A bit of boating

We started slowly and gently this morning whilst waiting to see what Peter wanted to do with the boats in the yard. I took a walk down to the Poynton Waitrose for perishable supplies and on my return we had a coffee/hot choc with Stephen and Jayne at the Trading Post.

The weather was really very pleasant and there seemed no reason to hang about any longer. Fresh crews of owners on board Ice Breaker, Eleventh Heaven and New Dawn are on their way to take over gardening and boatyard titivating, so we can get away for a bit.

Pausing only to stow some stuff for the Open Day Charity Auction in the bungalow, we readied Sanity Again for cruising, said our goodbyes, especially to Stephen and Jayne, whom we won’t see now until they get to Mercia in November, and set off for High Lane and points north and west.

We’ve stopped at High Lane for the night, and will go on to Marple tomorrow. The cunning plan is to meet up with Graeme, Cathy and the grandsons at Bugsworth Basin on Friday afternoon. They’ll stop the night with us and then head for home in Lincolnshire. We will then return to Poynton for the final preparation for the Open Day and Owners' Weekend.

I’ve raised a formal complaint with CRT about the Poynton Rubbish Point and had a reply from Vince Moran at CRT HQ already. It was only to say that the Waterway Manager, David Baldacchino will be in touch to explain what they are going to do about it, but it’s better than total silence. I’ll keep you posted.

I did try to take a couple of photos of the new Nasa Marine Clipper battery monitor, but the lighting conditions have beaten me for the moment; I’ll have to experiment to get a good image of the gauge when I’ve a bit more time (I only thought to do it just before sitting down to do this).

Meantime, I’ve got to get a haircut and a shower and then put a beef curry on to cook.

Off we go

After a pleasantly quiet evening and a decent night's sleep, we were up and about betimes this morning. We had a chat with Martin and a word with Peter about when we'd be back, then prepared Sanity Again for departure and reversed out of the yard at around nine.

It was a very fine morning, if a little breezy, and with a distinct touch of autumn in the air. I steered as far as High Lane, where we stopped to check what was happening with the local shop. Last time we called here, it had shut, but I'm pleased to report that it's been completely refurbished and reopened as a Spar.

Paper purchased, we set out again, just going as far as what was Deer Farm Bend, just beyond Bridge 8. The farm seems to have gone over to cattle; maybe the market for farm grown venison has collapsed in the recession. I suppose this means that we shall have to take to calling it ex-Deer Farm Bend, though I'm sure it's got a better name.

As is often the case here, the towpath is strangely busy with walkers and cyclists, not in an alarming way but it seems a bit far out for casual strollers. I guess it isn't that far from here into High Lane, which is a larger place than you'd suspect if you just shot through on the road. There were a couple of other boats already here, and a hire boat has just arrived.

It's cool enough to have the fire lit again, another autumnal sign. We'll make an early start tomorrow, aiming to go the rest of the way to Bugsworth in time for lunch. The plan is to spend a couple of nights there, then potter back to Poynton for Friday.

Half a day, and half an hour away

In a leisurely fashion, we've set off from Poynton on our way back to Alrewas. After a relaxed start, we got the boat ready for cruising again, and pulled through the bridge onto the water point. It took around half an hour to fill half a water tank (the tap there is not the quickest); Sheila put the time to good use by getting a washload ready. Peter Mason set off for High Lane in Just Siviting whilst we were there; he had the shell for Starshine to tow after it had been craned in at North Cheshire Cruising Club. I briefly met Dave and Wendy Tarpey who are having her built.

Once the tank was reasonably full, we moved onto the shop mooring for a pump out and diesel; after just under a fortnight's use of the Hurricane, we needed 32 litres of fuel. Whilst we were manoeuvring, the phone rang with a request from Susan to see if I could improve a photo of the new hire boat, Tiree, to go on the brochure.

I couldn't manage a satisfactory job in the time available in iPhoto; it needed a lot of background cloning over, so Susan emailed it to me and I did the job properly in Photoshop Elements this afternoon.

With Sanity Again ready to cruise, we boated up to High Lane ourselves to use the winding hole, thus giving ourselves time to run the washload. Winding 70 foot there is not easy; as usual, the very end of the hole is full of mud, which makes the boat very reluctant to keep turning, but in the end we got round.

After that, it was a very pleasant potter back to Poynton and on to Adlington, where we've tied opposite Lyme View Marina. By now it was lunchtime, and the washing machine was just finishing. We'd taken all morning to do a bit less than a half hour trip from Poynton.

The afternoon has been spent quietly; the washing is drying in the sun on the whirligig, Sheila has been crocheting, and apart from my photo editing, I've been reading and dozing.

The plan is to amble down to Congleton for Monday, where we'll be joined by Peter and Jan Comline for a couple of days and the trip through Harecastle Tunnel.

Keeping busy

9th & 10th March

It’s been another busy couple of days, in weather that has continued to hover on the boundary between winter and spring. We’ve been able to make a fairly relaxed start each morning, but then have kept fairly hard at it for the rest of the day.

Yesterday morning, I had a chat with Peter first thing and he confirmed that there was no need for us to move from the hire boat mooring until this morning. I then strolled down to the paper shop in company with Barry Cooper from The Shouting End, and he showed me a footpath route back up the hill.

It just shows that you can visit a place on and off for six years and still have things to find out about it. It is much nicer to come back over the fields than to slog back up the deep slot which is Anson Road.

Barry came and had a coffee with us on Sanity and we had an interesting chat about our respective backgrounds, which both feature the North East of England.

After lunch, we all set to and reduced another overgrown bush to something much better controlled, in the course of which we unearthed a five barred gate which had been dumped there by BW some years before. Barry returned our hospitality with a cup of tea on The Shouting End before we finished the job and retired to our boats for a quiet evening.

This morning, the main event in prospect was towing the shell for Braidbar number 123. This will form the basis for the Janet Grant which will belong to Keith and Alison Evemy. Before that, however, we were intrigued to note a gratifying upsurge in hits to the blogs and website. A good proportion of these seem to be coming from the United States, but we haven’t been able to spot any common feature in them to explain the peak in activity.

After another trip to get a paper, and a quick cup of coffee, we shuffled Sanity back onto the shop mooring so as to be able to extract The Shouting End from the yard and put her on the hire boat mooring. All three of us then boated off on Sanity to High Lane, arriving in just nice time to buy some lunch time barms from Danny’s Deli.

The shell turned up at around half one, and we were able to give a hand preparing her for launch before the tow back to the yard. It all went very smoothly; Keith and Alison, who were accompanied by their aunt, Catherine, were very pleased. Aunt Catherine travelled with us on Sanity, making her first encounter with narrow boating at the age of 87. Her only regret, as for so many of us, was that she hadn’t started earlier in life.

We’re going to be lazy again this evening and indulge in another meal in the Boar’s Head, this time accompanied by Barry. (Note to Annie: he really didn't want to come, but we persuaded him we needed looking after.)

A bit of boating, even

28th, 29th & 30th January

We’ve had a couple of days focussed on Braidbar, followed by one of domestic concerns. On Thursday, our last morning in the yard, we got up in good time and Sheila started a last load of tumble drying whilst we ate breakfast. Then we rigged the hose to top up the water tank before getting ready to pull out of the yard.

For the first time in a month we did some boating that took more than ten minutes as we plodded gently up to High Lane. Peter had said that the shell was due to arrive at about 11.15 and that he expected to be ready to lift by half twelve.

We got there just after 10.30 and I went to buy a newspaper and some sandwiches for lunch. This was only partially successful, as the Costcutter has closed, so that there is no longer a general store in High Lane that I can find. We got some good sandwiches from Danny’s Deli, however, and he told me that he had seen the shell go past just a little while before.

This implied that the lift might be early, and anyway we were sharp set after our bit of boating, so we had a very early lunch at 11.30 and then walked round the arm to the club house. Here we found Dave Ballinger, the new owner, anxiously watching out for us; he told us he had just been wondering where he could get a very large outboard motor if we didn’t turn up.

We reassured him, and indeed there was the usual delay whilst the bow thruster, prop shaft and prop were installed. The lift went smoothly and we were soon towing shell number 121 back to Higher Poynton.

After I’d winded Sanity, I discovered I had missed a phone call which proved to be ABNB with an appointment for viewing on Monday morning. Since the details only went up on their web site on Tuesday, this is encouragingly quick work.

Yesterday, Peter had asked us to postpone our arrival at the yard since he had some shopping to do on the way in. Accordingly, we decided to do a couple of maintenance jobs in the morning after a lie in, and then to go round to the yard at lunchtime. We’d just about finished breakfast when Peter rang to say he would be in earlier than he’d thought.

It can be hard to know how to deal with some boatbuilder's idea of timing.

We postponed the maintenance jobs, got to the yard at half ten and had another good review session as recorded on the other blog. We also had a brief chat about manning the Braidbar stand at the Crick show this year; there’ll be more about this in due course.

After a late lunch, there was nothing for it but to get on with the maintenance. This consisted of two tasks: tightening the domestic alternator belt, which had started squealing when the engine started up, and pumping out the toilet tank. Both of these were completed with no more than the usual hassle and we were able to relax for the rest of the day fully possessed of a sense of virtue.

We woke this morning to find a quarter of an inch of ice on the canal. It seems unlikely that it will be as big a problem as it was in the New Year, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed that it doesn’t get any worse.

We walked down into Poynton to shop for fresh food and once more finished too soon to catch the bus back. We ended up walking back, which at least means that we’ve had a decent amount of exercise, and the loads were not too heavy as a result of the Ocado delivery strategy.

We’ve had quite a lazy afternoon, though a creative one. Sheila continues to crochet, and I’ve been roughing out some designs for the Beale Park Newsletter. Tomorrow, we’ll need to clean the boat ready for our viewing on Monday, and, if possible, we’ll pop down to the water point to refill the tank. This is provided that the ice remains broken after today's traffic has mashed it up.

Coping with stormy weather

18th & 19th November

We seem to have shifted from the Indian Summer of late October straight into the winter weather without stopping for autumn. We’ve had either classic high pressure winter days with clear blue skies, frosty nights and calm weather or ferocious storms with gales and torrential rain. (For the benefit of my handful of non-UK readers, we are in the latter mode at the moment, with a vengeance).

Yesterday, after brooding on it overnight and rechecking the weather forecast in the morning, we decided it was not going to be practical to take the boat to Marple. In particular, the forecast for today, Thursday, was atrocious with wind speeds up to 49 mph and heavy rain. I hunted about for a bus to get me there, but the only service available would have involved changing in Stockport.

Accordingly, I rang the physio clinic and changed the appointment to Monday. Yesterday things were not too bad in the morning, so we pulled out and went to the water point. All our planning had assumed that we would be able to shop at High Lane yesterday and Marple today. Clearly that wasn’t going to happen but after we’d watered the weather was only a little damp, so we went to High Lane anyway to get a newspaper and some sandwiches for lunch.

I don’t know whether it has anything to do with the A6 passing through, but High Lane has a good choice of lunch outlets. For those not looking for something with chips, the main options are Billy’s Butties (sausage in a bun type stuff) or Danny’s Deli (smoked ham and coleslaw in a barmcake). We opted for the latter and had a range of fillings which were all very good.

Internally refreshed, we set off back to Poynton in a flat calm and a light mizzly drizzle. I managed the turn into the mooring in a single move, which was just as well as, in the conditions, there wasn’t a ghost of an excuse for getting it wrong.

As forecast, the weather then deteriorated and we spent the rest of the day tucked up in the cabin.

It was incredibly windy overnight and continued so into the morning, but the threatened rain had been cancelled. We walked down into Poynton to get essential shopping; stocks of red wine and beer were desperately low. Having bought all we needed, we then hung about to catch the local bus, service 391, back to Higher Poynton. It stops just outside the pub The Boar’s Head, which is just a few minutes walk from the moorings. Its only drawback is that there’s just one an hour.

This took up most of the morning. After lunch Sheila sawed up some more firewood and we have again spent the rest of the time pottering about in the cabin. The weather forecast is still not good for the next few days, but it is at least a little better than the last 48 hours.

It looks as if there will be another comparatively calm spell tomorrow afternoon, which is just as well as we need to get a pump out before the end of the weekend. Tomorrow morning we’ll make our regular visit to the yard and take some more photos of Sanity Again. They were at last putting the portholes in when we came past today, so there should be some interesting stuff to show on the other blog tomorrow afternoon.

Catching up

4th to 7th November

The excitement of taking delivery of the shell has prevented me from doing a full post over here for a few days, so what follows are the highlights by way of a catch up.

For several nights, we’ve been puzzled by a curious harsh noise, could be mammalian, could be avian, usually heard during the night. The other evening we heard it much earlier and concluded that it must be a fox. Some research on the net found a site dedicated to fox noises, and we finally decided that it was the territorial bark of a dog fox. It may have been confused and alarmed by the fireworks going off all round, but being a fox I don’t suppose it took long for it to come to terms with it.

As part of our pre-tow preparations on Thursday, we filled the water tank and then went on to wind and return to the shop mooring for diesel, pump out and a gas cylinder. Peter Mason must have observed us on the water point because Sheila took a call from him as we went down to wind. He wanted us to take a spare shaft to High Lane with us for poling the shell out of the arm. Sheila was able to reassure him that we would be back and that we had already thought that he would want us to do that.

We duly filled, emptied and replaced that which needed filling, emptying and replacing and Matt from the yard popped a shaft on our roof. It pains me to say it once again but the Trading Post is really not very good value and it’s not surprising that the two coal boats (one of which also does pump out and diesel) find such ready customers within sight of the yard. It particularly irks me to pay £15 for a pump out, without Elsan fluid, that has a very sketchy rinse out.

We had the usual hanging about to do at High Lane at the North Cheshire Cruising Club. People there are very friendly, and several commented that they read this blog, which is gratifying as always. We seriously intend to join the NCCC, though the website is a bit vague about the membership categories and costs. An email to the Membership Secretary is clearly indicated.

The tow was accomplished without drama, which is the way we like it, but to the accompaniment of what the forecast called “showers, some heavy and prolonged” but what anyone else not resident in the monsoon zone would call fairly relentless, torrential rain. We had taken the precaution of putting on all our wet weather gear and only got a bit chilled towards the end of the day. (My right foot is an exception to this, but I’ll return to that in a moment.) Peter Mason and Graham Johnson were not so well attired and must have got very damp indeed.

As I’ve said elsewhere, and indeed the pictures show it, the shell is everything we could wish for and Tim Tyler is to be congratulated on one of his best jobs.

My right foot got wet because my Hi-tec boots bought a year ago in Stone have started leaking through the right heel. The heel is hollow like a fancy pair of trainers instead of being a decently solid bit of rubber, and the base has split. I admit our footwear has a hard time, but it does seem difficult to find boots that will last more than twelve months.

Yesterday, we were on our way to the recycling site when we stopped to chat to Peter and to the hirers of Skye who were waiting on the water point to return her. We heard two interesting stories as a result.

The first is the good news that Peter continues to receive a lot of enquiries about new boats. His order book is now such that the next build slot is in 2011.

The other was a humorous account from the hirers of trying to take Hatherton, the Ownerships boat in which they have a share, through the locks on the Huddersfield Broad. Technically those locks are 58’ long and since Ownerships boats are 58’ 6” it should have been easy to take her through on the diagonal. Hatherton must be over length, since she refused to fit into the lock. Her crew became aware of numbers of office workers in the nearby buildings observing their struggles. They obviously make a habit of doing this since after a while they held up signs which said “try going through backwards”.

Unfortunately, although this strategy worked, the thought of having to do it at each subsequent lock was so discouraging that they abandoned the trip and went somewhere else.

The rest of yesterday was taken up with photographing the shell (and stroking it a bit) and then sorting and uploading the pictures to Flickr and writing the covering blog post.

Today has been another day for relaxation although the weather has been much better. I’ve made a pot of chicken and celery soup, and otherwise we’ve been doing this and that in the boat.

It’ll be much the same tomorrow, then on Monday we are going down to Macclesfield again to collect my new spectacles.

Doing Braidbar stuff

16th & 17th September

Having got ourselves in position to tow the new Braidbar shell from the North Cheshire Cruising Club (hereafter NCCC) at High Lane, and given that it wasn't even due to arrive at the club before eleven, we had a lazy start yesterday, and a hanging about sort of morning.

At eleven, we found our way to the road access to the club, and hung about there, chatting to a club member, until first the shell on its trombo, and then the crane turned up. For those who don't know it, I should explain that the entry to the NCCC from the cut is under a towpath bridge into what looks like a short and narrow arm. In fact, the arm is a good deal longer than first appears, as it curves and then makes a right angle bend into a dock.

What we were missing was the team from Braidbar, consisting of Peter and Ian Grindrod. They eventually showed up, having had to come via Stockport to get a bit that needed to be fitted before the shell went in the water (long story which I won't repeat bore you with here).

There was then some more hanging about to be done whilst this part, a bowthruster, and the prop shaft and prop were all fitted. It became apparent that we would be boating over lunch, not a good idea for me, so I went to a local sarnie shop and bought a couple of roast pork baps, or barms as they call them in this part of the world, to keep us going.

In the event it was one o'clock before they were ready to lift, and then we had to shaft the shell out of the arm to the mainline, open up and start up Sanity, pick up the tow on cross straps and set off for Poynton.

The shell was 70 foot long and already had her Gardner engine in place (they put it in and build the shell round it). This made her even more reluctant to be steered than shells usually are, and Sheila had her work cut out at the back.

Peter ran Ian back to the yard in his car, borrowed a bike from Andy Russell the boat painter, and came and met us about half way home. He was then able to help fend off the shell from the bridge holes and moored boats en route.

Arriving back at Poynton by about two, we put the shell in the yard, several of us standing around in it to persuade it to go under that towpath bridge. After a cup of tea and a natter about plans for the Open Weekend, we also brought Sanity in. We finally got the second half of lunch at half four.

Being in the yard means we're in a position to help set up for the weekend, which has been a large part of today's fun. It's like setting up a Festival, but on a miniature scale. We've been tidying around the lawn, putting up a big frame tent and generally making the place look as spiffy as we can for the big day.

Hopefully a supply of bunting will arrive tomorrow or Friday, and that will help too.

Sanity's cratch board is now all fixed and mostly repainted; there's just a bit of touching in to do to the vertical line of diamonds on the cratch board. I spent the latter part of the afternoon refitting hinges, bolts and the like, which we'd taken the opportunity to polish up beforehand.

Whilst I was doing that, Sheila polished the starboard portholes, so the final job has been to put a couple of coats of Incralac on it all. It's not gone on as smoothly as I would like, mainly because it was the fag end of the afternoon, and I was knackered, but it looks OK, and will spare us the task of polishing it all again for a while.

It's going to be another quiet night tonight, I reckon. Tomorrow we have to shuffle boats around in the yard, and Braidbar 100 is due to arrive at some point, as the star of the show.

It's all good fun – I'm just a tad weary at the moment!

Drifting about for a couple of days

14th & 15th September

It was a fine morning yesterday, Autumnal with a hint of mist clearing to a bit of sun and a cool breeze. We were up and about betimes, but needed a pump out so had to wait until the Trading Post opened. Previously we'd have gone up to Marple and done it for ourselves, but we weren't sure of the state of the facilities there – the block had been reported closed a while back, and we'd heard nothing since.

In the event we had to wait quite a while. Of the two guys who run the TP, Kevin is away on holiday. Brian told us he was expecting some help, but it never materialised. Brian meanwhile had to induct the day's hirers of Comet, the day boat, as they were complete novices.

He eventually got round to seeing to us; we weren't in a hurry, in any event, as we only planned to go to the mooring beyond Bridge 8 we call Deer Farm Bend. Brian made a better effort than usual at rinsing the tank, but the fact remains that pouring water from a watering can down the Out pipe is no substitute for running water from a hose down the Rinse pipe. Coincidentally, Andrew Denny on Granny Buttons has just paid tribute to another pump out station that does attempt to do a proper job.

It's also irritating to be charged £15 for this less than spectacular service, especially as we don't use Elsan Blue, so they save a smidgen there into the bargain.

We finally got away at 10.15. Two things were noticeable as we went past the line of Long Term moorings. The first was how many of them are currently empty, a direct result of BW's barmy auction trial. In the old days, Luisa Bryceland as agent would have got on the phone to the folk at the top of her waiting list as soon as she knew she had a vacancy coming up, and it would be filled before the previous moorer had served his notice.

Now, there's a wait of at least five months whilst they put it up on the website, wait for bids, and finally do the deal with the successful bidder. I doubt, somehow, that they make enough in increased fees from the auction to compensate for the loss of nearly half a year's income.

The other thing that became all too apparent is that, since the engine was reassembled after replacing the drive plate, the tick over has increased by about 100 rpm, which is a lot in our terms. It meant that we fairly shot past the moored boats, and, to add insult to injury, the prop decided to sing loudly as we went.

There's not much we can do about BW's Department of Silly Ideas, but the other issue was tackled after lunch. I needed to do an oil change and stuff anyway, so took the opportunity to adjust the throttle cable at the same time. It meant going right to the end of the adjuster's thread, but it was nearly back at its previous revs by the time I'd finished.

A quiet evening followed, enlivened by the hoots of the local owl.

Today we had another lazy start. We knew that turning up early at Marple would be counter productive, and it's less than 30 minutes from Deer Farm Bend to the junction.

I spent the waiting time double checking what I'd done yesterday. I'm a purely self taught engineer, a Minor 1000 Traveller having featured prominently in my training, and I don't have the confidence to assume that the jobs I've done will be OK.

In this case, my unease about the level to which I'd topped up a battery cell proved justified, and removing a little electrolyte made me a happier man. All else seemed fine, and we pottered off to Marple. I'm pleased to say that the tick over is now much more the thing.

At Marple we followed a shop-coffee-shop-lunch sequence before coming back to High Lane ready to do a shell tow tomorrow.

It's been another peaceful afternoon, though just before sitting down to write this I realised that the anxious lad on the towpath had lost his football in the cut. Apparently his neighbour had kicked it out of the garden and it rolled down the bank above us into the water.

I tried heaving a long line at it for a bit, but such wind as there was, was blowing it into the offside reeds, so in the end we untied Sanity and shafted her across there. The ball promptly drifted away from us, but a bit of reverse on the engine brought it in reach of the boathook and it was recovered.

Good turn done for the day, we tied up again, Sheila went for a shower, and I sat down and wrote this.

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.

Ice breaking and admiring a new boat

14th & 15th December

We woke to an icy morning – the frost was thick enough to make getting on and off the boat tricky, especially getting up on the bow to let the line go.

We backed onto the water point, still with the shell tied outside us, and started filling up. Meanwhile, Peter and Jack moved Nocturne out onto the shop mooring, then collected the shell from us and started poling it into the yard. There was barely enough clearance under the bridge to get the bow under, and then the stern stuck – without ballast or the engine in the stern floats slightly higher than the bow end of the cabin.

Numbers of staff had to be transferred onto the shell from the bridge to lower her in the water enough to get in. Nocturne was then moved back into the centre of the yard.

We then set off in Sanity to go to High Lane – the plan was to overnight there, and then wait for Peter and Gill Harper to come along in the morning, giving Cala her first cruise. There was a fair bit of ice on the cut still – I reckoned not enough to imperil the blacking, but Sheila was less convinced. We made it to High Lane and moored near Mata Hari and Penny Peace.

Inspection of the bow showed that I had (for once) been right – there was no sign of scratching to the blacking. It was apparent, though, that another cold night would cause more of a problem for our proposed cruise to Bugsworth this weekend.

Just as I finished the catch up blog entry, and we started to get lunch ready, Mr Hooper on Anne came through the bridge 'ole ahead of us. Since we were getting low on fuel, we flagged him down and bought another 10 bags of PureHeat. The price has gone up as he warned us it would when we last bought from him on Bonfire Night weekend – it's now £7.60 for a 25 kg bag, up 60 pence in less than two months.

Later in the day I was gratified to see that the Granny Buttons blog had referred to my hints in the post about passing the BSC – thanks Andrew.

Today we woke to find that the cut was just starting to freeze over. By the time we'd had breakfast it was getting thicker, such that the idea of boating through it for any distance did not appeal. Yesterday I'd booked a table for Sunday lunch at the Navigation at Bugsworth, for ourselves and Peter and Jan. Rather than cancel it, Sheila rang her brother and arranged that they will pick us up from here tomorrow. It's less than 15 minutes by car from High Lane to Bugsworth, though about three and a half hours by boat, even without ice.

I then spoke to Peter Harper on Cala. They were still in the yard, so we walked back to Poynton to see them. We had a pleasant session admiring the new boat (which is very nearly finished), drinking tea and generally nattering about Braidbars, other boats and life on the cut.

Back at Sanity we had a belated lunch and a quiet afternoon. I started the engine to charge the batteries, and found with a weary sigh that once again the Victron is not charging as enthusiastically as it ought. We know the TravelPower is OK, as we've just had it expensively fixed, and the Victron charges fine from a shoreline, so there must be something in the interaction between the two.

For the moment I went back to charging from the 90 amp DC alternator, but it looks like we need some seriously expert advice about what is going on.

There's always something when boating.