On our way

After an excellent evening yesterday, although we were sadly deprived of Susan’s company, we made a leisurely start this morning. It was likely that Susan would make it into work if Catherine was feeling better, so we planned to take Sanity Again out of the yard, run up to High Lane to wind and return to refill with diesel, since she wouldn't arrive until ten.

It is possible, just, to wind in the widened space outside the entrance to the arm, but with a blustery wind, we preferred to use the longer but safer strategy. In any event, Susan could not be with us before ten, so there was plenty of time. All this worked out as planned. Since we had hardly run the engine except for this one trip, it was possible to estimate the consumption of the Hurricane heater by the amount of fuel we’d used, sitting in the yard and running the heating very day.

The Hurricane has an hours counter; unlike a Webasto or Eberspacher, it cuts in and out whilst the heating is on, so it’s not possible to know how long the burner has been running without such a counter. The answer came out at around 0.64 litres per hour, making it very economical to run.

All day yesterday, and again today, a strange deep twanging noise had been heard, very difficult to locate, but apparently coming from the other side of the canal to the yard. As we boated along, it became apparent that it emanated from the high voltage electricity transmission lines whose towers run across the landscape on first one side and then the other of the canal.

They’ve been working on these lines and towers all month, apparently replacing both the cables and the insulators, so presumably this remarkable noise was in some way associated with that work.

After refuelling, we took it in turns to pop into the bungalow to say farewell to Peter and Susan. It was a wrench to go, we are made so welcome there, but it’s good to be boating once more.

We’ve settled for Bollington as today’s destination; we’d planned to go a bit further, but the delay in setting of, and the strong wind, inclined us to an early finish. There’s a good butcher just down the hill from the moorings by the Adelphi Mill, and an early start tomorrow will make up for lost time.