A good couple of days boating, plus a slight disappointment

We've had a good two days, though I couldn't blog yesterday as the 3 signal at Goldstone Wharf was very off and on, and mostly off. We called at Norbury Junction where they not only kept their promise to give us a free pump out after we'd grumbled about them scratching our nice new blacking coming off the dock, but did one of the best we've ever had.

Truly, they are nice people there.

In the afternoon, we made a start on cleaning the front end of the boat by scrubbing the underside of one side of the cratch cover, but otherwise rather took it easy. I finished the first draft of my paper about the IWA Festival, and I've emailed it to a select few for their comments.

Today, we had the passage of Woodseaves Cutting, and Tyrley Locks to negotiate:

Prehistoric Woodseaves

It always feels quite creepy in the depths of this cutting. The heron, which has a paleontological look to it, seems the most appropriate bird to spot in here, and when Sheila said she'd seen a big raptor flying across into the trees, I was quite prepared for a pterodactyl to peer out at me.

We had a brief and hollow laugh at the sign at the entrance to the cutting, which reads "Danger bank erosion. Take care." There's a few of us with reduced savings pots who will heartily agree…

/shock

It was a nice run down the locks,with one boat following, and some just starting up as we got to the bottom. There was no problem finding a mooring at Market Drayton, and we've done a couple of largely successful shopping trips. I'd had a repeat prescription posted to the branch of Boots here, and it had arrived this morning.

Unfortunately, when I went to collect, they were out of a couple of the items, including the atenolol, would you believe. I need to go back just now to see if the missing stuff came in on the afternoon delivery; if not, we'll have to spend an extra day here, which is a bit tedious. Drayton is a lovely town, but we want to get on.

Photography at Norbury Junction

20th & 21st January

After another cold night, we weren't surprised to find that it was very misty in the morning. In fact, it must have been a freezing fog, because every twig on every tree, along with pretty well everything else in sight, was covered in white rime. It was a magical sight, and lasted for a good part of the morning.

Sheila was steering as we set off for the run to Norbury Junction, and after a while complained that she kept thinking it was starting to rain, when in fact it was the rime slowly beginning to melt and run off the trees above.

We passed Knighton depot, from where boatloads of chocolate crumb used to be taken to the Cadbury's factory at Bourneville. The approach from the north means that you see from some distance away the canopy of the loading shed over the ends of the pair of carrying boats that are always tied there, very atmospheric on such a morning.

Then it was the chug across Shebdon embankment, looking very smart after some good work by BW on the offside. It just shows what can be done with adequate funding. After the Anchor pub, there followed a truly incredible length of offside linear mooring. On and on it went for miles, virtually the whole way to the start of Grub Street cutting, with its double arched High Bridge. Emerging from the cutting, the towpath side long term mooring on the approach to Norbury follows immediately. It meant that what should have been about two hours boating, max, took us from 9.45 to 12.15, and we were well ready for lunch when we got there.

At Norbury there is this stretch of LT mooring, then a good chunk of 48 hour visitor mooring, which at the moment is full of winter moorers (either that or some people are giving a good but cheeky impression of same – in the absence of BW issuing any standard means of showing that you've paid for a winter mooring, it's impossible to tell.)

We finally found a bit of free mooring in front of the pub, and dropped onto it whilst we got some lunch. Afterwards, I explored forward, and found that the VM that runs from the services block towards Shelmore embankment was still available, and had plenty of spaces. (By the way, does anyone else have trouble remembering which is Shebdon and which Shelmore?)

So we stopped on the water point to top up, and then tied in one of these spaces, in a very pleasant spot with views across the fields below the level of the canal. A trip to the shop and chandlery yielded a tub of stern tube grease, 5 litres of oil ready for the next oil change, a copy of Waterways World and an Independent.

During the morning, I'd responded to Phil Hynds's comment on the last post, asking if he could come and see us in connection with a photo piece on retired liveaboards he's preparing. We agreed to meet at Norbury this morning.

Today, a complete change in the weather had manifested itself. It was mild and cloudy, but a steady breeze, gusting at times to a serious blast, made it feel just as cold as when it was frosty. After breakfast I set off to take some recycling to the bins by the cafe and chandlery at around 9.30. Just by the junction I saw a bloke with a tripod and serious camera bag, and thought that Phil must have turned up early to get some background shots for his piece.

On enquiry, however, this guy turned out to be one of a large number of students from the Defence Photography School at Cosford. On hearing my explanation of why I'd approached him, Jim, for such was his name, promptly asked if he could come and take some pictures as well.

Back at the boat, I alerted Sheila to the situation, and we had just about finished giving Sanity a quick clean when Jim arrived. Since Graeme's current job involves a bit of services photography, we had an interesting natter with Jim, who had just finished taking photos when Phil rocked up.

What a busy morning – who says winter is a quiet time on the cut?

We had a good session with Phil too, first of all being interviewed and then showing him through the boat, and then more photos. This finished just in nice time for lunch, and was followed by a quiet afternoon – a bit of wood was cut, some internet banking done, newspapers read and the like.

Tomorrow we will brave a windy forecast to do the short run to Gnosall for the weekend, and hopefully a rendezvous with Elanor.

Two more days at Drayton, then away!

18th & 19th February

My, but that was a cold night! We were indeed iced in on Monday morning, although there were open patches of water about as well.

There was also a lot of ice on the inside of the Houdini, which became a bit of a problem, as we'd set the Eberspacher to come on automatically (saves me hopping shivering out of bed to push the button). As we lay there. listening to the welcome roar, the ice started to melt and drip onto the bed.

We keep an old cycle cape to cover the bed under these circs (ex free gift from RCR the other year – useless as a cycle cape, but great for this purpose, and for using as a hairdresser's cape when cutting hair) so I had to pop out of bed anyway. Once out, I went through and relit the Squirrel and made a cup of tea.

Once actually up and about (some time later) we had breakfast and did yet another shopping trip before lunch. Regular readers must wonder why so much shopping at the moment. The thing is that once we leave here, we're going to wander down the rest of the Shroppie – Norbury Junction, Gnosall, Wheaton Aston, through to Brewood when the stoppage comes off at WA – and there are no further serious shopping opportunities.

We'll use local stores as usual for milk and the like, but anything more than that is out of the question. Then we're going down to Kinver, before backtracking to Great Haywood, so the next town of any size will be Rugeley in about three weeks time.

After lunch we went through onto the water point, filled right up, and then winded with care. There was ice still in the winding hole, and a couple of cruisers, one GRP, one wood, at the far end, and I didn't want to shove sharp edged sheets of ice into their delicate sides.

The task was made a little more interesting by Blue Crystal, who'd chosen to spend the night moored across the end of the hole, on a mooring clearly marked "Water Point only". No excuse, really – there's loads of room at Drayton at the moment.

After these exertions, we went back onto the mooring through the bridge for one last night (hopefully) and had a quiet afternoon.

Today was cold, misty and murky at the start, but strangely the cut was free of ice. We went into town yet again, and had a really successful last session. The post we needed had turned up at the PO, and we found things like more thermal socks (Seconds Ahead), secondary double glazing film to experiment with next year (Homebase) and even creamed coconut block (not in Morrisons or Lidl, but 50p, would you believe, in a little independent health food store).

Back at the boat, Sheila dealt with the finance stuff while I made a coffee, and then I shot into town to post the result (of the finance stuff, not the coffee).

Then we had a quick lunch, and by one o'clock we were off again, heading up Tyrley Locks. As we approached, an OwnerShips boat, Inglewood, came down, so we had the flight with us all the way. This meant it was just two o'clock when we got to the top, so we came on through Woodseaves cutting on a glorious winter's afternoon.

There were serious icicles hanging down the rock side in places, and the sun struck through the branches of the overhanging trees in spectacular style.

Moored at Goldstone Wharf, we had a cup of tea whilst I wrestled with the internet connection. It's not good here, and prone to cause strange glitches in Mail and Firefox. On one occasion nothing would do but to do a cold reboot, i.e. shut it all down and start again from scratch. As a Mac user, I'm not used to having to resort to such drastic measures – it quite reminds me of my Windows days :-}

Tomorrow we'll probably move on to Norbury Junction for a couple of days, then to Gnosall for the weekend.

Back to Drayton, and a sealing task

16th & 17th February

The morning dawned bright and cold once more. The night before we'd had a post call from Elanor which had revealed some problems with a couple of finance things, such that we needed to get the relevant letters sent on to us. The obvious address to use was Market Drayton PO, but at 5 o'clock they weren't answering their phone to confirm that they accept Poste Restante.

Accordingly, we tried again at 9, but still no joy. Thinking that perhaps they didn't open until 9.30, we set off on the return trip to Drayton, Sheila steering and me trying to ring from time to time. We'd also had some trouble with the internet connection last night, though it had been all right, if slow, before. However, it at least was now working OK – I even downloaded some email and uploaded the last blog as we slid into the depths of Woodseaves cutting.

We got to Tyrley just behind Ysbryd Rhydd (= Free Spirit in Welsh), but they stopped on the water point, only to make the same discovery as ourselves two days ago. This did mean that we passed them and set off down the flight, but it made no odds, as it was against us anyway.

Notwithstanding, we made good time down it, and before 11 we were on the water point in Drayton. Sheila left me with the boat, and set off into Drayton to ask in the PO if they would take a Poste Restante letter.

I'd just finished watering and was reversing Sanity back through the bridge 'ole to moor when she came back, a little out of breath, but with good news (and a newspaper). Having passed this info on to Elanor together with the address of the PO, we had lunch and went back into town for a successful shop for a mixed bag of stuff, including a new warm shirt for me (factory outlet shop), various bits of cleaning stuff (Wilko's) and some silicon sealant (Homebase) as well as some general groceries from the Lidl.

We need the sealant for the shower tray – the current bead is looking a) tired and b) mouldy. I'd been putting the job off, as I hate using sealant, but Sheila volunteered to have a go, which, as it's more like piping with Royal icing than anything else, seemed fair enough.

Today again dawned cold and bright, indeed even colder and brighter if anything. The cut wasn't actually frozen across, but there were thin sheets of ice drifting down. As we weren't planning to boat anywhere, we decided to skip our usual argument about whether such conditions would damage the blacking, and got on with getting breakfast.

Before setting off to shop again, we took it in turns to strip out the old sealant from around the shower tray. It proved to be well stuck on, so hadn't been leaking, at least, but it was good to get rid of the nasty black mould that seems to form even when we are punctilious about drying off the walls and tray of the shower after every use.

After a trip to Morrisons, we had lunch and then resealed the tray, Sheila wielding the gun, and me being the mate, handing things to her and taking them off her. It looks much better for the work, though Sanity filled with the niff of the acetic acid that is given off as the sealant cures – next time we must do this job in high summer, when we can have all the hatches open to ventilate the boat.

The rest of the afternoon's been taken up with the weekly IT housekeeping, knitting, cooking and running the engine whilst doing a washload.

The forecast is for a freeze again tonight, so it's not clear if we'll get away from here tomorrow. If we can, we'll go back to Adderley for the night and come back on Tuesday, by which time the stuff from Elanor should have arrived at the PO.

A pleasant visit and cruise

14th & 15th February

After several days of very lazy starts, we got up reasonably promptly yesterday, and were away by 9.30. Tyrley Locks appear almost as soon as you've left Market Drayton behind, and they were with us, so we made short work of the five.

We'd planned to top up the water at the service point above the top lock, but after we'd put the hose out, the tap proved to be dry. There was no notice warning of a problem, so later in the day I emailed BW to ask if they knew it was out of action.

Then there was the steady chug through Woodseaves cutting. It was especially dank and gloomy on a cool grey day – we'd wondered about coming back this way with Jennie and John who are visiting today, but decided going on would be better.

Goldstone Wharf was reached in nice time for lunch. The pub here, the Wharf Tavern, had been recommended by a number of authorities, and we were pleased to see it was serving lunch during the week. A quiet afternoon followed – I emailed BW about the Tyrley water point, and sent a letter to Waterways World on the subject of BW's policy with regard to self pump out at their sanitary stations, but at the time of blogging haven't heard anything back from either.

Today we made another decent start (well, by 9 o'clock, anyway) so as to get Sanity looking nice and tidy for our visitors. It was a dull, cold morning, but not so windy as had been forecast, which was something.

Jennie and John turned up just before their expected time of 11, and we had a pleasant chug to Soudley and back, with the guests taking it in turn to steer.

The Wharf then lived up to its advance billing – a very decent pint of Bombardier, and excellent food at a reasonable price. Back at the boat we had a coffee before Jennie and John set off home.

For some reason we then sat around trying not to doze off (in my case successfully). It's been a quiet and relaxing pair of days – brighter weather is forecast for the weekend, but with a risk of the cut icing up, so we'll go back to Drayton tomorrow.