A cunning change to the cunning plan

One minor mystery of the cut – how come you can moor apparently in the middle of nowhere, like where we were last night, and, all day and all evening, joggers come pounding past? I mean, obviously, there must be housing nearer than you think, but it’s really quite unusual not to see joggers and dog walkers, wherever you tie.

Ah well, no matter. We had a very peaceful night and woke in good time this morning, such that we were on our way by 7.45. It had stopped raining, but was still very windy, something that’s going to be an issue for a couple of weeks, seemingly. Sheila steered and reported that the wind was tedious but not impossible, especially as it was on the bow for much of the time. We had a good run to Wheaton Aston, locked down and went on the water point.

Whilst the tank was filling, only moderately quickly, we considered our options in the light of the forecast for a storm on Wednesday with the high winds continuing into Thursday. We were running two days ahead of the draft cruising schedule, which only estimates two hours cruising per day. If we carried on to Gnosall today and to Market Drayton tomorrow (the last really fine day this month, it seems) we’d be able to take a couple of days out at Drayton and still be ahead of schedule.

So that was decided upon, as Stanley Holloway would say. We made it to Gnosall just on noon and found a good spot on the first visitor moorings after the tunnel, just a bit before the road bridge. As regular readers will recall, Gnosall is short for Gnosignall, though there’s now a decent 3 connection but still no Vodafone.

We’ve walked up into the village to get some supplies, partly to make sure we’ve got enough for lunch tomorrow and partly just to top up, the Co-op here being nearer (and a downhill walk back to the boat) than Morrisons in Drayton. Obviously, we’ll do some serious shopping there over the next couple of days as well.

Location:Gnosall

Boating on to Little Onn

We're on the Shroppie, famous for two things, the dreaded ledge and lousy phone signals. So far, we've avoided the first but are now in the grip of the second. This will be a quickie blog whilst the signal is still there...

All went to plan at the start of the day but we got to Wheaton Aston much quicker than expected, by just after nine o'clock in fact. The washing machine had just started rinsing but we needed to spend some time on the water point anyway. It was all done by ten and we were tied on a VM across the winding hole and feeling uncomfortable about it.

So we went shopping, came back to the boat and set off again to Little Onn, a very pleasant rural mooring but short of phone sigs. No Armco or rings but the towpath takes pins very well.

The other good news is that the stolen Mercia boat has been found as a result of the nationwide hunt for it co-ordinated by CWDF and the various Facebook groups. It had only got as far as Weston, the one between Hoo Mill and Sandon. It's been recovered and taken to Great Haywood marina for forensic exam. The thieves had scarpered, so all you boat owners, keep an eye on your boat there's a thief about!

Tomorrow, on to Norbury. Or maybe High Offley. Or wherever. And there may be a blog.

Another day at Wheaton Aston and a very short cruise

The mooring we were on overnight turned out just a bit noisy and, as I said yesterday, was opposite the winding hole. The boat in front of us ran a small genny on his back deck in the evening, though to be fair he was careful to turn it off before eight o'clock. Not so considerate were two boats on the long term moorings on the offside, one of whom didn't stop their engine until half nine.

Since there was plenty of room on the visitor moorings in the cutting through the bridge, and a check with the 3 phone showed that there was adequate signal on that service at least, we moved onto them as soon as we got back from shopping in the village. So we've had all of 10 minutes cruising today.

There are two general stores in Wheaton Aston, one obvious one on the main street and one, a Spar, tucked away on the far side of the church.

Dances with Dragons is still here but Margarita has moved on. We've had another good natter with Mike and Polly off the former boat, whilst on our way to glean some kindling, of which there was a decent amount just lying around on the towpath and under the hedge.

We had planned to rinse down the starboard side of the boat and give it a coat of polish today, but the weather has been against us, with sunshine interspersed with heavy showers, some featuring large hailstones.

Needless to say, as soon as we'd abandoned this plan and gone kindling hunting instead, the sun came out and stayed out.

The internet connections on both T-mobile and 3 continue to be intermittent. The signal strength looks good, but half the time although the modem appears to connect, no data gets transmitted. By using first one and then the other we're managing to stay in touch with the outside world; I don't know why the inhabitants of this part of the world are so badly served by the phone companies.

As we move further north it's liable to get worse; Gnosall is always bad and Norbury not much better. Fortunately, the cafe at Norbury has free WiFi, so we'll be able to use Sheila's laptop at least. I've set up an Ocado delivery for the first day we're on the dock and I'll want to get online to make the final changes to it the day before.

On to Wheaton Aston

It's been another day that went reasonably to plan. Last night we slept with the bedroom Houdini open on the cork for the first time this year, and were glad that we'd done so as it got very stuffy in the middle of the night. We opened the doors right through the boat to create a bit of a through draught and that worked well enough to let us get back to sleep.

This morning, with not far to go and a pump out to get at Countrywide Cruisers, we made a leisurely start. I ambled into the village for the usual reason and got back to the boat to find Sheila setting it up ready to go. It was her turn to steer, so she took us down to the yard where we tied on a vacant bit of wharf.

No one seemed to be about, so I rang the office number again and said we'd arrived. They're friendly folk there; the place hasn't changed hands but there are no signs or anything to say that they're trading. No matter, we had a reasonable pump out for £15 and were on our way just after ten.

I got a washload started and by eleven we'd reached Wheaton Aston lock. We'd been following Margarita; I helped lock her down and then worked Sanity Again down. With the washing machine still chugging away we went onto the water point and sat there filling the tank whilst the load finished.

Then we pulled forward onto the visitor moorings. We've taken about the last one in the open before the bridge, opposite the winding hole. It feels very odd to be tied in that position, but it's clearly marked as 48 hour moorings. The hole is very deep, so presumably boats can get round even with one tied on the towpath opposite.

After lunch we took a walk along the towpath to see what the situation was through the bridge. We noted that Turner's garage is presently selling red diesel at 73.9 ppl. There were several spaces along there, as well as both Margarita and Dances with Dragons. It's still limited to 48 hours though. This is a shame as we'd really have liked to put in an extra couple of days here. Instead we'll probably stop out in the country somewhere on Saturday and go on to Gnosall Heath for Sunday and Monday.

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.

Not such a good mooring after all

But let's start with the positives: the weather has not been as bad as I'd expected, the forecast having improved quite a bit over the last 24 hours, and the pub last night was very pleasant. The Hartley Arms has a bit of a mixed rep on the websites like Beer in the Evening, with some reviewers complaining that the staff were rude to them, but we had no trouble.

Going at six on a Friday meant that there was no problem finding a table, though it did have the downside that there were a lot of kids about, even in the bar area. The beer was fine; it's a Banks's house, but I had a pint of Brakspear's Ninety-nine, the guest beer at the start of the evening, which was rather different, golden and very hoppy, a true summer ale, I guess.

If you're a lager drinker, things aren't so good, with all the pumped lagers super chilled, that is, completely tasteless, and only a limited range of bottles on the shelf. The food was well cooked; it's a longish menu, so must be dependent on the microwave and the deep boiler to a degree, but there were several home cooked dishes, and the portion sizes were very generous. Having had a starter, we didn't have room for desserts.

Today, we had a serious lie-in until eight, then pottered into the village after breakfast. There are two general stores, a Lifestyle on the main drag and a Spar tucked away behind the church. The Spar actually has more stock; its narrow frontage is deceptive, and they had a reasonable range of stuff including fresh fruit and veg. We got the last Independent in the store, a rather sad and battered thing, but still readable.

We've been loafing on the boat for the afternoon, sometimes in the well deck when the sun comes out, and retreating into the cabin when the showers pass by.

The guy running a genny opposite had stopped it by the time we got back from the pub last night, but had started his main engine instead, which he ran until 8.45, the wretch. Since we were cream crackered after our late night the night before and wanted a very early night, this wasn't very popular. He's not about today, but the chap on the very down-at-heel boat in front of him has been working hard on his restoration project.

Full marks for that, of course, but the work has largely consisted of burning off paint from the control pillar, so we've had the squeal of a scraper on a steel surface from time to time, and now he's running a genny, presumably to watch the Olympics since he's disappeared from view.

It wouldn't be reasonable to complain about any of this; he's on his mooring and well within his rights to do what he's doing, but it rather spoils the peace and quiet of the waterways for the rest of us. So, tomorrow we'll move on, I think, and make a shortish run to Gnosall for the night, carrying on to Norbury Junction the next day.

One positive to finish: there's a local kingfisher hanging about. Kingfishers have been having a rough time of it lately with the hard winters and grotty springs, so it's good to see one thriving here. It's not very good, but I managed to get a shot of him sitting on the canopy of a boat on the offside moorings before he shot away:

Dozily to Wheaton Aston

Well, that was a very good night last night; thanks Chancy guys, really enjoyed it. As a result it was gone midnight before we were in bed, and it took a bit of doing to get up and get going this morning. The cunning plan was to get to Wheaton Aston at around ten, so as to get the water tank topped up before settling onto a mooring for the weekend, being as we have some dirty weather in the forecast.

We toddled along quite merrily, if a little dopily; this stretch is the first of those blighted by the Shroppie's besetting sin, one I've mentioned before, I know. That is the endless lengths of offside mooring, so that you end up crawling past all these boats. Seemingly, they don't do marinas on the Shroppie, not before Audlem at any rate.

We rolled up at Wheaton Aston at half nine, and had a change of plan. There was a perfectly good bit of towpath mooring above the lock, and we still have two thirds of a tank of water, so we've stopped up here for the time being. It is very busy on the official visitor moorings down below, so we're probably better off this way.

The only downside at the moment is a bloke on the offside doing some serious metal bashing to his boat. He's got a genny running, as he's doing some welding and grinding, so we're just hopeful that he's going to knock it off at some reasonable hour.

There's a mixed mobile reception situation here; T-mobile/Orange is fine, and 3 is OK, but the Vodafone signal is pretty well non-existent; it seems they've not heard of Shropshire down there in Newbury. This justifies us having a 3 voice contract, any way.

One interesting website visited today, as a result of a post on the Erin Mae blog; that's this one describing a load of useful knots, together with really good visual guides on how  to tie them.

Tonight, we plan to eat at the Hartley Arms, this being our delayed wedding anniversary meal that we didn't have at the time because we were dog sitting. I'll report on the experience tomorrow, probably.

and now, it's Gnosall

Just as I was finishing off the blog last night, who should appear but Windsong and Serenity. We knew they were coming up from behind, so weren't too surprised to see them. It's always nice to catch up with fellow bloggers, and we had a good old natter in the wonderful sunshine.

The mooring at Bridge 7 would be absolutely idyllic, were it not for the M54, the noise from which can be heard as a continuous gentle roar, dying down a little at night. It's not as bad as many locations, but it is a shame that so many of our most rural stretches of canal have been affected by motorway construction.

Notwithstanding the background sounds, we had a decent night's kip, and were up even earlier than before, setting off at half seven to take advantage of the morning's beauty. As we were working down the lone lock of today's programme, Wheaton Aston, Sheila got into conversation with Jim and Sheena off Arlanza, who are thinking about their next boat, and admitted to an interest in getting a Braidbar. The upshot was that we stopped on the towpath below the lock and showed them round Sanity Again.

They made all the right noises (what judgment! what taste!), and we hope to see them again at Crick Show. This took up a bit of time, and a bit more was spent on the nice new wharf at Turner's, filling up with red diesel at 74.9 pence per litre for domestic use.

It all put us back a shade, schedulewise, so we had lunch on the move, or rather, I did, and Sheila was just starting hers when Cowley Tunnel appeared in the distance. We've tied on the first set of visitor moorings; there's a good 3 signal here, but almost no Vodafone one, unless you prowl up and down the towpath or climb the bank alongside it, when a measly single bar appears on the phone.

It takes you back to the bad old days, when mobile phone networks were just spreading out from the towns. No matter, it's another great location, with a butcher and a general store just down the road. It's going to be pork "escallops" (the butcher's name for them; they look like loin chops to me) with garlic marinade, mash and sweetcorn tonight.

Good boating but bad Vispa

26th & 27th February

Main theme for the last two days has been the continuing non-performance of my ISP and web host, Vispa. Having gone down early Sunday morning, an old version of the website finally came back at lunchtime today, and the email has only just (4.45) made it back.

Vispa have offered a lot of excuses about data corruption and cross contamination of the back up disks, but surely that's what we pay professionals to avoid? Anyway, like a lot of their clients, I suspect, it's finally prompted me to look elsewhere. Moving the registration of nbsanity.net was going to be a hassle, as it's a US domain, so I've registered a new one, nbsanity.me.uk, with my new web host provider, Dataflame.

It's going to be a lot cheaper, and unlike Vispa, they provide 24/7 support. I didn't just pick them out of the blue – they were recommended by my good friend Will Chapman.

For the time being, the nbsanity.net site and email will continue to work – there will be a substantial overlap period, and I'll announce the switch over both here and in my email signatures. Please don't adjust your sets yet! However, if anyone has emailed any of us at the nbsanity.net address in the last four days, it will have been lost, so please send it again.

The backup email address that some people use which ends @mac.com has not been affected.

Meanwhile, we've also been doing some serious boating. On a bright and breezy morning yesterday, we filled up with diesel at Wheaton Aston at 57.9 ppl, and also topped up the water tank. Then we boated off up the newly refurbished lock to Brewood, getting there in time for lunch. On the way we were startled to see a pair of mating frogs in the water just by the lock. I wouldn't have thought a canal a good place for frog spawn, but there you go.

BW had been doing some forestry on the bank of the cutting above the moorings at Brewood, and left the wood for all to take, so we loaded up the roof with some useful sized bits of branch, leaving the sections of trunk for those with chain saws to deal with.

Today we made a prompt start, heating on at seven and away just after eight. Before ten we were through Autherley Junction and on our way down the Staffs and Worcs. We got to Compton by 11, checked out Lime Kiln chandlery but didn't buy anything, and got some stores at the Spar in the village.

Moving on a bit to below Wightwick Lock, we stopped again for lunch, then boated on to the Bratch. It was still a fine day, so we've come down the flight and moored on the towpath below for the night.

It's more built up down here than we remembered, but all the walking traffic seems to be dog and push chair exercising, so hopefully we won't be disturbed in the night. Tomorrow we'll do another decent day to Kinver, ready to get the cratch cover repaired on Friday.

Some days, all your plans gang agley

24th & 25th February

Sunday was a day of two halves, with a relaxed start and a dramatic afternoon. We'd planned on the relaxed bit for the whole day – Elanor had stayed overnight, we'd had a good night the night before, and so we lay in a bit in the morning.

Things started to unravel around 11 o'clock, when the toilet tank suddenly announced it was full. The Tankwatch gauge has four lights – green for empty, yellow: starting to fill, amber: half full and red: it's running out into the cut. The amber light hadn't come on but the red one did – clearly the sensor for the amber had stuck, always a bit of a problem with toilet tank gauges.

Fortunately Elanor was pretty well ready to leave, so we saw her off, and shot into the village to get fresh supplies, with the aim of an early lunch and an afternoon trip to Wheaton Aston, rather than leaving that until today.

This plan started well, and we were underway by 12.30. As we approached Cookley Tunnel, which is the exit from Gnosall, we saw some activity by the cliff face on the offside that precedes the tunnel mouth. Some kids were climbing around on it and shouting, and a woman was standing on the towpath shouting back.

It turned out that an 11 year old lad had fallen or jumped off the top of the 15 foot high cliff, and was now lying in a heap at the bottom, moaning. Sheila was steering, and put Sanity's bow onto the offside so that I could get off and see if he was hurt.

Even the most cursory exam showed that although he was conscious and breathing easily, his legs were injured, so I called across to the woman on the towpath to dial 999. Then it was a matter of keeping him covered with a blanket off the boat until the first paramedic got there about 15 minutes later.

Access for the emergency team was at the bridge back at the moorings, along the towpath and then across Sanity, using her as a pontoon bridge. After half an hour or so we had a good collection of ambulance crew, paramedics and police, and a helicopter had been summoned.

When the casualty had been duly stabilized on a spinal board with neck collar and all, they loaded him onto Sanity's bow and we pushed across to the other side so that he could be carried to the chopper to be taken off to N Staffs Infirmary, the nearest major trauma unit. It seemed possible that he'd managed to break both femurs and perhaps a knee cap.

It just shows how much damage you can do falling off a comparatively small height.

It was gone 2 o'clock before we were on our way again, and we got to Wheaton Aston at around four. Here we discovered, as we'd hoped, that the facility is suitable for self pump out, and we took about an hour pumping, rocking and not ooching* but flushing with a good high pressure spray.

Despite all this the green light didn't come on, but we'd clearly got as much out as we were likely to. I reversed Sanity back through the bridge to a visitor mooring handy for the landing for the garage on the road above, which has always sold some of the cheapest red diesel on the system – 57.5 p per litre at the moment.

Today we decided to stay put and sort ourselves out after yesterday's excitement. We've invited my nephew Michael over from Germany to stay a few days with us in May, paying for his air fare as an 18th birthday present, and I wanted to use the Moneygram facility at the Post Office to send him the cash.

This proved to be easy to arrange, so back at the boat I emailed him the magic number and the URL of Moneygram's website so he could find a bank at which to claim his dosh.

Then we swept and washed the floor before lunch, so as to be able to stand the mattress on it without getting it muddy. After lunch we took all the soft furnishings off the bed, and Sheila retreated to the saloon whilst I removed enough of the bed base slats to access the top of the sender for the Tankwatch gauge.

Removing it demonstrated that a mixture of sludge and toilet scale was stopping the sensors from moving easily, thus explaining the erratic performance of the gauge. After cleaning it up (what a world of horror can be contained in a few short words), I reassembled it and satisfied myself that things are now working properly again.

After washing ny hands several times, and putting the bed back together, we planned to have an early cup of tea. Checking email produced one from Michael – there are no Moneygram agents in either Osnabruck, his local town, or Munster, where the airport is.

Back the PO I went, where the guy assured me that he'd never come across that phenomenon before. Anyway, because it was the same working day, I got all the cash back, including the (not small) fee. I'll just have to send him the money via my bank, which is more longwinded, but they can send him a check direct to his house.

Meanwhile, my main email address is out of action today – major server failure at Vispa, my ISP. Vispa is cheap, but we do have difficulties like this from time to time.

The good news is that the stoppage at Wheaton Aston lock has come off early, so tomorrow we can head off to Brewood, and subsequently down the Staffs and Worcs to Kinver where Wilson's will restitch a zip in the cratch cover.

*yacht racing joke for Peter Mason.