at half three, the connection has speeded up with the modem in its usual place, so I'll see what it's like tomorrow before making a decision about moving .

As may be imagined, I have had a quiet time since, chatting to Elanor on the phone a couple of times (she's buying a new bathroom) and buying a couple of ebooks (pause for Sheila to have a fit – her problem is she hasn't taken the codes for checking the online bank accounts away with her, so she's only got my word for what I'm spending, hee, hee).

In fact, it's the other two books in the Maria V. Snyder "Study" series, the first of which came bundled with the Sony Reader, and they were a swingeing £5 each, so not bad, I reckon, in recompense for doing without her company for another whole week.

This post has gone on long enough. It's the last day of the month, so I'm going to have a shower – see you in Feb.