Boating and shopping as planned

Mind you, it all went a bit faster than expected. We'd allowed 3 hours for the 12 locks in the Bosley flight, being deliberately pessimistic in case there was a load of traffic. In the event, setting off at 6.45 meant that we went up the whole thing without seeing another boat moving, and did it in two hours almost exactly. That's ten minutes a lock for those without a calculator handy. We were clearly the first boat through, and around half the locks were against us. The last boat the evening before had come down, so in theory they should all have been with us, but leakage through the top gates (and in some cases the walls) meant that some had filled up completely.

It's about another three miles to the towpath moorings at Lyme Green, and we did it without too much grief. At the powered swing bridge at Royal Oak, there were a total of three boats coming the other way, but after the first one had gone through, the others held back for us, which was really nice of them. They were a small flotilla out of Lincoln, so a long way from home.

After relaxing for the rest of the morning, we caught the 13.11 99B from outside the Lyme Green retail park and in less than 10 minutes were in the centre of Macclesfield. I got my reading specs fixed at Boots, bought a new dressing gown (anniversary present) and pair of deck shoes (needed as my old ones are falling apart) from Marks and Sparks, and we did sundry other bits and pieces of shopping as well.

We then had to hang about Macc Bus Station for 30 minutes, as there's a gap in the 99 service mid afternoon, but we got a number 14 back at 15.05 and were drinking tea in Sanity Again by half three.

Tomorrow, we'll make another early start so as to be in Adlington in good time for lunch with Peter and Jan in the Miners Arms.

To the foot of Bosley, and another slight change of plan

There is a 3 signal here after all, so a quickie is in order, I guess.

As planned, we made an early start, and stopped in Congleton for a quick shop in Hightown, the little cluster of shops you can access from bridge 75. Peter Mason gave us a call, and asked if we could be there first thing on Friday, as the boat currently in the paint dock, Dolce Far Niente, will be coming out then.

We're already committed to having lunch at the Miners Arms in Adlington on Thursday, in celebration of Sheila's brother Peter's birthday. We'd planned to stop in Bollington and get a lift to the Miners, but instead we'll go right on to Adlington for Thursday night. That will leave us just a half hour's boating on Friday.

Today, we've stopped at the foot of Bosley, so we'll make another early start tomorrow, planning to get to Lyme Green, just this side of Gurnett Aqueduct, by lunchtime.

In the afternoon, we can take the 99B bus into Macc to do some serious retail therapy.

Onto the Macc

After another windy night, we were glad to find it a flat calm first thing this morning. Setting off just after seven, Sheila steered up the first three locks and we stopped on the water point at eight. We'd had the Hurricane running for the trip, so that the calorifier was full of hot water and Sheila was able to start a washload whilst I got the tank filling.

We were a little alarmed that the Hurricane then cut out, with an error message on the remote control switch saying "Flame Out". Investigation showed that Sanity Again's side was pressed up against the wall of the wharf, so that the air intake for the heater was blocked. Once we were on the Macc, I tried restarting it and it fired up with no problem.

Setting off again with a full tank, we were soon up the last three locks, and Sheila negotiated the tricky turn out of the lock into the junction. We'd no sooner done so than a boat appeared coming in the other direction. This proved to be Graham and Beryl on Priscilla, having a few days cruise before heading back to Poynton, where they moor, for the Owners' Weekend in a fortnight's time.

The weather steadily deteriorated as the day went on, becoming a typical Bank Holiday, wet and breezy. Still, it was good to be back on the Macc. We actually had to queue for the stop lock at Hall Green, which was emptying very slowly. The boat coming down was crewed by a foursome who were clearly enjoying the holiday, rain or not, merrily swigging from cans of the amber nectar as they went.

Once up the last lock of the day, we chugged merrily on to the mooring beyond Ramsdell Hall, meeting a fair bit of traffic coming the other way. A particular worry was a couple of canoeists, one of whom decided to play chicken with us at a bridge hole. On the way back, they passed us one either side, although Sheila had pulled over to the right to let them through.

The towpath alongside the hall is now looking quite spiffy, as the project to renew the fancy wrought iron railings has been completed. We've tied by Bridge 86, the Little Moreton Hall moorings, as usual; the afternoon's been spent mostly doing internet stuff like emailing a (short) list of jobs we want done while we're at Braidbar, setting up an Ocado order for while we're there and buying some mirror plates online from Screwfix. These last will be used to fix our smart award certificate to the cabin side by the galley.

An early and quick trip to the top of Church Locks

The weather continued to be pretty dramatic all day yesterday, but finally dried up a bit overnight. We made a prompt start this morning, Sheila locking and me steering. We like to stop at the top of Church locks rather than further in to Kidsgrove these days, so there were only six locks to do.

There was a bit of traffic about, but nothing like enough to make us queue for locks, just the occasional wait for a boat to come down.

By half nine we'd arrived, the weather having turned wet and windy again. For the second day in a row we dropped the cratch cover to keep it out, but didn't feel the need to relight the stove, though it got a bit marginal at times. The year has turned or is turning, basically. There'll be plenty of fine days yet, I don't doubt, but no more of the real scorchers. In some ways autumn is our favourite time of year for boating. In our hiring days, we often went out at the autumn half term, when there are fewer boats about but the days are still long enough to enjoy.

Boating early on a misty autumn morn can be magical.

We had a stroll up the Red Bull Locks after lunch, managing to avoid getting caught in the rain this time; there was still a fair bit of movement on the cut, but still no queueing. A father and son were playing with a couple of radio controlled model power boats below one of the locks which added a bit of entertainment for those taking a Sunday afternoon stroll.

Tomorrow, we plan an early start, water at Red Bull and then on round onto the Macc and so to the Little Moreton Hall mooring. Sheila is hoping that the wind will have dropped somewhat by then, as otherwise the turn at the junction will be interesting, but not in a good way.

And today, we went nowhere

It's a great thing this flexibility; the forecast today was pretty dire, with heavy showers and the possibility of thunder for most of the day. So, since we're ahead of schedule, we decided to stay put. Rode Heath is a good place to do that, with a decent local store just a short walk away and a pub for those who want to miss out on the cooking.

It got clammy enough in the rain that we lit the stove, and as a result have been sweltering a bit off and on. When it's not absolutely tipping it down, the sun comes out and it's quite warm, so we've been opening and closing the hatches all day. We managed a short walk after lunch and got caught in one of the downpours, but no matter, our wet things have been drying on the rack in the cratch with the bow doors open to let the warmth of the fire onto them (we've dropped the cratch cover, naturally).

Main item of interest from a boating point of view has been an announcement by Grant Shapps, the Housing Minister, that local authorities are to be encouraged to facilitate people who can't afford land based homes to live on boats; he's offering financial inducements to the councils to do so. Obviously, if this means marinas find it easier to get planning permission for residential moorings, all well and good, but the worry must be that it results in the existing lines of hippy hutches on the offside being officially licensed to stay there.

BW would get more end of garden type mooring fees, and the council would be relieved of the need to rehouse them. It would be just bad luck on those of us who believe that the cut is meant for navigation, and who now had to spend yet more time creeping past at tickover. Time will tell how it works out, but it needs  careful watching. RBOA, aka the Hippy Hutches Protection Society, has already welcomed it of course; I wait to see what NABO says. It's no good expecting much from IWA in this context, it'll probably take them a couple of months to wake up to the initiative.

/blur

Meantime, we'll head off tomorrow, in better weather hopefully, again heading for the top of Church Locks.

A bit further again

We had an excellent meal last night, the one we'd promised ourselves to celebrate our ruby wedding anniversary. We went to San Marco, the Italian restaurant in the old warehouse at Wheelock. We've often wondered what it was like, and the answer is – very good.

It offers a nice mix of standard Italian fare and more generic cuisine. So Sheila was able to have garlic mushrooms followed by chicken tagliatelle, and I had fishcakes followed by bistecca gorgonzola. The portion sizes were good, adequate without being ridiculously generous, so that we both had room for a sweet for once, profiteroles for Sheila and panna cotta with loganberries for me.

With a bottle of Montepulciano, it came to just over £60 including my tip, so not overpriced by today's standards either. Service was prompt and friendly, and the ambience is, shall we say interesting, a mix again of Italianate decoration and classic English prints. We'd definitely go again.

As canal boathire surmised in his comment, we weren't away quite as promptly as planned this morning, but still managed to be going by half seven. We'd intended to stop at Hassal Green, but were making such good progress despite the rain that we came on to Rode Heath, giving us less to do tomorrow.

There was plenty of room to moor here just before eleven, and I nipped through to the PO stores, where they'd sold out of the Independent, but still had copies of i, so not a complete loss. This afternoon, we took all the recycling to the skips in the car park of the Broughton Arms; the stuff had been piling up since Norbury Junction.

We'll go on to tie above Church Locks tomorrow, just six locks further on; that means that I'll have time before we go to buy a loaf of bread and a copy of the Saturday Independent, hopefully, with its challenging giant general knowledge crossword.

Heading for a heartbreak

Actually, I've never had a problem with the Cheshire Locks, aka Heartbreak Hill. Yes, there are a lot of locks in a short distance, but it's nothing like as daunting as Hatton, aka the Stairway to Heaven, or Tardebigge. We usually take three or four days over it, mind; it must be a bit different if you're trying to do the Four Counties in a week, and have to slog up from say Wheelock to the north portal of Harecastle in a day.

As predicted, we had no trouble at Middlewich overnight, though the fact that it tipped it down must have helped, and we set off just after seven again. The turn out at the junction went OK, though Wedgwood Boatbuilder's habit of mooring a boat right opposite makes life a bit tricky for the 70 footer. I was glad there wasn't much wind, and only had to go astern once.

Then it was a gentle plod, really. It's over two years since we were in Middlewich, and since then factories like the Bisto one have just disappeared. The pound above Booth Lane isn't any more thrilling than it was. Sheila's analysis was "At least it's better than Stoke" which frankly ain't saying an awful lot.

Not that it's bad, you understand, just a bit dull and post-industrial, with plain piled and concrete capped edges and scruffy fields broken by sporadic factories. Approaching Wheelock, we passed a Middlewich Boat, Maple, well stemmed up on the towpath side. She was crewed by three lads, one of them walking along the offside gunwale in a dressing gown and bare feet (I know, how often do you see a gunwale in a dressing gown?) and they finally got away after we'd passed.

Arriving at the visitor moorings at half ten, we found no one else here, and had our pick of the length. Several more boats have now turned up; this technique of start early, stop early is surely the one to use on a popular stretch of canal in high season.

Tonight we plan to eat out, probably at the Italian by the service wharf, then it will be another early start tomorrow, heading for Hassal Green, most likely.

Slight change of plan

After I'd posted the blog yesterday, we realised that we'd need a couple of trips to the Middlewich Tesco to restock with heavy stuff like wine, milk and fruit juice. If we went on down Stanthorne Lock and then stopped by one of the access points for the supermarket, such as Bridge 28, we could do a trip this afternoon and another first thing tomorrow.

So we set off at at ten past seven, and made steady progress to Barbridge and so onto the Middlewich Arm. Sheila did an excellent job of the turn, and we were soon at Cholmondeston Lock. Traffic was surprisingly light, considering it's still peak season. Another excellent example of the contribution SUCS make to the boating experience is the vast improvement that's been made to the Sykes Hollow site.

This is the remains of a clay pit or something on the Middlewich Arm which used to be rather scruffy, with burnt areas where people had lit bonfires. Now it's as good as Coole Pilate, with picnic tables, barbecue stands and so on, and a decent length of 48 hour mooring. If the establishment of the New Waterways Charity means this sort of thing spreading round the system, I'm all for it.

We had to queue briefly at Stanthorne Lock whilst a Claymoore boat went down ahead of us, then we were in the final stretch, looking for a mooring. There is a footpath just after the last aqueduct, called Hannah's Walk, but we couldn't get close to the side near it. So we've come on to the first visitor moorings beyond Bridge 28.

Two trips to Tesco have been undertaken already, so we can make an early start tomorrow, heading for Wheelock. Meantime, we've been slightly pestered by some bored primary school age kids wanting to earn money by dancing for us or selling us wildflowers (10p a bloom, would you believe), but I don't think they are likely to be a menace overnight, not least because it's going to rain, and anyway, they had to be home by five for their tea, they told me.

I've amended the page about non-emergency calls to the police with some good news about the nationwide roll out of the Single Non Emergency Number, 101. Take a look, and my thanks once again to Graham Keens for drawing it to my attention.

A dozy day at Nantwich

We'd planned to do a lot of restocking here at Nantwich, visiting the Morrisons at least once, but realised a) that the access to the Tesco at Middlewich (where we'll be the day after tomorrow) will be easier and b) we could get everything we needed before then from the shops in the centre, particularly those in Pepper Street. Accordingly, we've visited Clewlow's the butcher, Chatwins the baker and the greengrocer. In addition, we called at Home Bargains in Beam Street for a couple of canned goods.

Home Bargains claims to be a really cheap shop, but it's not as cheap as you might think, except perhaps by Nantwich standards. No matter, they supplied a few cans of chopped tomatoes at a reasonable price, though the corned beef was not such a bargain.

The weather has been much better than forecast, a bit cool and breezy in the middle of the day, but quite a scorcher just now. After loafing on the bow for most of the afternoon, we've just taken a walk along the embankment to the end of what was the Birmingham and Liverpool  Junction Canal (not that it ever actually reached either of those places), where there's the basin at the terminus of the old Chester Canal.

Lots of boats around, but just a steady traffic. Tomorrow we'll head off again, through Barbridge to the moorings at Blackberry Wood on the Middlewich arm. This way, Sheila has to negotiate the Barbridge Junction in this boat for the first time, whilst to my lot falls the one at the other end, complicated as it is by the presence of the Middlewich hire yard and Kings Lock.

What larks, Pip!

and so to Nantwich

It's not a long run from Coole Pilate to Nantwich, so we didn't set off until half eight this morning. I took the opportunity to add some more bits to my page about buying a boat, especially in view of the Ben Harp saga; to see it, just click on the link over there on the right.

In the event, we were boating for two and a half hours, but only actually moving for half that time. We weren't worried, it was a lovely late summer morning, and hanging around Hack Green was no hardship at all. There were a couple of boats going down in front of us, one being single handed and the other occupied by the single hander's parents. The elder man was 80, and an ex-River Severn pilot.

The two boats were cruising in company from Sharpness to Llangollen, so it just shows that advancing age is no bar to enjoying yourself on a boat.

Finally we were away from there, and the remaining couple of miles went by very easily. We found a mooring at our usual spot on the embankment before the aqueduct. More time was spent relaxing and pottering on line; I've added a bit of text to the head of the blog reminding people about the Braidbar Open Day. For scheduling reasons, Peter Mason is building a spec boat (that is, one for which he doesn't have a bespoke customer) at the moment, so this year's Open Day is actually one where someone might be able to buy a boat on the spot.

That's assuming it hasn't sold in the next two weeks, of course. After that, if you placed an order on that weekend, I think it would be into 2013 before you could take delivery.

We're going to take two days here, as we are a bit ahead of schedule, and this is a good place to restock with some stuff. We've made one trip into town already, and will do at least one more tomorrow.  After that, we'll be back out into the wilds of East Cheshire again.

On to Coole Pilate

Although the mooring was very quiet, despite it being a Saturday night (Audlem not a hot bed of wild partying) we both had a restless night, and felt quite part worn in the morning. Fortunately, we only wanted to water and potter on to the SUCS moorings at Coole Pilate, though we had some doubts as to whether there would be room for us when we got there.

At eight, we worked down the first two locks and popped onto the water point. It has not a bad pressure, which was just as well as the tank was quite low. Sheila was able to start a washload running after a bit, and by just after nine we were full and able to set off once more.

Another two locks passed uneventfully, and we plodded on down the cut in very pleasant weather. By the time we reached Coole Pilate, some boats had set off and we found a mooring without any trouble.

We've spent the rest of the day in relaxed style, chatting to various other boaters, drying the washing on the whirligig and reading the Independent on Sunday. On the way here, a boat called Constance passed going the other way, bearing readers of this blog.

Hi, it was good to meet you, albeit briefly!

Also here on the moorings is Braidbar number 14, Colne. We've had a couple of chats with the female half of her crew, another very pleasant encounter. We've also had a chance to catch up with Tony off Timewarp, whom we see about the system from time to time. Like us, they are real wanderers, having just been working down the south end of the Oxford canal.

Tomorrow, we'll amble on to Nantwich, again keeping our fingers crossed that we'll find a mooring. Some serious retail therapy can take place there, our last chance for a big restock before heading off towards Middlewich and the Cheshire Locks.

More boating than planned

The Boots pharmacy problem turned out very well yesterday. When I went back, they hadn't had the afternoon delivery they'd been expecting, so couldn't supply the two missing items. When I pulled a face and pointed out that that meant us spending an extra day in Drayton, they arranged to collect the stuff from another local pharmacy.

Full marks to them, though not to the Boots supply chain.

As planned, therefore, we made a prompt start this morning, setting off at half seven and plodding past all the offside mooring between Drayton and Betton Wood cutting. After that, we made faster progress on a very pleasant morning. It clouded over from time to time, but was still definitely summer rather than autumnal weather.

The original schedule had been to moor at the bottom of Adderley flight, but Sheila had the bright idea of going on to Audlem, working down the top two locks and tying on the visitor moorings in the pound below. I'm glad it was her idea, as it was her turn to lock, and those moorings were absolutely chock-a-block, leaving us with no option but to carry on down the Thick.

I  offered to take over, but she preferred to stay with our established routine for the day. There was a lot of traffic by now, so that we were working one up, one down at most of the locks. Nine extra locks later, we found a mooring below 11, in the long pound above the village. It's not our favourite stop as, although a signed and ringed mooring, it has the dreaded Shroppie ledge underwater, and we still haven't acquired any go-kart tyres which are the only really effective form of fender on the ledge.

No matter, it's only for one night. After lunch we walked into the village, visiting the butcher (Market Drayton doesn't have one in the centre) and getting an Independent from the Co-op.

Tomorrow, we'll water below Lock 13 and then carry on to Coole Pilate.

A good couple of days boating, plus a slight disappointment

We've had a good two days, though I couldn't blog yesterday as the 3 signal at Goldstone Wharf was very off and on, and mostly off. We called at Norbury Junction where they not only kept their promise to give us a free pump out after we'd grumbled about them scratching our nice new blacking coming off the dock, but did one of the best we've ever had.

Truly, they are nice people there.

In the afternoon, we made a start on cleaning the front end of the boat by scrubbing the underside of one side of the cratch cover, but otherwise rather took it easy. I finished the first draft of my paper about the IWA Festival, and I've emailed it to a select few for their comments.

Today, we had the passage of Woodseaves Cutting, and Tyrley Locks to negotiate:

Prehistoric Woodseaves

It always feels quite creepy in the depths of this cutting. The heron, which has a paleontological look to it, seems the most appropriate bird to spot in here, and when Sheila said she'd seen a big raptor flying across into the trees, I was quite prepared for a pterodactyl to peer out at me.

We had a brief and hollow laugh at the sign at the entrance to the cutting, which reads "Danger bank erosion. Take care." There's a few of us with reduced savings pots who will heartily agree…

/shock

It was a nice run down the locks,with one boat following, and some just starting up as we got to the bottom. There was no problem finding a mooring at Market Drayton, and we've done a couple of largely successful shopping trips. I'd had a repeat prescription posted to the branch of Boots here, and it had arrived this morning.

Unfortunately, when I went to collect, they were out of a couple of the items, including the atenolol, would you believe. I need to go back just now to see if the missing stuff came in on the afternoon delivery; if not, we'll have to spend an extra day here, which is a bit tedious. Drayton is a lovely town, but we want to get on.

Up the Shroppie again

The Shroppie remains one of our favourite canals, though we met a guy the other week who'd tried it once and didn't like it. It's such a contrast to the dreamy windings of the Staffs and Worcs, with its cuttings and embankments, long straights and remote air. As the Pearson's guide says, it's hard to remember that you are only a few dozen miles north of the Black Country.

The guy who hadn't been taken with it sounded to have seen it at its worst, with wet and windy weather making navigation a chore. It has to be said, the continuing growth of on-line moorings is a problem. Travelling times are much longer the the typical 3 lock-miles per hour, because you spend so much time creeping past moorings at tickover.

We set off from last night's mooring at around half seven, expecting to do the nine miles and one lock in about three hours. Instead, it was after half eleven before we'd tied here at Gnosall. Some of the delay was caused by increasing levels of traffic, not at Wheaton Aston Lock, where we had a straightforward one up one down routine, but at some of the bridge holes, and particularly at Cowley Tunnel. Sheila held back in the cutting before the tunnel for one boat, and ended up letting another two through before it was our turn.

No matter, we were still on our mooring before lunchtime. We've done a bit of shopping in both Gnosall Heath and Gnosall itself, just enough to see us through to Friday, when we should be in Market Drayton.

After that, traffic may become even more of a problem, as we negotiate the Adderley and Audlem lock flights. Talking to a boat coming the otherway, it seems Middlewich is being a real bottleneck just now, but that may have eased off by the time we get there.

At least on the Shroppie, there's no shortage of water, thank to the generous donations of the population of Wolverhampton, whose water treatment plants feed both this canal and the S&W. It seems things are getting pretty difficult further south, with both the GU Leicester Line and the Oxford on very short working times indeed.

An early start and onto the Shroppie again

After a restless night, we made an early start, so that I was standing at the tiller by twenty past six. We'd both managed to ablute and breakfast ourselves by the time we were approaching the Pendeford Rockin', which was passed without meeting another boat.

Possibly because I was feeling a bit dopy and underslept, I made a bit of a hash of the turn at Cut End, hitting the towpath coping with the stem of Sanity Again before I could get her round. In my defence, it is a pig of a turn in a long boat, and quite the most difficult direction to take it at that. I guess Telford was assuming that the vast majority of the traffic would be heading for Wolverhampton, so that the acuteness of the angle to go north again wouldn't be a problem.

The early start meant that we'd reached our goal for the day, the visitor moorings before Brewood between bridges 7 and 8, by ten to nine. We were a bit worried that there wouldn't be room here, but needn't have been. We'd not long been tied before the boat behind left, so we pulled back a bit, making us the first boat on the visitor mooring. Typically, the boat ahead of us then left, and another arrived and tied in such a way as to occupy two spaces with one boat. As I type this, I think he's being asked to pull back to allow another boat to get in in front of him.

It really is important at this busy time of year to give some thought to the spaces you leave between your boat and the others on the mooring.

The rest of the day has passed quietly; I've been working on my document about the IWA Festival, and Sheila has been gardening on the roof and the like. Tomorrow, we go on to Gnosall Heath, a nice mooring but lacking in Vodafone signal.

Boating on our own again

We must have worked Sally really hard; Elanor tells me she's been sleeping almost all the time since they got home.

We had a good night's kip ourselves, and made a relaxed start this morning, getting away at around half eight. I did all the day's locking, up Gailey, and we tied on the water point above. We were down to half a tank, and watering opportunities are a bit erratic for the next few days. There is a point at Autherley, but it's not very good, and I can't think of one off hand at Brewood.

We usually stop at Hatherton on this route, but decided to come on to the Fox and Anchor at Coven Heath for a change. It makes a nice two hour run from Gailey, and reduces the length we'll want to do tomorrow to get through Autherley and a bit up the Shroppie.

After lunch, we had a stroll up to Coven itself, which turned out to be quite a substantial little township, with a Co-op, bakers, PO and new greengrocers. To get there, go through the pub car park and turn right, then walk up to the double roundabout and take the exit for Brewood. We bought some stuff in the greengrocers, which seems to have links to the Canalside Farm Shop at Great Haywood; certainly similar stock, and the same bags.

For the rest of the time, we've been dozing, reading and surfing the net, enjoying the chance to be lazy.

Tomorrow, another couple of hours should see us at the SUCS mooring just short of Brewood.

Onwards to Gailey

With a mighty effort of self control, I'm not going to say "gaily on to Gailey".

Drat….

/blush

We had another night of being checked up on by Sally, ending up with her on the bed by half five. Much to her disgust, we didn't have a long lie in this time, and by eight were getting underway. Sheila walked Sal for the first two locks, Penkridge and Filance, and then they rode to Otherton.

We tried leaving her in the well deck for that lock, but she got very distressed at being on her own at the front of the boat in such a deep lock, so Sheila walked her for the remainder of the climb to Gailey. There was loads of room on the towpath below Gailey Lock; we've stopped well back, as boats on the visitor moorings tend to be washed about quite a bit.

Traffic has been steady rather than heavy, with a fair number of hire boats about.

We've spent this afternoon working on more quiz items; can't give any clues about the other rounds now, there's people out there who'd start researching famous embankments the moment I mentioned them.

Drat!!
/omg

We're waiting for Elanor to come and collect Sally. She (the dog, that is) is getting very good about working locks; Sheila has been training her to sit whilst paddles are wound, and she potters to and fro over lock gates with much less anxiety than she did. Indeed, she's developing a habit of stopping half way across a top gate and having a look round, as she does on the dog walk at agility.

The answer to yesterday's spare quiz photo was the spout of the wash basin tap; well done davidss.

Here's another spare (note well, these will not appear in the quiz):

Might be trickier?

Hanging around Penkridge

Considering it's been a recovery day, I feel quite weary, and so does Sally, who at present is lying crashed out in the galley. (This is to give us the message that she's seriously underfed, and needs more rations tonight. In your dreams, Sal.)

We did have a very lazy start by our standards, as the dog wouldn't let us get out of bed. She'd joined us round about six, and we all dozed off again. I finally took her out for a first thing pee at seven, and then we retired back to bed, in the case of the humans with a cup of tea. It was eight o'clock before we finally managed to wriggle out from under 35 kg of dozing Doberman.

Sheila took the pooch for a walk, whilst I made a first foray into Penkridge for supplies. We arrived back together, and Sheila went into the village for a second round of shopping. This included some really nice silk roses, with which she has filled our prize rose bowl, and very good it looks too.

There was still time before lunch to take some photos for the photo round of the Owners' Weekend quiz. Here's one I'm not using (it's too difficult):

What part of Sanity Again is this?

The photo was taken without dismantling anything, but it is an unusual view of the item.

After lunch, we walked Sally back to Park Gate Lock, and I got some stuff from Midland Chandlers, a couple of hooks to replace damaged ones, and a grill to improve further the ventilation of the domestic alternator. One of the hooks proved to be a wrong choice, as the back plate didn't match the one I was replacing, so it was a case of trekking back there to get a refund.

No wonder I'm tired, come to think of it.

No matter, a haircut, a shower and cook dinner and I'll be able to have a beer with a clear conscience.

Good bye GCD & A, hello again, Sally

We had a really good night last night, once the grandkids had settled down. After a meal and a drink together, three of us went up to the club bar, leaving Cathy babysitting (at her request, she had a book she wanted to finish.)

As we'd been told, the club members were very welcoming, and the Pedigree was in very good nick. We've applied to join as Associate Members.

This morning, our visitors packed up and left, so by nine we were getting some diesel and a cylinder of propane (both very reasonably priced) before setting off ourselves. We made it to Penkridge by one, a bit longer than we'd usually take, but we were having to queue for the locks after Deptmore.

Plenty of room on the towpath below Penkridge Lock, though, so we're comfortably ensconced for a couple of days.

Elanor brought Sally over mid afternoon, as she's off with wrg this weekend.

On Sunday, we'll probably move on up to Gailey, then on Monday we'll be cruising seriously again, up the Staffs and Worcs to Autherley, then down the Shroppie, just as we did earlier in the year. This time, though, we'll carry on past Nantwich, turning right at Barbridge, and so onto the T&M again at Middlewich.

There are 12 boats and 31 people booked to attend the Braidbar Owners' Weekend and Open Day this year, so it sounds like it's going to be another good one. If you want to see what Braidbars are all about, come along to the yard on Saturday 10 September.

A break in the routine

After a relaxed start yesterday, we set off at nine from Tixall in very mixed weather. A boat was just coming down Tixall Lock as we got there, so Sheila had an easy time of it with the only one of the day. Above the lock, we plodded on through occasional showers. It's not the most dramatically beautiful bit of the Staffs and Worcs, but pleasant enough, with the West Coast Mainline adding interest to one side, and pleasant if undeveloped countryside to the other.

It's just on two hours to Stafford Boat Club, where we tied on the mooring I'd been told to use when I phoned. A visit to the office sorted out power and water access, so we were soon happily established with all mod cons. Graeme doesn't believe in satnav (sees enough of that stuff in his job, I guess) so they had a little bit of bother finding us just from the address, but eventually made it.

After that, it was the usual merry chaos of having the four of them on board. SBC really is the ideal place for this sort of rendezvous, with plenty of safe running around area for the kids, all facilities to make looking after them on the boat as easy as possible and a very pleasant spot into the bargain. Daniel has been very taken with his life jacket, only with difficulty being persuaded he didn't need to wear it in bed. This morning, he was to be seen eating his breakfast with it on over his pyjamas.

This morning, they've all gone off to visit Shugborough Hall, leaving me to chill out on the boat and catch up with the blog. The weather continues very mixed, with sun, breeze and the odd heavy shower, but I'm not complaining.

A hard day's boating

...by our standards, anyway. We'd usually take two days to get from Kings Bromley to Tixall, but today we did it in one move. I got up and started boating by half six, whilst Sheila made a more leisurely rise. Once we'd both had breakfast, it was half seven and we were threading through the wilds of Handsacre and Armitage.

By nine we were in Rugeley, and found a mooring just in front of Tony and Sue on Jenny Wren. Seemingly, they originated in that town, and have never had problems overnighting or leaving the boat there. One word of advice to those with longer boats; the visitor mooring is bendy, the uncontrolled stuff is straight.

We had a good shopping trip, visiting the butcher, Wilkinson's, Morrisons and Lowndes the fruiterer. By now it was after ten, and there was a lot more traffic about. It took a while to get going, but once away, steady progress was made. Sheila had to hold back to allow the converted working boat Hawkesbury to wind at the deceptive winding hole beyond Brindley Bank (it looks really good, but is well filled up with mud, as Sally reported the other week) and then we followed him through to Great Haywood.

We had to queue for a little while below Colwich, and for longer below Haywood, but then had no problem finding a mooring on Tixall. We'd been going from 6.30 to 13.30.

After a very belated lunch, we made an expedition to the newly reorganised canalside farm shop. It's a changed place, and well worth a visit, though still rather pricey. There's a serious butchery, and the greengroceries have been expanded and much improved from the rather sad display we saw over the winter.

Call in if you're passing.

We've now collapsed on the boat, rather, though Sheila's given the flowers a good seeing to. Another early start tomorrow, and on to Stafford BC for a couple of nights.

Heading North again

As planned, we made an early start this morning, setting off at half seven. As we rose in Bagnall Lock, we saw Margarita, crewed by blog readers Ken and Ann, just setting off from the moorings above. They  moor in Stafford Boat Club, so we'll be following them that way, though not as quickly, probably.

By the time we got to Fradley, things were getting busy, and we took a bit longer than usual to get up the flight, though it wasn't a big hassle. We stopped on the service flat at the yard and had a pump out before carrying on  onwards and upwards.

We've tied on our usual towpath mooring just beyond Kings Bromley marina. There was just the one boat here when we arrived at eleven, but by lunchtime it had filled up. I'm sorry to say some of the later arrivals have done the tedious trick of tying a half boat length apart, thus reducing the total available mooring, but then, it is high season still, and there are a lot of comparatively inexperienced boaters around.

There's a handy website called Considerate Boater that I can recommend to anyone looking to improve their boating etiquette.

We've spent the afternoon very quietly. I'm gently working on my thoughts about the way forward for the IWA National Festival, but it will be quite a while before I'm ready to commit myself to anything in print. It's a venerable institution, so it wouldn't be right just to abandon it, but there is the question of what it sets out to achieve, and whether it does so.

Sunday in Alrewas

After the fun of yesterday's slow run from Branston to here, we've had a day sitting on the 48 hr moorings in Alrewas. Elanor decided to collect Sally at lunchtime, as she won't be finished with her dog show until late, and we want to do some serious boating tomorrow.

Sally was, as usual, ecstatic to see Elanor back, and I've just had a phone call from Elanor to say the she went round the practice ring and only ran out three times, which is pretty good for her. When doing agility in an arena, the attraction of the wide open spaces just gets too much for her.

She has, however, just taken a red rosette in the "wag and catch" class. She'll wag her tail on command pretty reliably, and will catch biscuits all day.

Meantime, we put the afternoon to good use by doing a major service on the engine; oil and filter change, gearbox oil change, check the state of the fuel in the bottom of the water trap, tighten the stern gland, rotate the air filter in its housing. We also sucked a load of mucky water out of the stern bilge. Sanity Again still lets rather more water through her stern gland than I'm happy with, but maybe it's just the contrast with Sanity, which was an amazingly dry boat.

Tomorrow, we'll make an early start. We want to get a pump out at Fradley, then get beyond Kings Bromley if we can. We aim to be at Stafford Boat Club on Wednesday morning. We've booked a couple of nights mooring there, to be convenient for Graeme, Cathy and the boys to visit.

Dog to dog blog: a short weekend

Hi guys

Granny and Grandpa are complaining of being very tired, and I'm pretty well shattered too, so I was quite glad when Mummy decided to give us all a break by leaving me to look after them for the weekend, just Friday night to Sunday afternoon, she said.

Actually, I know Mum is planning to party the weekend away, and wanted me out of the way, can't think why.

I joined Sanity Again yesterday morning, and we had a lazy day, with lots of constructive loafing, apart from a walk round the lake in the water park. Not much doing there, frankly, very few ducks and no bunnies at all, so a complete waste of time. I wasn't even allowed in the water, something to do with "blue green algae". Grandpa says he blames the RYA, but I've no idea what that's about.

At the end of the day, they gave me my usual bed in the saloon, but didn't bother to put the shutters or porthole bungs up. This was really handy, first off when I spotted some people walking past in the dark and told everyone about it, and then when it started to get light I knew it was time to go through and jump on their bed.

G&G were really stroppy about this, can't think why. I mean, they'd said they wanted an early start, it was just nicely getting light, where's the problem. They eventually crawled out of their pit at half six, would you believe, by which time I'd dozed off again.

We actually got to do some boating. Granny and I walked to the first lock, then we rode to the next one. Grandpa let me help work that one, but after that he made me stay in the well deck, tied on a long lead to the bow locker.

This was such a swizz I made a fair bit of fuss about it, but no go, there I had to stay.

Humph.

We finally got to Alrewas at half eleven, taking four hours for a run that's normally two and a half, says Grandpa, as a result of a load of other boats being around, some of them quite out of practice at working locks.

Grandpa took me for a walk, but no running, after lunch, up to Common Lock. He kept stopping to natter to people he knew, but I wasn't allowed to chat to any of the other dogs.

Life is just so unfair at the moment, come back Mummy, I need you.

I'm just so sad!

Loads of licks,

Your friend

Sally

A quiet day at Branston

We had a couple of jobs to do before Sally arrived in the late morning, so after I'd walked into the village to get the paper, we set to. First off, the washing from yesterday was transferred to the whirligig, since the weather seemed quite hopeful for finishing it off, then we changed the quilt cover to the Sally-proof one.

Actually, it's not so much that it's Sally-proof as that it's the one we least mind getting damaged by big hairy paws and claws when she jumps up onto it.

After a brief break to catch our breath, we washed the port side of the boat, using plain water via the cunning brush and hose, and Sheila drying it off with a microfibre cloth. It looks a load better, but will be better still when we do it thoroughly with shampoo, a rinse and then a polish. We don't want to do that until we get to Poynton, though. In the meantime this has taken off the dust and dried mud.

Sheila has started a new permanent page about living aboard. That means that there are too many pages to fit in as tabs across the top, so I've moved them to a side box. I reckon that they are easier to see there, as well.

Elanor and Sally duly rolled up, and Sally is settling in. (Elanor is helping out at a dog show all weekend, and for once wanted a break from having to keep Sal under control as well as stewarding).

We've taken Sally for a walk round the lake here at Branston, but it was still too hot for a lot of exercise for a black pooch.

All day, we've seen the final blue shirt boats passing through from site, and were able to exchange greetings and chat with Amber Moon, Tartan Rose and Peddler.

I'll see if I can get Sally to do the blog tomorrow, but she's feeling sulky about the hot weather, lack of exercise and where's my Mummy, so it might be a bit ructious.

STOP PRESS: Thanks to Ben Harp, Tom and Jan Jones have nowhere to live this winter. Anyone with any ideas, please contact them via the Waiouru blog.

Off we go again.

I said much earlier this year that we seem to be spending a lot of time hanging about the Fradley/Alrewas/Burton area, and the next few days will be much the same. We made an early start this morning, and by half seven I had winded Sanity Again with some difficulty (the Willington winding hole is quite shallow), and we were plodding back towards Burton.

The weather, as forecast, has changed completely, much cooler, and with rain from time to time, some of it quite heavy.

We managed to reach Branston before it got really bad, and tied before the road bridge. There was still a bit of activity on the Festival site as we passed, though most of the fencing has gone, the marquee guys are taking down the last of their stuff, and the Tardis is due to leave today.

We got cheery waves from all the blue shirts we passed on their boats, and had brief conversations with a few, which was reassuring.

This afternoon has been given over to idling about, reading more of the wrg nw books and surfing the net, sometimes with particular projects in mind, otherwise just for the fun of it.

We're going to stay put tomorrow, so that Elanor can bring Sally over to us, then we'll move on on Saturday, probably to Alrewas.

Here I am again!

Well, I'm back in the world of Sanity Again, slightly earlier than anticipated, but glad to be here. As told over on Shobnall Fields Forever, we decided to leave the Festival site a bit earlier than planned. This was mainly because under Ali Moore's brilliant organisation, the wrgies didn't have that much more to do, and as we weren't desperately popular with some of the blue shirts, we thought it might be more comfortable if we just got out of it.

The original plan had been to back up from the Festival site to the junction with the old Bond End canal, now the entrance to Shobnall Marina, get a pump out there, wind and carry on towards Alrewas and points west. However, with an extra few days to play with, and since the poo tank wasn't as full as we'd been expecting, we've come on to Willington instead.

It was a very pleasant run yesterday, and we had a relaxing afternoon loafing on the bow, reading the Independent (me) or one of the books we bought from wrg nw (Sheila). In the evening, we went and had a meal at the refurbished Dragon (formerly the Green Dragon). It was very good, good choice of real ale, though they were struggling to keep it star bright in the muggy weather, and tasty food at a decent price.

Today, we've been a bit busier. Sheila washed the roof this morning, then we went on to wash the starboard side. Just a plain water rinse off this time, to get rid of the dust and muddy streaks. Next month, it will need the full monte to get her ready for the Braidbar Open Day and Owners' Weekend.

After lunch, Elanor popped over and took us shopping in the Burton town centre Sainsbury's, so the wine cellar is full again, after very nearly running out.

Tomorrow, we'll wind and head back, probably stopping in Branston for a couple of days, then slowly onwards. We're dog sitting for both of the next two weekends, and Graeme, Cathy and the boys hope to join us for  few days at the end of next week.