Sorted screens

Another leisurely start, in fact a two Killer Sudoku start, then a further trip into town for shopping. It may seem we've been doing a lot of that, but our next opportunity for serious supermarket shopping will be Stone in about a week's time on present planning.

We'd not been long back at the boat when Dave Miller from Cabincare rang to say he'd finished our flyscreens and to ask could he come round straightaway to fit them. It took him perhaps 45 minutes to do the four screens and they are just fine.

Each one is in a cassette, in the case of the side hatches screwed to the face of the frame. This is the saloon hatch.

And this the dinette

The actual screen is a fine black mesh, easily seen through.

The Houdini cassettes are fitted inside the existing frame so as not to reduce headroom. This is the galley

And this the bedroom. The screen is on a spring roller – a quick pull on the handles and it slides back into the casing.

We've been relaxing after lunch. Sheila is making great progress with the replacement porthole doilies and we had a call from Elanor. She had been doing one of her periodic visits to the marina to check out the lodge and to collect our post. She'll meet us at Tixall this weekend to deliver some beer supplies and the accumulated post.

Tomorrow, off we go again, heading for Deptmore after refilling the water tank here.

Tricky trip to Filance

Actually, most of it was straightforward, an eight o'clock start, myself steering and Sheila locking. She had to turn Brick Kiln and as I slotted Sanity Again into the lock, a towpath walker stopped and had a long conversation with her. It was to the effect that the pound below was very low, so low, in fact, that the GRP cruiser coming along was struggling. Her lockwheelers arrived as we got the gates shut and the lock emptying.

The pound was indeed well down with substantial muddy beaches showing on the offside. Once the bottom gates were open, I set off to get out but soon stopped dead. The radios came into their own here, allowing me to ask for a flush from the top paddles. With them drawn, out we swam and I signalled to drop them only to run hard aground immediately below.

More flushing was needed, after which I was able to make a snail's progress down the centre of the channel. From time to time, sinister grinding noises would occur and once the boat leant over a shade as she slid across something on the bottom.

When Sheila got to Boggs Lock, it had emptied itself through the leaking bottom gates so she waited until the boat's bow was almost on the top gates before drawing the top paddles and refilling the lock. As so often, there was better depth immediately above the lock and we were still floating when the lock was full.

Now came the tricky, not to say dangerous bit. With just a short pound behind me, the risk was that Sanity Again would get most of the way into the lock, stick with her back end on the top cill and sit there whilst the water draining through the bottom gates lowered the pound so much that she submarined and sank.

I gave a sigh of relief when we were fully in the lock and I could use the cabin shaft to hold her forward of the cill. Sheila took over that task whilst I dropped the offside paddle. With the top gate closed, the bottom paddles could be drawn by the lockwheelers who had appeared from a boat below.

The rest of the run was comparatively straightforward. Sheila walked the lot as we went down Rodbaston and Otherton locks and then she scouted the moorings by the Cross Keys above Filance. We've come through the bridge onto the 5 day moorings between there and Filance Lock. It was now ten o'clock.

After a coffee and a chance to relax, we went into the village, walking along the towpath to the bridge just above the lock, then straight down that road into the village centre. A raid on the Sainsbury's Local got all the urgently needed stuff like bread and tomatoes – we'll go back tomorrow morning to the Co-op for other supplies.

We've spent the afternoon relaxing on the bow (I nearly said 'chilling out' but that would be completely misleading). Folk wander past and there's been a lot of boat traffic, so plenty to keep us entertained. Reading Number One just now, I reached a bit where Foxon reports spending the night at Filance, arriving just in time to get a drink at The Cross Keys. It's great to have such a sense of connection with the carrying days.

We'll probably be here for a few days, depending on what we decide about fly screens.

From the Sow to the Penk

We didn't need to get going too quickly this morning as I wanted to call in at Midland Chandlers, so we didn't want to be at Park Gate before nine. In the event, a recalcitrant Killer Sudoku made sure this wasn't going to be a problem and it was half eight before we set off.

The heat wave is definitely over and it's back too wearing fleeces outside. Round Acton Trussell we plodded, past all the end of garden and Moat House moorings. By the time we got to Shutt Hill lock there was a boat in front of us and one behind. Sheila's lockside conversations elicited the information that we are all heading for Stourport.

With the Four Counties Ring severed at Middlewich, it looks like Stourport may be in for a busy season. The Shroppie's a nice canal, but not many would relish the thought of crawling past all those offside moorings just to have to crawl back past them coming back the other way.

After a bit, the wind dropped a shade and the sun struggled through, making things just a little more pleasant. Shopping done at MC, we carried on, now fourth in line at Longford lock. It was gone eleven by the time we tied on our regular mooring a bit below Penkridge lock opposite the park homes.

A quick canter down into the village, towing the wheelie basket, round Sainsbury's and the Co-op and back to the boat by 12.15. We got most of what we wanted, missing out on topping up the fruit juice and beer as there wasn't a very good choice. We'll be at Compton in three days' time where there's a much larger Sainsbury's.

After lunch I used the small screws I'd got in MC to mount the framed picture of a wren that's been hanging around ever since we bought it at the Trading Post in Poynton last September. It neatly covers the screw holes left where I took down the cantilever arm that held the monitor for the Mac Mini.

Tomorrow, on to Gailey, in the rain, probably.

Pottering at Penkridge

Despite the comparative proximity of the M6, it’s always very peaceful when tied above Deptmore Lock and last night was no exception. We even overslept very slightly, but since there was plenty of time for matutinal coffee drinking whilst boating to the first lock, this was of no consequence. It proved to be another very pleasant couple of hours’ boating through Shutt Hill, Park Gate and Longford Locks to tie in our usual spot opposite the park homes of Penkridge.

We were all sorted by ten and had another coffee before setting out to visit the village centre. After a call at the bank, we explored the Wednesday Market, but didn't buy anything. It’s a fairly average sort of weekly market and well patronised by the locals. Visits to Sainsbury’s and the Co-op met our shopping needs, plus a call into the pharmacy actually found some moleskin.

It’s interesting that in the course of a phone call from son Graeme last night, he’d agreed that moleskin wasn't often available these days, the more modern Compeed products being preferred. Soldiers, of course, are experts in the care of the feet and the management of new boots, so I’ve no doubt he is right. Apparently, the squaddies use plain zinc oxide plaster as a prophylactic against sore feet.

So, the great moleskin hunt is over. Can't seem to find Chinese leaf anywhere, though…

We’ve been loafing in the boat during the afternoon, rather, reading and doing puzzles and Sheila advanced my Guernsey a little further. The weather has been ok so far, but looks rather threatening now – I shouldn’t be surprised if we have some heavy showers in the next few hours. Hopefully, such rain will reduce the number of small flies plaguing us here. We’ve had to rig the fly screens in all the hatches for the first time this summer.

We need to fill the water tank, so plan to lock up onto the service point first thing tomorrow and eat breakfast whilst the tank is filling, as we did last time we were here in April.

Location:Penkridge

We're up to Penkridge

The forecast good weather did indeed materialise this morning – it was almost a pity that we didn't have a very long day's boating in prospect. No matter, we set off a bit after eight as usual with three locks between us and Penkridge. Acton Trussell is one of those villages that sounds more romantic that it is in reality. The guides describe how James Brindley is believed to have used the moat of the local manor house as part of the canal and I well recall how excited I felt the first time we approached the place.

Trouble is, what was the manor house is now a hotel and restaurant of smart but unexceptionable appearance, so that the most exciting thing about Acton Trussell nowadays is that it rhymes with Darcey Bussell. (Strange the odd thoughts that pop into your mind whilst steering.) The standout feature of the place today was the long line of largely pleasant anglers on the towpath opposite.

A little further on and it was time to drop Sheila to work Shutt Hill lock, which was a) against us and b) had its top gate standing open. Still, it didn't slow us down, much, and another boat turned up below as we worked up. The lockwheeler kindly closed the gate for us, so that Sheila could hop aboard as we left the lock. It's always good to meet with fellow boaters who observe the minor courtesies.

By Park Gate we'd caught up with the working pair that were ahead of us and who'd passed us on our mooring yesterday afternoon. Presumably they are on their way to Ellesmere Port for the Easter Gathering of working boats, but they'll have to get a wiggle on to do it in time. I'm sure it can be done but they'll have to do the length of the Shroppie in about three days flat.

Sheila has at times walked from Park Gate to Longford, the last lock before Penkridge, but chose to ride this time, remembering that we needed to walk into the village to buy some supplies before lunch. There was loads of room when we got here just before half ten and we've tied in our usual spot opposite the park home site.

It's a pleasant stroll down into the village on a sunny morning. We found most of what we wanted in a nearly deserted Co-op, then remembered that there's now a Sainsbury's Local store further down. It has an ATM and the supplies of cash were getting a bit low so we carried on down there. I nipped into the store for a nice multiseed loaf for today and some peppers that the Co-op didn't have.

Back at the boat there was just time for stowage and a brief sit down before eating lunch. The afternoon has mostly been spent sitting in the well deck reading, doing puzzles and knitting. Sheila tells me that my Guernsey has advanced by a further eight rows as a result (Guernseys grow only slowly, being knitted on fine needles with an equally fine yarn).

Sadly, this hot spell is due to finish today and we will be heading on to Gailey tomorrow in much cooler and cloudier conditions.

Location:Penkridge

Damp sort of day

It's not rained as hard as was first forecast, but it's been damp-to-mizzling all day, so we were glad to have decided not to move. There have been a fair few boats on the go – it's been by no means an impossible day for it – but we were due a day off and it's done us good to loaf about a bit.

It's not been all idleness. I walked down to the village again after breakfast to get some bits and bobs we'd overlooked yesterday and after coffee we took a walk up the canal to see who was about. A couple of Braidbars have been spotted; Roquette went through this morning and Hazel has just gone by just now.

This afternoon we gave the boat a bit of a sweep through. A lot of the towpaths have been mown this week and dried grass has been building up in the nooks and crannies of the floor. It wasn't a major clean, but the inside looks a lot better for it. It's not been necessary to run the engine as the batteries have only just got down to 90% charge. We'll be doing some serious cruising tomorrow and especially on the day after so should get them back up to full whack easily enough.

I promised to talk about the Aeropress, not that any of you have reminded me... We're very pleased with the quality of coffee produced by the Nespresso but a) it needs the engine running when not on shoreline and b) I'd noticed that it didn't run terribly smoothly when powered from the inverter. It still worked but I did wonder if it was all that good for it. In addition, even the Inissia takes up a bit of space in the galley.

Following a discussion on CWDF, I bought an Aeropress. At £25 including a good supply of filter papers it didn't break the bank. It uses ground coffee, preferably fine ground but ordinary cafetière grind will do, and it doesn't use electricity. The flavour isn't as good as the Nespresso but is still streets ahead of instant. The Nespresso will live in the lodge as suits our luxurious lifestyle in there. Well, after 12 years on a boat, it feels luxurious to us...

Tomorrow, we'll have a cup of tea first thing then work up the lock to the water point. Breakfast will be taken whilst the tank is filling then we'll carry on up to Gailey, probably tying below Gailey lock as usual. The day after, we'll make the run to Coven and tie by the Fox and Hounds. That's another pub that got a bit hammered in the Owners' Group pub guide but it seems popular with others. Any comments, folks?

And we're at Penkridge

Since the weather forecast again indicated that it would be dry today and wet tomorrow, we've come on to Penkridge, making a fairly lazy start. It's only a couple of hours from the top of Deptmore to the towpath moorings below Penkridge Lock, so we didn't want to leave before eight.

Now that Sheila can get her boots on over her rapidly recovering foot, she insisted on doing the locks whilst I steered. Standing still for long periods of time is still not a good idea for her as it encourages her foot to swell. We had a very pleasant run in cool and occasionally damp conditions – we ended up wearing fleeces with a light waterproof over the top.

We did indeed get here just after ten to find that there was plenty of room opposite the park home site. After a coffee, we walked down into the village to get some shopping in. Excellent bread from Jasper's, then a visit to the Sainsbury's Local (good stuff but limited stock) and finally a few other bits from the Co-op.

By the time we got back we were quite well exercised and ready for lunch. Not a lot has happened since. There continues to be quite a bit of traffic going by, including Ian from New and Used having a boatman's holiday in his smart trad boat, Clytie. That's quite a classical name, Ian (Clytie was the daughter of Oceanus who loved and was abandoned by Helios, the sun god. Eventually she was turned into the heliotrope, a flower which tracks the sun across the sky).

We had thought about having a meal out here, but the pub nearest us, The Boat, has some very poor recent reviews on Trip Advisor and the other canalside pub, the Cross Keys, was slated in the Owners' Group pub guide. There are a lot more down the hill in the village but a) Sheila doesn't feel able to walk that far in sandals yet and b) it's going to rain this evening.

So we're having Cajun chicken on board instead. Assuming it does rain tomorrow, we'll stay put here and move on on Wednesday.

But who knows?

Into the valley of the Penk

We'd estimated two and a half hours for today's cruise, so set off just before half seven. In the event, we did it quite a bit faster and only just had time to get the wash load done. Partly this was because not only were the first three locks with us, someone had left the top gates open. Although this was very handy for us and saved Sheila, who was lockwheeling, a bit of trouble, it's really not a good idea when the gates are in the poor condition these ones are.

At every lock, either the top or the bottom gates are leaking like fury – it's just as well that the Staffs and Worcs is well supplied with water, courtesy of the beer drinking habits of the citizens of Wolverhampton. (The canal, along with the Shroppie, is fed from the water treatment works either side of Autherley Junction.)

Sheila managed to get the washing machine running between Rodbaston and Otherton locks, aided by me taking my time on tickover. Fortunately, the weather at that stage was very pleasant indeed, a little breezy, perhaps, but warm and occasionally sunny. Since then, from just before we stopped, indeed, it's been intermittently wet and the wind much more gusty.

We'd tied by ten, had an early coffee and then took recycling to the skips before walking down into the village to do a bit of shopping at the butcher, the baker (excellent bread there) and, inevitably, the Co-op. It's been a quiet afternoon, catching up with some IT chores and reading and relaxing. 44 years ago, it was tipping it down in Aberdeen. The wedding photos show distinct footprints in the red carpet where Sheila and her father went into King's College chapel.

44 years, eh, who'd have thought she'd put up with grumpy old me for so long? Ah well, as Chuck Berry said, "C'est la vie", say the old folks, it goes to show you never can tell".

Just to finish, the Spread Eagle: it's a 15 minute walk from the canal, alongside the A5 and then an 'interesting' crossing of the A449 to get to the pub, but once there, it's good value. It's very much a Marston's Carvery chain pub, but the service was friendly and prompt and the food decent quality. And it's very good value both for the drink and the food, as long as you stay off the Peroni. Sheila's garlic mushrooms were decently meaty and not over cooked and I had an interesting starter, pork and chorizo taquitos. Basically, two tortilla wraps deep fried so that they were crispy crunchy and filled with a spicy meaty mix. The medium size plate was just right at the carvery.

We'd go back again if it wasn't for that walk...

Step we Gailey

Sorry. After feeling a bit under the weather yesterday, what with the heat and humidity, I'm a lot better today and so a bit even more pathetic humourwise. I forgot to give the answer to the day before's question last time: There's No Business Like Show Business first occurs in the earlier musical Annie Get Your Gun and White Christmas was first sung by Bing in the musical Holiday Inn, so in each case a successful number spawned a completely new film.

We thought at first we weren't going to get away today. I woke still feeling a bit dopey and dizzy and the boat was leaning over, well aground. At five o'clock I threw some clothes on and walked down to Longford Lock, expecting to find a paddle up or a gate left open, but all was well. The pound, however, was a good foot to eighteen inches down and all the moored boats aground. It might be that a paddle had been left up and another boater had sorted it before I got there. Either that, or that pound leaks atrociously.

The walk did me some good, so after a cup of tea we had breakfast and considered our options. It was possible to push Sanity Again away from the towpath back into deep water and the weather didn't seem too bad, so we set out, working up Penkridge Lock and stopping to water above. Crafty Foxes from Mercia came by as we were doing this and then preceded us up the remaining locks to Gailey.

In turn, we worked up Filance, Otherton, Rodbaston, Boggs and Brick Kiln to tie just in front of Crafty Foxes below Gailey. It's nicer down here than above the lock, much more open and with a better width of channel outside us. Once we'd tied and the washing machine had finished its stuff, we had a walk up there.

There are just a few boats on the long term moorings and only one on the visitor provision. Meantime, these moorings have filled up – all right, another boat arrived. Traffic continues to be steady rather than heavy, with a few hirers setting off from the yard.

We went up to the Round House after lunch to indulge in ice creams but otherwise have largely been loafing, though Sheila has done the month end financial chores. Tomorrow, another easy day, up the final lock onto the summit and then on to Coven Heath.

Warm again at Penkridge

We had a nice cool night at Deepmore and weren't in a rush to get going this morning, with only a short run to Penkridge in prospect. It was a classic summer's morn:

Setting off at eight, we made short work of the run through Acton Trussell, up Shutt Hill, Park Gate and Longford locks to our usual mooring on the towpath a bit below Penkridge lock. There was just a nice amount of traffic about once more and no trouble finding a mooring here at ten, though they've filled up a bit since. After a pause for much needed coffee, we walked down into the village and did a bit of shopping in the Co-op. It's not as well stocked as some, but still perfectly adequate to our needs for perishables. Not much choice of tomatoes, though.

Back at the boat we've lurked inside for most of the day, both before and after lunch. It's turned very warm again, quite debilitating, with heavy rain forecast for overnight so it looks as if we shall have to endure being all shut in. We've got all the hatches and slides open to try and keep the temperature as low as we can.

Tomorrow, on to Gailey having first topped up the water tank above the lock here.

 

White rabbit time

Oh my ears and whiskers, I'm late…

This is because we've just passed a very pleasant afternoon on board Eleventh Heaven, catching up with Chris and Les.

We'd had a quick run from Deptmore; Sanity Again is moving very nicely through the water here. Either this is because we've now got the right prop in the right place, or because CRT have been dredging along here or a bit of both. At one point Sheila was actually breaking the speed limit by doing 4.2 mph and had to ease back on the throttle.

All three locks, Shutt Hill, Park Gate and Longford were with us. We saw just a couple of boats coming the other way and had no trouble finding a mooring in our usual spot below Penkridge Lock. Not stopping for a coffee we nipped into the village and got the usual bread, paper and so on. There's now a Sainsbury's Local in Penkridge as well as the good sized Co-op, so lots of shopping choice. The best bread still comes from Jasper's, the really traditional baker – I had to queue for about ten minutes just to get into the shop, so busy were they.

After lunch and my post prandial doze we set out for a walk and to see if we could find Eleventh Heaven. They were tied above Filance Lock; the boat was all locked up when we passed, but her crew had returned as we came back from the limit of our stroll to Otherton Boat Haven.

As I said, we then spent the rest of the afternoon with them, scoffing Victoria sponge and quaffing cups of tea.

As soon as I've done this it'll be time to get the dinner sorted and some beers opened, so forgive me if I'm not spending loads of time here.

/wahaha

Tomorrow, onwards to Gailey. Or gaily onwards, I guess.

Sorry, couldn't resist it, must be the sponge.

Pottering at Penkridge

We've swept enough hair to make two small dogs out of the boat, and changed the bed, but we're still finding little reminders of Sally lingering about the place. We've stayed where we are today and did a couple of shopping trips into the village.

Couldn't get any meat from either of the butchers, they were both closed. It looks like they just don't open on a Monday. We managed to get enough to keep us going from the Co-op, fortunately, as the next opportunity will be Coven, and we're not rushing to get there.

That wretched jet stream seems to have drifted south again, as we've had some serious showers today and the forecast for the next few days is wet and occasionally windy. Heigh ho, we'll just have to make the best of it, obviously. It's a shame, as the bit from Gailey to Coven is very pleasant in the sun.

Tomorrow, we'll make an early start and fill the water tank at the water point above the lock. As part of the de-Sallying process, Sheila has quite a bit of washing to do.

On a completely separate issue, we had a bit of a fright with Sheila's Kindle. It froze the other day, when she'd been giving it a lot of instructions close together and overwhelmed its little processor, poor thing. I got it to restart by holding the slide switch across for five seconds, but over the past two days she complained that the Home screen was behaving oddly. It usually moves the most recently accessed collection to the top of the first page, but instead it was moving it to page 3.

After rummaging about on the Kindle help pages on the Amazon site, I did a hard reset. That means turning it off in the ordinary way (ie to the standby screen) then sliding and holding the on/off switch across for 15 seconds (time it, it's longer than you think).

It then did a complete reboot, and all was well. The Collections show up as being empty for a moment, but soon remember what they are supposed to have in them.

So, for Kindle owners out there, if in doubt, do a hard reset!

Hanging around Penkridge

Considering it's been a recovery day, I feel quite weary, and so does Sally, who at present is lying crashed out in the galley. (This is to give us the message that she's seriously underfed, and needs more rations tonight. In your dreams, Sal.)

We did have a very lazy start by our standards, as the dog wouldn't let us get out of bed. She'd joined us round about six, and we all dozed off again. I finally took her out for a first thing pee at seven, and then we retired back to bed, in the case of the humans with a cup of tea. It was eight o'clock before we finally managed to wriggle out from under 35 kg of dozing Doberman.

Sheila took the pooch for a walk, whilst I made a first foray into Penkridge for supplies. We arrived back together, and Sheila went into the village for a second round of shopping. This included some really nice silk roses, with which she has filled our prize rose bowl, and very good it looks too.

There was still time before lunch to take some photos for the photo round of the Owners' Weekend quiz. Here's one I'm not using (it's too difficult):

What part of Sanity Again is this?

The photo was taken without dismantling anything, but it is an unusual view of the item.

After lunch, we walked Sally back to Park Gate Lock, and I got some stuff from Midland Chandlers, a couple of hooks to replace damaged ones, and a grill to improve further the ventilation of the domestic alternator. One of the hooks proved to be a wrong choice, as the back plate didn't match the one I was replacing, so it was a case of trekking back there to get a refund.

No wonder I'm tired, come to think of it.

No matter, a haircut, a shower and cook dinner and I'll be able to have a beer with a clear conscience.

Good bye GCD & A, hello again, Sally

We had a really good night last night, once the grandkids had settled down. After a meal and a drink together, three of us went up to the club bar, leaving Cathy babysitting (at her request, she had a book she wanted to finish.)

As we'd been told, the club members were very welcoming, and the Pedigree was in very good nick. We've applied to join as Associate Members.

This morning, our visitors packed up and left, so by nine we were getting some diesel and a cylinder of propane (both very reasonably priced) before setting off ourselves. We made it to Penkridge by one, a bit longer than we'd usually take, but we were having to queue for the locks after Deptmore.

Plenty of room on the towpath below Penkridge Lock, though, so we're comfortably ensconced for a couple of days.

Elanor brought Sally over mid afternoon, as she's off with wrg this weekend.

On Sunday, we'll probably move on up to Gailey, then on Monday we'll be cruising seriously again, up the Staffs and Worcs to Autherley, then down the Shroppie, just as we did earlier in the year. This time, though, we'll carry on past Nantwich, turning right at Barbridge, and so onto the T&M again at Middlewich.

There are 12 boats and 31 people booked to attend the Braidbar Owners' Weekend and Open Day this year, so it sounds like it's going to be another good one. If you want to see what Braidbars are all about, come along to the yard on Saturday 10 September.

Penkridge again

It's one of our favourite villages, and today we are here on market day for the first time. To be frank, it wasn't a desperately impressive market, large but very unenterprising, but fun to stroll round all the same. We also visited the butcher and finally got some chicken, as well as a couple of nice looking pork steaks. Following that, a visit to the Co-op topped up the supplies sufficiently to get us through to Rugeley in a few days time.

The run down here was uneventful; we stopped at the top of Gailey to top up the water tank, the tap pressure there being good, and then followed another boat all the way down to Penkridge, Sheila steering and myself locking as planned.

Most of the locks are in reasonable nick, though a couple have badly leaking bottom gates and Filance Lock has a couple of "pissers" in the left hand wall as you descend which are quite spectacular. Close all windows if your boat has them.

[A pisser is a void behind the lock wall, which fills up with water when the lock fills and then empties itself in a Mannequin Pis style stream all over the boat descending the lock. There is a, I suspect apocryphal, story about the late Queen Mother being taken by boat to the opening of the Stratford canal. As they descended a lock, she was hit on the back of the neck by just such a stream.

HM QM: "Oh, what was that?"
David Hutchings (embarrassed): "Er, it's a pisser, ma'am."
HM QM: "It certainly is, but what's it called?" ]

The weather, having been quite horrible this morning, cold, damp and windy, is slowly improving, and we are promised better stuff for the weekend, so here's hoping. Lots of a baby ducklings here, so the drakes of the other week must have had their wicked way in the end.

Summer continues in Penkridge

Another night with the Houdini propped open, another early(ish) start saw us heading for Penkridge, getting a cheerful wave from the guy in the very small GRP cruiser tied in front of us who came round to borrow a jar of granulated last night (I kid you not).

It was pretty straightforward boating in ideal conditions, no wind, blue sky, warm sun. And it's still March, the clocks haven't even gone on yet...

There's been a certain amount of traffic about, though most of the hire boats are still in their yards. BW were loading a workboat at the foot of Park Gate Lock, by Midland Chandlers and Teddesley Boats, but as soon as we'd gone past and into the lock they winded and set off in the other direction. MC had had a Freaky Friday discount day last Friday – are they feeling the pinch and having to discount stock to get it moving?

There was plenty of room on the moorings below the lock; we'd started a washload on the way, and had to leave the engine running for a bit whilst it finished rinsing and spun down. It's mostly out on the whirligig now, drying in the continuing fine weather, though it's clouded over a bit this afternoon. Another three boats have rolled up this afternoon, so I think we'll be making another early start tomorrow.

We did a good shop in town, finding the other butcher on the main road (I went off the one nearest the Co-op last time I was here on my own, when he short changed me, and I found his meat a bit average into the bargain).

The real turn up for the books is that BW have repaired the towpath on the lock landing below Penkridge Lock. This was the one they'd fenced off, the collapse was getting so bad, so it's a real boost to see that they can still find the cash to do some much needed repairs.

Elanor phoned this afternoon; our census form has arrived, and she's texted us the number code to use to fill in the census online.

And finally... as I was typing this post, Sheila was outside cleaning the windows. A group of three came past, Mum, Granny and small child. They were carrying a mallard duck, and explained that they'd rescued it "because two drakes were trying to drown it". As Sheila says, how do you start to explain? There's a photo here if any of you haven't a clue as to what I'm on about...

They carefully put the stunned looking duck in the water in front of Sanity Again, and were very concerned because the two drakes had, of course, followed it, and got right back to work, as you they would in the circumstances.

I'm reminded of the Noel Coward story of his being asked by a young relation why there were two doggies in the street with one climbing on the back of the other:

"Well, you see, the doggy underneath is blind, and the one on top is showing it the way home..."

Penkridge for the fun of it

2nd & 3rd August

The last two days have seen us go to Penkridge and back just for the fun of it, and it certainly was. We made a prompt start yesterday but still found ourselves in a moderate amount of traffic all the way to Penkridge. There were, however, no fishermen about, though this will certainly not be the case next Saturday, during the National Fishing Competition.

Progress was reasonably steady and after a couple of hours we were tied on our usual towpath mooring below Penkridge lock. As we were getting Sanity settled down, a chap came out of his garden gate and had a natter with Sheila, having recognised Sanity from when we were last here during the winter.

It was too soon to go shopping, so Sheila spent some time titivating the floral displays whilst I took advantage of a fast and stable internet connection.

We then walked down to the village centre and stocked up at the Co-op. We've started trying to build up stocks, as after we have left Burton we will have to go for ten days without being able to shop in a supermarket, and indeed it's not clear how much shopping of any kind we'll be able to do from Redhill in the first week. After that we will be eating with the wrgies and the only challenge will be to ensure we have sufficient alcoholic refreshment in stock.

This assumes, of course, that we make it to Redhill. According to the towpath telegraph, the Alrewas river section is in the yellow, caution mode, and both the Upper Trent and the River Soar are closed. The status of both of these changes quite quickly, so we must just hope we don't see too much rain in the next ten days.

The rest of Sunday passed very pleasantly. For much of the time it was fine enough to sit out on the bow; Sheila got her usual steady stream of admiring remarks from passers by as she continued to work on her crochet.

Today, we made a leisurely start as we wanted to do another shopping trip, and in any event only planned to reverse yesterday's boating. We had another good session in the Co-op and then went round to the baker's for a loaf of bread. Sadly, this baker doesn't believe in early morning starts and no fresh loaves were to be available much before ten o' clock. We then remembered that we had had this problem before.

I called in to the Co-op again to get some bread there and then caught up with Sheila on the way back to Sanity.

Then the fun began again. We needed to lock up to use the winding hole, and found there was already a queue waiting to come down. As I started Sanity turning into the winding hole, another boat appeared in the distance and had to hover as I completed the manoeuvre. We were third in the queue to lock back down and this pattern continued through Longford, Park Gate and Shutt Hill locks.

The boat crews were a mixed bunch, both in terms of skill and good manners. Some were very reluctant to leave their boats and help with the lock, whilst others, like ourselves, chose to send all available spare crew along to help speed the operation.

We'd planned to call in at Midland Chandlers to see if they had the right fuel filter and a battery top up device, but under the circumstances decided not to bother. Last time we were in there they couldn't identify which of their filters was the right one, and if they had the ingenious device for topping up batteries, I reckon I would have spotted it and bought it by now,

We got through Acton Trussell by just after twelve and have moored on a nice spot on the towpath just beyond. I topped up the batteries using my trusty bottle and funnel, and Sheila gave the flowers on the roof another going over and gave them a feed of Baby Bio.

Tomorrow we'll probably go back to Tixall and then gently wend our way south once more.

It's Penkridge again

21st & 22nd February

We made a prompt start on a bright and breezy morning yesterday, having woken to a battery bank full of volts. It's really good to be back to not having to watch the electric use like a hawk.

As I said in an earlier comment, it really is like the Dead Parrot sketch in Monty Python; as the capacity of the bank declines, you start taking more and more care of your power consumption, all the time trying to persuade yourself that there's nothing wrong with the batteries. This is particularly easy to do when they start declining at the beginning of winter, when the dark evenings and need to run the heating more often genuinely impose more power discipline.

In future, I think our expectation will be that a given bank lasts two years and a bit, so as soon as we are past the 24 months mark, it's a case of deciding the most convenient place to change over, rather than trying to eke out the last few weeks from the old batteries.

In addition, our thinking is moving towards a less power hungry set up on Sanity Again, with no big freezer. More on this in due course – I really will get round to another post on the Building SA blog soon. I planned to do one yesterday, but between some problems Sheila was having with her proof reading sites and the fact that the connection was very temperamental, I didn't get to it.

We'd had a good morning's boating, after I'd made a quick trip in to Great Haywood for bread and a paper. There's still a fair bit of traffic about at the end of the half term week, and the weather, though a bit blowy, was so Spring like it was really encouraging.

On one of my walks whilst Sheila was off the boat, I'd noted the water point at Milford as referred to recently in Retirement with No Problem, so we thought it would be good to get a fill there, as the tank was down to 40%.

I promptly forgot exactly where it was, and we had a bit of a hunt to find it, before spotting it between the turn over bridge and the tunnel under the railway. No matter, once there we found it to be a good one, with excellent pressure, so we were soon in possession of a full tank once more. It's contained in what proved to be an old ammo box, on its end and fastened to the wall, and I took a couple of photos of it just for a laugh, a water point that thinks it's a geocache.

As before, we worked up Deptmore Lock and tied just a little beyond. It's a nice quiet mooring, except for the rumble of the M6 across a couple of fields, but as I say, the internet connection, though high speed, kept dropping out.

Today we got away in good time, chugged round Acton Trussell, and up the three locks into Penkridge. On the way, I started experimenting with the Garmin, using it to add winding holes and locks to its map as waypoints. By saving the day's cruise as a track, it is possible to transfer the data onto the Mac in RoadTrip; I really must get hold of a text about this sort of thing, as I'm a complete tyro with it, and it's always good to add to one's areas of expertise.

We had a quick coffee on arrival in Penkridge, did some shopping and got back to the boat in time for lunch. The engine hours counter was just short of 6400, so I've done the oil and filter change due at that point, taking the opportunity to refill the stern greaser at the same time. I must get some more grease at the next chandlers we come too, as the current tin is nearly empty.

Sheila has been proof reading again, using the Canadian site, as the US one has continued to have problems. She says the Canadian books are more interesting anyway, and has already downloaded some of their finished texts.

Tomorrow we'll do some more shopping: this is the last chance for a few days, as Gailey and Hatherton don't have anything, and the day after we'll be on the Shroppie and plan to stop before we get to Brewood. You can shop at Pendeford as you go through Autherley Junction, but that means leaving the boat in a pretty rough area, as we discovered during last year's IWA National.

Once stocked up, we'll work up Penkridge Lock and pump out on the service point above (diesel purchase can wait until we get to Turner's at Wheaton Aston). then we'll go on to Gailey for the night, and Hatherton the day after.

Single handing in frosty conditions

20th & 21st January

The night before last was distinctly colder than previous ones, a sign of the short cold snap in prospect. It was downright chilly in the bedroom first thing, so I gave the Eberspacher a longer run than usual, then got up and had a shower.

Feeling more warmed up, I popped into the village after breakfast, then came back to the boat, started up and worked up Penkridge Lock to the water point. Having watered, started the washing machine and winded in the winding hole just beyond, I dropped back down the lock. No one had come past whilst I was doing this, so it was especially gratifying to have Jacana turn up below just as I was finishing, so that I didn't have to worry about closing the bottom gates.

I'd decided to go a bit further down towards Longford Lock before mooring again, but had a bit of bother getting right into the side. I had to back up a bit and in the end settled for being a touch out from the towpath. All this because I didn't want the same folks to get the benefit of the late afternoon engine run, but then in fact decided to try and do without it.

The batteries have been on a good voltage first thing in the morning recently, so I thought I'd see if it was an effect of the reduced demand of only having one on board.

I spent a bit of time sorting the labelling on the blog posts after lunch; about a year ago, I took to using the location as the label, as folks will know, but that means there's a great chunk of them from the first year unlabelled. I've done a few, but it's going to take a while, it not being the most thrilling way if passing my time, and of course it's only really practicable when on a fast connection, or else I spend most of the time waiting for pages to load.

When I'd done as much as I could bear, I went back into the village, taking a load of secondhand books with me for the local hospice shop, and paying a visit to the butchers. His meat looks OK, but I've not had a chance to cook any of it yet.

In addition, I had one of those irritating exchanges with him, as I thought he'd not given me the right change. I should probably have pushed it harder, but he seemed quite sure, and it was only when I got back to the boat and worked it out again I realised I was definitely short.

Last night was colder again, enough to spoil my sleep, lacking my full sized hot water bottle as I am at the moment. That's partners for you; when they are around, they keep you awake snoring, but then when they're not, you freeze in bed.

It's a metttyfor or sumpin, boss.

Checking the batteries this morning showed that I should have run the engine again, as the voltage was well down. It being very cold, I still ran the Eberspacher, but turned the fridge freezer off whilst I did so, to avoid two big drains on the bank at once.

It was really frosty outside, with just a smidgen of ice drifting by on the cut, but a lot on the roof of the boat. I think that there had been a light rain shower last thing, which had then frozen. Certainly the pavements were quite treacherous as I walked into the village, and the roof looked downright dodgy.

This makes for problems single handing, of course, as walking on an icy roof at a quiet lock on your own is not a good idea. On the other hand, the forecast for tomorrow (ie Thursday) and the rest of the week is really nasty, with lots of wind, another no-no for single handers.

I set off gingerly, and boated down to Longford Lock. At least that meant I was out of the shade of the houses opposite, so that the sun had a chance to melt the frost. I filled the lock, and boated into it, taking a centre line ashore with me when I got there. After emptying the lock, I used the line to pull Sanity out, rather than climbing down the ladder onto the roof of the boat.

The whole thing just needed a lot of care; the locksides were greasy with frost, and there were plenty of opportunities for prat falls. I decided that as the top gate wasn't leaking, I would use the single handers' privilege and not close the bottom gates. No sooner had I decided this, than a boat appeared coming up the cut.

I boated past him, shouting cheerfully "Left it open for you!"

By lunchtime I was back at Radford Bank, having negotiated Park Gate, Shutt Hill and Deptmore Locks without too much grief. I crossed with another boat at Deptmore, which was nice, it being a very deep lock, so good to have a bit of help with it.

Lunch over, I set off again in deteriorating conditions. Up until now the weather had been very good, apart from the frost problem, but now it clouded over and a bit of wind got up. At least the locksides were now dry, so Tixall presented no trouble. As I came out, some people looking round the cottage offered to close up for me, which was kind of them and a big help.

Mooring on the Wide proved a bit tricky, as the wind was now strong enough to affect the boat, and was blowing off the towpath. I though I was going to end up doing one of those comic running from bow to stern and back trying to get them to stay against the bank long enough to tie, but some judicious use of the lines eventually allowed me to get it sorted.

(If necessary, I would have used a piling hook on the centreline to hold the boat about where I wanted it.)

I've had a quiet afternoon since, watching Dr Jones on DVD and showering. I seem to have taken up my usual 800 words and then some with cruising stuff, so what we did right with Sanity will have to wait – I'm going nowhere for at least two days, so Friday's post can be filled with that stuff.

A trip to Brum, and what we'd do differently

18th & 19th January

Not a lot to say this time, so I'll try and list the things we'd do differently if we were building Sanity now, at the end of this.

Yesterday, after the usual restless night for the first night alone, I had a relaxed start on a wet and windy morning. I ambled down to the village to buy a paper, then fitted the new fender before lunch.

It went on reasonably smoothly with only a little bit of GCSE swearing (not even A-level standard). Main problem was getting the old one off, trying to undo rusted and bent shackles whilst hanging over the end of the bow.

I managed to do it all without dropping anything in the cut, so I'm reasonable pleased with myself. A quiet afternoon followed, reading, a walk to get some exercise, then watching a DVD.

After a good night's sleep last night, I made an expedition into Birmingham today. It's half an hour on the train from Penkridge, the service running every hour each way, and only £6.60 for the cheap day return (or whatever they call it this week).

I had a good mooch round, mainly the shopping malls and Marks and Sparks, and did a mix of useful (i.e. M&S) shopping and indulgent stuff (mainly all four Indiana Jones DVDs). Well, I think I'm entitled to some blokeish stuff whilst Sheila is away.

I travelled out on the 10.16, and after the wild luxury of a Burger King lunch, managed to catch the 12.36 back, so I was back in the boat in time for another lazy afternoon.

Now, what would we do differently? This list is a mix of stuff we could have done differently straight away, and how we'd take advantage of advances in the technology in the last five years.

First of all, it's worth stressing that there are no major things we moan and weep about, "Oh if only we hadn't done it that way" type stuff, assuming that we kept inside the 60 foot length. At the time, we were sure that was the length we wanted, and anyway, it was all we could afford. Now, we might think hard about going to full length, and just manage without the Leeds and Liverpool. If we did, we'd have had a dinette as well as the study bedroom, but would not have gone for a trad engine and boatman's cabin. Nothing wrong with those, just not our thing.

Right, starting from the bow:

• Fitted a manual changeover valve in the gas locker
• Insisted on having the filler for the water tank put through the gunwale, not in the centre of the well deck (cleaner)
• Fitted LED clusters on the cabin sides, not the cabin lights on brackets that have been the poorest performing units of all the lighting.
• Fitted a more efficient fridge freezer, to reduce the amount of time we have to run the engine. I haven't researched this recently, but I think you can now get far more efficient units; we'd still have the freezer, though.
• Installed a better gas hob than the Stoves Vanette. I suspect three burners would be enough, but you can get some much classier looking beasts now than the ex-caravan thing we've got.
• Put the extract fan in the galley overhead ventilator, rather than the study bedroom and made it separately switchable from the lighting.
• Speaking of which, as recorded here earlier, I've split the switching for the galley lighting, so that I have a lot more choice about how many lights I have on.
• The new style macerator toilets have proper push button controls rather than the air button that's given us grief over the years, so that's something that would happen automatically. I'm not convinced that LeeSan are the best deal around on these, but we've learnt over the years to manage it so that it gives us less problem.
• Ask for a diaphragm pump on the shower rather than the Water Puppy that we've got. It is noisy, and has an impeller that has to be changed every few years.
• The main, main thing: we would not fit a TravelPower on the engine. It's only needed for the washing machine, has cost a packet to overhaul in the last couple of years, and there's a much better solution now possible.
• This is to fit a bigger inverter, and to install a cold fill only washing machine that can run a cold wash programme. You actually plumb both hot and cold into the machine, bringing them together through a thermostatic valve (like you can fit on your central heating rads). Fill with the valve set to 40 or 60 C or whatever, and run the machine on cold wash. When it starts to rinse, turn the valve down to 10 or so, so that it only draws cold water.
• Finally, we'd not fit an Eberspacher, but a Webasto, which just has a better reliability record, and are more forgiving if you do get start up failures.

I think that's the lot, but I've almost certainly forgotten something without Sheila here to remind me. I'm sure she will either comment on this post, or else email me directly and I'll bring it up next time. I'll also try to answer Adam's other points about the history of us getting into this whole lifestyle in the first place.

That's all for now, folks.