Here we go again

We’ve decided that we might be getting old. Sanity Again is a wonderful boat, but at 70’ and 23 tonnes displacement she can be quite a handful to heave about on a mooring or lock landing. We thought about getting a shorter used boat, but couldn’t see anything we liked. So it’s going to have to be a new boat, a Braidbar naturally, and the next build slot is not until early February/late March 2021.

After an email exchange with Donna and a phone call with James, we’ve booked that slot.

I’m going to repeat what I did with SA and keep a separate blog about it. There’s nothing up there yet, but I’ll give the link here when there’s something to read. As before, I’ll do occasional posts about our design thinking in the run up to the build and then probably a weekly one once the build is underway. What I can say here is that the theme will be minimum maintenance and a modern approach in a much shorter boat.

We’re really looking forward to working with James and his team – I reckon he’s the most exciting designer in his field these days.

Home again

We set off at seven and got back to Mercia just after half three, having stopped for lunch at Branston. This is slower going than our usual rate, but the cut was very busy on a sunny Saturday.

Highlights were meeting Mick off Three No Trumps at Alrewas – he very kindly helped Sheila with the lock – and Sheila spotting a mink at Wychnor. It carefully considered where to enter the water, then swam across just submerged.

Elanor cunningly met us at the marina, having expected us to arrive earlier, and gave invaluable aid in the initial sorting out. Daughters are wonderful.

No more blogs for a bit, a couple of weeks in fact, until we go out again to give Elanor a holiday break.

Long winter

I blame Game of Thrones. All these millions of people thinking about long winters, that's what does it. Never mind, it's nearly over, surely, and we're thinking about cruising plans for this year.

Weather permitting, we'll set off tomorrow week, thus letting the Easter holiday traffic disperse. We're not going to Crick this year, but instead are cruising in convoy with our good friends Peter and Mel on Inkling to Liverpool. We've booked a transit through the link for late June and will stay there for the full seven free days.

Before and after then things are very flexible. We're thinking of an amble down to Stourport in April with maybe a bit of a run up the Shroppie either before or after that. After Liverpool, we won't want to come south again and have to head back through Harecastle to get to Poynton for the Owners' Weekend, so I expect we'll spend a chunk of time one side of the Bridgewater or the other. Obviously, with the big breach in the Middlewich Arm, we'll have to stick with the Trent and Mersey and the Macc mostly.

Watch this space for news as our plans mature!

Getting ready to go again

We’ve moved back onto the boat over the last couple of days after a very pleasant stay in the lodge. This was characterised by a family event, namely the visit of my sister from the States and a family day on the Sunday. Graeme, Cathy and the grandsons came over from Lincolnshire and Elanor and Sally joined us for the day.

Some of the rest of the time has been spent at Elanor’s new bungalow, helping get it ready for her occupation. It’s benefited from some building work and general repairs and will amply repay the effort and expense she’s put into it.

I’m booked to have a (hopefully) routine blood test first thing on Thursday, so we’ll leave the marina tomorrow and tie on the towpath in Willington. After I’ve been to the surgery, we’ll set off for Branston.

The cruising plan is to head clockwise round the Four Counties ring, with a side trip towards Chester, probably stopping at Christleton as we’ve done in the past, rather than working all the way down into the town. Returning from there, we’ll carry on round the Four Counties, climbing the Cheshire Locks to Red Bull and turning off onto the Macc as so often before. We aim to get to Poynton towards the end of August, have a couple of jobs done to Sanity Again and then take part in the Braidbar Owners’ Weekend and Open Day over the 9th and 10th of September.

Sheila did the regular announcement of that on Sunday – we already have most of twenty people and four or five boats booked in, so it looks like it’s going to be as popular as ever.

I won’t blog again tomorrow, there won’t be much to say, but after that will get back into the swing of reporting on our boating each afternoon.

Location:Mercia

Stewing gently

It's been a week of getting things together after ten weeks cruising and, latterly, trying to keep cool. It's possible to open doors and windows throughout the lodge, as well as the Veluxes, so as to get a through draught, but even so, sleep has been difficult most nights.

Of course, if this sort of weather was a regular occurrence, it might be worth investing in a standalone air con cabinet, but since we probably won't have it like this for another twenty years, it's not worth it.

We're looking forward to my sister Jane visiting from the States this weekend. We'll have a family day on Sunday when the gang from Lincolnshire come over. It's due to be cooler and, knowing how it is, probably wet...

Location:Mercia

Time flies by

I'd really meant to blog again before this but kept forgetting. We've had a last trip into Derby to collect a piece of cross stitch, Elanor's work, that we've had framed and plan to mount in the saloon of Sanity Again. I'll post a pic when we've done it.

That was Wednesday and that night we had the last Willow Tree quiz of the winter. The theme was Nature and we struggled a bit with it, ourselves and Grahame and Chrissie from the shop, but we managed to finish in the top five, so no disgrace.

Yesterday we steam cleaned the floor in the boat and started moving stuff down there ready for getting away next week. Today we had an Ocado delivery first thing, ish, and afterwards I went back to the boat to oil the floor. We were neither of us on top form. There was a scheduled power cut overnight last night for work to the marina ring main in connection with the Piazza development on the end of the peninsula. Although it was all perfectly straightforward, nonetheless it had an strangely unsettling effect and meant a very broken night.

No matter, we've coped and in the afternoon did two trips with the trolley to the boat with more stuff, much of it the part of the Ocado delivery meant for the boat. Tomorrow and Sunday, more of the same.

Finally, Laconia was the area of Greece containing the city state of Sparta. The Spartans were famously sparing with words, typified by their response to the threat from Philip of Macedonia who said "You are advised to submit without further delay, for if I bring my army into your land, I will destroy your farms, slay your people, and raze your city."

The Spartan reply?

"If."

Location:Mercia

Steady progress

Thanks to Joe and Alison for your nice comments, it's good to be back! It's been a day for pottering about – the main effort has been Sheila's, as usual, doing the Monday washing. After a glorious weekend, the weather has turned cloudy and chilly, though still Springlike.

I wrote a letter to the surgery, enclosing an SAE and asking for an extra repeat prescription. Normally, I can order the repeat script online and collect it from the pharmacy, where they mostly get it right, ho, ho. However, if I have a paper script in hand, I'll be able to get it made up at whatever pharmacy is handy when I need it.

We've had our usual two walks round the marina, a total of over two miles. The actual walking we do at a brisk pace but it can still take quite a while, especially now the better weather is bringing people out of their cabins, blinking in the unaccustomed sunlight ;)

We had a good excuse for pausing this afternoon, watching yet another widebeam being craned in. Only (only, ha!) 60' x 12', but she looked enormous. The current fashion is to paint them grey so that at first glance it looks like the boat's still in primer. Sorry, painting it grey doesn't turn it into a stealth widebeam... ;)

In an idle moment, one of so many these days, I had a look back at some of my old blog posts, in this case from our last year on Sanity. My word I was chatty, almost prolix, some might say. I seem to have become more and more laconic as the years went by...

I blame the drugs, myself.

I'll try and be a bit more entertaining this year, having had such a long break from what was, frankly, becoming a bit of a chore. So here's a little puzzle for starters:

Where does the term "laconic" come from? Where is/was Laconia and what is the classic example of a laconic reply? No Googling straightaway and I'll give the answer next time, if I remember.

If...

Location:Mercia

Getting ready to go

After a very eventful winter, we're looking forward to getting away for a spring and summer of cruising. All our health issues seem to be sorted for the moment and the weather forecast is quite positive. Certainly today has been magnificent and we're hoping winter has flung its last throw.

The plan is to spend this week preparing Sanity Again for cruising and move on board next Saturday. This will enable us to get the lodge cleaned and its linen washed before we set out on Monday week.

We aim to head for Stourport first and then down the Severn if the levels are ok. We'll stop off at Worcester then come back to enter the Droitwich, which we've not done before. After that, it will be up Tardebigge and down Lapworth and Hatton to arrive at Crick in the week before the Show.

We've not made a final decision about the second half of the cruise, but quite possibly will head for the Llangollen, it being a very long time since we boated in Wales.

I'll start blogging regularly again once we're under way.

Location:Mercia

Home again

As planned, we set off a bit before eight this morning for the final run to Mercia. It was a slowish trip with a bit of hanging round at Dallow Lane, but not a problematic one. Both service wharfs were busy when we got here, so we've come straight onto the pontoon.

The rest of the day has been taken up with moving things into the lodge and catching up on the news with a variety of friends. Tomorrow will be for more boat sorting, then Friday we might well take a trip into Derby.

I'll blog occasionally over the next six months, then get back to regular posts when we set off again. Thanks to all my readers for following our (and my) ramblings this year!

Cheers

Bruce

Good and bad

First off the good news. Nev turned up last night with his big spanners and we were able almost to stop the weeping joints. There's still a trace of ooze from one of them, giving a bit of a niff after the engine's been run and then turned off, but hopefully it's something we can live with until we get to Poynton and get Andy to remake the joint. I don't want to nip it up any further and risk stripping a thread or sheering something, thereby going from trivial irritation to broken down in one easy move!

Anyway, we're very grateful to Nev for taking the time to help out and it was good to have a catch up natter with him into the bargain. Boating is still amazing for the way people help each other out when in difficulties.

After all the excitement, we settled for fish and chips from the Alrewas Fryer for dinner. They're still some of the best we know.

Now for the less good. Incredibly, someone has managed to steal a boat from Mercia Marina by sheer brass neck. The thief got himself through the security gate somehow and then asked the way to Moorhen Pontoon. Once there, he walked confidently up to the boat, opened it, started the engine and boated off. It was all done so smoothly that those who saw him assumed he was taking it at the owners' request to work on it.

The theft wasn't discovered until the owners arrived to stay on it and there it was gone. It's a dreadful thing to happen to anyone, but the entire online canal community is on the case and there's every reason to hope it will be tracked down and recovered. There's a thread about it on CWDF with photos of the boat and phone and crime numbers to use if anyone spots it.

If you are near a canal, please visit http://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=86179&page=1, brief yourself and keep an eye out! There are possible sightings on the Staffs and Worcs, at Hillmorton on the North Oxford and at Stoke Bruerne on the GU. The boat's been gone for between one and two weeks so could be anywhere on the connected system by now, just about.

Weirdly, this case is almost identical to a theft from Kings Bromley Marina the other week. Again, the thief, this time dressed in overalls, just walked up to the boat, started it and took it away and the onlookers assumed he was taking it to work on. That boat has been found on the Staffs and Worcs with a lot of the thief's possessions inside, including a repeat prescription form.

The police are anxious to interview the person concerned, as they say.

We've had a quiet day today. A bit of tidying has been done, turning out some cupboards and sorting out stuff for the charity auction at the Owners' Weekend. The plan for tomorrow is to make an early start and work up Fradley, aiming for Kings Bromley before the rain arrives.

Off we go, just

Having moved on board yesterday, we had some bits and pieces of tidying up in the lodge to do this morning. Sheila's turned all the washing round up there, so we shall have a nice clean lodge to come back to in the Autumn.

By lunchtime, the batteries were fully charged so we could disconnect the shoreline and stow the cable and the isolation transformer away. We went round to the front to say our farewells and to thank Grahame and Chrissy for last night's barbecue.

After lunch we got going in a bit of a breeze. We had to hover for a few moments whilst a New and Used wide beam and a narrowboat pulled off the service wharf, then went and did a pump out ourselves. When that was done, we worked across to the entrance, pausing again to let a boat come in. As I cleared the entrance bridge, I spotted the trip boat, Mercia Swan, coming along behind, so I pulled over in the approach cut and loosed them by.

There was just room for us on the Heritage field mooring, two boats being here already, so we've tucked in and settled down for the night after 15 minutes boating. ;) It's quieter on this side of the cut, being that bit further away from the railway line.

There's a slight weep in the return fuel line, but the nut involved is larger than any of my spanners. I think it was exacerbated by rocking the boat with a full tank. I've mopped it off and we'll see how it does tomorrow on the way to Branston.

Cleared for takeoff

It's been an eventful month, but at last things are sorted. Our last tenants have been and gone and we have full possession of the lodge. It means that we can start sorting it exactly as we please; we'll be unloading a certain amount of stuff like the microwave and the toaster, and some of the linens will transfer to the boat to replace worn out towels and the like.

We've acquired a luggage trolley from Midland Chandlers, a nifty four wheel folding beast that greatly simplifies moving gear to and fro. We had an Ocado delivery yesterday, partly stocking up the lodge with staples that now don't need to be carted up from the boat every time and partly stocking the boat ready to cruise.

In the afternoon, Jo kindly gave us a lift into the Royal Derby where Sheila's foot was X-rayed and pronounced well recovered. The plan is to take a few more days here, partly for her gait to return to normal after wearing a surgical shoe for six weeks and partly to finish off these adjustments to the lodge. Then, probably on Sunday afternoon, we'll pull out of the marina, getting a pump out on the way, and spend the night on the towpath.

We aim to do the long route to Braidbar, round the Four Counties to Middlewich and up the Cheshire Locks to Red Bull. The Owners' Weekend is the first in September, as usual, which will be very early this year. We'll get just a bit of work done this time, mainly sorting the solar panel controller which seems to have failed, putting as much as 15 volts across the nice new battery bank, not good at all...

Once we're cruising, I'll start blogging regularly again.

Progress continued

Sheila's operation went very well and she's making what's known as an uneventful recovery. Jo very kindly drove us to the Royal today so that we could attend the dressings clinic. On removal of the dressing, the wound was found to be healing well, with just a touch of weep at the distal (far) end. This was examined by a medic who concluded that it was nothing to worry about, there being no sign of infection.

She's got a fresh, much smaller dressing on her foot which we can remove after three to five days. She's also to start walking about again, so we're past the tedious bit of just sitting around.

In fact the only thing that went wrong was my stupid fault. As we were on our way back, I realised that I'd left my iPad and Sheila's Kindle on top of the car park ticket machine, where I'd put them whilst fishing change out of my pocket. Jo turned us around and we shot back to the hospital. They'd gone from on top of the machine, of course, but when I enquired at the desk in the Kings Treatment Centre I was told they'd been handed in and were on their way to the lost property office.

The staff member taking them there was still in sight and could be called back. They'd taken the name and address of the decent man who'd found them, so we can send him a thank you note and a token of our appreciation of his honesty. It does reinforce your faith in human nature, stuff like this.

So it's being a good week all round. We had a splendid afternoon and evening with John and Nev yesterday, what's more. Elanor and Sal came round for a bit of it and the weather was fine enough that we were able to stay out on the veranda for dinner.

We've now got four weeks of relaxing at the marina before Sheila's next OP appointment, when hopefully we'll be cleared to get on with some boating. The plan is to get away by the end of July, do the Four Counties ring and end up at Poynton for the Braidbar Owners' Weekend.

Things going well

I suppose I ought to be cautious about such hubris, but after a stressful couple of weeks, we do seem to be getting on top of things. We're back in the boat until next Monday whilst our penultimate guests occupy the lodge. Meanwhile, we've been to Ely by train for Graeme's graduation ceremony in the cathedral there. We stayed two nights in the Lamb Hotel, a classic English middle ranking place. None of your Hiltons or Marriotts here, a bit scruffy, staff who often seemed a bit unsure of what they were doing but an excellent location just a couple of minutes from the cathedral.

We had two good meals, one at the Royal Standard in Fore Hill, the best steak I've eaten for a long time, and one in the Grand Central on the riverside, an American restaurant with ridiculously large portions. It was great to have some quality time with Cathy and Graeme, and with the grandsons and their cousins on the Sunday morning.

Health wise things are pretty good too. The pressures in my eyes have dropped significantly, possibly as a belated effect of the laser treatment. If all is still good in six months, I may even go back to annual checks. Sheila had her second toe joint replacement on Wednesday, staying in overnight as she didn't go to theatre until mid afternoon. It took them a long time to discharge her yesterday, mainly due to a delay in getting her take out drugs prescribed, but we finally sprang her at half three.

She has to spend the next two weeks mostly sitting down with her foot up, but she's in very little pain already, less than before the op. We'll move back into the lodge on Monday for three and a half weeks. If her recovery goes to plan, we should be boating again by the end of July.

And the boat? The Webasto is now performing properly, not that we've needed it recently, but the batteries are getting very tired, down to about 100 Ah left out of 460, I reckon. The solar panel keeps them going, with a bit of top up from the shoreline each day. The hope is that they'll last out until we get back to Braidbar in August, just before the Owners' Weekend.

The Trojans haven't done particularly well – I reckon it gets too hot for them under the engine boards when we're cruising – so I'm thinking of going onto basic sealed units. If they last a couple of years they'd be more economic than four years of Trojans and, being lighter, would be easier for me to change. The Trojans weigh around 27kg apiece and are just too heavy for me to drag out from under the deck.

Finally, some grateful thanks. Firstly to Jean Gittins who helped us move stuff from lodge to boat, then to Wynne Jones who collected us from Derby station on Sunday because the trains weren't running to Willington, to Jo James for taking Sheila to the Royal Derby in the early morning and especially to Elanor who has been a great help and support in lots of ways, not least in taking me to collect Sheila yesterday after hanging about all day waiting for the phone call. Truly it is wonderful to have such friends.

I'll blog again in a few weeks time.

 

Settling back in

OK, so you're all waiting to hear about the fish and chips ;)

Well, they were OK, no more than that, I'm afraid, and, in our view, not worth putting up with the noise from the railway line that makes the Willington VMs so uncomfortable. Next time we fancy fish and chips on the way back to the marina, we'll get them from Alrewas. Specifically, the chips were cut very small so had cooked rather hard and there wasn't enough fish inside the batter.

Yesterday, we arrived in the marina between eight and half past and pumped out. Jules came across a bit before nine and sold us some diesel, 130 litres, in fact, and we were back on pontoon Y21 by ten. We spent the day packing up to move back to the lodge and nattering to Peter and Melanie on Inkling who had been across to the Aqua moorings for some snagging and were just back.

Elanor finishes early on a Friday at the moment and came over with Sally in the late afternoon to help us move stuff into the lodge. Sheila looked after Sal whilst the car was loaded up, which gave her the happy opportunity to natter to Trev and Rachael who had come across to see Peter and Melanie, being fellow Aqua owners. After moving loads of stuff up to the lodge, we had a gentle walk round the marina, taking our time as it was so hot.

Getting up this morning, we realised the breakfast cereal was still on the boat...

The plan is to do stuff in the lodge today, then tomorrow we'll start on a whole series of cleaning and minor repair jobs on the boat.

Marching on

We're back on the boat for three weeks whilst a couple of bookings in the lodge take place. The first has just finished, but it's not worth the faff and hassle of moving up there and back down again ten days later. Instead, we've had Pinelog change three floorboards in the living area which were either splitting or feathering.

This they did very willingly – we're now giving them (the boards, OK?) a couple of coats of oil to darken them up to match the others.

Social highlight recently was an evening in the Boardwalk pub with Jo, Wynne and Elanor. Tuesday night is now pie and quiz night in there. It was good fun even if the quiz master rather dragged things out. Elanor, who was working next day, had to leave before the end. Sally spent most of the evening kipping in the car but came into the pub for a bit between the meal and the quiz.

We didn't have a mat for her to lie on, so she didn't really want to settle, but it was good that she was very well behaved. Like us, she finds the decor in the Boardwalk rather unrestful. Mind you, it's improved in other ways since it first opened: service is much quicker and the portion sizes very good. The pies were delicious to boot. Prices are about the same as the Dragon in the village, so not cheap...

Tomorrow, we're dining at Peter and Katie's, yippee. Should be a good evening with our good friends.

And finally, the Mug Tug here, which does mug painting sessions for kids during the day, is offering an Adult Night on Wednesdays. The (slightly dirty) mind boggles...

The Nespresso capsule mystery

Not long after breakfast this morning, some kind soul left five Nespresso capsules in a neat plastic bag in our well deck.

No idea who it was, but thank you, anyway!

In other news, Sheila, after a bit of consultant's secretary hassling, has finally got a date for her second op. It's on the 8th of June, so we have time to go up to Braidbar and get the Webasto fitted in place of the Hurricane before coming back for my eye appointments and Sheila's op.

We'll be leaving in the second week of April, after seeing the dentist.

I will resist suggestions to have eye surgery this summer when I'm in clinic, or we'll be the blind leading the lame. Or vice versa, of course.

Filling in time

It's 'orrible weather out there, February at its worst, and we're stuck in the boat watching the rain drizzle damply down the windows. I've been working on a Get the Picture round for the next quiz, hee, hee, and Sheila is threatening to give me a refresher session on how to do the month end accounts.

However, running Sally in the field last week gave Sheila a chance to take some photos, so I thought I'd share them with you:

Ready...

Tally Ho!

Grandpa's got a treat...

 

 

It's been a month

I thought I should let everyone know we're still here and thriving. We had a great Christmas in the boat (tenants in the lodge) and New Year in Walnut, in both cases sharing with Elanor and Sally. We've now moved back into the boat for the lodge closure period from 14 January to 15 February. We're taking the opportunity to do some routine maintenance in the lodge, cleaning and oiling the floors and waxing the furniture.

In other news, routine OP appointments have gone off OK, but less good is that when Sheila rang her orthopod consultant's secretary to check where she was on the waiting list for her second op, she couldn't be found on the list :(. We're waiting for a call back to find out what's going on.

We've just come through the chilliest bit of the winter so far, using a 1.5 kW oil filled radiator to make up for not having the Hurricane working. It was OK, sort of. We're getting through a lot of solid fuel and electricity.

With regard to the wretched Hurricane, we've taken the decision to abandon it. When we get away in the Spring, we'll nip up to Braidbar, get them to take the beast out and install a Webasto Thermotop instead. I'm sure Calcutt could fix the Hurricane again, at a price, but it just gets too stressful waiting for the thing to fail again. It had been behaving oddly all summer, occasionally failing to fire or firing a little late with a whoomp, but never consistently enough to merit more than routine servicing, checking the fuel supply and the like.

With our changed living pattern for next year, summer cruising on the boat, winter living in the lodge, we don't need the domestic type heating and a Webasto should do the job for us just as it does for so many others. It's very disappointing about the Hurricane – great design, lousy build quality.

Heigh ho, I'll try and do another of these occasional posts next month and plan to resume daily posting when we're cruising again. Here's to the Spring weather!

A bit of ketchup

Groan! Sorry, I know my puns can be a sauce of discontent :(.

We're back in the boat just for Christmas week as we've got tenants in the lodge. Elanor helped us with the move over Thursday and Friday, using the car to shift all our bits and pieces. In return, Sally stayed with us last night whilst Elanor went to an office party. As I type this, she's just texted to say that she's on her way to see us. (Elanor, that is, not Sally.)

Thanks to that excellent chap Richard, we are now the proud owners of an Inissia Nesprsso machine. It has a small footprint so fits on the boat as well as in the lodge.

Tomorrow, we go to meet Graeme, Cathy and co at Wollaton Park to do a present swap, saving a load of postage and getting in some Christmas cheer at the same time.

We move back into Walnut next Monday for just a couple of weeks, then will be on the boat for the period of the annual closure of the lodges. We've got some bookings after they reopen, so may not move yet again before we start boating in 2016, when regular blogs will resume. First trip will be to Calcutt as the Hurricane boiler has stopped working yet again. It looks like the compressor has failed once more.

Aaargh!