Sitting tight, bright and breezy

The wind only really got going this afternoon, so we could have boated today after all, but we don't mind. The day has been put to good use and Bugsworth is such a good mooring. We toddled off to Tesco after breakfast and did a modicum of shopping, mostly for perishables like salad stuff and bread.

Back at the boat, we had a leisurely coffee break then did something I should do more regularly, probably. This was to check the state of the bottom of the diesel tank by taping the suction tube of the one litre oil extractor to the dipstick, poking it down the filler to the bottom of the tank and drawing up some fuel. Sheila, meanwhile, stood on the port gunwale to make any water down there collect below the filler.

Clean red diesel emerged straightaway, no water at all, very reassuring. In future, I'll make a habit of doing this just before we leave the marina in the Spring, when the likelihood of water having collected as a result of condensation in the tank is at its greatest.

This took us up to just short of lunchtime, what with cleaning up and putting away stuff. After lunch, we made a start on a thorough clean of the boat in preparation for the Open Day. We'd bought a window cleaning kit at the hardware store in Marple; the cloth wiping bit is ideal for washing the ceiling, spraying the wiper with Osmo cleaning solution so that the wood will be left with a film of oil over it.

We've started in good time, knowing that these jobs are best done in stages. Today we did the saloon and dinette; next we'll do the galley and study bedroom, then finally the bathroom and bedroom.

After that it will be the turn of the walls to be Pledged, then finally the floor to be given the Osmo restoration drill, first a wash then a light re-oiling.

I also found time to go back to Tesco for a cauliflower (we're having a meat-free Monday cauliflower cheese tonight) and to fit the new fender hooks with suspension lines.

Tomorrow, we plan to set off at around eight, winding in the upper basin, watering on the way out and stopping on the towpath just a bit short of Marple.

Stormy Basin

The forecast's been pretty accurate today, with wind and then rain more suited to the equinox than mid-August. It blew so hard overnight that the mint pot fell over, as a result of which we've lost the saucer from under it.

Despite carefully positioning the front fender so that it wouldn't catch under the coping, the fender hook snapped anyway as a boat blew past, making three gone in 24 hours. On the upside, the IWPS (now Bugsworth Basin Heritage Trust) shop happily swapped the two I'd bought yesterday; I bought a third one to replace today's casualty. The new ones are made of thick plywood, so should last better than the poly ones.

I've finished the second fender; I'm very pleased with it, one of my best ever, I reckon. I've certainly got enough rope to do a third, but may not manage a fourth.

The forecast for tomorrow is much drier but still very windy. These moorings are 48 hours but can be extended by arrangement with the IWPS. You make a donation (“most people give £5 per night”) and get a card to put in the window or porthole. We've done just this so as to stay until Tuesday.

We'd been going to go to Tesco today but have postponed that until tomorrow.

Blowing in Bugsworth

It usually takes between two and a half and three hours from Marple to Bugsworth, but it was a bit longer today, though water levels were not as bad as we'd feared. The first part was very slow, shallower than last year and we were following a deeper draughted boat than ourselves.

Things improved by the second lift bridge and after New Mills conditions were not bad at all. This was good as the weather was visibly deteriorating. First it began to spit with rain, then the wind got up slowly but inexorably. We were being followed by Stewart Hooper in Annie for the last bit from Furness Vale to the junction; despite being a deep ex-GUCCC working boat, he was steadily catching us up, a combination of his steering skill and the superb swims of those old boats.

When we got to Bugsworth the lower basin was full, so we went on round towards the upper basin and finally managed to find a straight section where we could get in to the side.

I checked the stern gland again; there was a bit of water from the rear of the gland but the shaft was still too hot for my liking, so I've backed the nuts off a further two flats.

The wind is now very strong and the moorings have really filled up. We're tied quite square to the rings and have lost two fender hanging hooks. The fenders had dropped below the projecting coping stones, boats come charging past, the boat rocks and the hook over the cabin rail snaps.

The society which operates the basin is selling good wooden hooks at the moment. I shot over there just before they closed and got two at £4 each. Only thing is, they sell them in two sizes to accommodate different widths of rail. I was sure we'd need the narrower ones...

:(

Hopefully I'll be able to swap them in the morning.

A brief but intense family session

Hold ups on the M1 meant that a 2 hour journey took four and a half, so the family were pretty frazzled on arrival after seven, especially as they’d been to a big wedding the day before. I had a pan of chicken, olives and pasta ready to feed everyone and we got the smalls away to bed in reasonably quick time, with only a bit of moaning from them after lights out.

This left the grown ups with the chance to do a lot of catching up with the aid of some bottles of red grape juice.

Well, it used to be grape juice a few years ago…

/wahaha

You can tell the evening has gone well when you look at your watch and it’s tomorrow already. This wouldn’t have been a problem if Graeme didn’t need to be in Nottingham at half ten today, so wanted to get away at half eight.

We managed it, with duck feeding and a bit of exploring/charging about fitted in.

When peace descended once more, we nipped off to Tesco again, almost as much for the exercise as for the supplies, though it is Saturday and that means the mega GK crossword in the Indy.

We managed not to fall asleep until after lunch, which was quite an achievement under the circs.

In addition, the Braidbar Owners’ Pub Guide has been updated, but not a lot else has been done; I reckon we’re entitled to a bit of recovery time after such an exciting 12 hours.

/blur

To Bugsworth and a failing trackball

The (welcome) invasion hasn’t started yet, so I’ve time to do this blog post in comparative peace. We leapt up at six (sort of) and were boating at seven. We’d estimated three hours to Bugsworth and wanted to do most of the boating before others were moving and to arrive at around ten to ten thirty.

Amazingly, all of this worked. It was a lovely morning, though cool enough for me to need a fleece whilst steering, the first time for a long time that that’s been the case. We had a very pleasant run, with Sheila getting some serious exercise on the lift and swing bridges and the walks between the first three of them.

New Mills was smelling very strongly of sweeties as usual; it’s a shame that the moorings there have been allowed to deteriorate so badly. I really wouldn’t want to try to walk along any of their pontoons.

In contrast, Furness Vale was looking quite spiffy and here we started to meet boats coming the other way. We’d been told that the weird willow growth had been cut back on the other side of Furness Vale, but it seemed as bad as ever to us. Maybe it had got even worse this year.

We got to Bugsworth Basin bang on ten. It’s only 6½ miles from Marple to there, but the shallow winding nature of the canal makes for slow progress. Water levels are quite low at the moment too, which meant finding the odd lump under the boat.

Nonetheless, it’s still a beautiful canal; at least as scenic as the Caldon and still much easier to navigate.

After coffee I turned to and topped up the batteries for this month, then after lunch we took a walk to Tesco to restock. We’ll get an Ocado order delivered when we get back to Poynton, so this, together with a bit more tomorrow, should keep us going until then.

A few days ago I did a running repair to the trackball I use on this machine; the left button had become erratic due to wear inside stopping the relevant plastic bit from pushing down on the microswitch properly. I’d built that bit up with some sticky tape, but it’s as bad as ever now.

So I’m trying out Sheila’s new trackball, bought for her when her trackpad began similar misbehaviour. It takes a bit of getting used to, as you operate the ball with your thumb and the left button with your index finger, but it seems to work well.

I think I feel another Amazon order coming on…

/wahaha

Back to Marple

Despite the grotty forecast, we needed to get back to Marple today so as to be at Poynton tomorrow. In the event, the rain wasn't quite as bad as it looked on the Met Office site, though we still needed full waterproofs.

Just after eight I backed Sanity Again out of the lower basin and turned right into the middle basin to wind. The depth wasn't too bad, and I did my best to avoid hitting the washwall with too much prop wash, as they are having real problems with it collapsing here. It meant taking several more bites at the cherry, but we got round without too much drama.

By twenty-five to nine we were emerging from the Bugsworth Arm at the junction and heading for Marple. Sheila was on bridge duty, and only had a problem at the second swing bridge. It's one of those ones where you use a BWB key to wind a bolt out of the locking mechanism, and the key wouldn't turn. I eventually got it to go by lifting the handle to take the weight off the bolt, and jiggling until the key co-operated.

We arrived at Marple just after eleven, and found a mooring no bother through Bridge 2 (though they have filled up quite a bit now). I nipped off to get the paper, then we settled down to a well deserved lunch, including mugs of soup.

This afternoon, we went into town again, visiting the excellent butcher here, as well as picking up one or two other bits and bobs like a loaf of bread for tomorrow's lunch.

Tonight we have peppered pork steaks for tea, with new potatoes and green beans, yum.

Tomorrow, an easy run to Poynton, where Peter will finish installing the ICC remote control for the inverter/charger, the 6 meter lead having arrived whilst we were away, and we'll probably treat ourselves to a last meal in the Boar's Head before setting out for Stoke, Stone, and points further south and east.

Exploring Whaley Bridge

We had a very nice lie-in this morning (no ty-gers were available), and didn't surface until eight. The weather was still quite revolting, the rain pouring down, so we took our time over breakfast, and had just resigned ourselves to postponing the Treasure Trail until the afternoon when it cleared up.

Accordingly, we togged up, shoved the waterproofs in a daysack and set out. The trail started in the Canal Basin car park, and was advertised as taking 90 minutes. This proved a touch optimistic; it had been a bit before half ten when we set out to do it, and it was gone noon before we finished. Sheila tells me that this interfered with the calm contemplation of the final few clues a bit, as I was getting very peckish and so quite stroppy.

/blush

We ended with two clues we couldn't crack out of the twenty, but decided to finish off back at the boat. We nipped into Tesco for some sandwiches to save time getting lunch, as well as other necessaries of life, and headed back.

After lunch, we used the text support system to get the final two clues, and were able to confirm on-line that we had got all the others right, admittedly one of them by inspired guess work.

So what did we think of the Trail?

It was a neat way of exploring Whaley Bridge, and we found one or two bits we'd not seen before. The scheme is advertised as suitable for supervised children, but they would need a lot of supervision and a fair bit of help. There were busy roads to be crossed a couple of times, and we two, who are not tyros when it comes to intellectual puzzles or stuff like geocaching, found it quite challenging at times.

The fictional back story involved a cache of gold coins hidden by a Roman legionary called Bigus Loserous (puh-leeese!) which felt a bit unnecessary, frankly. It would have been enough just to set out the stuff as a list of clues to be solved and crossed off. I find it improbable that anyone with enough intelligence to tackle the trail would need the added inducement of this CBeebies level "story" to motivate them to finish.

There is a set of walks in and around Whaley Bridge, some waymarked and others not, that you can find out about by spending a pound in the local PO or Tourist Info type places for the leaflet, and frankly that's much better value than £5.99 for the one 1.5 mile trail.

Having said that, it was fun in its way and filled a morning with healthy exercise.

We've been relaxing back at the boat since; another quiet night tonight, then away in the morning heading back towards Poynton over the next two days. The forecast is for lots of rain, and it's my turn to steer, but that's just how it goes, I guess.

/nobigdeal

Wetly to Bugsworth

Sheila did one of her early starts this morning, setting off at seven (the days are getting shorter) and leaving me loafing in bed to drink my tea, then get up and shower. Fortunately, she tells me, I'd stopped pumping out the shower before we passed the fisherman…

/sweat

I'd barely got breakfast organised before we were at Marple, so I went out on the bow in my slippers (makes a change from a slipper stern /wahaha) to do lookout through the junction. As she slowed for the narrows and the acute turn, an Alvechurch boat following sounded his horn at her, presumably because she was going too slowly for him. Dashing round the Cheshire Ring, no doubt. It was flying the Swedish flag, must have been the Viking blood coming out…

We chugged gently along the Upper Peak Forest, not having any option, what with it being shallow and overgrown, and we'd managed to eat breakfasts and so forth before the first lift bridge turned up. I walked it from there to the second lift bridge and so onward to the first swing bridge, then took a well earned rest whilst we worked our way through New Mills and the Proustian moment that always comes with the smell of cheap sweets as you pass the Swizzels Matlow factory.

There was a time when a packet of Refreshers was the highlight of my weekend. (Sad, isn't it?)

After the final swing bridge at Furness Vale, I took over for the run into Bugsworth. The weather had been very mixed, pleasant sunshine one minute and seriously heavy showers the next. We got a mooring in the lower basin no bother – it's a lot less busy than had been reported last weekend – and walked back to the Tesco, where we got b___d and p____r, and also pasties and a "two meals for £6" deal for tonight, as I'm feeling lazy.

We've been loafing since then, mostly, though we did have a wander round the basin in between the showers. A quiet night tonight, methinks, and a lie in tomorrow before walking into Whaley Bridge to try out our Treasure Map.

A night in Bugsworth

13th & 14th October

Following through on the decision to visit Bugsworth Basin for the first time this year, we’d moored on the Upper Peak Forest Canal just a little bit before the first lift bridge, number 22. With just a couple of hours boating to do, we made a relaxed start and chugged our way up this always shallow canal.

Sheila was steering, so it fell to me to work the bridges, first the two lift bridges and then the swingers. BW have done some good work here, squeezing in small landing platforms with a single bollard on the offside of each bridge. Unlike the provision of bollards on narrow lock sides, this is something that has been seen as useful (especially for single handers) for many years.

These bridges can be quite heavy to work, but although not light they didn’t present any particular problems this time.

We duly passed the Swizzels Matlow factory with its evocative smells of penny sweets, and were soon idling past the long length of moorings at Furness Vale. At the far end a very shiny boat was just about to set off. This proved to be Streamline, the boat on which we first had a share some twelve years ago. Apparently she has just had a repeat of her Andy Russell paint job which explains her particularly smart appearance.

Shortly after Furness Vale we struggled past the length of canal which was the subject of some experimental planting on the off side. It’s a kind of willow which looks remarkably like bamboo and which is supposed to be good at protecting the bank. Unfortunately, it’s all flopped over so that there is just a bare boats width of clear channel. Since this length bends steadily it makes for tricky navigation.

When we got to Bugsworth, we found members of the Inland Waterways Protection Society busy doing minor maintenance. We had a chat with them whilst on the water point; they had some bad news, in that a newly laid patio area has suffered the attention not so much of vandals as of straightforward criminals. About a dozen of the York stone slabs had simply disappeared one night and have had to be replaced with rolled hard core.

Water tank full, we popped through the footbridge and tied in the lower basin. This sounds a lot easier than it proved. As we had turned through the junction, we saw two groups of kids in rafted up Canadian canoes approaching. They neatly got out of our way at that time but by the time we’d filled the water tank they had arrived back at the basin and were now having a merry time.

Their instructors were very happy to move them out of our way; I must say it was good to see youngsters being introduced to the joys of boating in this way and full marks to the YHA for operating such a good event.

As I was setting off to nip back to the Tesco at the junction, Streamline turned up and tied just in front of us.

We had a quiet afternoon; the main event was a shopping trip to Tesco, taking in searching for a couple of geocaches on the way. We found one but the other was a micro in a very nettley area on the edge of the Tesco car park, and it was just too much hassle hunting for it with so many muggles around.

Back at the boat I had a good play with the new toy, including experimenting with uploading photos to Flickr and adding them to the blog. This seems to be popular with some folk so here’s another one:

Marple Bridge 1

It’s one of the set I use as desktop photos; the rest are on Flickr here.

This morning we had planned to moor on the old long term moorings on the offside just on the Bugsworth side of the junction, which we reckoned would be the best place whilst we did another Tesco shop. These moorings seem only to have one boat there permanently now. Unfortunately we just couldn’t get close enough to the bank to make it worth the bother and we went on to shop at the Marple Co-op instead.

We could of course have turned left to see if we could find a mooring on the Whaley Bridge arm, from where there is another approach to Tesco. The problem is that those moorings are often busy and it would have meant winding yet again in the basin at Whaley Bridge.

We had a pleasant run back to Marple on a mild and misty autumnal day. Streamline followed us later and like us stopped for lunch and a shop in Marple.

We have come on just a little way towards Poynton, tying on the Armco just after bridge 6, and we’ll carry on back to our mooring tomorrow.

Icy boating

16th & 17th December

It was another icy morning but it wasn't as thick as on Saturday, and there was no frost. Nonetheless, there was no point in moving, as we wouldn't make it to Bugsworth in time for our 12.30 lunch date, and there was nowhere more convenient than High Lane to collect us.

I went up to the shop for bread and a paper, and at 12.25 or so we were collected by Peter and Jan from outside the Con Club on the A6. There was a remarkable amount of road traffic about for a Sunday, which had delayed them getting through from Stockport. Christmas shoppers, maybe.

It was well worth it though – we had an excellent lunch at the Navigation at Bugsworth, in a strangely quiet restaurant considering how close to Christmas it is getting.

Afterwards we walked down to the information point, where we found two hardy members of the IWPS toughing it out in the hut, with the door firmly closed against the biting wind whistling across the basin.

Then it was back to the boat for a cup of tea. After Peter and Jan had gone we had a quiet afternoon and evening. It felt quite cold, and we were grateful for the Squirrel blazing away. The air temperature outside was probably no lower than earlier in the week, but the wind was whistling around still, enough to move Sanity on her moorings.

It continued to feel cold overnight, and things were enlivened by the odd crashing noise through the hull. After some panicky thought I realised that sheets of ice must be forming further up the cut and being blown down onto Sanity. In the morning it was apparent that this was so – there were clear stretches of water visible in the cutting, and a thicker section of ice outside us and in the winding hole. Elsewhere the ice was no thicker than the day before.

As we were breakfasting, Enver came down from Poynton and winded opposite the arm into the North Cheshire Cruising Club moorings. It was hard work for him, as the ice resisted the lateral turning motion of the boat, and he had to go to and fro many times before he got round.

The weather was now quite still, and felt a little warmer than before. I went into the village to post the family Christmas cards, and to collect a prescription – High Lane has a combined Post Office and pharmacy, both very efficient. By the time I came back, the ice was looking very wet on top, and it seemed to us that by waiting another hour or so, we should be able to move off.

Accordingly, I did some emails, including one to a boat electrics expert of our acquaintance, asking for his help with our charging problem. Then we had a cup of coffee and set off at around eleven o'clock.

In places the ice was rather thicker than I'd hoped (comment by Sheila: "Typical") but it was possible to keep going, although steering presented a greater challenge than usual, especially on bends which had filled up with ice.

The main challenge came just as we approached Marple, past the Waterside Moorings. A huge cupressus tree trunk had been pushed into the cut, and was now embedded in the ice, and partly stuck on the bottom. It took Sheila several runs at it to get the right line between it and the moored boats. This wasn't helped by the fact that two of these boats were GRP cruisers. It's always a nervous business passing these in ice, especially when they haven't got protective boards down – hard ice can slice through the plastic with disastrous consequences.

Eventually we made it to the moorings in Marple, and found that there was a space opposite the water point. It then took another ten minutes of work to bring Sanity into the side, as the basin was full of quite thick ice still, which piled up between the boat and the bank. Whilst one of us swung on the centre line, the other went up and down the boat with the long shaft, smashing the ice sheets and pushing them out from between the side and the towpath.

At last it was done, and by 12.30 we were able to get lunch, including hot mugs of soup. Winter boating has its consolations. The blacking had in fact stood up to the ice remarkably well, partly because Comastic is good stuff, and partly because although the ice was thick in places, it wasn't more than only just frozen –it's the really cold ice that is extremely hard.

Since the forecast is set to be a little warmer again tomorrow and Wednesday, we decided to stay put for tonight and use the service block facilities tomorrow. The afternoon was therefore used to shop, especially for Sheila to get some more wool to finish the jacket she's currently making for Daniel.

Later in the afternoon, I went to the local autospares shop, hilariously called Harrods, and bought the oil ready for the next change – they do a good deal on AC Delco oil at Harrods.