What a good day that's been, I've got almost nothing at all to grumble at, to misquote King Gama. We got going at half seven and worked down the Big Lock in company with a single hander, then stopped on the water point below for breakfast and a top up. It's an average pressure there, filling half a tank just covered eating the meal and making the coffee.
Then off we went, no more locks until the Poolstock Two on the way into Wigan, an incredibly long pound. It just goes on and on, a mix of quite narrow winding sections, made more exciting by reed beds encroaching from the offside, and broad deep sections, often through bits of industry.
This is the salt producing area of the Cheshire Plain, so that the canal has in many places subsided and been built up again, hence the good depth. All the bridges are a flat beam design with the abutments designed to allow the deck to be jacked up to compensate for the sinkage.
It took us four hours to Anderton, a bit longer than usual but there were many moored boats, especially around the Lion Salt Works at Marston where they are having a Towpath Festival this weekend. It's been a lurkers magnet around there for many years.
Not one but two new marinas have appeared, one occupying Billinge Flash, the other in a hole dug in a field, but both quite near Orchard Marine just before Broken Cross.
We had a bit of fun finding a mooring, partly because we turned our noses up at the first ones between the sanitary station and the road bridge, opposite the ABC marina. It's a rough edge there and very few or no rings. So I hovered around there whilst Sheila went exploring round the corner towards the Lift.
She reported plenty of room, at least two spaces, so I carried on round. We then found that between odd spacing of rings, lumps under water and prohibitions on tying too close to the bridges, we hadn't got that much choice. Fortunately, just as my low blood sugar was beginning to make me a touch stroppy, two boats set off to go down the Lift and we popped onto a very good space, albeit a bit shaded.
We then found that we'd tied bow to bow with Sarah-Kate and Mike and Jo, some of the first fellow boaters we met when first living on Sanity. We've had a good old natter with them and commiserated with the problems they are having with their gearbox.
RCR have replaced it once but the new one promptly developed a bearing fault, so they've been waiting again. The RCR guy is back, hopefully sorting it now as I type.
We've also just given a cup of tea to David and Anne off Sunflower, Braidbar 165. They moor here and are about to spend a week on the Weaver.
We're meeting Peter and Susan Mason tonight for dinner, so it's being a highly sociable day. "They tickle my taste, they feed me fat, and I've nothing whatever to grumble at!"
Tomorrow, two tunnels and on to the Dutton Embankment.
Showing posts with label Anderton. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anderton. Show all posts
Thursday, 7 June 2018
Monday, 29 July 2013
Another quiet day, not
Well, in one sense we’ve had a quiet day here at Anderton; I did a trip up to the Co-op again, not just for the paper but also to get a further supply of perishables so that we can have a couple of days at Billinge Green without running short of stuff.
On the other hand, it’s been very noisy at times, especially during lunchtime when a large thunderstorm came and hung around, giving the chimney stacks of the works opposite a right clouting.
Sheila’s foot is looking a lot better, I’m pleased to say.
We’ve made good use of the enforced period in the cabin, sorting stuff to do with the Braidbar Owners’ Group, mainly, as well as catching up on with life on Canal World.
Hopefully, we’ll be boating again tomorrow, stopping first for a pump out at Anderton Marina.
Labels:
Anderton
Sunday, 28 July 2013
Sitting out a soggy Sunday
As expected, we had a very good evening in the Stanley Arms last night, drinking some well conditioned ale (despite the warm weather making the cellar man’s life a bit tricky) and gossiping with Ian and Kath.
It started to rain whilst we were in there, and Sheila and I found ourselves scuttling back to the boat through a monsoon. Like a monsoon, it wasn’t particularly cold, but most of what we were wearing went in the washing basket as soon as we got in. It was well past our bedtimes anyway, so we crashed out pretty promptly.
It’s carried on raining off and on all day, often with the same dramatic tropical quality to it. Sheila has got a couple of nasty insect bites on the top of one foot, so she’s taking advantage of the situation to rest it; it’s handy for her not to have to wear shoes for a couple of days.
I’ve made one trip up to the Co-op for the usual reason, and one to the rubbish skips ditto.
Apart from that it’s been a very quiet day in the boat; at times it’s been sunny and dry and we’ve been able to sit out in the well deck; at others we’ve lurked below as the rain hammered on the roof.
It looks pretty similar weather for tomorrow, so I think we’ll repeat the prescription, then move on on Tuesday as far as Billinge Green flash. A couple of days there will go down well and we’ll be ready to start climbing Heartbreak Hill by the weekend.
We’ve worked out a cruising schedule that will get us onto the Macc just as Elanor will want to bring Sally over to us, which will be handy for her as she’s not far from the A50 at home.
Labels:
Anderton
Saturday, 27 July 2013
Hot cruising to Anderton
It’s been another beautiful day for boating; pleasantly cool first thing, warming up as the day went on and becoming seriously warm this afternoon, encouraging us to sit tight in the boat.
We wanted to arrive at Anderton at around ten thirty; the cruising time we estimated at two to two and a half hours, so adding on another half hour for waiting for the slot to navigate Saltersford Tunnel, we left at half seven. As it turned out, we arrived at the tunnel in time to go through earlier, but didn’t want to.
So we tied on the tunnel waiting moorings for 45 minutes, leaving the engine running as the washing machine was working away.
Both Saltersford and Barnton Tunnels were negotiated undramatically; we did indeed get to our preferred mooring near the Stanley Arms just on half ten.
There’s a certain amount of boat traffic about and plenty of towpath walkers. Before lunch we took a walk up to Barnton Co-op for perishables, such as a pie to have with salad tonight and some salad stuff to go with it. (I know, shades of “If we had some bacon we could have bacon and eggs, if we had some eggs”.)
After lunch we took a very easy stroll along the towpath to see who’s about. Ian and Kath were on board Sanity, so we had a brief cross-cut conversation with them; we’ll be catching up properly tonight. We didn’t spot anyone else we knew and finished off with ice creams from the CRT shop at the lift.
Back at the boat I topped up the batteries and refilled the stern greaser tube. I had planned to pump out the water from the stern bilge, but it was just too much like the opening number of Kiss Me Kate in there to indulge in such exertions.
We’ll stay put tomorrow as there’s a major amount of rain forecast, and indeed we may hang around here for another day after that. Then we quite fancy ambling as far as Billinge Green flash on the way to Middlewich for a couple of days; we’ve got about 10 days to lose, what a hardship…
/blur
Labels:
Anderton
Tuesday, 16 July 2013
Parked at Marbury
We’d estimated around 3 hours for the trip to Anderton/Marbury park, so got away at half seven this morning along another very familiar stretch of canal. It was looking particularly good today in the cool first thing sunshine, I must say.
It was Sheila’s turn to steer so I spent some time doing boatkeeping type jobs ranging from the breakfast washing up through starting a wash load to grilling some wild boar sausages to have cold with salad tonight.
Much of the run from Bramble Cutting to Marbury is rural, with just the occasional intrusion of industry to remind you why the canal got built in the first place. Wincham Wharf was looking very quiet but there's a lot of activity around the Lion Salt Works these days where it’s being renovated, hopefully.
There’s also the usual flotilla of lurkers hanging around there; CRT have made some Long Term moorings for some of them, but others still seem stubbornly to hang around on the open moorings.
We had a fast run and by ten had found a good mooring spot in Marbury Park; we had a stroll through the woodland area this afternoon. Sheila regretted not taking her binoculars; we hadn’t realised what good bird watching terrain this is, especially on Neumann’s Flash.
After a interesting walk in increasing heat we finished up at the Lift where we bought and ate some restorative ice cream before ambling back along the towpath, giving that old stager Sanity a wave as we went by; Ian Stockton, the nice guy we sold her to, is in Bahrain this week, so we won’t be able to catch up with him.
Never mind, maybe when we come back…
We’ll have another quiet night here, hopefully and potter on to somewhere beyond Barnton and Saltisford Tunnels tomorrow.
Labels:
Anderton,
Marbury Park
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:
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.
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... |
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.
Wednesday, 11 March 2009
Three hectic days
9th, 10th & 11th March
This is a catch up, after not posting yesterday. I may well not be in a position to post tomorrow, so I'll do three days today, and probably another post either on Friday or Saturday.
Sunday night was incredibly windy, and we woke several times to Sanity doing her Onedin Line impression, rocking and rolling on her mooring with much creaking of the mooring lines. We'd planned to go on to the winding hole near Grappenhall on Monday morning, but it really wasn't prudent to attempt it, so we decided to leave it until Tuesday, before we set off back towards Anderton.
The main event of the morning, therefore, was the walk down through Stockton Heath (which has a decent little shopping centre of its own) across the Ship Canal on a swing bridge and into the Morrisons that's just on the other side. Shopping done, we came back to the boat, where I used half a slightly stale loaf to make a bread pudding.
After lunch we had a good clean up session to make Sanity respectable for guests, and then frankly had a little doze, catching up on lost sleep from the night before. It's a handy mooring at Stockton Heath, urban but unthreatening. The only downside from my point of view is that the T-mobile connection is a little unreliable. It's fast enough most of the time, but occasionally 'hangs' and you have to disconnect and reconnect to get it back.
The Masons duly turned up to consume Chicken Gumbo and bread pud, and we had a great time, nattering until nearly midnight. There was much talk of options for Sanity Again, needless to say, and we are hopeful of getting up to Braidbar via a lift from the Masons sometime soon to agree the build slot and the main design elements.
It's looking good for the end of this year, though I'm pleased to say that their orders are holding up well, and a certain amount of juggling of slots will be done to try to ensure we pay at least most of the cost before the 15% VAT rate goes back up to 17.5.
Yesterday we wanted to get right back to Anderton, in order to rendezvous with Sheila's brother and sister in law for the evening (so that's with Peter and Jan as opposed to Peter and Susan).
With the time slots for the tunnels to take into consideration, we got up and got on at seven, which was pretty good we thought after the late night before. We'd tied opposite a private lay-by that had the usual No Mooring signs, and something in small print about not being a winding hole. Looked at more closely, however, it just asked boaters to be careful if turning there, and we were able to wind Sanity quite easily.
I wouldn't want to turn much over 60 foot there, but up to that it's quite feasible. We got back to Preston Brook in good time for the 9.30 southbound slot, waiting for about half an hour on the tunnel moorings.
It was then a steady chug back the way we'd come, on a day which had been wet and windy initially, but which improved steadily as it went on. We made the 11.30 slot for Saltersford with ten minutes to spare, and were tied in Anderton by lunchtime.
After lunch we had a wander round. We'd thought of using the BW pump out machine at the service block in the cause of cleaning out more of the sludge, but the office wasn't open on a Tuesday to sell us the necessary swipe card. We decided to use our own machine again, instead, thus losing BW a tenner.
Back at the boat, I agreed to see if some recurrent dampness on the floor by the Squirrel was anything to worry about, or a bit of condensation turning up. Investigation showed that Sheila had been right to nag me about it. The nice new Jabsco domestic water pump was excreting a fine jet of water every time it ran, and the area around it, against the front saloon bulkhead, was very damp.
There was also a certain amount of water sloshing around in the bilge. We've done a fair bit of bailing with sponge and bucket to get it out, and I scuttled off to Anderton Boatyard to seek advice, and a replacement pump. Fortunately, they had a Shurflo in stock; hire yards are often a good source of things like this as they have to carry so much spare kit for emergency repairs on their own boats.
I bought the new pump and soon had it installed in place of the Jabsco, which we'll take back to Shobnall when back in Burton in a couple of weeks time. The dampness is slowly drying out; at least it's the right time of year for doing so, and there doesn't appear to be any permanent damage, thank goodness.
By the time all the excitement was over, it was late in the afternoon, and I just didn't have the energy to blog. Nonetheless we had a great evening with Peter and Jan, at the Leigh Arms in Acton Bridge. A seriously nice pub, quiet, good food and a decent pint of Robinsons.
Our replacement vacuum cleaner had arrived, too, so we can now attack the spring cleaning with gusto and a Dustbuster, when we've recovered our energy, that is! It comes with a handy set of implements, and though it's a mains lead job, at £30 looks a lot better value than the defunct Dyson at £100.
Today, we started by winding by the service block to bring the pump out point to the towpath side, and got busy. BW were there resurfacing the area outside the block with crushed limestone, one of their favourite materials at the moment. It's horrible stuff, and means you leave white footprints all over everything, but from BW's point of view it's cheap, and that's the important thing to them.
We've boated on to Marston for the night. Some of the lurkers have moved off, and so we are snug on the towpath, though the edge is a bit tedious, with a sloping and broken ledge just below the water line. After much experimentation, we've managed to get some fenders into the right place.
A quiet night tonight methinks, and then we'll see what tomorrow brings.
STOP PRESS: I've just added a post to the Sanity Again blog about electrical systems.
This is a catch up, after not posting yesterday. I may well not be in a position to post tomorrow, so I'll do three days today, and probably another post either on Friday or Saturday.
Sunday night was incredibly windy, and we woke several times to Sanity doing her Onedin Line impression, rocking and rolling on her mooring with much creaking of the mooring lines. We'd planned to go on to the winding hole near Grappenhall on Monday morning, but it really wasn't prudent to attempt it, so we decided to leave it until Tuesday, before we set off back towards Anderton.
The main event of the morning, therefore, was the walk down through Stockton Heath (which has a decent little shopping centre of its own) across the Ship Canal on a swing bridge and into the Morrisons that's just on the other side. Shopping done, we came back to the boat, where I used half a slightly stale loaf to make a bread pudding.
After lunch we had a good clean up session to make Sanity respectable for guests, and then frankly had a little doze, catching up on lost sleep from the night before. It's a handy mooring at Stockton Heath, urban but unthreatening. The only downside from my point of view is that the T-mobile connection is a little unreliable. It's fast enough most of the time, but occasionally 'hangs' and you have to disconnect and reconnect to get it back.
The Masons duly turned up to consume Chicken Gumbo and bread pud, and we had a great time, nattering until nearly midnight. There was much talk of options for Sanity Again, needless to say, and we are hopeful of getting up to Braidbar via a lift from the Masons sometime soon to agree the build slot and the main design elements.
It's looking good for the end of this year, though I'm pleased to say that their orders are holding up well, and a certain amount of juggling of slots will be done to try to ensure we pay at least most of the cost before the 15% VAT rate goes back up to 17.5.
Yesterday we wanted to get right back to Anderton, in order to rendezvous with Sheila's brother and sister in law for the evening (so that's with Peter and Jan as opposed to Peter and Susan).
With the time slots for the tunnels to take into consideration, we got up and got on at seven, which was pretty good we thought after the late night before. We'd tied opposite a private lay-by that had the usual No Mooring signs, and something in small print about not being a winding hole. Looked at more closely, however, it just asked boaters to be careful if turning there, and we were able to wind Sanity quite easily.
I wouldn't want to turn much over 60 foot there, but up to that it's quite feasible. We got back to Preston Brook in good time for the 9.30 southbound slot, waiting for about half an hour on the tunnel moorings.
It was then a steady chug back the way we'd come, on a day which had been wet and windy initially, but which improved steadily as it went on. We made the 11.30 slot for Saltersford with ten minutes to spare, and were tied in Anderton by lunchtime.
After lunch we had a wander round. We'd thought of using the BW pump out machine at the service block in the cause of cleaning out more of the sludge, but the office wasn't open on a Tuesday to sell us the necessary swipe card. We decided to use our own machine again, instead, thus losing BW a tenner.
Back at the boat, I agreed to see if some recurrent dampness on the floor by the Squirrel was anything to worry about, or a bit of condensation turning up. Investigation showed that Sheila had been right to nag me about it. The nice new Jabsco domestic water pump was excreting a fine jet of water every time it ran, and the area around it, against the front saloon bulkhead, was very damp.
There was also a certain amount of water sloshing around in the bilge. We've done a fair bit of bailing with sponge and bucket to get it out, and I scuttled off to Anderton Boatyard to seek advice, and a replacement pump. Fortunately, they had a Shurflo in stock; hire yards are often a good source of things like this as they have to carry so much spare kit for emergency repairs on their own boats.
I bought the new pump and soon had it installed in place of the Jabsco, which we'll take back to Shobnall when back in Burton in a couple of weeks time. The dampness is slowly drying out; at least it's the right time of year for doing so, and there doesn't appear to be any permanent damage, thank goodness.
By the time all the excitement was over, it was late in the afternoon, and I just didn't have the energy to blog. Nonetheless we had a great evening with Peter and Jan, at the Leigh Arms in Acton Bridge. A seriously nice pub, quiet, good food and a decent pint of Robinsons.
Our replacement vacuum cleaner had arrived, too, so we can now attack the spring cleaning with gusto and a Dustbuster, when we've recovered our energy, that is! It comes with a handy set of implements, and though it's a mains lead job, at £30 looks a lot better value than the defunct Dyson at £100.
Today, we started by winding by the service block to bring the pump out point to the towpath side, and got busy. BW were there resurfacing the area outside the block with crushed limestone, one of their favourite materials at the moment. It's horrible stuff, and means you leave white footprints all over everything, but from BW's point of view it's cheap, and that's the important thing to them.
We've boated on to Marston for the night. Some of the lurkers have moved off, and so we are snug on the towpath, though the edge is a bit tedious, with a sloping and broken ledge just below the water line. After much experimentation, we've managed to get some fenders into the right place.
A quiet night tonight methinks, and then we'll see what tomorrow brings.
STOP PRESS: I've just added a post to the Sanity Again blog about electrical systems.
Labels:
Anderton,
Marston,
Stockton Heath
Tuesday, 10 March 2009
Too tired to post
After an excellent evening last night, that finished just before 12, some serious boating this morning, and a mini crisis this afternoon, I'm just too knackered to compose a post today folks - sorry!
The nice new water pump sprang a leak (or had done so a little while ago) so between urgently sourcing a replacement and fitting it, and bailing out the water from where it shouldn't be, it's all been a bit exciting.
Normal service tomorrow, hopefully
The nice new water pump sprang a leak (or had done so a little while ago) so between urgently sourcing a replacement and fitting it, and bailing out the water from where it shouldn't be, it's all been a bit exciting.
Normal service tomorrow, hopefully
Labels:
Anderton
Monday, 28 January 2008
Barnton to Marbury Park
27th & 28th January
After I'd done the last blog, we settled down to a meal of haggis, neeps (and carrots) and tatties, having impulse bought a haggis at the Co-op yesterday. Well, it was Burns Night the night before, and we like haggis; it's just a bit strange to find it in a north Cheshire co-op, that's all.
Yesterday being Sunday, and with nowhere to go, we had a lazy start, and I wandered up to the village to get a paper at around 10. On the way back I noted that the two moorings in the basin between the tunnel mouth and the bridge were empty, so when I got back to the boat, we set off through the bridge and tunnel, and winded in the pool between the two tunnels.
We then had to wait before going back through Barnton, as the Challenger boat Charlton was just coming through. I must admit (to save Sheila commenting) that I hadn't really expected to find a boat coming the other way, and had to do a bit of an emergency stop in the tunnel mouth before backing out.
Finally back through the tunnel, we moored on the aforesaid spot in Barnton Basin. There was just time before lunch for me to go and take some pictures of the tunnel ventilators, one of which was looking quite dilapidated. Some of us have agreed to take shots of BW structures looking in bad nick, for SOW to use as propaganda on their website. If BW can't do better than this when they had got half decent funding, what's it going to be like now they are severely under funded?
After lunch I experimented with the PhotoShop web album facility again, but then we decided it was too nice an afternoon to rot in the boat all day, so went for a walk. We found part of a pleasant network of footpaths in the area, going part of the way over the tunnel, then down towards the river, and finally back along the riverside to come out at the pool between the tunnels.
Here we had a natter with a guy off one of the boats wintering in the pool. He'd been spending his time clearing the scrub away from some of the footpaths, thus making them less attractive to the local youth. They had clearly been in the habit of retreating there to experiment with various substances, judging by the presence of lager cans, lighter fuel aerosols, needles and syringes.
It just shows the importance of having some winter boaters around to discourage the development of potential no-go areas like that. As it was, a gang had, just the night before, pushed some of the coping stones off the parapet over the western mouth of Barnton Tunnel, so that they were now lying in the water in the tunnel mouth.
I hadn't got my camera with me, but did have the phone, so took a couple of shots with that. Back at the boat, I included those in the album with the earlier pictures and put it up on the website. I'm not sure about the PhotoShop web gallery facility – it takes more fiddling around in Dreamweaver to put my templates on the output satisfactorily, and I suspect it makes a bulkier folder compared to the more basic job that iPhoto does. I'll have to ponder this a bit more, I guess.
Today was another lazy start, as we had to wait for the Post Office to have had its mail delivery. When I called in at around 10, our letter had come from Elanor, so we could set off again on the next phase of the winter's boating, heading for Ellesmere on the Llangollen.
In fact we got as far as Anderton, where I winded Sanity to back onto the service point with the pump out hole next to the bank. There was another small boat already there, setting up to use the BW card operated pump out machine. They'd got two new cards, but neither was working. While we rigged our pump, the guy went off to consult in the BW office at the lift, and in a while came back with a fresh card.
It was still no good. By this time, our pump out was well on, so we offered to pump them out with our machine. This was accomplished by tying their boat outside Sanity, so that the pump would both reach their pump out fitting, and be able to run off its power supply in Sanity's engine room
While this was going on, a BW guy turned up, and admitted that the machine had been reported defective during the weekend. Eventually all was done, and it now being well into lunch time, we just pulled forward onto the visitor moorings for the time being.
After lunch, we winded again, and headed round the corner to the towpath at Marbury Park. Here we spent a bit of time sawing wood, and I gave the starboard cabin side a quick wash, as it was looking disgustingly muddy. We don't spend a lot of time washing the boat in the winter – there's no point, but it is nice to clean the mud and bird doings off it from time to time.
After I'd done the last blog, we settled down to a meal of haggis, neeps (and carrots) and tatties, having impulse bought a haggis at the Co-op yesterday. Well, it was Burns Night the night before, and we like haggis; it's just a bit strange to find it in a north Cheshire co-op, that's all.
Yesterday being Sunday, and with nowhere to go, we had a lazy start, and I wandered up to the village to get a paper at around 10. On the way back I noted that the two moorings in the basin between the tunnel mouth and the bridge were empty, so when I got back to the boat, we set off through the bridge and tunnel, and winded in the pool between the two tunnels.
We then had to wait before going back through Barnton, as the Challenger boat Charlton was just coming through. I must admit (to save Sheila commenting) that I hadn't really expected to find a boat coming the other way, and had to do a bit of an emergency stop in the tunnel mouth before backing out.
Finally back through the tunnel, we moored on the aforesaid spot in Barnton Basin. There was just time before lunch for me to go and take some pictures of the tunnel ventilators, one of which was looking quite dilapidated. Some of us have agreed to take shots of BW structures looking in bad nick, for SOW to use as propaganda on their website. If BW can't do better than this when they had got half decent funding, what's it going to be like now they are severely under funded?
After lunch I experimented with the PhotoShop web album facility again, but then we decided it was too nice an afternoon to rot in the boat all day, so went for a walk. We found part of a pleasant network of footpaths in the area, going part of the way over the tunnel, then down towards the river, and finally back along the riverside to come out at the pool between the tunnels.
Here we had a natter with a guy off one of the boats wintering in the pool. He'd been spending his time clearing the scrub away from some of the footpaths, thus making them less attractive to the local youth. They had clearly been in the habit of retreating there to experiment with various substances, judging by the presence of lager cans, lighter fuel aerosols, needles and syringes.
It just shows the importance of having some winter boaters around to discourage the development of potential no-go areas like that. As it was, a gang had, just the night before, pushed some of the coping stones off the parapet over the western mouth of Barnton Tunnel, so that they were now lying in the water in the tunnel mouth.
I hadn't got my camera with me, but did have the phone, so took a couple of shots with that. Back at the boat, I included those in the album with the earlier pictures and put it up on the website. I'm not sure about the PhotoShop web gallery facility – it takes more fiddling around in Dreamweaver to put my templates on the output satisfactorily, and I suspect it makes a bulkier folder compared to the more basic job that iPhoto does. I'll have to ponder this a bit more, I guess.
Today was another lazy start, as we had to wait for the Post Office to have had its mail delivery. When I called in at around 10, our letter had come from Elanor, so we could set off again on the next phase of the winter's boating, heading for Ellesmere on the Llangollen.
In fact we got as far as Anderton, where I winded Sanity to back onto the service point with the pump out hole next to the bank. There was another small boat already there, setting up to use the BW card operated pump out machine. They'd got two new cards, but neither was working. While we rigged our pump, the guy went off to consult in the BW office at the lift, and in a while came back with a fresh card.
It was still no good. By this time, our pump out was well on, so we offered to pump them out with our machine. This was accomplished by tying their boat outside Sanity, so that the pump would both reach their pump out fitting, and be able to run off its power supply in Sanity's engine room
While this was going on, a BW guy turned up, and admitted that the machine had been reported defective during the weekend. Eventually all was done, and it now being well into lunch time, we just pulled forward onto the visitor moorings for the time being.
After lunch, we winded again, and headed round the corner to the towpath at Marbury Park. Here we spent a bit of time sawing wood, and I gave the starboard cabin side a quick wash, as it was looking disgustingly muddy. We don't spend a lot of time washing the boat in the winter – there's no point, but it is nice to clean the mud and bird doings off it from time to time.
Labels:
Anderton,
Barnton,
Marbury Park
Saturday, 26 January 2008
Hanging about at Anderton
25th & 26th January
With no plans to move, we were able to have a lazy start on Friday morning. We walked to the shop, mainly for the exercise on a fine morning, but also to get a paper and perhaps a tin of fruit. This was just as well, as the shop, which was never a hugely well stocked emporium, has now just a few bare items, and seems to be doing more trade as a small cafe. It used to be a Post Office in days gone by, but that has gone altogether.
They had a handful of tabloid papers, and some tinned goods, including a small tin of pineapple rings which I bought so as to have something to show for the trip.
It was too nice a day to get upset, though, so after a coffee at the boat we set off for a ramble round the Anderton Nature Park. In fact, we found a route through the Uplands Woodlands ( a Forestry Commission area) and then across towards Marbury Park, rejoining the canal after about half an hour's walking, and taking as long again to get back to Sanity.
There wasn't a lot of wildlife to be seen, to be honest, but it was a nice ramble in a well restored area, which is also clearly popular with the locals.
In the afternoon, I tried creating a web album of the Preston Brook Tunnel photos using the Photoshop facility for so doing. Until now I've used iPhoto to do that, but these shots were defeating iPhoto's ability. I need to experiment a bit more with the PhotoShop process, but at least I was able to put something up on the website. They are not a patch on what Andrew Denny has been talking about, but have, I think, a certain artistic interest. (All this, and modest too).
Although today was a Saturday, we got up in good time, and were on the water point by nine, mooring behind a Community Narrowboat Project boat. Tank full, Sheila winded Sanity by reversing her back past the marina entrance and then putting the bow in there to bring her round. Despite a fluky wind, she managed this without any serious hassle, and with just a bit of prodding with the manual bowthruster (aka 10 foot shaft) by me at the start of the manoeuvre.
We made steady time back to Barnton, mooring this time on the new visitor moorings by the cottages before you get to the main road bridge. They are OK, but the channel is quite narrow, and the position of the loops in the concrete pilings such that we're moored very square, so passing boats, even those that have the courtesy to slow down, tend to move us about quite a bit.
We called at the PO whilst shopping in the village, making up for Anderton's deficiencies, but the forwarded stuff from Elanor hadn't arrived, so it's a case of hanging around here until Monday. I may well do the tunnel/wind/tunnel sequence tomorrow, to see if we can end up on a better bit of mooring.
It is at least a reasonable internet connection here, so I've been spending some time tidying up other bits of the website photo gallery, applying a consistent template to all the albums. Last year, Malcolm Nixon was kind enough to point out that using cascading style sheets would be more efficient, and he's quite right, but I got swept away by the joys of blogging just then, and haven't seriously looked at the state of the traditional site until this month.
One of these days/months/years I must get down to a complete reconstruction of the site on modern principles, learning from the examples Malcolm kindly sent me, but I've been having too much fun doing other boating stuff (and being scared out of my wits by the floods last year) to get my head round it.
With no plans to move, we were able to have a lazy start on Friday morning. We walked to the shop, mainly for the exercise on a fine morning, but also to get a paper and perhaps a tin of fruit. This was just as well, as the shop, which was never a hugely well stocked emporium, has now just a few bare items, and seems to be doing more trade as a small cafe. It used to be a Post Office in days gone by, but that has gone altogether.
They had a handful of tabloid papers, and some tinned goods, including a small tin of pineapple rings which I bought so as to have something to show for the trip.
It was too nice a day to get upset, though, so after a coffee at the boat we set off for a ramble round the Anderton Nature Park. In fact, we found a route through the Uplands Woodlands ( a Forestry Commission area) and then across towards Marbury Park, rejoining the canal after about half an hour's walking, and taking as long again to get back to Sanity.
There wasn't a lot of wildlife to be seen, to be honest, but it was a nice ramble in a well restored area, which is also clearly popular with the locals.
In the afternoon, I tried creating a web album of the Preston Brook Tunnel photos using the Photoshop facility for so doing. Until now I've used iPhoto to do that, but these shots were defeating iPhoto's ability. I need to experiment a bit more with the PhotoShop process, but at least I was able to put something up on the website. They are not a patch on what Andrew Denny has been talking about, but have, I think, a certain artistic interest. (All this, and modest too).
Although today was a Saturday, we got up in good time, and were on the water point by nine, mooring behind a Community Narrowboat Project boat. Tank full, Sheila winded Sanity by reversing her back past the marina entrance and then putting the bow in there to bring her round. Despite a fluky wind, she managed this without any serious hassle, and with just a bit of prodding with the manual bowthruster (aka 10 foot shaft) by me at the start of the manoeuvre.
We made steady time back to Barnton, mooring this time on the new visitor moorings by the cottages before you get to the main road bridge. They are OK, but the channel is quite narrow, and the position of the loops in the concrete pilings such that we're moored very square, so passing boats, even those that have the courtesy to slow down, tend to move us about quite a bit.
We called at the PO whilst shopping in the village, making up for Anderton's deficiencies, but the forwarded stuff from Elanor hadn't arrived, so it's a case of hanging around here until Monday. I may well do the tunnel/wind/tunnel sequence tomorrow, to see if we can end up on a better bit of mooring.
It is at least a reasonable internet connection here, so I've been spending some time tidying up other bits of the website photo gallery, applying a consistent template to all the albums. Last year, Malcolm Nixon was kind enough to point out that using cascading style sheets would be more efficient, and he's quite right, but I got swept away by the joys of blogging just then, and haven't seriously looked at the state of the traditional site until this month.
One of these days/months/years I must get down to a complete reconstruction of the site on modern principles, learning from the examples Malcolm kindly sent me, but I've been having too much fun doing other boating stuff (and being scared out of my wits by the floods last year) to get my head round it.
Thursday, 24 January 2008
Preston Brook to Anderton
23rd & 24th January
Yesterday was the second day in a row that I set the heating to come on at 7.30, rather than waiting to see when we woke up. (Oh, the stress of it...) This was because we wanted to get through Preston Brook Tunnel in good time, not because it was the first birthday of this blog, though that's important too. As it was, I had time to nip along to the shop and get a paper and some bread before we made the 9.30 slot for going southbound through the tunnel.
Sheila steered briskly along, and we emerged at 9.45. Spurred on by Andrew Denny, I tried taking some photos in the tunnel – it's a slow connection just now (though it was faster earlier), so won't try putting them up today, but if it speeds up again tomorrow, I might well.
In mild, calm weather, with no rain for the second day running (hooray) we had a good run back to Saltersford, arriving there just ten minutes before the 11.30 slot to go through. Just as we were about to set off, Baris Haven came up behind and followed us through.
We stopped in the pool between the Saltersford and Barton Tunnels, but Baris Haven carried on. On the way, I had discovered that we had a decent internet connection, so took the chance to upload the 2007 cruising album. It always seems quite odd, travelling along this 18th century canal using 21st century comms technology, but there you go. Later on, I updated the outline of our cruising plans for this year.
Today we had a more relaxed start. The mooring in the pool was quite sheltered, but walking up to Barnton village showed that some of the forecast wind was around, and the sky clouded over in a menacing fashion.
We checked in the Post Office that they still accept Poste Restante mail, as we need Elanor to send us some stuff to do with our finances, (they do) and went on up the hill to get supplies from the Co-op. On the way back, we called in at the butchers and got some more of their excellent stewing steak, paying £11 for 5 pounds weight.
Then it was off through Barnton Tunnel, in steadily improving weather. In fact it caused something of a problem, as I was dazzled by the low winter sun on the way in, and spent about half the time steering through the tunnel trying to ignore a purple after image floating just above the bow of the boat. Since, as I've said earlier, Barnton is not the straightest of bores (though nothing like as bad as its partner Saltersford) this was a bit of a challenge, but we made it through without touching the sides.
It was a pleasant run into Anderton, where we watered and then backed onto the 48 hour mooring just the other side of the Travel Reign marina entrance. The forecast is not good for the next couple of days, especially with regard to wind, so if necessary we can hunker down here while it blows out.
This afternoon, I've been tidying up some of the older picture albums, making them more consistent in appearance with the new one, and will carry on with that tomorrow, I expect.
Yesterday was the second day in a row that I set the heating to come on at 7.30, rather than waiting to see when we woke up. (Oh, the stress of it...) This was because we wanted to get through Preston Brook Tunnel in good time, not because it was the first birthday of this blog, though that's important too. As it was, I had time to nip along to the shop and get a paper and some bread before we made the 9.30 slot for going southbound through the tunnel.
Sheila steered briskly along, and we emerged at 9.45. Spurred on by Andrew Denny, I tried taking some photos in the tunnel – it's a slow connection just now (though it was faster earlier), so won't try putting them up today, but if it speeds up again tomorrow, I might well.
In mild, calm weather, with no rain for the second day running (hooray) we had a good run back to Saltersford, arriving there just ten minutes before the 11.30 slot to go through. Just as we were about to set off, Baris Haven came up behind and followed us through.
We stopped in the pool between the Saltersford and Barton Tunnels, but Baris Haven carried on. On the way, I had discovered that we had a decent internet connection, so took the chance to upload the 2007 cruising album. It always seems quite odd, travelling along this 18th century canal using 21st century comms technology, but there you go. Later on, I updated the outline of our cruising plans for this year.
Today we had a more relaxed start. The mooring in the pool was quite sheltered, but walking up to Barnton village showed that some of the forecast wind was around, and the sky clouded over in a menacing fashion.
We checked in the Post Office that they still accept Poste Restante mail, as we need Elanor to send us some stuff to do with our finances, (they do) and went on up the hill to get supplies from the Co-op. On the way back, we called in at the butchers and got some more of their excellent stewing steak, paying £11 for 5 pounds weight.
Then it was off through Barnton Tunnel, in steadily improving weather. In fact it caused something of a problem, as I was dazzled by the low winter sun on the way in, and spent about half the time steering through the tunnel trying to ignore a purple after image floating just above the bow of the boat. Since, as I've said earlier, Barnton is not the straightest of bores (though nothing like as bad as its partner Saltersford) this was a bit of a challenge, but we made it through without touching the sides.
It was a pleasant run into Anderton, where we watered and then backed onto the 48 hour mooring just the other side of the Travel Reign marina entrance. The forecast is not good for the next couple of days, especially with regard to wind, so if necessary we can hunker down here while it blows out.
This afternoon, I've been tidying up some of the older picture albums, making them more consistent in appearance with the new one, and will carry on with that tomorrow, I expect.
Monday, 14 January 2008
From Marston to Barnton
13th & 14th January
We made a leisurely start to Sunday, and after breakfast I trotted round to the local shop to see what paper I could get, having had to be satisfied with a Times on Saturday. It was closed altogether, just doesn't open on Sundays. It's also up for sale, which may have something to do with not being open when you'd expect a small paper shop and general store come cafe to be so.
I got back to the boat just as the weather started to deteriorate, and it proved to be the pattern for the day, getting steadily worse until the boat was bouncing about with the mooring ropes creaking. We know this as Onedin Line conditions, but that just dates us, I guess.
I spent a good chunk of the day on IT type stuff; the regular Sunday housekeeping chores, but also having some fun putting pictures up on the main website. I've put the images we used for this year's calendar and Christmas card up there, and I'm working on the annual choice of cruising photos.
Up until this year we'd supplied a page of text summarising the previous year's cruising, and linked pictures to it. With the blog covering the whole of last year, though, it seems redundant (not to mention a lot of work) to summarise it for the main website. What I think we'll do instead is to mount a larger than usual picture gallery, with at least one pic per month, and I'll put a decent piece of text about that month's cruising below it.
As a break from all this hi tech stuff, I made some mayonnaise with the Bamix magic wand, and sliced up some white cabbage and onion, which together with a grated carrot made a decent bowl of coleslaw to put in lunchtime sandwiches. It seems more appropriate than salad at this time of year.
Sheila meanwhile took advantage of the latest batch of knitting wool to arrive via Peter and Jan, and started a Guernsey of her own.
This morning it was still quite windy, but we needed to move on to keep our commitments to meet folks at various times on the Bridgewater Canal. I was steering, and in fact it wasn't too bad for most of the time. The wind, although gusty, was by no means the worst I've boated in, and for quite a while it was sunny in that pale blue winterish sort of way.
We stopped on the service block at Anderton, filled the water tank and did a very thorough pump out, there being a good pressure on the rinse out hose. We didn't manage to get the Tankwatch light back to green, meaning totally empty, but we must have made an impression on it. The bit that goes into the deck fitting has a sight glass in it, so you can see when you are extracting serious sludge: it does seem to upset Sheila if I say things like "Oh look, there's a bit of carrot" however.
After all this jollification, we went on to just before Barnton tunnel, mooring in the basin between the road bridge and the tunnel mouth. It was lunch time, and after lunch we walked up into the village to shop. The Co-op here has moved further up hill than it was – follow the signs for the Medical Centre and you'll come to it.
Barnton also has one of the system's better butchers, so we stocked up on meat supplies. We were served by a remarkable man who has one hand, and a double hook for the other, but nonetheless needs no assistance to handle the meat or those flimsy plastic bags that they put it in nowadays.
Then we boated through the tunnel to moor in the pool between Barnton and Saltersford tunnels for the night. The prop had been feeling odd, shaking and juddering after we'd gone through a bridge 'ole on the way here, so after we'd done a wash load and stopped the engine, I opened the weed hatch and had a feel around. Sure enough we had a black plastic sack down there.
At least Sheila will have full control going through Saltersford tomorrow, which is just as well in view of its bends.
We made a leisurely start to Sunday, and after breakfast I trotted round to the local shop to see what paper I could get, having had to be satisfied with a Times on Saturday. It was closed altogether, just doesn't open on Sundays. It's also up for sale, which may have something to do with not being open when you'd expect a small paper shop and general store come cafe to be so.
I got back to the boat just as the weather started to deteriorate, and it proved to be the pattern for the day, getting steadily worse until the boat was bouncing about with the mooring ropes creaking. We know this as Onedin Line conditions, but that just dates us, I guess.
I spent a good chunk of the day on IT type stuff; the regular Sunday housekeeping chores, but also having some fun putting pictures up on the main website. I've put the images we used for this year's calendar and Christmas card up there, and I'm working on the annual choice of cruising photos.
Up until this year we'd supplied a page of text summarising the previous year's cruising, and linked pictures to it. With the blog covering the whole of last year, though, it seems redundant (not to mention a lot of work) to summarise it for the main website. What I think we'll do instead is to mount a larger than usual picture gallery, with at least one pic per month, and I'll put a decent piece of text about that month's cruising below it.
As a break from all this hi tech stuff, I made some mayonnaise with the Bamix magic wand, and sliced up some white cabbage and onion, which together with a grated carrot made a decent bowl of coleslaw to put in lunchtime sandwiches. It seems more appropriate than salad at this time of year.
Sheila meanwhile took advantage of the latest batch of knitting wool to arrive via Peter and Jan, and started a Guernsey of her own.
This morning it was still quite windy, but we needed to move on to keep our commitments to meet folks at various times on the Bridgewater Canal. I was steering, and in fact it wasn't too bad for most of the time. The wind, although gusty, was by no means the worst I've boated in, and for quite a while it was sunny in that pale blue winterish sort of way.
We stopped on the service block at Anderton, filled the water tank and did a very thorough pump out, there being a good pressure on the rinse out hose. We didn't manage to get the Tankwatch light back to green, meaning totally empty, but we must have made an impression on it. The bit that goes into the deck fitting has a sight glass in it, so you can see when you are extracting serious sludge: it does seem to upset Sheila if I say things like "Oh look, there's a bit of carrot" however.
After all this jollification, we went on to just before Barnton tunnel, mooring in the basin between the road bridge and the tunnel mouth. It was lunch time, and after lunch we walked up into the village to shop. The Co-op here has moved further up hill than it was – follow the signs for the Medical Centre and you'll come to it.
Barnton also has one of the system's better butchers, so we stocked up on meat supplies. We were served by a remarkable man who has one hand, and a double hook for the other, but nonetheless needs no assistance to handle the meat or those flimsy plastic bags that they put it in nowadays.
Then we boated through the tunnel to moor in the pool between Barnton and Saltersford tunnels for the night. The prop had been feeling odd, shaking and juddering after we'd gone through a bridge 'ole on the way here, so after we'd done a wash load and stopped the engine, I opened the weed hatch and had a feel around. Sure enough we had a black plastic sack down there.
At least Sheila will have full control going through Saltersford tomorrow, which is just as well in view of its bends.
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