To Bugsworth and a failing trackball

The (welcome) invasion hasn’t started yet, so I’ve time to do this blog post in comparative peace. We leapt up at six (sort of) and were boating at seven. We’d estimated three hours to Bugsworth and wanted to do most of the boating before others were moving and to arrive at around ten to ten thirty.

Amazingly, all of this worked. It was a lovely morning, though cool enough for me to need a fleece whilst steering, the first time for a long time that that’s been the case. We had a very pleasant run, with Sheila getting some serious exercise on the lift and swing bridges and the walks between the first three of them.

New Mills was smelling very strongly of sweeties as usual; it’s a shame that the moorings there have been allowed to deteriorate so badly. I really wouldn’t want to try to walk along any of their pontoons.

In contrast, Furness Vale was looking quite spiffy and here we started to meet boats coming the other way. We’d been told that the weird willow growth had been cut back on the other side of Furness Vale, but it seemed as bad as ever to us. Maybe it had got even worse this year.

We got to Bugsworth Basin bang on ten. It’s only 6½ miles from Marple to there, but the shallow winding nature of the canal makes for slow progress. Water levels are quite low at the moment too, which meant finding the odd lump under the boat.

Nonetheless, it’s still a beautiful canal; at least as scenic as the Caldon and still much easier to navigate.

After coffee I turned to and topped up the batteries for this month, then after lunch we took a walk to Tesco to restock. We’ll get an Ocado order delivered when we get back to Poynton, so this, together with a bit more tomorrow, should keep us going until then.

A few days ago I did a running repair to the trackball I use on this machine; the left button had become erratic due to wear inside stopping the relevant plastic bit from pushing down on the microswitch properly. I’d built that bit up with some sticky tape, but it’s as bad as ever now.

So I’m trying out Sheila’s new trackball, bought for her when her trackpad began similar misbehaviour. It takes a bit of getting used to, as you operate the ball with your thumb and the left button with your index finger, but it seems to work well.

I think I feel another Amazon order coming on…

/wahaha