Friday 31 August 2012

Steadily up Bosley

This morning was much better weatherwise, so we made an eight o'clock start on getting up Bosley Locks. Sheila and Graeme lockwheeled, some of the time assisted by Daniel and Alex. It was the boys' first chance to help with the work, rather than being passengers in the boat, and they did very well, considering their ages of five and three.

We had them both in lifejackets, naturally, but still kept a very close eye on them; they can't be expected to be completely sensible yet. We had another boat going fairly slowly up in front of us, which was just fine – we weren't looking to break any records today. It took just on two hours, in fact, and we paused at the top to transfer luggage to Graeme's car in the layby.

Then we boated on to Oakgrove, home of the Queen's Head swing bridge and the Fool's Nook pub. Once through the bridge, we stopped for lunch, after which Graeme and the boys left us to walk the mile and a half back to the car.

We ambled on another mile or so to the towpath moorings at Lyme Green, where we'll stay tomorrow, recuperating. It's been great having our visitors to stay, and particularly encouraging that the boys are getting much better at coping with boat life; there was very little problem with settling them down in bed last night, for example.

It'll be a couple of years before we're happy to have them stay with us on their own, as two adults really can't work the boat and watch over two lively youngsters in safety until the kids are reasonably reliable. It's noticeable that five year old Daniel gives less worry in that regard, but three year old Alex still needs a lot of supervision.

Sheila put in a lot of time clearing up whilst I boated the last bit, so since arriving here we've been able to relax, drinking tea and finishing the flapjack.

Thursday 30 August 2012

Drier, and the invasion

It's been a much better day for boating today, with only the very occasional heavy shower. The arrangements for meeting up with Graeme and the boys worked well; we got to the Hightown moorings in Congleton just after ten, and Graeme turned up about twenty minutes later.

We got away at eleven and arrived at the moorings at the bottom of the Bosley flight at about half twelve.

Once we'd all had lunch, Graeme ran back to Congleton (it's around four miles) and drove the car to the top of the flight, parking it in the layby up there. Sheila and I walked the boys up to meet him, and we all ambled back, carrying the bedding.

Since then, we've been restoring ourselves with tea, milk and flapjack.

It's probably going to be a bit of a noisy evening, but well worth it for the pleasure of having them all to stay.

Wednesday 29 August 2012

To Hall Green in the monsoon

In view of the weather forecast, today was not a day on which we'd have moved normally, but the thought of beer, and food, and beer, in the Bleeding Wolf got us going by eight. The rain then came down in tanker loads, but we slogged cheerfully on to the Red Bull services, where we stopped to fill the water tank and start a washload.

Tank full and washing well underway, off we went again, the rain still teeming. Sheila made the turn into the Macclesfield canal with aplomb (and by waggling the tiller about a lot, whilst I stood on the bow and waved my arms). We then started meeting boats coming the other way, which made for interesting boating past that long line of moorings before the aqueduct.

It had almost stopped by the time we got to the Stop Lock, appropriately, and we paused there for yet another boat to come down before being helped up by the very friendly crew of the Alvechurch boat on the water point beyond.

There was just room to get in on the end of the visitor moorings which were otherwise full.

Retreating below, we started taking off the soaking outer garments: waterproof, fleece, sweatshirt, polo shirt – what's this, oh it's my skin…

/blur

My boots had leaked as well, so the socks had to come off too. It was like playing billiards in Las Vegas…

/wahaha

A mug of soup apiece helped a lot, and a bit after twelve we got respectably dressed, put on fresh waterproofs and walked over to the pub.

We've had an excellent afternoon with Peter and Jan, catching up on the family goss, and are now contemplating a quiet evening, recharging the batteries before tomorrow's invasion.

/sweat

Mind you, I've had to light the Squirrel, what with all our wet stuff to dry, plus the washload.

Tuesday 28 August 2012

A short run and a longish walk

We've come on up to the top of Church locks, setting off at a quarter past eight and getting here a bit before ten. There was a moderate amount of traffic about on a very fine morning, as you'd expect on this busy bit of the system. It's the stretch from Middlewich to Red Bull that's common to both the Four Counties and the Cheshire Rings; under the circumstances it's probably surprising not to see more boats on the move in this last week of the school holidays.

The level of traffic also accounts for the way that the typically red stained water (it comes out of Harecastle Tunnel like that) turns up as far down as Wheelock at the moment.

Once we'd got settled and had a coffee, I realised that we needed to get some more perishable supplies in, as we won't have much of a chance passing through Congleton, and we're being invaded by Graeme and the boys on Thursday.

It's a bit of a trek from here, but it is possible to get to the Kidsgrove Tesco, so I spent the rest of the morning doing just that. It took about 25 minutes each way, so that I was back in nice time for lunch, having got two kinds of bread, extra houmous, tomatoes, baby carrots and similar stuff.

We've had a quiet afternoon of it; the weather's been OK, but there's a cold wind about that discourages sitting out on the bow. Tomorrow, we'll set off between half seven and eight, hoping to find a mooring at Hall Green from where we can walk to the Bleeding Wolf for lunch.

One operational note: since talking about pharmacies and prescriptions so much, I've been plagued with drug selling spam comments. They're all being caught by the spam trapper, but it's a right fag having them turn up in my email notifications, so I've turned on word verification for a bit.

I'm sorry, I know it's a pain, but with any luck I'll be able to turn it off again in a week's time, once the spambots have got discouraged and gone away.

Monday 27 August 2012

Late Summer Bank Holiday

The August Bank Holiday used to be on the first weekend of the month, when there was still a chance of decent weather. Late August is usually wet, as summer turns to autumn, and this year has been no exception. The jet stream is back over the country, bringing a succession of low pressure areas and their associated fronts with it.

We made the right decision to stay put today; the morning wasn't too bad first thing and, after a trip to the shop for a paper, we turned to and washed the starboard side of the boat. Since then, it's been a case of lurking indoors with the cratch down as the wind blew and the rain came down. It feels quite cold, and we've both had to change back into long trousers for warmth.

We've made another batch of flapjack so as to have something to offer Peter and Jan with a cup of tea on Wednesday afternoon – this had the added advantage of running the oven for a bit, of course, so warming the boat a bit more. It's not that it's really cold, just a bit dull and damp. It's right on the edge of having to light the stove, but I know that if I do, it will quickly get far too hot in here.

Adam wondered if we were right in hoping that the pub disco would close down in good time last night; in fact, it was great as they went over to 50s and 60s stuff around our dinner time at seven, then moved indoors, from where they couldn't be heard at all.

The main problem this afternoon has been staying awake, frankly, as we just relax with books, papers and puzzles.

Tomorrow will be a short day, just the six locks up to the top of Church, then on Wednesday we'll do the Red Bull flight, turn onto the Macclesfield yet again and stop at Scholar Green for our rendezvous with Peter and Jan at the Bleeding Wolf.

Sunday 26 August 2012

Zen and the Art of Duck Racing

First a big hello to the mysterious and beautiful stranger at Thurlwood Lock, crew of Cheeky B (I can take a hint ;) ), who reads this blog. It's always good to meet a real reader!

We were just coming to the end of a good morning's boating at the time, and were feeling pretty weary as a result. We'd set off at seven from the Crows Nest mooring, and by just gone eight were making a start up the serious bit of the Cheshire Locks. Known as Heartbreak Hill, though we quite enjoy them it is a case of one darn lock after another for five hours.

We'd toyed with stopping below Thurlwood, but the mooring didn't look very inviting and the rain was holding off, so we carried on to one of our favourite moorings at Rode Heath, just before the Broughton Arms. I scurried off to the shop here, but had to be content with an Observer, all the Indies having gone.

No matter, a change is good for you, and it was something to read as I guzzled a late lunch.

The pub is having a bit of a do for the Bank Holiday, including a duck race. We'd heard of these, but hadn't yet seen one, so it was an education. It all took quite a while, hence the title of this post, but was a good laugh all round and no doubt raised some dosh for charity. I was first made aware that something was going on when Sheila said that the boat two up from us had chucked a pump out hose across the cut. In fact, it was a length of fire hose, and after a bit a boxful of plastic ducks was thrown in in front of it:


On your marks
Now, I'd always assumed that you did duck racing on a river, where the flow will move the competitors along, but in this case, they used mechanical means, in that the fire hose was flapped up and down to create a current of sorts:

Giddyap!
It wasn't wholly successful for quite a while, and large contingents of ducks lurked by the side of the boat or on the opposite bank. We also wondered what would occur if anyone worked either the upstream or downstream lock, since the direction of the race was upstream. There was also the possibility of a boat appearing, when sure enough:

Oh oh...
The crew were persuaded to hang on for a bit whilst the ducks ambled towards the finish line, that is, the bridge hole:

Final furlong
You can just see the equivalent of the chequered flag in the shape of a huge landing net, which duly scooped the winner from the water.

We'd also wondered what the result would be if the local swan family took exception to all this, but they prudently confined themselves to demanding sandwiches with menaces from the spectators.

We've now got a disco in full swing in the pub garden, with a DJ who seems to be channelling Jimmy Savile, but as it's a Sunday we're hoping it won't go on too long into the night.

If the weather proves as stormy as the forecast, we'll use our day in hand to stay here tomorrow, moving on to above Church Locks on Tuesday, and rendezvousing with Peter and Jan at the Bleeding Wolf in Scholar Green on Wednesday lunchtime.

Saturday 25 August 2012

Another busy day

We've not done quite so much boating today, but it's still been pretty active. The recycling centre opens at eight, so we set off from Bramble Cuttings at half seven, and got there just after they'd opened. After disposing of quite a bit of recycling (a lot of empty wine bottles, for some reason) and two bags of "household", we carried on to the water point below the Big Lock. There's a half decent pressure there these days, but we had quite a lot of tank to fill, so a bit of time drifted gently by.

Just as we finished, Against All Odds appeared, and we shared up the lock with them. As they weren't stopping in Middlewich and we were, we let them go out first, and then carried on ourselves to the shopping moorings beyond the Newton Brewery pub.

It didn't take long to find the other Rowlands pharmacy in Lewin Street (go on past the church, basically), where my script was indeed waiting. It hadn't been made up, because it had come by post, but was sitting in a little basket all by itself…

I wonder if it was there last Saturday, when I realised that there were two Rowlands's, and phoned to check? I did say on the phone that it would have come by post, but who can tell if the assistant I spoke to knew about the little basket?

No way of knowing now – we went and did the rest of the shopping whilst it was made up. Sheila needed to get some birthday cards, and I wanted to visit the butchers, so we divided our forces. (Sheila also got the paper, in case you were worried.)

I did my stuff, popped back to Rowlands to get the drugs, and walked back to the boat, arriving just as Sheila did.

So, if using a pharmacy in Middlewich: there are two, both Rowlands, one in Wheelock Street (that's the main drag) and one in Lewin Street (easy to access from the water point by the Town Bridge). They are both helpful within limits, and with friendly staff. The Wheelock Street one is a bit bigger, but the Lewin Street one includes the Post Office now.

So if you wanted both a repeat script and to get some Poste Restante stuff, the Lewin Street one would be handiest.

Having got everything done, off we went again, aiming for Wheelock. There was a fair bit of traffic the other way, and both Rumps Lock and the first Booth Lane Lock were turned against us as we approached, although the canal is very straight there and we must have been clearly visible. It was too nice a day to get upset, however, so we smiled politely and carried on.

The middle Booth Lane Lock is screened by a tail bridge, but the boat crew who arrived from above walked down, checked, saw us coming and waited for us. Strangely enough, the first two boats were privateers, and the third a Black Prince…

By the time we were up Booth Lane Top or Crow's Nest Lock, it was one o'clock and starting to rain, so we've stopped on the towpath above for the night. Tomorrow, we have the chug round Sandbach, and then up the Wheelock flight, carrying on as far as either Hassal Green or Rode Heath, depending on mood and the weather.

Friday 24 August 2012

Two days in one

Because I want to call in at the pharmacy to see if my script has turned up, we needed to be back at Middlewich by Saturday, especially as this is a Bank Holiday weekend. That in turn meant doing a long day today, from Moore back to Bramble Cutting, a trip that would normally have taken at least two days.

Sheila set off at seven whilst I got up and breakfasted, then I took over so that she could get herself fed. It meant that we got to the north portal of Preston Brook a bit early for the entry slot on the half hour, but better that than a bit late and losing an hour. Thaxted looked as if she'd been there all night, but her crew kindly invited us to precede them so that we wouldn't be breathing their exhaust smoke.

As we waited, Greenfinch emerged and, recognising Sanity Again, called across that it was about time Sally did another of her dog to dog blogs. It seems that they are members of the Sally fan club. They also warned us that the hire boat behind them was struggling with the stop lock, and indeed they didn't emerge from the tunnel until just into our time slot.

We got going quickly, and made it through in 15 minutes.

There followed a very pleasant morning's boating, only slightly complicated by the fact that the yard crew at Acton Bridge had lost control of one of their Black Prince boats, and were stood on the bank shouting to the cleaner inside to throw them a line. It was no big deal for us – Sheila was barely creeping past the lines of moored boats and was able to hold back no bother – but the staff had a bit of trouble meeting our eyes as we called a merry "Good morning" to them.

By steady boating, we got to Saltersford just on half ten, and so could go straight in. Round and through the pool, and then hold back hard because I could hear a boat in Barnton. Sheila hopped off and held Sanity Again on the towpath until they emerged, and off we go again. I was standing on the bow, and saw in the tunnel light beam what looked like a very big moth fluttering along. As we got closer, it became apparent that this was no moth, but a pipistrelle bat.

Sheila was by now reasonably weary, so I took over for a bit until it was time for lunch. I ate first and then took the helm back for the rest of the run. As we went along, the sky clouded steadily, but the promised rain has not yet arrived. Indeed, it was sunny enough to tempt the butterflies out, and for a while I had a speckled wood perched on the stern line coiled on the slide in front of me.

Our wildlife guide says it's not very common here in the North West, but does occur in patches.

We arrived at Bramble Cutting at half two, seven and a half hours after setting off; anyone would think we were planning to do the Four Counties in a week…

/wahaha

I've topped up the batteries, and we're now winding down for a quiet evening after our exertions.

Thursday 23 August 2012

Recovery morning, busy afternoon

As anticipated, it was a very good evening last night, but it did mean that we didn't get to bed until gone midnight. Peter and Susan were on fine form, and it's clear that yard continues to thrive. There are still a couple of build slots available late next year, but Peter has just taken a booking for 2015…

We spent the morning in recovery mode, though we did make an expedition to the butcher and Sainsbury's. After lunch and a restorative doze, Gareth in the lemon Ocado van turned up in good time. He cheerfully trucked our crates to the boat.

Once all the stuff was on board, we pulled forward onto the service wharf for pump out, diesel and a fresh gas cylinder.

Deep breath, pay for it all, then set off to wind further up. We'd been told we might manage to get round in the moorings beyond London Bridge, but after a good look, I didn't fancy it; there was a GRP cruiser on the towpath, and the mooring pontoon looked pretty shaky.

The next winding hole, in Grappenhall, is 69' 6"wide, which we demonstrated by very nearly getting Sanity Again round. Heigh ho, on we went to the really good winding hole just short of the Thelwall Viaduct. Sheila checked off the delivery whilst I steered, then she took over the helm whilst I put it all away.

I'd nearly done when we reached Thelwall, so Sheila had the pleasure of the winding. I've done a bit more steering since, and Sheila's just taken over again to let me get this away. It looks like we'll not finish boating tonight until about half five or six. Tomorrow, we plan a long day most of the way back to Middlewich. The batteries are due for topping up, and I like to give them a really good charge before doing so.

It will also facilitate some meetings we're planning next week, but more about that next time.

Wednesday 22 August 2012

Busy at Stockton Heath

It's only a short run from Moore to Stockton Heath, so we didn't set out until nine this morning. I'd set up an Ocado order, but not selected a delivery slot until we got here. A quick chat with the woman at Thorn Marine established that it was fine to use them as an address, so back at the boat I finished the order and booked it for delivery tomorrow. I could only get an afternoon slot by then, but we'll get the order in, get a pump out and diesel at Thorn, then potter on as far as Grappenhall for the night, or if it all happens quite early, wind and head right back to Moore.

After a coffee, we walked down the hill to the small Sainsbury's to get the final stuff for tonight's meal. It is a very limited Sainsbury's, but they had enough for our purposes, thus saving the much longer walk across the Manchester Ship Canal to the Warrington Morrisons.

We got back in time to wash the port side and the front bulkhead. This is the first time we've done it using two Washmatiks, one to wash and one to rinse, and it certainly speeded things up.

After lunch we cleaned the inside of the boat and then had a bit of a sit down. I'll get a shower after I've posted this, then make a start on the cooking. Peter and Susan are due at seven - it should be a good night!

/wahaha

Tuesday 21 August 2012

Through the tunnel to Moore

There's not a lot to tell today; Sheila wanted an early start, so we had a cup of tea at half six, and she started boating by seven. I had just enough time to wash, dress and clean my teeth before we were at Dutton Stop Lock.

I worked us down, and we had breakfast on the tunnel moorings, it being about half seven by now. At ten to eight, Lead-Us was seen working down the stop lock, and as there was no sign of any boats coming through the tunnel (you can see right through from the southern end), we set out, Sheila still spooning muesli into her mouth as we entered the portal.

It's a very straightforward tunnel, and today's transit was only made problematic by Lead-Us, who tramped on our tail all the way through. He got by when we stopped at the road bridge at the other end; I popped off to the Spar shop for the paper whilst Sheila held the centre line, there being no rings just there. I'd started a washload in the tunnel, and by the time we'd got to Moore, it had just about finished.

There were a few boats here when we arrived at ten, but they all moved off in the course of the morning.

We've had quite a busy afternoon, first washing the roof, then, after a restorative cup of tea, making some more flapjack. It's in the oven as I'm typing this, so you'll have to wait until tomorrow for a report on it.

I also gave Alrewas surgery a call; they'd turned my repeat prescription round last Tuesday, so it must have got lost in the post between them and the Middlewich Rowlands.

Tomorrow, we'll do the short run to Stockton Heath, get in some supplies and do some more boat washing so as not to be embarrassed by her condition when Peter and Susan join us for a meal in the evening.

Monday 20 August 2012

Success

I know that some of my fellow liveaboards get their repeat meds this way every time, but, gosh, I wouldn't want to do that. In fairness, it all worked out OK, but it involved being there at half eight when the Medical Centre opened, persuading the receptionist that I was a bone fide Temporary Resident, and then getting an appointment for 10.20 with one of the GPs. Trek back to the boat, hang about reading the paper, then walk back up the hill to see the doctor.

He was running to time, and had no problem with giving me a script for another month's supply. It's one of those new health centres with a pharmacy in the same building, so I nipped in there and around ten minutes later finally had my drugs.

Points to note: I had to tell the receptionist that I needed emergency treatment (true to the extent that I was running out of drugs I mustn't stop abruptly) and that I was staying somewhere with a postcode. I'd anticipated that one by looking up the postcode for the Stanley Arms last night, and since we were moored nearby, I thought that that would be good enough for them. They just need an address that's inside their practice area to put in the relevant box.

Someone told us the other day that there is a proposal to introduce season ticket repeat prescriptions, such as they have in other countries. That would mean that you got a script valid for three or six months, and presented it every month at any pharmacy of your choice, which would be much more convenient all round, not least because it would save the surgery staff an awful lot of routine and unnecessary work processing repeats.

The only other thing of note was that on my way back from the Medical Centre the first time, I got stopped by the police.

/blur

A pleasant young police woman in a small car (they don't call them Pandas any more, do they?) saw me walking along the side road that leads to the zig zag path down the hill to the footbridge over the canal, and had a casual little chat with me. I didn't think anything about it until a few minutes later, when I realised that I'd been a strange older man walking by himself past a kids playground.

I'm not complaining, it was all very friendly and just an example of effective coppering really, keeping tabs on stuff. But it's the very first time it's happened to me.

By the time I was back at the boat the second time, it was a case of a late coffee, and then an early lunch. The time restrictions on Saltersford Tunnel, whereby you can only enter between the hour and twenty past northbound, meant that we needed to set off at the right moment to get there during the window.

Leaving just after twelve resulted in us arriving just before one, having had to hang about outside Barnton Tunnel for a couple of boats to come through the other way. Both these tunnels are narrow and a bit bendy, and in the case of Saltersford, you can't necessarily see a boat that's coming through.

We've had a very pleasant cruise of it since, mainly in warm sunshine, finally tying on the towpath just beyond bridge 123 and just before Dutton Stop Lock. We passed Chance not long before we finished.

Sheila plans an early start tomorrow, setting off at seven with the aim of getting to Preston Brook Tunnel at eight, which is the start of the ten minute window for northbound boats through that one. Preston Brook isn't particularly bent, but it's long enough to make the time control necessary.

Sunday 19 August 2012

On board Sanity, again

Long term readers will know that our original boat was called Sanity so we called our new one Sanity Again. Both names have proved popular with passers by, so appreciation of them doesn't depend on a knowledge of my former profession.

Sanity's new owner, Ian, has now moored her at Anderton and after we boated here first thing this morning, we called on him. Sanity is moored on the offside moorings outside Anderton Marina. We stopped on the water point to top up the tank (water points being in short supply on the Bridgewater) then pulled across and breasted up outside our old boat.

Ian and his girlfriend Kath were up and about, so we were able to pop on board for a good old natter.

Apart from that, it's been a pretty quiet sort of day. Worryingly, the canal between Middlewich and here is getting very overgrown with reedy rushes:

This is the mainline...
It always used to be a bit of a problem in the days when we were hiring from Anderton, or boating our shared boats from Acton Bridge, but it's worse than ever now.

On the other hand, since the change of ownership at Wincham Wharf, there are many fewer boats tied across the cut there. Presumably, they are being a bit more selective about what they take on brokerage these days. Wincham always used to be the place to go if you didn't have a lot of cash to spend on a boat and were prepared to take something that would need a lot of doing up.

As we set off again to find a mooring, it came on to rain, gently at first, but just after we'd got tied near the Stanley Arms it fairly tipped it down. There is a plenitude of visitor mooring around here, and it's not usually difficult to find a space; the main problem is that the rings aren't always well positioned, and the concrete capped edge stops you from supplementing the provision with chains or pins.

This afternoon we took advantage of a lull in the rain to walk up the hill to Barnton village. If you cross the canal by the footbridge beyond the road crossing beyond where we're moored, you walk up a steep path and come out by the health centre, pharmacy and Co-op.

Further downhill from there takes you to the main road where there is another pharmacy with a post office attached and a butchers. Tomorrow, I'll go and get an appointment as a TR and thus a prescription, hopefully.

Saturday 18 August 2012

Good day with reservations

It wouldn't do to claim that everything works out every time, and in this blog I try to be honest about the stuff that goes pear shaped, so today, I'm going to admit that although it's been brilliant weather and great boating, there have been problems.

Well, specifically, one problem, which was that my prescription wasn't there.

/floor

We had to hang about a bit in the Rowlands in Wheelock Street, waiting for the pharmacist to turn up. He was but ten minutes late, and we'd been and got some nice looking meat from the butchers in the interim. When he arrived, there was no sign of my drugs, and a check on the computer showed that they hadn't received the script.

/omg

Heigh ho, we did the rest of the shopping at Tesco, and got on with the boating. There was a fair bit of traffic coming the other way, so the three narrow locks took a bit of time, but finally we got through them and the Big Lock, which is broad.

Next, we stopped at the household refuse tip, the most conveniently placed one on the system, just before Croxton Aqueduct. There are even bollards to tie to whilst you dispose of your recycling. In our case this included a dead smoke alarm and the old oil I extracted from the engine quite some time ago. (The eighth of June, indeed.)

Arriving at Bramble Cutting, we were pleased to find a load of space on the towpath side – there are only a couple of spaces on the offside by the picnic area, and as we didn't plan a picnic, we didn't take one. It was now past my lunchtime, so we ate, and I then did some checking up. Yes, I'd addressed the sae to Rowlands in Middlewich. Oh look, there are two Rowlands's in Middlewich, quite close together. (Huh? Middlewich is only a small place.)

I rang the second one, but no, they didn't have the prescription either. It looks like the PO has let me down for once.

We'll be in Barnton on Monday, where there is both a big health centre and a pharmacy. First move will be to go into the HC and see if they will register me as a temporary resident and give me a script, which I can then get filled at the pharmacy. One or two practices have been getting funny about doing that for boaters, so the second string is to get the fax number of the pharmacy, ring Alrewas GPs and get them to fax a script over; they've said that they will do this if I'm really stuck.

It's important; I've got a week's supply of beta blockers left, and I mustn't run out…

/blur

Friday 17 August 2012

Stormy boating

Normally, if the forecast is bad, we stay put for the day, but this week we're a bit committed. I should have a prescription waiting for collection at the Rowland's pharmacy in Middlewich, and we've a rendezvous in Stockton Heath on Wednesday that we really don't want to miss.

So, although it was blowing and raining, we set off regardless. It was Sheila's turn to steer – she seems to be getting the windy days at the moment, though to be fair to me, the last slog in pouring rain fell to me, so these things do balance out eventually.

We locked down Cholmondeston in the quiet of eight o'clock in the morning, and chugged merrily on to Minshull Lock, the rain coming and going. When it was dry, I was look out on the bow; you can tell we're back on the Four Counties Ring, there was soon a steady procession of boats towards us. One of them was locking up Minshull when we got there, and another three were waiting below. Apparently, it had been very busy in Middlewich yesterday, with some boats taking two hours to get through the junction, so this lot had ended up tied on the various visitor moorings before the lock.

It makes a change to be going the right way, and it really justifies our strategy on busy canals at this time of year, starting early and stopping early.

We arrived at the SUCS moorings at Blackberry Wood (between bridges 21 and 22) just on half ten. There were a couple of other boats here, still, but they've both left now.

We've spent the day snuggled down in the cabin, reading and browsing. We've got decent mobile signals again, so have been able to catch up on all the casual blog reading and CWDF browsing I've been missing out on. This is one of the really nice moorings on the system, quiet and with pleasant views over the Weaver Valley.

Tomorrow, we'll start around half seven, aiming to arrive on the visitor moorings just above Wardle Lock around an hour later. That will give us time to shop and collect my drugs before we go on through the junction and down the four locks, three narrow and one broad. There's a handy waste disposal site just before Croxton Aqueduct, where we can offload a large amount of recycling before tying at Bramble Cuttings or nearby.

Thursday 16 August 2012

Back on the Four Counties

With hindsight, that wonderful thing, the visitor moorings above Beeston Stone Lock leave quite a bit to be desired. Apart from there being no kind of mobile signal whatsoever (unless there's an O₂ one, I couldn't check that) the edge is that in and out old style piling, the water level goes up and down a lot as the lock is worked, and the Crewe to Chester railway line is just the other side of the hedge.

No matter, we survived, and even had a half decent night's sleep. We got the flapjack made, though it didn't set as well as I'd hoped. This may be because the only oats I had were some fancy multigrain ones from Julian Graves, and may not have been as absorbent as the usual porridge oats, and because we used spreadable butter, because we happened to have a lot more of it than block butter, and the oil in it might not have worked as well as proper butter.

No matter again, oh what a pity, we'll just have to make some more when I can get more oats. The taste is absolutely fine, it's just that you have to sort of squeeze the stuff together to put in your mouth rather than biting bits off.

We both woke early, so set off at seven, Sheila walking to Tilstone Lock and your correspondent boating. It's a real shame that this gorgeous piece of canal is in need of serious maintenance. It badly wants dredging and the locks are very hard to work. We got up Tilstone and the Bunbury Staircase with a bit of a struggle. In particular, Sheila simply couldn't swing one of the intermediate gates on the staircase closed, and just as I was working out the best way of joining her on the lockside, she conscripted a chap walking past to help.

We were both very glad to get up onto the Barbridge level. We stopped a couple of times more, once at Calveley to dump rubbish and top up the water tank, and once just a bit further on where there's a Texaco service station. You can scramble up the bank to the road, step over the crash barrier and give yourself an interesting ten minutes trying to cross the A51 at half nine in the morning without ending up like an unsuccessful hedgepig.

All this I did, and the reverse, in order to buy a newspaper.

The weather has been a great improvement on yesterday, sunny though still breezy, so it was a pleasant run back to Barbridge Junction, where we turned left for Middlewich. You have to start the turn a little before the bow lookout can see that it's clear, and as I did so, an urgent call came from Sheila to hold back. A day boat was just approaching from the other direction. He stopped for us, and we completed the turn with just a nudge of the towpath edge under the bridge, so not bad.

I presume the day boat had just set off; it was crewed by two folk dressed as pirates and what looked like a member of the yard staff showing them the ropes. It must have been a bit of a facer for them; there you are, happily setting off on your merry day's outing in your little boat when 70 foot and twenty tonnes of boat appears coming straight for you.

Everyone was extremely cheerful about it, so no worries, eh?

Having discovered that we had a half decent 3 signal again, we've stopped just above Cholmondeston Lock, a bit before the visitor moorings. After an early lunch and a bit of a restorative doze, we took a walk down to the lock (the visitor moorings were half empty) and beyond to see what a good job they are making of putting new pontoons into Venetian Marina.

Tomorrow, we'll do the length of the Middlewich Arm, probably as far as Blackberry Wood moorings; then carry on down the last two locks into Middlewich itself on Saturday, finishing up at Bramble Cuttings. All we need now are some crab apples, and we'll be well set up…

Into the storm


We ended yesterday in a not-spot, one of those increasingly rare areas where there are no phone signals at all. Apart from that, things went reasonably to plan; we made an early start, Sheila steering, and chugged back along first of all the flat bit, then up a handful of locks.

The chug is slower than it might otherwise be because of the incredible length of offside linear moorings at Hargrave. This is Golden Nook Farm – we've always said that if there'd ever been a Carry On Boating, the moorings could appropriately be called Golden Nookie Farm…

/wahaha

No matter, eventually we arrived at Wharton's Lock. It was still early, and although the wind was getting tedious, it remianed manageable. As we approached the lock, Brian and Ann on Toucan Do It asked if they could join us. It's always easier to work up a broad lock with a companion boat, of course, so we were very happy to agree.

That lock went just fine, but we needed to work up the next, Beeston Iron, on our own. Its iron sides are distorted, and although two short boats can usually get away with sharing, it's not a good idea with a full length one.

I made a bit of a mess of managing the ropes, frankly, and nearly catapulted Sheila off the wrong side of the well deck by releasing a rope she was swinging on at the time, but we got up OK in the end and waited above for Toucan Do It to join us.

It was now threatening to rain, so we decided to stop after sharing up Beeston Stone Lock, there being lots of visitor mooring above; just no phone signals.

/no

I walked back as far as the Iron Lock to get enough Voda signal to text the kids and Twitter, then we settled to an afternoon on the boat incommunicado. It has indeed tipped it down off and on all afternoon.

The time's not been wasted – we've tried making a variant of Yvonne Olver's flapjack recipe, using chopped stem ginger, and we watched the second half of the Campion we started last week.

Today, we're on our way back to Barbridge Junction, where we'll turn left onto the Middlewich Branch, stopping near Cholmondeston.

Tuesday 14 August 2012

Into Chester and back

Before mentioning today's exploits, I must fill in a lacuna from yesterday's account. This was that on the way to Christleton, we crossed with Cherokee, whose steerer is a blog follower; it's always good to meet, even briefly, one of those who otherwise are just known as stats on the hit counter!

I hope you had a good cruise yesterday and today.

As planned, we ourselves went down into Chester on foot today. I took the Garmin, so can tell you that it was  2.7 miles, and it took us about 45 minutes to reach the start of the shops. We'd already found out online that we could get a bus back from Stand F in Foregate Street, so knew that we could avoid the slog back uphill if we wanted to.

Main targets of the trip were Lakeland and Tesco. Lakeland is on the first floor of the Rows in Eastgate Street, and we got there at 9.15. This was a bit of a problem, as they don't open until 9.30 on a Tuesday. We filled the time in by going to see if the Julian Graves store was still there, but it wasn't. Julian Graves used to be a really good source of basic dried goods like fruit and nuts, traditional sweets and the like, but they were taken over by Holland and Barrett, and have been being closed down steadily every since.

H&B, meanwhile, are American owned, and we dislike them intensely, a source of expensive varieties of stuff you almost certainly don't need like vitamin supplements at silly prices and protein drinks.

Heigh ho, that's the free market for you, I guess.

Anyway, by the time we'd found the closed up Julian Graves, with sad messages from the former sales staff on the door, and then wandered about a bit, Lakeland was open and we could buy some boxes of EasiYo sachets and some food labels.

On then to Tesco, where we bought basic perishables, hopefully enough to see us through to Middlewich next weekend. Round to the bus stop and a quarter hour wait, then quickly back to Christleton.

Our mooring there was OK, but very overshadowed by the trees, resulting in bird poo over the roof and not much contribution from the solar panel. So we had an early lunch, then winded the boat at the winding hole before Christleton Lock, and pottered back just a little way towards Eggbridge.

We've tied on a rather shallow towpath mooring, with the stern sticking well out, but we're in the sun, it's very peaceful and we'll be able to make a flying start in the morning, having got all the turning round stuff done already.


Monday 13 August 2012

Lots of photos

I don't normally put loads of photos on this blog; there are lots of other canal blogs that do, so I largely leave it up to them, but just once in a while it's nice to show that the camera does get some use around here. As we've not been this way since I started blogging, I thought that I'd try and show why we reckon this is just as scenic a canal as the more popular ones like the Llangollen or the Caldon.



First off is this superb garden we saw whilst walking to Bunbury village, where we had a pint in the Dysart Arms.


Then this is the canal just below Bunbury Staircase Locks, and this


is the approach to Tilstone Lock, probably one of the best locations on the system. Mind you, the locks were quite tricky in a 70' boat, only just long enough. It was easier to work Sanity Again down on the diagonal, and in a couple of cases, we had to fiddle around a bit with the gates to get her out.


Just below Tilstone is this really different boat; she has a slipper stern and wheel steering


These deer appear to be grazing on one of the rolling hillsides that make the canal so attractive, but in fact underneath there is a huge underground oil storage depot.


And this isn't really a house; it's the control centre for the WWII Operation PLUTO (PipeLine Under The Ocean). The oil stored safe underground here was piped all the way south to the Channel coast, and thence under the Channel to supply fuel to the D-Day invasion forces' beachheads.

Yesterday, we climbed up to Beeston Castle:


It's about 400 feet above the canal, and can be reached from Wharton's Lock. It costs over a fiver to get in, as it's run by English Heritage, but the views from up there are stunning:


That's the Cheshire Plain, obviously.


For something built in the 14th Century, the quarrying is quite remarkable. This is literally the last ditch, a final line of defence between the outer ward and the inner bailey.


It's a long, long way down the steepest side.


The path approaches from the south, and there are easier routes and slightly steeper ones.


Nearby Peckforton castle is a Victorian imitation, but still pretty convincing…


And that's the canal in the distance, about a mile away. You can just see Wharton's Lock. The railway in between is the line from Crewe to Chester and on to Holyhead.

Today, we've carried on to Christleton, which is as near to Chester we'll bring the boat this time. It's just not worth slogging down the final six locks. We've been to Sainsbury's, about 30 minutes walk away.

Tomorrow, we'll walk down into Chester, do a bit of retail therapy at Lakeland and possibly catch the bus back.

Sunday 12 August 2012

Quickie

This canal from Calveley to Chester is absolutely gorgeous, but has two drawbacks. The mobile signals are very erratic, and the locks are a bare 70' long, although broad. We've stopped for the day at Wharton's Lock, about halfway to Christleton. There's no 3 signal, a measly T-mobile one, and a bit of Vodafone.

I've got some photos to show, but it's no good trying to upload them here.

We should have a much better connection tomorrow, so I'll stop this post now, and get a proper one done tomorrow, hopefully.

This afternoon, we plan to attempt the climb to Beeston Castle...

Saturday 11 August 2012

Novel Waters

We've come on from Nantwich through Hurleston and Barbridge Junctions to Calveley. Traffic was pretty steady, which is only to be expected on this busy bit of the Four Counties. At Calveley, we wanted to top up  the water tank. Previously, this service point has been pretty quiet, but today it was heaving. We had a bit of fun even getting tied up to wait, but finally we all got sorted out and we spent a bit of time chatting to the crew of the boat ahead of us, including their Staffie and Rottweiler, both of them extremely good natured.

The delay at least meant that the washload which Sheila had running finished off, so we have set off along this stretch with the tank absolutely full. The next water point isn't until Christleton, where we plan to wind, and since the water point there is beyond the winding hole, we plan to run on what we've got now and refill when we get back here.

Sanity Again has not been this way before; our last trip even this far was in 2008, and then only as far as the top of the Bunbury staircase locks. Our last trip beyond there was before I started this blog, so to find out when I had to search back through the cruising logs we kept on the Mac in those days. Amazingly, we haven't been beyond Bunbury since July 2004, when we went down into Chester. I knew it had been a while, but was boggled to find out it was that long. That was the first year we were on board Sanity.

We had been moderately regular visitors on our shared ownership boats before that, when they were both based at Acton Bridge on the northern end of the Trent and Mersey, so presumably didn't feel the need to keep coming back once we had the freedom of the whole system.

This afternoon, we walked into Bunbury, a mile along the towpath and then another along a rather busy road. Having found the church and the Dysart Arms pub, we assumed we'd found the all there was to see, so we sampled the Cheshire Cat golden ale (me) and the Staropramen (Sheila), both very good, and walked back.

Subsequent research via Google by Sheila showed that we could have discovered several shops and two more pubs. Bunbury is obviously one of those coy villages which doesn't let you see all of it at once.

Tomorrow, we'll chug on to the Shady Oak pub beyond Beeston Castle, and then finish the trip into Christleton on Monday.

Friday 10 August 2012

High quality service

Like Mercia, Overwater is a marina that combines good design, a nice location and really nice people. It was finally decided to haul Sanity Again out last night, and if necessary put her on blocks for working on today. So at six, out she came, and it became apparent that the rudder stock had bent between the top of the blade and the uxter plate, thus causing the ends of the stock to bind in the bearings as they were no longer running into them perpendicularly.

Congratulations to Roger Millin for predicting exactly that in his comments yesterday.

Here's the rest of the tale in pictures:

Manoeuvring into position

Inserting the bow onto the trailer

Raising the boat on the trailer

Out of the water

Can you see the problem?

 Unless you are Mr Millin, you probably can't spot the bend, but looking at the bottom edge of the rudder shows the degree of the problem; it's supposed to be horizontal. Application of a bottle jack and wooden blocks between the bend and the end of the swim forced the stock straight again.

The guys next applied first WD40 and then Copaslip to both the upper and lower bearings. The lower one has always been a bit tight, to be honest. Simon the engineer did indulge in a bit of the tradesman's favourite game: "What cowboy bodged this up for you?" etc. etc. He reckoned that if the bottom bearing had been looser, the rudder would have lifted out of the cup, instead of bending.

No matter, once it was all done, Sanity Again was put back in her proper element:

On her way back down

Simon in Roman Emperor mode

This morning, we settled up with Colin, and were agreeably surprised by the bill. We have a £200 excess on our insurance, and we won't be claiming; the bill was well inside that for a haul out, one hour's work with the boat on the trailer and re-launch.

We've boated on to Nantwich, so are back on schedule. The steering is if anything freer than it was, though I don't recommend this approach to easing a stiff tiller…

Getting here just after twelve meant that we found a mooring with no bother. We've done a bit of shopping, especially at Clewlow's the butchers and pie shop.

Hunter's Pie and salad tonight, and Scotch Eggs tomorrow.

Yum.

/nobigdeal

Thursday 9 August 2012

Oh the shame

37 years boating and never cilled one yet… until this morning, when the dreaded accident occurred at Lock 10. We'd been having a straightforward morning, early start, Sheila lockwheeling, muggins steering. We'd got into a pattern of Sheila working ahead (most of the locks were with us but needed gates opening) and me working Sanity Again down the lock above.

There was a bit of traffic starting up after a while, so things got even more easy peasy as we didn't need to close bottom gates. That's probably how I got just that bit overconfident, didn't bother to take a centreline off with me, and didn't clock until just too late that she'd slipped back a tad in one of the shorter locks. In addition, the rudder wasn't pushed over properly, or had slid back. The last couple of inches of the rudder sat on the "babby", the wood fender forward of the actual cill, and by the time I realised, she was well and truly on.

I wound the bottom paddles down as quickly as I could, then raised a top paddle a bit to start the lock refilling. As it did, SA slid forward off the cill and re-floated. All looked ok, except that the helm was now amazingly stiff to turn. It improved a bit as we locked down 11 and moored on the visitor moorings above 12. A call to RCR meant that just after ten, Ian Stoykes turned up. He had a go at easing the rudder back into the cup (it's probably lifted slightly out of the cup the bottom end sits in on the skeg) but it was no go.

After consulting RCR, he arranged for us to come into Overwater Marina, just below Audlem. They have a slip for emergency use, and should be able to haul us out tomorrow afternoon. Meantime, they've given us free use of one of their visitor moorings.

So, here we are on a sunny day, nothing much we can do but wait to find out how much damage has been done and how much it's going to cost to put it right.

The rudder is still turning, so there must be a good chance that once it's out of the water, a bit of work with either a sledge hammer to persuade things back together, or with a hydraulic ram if the skeg is pushed up a bit will soon have it all working again.

I hope.

Meanwhile, I've got that post accident rumination "why didn't I take more care and watch more carefully?'

Oh well, I'm not the first experienced boater to do it, and I'm sure I won't be the last.

Wednesday 8 August 2012

Busy here at Audlem

We did another prompt start today, getting away just after seven and breakfasting on the move. It turned into a bit of a procession, with boats both in front and behind, but with all of them moving at about the same pace, it wasn't a problem.

It being my turn, I locked us down Adderley flight in fine style, with boats coming the other way at most locks. We chugged merrily on to Audlem, and worked down the top two locks, finding a mooring on the visitors stretch above number 3. This is where Chance was yesterday, but they've obviously moved on as well.

There was time to walk into the village before lunch; on the way we found Susie and Keith locking down in their pair of 35 footers, Etherow and Pilgrim. We've been running across these two from time to time almost as long as we've been living aboard. Susie asked where we were bound, and on hearing that we're taking four weeks to do the stretch from here to just short of Chester, then a quick donder up the Bridgewater and then finally heading to Poynton for the Open Day said "Still dashing about, I see."

They are even more slow moving than us, and really demonstrate that you don't need to boat for eight hours a day to get the most out of the waterways lifestyle.

Au contraire, as the man on board ship in the Bay of Biscay said when asked if he'd dined.

After getting a paper in the village, we went on down to the bottom lock, where we bought sausages, liver and a cabbage from the farmer's stall there, as recommended by Doug and James on Chance.

We just got back to the boat in time for lunch, having passed a lot of boats still slogging up and down the flight, now assisted by some of the new C&RT volunteers.

This afternoon has been a case of taking it easy, catching up with some email correspondence and reading the paper in the sun on the well deck.

Tomorrow, we'll head off for Coole Pilate, then Nantwich the day after.

Tuesday 7 August 2012

A good run to Drayton

What a difference half an inch can make!  That's the amount I moved the prop yesterday, and it's entirely restored Sanity Again's performance. The water flow must just not have been reaching the centre of the prop before, whereas it is now, so the whole thing feels more relaxed and less strained, and she's doing her usual 1.9 - 2.2 mph at tickover again.

I did a check of the coupling this afternoon, and it's still nice and tight, so my efforts hanging upside down in the engine hole have paid off.

We made an early start just before seven this morning (no thugs bawling abuse at us this time, I'm pleased to say), and breakfasted on the move. If it wasn't for all the offside moorings, the run from Norbury to Market Drayton would be one of the best. It's still pretty good, but there are now continuous lines of moored boats from the end of Grub Street cutting to the start of Shebdon embankment, necessitating a lot of slow boating. I know canals are supposed to be relaxed, but the difference between 2 mph and 3 mph is that it takes three hours to do six miles, not two, and that adds up over a long run like today's.

It also rained quite a lot for the first half, which I could have done without, but we made it through, and the weather since has been much more pleasant.

We got to Drayton at half eleven, had lunch and then shopped for bits and pieces. One thing missing here is a butchers; hopefully we'll get some decent meat from the farm shop stall at the top of Adderley flight tomorrow.

Monday 6 August 2012

Objectives achieved.

OK, I'm pretty weary (other descriptions are available), but reasonably pleased with progress. We were able to make a leisurely start this morning, as we just had the short run to Norbury to do. I got a paper from the local shop, and at about ten to nine we started getting the boat ready. Sheila steered, and we chugged gently along in half decent weather, a little cool, but quite calm and not actually raining.

As it was, we got to Norbury just after ten, but found that boats were already moving off and that there was a space just a boat's length short of the end of the embankment. We popped into the office to book our blacking slot for next spring. Sanity Again is now booked for the 1 - 5 May here; what's more, we get a 10% discount as a returning customer on the already very competitive price.

We'd not long finished lunch and settled down to read when the Ocado driver rang to say that he was in the pub car park. As usual, he was very helpful, trucking a lot of our stuff to the boat whilst I took the other two crates on our folding truck. This meant that we got the lot done in one move.

It was all present and correct, and after checking it over and stowing it away, we improved the shining hour by taking our recycling to the bins in the boat yard. They take everything bar plastic here.

Back at the boat, I had a bit of a sit down with the copy of Waterways World we'd bought (just catching up with the August issue), and then had a go at tweaking the position of the prop. That all went reasonably smoothly too; I've shifted it just a half inch back for now, so that there's now about 2.5 inches between the forward boss on the prop and the sternpost.

The main grief was tightening up the coupling again afterwards. It's a case of tightening all eight bolts in turn, using a crowbar to jam the coupling to stop it from rotating. Naturally, as you go round, you find that the first bolts you did can be nipped up a bit more when you get back to them.

Then I cleared everything out of the way, started up and ran the engine in both forward and reverse gears to make sure it wasn't all going to fall apart. It was all OK, but guess what, when I checked the bolts again…

/blur

I reckon they are all nice and tight now, but I'll check again tomorrow after we've been boating.

I'd planned to do risotto tonight, using some stock I've got in the frozen food compartment, but I forgot to take it out to defrost this morning. That's a pity, good job there's a pub serving food here…

/wahaha

Sunday 5 August 2012

Nasty start, better end

Bit of a problem here, I do like to start with the positives, and then deal with less good things later, but on the other hand, it's a good idea to stick with some sort of chronological order, on the basis that at least some of my readers are as easily confused as I am. And frankly, today didn't get off to a good start.

Oh, I know: Andy Murray has just won Olympic gold to add to all the other medals Team GB has. That's great stuff. And I've just placed an Ocado order for tomorrow for Norbury Junction, where they didn't used to deliver.

Good, that feels better.

Right, now for it: we'd decided to make a prompt start today, dropping down the lock first thing and onto the water point before we ate breakfast, and then toddling on to Gnosall. So after tea in bed and getting washed and dressed, Sheila went off to set the lock, and I got the boat ready. It was half seven, so I didn't start the engine until I'd let the bow line and stern spring go.

Then I started up, going back to tickover straight away, and untied the final stern line. As I was coiling it up to put on the slide, the guy who lives in the trailer home on the offside came out in his dressing gown and started effing and blinding at me for running my engine before eight o'clock.

Now, it is the case that you are not supposed to run gennies or engines for battery charging purposes before that time, but there is no restriction on when you choose to navigate (though many hire yards prohibit moving their boats in the dark). I tried explaining this to chummy, but he wasn't having it, and offered to come down to the lock "to f***ing sort you out" if I persisted on disagreeing with him.

So I waved him goodbye and boated off, followed by shouts of "and don't effing come back, you a***hole!"

It leaves you a bit shaken, that sort of thing, and my heart rate has gone up a bit just typing this, but fortunately it's pretty rare. I can only think of two such occasions, including this one, in 37 years of boating, some of that time as a truly incompetent novice hirer. Admittedly, the other occasion was just the other week at Great Haywood, but there you go. Maybe it's my hairstyle.

There was an upside; as we worked down the lock, the old working boats Tench and Greyhound were getting ready to go up, trad engines cracking away in fine style. We mentioned what had happened to the steerer of Tench, and she offered to give him a blast on her klaxon as she went by…

After that, life was pretty uneventful. We had a good chug to here, with a fair bit of traffic coming the other way, but no mishaps. I held back at one bridge hole for an approaching boat, and a boat waited for me to get out of Cowley tunnel before entering, but all was very calm and relaxed.

We've popped up into the village to do some top up shopping, and as I say, we're getting a delivery to Norbury tomorrow, which will help with the depleted state of the food cupboards. The weather still looks a bit unsettled, but there's not much wind in the forecast, so no big probs there.

Saturday 4 August 2012

Not such a good mooring after all

But let's start with the positives: the weather has not been as bad as I'd expected, the forecast having improved quite a bit over the last 24 hours, and the pub last night was very pleasant. The Hartley Arms has a bit of a mixed rep on the websites like Beer in the Evening, with some reviewers complaining that the staff were rude to them, but we had no trouble.

Going at six on a Friday meant that there was no problem finding a table, though it did have the downside that there were a lot of kids about, even in the bar area. The beer was fine; it's a Banks's house, but I had a pint of Brakspear's Ninety-nine, the guest beer at the start of the evening, which was rather different, golden and very hoppy, a true summer ale, I guess.

If you're a lager drinker, things aren't so good, with all the pumped lagers super chilled, that is, completely tasteless, and only a limited range of bottles on the shelf. The food was well cooked; it's a longish menu, so must be dependent on the microwave and the deep boiler to a degree, but there were several home cooked dishes, and the portion sizes were very generous. Having had a starter, we didn't have room for desserts.

Today, we had a serious lie-in until eight, then pottered into the village after breakfast. There are two general stores, a Lifestyle on the main drag and a Spar tucked away behind the church. The Spar actually has more stock; its narrow frontage is deceptive, and they had a reasonable range of stuff including fresh fruit and veg. We got the last Independent in the store, a rather sad and battered thing, but still readable.

We've been loafing on the boat for the afternoon, sometimes in the well deck when the sun comes out, and retreating into the cabin when the showers pass by.

The guy running a genny opposite had stopped it by the time we got back from the pub last night, but had started his main engine instead, which he ran until 8.45, the wretch. Since we were cream crackered after our late night the night before and wanted a very early night, this wasn't very popular. He's not about today, but the chap on the very down-at-heel boat in front of him has been working hard on his restoration project.

Full marks for that, of course, but the work has largely consisted of burning off paint from the control pillar, so we've had the squeal of a scraper on a steel surface from time to time, and now he's running a genny, presumably to watch the Olympics since he's disappeared from view.

It wouldn't be reasonable to complain about any of this; he's on his mooring and well within his rights to do what he's doing, but it rather spoils the peace and quiet of the waterways for the rest of us. So, tomorrow we'll move on, I think, and make a shortish run to Gnosall for the night, carrying on to Norbury Junction the next day.

One positive to finish: there's a local kingfisher hanging about. Kingfishers have been having a rough time of it lately with the hard winters and grotty springs, so it's good to see one thriving here. It's not very good, but I managed to get a shot of him sitting on the canopy of a boat on the offside moorings before he shot away:


Friday 3 August 2012

Dozily to Wheaton Aston

Well, that was a very good night last night; thanks Chancy guys, really enjoyed it. As a result it was gone midnight before we were in bed, and it took a bit of doing to get up and get going this morning. The cunning plan was to get to Wheaton Aston at around ten, so as to get the water tank topped up before settling onto a mooring for the weekend, being as we have some dirty weather in the forecast.

We toddled along quite merrily, if a little dopily; this stretch is the first of those blighted by the Shroppie's besetting sin, one I've mentioned before, I know. That is the endless lengths of offside mooring, so that you end up crawling past all these boats. Seemingly, they don't do marinas on the Shroppie, not before Audlem at any rate.

We rolled up at Wheaton Aston at half nine, and had a change of plan. There was a perfectly good bit of towpath mooring above the lock, and we still have two thirds of a tank of water, so we've stopped up here for the time being. It is very busy on the official visitor moorings down below, so we're probably better off this way.

The only downside at the moment is a bloke on the offside doing some serious metal bashing to his boat. He's got a genny running, as he's doing some welding and grinding, so we're just hopeful that he's going to knock it off at some reasonable hour.

There's a mixed mobile reception situation here; T-mobile/Orange is fine, and 3 is OK, but the Vodafone signal is pretty well non-existent; it seems they've not heard of Shropshire down there in Newbury. This justifies us having a 3 voice contract, any way.

One interesting website visited today, as a result of a post on the Erin Mae blog; that's this one describing a load of useful knots, together with really good visual guides on how  to tie them.

Tonight, we plan to eat at the Hartley Arms, this being our delayed wedding anniversary meal that we didn't have at the time because we were dog sitting. I'll report on the experience tomorrow, probably.

Thursday 2 August 2012

Through Cut End and a Chance encounter

The Shropshire Union Canal was known to the working boaters as the Shroppie Cut, so its terminus at Autherley Junction was called Cut End. Having covered the solar panel yesterday to protect it from any flying debris as we came through that part of the world, we set off today in good heart. Sheila started out at seven whilst I had breakfast, then I took over for the rest of the trip.

It was a very pleasant morning for it, sunny and not too cool. No boats were encountered through the narrows of Pendeford Rockin', but I had to wait at the junction for a boat to work down the stop lock that protects the Staffs and Worcs water from running away down the Shroppie.

These days, of course, it's all C&RT water anyway, but once upon a time these things were important. Both canals are actually fed from the same, steady source now, in the shape of the water treatment plant (aka sewage works) that sits in the armpit of the junction. I wonder if C&RT have thought of asking the Wolverhampton and Dudley Brewery to become a corporate partner, since their products (Banks's and Marston's ales) make such a contribution to the water supply of the canals to the north of Wolverhampton?

Eventually, that is.

/wahaha

By now, traffic was building up, and I stemmed Sanity Again up getting too close to the towpath waiting for a boat to emerge from the first of the narrow sections on the Shroppie. We had to do some pushing and poling to get off again, but then had an uneventful plod to our favourite moorings on this stretch, the ones kindly provided by SUCS just north of Bridge 7, or alternatively, just south of Bridge 8.

It would have been perfectly possible to go on to Brewood, but the moorings there tend to be busier, and are down in a dark cutting. Here we have the pleasure of looking over the lower ground back towards Coven whence we have just come. We got here at half nine, just as our in transit washload was finishing off. There were a couple of spaces, and more soon appeared as folk made rather later starts than we had done.

Doug and James on Chance turned up a bit before lunch; we've had one good natter with them already, and they're coming round for a drink later on.

/blur

Fortunately, we don't need a very early start tomorrow; we plan to go just as far as Wheaton Aston, about 90 minutes cruising away.

Wednesday 1 August 2012

Minor change of plan

The weather forecast for today had improved a lot by the end of yesterday, and the toilet tank gauge was getting a bit insistent, so we decided to  do Thursday today. I popped up to the yard above the lock a bit after eight, found one guy painting and asked when they would be doing pump outs. The answer being "nine o'clock" and the service wharf free, we locked Sanity Again up and juggled her across onto the wharf.

It's a tricky access, about as bad as the Anglo Welsh yard at Great Haywood, but with Sheila helming and yours truly wielding the long shaft, we made it. It's best treated like the AW yard, too; come out of the lock and reverse onto the wharf, ending up with the stern on and parallel to any other boats waiting there.

Sure enough, at nine a guy turned up and after a bit did our pump out. It's quite a classic for the collection of unusual pump out kit; a pull cord started Yanmar air cooled diesel pump shifting the stuff to a hidden destination, presumably a septic tank since there's no mains drainage at Gailey.

Having said that, it's a very powerful pump, and did as good a job as we've had for quite a while, though you don't get any rinsing at all. Cost was £15, about the middle of the range these days.

We were away by half nine or so, and Sheila steered the pleasant route from Gailey past Four Ashes (big chemical plant) and Calf Heath (Hatherton Junction and marina) to finish at the Fox and Anchor at Coven. There was plenty of room when we got there in the late morning, which was no surprise given the numbers of boats we'd met coming the other way, mostly at blind bridge holes.

After lunch, we took a walk into the village for fruit, veg, b---d and a p---r. Back at the boat, we fixed the covers on the solar panel; we go through Autherley Junction tomorrow, it's school holiday time, and it would be tedious if any of the little darlings chucked a brick off one of the bridges onto our panel.

By the same token, we'll make an early start of it, especially as the best of the weather is forecast for the morning. The plan is to tie just short of Brewood on the SUCS moorings by Bridge 7. We'll probably go on to Wheaton Aston on Friday, stopping there over the weekend if the forecast storm materialises, and maybe even if it doesn't.