A final couple of days in Alrewas

27th & 28th April

I got an appointment to see my GP yesterday using the dodge we’ve developed over the last couple of years. This involves being outside the surgery at ten past eight, so as to be first in when they open at 8.15, so as to get an appointment that morning. In this case, I had half an hour to kill, and went and strolled round the village for 20 minutes.

It occurs to me as I type this that just having an old style free for all would work just as well from my point of view - turn up early, be first in to see the doctor. It’s no good for those who can’t physically get there straight away, of course, which is why we went over to appointments in the first place.

Anyway, all was well, 10/10 and all that – I’m to go on doing whatever it is that I’m doing, I’m told, which is good news for brewers of real ale and importers of reasonably priced New World wines.

Back at the boat, we pottered about until it was time for the walk; we coped much better this week, and had a good lunch to follow. The George and Dragon does a nice line in well filled baguettes, which are just as filling as the more expensive “Lite Bites”.

(We’re talking £3.95 instead of £4.95, and not encouraging horrible corruptions of English into the bargain.)

(Thank you, Mr Meldrew.)

After all that exercise and good food, we dozed in the sun rather, but it was very pleasant to have some decent sun to doze in.

This morning saw us make an early start after a decent night’s sleep for once. First task was to turn Sanity around by taking her down Bagnall Lock, winding her and coming back up again to the same mooring. This took a bit longer than expected, as three other boats (two up, one down) passed the lock in the intervening period, so Sheila, who was locking, got a bit more exercise than she'd planned.

No matter, Sanity is now pointing the same way as Sanity Again, ready for our convoy to Fradley tomorrow.

I went into the village afterwards, for shopping and drugs, and only failed to get a loaf of bread for lunch (Warburton’s doesn’t deliver to the Co-op until after half ten or eleven). Meantime, Sheila had run a washload, and I helped her hang it out on the whirligig on my return.

Being a touch behind with the laundry, as we'd changed the bed the other day, she ran another load straight away. Such was the power of the sun and wind, that the first load had dried by the time she needed to hang out the second.

Brass polishing was next, after coffee, whilst I trekked back into the village for bread. After lunch, it was Sheila’s turn to walk in, visiting Jane Howarth to collect a bit of NHS post for us that had turned up at their house. Jane’s had a couple of big operations this year, and is having to take it very easy, so the company was very welcome.

Meantime, I pottered about on the two boats, checking both engines and the like. Elanor is joining us for the night, and then will give us a hand with the locks tomorrow.

Spring time jobs

25th & 26th April

Hey ho, another month nearly gone, but at least the weather is looking much more cheerful.

Yesterday, we woke early and, straight after breakfast, walked up to Bagnall Lock to see if there would be room for Sanity Again near Sanity. There wasn’t, really, but with a bit of juggling and the aid of a mooring spike for the back end of Sanity, we could do it. Accordingly, we put the plan onto action immediately, and by coffee time had the two boats bow to bow.

The rest of the morning was taken up with a major service for Sanity, so that she will be all ready for her new owner.

After lunch, we found that it was just a bit too breezy to sit out enjoyably, so went for a walk instead, feeling the need of fresh air as we did after the hard work of the morning. We ambled down Dark Lane here in Alrewas, then back across the fields to the river and so home.

Getting back just in nice time for a cup of tea, the rest of the day was spent in productive loafing.

Today, we made a lazy start, and put the morning to good use swapping our clothes over, winter for summer. Storing the other season’s stuff under the dinette makes this quite straightforward.

The catches on all the pull out panels were a bit stiff, so we went round them with the grease can and eased them. Sheila sorted a washload, and we ran the engine for a couple of hours to deal with it. There was just nice time to hang the wet socks out on the whirligig before we were due at the dentist.

I’m pleased to say that all was well in the buccal zones, so no need for a return there for six months, hopefully.

After a late lunch, we turned to and did the day’s work session. Sheila polished portholes and the tiller, whilst I excavated the last of the stuff from Sanity’s engine room. This was once more a case of adopting Caesar’s approach to Gaul: about equal amounts were divided into stuff to leave on Sanity (paint, mostly), bits and pieces to move to Sanity Again, and the rest went into rubbish sacks.

Why does one keep dirty old rags? They always end up being thrown out, only it's six months/a year/six years later.

Shopping, cleaning, and boating

22nd, 23rd & 24th April

We found ourselves on our own at Shobnall overnight, Wednesday to Thursday, only the second time that’s happened, but although it felt about exposed, we had no trouble at all. To our surprise, the batteries were still well charged in the morning, making us wonder if the street lights were bright enough to generate some juice in the solar panel.

We’d been thinking about the virtues of having our own oil extractor, or “sucky thing” as a certain boat builder of our acquaintance calls it, and I found a miniature, 1.5 litre one on the Machine Mart site, so ordered it. We don’t need it for changing the oil, but it will be very handy for drying out bilges and the like.

I know, more storage space = more stuff to store.

In compliance with this adage, we then went off on a very successful shopping trip, obtaining such things as a small set of kitchen scales, some Mr Sheen and a new watch from the Watch Hospital in Coopers Square.

We had an interesting example of why WH Smith’s is struggling, and Ryman’s thriving, in a search for a soft pencil eraser. In Smith’s, the assistant whom Sheila approached just gave some vague directions as to which aisle to look in; in Ryman’s we saw the woman on the till respond to a request for a single paint brush by calling another assistant over “John, just show this gentleman where the paint brushes are, will you?”

As I think it was Sir Stuart Rose said: “Succeeding in retail isn’t hard, you just give the customers what they want,” which includes good service, of course.

Back at the boat by 10, we set off for Branston, finding a mooring before the bridge without difficulty in the mid morning, the T-mobile signal being better there than by the water park.

In the afternoon, we did some boat cleaning; Sheila made cardboard masks to go round the portholes, and started cleaning them with Peek, whilst I had a go at washing Icelandic volcano dust off the roof and port side.

Then we quietly collapsed to enjoy the warm evening.

Yesterday we stayed put on the 48 hour moorings, and made an expedition to Morrisons for perishable supplies. A lazy morning followed, which I improved by taking some shots of Sanity Again and putting them up on Flickr.

In the afternoon, we co-operated on a blog post for Building Sanity Again, describing our impressions of her after the first three weeks on board.

Today, we made an early start to get back to Alrewas mid morning, when we’d have the best chance of getting a 70 foot mooring. It was a good run, with not much traffic about (we started at 7.30). Sheila pointed out a little grebe she’d spotted on the way down, and also recorded a pair of swans necking, and a magpie perched on some cattle.

We’d barely arrived and got tied up before our old Ownerships boat, Streamline, turned up, with Alan and Liz Rowbotham on board. We had a good old natter with them, and showed off Sanity Again, needless to say.

We’ve tied by the water point, and cleaned the ventilator mushrooms (Sheila) and the starboard cabin side (Bruce). Whilst engaged in this, Elanor turned up with our post, including the sucky thing. It is indeed a dinky little beast, scarcely large enough to be away from its mother, but entirely adequate for our purposes, and easily storable.

The rest of the day has been spent dozing in the sun, chatting to passing boaters and towpath walkers, and generally chilling out. Tomorrow, we’ll move up through Bagnall Lock to tie near Sanity; she needs one last engine service before we part with her.

Walking then boating exercise

20th & 21st April

It’s been a busy couple of days, first doing the village walk yesterday, and then some boating today. In addition, I had a fasting blood test just after nine yesterday; I came out of the surgery and ravenously ripped open the chewy bar in my pocket. Still at least it meant that I had a late breakfast, which was just as well, as the walk proved hard work for some reason.

I’m really not sure quite why this was; it wasn’t as long as the ones we were doing around Lyme Park last month, and we weren’t going particularly fast. At least it made the meal in the George and Dragon all the more welcome.

The George really is the place for a pub meal in Alrewas these days. The Indian by Bagnall Lock has renamed itself the Jaipur Cottage, but Will Chapman tells us that the staff and the food are much the same as before. The William IV has abandoned its pretensions to haute cuisine, but is now the youngsters boozing pub, and the Crown is sadly likely to close when the landlord’s lease runs out, as he can’t make it turn a profit.

Elanor made contact with us just as we got back to the pub, and brought some post. After a good lunch, we wandered back to the boat and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon.

Today was an early start – down to the water point as the tank was in its last quarter, and then on to Burton for a pump out and diesel. We got to the Morrison’s mooring just at lunch time, after a pleasant run with a fair amount of traffic about. The weather was sunny, but still with a cold wind, which was fine for me as I was lockwheeling, but less fun for Sheila standing on the back.

I took over for the final run to Shobnall, and managed to turn Sanity Again into the narrow opening without much trouble. It’s very reassuring that the extra 10 feet doesn’t cause a lot of difficulty in manoeuvring; the main problem tends to be that you need to put one end or the other into water that doesn’t otherwise get used much, and is rather shallow.

With toilet tank empty and diesel tank nearly full (at 83 pence per litre at the domestic rate, I wasn’t too worried about filling up the the brim), we backed out and tied on the towpath just outside. Then we popped back into the chandlery for some bits and pieces, like oil to do Sanity’s last service (as far as we are concerned, that is) and some Odorloss toilet fluid for Sanity Again.

Tomorrow, we’ll take a walk into town, then amble back to the Branston Water park moorings for the night.

Pottering about above Bagnall

18th & 19th April

After posting the last report, we noticed that the sunset was indeed very red, presumably as a result of the volcanic ash in the upper atmosphere. The sun was setting right over Rugeley Power Station, so I got the camera out and took a picture:


It’s not as good as Andrew Denny would have managed, I’m know, but does give a flavour of the effect.

Yesterday morning was another fine start to a day which continued in the same mood. It was cold at first, but that didn’t stop a lot of folk from boating by; it’s a great change from the grim weather we had only a few days ago. As well as on the canal, there’s a lot of road traffic about, but the sky remained wonderfully clear.

We put the time to good use hauling all the remaining stuff out of Sanity’s under well deck space and sorting it; there’s only the stuff from the engine room to do now.

The rest of the day was spent chilling out with various crosswords until Elanor came for a visit on her way home from the BCN clean up. Both whilst she was with us and after she’d gone we had a very pleasant evening, a real break after the charging about of the last few weeks.

Today, we were expecting to go for dental check ups in the middle of the day, but early on we had a call postponing them to next week; the practice is a very small operation, and the receptionist had sadly lost her mother over the weekend. It’s no odds to us whether we go this week or next, as neither of us are aware of any treatment needed, so no hassle there.

During the morning, I ran the engine so that Sheila could do a washload. We’ve run the engine for just over three hours total between yesterday and today, and it’s been enough to recharge the batteries, so it looks as if we have halved the charging requirement compared to Sanity.

Today’s weather was much less pleasant, cloudy and with a biting wind. The radiators had warmed up whilst the engine was on, but it wasn’t enough to keep out that wind. In the end, I lit the fire, and we felt the benefit immediately.

After lunch, a couple of guys from Wilsons rolled up to sort a minor problem with the cratch; we do get excellent after sales service from them.

Later on, Elanor came back, and took me wine shopping at Morrison’s, so that the cellar is fully stocked once more.

Tomorrow holds the prospect of a blood test, then a village walk; I just hope the forecast is right, and that we shall see a return of the sun.

Pottering in the sun

16th & 17th April

We’re settling down to our stay in Alrewas, enjoying being back in this picturesque village, and getting stuff done at an easy pace.

Yesterday, we made an early start and boated Sanity Again down to join Sanity above Bagnall Lock, tying with lots of choice upstream of the main road bridge, so that the bedroom is away from the road noise.

We gave Sanity a clean through, and then waited for a prospective buyer to show up. He turned out to be a really nice guy called Ian, and we found ourselves hopeful that he feels able to buy her. It’s even worse than selling a house, we find; we really want our baby to go to a nice caring owner.

After lunch, Elanor rolled up and took me shopping in Morrison’s, replacing the stores we’d used on the way down here. She then went off to get ready to go to the BCN clean up, and came back to have dinner with us before going on to Birmingham.

Today, we had a more leisurely start on a bright but very fresh, not to say frosty, morning. We ambled into the village to get some fresh meat for tonight and to buy a paper, then came back to Sanity Again and gave her engine its first oil change.

It was sunny and warm enough to have lunch out on the bow, luxuriating in the fact that the well deck is long enough to put a table out on it and still have room to stretch your legs. Afterwards, we set to and hauled all the stuff out of Sanity’s bow locker, throwing away a proportion of it and dividing the rest up to stay behind or join us on the new boat.

We’d no sooner got it all stowed in Sanity Again’s two decker locker that it was time to go back to Sanity.

During lunch, ABNB had called and asked us to do another show round for a couple whose friends own Braidbar 42, Trisuli, who came along for the ride. We had a good time showing them both boats (after making sure they understood we weren’t parting with Sanity Again); they too seemed really interested.

Since then we’ve been chilling out a bit, drinking tea in the sun and reading the paper. Sheila had run a wash load after we’d serviced the engine, and it dried on the whirligig in the course of the afternoon.

Tomorrow is another chill out day; we might move a bit more stuff from one boat to the other; there’s just a load of bits and pieces to do now.

Back again

Two weeks in April

It’s been a while since I posted here, I know, but life has been just a tad busy!

We had a great visit to Graeme and Cathy, and renewed our acquaintance with Daniel and Alexander. Hiring a car from Enterprise worked really well, and didn’t cost significantly more than two return tickets on the train. Not good for the planet, but it was very handy to have the use of the car whilst we were there.

Back at the yard on the Friday, we found that Sanity Again was very nearly finished. She is in almost every respect better that we had hoped, which is saying quite a lot. In a few days, I’ll do a post on the other side setting out the stuff that has worked really well, but high on the list must be the Hurricane heating, the white ceiling and the cooker (but that’s just the top of a very long list).

With the invaluable help of Roger Millin, we set off on the Saturday to boat to Alrewas. The itinerary and highlights went like this:

• Saturday 10 An easy day just as far as Gurnett Aqueduct, where we did a show round Sanity in the afternoon.
• Sunday 11 Serious boating commenced, with an eight o’clock start, down Bosley and on to the Little Morton Hall mooring for the night. Sanity Again is quite deep draughted, and progress was slow on the shallow Macc.
• Monday 12 We had intended to get to the top of Stone, and made good progress towards that, with a quick passage of Harecastle, but by mid afternoon we were pretty weary, and stopped on the Wedgwood moorings just before Barlaston.
• Tuesday 13 Getting into the routine now, with another great day's boating in fine weather. We’d planned to make Great Haywood, but decided that the country mooring a mile before Hoo Mill would be better.
• Wednesday 14 Sanity Again needed water, so we set off at seven, leaving Roger to follow on in Sanity at the usual time. By 7.45 we were on the water point at Great Haywood, and filled up by half eight, even though her big (780 litres) water tank was over half empty. Then, when Roger arrived, on we went, aiming for the top of Shade House. We stopped in Handsacre for lunch, then went on to discover that the Shade House moorings were full, so came on down the flight, and tied both boats without difficulty on the visitor moorings opposite the cafe.

This morning, Roger left us, Elanor taking him back to Higher Poynton to collect his car. After he’d gone, we took Sanity on down to Bagnall Lock, where again there was plenty of room. We’ve got a show round there tomorrow morning, and we’ll take Sanity Again down to join her first thing.

We’ve been pottering on board for the rest of the day, gradually getting things put away where we want them.

Because we’ve been boating so hard (for us) I’ve not been keeping my usual notes of who we met and so on, so I’ll just say thanks to all those blog readers and fellow Braidbar owners whom we’ve seen during the week and who made nice remarks about the new boat.

And of course, yet again thanks to Roger for great company and brilliant boating.

Very, very busy

We're having a fantastic time moving Sanity and Sanity Again south, with the first break planned for Alrewas on Thursday.

Between three of us working two boats, marginal connections and all the rest, I'm not going to be able to post until we stop for a few days. Meantime, all thanks to Roger Millin for his unflagging help.

To Macc and back

4th & 5th April

After a peaceful night at Poynton, we were awoken early by the racket of courting Canada geese. Moving Sanity Again to the water point, we refilled her tank and took the chance to pick up some bits and pieces from Sanity. Sheila had elected to steer, and had, I fear, a rather miserable time of it assailed by icy rain.

Nonetheless, it was great to be boating in the splendour of a new Braidbar, and we plodded steadily on to Gurnett Aqueduct. We got there in time for a latish lunch, having sustained ourselves with mugs of soup en route.

For once, we had no reason to trek into the town, and spent the afternoon playing with the boat, compiling the snagging list and marking with strips of masking tape the locations for things like a ring for the handtowel and the loo roll holder in the bathroom.

The new cooker continues to impress; it is genuinely like cooking on a domestic appliance; it's amazing the difference 5cm of width makes to the hob, and the oven is cavernous by boat standards.

Today we made a leisurely start, and set off at around half nine, on the familiar routine of going down to the winding hole at Lyme Green, then back tracking as far as Adlington, so from Lyme Green to Lyme View. Winding 70 foot at Lyme Green is not as easy as 60, but with the aid of the long shaft we got round. Fortunately the wind has not been as fierce as forecast.

We had originally planned to go on to Poynton this afternoon, but there's a lot of traffic about, and it's very pleasant here.

We've spent the afternoon pottering again, and will make an early start in the morning. It'll be a busy day tomorrow, briefing Peter on the work that needs doing to put the finishing touches to the boat, collecting the hire car from Enterprise, and driving across to Lincoln.

Getting there

It's been a frantic few days, and we're feeling the strain a bit. Never mind, we're mostly moved in, and took Sanity Again to Deer Farm Bend last night, and on to Marple today, before coming back to Poynton after buying loads of bits and pieces like new storage boxes.

There's a set of photos on Flickr showing Sanity Again as she was before we started filling her with stuff. Highlights of the move:

• Doing a show round Sanity in the middle of moving
• All the help we had from Barry of The Shouting End and from Elanor
• Giving Peter and Susan dinner as the first meal I cooked on the new cooker (which is fantastic)

Tomorrow we're going on to Macclesfield and Gurnett Aqueduct, then back here on Monday. Tuesday we leave both boats in the yard, Sanity to have a prism resealed (frost damage) and Sanity Again to have her snagging done. We're hiring a car from Enterprise to drive over to Lincoln to visit Graeme and Cathy.

I'll try and do a post on Monday, but I'm not sure what I'll manage whilst we're away.