Moore on Bridgewater to
Saturday 18th July 2009
It took us just 2 ½ hours to cover the seven miles from Moore to Lymm this morning and, even though we arrived before 11 o/clock, we were lucky to find a mooring spot. This must be the most popular town on the Bridgewater because, even now at 7 pm the boats are still arriving with no hope of finding room. Last September we came through here from the opposite direction and had no problems mooring up. I suppose the problem this year is that some schools are already on their summer holidays, we’ve certainly seen enough kids on boats this past week.
Tomorrow lunchtime we’re going to try a pub lunch at The Golden Fleece, the garden to which we are moored just a few yards short of. For some reason we didn’t bother with the pubs last year, which is a good enough reason to rectify the oversight. On Monday we’ll be heading further up to a winding hole, mooring up at Dunham Town for the night then, on Tuesday, we’ll come back here for one night and top up with any necessary victuals. Wednesday we will make our way back to Moore and Thursday on to Anderton where we might take the Trip Boat down to the Weaver.
On the other hand, we might not do any of that on the days as stated, it just depends upon how we feel and, of course, the weather.
Sunday 19th July 2009
I am so glad we did not go down on the Anderton Lift before coming here to Lymm. Once again the day has started with torrential rain and I dread to think what the water level is on the Weaver. I will also be very glad to get to our new moorings. This morning, once again, the heater system wouldn’t run, which means the battery power level is down again. Not that it’s cold in the boat, far from it. Despite the rain I’m certainly warm enough. It’s just that the system needs to run a full cycle, which is about 30 minutes, if it’s to remain clear and not clog up, thus preventing it from working at all.
It is on just seven o/clock in the morning, but I got up a little earlier than usual in order to make a start on my recipe book. It’s a long job because it will have over 40 chapters and over 300 pages, but I think it will be worth it. Besides which it keeps me out of mischief and I quite enjoy having to use my, somewhat feeble brain. It’s a darn good job I don’t have to rely on my memory for it, otherwise it would never be completed. So far this morning I’ve simply added the chapters. Later on today, or perhaps tomorrow, I’ll insert the pages. Then there is the Front Cover, Introduction and Forward to write. All good fun, don’t you know.
Tuesday 21st July 2009
Left Lymm yesterday with the intention of filling up with water and going on to the next winding hole, then mooring overnight at Durham Town Bridge, which we did. The aim this morning was to return to Lymm for another night. Of course we hadn’t reckoned with the weather and, quite naturally, it’s chucking it down this morning with no sign of letting up. According to the nice weather man on Auntie Beeb it’s going to be mainly dry in the north. Are we not north?
Not that we mind staying in one place for two days when necessary but, since I’m still having problems getting the engine to start, this despite the wiring fix, I would like to at least get down into the engine bay and check other wiring. As my good Bruv suggested yesterday, it might be a poor earth connection rather then a faulty starter motor. Watch this space! Bashing the motor with a club hammer always works, but the bashing might be disturbing a poor connection. Who knows? And I won’t know until I check, now will I?
Wednesday 22nd July 2009
Here we are at Lymm once again.
We are still having trouble with the starter but, having checked the wiring yet again, and having found no problem and, still not convinced that the starter motor is at fault, we put our, not inconsiderable brain cells together and gave the problem some pondering. On several occasions now, especially since talking to Nick Bancroft and having him check our batteries, we have been hitched up to mains power. We had two nights at Nantwich, two nights at Llangollen and a night at Wincham where Sandra rewired the engine loom. On all of those occasions we have found that the engine starts without a fuss on the following morning and for two or three days after.
We now think that, since the engine starts easily for a few days after being on a landline, either the alternator is not charging the starter battery properly, or the starter battery is naff and is only holding a charge for a short time after being on mains power. Or both! Whatever, we don’t believe the starter motor is at fault, because it is only about 2 ½ years old. We’ve been told that it is very unusual for starter motors to fail and certainly not two in such a short space of time.
Anyway, I phoned Nick this morning, after yet another failed start and after checking the wiring, and asked him about starter motor prices. Now, when we were at Anderton and he came to see us about this problem, he said, and I quote, “Don’t go to one of the marina based engineers, because they’ll charge you the earth. These starter motors are as common as muck and are fitted to loads of different cars and boats. You can pick them up for about 50 quid each.” When I asked him this morning he said, and again I quote, “They’re pretty expensive you know, I’ll have to phone Izuzu and they’ll want an exchange unit before they will supply a new one” The, when I mentioned our previous conversation about ’50 quid each’, he denied all knowledge.
I don’t think I’ll be asking him to check this out again, do you? I have to say that, after the good work he’s done for us, both with servicing our heater last September, and not charging us for checking our batteries a few weeks ago, I’m a bit disappointed at his bare faced lie about the cost of a starter motor.
Anyway, we’re now going to arrange a three night stay at Anderton Marina, that’s if they phone me back today as I’ve asked them to do, or somewhere else, and see just how long afterwards the engine starts without protest. This will, we hope, prove one way or the other, whether it’s the battery or alternator at fault.
Thursday 23rd July 2009
After about three hours cruising, quite a bit of which was through pouring rain, we finally covered the seven miles to our previous moorings at Moore and settled down to a cup of tea and a read of the paper. About 12.30 or so a young lady came by and asked if she could borrow our boathook, so off went Wifey to see what the fuss was all about.
It transpired that this young lady’s friend, who hadn’t ridden a bike in about 30 years, had just taken it up again and was practising on the towpath. A few years ago my dearly beloved and I purchased a couple of bikes, with the intention of trying to improve our fitness. After at least 30 years the old saw about, ‘it’s just like riding a bike, you never forget how’, somehow didn’t ring true. Despite still know how, the actual doing is not so easy after such a space of time. The cycle lanes of Harlow are one thing, a towpath is quite another.
Anyway, it seems the lady in question had taken a dive into the canal, complete with bike and bag, which contained all her worldly possessions, including purse and credit cards and, quite probably her mobile phone. After fisher her and her bicycle out the bag, having drifted towards the opposite bank before sinking, was quite another matter. Hence the request for our boathook.
Unfortunately, and despite the assistance of other boaters, who had slowed to a stop to help, no bag was found. The two ladies, one of which was soaking wet, finally gave up and made their way home. Some time in the future, and it could be many years, some lucky fisherman is going to make a most unusual catch. If he’s honest he’ll try to return it to it’s owner, if not he’ll probably spend any cash, if it’s still in circulation and he might even try using the credit cards.
I managed to get a message to Nick regarding our starter problems. He texted me back with the information that a new motor from Isuzu would set us back £485 plus postage. That, plus Nick’s time to fit it, will probably cost around £600. Who said living on a boat is cheap? Obviously we’ll have to think about it, but we’ll probably try to get to our moorings first. Then, whilst we’re connected to mains electricity, remove the offending item and see if it can be repaired, rather than spend all that money. It does seem odd that, over the period we’ve had the boat, two starter motors have failed. We’re more inclined to think it is either a wiring problem, or a lack of power in the starter battery. Nick will check the battery on Saturday and we’ll take it from there.
Saturday 25th July 2009
The continuing saga of the dodgy starter motor……
I spoke to Nick again yesterday and he said he would be along later that evening. He then phoned again to say that his early Saturday job had been cancelled and he would be along Saturday morning.
I had hoped he would be with us early-ish but, just as I was giving up hope, having phoned and sent a text, with no reply from either, he turned up at about 10.30. Bad news, the battery checked out OK, so we almost certainly have a starter motor fault. After telling him we were not prepared to cough up about £600 – with his labour costs – he suggested he take it to a repair centre, which would cost about 1/3 rd, which we agreed to.
Now, the only problem with that idea is that we need to be on mains power for the couple of days without being able to run the engine. “No problem”, he says, “I know a bloke at Broken Cross who moors his boat at the bottom of his garden, and he’s away right now, I’ll give him a call”.
The upshot of all that is that we’ll go down to Broken Cross on Sunday afternoon, he’ll come along and remove the offending article, connect us up to the mains, get the motor repaired and have it back within a couple of days. The beauty of this idea is that there’s a Spar shop opposite the house and there’s a pub a few minutes walk away.
Watch this space for further, exciting developments. Meanwhile I’ll post this and give you, my avid readers, something to do over the weekend.
All abreast for now.
Dave, Sheila and Rusty our trusty mutt.
Saturday, 25 July 2009
Friday, 17 July 2009
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.
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.
Saturday, 11 July 2009
Whitchurch to Bridge 176 on the T and M
Whitchurch to Bridge 176 on The Trent and Mersey
Saturday 4th July 2009
The last time we passed through Whitchurch we moored up on the short arm off the main canal, because we wanted to go into town and, as you all know by now, the shortest walk I can get away with the better. This time though, since we didn’t need to go into town, and we didn’t want the problem of having to return to the main arm in order to turn around and continue in the same direction, we chose to moor opposite the arm.
This was not the best of decisions because, at about 1.30 am Wifey heard some people walking along the towpath. At that time of the morning they were either boaters returning from a pub that we weren’t aware existed, or they were up to no good. As we discovered this morning whilst preparing to leave, the latter was the case, because they stole a stone figure of an otter that (used to!) adorn the roof of Shiralee. What they proposed to do with it goodness knows, it really isn’t worth anything except sentimental value.
Having passed through Grindley Brook Locks after topping up with water, and after Sheila walked back to the local shop for milk and a paper, we passed through Povey’s Lock and moored up just before Willeymoor Lock, which is where we moored on our way to Whitchurch on the way up the canal.
This short stretch of canal, between Whitchurch and Willeymoor Lock, a distance of about 2 ½ miles, seems to house a few morons. We hadn’t been here more than a couple of hours or so when Sheila noticed a boat drifting past us. Obviously nobody was on board and, quite naturally under the circumstances, it was pouring with rain, because we were the only other boaters around and, therefore, the job of pulling it in and mooring it up was down to us.
Quite obviously, since the boat had been secured with two hooks and a mooring pin, somebody had deliberately untied it. Equally obviously, since it was chucking it down by the bucket load, those responsible had not stayed around to observe the result. Which begs the question, if they were not around to laugh at whoever retrieved the boat and tied it up, what pleasure could they possibly have gained by untying it in the first place?
Ah well, such is human nature, I suppose!
I’ve not jumped on my soapbox for quite a while now, but I really couldn’t resist doing so here.
Is the American government paranoid or what? If you have read any of the daily papers today, especially the Daily Mail, you would have noticed the story about the autistic man whose extradition is being sought for allegedly hacking into US defence computers. Bear in mind this happened over seven years ago and, as anyone with any common sense can see – except the Americans of course – they are just making themselves a laughing stock around the world. What a coup for extremists, they must be having a good chuckle at the Yanks now that this story is headline news.
The American government are so paranoid that, not only do they want this believer in Little Green Men to stand trial in the States, they want him to serve about 60 years for this heinous crime. What they should really be doing is employing him as a computer security expert to ensure their systems are not broken into again. Beside, what possible use can be served by putting this unhappy individual in jail?
If anybody reading this agrees with me on this, simply go to the Daily Mail website and fill in their form. Our own government has no business extraditing any British citizen, to any other country, no matter what the crime. They should be tried here and serve their sentence here. Do the Yanks really think they own the world and can dictate to everyone living I it? The fact is, that for every US citizen extradited to the UK, two have gone the other way and stood trial in a US court. And, remember, the USA has six times the population of the UK.
Now, that’s what I call a fair extradition treaty!!
Enough said. Tomorrow we will, once again, enjoy a drink at the local watering hole. Hopefully we’ll be left in peace tonight and tomorrow night and not be set adrift by the Mindless Morons of the Llangollen Canal.
Monday 6th July 2009
And here we are at Wrenbury Mill, just around the corner to the Alvechurch Hire Boat Company, many of whose boats we have seen on our travels along the Llangollen. The plan is to stay here for the full 48 hours as allowed by BW then, on Wednesday, we’ll cruise to an out of the way spot until Thursday morning, when we’ll leave the Llangollen and get back onto the Shroppie.
Yesterday we paid a visit to the Willeymoor Lock pub and sat outside as time honoured gongoozlers. At the risk of repeating myself, this is the term used by seasoned boaters when referring to other folks who see boating as a spectator sport.
You may remember the last time we were there, that I commented on the peculiar taste of the Guinness at that pub. Now, I don’t know what causes the odd tang, but I suspect it has something to do with the cleaning fluid they use for the glasses. Either that or whatever they use to clean the beer pipes through. Whatever it is it’s not so powerful as to completely ruin the taste of the beer, but it is a nuisance all the same. Needless to say, if we ever pass through this canal again, we’ll stop further up and sample the beer at The Horse and Jockey.
When we set out in April we knew we would be doing the Llangollen and Mongomery canals but were unsure as to where we would be going after those. Well, now we know. According to the Oracle we’ll be going down the Andrton Lift, which joins the Trent and Mersey and the River Weaver. We really didn’t have the time last year but, since we don’t need to be at our new moorings until the end of September and, since they are only about 120 miles or so from here, we have plenty of time.
We’ll also return to the Bridgewater Canal and travel as far as Lymm, just to pass the time. Lymm has a really good bakery cum delicatessen and several pubs, one of which we’ll try to fit in. As you all know, apart from the ends of the Bridgewater, there are no locks to impede our travel and there are plenty of good moorings along the way.
Friday 10th July 2009
I have totally overlooked anything to do with this blog since Monday. As I recall, we had left Willeymoor Lock and made our way to Wrenbury Mill, which is where most of the hire boats on the Llangollen come from. Not a lot happened during our overnight stay there, other than Wifey walking into the village for a bit of shopping. One thing I do remember is the heavy rain during the night, heavy enough to wake me up and that’s for sure.
By the next morning it was dry enough to get moving again and we made it to Halls Lane Bridge, which is a place we moored up at on the way up the canal. It’s nicely out in the open countryside and very peaceful. Unfortunately no pubs around, at least, none that I could possibly walk to, which is one good reason for having my knees sorted out. I’m also missing out on loads of interesting places to visit. It’s all well and good cruising all these waterways but, if you can’t take a stroll into the nearest town or village, quite a bit of te enjoyment is lost.
On Wednesday we made our way to Barbridge, only this time we decided to stop opposite the Old Barbridge Inn, which is a pub we visited about 15 years ago and had promised ourselves another visit. Here we enjoyed a baguette and a drink. The only problem with mooring along that particular stretch, is the ledge that runs along the towpath side. It’s too deep for a fender to rest against, and it’s too shallow for the boat to drift over. Consequently, when moored up there is a gap of about four inches between the boat and the towpath. With the best will in the world it’s impossible to tie up in such a way as to prevent the boat from banging against the ledge every time another boat passes.
We stayed at Barbridge for an extra night so as to take the bus into Nantwich for a humungous shopping trip. I could have let Sheila go on her own but, as sure as eggs is eggs, she would come back with a trolly and two bags full and be completely knackered. We called into the town last year, but we didn’t have bus passes then and, having taken the bus from the Nantwich moorings, it cost us about £2.00 each. From Barbridge it’s a much longer ride, so I hate to think what that would have cost.
Thursday nights at The Old Barbridge Inn are supposed to be live music nights but, apart from a bit of loud juke box music around 6 o/clock, we heard nothing out of the ordinary. This may be because the pub is up for sale and the live music has been suspended until a new manager takes over. Whatever the reason, we had a peaceful evening and, once again, the whole stretch of canal was chock full of boats. Is it summer or something? I heard on the radio that some schools have already broken up, that can’t be right surely? Perhaps it’s just the senior pupils who have finished their GCSE’s?
It’s now Friday and we are, once again, miles from nowhere and just a couple of miles from Middlewich. Hopefully, assuming the weather forecasters are wrong and it doesn’t rain tomorrow, we’ll make it to the Trent and Mersey where, it just so happens, there is more than one pub. That depends upon another unknown quantity, Wifey. She just might want to go on from there and be nearer to our next big stopping point, The Anderton Lift and the River Weaver. I can’t say I’m that keen on rivers, not after our escapade on the Soar in 2007 but, hopefully, we won’t be subjected to floods this time.
Actually our new and permanent moorings are very close to Kegworth, which is where we spent 10 days in the flood lock. Fortunately the marina is on a short stretch of canal that connects to the Soar through a lock, so it is not prone to flooding. Hallelujah to that!
Saturday 11th July 2009
And that pesky starter motor has come back to haunt me! Over the past few days the engine has refused to start without a kick up the starter motor with a 4 lb sledge hammer. This takes us back to late in our cruise last year. At the time all I could think of to do, was to check out all the wiring associated with the SM and, lo and behold, it continued working for a few weeks. Eventually we called in River Canal Rescue but, as was the case when I was a TV engineer, they never go wrong when you want them to.
It seems we’re back to square one again and, if I don’t improve matters tomorrow morning, without the aforementioned fine tuning, then the Anderton Lift and River Weaver are out of the equation. Getting ourselves stranded somewhere along about 25 miles of river will not be much fun.
But, I digress, we left our moorings on the Middlewich Branch this morning around 8 o/clock. We were expecting rain, because that’s what we were told by the nice weather lady yesterday evening, but it was not forthcoming. Instead, although cloudy, it’s been pleasantly warm. So, we stopped at Middlewich for Wifey to go shopping and I stayed home to take care of the pooch.
Fortunately she took her mobile with her, otherwise there’s no telling if or when she was likely to return. When she did phone it was to ask me for directions back to the boat. Now, we were moored between two bridges, the roads over which would both take her into town. Unfortunately, after turning right out of Tesco, she walked past the turning that would have brought her back to the canal.
Being the kind and caring husband that I am, once she’d told me where she was heading for, I walked back to the bridge I expected her to appear from. But, as you would expect, as with any good sit-com, she appeared from the opposite direction. What would I do without her to give me the occasional chuckle?
Eventually we got moving again and finally, after five locks and as many miles, we pulled in just opposite a pretty little mooring spot that we used last year. The area I’m talking about has been cleared and had proper moorings put in by a boat club about three miles away. Today, it seems, they’re having a little get together because, where there is barely enough room for three boats to moor, there are now four, with one boat doubled up with another.
Tomorrow, with luck and a tail wind, and assuming the rain doesn’t come later than forecast, we’ll move on to the nearest pub, which is the Old Broken Cross. If we’re not impressed with that, we’ll move on to The Salt Barge at Marston, which is a pub we stopped at last year. At the time it was the currant licensee’s last day, so all beer was half price. But first I’ve got to have a go at the starter motor.
Lucky old me, we’re in the middle of nowhere and I’ve managed to get online, so I’ll post this blog.
Cheers me dears.
Dave, Sheila and Rusty.
Saturday 4th July 2009
The last time we passed through Whitchurch we moored up on the short arm off the main canal, because we wanted to go into town and, as you all know by now, the shortest walk I can get away with the better. This time though, since we didn’t need to go into town, and we didn’t want the problem of having to return to the main arm in order to turn around and continue in the same direction, we chose to moor opposite the arm.
This was not the best of decisions because, at about 1.30 am Wifey heard some people walking along the towpath. At that time of the morning they were either boaters returning from a pub that we weren’t aware existed, or they were up to no good. As we discovered this morning whilst preparing to leave, the latter was the case, because they stole a stone figure of an otter that (used to!) adorn the roof of Shiralee. What they proposed to do with it goodness knows, it really isn’t worth anything except sentimental value.
Having passed through Grindley Brook Locks after topping up with water, and after Sheila walked back to the local shop for milk and a paper, we passed through Povey’s Lock and moored up just before Willeymoor Lock, which is where we moored on our way to Whitchurch on the way up the canal.
This short stretch of canal, between Whitchurch and Willeymoor Lock, a distance of about 2 ½ miles, seems to house a few morons. We hadn’t been here more than a couple of hours or so when Sheila noticed a boat drifting past us. Obviously nobody was on board and, quite naturally under the circumstances, it was pouring with rain, because we were the only other boaters around and, therefore, the job of pulling it in and mooring it up was down to us.
Quite obviously, since the boat had been secured with two hooks and a mooring pin, somebody had deliberately untied it. Equally obviously, since it was chucking it down by the bucket load, those responsible had not stayed around to observe the result. Which begs the question, if they were not around to laugh at whoever retrieved the boat and tied it up, what pleasure could they possibly have gained by untying it in the first place?
Ah well, such is human nature, I suppose!
I’ve not jumped on my soapbox for quite a while now, but I really couldn’t resist doing so here.
Is the American government paranoid or what? If you have read any of the daily papers today, especially the Daily Mail, you would have noticed the story about the autistic man whose extradition is being sought for allegedly hacking into US defence computers. Bear in mind this happened over seven years ago and, as anyone with any common sense can see – except the Americans of course – they are just making themselves a laughing stock around the world. What a coup for extremists, they must be having a good chuckle at the Yanks now that this story is headline news.
The American government are so paranoid that, not only do they want this believer in Little Green Men to stand trial in the States, they want him to serve about 60 years for this heinous crime. What they should really be doing is employing him as a computer security expert to ensure their systems are not broken into again. Beside, what possible use can be served by putting this unhappy individual in jail?
If anybody reading this agrees with me on this, simply go to the Daily Mail website and fill in their form. Our own government has no business extraditing any British citizen, to any other country, no matter what the crime. They should be tried here and serve their sentence here. Do the Yanks really think they own the world and can dictate to everyone living I it? The fact is, that for every US citizen extradited to the UK, two have gone the other way and stood trial in a US court. And, remember, the USA has six times the population of the UK.
Now, that’s what I call a fair extradition treaty!!
Enough said. Tomorrow we will, once again, enjoy a drink at the local watering hole. Hopefully we’ll be left in peace tonight and tomorrow night and not be set adrift by the Mindless Morons of the Llangollen Canal.
Monday 6th July 2009
And here we are at Wrenbury Mill, just around the corner to the Alvechurch Hire Boat Company, many of whose boats we have seen on our travels along the Llangollen. The plan is to stay here for the full 48 hours as allowed by BW then, on Wednesday, we’ll cruise to an out of the way spot until Thursday morning, when we’ll leave the Llangollen and get back onto the Shroppie.
Yesterday we paid a visit to the Willeymoor Lock pub and sat outside as time honoured gongoozlers. At the risk of repeating myself, this is the term used by seasoned boaters when referring to other folks who see boating as a spectator sport.
You may remember the last time we were there, that I commented on the peculiar taste of the Guinness at that pub. Now, I don’t know what causes the odd tang, but I suspect it has something to do with the cleaning fluid they use for the glasses. Either that or whatever they use to clean the beer pipes through. Whatever it is it’s not so powerful as to completely ruin the taste of the beer, but it is a nuisance all the same. Needless to say, if we ever pass through this canal again, we’ll stop further up and sample the beer at The Horse and Jockey.
When we set out in April we knew we would be doing the Llangollen and Mongomery canals but were unsure as to where we would be going after those. Well, now we know. According to the Oracle we’ll be going down the Andrton Lift, which joins the Trent and Mersey and the River Weaver. We really didn’t have the time last year but, since we don’t need to be at our new moorings until the end of September and, since they are only about 120 miles or so from here, we have plenty of time.
We’ll also return to the Bridgewater Canal and travel as far as Lymm, just to pass the time. Lymm has a really good bakery cum delicatessen and several pubs, one of which we’ll try to fit in. As you all know, apart from the ends of the Bridgewater, there are no locks to impede our travel and there are plenty of good moorings along the way.
Friday 10th July 2009
I have totally overlooked anything to do with this blog since Monday. As I recall, we had left Willeymoor Lock and made our way to Wrenbury Mill, which is where most of the hire boats on the Llangollen come from. Not a lot happened during our overnight stay there, other than Wifey walking into the village for a bit of shopping. One thing I do remember is the heavy rain during the night, heavy enough to wake me up and that’s for sure.
By the next morning it was dry enough to get moving again and we made it to Halls Lane Bridge, which is a place we moored up at on the way up the canal. It’s nicely out in the open countryside and very peaceful. Unfortunately no pubs around, at least, none that I could possibly walk to, which is one good reason for having my knees sorted out. I’m also missing out on loads of interesting places to visit. It’s all well and good cruising all these waterways but, if you can’t take a stroll into the nearest town or village, quite a bit of te enjoyment is lost.
On Wednesday we made our way to Barbridge, only this time we decided to stop opposite the Old Barbridge Inn, which is a pub we visited about 15 years ago and had promised ourselves another visit. Here we enjoyed a baguette and a drink. The only problem with mooring along that particular stretch, is the ledge that runs along the towpath side. It’s too deep for a fender to rest against, and it’s too shallow for the boat to drift over. Consequently, when moored up there is a gap of about four inches between the boat and the towpath. With the best will in the world it’s impossible to tie up in such a way as to prevent the boat from banging against the ledge every time another boat passes.
We stayed at Barbridge for an extra night so as to take the bus into Nantwich for a humungous shopping trip. I could have let Sheila go on her own but, as sure as eggs is eggs, she would come back with a trolly and two bags full and be completely knackered. We called into the town last year, but we didn’t have bus passes then and, having taken the bus from the Nantwich moorings, it cost us about £2.00 each. From Barbridge it’s a much longer ride, so I hate to think what that would have cost.
Thursday nights at The Old Barbridge Inn are supposed to be live music nights but, apart from a bit of loud juke box music around 6 o/clock, we heard nothing out of the ordinary. This may be because the pub is up for sale and the live music has been suspended until a new manager takes over. Whatever the reason, we had a peaceful evening and, once again, the whole stretch of canal was chock full of boats. Is it summer or something? I heard on the radio that some schools have already broken up, that can’t be right surely? Perhaps it’s just the senior pupils who have finished their GCSE’s?
It’s now Friday and we are, once again, miles from nowhere and just a couple of miles from Middlewich. Hopefully, assuming the weather forecasters are wrong and it doesn’t rain tomorrow, we’ll make it to the Trent and Mersey where, it just so happens, there is more than one pub. That depends upon another unknown quantity, Wifey. She just might want to go on from there and be nearer to our next big stopping point, The Anderton Lift and the River Weaver. I can’t say I’m that keen on rivers, not after our escapade on the Soar in 2007 but, hopefully, we won’t be subjected to floods this time.
Actually our new and permanent moorings are very close to Kegworth, which is where we spent 10 days in the flood lock. Fortunately the marina is on a short stretch of canal that connects to the Soar through a lock, so it is not prone to flooding. Hallelujah to that!
Saturday 11th July 2009
And that pesky starter motor has come back to haunt me! Over the past few days the engine has refused to start without a kick up the starter motor with a 4 lb sledge hammer. This takes us back to late in our cruise last year. At the time all I could think of to do, was to check out all the wiring associated with the SM and, lo and behold, it continued working for a few weeks. Eventually we called in River Canal Rescue but, as was the case when I was a TV engineer, they never go wrong when you want them to.
It seems we’re back to square one again and, if I don’t improve matters tomorrow morning, without the aforementioned fine tuning, then the Anderton Lift and River Weaver are out of the equation. Getting ourselves stranded somewhere along about 25 miles of river will not be much fun.
But, I digress, we left our moorings on the Middlewich Branch this morning around 8 o/clock. We were expecting rain, because that’s what we were told by the nice weather lady yesterday evening, but it was not forthcoming. Instead, although cloudy, it’s been pleasantly warm. So, we stopped at Middlewich for Wifey to go shopping and I stayed home to take care of the pooch.
Fortunately she took her mobile with her, otherwise there’s no telling if or when she was likely to return. When she did phone it was to ask me for directions back to the boat. Now, we were moored between two bridges, the roads over which would both take her into town. Unfortunately, after turning right out of Tesco, she walked past the turning that would have brought her back to the canal.
Being the kind and caring husband that I am, once she’d told me where she was heading for, I walked back to the bridge I expected her to appear from. But, as you would expect, as with any good sit-com, she appeared from the opposite direction. What would I do without her to give me the occasional chuckle?
Eventually we got moving again and finally, after five locks and as many miles, we pulled in just opposite a pretty little mooring spot that we used last year. The area I’m talking about has been cleared and had proper moorings put in by a boat club about three miles away. Today, it seems, they’re having a little get together because, where there is barely enough room for three boats to moor, there are now four, with one boat doubled up with another.
Tomorrow, with luck and a tail wind, and assuming the rain doesn’t come later than forecast, we’ll move on to the nearest pub, which is the Old Broken Cross. If we’re not impressed with that, we’ll move on to The Salt Barge at Marston, which is a pub we stopped at last year. At the time it was the currant licensee’s last day, so all beer was half price. But first I’ve got to have a go at the starter motor.
Lucky old me, we’re in the middle of nowhere and I’ve managed to get online, so I’ll post this blog.
Cheers me dears.
Dave, Sheila and Rusty.
Friday, 3 July 2009
Llangollen to Whitchurch
Monday 23rd June 2009
Good morning and welcome to a new blog where we are moored at Llangollen.
There’s one in every walk of life, yes, even in the boating fraternity. The boat moored in front of us is an ex-holiday boat of about 60 foot in length. The owner of that boat is, in my considered opinion, a bit of a pillock, and this is why.
As you may remember me mentioning many blogs ago, the official times for the running of engines, especially when closely moored by other boats, is between the hours of 08.00 and 20.00. In English money that’s between 8 am and 8 pm. Last night this idiot chose to light his fire at 8.45 pm. Despite totally blanking me when I asked him, very politely, to turn it off, he did so within a few minutes.
Hallelujah, we thought, he’s got the message. Wrong! This morning at 04.45, yes, a quarter to five in the morning, he switched the damn thing on again. After quickly dressing and going out to thump on his back dooe a few times, he turned it off.
It’s now 09.15 and, so far, he’s not bothered to run his engine and, more importantly from our point of view, shows no signs of moving on. So, I have two choices here, I can have a word with the BW man and hope he can persuade this twerp to abide by the rules, or, more sensibly, move our boat down to the basin. I’ll let you know later what we decide.
Meanwhile I’ve now decided to stop adding recipes to my book. At the last count I’d covered 41 counties and have 338 recipes. I think that’s probably enough to be getting on with. However, before I go ahead and publish it online, I think I should probably take legal advice regarding copyright issues. I have already discovered that recipe ingredients cannot be copyrighted. But, and it’s a big but, there is some question regarding the method by which the dish is put together. So, if anyone reading this can make any suggestions, perhaps you could get in touch via my Yahoo address at sparkyvox@yahoo.co.uk.
Wednesday 24th June 2009
What a day! As is usual for us, we thought we’d try to make an early start this morning. But, there we were, at 6 o/clock, still in bed, and already there had been nine boat movements. No doubt some had come past us from the basin, but others had come from behind us and simply gone down to the basin to turn around.
At this point then it seemed pointless trying to get ahead of the crowd, they’d already beaten us to it. By 7.30 we had the engine running and were ready to go, but other boaters had other ideas. Queuing up on a canal is no different than queuing up at a bus stop, you simply have to wait your turn.
Now, in addition to the two narrow stretches of 300 metres and 500 metres, which lead down to the wharf, there’s another, much shorter stretch that leads down to the basin, and this is what causes all the hold ups when trying to leave. By the time we had finally made it down to the basin and back again it was 8 30 am.
With the two aforementioned narrow sections still to negotiate, we finally made it to the Pontsycyllte Aqueduct, which is when our second problem began. We now found ourselves behind not one but two slow going boats. Both were holiday boats, one of which was a day boat, and they are never in much of a hurry. We eventually made the six miles to our moorings, just before Whitehouse Tunnel, in three and a half hours, by which time we were suffering a severe lack of patience with all forms of holiday makers.
However, as with yesterday, it’s been a glorious day for cruising. In my misspent youth I really enjoyed the hot weather. Whilst serving with the RAF in the late 60’s I spent two years on the Mediterranean Island of Malta and, as anybody who’s spent any time there will tell you, not a cloud blots the sky from April to October. I’d only been there a couple of months before being spoken to in Maltese, because my tan was so dark I was taken for a local. Sadly I no longer enjoy the heat as much. I would guess that this is probably because I’m well overweight. In mitigation I have to fall back on the dodgy knees, which restrict my efforts at any kind of exercise. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it, so there!
Tomorrow we have Whitehouse Tunnel, Chirk Tunnel and Chirk Aqueduct to negotiate before we moor up by Gledrig Bridge and lunch at The Poachers Pocket pub.
Sunday 28 June 2009
Good morning to you all from Maesbury Marsh on the Montgomery Canal on this, our 29th wedding anniversary and Wifey’s birthday, which we intend celebrating at the Navigation Inn, which is just across the bridge. Actually the full name of this pub is The Navigation Inn and Warehouse and that’s because part of it was once a canal-side warehouse, the pub being 18th C, whilst the warehouse dates from 1796. This is quite a big pub, with tall ceilings that you would expect from the Victorian period and, in fact, part of it is also a cottage, which was knocked through to complete the job. Quite impressive, I have to say, having enjoyed a lunchtime snack there yesterday whilst we booked our lunch for today.
Now, I’ve written nothing to this blog since last Wednesday, so I’d better catch up.
Well, according to my diary and my text messages to you lot, we were at St. Martins Moor on the Llangollen. On the towpath side of the canal is a large area of grassland, which is the moor itself and which is accessed through a steel gate. About a half mile beyond the canal is the town after which the moor is named. We pulled in to the moorings which; like all moorings along this canal, are proper ones with mooring rings; about 09.30 when it was absolutely deserted and peaceful. However, as you would expect, it didn’t take long for other boats to join us. I’m pleased to say they weren’t all rowdy holiday makers.
On Friday morning, bright and early, we made our way to the Montgomery Canal. Unfortunately, due in part to continuing restoration work being carried out further along the canal, only six boats are allowed to pass through the Frankton Locks on any one day, and they have to be booked in before 10.00 am. Once again we were the first to arrive and, just like those who followed, we then had to kick our heels until midday, which is when the nice BW man comes along and unlocks the locks. He also oversees the operation of the locks so as to ensure only the minimum amount of water runs through them. It seems that, whilst restoration work is still ongoing, there is a serious risk of disruption to local wildlife should the flow of water become excessive.
The rules concerning the number of boats allowed through are very strictly enforced, as one pair of holiday boaters were to discover. No amount of wheedling or cajoling, either to the lock operator or by mobile phone to his office, was going to change that. So, they were sent packing until next year, at which time I’m pretty sure they would be bringing along a new addition to the family.
About half a mile below the locks is a water point and mooring area called the Weston Branch, which is where we pulled in for the rest of the day and night. The total run to Maesbury Marsh is just six miles, plus another mile to the turning point at Crofts Mill Lift Bridge and, having been warned that, due to speed restrictions along certain stretches of the canal, the journey would take a further 4 ½ hours, we decided to leave it until Saturday morning. This had a dual effect in that we would be able to undertake most of the trip without meeting other boats along the way.
And so it came to pass that the good ship Shiralee set sail at 08.00 on Saturday morning. But first we had to top up with water. As predicted by Mr. BW, it took us just about 4 ½ hours, including the turn around and return to Maesbury Marsh. Certain parts of the canal have lower speed restrictions than other canals, some of which are down to 3 mph, whilst others are set at 2 mph.
The total length down to Newtown is not far short of 35 miles, and there are two other sections that have now been restored. Now, since most, if not all of the canal is designated a wildlife sanctuary, the conservationists are, quite rightly, concerned about keeping the disruption to a minimum whilst restoration work is carried out. Hence the speed restrictions and the sheer wildness of the seven mile stretch to Maesbury Marsh. When we first travelled down the Aylesbury Arm of the GUC, we were amazed to find a stretch of about a mile that appeared to be very narrow due to canal side reed growth, but that has nothing on this stretch of the Montgomery, and it’s virtually the same length.
Once the canal is fully restored, which could take a few years yet and uses volunteer labour for much of the work, it will certainly be worth another visit. Hopefully the speed restrictions will be lifted by then.
Tomorrow morning, hopefully as early as seven o/clock, we’ll be making our way back to Frankton Locks and the Llangollen Canal. We would hope to be first in line, as we were on the way down, but we have no idea how many boats are ahead of us at Queens Head, which is about two miles ahead. Even so, whatever happens, we won’t be out of this canal until well past midday, so we’ll be pulling in as soon as we can.
Wednesday 1st July 2009
On Monday we did indeed leave Maesbury Marsh early, at 06.45, so as to be one of the first to arrive at the bottom of Frankton Locks. It can take a while to pass through the four locks because the top two are in a staircase arrangement and the bottom two only have a short pound between them. If the water level is not controlled properly then those pounds can become very shallow and boats can ground. Which is why a lock keeper takes care of procedings.
As expected and despite our early departure, there was already another boat waiting to go through, but that had been there all night. Under normal circumstances only six boats are allowed through in any one day, but there are only moorings at the bottom to accommodate three, which makes little sense to me. Anyway, between 2 pm the previous day and 12 noon the current day, the water level still has to be controlled and that control is apparent by the bubbling and gurgling water at the bottom. This bubbling and gurgling is not very loud, at least not during the daytime when there is plenty of other sound around to muffle it somewhat. However, during the night, as the overnight boater will confirm, it’s a different story. He and his wife were more than happy when the locks finally opened.
We stayed at the top lock on Monday night and moved down to Ellesmere on Tuesday morning, for the most part in the rain. This was not unwelcome because, much like the rest of the UK, we’ve had some pretty hot and stifling weather, which I do not enjoy. However, even though the rain has a cooling effect, albeit temporarily, it’s no fun cruising in it. And besides, my so-called shower-proof jacket is not up to the job and never has been. Just how these outdoor clothing suppliers get away with selling these things, at such exorbitant prices, is beyond me.
Yesterday we again paid a visit to the town of Ellesmere for shopping. It was still raining but, what the heck, we took a brolly with us, so there! It wasn’t my intention to visit any of the pubs there but, needs must when the devil drives, as they say. As a fully registered diabetic I am well aware of the dangers of hot weather. During such time the body uses Insulin much faster but, as I’m never prepared for such eventualities, and as I started feeling a little peculiar just as we arrived opposite the Black Lion pub, I left Wifey to continue shopping whilst I popped in for a bite to eat. Naturally this was accompanied by a packet of Bacon Fries and a packet of crisps. This combination did the trick, but it took several minutes for me to cool down and feel normal. The Stella Artois, which accompanied the snacks was, I felt, absolutely essential because, although I thought it was a problem with Insulin, I could have been wrong as it may well have been a touch of heat exhaustion. Covering both bases seemed perfectly logical to me.
Today we’re leaving a little later than normal because we have to call in at the marina next door for a pump-out, diesel and a gas bottle. I’m not sure where we’re stopping for the night but, as usual, you’ll know just as soon as I do.
Friday 3rd July 2009
Thankfully the weather has changed, well, thankfully from my point of view. As a young man, serving Queen and Country, I thoroughly enjoyed the hot weather and, believe me, for the two years I spent in Malta with the RAF, the summers were pretty hot. Today though is cloudy, somewhat cooler, although still humid, and it’s raining. Wifey has gone shopping and the nearest shop here at Whichurch, without going into town, is a good walk away, so she’ll probably come back looking like a drowned rat. We bought a couple of so-called “shower-proof” jackets in Aylesbury some time ago. What a joke! In any kind of sustained rain, even if it’s light, the water soon finds its way underneath.
Anyway, having spent Wednesday night besides Blakes Mere, which is just outside Ellesmere, we moved on to Port Whixall on Thursday morning. Although it’s not shown on the map, this is between bridges 43 and 44 and is a designated mooring spot. The attraction for boaters is the Shop in the Garden, which borders onto the canal towpath. Part of the house has been turned over to a small grocery store and sells cakes and pies along with bread, milk and other such things. The gardens are quite extensive and well cared for and it’s one of the prettiest places along the Llangollen.
Now, having managed at last to get online, which I haven’t been able to do for quite some time, I’ll post this blog.
Have a good weekend folks.
Until next time.
Luv and stuff from Dave, Sheila and Rusty, our trusty hound.
Monday 23rd June 2009
Good morning and welcome to a new blog where we are moored at Llangollen.
There’s one in every walk of life, yes, even in the boating fraternity. The boat moored in front of us is an ex-holiday boat of about 60 foot in length. The owner of that boat is, in my considered opinion, a bit of a pillock, and this is why.
As you may remember me mentioning many blogs ago, the official times for the running of engines, especially when closely moored by other boats, is between the hours of 08.00 and 20.00. In English money that’s between 8 am and 8 pm. Last night this idiot chose to light his fire at 8.45 pm. Despite totally blanking me when I asked him, very politely, to turn it off, he did so within a few minutes.
Hallelujah, we thought, he’s got the message. Wrong! This morning at 04.45, yes, a quarter to five in the morning, he switched the damn thing on again. After quickly dressing and going out to thump on his back dooe a few times, he turned it off.
It’s now 09.15 and, so far, he’s not bothered to run his engine and, more importantly from our point of view, shows no signs of moving on. So, I have two choices here, I can have a word with the BW man and hope he can persuade this twerp to abide by the rules, or, more sensibly, move our boat down to the basin. I’ll let you know later what we decide.
Meanwhile I’ve now decided to stop adding recipes to my book. At the last count I’d covered 41 counties and have 338 recipes. I think that’s probably enough to be getting on with. However, before I go ahead and publish it online, I think I should probably take legal advice regarding copyright issues. I have already discovered that recipe ingredients cannot be copyrighted. But, and it’s a big but, there is some question regarding the method by which the dish is put together. So, if anyone reading this can make any suggestions, perhaps you could get in touch via my Yahoo address at sparkyvox@yahoo.co.uk.
Wednesday 24th June 2009
What a day! As is usual for us, we thought we’d try to make an early start this morning. But, there we were, at 6 o/clock, still in bed, and already there had been nine boat movements. No doubt some had come past us from the basin, but others had come from behind us and simply gone down to the basin to turn around.
At this point then it seemed pointless trying to get ahead of the crowd, they’d already beaten us to it. By 7.30 we had the engine running and were ready to go, but other boaters had other ideas. Queuing up on a canal is no different than queuing up at a bus stop, you simply have to wait your turn.
Now, in addition to the two narrow stretches of 300 metres and 500 metres, which lead down to the wharf, there’s another, much shorter stretch that leads down to the basin, and this is what causes all the hold ups when trying to leave. By the time we had finally made it down to the basin and back again it was 8 30 am.
With the two aforementioned narrow sections still to negotiate, we finally made it to the Pontsycyllte Aqueduct, which is when our second problem began. We now found ourselves behind not one but two slow going boats. Both were holiday boats, one of which was a day boat, and they are never in much of a hurry. We eventually made the six miles to our moorings, just before Whitehouse Tunnel, in three and a half hours, by which time we were suffering a severe lack of patience with all forms of holiday makers.
However, as with yesterday, it’s been a glorious day for cruising. In my misspent youth I really enjoyed the hot weather. Whilst serving with the RAF in the late 60’s I spent two years on the Mediterranean Island of Malta and, as anybody who’s spent any time there will tell you, not a cloud blots the sky from April to October. I’d only been there a couple of months before being spoken to in Maltese, because my tan was so dark I was taken for a local. Sadly I no longer enjoy the heat as much. I would guess that this is probably because I’m well overweight. In mitigation I have to fall back on the dodgy knees, which restrict my efforts at any kind of exercise. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it, so there!
Tomorrow we have Whitehouse Tunnel, Chirk Tunnel and Chirk Aqueduct to negotiate before we moor up by Gledrig Bridge and lunch at The Poachers Pocket pub.
Sunday 28 June 2009
Good morning to you all from Maesbury Marsh on the Montgomery Canal on this, our 29th wedding anniversary and Wifey’s birthday, which we intend celebrating at the Navigation Inn, which is just across the bridge. Actually the full name of this pub is The Navigation Inn and Warehouse and that’s because part of it was once a canal-side warehouse, the pub being 18th C, whilst the warehouse dates from 1796. This is quite a big pub, with tall ceilings that you would expect from the Victorian period and, in fact, part of it is also a cottage, which was knocked through to complete the job. Quite impressive, I have to say, having enjoyed a lunchtime snack there yesterday whilst we booked our lunch for today.
Now, I’ve written nothing to this blog since last Wednesday, so I’d better catch up.
Well, according to my diary and my text messages to you lot, we were at St. Martins Moor on the Llangollen. On the towpath side of the canal is a large area of grassland, which is the moor itself and which is accessed through a steel gate. About a half mile beyond the canal is the town after which the moor is named. We pulled in to the moorings which; like all moorings along this canal, are proper ones with mooring rings; about 09.30 when it was absolutely deserted and peaceful. However, as you would expect, it didn’t take long for other boats to join us. I’m pleased to say they weren’t all rowdy holiday makers.
On Friday morning, bright and early, we made our way to the Montgomery Canal. Unfortunately, due in part to continuing restoration work being carried out further along the canal, only six boats are allowed to pass through the Frankton Locks on any one day, and they have to be booked in before 10.00 am. Once again we were the first to arrive and, just like those who followed, we then had to kick our heels until midday, which is when the nice BW man comes along and unlocks the locks. He also oversees the operation of the locks so as to ensure only the minimum amount of water runs through them. It seems that, whilst restoration work is still ongoing, there is a serious risk of disruption to local wildlife should the flow of water become excessive.
The rules concerning the number of boats allowed through are very strictly enforced, as one pair of holiday boaters were to discover. No amount of wheedling or cajoling, either to the lock operator or by mobile phone to his office, was going to change that. So, they were sent packing until next year, at which time I’m pretty sure they would be bringing along a new addition to the family.
About half a mile below the locks is a water point and mooring area called the Weston Branch, which is where we pulled in for the rest of the day and night. The total run to Maesbury Marsh is just six miles, plus another mile to the turning point at Crofts Mill Lift Bridge and, having been warned that, due to speed restrictions along certain stretches of the canal, the journey would take a further 4 ½ hours, we decided to leave it until Saturday morning. This had a dual effect in that we would be able to undertake most of the trip without meeting other boats along the way.
And so it came to pass that the good ship Shiralee set sail at 08.00 on Saturday morning. But first we had to top up with water. As predicted by Mr. BW, it took us just about 4 ½ hours, including the turn around and return to Maesbury Marsh. Certain parts of the canal have lower speed restrictions than other canals, some of which are down to 3 mph, whilst others are set at 2 mph.
The total length down to Newtown is not far short of 35 miles, and there are two other sections that have now been restored. Now, since most, if not all of the canal is designated a wildlife sanctuary, the conservationists are, quite rightly, concerned about keeping the disruption to a minimum whilst restoration work is carried out. Hence the speed restrictions and the sheer wildness of the seven mile stretch to Maesbury Marsh. When we first travelled down the Aylesbury Arm of the GUC, we were amazed to find a stretch of about a mile that appeared to be very narrow due to canal side reed growth, but that has nothing on this stretch of the Montgomery, and it’s virtually the same length.
Once the canal is fully restored, which could take a few years yet and uses volunteer labour for much of the work, it will certainly be worth another visit. Hopefully the speed restrictions will be lifted by then.
Tomorrow morning, hopefully as early as seven o/clock, we’ll be making our way back to Frankton Locks and the Llangollen Canal. We would hope to be first in line, as we were on the way down, but we have no idea how many boats are ahead of us at Queens Head, which is about two miles ahead. Even so, whatever happens, we won’t be out of this canal until well past midday, so we’ll be pulling in as soon as we can.
Wednesday 1st July 2009
On Monday we did indeed leave Maesbury Marsh early, at 06.45, so as to be one of the first to arrive at the bottom of Frankton Locks. It can take a while to pass through the four locks because the top two are in a staircase arrangement and the bottom two only have a short pound between them. If the water level is not controlled properly then those pounds can become very shallow and boats can ground. Which is why a lock keeper takes care of procedings.
As expected and despite our early departure, there was already another boat waiting to go through, but that had been there all night. Under normal circumstances only six boats are allowed through in any one day, but there are only moorings at the bottom to accommodate three, which makes little sense to me. Anyway, between 2 pm the previous day and 12 noon the current day, the water level still has to be controlled and that control is apparent by the bubbling and gurgling water at the bottom. This bubbling and gurgling is not very loud, at least not during the daytime when there is plenty of other sound around to muffle it somewhat. However, during the night, as the overnight boater will confirm, it’s a different story. He and his wife were more than happy when the locks finally opened.
We stayed at the top lock on Monday night and moved down to Ellesmere on Tuesday morning, for the most part in the rain. This was not unwelcome because, much like the rest of the UK, we’ve had some pretty hot and stifling weather, which I do not enjoy. However, even though the rain has a cooling effect, albeit temporarily, it’s no fun cruising in it. And besides, my so-called shower-proof jacket is not up to the job and never has been. Just how these outdoor clothing suppliers get away with selling these things, at such exorbitant prices, is beyond me.
Yesterday we again paid a visit to the town of Ellesmere for shopping. It was still raining but, what the heck, we took a brolly with us, so there! It wasn’t my intention to visit any of the pubs there but, needs must when the devil drives, as they say. As a fully registered diabetic I am well aware of the dangers of hot weather. During such time the body uses Insulin much faster but, as I’m never prepared for such eventualities, and as I started feeling a little peculiar just as we arrived opposite the Black Lion pub, I left Wifey to continue shopping whilst I popped in for a bite to eat. Naturally this was accompanied by a packet of Bacon Fries and a packet of crisps. This combination did the trick, but it took several minutes for me to cool down and feel normal. The Stella Artois, which accompanied the snacks was, I felt, absolutely essential because, although I thought it was a problem with Insulin, I could have been wrong as it may well have been a touch of heat exhaustion. Covering both bases seemed perfectly logical to me.
Today we’re leaving a little later than normal because we have to call in at the marina next door for a pump-out, diesel and a gas bottle. I’m not sure where we’re stopping for the night but, as usual, you’ll know just as soon as I do.
Friday 3rd July 2009
Thankfully the weather has changed, well, thankfully from my point of view. As a young man, serving Queen and Country, I thoroughly enjoyed the hot weather and, believe me, for the two years I spent in Malta with the RAF, the summers were pretty hot. Today though is cloudy, somewhat cooler, although still humid, and it’s raining. Wifey has gone shopping and the nearest shop here at Whichurch, without going into town, is a good walk away, so she’ll probably come back looking like a drowned rat. We bought a couple of so-called “shower-proof” jackets in Aylesbury some time ago. What a joke! In any kind of sustained rain, even if it’s light, the water soon finds its way underneath.
Anyway, having spent Wednesday night besides Blakes Mere, which is just outside Ellesmere, we moved on to Port Whixall on Thursday morning. Although it’s not shown on the map, this is between bridges 43 and 44 and is a designated mooring spot. The attraction for boaters is the Shop in the Garden, which borders onto the canal towpath. Part of the house has been turned over to a small grocery store and sells cakes and pies along with bread, milk and other such things. The gardens are quite extensive and well cared for and it’s one of the prettiest places along the Llangollen.
Now, having managed at last to get online, which I haven’t been able to do for quite some time, I’ll post this blog.
Have a good weekend folks.
Until next time.
Luv and stuff from Dave, Sheila and Rusty, our trusty hound.
Monday, 22 June 2009
Whitchurch to Llangollen
Whitchurch to Llangollen
Tuesday 16th June 2009
After spending a peaceful night at Whitchurch, without benefit of TV, since there was nothing worth watching on any of the terrestrial channels, we left just before 8 o/clock, with no clear decision as to how far we were going. In the event, after consulting the map whilst cruising very slowly, we settled on Platt Lane which, according to the book, has a pub called The Waggoners Inn. Sadly this pub is now defunct, as Wifey discovered when she took Rusty for a walk. This is not a problem really, but it would have been nice to have had a pub lunch for a change.
Now, how many of you listen to Wogan in the morning? We do because we like to catch up with the news at 7.30 and/or 8 o/clock and we like his banter. This morning he related a situation that I simply had to pass on. It goes something like this:
Imagine the scene in the offices of Bristol Zoo, where a member of staff has the telephone to his ear and is speaking to someone at Bristol City Council.
“Our car park attendant hasn’t turned up this morning and, despite telephoning him several times, he doesn’t appear to be at home. Could you send us a temporary replacement until we contact him?”
The gentleman at the Council asks him to hold whilst he checks this out and returns to the telephone to say, “I’m sorry, there seems to be some mistake, your car park is run from your end, we do not supply an attendant”
“But, our attendant has been employed by the Council for six days a week for the past 23 years, collecting about £400 per day”
I’m sorry sir,” says the Council person, “he’s not our employee, he’s yours, we have no record of any member of our staff covering your car park.”
Ooops! By my calculations this bogus car park attendant has secreted away almost £3,000,000, with no tax liability and has done a runner. What an absolutely fabulous scam!! Boom! Boom!
You do the math. £400 per day, six days a week, 52 weeks a year – even if he takes annual holidays and subs it to a mate – he’s been on £2,400 a week or £124,800 a year. Wow!
This scam compares very favourably to the one that took Littlewoods Pools to the cleaners when Australian football was introduced during our summer months. Somebody, who had relatives in Oz, suddenly realised that, due to time differences between us and them, he only needed to wait for the results to be ‘phoned over and he could take his completed coupon to Littlewoods office in London, pay his fee and collect a jackpot. I believe he did this for several weeks before owning up to the scam. But, since it came within the rules of gambling, he kept the money.
I should be so lucky!
Wednesday 17th June 2009
Today dawned cloudy and threatening rain but, as it hadn’t rained by 8 o/clock, we decided to get moving. Just two hours and 4 ½ miles later and we moored up at Hampton bank Bridge, by which time the heavens had opened up.
The Llangollen Canal, which resulted from original plans published in 1791, for a canal running from the Mersey to the Severn, actually covers 46 miles from Hurleston Junction, on the Shropshire Union, to Llantysilio. There are several branches along the way, the longest of which is the Montgomery Canal, which is 32 miles long from Frankton Junction to Freestone Lock, although only 6 miles is navigable and ends just past Crofts Mill Lift Bridge. Looking at the map there are other sections that are also navigable but, since they are somewhat isolated, until somebody opens up the rest of the unnavigable stretches, they are worse than useless.
The supply of water for the canal comes mainly from the River Dee, although much of it also comes from runoff from fields after heavy rain. The fact that the canal has a current makes it quite unique. However, as we discovered 15 years ago, when we hired a boat from Anglo-Welsh at Bunbury, in a dry season you’d be hard pressed to complete the trip. We were obliged to turn shortly after Chirk and didn’t make it to Llangollen.
Over those intervening years many improvements have been made, courtesy of the Shropshire Union Canal Society and there are now many more areas for mooring. Thus far we have taken 10 days to get to this point, which is 14 miles short of where we turned around all those years ago. From Anglo-Welsh at Bunbury, to that same turning point, is 40 miles, which we completed back then in a week, that’s an 80 mile round trip. Must have been bonkers. This time around we’re hoping to go the full distance.
Thursday 18th June 2009
Good afternoon from Ellesmere, that’s Ellesmere on the Llangollen as opposed to Ellesmere Port on the Shroppie, just in case you’re a little confused. No locks or lift bridges to worry about today, just the 87 yards or so tunnel a short distance from here.
We’re actually moored on the arm of the canal that ends in a small winding hole and basin and where the area looks to be preparing for redevelopment. At present a new Tesco store is being built and is due for opening on August 3rd this year. So, if they’ve got it right, we’ll be topping up when we come back this way.
The Post Office, which we visited this morning, has succeeded in finding a place in our Guinness Book or Records. It’s the first time we’ve been refused permission to have mail forwarded. All Sheila got for her enquiry was “Oh, you’ll have to ‘phone the Sorting Office”. A lot of use that would be if it was an emergency!
There’s quite a write-up about the town in our Nicholson Guide but, briefly it goes as follows: To the north east and east lie several meres, varying in size from The Mere, which is closest to the town, through Cole Mere, Blake Mere and White Mere. At the bottom of the arm is a old warehouse with the Shropshire Union Canal info on the side, which obviously dates back to the time when the 46 miles of this canal was still part of the Shroppie.
Everything a body could want by way of shops can be found in the centre, which appears to be quite old and careworn, with many buildings dating back to the 18th century. The bakery, if you’re passing this way, includes an excellent deli and the range of bread and pies, is well worth the visit. We had a bit of a spending spree, buying bread, a bread and butter pudding, individual pork pies, and a large pork pie with Shropshire Blue Cheese on top. We also topped up with bacon, eggs and sausages. Looking at the picture of the towns layout, there are at least four pubs close to the shops, one of which might benefit from a visit from us upon our return.
Friday 19th June 2009
Today dawned bright and sunny but, as expected, by the time Wifey returned from the shop, it had clouded over. Our plan today was for a short run of about 4 miles, during which we would stop at a boatyard for a pump out. This we did, although the trip was a little difficult at times with the strong headwind. We’re now moored up for the day between bridges 6W and 7W, which we take to mean west of the Montgomery Canal, which we’ll venture down upon our return.
This is another peaceful spot, marred only by the speeding holiday boaters. You would think they’d want a gentle cruise, but it seems all they care about is getting their moneys worth. Still, provided the boat is tied up securely, we don’t rock about too much.
Incidentally, having had several problems sending text messages, and assuming I eventually get to post this blog, I do not expect the sending of texts and access to the Internet to improve whilst we’re on the Llangollen. You have been warned. If you don’t always receive our daily texts, or it seems a long while between blogs, it’s no fault of ours. Strangely though, Sheila’s ‘phone seems to be more reliable than mine. Hers is pay as you go with orange, whilst I’m paying £15 a month with 3G. There must be a moral there, but I’m darned if I can see it.
Tomorrow we’re off to Chirk to pick up our mail and fill a prescription at the local chemists. We’ll probably spend a couple of nights there and sample a local watering hole on Sunday.
Saturday 20th June 2009
What a day! We left nice and early, just before eight and, after one stop for a cuppa and another, at Chirk, for Sheila to pick up our mail, we finally came to a stop at Chirk Marina, a total of seven miles, taking in two locks, Chirk Aqueduct and Chirk Tunnel, all of which took us until 12.45. The reason for taking almost five hours was, as you might have guessed, holiday boats.
Chirk Aqueduct, which is only about half the length of the famous Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, leads into a circular basin, at which boats can stop until it is clear to proceed. We followed a holiday boat across the aquaduct and, when we both arrived at the basin, had to wait for boats to emerge from the tunnel. Amazingly there were six boats coming through at the same time, five of which were holiday boats or day boats. You can imagine the delay that caused.
We had hoped to be able to stay at the moorings outside the tunnel, but it was so gloomy, with trees both sides, that we decided to push on. Which is why we now find ourselves at the marina. Tomorrow we’ll probably go on to Sun Trevor Bridge where there’s a canal side pub.
Unfortunately, being as far out in the sticks as we are, we can’t get online. Hopefully I’ll have more luck tomorrow.
If you’re in need of a bit of a chuckle, you only have to turn to the antics of the multi-nationals who look after our money. We recently arranged a Standing Order with the Halifax, which was for our annual payments to the Residential Boat Owners Association, from her on in shortened to RBOA. The initial payment, as I’m a pensioner now, was for £12, followed by annual payments in the same sum.
We received an email some time ago from a nice lady at the RBOA to say that our bank had made a first payment of £21 and offered to send us a cheque for the balance of £9. I emailed back and said we’d sort it out with the Halifax and would get back to her as soon as it was sorted.
Sheila attempted to sort it out by ‘phone, but was told she would have to fill in a form at a branch somewhere. She tried to do so at Whitchurch, without success because, as the lady pointed out, the person who deals with such matters was not available. How hard can it be?
Anyway, Wifey did succeed in altering the following years payment by going online, but that still left the outstanding £9, and so I again emailed RBOA asking for the cheque. So far so good.
We collected our mail today from the post office at Chirk and found a letter from the Halifax, which said, and I quote: “Thank you for your recent standing order instruction in favour of Residential Boat Owners. This has been set up as requested. Please check the following details:
Amount: £12.00 (initial payment today)
Start Date: 01/05/2010
Frequency: Monthly
Honestly, you couldn’t make it up. We’re now going to cancel the wretched standing order, just as soon as we can get online, and make our future payments, annually, by cheque. Ah well, you can’t win them all I suppose!
Monday 22nd June 2009
Hi from Llangollen. Yesterday we moved on to bridge 41 and the pub called Sun Trevor, which is well past the town of Trevor and lies in the Vale of Llangollen. We paid a visit to the pub and, let me tell you, it’s many years since I had a drink in a Welsh pub. The last time was when Uncle Ron was still alive and I got a real telling off from Auntie Bob for bringing Ron home in a drunken stupor. He’d actually only drunk half a pint of bitter, but he was a very good actor and had Bob convinced. Nasty old bugger!
We’re now moored up on the BW wharf here and took a walk into town this morning. It’s also quite a few years since we’ve visited Llangollen; maybe five or six; and that was when we took Auntie Bob to Ruthin. Although, every time we visited with her we would pass the town, because it lies on the A5, which goes all the way to Anglesey.
We’re staying here for two nights because, once again and after just 12 days, we need to give the batteries a charge from the mains. Actually, for only £6 per night, with free electricity, we think it’s very reasonable. At Nantwich it cost us£15 per night.
Although it was pretty hard going for me to walk into town, which is very hilly, I’m hoping to do so again tomorrow so as to take some photographs. This really is a very scenic town with the River Dee running through it. The weather has brightened up this afternoon, so we’re hoping it will stay fine for tomorrow. Unfortunately, as mush as we would like to stay longer, we’re restricted to two nights. This is so that, especially in the holiday season, everybody gets the opportunity to spend a couple of days here.
Just a little way down from here is a horse drawn boat that takes passengers to the famous Horseshoe Falls. Well, it takes them almost all the way, but they have to walk a short way. There’s also a steam train that goes to Corwen , which is another place we would pass through on the way to Aunties and it’s about nine miles away as the train goes.
The canal is not navigable by canal boat after Llangollen, but the channel does continue on to Llantysilio, passing a country hotel and a chain bridge over the River Dee.At Horseshoe Falls a large semi-circular weir across the Dee, built by Thomas Telford, provides the water which is constantly passed into the canal. It then flows past Llangollen and the aqueduct, right back down to Hurleston Reservoir to the tune of 12 million gallons a day.
Well, that’s about it for this blog.
On Wednesday we’ll be making our way back to Hurleston Junction, which should take us about three weeks. From here to our previous moorings we’ll have to navigate through two stretches of canal that narrow down to just one boats width. One is 500 metres long and the other is 300 metres. The 500 metre stretch doesn’t have any passing places, so Sheila will walk ahead to see if anything is coming our way. If it is and they are already in the narrow section, she’ll have to phone and tell me to wait. If there’s nowt coming, she’ll also have to let me know.
On the way through those two sections this morning, we were fortunate enough to have other people walking along to warn us of another boat being in the narrow section. On Wednesday though, as we’ll be leaving quite early, we may not be so lucky. We’ll hope for the best. Good fun this cruising!
Cheers for now.
Dave, Sheila and Rusty.
Tuesday 16th June 2009
After spending a peaceful night at Whitchurch, without benefit of TV, since there was nothing worth watching on any of the terrestrial channels, we left just before 8 o/clock, with no clear decision as to how far we were going. In the event, after consulting the map whilst cruising very slowly, we settled on Platt Lane which, according to the book, has a pub called The Waggoners Inn. Sadly this pub is now defunct, as Wifey discovered when she took Rusty for a walk. This is not a problem really, but it would have been nice to have had a pub lunch for a change.
Now, how many of you listen to Wogan in the morning? We do because we like to catch up with the news at 7.30 and/or 8 o/clock and we like his banter. This morning he related a situation that I simply had to pass on. It goes something like this:
Imagine the scene in the offices of Bristol Zoo, where a member of staff has the telephone to his ear and is speaking to someone at Bristol City Council.
“Our car park attendant hasn’t turned up this morning and, despite telephoning him several times, he doesn’t appear to be at home. Could you send us a temporary replacement until we contact him?”
The gentleman at the Council asks him to hold whilst he checks this out and returns to the telephone to say, “I’m sorry, there seems to be some mistake, your car park is run from your end, we do not supply an attendant”
“But, our attendant has been employed by the Council for six days a week for the past 23 years, collecting about £400 per day”
I’m sorry sir,” says the Council person, “he’s not our employee, he’s yours, we have no record of any member of our staff covering your car park.”
Ooops! By my calculations this bogus car park attendant has secreted away almost £3,000,000, with no tax liability and has done a runner. What an absolutely fabulous scam!! Boom! Boom!
You do the math. £400 per day, six days a week, 52 weeks a year – even if he takes annual holidays and subs it to a mate – he’s been on £2,400 a week or £124,800 a year. Wow!
This scam compares very favourably to the one that took Littlewoods Pools to the cleaners when Australian football was introduced during our summer months. Somebody, who had relatives in Oz, suddenly realised that, due to time differences between us and them, he only needed to wait for the results to be ‘phoned over and he could take his completed coupon to Littlewoods office in London, pay his fee and collect a jackpot. I believe he did this for several weeks before owning up to the scam. But, since it came within the rules of gambling, he kept the money.
I should be so lucky!
Wednesday 17th June 2009
Today dawned cloudy and threatening rain but, as it hadn’t rained by 8 o/clock, we decided to get moving. Just two hours and 4 ½ miles later and we moored up at Hampton bank Bridge, by which time the heavens had opened up.
The Llangollen Canal, which resulted from original plans published in 1791, for a canal running from the Mersey to the Severn, actually covers 46 miles from Hurleston Junction, on the Shropshire Union, to Llantysilio. There are several branches along the way, the longest of which is the Montgomery Canal, which is 32 miles long from Frankton Junction to Freestone Lock, although only 6 miles is navigable and ends just past Crofts Mill Lift Bridge. Looking at the map there are other sections that are also navigable but, since they are somewhat isolated, until somebody opens up the rest of the unnavigable stretches, they are worse than useless.
The supply of water for the canal comes mainly from the River Dee, although much of it also comes from runoff from fields after heavy rain. The fact that the canal has a current makes it quite unique. However, as we discovered 15 years ago, when we hired a boat from Anglo-Welsh at Bunbury, in a dry season you’d be hard pressed to complete the trip. We were obliged to turn shortly after Chirk and didn’t make it to Llangollen.
Over those intervening years many improvements have been made, courtesy of the Shropshire Union Canal Society and there are now many more areas for mooring. Thus far we have taken 10 days to get to this point, which is 14 miles short of where we turned around all those years ago. From Anglo-Welsh at Bunbury, to that same turning point, is 40 miles, which we completed back then in a week, that’s an 80 mile round trip. Must have been bonkers. This time around we’re hoping to go the full distance.
Thursday 18th June 2009
Good afternoon from Ellesmere, that’s Ellesmere on the Llangollen as opposed to Ellesmere Port on the Shroppie, just in case you’re a little confused. No locks or lift bridges to worry about today, just the 87 yards or so tunnel a short distance from here.
We’re actually moored on the arm of the canal that ends in a small winding hole and basin and where the area looks to be preparing for redevelopment. At present a new Tesco store is being built and is due for opening on August 3rd this year. So, if they’ve got it right, we’ll be topping up when we come back this way.
The Post Office, which we visited this morning, has succeeded in finding a place in our Guinness Book or Records. It’s the first time we’ve been refused permission to have mail forwarded. All Sheila got for her enquiry was “Oh, you’ll have to ‘phone the Sorting Office”. A lot of use that would be if it was an emergency!
There’s quite a write-up about the town in our Nicholson Guide but, briefly it goes as follows: To the north east and east lie several meres, varying in size from The Mere, which is closest to the town, through Cole Mere, Blake Mere and White Mere. At the bottom of the arm is a old warehouse with the Shropshire Union Canal info on the side, which obviously dates back to the time when the 46 miles of this canal was still part of the Shroppie.
Everything a body could want by way of shops can be found in the centre, which appears to be quite old and careworn, with many buildings dating back to the 18th century. The bakery, if you’re passing this way, includes an excellent deli and the range of bread and pies, is well worth the visit. We had a bit of a spending spree, buying bread, a bread and butter pudding, individual pork pies, and a large pork pie with Shropshire Blue Cheese on top. We also topped up with bacon, eggs and sausages. Looking at the picture of the towns layout, there are at least four pubs close to the shops, one of which might benefit from a visit from us upon our return.
Friday 19th June 2009
Today dawned bright and sunny but, as expected, by the time Wifey returned from the shop, it had clouded over. Our plan today was for a short run of about 4 miles, during which we would stop at a boatyard for a pump out. This we did, although the trip was a little difficult at times with the strong headwind. We’re now moored up for the day between bridges 6W and 7W, which we take to mean west of the Montgomery Canal, which we’ll venture down upon our return.
This is another peaceful spot, marred only by the speeding holiday boaters. You would think they’d want a gentle cruise, but it seems all they care about is getting their moneys worth. Still, provided the boat is tied up securely, we don’t rock about too much.
Incidentally, having had several problems sending text messages, and assuming I eventually get to post this blog, I do not expect the sending of texts and access to the Internet to improve whilst we’re on the Llangollen. You have been warned. If you don’t always receive our daily texts, or it seems a long while between blogs, it’s no fault of ours. Strangely though, Sheila’s ‘phone seems to be more reliable than mine. Hers is pay as you go with orange, whilst I’m paying £15 a month with 3G. There must be a moral there, but I’m darned if I can see it.
Tomorrow we’re off to Chirk to pick up our mail and fill a prescription at the local chemists. We’ll probably spend a couple of nights there and sample a local watering hole on Sunday.
Saturday 20th June 2009
What a day! We left nice and early, just before eight and, after one stop for a cuppa and another, at Chirk, for Sheila to pick up our mail, we finally came to a stop at Chirk Marina, a total of seven miles, taking in two locks, Chirk Aqueduct and Chirk Tunnel, all of which took us until 12.45. The reason for taking almost five hours was, as you might have guessed, holiday boats.
Chirk Aqueduct, which is only about half the length of the famous Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, leads into a circular basin, at which boats can stop until it is clear to proceed. We followed a holiday boat across the aquaduct and, when we both arrived at the basin, had to wait for boats to emerge from the tunnel. Amazingly there were six boats coming through at the same time, five of which were holiday boats or day boats. You can imagine the delay that caused.
We had hoped to be able to stay at the moorings outside the tunnel, but it was so gloomy, with trees both sides, that we decided to push on. Which is why we now find ourselves at the marina. Tomorrow we’ll probably go on to Sun Trevor Bridge where there’s a canal side pub.
Unfortunately, being as far out in the sticks as we are, we can’t get online. Hopefully I’ll have more luck tomorrow.
If you’re in need of a bit of a chuckle, you only have to turn to the antics of the multi-nationals who look after our money. We recently arranged a Standing Order with the Halifax, which was for our annual payments to the Residential Boat Owners Association, from her on in shortened to RBOA. The initial payment, as I’m a pensioner now, was for £12, followed by annual payments in the same sum.
We received an email some time ago from a nice lady at the RBOA to say that our bank had made a first payment of £21 and offered to send us a cheque for the balance of £9. I emailed back and said we’d sort it out with the Halifax and would get back to her as soon as it was sorted.
Sheila attempted to sort it out by ‘phone, but was told she would have to fill in a form at a branch somewhere. She tried to do so at Whitchurch, without success because, as the lady pointed out, the person who deals with such matters was not available. How hard can it be?
Anyway, Wifey did succeed in altering the following years payment by going online, but that still left the outstanding £9, and so I again emailed RBOA asking for the cheque. So far so good.
We collected our mail today from the post office at Chirk and found a letter from the Halifax, which said, and I quote: “Thank you for your recent standing order instruction in favour of Residential Boat Owners. This has been set up as requested. Please check the following details:
Amount: £12.00 (initial payment today)
Start Date: 01/05/2010
Frequency: Monthly
Honestly, you couldn’t make it up. We’re now going to cancel the wretched standing order, just as soon as we can get online, and make our future payments, annually, by cheque. Ah well, you can’t win them all I suppose!
Monday 22nd June 2009
Hi from Llangollen. Yesterday we moved on to bridge 41 and the pub called Sun Trevor, which is well past the town of Trevor and lies in the Vale of Llangollen. We paid a visit to the pub and, let me tell you, it’s many years since I had a drink in a Welsh pub. The last time was when Uncle Ron was still alive and I got a real telling off from Auntie Bob for bringing Ron home in a drunken stupor. He’d actually only drunk half a pint of bitter, but he was a very good actor and had Bob convinced. Nasty old bugger!
We’re now moored up on the BW wharf here and took a walk into town this morning. It’s also quite a few years since we’ve visited Llangollen; maybe five or six; and that was when we took Auntie Bob to Ruthin. Although, every time we visited with her we would pass the town, because it lies on the A5, which goes all the way to Anglesey.
We’re staying here for two nights because, once again and after just 12 days, we need to give the batteries a charge from the mains. Actually, for only £6 per night, with free electricity, we think it’s very reasonable. At Nantwich it cost us£15 per night.
Although it was pretty hard going for me to walk into town, which is very hilly, I’m hoping to do so again tomorrow so as to take some photographs. This really is a very scenic town with the River Dee running through it. The weather has brightened up this afternoon, so we’re hoping it will stay fine for tomorrow. Unfortunately, as mush as we would like to stay longer, we’re restricted to two nights. This is so that, especially in the holiday season, everybody gets the opportunity to spend a couple of days here.
Just a little way down from here is a horse drawn boat that takes passengers to the famous Horseshoe Falls. Well, it takes them almost all the way, but they have to walk a short way. There’s also a steam train that goes to Corwen , which is another place we would pass through on the way to Aunties and it’s about nine miles away as the train goes.
The canal is not navigable by canal boat after Llangollen, but the channel does continue on to Llantysilio, passing a country hotel and a chain bridge over the River Dee.At Horseshoe Falls a large semi-circular weir across the Dee, built by Thomas Telford, provides the water which is constantly passed into the canal. It then flows past Llangollen and the aqueduct, right back down to Hurleston Reservoir to the tune of 12 million gallons a day.
Well, that’s about it for this blog.
On Wednesday we’ll be making our way back to Hurleston Junction, which should take us about three weeks. From here to our previous moorings we’ll have to navigate through two stretches of canal that narrow down to just one boats width. One is 500 metres long and the other is 300 metres. The 500 metre stretch doesn’t have any passing places, so Sheila will walk ahead to see if anything is coming our way. If it is and they are already in the narrow section, she’ll have to phone and tell me to wait. If there’s nowt coming, she’ll also have to let me know.
On the way through those two sections this morning, we were fortunate enough to have other people walking along to warn us of another boat being in the narrow section. On Wednesday though, as we’ll be leaving quite early, we may not be so lucky. We’ll hope for the best. Good fun this cruising!
Cheers for now.
Dave, Sheila and Rusty.
Monday, 15 June 2009
Hurleston Junction to Whitchurch
Hurleston Junction to Whitchurch
Monday 8th June 2009
You may remember from my last blog, how I said that we’d been running the heater, at least twice a day since Thursday and that it seemed to be working just fine. This morning, in accordance with Sod’s Law, I switched it on and nothing happened.
It just so happened that we’d decided to go to Nantwich for diesel and pump-out prior to tackling the Llangollen, so off we trotted. Nick, the guy who serviced the heating last September, was there to check out the batteries, of which we have six for domestic use and one for the engine starter. Ever single domestic battery was at very low power, several as low as 50 %, so we were now faced with a problem.
According to Nick, simply relying on the alternator to keep them topped up, especially as we live on board, is not enough. Apparently the do need a good charge from a 240 volt domestic line otherwise they simply deteriorate over time. Also, living on board, as we do, it’s not unusual, especially if relying on the alternator, for the batteries to be in need of replacement after two or three years.
Anyway, after having a chat with the manager of the yard, we moored up by a power point and will be here for two nights. On Wednesday morning Nick will stop by and check the batteries again. Hopefully they’ll be as near to fully charged as makes no difference.
The moral of this story is that, when cruising find a boatyard or marina that allows overnight moorings and give the batteries a good boost. We’ll probably have to do so about once a month or so, otherwise, at £70 to £80 a go, we’re looking at between £420 and £480 to replace them all.
Sheila, as was her intention once we’d decided to stop here to have the batteries checked, has popped off to Nantwich for a little shopping. Actually, the one good thing to come out of this is that I can have an ice cream. As you know, I don’t get to walk very far these days and, asking Wifey to bring one back from shopping would be pretty dumb. But this place has a chandlery that does a pretty good selection and it’s only a short walk away. Yummee!!
Wednesday 10th June 2009
Guess what, we’re back at Hurleston Junction having spent two nights at the marina in Nantwich. We went there on Monday in order to have our heating system checked which, as you know, has been giving us a bit of trouble of late. Nick Bancroft, the engineer who serviced it last September, was pretty sure the heating was OK and suspected that the batteries were not sufficiently charged. Unfortunately he was proved correct, and so we stayed there for two nights, with our inverter/charger hitched up to the mains. This improved things quite a bit, but the batteries still need a bit more of a charge. This we will do on our way down the Llangollen and again on our way to our moorings. With luck our six months stay there will fully charge them.
It is really tipping it down with rain at present, but we’re hoping the weather improves by tomorrow morning so we can start making our way up that Welsh stretch of water.
Thursday 11th June 2009
Hi there good people, and a very good day to you all. We are, at last, on the Llangollen Canal and moored up just past bridge 12. We spent yesterday afternoon and evening at Hurleston Junction, which joins this canal with the Shroppie, having finally received a clean bill of health where our batteries are concerned. We may have to stop at another marina on our way home, just to make sure they are still OK, but that’s really no hardship.
I received something of a shock today, from my surgery in Harlow no less. I placed a repeat prescription request online yesterday and was told today, by telephone from the person who sorts out such things that, unless I have a Diabetic Check Up immediately, my doctor will not issue further medication. The stupid man must have got out of bed on the wrong side, because his behaviour could cause serious problems. Without insulin I could quite possibly lapse into a diabetic coma. This is especially true since he’s also refused me the test strips that tell me how my blood glucose levels are and how much insulin I need to inject.
I now have precisely 20 days worth of test strips and about 35 days of insulin. However, after the 20 days it really doesn’t matter how much insulin I have left, I won’t be able to inject it for fear of overdoing it. In short, despite my GP being happy to write prescriptions for three months at a time in 2007 and 2008, since he refuses to do so in 2009, I’m pretty much stuffed.
So, what to do? Well, I’ve emailed back to the person in charge of medication, asking her to explain to my dear doctor, that I had a check up shortly before we left in April and that, if he still refuses, I will have to go to a local GP, explain the situation and hope he or she will write a prescription. In fact many live aboard boaters who continuously cruise the waterways, don’t even have a regular GP and simply register with the nearest one, on a temporary basis, then move on to the next one. Not an ideal situation, I agree, but the only alternative left open to some folks. Once we get to Pillings Lock Marina we will register with a new GP and, hopefully, he’ll be a sensible fellow who understands the quirks and foibles of us crazy boaters.
It would be a crying shame, don’t you think, if we were to allow a jumped up, high and mighty, gold dripping GP to spoil our oh so relaxing lifestyle?
Saturday 13th June 2009
Well, the problem with my sill GP is sorted. Knowing how low I am on certain medication, he has agreed to write a prescription, but it comes at an enormous price. I now have to email my blood glucose readings once a month, which covers his rear end at a legal level. The fact that he was totally unconcerned about the legal aspect last year and the year before, doesn’t seem to matter. Naturally it’s all my fault for swanning off into the wild blue yonder without so much as a by your leave. He emphasised the fact that, just as soon as we return to Harlow, we must make appointments to see him for all the usual tests. Sadly we will be unable to comply since we’ll be in Leicestershire by then. All’s well that ends well then!
Today, having spent two very peaceful days and nights at our previous moorings, we’re now at Wrenbury, just before the first lift bridge, of which there are several along the Llangollen. Fifteen years ago, when we hired a boat for a week, these bridges were hand operated. But, since the Shropshire Union Canal Society took it in hand, most are now operated by using a windlass or electrically.
Apparently one of the canal-side pubs has been converted from a warehouse, whils the former mill is now occupied by a boatyard. We walked into the village this morning and, I must say, it really is a delightful place. The walk from the canal took us through the churchyard and onto the main thoroughfare, where we turned left to find the Village Shop cum Post Office. I was surprised to see, along the wall outside, an enclosure with differing sizes of gas bottles, along with coal, kindling and logs. The shop also had a pretty good assortment of foodstuffs, including pies and bread and, most welcoming, an ice cream cabinet.
As with the Shroppie there are plenty of good moorings along this canal, all with proper mooring rings set in concrete. They also seem to be much closer together than on other canals, catering, I suppose, for all the various boat lengths. On most canals, even where they have rings, the distances between them often mean having to tie one rope to a ring and the other to one of our hooks.
We had thought to move along from here to the canal-side pubs but, when Wifey returned from walking the dog, she told me that there’s a campsite by one of them, which doesn’t bode good for noise levels, especially after the pubs turn out. So, here we will stay until tomorrow when we’ll head off to Willeymoor Lock where there’s another pub called the Willeymoor Lock Tavern. Perhaps we’ll give one of the Wrenbury pubs a look in on our way back, but only if it’s midweek when many of the campers will have gone home.
Monday 15th June 2009
We spent yesterday at Willeymoor Lock as you all know, and we strolled down to the eponymous public house at lunchtime. The pub is right by the lock, with tables and chairs and parasols, so we could sit and watch other boaters strutting their stuff for a change. At the end of the day we were the only people moored there for the night. I can’t think why, because it’s a really peaceful spot. I can’t say I was particularly pleased with the taste of my first two pints of Guinness though. It very rarely happens with Guinness, which is why I rarely drink anything else, but it had a bit of a twang to it. The third pint however was completely clear of the taste. I did mention it to the barmaid of course, but she couldn’t understand what the problem might be. The possibility of un-rinsed glasses could be a cause, what with the dishwashing liquids they use nowadays, or it could be whatever they clean their beer lines with. They really should learn to pull off a couple of pints before they open, especially if they have just cleaned the pipes through.
Anyway, this morning we set off for Whitchurch, which took us out of Cheshire and in to Shropshire once more. There’s a short arm that runs off the Llangollen and used to go right into town, but it’s now down to about 200 yards or so. It has a turning point; or winding hole, as they are correctly known; and this is about half way down the arm, so it’s simply a matter of turning around and mooring up ready for departure in the morning.
Incidentally, if you’re not familiar with canal boat terminology, there is a good reason for a winding hole to be so-called. That’s winding, as in wind with the ing on the end, not winding as in “ are you winding me up?” The name goes back to the days of horse drawn boats when certain parts of the canal were widened sufficient for a working boat to turn around if required. On a windy day the boater would use the wind to help him turn the boat. Depending on which direction the wind was blowing, he would pull his bow line and let the wind to push the much broader stern.
So, after seven locks, three of which were staircased with an attendant lock keeper, we finally arrived at the Whichurch Arm and prepared to catch the bus into town. Today I had my first experience of using my national bus pass and, I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. There’s nothing quite like getting something for nothing. It’s a bit like politicians expenses I suppose, only on a much smaller scale and all paid for by you, the tax payer. Good on yer I say!
Talking about politicians expenses, have you seen what the Kinnocks have been picking up during the 15 years as MEP’s! My God, the mind boggles and the blood boils. Their pension pots alone are astonishing. What a beautiful gravy train they’ve been on
Apart from the amount of pubs we walked past, Whitchurch is not unusual as towns go. It has all the usual mult-nationals, like Tesco, Smiths and Boots and so it doesn’t differ much from Harlow or Stortford. The locals are pretty friendly though. After shopping at Tesco we sat outside waiting for the bus and I struck up a conversation with an elderly woman who was waiting for the same bus as we were, although I didn’t know it at the time. Anyway, I offered her one of my fruit pastilles, which she happily popped into her mouth and we carried on chatting. Imagine our surprise when, just as we were about to get off, she said, “You’re on the canal then?” We said we were and she promptly handed me a packet of chocolate raisins. Now, that’s what I call friendly.
Being near a good sized town you would expect us to be able to access the Internet, and you’d be right. So, without further ado, I’ll post this blog. Have a good week all you working stiffs, and those who’ve quit the rat-race.
Love from Dave, Sheila and Rusty.
Monday 8th June 2009
You may remember from my last blog, how I said that we’d been running the heater, at least twice a day since Thursday and that it seemed to be working just fine. This morning, in accordance with Sod’s Law, I switched it on and nothing happened.
It just so happened that we’d decided to go to Nantwich for diesel and pump-out prior to tackling the Llangollen, so off we trotted. Nick, the guy who serviced the heating last September, was there to check out the batteries, of which we have six for domestic use and one for the engine starter. Ever single domestic battery was at very low power, several as low as 50 %, so we were now faced with a problem.
According to Nick, simply relying on the alternator to keep them topped up, especially as we live on board, is not enough. Apparently the do need a good charge from a 240 volt domestic line otherwise they simply deteriorate over time. Also, living on board, as we do, it’s not unusual, especially if relying on the alternator, for the batteries to be in need of replacement after two or three years.
Anyway, after having a chat with the manager of the yard, we moored up by a power point and will be here for two nights. On Wednesday morning Nick will stop by and check the batteries again. Hopefully they’ll be as near to fully charged as makes no difference.
The moral of this story is that, when cruising find a boatyard or marina that allows overnight moorings and give the batteries a good boost. We’ll probably have to do so about once a month or so, otherwise, at £70 to £80 a go, we’re looking at between £420 and £480 to replace them all.
Sheila, as was her intention once we’d decided to stop here to have the batteries checked, has popped off to Nantwich for a little shopping. Actually, the one good thing to come out of this is that I can have an ice cream. As you know, I don’t get to walk very far these days and, asking Wifey to bring one back from shopping would be pretty dumb. But this place has a chandlery that does a pretty good selection and it’s only a short walk away. Yummee!!
Wednesday 10th June 2009
Guess what, we’re back at Hurleston Junction having spent two nights at the marina in Nantwich. We went there on Monday in order to have our heating system checked which, as you know, has been giving us a bit of trouble of late. Nick Bancroft, the engineer who serviced it last September, was pretty sure the heating was OK and suspected that the batteries were not sufficiently charged. Unfortunately he was proved correct, and so we stayed there for two nights, with our inverter/charger hitched up to the mains. This improved things quite a bit, but the batteries still need a bit more of a charge. This we will do on our way down the Llangollen and again on our way to our moorings. With luck our six months stay there will fully charge them.
It is really tipping it down with rain at present, but we’re hoping the weather improves by tomorrow morning so we can start making our way up that Welsh stretch of water.
Thursday 11th June 2009
Hi there good people, and a very good day to you all. We are, at last, on the Llangollen Canal and moored up just past bridge 12. We spent yesterday afternoon and evening at Hurleston Junction, which joins this canal with the Shroppie, having finally received a clean bill of health where our batteries are concerned. We may have to stop at another marina on our way home, just to make sure they are still OK, but that’s really no hardship.
I received something of a shock today, from my surgery in Harlow no less. I placed a repeat prescription request online yesterday and was told today, by telephone from the person who sorts out such things that, unless I have a Diabetic Check Up immediately, my doctor will not issue further medication. The stupid man must have got out of bed on the wrong side, because his behaviour could cause serious problems. Without insulin I could quite possibly lapse into a diabetic coma. This is especially true since he’s also refused me the test strips that tell me how my blood glucose levels are and how much insulin I need to inject.
I now have precisely 20 days worth of test strips and about 35 days of insulin. However, after the 20 days it really doesn’t matter how much insulin I have left, I won’t be able to inject it for fear of overdoing it. In short, despite my GP being happy to write prescriptions for three months at a time in 2007 and 2008, since he refuses to do so in 2009, I’m pretty much stuffed.
So, what to do? Well, I’ve emailed back to the person in charge of medication, asking her to explain to my dear doctor, that I had a check up shortly before we left in April and that, if he still refuses, I will have to go to a local GP, explain the situation and hope he or she will write a prescription. In fact many live aboard boaters who continuously cruise the waterways, don’t even have a regular GP and simply register with the nearest one, on a temporary basis, then move on to the next one. Not an ideal situation, I agree, but the only alternative left open to some folks. Once we get to Pillings Lock Marina we will register with a new GP and, hopefully, he’ll be a sensible fellow who understands the quirks and foibles of us crazy boaters.
It would be a crying shame, don’t you think, if we were to allow a jumped up, high and mighty, gold dripping GP to spoil our oh so relaxing lifestyle?
Saturday 13th June 2009
Well, the problem with my sill GP is sorted. Knowing how low I am on certain medication, he has agreed to write a prescription, but it comes at an enormous price. I now have to email my blood glucose readings once a month, which covers his rear end at a legal level. The fact that he was totally unconcerned about the legal aspect last year and the year before, doesn’t seem to matter. Naturally it’s all my fault for swanning off into the wild blue yonder without so much as a by your leave. He emphasised the fact that, just as soon as we return to Harlow, we must make appointments to see him for all the usual tests. Sadly we will be unable to comply since we’ll be in Leicestershire by then. All’s well that ends well then!
Today, having spent two very peaceful days and nights at our previous moorings, we’re now at Wrenbury, just before the first lift bridge, of which there are several along the Llangollen. Fifteen years ago, when we hired a boat for a week, these bridges were hand operated. But, since the Shropshire Union Canal Society took it in hand, most are now operated by using a windlass or electrically.
Apparently one of the canal-side pubs has been converted from a warehouse, whils the former mill is now occupied by a boatyard. We walked into the village this morning and, I must say, it really is a delightful place. The walk from the canal took us through the churchyard and onto the main thoroughfare, where we turned left to find the Village Shop cum Post Office. I was surprised to see, along the wall outside, an enclosure with differing sizes of gas bottles, along with coal, kindling and logs. The shop also had a pretty good assortment of foodstuffs, including pies and bread and, most welcoming, an ice cream cabinet.
As with the Shroppie there are plenty of good moorings along this canal, all with proper mooring rings set in concrete. They also seem to be much closer together than on other canals, catering, I suppose, for all the various boat lengths. On most canals, even where they have rings, the distances between them often mean having to tie one rope to a ring and the other to one of our hooks.
We had thought to move along from here to the canal-side pubs but, when Wifey returned from walking the dog, she told me that there’s a campsite by one of them, which doesn’t bode good for noise levels, especially after the pubs turn out. So, here we will stay until tomorrow when we’ll head off to Willeymoor Lock where there’s another pub called the Willeymoor Lock Tavern. Perhaps we’ll give one of the Wrenbury pubs a look in on our way back, but only if it’s midweek when many of the campers will have gone home.
Monday 15th June 2009
We spent yesterday at Willeymoor Lock as you all know, and we strolled down to the eponymous public house at lunchtime. The pub is right by the lock, with tables and chairs and parasols, so we could sit and watch other boaters strutting their stuff for a change. At the end of the day we were the only people moored there for the night. I can’t think why, because it’s a really peaceful spot. I can’t say I was particularly pleased with the taste of my first two pints of Guinness though. It very rarely happens with Guinness, which is why I rarely drink anything else, but it had a bit of a twang to it. The third pint however was completely clear of the taste. I did mention it to the barmaid of course, but she couldn’t understand what the problem might be. The possibility of un-rinsed glasses could be a cause, what with the dishwashing liquids they use nowadays, or it could be whatever they clean their beer lines with. They really should learn to pull off a couple of pints before they open, especially if they have just cleaned the pipes through.
Anyway, this morning we set off for Whitchurch, which took us out of Cheshire and in to Shropshire once more. There’s a short arm that runs off the Llangollen and used to go right into town, but it’s now down to about 200 yards or so. It has a turning point; or winding hole, as they are correctly known; and this is about half way down the arm, so it’s simply a matter of turning around and mooring up ready for departure in the morning.
Incidentally, if you’re not familiar with canal boat terminology, there is a good reason for a winding hole to be so-called. That’s winding, as in wind with the ing on the end, not winding as in “ are you winding me up?” The name goes back to the days of horse drawn boats when certain parts of the canal were widened sufficient for a working boat to turn around if required. On a windy day the boater would use the wind to help him turn the boat. Depending on which direction the wind was blowing, he would pull his bow line and let the wind to push the much broader stern.
So, after seven locks, three of which were staircased with an attendant lock keeper, we finally arrived at the Whichurch Arm and prepared to catch the bus into town. Today I had my first experience of using my national bus pass and, I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. There’s nothing quite like getting something for nothing. It’s a bit like politicians expenses I suppose, only on a much smaller scale and all paid for by you, the tax payer. Good on yer I say!
Talking about politicians expenses, have you seen what the Kinnocks have been picking up during the 15 years as MEP’s! My God, the mind boggles and the blood boils. Their pension pots alone are astonishing. What a beautiful gravy train they’ve been on
Apart from the amount of pubs we walked past, Whitchurch is not unusual as towns go. It has all the usual mult-nationals, like Tesco, Smiths and Boots and so it doesn’t differ much from Harlow or Stortford. The locals are pretty friendly though. After shopping at Tesco we sat outside waiting for the bus and I struck up a conversation with an elderly woman who was waiting for the same bus as we were, although I didn’t know it at the time. Anyway, I offered her one of my fruit pastilles, which she happily popped into her mouth and we carried on chatting. Imagine our surprise when, just as we were about to get off, she said, “You’re on the canal then?” We said we were and she promptly handed me a packet of chocolate raisins. Now, that’s what I call friendly.
Being near a good sized town you would expect us to be able to access the Internet, and you’d be right. So, without further ado, I’ll post this blog. Have a good week all you working stiffs, and those who’ve quit the rat-race.
Love from Dave, Sheila and Rusty.
Sunday, 7 June 2009
Christleton to Hurleston Junction
Sunday 30th May 2009
Hi from Christledon, where the weather is just great and we intend visiting the local Harvester, which is called The Old Trooper. No doubt we’ll discover how it came to be given such a name. Possibly something to do with the army, but we’ll have to wait and see.
We have spent many a happy hour in these particular establishments, one of which treated us very kindly when we became stranded during a snowstorm in the Pennines. This was during our days at The Village Shop in Kent, when we took a few days to visit a company in Stockport. Of course we didn’t make it to our destination and it was only through sheer luck that we spotted the hotels lights through the blinding snow. We booked in for just the one night but, with the snow settles to about three feet deep, and snowploughs unable to clear the way, the management put us up for a second night absolutely free of charge and fed and watered us too. And the moral of the story is, if you must get caught in a snowstorm, ensure there’s a Harvester hotel nearby!
5 pm on Sunday 30th May
Well, as promised, we partook of a small libation and victuals at the aforementioned Old Trooper, and very good it was too. The Guinness was just £2.90 a pint and the most excellent food, which consisted of, what they called “Kickin’ Garlic Chicken”, did have something of a chilli pepper bite to it and only cost £4.99. Now, I call that blooming amazing!
We arrived back at the Shiralee about 1.30 pm, since which time I’ve been on the laptop trying to track down permanent moorings for said boat. Moorings per se are pretty easy to find. Residential moorings on the other hand are well nigh impossible. There are so few of them around, and the number of new boats coming on line is going up in leaps and bounds, to the extent that, just as soon as moorings become available, they are snapped up.
All is not yet lost though, because I’ve found a marina on the Leicester Arm of the GUC that appears to have at least two moorings available. It is a proper marina and offers all the usual facilities and I’ve emailed them to find out how much per year and, more importantly, if they’re still available. So, watch this space, hopefully we’ll have some good news soon.
Monday 1st June 2009
Wow! It’s been a scorcher of a day and we’ve done quite a bit of cruising. Me and hot weather do not go together too well In my youth I absolutely loved it, especially my two years with the Royal Air Force in Malta. There it was shorts and flip-flops during summer. But, now that I’m older, overweight and suffering with dodgy knees and diabetes, it ain’t no fun.
Anyway, having cruised down to Chester from Christleton with Geoff and Val, we decided to go on to Ellesmere Port with them via the golf course, which is about six miles short of it. That was yesterday after a little shopping at Tesco in Chester.
So, this morning bright and early, around about our usual 8 o/clock, we sallied forth to E.P. and arrived about 10.15 or so. We had intended staying a couple of nights, which would have meant stumping up £10 for the privilege of going down two more locks to a secure basin. It was suggested to the girls that they walk down and check it out before parting with their cash. It’s just as well they did too. From what I could make of it, you will have to imagine the days when the canal was busy ferrying goods to the port for onward transportation to all points of the compass in bigger craft. Apparently the moorings were designed for big vessels, which meant that the edge of the wharf came about half way up our windows, which would have made it impossible to actually get off the boat. No steps or ladders available, so we would have been confined to barracks, s to speak.
Which is why you now find us back at the golf course six miles out of Ellesmere Port. What a disappointment, and that’s aside from the fact that we’ve spent almost five hours cruising for no good reason. Tomorrow then, it’s back through the staircase locks to Chester, where we’ll stay overnight.
Tuesday 2nd June 2009
Hello from Chester. Instead of returning to the moorings near Tesco, which are completely open and therefore pretty hot in this blazing June sunshine, we opted to moor about 250 yards down from the staircase locks. This stretch of water has a high rock-face towering over the towpath side, and a high bank with trees on the other, so we’re well shaded for most of the time. However, at this time, which is almost 3 pm, the sun is beating down on the boat from astern, so it’s now getting pretty warm in here. This is especially the case whilst sitting at the dinette typing this blog. With hot air rising it really is surprising the difference in temperature between here and my armchair.
And now on to the good news. We have managed to secure permanent moorings at Pillings Lock, which is on the Leicester Navigation of the Grand Union Canal. It’s about a mile north of Barrow-upon-Soar and 1 ½ miles south of Loughborough. You may remember our 10 day enforced stay in Kegworth Shallow Flood Lock in 2007, well this lock is on the same stretch of water but another 2 miles further on. The difference is that the marina does not flood and that’s because it too is next to a flood lock.
The marina has all facilities, including water and electricity next to the moorings and they also have a barge that comes to your boat should you need a pump-out or diesel. On site is a licensed café/restaurant and it has enough berths for about 300 boats, only about 80% of which are full. So, at this point in time we’re pretty chuffed with ourselves, not least because permanent marina moorings are not easily come by. We’re hoping to take up our position at the end of October. Cheers for now.
Thursday 4th June 2009
Well, we’re back at Bates Mill Bridge on the Shroppie, where we enjoyed a couple of drinks and snack today.
Yesterday we made our way back to Christleton from Chester but, to be honest, couldn’t really be bothered with the pub. Today has been a bit cooler, which suits me better than the blazing sunshine we’ve had over the past few days.
Last September, when we came down the Middlewich Branch of the Shroppie, we called in an engineer named Nick to give our heating system a service. These diesel fired systems can get pretty clogged up with soot and tar over a period of time, especially if they’re not run hard on a regular basis. Anyway, I always turn it on early in the morning and allow it to run through a complete cycle, as the manufacturers recommend.
Last year, when Nick serviced the system, I asked him to install an inline filter which, according to the people at a boatyard, should prevent the problem. But, it’s only nine months since Nick serviced it and the thing won’t run now. So, instead of going straight on to the Llangollen as planned, we’ll be going back to Nantwich, where Nick has his boatyard, and getting it sorted. What really galls me is that we were up that way only a week or so ago. It couldn’t have packed up then, could it?
Friday 5th June 2009
It took us 3 ½ hours to travel the six miles and six locks to Barbridge, which is the junction between the Shroppie and the Middlewich Branch of same. We’re hoping to stay at this mooring tonight and, quite possibly, tomorrow night, then move on and moor up opposite the The Olde Barbridge Inn and partake of a snifter or two on Sunday. If no suitable moorings are available then we’ll go on to Hurleston Junction, which joins the Shroppie to the Llangollen and stay there until Monday morning, at which time we’ll mosey along to Nantwich for repairs to the heating system. All this means of course, is that we’ll be a day or so late in entering the Llangollen. But that’s OK because we’ll be a couple of days behind any holiday makers, and that can’t be bad, either for my patience or peace of mind.
Saturday 6th June 2009
Well, here we are at Barbridge, it’s peeing down with rain and Wifey has taken the bus to Nantwich. We had intended for her to do that on Monday while the heating system is being serviced, but she decided to do it today and then, if she enjoys the experience, she’ll probably do it again on Monday.
So, since Wifey has gone off shopping, I thought I might, at last, have a go at some painting in watercolours. I’ve got a CD by an Irish artist called Frank Clarke ad I’ve had it for quite some time now and so, as soon as I found myself all alone, I set everything up and, quite naturally, made a complete and utter hash of it. A simple seascape, using only three colours, and I couldn’t get that right. That’s not to say I’ve given up, I just don’t think today is the day.
Of course, the other art genre I want to try is canal art, which is all about castles and roses painted on canal boats. Whether or not I even get started on that, especially after my feeble efforts today is anyone’s guess. Perhaps, when we get to our permanent moorings, I can settle into some sort of routine and make progress on either or both.
Sunday 7th June 2009
Hurleston Junction joins the Shroppie with the Llangollen canal, and that’s where we’re moored up right now. We stayed at Barbridge last night and are now headed for Nantwich where we were going to have the heating serviced. However, over the past couple of days, having tested the system on various occasions and, having found it works perfectly well every time, we’re not going to bother. The reason we’re still going there is to top up with diesel and get a pump-out, and for Sheila to pop into Nantwich for a bit more shopping.
We’ll moor up again for the night at Nantwich then, on Tuesday, we’ll make a start on the Llangollen.
I have to confess that this blog may not have held much interest for you kind people but, by way of some kind of justification for my lapse, we’ve been here before and I’m finding it difficult working up any great enthusiasm at present. I can promise you one thing however the Llangollen will be a different story. We were last there 15 years ago and, as I recall, it was a particularly warm summer, so much so that there was insufficient water in the canal for us to complete the full length of the canal.
The Llangollen, as canals go, is somewhat unique in that it depends upon rainwater runoff from its top end. If it’s dry then the canal tends to drain down somewhat and, if the draught of the boat is more than 22 inches, you’ll be obliged to turn around before the end, as we did 15 years ago. In fact, as Wifey has reminded me, we didn’t even manage to get past the 1000 foot long Pontcysyllte Aquaduct. If we’re lucky, and if the rain keeps up as it is for the next couple of days, and despite our 26 inch draught, we might even get to Llangollen. So please good people, keep your fingers crossed for us and, if we can get online – which is by no means guaranteed in the wild and woolly Welsh countryside – I’ll even include some photographs.
So, for now, cheerio. The next blog should be from somewhere along the Llangollen Canal.
Luv’n’stuff from Dave, Sheila and Rusty.
Sunday 30th May 2009
Hi from Christledon, where the weather is just great and we intend visiting the local Harvester, which is called The Old Trooper. No doubt we’ll discover how it came to be given such a name. Possibly something to do with the army, but we’ll have to wait and see.
We have spent many a happy hour in these particular establishments, one of which treated us very kindly when we became stranded during a snowstorm in the Pennines. This was during our days at The Village Shop in Kent, when we took a few days to visit a company in Stockport. Of course we didn’t make it to our destination and it was only through sheer luck that we spotted the hotels lights through the blinding snow. We booked in for just the one night but, with the snow settles to about three feet deep, and snowploughs unable to clear the way, the management put us up for a second night absolutely free of charge and fed and watered us too. And the moral of the story is, if you must get caught in a snowstorm, ensure there’s a Harvester hotel nearby!
5 pm on Sunday 30th May
Well, as promised, we partook of a small libation and victuals at the aforementioned Old Trooper, and very good it was too. The Guinness was just £2.90 a pint and the most excellent food, which consisted of, what they called “Kickin’ Garlic Chicken”, did have something of a chilli pepper bite to it and only cost £4.99. Now, I call that blooming amazing!
We arrived back at the Shiralee about 1.30 pm, since which time I’ve been on the laptop trying to track down permanent moorings for said boat. Moorings per se are pretty easy to find. Residential moorings on the other hand are well nigh impossible. There are so few of them around, and the number of new boats coming on line is going up in leaps and bounds, to the extent that, just as soon as moorings become available, they are snapped up.
All is not yet lost though, because I’ve found a marina on the Leicester Arm of the GUC that appears to have at least two moorings available. It is a proper marina and offers all the usual facilities and I’ve emailed them to find out how much per year and, more importantly, if they’re still available. So, watch this space, hopefully we’ll have some good news soon.
Monday 1st June 2009
Wow! It’s been a scorcher of a day and we’ve done quite a bit of cruising. Me and hot weather do not go together too well In my youth I absolutely loved it, especially my two years with the Royal Air Force in Malta. There it was shorts and flip-flops during summer. But, now that I’m older, overweight and suffering with dodgy knees and diabetes, it ain’t no fun.
Anyway, having cruised down to Chester from Christleton with Geoff and Val, we decided to go on to Ellesmere Port with them via the golf course, which is about six miles short of it. That was yesterday after a little shopping at Tesco in Chester.
So, this morning bright and early, around about our usual 8 o/clock, we sallied forth to E.P. and arrived about 10.15 or so. We had intended staying a couple of nights, which would have meant stumping up £10 for the privilege of going down two more locks to a secure basin. It was suggested to the girls that they walk down and check it out before parting with their cash. It’s just as well they did too. From what I could make of it, you will have to imagine the days when the canal was busy ferrying goods to the port for onward transportation to all points of the compass in bigger craft. Apparently the moorings were designed for big vessels, which meant that the edge of the wharf came about half way up our windows, which would have made it impossible to actually get off the boat. No steps or ladders available, so we would have been confined to barracks, s to speak.
Which is why you now find us back at the golf course six miles out of Ellesmere Port. What a disappointment, and that’s aside from the fact that we’ve spent almost five hours cruising for no good reason. Tomorrow then, it’s back through the staircase locks to Chester, where we’ll stay overnight.
Tuesday 2nd June 2009
Hello from Chester. Instead of returning to the moorings near Tesco, which are completely open and therefore pretty hot in this blazing June sunshine, we opted to moor about 250 yards down from the staircase locks. This stretch of water has a high rock-face towering over the towpath side, and a high bank with trees on the other, so we’re well shaded for most of the time. However, at this time, which is almost 3 pm, the sun is beating down on the boat from astern, so it’s now getting pretty warm in here. This is especially the case whilst sitting at the dinette typing this blog. With hot air rising it really is surprising the difference in temperature between here and my armchair.
And now on to the good news. We have managed to secure permanent moorings at Pillings Lock, which is on the Leicester Navigation of the Grand Union Canal. It’s about a mile north of Barrow-upon-Soar and 1 ½ miles south of Loughborough. You may remember our 10 day enforced stay in Kegworth Shallow Flood Lock in 2007, well this lock is on the same stretch of water but another 2 miles further on. The difference is that the marina does not flood and that’s because it too is next to a flood lock.
The marina has all facilities, including water and electricity next to the moorings and they also have a barge that comes to your boat should you need a pump-out or diesel. On site is a licensed café/restaurant and it has enough berths for about 300 boats, only about 80% of which are full. So, at this point in time we’re pretty chuffed with ourselves, not least because permanent marina moorings are not easily come by. We’re hoping to take up our position at the end of October. Cheers for now.
Thursday 4th June 2009
Well, we’re back at Bates Mill Bridge on the Shroppie, where we enjoyed a couple of drinks and snack today.
Yesterday we made our way back to Christleton from Chester but, to be honest, couldn’t really be bothered with the pub. Today has been a bit cooler, which suits me better than the blazing sunshine we’ve had over the past few days.
Last September, when we came down the Middlewich Branch of the Shroppie, we called in an engineer named Nick to give our heating system a service. These diesel fired systems can get pretty clogged up with soot and tar over a period of time, especially if they’re not run hard on a regular basis. Anyway, I always turn it on early in the morning and allow it to run through a complete cycle, as the manufacturers recommend.
Last year, when Nick serviced the system, I asked him to install an inline filter which, according to the people at a boatyard, should prevent the problem. But, it’s only nine months since Nick serviced it and the thing won’t run now. So, instead of going straight on to the Llangollen as planned, we’ll be going back to Nantwich, where Nick has his boatyard, and getting it sorted. What really galls me is that we were up that way only a week or so ago. It couldn’t have packed up then, could it?
Friday 5th June 2009
It took us 3 ½ hours to travel the six miles and six locks to Barbridge, which is the junction between the Shroppie and the Middlewich Branch of same. We’re hoping to stay at this mooring tonight and, quite possibly, tomorrow night, then move on and moor up opposite the The Olde Barbridge Inn and partake of a snifter or two on Sunday. If no suitable moorings are available then we’ll go on to Hurleston Junction, which joins the Shroppie to the Llangollen and stay there until Monday morning, at which time we’ll mosey along to Nantwich for repairs to the heating system. All this means of course, is that we’ll be a day or so late in entering the Llangollen. But that’s OK because we’ll be a couple of days behind any holiday makers, and that can’t be bad, either for my patience or peace of mind.
Saturday 6th June 2009
Well, here we are at Barbridge, it’s peeing down with rain and Wifey has taken the bus to Nantwich. We had intended for her to do that on Monday while the heating system is being serviced, but she decided to do it today and then, if she enjoys the experience, she’ll probably do it again on Monday.
So, since Wifey has gone off shopping, I thought I might, at last, have a go at some painting in watercolours. I’ve got a CD by an Irish artist called Frank Clarke ad I’ve had it for quite some time now and so, as soon as I found myself all alone, I set everything up and, quite naturally, made a complete and utter hash of it. A simple seascape, using only three colours, and I couldn’t get that right. That’s not to say I’ve given up, I just don’t think today is the day.
Of course, the other art genre I want to try is canal art, which is all about castles and roses painted on canal boats. Whether or not I even get started on that, especially after my feeble efforts today is anyone’s guess. Perhaps, when we get to our permanent moorings, I can settle into some sort of routine and make progress on either or both.
Sunday 7th June 2009
Hurleston Junction joins the Shroppie with the Llangollen canal, and that’s where we’re moored up right now. We stayed at Barbridge last night and are now headed for Nantwich where we were going to have the heating serviced. However, over the past couple of days, having tested the system on various occasions and, having found it works perfectly well every time, we’re not going to bother. The reason we’re still going there is to top up with diesel and get a pump-out, and for Sheila to pop into Nantwich for a bit more shopping.
We’ll moor up again for the night at Nantwich then, on Tuesday, we’ll make a start on the Llangollen.
I have to confess that this blog may not have held much interest for you kind people but, by way of some kind of justification for my lapse, we’ve been here before and I’m finding it difficult working up any great enthusiasm at present. I can promise you one thing however the Llangollen will be a different story. We were last there 15 years ago and, as I recall, it was a particularly warm summer, so much so that there was insufficient water in the canal for us to complete the full length of the canal.
The Llangollen, as canals go, is somewhat unique in that it depends upon rainwater runoff from its top end. If it’s dry then the canal tends to drain down somewhat and, if the draught of the boat is more than 22 inches, you’ll be obliged to turn around before the end, as we did 15 years ago. In fact, as Wifey has reminded me, we didn’t even manage to get past the 1000 foot long Pontcysyllte Aquaduct. If we’re lucky, and if the rain keeps up as it is for the next couple of days, and despite our 26 inch draught, we might even get to Llangollen. So please good people, keep your fingers crossed for us and, if we can get online – which is by no means guaranteed in the wild and woolly Welsh countryside – I’ll even include some photographs.
So, for now, cheerio. The next blog should be from somewhere along the Llangollen Canal.
Luv’n’stuff from Dave, Sheila and Rusty.
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