Two alternates and a third choice

We made a prompt start this morning with our alternate targets in mind. If there was room when we got there, we’d tie on the new pontoon moorings in Macclesfield and have a trip to Tesco. Alternatively, we’d press on to Riley Green and visit the Co-op in Bollington. So we got going just before eight, passing the other moored boats quietly, including Amy Jo which looked dark and dreamy still.

It’s a bit of a plod to Gurnett Aqueduct along a length that always seems to need dredging. At least it wasn't as windy today as it usually is. The visitor moorings on Gurnett were full on the unrestricted section but with a lot of space on the 48 hour part. It’s always quite a challenge tying there, as I’ve said before. There are rings but at awkward spacing and the ground is very reluctant to admit a pin. It’s a hard concrete edge that extends back under the grass for some distance.

On we plodded along the side embankment with a view over the town. We were following Belle of the Dachshund Carrying Company, a deep draughted boat that was struggling to make any way at all. Finally, her steerer waved us past, explaining that he had a blade full and would just have to stop in mid channel to clear it, the towpath being hopelessly inaccessible with shallow reeds along that stretch.

The bridge holes were very bunged up as usual and needed the boatman’s strategy of cracking on at them until you get the bow well in the hole, then shut the throttle so that the stern lifts and you slide through.

Hopefully.

Mostly it worked but it wasn't the fastest trip. When we got there, there was no question of tying on the pontoon moorings. If the two splitters GRP boats and a canoe occupying two pontoons between them had been tied more considerately, a 60 footer might well have got in, but not Sanity Again. So we pressed on on a reasonably pleasant morning, if a little cool.

A boat going the other way warned us that CRT are dredging the canal by Clarence Mill, so we were prepared to be held up for a bit in a good cause. However, as we approached, a boat was just leaving the far end of the moorings on the aqueduct and we were able to drop into the space she had left. This is the only way to get a mooring here, basically get lucky with a boat leaving. There are rings but no time limit beyond the default 14 days, so they are very popular. We’ve tied just in front of Braidbar number 8, The Iron Maiden.

It was now just after half ten and the sky was clouding over. The forecast is pretty soggy for the weekend and we are about two hours cruising time from Poynton. We’ve decided to stay put here for the weekend and finish the trip on Tuesday, arriving just one day early. I’ll probably just do brief blogs between now and then as there won’t be much boating to report.

Location:Bollington

Busy busy

For some reason it was really hard to get up and get going this morning, but I managed to surface at half six to make first thing tea and listen to On Your Farm, which was about oyster farming in Essex this time. It's fascinating what you can pick up on Radio 4 at odd hours.

We were away by eight on one of those nothing nor something mornings weather-wise. It wasn't raining, and there wasn't much wind, but high cloud kept it quite parky. I was glad that I'd wrapped up well for my stint on the tiller; sweatshirt, gilet, fleece and waterproof to keep the wind out.

We had a pretty uneventful trip to Macclesfield, with not many boats moving at first, though it got quite busy later. We were pleased to find a space on Gurnett Aqueduct, handy because we're meeting Peter and Susan for a drink at the Sutton Hall pub tomorrow night. The only thing was, we couldn't get a pin in to tie the bow, and none of the stupid rings were in the right place.

This is the usual scenario at Gurnett; the answer is to try driving the pin in well across towards the path, away from the concrete capping, but today none of our dodges worked, and in the end we gave up and came on to our preferred spot at Lyme Green, just by the winding hole. No probs here; tomorrow we'll be able to take a bus into Macc to do what we have to do in the morning. In the evening we'll either walk back to Sutton, or we may be able to persuade Peter to pick us up from the retail park by here.

We've had to light the fire straight away, and Sheila has started cutting wood again. Meanwhile, I did a basic engine service and topped up the batteries. We're both pleasantly weary (Sheila had already had some exercise, nipping off to shop as we came through Macc) and are braced for the equinoctial gale that's working its way north as I type this.

Back again

Two weeks in April

It’s been a while since I posted here, I know, but life has been just a tad busy!

We had a great visit to Graeme and Cathy, and renewed our acquaintance with Daniel and Alexander. Hiring a car from Enterprise worked really well, and didn’t cost significantly more than two return tickets on the train. Not good for the planet, but it was very handy to have the use of the car whilst we were there.

Back at the yard on the Friday, we found that Sanity Again was very nearly finished. She is in almost every respect better that we had hoped, which is saying quite a lot. In a few days, I’ll do a post on the other side setting out the stuff that has worked really well, but high on the list must be the Hurricane heating, the white ceiling and the cooker (but that’s just the top of a very long list).

With the invaluable help of Roger Millin, we set off on the Saturday to boat to Alrewas. The itinerary and highlights went like this:

• Saturday 10 An easy day just as far as Gurnett Aqueduct, where we did a show round Sanity in the afternoon.
• Sunday 11 Serious boating commenced, with an eight o’clock start, down Bosley and on to the Little Morton Hall mooring for the night. Sanity Again is quite deep draughted, and progress was slow on the shallow Macc.
• Monday 12 We had intended to get to the top of Stone, and made good progress towards that, with a quick passage of Harecastle, but by mid afternoon we were pretty weary, and stopped on the Wedgwood moorings just before Barlaston.
• Tuesday 13 Getting into the routine now, with another great day's boating in fine weather. We’d planned to make Great Haywood, but decided that the country mooring a mile before Hoo Mill would be better.
• Wednesday 14 Sanity Again needed water, so we set off at seven, leaving Roger to follow on in Sanity at the usual time. By 7.45 we were on the water point at Great Haywood, and filled up by half eight, even though her big (780 litres) water tank was over half empty. Then, when Roger arrived, on we went, aiming for the top of Shade House. We stopped in Handsacre for lunch, then went on to discover that the Shade House moorings were full, so came on down the flight, and tied both boats without difficulty on the visitor moorings opposite the cafe.

This morning, Roger left us, Elanor taking him back to Higher Poynton to collect his car. After he’d gone, we took Sanity on down to Bagnall Lock, where again there was plenty of room. We’ve got a show round there tomorrow morning, and we’ll take Sanity Again down to join her first thing.

We’ve been pottering on board for the rest of the day, gradually getting things put away where we want them.

Because we’ve been boating so hard (for us) I’ve not been keeping my usual notes of who we met and so on, so I’ll just say thanks to all those blog readers and fellow Braidbar owners whom we’ve seen during the week and who made nice remarks about the new boat.

And of course, yet again thanks to Roger for great company and brilliant boating.

To Macc and back

4th & 5th April

After a peaceful night at Poynton, we were awoken early by the racket of courting Canada geese. Moving Sanity Again to the water point, we refilled her tank and took the chance to pick up some bits and pieces from Sanity. Sheila had elected to steer, and had, I fear, a rather miserable time of it assailed by icy rain.

Nonetheless, it was great to be boating in the splendour of a new Braidbar, and we plodded steadily on to Gurnett Aqueduct. We got there in time for a latish lunch, having sustained ourselves with mugs of soup en route.

For once, we had no reason to trek into the town, and spent the afternoon playing with the boat, compiling the snagging list and marking with strips of masking tape the locations for things like a ring for the handtowel and the loo roll holder in the bathroom.

The new cooker continues to impress; it is genuinely like cooking on a domestic appliance; it's amazing the difference 5cm of width makes to the hob, and the oven is cavernous by boat standards.

Today we made a leisurely start, and set off at around half nine, on the familiar routine of going down to the winding hole at Lyme Green, then back tracking as far as Adlington, so from Lyme Green to Lyme View. Winding 70 foot at Lyme Green is not as easy as 60, but with the aid of the long shaft we got round. Fortunately the wind has not been as fierce as forecast.

We had originally planned to go on to Poynton this afternoon, but there's a lot of traffic about, and it's very pleasant here.

We've spent the afternoon pottering again, and will make an early start in the morning. It'll be a busy day tomorrow, briefing Peter on the work that needs doing to put the finishing touches to the boat, collecting the hire car from Enterprise, and driving across to Lincoln.

Pottering to Macclesfield

8th & 9th November

There’s not a lot to tell today, as we’ve been pottering and recovering from the excitements of last week. The main thing to report is that we have tackled our least favourite boat maintenance job, namely resealing the join between the walls of the shower cubicle and the tray.

It’s only the second time we’ve had to do it in six years, so I suppose we shouldn’t complain too much. There wasn’t a major problem, but it had some mould growth and was starting to peel back off the tiling in one corner. If we’d left it there would be a risk of water penetration through the relevant bulk head.

The low frequency with which the job has to be done is part of the problem of course. Wielding a sealant gun is something that needs practice if you’re to get the professional effect of getting it right in a single pass, and once every three years is just not enough. Having said that, it went much better this time, partly because we had learned from experience and partly because the sealant we’d bought this time was much more pleasant to use.

(I should also pass on Elanor’s comment, based on her years of WRG experience: “You should have stuck two bits of scrap wood together at an angle, and practised on that until you were confident.”)

The answer seems to be (at least to us) to have a little bowl of water and a supply of latex gloves to hand (sorry) so that as each line of sealant is completed, it’s possible to slip on a glove, dip a finger in the water and smooth it off.

It means we’ve gone without showers for the last two days, but it’s worth it.

Apart from that some firewood has been sawn, bits and pieces have been done on the internet and so forth.

Today we wanted to go to Macclesfield to collect my new specs, so straight after breakfast we pulled out of the mooring and went to the water point. I nipped into the Braidbar yard and collected a couple of pieces of post from Peter. I also agreed the time for our meeting with him, first thing Wednesday morning, to check over the plans for Sanity Again so that the first fix wiring can go in once the spray foaming is done.

It was a brilliant morning, the best sort of winter’s day, cold but not windy, with a pale blue sky and the largely leafless trees standing out against it. The cut has rather filled up with leaf again, so it was a slowish run, but by half twelve we were moored on Gurnett Aqueduct.

We had a successful trip into Macclesfield; my spectacles are exactly what I wanted, and I’ve adjusted to wearing the new varifocals without difficulty. We also popped into Julian Graves to replenish our stocks of dried fruit and the like, and by half three were back on the boat preparing a cup of tea.

Tomorrow, we’ll amble back to Poynton via Tesco, and then some more bits and pieces on the boat will be done I have no doubt. In particular, I want to tackle the fearsome tangle of cables all over the desk, where I just connected up the Mac Mini to make sure it all worked and then never got round to redoing it tidily.

Quiet Sunday, busy Monday

25th & 26th October

Yesterday was the day for which the motto is “fall back”. In our case we took that to mean “fall back into bed” and had an even lazier start than usual. After we’d eventually got up, I ambled down to the paper shop for an Independent on Sunday. On my way back, I met Graham and Beryl Johnson just setting off on a similar expedition.

We had a bit of a natter; Graham confirmed that he is willing to come and take photos of Sanity Again’s shell being craned in, and he has even offered to go to Tim Tyler’s yard first thing in the morning and take some shots of it being loaded onto the trombo.

Truly, Braidbar owners are a great bunch.

The rest of the morning was spent in a laid back fashion. Sheila has taken over the iBook as her personal machine, and has gone back to doing some proof reading for Project Gutenberg Canada. I found that Amazon are selling HP colour cartridges quite cheap and, having ordered one, took the opportunity to sort out my wish list in anticipation of Christmas.

As Graeme commented (note the spelling; we are talking now about the son, not the owner of Priscilla), it seems a bit early, but last year when I left it later I was told that people had already decided what to get me.

After lunch we took ourselves out for a short walk. Fortunately I had remembered to put the phone in my pocket for once as we had calls from both Elanor and Graeme whilst we were out. Sheila also popped into the Trading Post to buy a bottle of meths, having to endure only a couple of jokes along the lines of “Don’t drink it all at once” in so doing.

She actually wanted it for cleaning both the keyboard of the iBook and the Bluetooth keyboard that we use with it. This proved extremely successful and a good deal cheaper than buying branded keyboard cleaner.

This morning we managed an early start and by eight o’ clock we were manoeuvring Sanity out of the mooring. The cunning plan was to use the centre line and stern line to get her in the right position to pivot round. It would have worked except that, as I suspected, all the running the engine in gear had created a reef of silt halfway down the boat. Our manipulation meant that the stern was sitting nicely on this reef when Sheila came to drive out.

She used the short shaft to nudge the stern across and then for once it was a case of piling the power on to dredge our way out.

After watering, we set off for Macclesfield. I think I’ve commented earlier on the number of Jays around this year and we saw yet more all over the place this morning. We also saw a great many dead leaves, and it took about three and a half hours to get to Gurnett Aqueduct, so often did Sheila have to chuck back to clear the prop.

In addition, it being half term, there are lots of hire boats about, many of them puzzled as to the problems they keep having with maintaining drive. I don’t know if the hire yards warn them about the affinity waterlogged leaves have for a turning prop, but they certainly should.

No matter, we were at Gurnett just in nice time for lunch, after which we walked into Macclesfield for me to order some new specs, now that I am eligible for the 30% discount for the over sixties.

On the way back, we had to repass some mini road works which were just starting when we were walking out. They’d just stopped as we got back there; it seems that the water main had been a bit closer to the surface than expected, as a thirty foot high fountain was now emerging from the excavation.

We’re planning a quiet evening; we may stay put tomorrow or else head back to Poynton. It all depends on the weather.

Shop in Macc, then back down Bosley

24th & 25th September

With shopping rather than boating to do, we made a lazy start yesterday, and walked down into Macclesfield at around nine. One of the first stores we found was Waterstone's, where, however, we were doomed to disappointment.

I'd planned to buy Sheila the Sony Reader for her next birthday, but it turns out that the smaller Waterstone's aren't stocking it "for security reasons". Sheila thought this was fair enough, but it seemed a bit feeble to me. We were able to agree that it was no excuse not to have at least one as a demonstrator, since it's not the sort of thing many of us would choose to buy on-line without first at least holding one in your hands to form an opinion about it.

If it proves to be all it's cracked up to be, it could do for our book storage problem what the iPod has done for the CD problem, that is, eliminate it. History seems so far to be repeating itself, in that the big difficulty is the price and poor availability of material. Ironically, the Waterstone's site is especially difficult to use to buy eBooks, but there are several other legit sources, and I suspect (though I won't patronise them myself) that if the eReaders take off the way MP3 players did, there'll soon be a lot of unlicensed copies of books available.

After all, the technology for scanning a book into pdf format is already available, and the Sony Reader displays pdfs as well as its native file format.

Be that as it may, back at the boat, after a much more successful raid on Julian Graves for dried foods of all kinds, another search of the Waterstone's website elicited the info that the Burton branch is stocking the thing, so we will possess ourselves with patience until we get back there.

After this burst of energetic activity, the rest of the day was spent rather more somnolently. I did an account of the Owners' Weekend to send out to the magazines as a news story, and emailed it to Braidbar for their comments, and to see if they had any photos to use with it.

During the afternoon first Sebeq and then Cala came by, and Cala hovered for a while for a chat before boating into the distance, determined, it seems, to get down Bosley before the end of the day. Since it was already late afternoon, this seemed a bit ambitious to us, but today we tied by them at Congleton (though there was nobody aboard) so I guess they made it.

Apparently, they are now reading this blog by mobile phone, which is a bit cool.

Today was very different. We wanted to get down Bosley ourselves, and on to the Little Moreton Hall mooring. Sheila decided she fancied some early morning boating, so, although it was my turn to steer, she nobly leapt out of bed at seven, whilst I was making the first thing tea, and set off.

After getting washed, dressed and breakfasted, I took over so that she could get eat too. This meant that we made the run from Gurnett to the top of Bosley by nine, and some good teamwork took us down the flight in around an hour and three quarters.

By twelve we were tied at Congleton for lunch, just behind the locked up Cala. Off we went again, and got to our destination by half two, having taken six hours for the whole run, plus an hour for lunch.

More internet type stuff has been undertaken this afternoon, and Sheila has washed out the plant pots which held the summer flowers. When they are dry, they'll go away for the winter under the well deck. While I was spell checking this, Cala came past again, heading for Scholar Green for the night. They looked remarkably fit, considering they'd spent the evening before drinking with Klaus and Helga on Sebeq.

Tomorrow, we'll do it all again, so as to get through Harecastle and Stoke and down to Barlaston in one move.

Leaving Poynton at last

22nd & 23rd September

We'd been warned that the pub would be busy on a Sunday evening after seven, and for that reason stopped serving food then. We all rolled up at six, and it was indeed very busy, but mainly with diners getting an early meal, several groups being families with comparatively small children.

We managed to get a big enough group of tables together for the twelve of us, however, and were able to order from a menu that was getting shorter by the minute.

Nonetheless, we all had a good meal, together with a couple of rounds of ale. By eight, the place was in fact quite quiet, with only ourselves and a bunch of regulars round the bar still drinking.

Later, we ambled back to the bungalow at the boatyard, and in a while there was a hard core (Peter, the Calas, Sanitys and Sebeqs) left, drinking Peter's wine and playing with Maria's toy remote control helicopter, as bought from eBay for £6.99.

Truly adolescence is a lot more fun the second time around (not least because you are in no doubt as to whom you are going to bed with when it's all over, which I reckon is a major component in teenage existential doubt).

Next morning I had a quick maintenance job to do on Sanity, as the galley sink had decided to stop draining last thing the night before. It proved to be a simple blockage which fell out when I took the pipe off the underside of the plughole.

We did a fair bit of hanging about during the morning, culminating in an epic session of boat shuffling, aimed at moving those boats which had only been in the yard for the Open Day (Braidbar 100 and Sanity) out onto the mainline, moving Bella out of the paint dock and moving in those (Calm Down and the shell for the next build) which needed the workforce to get on with them.

In addition, the hire boat, Skye, needed to come into the yard in mid cruise to have her Webasto diesel heater fixed, so she was run down the middle between Cala and the shell, and her crew invited to look round the other boats by way of a diversion.

We finally left just before lunch, going down to the end of the moorings to wind (when you come out of the yard, you always end up facing towards Marple) and then gently boating to Adlington for the night.

It was a wrench to go, but all good things come to an end eventually. By the time we got there it had turned determinedly wet again, giving us all the excuse we needed for a very quiet afternoon and evening.

Today was a pretty relaxed start too. On a dry but cool morning, Sheila steered the familiar route to Macclesfield whilst I browsed the net, did a bit of emailing and caught up with a newspaper.

The moorings by the water point in Macc were full, as ever, but we managed to moor on pins between the water point and the bridge. There was just time to go to Tesco before lunch, which we took where we were, then after refilling the water tank we came on to Gurnett Aqueduct. It was pretty full here, too, with just a couple of 60 foot spaces left, one of which we took and the other of which filled up in mid afternoon.

The weather was now sunny and mild, and Sheila sat out on the bow knitting: until the boat in front started its engine for battery charging purposes.

We've relit the stove now – these Autumn evenings are too cool for comfort once the sun goes down, which it will do in about an hour from now, having just passed the Equinox.

We're going to stay here tomorrow, doing some big town shopping in Macc, then heading off for Bosley Locks on Thursday, windlasses out for the first time in three weeks.

First blog of 2008

1st & 2nd January

Must have been a good New Year – I woke in the night with that thought "If I'd known I was going to be this thirsty this morning, I'd have had more to drink last night." Nonetheless, the morning wasn't too painful: well, not compared to some Ne'er Day mornings I can hazily remember.

Sheila was less affected, but then she'd been more cautious with Elanor's main contribution to the proceedings (apart from her company, of course). This was some form of schnapps she'd acquired in Germany. Herb flavoured (it must be good for you, it's got herbs in it), it was all too moreish. Never mind, it was a good evening, all things considered, so mustn't complain.

As a way of getting fresh air we all made a trip to the recycling bank after a late breakfast. It was mostly full, but we managed to unload the glass and paper, which were the major items.

Shortly after lunch we moved onto the water point briefly to let Elanor unload and go, and then chugged round to Lyme View for the night. The weather forecast was not too good for the next couple of days, being a sequence of windy –> cold and windy –> cold –> windy, but we'll need to tough it out as we want to be down Bosley Locks before they close next Monday for a stoppage. Also, we need diesel and a pump out, and plan to get both at Heritage Marina at the end of the Macc.

In view of the weather, we'd planned an early start this morning, but in fact slept in a bit. Sheila dressed while I made tea, and set off boating whilst I ate breakfast. Then we changed over for her to eat, and thereafter made steady progress towards Macclesfield.

The main hold up was just before Hurdsford Industrial Estate, where we found a shell in the early stages of fitting out drifting in the cut. Its bow was still moored, and it was an interesting exercise in a cross wind to get on board and shaft it into the bank.

In this we were helped by a towpath cyclist (yes, a cyclist) who clambered round with the shaft to the shell's stern and poled it in. Turns out he was a boater himself, but it just goes to show, you can't assume anything on the basis of someone's mode of transport.

We tied on Macc town mooring, avoiding the dog muck for once, and did our usual Tesco run. By then it was lunchtime, and afterwards, just as we were preparing to set off for Gurnett for the night, Cala came into view heading back to Poynton after a fortnight's cruise. They've got the usual list of niggles to get sorted out, but remain very pleased with the boat.

Peter told me to make sure I got this blog done in good time, or Gill gets cross, seemingly :-}, so I'll just add a recipe for the pie we had on New Year's Eve and post it.

Christmas Pie

Put some olive oil in a pan (I use Stellar stainless steel casseroles on both stove top and in the oven) and fry onion and garlic until translucent. Add chopped cooked turkey and a tablespoonful of plain flour and stir on a very low heat until the flour has taken up the oil into a roux.

Stir in half a pint of ham stock and keep stirring until the stock has blended with the roux and started to thicken. Slice some sprouts into disks and some mushrooms, and add to the pan. Season with sage, salt and pepper.

Stir all together and put in the oven (transferring to a casserole first if not using a pan like mine) and cook at Gas Mark 3, 190 C for about half an hour, or more as timing suits.

Half an hour before serving, mix four ounces of self raising flour, two of shredded suet and about five tablespoons of cold water in a bowl. Season with salt and some thyme, and mix into a stiffish pastry. Twenty minutes before serving, remove lid from casserole and place rolled out disk of pastry on top of the turkey mixture.

Return to the oven and increase heat to Gas 5, 200 C until top of pastry is golden and crusty. Serve with mashed potato and a green veg – we had green peas, which worked well.

Enjoy 2008, folks!

Towing a shell to Poynton

12th & 13th December

In view of the changed arrangements for the tow (i.e. not now happening until tomorrow) we were able to have a lie in, and then the prospect of a day to potter about.

I wanted to do some minor jobs around the boat, so I put the drill battery on charge whilst we made the long walk from Gurnett Aqueduct to Tesco. We’d normally access Tesco from the water point mooring (aka dog poo mooring) but didn’t want to boat up there on this day, as it’s quite noisy at night. Anyway there’s only the one decently deep length of mooring there and it had a boat on it when we passed the day before.

So we made a good walk of it, along the towpath back to aforesaid water point and then down Buxton Road, right into Fence Road and then across the park towards Tesco. Shopping done (two wine boxes in anticipation of the festive season, mainly) we trekked back in time for lunch.

In the afternoon I made a modification to the gas locker lid. When we first had the boat, there was a little wooden block on the foredeck which stopped the lid closing completely, so as to ensure good ventilation through the locker. Over time this broke up and disappeared, and Mike Carter had been unhappy that the lid now closed down tight when he did our boat safety examination.

He’d suggested drilling a hole through the deck and fixing a bolt through it such that it kept the lid a little open as before. I didn’t fancy the effect of the bolt head on the underside of the lid without some sort of padding, so I got a small piece of half inch reinforced water hose, drilled a hole through one side of it, and fixed the bolt through that, the other side of the hose thus protecting the bolt head.

The main effort involved was drilling through the deck, but by using my sharpest bits, and working up in 5 mm stages I did it at last. It’s good to know that the steel of which Sanity is constructed is so tough!

The other jobs were to fix the new smoke alarm to the ceiling of the study bedroom, and to mount, finally, the plaque we got for attending the Huddlesford Boat Gathering on the bulkhead we use for our collection of such things.

Yesterday dawned bright and cold, with just a thin skin of ice on the water here and there. The shell we were to tow was not expected to be put into the water until one o’clock, so we had another lazy start, and pottered about in the boat until half eleven, then made and ate an early lunch and boated round to the marina for one.

The shell was already there, with Iain and Peter working on the main job that must be done before launch, namely fixing the prop shaft and prop through the stern post. Peter announced that if we were planning to take the tow all the way to Poynton that day, he could come with us to help with the fending off and take his turn at steering. This was welcome news, as a third hand does make a difference to the job. Since the boat is a spec boat, there was no eager pair of future owners there to help.

Just as we were beginning to wonder about it, the crane turned up, and without too much further ado, the shell was lifted off the lorry and placed in the water. Iain and Peter shafted her out of the marina moorings as I reversed Sanity towards her. Iain then fixed the tow with cross straps.

This is the traditional way of close coupling an unpowered boat (normally the butty in the carrying days) to the motor boat. The line goes from the T-stud on the bow of the tow, round one side of its stem and fastens to the opposite dolly on the motor’s stern. It’s then taken back to the T-stud and round the other side of the stem to cross over to the other dolly.

This makes a sort of articulated tow, the towed boat’s bow tending to follow the stern of the motor very closely, so that the steerer of the tow only has to worry about keeping its stern following on. An empty shell makes a tricky sort of beast – unballasted, it floats high in the water, with not a lot of its rudder submerged. A rudder intended for a powered boat isn’t as effective without a prop wash passing it anyway, so it can be hard work making the tow go where you want it.

Fortunately, there was very little wind yesterday – we’ve done some tows for Braidbar in wet and windy conditions that made it very hard work indeed for the person on the back of the tow. As it was, it was a glorious day for boating, and we set of in fine style, only stopping briefly after the first, immediate bridge 'ole for Peter to nip back and get the tiller for the tow. (Ooops)

The Macc bridge 'oles are quite tight for a normal boat, so it's an interesting test of the motor steerer’s skill to get the whole thing through without too much bashing of the shell on the sides, or, heaven forfend, the arch of the 'ole. The trick is to slow down for the bridge in good time, and then wind her up as you get close to the 'ole. That way you have lots of steerage without going too fast.

By the time we reached Poynton it was getting quite dark, and I had the tunnel light on on Sanity to see my way through the bridges. This didn’t help Sheila on the tow, of course, and Peter earned his keep hopping off at each bridge and applying firm guidance to the shell as it passed though the 'ole. (He’s good at firm guidance, Peter is).

Arriving at the yard, we moored Sanity on the shop mooring, and put the shell outside her for the night. It was now gone five, and quite cold, so we were glad to go into the house for a cup of tea.

Then it was back to the boat for Sheila to take a shower, me to do a holding post on here, and then we treated ourselves to a meal at the Boar’s Head just down the road, not to mention some well earned pints of Black Sheep and Kronenbourg.

Passing the BSC sorted (phew)

10th & 11th December

One thing I forgot from last time – Cala is now out of the paint dock and looking seriously smart. This means that there are presently two brightly painted boats in the yard, Cala and Nocturne.

Yesterday (Monday) we were up in good time and went down to the winding hole, turned round and came back to the mooring we’d just left.

Sheila went off to get bread and the paper whilst I got the boat ready for her Boat Safety Examination. This mainly involved making sure that the gas locker in the bow was tidy and that the lid could be lifted easily. It gets opened so rarely that the hinges tend to gum up, so a quick application of WD 40 was called for.

After Sheila came back from the village and had a coffee she went back to the yard and collected a parcel that had arrived. It contained her Christmas present, in fact, in the shape of a pair of SealSkinz ultra tough gloves. We’ve been using the ordinary SealSkinz gloves, which are not, to be honest, all that they are cracked up to be. They are supposed to be hard wearing, warm and waterproof, but in our experience dipping them in the water results in wet hands, and both our pairs have worn out quite quickly through handling the ropes.

These new ones have an outer layer made from Kevlar, so we’ll see how they go.

Just as we were eating lunch we got the call to say that Mike Carter the boat surveyor had arrived. After we’d finished eating we pulled through the bridge, only to find that both the water point and the shop mooring were occupied, so we tied across the entrance to the yard.

When Mike had finished his own lunch (having examined Cala meantime) he joined us on the boat and took two hours with us. For something as inherently scary as a boat MoT, it was really a very good experience. Mike is very thorough, but he also took the time to chat about the boat, how we were getting on, and dispensed a load of extra advice as he was going round.

For example:

1) It’s a good idea to turn powder fire extinguishers over from time to time. If you listen to the side of the extinguisher as you do so, you’ll either hear the hiss of the powder falling from one end to the other, or a thump as the lump of settled powder does so. By turning them over and giving them a shake, the powder is kept loose and ready for action.
2) Turning the stern greaser down as you boat along is better than turning it down at the end of the day. The grease will be warm, and the motion of the prop shaft encourages the grease to flow along to the out board end of the stern tube, expelling any muck and crud which has got in there.
3) When doing an oil change with the sump pump, the pump will not remove any oil which has sludged or jellied in the bottom of the sump. It’s therefore a good idea from time to time (say every third or fourth change) to unfasten the connection from the pump at the sump end, and leave it over night for the thick stuff to ooze its way out. Mike admitted that this was an awful job, but all modern canal boat engines run under very light load most of the time, and oil sludging is a real problem

I can certainly recommend Mike to anyone looking for a BSC exam in the North West of England.

Whilst all this was going on, Sheila was moving the boat to and fro on the ropes, first onto the shop mooring to get diesel, then back across the yard entrance and then finally onto the water point to fill up. When Mike had pronounced himself satisfied, we set off again, winded at the end of the marina moorings and went on to moor opposite Lyme View marina for the night.

We actually had to use one of the new spaces through the bridge – there’s room for about five boats on the original moorings directly opposite the marina, but three boats had managed to moor so skilfully that they were using the entire length.

Last night was very cold, and it was quite a relief in the morning to see that the cut had not in fact frozen over. We knew (we thought) that we needed to be at Macclesfield today, ready to do the tow tomorrow, Wednesday. In fact it was a glorious boating morning, clear and cold, with cloud occasionally bubbling up and then dispersing again.

We stopped briefly at the dog poo mooring to buy routine stuff at the Co-op just up the road, and then went on past Gurnett Aqueduct to the winding hole beyond, winded and came back to moor on the Aqueduct.

After lunch we cut some wood, and I had a surf on the net looking for optical type smoke detectors, our intention to get one having been reinforced by Mike yesterday. He’d suggested either ScrewFix or B&Q. ScrewFix were out of stock, and B&Q had them, but not for online sale.

Further investigation showed that there’s a B&Q in Macc, about 25 minutes walk from where we are moored. It was only three o’clock, so I set off to get one, leaving Sheila on anchor watch.

Returning flushed with success (and the fact that I’d forgotten I was still wearing thermals from steering in the cold this morning), I was greeted by the news that the tow is not now until Thursday. Our routine email to Braidbar to check the arrangements for tomorrow had made them realise that each of several people thought we’d been told by someone else.

Fortunately this is a 48 hour mooring, so no big problem – it means we can have a lie in tomorrow.