Back to Foxton

The cunning plan was to pull Sanity Again back onto the services point (we were just round the corner from it) and do a pump out first thing, before the place got busy with Canal Boat Club turn rounds. This would have worked, except that the card reader on the pump out machine wouldn't accept the card I'd bought for this very purpose when we arrived.

So we hung about until the Union Wharf staff rolled up at half eight, when Malcolm started the pump for us and left us to it. This has the advantage, as Acen's crew has already observed in a recent comment, that you can carry on pumping and rinsing until you've got the tank as clean as you want. We ended up with the new gauge reading lower than we've yet seen it, so were well pleased with the final result.

Sanity Again was then winded the easy way. Sheila held the bow line through a ring on the wharf, and I motored the stern round. It helped that it's been pretty calm all day, mind, but it did all go like clockwork. (If you except my belief, I'm told, that Sheila can jump an eight foot gap. It seems I thought she could rejoin the ship a bit earlier than was feasible.)

The continuing warm and calm weather made for a pleasant potter back along the arm. A duvet cover was washed as we went along, and was just about done as we arrived at Foxton. Sheila was ready to swing bridge 4, but when we got there, there were a whole bunch of BW guys admiring it. Sheila's role seemed to be confined to switching the key switch that unlocks the barriers, and swinging the barriers closed. All the rest was done for her.

We've tied just beyond bridge 3, and I popped up to the shop to order a paper and a loaf of bread for the morning.

After lunch, we improved the shining hour by making the starboard side of the boat shiny too, and then took ourselves for a wander up the flight. Ice creams were indulged in at the top, and we've spent the rest of the day loafing on the bow. Tomorrow, we'll go up the flight and tie at the top, where Elanor is going to rendezvous with us.

W're dog sitting for the weekend whilst she does wrgie things at Eisey Lock on the Cotswold canals.

Last day in MH, and a reply from Debdale

The forecast was for rain later in the day, and Market Harborough has a half day on a Wednesday, in so far as any shop shuts for a half day these days.

Accordingly, half eight saw us on our way downhill again (though some would say we've been going downhill for a long time). The main thing we wanted was meat, and we found a butcher with a good range in the centre, not just the usual stuff but a wide variety of sausages and deli type things as well.

Back at the boat, we turned to and did some more cleaning. Sheila washed the bow and stern, and I had a go at the hard to get at bits of the loo. We also found time for some serious nattering with our fellow temporary moorers.

It has indeed rained after lunch, so we're just hoping that the forecast will also be right about tomorrow, when it's supposed to be dry again.

I've had a very courteous reply from Debdale Wharf. It's too long to quote in full here, but this is the nub of it:

As you may have noticed we are currently extending our wetdock workshop area, a new part of the building has very recently been erected and is part of a refurbishment of our canal frontage. When finished new signage will be prominent to passing boats and the access will be better for pump out and diesel.

We are currently upgrading our website as well. 

It was a shame that you were given the advice to proceed across the slipway, I read that your friends had forgotten that you did not need diesel.  As you can imagine leaning out over the cut with a heavy pumpout pipe can be a precarious experience so I do not think that asking you to move the boat in order to make the process safer is too much to ask.  Usually if a boat comes to us for pump out only then the wharf side is fine.  However if a boat needs diesel and a pump out the slip way is the best place to proceed as the hose for the diesel pump is of forecourt length and one can reach the boats pump out point, using our extremely long pump out hose, on either side of the boat.

With regard to our man, again I am sorry that whatever he said to you made you feel unwanted and uncared for. The other customer that he was dealing with at the time you came into the office did, when asked, report that the atmosphere was a little strained.  We cannot go through life expecting to get on with everyone and I know that he did try to engage you in conversation in the office but sometimes one can try too hard and make things worse. 

We always issue receipts to our customers.  I am afraid that this is the process and we do try to make every effort to be efficient. 

In response to your friends experience regarding the hire fleet and diesel, the hire fleet has not been in operation here for over 12 years and our operating practices have changed completely over that time.  To give the impression that that would happen again would be wrong and I would be grateful if you could inform your friend of this.

We do try very hard to make everyone who visits us feel happy and leave feeling as though they have had a good experience with us and it is upsetting to think that we cannot give that to 100% of our customers – I would very much like to meet the business that can! 

I appreciate your feedback about your experience and hope that you will receive better service from us the next time you are in the area. 

So, fair enough. It's unlikely that we'll be down that way again for a while, of course, but at least Mike Goode had the decency to respond as he did.

Tomorrow, we'll pump out first thing, to avoid getting in the way of the Canal Boat Club turn round, and then head back to Foxton.

Busy busy at Market Harborough

We've had a busy day here, taking advantage of our mooring and shoreline. The roof of the boat has been washed again, removing the sticky goo that dripped off a sycamore onto it at Syston, and we've washed the port side of the boat. A load of towels have been laundered, and we took in a large Sainsbury's delivery just before lunch.

This afternoon, we walked down into town to buy more potting compost (Wilko's best), and Sheila potted up the basil, coriander and surfinias. She plans to sew the last container with land cress and rocket seed, to give us some cut and come again salad leaves.

Not much more to say today, so here are some photos of Sanity Again in the basin:

Don't know how much the apartments cost

Services block just out of shot to the left

We're a bit overlooked, but it's not a problem

Into Market Harborough

We set off just a bit before eight today, Sheila steering and your correspondent swinging the bridges. The one at the mouth of the arm now seems to be working well, and the dreaded number 4 is showing the benefit of its refurbishment.

You used to have to scuttle about unlocking BW padlocks so as to be able to close the road gates, but that's all been replaced by a power cabinet; one turn of the key and they are unlocked. In addition, the bridge, which frankly was a swine to swing at times, now pivots quite easily.

Well done, BW.

We made good time, much of the reed beds having been cut back, and by quarter past nine were approaching the town. I rang Union Wharf, and was told by Debbie that three nights in the basin would be no problem, welcome news. The basic cost is £7.50 a night, but for an extra 50p you can have an electric hook up. The folk here are always welcoming, too.

This means that Sheila can catch up with the laundry, we can leave the Hurricane running all the time, and we've booked a Sainsbury's delivery for tomorrow morning.

We'll do a pump out as we leave; it's a BW machine, so we can do a thorough job, especially as the tank won't be much more than half full. This will enable us to get through Crick Show before we need another one.

We had a stroll down into town this afternoon, and acquired some more plants; basil and coriander for fresh herbs, and some surfinias for colour.

We've spent the rest of the day sitting out on the side of the wharf watching the Canal Boat Club hirers getting their instructions and setting off into the wide blue yonder. We're on Hadar's usual mooring by the Wharf Office, which is fun; a firm edge all the length of the boat, so no excuse not to do some boat washing over the next couple of days.

R & R in MH

It's a rest and recuperation day today here in Market Harborough, with perfect weather for it. Only downside is the slow connection, stopping me from uploading any photos, or doing much else on the web.

Main activity has been another trip to Sainsbury's, very first thing this morning; I only mention this to give me a chance to say thank you to John Stanton of nb Acen, who came and collected us in his car from the front of the store at half past eight. This meant that we could really stock up on the heavy stuff like milk, fruit juice and wine.

Oh, and we bought a hose reel for our new water hose; I must do a review post on the other blog sometime soon to talk about things like that.

We're off back up Foxton tomorrow; should be fun on the Saturday at the end of half term in decent weather, but we don't mind.

Hopefully a better connection tomorrow, therefore; meantime, if anything else happens, I'll tweet it. I'm quite getting into Twitter, must be my second adolescence coming out ;-}}. I'm amazed how quickly folk have started following my Twitter feed, including at least one name from the dim and distant past; hi, Jonathan.

Time to relax at Market Harborough

Phew, we made it to MH! What I had forgotten is the irony that the connection here at Union Wharf is rubbish, a slow GPRS, whereas the one at the top of Foxton was great. Heigh ho.

Meantime, many thanks to those posting their experiences of the various mobile internet services; do keep them coming.

You'll see that I have taken the plunge and got a Twitter account, and added a gadget at the top right of the blog page to show my last five tweets. This means that I can upload a quick tweet from the phone without having to get an internet connection. If you want to follow me on Twitter, there's a link to do that in the box as well.

The trip down Foxton worked well. We were up and about good and early, and waiting at the top by half seven. A quick chat with the lockie, who just needed to let some water down, and we were on our way down by ten to eight. We waited in the middle lay-by for two boats to come up, and then carried on down to the bottom.

The turn out of the bottom lock onto the Arm is very interesting in a 70 footer, but I made it in the end, albeit by putting the bow on the towpath opposite and motoring the stern round at one stage. Having a boat waiting on the mooring outside the shop didn't help.

Two hours along the arm, and here we are. The first folk we saw were John and Jo on Acen, so a cup of coffee was consumed with them before they moved Acen into the basin and we took their nice straight stretch just outside.

We've also been able to catch up with Keith and Jo on Hadar. It's great to see Keith looking so much better, and we look forward to showing them round Sanity Again sometime in the next day or so.

One moan; bridge 4, the swing bridge, is now almost impossible to swing. We've been told that if enough people complain about it, it will be fixed open, as the road over it isn't really needed.

Much shopping to do tomorrow. John, that excellent chap, has offered us a lift back from Sainsbury's tomorrow; aren't boaters great?

Mixed fortunes

30th & 31st May

It was another gloriously sunny morning yesterday, and we found ourselves awake at six. I'm glad we did, as it enabled us to hear Mo Dutta's final Saturday morning programme. He's being replaced by Zoe Ball next week, which is a shame; she's not a patch on Mo as an early morning presenter. The claim is that this increases diversity, as Zoe will join Sarah Kennedy as the only two female regular DJs on the station, but they are losing the only Hindi DJ I know of to do it.

The morning took a turn for the worse when I managed to drop Sheila's varifocal glasses in the cut. She'd put them in an outside pocket of my daysack as we prepared to raid the shops. I put the daysack on top of the slide whilst I locked up, and when I swung it off there to put on my shoulder, the case with the glasses inside flew out.

The case floated, but the glasses had already ejected from it, and so disappeared for ever into the murky waters. We didn't even try to fish for them, having seen far too many unsuccessful endeavours in that line down the years.

Fortunately, they were only varifocal because some optician many years ago had persuaded Sheila that she should have them. She only needs specs for close work, and wore these for shopping and computing, so as to be able to read print and see at a distance.

In town we found a chemist selling over the counter glasses, and bought a pair to Sheila's prescription that had half lenses, so that she can look over them when she wants to focus in the distance. At £12, they were a good deal cheaper than replacing the varifocals.

We did another heavy shopping, and made it back to the boat to recover with a cup of coffee. Then it was back in again, for the last time. Elanor rang as we were getting lunch, so I asked her to get me a slab of Marston's Pedigree from the brewery shop.

A lazy afternoon in the sun followed, with odd jobs being done from time to time, to the noise of the washing machine chugging away whilst we were on the shoreline.

Elanor rolled up around four, bearing crucial post such as our voting papers and the beer. She didn't stop for dinner, as she wanted to get back – it had only been an hour's drive from Burton to Market Harborough.

Today was yet another glorious day. We sorted out unloading the rubbish and recycling, topped up the water tank, posted our votes and set off by 8.15. I'd had a conversation with the guy at the Canaltime base about diesel splits, but he told me that they don't sell diesel at all, just keep enough to refuel their own boats.

It was very pleasant indeed to chug along the much improved arm. This used to be realAfrican Queen country, and I once had an exchange of emails with Robin Evans at BW about it, but they really have sorted it, dredged, reeds cut back, overhanging trees removed.

At one point Sanity was doing the full four miles an hour. There you go – one email from me, and things get done. (Oh yeah?)

When we got to Foxton it was comparatively quiet still, though I bet it got busier later. We turned right and headed north for only the second time Sanity has cruised these waters. We'd planned to diesel and pump out at Debdale Wharf, following Brian's helpful comment about them, but they were shut. A boater on the towpath said that they only opened on Saturdays, but I presume he meant on the weekend. We had thought about stopping there over night to get fuel the next morning, but there were already two boats on the outside service wharf, and another on the one in the marina.

We've got a few days space in the toilet tank yet, and most of half a tank of fuel, so we'll wait until Thurmaston to do it.

Saddington Tunnel was passed without incident. Sheila stood on the bow looking for the bats that are supposed to be in there, but saw only some bat boxes; presumably they were all tucked up inside these.

We've tied by Bridge 73, from which it's a short walk to Fleckney. We did it just to suss out the route, and picked up a jar of pickle in the Co-op so as to have something to show for it.

We also found a geocache that's right by the bridge, and dropped off a Travel Bug, collecting a geocoin in exchange.

Tomorrow it's the 12 locks down to Kilby Bridge, then the day after we'll make an early start to get through Leicester in one day, probably finishing at Thurmaston.

Gosh, it's a bit hot

28th & 29th May

A bit of a collection of stuff today, as I type this in Market Harborough's Union Wharf, on a very pleasantly warm day.

First off, HMRC. I've had this reply from them:

The intention of the new scheme was for the supplier of fuel to pay to HMRC the duty on the fuel declared as being used for propulsion by the user of the private pleasure craft. In the normal course of events we would have expected Kate Boats Warwick Ltd to collect the duty based on your 30/70 declaration.

It is not clear from your email whether the insistence on using a 60/40 split was due to the supplier not believing your declaration or whether his accounting system was unable to cope with your declared usage. Unfortunately as far as HMRC is concerned our prime concern is that all revenue collected by a supplier is paid to the department and since we have no reason to question that, and since the supplier did make it clear to you what he intended to do, I do not believe that you have any recourse other than using a different supplier for future purchases.

There is no machinery for recovering any element of this duty from HMRC.

In simpler terms: "Tough luck, shove off." I had a chat about it with Ivor Caplan of RBOA at Crick, but he seemed quite uninterested in the issue, and said that RBOA has no plans to keep an up to date webpage of suppliers who do or do not allow boaters to declare their own split of propulsion versus domestic use. I must say I'm disappointed in this response (from RBOA, the one from HMRC surprises me not at all.)

If only Nabo's website would work from my internet connection, I'd be tempted to give up on RBOA and change my allegiance. I'll see if I can put together a comprehensive list of websites giving useful advice on this topic and add it to my web page of favourite and unpopular boatyards and marinas.

Yesterday we had a good day's boating on a cloudy but warm morning. We saw a quail on the towpath, which I think is a first for us.

We stopped between bridges 56 and 57, just short of Lubenham Lodge. It's quiet there, and there's a good view across the valley. In the afternoon, we walked on to Foxton, picking up a geocache on the way, then carried on down the flight and found another (at cost of some nettling) on the towpath leading towards Market Harborough. En route, we saw a grass snake swimming in the restored top arm of the lift.

We stopped at the top of the locks on the way back to eat a delicious ice cream apiece, then ambled back to the boat for cups of tea and a quiet afternoon. I did a post on the Building Sanity Again blog about stuff we'd decided after Crick, and we had drinks and dinner sitting outside.

Truly, summer has arrived.

Today, this was confirmed by a gloriously sunny morning. We set off at eight, arriving at the top of Foxton half an hour later. We went down the first two locks, then waited in a queue for a Canaltime to come up the lower five and pull over into the passing place.

Then we all set off down, emerging from the bottom lock at half nine. There was a substantial queue waiting to go up, but I managed to slide through them all without contact and go through the new swing bridge, which is now in action.

By twelve we'd got to Market Harborough, found a mooring in the basin, hooked up the electricity and paid the very reasonable £5.50 per night for mooring with shoreline.

We've been down into town this afternoon to start restocking the stuff we used whilst at Crick. Elanor is coming over tomorrow with our postal voting papers, and on Sunday we'll be off again, heading north for Leicester, Loughborough, Nottingham, Newark, Lincoln and Boston.

I think that constitutes a "genuine journey around a substantial part of the system".