Easily up the next few locks

Checking the log from the last time we came this way, about this time last year, indeed, showed that we should allow a bit under two hours for today’s run. We didn't want to get here too soon, so set off at 8.15. Following the law according to Sod, we then had an excellent run, taking just ninety minutes.

We were followed by another boat using the alternate lock chambers where these are still available, so I took to setting their lock for them and in return, they closed up after Sheila, saving a lot of walking to and fro.

The locks are all quite close together, so it was a case of riding to the start, the foot of the Lawton Treble, then walking the rest of the way. The weather was quite pleasant as we went along but has rather deteriorated now, becoming very windy. Hopefully it will improve by the morning when we have the last half dozen locks to do up to Harding’s Wood Junction, round onto the Macc and on to Hall Green.

There’s plenty of room here at the top of Church Locks with just a few boats in sight tied on the towpath ahead of us. We’ve put the rest of the day to some use, washing and oiling the bathroom floor. The plan is to do one compartment at a time as we carry on towards Poynton.

Location:Kidsgrove

Onward and upward

The problem with not stirring out of the boat all day is that you don't sleep very well that night, but we got through it somehow and got going only a bit late this morning. By quarter past eight we were on our way towards the Lawton Treble locks in quite reasonable weather. These locks are in good condition, unlike the ones near Wheelock, and we worked up them without too much hassle.

We crossed with a boat coming down the middle lock, which lacks its pair, and I bought an apron there from an old dear selling craft goods, cakes and chutneys in aid of Great Ormond Street Hospital. We don't actually need another pinny, but it can go into the charity auction at the Owners' Weekend, thereby benefitting three charities in all, assuming we donate our proceeds to Anthony Nolan and Bloodwise as usual.

Hall and the two Church Locks followed. There was plenty of room to moor above, just a shade under the two hours we'd expected to take. After relaxing for the rest of the morning, we had lunch and then took a walk up tomorrow's locks. There was a fair bit of traffic about, including Sceptre, one of the two OwnerShips boats we used to have shares in. Since the collapse of the OwnerShips scheme, she's become self managed and was looking very good with a new coat of paint.

On another topic altogether, some readers will be interested to know that Elanor has had Sally's DNA analysed. It seems that she is most probably 1/2 Doberman, 3/8ths German Shepherd and 1/8th Akita, the last being a bit unexpected. So her houndy characteristics are down to the greyhound element in her Dobie inheritance.

I just wonder who thought of crossing a GSD with an Akita...

Tomorrow, up the Red Bull locks, stop to fill the water tank and then round onto the Macc at last.

Busy trip to Church Lawton Top

With a short run in prospect, we didn’t get away until a bit before eight. I’d run the Hurricane for an hour whilst we breakfasted, so by the time we’d reached the bottom of the Lawton Treble Locks, Sheila was able to start a washload running (plenty of hot water, battery charge on float).

Typically, since we weren’t in a hurry, we made very good time. We started meeting traffic about halfway up; it was a familiar boat in unfamiliar circumstances. Brunel was well known around the Fradley/Alrewas area but is now on her way to the Elton Moss yard having been sold into the Boatfinder brokerage there.

Apparently her owners have moved to Spain.

The only mishap of the day came as we rose in the top lock. It is one of those which has ridges across the rising board or babby below the cill. Sanity Again’s bow fender caught on one of the ridges and a link gave in a securing chain.

We had been contemplating going on further to let the washload finish, but since it would take a little while to fix the chain and the rinses had just started we decided to call it a day.

I’ve fixed the chain with a shackle for the time being; this winter back in the marina I’m going to take the fender off, replace both fixing chains and cover them with poly tube to protect the paintwork. It’s much easier to work on the bow in the marina as there’s a pontoon across the front of the boat.

We’d just made a coffee when who should appear but Austin and Liz on Just Siviting, Braidbar 99. We had time for a brief chat, some of it about replacing water pumps, before they carried on. We gave them a hand down the Church Locks in the midst of a sudden burst of traffic. It was only afterwards that we realised that the convoy system through Harecastle Tunnel bunches the boats up and this effect is exacerbated by the fact that both Church Locks, although originally duplicated, are now singles.

Since most of the Red Bull Locks are still doubled, loads of boats arrive at the top of Church at once and then have to wait their turn.

It wasn’t until after we’d eaten lunch that the resulting traffic jam had cleared.

It’s been very quiet since. We did think about washing the port side of the boat, being now tied on that side but a) the towpath is very high here and b) there’s a lot of cycle traffic kicking up dust.

We’ll wait until we get onto the Macc; maybe Sally will be able to give us a hand…

/wahaha

Through the tunnel again

It’s been a good day after a very pleasant evening last night. We had a meal in the Toby Carvery with John and Nev and then retreated to Sanity Again to put the world to rights with the aid of some fermented vinous material. The Toby was OK as usual, though the carvers were a bit less generous with the portions than on previous occasions. John and Nev tell us that this variability is their experience at other Tobies too.

We actually had a lie in this morning and didn’t get boating until just after eight. As we were getting morning tea at seven we saw Waimaru reversing from where she’d moored through the bridge to turn outside the marina:

Waimaru in reverse

Sheila steered to the tunnel; it's about an hour from Etruria so we arrived at just after nine. We’d missed the first convoy of the day and happily hung about until 10.15.

This meant that we got out of the tunnel around 11. Sheila Halsall, a professional photographer, was taking pictures of us as we emerged from the tunnel and indeed followed us down to the water point to see us filling the water tank.

She’s a blog reader who reminded us that we’d met her before at Braunston. It was great to meet you again, Sheila.

We grabbed some lunch whilst watering and then carried on down the locks to tie between the bottom lock and the top of Church Locks, opposite the dairy farm.

Knowing from his blog that Geoff on Seyella might be a bit further down the canal, we took a walk to the top of Church and there indeed he was, rubbing down the side of the boat in preparation for repainting.

We’ve had a good chat with Geoff and Mags and admired Meg’s new hairstyle.

It’s going to be a quiet evening after all the excitement, then a gentle donder down to Rode Heath tomorrow.

A short run and a longish walk

We've come on up to the top of Church locks, setting off at a quarter past eight and getting here a bit before ten. There was a moderate amount of traffic about on a very fine morning, as you'd expect on this busy bit of the system. It's the stretch from Middlewich to Red Bull that's common to both the Four Counties and the Cheshire Rings; under the circumstances it's probably surprising not to see more boats on the move in this last week of the school holidays.

The level of traffic also accounts for the way that the typically red stained water (it comes out of Harecastle Tunnel like that) turns up as far down as Wheelock at the moment.

Once we'd got settled and had a coffee, I realised that we needed to get some more perishable supplies in, as we won't have much of a chance passing through Congleton, and we're being invaded by Graeme and the boys on Thursday.

It's a bit of a trek from here, but it is possible to get to the Kidsgrove Tesco, so I spent the rest of the morning doing just that. It took about 25 minutes each way, so that I was back in nice time for lunch, having got two kinds of bread, extra houmous, tomatoes, baby carrots and similar stuff.

We've had a quiet afternoon of it; the weather's been OK, but there's a cold wind about that discourages sitting out on the bow. Tomorrow, we'll set off between half seven and eight, hoping to find a mooring at Hall Green from where we can walk to the Bleeding Wolf for lunch.

One operational note: since talking about pharmacies and prescriptions so much, I've been plagued with drug selling spam comments. They're all being caught by the spam trapper, but it's a right fag having them turn up in my email notifications, so I've turned on word verification for a bit.

I'm sorry, I know it's a pain, but with any luck I'll be able to turn it off again in a week's time, once the spambots have got discouraged and gone away.

An early and quick trip to the top of Church Locks

The weather continued to be pretty dramatic all day yesterday, but finally dried up a bit overnight. We made a prompt start this morning, Sheila locking and me steering. We like to stop at the top of Church locks rather than further in to Kidsgrove these days, so there were only six locks to do.

There was a bit of traffic about, but nothing like enough to make us queue for locks, just the occasional wait for a boat to come down.

By half nine we'd arrived, the weather having turned wet and windy again. For the second day in a row we dropped the cratch cover to keep it out, but didn't feel the need to relight the stove, though it got a bit marginal at times. The year has turned or is turning, basically. There'll be plenty of fine days yet, I don't doubt, but no more of the real scorchers. In some ways autumn is our favourite time of year for boating. In our hiring days, we often went out at the autumn half term, when there are fewer boats about but the days are still long enough to enjoy.

Boating early on a misty autumn morn can be magical.

We had a stroll up the Red Bull Locks after lunch, managing to avoid getting caught in the rain this time; there was still a fair bit of movement on the cut, but still no queueing. A father and son were playing with a couple of radio controlled model power boats below one of the locks which added a bit of entertainment for those taking a Sunday afternoon stroll.

Tomorrow, we plan an early start, water at Red Bull and then on round onto the Macc and so to the Little Moreton Hall mooring. Sheila is hoping that the wind will have dropped somewhat by then, as otherwise the turn at the junction will be interesting, but not in a good way.

Down the Cheshire Locks

5th & 6th January

First a follow on to some remarks in the last blog and a comment from Jeremy. Whilst it's true, as Jeremy says, that there can be advantages from a bubble for those to who see it through, in terms of benefiting from the investment made during the upside, my concern is that BW is making a fundamental error in its income strategy.

There's much more detail about this on the SOW website, but, in a nutshell, at present BW does not receive enough income to cover what it calls its steady state needs, that is, the cash it needs to maintain the system as it is. Since there remains a maintenance backlog, this is a potentially disastrous situation. Some of us can remember all too well the seventies and eighties, when significant bits of the system were cut off from each other by closed tunnels and the like.

BW's income comes from three main sources: income from boating activities, from its property portfolio, and a Government grant-in-aid. The present BW chief exec, Robin Evans, has explicitly stated that he wants to reduce dependence on the grant-in-aid. The trouble is, the vast majority of visitors to the waterways (about 97%) are not boaters, but are towpath walkers, cyclists, anglers and the like. There's no easy way to extract much income from these people, except indirectly from pubs and cafes and so on. Since income from boating already makes up at least 10% of BW's top line, many of us feel that substantial funding from general taxation via the grant-in-aid is only fair.

Meantime, of course, the property income has not kept growing as quickly as Mr Evans hoped, as the economic downturn starts to bite. I've done a longer paper on some of these issues – it's on the main website here.

Getting back to our cruising: yesterday we made a leisurely start, and wended our way through Hall Green stop lock to moor just before the junction with the Trent and Mersey to go shopping at the local Tesco. After an early lunch, we set off down the Red Bull locks, closely followed by a guy single handing Serendipity.

We both stopped for water, then carried on to the top of Church Locks for the night. Sheila got the bow saw out to cut up the bits and bobs of wood we'd accumulated on the roof. A passer-by (there were plenty of walkers out and about in the sun) gave her the benefit of his advice along the lines of "you need to have the wood higher so you can cut horizontally, and you need a new blade in that bow saw".

He then commented that he was probably teaching his grandmother to suck eggs, and Sheila, who at one stage worked in the School of Agricultural and Forest Sciences at Bangor, managed to avoid a pithy response (just).

Today was another day for a relaxed start, and we chugged off at around ten o'clock. It was an absolutely beautiful morning, sunny, no wind to speak of, and occasional patches of very thin ice on the cut.

We carried on down the locks – Church, Halls, the Lawton three, then a pause at Rode Heath to dump some recycling in the bins in the Broughton Arms car park, and to buy a paper at the handy store just over the road. After that it was Thurlwood and Pierrepoint locks before tying for the day above Hassal Green.

Serendipity had still been following on, and where appropriate we'd been setting a lock for him, especially where the locks were paired, as many of them are on this stretch. Thus if both are against you, and there's no sign of anyone coming up, it's only the work of a moment to draw a top paddle on the lock you are not using for the benefit of the boat behind. This is particularly appropriate when that boat is single handing as Serendipity was (unless you count his very laid back German Shepherd, which mostly sat and observed proceedings from the stern deck.)

I was just getting ready to do an oil change, when Serendipity came past. He stopped alongside, and gave us two crusty bread rolls, in appreciation of our help with the locks. "I usually do a baking on a Sunday", he said.

Now that's the spirit of boating for you.