Bridge 176 on T and M to Moore On Bridgewater

Bridge 176 on T and M to Moore
On the Bridgewater Canal

Hi Folks,

Here we are, on Sunday 12th July 2009 moored at a place called Marston on The Trent and Mersey Canal. Locally, along with the nearby village of Mincham, the area is famous for its salt mine which, according to an old advertisement hanging in The Salt Barge pub, was up for auction 5th November 1853. This was a leasehold sale and the purchaser was expected to pay an annual rental of £80, plus 6d tonnage on exported rock salt, or 3d tonnage on non-exported rock salt.

Also, as part of the dividing wall between the bar and the pool room, is a triplex glass window, of quite an imposing size, that depicts the pub, which was known as The New Inn prior to 1986, the local primary school, the salt mine of course, and various other local landmarks. In fact the gentleman who carried out the acid etching of this window was in the bar and we passed a few minutes chatting with him on our way out.

The opposite wall to the window is dedicated to the villages of Marston and Mincham and the ex workers of the salt mine, with old, sepia photographs all along the wall. This too was the brainchild of the above mentioned gentleman. I suppose he could have been anything from 60 to 70 years of age, with a well lived in face and a train drivers cap perched on his head. How I wish I’d had my camera with me, he would certainly have made a very good study.

This morning, before leaving our moorings, I donned my old jeans and T-shirt and investigated the wiring between the starter switch and motor. Hey presto, having cleaned a couple of connections, the engine started immediately. Naturally I was not expecting this but, not being one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I accepted my good fortune and off we went.

It is now 7 pm and, two hours ago I went out to start the engine. No luck! Quel surprise! As expected – oh yes, I wasn’t fooled by the easy start this morning – the wretched thing did not start and we were obliged to fine tune with the 4 lb sledge. This simply means though, that the problem is nearer, or within the starter motor. As Thomas Edison said, when chasing whatever it was he was chasing, “I’ve found 5000 ways of not doing so, if it takes another 5000 attempts before I succeed, so be it”, or something like that. No doubt somebody will correct me on that little lot.

Tomorrow I’ll have another go at the wiring closer to the motor and, if that doesn’t work I’ll have to assume we have our second dodgy starter since we bought the boat. The trouble with that idea, is that we’ve been told, by more than one engineer, that starter motors simply do not break down, which begs the question, ‘why did The New Boat Company replace one within six months of our purchase when we experienced trouble starting the engine?’

Also tomorrow, after sorting out this problem, we’ll be off to Anderton. However, if I’m not happy with the starter, I doubt we’ll go down the lift onto the Weaver as planned. Instead we’ll just stay the night then make our way up to the Bridgewater canal.

Things are not going according to plan at the moment. Here we are, on Tuesday 14th July 2009, and we’re still having problems with the starter. Anyway, Nick popped in yesterday evening after work and gave it a look over. As is usual with these things, the wretched thing started for him. But, having dropped down inside the engine bay, he discovered some corroded wiring. Unfortunately, now that he is permanently based at Nantwich and no longer needs his work van, he had no tools with him and could not repair it. Instead he’s given our number to a lady named Sandra who, he tells me, is a whiz at wiring. She’s due to give us a call sometime today, we hope!

Strangely, Nick having disturbed those wires, the engine started without problems this morning. As for the loo overfilling after flushing, that is probably due to a sticking solenoid, which is located, so I’m told, behind the toilet bowl. Oh, whoopee, now all I have to do is disconnect the bowl from the floor, pull it forward, and give the solenoid a clot in the hopes it will settle down and do what it’s supposed to do. But that chore will wait until we get to our permanent moorings.

After Nick checked our batteries a few weeks ago, we’ve had no problems with our heater running in the mornings. Obviously the two days at Nantwich on mains and the two days at Llangollen, also on mains, did the trick and boosted the power level. However, we decided to run the engine earlier yesterday so as to avoid burning Nicks bum if he had to sit on the engine. Since he didn’t turn up until gone seven last night, we had no time to run it again, which meant that the heater wouldn’t run last nigh or this morning. So, a cold wash was enjoyed by all concerned this morning..

We’re at the 48 hour moorings opposite Anderton marina. In fact there are two marinas here on opposite sides of the canal. The Anderton one has a chandlery and a restaurant which, according to a boater we spoke to yesterday, produces a very good range of well cooked food. It’s doubtful we’ll try it this time through, but we may well do on the way back after we’ve been up to Lymm on the Bridgewater and have done the Weaver.

Aside from the marinas, which are both pretty big, there is just one small shop about half a mile further on, which Sheila has just walked to for the paper.

We haven’t decided yet where we’re going tomorrow, but it will be after Wifey gets the paper.

Thursday 16th July 2009 @ 7am

Well, here we are, at Wyncham Wharf, awaiting the pleasure of Sandra, who lives on Yolande, which is the boat moored next to us. This boat is totally different to anything we’ve seen so far. It’s about the same length as Shiralee, but it has a centre cockpit with a proper steering wheel. In our boat we have a 35 HP Isuzu diesel engine, whilst hers has a Mercedes-Benz C5Di85HP engine. Working purely on a mathematical basis, her engine produces almost 2 ½ times the power of ours, which puts it at around 4 Litres is size. Since she’s moored here permanently, there’s little cance of her thundering past us any time soon.

But, I digress, Sandra finally came to see us at Anderton and said she would be fixing our corroded plug this morning and could we bring the boat to her, rather than her drive up to us. Well, why not, we’ve got all the time in the world, as we’re retired from the rat race now.

So, here we are, but the trip down here was not all fun and frolic. For a start, just as we set of the heavens opened up and out came the big brolly. Thankfully it didn’t last long. However, when we got here and realised we would have to reverse into the space beside her boat, the whole sequence of events became something of a farce.

Certainly there was enough room to manoeuvre into the slot, even with a boat moored opposite. But nobody had told us that the water below our boat was so silted up that we could hardly move. They also didn’t tell us about the detritus laying on the bottom. After much heaving and grunting, with the help of several other bodies, we had to accept defeat. We were simply not going to get in stern first. Bow first, now that’s a different gether altomatter!

So, with a lot more heaving and grunting from all concerned, we finally exited the hole we’d got ourselves into and off we went. Well, even that was not as straightforward as we would have liked, because we were not getting anywhere. But, having stopped to remove a piece of carpet from the prop, off we went to find a winding hole, which we did by going all the way down to Broken Cross, another mile away.

Upon our return we easily slotted in without any grunting or heaving and tied up. The nice gentleman who runs the Colliery Narrowboat Company kindly hitched us up to the electricity point and we settled in to wait for Sandra. Thankfully the kit she had ordered had arrived, so we can expect to have the repairs done in the morning, that’s this morning, just in case you’re becoming confused. Once that’s done we’ll be on our way again and we’re hoping the repair will solve our starter problems. If not then it’s back to Nick for a new motor, because we simply cannot carry on as we have been, where we’ve been taking up the engine bay cover and clouting the motor with a hammer every time we need to run the engine, which is usually twice a day.

Friday 17th July 2009

I do not claim to be physic although, just like anyone else who lives on a boat, I suppose I must be a little nutty for doing so. But, after almost three years living aboard Shiralee, I’ve become a tad familiar with the vagaries of the English weather. We should, by now, be cruising the River Weaver via the Anderton Lift and, I suppose, we might well have been doing so had it not been for our starter problems. However, for some time now, I’ve had the feeling that we should avoid doing so, at least for the time being.

Wednesday, on our way down to see Sandra about our wiring, the heavens opened up in a quite prolonged cloudburst. Yesterday, shortly after arriving at our current moorings, it started raining and hasn’t left off for most of the day and over night. At times it has been very heavy, certainly enough to wake us both up. So, what chance the River Weaver is running at its normal level?

Anyway, it isn’t raining at present, at 07.00, but it certainly looks as though there is plenty more to come. Hopefully we’ll get to our next moorings, which will be at Moore, another place we stopped at last year on the Bridgewater. It has a small shop by the roadside, unfortunately, so it will mean a short walk for Wifey to get the paper. We don’t like to moor too close to roads if we can help it, too noisy and the boat is too tempting for vandals. Saturday we should be at Lymm, where we will, this time around, pop into one of the pubs and, once again, sample the wares of their delightful bakery and delicatessen.

In order to get to these moorings we had to go through a couple of tunnels, first the Barnton Tunnel, at 572 yards then the Saltersford Tunnel, which is a little shorter at just 424 yards. The Barnton tunnel is accessed via a huge great pound that has a number of boats permanently moored on the opposite side to the towpath. As with most single file tunnels, which both of these are, it’s impossible to see through it except when pointing directly at the entrance. Mooring up and walking round to the entrance does no good at all, because the towpath does not extend out enough. The only thing to do is to line the boat up and have Sheila see if anything is coming, which kind of leaves one stranded in the middle of the pound.

In this instance, when she looked through the tunnel the first time, she couldn’t see through to end. This could mean one of two things, either there was a boat going through and was blocking her line of sight, or there was one coming at us without its lights on. Consequently, all I could do was to back off for a couple of minutes then repeat the procedure until she could see the other end. Eventually she gave me the all clear and off we went. The trouble with this and the next tunnel, is that they both have a slight kink to them.

Saltersford Tunnel has timed usage, which means that those boats going north must enter on the hour until 20 minutes past, whilst those going south traversed the tunnel on the half hour until 10 minutes to. It is essential to adhere to these times, because this tunnel has a severe kink in it and the other end simply cannot be seen.

From Saltersford Tunnel it’s about another four miles to Preston Brook Tunnel, which is 1239 yards long and is on the same timed usage as Saltersford, except here you are only allowed 10 minutes leeway. If you miss your slot you have a half hour to wait. About 100 yards short of the tunnel entrance is a stop-lock, which was originally used so that the lock keeper could shake his tin for a toll fee. This is because the Trent and Mersey is run by BW, whereas the Bridgewater is controlled and maintained by The Manchester Ship Canal Company. Nowadays boaters from both jurisdictions are allowed two weeks free usage of either canal.

We approached this stop-lock at about 08.55 and suddenly realised we only had a maximum of 15 minutes to get to the tunnel entrance, and there was a boat just about to enter the lock from the tunnel end. Fortunately the boater was well aware of our time limit and made all haste to get out of the lock. As it was we just made it with a few minutes to spare, otherwise we would have had to wait a further 20 minutes.

Once again we arrived at our current moorings just in time before the heavens opened up, which they are still doing. Tomorrow, all being well, we’ll make Lymm and stay the weekend.

As luck would have it, even being moored miles from any human settlement of any importance, we are able to get online. So, here comes another blog.

Luv and Stuff

Dave, Sheila and Rusty.