Down to Middlewich

Another broken night for no very good reason that either of us can see, so another early start, with a fair bit to do today. After a quick cup of tea, Sheila set out steering whilst I got some food down me and then took over. I’d expected to make quite quick progress along the pound to the south of Sandbach, which is usually quite deep as a result of subsidence leading to the wash walls being built up over the years.

But the level was down and the silt was up so that we were restricted to not much above 3 mph for most of the time. We locked down the Booth Lane three, meeting our first boat of the day between the two lower locks. It had been very misty and murky first thing, but now the sun was burning off the cloud and mist to give another very warm day.

We had to tie outside two other boats at Kings Lock Chandlery to get diesel; 89ppl domestic and any declaration. They don’t do pump out, so we went along to Middlewich Narrowboats for one. MN don’t do diesel as their pump hasn’t been plated by Weights and Measures; they hope to get it done next year when they’ll be able to start selling to the public.

With toilet tank empty and diesel tank full we were soon working down the three narrow locks to find a mooring beyond Town Bridge. Traffic had really built up now and the cut has continued busy since. This is a bit odd; once past the junction we were off the Four Counties Ring and expected things to be quieter, but the reverse has been the case.

After some fresh food shopping in town we had an early lunch before moving on to tie on the towpath at Bramble Cuttings. We’ve had to use pins as all the rings were full; it’s just as well we have good big marquee peg type pins as the average speed of the passing boats has gone up quite noticeably. I suspect folk get used to the faster speeds possible on the broad and deep waters of the Bridgewater and don’t make enough allowance for the T&M’s shallower profile; it’s a phenomenon we’ve noticed up this way before.

On the shallower Midlands canals you just can’t maintain that sort of speed.

I suggested to one character that he had a bit of a fast tickover, but just got some indignant denial back. It’s too nice a day to stay grumpy for long, but I did take care to tighten up the lines and check the pins just in case there are any more like him about…

/blur

Tomorrow we’ll amble off to Anderton probably; no more locks for a bit at least. We’ve decided not to bother with the Weaver this year; the Caldon can count as our new water. We’re going to run up the Bridgewater as far as Dunham Massey, stopping off to have a look at places we’ve missed over the years like Grappenhall Old Village and Dunham Massey itself.

Two days in one

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

/wahaha

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

Good day with reservations

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

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

/floor

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

/omg

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

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

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

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

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

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

/blur

Birds, Boats and Bramble Cutting

12th, 13th & 14th March

Made it! It's been a seriously hectic week, with highs and lows alternately, though the highs well out ranked the lows, starting with our session with the Masons on Monday, our night out with the Comlines on Tuesday, and then our trip to the Cheshire Falconry Centre on Thursday.

Regular readers will recall that this was the kids' 60th birthday present to Sheila, and it proved to be everything we hoped. Peter (Comline) picked us up from the Salt Barge at half eight, so we were at Blakemere Craft Centre, where Cheshire Falconry is based, in good time.

The morning was taken up with being introduced to various species of raptor, and then two sessions of flying them in the display area. There were ten of us in all, including two spectators, so just a nice sized group for Rob the leader to cope with. In the course of the morning Sheila flew an African Spotted Eagle Owl (explanation by Rob: "It's called an African Spotted Eagle Owl because it's an eagle owl that's spotted and comes from Africa. Bird names are really not difficult!"), an American Rufous Tailed Hawk, a Common Buzzard, a Harris Hawk, a Ferruginous Buzzard and a Kestrel.

I was able to get some half decent photos which I'll sort out and put in a gallery on the website as soon as I can.

After lunch in the restaurant, the afternoon consisted of a "Walk on the Wildside", taking two Harris Hawks to the Cheshire Scout Camp Site which is about a 15 minute walk away, and flying the birds in the hope of catching a rabbit. In the event, the score was one mouse and a possible frog, but none of us seemed to mind. Rob's explanations were superb, full of insights into the mental life of the birds (yes, they do have one) and salted with entertaining comments.

It would have been worth the money just to hear him as a stand up act, so all the contact with the birds was a bonus. Well done, Elanor, Cathy and Graeme, a brilliant present.

We got back to the boat just on five, and promptly took a call from Peter Mason. He'd already offered the use of an oil extractor (technical name the sucky thing) to get the remaining water out of the well deck bilge after our little water pump mishap. The call was to say that Susan was in the area and could drop it off to us straight away, so that we could return it on Friday.

This was so obviously the way to go that we said yes, but it meant that we had to forget our weary feet and set to with this fiendish bit of kit and extract the last of the water from the bilge. It certainly did the job, and this afternoon I was able to use a sponge and then a disposable nappy to remove the final traces.

Yesterday, Susan collected us and we drove over to Braidbar for the planning meeting for Sanity Again. As was to be expected, this went extremely well. Five years ago I wouldn't have said that their work could get any better, but it has, with an even higher standard of joinery, engineering design and flexibility of approach. I'll save the detail for next week's post on the other blog, obviously, but the plan is to collect the shell at the end of September, and the build will then take around four months, so Sanity Again should be ready by the end of January. So far Peter has met every delivery deadline – an unusual boatbuilder indeed.

We got back to the boat by five and had a very quiet evening: Chicken Tikka Biriani and a couple of beers, basically.

Today it was back to boating. We got away in reasonable time on a very bright and breezy day, Sheila steering. A brief stop at Bridge 183 in Broken Cross let me pop along to the handy Spar in the local filling station to get a paper and a litre of milk, then we plodded on through to Bramble Cutting again, arriving well before lunch.

This afternoon has been for pottering. Sheila did some proofreading, and I sorted the accumulator; the new pump runs at a higher pressure than the old, so the pressure in the accumulator needed adjusting to suit. The water system now works between 25 and 45 psi, which makes both the Seagull IV water filter and the toilet perform just a tad better.

I've also made another attempt to make the bow fender work, but it's really most unsatisfactory. I would take it back and demand my money back, except that I made the thing myself.

Tomorrow we go on through Middlewich, aiming for Wheelock by the end of the day.

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.