Grotty connection at Fradley

It should be a really fast 3 connection  here at Fradley – the mast is at the A38 junction at Alrewas – and the modem is showing the green light for a full conn, but it's hiccupping away like fun, so just a brief blog.

We had a really good natter with Alan and Liz last night, catching up with all the goss about our former fellow Owners of Streamline.

An eight o'clock start saw us doing some very pleasant boating in bright sun; the run past the woods above Woodend is incredible in those conditions, with beams of sunlight shining down onto the water.

A quick run down to the junction, and I winded Sanity Again to pull up alongside the service boat, where we had a good pump out for just £12.

No problem finding a mooring below Junction Lock, and time to do some more varnishing before lunch, despite going for hot choc/decaf coffee and carrot cake in the cafe first.

We've had a quiet afternoon; Elanor is coming over with Sally later, on their way to agility class.

Summer in Rugeley

Readers in the UK will be well aware that we're having a late burst of summer; in fact, it's warmer now than it's been since about June, I think. It's only scheduled to last a few days, being the result of high pressure over mainland Europe pulling hot air up from the south. By Sunday, the high will have wandered off and things will be back to normal.

It was very foggy first thing, and I was glad we didn't need to make one of our flying starts, as it would have been quite tricky navigating through it at half six. We actually got away at eight, by which time you could see beyond the bow from the stern, though to be on the safe side I put the tunnel and nav lights on for the first half hour. After that, the sun had started to burn off the fog, and things got back to normal.

Arriving at Rugeley just after nine, we had a serious burst of retail therapy, both restocking with perishables and getting things like an extra floor mat for the engine 'ole and some fine wet and dry paper to rub down the new varnish between coats.

After putting everything away, we set off once more, meeting a fair number of boats coming in the other direction. Passing Spode House we crossed with Blue Sapphire (I think) whose crew told me that they were readers of this blog. I hope I've got the boat name right; immediately after, we passed that strange unusual looking boat Sapphire Blue on her mooring, so now I'm worried that I've got confused and that my nominal dysphasia has struck again.

By twelve, we'd just passed through Handsacre, so we've moored by Bridge 56, about halfway between there and Kings Bromley. After lunch, I went onto eBay and ordered some 3M Marine Finesse-It for general rubbing down and de-scratching of the paintwork. As I was dozing over the finance pages of The Independent, Sheila suddenly said "It's Streamline" and indeed it was, with Alan and Liz Rowbotham on board.

We've entertained them with tea and biscuits (very nice biscuits, thanks guys) and they are returning tonight to share a small libation.

Tomorrow, on to Fradley and our first rendezvous with Elanor.

Merry chaos at Great Haywood.

Things went reasonably to plan this morning, after a quiet night at Weston, where the moorings got very busy by late afternoon. We got to Great Haywood just after nine, to find a couple of boats already watering, but just room for us on the end.

We'd not filled the tank at Stone, and wanted to top it right up here. After a bit of hassle getting a fitting to attach to the outlet on the water point, we were able to settle down. The recycling was chucked in the relevant skips and after that we were kept entertained by conversations with our fellow boaters.

First up were John and Elizabeth, Kiwis on Helen Louise. We had a good natter with them, then they went off and after a bit Periwinkle arrived. Periwinkle is a hotel boat; they had to tie outside us whilst our tank finished filling.

We found ourselves following Snowgoose down Haywood Lock; I nipped off and got a paper whilst Sheila worked Sanity Again down. Colwich was being repainted by a Community Payback team so even more merry fun was had by all, especially as there was a queue of four boats below.

This included fellow Braidbar continuous cruisers Bob and Shirley on Up Spirits, number 102. We last saw them just under twelve months ago at Marple.

We stopped for the day at Wolseley Bridge in steadily improving weather. This is handy, as it means I can get on and do the bits of revarnishing in pleasant conditions. It's not a great deal, just repairing sun damage along the tops of the external doors, and a bit of abrasion in the frame of the back doors, where you rub it getting in and out of the boat.

Another rub down with wet and dry and a further coat of polyurethane varnish tomorrow will see most of it sorted. By then, w'll have done our usual run through Rugeley and moored at Kings Bromley, I expect.

To one of the Westons

One of the confusing things about the Trent and Mersey is that there are two Astons and two Westons. Today, we stopped at the first Weston you come to heading east: we had thought of carrying on to the visitor moorings within sight of Ingestre Hall, but a stop at the water point below Yard lock and a delay queuing at Aston meant that it was gone twelve by the time we got to Weston and so my lunchtime.

It's been a very pleasant day, with improving weather. Whilst waiting at Aston, I had a chance for a natter with Martin and Margaret on Erin Mae, whom we got to know last winter at Great Haywood; they were on their way back from a trip up the Caldon.

This afternoon we had a burst of activity, doing some more varnishing and cleaning out the box steps at the front door. Having got started, we carried on and swept right through the boat. This means that my haircut, scheduled for later this afternoon, will now take place outside, to avoid having to sweep the floor twice in one day.

Fortunately, it's quite warm and sunny out there.

Tomorrow, we press on through Great Haywood to Wolseley Bridge; there's a sense of coming home, as we'll be in Fradley by the end of this week at this rate.

A bit of a chill out day

It's not that the weather has been particularly cold, though it turned wet unexpectedly after lunch, but we've been rather somnolent this afternoon. With only seven lock-miles to do, we didn't set off until eight this morning, Sheila steering and your correspondent making cheap yogurt and otherwise pottering about below.

(Cheap yogurt: using an EasiYo maker, put half of a one litre pack of semi skimmed UHT in the jar, add three tablespoons of milk powder and two to three tablespoons of a previously made EasiYo yogurt. Cap and shake well, and top up to the litre with more UHT. Place in yogurt making flask in boiling water in the usual way. My thanks to Jan Jones of Kelly-Louise, Waiorou one day, for the inspiration for this.)

Our locking down Meaford was met by three boats coming up, the first and third being Anglo Welsh and the middle one a Chas Hardern boat, his new one, Strider, crewed by some Canadian ladies. In fact, they turned the second lock down right in front of us, but were such innocents abroad I didn't have the heart to remonstrate, not being Maffi.

/nobigdeal

Indeed, at least they had a sensible target for the day, "that pottery place" where they planned to lunch. The first boat seemingly had left Great Haywood on Friday, and guess what, they were doing the Four Counties in a week, in the case of one half of the two couples involved, for the second time this year, going the other way round this time. They were aiming to be north of Harecastle by the end of the day, and looked a little downhearted when I told them that they needed to be there by three to be sure of a passage.

We tied at the top of Stone just after eleven. This is now our preferred mooring for Stone, much better than the scrum at the bottom, and only a little further to walk into the centre. A trip to Morrisons topped up the supplies, including pasties for lunch, yum.

Then, as I said, the rain started, so we picked a dry pause in the showers to drop the cratch and light the fire, and we've been dozing ever since.

One other real positive; a call from Peter Mason informed us that he's now had three orders as a result of the Open Day, so apart from a slot that might still be free next March, the next available build slot is April 2013. A warm welcome to any of those new prospective Braidbar Owners reading this blog; you won't regret it, I promise you.

Reading the blog, that is.

/wahaha

Straight through Stoke

Boating through Stoke is a bit of a curate's egg; parts are classic heritage type canal, with the remains of the old potteries giving a very clear idea of the original purpose, and parts are recovering, post-industrial land, like the stretch through the site of Shelton Steelworks, but parts are just urban grot, nothing like as bad as the worst of the BCN (Garrison Locks, for example) but still pretty discouraging. On the other hand, the water is pretty deep and wide for most of it, and Sanity Again did a steady 3.8 mph for much of the morning.

For once in Stoke, the weather was pleasant; cool, admittedly, but dry and sunny for some of the time. I needed the coolth to keep me awake, it not having been the most undisturbed of nights. At around two, I was rudely awoken by a condensation drip from the Houdini above the bed going straight into my left armpit, and it took a little while to get off again.

Then at four, a burglar alarm went off somewhere in the housing estate over the canal, and  it was again a while before slumber returned. Indeed, as so often after being woken after you've had the essential first five hours, I never really slept deeply again. That said, Westport Lake continues to be a handy stop between Harecastle and the Wedgwood moorings; we'd still recommend them.

We got away just after half seven, and took just an hour to get to Etruria and the top of the Stoke Locks. Another hour's work (mostly by Sheila) saw us down them; some of the top gates leak quite badly, and number two in particular managed to cascade not just onto the stern deck, but over the closed back doors, soaking my legs and the floor of the engine 'ole.

A boat coming up warned us that Barlaston was having a mini music festival this afternoon, with live acts performing from a trailer in the Plume of Feathers car park, so we stopped at Wedgwood a bit after eleven, having taken almost exactly three and a half hours from Westport.

We walked into the village to shop, then returned to the boat to eat toasted bacon sandwiches for lunch.

We've had a quiet afternoon; Ice Breaker passed by while we were eating so Martin is now ahead of us. I just hope that he either went on beyond Barlaston, or else likes quite loud sixties and seventies music; we didn't get a chance to warn him.

Back on the T&M

We did one of our flying starts this morning, after a very good night on Congleton Aqueduct. We were the only boat there, which is unusual, but didn't feel at all at risk. There were the statutory numbers of of walkers and joggers, but once it was dark, the principal noise was that of the owls.

Several tawnies called on and off all night, and one was still going at six this morning. Sheila got up and started boating whilst I made and drank tea, then I took over so that she could get her breakfast. Not only was our overnight mooring deserted apart from ourselves, there were no boats on either set of Congleton town moorings, nor were there any on the Little Morton Hall ones.

Indeed, when we got to the north portal of Harecastle, the tunnel keeper remarked on how quiet it was. The top pound of the T&M is 3 inches down from its already reduced level for this year, which gave us a bit of hassle getting into the tunnel mouth. There's a ledge off the towpath side right in the mouth, and we took two goes to get round it.

Once in there, Sheila was able to make a steady pace, closely pursued by two Black Prince boats. The crew of the first was clearly in cheerful mood, as songs and shouts persisted from them for pretty well the whole time. We emerged around 35 minutes after entry, so a decent speed despite the low water.

We've come on to Westport Lake for the night, as planned. We had a pleasant stroll round the lake after lunch; the bird life here is more abundant than unusual, though there are more coots than you usually see on urban water. We've just been joined by Martin on Ice Breaker, who's had a long day from the bottom of Bosley.

Tomorrow, we'll carry on down our usual groove; we aim to be at the Wedgwood or Barlaston moorings before lunchtime.

Slowly down Bosley

The cunning plan today was to make an earlyish start, work down Bosley and come on to Congleton Aqueduct, and indeed this is what we have done, though not as quickly as anticipated. All went well at first; we got away at twenty to eight, and were at Bosley Top just an hour later, having passed Martin on Ice Breaker just before getting there.

As we approached the top lock, Sheila went forward along the towpath to set it and encountered the steerer of the boat which had just started down. He indicated that they'd had problems with the level of the pound between locks two and three, and had been running water down.

Eventually, they headed out, and Sheila turned the lock for us. By now, Martin had arrived. All went well until we got to the second lock, where the boat ahead was still waiting. Apparently, the situation between four and five was even worse. We ended up with Sanity Again in lock two, the boat in front in three and a boat coming up waiting in five.

BW had been phoned but were likely to be thirty to forty minutes before arriving. Sheila went on down with the camera, and there was indeed no way anything could move between four and five:

Looking from Lock Five back to Four

After a long wait, a BW guy in a red lifejacket arrived and said he would start running water down. He must have set things up very gently, because the level in the pound between the top and lock two only rose very, very gradually. A little while later, another, older BW guy turned up. (He was wearing a blue life jacket rather than the first guy's red one; does this imply seniority?)

He told us to carry on working down, so as to bring more water down with us to the stricken pound. At last, we had the boat in front in lock four, Sanity Again tied in the pound between three and four, and Ice Breaker waiting in three.

Now the low pound looked much better, and the guy in five was persuaded to start working up. Things then went fairly well. The older BW man came and examined the paddles of four as we were working down it, and diagnosed a gate paddle that had come out of its guides, so that it would have been leaking all night.

We encountered another really low pound between eight and nine, but otherwise had an uneventful trip down once things were moving again. Just after twelve we were tied on the visitor moorings below the bottom lock, having taken three hours and twenty four minutes to do a flight that normally needs two hours.

After lunch, we came on to Congleton anyway, passing on the way a boat we'd last seen above Bollington, with the most remarkable roof gear I've yet seen on a narrowboat:

I don't know how long it takes him to get going in the morning, but it can't be quick. Ironically, despite all the solar panels and the boat's name, Green King, that's one of those whiny Honda gennies you can just see at the bottom left.

Tomorrow, we've decided to press on through Harecastle to Westport Lake, since the forecast is pretty good.

A good pub

We'd planned to stop at Lyme Green again on the way back from Poynton, but a chance to rendezvous with Peter and Jan made us decide to carry on to the Royal Oak swing bridge and meet them for lunch at the Fool's Nook. It's a very long time since we ate there, and we were very pleasantly surprised at hte improvement.

Decent beer and interesting food has, admittedly, left us feeling rather dopey this afternoon, but it was still a good move.

Apart from that, it's been a day for straightforward boating; it was Sheila's turn, and she had to wrap up well to cope with a very cool wind, but otherwise enjoyed bright sunshine for most of the time.

Tomorrow, we'll make an early start and plan to get down Bosley and on to the Congleton Aqueduct by lunchtime.

We set out towards Alrewas

After a great evening with Peter and Susan, we made a reasonably early start this morning and by half eight had winded Sanity Again outside the yard and were heading south and west along theMacc. It was my turn to steer, and I was pleased to find that the reduction of ballast in the stern resulting in 2" less draught meant the handling was generally lighter, with decent speeds over the ground where there was anything like a reasonable depth.

Indeed, on the stretch from the Deeps to Bridge 16, I was surprised to see the Garmin showing 4.1 mph, and had to throttle back a bit to stay legal. Adlington was reached after a bare half hour, but things slowed down rather after that. Bridges 20 and 21 are the shallowest on the canal, and a certain amount of leaf mould and silt was still dredged up as we went through.

Nonetheless, we made Bollington in just under two hours, so Sanity Again is now performing comparably with Sanity. Peter will be pleased that his suffering in dragging 600 kg of paving slab out from under the bed was not in vain.

/sweat

The only downside of the trip was the weather, which basically rained pretty well all the time. Sheila had a good excuse for remaining below, in that she was tidying up after last night. (It seems I may have got a bit carried away making the chicken in tomato and basil sauce in the wok, and red splashes had to be removed from the cooker and its surrounds. In fact, looking at the trousers I was wearing, I see that I shall have to change them when I shower after posting this blog.)

 /blush

We've tied on the few remaining rings by the Adelphi Mill in Bollington, the mill owner's alleged vandalism in cutting off all the others not having been repaired yet, though the collapsing state of the wash wall suggests that major surgery is required, not just a quick repair.

The weather having improved after lunch, we managed a nice walk up into Kerridge from Bridge 28, along the road to the right out of the village and so back to the canal at Bridge 29, then returning along the towpath past Kerridge Dock.

Tomorrow, we plan to go on to the Royal Oak swing bridge moorings, as we've a rendezvous with Peter and Jan at the Fool's Nook for lunch.

Suddenly it's all done

It's always the way when you've got a jobs list that has several small jobs on it; one day it looks like there's a week's worth of work, then the next, it's all done and dusted.

We had a relaxed start this morning, as we knew that things were not likely to start happening until the replacement PRV arrived. In fact, the first entertainment was a small boat shuffle; Ice Breaker went out, and the spec boat came out of the paint shed to let Charlie Mills's boat Kintyre Mist go in to have a leaking window sorted.

Then we put the spec boat back where Ice Breaker had been. Next, the Ocado delivery arrived half an hour early, at half nine, having been booked for the ten to eleven slot. Once that lot was put away, we took a coffee break, then made a start on varnishing some of the areas where we'd succeeded in cleaning up the damp staining. Peter Mason has confirmed that there's nothing for it with the other areas, we'll have to rub down the varnish, use oxalate and then revarnish.

During lunch, we were told that the PRV had arrived, so Andy Grindrod has spent some time aboard this afternoon. The PRV has been replaced, and all the joints involved persuaded to stop dripping. The extra towel rail has been fitted, and new bits of acrylic supplied and attached with hook and loop tape below the prisms.

This is the second attempt at this strategy for preventing condensation forming on the prisms. Last year's design had the acrylic screwed to the prism liners. This worked really well over the winter, but in the hot weather the movement of the expanding roof steel, transmitted through the prism liners, fractured the corners of the acrylic.

Using hook and loop tape (ie generic Velcro) should avoid this. It means a bit of an air gap along the long sides of the acrylic, which may allow some condensation to form. If it does, we'll fill those gaps with stick on draught excluder.

Peter and Susan are lined up to come for a meal tonight, and tomorrow morning it will be heigh ho for Macclesfield, Kidsgrove, Stone and points south and east.

Catching up with the jobs

The weather has been much better today, though we just got caught by a seriously heavy shower this afternoon. The sun's early appearance encouraged us to get on with things; firstly, I updated tomorrow's Ocado order, and by the time that was done, the Trading Post had opened. We backed Sanity Again out of the yard, and took on 93 litres of diesel at 40% propulsion.

On Sanity, it was rare for us to declare over 30%, but this boat's energy use is so much more efficient, we burn less diesel, but more of it actually propelling the boat. Back in the yard, some bits and bobs of wood were cut up neatly, and just before lunch I made a start on the damp stains with the oxalic acid.

It's not been quite as effective as I hoped. I applied it straight onto the varnished wood, a strategy that's worked before, but the quantity of varnish applied during the build has obviously gone up. The black areas have been reduced, but to do the job properly, I think they'll have to be rubbed down, oxalated and revarnished.

None of the areas are hugely obvious, let me say, it's more a matter of pride to try and keep the boat in pristine condition, that's all.

In the meantime, Sheila had run another washload, and dried the previous lot on the whirligig. As the weather was starting to look threatening, she took the stuff in; the last load is very nearly dry, it'll just need some final airing off on hangers around the boat.

She's very pleased, as this means that we are right up to date with the laundry, having fallen behind rather during the merrymaking last weekend.

We were just setting off for a walk when we found that Stephen and Jayne, with son Thomas, had called in, passing though on Dolce Far Niente's shakedown cruise. Actually, we caught them guzzling ice cream from the Trading Post; Andy is really going to miss them when Dolce finally leaves to head for her winter moorings in Mercia Marina.

Sheila and I then did the best walk we've had for a while, up into Lyme Park, around to the south and down to bridge 16 on the canal, and so back home. It was on this last stretch that the heavens opened and we sheltered under Bridge 15 near the yard for a bit.

Back on board, we've had a cup of tea, and Sheila is just looking at a query about porthole doilies as I type. I'm going to put a beef curry on to cook, and then get a shower.

It's been a good day.

Damp Saturday

For the first time for a few days, we didn't have to leap out of bed so as to be ready for the possible arrival of a boatyard worker, and so we were able to have a lazy start, not getting up until half seven. I did the walk down to the Co-op to get bread and a paper, whilst Sheila sorted washloads and the like.

Since then, it's been a bit of a lazy day, frankly, with the weather doing nothing to encourage us out. We've read the paper, done the quizzes and attempted the giant general knowledge crossword (not good at all this week). We dropped the cratch cover to keep the wet out, and later ran the water hose out to refill the tank; Sheila is having an orgy of washing whilst we are on shoreline power.

In the afternoon, the weather relented sufficiently to let us get a bit of an amble along the towpath, and we followed that up with a brief natter with Martin and Andy in the Trading Post.

Tomorrow, we'll pull out of the yard onto the shop mooring to fill the diesel tank, and I think the time has come to swap the clothing round, putting the short sleeved stuff away and getting out vests and long sleeved shirts.

We've got some odd bits of staining on the woodwork here and there, where last winter's savagely cold weather beat the insulation and led to some condensation forming and getting trapped. So another job tomorrow will be to bleach those out with oxalate solution.

Windy again, and a couple of minor problems

Guess what, the PRV didn't come. This is the replacement replacement, which will hopefully turn up on Monday. Fortunately, we'd already decided to stay over the weekend, as we're giving Peter and Susan a meal on Monday night. This had originally been planned for tonight, but some of their other plans changed a bit, so we put it back.

Meanwhile, we had a very good evening yesterday, with Martin and Ian round for a drink or two. Just general conversation, as usual, but a host of fascinating tales from them about their previous life and work.

Today, it was my turn to troll down into Poynton, visiting the butcher to stock up on meat, and to get my latest prescription filled. That wasn't wholly successful either; no problem at the butcher, let me say, but a bit of a snafu at the pharmacy. Like many another old age junky, my drugs list won't fit onto one form, and it turned out the GP had forgotten to sign page two.

Fortunately the meds on it were the less critical ones, eyedrops mainly, and of which I have a stock that will just about last until we get back to Alrewas, even on the revised schedule. It's the first time there's been a problem in about seven years of sending me scripts all over the country, so I can't really complain. If it had meant running out of more critical stuff (going cold turkey on beta blockers is not a good idea, for example) I would just have had to pop into the local surgery here, register as a temporary resident and get a script that way.

So, here we are for another merry weekend in the Braidbar yard. The wind has blown up again with a vengeance, a complete change to the summery weather we had yesterday, and the boat is rocking and rolling a bit as I write this.

No matter, we've got plenty of wood and coal for the stove, the supply cupboards and fridge are pretty full, so all we have to do is hunker down and see it through. I've set up one last Ocado order for Monday morning, topping up the stuff we're using, so we'll still be well stocked when we leave here on Tuesday, assuming we leave on Tuesday that is.

/hmm

Busy busy

It's been a busy day, with some progress, though not quite as much as we'd expected. We spent the morning doing housework type stuff, and clearing the airing and calorifier cupboards for Andy to replace the weeping PRV just after lunch. Unfortunately, when he came to do it, it became apparent that they'd sent the wrong replacement, as it couldn't be used in a horizontal position, and guess which way ours is.

The replacement replacement, one of the calorifier supplier's originals, will be here tomorrow, so that should get done then.

Meantime, servicing the Hurricane went very well; it really is as easy as they claim, and indeed, for a diesel burner with 990 hours on it, it looked very clean indeed inside. The instruction sheet I'd downloaded from the Calcutt site didn't absolutely match the appearance of the unit, but then, when do they ever?

We've also had time to help Martin from Ice Breaker get his membership of the braidbar-owners Yahoo group sorted, and to show him how to start a blog.

Whilst all this was going on, Ian Stockton turned up, watering and pumping out Sanity, so we've had a good natter with him, and plan to continue with the pair of them over a drink tonight.

Tomorrow, it will be back to the tale of the PRV, and down to Poynton for a bit of shopping.

Winding down

We've both felt quite dozy today, winding down after the excitements of the summer. Nonetheless, things have got done; Sheila walked down into the nearest bit of Poynton, Hockley, to get a paper, and both Dolce Far Niente and Cala have left.

Dolce is on her shakedown cruise to Bugsworth, and Cala, after having a defunct freezer fan replaced, is heading home to Calcutt. That just leaves ourselves and Ice Breaker of the boats which came here specially for the Owners' Weekend.

After lunch, Peter and John the joiner came and reviewed the bits and bobs still to be done. We're waiting for a replacement for the dribbling pressure relief valve, and Rick has mounted the Calor Rose Bowl certificate on the wall beside the galley.

Tomorrow, I plan to service the Hurricane with Peter assisting, not that it's a complex job, but because it's the first Hurricane Braidbar fitted, and so the first 1000 hour service and Peter is curious to see how it goes.

Apart from that, there's not a lot else to tell. It's the 14th of the month today, when we each buy a Kindle book. I've started reading Neal Asher, cyberpunk sci fi, I guess, and am getting into Gridlinked. Sheila has gone medieval with The Oath by Michael Jecks.

Ian Stockton, who bought Sanity from us, should be around from this afternoon on, so hopefully we'll meet up with him one evening this week.

Busy busy again

Well, not so much us, although we had a good night's sleep last night and were full of energy this morning, but things have been happening around the yard with a vengeance. In particular, we got up early and stripped the bed, including removing all the stuff stored under it. This enabled a piece of the sub floor to be liberated, and the yard staff, including the usefully tall and slim Peter Mason, then removed around 600 kg of ballast.

Sanity Again is now floating about 2 inches higher at the stern, which should make navigation of shallow waterways a good deal easier. There's still about 3 inches from the surface of the water to the uxter plate (the flat bit under the counter) so there's no risk of ventilation of the prop.

Whilst this was going on, we turned out the bow locker and went over to the winter configuration. This means that the coal box is now out on the well deck, and the folding chairs have been put away in the locker. I've also bought the first supply of coal, 5 bags of Supertherm.

We had a sociable time this afternoon with Peter and Gill from Cala and Martin from Ice Breaker, sorting out various IT issues.

Later in the afternoon, we had a bit of excitement when the community boat the Mary Sunley broke down just on the Deeps, with totally failed electrics. After much fiddling around and various solutions being tried and failing, Peter Mason was called, who instantly diagnosed a dead main engine fuse. A quick replacement and she was sorted.

The other theme of the day has been departures. New Dawn, Nimue and Mi Amigo have all left, and Cala hopes to get away tomorrow. We also had time for a natter with Keith and Alison on Janet Grant, just back from a short cruise.

It's been a merry meeting, and we look forward to more of the same at Crick and here in September next year. The Owners' Weekend works because it's anarchic in the best sense of the word. Apart from Peter and Susan showing us how they want the Open Day to be arranged, there's no formal leadership, we all just muck in with whatever skills we can bring to the party, and as a result, everyone feels involved and engaged.

Thanks to every one who made it happen; as I said late on Sunday evening, my word, I love you guys!

/wahaha

A very windy quiet day

As you'd expect, we've had a quiet day today, although the weather has been dramatically windy. One or two boats have had to leave, particularly Farne and Priscilla, who are due at Huddlesford for the Boat Gathering next weekend. Indeed, Des and Gill need to be there for Thursday, as they are involved in the set up.

Later in the day, La Suvera pulled out of the yard to set off home as well.

Our Ocado delivery turned up on time, and we've had a chance to chat to Susan Mason about stuff as well as talking to Peter about the jobs he's going to do for us on Sanity Again. The main one is removing some ballast from under the bedroom, as we're swimming a bit too deep for convenience.

We're thinking about our choice of boat polish, too. On both Sanity and Sanity Again, we've used Mer, having bought a large quantity of it early on, but we understand that it's got a lot of silicone in it, and we find it hard to get a completely clear polish. We're thinking about going over to carnauba wax, but have some concerns about putting that on top of the Mer.

I've posted a query about it on the Canal Boat forum, and have had one interesting response from Tony Brooks already. It would be good to hear from Phil Speight as well; I'll mention the outcome here in due course.

A quick catch up

We've had a great weekend; sorry I didn't even get around to tweeting, much less blogging. In a nutshell to catch up:

Friday night meant loads of grub from several parts of the world, lots of laughs. We'd put the marquee up on Thursday, with a gazebo in front as a porch, and we certainly didn't need any heating in there. We had a couple of lights rigged from the ridge pole and had no difficulty seeing.

Saturday the weather stayed reasonably kindly, and after a slowish start (usual Saturday phenomenon) there was a steady flow of visitors. The Open Day always feels very different from Crick, in that pretty well everyone who turns up is serious about buying a boat, though at different stages of the process.

Peter Mason pronounced himself well satisfied with the outcome, with one firm order and several other people wanting detailed quotes. It looks like the order book will be full well into 2013 pretty shortly.

The evening barbecue was a great success, with loads of grub again, both the grilled meat and salads, bread, pasta and yummy sweets. The quiz was if anything more popular than last year, and after a close contest was won by a team of folk who had mixed fortunes in previously.

Today, we made a start at around 8.45 and by half ten had all the tentage safely down before the wind got too much. By lunchtime we had everything tidied away, and had undertaken a complex boat shuffle so that the Barnards on Farne, who'd been in the paint dock, could make an early start tomorrow.

In the afternoon, Sheila arranged a trip into Macclesfield to visit the Silk Museum which was interesting, though the museum sounds to be not as well organised as some others.

The rest of us stayed behind and in my case at least caught up with lost sleep.

Tonight we have a Chinese; there's about 14 of us left from the peak of 31 yesterday.

Getting ready

We had a really good evening last night; Peter and Gill from Cala and Des and Gill from Farne came round for a drink, and we sat nattering until yon time.

Today, in improved but not brilliant weather, we've been working quite hard (well the  others have) to get set up for Saturday's Open Day. The new mini marquee was unpacked from its eight boxes and erected by lunchtime with very little needing to be undone and redone.

It's a really good piece of kit, solid and with proper tie downs and a ground frame, so as long as we don't get any more incredibly strong winds we should be OK. After lunch, we put up one of the gazebos in front of it to make an open porch entrance.

Meanwhile, much sweeping and cleaning went on inside and out, so that the whole yard is beginning to look very smart indeed.

The last job today was to do yet more boat shuffling; we've now got a row of five Braidbars on the Deeps, two on the hire boat mooring and two completed and two in-build boats in the yard. More shuffling will need to be done tomorrow; obviously, the guys will be working on the in-build boats until close of business, and the boat currently in the paint shed, La Suvera, will need to be swapped with Farne, the one just outside it.

Other jobs that need doing will be putting up banners and organising things like the photo displays inside the marquee.

Tonight we're all going down to the Boar's Head for a night-before-the-night-before the Open Day session.

A day on the Deeps

Anywhere else, the Poynton Deeps would be called the Wide, as they are wide but not very deep, but there you go, can't expect logic on the cut, I guess.

We had a much better night's sleep out on the Deeps, and have been managing to get a fair bit done despite the continuing grotty weather. I made the trek down into Poynton this morning to get meat to cook for Friday night's feast (we have an international pot luck supper on the night before the Open Day) and picked up a supply of bread at the same time.

Sheila, meanwhile, washed a big chunk of the floor in the boat as well as doing a load of other housekeeping jobs. Just as we were finishing lunch, Cala arrived, and we moored her inside Islay on the towpath just behind us. Once sorted, we had a meeting with Peter and Susan in the bungalow to decide the mooring plan for the weekend. There'll be a total of eleven boats available for the visitors to see, ranging from the part complete spec boat to the just finished Dolce Far Niente to New Dawn and Priscilla which are twelve years old and still look great.

After a while, Peter and Gill off Cala and then Des from Farne turned up, so we were soon doing the general catch up and nattering bit whilst Peter and Susan tried to go on running a boatbuilding business around us.

We've all retreated back to our own boats for the moment, but some visiting and drinking of various beverages will take place tonight I have no doubt.

Tomorrow, we are going to erect the brand new marquee, which promises to be quite a challenge even if the wind does relent.

Out of the paint dock

The forecast wind certainly arrived overnight, giving us a very broken night with loads of bumping and banging around the place. We finally decided to get up at half six or so, and by half seven were ready for the final finishing off stuff to be done, re-fixing the centreline fairleads, the klaxon and the cabin hooks for the rear doors.

The wind continued to gust ferociously, and I was quite worried about the prospect of trying to manoeuvre in it, but in the event all went well. We've come down onto a mooring on the Deeps which is quite quiet just now. It's certainly a relief to get out into the daylight again, even if it's very overcast, gusty, blustery daylight.

This afternoon, we went and hung around the Trading Post, chatting to Jayne and Stephen before they completed the paperwork for the handing over of Dolce Far Niente and started to move their stuff on board. Eileen and Bill had an Ocado delivery booked, so we gave them a hand with that when it arrived.

We're all going down to the Boar's Head for a meal tonight (the excuse is that Jayne doesn't want to cook on her first night on board, and we've all invited ourselves along too).

It's scheduled to be another pretty grotty day tomorrow, weatherwise, so we'll spend a fair bit of time lurking indoors, I suspect, though a shopping trip will have to be fitted in at some point.

Handrails finished

With the weather scheduled to deteriorate, we had a bit of boat shuffling to do this morning, so at seven o'clock we were out there moving Islay, the hire boat. By eight, Johnny was hard at work on our handrails, which are now bright and shiny again.

The Ocado delivery turned up at half eleven, by which time Sheila's hair had been extensively restyled by Bill from New Dawn (he used to be a professional hairdresser, and clearly has lost none of his old skills). Things were generally booming around the site; Dolce Far Niente is very, very nearly ready for her handover; it's great to see the excitement building as another Braidbar (number 131) is getting ready to leave.

I gather from a comment on yesterday's blog that Steve Haywood has made some reference to the IWA Festival business in his latest Canal Boat column; I'm not sure whether to be pleased or sorry about that, I was just about getting to the point of letting it go and forgetting about it. Hey ho, there are issues to be addressed, it's just distressing that people get so upset about the need to talk about them.

Meanwhile, we will be leaving the paint dock and moving out onto the Deeps for a few days; hopefully this bad weather will have blown through by the time we need to put the marquee up for the Open Day.

Sunday at Braidbar

It's been another day much like yesterday, with a very relaxed start and much pottering about. I wandered down to the first Co-op store to get a paper, and dropped off some recycling at the tip as I passed. Back at the yard, we got in some more gardening; the approach to the yard is beginning to look quite presentable.

Then we went and had a coffee on New Dawn with Bill and Eileen. We took Eileen a collection of red and blue tee shirts which were surplus to requirements, as she's taken up rag rug making and Bill was beginning to worry about his clothes all disappearing to make the rags.

After lunch, a bit more was done around the yard, and we found a couple of people peering in through the portholes of Dolce Far Niente, so we told them about the Open Day. They seemed semi serious about buying a boat, so I showed them over Islay, which is coming on the market at the end of this season if no one buys the spec boat first.

Islay was a bit longer and a bit newer than they wanted, but by great good fortune, Graham and Beryl turned up just then; they'll be selling Priscilla this time next year, as they are having a new Braidbar built. Priscilla is 52' and 12 years old, so much more the kind of thing our punters were looking for.

No sooner had all this finished than Stephen and Jayne turned up, and the afternoon was soon slipping by once more, with Bill in attendance as well.

Not much more to say, really, except to mention that if you want to argue for a proper enquiry into the HS2 high speed rail proposals, there's another petition you need to sign, the Government having announced that the original one wasn't adequate. To quote Des Barnard of Farne on the subject:

Please could I encourage as many of you as possible to sign this petition against the construction of the proposed HS2 rail line. If built, it will severely affect some of the most peaceful stretches of the canal network, including the remotest sections of the South Oxford and the Trent & Mersey above Fradley, not to mention the fact that it will pass over the end of our moorings at Lichfield Cruising Club. The whole project is being pushed through without any proper Public Enquiry, and the consultation exercise that has been undertaken is widely seen as just a slick PR stunt rather than an attempt to listen to genuine concerns. The fact that they have now changed the rules relating to petitions seems to be just another example of this government making up the rules to suit themselves!

The petition is here.

A gentle day in the yard

First off, a grovelling apology to Jayne Pigott for mis-spelling her name yesterday - it's been corrected now!

We were able to make a lazy start this morning and have a leisurely breakfast. After catching up with the emails and the like, we walked down to Poynton, bought a paper and visited the Waitrose store for top up supplies to get us through to Monday, when we have an Ocado delivery booked. Rather than wait for the bus, we walked back and were just getting set to put things away when Bill turned up, stayed for a cup of tea and then gave us a hand to finish cutting up the dinghy. It seems Eileen was having a boat cleaning session, and he'd retreated to a safe distance.

After lunch, we made a start on the gardening, tidying up the shrubs on the approach to the yard. Whilst we were taking a break from this, Stephen and Jayne arrived (it's incredibly frustrating when your boat is so nearly ready, you have to keep coming and having a look at it). Shortly after, Bill showed up again, and we went and had cups of tea and the like at the Trading Post, now being ably run by yet another Andy.

The rest of afternoon drifted by in talk and mutual chaffing. Just as we were planning to break up, Andy Russell showed on his way home from the current job at Furness Vale, and he's touching up the damage to our signwriting as I type this. It takes real skill to match the colours after 18 months of exposure to the sun and wind, but of course Andy has that in abundance.

We'll have another quiet evening on board, I guess; it's good to make sure the batteries are fully charged before the whirlwind of socialising next week.

In to the Braidbar yard

Things may be a bit erratic with the blog for the next ten days or so; I'm sorry not to be able to stick to the regular slot, but I will do my best to get something out every day!

We'd had a text from Peter Mason last night asking us to arrive at nine this morning, when the current boat in the paint shed, Dolce Far Niente, would be emerging. Accordingly, we set off from Adlington at a quarter past eight, and by ten to nine were on the water point. Dolce wasn't quite ready to come out, so we filled in the time by refilling the water tank. Once Dolce was extracted, I winded Sanity Again outside the yard and then reversed her in. She needs to be in stern first so that all of the hand rails are under cover, the paint dock being too short for a full length boat.

Since then, the handrails have been masked off, rubbed down and the first coat of paint applied. The leaking prism has been extracted for resealing, and we've made a start on cutting the lawn and tidying up the garden in preparation for the Open Day.

Stephen and Jayne, Dolce's owners, came over to inspect progress (the boat is due to be finished next Tuesday) and Eileen and Bill from New Dawn came round as well. At one o'clock, we all went down to the Boar's Head for lunch, since when we've been passing what was left of the afternoon chatting, drinking cups of tea, a bit more gardening and making a start on breaking up an old dinghy that's been lurking around the yard for years but is now pretty well past it.

Well actually, it is completely past it now, I've cut its stern off. Once it's been cut up entirely, Peter will load the bits in his car and take them to the Council tip just down the road.

We'll spend the weekend on this and similar tasks, I expect.

A pleasant day all round

There was a distinct improvement in the weather overnight, and a clear sunny morning. We set off early, at seven, in fact, and chugged merrily through the Gurnett Aqueduct moorings and into Macc. I hopped off at a handy bridge hole just before the marina, and walked on to get a paper from the Co-op whilst Sheila kept Sanity Again moving.

Back on board at the Puss in Boots bridge, I took over the helm, and we carried on along the familiar route. The only upset came as I negotiated the bend by Clarence Mill in Bollington, just under the spanking new footbridge. A Heritage hire boat coming the other way found the mud on the crown of the bend, lost steerage and ran gently into us.

It is very shallow there, and it was with a bit of trouble and engine revving that we managed to persuade the two boats to part their embrace and proceed. No damage done as far as we could see, just one of those things.

After three and a half hours boating we arrived at Lyme View marina at Adlington, where there was plenty of room to moor. Time was spent gently chilling in the pleasant late summer sun (officially, early autumn sun, I know) before we got changed into respectable clothes and went and joined Peter and Jan at the Miners Arms.

Another good meal, and then a stroll along the towpath took us to mid afternoon, then back to the boat for tea and little sweet things. They've just left to head for home, and we're back to chill out mode.

Tomorrow, another promptish start should see us turn up at Poynton at eight, ready to go into the paint dock for the weekend.