Onto the Deeps

We estimated 90 minutes cruising from Bollington to Poynton and wanted to give plenty of time for spaces to appear on the Deeps before we got there, so started getting ready to cruise at half eight. First off, Sheila got up on the roof and I handed the plant troughs up to her, they having been stowed in the well deck yesterday to escape the wind. Then, after we'd got the boat ready to go and started the engine, Sheila went ashore and I recovered and stowed the gang plank. She undid the piling chains and passed them and their lines back to me.

I shafted first the bow and then the stern into deep water and set off, collecting Sheila from the next bridgehole. We had a very pleasant run in calm weather to Poynton, taking just on.... 90 minutes. (I did take it easy once or twice when I thought we were getting ahead of ourselves, mind.) When we got here, it looked at first as though we were in trouble, as there were boats tied well beyond the winding hole, but we found three useable spaces further on. Tying in the one nearest Bridge 15, we closed the boat up and ambled along to the Braidbar yard where we had a coffee and several conversations with Peter and Susan.

Heading back to the boat for lunch, another space had appeared just one boat length from the bridge, so we cast off and moved into it, to be handy for the Ocado delivery tomorrow. As we were finishing lunch, Martin from Ice Breaker looked in to discuss arrangements for the Owners' Weekend; he's put up the official Mooring Reserved notices supplied by CRT and is preparing the name badges.

Just as we'd finished lunch and were wondering what to do next, Steve and Denise on Riverside Escape appeared and tied in the space we'd left. They moor in Mercia and have a lodge too, so we have a lot in common and plenty to natter about over coffee kindly supplied by Denise. It seems to be a day for free coffee ;).

Sheila tore herself away to ring the Halifax about some money they should have transferred into our current account from a matured internet saver, the one we had to go into a branch in Rugeley about on the way up. The cash should have arrived last Friday but hasn't appeared because of administrative incompetence at Head Office, it looks like. Three phone calls later and a suggestion she needed to go into yet another branch to sort it out (!) we're still waiting for a resolution. They've promised to call again at half nine tomorrow. Apparently, the Halifax idea of an "internet account" is that you can pay money in online, but getting it out involves a lot of snail mail and visits to branches.

We won't be using them again.

Heigh ho, tonight will be a trip to the Boar's Head, methinks.