Home Again

Tuesday 20^th July 2020

After last night’s excitement, we made a late start, and soon stopped in Lymm to by lunch, sausage rolls again. We stopped again just before the bend at Grappenhall to take the dogs for a walk in an area of woodland there. We had more excitement, because Bridget disappeared into an area of dense woods by a stream, and would not come out. Eventually I had to fight my way in, to discover that she had got her harness stuck on a metal fence post on the bank of the stream, so she could not escape. Fortunately I was able to reach the clips on the harness and release them so she could escape, and I could disentangle the harness from the post. When we got back to the boat we had a long chat with a couple whose garden borders the towpath where we had moored.

After that it was the usual routine – back through Stockton Heath and Moore, and I dropped Loulie with the dogs at Keckwick Lane. I went on to the marina, and Loulie came with the car to unload Eileen and take me home. A nice quiet weekend away – just the sort of thing we can do impromptu, now we have the boat and I am retired.

TODAY: 6:20 HOURS. 11.5 MILES. 0 LOCKS.

Voyage: 18:50 HOURS. 29.8 MILES. 0 LOCKS.

 

 

Dogs AWOL

 Monday 20^th July 2020

After breakfast we went forward to Oldfield Brow, about a mile and a half, to the winding hole there. Oldfield Brow marks the edge of the conurbation of Manchester – it is the edge of Altrincham, and after that there is Sale and then the city. The transition between urbanisation and the countryside is very sharp – within a few hundred yards you go from being surrounded by housing estates to being out in the open fields.

On our way back through the Bolin Aqueduct (which is quite narrow) we had to reverse in order to allow a very large and smart looking widebeam to come through. I had noticed it Lymm on Saturday – it is white, with a wraparound glass window at the front, and stairs up on side to the roof, like a Spanish villa. It must have cost a fortune – apparently it spends most of its time in Manchester.

As is our habit if the water point is free, we stopped at the Old Number 3 to fill up. We then went on just a couple of miles and moored opposite a place called Spud Wood. Loulie had been there with a friend to walk the dogs a few weeks ago, and it certainly provides very nice walking, in woodland rising up from the canal – it is on the offside and there is a picnic area beside the canal. We took them for a walk, and after lunch I went to a Sainsburys which we found on the map – bigger than the one in the centre of Lymm.

We took the dogs back to Spud Wood later on, and did a longer walk. However during the night they disgraced themselves when Loulie took them out, about 6am. They ran down off the canal at an underbridge and disappeared – eventually she had to come and wake me so that we could search for them. There was no sign of them at road level, but eventually I located them by walking along the (elevated) canal and whistling, at which point they came running out of some farm buildings and back up to us, looking very pleased. It should be said that Mabel behaved perfectly, it was just the three Labradors who legged it.

TODAY: 3:00 HOURS. 5.5 MILES. 0 LOCKS.

Voyage: 12:30 HOURS. 18.3 MILES. 0 LOCKS.

 

 

Quiet Sunday

 

Sunday 19^th July 2020

Today we decided to do something we have never done on the boat before, and go ... nowhere.

When you are on a hire boat, of course, and paying by the day, not making progress seems a waste, but now that we have our own boat there is less pressure to keep on the move. We were in a comfortable spot, with good walking handy for the dogs, so we resolved to stay put. We ran the engine for a couple of hours, to heat water for showers, and to keep the batteries happy.

Before lunch I went for a run along the towpath, 4.5 miles all told. It was a bit uneven at first, though nothing like as bad as the run I did last year on the Middlewich branch, and after a mile or so I reached very well surfaced ground – the beginning of the towpath which runs all the way through Altrincham and Sale, and which is perfect for running on.

We had lunch, then took the dogs down into Dunham Massey for a good long walk. It was pretty busy, though with very large ground it was easy to keep our distance. We walked round the off-lead area to give the dogs a run, then put them on the leads to explore the other areas of the park. There were deer in several places – we didn’t go close with the dogs, but they were very tame. There was a strange statue on a pillar, we are still not sure if it is meant to be an odd looking lion or a dog.

Deer in Dunham Massey park

Lion or dog?

 

We came back past the Bollin Mill, and had a quiet afternoon before dinner of bacon and eggs. In the evening I went out with the Labradors to give them a short walk, but it turned into a much longer exploration of one of the paths we had seen during the afternoon. All in all a good restful day.

TODAY: 0:00 HOURS. 0 MILES. 0 LOCKS.

Voyage: 9:30 HOURS. 12.8 MILES. 0 LOCKS.

 

 

Appointment with a Sausage Roll

 

Saturday 18^th July 2020

We woke to steady rain, and it was with us most of the day, though there were a few drier intervals. In no rush, especially no rush to get wet, we didn’t start until around noon. Loulie set off along the towpath with the dogs, and I followed a bit later, picking her up before we reached the M6.

We pressed on to Lymm, where we moored and I went shopping – a few items from the small Sainsbury’s and lunch from a baker in the centre of the village, their sausage rolls are a particular favourite.

After eating we headed out again, through the outskirts of Lymm, past the long lines of moored boats belonging to the Lymm Cruising Club. Years ago (2014) on our very first day on a narrowboat we came up here rather too fast, eager to get to a mooring near the Swan with Two Nicks in time to get a meal there. Somehow it seems much longer, a lot has changed, particularly the loss of Ruby, but also we have switched from invariably eating “out” from the boat to doing so very rarely. Partly that may be the fact that we have more dogs to accommodate in a pub, but I think the biggest reason is that we have our own boat now, with a familiar galley and everything we need for cooking.

We stopped at the Old Number 3 to take on water – it’s always worth doing if there is a space on the water point, because you can wait a long time if there are a couple of boats ahead of you, and there are not many places to get water on this part of the Bridgewater.

After that we went on to our favourite spot in the corner of the towpath just before the Bollin viaduct. There were a few boats moored along that stretch, including a large liveaboard widebeam which previously has always been moored in the same spot on the offside. He was there for the two days that we were around, and another widebeam joined him one night, so we’re not sure if it was some sort of arranged meeting, or if he has lost his offside mooring. The weather cleared up in the evening, after we had moored, and we’re hopeful of a better day tomorrow.

 

TODAY: 5:00 HOURS. 5.1 MILES. 0 LOCKS.

Voyage: 9:30 HOURS. 12.8 MILES. 0 LOCKS.

 

 

Slow Motion

 Friday 17^th July 2020

After getting Eileen home last week, we decided we wanted to have a break, a long weekend. We weren’t going to be able to go very far in that time, so we decided to take the contrary approach and go not very far, slowly.

Loulie dropped me at the marina in the morning, and I brought Eileen up to Keckwick for loading. After lunch we put the dogs on board and set off through Moore and Stockton Heath. Around Walton we were caught up by two plastic cruisers, moving much faster than us, as they do, and I let them past. One had a family on board and the second a man on his own, but they seemed to be travelling together.

Soon after we went round a bend and saw the second cruiser drifting oddly at an angle to the bank; the guy seemed to be holding a towel on his head. As we approached slowly we could see the other boat starting to come back, and we could also see that the towel was to mop up a lot of blood on his head. We offered to help but he said his friends were coming back and that he would be fine. Apparently he had hit his head hard on the top of the doorway down into the cabin. A good deal later they both came past us again, so he was clearly OK.

As I said we intended this to be a slow leisurely cruise, so we didn’t try to push on too far for the night. About 18:00 we moored up between Grappenhall and Thelwall, with fields all around us, very nice. There were a few dog walkers coming past, but not too many, and it was a very relaxing spot.

Such a great picture, I had to put it in again

TODAY: 4:30 HOURS. 7.7 MILES. 0 LOCKS.

Voyage: 4:30 HOURS. 7.7 MILES. 0 LOCKS.

 

A Long-Expected Return

 

Wednesday 8^th July 2020

We made a slightly earlier start today, and set off through Wincham and Anderton. Home waters, and a voyage only notable for being so much later than we had expected. As always this part of the trip is dominated by the timings through the tunnels, and we reached Saltersford in time to go through at noon. I dropped Loulie and the dogs off at the other side, so that she could give them a good walk, and we timed things nicely to go through Preston Brook at two.

Following our normal routine we moored up close to Keckwick Lane to walk the dogs home, and then bring the car up and unload. Later in the evening I went back up and took Eileen up to the winding hole, and back to the marina. Another boat turned in (from the Runcorn direction) just before me, Rock and Roll, and it turned out that they are moored right next to us, on the next pier, so I had a tricky little manoeuvre to reverse in past them and the boat on our pier ahead of us. I did it very nicely, to the point that the guy on Rock and Roll complimented me on how smooth it had been. I remember two years ago how I stressed about getting in, but plenty of practice and experience has given me more confidence. He also asked if we had been away on a long tour, but I explained how we had been trapped in Nantwich by the lockdown.

 

Mabel Seaman Secker resting

TODAY: 9:30 HOURS. 17.6 MILES. 1 LOCK.

Voyage: 18:20 HOURS. 35.3 MILES. 9 LOCKS.

Running in the rain

 

Tuesday 7^th July 2020

While we were confined to our houses in May and June we had a long stretch of beautiful hot dry weather. Now we have a chance to get out and enjoy ourselves, the weather naturally has betrayed us. It rained hard almost all day, as we made our way through the locks of Middlewich.

First though we went forward a few miles to Clive Green, a little short of Stanthorne lock, where we moored. Loulie took the dogs for a good walk, while I went for a run along the towpath, all the way past Wardle lock, into the centre of Middlewich and then back out again. Since last year, when I was using my phone to measure runs, I have acquired a Garmin watch, much less obtrusive, which allows me to check exactly how far I have run. I never find that I do a good run when we are on the boat – I think standing steering for many hours in a day leaves me a bit stiff in my legs.

After that we got moving again, and went through the Middlewich locks, a very familiar routine for us. First Stanthorne and Wardle on the brach, and then on the main line of the Trent and Mersey there are the three closely spaced locks in the centre of Middlewich. We moored up after them, and I went up to Morrisons to get provisions, solid and liquid.

We had lunch and then did Big Lock, the final one for the day. I had some hope that we might be able to moor at Bramble Cuttings, if things were still quiet, but quite the opposite – there were four boats moored there, and we would not have been able to find space, even if we wanted to share the area.

We thought about mooring just down from Bramble Cuttings, where we have stopped in the past, but the dense tree cover made mobile reception poor, and in any case the towpath is very overgrown now, and there were few places where we could even have found a place to stop. So we pressed on to another of our favourite spots, the wides at Bostock Green, where we moored quite late, after half seven.

Again, although the signal had seemed good when we were mooring, Loulie struggled to do her Wilmslow work, and we decided that rather than making a slow trip home as planned, we would just push on tomorrow and get back to base.

One innovation I tried out this evening was a hobby tray or work station, a small mdf construction with a cutting mat, and shelves for paints, brushes and a water jar. If as we hope we are going to be going for longer voyages, we need to find a way to live more normal lives - we can't treat it as an infinite holiday, and just eat and drink all night. It worked well, though I think I will try to source a stronger light to clip to the side of the tray.

TODAY: 6:00 HOURS. 11.2 MILES. 6 LOCKS.

Voyage: 8:50 HOURS. 17.7 MILES. 8 LOCKS.

Free At Last

 

Monday 6^th July 2020

And so finally we got the word that, from the 4^th July, people would be able to sleep somewhere other than their principal residence – holiday cottage, caravan or, in our case, aboard your boat. We decided not to start on Saturday (the 4^th) as there would probably be a rush, so we started our journey home on the Monday.

We all drove over to Nantwich, with the dogs, though sadly not with Ruby. After unloading I drove home and left Loulie to unpack and get things ready, while Jonjo drove me back. We got a pump out and filled the water, and set off quite late in the afternoon.

These are familiar waters for us, of course. We had considered whether we might make some sort of diversion, perhaps up the Llangollen, but that option was limited by the fact that the Welsh stretches were still under lockdown. We also had in mind the fact that we needed to get home by the weekend, because Loulie had to help out with the Wilmslow Show on Saturday and Sunday. So in the end we kept straight on at Hurleston Junction, and left the Llangollen for another time, and turned instead at Barbridge.

We went a couple of miles down the Middlewich Branch, and through the Cholmondeston and Minshull locks, then we looked for a place to moor. Loulie had quite a lot of work to do for Wilmslow, taking memberships and entries on line, and so we needed to find somewhere with reasonable mobile signal so she could get onto the internet. There was a nice spot near a picnic site in a cutting just after Cholmondeston lock, but there was no signal at all there so we pressed on. Below Minshull lock, beyond Venetian Marina there was a place at the end of a mooring just before the Weaver aqueduct, and we settled down there. In the old days we used to try to find somewhere with not another boat in sight, so we could let the dogs roam freely, but we have become a bit more cautious about that, and so we can also be more relaxed about having neighbours closer.

Moorings at Calveley

The mooring was nice – a ring at one end and shuttering with a mooring clip at the other. It seems to me that we are seeing more shuttering (Armco) all the time, I guess they are now using it whenever they do a repair to the towpath. It makes mooring easier – with pins you always have the challenge of finding somewhere that you can bang them in without meeting solid concrete or stone, but also not so soft that they will pull out. A clip on (sound) shuttering is much more reliable, and much less work with no hammering.

The mobile signal turned out to be less reliable than we thought when we moored, and Loulie had a fairly frustrating evening connecting and disconnecting. Despite that it was great to be back sleeping on board for the first time in more than six months.

The crew on board

TODAY: 2:50 HOURS. 6.5 MILES. 2 LOCKS.

Voyage: 2:50 HOURS. 6.5 MILES. 2 LOCKS.

Day Out

 Thursday 28^th May 2020

Well, it has taken longer to get to this entry than I expected when I left us at Nantwich on the 2^nd January. Our plans were to get the winter works done, including blacking the hull, and then bring Eileen home in the last week of March. But the Coronavirus had not paid any attention to our requirements, and we found ourselves locked down with Eileen still in dock.

Even after the first strict lockdown had been relaxed, and we were allowed out more than once a day, the restrictions on the canals were only eased slowly. Liveaboards of course had been on their boats all along, they had nowhere else to be, but at first leisure owners were still banned altogether. The first concession was that people were allowed to visit their boats, but not go anywhere on them, and that wasn’t much use to us. Then in May the next stage was announced – we would be allowed to move around, but still not sleep on board. This was to conform with the more general rule against spending the night away from your main home, in holiday cottages or caravans.

No matter how long we sailed, there was no way to get back to Preston Brook from Nantwich in a single day. We did contemplate bringing her back in stages, but that would have meant leaving her tied up on the towpath unattended overnight, and we didn’t fancy that, so we resolved to wait to bring her home until the rules changed. However we did want to get aboard, especially as we had a long hot spell of weather, so we decided to take her out for a day trip. We loaded the dogs (minus Ruby) and drove to Nantwich.

Over the winter, apart from the blacking, we had some other work done – not as significant as last year, when we had the batteries replaced, but some useful improvements. Probably the biggest is that the little washing machine has been plumbed into the cupboard below the oven. It means we lose cupboard space, but t gets the machine out of the way, and it avoids a real chore of filling and emptying it in the shower. Apart from that, we had wooden dog gates fitted in the bedroom door and at the top of the steps to the stern, which will allow us to keep the dogs under control and still have a nice breeze. A small but useful improvement is little magnets on the stern gates, which will stop them swinging shut while we are getting the dogs out. We also had the engine taken out and serviced, while the engine compartment was cleaned up.

It was a beautiful sunny day, and we set off at about one o’clock. To get as far as possible without using a lock, we headed north west, past Hurleston and Barbridge junctions, and on towards Bunbury. After Barbridge we began to notice suspicious green stuff in the canal, and after a bit of Googling we concluded that it was blue-green algae. This is dangerous to the dogs, and it was bad news because it meant we couldn’t let them in the water where it was floating – and it was pretty dense.

We reached Bunbury, where the staircase lock was out of action. The algae was still there, so we took the dogs down to the road, hoping to find the river Gowy which was shown on the map. However this turned out to be a dried up ditch at this point, so we went back to the boat, struggling to keep the dogs out of the water, which they were naturally desperate to dive into.

We went back down the canal, getting used to the new positions on the gearbox. The controls have changed slightly, with the cables having been connected and the gearbox serviced; it doesn’t change how the engine performs, but it does mean you need to move the lever a lot further before it engages a higher speed.

We got back to the boatyard at about half six, and put our stuff and ourselves back in the car. It was a good day out and a reminder of life aboard, but we can’t wait until we can take her out properly.

TODAY: 5:30 HOURS. 12 MILES. 0 LOCKS.