Onto the lower Macc

Thank you, Sally, for your kind words yesterday. There were indeed a lot of locks today, but they went quite quickly thanks to the locking team. We made an average sort of start since the first obstacle was the swing bridge at Fool’s Nook. We try not to work that before nine o’clock to avoid too much traffic disruption. In the event, a boat followed us through thus making it even more efficient.

Once on our way again, I made us mugs of coffee and Sheila got the washing machine going. This was all sorted by the time we reached the top of Bosley. Acacia, the boat that had followed us and then inevitably passed as I waited for the crew to rejoin, was on the water point, so we got our priority back. This was especially welcome as most of the locks were with us as we went down, Sheila lockwheeling ahead and Elanor and Sally closing up behind. It took us 1 hour 40 minutes, about the best we’ve done it.

It was now half eleven. In a bit, Elanor and I had lunch as we went along with Sheila on the helm. She waited for hers until we had moored on Congleton Aqueduct. There was (and still is) plenty of space here. I’d been concerned that it might have filled up with longer term moorers, but it looks as if the liveaboards have not yet settled onto unofficial winter spots despite the much cooler weather. It has at least been mostly fine today, though with a distinct breeze and occasional heavy showers. Braidbars Destiny and One Day were both at Lyme Green last night but haven't shown up here (yet).

Tomorrow, through Harecastle Tunnel and on to Westport Lake.

Location:Congleton Aqueduct

Up Bosley and on to Lyme Green

We actually slept in a little this morning and didn't get boating until nearly half seven. Nonetheless, we were still the first boat into the bottom of the flight. It was Sheila’s turn to steer, so I did the first six locks. 12 was empty, 11 full, 10 empty, nine full – it just depends on whether the bottom gates are leaking faster than the top ones in these circumstances. The person who does the first half actually gets the tougher job as they are all close enough together to justify double walking to set the next lock whilst the one below is filling.

This was particularly true today as, not long after we’d swapped over, we were joined by a volockie, it now being just before nine, who stayed with us all the way up the flight. As a result, we made good time and were on the water point at the top by ten. Whilst the tank was filling we dumped rubbish and recycling, started a wash load, made and drank a cup of coffee and did the breakfast washing up.

Once on our way again, I was look out for most of the way. There were now a few boats in the opposite direction including Derwent 6 with Del and Al. We only seem to see them passing in opposite directions these days, haven't had a chance of a proper natter for years.

I opened the Royal Oak swing bridge and then waited whilst a boat came through in the opposite direction after Sanity Again had passed. There was yet another boat behind that one but I now had a traffic queue building up so closed the bridge. Fortunately, a passing dog walker offered to reopen it as he had a BWB key and was clearly either a boater himself or made a habit of this. This was especially good as the boat in question was single handed.

We were surprised to see that there was only one other boat in the whole length of the Lyme Green towpath when we got here, so we had plenty of choice about where to moor. We’ve stopped by the footpath into the retail park and had a wander round there this afternoon. I got a pair of plastic clogs to replace my boat slippers which were wearing out and we found a Turtle mat clone to try in the front of the saloon. At £8, it’s a bit cheaper than the Turtles, too.

Tomorrow, we plan to stay put for the day and maybe do a bit more retail therapy.

Location:Lyme Green

Another slight change of plan

As I said yesterday, the plan today was just to potter through to the aqueduct to use up another of our spare days – we want to arrive at Poynton a week tomorrow and could have been there today if we’d pressed on hard. But like they say, if you want to make the gods laugh, tell them your plans. We hung about until half nine before setting off, expecting to take maybe 30 minutes to get there.

No, it’s not going to be a bad luck story… it was such a nice day for boating, we’ve come right on to the foot of Bosley, running a wash load on the way and getting here by half eleven. There hadn't actually been time for the washing machine to finish, but the boat we tied next to was still running its engine too, so no problem in leaving ours on for a bit.

We were even able to deploy the whirligig when it had finished, getting it all done in nice time to eat lunch. It’s very busy here this week. In previous years, when we’ve been just a week or so later heading this way, it’s been very quiet. We’ve normally avoided overnighting here ourselves as the phone signals used to be terrible, but both the Vodafone and 3 phones have reasonable connections now.

After lunch, we took a walk up the flight to see how it’s looking this year. It’s not bad, but there were a fair few boats coming down – we did the odd bit of huffling as we went, opening and closing gates for boats and dropping the occasional paddle. We got back to Sanity Again in time to take the now largely dry washing in and have a cup of tea.

We’re still a bit ahead of ourselves, so tomorrow we’ll work up the locks and carry on to Lyme Green, from where we can catch a bus into Macclesfield. We’ll spend a couple of days there before ambling on to Bollington or Riley Green.

Location:Bosley

A long morning

We set off at a quarter to eight this morning after a bit of a lie-in. We'd had tea in bed, but got going without breakfast. I'd started mine by the time we got to bridge 47, the manual swing bridge, which was in one of its sulkier moods. A passing walker gave me a hand to get it open and Sheila had to tie Sanity Again and come and help to close it. What's really irritating about this bridge, that always used to be left open, is that it was, apparently, the Macclesfield Canal Society who insisted it be reinstated as there is a public footpath over it.

Not that anyone has ever been seen actually crossing it, at least by this crew. If the MCS put more effort into volunteer work parties tidying up the vegetation, I might be less angry with them for having created a major problem for boaters. What those less heavily built or fit than us are supposed to do, I don't know.

Hey ho, we had a good run down Bosley, meeting four boats coming up altogether and finishing in two hours. We'd fitted in a washload as we went, what's more. A good steady chug to Congleton followed – we've got a mooring on the aqueduct embankment again, though it's quite busy here.

The batteries had a good charge, too, the tail current being down to 2.5 amps when we stopped.

As may be imagined, it's been a quiet afternoon. The weather, though nothing very special, has been calm enough to deploy the whirligig, good news when the washing was mostly towels and the like. We'll have an easier day tomorrow, just the plod along to Scholar Green, then through Harecastle on Monday. It's my turn to steer through this time.

Long day to Lyme Green

By our standards, we did a lot of boating today, especially as Sheila's bruised ribs, though recovering, still limit her ability to work locks. We set out just after seven and boated the half hour or so to the water point at Buglawton. It didn't take long to top up the tank and we were soon on our way again.

Sheila was steering, so it fell to me to get the washload going as soon as most of the battery charging was done and the water was hot. This was all sorted well before we got to the foot of Bosley, where we found the first few locks against us but the next few empty. The mystery was explained when we met a volocky half way up. Apparently, someone had gone down the flight overnight (no problem with that) and had left some paddles up (idiot!).

As a result, three of the pounds were dry this morning and the volockies had had to run water down to refill them. No doubt they had also emptied some of the locks in the process. We started meeting boats coming down at lock 5. Things were that bit easier as a result, most of the boats being hirers and therefore keen to do things the right way.

The only exception was a shiny privateer with all the trimmings, trad engine in engine 'ole, the whole bit, who turned a lock in front of us even though there was a hire boat already waiting to go into the lock we were coming up. As a result, Mr Dimble Brain had to squeeze himself onto the towpath in a very short pound instead of waiting in comfort in the long pound above.

It's not as if it gained him any time, he still had to wait for the lock below to be worked and turned again.

No matter, it was too nice a day to stay irritated for long, it's just the bad manners and bad example set by a boater who really should know better.

Despite us not trying to set any records, we only took two hours for the whole flight and then had a pleasant chug, albeit through some shallow bridgeholes, to the Royal Oak swing bridge. Once through that, I managed to get the breakfast washing up done before we got to the manual swing bridge just before the Lyme Green moorings. That one, bridge 47, is still very heavy to work, I'm sorry to say, especially after working a dozen locks first...

There was a load of room here on arrival and it's not filled up very much since. We've done a bit of shopping and otherwise have been loafing about recovering from our exertions. Tomorrow, a couple of hours should see us to Riley Green beyond Bollington.

Back down Bosley

At two hours, it took us a bit longer to come back down Bosley than we did going up, although all the locks were with us this time. Setting off just before eight, I managed to open the Dales Moss swing bridge with a bit less hassle than before, though it was still very stiff and reluctant. The serious downside of stopping at Lyme Green going south is that, unless you set off very early, you arrive at the Fools Nook swing bridge, the electrically operated one, in the middle of the rush hour.

I held up a total of about ten cars this time, though didn't have any trouble from them. It helped that the bridge swings a good bit quicker than it used to and that Sheila slotted Sanity Again through in quick time.

An Anglo Welsh we crossed with warned us that the pound between locks 2 and 3 had been very low last night when they came up. It being my turn to steer today, Sheila went ahead and found that, although the long pound between 1 and 2 was ok, the next one down was so low that the boat waiting to come up, Minuet, was stuck in 3. Her lockwheeler was running water down through 2. By the time that they had refilled the lower pound to their satisfaction, it was hard keeping Sanity Again afloat above the lock.

It was frankly a bit irritating that the CRT staff who were around did not see it as their job to sort the levels out.

Finally, we managed to cross and get SA into 2. Skye was waiting below 3 and there was now ample water to proceed. Indeed, because all the locks were now with us, every weir was overflowing with the water we were bringing down. We didn't see another boat until we were coming out of 10, when I saw a guy running water through 11. He explained that the sheer bulk of water between 10 and 11 was defeating the side weir and threatening to flood the towpath. His own boat had come out of 12 and was up against the bottom gates of 11, quite unnecessarily, as he wasn't single handing and could easily have waited in 12 until 11 was ready.

As it was, some novice hirers turned 12 and came up, so now we had three boats between the locks. Fortunately, Sheila was well on form and managed to leave 11 and swing round past the other two into 12 without touching either boat or even the wing walls of either lock.

The weather continuing to be chilly with a threat of snow, we had mugs of soup as we progressed to Congleton Aqueduct, arriving at half twelve. It's now blowing and raining on and off, so we're very pleased to be tucked up snugly in the boat with the Squirrel warming us all up. I've checked under the engine boards one more time and dipped the fuel tank, which is half full.

We pass Heritage Boats tomorrow, our last chance to get fuel before the tunnel. We'll probably stop at Hall Green for the night, so that an average start should get us to Harecastle in time for the first southbound convoy.

How to tire your dog

This is the result of a hard day's boating:

Go away, I'm tired!

Most of the day went entirely to plan. Sheila got us away at half six, after a bit of a struggle to unstick Sanity Again from the towpath. By the time we got to the foot of Bosley, we'd all had breakfast and were ready to get stuck in. After a brief pause to change the radio batteries, Elanor opened the bottom lock. It was just ten past eight.

Some locks were with us, some against us, in no particular pattern. We were clearly the first boat up the flight and, indeed, didn't see another boat on the move until we reached the top, where we dumped rubbish and recycling. It was then ten to ten, so an hour and forty minutes for 12 locks, our fastest time yet.

I had started a batch of bread dough before Bosley and now knocked it back and shaped it into rolls, putting them into a just warm oven to prove. It was just as well that we were self sufficient in regard to lunch supplies, as a couple of boats coming the other way warned us of a tree down further on. The first of these, a RW Davies Northwich Trader, had taken an hour to struggle past jammed up against the towpath. However, the steerer added that CRT were on site and working on removal.

Sure enough, in due course we came to a tree fallen from the offside and nearly reaching the towpath. Two guys were working away with chainsaws, but it was clearly going to be a while before there was a bigger space through which to pass. We tried to get SA through up against the towpath, but she quickly ran aground. Deploying a long line from the bow and with Sheila pulling on the sternline, we got a bit further forward, but there was zero chance of getting through.

So we pulled back and waited, drinking a mug of coffee to pass the time. And baking the bread. And eating lunch.

By just before one, we'd finished eating and could get underway. In the meantime, a couple of shallow drafted boats had been able to get by. I was going to write an enconium in praise of CRT's prompt attendance but seemingly the tree had been down for three days...

Royal Oak swing bridge is easier to work now that they've changed the pedestal for a better one and rotated it so that you don't have to stand with your back to the traffic to work it. Danes Moss bridge, on the other hand, was stuck solid and only consented to move when I shoved it from the towpath side. The bit of the parapet the extension bar is mounted on is alarmingly wobbly, no doubt as a result of all the shoving and kicking it's been getting.

And I had trouble getting it to let me take my BWB key out when I'd finished...

Heigh ho, loads of room here at Lyme Green. Elanor and I staggered up to the Co-op for some shopping, but otherwise we're all comfortably ensconced in the cabin, one of us at least snoring gently.

She's having a very good holiday...

 

Aground again

What, I hear you say, again? It's not my fault this time, honest, guv. The fact is that Bosley was in the worst state we've ever seen it for water levels between the locks, at least in the top half, and it wasn't brilliant lower down, where there's usually no problem at all. We got there around half nine after a fairly relaxed start at eight.

A boat was working through the Royal Oak swing bridge as we arrived there, so we had a good run to the top of the flight. Each pound was low as we went down until, finally, as I came out of lock 5, I got about three boat lengths down the pound and ground to a halt. I tried backing off and taking a run at it, in case it was just a short obstruction, but no joy. Sheila then half refilled 5 and then emptied it. I moved forward a bit on the surge and the back surge, but not enough to get clear.

At this point, I gave up and rang CRT. I had to wait a few minutes to be answered but was then able to report the problem and speak to someone in engineering. Meanwhile, Sheila had gone on to 6 and warned the boat preparing to come up that we were stuck. Since they drew even more than us, they weren't very happy. The guy went up and ran some water down from the pounds above, which let me get going again, though at the cost of further reducing those pounds, of course.

Fortunately, the boat immediately behind us was a shallow draughted hire boat and they were still able to get along. As we worked down 6, a guy from CRT turned up and told us that the emergency team was working on the Cheshire Locks, running water down lock 57 there, but would be with us in a while. Most of the pounds further down were a bit better and we didn't stick again.

The boat which had been coming up decided to turn back and worked back down the flight backwards until they could wind in the broad bit between 11 and 12. Another even deeper draughted boat coming up swithered a bit but also decided to wind and return. In both cases they had planned to go to Bugsworth and were discouraged to hear of the low water levels in the upper Macc and the Upper Peak Forest.

We finally emerged from lock 12 at half 12 and boated on, eating lunch on the way. We've now tied on Congleton Wharf and have had a pleasant afternoon doing stuff in the cabin, like paying our Braidbar invoice and doing last Saturday's GK crossword. This last has been much better the past couple of weeks, smaller and easier to do. We suspect that the compilers have been told to stop making it a test of Google skills and set clues people might actually know the answers to.

Keeping busy at Lyme Green

I should have mentioned a couple of other things yesterday but forgot, distracted by recounting our journey up Bosley. The first of these is a query raised by the lockwheeler of the boat waiting to come down, a sometime blog reader. This is, why are there no visitor moorings at the top of Bosley? All the other major lock flights I can think of have VMs top and bottom, for obvious reasons, but at Bosley, there are only long term moorings at the top, a great line of them. Surely, some of these could be converted to visitor moorings?

The other thing is the absence of recycling bins all the way from Fradley to where we are now. There used to be some at Stone, but they've gone, and we had to dump a great sack full of recyclable stuff at Bosley top, there being no more room for storage of it in the bow locker. CRT has announced that they will be putting more recycling in, but I fear that what I've seen so far is pretty useless. It's just a Biffa skip with "Dry Mixed Recycling" on its side instead of "General Waste". We know from bitter experinece at Mercia that such a skip will get used for ordinary waste, resulting in the recycling material being lost.

You have to segregate the recycling bins and make them very distinctive – even differently coloured lids on an otherwise normal skip is not enough.

Heigh ho, on to today. The weather has not been very exciting, but at least it's been dry and warmish. I fear that we've had the best of the summer now and autumn is advancing upon us. We walked to the Co-op this morning for some fruit and veg and called in at Pets at Home on the way back to buy a new water bowl, stainless steel with a non-slip base, even.

I baked some bread rolls in the course of the morning, so that we could have them warm for lunch. Onion and Mediterranean herb bread proved very acceptable to the tasting panel. We've realised, though, that all this home baking isn't doing our waistlines any good. The problem is that I'm doing a standard mix (with added bits and bobs), using 500g of flour per batch and making eight rolls from it. At two each per meal, we're eating the equivalent of a generously large loaf every two days, far more bread than we'd normally get through.

The answer will be to cut down on the size of each batch, rather than try to spin it out. The home baked bread doesn't keep well beyond two days and anyway, the present regime of baking every other day works in well with the rhythm of our boating.

After lunch, we went back into the retail park and visited Next and Matalan in search of shorts and tops, without success. We had a mooch round Poundstretcher without finding anything we wanted beyond a chocolate and cherry version of Options, the hot choc drink Sheila has with breakfast at the weekend. Finally, we called in to Homebase and bought a complete set of replacement floor mats as a present for Sanity Again. We won't put them down until we've done the preshow clean, though.

What that retail park needs to make it ideal for boaters is an Aldi or Lidl so that we could food shop without the hike up a busy main road to the Co-op. Tomorrow, on through Macc to Bollington, probably.

A late move and an early start

We've never had any problems at Buglawton, but neither is it popular as a mooring spot, so when we saw some teenage boys hanging about on the towpath in the late afternoon, we decided it would be more relaxing to move on a bit further. At five, we let go and did another half hour to a towpath mooring just before Bridge 61. We could have gone through and tied on the mooring we use if we want to walk up The Cloud, but couldn't be sure that there would be room there at that latish hour.

There were a number of other boats already tied where we stopped, including Emily Anne, the steam narrowboat belonging to Daniel Hutchinson, the owner of CWDF. Here it was blissfully peaceful and we had a very quiet night. We still wanted to get away early, so got up at six and drank tea whilst dressing and breakfasting. Sheila was finished first and set off whilst I got sorted out, after which I took over, it being my day to steer.

We arrived at the foot of Bosley just after seven. Although it was Sheila's turn to lock, the bottom lock was actually empty. 11 was full though, and I made a bit of a pig's ear of the turn from 12 into it, ending up with Sanity Again cross-winded in the lock tail. I blamed the swirl of water in the pool below after the lock had been emptied, but Sheila reckons I just left 12 too fast.

No matter, things were pretty straighforward after that, with most of the first six full and just one other with us in that half of the flight. We always do half each on a long flight so swapped places after 7. A CRT gang immediately appeared, stern hauling a work boat down the flight. This meant that the upper six were with us, of course...

Emscote, the ex-OwnerShips boat, was working down 2 and the lockwheeler had already prepped 3 so we crossed with them between 4 and 3. We'd already seen a volockie walking down to check his levels; both he and Emscote's crew warned us that the pound between 2 and the top was a bit low and that the summit pound was well down. In the event, Sheila had to take it very slowly along the first of these but got into the top lock OK. The summit is a bit low, but not as bad as last year, when we stuck in one of the bridgeholes above Bosley and had to shaft through it. We left the top lock at 9.20, so took two and a quarter hours for the flight.

Arriving at the Royal Oak swing bridge, we were able to take advantage of the fact that the boat in front had just swung it. We returned the favour by working the manual swing bridge just before Lyme Green for them. The weather kept fine all morning but has now turned wet and windy as forecast. We'll stay here tomorrow and get a bit of shopping in, including a new water bowl for Sally.

Then we'll amble on towards Poynton, aiming to arrive on Monday morning.

A drippy trip down Bosley

A bit of a downer was to be expected after the highs of the weekend; as it turns out, what with our developing colds and the damp weather, there’s not been much call for psychological explanations.

In one sense we’ve done well today, making an early start at seven and getting down Bosley in just over two hours despite two handicaps. First off, most of the locks were dead against us and next our suspicions that we were following another boat down were confirmed by the discovery of it in lock seven, tied up with all gates and paddles closed.

Her crew emerged to explain that they had stopped for a cup of tea…

/no

To be fair, they set off immediately and back set the first lock they left. After that we were mostly crossing with boats coming up.

On we plodded through the deteriorating weather, wheezing and sniffing dolefully from time to time, until tying at Buglawton again. A trip to the Co-op after lunch obtained a newspaper, paracetamol and some prawns to put in the second half of a curry sauce I’d frozen, so an easy meal tonight. We’re still avoiding alcohol to give our livers a sporting chance of recovery.

The other tedious discovery is that my least favourite phone, the Samsung Galaxy Europa or GT-15500, has developed a fault; the microphone is permanently muted, so you can hear the other party, but they can’t hear you. A bit of Googling discovered that this problem is not unusual with Galaxies, but none of the suggested solutions worked for us.

So there’s not much to be done about it until we get back to Mercia and can get into our local 3 shop to have it seen to. My personal preference would be to reprogram it with the lump hammer – I’m doubtful if we’ll be renewing this particular phone contract.

Dog to dog blog: now I'm knackered

This is getting ridiculous. I don’t mind doing my bit to keep the AGPs going, but today we started out at seven and didn’t stop until lunch time. And I had to help work the locks all the way up Bosley.

Had to walk Grandpa first thing, getting to be a habit that, and then did Olympic looking all the way to the locks. We passed Molly ‘H’ moored at the bottom with (presumably) Muffin on board (see previous comments). The answer, Muffin old son, is get your humans moving in the morning. It doesn’t do them any good lying about in bed like that, you know.

Grandpa steered up the first six locks and I kept an eye on Grandma working the paddles, loads of walking back and forth and around and about. Then, because Grandma was tired, she changed places with Grandpa but, guess what, I had to stay on the bank and do more walking!

Look, I’m only half Doberman (probably) the other half is greyhound (possibly) and houndies need their rest. Lots of it. Dash about first thing, then kip for the rest of day is the way to do it.

Not slog up and down and around and about for hours and hours and hours. I was too knackered to even look at a load of white woolly things in the field half way up and then the AGPs praised me for being a good dog.

Sorry AGPs, that’s not good, that’s exhausted.

Finally had to hang about at the top lock ‘cos there was a problem with one of the gates and a CRT man got on the back of our boat with a big bent rake to try and sort it. I stood and watched him very, very carefully – Grandma was on her own with him and he might have run off with her.

Finally, I wasn’t allowed to help with the swing bridge and Grandma got a load of abuse from a white van man who was going too fast and drove into the barrier. If I’d been with her he wouldn’t have shaken his fist at her like that, I can tell you.

Quick flash of the gnashers and all would have been sweetness and light, I bet.

Grandma took some photos so I’d better put one in. Anyway, it shows me off so that’s all right.

Very very tired dog still doing her bit

We're staying here at Lyme Green tomorrow, and I've been promised a pressie from Pets at Home.

Can't wait…

Loads of licks

Your friend

Sally

A Boating Day

As planned, we've put in a serious day's boating, getting up in the dark and setting off just after seven. Swing bridge 47 was indeed closed, so I was justified in having climbed out of bed. As it turned out, it was very reluctant to swing, travelling slowly and stickily round. Indeed, it was so tough to push back that Sheila hopped off the stern of Sanity Again to give a hand.

It's good that most of the swing bridges on the Macc and Upper Peak Forest have some provision for getting off on the offside, a great boon to the single hander.

The major swing bridge at Fool's Nook was no bother; despite the rush hour traffic, only two cars were held up by our passage.

I was able to loaf below for a while until we got to the top of Bosley, though I did get a washload started as we went along. Most of the locks were against us, so it wasn't a rapid passage, but we chugged steadily down. The pound between locks two and three was quite low, but by the time our lockfull of water had dropped into it there was enough to float Sanity Again into the lower lock.

We emerged from the flight before eleven, so had nice time for a cup of coffee in the pleasant rural stretch before Buglawton. It came on to rain for just a little, but compared to recent days it was a mere sprinkling. Needing to water, we were aiming for the offside water point before bridge 68, only to see the share boat Strait and Narrow go onto it as we approached.

No matter, it was just on noon, so we tied to the towpath and had lunch whilst they filled up. They'd long gone by the time we'd finished, so we took our time filling the tank to the top.

We've now tied on Congleton Aqueduct, probably the best of the various options for stopping overnight here. It's not particularly convenient for any shops, but much the quietest spot.

Meanwhile, the news from the north end of the Trent and Mersey is not good at all. The embankment by Croxton Flash is leaking badly, and it will probably be several weeks before it's secured, but much worse is the breach at Dutton Hollow, just two miles before the end of the canal.

It's reported that 70 metres of embankment has blown out; it will be fortunate if navigation is restored in time for next spring. This picture from the BBC News website shows the scale of the problem:

As always in these situations, the various boatyards and hire bases affected are supporting each other, and Chris of Claymoore at Preston Brook is offering free mooring to boats trapped to the north of the closed section.

Steadily up Bosley

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

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

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

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

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

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

Drier, and the invasion

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

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

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

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

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

Slowly down Bosley

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

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

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

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

Looking from Lock Five back to Four

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To the foot of Bosley, and another slight change of plan

There is a 3 signal here after all, so a quickie is in order, I guess.

As planned, we made an early start, and stopped in Congleton for a quick shop in Hightown, the little cluster of shops you can access from bridge 75. Peter Mason gave us a call, and asked if we could be there first thing on Friday, as the boat currently in the paint dock, Dolce Far Niente, will be coming out then.

We're already committed to having lunch at the Miners Arms in Adlington on Thursday, in celebration of Sheila's brother Peter's birthday. We'd planned to stop in Bollington and get a lift to the Miners, but instead we'll go right on to Adlington for Thursday night. That will leave us just a half hour's boating on Friday.

Today, we've stopped at the foot of Bosley, so we'll make another early start tomorrow, planning to get to Lyme Green, just this side of Gurnett Aqueduct, by lunchtime.

In the afternoon, we can take the 99B bus into Macc to do some serious retail therapy.

Down Bosley once more

3rd & 4th January

Needing to be up in good time, we'd set the central heating to come on at 7. Since the Eberspacher starting up sounds like there's a 747 in the engine 'ole running its engines up before take off, this makes an effective alarm clock.

By 7.30 we were getting up, and on our way by half eight. At 9.15 we were passing through the Royal Oak swing bridge, and were watering at the top of Bosley by 10.

The top lock was with us, but the next few were empty. An unconverted working boat passed us at lock 4, and said that there were some BW boats coming up behind them, so he'd been back setting some of the locks for them. This meant, since he'd got well ahead of them, that we had to turn number six around, which was a right pain, holding Sanity above the lock in a fresh breeze.

We found the first of the BW boats at 7, a guy on his own, bow hauling a flat. He seemed quite cheerful about it, saying that he was at least keeping warm.

By the time we had Sanity into 7, we could see activity at 8. It proved to be a second flat being push towed by a tug. The two guys on it then gave a short demo of total incompetence, such as you'd be mildly surprised to find in a novice, much less supposedly experienced boaters (pause for cynical laughter from some of my readers. BW staff used all to be ex-working boaters, and had indeed forgotten more about boating than I will ever know. Now, however, they have to employ whomever they can get, and since they only pay peanuts...)

The flat had the usual square bow, and lock 8 has steel frame gates. They'd managed to get the bow stuck under the beam of one of the gates, and as the boat rose in the lock, it had started to lift the gate out of its quoin. This had prised open the mitre between the two top gates, and the resulting flood of water into the flat's well deck had quickly reached the level of the ventilator in the bow door, and started to fill the cabin.

They'd had to close the top paddles and hastily draw the bottom ones to let the flat lower itself out from under the gate, and then reverse it away from the water still cascading through between the gates.

When I got there, one of them was standing on the lockside, shouting to his mate inside the cabin (the last place he should have been in a boat at risk of sinking). Eventually the mate emerged with a bucket, and they started to bail the well deck with it, until they could reach down to the drain hole through the hull side. This had been allowed to become blocked, itself an outstandingly stupid thing to do when locking a boat uphill – there's always the risk of shipping water into the well, even if you don't try to dismantle the top gates with the boat's bow.

Eventually they got their act more or less together, though it was left to me to draw the top paddles, despite the fact that one of them was wandering around with two windlasses (one for each hand?)

After all this fun, we got to the bottom just after twelve, having taken two hours for the flight including unscheduled entertainment. The only problem we had then was finding a mooring at the bottom where we could get a smidgen of phone signal. It wouldn't normally have mattered – we'd warned Elanor we might be out of touch, and anyone else in the family trying to get us would check with her if they couldn't raise us.

The thing was, we were expecting a visit from a guy called Andrew Wilkinson. Sheila had met him earlier on at Braidbar. He's doing a foundation degree course in photography, and for one of his projects is taking photos of people who live in boats. We'd arranged by email to meet him at the foot of the flight, and were expecting a confirmatory phone call from him during lunch.

I just about managed to get things working in time to speak to him, and he turned up just after lunch. We were glad we'd gone to the trouble – he's an interesting guy and it was good to be able to help him with his project. We look forward to seeing the final result in due course – since he's doing the course in Northwich, we should be able to meet up with him again during the winter.

I did a bit of photography myself just as he arrived – the bottom lock, 12, had the most amazing fountain of water emerging from the side wall; not the usual "pisser", which is where there's a void behind the brick or stone work of the lock wall. This fills when the lock does, and then when the lock empties, it, er, all comes out. There was a big one of those half way down the offside, Sheila said, but this other one didn't stop when the lock was empty, but kept on going – it must be fed from the pound above, so that it's running all the time the lock is empty, slowly wearing away the ground behind the lock...

After all the excitement we had a quiet evening, and a reasonably lazy start this morning. Even so, we were away by 9.30, and at Congleton by 11. We trekked down into town, looking for a copy shop type place to get our new BW licences laminated. This worked so well last year we want to do it again this, but Congleton doesn't quite run to such a thing. Nonetheless, we got some shopping done, and had lunch before plodding off again, into deteriorating and darkening weather.

We got to Heritage marina at last, and after a short wait, were able to get a pump out and to fill up with diesel. We needed 125 litres at 65 pence, plus £15 for a very average pump out. I also bought an oil filter, and in due course found myself keying in my credit card PIN for a bill of £105. And BW are massively increasing the licence fee and mooring fees over the next three years, saying that there's lots more boats coming onto the water, so people must be prepared to pay more.

I wonder if they've heard of that quaint old term in economics, a bubble?

We then chugged on to Hall Green moorings for the night – tomorrow the Cheshire Locks for the first time since we came up them in September 2005.

Firewood and water

30th & 31st October

It felt like sleeping in, but we woke at 7.30. I decided to make a stew for dinner, which meant buying potatoes, so I trolled back to Tesco, a walk of about 20 minutes from Hall Green. On the way, I found Frilford locking down the Red Bull Locks single handed, and stopped to close a pair of bottom gates for him.

It was a dry day after a very wet night, and the boating to the Little Morton Hall mooring at Bridge 86 was quite pleasant. We got there at around coffee time, and settled to a quiet day. Exercise was had by walking back to look at the restoration of the fancy railings by Ramsdell Hall, and to take some photos of the crazy situation a little further back by the Heritage marina.

Andrew Denny has given a full account of this in his blog, so I won’t go over the whole sad tale again – it’s basically a case of one NIMBY forcing BW to spend a load of money it hasn’t got, because he doesn’t like boats mooring within view of his house. BW has restored a reed bed (on the towpath side!) where it had made some handy moorings, and is now piling the bank on the other side of the bridge hole to replace the moorings.

Main internet event was an email from the IWA about the current plan by BW to raise boat licence fees by 9% above inflation for each of the next three years. Although boaters only account for a few per cent of the folks who visit the canals every year, it seems we are to carry the brunt of the funding shortfall caused by the reduction of grant-in-aid from Defra.

Today we made a reasonably early start, cruising to Congleton to do some shopping and look at the prices of DVD players in the Argos catalogue. At the moment we use the iBook to play DVDs, but this isn’t so good if one of us wants to do computer stuff and the other wants to watch a DVD. We are just at the stage of considering the options, but I can see us finding an excuse to buy a portable DVD player for Christmas.

After this we went on to the water point on the offside by Bridge 68, and made our lunchtime sandwiches whilst the tank was filling. Then it was off again to the foot of Bosley Locks where we are now. It’s a good mooring, except the Vodafone signal is absolutely dire, so any comms from the family will have to be by text or email tonight.

Other highlights of the day – collecting a goodly amount of firewood from the canal as we boated along, and seeing one of my favourite boat names.

The firewood included a huge chunk of scaffold plank. Sheila was steering, and I could hardly lift the monster into the bow. She put the boat over onto the towpath for me to try to lift the wood onto the roof, but I only succeeded in getting it onto the bank – the boat wouldn’t come close enough to lift it onto the roof with any safety.

So I lugged it to the next bridge hole, which was a narrow beast, originally a swing bridge but now a little foot bridge. At this point, She discovered she couldn’t get Sanity to come off the bank and we spent a happy few minutes with shafts and reversing manoeuvres until she consented to move along again.

Once in the bridge hole, it wasn’t too difficult to get things sorted out, and off we went again.

My favourite boat name here? Ferric the Red, just as you come into Congleton. There’s a few of these I look out for every time, like the one at Polesworth called Will Power. Only that one gives me what the Germans call an earworm for the 70’s (?) pop track – damn, there it goes again... “Will power/ it’s now or/ never/ pom pom pom.” I’ll be at it all evening now.

Late news - Andrew has published his Braidbar post on his blog.