Shiralee: Cruise 2014 # 16

Friday 18^th July to Wednesday 23^rd July

 Friday 18^th July

 I have just posted Blog # 15 and what a palaver it was too. Why? Well, I’ll tell you.

  As you all probably know by now, we have a Three Mobile WiFi Unit, that is strapped to a piece of wood. Wherever we are situated, it hangs on the top of a window. There are times; such as this morning; when the signal is not that strong, and this morning has been one of those times. However, when I checked with the unit, as far as I could tell I had a reasonably good signal.

 So, having finished the sixth page of the blog, I set to and tried accessing my blog page, but was unable to do so. The WiFi unit said I had Internet access, and so too did my little icon in the Systems Tray, but I could not access the Internet. No problem with emails, but no Internet.

 After repositioning the WiFi unit, on several different windows, I finally got the strongest signal by placing it right in the corner of the window nearest the bow. I now have a really strong signal and, whilst I’m waiting for Wifey to rise from her slumbers, I’ll have a hunt around eBay. Who knows, I may find something useful!

 Saturday 19^th July

 Aren’t these new ‘Smart’ phones great? I upgraded my old flip-top thingy a few days ago and, after a while and with a bit of jiggery-pokery I managed to kind of use it as a telephone, (21^st Century here I come!!)

 There are, as you all probably know, loads of apps to play with on these new fandangled things, but the nice gentleman at the 02 shop moved most of those to one side, leaving all the ‘essential’ ones on the desktop. Fine so far.

 One of these apps is the ability to send and receive emails, which is why I upgraded in the first place. Yesterday I girded my loins, gritted my 20 odd remaining teeth, and set to with a will. Setting up an email account is easy peasy. All I needed to do was enter the details of my current email address; that’s the Shiralee one; and the phone would hunt for my settings. Guess what, it couldn’t find them. Now, there’s a surprise.

 So, just to make things easy for this new gadget, I clicked on the Yahoo button, and off it went in search of those details, which should have been pretty simple, I would have thought. But, nope, couldn’t find those either.

 Next step? Set it up manually, which I did and, since I was told that there were no emails to download from my Shiralee account, I assumed I had set it up correctly. Now, I’m one of those unfortunate people who receive a mountain of rubbish emails every day. One such is from a variety of people, telling me they had put umpteen dollars into my account, so I know I would have had at least a couple of these in my Inbox when I set up the account. But my nice, new iPhone said I didn’t download any.

 This morning I have already downloaded my emails to my laptop and have closed down Outlook. I have also sent an email from my Yahoo address to my Shiralee address. Later today I’ll have another go at setting up my email on the iPhone and see if it is able to download that solitary message.

 Oh what joy there is to be had in new technology! I’m not technophobic, honest. Indeed, last year, or was it the year before, I called into 02 Harlow, with my brother Alan in tow, and we selected a nice new iPhone for me then but, every time I touched the screen in order to scroll to my required section, the darn thing opened in the section I had touched. After a few days of this palaver I contacted 02 and asked what I could do about this problem. “Sell the phone”, was the reply, so I did and gained £78. Well, not really, because part of the monthly payment goes to buying the phone, so I probably lost out over the next two years.

 I’ve been using my old flip-top phone since then, and have been happy with that, but I really did think it about time I got with 21^st century technology, even if I am 14 years late. Seventy two years is not a great age these days, indeed, it has now been suggested that we’re not old until we’re 80, so coping with a new iPhone should really be a doddle, shouldn’t it? My brother has a couple of hours of tutoring when I get back to Crick, but that’s still over three months away.

 Right, enough of this prattling on about iPhones, it will all come out in the wash, as our sainted mother would have said.

 So, what else did we do yesterday? Well, apart from Wifey keeping a very low profile whilst I wrestled with technology, we moved on from Platt Lane, through three lift bridges and four miles, and settled in at the top of the Whitchurch arm.

 What with it being a really hot day, we had a quick cup of tea and walked down to catch the 10.20 bus into Whitchurch and, bless me the Council have still not changed the timetable so to all intents and purposes there are no buses Monday to Friday and Sunday, only Saturday. But we know different, ‘cos we have an up to date timetable.

 What I should do, before shutting down the laptop, is to advise the Bryn Melin bus company about this fault but, if I do that then the email I sent myself from Yahoo, will open up and I’ll have to send another one for the phone. It can wait, I suppose.

 It was a real scorcher yesterday, so all we could do for the rest of the day was to try and relax. We certainly couldn’t have painted the roof, not in that heat. In fact we couldn’t do anything without the sweat pouring off us.

 At about 2.40 this morning I was woken up by a clap of thunder, but it didn’t seem all that close. About 25 minutes later there came a double clap, this time much closer. However, despite warnings that we were in for some really heavy rain, all we got was some very light stuff and no more thunder.

 Right now, at almost 7am, it’s raining quite heavily and looks set for the day. But we need to go into town again, for bread and a little thingy that will allow me to use this new and smaller SIM card in my old flip-top phone. Well, you can see the sense in this, can’t you? If this new one continues to give me problems, especially where the email app is concerned, I could very well toss it in the oggin, and then where would I be? No, much safer to revert to the old phone for a while.

 Sunday 20^th July

 Tesco didn’t have the SIM thingy, so I’m stuck with the new phone.

 My first task in the morning; around about 6am; is to check my emails and sling out the rubbish, which is much of which I receive every day. It’s no good going to the bottom of the page of a spurious email and trying to unsubscribe, because that just tells these people that you actually exist.

 Anyway, I was going through my messages when I spotted one from Avast, from whom I have a SecureLine account. Remembering that I only received one from them a week ago, I was curious as to why there was another one so soon. So, as I would for any concern regarding money, I checked back and discovered that this was happening every month and on the same dates, the 12^th and 19^th. Hmmm, it seems I am being charged twice for this subscription.

 I had just opened up the Avast Help Desk, when something prompted me to re-check their emails and it’s just as well that I did. Silly old me, what seemed like double billing, was simply one message as a friendly reminder  on the 12^th, telling me that I would be billed on the 19^th. That was close. I could well have ripped into them with accusations of double billing and ended up with egg on my face.

 Yesterday we waited until the rain had stopped, then walked down to catch the bus into Whitchurch, and it stayed stopped until we came to boarding the bus back, at which point the heavens opened. Of course, Wifey had her hoodie on, whereas I was in shirt sleeve order. But, no harm done, I simply borrowed her brolly and all was well.

 This morning, although it’s not raining, we do have a lot of cloud cover. But, by hook or by crook, we’re moving along to Grindley Brook. If it stays dry we’ll go down the six locks and, if not, then we’ll moor at the top until tomorrow morning.

 Monday 21^st July

 After the overcast start to the day and the threat of rain, yesterday was an improvement on Saturday. However, due to the way the staircase locks are operated at Grindley Brook, it took us two hours to complete the mile and a bit from Whitchurch to the bottom of the six locks.

 For the uninitiated, staircase locks are a series of locks that have no dividing pound. The locks step up/down several feet, but they are linked together and flow into each other. This means that, in order to traverse the locks, the water levels in them have to be set before opening gates for a boat to enter. Whilst one boat is passing through, either up or down, no other boats are allowed into them.

 It is normal with staircase locks, to allow two or three boats through in one direction, before allowing the same amount through in the other direction.

 Here endeth the lesson on staircase locks.

 So, having settled in at Grindley Brook, Wifey took a walk up to the nearby garage for the Sunday paper and we settled in for a good read and a cup of coffee.

 A little after noon we walked up to the Horse and Jockey for our usual Sunday drink. With the improvement in the weather, we were able to sit outside and relax for an hour. (It’s just as well Andy wasn’t with us, else we could have been there much longer)

 This morning has dawned bright and sunny and, if the weather people at the BBC are to be believed, we’re in for a couple of hot days. This is good, because we’ll be making our way through the four locks and five miles to Wrenbury. Hopefully our mail has turned up.

 Tuesday 22^nd July

 The run down to Wrenbury took a little over two hours and, much to our surprise there was plenty of space before the road lift bridge.

 By the time we had moored up it was getting pretty warm, so we knew we were in for another scorcher. So, after our usual cup of coffee, we took a slow stroll down to the PO/Stores, collected our mail and did a bit of shopping.

 On our way back we stopped to watch a holiday boat make its way through the lift bridge. This procedure is pretty straightforward, although somewhat time consuming, since there are several stages to the operation. (Goodness knows what drivers think of these hold-ups, especially when they have to wait for two or three boats to go through)

 Anyway, the partner of the holiday boat driver was just about to walk across the bridge and set the process in motion, whilst hubby stood by the boat. As soon as his missus was across the bridge and prepared to operate it, he untied his ropes and started to drift away from the towpath, which would have been OK, had he started his engine first – never, ever untie your boat without first starting the engine.

 However, now that the missus had finally got the bridge to rise, he bent down to turn the key, at which point he realised; and so did she; that she still had the starter key with her.

 So, he’s now adrift in the canal, and she’s going through the reverse procedure of letting the bridge down and walking back to the boat with the ignition key. But, since he was drifting away from the towpath, she couldn’t pass the key over, which is when Wifey came to the rescue and asked him to pass his centre line to her and she was able to pull his boat back to the towpath. His poor missus then had the task of raising the bridge again, by which time there were two more boats waiting to go through, along with quite a few frustrated drivers waiting to cross the bridge.

 There are times when it’s great fun to do a spot of gongoozling!!

 There are plans afoot; which local residents are trying to thwart; for a new marina to be built further along the canal. This will, if it goes ahead, hold up to 200 boats and cause absolute mayhem to local traffic. As things stand there is already a holiday boat company just the other side of the bridge, which causes enough upset to drivers as it is. Can you imagine even more boats passing through, especially during the summer months? Chaos!!

 Our plan is to stay here today, then move on a few miles tomorrow and stay another two days at Burland where, if the weather is kind to us; by which I mean dry, but not scorching hot; we might even finish painting the roof. We want to be at Barbridge for the weekend, but that assumes we pass through the bottom of Hurleston locks without getting stuck, as we did on the way up.

 We’ve been told, by a CRT man that, if we do get stuck again, don’t try to force our way through, or get other boaters to pull us through with our bow rope. Instead, we should phone CRT and get them out to do the job because, if they get enough people complaining about this problem, they will have to do something about it.

 Reading one of the boating magazines some time ago, we were made to believe that CRT had rectified the problem, but it seems that all they’ve done is shave off some of the brickwork at the top of the lock in question. Of course, as any sensible boater will know, this had no effect whatsoever because, it’s lower down and probably at the rubbing strake where the problem lies.

 The rubbing strake is a length of hard material that is attached to the side of the boat, supposedly to prevent scratches to paintwork. Unfortunately it does no such thing. The problem with Hurleston locks, is that they are just too narrow. We even have to ensure that our side fenders are raised, so as not to impede progress.

 Wednesday 23^rd July

 Yesterday we spent the day in the same spot and enjoyed lunchtime at the Dusty Miller pub. We’ve avoided this pub over the many years of cruising this canal, simply because it looks too ‘posh’. We’re kind of funny that way. Bus this time curiosity got the better of us, and we quite enjoyed the experience. The food wasn’t bad either, so the time spent there wasn’t wasted. We still prefer ‘ordinary’ pubs though.

 So, having returned to the boat and settled in for the rest of the day, I suddenly realised that, if we moved along and past the two lift bridges, we could avoid the heat because that other stretch of canal lies at right angles to the part we were on and is sheltered by overhanging trees. Rock on Tommy and, who’s a clever boy then? Mind you it was still pretty warm and humid, but also much more comfortable.

 This morning we’ll probably move along to Burland, but that’s still up for discussion.

 Meanwhile, enjoy the sunshine while you can, it can’t last forever.

 All abreast

 Dave and Sheila