A short day's run in the sun

We’ve largely been sleeping better since leaving the Caldon, apart from the night before last; last night we both went straight through and woke at six ready for almost anything.

In practice what we did was to get some breakfast and then cruise round to the service block to fill up with water. The pressure was really good for most of the time, but there were no mobile signals much so we couldn’t catch up on emails as we’d planned.

No matter, it was a lovely day for doing not a lot. Just as we were nearly full, another boat arrived to use the second tap and the pressure disappeared; it looks like the water point nearest the self pump out cabinet gets first dibs at the water. Apparently the self pump out was U/S yet again; CRT don’t seem to be any keener than BW at keeping them in repair.

Mind you, thinking about it, an unsupervised self pump out is probably on a hiding to nothing anyway, what with the card readers going temperamental and people putting the wrong stuff down their toilets. I believe that Robin Evans didn’t like them and I would not be at all surprised if they go the way of the washing machines and tumble driers which have also proved hopelessly uneconomic to maintain.

Having got the tank mostly full we set off again; sorry, Andy, missed your toot as we passed under the bridge, too busy sweating on the bend, I guess! We didn’t go far, mooring again beyond the Stanley Arms to walk up into Barnton for some bits of shopping.

The plan after that had been to do both tunnels and tie somewhere in the countryside, but to our amazement the moorings in the pool between the tunnels were completely unoccupied, so we stopped, having been moving for all of an hour in total.

It’s idyllic here on a day like this, better than anything pretty well anywhere on the system – Caldon Canal? You can keep it, I’ll have this end of the T&M any day. And no problems with mobile signals, what's more.

After a coffee, Sheila walked back up into Barnton (ironically, it’s an easier walk from here than over the footbridge and up the hill) and managed to get a 2pm appointment for a hair cut at a new looking place near the butchers. She’s very pleased with the outcome; it’s not as good as Bill Wood has done for her in the past, but very acceptable and removes the growing similarity to a Bearded Collie, which was beginning to worry her, I think.

Since then we’ve been unashamedly loafing; there’s plenty of room in the shade of some trees for our folding chairs.

Tomorrow we’ll use the eight o’clock slot for going through Saltersford and try to get a mooring on the recently repaired section near Dutton Stop.

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.

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.

Through Middlewich, and a brief breakdown

5th & 6th March

We've had two days of early starts on cracking mornings, with bright sun melting a hard overnight frost. Yesterday we were away just after eight and worked down Cholmondeston, Church Minshull and Stanthorne Locks, with some very pleasant boating in between them. In fact, it was the best cruising of the Middlewich Branch we've done for a while.

There was a time when we always seemed to be boating it in pouring rain, on one occasion so fierce that my (admittedly substantial) eyebrows filled up with water and drizzled down the inside of my specs, making it hard to see where I was going.

We got to Middlewich by around 11, and stopped on the visitor moorings before Wardle Lock to go shopping. The local Somerfield is one of those which the Co-op is having to sell off as part of its takeover, in this case being bought by Tesco, we understand. Due to shut at the end of the month for the refurbishment and rebranding, it already has closing down sale signs all over it, and about half the shelves were empty.

It was a strange experience going round the place, though we managed to pick up some decent bargains as a result.

Back at the boat, we ate lunch before setting off again, descending Wardle Lock and turning left on the Trent and Mersey. At the top of the three narrow locks, we caught up with two Empress boats, one towing the other, with which we'd been leapfrogging for a couple of days. It seems that one has a defunct engine, and was being taken to Wincham Wharf to be sold on brokerage.

There were couple of BW office types about, one of whom actually had a windlass and helped these boats and ourselves work down whilst continuing his conversation with his colleague and two other folk. It sounded as if they were discussing plans for the Towpath Tidy Week later this month.

Clear of the locks, we stopped on the Town Wharf to fill the water tank. The towpath beyond is being refurbished with crushed stone between retaining strips, but topped with tamped sand as the wearing course. I find it hard to believe that plain builders sand will last long as the top surface of a well used urban towpath, but there you go.

As we approached the Big Lock, we saw Braidbar 51, Cedar, tied on the towpath. As Sheila has been waiting for an address to send them some porthole doilies, we were able to deliver them on the spot: very handy.

Big Lock was the usual struggle, as the bottom gates are still leaking very badly. Shortly after, we stopped yet again, this time at the Council Tip at Croxton, where I was able to get rid of the used oil from the last change, the defunct Dyson vacuum cleaner and some more usual recycling.

We'd planned to overnight just the other side of the aqueduct, but there was no room, so we went on to Bramble Cuttings, another favourite mooring.

We finally finished at ten to four, a seriously long day by our standards, but great boating.

This morning was another start of the same order, with even harder frost and brighter sun. We'd only been going about half an hour, when the engine announced it was feeling unwell, coughing and spluttering, the revs surging up and down in the classic signs of fuel starvation.

I was steering and coasted into the side. Sheila then stood making a noise like a bollard whilst holding the centre line whilst I went through the drill for fuel supply fault finding:

1. Fuel in tank: check
2. Tank breather clear: check.
3. Lift the engine boards
4. Drain some fuel from the bottom of the agglomerator: clean and fast flowing
5. Loosen the bleed screw on top of the filter and pump the button: clean, air free fuel.

Right, it's the filter, which must be blocked or perhaps collapsed

I changed the filter (what a good idea it is to carry a spare) and the air filter at the same time. The engine restarted at once, and ran at all revs without a splutter.

Half an hour later we were on our way again. I spent the rest of the morning listening to the engine noise with a paranoid ear, needless to say, but it was fine. This afternoon, I checked my service log, and found that the filter had been in place for just over 2000 hours, which I guess is trying it on a bit, even if we did get well over 3000 hours out of the first one.

Broken Cross and Wincham Wharf were passed without trouble, and we soon came to the Salt Barge at Marston. The collection of BW defying boats tied beyond the official long term moorings now extends for more than half a mile, the result of BW not being able effectively to deal with this kind of defiance.

Ivor had told us the other night that one of the boaters there is taking his case to the European Court, arguing that BW is breaching his human rights by expecting him to pay for a mooring permit when he chooses not to comply with the continuous cruising guidelines.

All of this, of course, costs BW money that would otherwise be available to maintain the system.

We passed through Anderton just before lunch time, and stopped in the bosky bit of widened cut between there and Barnton Pool. There's a footbridge over the cut here, across which we went after lunch. It takes you to a steep climb up the hill to the top of Barnton Village, coming out just by the Co-op.

We stocked up on some more of the excellent Fairtrade Argentine Malbec they are selling at 20% off at the moment, then walked down through the streets to Hormbreys the Butchers. Here we bought some chicken fillets to use on Monday when entertaining the Masons.

Having got back to the boat with this lot, Sheila did some of her online proofreading whilst I rechecked the work I'd done in the engine 'ole in the morning. When I've done an emergency repair like that, I find it pays to go back over it after the event, in calmer mood, checking that everything was properly finished off and tightened up.

In this case all was well. I drained a bit more fuel out of the agglomerator, being paranoid about diesel bug, but it's definitely looking clean.

Tomorrow we'll do the three tunnels in one day, Barnton, Saltersford and Preston Brook, aiming to stop at Moore on the Bridgewater for the night.

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.

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.

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.

Onto the Bridgewater Canal

15th & 16th January

Tuesday morning dawned wet, wet, wet (I was going to make a gag about whatever happened to them? but they've just released a new single). I nipped into the village to buy a paper – the nearest shop didn't have an Indy, so had to slog up the hill to the one we found the day before. Saltersford tunnel now has a timed entry control, from on the hour to twenty past for northbound boats, so we had time to start a washload before setting off at ten.

Must say the timed entry bit is a big improvement on the old peer in and hope system. The tunnel is so bendy, there's just a brief opportunity to see one end from t'other as you go in. It used to be standard to sound your horn with the bow just in the tunnel – if there was no answering squawk from the other end, you knew it was safe to proceed.

This didn't stop me from coming bow to bow with an OwnerShips boat in there once, mind you. I was single handing, so it was a bit fraught. When we finally emerged, I said "Why didn't you sound your horn when you heard mine?"

"Oh, we wondered what that hooting was."

A case of "We're on holiday, so we've left our brains at home" methinks.

By 10.45 we were passing the Acton Bridge yard at Bartington (no, I don't know why it's called Acton Bridge, that's down the road on the river). We had a bit of fun there – it's a big Black Prince hire base, and one of their boats (which were lining the banks solidly at this time of year, of course) had come untied at the stern, and blown neatly across the cut.

Sheila, who was steering, said "I thought as I approached that this was a bit of a sharp bend coming up." We helped the boat yard staff push it round again, and plodded on along a very pleasant bit of canal to a quiet mooring just before you get to Dutton stop lock and Preston Brook tunnel. It's just beyond Bridge 123, where there are rings in a bit of concrete edge.

The weather was now quite fine, so we cut some of the wood Peter and Jan had brought us, then I worked on the picture album illustrating last year's cruising.

I also had a reply from iCom, the VHF radio manufacturer to whom I had sent our handheld for repair just before Christmas. We hadn't heard anything from them, so I'd sent a polite enquiry. I got an email in reply, but unfortunately devoid of any actual message, just a signature.

Bit of an achievement for a comms company, really.

Today we wanted to be at the entrance to Preston Brook Tunnel in time for its timed entry. Being a longer tunnel, you only get a ten minute slot every hour, so it's a good idea to hit it.

I set the heating to come on at 7.30, and we were on our way by 8.50. This meant that we got through the stop lock and onto the tunnel mooring by half nine, so we took the opportunity to start a washload (again) as we were going to water later in the day.

By ten it had just finished the heating bit of the cycle, so that we could run the engine at less than 1000 rpm, and off we went. It was a reasonably fast passage of the tunnel, coming out of the other end at 10.15.

We called in at Midland Chandlers to buy an oil filter (even more expensive than the one at Heritage, over £10, ouch) and to ask about a spare impeller for the shower pump. The present one is doing fine at the moment, but it seems as well to have a spare to hand.

They hadn't got one in, but said they'd get one in time for our return trip after the weekend. It's a funny thing about MC. They have three stores, at Braunston, Penkridge (which is the head office) and at Preston Brook, and the staff are increasingly helpful as you come north. Never go in to the one at Braunston without a clear idea of what you want – they aren't rude or anything, just not as ready to put themselves out as the others.

Shopping complete, we went a short distance up the Runcorn Arm to the water point and filled up. I then backed Sanity to the marina entrance, persuaded her stern to go in there and so winded.

We'd planned to come on to Moore for the night, but as we were going along it started to rain seriously, it was lunchtime, and we thought why slog on? We've tied outside the Daresbury Nuclear Research station instead.

I'm still working on the picture album, but it'll be a couple of days before it's ready to go before the world, methinks.

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.