We'd originally planned to stop at Ettily Heath, a bit short of Wheelock but further than Booth Lane Top lock, because with the Middlewich Three to do first off the estimated journey time was around four hours. Wheelock moorings get full quite early in the day and we couldn't be sure of finding a 70' space if we arrived after twelve. Going uphill, if you don't find a space, you're in bother as the Wheelock lock flight follows immediately after.
As it transpired, we were both awake early, round about five o'clock, so were able to breakfast and drink coffee and still be on our way at seven. Sheila locked and I steered in an uneventful run up the Three and Kings. We then followed a couple of other boats up Rumps, after which they disappeared ahead before we got to Booth Lane. All the locks bar one were against us today and though they are all pretty deep we still made good time. This was partly because they are in good nick, by and large, emptying and filling quickly, and partly sheer skill, naturally.
Thus we were out of Booth Lane Top by ten and could make Wheelock by around eleven. So that's what we did. Despite it being the longest day, the summer solstice even, a blustery north wind meant that I spent the trip steering whilst wearing a fleece and even gloves, my fingers getting very chilled holding the tiller behind my back and so in the full blast of the breeze.
We've had a quiet afternoon on board. Rubbish and recycling has been dumped and a bit of internet stuff sorted, though the Three signal is not terribly good here.
Tomorrow, we'll press on up the hill towards Red Bull. The current plan is to stop somewhere above Pierpoint, depending on progress and the weather, but that is subject to change. Naturally.
Showing posts with label Wheelock. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wheelock. Show all posts
Thursday, 21 June 2018
Monday, 4 June 2018
And here we are at Wheelock
A better night's kip and an early start meant that we were on our way by 7.15 on another very pleasant day. Sheila drew the short straw as a result of our policy of alternating steering and locking since yesterday's six locks were followed by today's 14. Mind you, she had insisted it was my turn to steer through the tunnel, so what goes around comes around...
As it happened, she really was out of luck. Most of the locks were against us at first and although some good work has been done on replacing top gates, many the paddles are in a shocking state. Even with the long throw windlass she had trouble getting some of them moving and it's not as if she's inexperienced or out of practice.
What the poor first time hirers make of it is anybody's guess. Many of the paddle racks looked in good nick and most were greased, so the problems must be down at the other end, where the paddle itself runs through slides. Dropping the paddles tends to bend them but that can't be the whole story.
On we plodded, making good time despite all that. There were few boats coming the other way, of course, since not many would stop above Wheelock for the night.
Thurlwood, Pierpoint and Hassel Green came and went until finally we reached Malkin's Bank at the top of the Wheelock flight and started to meet boats coming up. They were mostly sensible and helpful though the very last one, a Black Prince full of novices, gave us a bit of trouble, closing the top gate of the bottom lock in front of us and then heading straight at us, seemingly believing that I could bend a 70 footer round them.
Even so, we got by without contact and only a bit of shouting and were soon looking for a mooring. We're close to the start of the visitor moorings, tied with rather long lines on the rings.
This afternoon, we took a walk into the village to buy some soda water, tonight being one of our alcohol free nights. On the way back, we had a chat with Peter Underwood (aka "the Floater") and his wife Heather. Those who read Peter's output will know that he's in the "CRT can do no right" wing of commentators, a bit like Steve Haywood in the Canal Boat magazine but without his relaxed and liberal attitude to life. (This is called irony, it's like goldy and bronzey but made of iron...)
All organisations, especially public bodies, need their critics, of course, but I believe in praise where it's due and in giving people the benefit of the doubt. Nonetheless, we parted amicably enough – it was a civilised exchange.
Tomorrow, on down to Middlewich for a couple of days and a rendezvous with Sheila's brother and sister-in-law.
As it happened, she really was out of luck. Most of the locks were against us at first and although some good work has been done on replacing top gates, many the paddles are in a shocking state. Even with the long throw windlass she had trouble getting some of them moving and it's not as if she's inexperienced or out of practice.
What the poor first time hirers make of it is anybody's guess. Many of the paddle racks looked in good nick and most were greased, so the problems must be down at the other end, where the paddle itself runs through slides. Dropping the paddles tends to bend them but that can't be the whole story.
On we plodded, making good time despite all that. There were few boats coming the other way, of course, since not many would stop above Wheelock for the night.
Thurlwood, Pierpoint and Hassel Green came and went until finally we reached Malkin's Bank at the top of the Wheelock flight and started to meet boats coming up. They were mostly sensible and helpful though the very last one, a Black Prince full of novices, gave us a bit of trouble, closing the top gate of the bottom lock in front of us and then heading straight at us, seemingly believing that I could bend a 70 footer round them.
Even so, we got by without contact and only a bit of shouting and were soon looking for a mooring. We're close to the start of the visitor moorings, tied with rather long lines on the rings.
This afternoon, we took a walk into the village to buy some soda water, tonight being one of our alcohol free nights. On the way back, we had a chat with Peter Underwood (aka "the Floater") and his wife Heather. Those who read Peter's output will know that he's in the "CRT can do no right" wing of commentators, a bit like Steve Haywood in the Canal Boat magazine but without his relaxed and liberal attitude to life. (This is called irony, it's like goldy and bronzey but made of iron...)
All organisations, especially public bodies, need their critics, of course, but I believe in praise where it's due and in giving people the benefit of the doubt. Nonetheless, we parted amicably enough – it was a civilised exchange.
Tomorrow, on down to Middlewich for a couple of days and a rendezvous with Sheila's brother and sister-in-law.
Labels:
Wheelock
Tuesday, 8 August 2017
To Wheelock
Apart from the necessity to use pins, the mooring above Booth Lane top lock is excellent and it was very peaceful overnight. The pins at least fix solidly into the ground, there being a good layer of clay not far below the surface. Indeed, it was quite an effort to get them back out this morning and I had to resort to the dodge of tying the mooring line back to the pin with a clove hitch and then pulling firmly along the line of the beast.
Once sorted, we set off on the comparatively short run to Wheelock, the last lock free section we shall do for a bit. It’s a journey of two halves and speeds, the first section being moderately straight and mostly quite deep, an effect of the salt mine induced subsidence that is so much a feature of the region around Middlewich.
The second half is much slower and shallower, winding as it does and looking, frankly, not very cared for. The offside vegetation forces the boat over towards the towpath where the baseplate soon starts grinding on the accumulated silt. As steerer, Sheila had to depend on my looking out from the bow to avoid having to slow down for every bend and bridge hole and, in an effect more usually seen on the Macc, found herself being slowed down through the latter, will she, nill she.
The presence of a hire boat behind tail-gating every time she did slow down didn't help her enjoyment of the cruise. As it was, it took rather more than the hour we had estimated to get to the service wharf at Wheelock. Tediously, although it’s a long wharf with two water points, a boat had tied smack in the middle. There was room for a boat which had been in front of us to get on beyond, so we went past and tied (more or less) in front of it to wait our turn. The hire boat, being very short, was able to get on behind the moored boat and start using that water point, the moored boat having finished with it.
Apparently, the male half of this boat’s crew was taking a shower in the service block and did eventually emerge and boat off. The hire boat had also gone by now, so I reversed Sanity Again back round to tie on the now available space. There is a good pressure here, so we filled up quite quickly. Just as we were finishing, Braidbar number 89, Arcturus, turned up going the other way and Sheila was able to have a quick chat with Phil and Pat.
It now being half ten, there was plenty of room on the visitor moorings and we’ve been sitting quietly here all afternoon. We did take a stroll up the locks to stretch our legs after lunch and pass the time of day with one or two of the lock-wheelers working up and down. There’s been a steady rather than frantic traffic going by, but we shall still make an effort to get away in good time tomorrow, aiming for Rode Heath for tomorrow night.
Once sorted, we set off on the comparatively short run to Wheelock, the last lock free section we shall do for a bit. It’s a journey of two halves and speeds, the first section being moderately straight and mostly quite deep, an effect of the salt mine induced subsidence that is so much a feature of the region around Middlewich.
The second half is much slower and shallower, winding as it does and looking, frankly, not very cared for. The offside vegetation forces the boat over towards the towpath where the baseplate soon starts grinding on the accumulated silt. As steerer, Sheila had to depend on my looking out from the bow to avoid having to slow down for every bend and bridge hole and, in an effect more usually seen on the Macc, found herself being slowed down through the latter, will she, nill she.
The presence of a hire boat behind tail-gating every time she did slow down didn't help her enjoyment of the cruise. As it was, it took rather more than the hour we had estimated to get to the service wharf at Wheelock. Tediously, although it’s a long wharf with two water points, a boat had tied smack in the middle. There was room for a boat which had been in front of us to get on beyond, so we went past and tied (more or less) in front of it to wait our turn. The hire boat, being very short, was able to get on behind the moored boat and start using that water point, the moored boat having finished with it.
Apparently, the male half of this boat’s crew was taking a shower in the service block and did eventually emerge and boat off. The hire boat had also gone by now, so I reversed Sanity Again back round to tie on the now available space. There is a good pressure here, so we filled up quite quickly. Just as we were finishing, Braidbar number 89, Arcturus, turned up going the other way and Sheila was able to have a quick chat with Phil and Pat.
It now being half ten, there was plenty of room on the visitor moorings and we’ve been sitting quietly here all afternoon. We did take a stroll up the locks to stretch our legs after lunch and pass the time of day with one or two of the lock-wheelers working up and down. There’s been a steady rather than frantic traffic going by, but we shall still make an effort to get away in good time tomorrow, aiming for Rode Heath for tomorrow night.
Location:Wheelock
Labels:
Booth Lane Top,
Wheelock
Thursday, 18 August 2016
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.
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.
Labels:
Rode Heath,
Wheelock
Sunday, 4 August 2013
Another Sunny Wheelock Sunday
Actually, the forecast was for a dry morning and a wet afternoon, so after breakfast and the obligatory trip to the paper shop, we turned to and washed the starboard side of the boat. It had got very dusty in the hot weather; we’d some thought of polishing it as well, but decided to take a break for coffee first.
Just as well we did; the first of the rain arrived not long after, so we’d have been half way through polishing when it did.
Pleasantly wearied by all this, we’ve not done too much else that’s energetic, frankly. It’s been a day for browsing the internet, looking up the answers we couldn’t get in yesterday’s general knowledge crossword and replying to one or two emails.
Pleasingly, this included one from our old friends on Anglesey, Will and Pauline Tyrer. I’d had a suspiciously odd email from them, the result of their address book being hacked, so I’d dropped them an email myself to let them know it had happened.
A case of clouds and silver linings, this led Will to reply. Since they do a bit of caravanning, there’s also a chance that we’ll manage to meet up with them one of these days, which would be very pleasant indeed.
Tomorrow, we’ll make an early start, probably in the rain, and set off up the Cheshire Locks, aka Heartbreak Hill. We’re being chased by Peter and Susan in their hire boat, Tiree; Graham and Beryl in this year’s showboat, Priscilla II, are heading the other way, downhill.
It’ll be a day to watch out for Braidbars on Heartbreak Hill.
/wahaha
Labels:
Wheelock
Saturday, 3 August 2013
Back to Wheelock
I have another good day to report, even if we had another grotty, hot and sticky night last night, complicated by the fact that a shower of rain woke me at half eleven. It wouldn’t have been a problem but we had the bedroom Houdini wide open at the time.
/floor
Got back off again after a bit, but never really plunged into deep, deep sleep. As a result we both had a serious post-prandial siesta this afternoon.
Anyway, back to the sheep, sorry, muttons. Setting off at seven, Sheila steered round to the water point below Big Lock. Just as we were nearly full, a hire boat, Ellesmere Navigator, turned up so we shared up the lock with them. The Navigator fleet has been bought by Middlewich Narrowboats and these good people were on their way back after a four day taster session. They’d enjoyed it so much they’re having a longer hire next year.
Good to see more folk getting infected with the waterways bug.
I nipped off to the Tesco Express for you know what whilst Sheila steered past the boats moored on the Town Wharf. We followed Ellesmere Navigator up the three narrow locks, hotly pursued by a bunch of Explorer Scouts from Peterlee on one of the original Middlewich Boats. This led to a bit of a traffic jam at the top lock, which has a problem necessitating only using one paddle at top and bottom. They all stopped at the Middlewich base, of course, and we carried on up Kings Lock having had to hang about a bit for another traffic jam at the junction to resolve itself.
Sheila had run a bleaching prewash as we locked up and I put the main wash on between Kings and Rumps. Coffee was then made between Rumps and Booth Lane where I set out to lockwheel up the flight of three. Rain threatened from time to time but never got really serious.
It was just on 12 as we got into Wheelock. We’d thought about having a meal at the San Marco tonight though I hadn’t managed to get through on the phone to book. The reason for this became apparent when I took a walk from the moorings to check the state of the place; there were For Sale signs up, so another effort has come to grief here.
It’s a great pity as we had a really nice meal there last year.
Oh, one other thing; leaving the Kindle on charge all day meant that after a while the green “charged” light turned orange again after quite a while, before going back to green after another couple of hours. Time will tell if that has improved the battery life; I’ll let you know.
Labels:
Wheelock
Monday, 15 July 2013
A bit weird in Wheelock
The EE/Orange signal has just disappeared here at Wheelock and since there’s no usable 3 signal either, posting this is going to have to wait until tomorrow when we’ll be in or near Middlewich.
It’s been a relaxing day after a quiet night, though another odd bloke turned up this morning just after breakfast. Smelling strongly of beer, he told me a sad tale about not having eaten for three days and being reduced to sleeping in the toilet block. Would I give him the price of a sandwich?
Initially I hardened my heart and advised him to contact social services and he went away to persuade the boat behind to give him a piece of toast. Later on, as we were waiting for the Ocado delivery, my conscience got the better of me; there we were waiting for a large delivery of groceries and here was this guy hanging about obviously not enjoying the benefits of living in the seventh richest country in the world.
So I made him a present of two chewy bars for his breakfast, whereupon he asked me for £2.50 to buy some beer. I wasn’t having that, and I don’t think he was surprised, frankly. We subsequently saw him enjoying some fruit juice and bread with the guy who was so catastrophically drunk on the towpath yesterday.
Why has Wheelock, normally a quiet, douce sort of village in our experience, suddenly acquired at least two vagrants? I guess Sandbach isn’t that far away, though that’s not a place I associate with social distress either.
I guess anywhere can be in these days of reduced spend on welfare, quite takes me back to the last time the Tories were in charge.
Apart from stowing the Ocado delivery which arrived just inside its time slot, we’ve been taking it pretty easy today. There’s been rather less traffic about, both on the cut and on the towpath, not sure why. If anything the weather’s been more conducive to strolling, being slightly less hot.
I’d meant to do a piece about the respective merits of Waterways World and Canal Boat, but that can keep for another day.
Labels:
Wheelock
Saturday, 13 July 2013
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.
Labels:
Rode Heath,
Wheelock
Friday, 26 August 2011
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.
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.
Labels:
Rode Heath,
Wheelock
Thursday, 25 August 2011
Heading for a heartbreak
Actually, I've never had a problem with the Cheshire Locks, aka Heartbreak Hill. Yes, there are a lot of locks in a short distance, but it's nothing like as daunting as Hatton, aka the Stairway to Heaven, or Tardebigge. We usually take three or four days over it, mind; it must be a bit different if you're trying to do the Four Counties in a week, and have to slog up from say Wheelock to the north portal of Harecastle in a day.
As predicted, we had no trouble at Middlewich overnight, though the fact that it tipped it down must have helped, and we set off just after seven again. The turn out at the junction went OK, though Wedgwood Boatbuilder's habit of mooring a boat right opposite makes life a bit tricky for the 70 footer. I was glad there wasn't much wind, and only had to go astern once.
Then it was a gentle plod, really. It's over two years since we were in Middlewich, and since then factories like the Bisto one have just disappeared. The pound above Booth Lane isn't any more thrilling than it was. Sheila's analysis was "At least it's better than Stoke" which frankly ain't saying an awful lot.
Not that it's bad, you understand, just a bit dull and post-industrial, with plain piled and concrete capped edges and scruffy fields broken by sporadic factories. Approaching Wheelock, we passed a Middlewich Boat, Maple, well stemmed up on the towpath side. She was crewed by three lads, one of them walking along the offside gunwale in a dressing gown and bare feet (I know, how often do you see a gunwale in a dressing gown?) and they finally got away after we'd passed.
Arriving at the visitor moorings at half ten, we found no one else here, and had our pick of the length. Several more boats have now turned up; this technique of start early, stop early is surely the one to use on a popular stretch of canal in high season.
Tonight we plan to eat out, probably at the Italian by the service wharf, then it will be another early start tomorrow, heading for Hassal Green, most likely.
As predicted, we had no trouble at Middlewich overnight, though the fact that it tipped it down must have helped, and we set off just after seven again. The turn out at the junction went OK, though Wedgwood Boatbuilder's habit of mooring a boat right opposite makes life a bit tricky for the 70 footer. I was glad there wasn't much wind, and only had to go astern once.
Then it was a gentle plod, really. It's over two years since we were in Middlewich, and since then factories like the Bisto one have just disappeared. The pound above Booth Lane isn't any more thrilling than it was. Sheila's analysis was "At least it's better than Stoke" which frankly ain't saying an awful lot.
Not that it's bad, you understand, just a bit dull and post-industrial, with plain piled and concrete capped edges and scruffy fields broken by sporadic factories. Approaching Wheelock, we passed a Middlewich Boat, Maple, well stemmed up on the towpath side. She was crewed by three lads, one of them walking along the offside gunwale in a dressing gown and bare feet (I know, how often do you see a gunwale in a dressing gown?) and they finally got away after we'd passed.
Arriving at the visitor moorings at half ten, we found no one else here, and had our pick of the length. Several more boats have now turned up; this technique of start early, stop early is surely the one to use on a popular stretch of canal in high season.
Tonight we plan to eat out, probably at the Italian by the service wharf, then it will be another early start tomorrow, heading for Hassal Green, most likely.
Labels:
Wheelock
Monday, 16 March 2009
Up the Cheshire Locks
15th & 16th March
Oh, it is so nice when Spring turns up. It's been a long winter this year, with an early start in December and a long cold finish, but the last couple of days have undoubtedly been Spring. One of the sublime things about living aboard is that whenever the good weather turns up (and we have at least some every year), there you are on the boat to enjoy it.
Both yesterday and today it's been warm enough not to need either the Eberspacher or the Squirrel first thing, though admittedly this morning, after a clear but chilly night, it was a bit on the sharp side. But with fine weather forecast for the day, there's no point running the heating just to spare a few moments of chill changing from PJs to day clothes.
We got away at a relaxed time, stopping at the tip to unload our recycling accumulated since we passed through going the other way. There was a lot of glass for some reason...
We got to the shopping mooring by the Town Bridge in the centre of Middlewich just on 10, when the supermarkets would be opening, it being Sunday. A raid on the closing down Somerfield, together with a call into Bargain Booze for lager for Sheila, and we were restocked for the pull up the Cheshire Locks. The weather continued fine, though with a chilly breeze. We worked up the Middlewich Three, in the second of which I tried holding back in the lock to spare the ailing bow fender. I shouldn't have tried it – the boat surged to and fro, finally ending up against the top cill with a resounding crash.
Investigation below later revealed that anything that could move forward had done so, including the wardrobe doors, the drawers underneath them, the fridge freezer and everything in the kitchen cupboards. The only breakage was one of our wine glasses, so not as bad as on other occasions.
It's now just under 34 years since I first stood quaking at the helm of a narrowboat, but I'm still learning.
Kings, Rumps and the Booth Lane Three were passed without further drama. It was just gone 12 as we came out of Rumps, so I grabbed my lunch between there and Booth Lane. Sheila took hers as we chugged round that odd bit to the west of Sandbach. It's one of those sections that's been raised and raised again as the land sank away as a result of brine pumping, but for all that, it's still pretty shallow in places.
We got into Wheelock just after two, finding plenty of room to tie on the visitor moorings beyond the wharf. I see the Italian restaurant has reopened, and seemed to be doing a good trade with Sunday lunchers, a fair number of whom we saw strolling the towpath later on.
We had a quiet afternoon and evening after our exertions, with the highlight being a spag bol and a couple of glasses of red wine, the last of the bottles of the Fairtrade Argentine Malbec we bought in the Co-op.
Today was another bright start. I nipped into the village to get a paper, then off we went up the Heartbreak Hill. In practice, as I think I've said before, we quite enjoy these locks. Admittedly they are deep, and some are a bit heavy, and there's quite a lot of them, but they're mostly in nice settings, and it's not a race, after all. I did the ten of them today, almost all of them with us, so that we got to Hassal Green by coffee time.
We spent the rest of the morning pottering, cutting up the bits of driftwood we'd collected on the roof, and similar tasks. I also rang BW to book a passage through Harecastle on Wednesday; it's still on winter hours, so not open on Tuesday, Thursday or Sunday, and only restricted times on the other days. In addition, you have to book 48 hours in advance. All this will change next Monday, when they go onto normal hours, and you can just turn up and go through during the day, subject to the tunnel keepers' agreement, of course.
This afternoon we had our first good play with the new vacuum cleaner. The excuse was that we'd changed the bed, and started the engine again to wash the first half of the resulting dirty linen, so it made sense to run round with the Dust Buster at the same time.
Its little bag of tools means that it really does function as a mini vacuum cleaner, getting bits out from between the floor boards, for example, and fluff from under the radiators.
I'm cheating on the meal tonight and cooking a Fray Bentos tinned pie, with mash and baked beans. Artisanal food, I think it's called. Tomorrow we go on up another ten locks to the top of Church. Wednesday will be a long day from there, through the tunnel and down to Barlaston. I plan to do another post on the Building Sanity Again blog tomorrow afternoon, then my regular post here on Wednesday.
Oh, it is so nice when Spring turns up. It's been a long winter this year, with an early start in December and a long cold finish, but the last couple of days have undoubtedly been Spring. One of the sublime things about living aboard is that whenever the good weather turns up (and we have at least some every year), there you are on the boat to enjoy it.
Both yesterday and today it's been warm enough not to need either the Eberspacher or the Squirrel first thing, though admittedly this morning, after a clear but chilly night, it was a bit on the sharp side. But with fine weather forecast for the day, there's no point running the heating just to spare a few moments of chill changing from PJs to day clothes.
We got away at a relaxed time, stopping at the tip to unload our recycling accumulated since we passed through going the other way. There was a lot of glass for some reason...
We got to the shopping mooring by the Town Bridge in the centre of Middlewich just on 10, when the supermarkets would be opening, it being Sunday. A raid on the closing down Somerfield, together with a call into Bargain Booze for lager for Sheila, and we were restocked for the pull up the Cheshire Locks. The weather continued fine, though with a chilly breeze. We worked up the Middlewich Three, in the second of which I tried holding back in the lock to spare the ailing bow fender. I shouldn't have tried it – the boat surged to and fro, finally ending up against the top cill with a resounding crash.
Investigation below later revealed that anything that could move forward had done so, including the wardrobe doors, the drawers underneath them, the fridge freezer and everything in the kitchen cupboards. The only breakage was one of our wine glasses, so not as bad as on other occasions.
It's now just under 34 years since I first stood quaking at the helm of a narrowboat, but I'm still learning.
Kings, Rumps and the Booth Lane Three were passed without further drama. It was just gone 12 as we came out of Rumps, so I grabbed my lunch between there and Booth Lane. Sheila took hers as we chugged round that odd bit to the west of Sandbach. It's one of those sections that's been raised and raised again as the land sank away as a result of brine pumping, but for all that, it's still pretty shallow in places.
We got into Wheelock just after two, finding plenty of room to tie on the visitor moorings beyond the wharf. I see the Italian restaurant has reopened, and seemed to be doing a good trade with Sunday lunchers, a fair number of whom we saw strolling the towpath later on.
We had a quiet afternoon and evening after our exertions, with the highlight being a spag bol and a couple of glasses of red wine, the last of the bottles of the Fairtrade Argentine Malbec we bought in the Co-op.
Today was another bright start. I nipped into the village to get a paper, then off we went up the Heartbreak Hill. In practice, as I think I've said before, we quite enjoy these locks. Admittedly they are deep, and some are a bit heavy, and there's quite a lot of them, but they're mostly in nice settings, and it's not a race, after all. I did the ten of them today, almost all of them with us, so that we got to Hassal Green by coffee time.
We spent the rest of the morning pottering, cutting up the bits of driftwood we'd collected on the roof, and similar tasks. I also rang BW to book a passage through Harecastle on Wednesday; it's still on winter hours, so not open on Tuesday, Thursday or Sunday, and only restricted times on the other days. In addition, you have to book 48 hours in advance. All this will change next Monday, when they go onto normal hours, and you can just turn up and go through during the day, subject to the tunnel keepers' agreement, of course.
This afternoon we had our first good play with the new vacuum cleaner. The excuse was that we'd changed the bed, and started the engine again to wash the first half of the resulting dirty linen, so it made sense to run round with the Dust Buster at the same time.
Its little bag of tools means that it really does function as a mini vacuum cleaner, getting bits out from between the floor boards, for example, and fluff from under the radiators.
I'm cheating on the meal tonight and cooking a Fray Bentos tinned pie, with mash and baked beans. Artisanal food, I think it's called. Tomorrow we go on up another ten locks to the top of Church. Wednesday will be a long day from there, through the tunnel and down to Barlaston. I plan to do another post on the Building Sanity Again blog tomorrow afternoon, then my regular post here on Wednesday.
Labels:
Hassal Green,
Wheelock
Thursday, 10 January 2008
Boating in the wet and the wind
9th & 10th January
With no plans to move and after a night punctuated by the noise of strong winds, we made a lazy start to the day. On the way down the towpath to the road at Wheelock, going to buy a paper, we found a tree down, almost but not quite blocking the path. It had also stopped just short of hitting the boat moored there.
When we got back to Sanity, I phoned the BW Wales and Border Counties office and reported it, having a very pleasant conversation with the woman who answered the phone. A bit later in the day it was gone, though we never spotted the blokes doing it.
Also later in the day, I was sitting working at the desk in the study bedroom when the boat started moving oddly – rocking and with odd noises from outside.
When I went out to investigate, there was a guy on the offside gunwale busy bow hauling the boat which had been moored behind us.
He apologised profusely, saying that he didn't realise there was anybody on the boat. This was perhaps a bit slow of him, since smoke was coming out of the chimney, but it seemed to be a genuine mistake.
He and his mate were moving the boat to Middlewich in this way. Apparently he'd been refitting it further up the canal when it sank – there was a small hole on the uxter plate (the bit of base plate under the counter), and the boat had slowly filled up and gone down.
He said in some surprise that they'd refloated it once already, but when they came back to it, blow me, it had sunk again. He didn't indicate whether he'd actually tried to close off the hole, saying "It's very small, only the size of a pencil".
I forbore to point out that even a small hole below the waterline, over a period of time, will let in enough water to sink the boat, steel not being famous for its buoyancy. The other sad thing is that it implies he bought the boat without a survey. It's very likely that, where there is one actual hole, there are many more potential ones, the steel having worn through over time (it was a pretty old looking boat).
The rest of the day was spent loafing, really, time being filled with internet activity, knitting, reading, and making a new ringtone for the phone.
Elanor had expressed some reservations about us using Waterloo as her personal ringtone, so I spent a bit of time in Sound Studio making a new 15 sec ringtone from the track Jose Cuervo, which Elanor likes for good reasons of her own. I did offer to use another Abba track, namely Knowing Me, Knowing You, in view of her recent break up, but I didn't happen to have it in iTunes, and it hardly seemed worthwhile buying it just for the sake of a joke in poor taste.
Today the weather looked distinctly dodgy, but the forecast was for an improvement, and I wanted to get down the rest of the locks to Middlewich – we are meeting Peter and Jan at the Salt Barge in Wincham on Saturday, and it's nice to have a day in hand for these things. I suspect that if it had been Sheila's turn to steer we wouldn't have gone, but there it was.
In the event, her scepticism was justified. It was really not a nice morning for boating, and we needed all the wet weather gear we had on. It rained fairly continuously, and from time to time it blew quite seriously as well.
We stopped on the water point to top up, and then it was the plod along the rather dismal pound that circumnavigates Sandbach without ever getting near enough to it to be useful.
Half way down Booth's Locks we crossed with an Elton Moss boat heading back to their base just above. This at least meant that all the locks would now be in our favour, which was particularly useful at Rumps. Sheila got off at the bridge well before and walked to it to get it open so that I could take Sanity straight in, despite the half gale that was by now blowing from behind me.
After that things weren't so bad, and Kings Lock was comparatively straightforward. The promised improvement in the weather was beginning to show up. Down the Middlewich Three we went, avoiding the broken down boat in the tight left hander pound between the top and middle locks. (OK, so you are broken down, but why not bow haul it up the last lock and get it out of everyone's way? You're almost certainly going to have to do that anyway.)
We stopped on the mooring beyond the Town Bridge, ate a belated lunch and then made a shopping raid on Somerfield, Bargain Booze and Rowland's the chemist.
Then we set off again, in pleasant sunshine now, and stopped briefly before Croxton Aqueduct to dispose of the old engine oil at the County Council tip there. Just across the aqueduct we finally stopped for the night. After I'd shut everything down, there was this persistent noise as of a pump or fan still running. It sounded as if the Eberspacher had tried to start itself up, and got stuck somewhere in its routine.
Sheila came and had a listen too, and we tried starting the Eberspacher in the ordinary way. This happened perfectly normally, and just as it was doing so, I realised that the manual override switch for the bilge pump was down. Sanity is such a dry boat, we never have occasion to use the bilge pump, and I just hadn't recognised the sound. A cheap disposable nappy (£2.50 for 20 from a supermarket) in the stern bilge is enough to absorb the bit of water that comes in past the stern greaser, being changed when I change the oil.
Just hope I haven't wrecked the impeller on the bilge pump running it dry for several minutes – better check it sometime, I suppose.
With no plans to move and after a night punctuated by the noise of strong winds, we made a lazy start to the day. On the way down the towpath to the road at Wheelock, going to buy a paper, we found a tree down, almost but not quite blocking the path. It had also stopped just short of hitting the boat moored there.
When we got back to Sanity, I phoned the BW Wales and Border Counties office and reported it, having a very pleasant conversation with the woman who answered the phone. A bit later in the day it was gone, though we never spotted the blokes doing it.
Also later in the day, I was sitting working at the desk in the study bedroom when the boat started moving oddly – rocking and with odd noises from outside.
When I went out to investigate, there was a guy on the offside gunwale busy bow hauling the boat which had been moored behind us.
He apologised profusely, saying that he didn't realise there was anybody on the boat. This was perhaps a bit slow of him, since smoke was coming out of the chimney, but it seemed to be a genuine mistake.
He and his mate were moving the boat to Middlewich in this way. Apparently he'd been refitting it further up the canal when it sank – there was a small hole on the uxter plate (the bit of base plate under the counter), and the boat had slowly filled up and gone down.
He said in some surprise that they'd refloated it once already, but when they came back to it, blow me, it had sunk again. He didn't indicate whether he'd actually tried to close off the hole, saying "It's very small, only the size of a pencil".
I forbore to point out that even a small hole below the waterline, over a period of time, will let in enough water to sink the boat, steel not being famous for its buoyancy. The other sad thing is that it implies he bought the boat without a survey. It's very likely that, where there is one actual hole, there are many more potential ones, the steel having worn through over time (it was a pretty old looking boat).
The rest of the day was spent loafing, really, time being filled with internet activity, knitting, reading, and making a new ringtone for the phone.
Elanor had expressed some reservations about us using Waterloo as her personal ringtone, so I spent a bit of time in Sound Studio making a new 15 sec ringtone from the track Jose Cuervo, which Elanor likes for good reasons of her own. I did offer to use another Abba track, namely Knowing Me, Knowing You, in view of her recent break up, but I didn't happen to have it in iTunes, and it hardly seemed worthwhile buying it just for the sake of a joke in poor taste.
Today the weather looked distinctly dodgy, but the forecast was for an improvement, and I wanted to get down the rest of the locks to Middlewich – we are meeting Peter and Jan at the Salt Barge in Wincham on Saturday, and it's nice to have a day in hand for these things. I suspect that if it had been Sheila's turn to steer we wouldn't have gone, but there it was.
In the event, her scepticism was justified. It was really not a nice morning for boating, and we needed all the wet weather gear we had on. It rained fairly continuously, and from time to time it blew quite seriously as well.
We stopped on the water point to top up, and then it was the plod along the rather dismal pound that circumnavigates Sandbach without ever getting near enough to it to be useful.
Half way down Booth's Locks we crossed with an Elton Moss boat heading back to their base just above. This at least meant that all the locks would now be in our favour, which was particularly useful at Rumps. Sheila got off at the bridge well before and walked to it to get it open so that I could take Sanity straight in, despite the half gale that was by now blowing from behind me.
After that things weren't so bad, and Kings Lock was comparatively straightforward. The promised improvement in the weather was beginning to show up. Down the Middlewich Three we went, avoiding the broken down boat in the tight left hander pound between the top and middle locks. (OK, so you are broken down, but why not bow haul it up the last lock and get it out of everyone's way? You're almost certainly going to have to do that anyway.)
We stopped on the mooring beyond the Town Bridge, ate a belated lunch and then made a shopping raid on Somerfield, Bargain Booze and Rowland's the chemist.
Then we set off again, in pleasant sunshine now, and stopped briefly before Croxton Aqueduct to dispose of the old engine oil at the County Council tip there. Just across the aqueduct we finally stopped for the night. After I'd shut everything down, there was this persistent noise as of a pump or fan still running. It sounded as if the Eberspacher had tried to start itself up, and got stuck somewhere in its routine.
Sheila came and had a listen too, and we tried starting the Eberspacher in the ordinary way. This happened perfectly normally, and just as it was doing so, I realised that the manual override switch for the bilge pump was down. Sanity is such a dry boat, we never have occasion to use the bilge pump, and I just hadn't recognised the sound. A cheap disposable nappy (£2.50 for 20 from a supermarket) in the stern bilge is enough to absorb the bit of water that comes in past the stern greaser, being changed when I change the oil.
Just hope I haven't wrecked the impeller on the bilge pump running it dry for several minutes – better check it sometime, I suppose.
Labels:
Croxton,
Middlewich,
Wheelock
Tuesday, 8 January 2008
Whirling down to Wheelock
7th & 8th January
One thing I forgot to mention last time; the strange phenomenon of the night time biker. Whilst we were moored at the top of Church Locks, normally a perfectly peaceful mooring bar the noise of the road a couple of fields away, I heard a biker pass by the boat at three in the morning. It sounded like a small engined bike – either a small trail bike or one of those "sixteener specials".
I lay and pondered it in the dark, and finally concluded, since it was Saturday night, that it must be some late night reveller, too drunk to risk riding on the road, and using the towpath. This theory was blown away by what sounded very like the same bike coming back at 4.30 or so, and then past again just before five. Certainly broke up my night's sleep, though Sheila kipped on through it all.
Very odd, not to say irritating.
Anyway, back to our Hassal Green mooring and yesterday, Monday. Since the weather forecast was dire for the day, and there seemed to be a window of better stuff on Tuesday morning, we decided to stay put. Thus we were able to have a lie in until gone 9, and then potter round the boat, cleaning mostly. The internet connection wasn't desperately fast, GPRS rather than 3G, but I did clock that I'd had a sudden burst of traffic to the site on Sunday. This is odd, as the weekend is normally quieter – methinks there's a good bunch of you out there reading this from work :-}.
Any way, it's good to know that there's a slow but steady increase of readers – I do this blog for fun, but if folks pick up hints and tips, or just enjoy some vicarious cruising, that's great. It also encourages me to sit down and get on with it on those days when applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair is a bit harder than usual.
It's also worth saying by way of reassurance that although the Sitemeter counter I use can tell me when folks are viewing the site, and what part of the world they are from, it doesn't enable me to know who they are – the IP addresses are anonymised. It is fun to know that, at times, about 30% of the traffic comes from outside the UK, though.
As well as cleaning the boat, we took the opportunity to turn out one of the lockers under the side berth in the study bedroom. We'd seen a bit of black mould appearing in a corner of the bathroom next door, and wanted to be sure that it wasn't coming from behind the partition.
In any event, it's a good idea to turn these lockers out occasionally, in order to remember what's in there. In fact all seemed to be well – there was a bit of condensation forming in the locker, but nothing drastic. In the Spring, it will be good to turn it out again and air the stuff that's in there, that's all.
The black in the bathroom must be condensation related too – it's the curse of a boat at this time of year, and by and large we keep it under control. It's just that there are one or two spots around the cabin where there's not much air circulation, and so condensation and mould can form.
I also turned out one of the kitchen cupboards, the one with most of the food cans in it. In accordance with the third law of thermodynamics, it had slowly disorganised itself over time, and it was quite satisfying to haul it all out and repack it neatly.
The only other thing of particular note yesterday was a woman walking two Samoyed dogs past the boat. For those who don't know them, Sams are delightful – white and fluffy and very human oriented. They were bred to share tent space with their Siberian owners originally. We used to keep them ourselves, but on a boat they can cause a bit of mess – mud dries in the coat and then drops off in a pile on the floor, and the coat itself has a soft white underlayer, like cotton wool, that sheds in all directions.
If you've ever tried to vacuum cotton wool off a rug or carpet, you can imagine the problem. Seemingly this woman goes boating with both these dogs, so must have been well used to extensive boat cleaning.
This morning we made an early start to take advantage of the "better" weather. In fact it rained for much of the time, and Sheila, who was steering, found the wind a bit tricky if she had to hover above a lock waiting for it to fill.
Nonetheless, we made decent time, starting just after eight, and coming out of the bottom of the Wheelock flight, ten locks later, just after 10. We went onto the water point, filled up and then Sheila reversed Sanity back to the visitor moorings we'd just passed.
It's been an afternoon for the internet. First I had a comment from blogger A Different Voice, admitting that she'd used a photo of mine in a post about a truly bad first experience of hiring a narrowboat. She draws some very sensible conclusions from it, though, and her blog is well worth a visit.
Andrew on Granny Buttons also referred to her use of the photo – thanks for the plug, Andrew – this makes a sort of three way family favourites hook up!
The other bit of excitement is that the well known and well established shared ownership scheme, Challenger Syndicateships, has gone into administration. I was commenting only a few days ago about the danger of the boating bubble bursting, and this could be one symptom of just that happening.
More bad weather forecast for the next day or two, so we may be here for a couple of days yet.
One thing I forgot to mention last time; the strange phenomenon of the night time biker. Whilst we were moored at the top of Church Locks, normally a perfectly peaceful mooring bar the noise of the road a couple of fields away, I heard a biker pass by the boat at three in the morning. It sounded like a small engined bike – either a small trail bike or one of those "sixteener specials".
I lay and pondered it in the dark, and finally concluded, since it was Saturday night, that it must be some late night reveller, too drunk to risk riding on the road, and using the towpath. This theory was blown away by what sounded very like the same bike coming back at 4.30 or so, and then past again just before five. Certainly broke up my night's sleep, though Sheila kipped on through it all.
Very odd, not to say irritating.
Anyway, back to our Hassal Green mooring and yesterday, Monday. Since the weather forecast was dire for the day, and there seemed to be a window of better stuff on Tuesday morning, we decided to stay put. Thus we were able to have a lie in until gone 9, and then potter round the boat, cleaning mostly. The internet connection wasn't desperately fast, GPRS rather than 3G, but I did clock that I'd had a sudden burst of traffic to the site on Sunday. This is odd, as the weekend is normally quieter – methinks there's a good bunch of you out there reading this from work :-}.
Any way, it's good to know that there's a slow but steady increase of readers – I do this blog for fun, but if folks pick up hints and tips, or just enjoy some vicarious cruising, that's great. It also encourages me to sit down and get on with it on those days when applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair is a bit harder than usual.
It's also worth saying by way of reassurance that although the Sitemeter counter I use can tell me when folks are viewing the site, and what part of the world they are from, it doesn't enable me to know who they are – the IP addresses are anonymised. It is fun to know that, at times, about 30% of the traffic comes from outside the UK, though.
As well as cleaning the boat, we took the opportunity to turn out one of the lockers under the side berth in the study bedroom. We'd seen a bit of black mould appearing in a corner of the bathroom next door, and wanted to be sure that it wasn't coming from behind the partition.
In any event, it's a good idea to turn these lockers out occasionally, in order to remember what's in there. In fact all seemed to be well – there was a bit of condensation forming in the locker, but nothing drastic. In the Spring, it will be good to turn it out again and air the stuff that's in there, that's all.
The black in the bathroom must be condensation related too – it's the curse of a boat at this time of year, and by and large we keep it under control. It's just that there are one or two spots around the cabin where there's not much air circulation, and so condensation and mould can form.
I also turned out one of the kitchen cupboards, the one with most of the food cans in it. In accordance with the third law of thermodynamics, it had slowly disorganised itself over time, and it was quite satisfying to haul it all out and repack it neatly.
The only other thing of particular note yesterday was a woman walking two Samoyed dogs past the boat. For those who don't know them, Sams are delightful – white and fluffy and very human oriented. They were bred to share tent space with their Siberian owners originally. We used to keep them ourselves, but on a boat they can cause a bit of mess – mud dries in the coat and then drops off in a pile on the floor, and the coat itself has a soft white underlayer, like cotton wool, that sheds in all directions.
If you've ever tried to vacuum cotton wool off a rug or carpet, you can imagine the problem. Seemingly this woman goes boating with both these dogs, so must have been well used to extensive boat cleaning.
This morning we made an early start to take advantage of the "better" weather. In fact it rained for much of the time, and Sheila, who was steering, found the wind a bit tricky if she had to hover above a lock waiting for it to fill.
Nonetheless, we made decent time, starting just after eight, and coming out of the bottom of the Wheelock flight, ten locks later, just after 10. We went onto the water point, filled up and then Sheila reversed Sanity back to the visitor moorings we'd just passed.
It's been an afternoon for the internet. First I had a comment from blogger A Different Voice, admitting that she'd used a photo of mine in a post about a truly bad first experience of hiring a narrowboat. She draws some very sensible conclusions from it, though, and her blog is well worth a visit.
Andrew on Granny Buttons also referred to her use of the photo – thanks for the plug, Andrew – this makes a sort of three way family favourites hook up!
The other bit of excitement is that the well known and well established shared ownership scheme, Challenger Syndicateships, has gone into administration. I was commenting only a few days ago about the danger of the boating bubble bursting, and this could be one symptom of just that happening.
More bad weather forecast for the next day or two, so we may be here for a couple of days yet.
Labels:
Hassal Green,
Wheelock
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)