We're off!

We said our goodbyes to Steve, Jenny and Dave in the marina, and to fellow moorers Kath, Bob and Ian this morning, and, having filled the water tank, set off for Burton. Sheila made me steer, and I managed for the first time to get out of the tricky marina entrance without touching the towpath opposite. The trick is to lean the side of the boat, quite near the bow, on the bull nose and motor her round until you've got a clear line into the channel.

Sheila worked Haywood Lock, and was menaced by a swan as she came down onto the towpath to take a line from me. It stretched its neck straight up and hissed like a kettle, but embarrassingly for it  slipped on the mud and nearly fell over. I haven't had such a good laugh for ages, it's just a shame Sally wasn't there to see it, as she's seriously unimpressed with swans.

We had a steady chug to Colwich Lock, reopen after its three week stoppage. The bottom gates seem a little better, though the collar on the towpath side gate looks very dodgy, unattached to the heel post and slopping around. I shouldn't be surprised if there's an emergency stoppage there shortly, once the traffic builds up at one of the busiest locks on the system.

The weather was pretty grim, frankly, so we've only come as far as Wolseley Bridge for tonight, and will work our way gently on to Alrewas over the next few days, planning to arrive on Thursday. We need to be in Burton on Monday, but we want to give plenty of time for the river to go down, as it's brimming its banks here at the moment.

So what did we make of Great Haywood Marina?

As always, what follows is my personal view, your mileage may  differ, etc, etc.

First off, and most importantly, we were told before going there that the people were really nice, and that's certainly true. We didn't have a cross word with any of them over four long hard cold months, and Dave and Jenny work really hard to keep the place functioning and smart.

Steve and Mike, the managers, are always helpful and ready to share advice or help with any problems you've got.

Pricewise, I guess the charges are about in the middle of the range, certainly not cheap, but not a complete rip off. As I said early on, on a scale from scruffy to shiny, most of the boats are towards the shiny end, and there are rules about not keeping stuff on the roof, not using whirligig dryers or having very tall TV aerials.

You are not supposed to do major work on your boat, though routine servicing, minor jobs and warranty work is fine. In practice, as we found out, with a bit of economy with the truth, you seem to be able to get away with quite a lot. The boat next to us re-floored his saloon and refitted his galley, including a bit of relining and a lot of tiling, whilst we were there, and eventually we had to complain about the noise and dust.

We were also aware of a boat on another pontoon which seemed to be doing a full fit out on the quiet.

In terms of fuel, you can make any declaration you want for your diesel, Calor Gas is available, but only Taybrite as solid fuel "because the moorers like it". There is the coal yard at Colwich, if you can make contact with the guy (we never managed it) and there's always Anglo Welsh.

The marina design isn't great in terms of manoeuvring around, but not as bad some others in the locality. As I said, the entrance is especially tricky, and why oh why don't they organise the design in so many of these new marinas so that you can diesel and pump out from the main line?

There's no decent chandlery anywhere near, though they will deliver stuff from the chandlery at the sister marina at Tattenhall for free. Unfortunately, there's no web shop for that marina, so you can't easily tell what's available or shop around.

Postal deliveries are firmly discouraged, but the village Post Office does Poste Restante.

Would we go back? Probably, but not next year as we want a change. We'd certainly like to try Tattenhall one of these years.

Dog to dog blog

Gosh, what a weekend. Friday, Mummy dropped me off with the grandparents, 'cos she's off to a werg weekend somewhere. She's quite fond of these, though it sounds a bit sinister to me. I mean, isn't that like wargs from the Hobbit?

They were nasty great wolves, I think, not what we want to meet at agility, thank you very much.

So I've been looking after Granny and Grandpa again, hard work, and a bit dull, frankly. Did the routine hourly checks the first night, go up to Grandpa, lick him awake, make sure he's breathing, but couldn't be bothered last night, just too much grief. I was out of my skull with boredom by six this am, so went through and jumped on their bed. Don't know what all the fuss was about, I mean I've lost weight, I'm down to 35 kilos, so where's the problem?

Anyway, around seven Grandpa finally got the message and took me out for a mooch about, then we all got back into bed and had a nice doze until around half nine, when Grandpa insisted on getting up. Tried to hold him back by lying on his arm, but no use, it was back to the grind. I mean what's wrong with midday as a time to get up? The greyhound bit of me needs 18 hours sleep a day, I keep telling them, but no, we've got to go and get the paper or folk out there reading the blog get upset, seemingly.

Lynx, can I come and live in your house? It sounds loads better than here, with proper food – I saw your Mummy recommending an ox heart for me, that's more like it. I just get this pellet stuff, 'cos I've still got to lose weight. And you get to go the vet much more than me, always good for a laugh in my experience.

Only joking, I couldn't leave my Mummy, but it's a nice thought to play with whilst dozing in front of the Squirrel (that's the stove, not the rat with a fluffy tail that cops out by running up a tree when you chase it).

Granny took me for my afternoon walk today, all the way to somewhere called Tixall Wide, she said. It was OK, but nowhere to run off the lead, and a snotty little terrier gave me some lip as we passed a load of scruffy old boats. Soon told him where to get off, oh yes. I mean, his head, my mouth, crunch, all quiet again. Didn't actually do it, Granny was hauling away on the choke lead, but could have, could have, and he knew it.

Oh, and someone asked if I was an Iberian Hound. What?

I mean, ears, yes, jumping, yes, weighs 25 kilos, I don't think so. Lie down lady, I'll jump on you, and we'll see if you think I'm 25 kilos.

Mum points out that all greyhound crosses are technically lurchers. Now that sounds cool; I wanna be a lurcher, OK?

Loads of licks and sausages where available,

Your friend

Sally

A bit tired

We've got Sally with us for the weekend, and I may well get her to do this blog tomorrow, to make up for last night. She did at least let me sleep through until around half three, when I was well away, inhabiting some weird but non-threatening dream.

Sally, however, needed to see if I was alright, so came through into the bedroom and gave my sleeping face a big sloppy kiss. This terminated the dream with a vengeance, and Sally, after a few strokes from me, was happy to go back into the saloon and settle down again. It probably took me around half an hour to get off again, which is why it was just a bit of a pain that Sally decided that an hourly check would be good.

We gave up at half six, and I took her out for a brief walk. We could then all settle down, in the case of the humans with mugs of tea, to listen to the Today programme and doze off again.

So the rest of the day has been a little blurry. We went for a walk in the morning to get a paper, and I took her for a serious one this afternoon, rewarding myself with an episode of Blakes7 on my return (some dog walks are enjoyable, but after all the rain we've had, the towpaths are a mess of slippy mud).

One thing I've been meaning to report for a few days; there's been a Great Spotted Woodpecker drumming away in the trees below Haywood Lock every morning for the past few days, another hopeful sign of spring on its way.

Last trip to Stafford

We popped into Stafford for the last time this winter, not to shop at Sainsbury's, obviously, having had the mega delivery yesterday, but to visit Julian Graves and Poundland, and to get Sheila's reading specs fixed. She had an attack of the dreaded leg falling off syndrome the other night, and although we found the tiny screw, it refused to go back into the hinge properly.

It didn't help that it was one of those fancy spring loaded hinges, making it hard to line up all the holes. No matter, Boots Opticians fixed it by replacing the screw; I'd maybe damaged the thread on the bottom of the old one or something.

We've restocked on stuff like white spirit for cleaning tar stains off the paint work and the like, cheap cleaning cloths and paint brushes for touching in and renewing varnish and other stuff of that nature.

I also visited one of the butchers in the market to get some meat to feed Elanor on tonight, before she goes off to her London wrg weekend. I didn't get any, but it's a while since I've seen a butcher selling whole ox hearts.

Back at the boat, more washing was done and taken to be tumbled, and we generally staggered about preparing the boat for the dog invasion. Elanor and Sally have just turned up, so as soon as I've posted this and had a shower, I'll start cooking lasagne.

Spring!! Boing!!

What a very nice day this is being. It's not going to last – rain is forecast for tonight – but it's been wonderful whilst it was here. As a result, we've kept busy with the preparations for cruising. First though, since it seems to be important to him, I should let Mr Holt know that we didn't go and get a paper this morning. ;)

Instead, we had one delivered by Sainsbury's. I had to order about 150 quids worth of other stuff to get it, but it was worth it, of course. Before then, we'd been over to the service wharf and had a pump out and refilled with diesel. I'd originally planned just to have the pump out, but with all the stuff that's going on in North Africa and the Middle East these days, I thought getting the tank filled was a good idea, just in case there's a rash of panic buying over the weekend. We've been here before, and it can get quite tedious. It also means that we can just set off on Monday without heading back onto the wharf.

Before that, last night in fact, we went to the Clifford Arms for dinner. This was a great success. The restaurant was quiet, with only two other tables in use whilst we were there. The menu is much more extensive than it was, and the portions are ridiculously large.

My starter of Red Chilli and Ginger Chicken Goujons would have been a satisfactory main course with some chips, and was served with a couple of pieces of good crusty bread. Sheila's Creamy Mushrooms were just that; again a good sized portion, and that bread to use to mop up the last of the sauce.

Sheila's Lamb Shank was a sensible size, and served with a lot of chips, salad and peas. The meat was silky soft and slipped off the bone onto her fork. My Rib Eye Steak with Melted Stilton was enormous, exactly rare as ordered and a good solid mouthful. I too had a load of chips and peas and salad.

To be honest, it was far more than I wanted, especially after those goujons, and the chips did let the rest down. They'd been fried in oil before it was hot enough, so that they'd soaked it up and tasted, well, oily, which, when you're struggling to find room for them anyway, is not what you want.

Nonetheless, a good meal, just what you'd want after a day's boating, and at £35 for two, including drinks, excellent value. Highly commended.

This afternoon, we've cleaned the engine room, washing the floor and almost everything else really. The fine weather meant that we could have the doors open, and really get stuck into it. Sheila has also washed all the crochet, so that the porthole doilies are shining clean again.

Into Stafford tomorrow, then Elanor is coming for the afternoon and for dinner before going on to her London wrg weekend, leaving Sally with us.

Carry on cleaning

Actually, more like washing, but it's the spring cleaning theme continuing. First thing this morning, as we were still staggering around getting up, I realised that the shoreline power had gone off, because the SmartGauge was showing the voltage falling back to 12.8 volts. Investigation discovered that the whole pontoon was off. It later transpired that the entire village had been down, thus demonstrating the superiority of life on board, as of course we had just switched seamlessly over to running off the batteries, whilst all over the village folk were finding their fridges starting to defrost.

It came back quite soon, but it gave me to think about the fact that we're running the washing machine a lot. If the shoreline failed whilst the machine was heating water, the MasterVolt would switch to invert and start discharging the batteries at a furious rate (like around 100 amps). Accordingly, I've switched the inverter/charger to charge only. This means that, if the mains input fails, the 230 volt circuit will just die; inconvenient, but not disastrous.

Sheila has now washed the all the towels and most of the bedding. During the weekend, she'll do the rest of the bedding and a load of clothes, having done the hot wash whites which are currently bleaching.

We'd been going to sweep and wash the floor before then, but we're dog sitting over the weekend whilst Elanor goes to a London wrg weekend dig, so I think the floor cleaning will keep until Monday.

Meantime, I've just watched another Blakes7 episode, "Horizon", which testified to the ingenuity of cash strapped production in the late 70s BBC. Most of the crew of the Liberator, having been captured by the Federation baddies, were working in a slave mine, lighted by what were clearly Camping Gaz butane lanterns, the kind with the lamp enclosure screwed directly to the baby cylinder, which was wrapped in silver coloured Fablon to make them look like alien artefacts, sort of.

There must have been a lot of liaison between production teams in those days, what with half of the Blakes7 kit seemingly made in the Blue Peter studio, and the need to make sure that they didn't try to shoot an episode in that quarry in Hertfordshire when the Dr Who team needed it. ;)

Tonight, Sheila is claiming her much snow checked meal out to celebrate her birthday. It should have been before Christmas, but the weather has only just improved to the point where you'd want to be walking back through it in the middle of the evening. We're planning on going to the Clifford Arms again, having had a very good meal there a while ago, and we're told that it's still good.

More signs of spring

It's felt like the return of Spring today, with the wind going round to the south and the sun peeping out from time to time. It was quite pleasant to walk along the towpath to get the paper, though the sight of no less than three dogs, all apparently belonging to the same boat, dumping on the towpath, having been allowed to wander off out of sight of their owner, wasn't so cheering.

Why can't dog owners grasp the basic fact that if you let your dog out of sight, there's no way you can be sure of cleaning up after it? Actually, judging by the state of the towpath by the boat in question, the owner is one of those charming characters who just doesn't give a lump of the offending material for such niceties. Since the boat is a classic hippy hutch, devoid of markings, it's all too easy to fall into the trap of assuming that all such boats are occupied by lazy, scruffy good for nothings, which isn't fair either to such boaters as a group or indeed to dog owning boaters, of course.

No matter, back at the boat, we had a gentle morning, then set to after lunch and washed and polished the starboard side of the cabin. Some dirty runs below the portholes responded to white spirit, thankfully, but we've a couple of places where bird dirt hasn't been spotted and cleaned off quickly enough, so that the surface of the paint is damaged. We need to get some Finesse-it, the best paint cutter as recommended by HMG paints to clean up those areas.

There's a load of rain forecast for tonight and tomorrow morning, so any further spring cleaning will have to be inside tomorrow.

Quietish Monday

An early night and a decent amount of sleep meant that we felt much refreshed this morning. It's now just a week until we leave the marina, so this week will be given over to taking advantage of marina mooring whilst we're here.

In particular, several washloads will be run, including towels, bedding and the hot white wash, so that it can all be tumble dried and we leave with the wardrobes and drawers full and the laundry bag empty. If the weather gives us a decent day, we'll wash and polish the startboard side of the boat, as well as spring cleaning the inside. At least, unlike Ian from Nobby, we don't have to polish the brass on the engine.

Apart from all this, the routine will go on, keeping up with emails and Twitter, watching the odd episode of Blakes7 (aren't they all?) and buying and reading the paper. We'll fit in another trip to Stafford, probably on Friday, and I've booked a Sainsbury's delivery for Thursday morning.

When we leave, it'll first be back to Alrewas and Burton again, then a steady, hopefully unrushed chug down the Staffs and Worcs to Autherley Junction, then up the Shroppie to Norbury Junction for our blacking.

A family weekend

As planned, Graeme brought Daniel and Alex across for the night yesterday, and Elanor and Sally rendezvoused with us at lunchtime. This made for a right cabinful, and, as I tweeted, I think Sally's ears suffered from the enthusiastic yells of the boys. Nonetheless, both sides were very good about getting on with each other, though Sally's face never quite lost the slightly anxious look she has when small children or puppies are around.

After lunch we went for a walk to feed the ducks and buy some breakfast cereal acceptable to Alex; at just turned two, he's allowed to be a bit picky, I guess. Elanor then took Sally off for some more vigorous exercise and we spent the rest of a rather chilly and raw day in the warmth of the cabin.

Encouragingly, the boys settled to sleep in their cabin a bit faster this time than last, allowing the three adults a decent opportunity for family nattering. Graeme left after breakfast this morning, and we've been having a quiet time of it since, as you might imagine.

Graeme had brought over some delayed Christmas presents, so Sheila's been watching Mamma Mia on DVD on her MacBook, whilst I got stuck into the first two episodes of the second season of Blakes7 on the Mac Mini. Sometimes headphones are handy!

Into Stafford yet again

We're getting quite casual about popping into Stafford to shop, courtesy of our bus passes. The service is pretty reliable from the top of Mill Lane by the mini roundabout, almost always arriving between 10.25 and 10.30. Getting into Stafford at around 10.45 means that you have just over an hour before the next bus back at 11.50, plenty of time if you have just routine stuff to do.


Today, we went straight into the market and patronised two of the butchers, one for mince and sausages,  and the other for chicken breast and pig's liver.


Then it was into Sainsbury's which was really busy, a result of being the Friday before the start of half term, I guess. We were grappling with the self checkout till when I realised we'd not bought any bread. It was too late to go back for some, so a quick check of the bakers in the pedestrian area found some nice loaves at Baker's Oven.


All that and we were back at the stop with 15 minutes to spare. Fortunately, unlike the stop in Great Haywood, the one in Stafford has all its glass in situ, as the easterly wind was bitingly cold.


Back at the boat, I quickly lit the fire whilst Sheila unpacked the day sacks. Lunch was accompanied by mugs of soup, a true sign that winter has returned for a bit.


Tomorrow, Graeme comes for an overnight stay with the boys, so blog posting might be a bit erratic until Monday; I'll tweet if I can't blog. This gives me an excuse to repeat a joke retweeted by @grannybuttons from  @SteveFowler:

Man goes to the doctors: 'Doctor, I think I'm addicted to Twitter'. Doctor looks at him and says, 'Sorry, I don't follow you'

Have a good weekend, folks!

Something for Bungle and co...

It was a very good night with Bob and Kath last night, a conversation ranging widely over topics as diverse as the management of grown up offspring (impossible) and the virtues of authors we might fancy such as Peter F Hamilton and C J Sansom.

As a result, we didn't get to bed until midnight, and we've been pretty quiet today.

Because GJP marinas doesn't just operate this marina and Tattenhall, but also does marina construction contracting, there's usually a quantity of plant stored near where we moor, so I thought it might entertain Bungle and other wrgies reading this, and those of like disposition, to show some pictures of the current specimens:

Baby Dumper

Great big dumper

Long reach excavator

LRX again, from above

I thought it was a piling attachment, but now I'm not sure

and a general view of a pretty full marina

Sorted (hopefully)

We were up betimes, in case Terry from MSC turned up early, he having rung last night to arrange to come over to install another sender in the toilet tank. This meant, of course, that he was running on boat builder's scheduling, and didn't arrive until midday.

The cunning ploy of cutting our lunchtime sandwiches worked - he rang to say he'd got here just as I was biting into the first one. No matter, this time we seem to have a functional, industrial standard sender, so let's hope it now works as well as the other MSC gauges we've used.

Sheila had gone for the paper this morning, so I've not yet had an excuse to be off the boat; I may take myself for a walk when I've done this, since the cold damp patch seems to have blown through.

Apart from all that, there's not a lot to tell today; a software update for the Kindles has become available, so we've updated both of them; main advantage seems to be that it adds page numbering.

Bob and Kath are coming round for a drink tonight, letting us repay their hospitality of the other week.

Another wet day

Gosh, I'm glad we didn't need to be boating today, it's one of those ones that are simply disgusting by anybody's standards. It's not even dramatic, just grey, windy and filled with squally, sleety showers. OK, so you could wear the right gear and cope with it, but it wouldn't be fun.

We've been out to buy a paper, and a padded envelope to return the reading light. Not long after I'd posted yesterday's blog, I got a very polite reply from the supplier of the light, apologising and offering to replace it if I posted the broken one back. We'd disposed of the original packaging, of course, so Sheila constructed a new one from a fruit juice carton with the ends cut off and rinsed out.

No news yet in the toilet tank gauge front, though.

Sue commented yesterday that they are thinking about a water tank gauge on No Problem, and I replied that we think that's a good idea. When we first had Sanity, we didn't have a gauge, and I used to judge how much water we had left by how far up the bow the waterline came. One of the rubbing strakes conveniently emerged from the depths as the tank emptied.

Then, one winter, we ran out of water unexpectedly, and I realised that the presence of ten 25kg bags of coal on the roof also had an effect on how deeply the boat was swimming. So we had a gauge fitted, one of the original MSC ones with an analogue type gauge with a needle swinging across a scale. That was fine, except it was on the side of the corner cupboard just inside the bow doors, a bit dark, and we took to keeping a small torch there for when we needed to see how much water we had left.

On Sanity Again, we have one of the new style digital gauges, with a thermometer type display that sinks as the level goes down. A warning triangle appears when there's just a quarter of a tank left, and it starts flashing when that's down to an eighth. Even better, the gauge is backlit, so no more need for a little torch.

Hence the frustration with the problems with the toilet tank; it's just not what we're used to from MSC.

A mixed day

I suppose you could call it early spring weather; it has a clownish quality, being bright, breezy and sunny for much of the time, then suddenly a downpour of sleet and hail moves quickly in. Judging when to take washing across to the service building, and when to collect it after tumble drying, was quite a challenge.

Our fellow moorers Bob and Kath have returned; Lyra was being re-blacked last week, and they collected her from the slip this afternoon and brought her back to her mooring two across from us. Just as Bob was manoeuvring to slot her in, guess what, the sleet and wind arrived. It took a couple of goes to get her lined up, but in the end we were able to take a line and haul her into place.

As predicted (perhaps adumbrated is the word), I had to investigate the non-functioning toilet tank gauge this morning. We stripped the bed, moved the mattress out of the way and extracted the sender unit from the tank. It's definitely not working; dipping it into a full bucket of water produced nary a thing on the gauge.

So, another call to Peter at Braidbar to spoil his week as well. He'll have to ring the guy at MSC, and we wait to hear what they are going to do about it. It's so frustrating; the concept is a good one, and we've used their fresh water tank gauges on both Sanity and Sanity Again without any more bother than occasionally tweaking the calibration to suit our preferences (optimistic vs pessimistic). Because the thing is pressure based, changing ambient temperature makes a bit of difference, but nothing to get excited about.

Speaking of duff kit, I'm still waiting for a reply from the supplier of Sheila's reading light. The light itself has good reviews on Amazon, so I hope she gets on with it and arranges a replacement.

A day for lurking

Waking to a wet and windy day, we've had no desire to go outside, even to buy a newspaper or take the recycling to the skips. So we haven't.

We've taken the opportunity to sort out the cupboard under the washing machine; it's one of those spaces which tends to get messy over time, as it's where we store the spare cleaning materials and the like. You go in there in a hurry because you need a new pair of rubber gloves and you're half way through the washing up, so the pack of gloves gets grabbed and everything else shoved hastily back.

As the cupboard is an odd shape, being against the swim and low down and dark, after a bit everything is all over the place.

Sheila's nice new LED reading light stopped working overnight, so I've emailed the supplier about replacing it. I'm also a bit worried that the new toilet tank gauge sender hasn't started registering yet; if it doesn't by tomorrow, I shall have to check it out by removing it from the tank and dipping it in a bucket of water, oh joy.

The forecast is much better for tomorrow, so that's something, and it will then be just two weeks to our departure from the marina. Meanwhile, I'd downloaded Nightmare Abbey by Thomas Love Peacock from Project Gutenberg, and I've managed to read the whole thing in a day. A strange author, but entertaining if you're in the right mood. He's better known (ho) for Crotchet Castle but I think Nightmare Abbey has survived better.

But then I reckon Blue Öyster Cult's I Love the Night is better than (Don't fear) The Reaper so maybe it's just me.

Pottering on a sunny Saturday

Strange, isn't it, on the day when you've thought "No need to get up early for once" you wake in good time and get up early anyway. Actually, we lay in bed for a good bit, drinking tea and listening to the news from Egypt (after all, they've got an important canal), then got up and ambled about, putting a fresh yogurt on in the EasiYo and stuff like that.

Take the recycling to the skips, walk down the towpath to the other end of the village for a paper (yes), loaf of bread (yes), packet of firelighters (sold out). Then back to the marina, buy a couple of string bags of kindling, ask about used engine oil disposal. The marina itself doesn't have that facility, but Steve said to bring the cans over anyway, and he'd drop them off at the tip himself.

Quality service, that is. I also asked about getting a litre of FuelSet from the sister marina at Tattenhall, but they don't stock it, so it will be as easy to get Elanor to pick some up from Midland Swindlers Chandlers at Mercia Marina.

In the afternoon, as it was still beautifully sunny, we decided to do a job that's been waiting all winter. When we had the fixing method of  the shutters changed from the shoot bolts to the brass strips top and bottom, it left a few less varnished patches where the shoot bolts and hasps had been removed.

We soon had things under way, rubbing down the areas on the side hatches and bow doors, and on the shutters themselves, then I went along with the relevant kinds of varnish (polyurethane on the doors, water based on the shutters) and touched them all in.

This meant leaving the hatches and doors open whilst the varnish dried, of course, so guess what, it started to rain as soon as we'd done. Frantic scurry around, closing the hatches up against wedges of paper in the bottom, so that they were just a little open. As soon as we'd got it all sorted, the rain stopped, and it's a glorious day again as I type this.

That's February for you.

Into Stafford and finishing the service

As planned, we went into Stafford by bus this morning. We must be getting the hang of these trips, because, despite having quite a shopping list, we managed to get round everywhere and still come back on the 11.50 service, just over an hour after we arrived.

There's a selection of three butchers in the indoor market, so a good choice of meat. One of them is almost a traditional pork butcher, mainly selling ham, pork, sausages and pies. I'd almost forgotten such merchants existed, though I remember them well from my early childhood.

After lunch, I trolled round to Anglo Welsh, and, after a bit of hunting about, found someone to serve me. Unfortunately, they didn't have any 5 litre cans of oil in stock, so I had to settle for 2 one litre bottles, just enough to refill the sump with what I had already. We duly did the work, and Sanity Again is now all ready for her year's cruising – we can hardly wait, less than three weeks to go :) .

Grumble, grumble, grumpy grumble

After a good night's sleep, we had planned a relaxed day today, and aim to go to Stafford tomorrow, as the weather is forecast to be dryer then. The engine is about due for an oil change, and with the nice new rev counter showing 0.0 hours, it seemed like a good idea to do that today.

So after lunch, we set to and got organised, drying out the bilges again, more condensation having appeared since the last time we did it. I then discovered that I hadn't got as much fresh oil as I thought, just 6.5 litres when we need around 8.5 to do the change.

Hey ho, we've done all the other fiddly bits like tweaking up the stern gland; I'll just have to get another 5 litre can from Anglo Welsh tomorrow (there's no chandlery here) and it will be a quick job to do the change.

I then called Towergate Mardon and renewed our boat insurance for the next year. The problem with getting a new boat is that all the renewals like insurance and licence come together.

As a reward for all this hard work, I popped over to Reception to see if the March issue of Canal Boat was in, not least so that we could check our answers to the Christmas Quiz. They had both CB and Waterways World, so I got them both.

So far, I haven't found anything about the quiz, but have had to read Steve Haywood doing a Top Gear sneer about bloggers. Haywood, you'd better not be bending over with your back to me when next I see you.

Then finally, Sheila's just read out a bit from the WW news: Belgium is objecting to us using red diesel in our propulsion tanks at all, and the EU Commission agrees with them and is discussing it with HMRC.

There's only one word for them. Bastards.

A visitation

Peter turned up at half nine, and by half eleven had done the three jobs he'd come for. Two of them, the Hurricane remote switch and the toilet tank sender, went through without trouble and entirely successfully. The third was also successful, but took rather longer.

This was replacing the rev counter where the hours counter had added 41,000 hours off its own bat. Peter had originally suggested he could post me the replacement gauge – "It's only three screws" – but I, having heard this sort of thing before*, was a shade less sanguine. It was straightforward in a sense, it was just that the back of the engine panel is a mass of cables, most of which don't need moving, and, for added interest, some of the nuts securing the cables to the terminals were 10mm, and the rest the nearest imperial size, something like 8/32nds.

Finally it was all done, and we could settle down with a cup of tea/coffee and have a catch up natter, as well as thinking ahead to planning for Crick Show.

Peter left just before lunch, and we had a quiet time before Elanor and Sally arrived. They're spending the afternoon and part of the evening with us, delivering post and having dinner. Elanor also brought me a box of twelve bottles of assorted beer from the Marston's shop. At £15 for the dozen, it's seriously good value.

As tweeted yesterday, Sally caught her first rabbit the other evening. On investigation, it proved to be suffering from myxomatosis, so Elanor declined to take it home to cook. It would be unfair to suggest that only a myxy bunny would be too slow to escape!

*In my early days, from economic necessity, I did my own motor servicing, and learnt to view with bitter disillusion that classic phrase in the Haynes' manual "Reassembly is straightforward, being a simple reversal of the dismantling process".

What a nice day

I know, I've used that title before, but it's still true for today. After a frosty night, but not enough to make any ice on the water, we got up in good(ish) time, and by 8.45 were on the service wharf. I was expecting to have to hang about, as reception doesn't open until nine, but both Dave and Steve emerged and set to straightaway.

Dave got the pump out going, with only a brief pause to de-ice the hose with a bucket of warm water, whilst Steve filled the diesel tank. Add in a 13kg cylinder of propane, and we were all done. With two laundry tokens so's Sheila could tumble dry a couple of washloads, the bill came to a bit over £117.

This includes all the diesel we used chugging down to Alrewas and back, and the gas has gone up to £25.50 for 13 kg. (Note to those designing their own boats: the smaller, 6kg cylinders are much more expensive, proportionately, so make sure there's plenty of headroom in the gas locker.)

With a flat calm, it was an easy trip back to the pontoon, where we offloaded everything from the well deck, and Sheila gave it a wash and brush up. The sunny, spring-like weather seemed to call for a start to the spring cleaning.

The Sainsbury's delivery was only just inside the 11 to 12 delivery slot. It was yet another new driver, and he'd gone to Anglo Welsh over the road, "because that's where the satnav took me..."

We won't mention to sodding great blue and white roadside notices saying Great Haywood Marina then.

No matter, the delivery was all complete, and by half twelve we'd got it put away and were making lunch.

Apart from finishing off the well deck, and the aforementioned tumbling, we've had a quieter afternoon. We'll need to be up and about promptly again tomorrow, as Peter Mason plans to be with us by nine.

Well, it might happen... ;)

Windy Monday, but a better prospect

It's been another very windy day, but the forecast is for better tomorrow. We need to pump out the toilet tank, especially as Peter Mason is due to come over this week with the replacement sender for the gauge, so we'll do that first thing in the morning.

He's also bringing with him a new remote switch for the Hurricane heater, the display on the present one having gone out, and a new rev counter. Regular readers will recall that the original one suddenly decided to add 41,000 hours to the counter during the summer. It hasn't spoilt its usefulness, of course, I've just been ignoring the extra on the logs, but it would be a bit startling when the boat comes to be sold eventually.

In any event, it makes sense to get it fixed whilst the boat is still in warranty. We seem to be having a lot of electronic failures this time, but I don't think that there's a common factor; we've just been unlucky.

I won't bore you with a repetition of our doings today ;)

It is the downside of life in the marina that one day tends to be much like another when the weather is bad; I really don't know how folk cope with it for long periods of time. Spending the last few months in here was undoubtedly the right thing to do for us, especially when the frost and ice was about, but we shall be glad to off and away next month.

The continuing hassles of trying to get my pressures under control (both my eyes and my BP are being a bit stroppy at the moment) mean that we'll have to go back to Alrewas and Burton again in early March. It will be no more than a bit of a bore to amble down there again, before setting off for Norwood Junction for our date with a dry dock in early April, but it also makes me wonder how people cope with faux continuous cruising, plodding back and forth along the same stretch of canal all the time.

Each to his own, I guess, but gout wouldn't be in it for me if I had to do that all the time! (Subtle bilingual joke.)

One other thing I want to mention: I picked up from Maffi's blog today that those traders who also keep moving have set up their own website. The proposed changes to the BW Business Licence mean that a lot of them are facing significant rises in their costs, and they want to present a common profile in meetings. Hopefully, the site will also become a handy place to go for info about the various traders on the canal, and I wish them well with it.

Sleepy Sunday

Who says weather forecasts get it wrong? Today has indeed been full of wind, but with little rain. In addition to our regular walk this morning, I had another little stroll this afternoon, just to get out of the boat for a bit and stretch my legs.

They were having a wedding at Shugborough Hall, three white limos outside the front door, and a mega marquee on the lawn. I bet a lot of fancy hats were at risk in the blustery wind. (Quick edit, no it wasn't; having just looked up the website, it was a bridal fayre.)

Other than that, a pretty domestic day. Sheila made some bread rolls for lunch, and I cleaned the loo. The rest of the time was filled with reading and routine chores.

After I post this, Sheila is going to cut my hair, just before I shower.

OK, so it's not exciting all the time, but that's the point, really.

Battened down

Not that the Houdinis, the only deck hatches on Sanity Again, actually have battens, but we've been keeping them pretty tightly closed, all the same. Come to think of it, we've kept the side hatches shut, as well. The rain has added itself to the wind, so that, having made our regular trip out to get the paper (by going to the further end of the village for it, via the towpath, we get our minimum two mile walk every day), we settled into the boat and stayed there.

After lunch, we did indeed put in a bit of boat cleaning time, but you can tell it's been quiet, we've finished the concise crossword and as much as we can do of the General Knowledge one already, and it's not even all that dark outside.

In addition, I ordered a replacement activated carbon filter for the toilet tank breather, the present one having been contaminated in the overflow event the other week, and that's about it.

Looks like a similar day tomorrow by the forecast, but never mind, once we're in February, we know that Winter is on its way out. Oh, and we saw a little bunch of snowdrops on the towpath; Spring will be here eventually. :)

Windy outside, quiet inside

As forecast, the wind really got up overnight, so we're very glad to be established safe and sound in the marina. We took an amble down the towpath to the end of the village to post a birthday card for Alex, our grandson (good value handmade ones from the Farm Shop), and to find that the shop there hadn't got any copies of The Independent.

So we walked back up the road to the other shop, where we got both the paper and some Staffordshire oatcakes to have for lunch. (You can use them as wraps, very tasty.)

This afternoon we've loafed about, rather, after the exertions of the past few days. Maybe tomorrow we'll have a burst of energy and do something dramatic like sweep the floor...

A mostly relaxed day

We've had a day of ambling round and chilling out, going into the marina office for a chat on the pretext of buying some laundry tokens, that sort of thing.

On our way to buy a paper, we found No Problem about to set off from her mooring, and so had a chance of a bit more catch up with Sue and Vic. They had a guy from Axiom Propellers on board - Sue reports being very satisfied with her Axiom, except that it lacks impulsion, so the boat is slow to start and stop. I'll be interested to hear how they get on...

On our way back, we found Chas and Ann on Moore2Life fighting against the wind to get onto the water point, and stopped to give them a hand. Another chance for a natter.

Apart from that, we've been on the boat all day, except when Sheila took some washing over to the laundry to tumble dry it.

It was actually a very fine day at first, but the promised storm is now making itself felt; the wind's getting up, and we might well have a lot of rain over the next couple of days.

Back at Great Haywood

Just a quickie tonight, as we're pretty well exercised. We left Fradley at half eight this morning, and made it to Rugeley by twelve, managing a brief exchange of greetings with the crew of Derwent 6 as we passed them just before Handsacre. There was still a bit of ice around here and there, but nothing to cause problems.

After lunch and a short sharp shop, we set off again in deteriorating conditions. The wind was getting up  and the odd smirr of rain kept it company from time to time. Just after three, we made it to Haywood Lock, and worked up to find No Problem tied immediately above.

There was only time for a quick chat with Sue, as the wind was becoming quite worrying. I managed the turn into the marina OK, but manoeuvring round the pontoons inside called for a fair bit of revving and muttering. The final turn into the mooring was made even trickier by the fact that the floating pontoon had blown across, so that there wasn't a full boat's width available.

Sanity Again persuaded Crosby and the pontoon to part company and in we went just as the rain really came on.

We're now all tied up, shoreline connected and water tank filling. Home made soup with cheesy dumplings tonight, I think; easy to do and puts back some of what the day took out.

Hiyo Silver

...and AWAY! This morning the ice was still half an inch thick under a layer  of rain water. I went to the village to get a paper and stuff, after which we were planned to assess the situation. As I came back I could see Sheila rigging Sanity Again for cruising, and hear a boat breaking ice from the Fradley direction.

In due course, a split new Graham Edgson boat appeared, on her way from Norton Canes to Willington where her owners were already living on a boat in Mercia Marina. It seemed a bit crazy to be breaking ice with such a boat (especially as Graham insists on two pack blacking his shells, apparently) but it was all to our benefit.

Once we'd helped them lock down, we carried on sorting ourselves out, and by the time we were ready to turn Bagnall Lock, so that we could drop down to the winding hole, another boat had appeared coming up.

Once he was clear, we set off. Winding took a bit of time, as the ice in the hole was still pretty solid, and there was much smashing with the cabin shafts, and hauling of the bow round with the mooring line. At last it was done, and we were able to set off for the trip back.

A fellow boater walking the towpath (Mrs Mercury, sorry, I've forgotten your name for the moment :( ) commented that it was like boating through smashed greenhouses, and that was a pretty fair description. By twenty to twelve, we were rising in Hunts Lock, and learnt from a moorer walking to her boat below the lock that whilst the visitor moorings were almost empty, there wasn't a lot of room at the top of the flight, above Shade House.

This made the where to stop decision easier, and at five past we had tied up. After lunch, we took a load of recycling round to the skips, and have been chilling out on board ever since. The ice is now in rapid retreat, but the forecast is for a lot of wind later this week, so we may well make a long day of it tomorrow and go all the way back to the marina.