All done and off we go

We had a very good day yesterday, ambling round the Festival, buying some cheese from the Cheese Boat 2 and having burritos for lunch, not to mention a pint in the sunshine.

Fred got the final coat on in the middle of the day; Norbury do a particularly through job, including the weed hatch trunking.

This morning we were up and about in good time, which was just as well as Lee was there pretty well spot on half eight. I put the weed hatch back in and he lifted the top stop plank to allow the water to start flooding into the dock. It takes quite a while, but sometime after nine Sanity Again was afloat once more.

David came over from the office and did a master class in boat handling; the basin was very full and the bridge hole partly obstructed by the bows of two working boats breasted up on the pub moorings. Lee had to do a bit of bow hauling to swing her round towards the embankment, after which it was a straight reverse to end up on the service wharf, with no scratches on the nice new blacking.

We took 100 litres of diesel at a very reasonable 76.9 ppl for domestic use, as well as a new cylinder of propane. All in all, an excellent job at a fair rate. By ten we were on our way; I was sweating a bit to do a decent exit in the cross wind, but all went well.

We've run a washload en route and made it to Brewood just after two o'clock. Lots of traffic about, it being a Bank Holiday weekend and we were lucky to find a mooring just by Bridge 13.

We'll make a crack of dawn start tomorrow, so as to get through Autherley and the Pendeford Rockin' before too many others are up and about. Just to be on the safe side, we've left the covers on the solar panel until we get to Coven tomorrow; we'd covered them whilst in the dock to save having to clean mess off them after being pressure washed and so on, so they can stay there to protect us from ill wishers at Autherley as well.

Quick catch up

It took me half an hour to upload yesterday's three paras, working between half eleven and twelve. The connection speed is much better first thing, so I though I'd knock this one out now.

Fred made it across just after lunch, and by three o'clock had finished. Lee had done the first coat with a brush, working it well into the nooks and crannies, but the later coats can go on with a roller, making it much faster. Hopefully, we'll see Fred a bit earlier today, but as it's the first day of the Bank Holiday Festival here, I'm not holding my breath.

Sheila wore shorts in the afternoon for the first time this year and sure enough, it clouded over and grew cold. She's back in the long trousers today so here's to the sun coming back out.

That's all for now; hopefully by tomorrow afternoon we'll be back at Brewood and able to connect properly again.

Blacking Day 3

We were up and about in good time today, but today's blacking is due to be done by Fred who has to turn round some boats first. At half eleven we're still waiting for him…

Could have had more of a lie in, then. We've not been idle, we've started polishing up the tiller and pins with the aim of getting them really smart and then using Incralac on them.

The delay in getting the second coat of Comastic on isn't a big deal this time, but if it happens again tomorrow, it severely reduces the time it has to dry before we come off the dock on Sunday. On the other hand, this is one of the few yards I know which does three coats, so we're ahead of the game anyway. It's just a shame we can't have Lee for all three coats, he's a great worker (not that Fred isn't when he can get here to do it, mind).

The charger finally decided it had done enough absorption on the battery bank after four and a half hours, virtually an equalisation session. I've checked the bank out - it took only a bit of topping up and there was no sign of overheating, so all seems to be well.

The forecast for Sunday and Monday looks excellent; we're looking forward to some great boating when we get away.

Catching up

Things are pretty hectic here and the data connection a bit come and go, so this is a quick catch up post. I can't promise to blog every day, but I'll try to do one of these from time to time while we're here.

• We're safely on the dry dock here at Norbury. I got asked to do the initial boat handling, turning the bow into the pack of boats opposite the entrance to the arm and reversing down to the dock. Pretty tricky stuff, but fortunately no wind so all went well.
• We've been pressure washed and the hull looks just fine, with a lot of the blacking still well attached. Lee who's doing it had to go over it again to get the very fine weed off. He said this normally wasn't a problem because with most boats, all the blacking comes off and takes the weed with it.
• The anodes look good for another two years, say Simon, but we're certainly getting through them a lot quicker than we did on Sanity, presumably because we're spending so much more time on shorelines in marinas. It's confirmed my intention to get an isolation transformer and stop relying on the galvanic isolator.
• The Ocado delivery came in ok, so we're well stocked for grub again.
• Speaking of which, we had an OK meal in the Junction Inn last night. Their own Junction Inn  Best Bitter was all right but not in the very best of nick, and the pies were generous portions. It was quite crowded and noisy, though.
• Main worry is that the charger stayed on absorption mode for a very long time, making me worry that we may have a battery problem. Today's job wiill be to check out the battery bank.

That's all for now, see you sometime!

Destination Norbury

We've made it to our destination for this trip, Norbury Junction, where we go on the dock tomorrow for steam cleaning and blacking. After I'd popped to the paper shop first thing this morning, we started up and boated through to the water point.

As we'd left the engine running, by the time the tank was half full there was enough hot water to start the washing machine. Setting off again when the tank was well full, less than an hour's boating saw us arriving at the start of the visitor moorings on the end of Shelmore Embankment. We just found room on the end, behind The Vanyar whom we've been following for a few days.

There were in fact a few more spaces further up, but it wasn't worth moving again. They've all since been taken, there being a fair bit of traffic about now. The washload was about finished by the time we'd drunk a cup of coffee. After stopping the engine and closing up the boat, we set off to walk round to the office, taking some rubbish and recycling with us.

On the way we noticed Dances with Dragons just beyond The Vanyar, and sure enough met Mike and Pauline coming back along the towpath. After another natter with them we finally made it to the other side of the cut and the yard office.

Here it was a relief to find that we were expected; we'll move forward onto the water point by half nine tomorrow to be taken into the dry dock by the yard staff.

We've improved the afternoon by washing down and microfibring the port side, which was looking very dusty.

There's a half decent 3 signal here and intermittent Vodafone and T-mobile ones, so I should be able to maintain some sort of blog. The weekend looks to be quite exciting as there's a Canal Festival on, it being the Mayday Bank Holiday weekend, into the middle of which we will emerge on Sunday…

/blur

Objectives achieved.

OK, I'm pretty weary (other descriptions are available), but reasonably pleased with progress. We were able to make a leisurely start this morning, as we just had the short run to Norbury to do. I got a paper from the local shop, and at about ten to nine we started getting the boat ready. Sheila steered, and we chugged gently along in half decent weather, a little cool, but quite calm and not actually raining.

As it was, we got to Norbury just after ten, but found that boats were already moving off and that there was a space just a boat's length short of the end of the embankment. We popped into the office to book our blacking slot for next spring. Sanity Again is now booked for the 1 - 5 May here; what's more, we get a 10% discount as a returning customer on the already very competitive price.

We'd not long finished lunch and settled down to read when the Ocado driver rang to say that he was in the pub car park. As usual, he was very helpful, trucking a lot of our stuff to the boat whilst I took the other two crates on our folding truck. This meant that we got the lot done in one move.

It was all present and correct, and after checking it over and stowing it away, we improved the shining hour by taking our recycling to the bins in the boat yard. They take everything bar plastic here.

Back at the boat, I had a bit of a sit down with the copy of Waterways World we'd bought (just catching up with the August issue), and then had a go at tweaking the position of the prop. That all went reasonably smoothly too; I've shifted it just a half inch back for now, so that there's now about 2.5 inches between the forward boss on the prop and the sternpost.

The main grief was tightening up the coupling again afterwards. It's a case of tightening all eight bolts in turn, using a crowbar to jam the coupling to stop it from rotating. Naturally, as you go round, you find that the first bolts you did can be nipped up a bit more when you get back to them.

Then I cleared everything out of the way, started up and ran the engine in both forward and reverse gears to make sure it wasn't all going to fall apart. It was all OK, but guess what, when I checked the bolts again…

/blur

I reckon they are all nice and tight now, but I'll check again tomorrow after we've been boating.

I'd planned to do risotto tonight, using some stock I've got in the frozen food compartment, but I forgot to take it out to defrost this morning. That's a pity, good job there's a pub serving food here…

/wahaha

Nasty start, better end

Bit of a problem here, I do like to start with the positives, and then deal with less good things later, but on the other hand, it's a good idea to stick with some sort of chronological order, on the basis that at least some of my readers are as easily confused as I am. And frankly, today didn't get off to a good start.

Oh, I know: Andy Murray has just won Olympic gold to add to all the other medals Team GB has. That's great stuff. And I've just placed an Ocado order for tomorrow for Norbury Junction, where they didn't used to deliver.

Good, that feels better.

Right, now for it: we'd decided to make a prompt start today, dropping down the lock first thing and onto the water point before we ate breakfast, and then toddling on to Gnosall. So after tea in bed and getting washed and dressed, Sheila went off to set the lock, and I got the boat ready. It was half seven, so I didn't start the engine until I'd let the bow line and stern spring go.

Then I started up, going back to tickover straight away, and untied the final stern line. As I was coiling it up to put on the slide, the guy who lives in the trailer home on the offside came out in his dressing gown and started effing and blinding at me for running my engine before eight o'clock.

Now, it is the case that you are not supposed to run gennies or engines for battery charging purposes before that time, but there is no restriction on when you choose to navigate (though many hire yards prohibit moving their boats in the dark). I tried explaining this to chummy, but he wasn't having it, and offered to come down to the lock "to f***ing sort you out" if I persisted on disagreeing with him.

So I waved him goodbye and boated off, followed by shouts of "and don't effing come back, you a***hole!"

It leaves you a bit shaken, that sort of thing, and my heart rate has gone up a bit just typing this, but fortunately it's pretty rare. I can only think of two such occasions, including this one, in 37 years of boating, some of that time as a truly incompetent novice hirer. Admittedly, the other occasion was just the other week at Great Haywood, but there you go. Maybe it's my hairstyle.

There was an upside; as we worked down the lock, the old working boats Tench and Greyhound were getting ready to go up, trad engines cracking away in fine style. We mentioned what had happened to the steerer of Tench, and she offered to give him a blast on her klaxon as she went by…

After that, life was pretty uneventful. We had a good chug to here, with a fair bit of traffic coming the other way, but no mishaps. I held back at one bridge hole for an approaching boat, and a boat waited for me to get out of Cowley tunnel before entering, but all was very calm and relaxed.

We've popped up into the village to do some top up shopping, and as I say, we're getting a delivery to Norbury tomorrow, which will help with the depleted state of the food cupboards. The weather still looks a bit unsettled, but there's not much wind in the forecast, so no big probs there.

Pictures at last

Today, at last, the pictures of Sanity Again on the dock. The main thing to mention from our boating today was the start, which was just a tad delayed by our fascination with the lapwings in the field opposite, one of which had taken exception to a very smart red pheasant sitting in the middle of the field.

The lapwing was buzzing it again and again. Maybe the pheasant was sitting right where the lapwing wanted to nest...

We've made it to Tixall without much drama, taking our usual couple of hours or so.The canal was very shallow past Milford Wharf, where there's a line of offside moorings. We know that some of these boats charge their batteries by running their engines in gear, and reckon that this has blown silt right across the cut.

Anyway, the photos:

Settled on the dock with gangplank rigged

One year's accumulation of muck

The sluice that drains the last of the water from the dock

Remains of the lock tail out the back

Starting to refill by lifting the top plank

Nice shiny bow

...and a shiny side.

The dock is constructed on what was the first of 17 locks leading down the hill at the start of the Newport Branch. If ever they are restored, there'll be a need for an alternative dock, unless the plan for a new inclined plane comes off despite local opposition.

Going South to go North

The odd thing about this bit of the Four Counties ring is that you travel south for a few days (OK, for one day if you are a hirer ;) ) in order to reverse direction at Autherley and head north again. I'm not complaining, you understand, but it's entertaining that you could probably walk to Penkridge from Gnosall across country a good deal quicker than you can boat it.

I visited the butcher before we set off, as we'd run out of fresh meat, but he didn't have much stock left; no chickens at all, for example. Presumably, all across the country, anything that could be barbecued was being flung on there this weekend.

I got some mince, and a nice bit of braising steak that I plan to curry tonight. Off we went, just after nine, with around four hours to do to get to our favourite mooring by Bridge 7. We'd not been underway long when a woman walking a dog on the towpath told us that she'd seen a baby hedgehog tumble down into the cut from the steep side of the cutting just beyond Cowley Tunnel.

We basically made 'well, well, how sad' gestures at her, but the next thing we knew, she'd been home, got on her bike, and was coming back to supervise us saving it. Now, I'm as fond of hedgehogs as the next person (though I've never baked one, see comments about barbecue above), but last I heard, they were not under threat, and the fate of most baby animals is to be eaten. Nonetheless, we showed willing, and I stood by with the boat hook to try and fish it out. Our supervisor had announced that if we did so, she would take it home and look after it.

There was no sign of it where she'd spotted it, so we carried on by. Looking back, we saw her waving her arms at us from further along, but it was too late to start trying to reverse in the narrow cutting. In any event, there were lots of boats about, so hopefully she was able to persuade another one to help.

I don't feel guilty, I'm afraid; in the cause of average hedgepig IQ, the ones that don't jump off a cliff ought to be the ones that survive to breed.

The weather slowly deteriorated, and eventually started to rain, so I retreated to the cabin. As I did so, I heard the phone ringing, and got to it just too late. David from Norbury left a voicemail asking me to ring back, and when I did, he made a handsome apology for the damage to our new blacking. He quite fairly pointed out that, if we'd complained, he'd have had the scratches touched in, and said we could have a free pump out next time we pass instead.

Thinking back on it, it is true that I should have said something straight away, but some of these things are a slow burn matter, and it's only after a while that you go "Hang about, that's not on." In addition, the cosmetic stuff isn't the point, really, we'll touch that in ourselves before Crick along with all the others that have appeared on the way there. It's the fact that there will almost certainly be other scrapes below the waterline that none of us can do much about.

Never mind, ringing up was the decent thing to do, and makes me feel much better about the boatyard.

It became clear that we weren't going to make the mooring before lunch, so for the first time this year, I got the Diablo out and made us a toastie each, using a chicken and mushroom Heinz Toast Topper that we got in Netto in Market Drayton the other day. Just the job, though the filling became very hot, and needed approaching with care.

Tomorrow, we plan a crack of dawn start, especially as the weather is scheduled to be at its best first thing. We've a way to go, but should be at Hatherton by lunch time.

Off we go again.

Having praised Norbury Wharf in my last blog, I find I have to qualify that this time, I fear. Things started well this morning, with one of the guys lifting the end of the top stop plank at five to eight, just as we were getting breakfast. The dock took just on an hour to refill, and they started shuffling boats about to clear a route out up the arm as it was finishing.

With the planks out of the way, and the gangway lifted up, we all started to pull the boat towards the bright sunny morning. Unfortunately, the boat shuffling hadn't been quite enough, and both as we left the dock, and again as we got to the bridge over the towpath, quantities of our nice new blacking were left behind on copings and other boats. I know that it will get scraped soon enough, but for it not to survive even the exit from the dock is infuriating. I mean this is 845 quidsworth we're talking about.

In addition, the roof was covered in fine rusty detritus from the cross beams of the dock roof, which are elderly steel, and an offer to wash us off would not have come amiss.

I suspect part of the problem is that there's only a skeleton staff on a Sunday, and we'd not long started on the boat moving when Steve got a call on the radio to come and see the day boat out. This added an air of rush to the whole thing, and Steve went off well before we'd left the arm.

It's a real pity; as I said yesterday, the quality of the work was good, and the charge very reasonable, but we'll think hard before going back.

I'll get the photos sorted out in the next couple of days and put them up.

Having got onto the service wharf, we had another rather expensive pump out and some cheap diesel, and a couple of bags of house coal. Then we crossed over to the water point and settled down to refill the tank whilst starting a washload.

Here we had another irritating experience. There are a lot of boats tied on the offside opposite the water point, so that there was just enough room (maybe nine or ten foot) to pass our stern. Most boats made it without difficulty, just slowing down and taking  it easy. This strategy did not commend itself to the hirer on Sir Galleron from Countrywide Cruisers, who kept the revs on, swung Sanity Again about and finally clouted her one.

The hose reel fell off the bow locker lid, taking my nearly full mug of coffee with it. Coffee and bits of mug covered the well deck, so it's goodbye to my personal Braunston tunnel mug that I've been using ever since we moved on board.

Heigh ho, it's too nice a day to stay angry for long, I guess.

We've stopped at Gnosall for the night. No Vodafone signal on the 48 hour moorings – you have to stop on the 5 day ones in the cutting for that – but a fast 3 connection.

We walked up into Gnosall proper to get some fresh lettuce and cucumber, but no Voda signal up there, either. Very odd – I mean, I know we're out in the wop wops as they say in NZ, but surely Gnosall is a big enough place to justify a mast?

Tomorrow, on through Wheaton Aston and Brewood to stop by Bridge 7, then a long day to Hatherton, definitely not stopping in the Pendeford area, it being the school holidays. We've noticed a huge increase in boat traffic already, so no doubt the little darlings on the estates round there will be out and about and looking for mischief.

Days three and four

OK, I missed yesterday, as a result of spending so much time outside in the sunshine. The dry dock here is a very good one, but inevitably it’s a bit gloomy inside the boat. We need the lights on all the time, so even when Freddy isn’t slapping Comastic on the hull, with the resulting niff of Xylene drifting around, it’s just much more pleasant over the way outside the cafe.

It’s just not very good for the bank balance or the waistline. Although there’s absolutely no pressure to do so, the attractions of another hot chocolate or a piece of flapjack intrude themselves into your consciousness. Not to mention the fact that, once you've smelt one person eating a bacon butty, the idea just hangs around, getting stronger and stronger until it’s too much to resist.

Elanor and Sally rolled up mid afternoon, and we’ve had a very pleasant 24 hours with them. The walk up the towpath and through Grub Street cutting is an excellent chance to exercise a vigorous pooch. Sally spent ages charging up and down the cutting sides, looking for bunnies, squirrels and anything else that might be persuaded to run away in an interesting fashion.

She got very weary doing this, so that we didn’t hear a peep out of her all night.

Today has been occupied in the same way, with the added interest of watching the activity around the yard as hirers and share boat owners turned up and set off. Elanor finally tore herself away mid afternoon, by which time the blacking was all done. Freddy was very insistent that I examined his handiwork before he cleared up, in case there were any areas that had been missed.

Needless to say, there weren’t. It’s a very thorough job, including the uxter plate, the weed hatch and even inside the weed hatch trunking. We paid just shy of £850 for the job, using Comastic. If we’d settled for International Intertuf, as so many people do, it would have been about £560 for 70 feet. Given that that’s three coats, I think you’d be hard pushed to find a better deal around for this quality of work.

We’re told we’ll be released at around 9.15 tomorrow. We’ll get a pump out and top up the diesel and water tanks, and then aim to be at Gnosall for the night.

Second day on the dock

It was rather a broken night, last night, what with the strange sensation of the boat not moving and the noise of water leaking through the stop planks onto the dock floor. As a result, we were up and about in very good time; work doesn’t start until half eight around here, unlike at Lord Vernon’s Wharf where the Braidbar staff start turning up from half seven on.

The first coat of Comastic has gone on OK, albeit with usual horrendous smell of the xylene solvent. We retreated to the seating outside the shop, from where we could look out for the Waitrose order arriving.

This it did at half nine, all complete and in good nick, so full marks to waitrose.com. By the time it was all put away, it was coffee time, so we went back to the cafe, ordered a hot chocolate and a decaf coffee and settle down for a bit.

Sheila had the MacBook with her, and checked email and did some proof reading, and I had bought an i, the mini version of The Independent. The first coat was all on by twelve, when we went back to the boat and got lunch.

Afterwards, we took a walk up the towpath, through Grub Street cutting, spotting a jay and a pair of Common Buzzard on the way. We’ve spent the rest of the afternoon loafing in the boat; when I’ve done the text for this post offline, I’ll pop round as far as the pub garden, near enough to the cafe to get the WiFi connection, and post it, checking email at the same time.

Then it’s my turn to get a shower in the services block before cooking dinner. That reminds me, I should have said before; it was an excellent meal last night in the Junction Inn, good pub grub like a larg steak pie and a chicken and bacon melt, with crisp chips.

Strongly recommended, I can see why it’s so popular.

First day on the dock

We ate the Adderley sausages last night; they were very good, though a bit on the skinny side. They would make excellent breakfast bangers, or the heart of a hot dog, but came out just a touch dry for our taste as a main course.

Nonetheless, they were vastly better than supermarket stuff.

We got ourselves organized this morning in good time; we’d been told that the guys would be moving the boat between half nine and ten, and, used to the ways of boatyards, expected it to be more like the latter than the former. But it was not to be. Just before 9.30, they rolled up along the towpath, and soon had Sanity Again on the move.

In order to reverse down onto the dry dock that lies at the end of the arm, it was necessary to half wind her in the basin. The basin being very full, this was only just achieved, but at last we backed down between the rows of boats and into the dock.

It’s a good sized building; most of the water gets pumped back into the cut, with just the last bit allowed to drain through a culvert into what was the rest of the arm. The dock is constructed out of the first of the 17 locks that used to take the Newport Branch down the hill.

There are proposals to restore the arm, perhaps with a fancy boat lift at the start, but we’ve seen signs of local unease at the prospect, in the shape of notices about an initial meeting to co-ordinate objections.

Sanity Again’s hull has been steam cleaned, and nothing alarming emerged as a result. I’ve taken some photos, but won’t be putting them up until we’re back on a proper connection. At the moment, I’m composing this blog post on Sheila’s MacBook, and will pop over to the cafe to put it up when I’ve finished.

Life on the dock is very odd; the boat doesn’t move at all, of course, and you don’t realize how used you are to that gentle rocking until it’s not there. Similarly, we don’t want to allow waste water to run down the hull side, so the sea cocks on the outlets from the sink and washbasin are closed, and the shower pump has been turned off.

Washing water gets tipped from the bowl into a bucket for subsequent disposal, and we’re using the showers in the services block rather than on board. It’s only for a few days, so I’m sure that we will cope.

Tonight, we’re going to the Junction Inn for a meal, but after that I’ll be cooking on board as usual. We’ve got a Waitrose delivery booked for the morning, the first time we’ve used them. One thing less good than either Ocado or Sainsbury’s; they give two hour rather than one hour booking slots, so we’ll be hanging about looking out for them for half the morning, probably.

Norbury a day early

Looking at the forecast, it was clear that this morning would be the last half decent boating conditions for a few days, so we decided not to stop at the Anchor at High Onn as we'd originally planned, but to carry on to Norbury Junction. Although not very windy, what there was, was very cooling, and I was glad that it was Sheila's turn to steer, whilst I busied myself down below with such essential tasks as keeping the stove well stoked.

We got here at about eleven, and tied on the first stretch of visitor moorings, both of us quite chilled and glad to get in the warm (I had taken over the steering for the last stretch through Grub Street cutting, in the cause of Sheila avoiding hypothermia.) No sooner we were all sorted, than I realised that neither the Vodafone nor the 3 signal were useable. Exploration showed that we just needed to move a bit nearer the bridge, which we've done.

This let me sort out a Waitrose order for delivery on Thursday, and to do a load of other web catching up, like filling in the NABO survey about costs of boating.

Catching up will be the theme of the rest of this blog, too:

First off, one   of SUCS's more entertaining signs, this at Coole Pilate:

The sign says "For use with disposable BBQ's supplied by Shropshire Union Canal Society". I don't think that's quite what they meant, but SUCS has a bit of form in this area. There's a WWII pill box on the exit from the towpath in Market Drayton that has a sign below it saying "Supplied by the Shropshire Union Canal Society". It's actually meant to refer to the picnic table in front of it, but does suggest that SUCS has been doing its civic duty for longer than anyone realised.

The farm at the top of Adderley flight has a little stall with an honesty box where you can buy eggs and cakes. As we got to the top, the farmer's wife was there replenishing it. She asked Sheila if she would like to buy any bacon or sausages, which they also supply if you ring them up. Sheila redirected her to me, explaining that I did all the cooking on board.

I couldn't hear this exchange, of course, as I was standing on the back with the engine running, so that the first thing I knew about it was this attractive blond woman walking up to me and asking if I would move in with her. It seems she hates cooking and her current feller doesn't oblige.

I thought about it for a moment, but decided that, at my age, it wouldn't be worth giving up living on the boat...

I did buy some eggs, bacon and sausages, though, in acknowledgement of what will probably be the best offer I'll get this year ;).

Coming back to today, we were passed by a bunch of four canoeists just by Knighton and the Shebdon embankment; we'd seen their canoes lying on the towpath as we set off this morning. Sheila had some quick conversation with them; apparently, they are canoeing round Wales. Presumably they'll go on down the Staffs and Worcs when they reach Autherley, onto the Severn at Stourport, and so out into the Bristol Channel and round the coast, reentering the canal system via the River Dee at Chester.

You've got to admire them, but they're quite mad, of course.

We'll spend tomorrow here on the VM, then go onto the dock on Wednesday morning.

Suddenly...

... it's turned cold again. The problem with this is that, after the improbably warm weather of the past few days, it feels really chilly, although it's probably not actually all that cold for the time of year. It's given us an excuse to stoke up the fire and have a mug of soup with lunch, so it's not all loss, I guess. Nonetheless, it was strange to be back in multiple layers of wool and fleece, and the fleece beanie rather than a baseball cap.

We took a bit more time to get going today, as we wanted to get a pump out from Norbury Wharf, which was only about an hour's boating away. Not much to report from the trip; not bad, not special, just a steady chug through gradually improving conditions.

We stopped on the water point, as the tank was down to about a quarter full, and I checked that we could get a pump out (some hire yards are a bit iffy about doing private pump outs on a turn round day, but not this one).

It took a bit of manoeuvring to get Sanity Again onto the service wharf the right way round, especially as there were a lot of other boats about, but it got done without too much drama, and we duly got pumped out. An average job, reasonable rinse out, nothing special, which would have been fine if it didn't cost £17 (£20 if you have "blue"). They may be very reasonable for docking and blacking, but that's a bit of a rip off, frankly. A 13 kg cylinder of propane was the standard £25.49, so no complaints about the deal there, even if gas is getting to be horribly expensive.

Then came the challenge of coming back off the service wharf and winding to carry on towards Market Drayton. I decided to put the bow into the arm that leads to the dry dock; this would have been fine, but just as I was lining up, a privateer came zooming through the narrows by the water point. I stopped, and one of the guys on the other boat asked if I was OK.

With commendable restraint (no rude words at all, honest) I explained that he'd just made my life a bit more complicated than I wanted. As they wanted to turn as well, we ended up doing a little doh-see-doh, and finally got round, but it would have been so much easier (as so often) if he'd just had the common to hold back and let me finish my evolutions before starting his own.

We'd planned to go on to Goldstone Wharf today, but realised we'd have a pretty late lunch if we did, so we've stopped at the Anchor at High Onn for the night; an early start tomorrow will still get us to Market Drayton in time to get a loaf of bread for lunch.

Meantime, Chris Wells on his blog about Bella points out that the plans for the High Speed Rail link will sever the Trent and Mersey to navigation just above Fradley, with two crossings at 1.5 and 1 metre above water level. I've alerted various folks to the situation; hopefully a sensible solution will be forthcoming, assuming that the wretched vanity project ever goes ahead, of course.

FOI stuff here, if you're interested.

Walking in circles can be fun

22nd & 23rd February

Friday morning arrived with a phenomenal amount of wind, causing us to rethink our plan to move to Gnosall – the Shelmore embankment is no place to be in a strong cross wind. The visitor moorings were still half empty, so we didn't feel too guilty about staying an extra day.

In order to avoid a totally lazy day, we explored a circular walk after lunch, starting just across the road from the boatyard. We walked across some fields to a very minor road, eventually turning off onto a bridle way which brought us round to the road which crosses the canal via the High Bridge over Grub Street cutting. Then it was a case of walking back along the towpath to the junction. It took us about an hour all told, just right for a postprandial stroll.

Apart from that it was a pretty quiet day, really, except for the noise of the wind. The major intellectual exercise was composing a rejoinder to Adrian Stott's piece in the latest Waterways World, wherein he argues for continuous cruisers being charged an additional £1500 per annum, to make up for the extra use they make of water points and the like. We've submitted it to WW as a letter to the editor – if they don't use it, I'll post it here in due course.

Today we made a prompt start – the heating was set to come on at seven, and we were boating by about 8.15. It was a calm but cloudy morning, but we knew that the wind was due to get up again later, hence the unusual alacrity in getting going.

It's about than an hour's boating from Norbury to Gnosall, so by 9.30 we were on the water point topping up the tank. There's no Vodafone signal in this village whatsoever that I can find, so we've had to put the Orange Pay As You Go SIM in the phone in order to liaise with Elanor on her way over to see us.

Once we were sorted with a mooring and the washing machine had finished doing its thing, we took a walk to get some supplies and to remind ourselves of the layout here. There are actually two villages – the canal is at Gnosall Heath, and Gnosall proper is about a mile away, so quite walkable.

There's a decent range of basic shops at Gnosall Heath, and a few more plus a Post Office at Gnosall. You can walk along the road from one to t'other, or there's a footpath along an old railway embankment to Bridge 35A, enabling another circular walk to be made of it.

As I write this the wind has indeed come up again, so we made the right decisions (makes a change). The forecast is for a calm day on Monday, but windy again Tuesday and Wednesday, so it looks like we'll move on Monday and then sit tight again for a couple of days.

Photography at Norbury Junction

20th & 21st January

After another cold night, we weren't surprised to find that it was very misty in the morning. In fact, it must have been a freezing fog, because every twig on every tree, along with pretty well everything else in sight, was covered in white rime. It was a magical sight, and lasted for a good part of the morning.

Sheila was steering as we set off for the run to Norbury Junction, and after a while complained that she kept thinking it was starting to rain, when in fact it was the rime slowly beginning to melt and run off the trees above.

We passed Knighton depot, from where boatloads of chocolate crumb used to be taken to the Cadbury's factory at Bourneville. The approach from the north means that you see from some distance away the canopy of the loading shed over the ends of the pair of carrying boats that are always tied there, very atmospheric on such a morning.

Then it was the chug across Shebdon embankment, looking very smart after some good work by BW on the offside. It just shows what can be done with adequate funding. After the Anchor pub, there followed a truly incredible length of offside linear mooring. On and on it went for miles, virtually the whole way to the start of Grub Street cutting, with its double arched High Bridge. Emerging from the cutting, the towpath side long term mooring on the approach to Norbury follows immediately. It meant that what should have been about two hours boating, max, took us from 9.45 to 12.15, and we were well ready for lunch when we got there.

At Norbury there is this stretch of LT mooring, then a good chunk of 48 hour visitor mooring, which at the moment is full of winter moorers (either that or some people are giving a good but cheeky impression of same – in the absence of BW issuing any standard means of showing that you've paid for a winter mooring, it's impossible to tell.)

We finally found a bit of free mooring in front of the pub, and dropped onto it whilst we got some lunch. Afterwards, I explored forward, and found that the VM that runs from the services block towards Shelmore embankment was still available, and had plenty of spaces. (By the way, does anyone else have trouble remembering which is Shebdon and which Shelmore?)

So we stopped on the water point to top up, and then tied in one of these spaces, in a very pleasant spot with views across the fields below the level of the canal. A trip to the shop and chandlery yielded a tub of stern tube grease, 5 litres of oil ready for the next oil change, a copy of Waterways World and an Independent.

During the morning, I'd responded to Phil Hynds's comment on the last post, asking if he could come and see us in connection with a photo piece on retired liveaboards he's preparing. We agreed to meet at Norbury this morning.

Today, a complete change in the weather had manifested itself. It was mild and cloudy, but a steady breeze, gusting at times to a serious blast, made it feel just as cold as when it was frosty. After breakfast I set off to take some recycling to the bins by the cafe and chandlery at around 9.30. Just by the junction I saw a bloke with a tripod and serious camera bag, and thought that Phil must have turned up early to get some background shots for his piece.

On enquiry, however, this guy turned out to be one of a large number of students from the Defence Photography School at Cosford. On hearing my explanation of why I'd approached him, Jim, for such was his name, promptly asked if he could come and take some pictures as well.

Back at the boat, I alerted Sheila to the situation, and we had just about finished giving Sanity a quick clean when Jim arrived. Since Graeme's current job involves a bit of services photography, we had an interesting natter with Jim, who had just finished taking photos when Phil rocked up.

What a busy morning – who says winter is a quiet time on the cut?

We had a good session with Phil too, first of all being interviewed and then showing him through the boat, and then more photos. This finished just in nice time for lunch, and was followed by a quiet afternoon – a bit of wood was cut, some internet banking done, newspapers read and the like.

Tomorrow we will brave a windy forecast to do the short run to Gnosall for the weekend, and hopefully a rendezvous with Elanor.