And again it's Rode Heath

Another early start after a restless night. Maybe we shouldn't have had corned beef with the salad yesterday, too much salt... Anyway, off we went before half seven again, Sheila steering and Bruce locking up the Wheelock flight in the morning sun. It's a pleasant flight to work, mostly paired locks so a better than average chance of having a good road.

As indeed we did today, always at least one lock empty until we got to the singleton in Malkin's Bank, which was full, naturally. Boats started appearing coming the other way as we got to the top. I decided I needed a break, so took over steering whilst Sheila worked up Hassal Green, Pierpoint and Thurlwood. We were by now crossing with other boats regularly, so there was always a lock with us, though it slowed progress to a degree waiting for each one to clear the lock ahead.

As yesterday, we'd expected to stop a bit early, above Pierpoint somewhere, thinking it would be too late to get a mooring at Rode Heath, but it became apparent that we'd be there not long after eleven, so pressed on. Sure enough, there were only two other boats here when we arrived but most of the slots, and all the good ones, had gone by the time we were eating lunch at midday.

Two good reasons for doing it this way: firstly, apparently we're in for another burst of hot weather, indeed it seems to have arrived, so boating on whilst it was moderately cool was a good idea. Secondly, this means that I've just done eight locks and Sheila six. Sheila will do six more tomorrow, up to the top of Church and I'll do six on Sunday, up Red Bull to the tunnel.

A later start tomorrow, maybe not until eight, even. It's only two hours or so and there's plenty of room on the towpath at Church Lawton. Mind you, it's a Saturday, so probably busy on the cut, so maybe we should get our boating done early...

Short run today, long one tomorrow

I won't write at length today as there's no useable 3 signal here and we're using the small data allowance on the Vodafone. We made a relaxed start at half eight and were soon heading down the Cheshire locks. They were all against us so progress was steady rather than swift, Sheila steering and myself locking.

This is the stretch which used to have duplicate locks all the way down, but many of them, including the Church two with which we started, now have only one functional chamber at each site.

We started meeting boats coming up as we worked down Halls lock and there followed an exercise in steering skill for Sheila as she had to alternate between one side and the other of the pairs, right, left, right, right, and so finally into the length that leads to Rode Heath.

I just had time to do the breakfast washing up before taking the helm for the final stretch to the moorings. Here we found first a boat being fitted out on the towpath, then a 70' gap, then Just Joshing, a boat with which we've been leapfrogging for several days.

We couldn't quite fit onto the rings with them there (as so often, the rings are at awkward spaces for us) and I thought we were going to have to resort to a pin or two, but they kindly pulled forward one ring to let us in, even though they were planning to leave soon.

It is nice to meet considerate boaters!

We popped to the local shop here hoping to get some Staffs oatcakes for lunch, but it looks like the shop has changed hands and they didn't have any in stock. We've had to settle for a loaf of Warburtons basic sliced wholemeal.

It's continued to be very fine – there's a scent of barbecues floating on the air – and we're looking forward to some heavier locking, 14 in all, on our way to Wheelock tomorrow.

Virtuosity at Rode Heath

We’ve had a good day with a relaxed start on a sunny morning. We washed the starboard side of the boat and did some pottering inside before going over to the Broughton Arms for lunch. It’s a Marston’s chain pub but both the food and beer are excellent.

After a bit of a recovery time, we then turned to and polished the side and rear bulkhead, so we are feeling very virtuous. The only downside in our pleasure is that the boat which we remoored yesterday broke free again. She’d drifted into the bridge arch and bent her chimney before we could recover her again .

We’ve remoored her once more and I’ve emailed CRT North West to suggest that they contact the owner and get him or her to take her to where she can be tied on rings or piling chains.

Tomorrow, we’ll head on up the cut a bit further, another six locks to the top of Church Locks.

Location:Rode Heath

Working up to Rode Heath

We had a very early night last night and so were awake in good time (i.e. before six) this morning. It had rained hard overnight and was still drizzling down as we were drinking our early tea. We were in two minds as to whether to set off at all (that is, one of us thought we should and the other thought we should stay put for the day) but eventually decided that we should just suit up and get on with it.

In the event, the rain did peter out and conditions became reasonably bearable. Sheila did the first six locks, up to above Malkins Bank golf club, which now seems very keen to attract non-members into the bar. We stopped for a bit to get the washing machine going and I took over locking for the next six locks, that is past Hassal Green, now a pale shadow of its former self without either café or the Romping Donkey, and up Pierpoint Locks.

Most of the locks on this stretch were duplicated in the 1830s, though not all the twin chambers are still functional, but not Pierpoint for some reason. Sheila worked the last two Thurlwood Locks and we found a mooring without difficulty here at Rode Heath. It was now just after eleven and we’d been boating for most of four hours and covered a bit over three miles. Oh, and 14 locks…

We made a quick expedition to the Post Office/general store and got some Staffordshire oatcakes for lunch. As may be imagined, it’s been a quiet afternoon. The sun has come out and the only excitement has been remooring a boat which had come completely adrift from where it had been left on pins on the unrestricted towpath through the bridge. It had been thoroughly tied on three good pins but it hadn't been enough.

Mind you, one of these fancy type Anglo-Welsh boats, the black and grey ones, has just come storming past, doing the Four Counties in a week, no doubt, and desperate to get through the tunnel this afternoon… Most of the ordinary Anglo-Welsh boats seem quite well behaved, but the fancy ones, much less so. I don't know whether they are a share boat scheme or just a premium class, but they do remind me of the put down I once had from Mick on Foxton Locks. I’d annoyed him whilst taking our OwnerShips boat Streamline through and he said, bitterly:

“You share boaters think you’re something special, but you’re just glorified hirers, really…”

Tomorrow, we’re going to stay put and clean the starboard side of the boat, the last chance we’ll get to do so before Poynton.

Location:Rode Heath

Sitting tight

As planned, we've stayed put today, feeling sorry for the few boats we have seen moving. It was just very windy this morning, but has been chucking it down from time to time this afternoon. I ran the engine this morning to recharge the batteries, heat the water and run a washload. I had to nip out first thing, still in dressing gown and PJs, to rescue the plant troughs from the roof.

I made a trip to the shop to get stuff like fresh bread and tomatoes, but apart from that we've not stirred out.

Things look a lot better tomorrow, when we plan to chug up to the top of Church locks, just a couple of miles and six locks away.



 

Quiet wet Friday

After yesterday's exertions, having an excuse to stay put for the day was quite welcome, though the wet weather is a bit depressing after the glorious sun earlier in the week. We loafed in bed for quite a while, then got up and pottered about all morning.

It wasn't a completely idle session. For one thing, I revised the entries for the Big Lock and the Broughton Arms in the pub guide. We'd had a very good meal in the latter establishment last night, with remarkably prompt service considering that the garden was packed solid with folk enjoying the sun. They had on a range of golden ales, just the thing for the conditions.

Sheila had some financial stuff to do and continues to work on the attendance list for the Owners' Weekend. After a slow start, it looks like we shall have about the same number of owners there as last year, though not quite so many boats, just 12 of them plus the boats in build in the yard.

Interestingly, there are a couple of shorter boats and a couple of semi-trad style, so we shall have a good selection for prospective customers to see.

After lunch, the rain stopped long enough for us to take a bit of a walk, along the towpath and round some woodland, part of Rode Heath Rise. This is an area developed from the site of a saltworks that used to adjoin the canal.

It became cool and damp enough indoors to justify running the Webasto just now, warming the boat up a bit and giving enough hot water for washing up and showers. If the forecast is correct, we have the prospect of strong winds tomorrow, in which case we shall spend another day here before setting off again on Sunday, probably.

Up the Cheshire Locks

We weren't sure exactly where we were going to stop today, but made an early start anyway. If we pressed on to Rode Heath, we reckoned we'd be boating for around four hours, so setting off between seven and half past seemed a good idea. As it turned out, it was a discouraging start but a good day and an excellent finish in the end.

The short pound between the bottom lock and the next one up was very low. In fact, when Sheila tried to boat out, the bow made it alongside the gate and then stopped, stuck on the cill already. I walked up to the lock above, which was empty, opened the bottom gates and drew half a top paddle. Gradually, the water level rose until Sanity Again was free and able to chug across the pound and into the lock.

I was a bit discouraged by this. It had taken us 45 minutes to do one lock of a possible 14 and the paddles were appallingly stiff. However, things began to look up from there on in. Another boat was coming up behind us and we soon settled into a companiable way of working. Most of these locks are duplicated, so the lockwheeler from the boat behind offered to close up our lock after Sheila had left, allowing me to walk on and set both locks of the next pair.

In this way we fairly flew up through Malkin's Bank and on towards Hassal Green. Lack of internet had prevented me from checking the weather forecast this morning, but the guy on the boat behind said that it was going to be very wet tomorrow and windy over the weekend. Today's weather was gorgeous so we decided to take advantage and slog on to Rode Heath.

We paused in one lock to get the washing machine started, a load which nicely finished before we stopped. Sheila encouraged my endeavours with thoughts of a meal at the Broughton Arms. This was very effective and we got here just after eleven, despite the delay at the start.

There was no name on the boat behind, so I had to ask our new friends as they passed us whilst we were mooring. It was that good old Aussie name Tumbarumba, one which I knew from a World Wide Words entry. Tumbarumba is both a place in Oz and the Oz name for what the grammarians call tmesis, that is, inserting one word, usually an expletive, in the middle of another, as in abso-bloody-lutely. There's even a little verse to explain the Australian usage:

“Howya bloody been, ya drongo, haven’t seen ya fer a week,
And yer mate was lookin’ for ya when ya come in from the creek.
‘E was lookin’ up at Ryan’s, and around at bloody Joe’s,
And even at the Royal, where ’e bloody NEVER goes”.
And the other bloke says “Seen ‘im? Owed ‘im half a bloody quid.
Forgot to give it back to him, but now I bloody did —
Could’ve used the thing me bloody self. Been off the bloody booze,
Up at Tumba-bloody-rumba shootin’ kanga-bloody-roos.”

The Integrated Adjective, or Tumba Bloody Rumba, by John O’Grady.



We'll sit tight here tomorrow and maybe over the weekend, depending on the weather.

Relaxing in the sun

First off, a grovelling apology to Catherine Mason; she’s training as a paediatric nurse, not a nursery nurse as I said yesterday. There’s a good deal of difference, and I should have known (and have probably been told) better. Sorry, Catherine!

Having decided to stay put today, we were able to have a very relaxed start. After doing a bit of shopping, we checked out the local geocaches and loaded a couple into the Garmin. What we wanted was an excuse to explore Rode Heath Rise, the wildlife area that’s been developed on the site of a salt works.

This worked really well; we found one cache in some woodland we wouldn’t otherwise have visited, but failed with the other, partly because we didn’t have gloves or long sleeves on and so couldn’t rummage in the undergrowth in the right place. No matter, on the way back we saw a good range of the butterflies which have colonised the meadow. I managed to take photos of three of them with the phone:

Comma with ragged wings

Slightly fuzzy Meadow Brown

Tiny Small Copper, just 25mm wingspan

Back at the boat we did some dedicated loafing. Rock ‘n Roll went by but couldn’t stop as they were on a mission to get through the tunnel today; hope you made it, guys!

A number of other boats have passed through and exchanged the time of day which was very nice.

We had planned to run a washload whilst recharging the batteries, but there was enough sun on the solar panel to do the latter, even after running the Hurricane to get some hot water. We’ll have to squeeze a washload in tomorrow, though it’s a short run from here to Church Lawton. Sheila’s getting a bit worried about the backlog.

A late change of plan last evening

Hardly had I finished last night’s post than Peter was in contact again and in short time Tiree arrived. She managed to find a mooring space just ahead of us here and it was soon agreed that we should all foregather in the Broughton Arms for food, conversation and sensible amounts of drink.

Actually, Tiree having had an even more arduous day than ourselves, it was obvious that prudence and an early night were obligatory. It didn’t stop us having an excellent time, swapping gossip and eating some very good food indeed.

Sheila and I had the sizzling platters, a stir fry of rump steak strips with peppers and so forth, served with proper chips. The others ate well too and the Pedigree was in excellent condition.

Braidbar’s motto is “Arrive as a customer, leave as a friend” and that's certainly been the case for us. The World Wide Words daily email yesterday was about the quaint American description “All wool and a yard wide” meaning honest, sincere and trustworthy and that absolutely describes Peter and Susan Mason.

It was good, too, to get to know their daughter Catherine better; she’s accompanying her parents as a holiday from her course training as a paediatric nurse.

We still managed to get to bed in decent time, as I said, and slept well, a result of both plenty of exercise and cooler nights.

Rising betimes this morning, we saw little sign of life from Tiree for quite a while, so we got on with polishing the cabin side and front bulkhead which we’d washed the other day at Wheelock. It was just the right conditions for doing so, pleasantly warm but not sunny until we'd nearly finished.

By the time we’d done, the Masons were up and about and duly set off homewards. They’ve got two days to get back to Poynton, so were aiming for somewhere towards the foot of Bosley Locks today. We’ll be following in rather more leisurely fashion.

We’ve spent the rest of the day pottering, doing some extra twiddly bits for the quiz, such as creating proper answer sheets would you believe. A certain amount of newspaper reading has also occurred.

We’ve decided to put in an extra day here as it’s an unrestricted mooring and has a handy shop. Then we’ll carry on up to Church Lawton on Thursday and Hall Green/Scholar Green on Friday, where we’ll rendezvous with Elanor on Saturday.

After that, I may be able to persuade Sally to do some blogging…

/wahaha

Bad weather boating

If we hadn’t just been on a 48 hour mooring for two days, we would probably have stayed put today; the atrocious forecast turned out to be all too accurate. Periods of rain alternated with periods of drizzle, with the occasional spell of torrential downpour in case you were getting bored.

In addition the wind came and went, but at times was moderately ferocious.

We afterwards discovered that we’d both pondered suggesting overstaying, but neither had got round to voicing the idea, with the result that, after another rather broken night, we set out to climb the hill at ten to seven.

It was Sheila’s turn to lockwheel; she put on a waterproof jacket but no trousers, preferring to let her legs get wet in shorts. I covered up completely as I was to be standing on the back for the morning. As it was, none of our waterproofs coped with the conditions, with the exception of my trousers, which were sheltered by the cabin for much of the time, and my winter weight jacket into which I changed when I realised that I was soaked to the skin all down my front.

It was just a case of slogging on through the storm, proving that we can still boat in bad conditions. We didn’t see a lot else moving until Hassal Green where we crossed with a privateer. Shortly after, Priscilla II emerged from the mirk heading down – we just had time for a shouted hello.

I’d started a washload as the boat rose in the lock alongside Malkin’s Bank golf club; it takes a while to get it going as we add seven 2 litre jugs of hot water to save using the washing machine's heating element.

That was all done by the time we arrived at Rode Heath, where we’ve found a mooring just before the winding hole.

After a change of clothes and a mug of soup apiece, Sheila sorted out the washing whilst I went to the shop for a paper, bread and other perishables. It being meat free Monday, I’ve decided we’re having cheese and onion omelettes tonight, possibly with extra mushrooms, and accompanied by home baked crusty rolls, the dough for which is rising as I type this.

We’ll sit tight tomorrow and then carry on up to Church Lawton on Wednesday.

As I was writing this post, Peter phoned from Tiree. It seems they are not having a fast day’s cruise; someone had drained the pounds between the Middlewich Three overnight, then a boat was cilled, then someone else broke their wrist on an out-of-control windlass. As a result it took Tiree over four hours to get from Croxton to above Kings Lock.

We might see them yet, or they may come charging past in the morning…

/blur

14 locks later

Last night was the first of the current hot spell when we suffered badly disturbed sleep. Ironically, part of the problem was noise, not something we expected in peaceful Rode Heath. First off there was the bunch of drunks staggering back to their boat after midnight loudly discussing something or other and trying to sing.

Later on, a fox could be heard prowling around and, probably as a result, a swan started making the most amazing grumbling, growling, honking noise.

We finally managed to drop off again, but were awake well before six. At least that meant an early start in the coolth just before seven, Sheila steering and your correspondent locking. It’s one of those routes where it’s hardly worth the lockwheeler getting back on board at all. I did so briefly between Thurlwood and Pierpoint, taking the chance to start a washload, but otherwise I walked from Pierpoint, through Hassal Green and Malkin’s Bank to Wheelock.

By the time we were in the Wheelock flight boats were coming the other way quite steadily, and I didn’t have to turn any of today’s 14 locks.

Arriving at Wheelock at ten, we had no bother getting a mooring, though there’s now a complete line of boats from the water point to the lock landing. At least everyone seems to have moored as tidily as they can, so that there’s no wasted space.

We’ve had to lurk inside the boat pretty well all day; it’s just too hot outside to be comfortable. During lunch we were further encouraged to do so by an inebriated gentleman sitting on the towpath near the bow, clutching a can of super strength something or other and conducting a long running conversation with himself, at times quite aggressively and at others with a distinctly lachrymose tone.

As he was sitting in the full sun, we kept an eye on him in case he collapsed and needed medical attention, but after a bit he got up and wandered away again.

Tomorrow we’ll sit tight for a day, taking in an Ocado order in the morning. Then on Monday we’ll be off once more, down to and through Middlewich, stopping for diesel and a pump out on the way, probably ending up at Bramble Cuttings.

An easy day to Rode Heath

We’ve had a lazy day today, not setting off before eight and boating for a bare two hours down Church Locks and the Lawton Treble (not to mention Hall’s Lock in between), arriving at Rode Heath, one of our favourite moorings, by ten. There was a fair bit of traffic about in both directions.

The towpath moorings are very busy here and we had to go on towards Thurlwood Lock to get a mooring on pins. Although there are rings in the towpath for quite a length, there’s no time restriction. Mind you, at this time of year, a lot of the boats are on passage anyway so don’t hang around more than two days at most.

Once we were all sorted out, I walked to the shop, leaving Sheila watering the plants. I only wanted a paper and as they’d sold out of The Independent was happy to settle for the i at 20p.

It would have been a cheap trip if I hadn’t noticed this month’s Canal Boat, with added Tillergraph (why?). And then this month’s Waterways World. And then I thought that a bottle of chilled rosé would be good on the well deck this evening.

In the end, I had to get the credit card out.

It’ll be a much longer day tomorrow, right down to Wheelock, so we’ll set off at seven aiming to arrive between 11 and 12. I just hope that there’ll be room to moor…

Late Summer Bank Holiday

The August Bank Holiday used to be on the first weekend of the month, when there was still a chance of decent weather. Late August is usually wet, as summer turns to autumn, and this year has been no exception. The jet stream is back over the country, bringing a succession of low pressure areas and their associated fronts with it.

We made the right decision to stay put today; the morning wasn't too bad first thing and, after a trip to the shop for a paper, we turned to and washed the starboard side of the boat. Since then, it's been a case of lurking indoors with the cratch down as the wind blew and the rain came down. It feels quite cold, and we've both had to change back into long trousers for warmth.

We've made another batch of flapjack so as to have something to offer Peter and Jan with a cup of tea on Wednesday afternoon – this had the added advantage of running the oven for a bit, of course, so warming the boat a bit more. It's not that it's really cold, just a bit dull and damp. It's right on the edge of having to light the stove, but I know that if I do, it will quickly get far too hot in here.

Adam wondered if we were right in hoping that the pub disco would close down in good time last night; in fact, it was great as they went over to 50s and 60s stuff around our dinner time at seven, then moved indoors, from where they couldn't be heard at all.

The main problem this afternoon has been staying awake, frankly, as we just relax with books, papers and puzzles.

Tomorrow will be a short day, just the six locks up to the top of Church, then on Wednesday we'll do the Red Bull flight, turn onto the Macclesfield yet again and stop at Scholar Green for our rendezvous with Peter and Jan at the Bleeding Wolf.

Zen and the Art of Duck Racing

First a big hello to the mysterious and beautiful stranger at Thurlwood Lock, crew of Cheeky B (I can take a hint ;) ), who reads this blog. It's always good to meet a real reader!

We were just coming to the end of a good morning's boating at the time, and were feeling pretty weary as a result. We'd set off at seven from the Crows Nest mooring, and by just gone eight were making a start up the serious bit of the Cheshire Locks. Known as Heartbreak Hill, though we quite enjoy them it is a case of one darn lock after another for five hours.

We'd toyed with stopping below Thurlwood, but the mooring didn't look very inviting and the rain was holding off, so we carried on to one of our favourite moorings at Rode Heath, just before the Broughton Arms. I scurried off to the shop here, but had to be content with an Observer, all the Indies having gone.

No matter, a change is good for you, and it was something to read as I guzzled a late lunch.

The pub is having a bit of a do for the Bank Holiday, including a duck race. We'd heard of these, but hadn't yet seen one, so it was an education. It all took quite a while, hence the title of this post, but was a good laugh all round and no doubt raised some dosh for charity. I was first made aware that something was going on when Sheila said that the boat two up from us had chucked a pump out hose across the cut. In fact, it was a length of fire hose, and after a bit a boxful of plastic ducks was thrown in in front of it:

On your marks

Now, I'd always assumed that you did duck racing on a river, where the flow will move the competitors along, but in this case, they used mechanical means, in that the fire hose was flapped up and down to create a current of sorts:

Giddyap!

It wasn't wholly successful for quite a while, and large contingents of ducks lurked by the side of the boat or on the opposite bank. We also wondered what would occur if anyone worked either the upstream or downstream lock, since the direction of the race was upstream. There was also the possibility of a boat appearing, when sure enough:

Oh oh...

The crew were persuaded to hang on for a bit whilst the ducks ambled towards the finish line, that is, the bridge hole:

Final furlong

You can just see the equivalent of the chequered flag in the shape of a huge landing net, which duly scooped the winner from the water.

We'd also wondered what the result would be if the local swan family took exception to all this, but they prudently confined themselves to demanding sandwiches with menaces from the spectators.

We've now got a disco in full swing in the pub garden, with a DJ who seems to be channelling Jimmy Savile, but as it's a Sunday we're hoping it won't go on too long into the night.

If the weather proves as stormy as the forecast, we'll use our day in hand to stay here tomorrow, moving on to above Church Locks on Tuesday, and rendezvousing with Peter and Jan at the Bleeding Wolf in Scholar Green on Wednesday lunchtime.

And today, we went nowhere

It's a great thing this flexibility; the forecast today was pretty dire, with heavy showers and the possibility of thunder for most of the day. So, since we're ahead of schedule, we decided to stay put. Rode Heath is a good place to do that, with a decent local store just a short walk away and a pub for those who want to miss out on the cooking.

It got clammy enough in the rain that we lit the stove, and as a result have been sweltering a bit off and on. When it's not absolutely tipping it down, the sun comes out and it's quite warm, so we've been opening and closing the hatches all day. We managed a short walk after lunch and got caught in one of the downpours, but no matter, our wet things have been drying on the rack in the cratch with the bow doors open to let the warmth of the fire onto them (we've dropped the cratch cover, naturally).

Main item of interest from a boating point of view has been an announcement by Grant Shapps, the Housing Minister, that local authorities are to be encouraged to facilitate people who can't afford land based homes to live on boats; he's offering financial inducements to the councils to do so. Obviously, if this means marinas find it easier to get planning permission for residential moorings, all well and good, but the worry must be that it results in the existing lines of hippy hutches on the offside being officially licensed to stay there.

BW would get more end of garden type mooring fees, and the council would be relieved of the need to rehouse them. It would be just bad luck on those of us who believe that the cut is meant for navigation, and who now had to spend yet more time creeping past at tickover. Time will tell how it works out, but it needs  careful watching. RBOA, aka the Hippy Hutches Protection Society, has already welcomed it of course; I wait to see what NABO says. It's no good expecting much from IWA in this context, it'll probably take them a couple of months to wake up to the initiative.

/blur

Meantime, we'll head off tomorrow, in better weather hopefully, again heading for the top of Church Locks.

A bit further again

We had an excellent meal last night, the one we'd promised ourselves to celebrate our ruby wedding anniversary. We went to San Marco, the Italian restaurant in the old warehouse at Wheelock. We've often wondered what it was like, and the answer is – very good.

It offers a nice mix of standard Italian fare and more generic cuisine. So Sheila was able to have garlic mushrooms followed by chicken tagliatelle, and I had fishcakes followed by bistecca gorgonzola. The portion sizes were good, adequate without being ridiculously generous, so that we both had room for a sweet for once, profiteroles for Sheila and panna cotta with loganberries for me.

With a bottle of Montepulciano, it came to just over £60 including my tip, so not overpriced by today's standards either. Service was prompt and friendly, and the ambience is, shall we say interesting, a mix again of Italianate decoration and classic English prints. We'd definitely go again.

As canal boathire surmised in his comment, we weren't away quite as promptly as planned this morning, but still managed to be going by half seven. We'd intended to stop at Hassal Green, but were making such good progress despite the rain that we came on to Rode Heath, giving us less to do tomorrow.

There was plenty of room to moor here just before eleven, and I nipped through to the PO stores, where they'd sold out of the Independent, but still had copies of i, so not a complete loss. This afternoon, we took all the recycling to the skips in the car park of the Broughton Arms; the stuff had been piling up since Norbury Junction.

We'll go on to tie above Church Locks tomorrow, just six locks further on; that means that I'll have time before we go to buy a loaf of bread and a copy of the Saturday Independent, hopefully, with its challenging giant general knowledge crossword.

Over the summit

17th & 18th March

Yesterday was another chilly start to the day, but feeling like hard boaters we decided not to bother with the heating. Standing shivering in front of the sink led to some regrets about this, but it was too late by then.

We'd both had a broken night; I've noticed that these tend to follow the consumption of tinned pies. It may have something to do with the high levels of salt, or perhaps the levels of tryptophan in the Oxo gravy. Either way, I think we'll be keeping such pies just as a backstop in future. In addition, the sound of the M6 kept going all night – it's another example of the onset of Spring that we've taken to sleeping with the Houdini propped open a crack again, thus getting the benefit of the dawn chorus, but also of any traffic noise that's going.

Having set off towards Pierrepoint Locks, we found ourselves passing a boat which, although otherwise anonymous, had a sign up saying Fenders for Sale. We stopped and I negotiated the purchase of a new bow fender, to replace my sad effort. At £70, it seemed a reasonable price for a vee fender. The woman who sold it to me was clearly not long up, though all her curtains were open. This is the first time I've bought a fender from a woman in a dressing gown.

The weather had been very pleasant, but as we approached Kidsgrove, cloud began spilling up over the hill from Stoke on Trent, and most of the day was rather chilly and cloudy; very frustrating when it so clearly could have been really sunny again.

The locks came and went steadily. After Thurlwood we stopped briefly at Rode Heath to get supplies from the little PO and shop there, before chugging on to finish just above Church Locks at coffee time. I lit the fire whilst we had coffee, then after lunch fixed the new fender to the bow.

The rest of the afternoon was given over to composing a post for the Building Sanity Again blog, followed by dinner and an early night.

This abstemiousness paid off with an early start this morning. We were drinking tea in bed before half six, and on our way by half seven. We wanted to get up the remaining six locks to the tunnel in good time, so as to get a reasonably early passage. On a misty morning, we arrived at the North portal by ten past nine.

Some boats were already on their way through from the South, so we had a bit of a wait. By ten to ten we'd been joined by Black Swan and Valkyrie, and led this mini convoy through in about 35 minutes. We had a bit of a problem getting into the tunnel, as the summit pound was eight inches down. Sanity rather ground her way over a reef of silt to get in.

Why on earth BW should let the summit get so low, I don't know. It can't be traffic – the stoppages either side have only just come off – and it certainly can't be lack of water after this winter. Sheila had problems for much of the rest of the pound to the top lock, grinding over sundry hidden objects in most of the bridge holes.

Once out of the tunnel, the weather started to improve. By the time we'd got to the bottom of Stoke Locks, I'd had to shed my puffa jacket. We had lunch on the move between Stoke Bottom and Trentham Lock, and have tied for the afternoon on the Wedgwood moorings.

The new fender has performed splendidly. In the first lock of the day, Sheila gently took Sanity up the lock until the fender was against the top cill, and then revved up in forward. This is a good doge with a new fender; it pushes it hard against the stem to shape it round the bow. When we stopped today, I adjusted up the fastenings, so that it's now snug and firmly in place.

Tomorrow we'll go gently down to Stone, the final eight locks making a total of 40 in four days, which is hard boating by our reckoning. We'll take a couple of days in one of our favourite canal towns, before travelling the familiar route back to Great Haywood and on down to Alrewas for the Spring check ups.