12th, 13th & 14th March
Made it! It's been a seriously hectic week, with highs and lows alternately, though the highs well out ranked the lows, starting with our session with the Masons on Monday, our night out with the Comlines on Tuesday, and then our trip to the Cheshire Falconry Centre on Thursday.
Regular readers will recall that this was the kids' 60th birthday present to Sheila, and it proved to be everything we hoped. Peter (Comline) picked us up from the Salt Barge at half eight, so we were at Blakemere Craft Centre, where Cheshire Falconry is based, in good time.
The morning was taken up with being introduced to various species of raptor, and then two sessions of flying them in the display area. There were ten of us in all, including two spectators, so just a nice sized group for Rob the leader to cope with. In the course of the morning Sheila flew an African Spotted Eagle Owl (explanation by Rob: "It's called an African Spotted Eagle Owl because it's an eagle owl that's spotted and comes from Africa. Bird names are really not difficult!"), an American Rufous Tailed Hawk, a Common Buzzard, a Harris Hawk, a Ferruginous Buzzard and a Kestrel.
I was able to get some half decent photos which I'll sort out and put in a gallery on the website as soon as I can.
After lunch in the restaurant, the afternoon consisted of a "Walk on the Wildside", taking two Harris Hawks to the Cheshire Scout Camp Site which is about a 15 minute walk away, and flying the birds in the hope of catching a rabbit. In the event, the score was one mouse and a possible frog, but none of us seemed to mind. Rob's explanations were superb, full of insights into the mental life of the birds (yes, they do have one) and salted with entertaining comments.
It would have been worth the money just to hear him as a stand up act, so all the contact with the birds was a bonus. Well done, Elanor, Cathy and Graeme, a brilliant present.
We got back to the boat just on five, and promptly took a call from Peter Mason. He'd already offered the use of an oil extractor (technical name the sucky thing) to get the remaining water out of the well deck bilge after our little water pump mishap. The call was to say that Susan was in the area and could drop it off to us straight away, so that we could return it on Friday.
This was so obviously the way to go that we said yes, but it meant that we had to forget our weary feet and set to with this fiendish bit of kit and extract the last of the water from the bilge. It certainly did the job, and this afternoon I was able to use a sponge and then a disposable nappy to remove the final traces.
Yesterday, Susan collected us and we drove over to Braidbar for the planning meeting for Sanity Again. As was to be expected, this went extremely well. Five years ago I wouldn't have said that their work could get any better, but it has, with an even higher standard of joinery, engineering design and flexibility of approach. I'll save the detail for next week's post on the other blog, obviously, but the plan is to collect the shell at the end of September, and the build will then take around four months, so Sanity Again should be ready by the end of January. So far Peter has met every delivery deadline – an unusual boatbuilder indeed.
We got back to the boat by five and had a very quiet evening: Chicken Tikka Biriani and a couple of beers, basically.
Today it was back to boating. We got away in reasonable time on a very bright and breezy day, Sheila steering. A brief stop at Bridge 183 in Broken Cross let me pop along to the handy Spar in the local filling station to get a paper and a litre of milk, then we plodded on through to Bramble Cutting again, arriving well before lunch.
This afternoon has been for pottering. Sheila did some proofreading, and I sorted the accumulator; the new pump runs at a higher pressure than the old, so the pressure in the accumulator needed adjusting to suit. The water system now works between 25 and 45 psi, which makes both the Seagull IV water filter and the toilet perform just a tad better.
I've also made another attempt to make the bow fender work, but it's really most unsatisfactory. I would take it back and demand my money back, except that I made the thing myself.
Tomorrow we go on through Middlewich, aiming for Wheelock by the end of the day.
Showing posts with label Marston. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marston. Show all posts
Saturday, 14 March 2009
Wednesday, 11 March 2009
Three hectic days
9th, 10th & 11th March
This is a catch up, after not posting yesterday. I may well not be in a position to post tomorrow, so I'll do three days today, and probably another post either on Friday or Saturday.
Sunday night was incredibly windy, and we woke several times to Sanity doing her Onedin Line impression, rocking and rolling on her mooring with much creaking of the mooring lines. We'd planned to go on to the winding hole near Grappenhall on Monday morning, but it really wasn't prudent to attempt it, so we decided to leave it until Tuesday, before we set off back towards Anderton.
The main event of the morning, therefore, was the walk down through Stockton Heath (which has a decent little shopping centre of its own) across the Ship Canal on a swing bridge and into the Morrisons that's just on the other side. Shopping done, we came back to the boat, where I used half a slightly stale loaf to make a bread pudding.
After lunch we had a good clean up session to make Sanity respectable for guests, and then frankly had a little doze, catching up on lost sleep from the night before. It's a handy mooring at Stockton Heath, urban but unthreatening. The only downside from my point of view is that the T-mobile connection is a little unreliable. It's fast enough most of the time, but occasionally 'hangs' and you have to disconnect and reconnect to get it back.
The Masons duly turned up to consume Chicken Gumbo and bread pud, and we had a great time, nattering until nearly midnight. There was much talk of options for Sanity Again, needless to say, and we are hopeful of getting up to Braidbar via a lift from the Masons sometime soon to agree the build slot and the main design elements.
It's looking good for the end of this year, though I'm pleased to say that their orders are holding up well, and a certain amount of juggling of slots will be done to try to ensure we pay at least most of the cost before the 15% VAT rate goes back up to 17.5.
Yesterday we wanted to get right back to Anderton, in order to rendezvous with Sheila's brother and sister in law for the evening (so that's with Peter and Jan as opposed to Peter and Susan).
With the time slots for the tunnels to take into consideration, we got up and got on at seven, which was pretty good we thought after the late night before. We'd tied opposite a private lay-by that had the usual No Mooring signs, and something in small print about not being a winding hole. Looked at more closely, however, it just asked boaters to be careful if turning there, and we were able to wind Sanity quite easily.
I wouldn't want to turn much over 60 foot there, but up to that it's quite feasible. We got back to Preston Brook in good time for the 9.30 southbound slot, waiting for about half an hour on the tunnel moorings.
It was then a steady chug back the way we'd come, on a day which had been wet and windy initially, but which improved steadily as it went on. We made the 11.30 slot for Saltersford with ten minutes to spare, and were tied in Anderton by lunchtime.
After lunch we had a wander round. We'd thought of using the BW pump out machine at the service block in the cause of cleaning out more of the sludge, but the office wasn't open on a Tuesday to sell us the necessary swipe card. We decided to use our own machine again, instead, thus losing BW a tenner.
Back at the boat, I agreed to see if some recurrent dampness on the floor by the Squirrel was anything to worry about, or a bit of condensation turning up. Investigation showed that Sheila had been right to nag me about it. The nice new Jabsco domestic water pump was excreting a fine jet of water every time it ran, and the area around it, against the front saloon bulkhead, was very damp.
There was also a certain amount of water sloshing around in the bilge. We've done a fair bit of bailing with sponge and bucket to get it out, and I scuttled off to Anderton Boatyard to seek advice, and a replacement pump. Fortunately, they had a Shurflo in stock; hire yards are often a good source of things like this as they have to carry so much spare kit for emergency repairs on their own boats.
I bought the new pump and soon had it installed in place of the Jabsco, which we'll take back to Shobnall when back in Burton in a couple of weeks time. The dampness is slowly drying out; at least it's the right time of year for doing so, and there doesn't appear to be any permanent damage, thank goodness.
By the time all the excitement was over, it was late in the afternoon, and I just didn't have the energy to blog. Nonetheless we had a great evening with Peter and Jan, at the Leigh Arms in Acton Bridge. A seriously nice pub, quiet, good food and a decent pint of Robinsons.
Our replacement vacuum cleaner had arrived, too, so we can now attack the spring cleaning with gusto and a Dustbuster, when we've recovered our energy, that is! It comes with a handy set of implements, and though it's a mains lead job, at £30 looks a lot better value than the defunct Dyson at £100.
Today, we started by winding by the service block to bring the pump out point to the towpath side, and got busy. BW were there resurfacing the area outside the block with crushed limestone, one of their favourite materials at the moment. It's horrible stuff, and means you leave white footprints all over everything, but from BW's point of view it's cheap, and that's the important thing to them.
We've boated on to Marston for the night. Some of the lurkers have moved off, and so we are snug on the towpath, though the edge is a bit tedious, with a sloping and broken ledge just below the water line. After much experimentation, we've managed to get some fenders into the right place.
A quiet night tonight methinks, and then we'll see what tomorrow brings.
STOP PRESS: I've just added a post to the Sanity Again blog about electrical systems.
This is a catch up, after not posting yesterday. I may well not be in a position to post tomorrow, so I'll do three days today, and probably another post either on Friday or Saturday.
Sunday night was incredibly windy, and we woke several times to Sanity doing her Onedin Line impression, rocking and rolling on her mooring with much creaking of the mooring lines. We'd planned to go on to the winding hole near Grappenhall on Monday morning, but it really wasn't prudent to attempt it, so we decided to leave it until Tuesday, before we set off back towards Anderton.
The main event of the morning, therefore, was the walk down through Stockton Heath (which has a decent little shopping centre of its own) across the Ship Canal on a swing bridge and into the Morrisons that's just on the other side. Shopping done, we came back to the boat, where I used half a slightly stale loaf to make a bread pudding.
After lunch we had a good clean up session to make Sanity respectable for guests, and then frankly had a little doze, catching up on lost sleep from the night before. It's a handy mooring at Stockton Heath, urban but unthreatening. The only downside from my point of view is that the T-mobile connection is a little unreliable. It's fast enough most of the time, but occasionally 'hangs' and you have to disconnect and reconnect to get it back.
The Masons duly turned up to consume Chicken Gumbo and bread pud, and we had a great time, nattering until nearly midnight. There was much talk of options for Sanity Again, needless to say, and we are hopeful of getting up to Braidbar via a lift from the Masons sometime soon to agree the build slot and the main design elements.
It's looking good for the end of this year, though I'm pleased to say that their orders are holding up well, and a certain amount of juggling of slots will be done to try to ensure we pay at least most of the cost before the 15% VAT rate goes back up to 17.5.
Yesterday we wanted to get right back to Anderton, in order to rendezvous with Sheila's brother and sister in law for the evening (so that's with Peter and Jan as opposed to Peter and Susan).
With the time slots for the tunnels to take into consideration, we got up and got on at seven, which was pretty good we thought after the late night before. We'd tied opposite a private lay-by that had the usual No Mooring signs, and something in small print about not being a winding hole. Looked at more closely, however, it just asked boaters to be careful if turning there, and we were able to wind Sanity quite easily.
I wouldn't want to turn much over 60 foot there, but up to that it's quite feasible. We got back to Preston Brook in good time for the 9.30 southbound slot, waiting for about half an hour on the tunnel moorings.
It was then a steady chug back the way we'd come, on a day which had been wet and windy initially, but which improved steadily as it went on. We made the 11.30 slot for Saltersford with ten minutes to spare, and were tied in Anderton by lunchtime.
After lunch we had a wander round. We'd thought of using the BW pump out machine at the service block in the cause of cleaning out more of the sludge, but the office wasn't open on a Tuesday to sell us the necessary swipe card. We decided to use our own machine again, instead, thus losing BW a tenner.
Back at the boat, I agreed to see if some recurrent dampness on the floor by the Squirrel was anything to worry about, or a bit of condensation turning up. Investigation showed that Sheila had been right to nag me about it. The nice new Jabsco domestic water pump was excreting a fine jet of water every time it ran, and the area around it, against the front saloon bulkhead, was very damp.
There was also a certain amount of water sloshing around in the bilge. We've done a fair bit of bailing with sponge and bucket to get it out, and I scuttled off to Anderton Boatyard to seek advice, and a replacement pump. Fortunately, they had a Shurflo in stock; hire yards are often a good source of things like this as they have to carry so much spare kit for emergency repairs on their own boats.
I bought the new pump and soon had it installed in place of the Jabsco, which we'll take back to Shobnall when back in Burton in a couple of weeks time. The dampness is slowly drying out; at least it's the right time of year for doing so, and there doesn't appear to be any permanent damage, thank goodness.
By the time all the excitement was over, it was late in the afternoon, and I just didn't have the energy to blog. Nonetheless we had a great evening with Peter and Jan, at the Leigh Arms in Acton Bridge. A seriously nice pub, quiet, good food and a decent pint of Robinsons.
Our replacement vacuum cleaner had arrived, too, so we can now attack the spring cleaning with gusto and a Dustbuster, when we've recovered our energy, that is! It comes with a handy set of implements, and though it's a mains lead job, at £30 looks a lot better value than the defunct Dyson at £100.
Today, we started by winding by the service block to bring the pump out point to the towpath side, and got busy. BW were there resurfacing the area outside the block with crushed limestone, one of their favourite materials at the moment. It's horrible stuff, and means you leave white footprints all over everything, but from BW's point of view it's cheap, and that's the important thing to them.
We've boated on to Marston for the night. Some of the lurkers have moved off, and so we are snug on the towpath, though the edge is a bit tedious, with a sloping and broken ledge just below the water line. After much experimentation, we've managed to get some fenders into the right place.
A quiet night tonight methinks, and then we'll see what tomorrow brings.
STOP PRESS: I've just added a post to the Sanity Again blog about electrical systems.
Labels:
Anderton,
Marston,
Stockton Heath
Monday, 14 January 2008
From Marston to Barnton
13th & 14th January
We made a leisurely start to Sunday, and after breakfast I trotted round to the local shop to see what paper I could get, having had to be satisfied with a Times on Saturday. It was closed altogether, just doesn't open on Sundays. It's also up for sale, which may have something to do with not being open when you'd expect a small paper shop and general store come cafe to be so.
I got back to the boat just as the weather started to deteriorate, and it proved to be the pattern for the day, getting steadily worse until the boat was bouncing about with the mooring ropes creaking. We know this as Onedin Line conditions, but that just dates us, I guess.
I spent a good chunk of the day on IT type stuff; the regular Sunday housekeeping chores, but also having some fun putting pictures up on the main website. I've put the images we used for this year's calendar and Christmas card up there, and I'm working on the annual choice of cruising photos.
Up until this year we'd supplied a page of text summarising the previous year's cruising, and linked pictures to it. With the blog covering the whole of last year, though, it seems redundant (not to mention a lot of work) to summarise it for the main website. What I think we'll do instead is to mount a larger than usual picture gallery, with at least one pic per month, and I'll put a decent piece of text about that month's cruising below it.
As a break from all this hi tech stuff, I made some mayonnaise with the Bamix magic wand, and sliced up some white cabbage and onion, which together with a grated carrot made a decent bowl of coleslaw to put in lunchtime sandwiches. It seems more appropriate than salad at this time of year.
Sheila meanwhile took advantage of the latest batch of knitting wool to arrive via Peter and Jan, and started a Guernsey of her own.
This morning it was still quite windy, but we needed to move on to keep our commitments to meet folks at various times on the Bridgewater Canal. I was steering, and in fact it wasn't too bad for most of the time. The wind, although gusty, was by no means the worst I've boated in, and for quite a while it was sunny in that pale blue winterish sort of way.
We stopped on the service block at Anderton, filled the water tank and did a very thorough pump out, there being a good pressure on the rinse out hose. We didn't manage to get the Tankwatch light back to green, meaning totally empty, but we must have made an impression on it. The bit that goes into the deck fitting has a sight glass in it, so you can see when you are extracting serious sludge: it does seem to upset Sheila if I say things like "Oh look, there's a bit of carrot" however.
After all this jollification, we went on to just before Barnton tunnel, mooring in the basin between the road bridge and the tunnel mouth. It was lunch time, and after lunch we walked up into the village to shop. The Co-op here has moved further up hill than it was – follow the signs for the Medical Centre and you'll come to it.
Barnton also has one of the system's better butchers, so we stocked up on meat supplies. We were served by a remarkable man who has one hand, and a double hook for the other, but nonetheless needs no assistance to handle the meat or those flimsy plastic bags that they put it in nowadays.
Then we boated through the tunnel to moor in the pool between Barnton and Saltersford tunnels for the night. The prop had been feeling odd, shaking and juddering after we'd gone through a bridge 'ole on the way here, so after we'd done a wash load and stopped the engine, I opened the weed hatch and had a feel around. Sure enough we had a black plastic sack down there.
At least Sheila will have full control going through Saltersford tomorrow, which is just as well in view of its bends.
We made a leisurely start to Sunday, and after breakfast I trotted round to the local shop to see what paper I could get, having had to be satisfied with a Times on Saturday. It was closed altogether, just doesn't open on Sundays. It's also up for sale, which may have something to do with not being open when you'd expect a small paper shop and general store come cafe to be so.
I got back to the boat just as the weather started to deteriorate, and it proved to be the pattern for the day, getting steadily worse until the boat was bouncing about with the mooring ropes creaking. We know this as Onedin Line conditions, but that just dates us, I guess.
I spent a good chunk of the day on IT type stuff; the regular Sunday housekeeping chores, but also having some fun putting pictures up on the main website. I've put the images we used for this year's calendar and Christmas card up there, and I'm working on the annual choice of cruising photos.
Up until this year we'd supplied a page of text summarising the previous year's cruising, and linked pictures to it. With the blog covering the whole of last year, though, it seems redundant (not to mention a lot of work) to summarise it for the main website. What I think we'll do instead is to mount a larger than usual picture gallery, with at least one pic per month, and I'll put a decent piece of text about that month's cruising below it.
As a break from all this hi tech stuff, I made some mayonnaise with the Bamix magic wand, and sliced up some white cabbage and onion, which together with a grated carrot made a decent bowl of coleslaw to put in lunchtime sandwiches. It seems more appropriate than salad at this time of year.
Sheila meanwhile took advantage of the latest batch of knitting wool to arrive via Peter and Jan, and started a Guernsey of her own.
This morning it was still quite windy, but we needed to move on to keep our commitments to meet folks at various times on the Bridgewater Canal. I was steering, and in fact it wasn't too bad for most of the time. The wind, although gusty, was by no means the worst I've boated in, and for quite a while it was sunny in that pale blue winterish sort of way.
We stopped on the service block at Anderton, filled the water tank and did a very thorough pump out, there being a good pressure on the rinse out hose. We didn't manage to get the Tankwatch light back to green, meaning totally empty, but we must have made an impression on it. The bit that goes into the deck fitting has a sight glass in it, so you can see when you are extracting serious sludge: it does seem to upset Sheila if I say things like "Oh look, there's a bit of carrot" however.
After all this jollification, we went on to just before Barnton tunnel, mooring in the basin between the road bridge and the tunnel mouth. It was lunch time, and after lunch we walked up into the village to shop. The Co-op here has moved further up hill than it was – follow the signs for the Medical Centre and you'll come to it.
Barnton also has one of the system's better butchers, so we stocked up on meat supplies. We were served by a remarkable man who has one hand, and a double hook for the other, but nonetheless needs no assistance to handle the meat or those flimsy plastic bags that they put it in nowadays.
Then we boated through the tunnel to moor in the pool between Barnton and Saltersford tunnels for the night. The prop had been feeling odd, shaking and juddering after we'd gone through a bridge 'ole on the way here, so after we'd done a wash load and stopped the engine, I opened the weed hatch and had a feel around. Sure enough we had a black plastic sack down there.
At least Sheila will have full control going through Saltersford tomorrow, which is just as well in view of its bends.
Saturday, 12 January 2008
Spending the weekend at Marston
11th & 12th January
Yesterday was a seriously frosty morning, but it proved to have been a ground frost only. This didn't stop it from having frozen the centrelines to the roof of the boat, mind, but at least the cut itself was still liquid.
While I walked back to Middlewich to get a paper and a loaf of bread, Sheila prepared the boat for moving on. It's a steady plod to the moorings at the Salt Barge at Marston, with the very mixed scenery that's typical of this end of the Trent and Mersey. Parts are idyllically lovely, and others distinctly industrial, as when you go through the centre of the big Brunner Mond works just before Wincham Wharf.
Still, it all adds interest as they say, and at least the weather conditions were pretty good.
On arrival at Marston, we found that what had been visitor moorings alongside the old, now derelict, Lion Salt Works, have been converted into formal long term moorings. However, the informal ones on the other side of the road bridge are still there.
I had a chat with some of the moorers there after we'd tied up. One or two of them have been living on this length since 1992, and don't see why they should start paying for the privilege now. They make the point that it used to be a problem area for mooring, with kids hanging around interfering with the boats, but now it's as safe as anywhere on the system, thanks to their presence.
Trouble is, the BW continuous cruising rules say very clearly that you can't stay more than 14 days in any one place if you don't pay for a mooring there.
I also discovered from these guys that the Salt Barge, that used to be a reliable eating pub, has gone seriously downhill, and now doesn't serve food at all. Since we'd been planning to eat there today with Peter and Jan, this was a problem. Sheila rang her brother, and we agreed that they would collect us from here and take us to a pub in Great Barford, just up the road.
This they did this morning, bless them, and we had an excellent meal at the George and Dragon. They also brought us some firewood from a tree they'd taken down in their garden, a consignment of knitting wool Sheila had ordered, and my repeat prescription.
After lunch, we went back to the boat for coffee and were joined there by representatives of the next two generations, in the form of Alastair (Peter and Jan's eldest), Alison his wife and Abigail and Joshua their kids. This made for a full but cheerful boat. Josh in particular had never been on board before, and was both amazed and, I think, quite taken with it. He spent a lot of time exploring up and down, overseen by his sister, and then staring out of the side hatches.
Fortunately, being Saturday, there was a bit of traffic up and down, and later, when we went for a walk, some swans.
After everyone had left, we relapsed quietly back into somnolent mode. The forecast for tomorrow isn't too good, so it looks like we'll be staying put and working in the boat. It should give me a chance to put some photos up on the main website, as we have a decently fast connection here.
Yesterday was a seriously frosty morning, but it proved to have been a ground frost only. This didn't stop it from having frozen the centrelines to the roof of the boat, mind, but at least the cut itself was still liquid.
While I walked back to Middlewich to get a paper and a loaf of bread, Sheila prepared the boat for moving on. It's a steady plod to the moorings at the Salt Barge at Marston, with the very mixed scenery that's typical of this end of the Trent and Mersey. Parts are idyllically lovely, and others distinctly industrial, as when you go through the centre of the big Brunner Mond works just before Wincham Wharf.
Still, it all adds interest as they say, and at least the weather conditions were pretty good.
On arrival at Marston, we found that what had been visitor moorings alongside the old, now derelict, Lion Salt Works, have been converted into formal long term moorings. However, the informal ones on the other side of the road bridge are still there.
I had a chat with some of the moorers there after we'd tied up. One or two of them have been living on this length since 1992, and don't see why they should start paying for the privilege now. They make the point that it used to be a problem area for mooring, with kids hanging around interfering with the boats, but now it's as safe as anywhere on the system, thanks to their presence.
Trouble is, the BW continuous cruising rules say very clearly that you can't stay more than 14 days in any one place if you don't pay for a mooring there.
I also discovered from these guys that the Salt Barge, that used to be a reliable eating pub, has gone seriously downhill, and now doesn't serve food at all. Since we'd been planning to eat there today with Peter and Jan, this was a problem. Sheila rang her brother, and we agreed that they would collect us from here and take us to a pub in Great Barford, just up the road.
This they did this morning, bless them, and we had an excellent meal at the George and Dragon. They also brought us some firewood from a tree they'd taken down in their garden, a consignment of knitting wool Sheila had ordered, and my repeat prescription.
After lunch, we went back to the boat for coffee and were joined there by representatives of the next two generations, in the form of Alastair (Peter and Jan's eldest), Alison his wife and Abigail and Joshua their kids. This made for a full but cheerful boat. Josh in particular had never been on board before, and was both amazed and, I think, quite taken with it. He spent a lot of time exploring up and down, overseen by his sister, and then staring out of the side hatches.
Fortunately, being Saturday, there was a bit of traffic up and down, and later, when we went for a walk, some swans.
After everyone had left, we relapsed quietly back into somnolent mode. The forecast for tomorrow isn't too good, so it looks like we'll be staying put and working in the boat. It should give me a chance to put some photos up on the main website, as we have a decently fast connection here.
Labels:
Marston
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)