Killing time.

We’ve been hanging around Anderton for a few days. The mail is due at Barnton Post Office, so I’ll go up and collect that tomorrow. Then we’ll be off, heading towards Middlewich.
We’ll not go into the town till after the weekend, though. It’s the Boat and Folk Festival, and the place will be heaving, especially if this fine weather continues.

There’s been a lot of boat traffic, a lot heading south. The water point has been particularly busy, queues of half a dozen boats in the mid-morning not uncommon.

This is probably why…..
From BW –

Middlewich Boat and Folk Festival

Friday 18 June 2010 - Monday 21 June 2010

The organisers of the festival have asked British Waterways to inform customers that the Elsan disposal facilities will be very limited in Middlewich during the festival.
Where possible please can customers make use of facilities on their way in to or out of Middlewich to avoid any problems.

Enquiries: 01782 785703

We moved closer to the services yesterday, to be moored in the sunshine. Where we were before is shaded by trees, so it’s quite cool first thing. It’s a lot warmer here, and also a lot lighter!

There are laundry facilities in this service block, so we’ve taken advantage of being so close and got a couple of loads washed and dried.
The first was fine, but when I shoved my pre-payment card in for the second load, the reader chuntered, displayed “Card Error”, and spat it out. I tried again, and this time it displayed “Help Help”, then “No Credit Available” before rejecting it. It had swallowed all 11 remaining units on the card! I unloaded the machine and was walking back when I started chatting to John and Cath on NB Me and Er moored next to us. They rescued the situation by lending me their card so I could get the load washed and dried after all. Thanks, both.

John and Cath leaving for a trip down the lift this morning.
Kipper the cat is on his first voyage, and he’s not all that impressed.The hire boats are out in force.
I felt sorry for the steerer on this Anglo-Welsh boat.

See-through crew?
We need to be around Nantwich for next weekend. I’ve booked our first Boat Safety Scheme examination for the 25th. This is the narrowboat equivalent of the MOT. Up till now we’ve had a Certificate of Conformity from the boatbuilder, but now, after 4 years, the safety check has to be done independently.
We’ll see then how “compliant” our boat actually is. I’ve spent this afternoon sorting out the rat’s nest of wiring alongside the batteries. The circuits for 220v domestic, 12v domestic and 12v charging and control are now separated and neatly clipped up. It looks a lot tidier.
Locks 0, miles ½

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Back at Anderton

It almost feels like home, we’ve spent so much time around here in the last 9 months.

On Saturday we moved a couple of miles to a pleasant spot looking over the Weaver valley, near Bartington. It’s been pretty busy on the water, lots of traffic up and down. I had a walk up to the Black Prince hire base and had a chat with Philip, who provided us with a replacement starter motor when ours died while up on the Leeds and Liverpool. Turns out he’s a classic car enthusiast, too. He’s got a 1954 Rolls Royce and a selection of classic motorcycles.

NB Pavo arrived in the afternoon, she’s a converted small Woolwich butty built in 1935. Ian, the owner, is a mine of information on boating generally. His credentials are impeccable, having been born aboard the pair his parents ran for Willow Wren into the 60's.

Betelgeuse is a sister to Pavo, but unconverted. Both were built as "Star Class" buttys by Harland and Wolff in Woolwich.

Ian on NB Pavo heading for Anderton.
Our Eberspacher heating boiler is playing up again. It starts OK, but goes out after a few minutes, accompanied by a cloud of oily smelling white smoke, unburnt diesel vapour. Spoke to Ed of Four Counties Marine Services and he recommends a new burner. It has done 1700 hours, with only service parts fitted, so I suppose it’s not too badly. Now the weather has warmed up a bit we don’t really need it, but I’m missing the hot water it provides for my morning shower.

We stayed put yesterday, fine in the morning but showery later. Watched the Canadian Grand Prix, a good 1-2 result for the British lads. At least some of our sportsmen can deliver the goods.…

Today it was another short trip, just down to Anderton. Left at just before 10, and were moored up near the boat lift by noon.

Leafy banks as the canal hugs the valley side above the Weaver.
We just made the 20 minute passage “window” to go through Saltersford Tunnel.

Well fed cygnets near Barnton Bridge.
Once again I’m running The Great North Run this year, raising money for Cancer Research UK. I’ve set up a web page on justgiving.com, and would appreciate any sponsorship. There’s also a link to the page on the right, which will stay on till after the race.
Alternatively, wait till you see us. I’ve got the traditional sponsorship forms as well. There’s no escape……

Locks 0, miles 5½

Larcenous thoughts….

There’s an item on the This is Nottingham website about a raid on a newsagent using a handy narrowboat as a “floating stepladder” to access a rear door to the premises. While I obviously sympathise with Mr Patel, you’ve got to admire the miscreants for their ingenuity.

I’ve always daydreamed about an “Italian Job” type of bullion heist (the 1969 original using real minis, not the 2003 effort of the same name), but using a narrowboat as a getaway vehicle instead of a coach.
Transferring the gold from the minis to the boat at a remote canal wharf, the deck boards would be lifted, the engineering brick ballast removed and replaced by the ill-gotten gains. OK, so she’ll probably sit a little deeper in the water, but no-one would notice, nor would they associate the heap of bricks left on the bank with the robbery.
Who’d ever think of stopping and searching a narrowboat chugging along at 2½ mph? And even if they did, would they think of looking under the floor?

Maybe a plot-line Fred Coppenhall could use on his next novel. He’s the lock keeper at Dutton Lock down on the Weaver who writes in his spare time. I picked up his second book today, Untying the Knot, having enjoyed the first, Fools and Villains.

We didn’t move anywhere today, a good long walk with Meg this morning, pottering about jobs this afternoon.

Locks 0, miles 0

Brief Encounter…..

We left Moore at around 10:30 this morning, after washing the curtains. It was a bit of a whim, but once we saw the difference in the first pair we had to do the others!

As we turned right onto the Runcorn Arm for water, we saw a familiar looking boat pulling onto the Midland Chandlers mooring. It was Mo and Ness on NB Balmaha. We knew they were somewhere around, they’re heading into Liverpool this month. They were accompanied by Mike and Jo on NB Sarah-Kate.

We hastily filled and emptied as necessary, and headed back to the junction, hoping to catch them before they headed north, only to see them coming towards us. They’ve plenty of time, so decided to have a look up the Arm before continuing up the main line.

We all hung about in mid-stream, having a quick chat before going our separate ways.
They’re intending to moor where we did last night. What a shame we missed them by a day. They’re good company, and we’d not met Mike and Jo before.

We made a visit to Midland Chandlers ourselves and then arrived at Preston Brook Tunnel just after 12:30 so were able to go straight in.
There was the first glimmer of the sun just before we entered the hill, but it had gone again by the time we emerged at the other end.

We’d followed a couple of other boats through, so had a few minutes wait before ascending Dutton Stop Lock, all of 3 inches! Still, it’s our first lock for a few days.

Waiting for the Stop Lock.
We’re now back on BW waters, the venerable Trent and Mersey Canal.
We pulled in alongside Longacre Wood, just half a mile from the tunnel. Meg likes chasing the squirrels here, and it’s pleasant walk down to Dutton Lock on the Weaver, too. I want to get Fred Coppenhall’s (the lock keeper) second book, now I’ve read the first, Fools and Villains.

We’ve always seemed to be in this area in the late autumn or early spring. Consequently the abundant vegetation on the towpath caught me unawares.Now where did I put those shears?

After a few weeks of fast 3G modem connections we’re now back to the pedestrian-with-blisters GPRS. How an earth did we manage in the old days? It’s going to take me some time to upload this post……

Locks 1 (well, almost), miles 4½

Summer cruising plans

We've been studying the canal guides these last couple of days, trying to decide what to do this summer. I think we’ve chosen to head south for the Severn and Avon, with a side trip down the Gloucester and Sharpness and back. We’ve not been there before, at least not in this lifetime. We “did” the Avon Ring some years ago on a hire boat out of Evesham. A week on the Purple Emperor, with 06:30 starts and 19:00 finishes. Good job we had a good crew. I think we’ll take it a little easier this time.

It was wet for most of yesterday, so, not wanting a repeat of the rainwater down the back of the neck, we stayed put.

We moved on today, leaving at 11:00 and arriving at Moore at around 14:00. A steady run under overcast skies, but at least the thundery showers that were forecast stayed someplace else.

Approaching Lymm, day boat Rambling Thorn from Thorn Marina out and about.
There’s a handy recycle centre hiding behind this gate near London Road Bridge in Stockton Heath.
I was able to offload the plastic, glass, tins and papers accumulated over the last week or so. I’d much rather recycle than throw it all in one skip, but there aren’t that many canalside opportunities. Oh, and I also nearly gave myself a hernia lugging a duff leisure battery down there too.

Proud Mum and Dad
I do like the Bridgewater, with it’s wide, deep channel it’s a lot easier to cruise than a lot of the narrow canals. But unfortunately it seems to breed a race of inconsiderate boaters. Most don’t seem to slow down at all when passing moored boats, and for those that do it’s often just a token gesture, too little too late. I can live with it if we’re moored on rings, but a lot of the time you have to use pins and the bank is usually quite soft behind the coping stones.

Pulled pin this evening.
There was only one boat this afternoon who slowed right down…..Water Womble, the rubbish collecting barge that keeps the canal clean.
A good job he did too. He probably displaces twice as much water as most narrowboats.

There are still problems with water levels on the Liverpool end of the Leeds and Liverpool from Wigan, but they are allowing boats through on restricted passages. Our friends Malcolm and Barbara on NB Pilgrim are through the low pounds now, and will be heading into the docks on Friday. Then across the Mersey to Ellesmere Port on the 21st. I hope the weather is calm for the crossing….
We’ll try to meet up with them on the Shropshire Union to hear all about it.

Locks 0, miles 7¼

Bad Timing.

We’d arranged a Tesco delivery at The Olde No 3 pub for this morning, so, after not moving yesterday, we had a half hour trip to meet the van. He arrived promptly at 11:00, just beating the first heavy shower of the day.
The rain had cleared by the time we’d got everything away and had lunch, so we filled with water and set off towards Lymm. Just before a thunderstorm let loose.

We don’t cruise in the rain….. Do we?
It hammered down for 10 minutes or so, then eased, then came on again. We plodded on, me on my own on the tiller. Even Meg, who is normally glued to the aft deck when we’re on the move, poked her nose out then beat a hasty retreat to her bed.

We intended to pull in just short of Lymm, and so stopped near the winding hole. I got the pins in and retired indoors to get changed into dry clothes. It’s dried up now, quite a pleasant evening but with heavy clouds lingering on the horizon.

It rained on Sunday morning, first thing while I was out on my morning run. But by 10 it had cleared, so Meg and I went for a walk around the park at Dunham Massey Hall.
We often stop over around here, but I’ve never been to the park before. I really enjoyed it, though I suspect Meg was less thrilled…..
Why can’t I run around on all this grass, Dad?

There is a fair population of Fallow Deer here, all fairly relaxed with people but understandably cautious if there’s a dog in tow.

Young Bucks
The old water mill
The front of Dunham Massey Hall.
The house and gardens are National Trust, and as such are open to the public. But of course, dogs are not allowed. Only in the surrounding parkland.

But if the gardens are like this…….....they’ve got to be worth a visit. This fountain is just alongside the path from the car park.

We got back around lunchtime, and I got on with a few of those little jobs that crop up. Then we sat down and watched a couple of episodes of “Travelling Man”.

Locks 0, miles 3

Busy at Castlefield

The grapevine was right, there were a lot of boats from Lymm Cruising Club arriving in Castlefield this weekend.

From the top of the Reconstructed Grocer’s Warehouse.
A few arrived on Friday night, but more were heading in this morning as we headed out of town.

More boats join the fray.
They’d be struggling to find somewhere to moor. I hope they’re all good friends, several boats were already breasted up as we eased our way out of the basin.

Grocer’s Warehouse Arm
We counted at least a dozen LCC boats heading in.

I had a good look round the Da Vinci exhibition at MOSI yesterday. Interesting, giving an insight into what made the man tick. It seems a lot of his ideas were actually based on earlier Greek or Roman discoveries, but he was able to develop them into practical applications. Apart from being a brilliant artist, perfecting a technique which gave life to his portraits, his most important contribution was probably his studies of the workings of the human body. As an engineer he discounted the mysticism and concentrated on the mechanisms that made the body work. Then I had a look around a couple of the other displays before joining Mags and Meg back on the boat.

Just walking around the basin area is interesting:-

On top of the rebuilt Grocer’s Warehouse, part of the original machinery for lifting coal from the canal boats up to street level.
Three Railway Viaducts.
The near one was built around 1849. The wrought iron trellis construction of the Cheshire Lines Company viaduct sits alongside and was built around 1875. The final one, of which the massive tubular steel supports can be seen, was built in 1890 by the Northern Railway Company.

From further back, showing the modern footbridge from where the previous photo was taken.
We left this morning at around 10, and made a stop at Pomona Lock to have a look at the Manchester Ship Canal.

Looking towards Salford Quays from Pomona Lock
The derelict Hulme Lock, which was replaced by Pomona Lock as the link to the Ship Canal.
It was still warm today, but with hazy sunshine. We pushed on out of town, to our regular stop near Dunham Massey. I think the time has come to adopt our normal summer cruising strategy; find somewhere pleasant to stop on Friday afternoon and stay put until Monday. It’s been very busy on the water today. Good job there’s no locks on this canal else there’d have been some queueing!

Locks 0, miles 9½

Here comes summer????

You might even think that summer was finally here… but I for one am not holding my breath. It has been another fine, warm sunny day, so I suppose we should make the most of it while we’ve got it.

We set off from Boothstown at around 10:30 this morning. Several boats had already passed us, part of the Mersey convoy intending to cross the river from Liverpool Docks to Ellesmere Port. Still no sign whether or not it’s going to happen, though. The locks around Wigan junction are still closed due to water shortages, even though they’re now pumping from the River Douglas to help relieve the situation. An update will be issued tomorrow…

Coming into Worsley the canal passes under 2 modern bridges, one carrying the M60 and the other a feeder to it. The shadows and bright sunshine show the ochre colour of the water clearly.

Sunlight and shadow under the M60
The colour is caused by iron oxide (rust!) dissolved from pockets in the Duke of Bridgewater’s mine.

Worsley is also home to the oldest working inland dry dock in the country, built in the 1760's.

Worsley Dry Dock
From Worsley the outskirts of Greater Manchester fringe the canal, factories and houses never far away. Coming through Patricroft there were several fishermen, so I slowed right down so as not to disturb the fish. Unfortunately I also failed to disturb one of the anglers, and finished up with his tackle wrapped around the rudder!

Trailing hook, line and sinker.
I expected a barrage of abuse, but got the opposite. He apologised for not seeing us coming!
It didn’t hang on long, we lost it along the straight past Trafford Park.

Nothing moving on the Ship Canal as we passed over Barton Swing Aqueduct
We turned left at Waters Meeting, just past the Kelloggs factory, and headed directly into town to Castlefield, arriving at around 1 o’clock.

Into Castlefield.The restaurant boat LS Lowry has been spruced up ready for the season.

It’s busy on the moorings towards the Grocer’s Warehouse. By this evening most of the available space had been taken up. Should be interesting tomorrow, the grapevine has it that Lymm Cruising Club are planning a weekend meet here.

We came into town rather than heading for the green fields of Dunham Massey because there’s an exhibition on at MOSI I particularly want to see.

The Leeds and Liverpool isn’t the only canal suffering through lack of water. The Kennet and Avon has problems, too.

Locks 0, miles 8½

Water wanted at Wigan.

From http://www.waterscape.com/canals-and-rivers/leeds-and-liverpool-canal/boating/stoppages

“Leeds Liverpool Canal & Leigh Branch
Wednesday 2 June 2010 until further notice
Due to low water levels these locks will be closed to allow the pounds sufficient time to recover to navigable levels. An update will be issued on Thursday 3rd June 2010 at 2pm
Winding can be found below bridge 38 Alder Lane and above Lock 65 Wigan Top Lock
British Waterways apologises for any inconvenience this may cause.”

We came through just in time it seems.
Others were not so lucky. There’s a group heading for Liverpool who are going to exit the docks onto the Mersey, and return to the canal system at Ellesmere Port. Their trip is a bit up in the air now. In the group are friends of ours, Malcolm and Barbara on NB Pilgrim. We met them at Plank Lane Bridge, and had a quick shouted hello as we passed. Then a bit of a longer conversation by phone later.
Good luck with the trip, guys.

NB Pilgrim at Plank Lane

This group aren’t the only ones potentially affected. We passed hotel boats Lady Margaret and Lady Selena (Ladyline) who were taking guests up towards Skipton. They’re looking at plan B, now.

Lady Margaret and Lady Selena near Leigh.
Leigh was the town we passed through today, also swapping from the Leeds and Liverpool back onto the Bridgewater at the same time.
It is well known as a mill town, and several of the mills are still standing, though often without their distinctive chimneys. There are still some left though….

Butts Mill
And Leigh Spinners
I’ve got a thing about these old mills. To me they represent the era when you could say “Great Britain” without a hint of irony. It was an age when we made things, and shipped them around the globe with an extensive merchant marine, protected by a large navy.
I know they were effectively Victorian sweatshops, with conditions that would not be tolerated today, but to the workers they meant at least regular work and an improved standard of living from what was previously a precarious agricultural economy.

The mills seem to have been built with decorative “seams” of lighter brick in the walls. Housing developments on either side of the canal have echoed the theme.

New apartments, old design.
We pulled over just past Bridgewater Marina at Boothstown. We’d arranged for a mail drop at the Post Office here, and I picked up some supplies from the store nearby while I was up there. Open 8 till 8, he seems to stock pretty well everything, food, hardware, paint…. Just not newspapers, though. He explained that it was too much hassle.

Moored near Boothstown
There’s a path on both sides of the canal here, and there are some quiet mooring spots on the offside, between the bushes.

After a coolish, cloudy start, the afternoon has turned sunny and warm. Lovely cruising weather. The first of several days of dry, sunny weather, according to the forecast. Isn’t going to help the water situation though.

Contrail cutting through high cirrus cloud
Locks 0, miles 7½

Rain on the first day of summer….

Still, we need it apparently. The Northwest is facing a hosepipe ban in a few weeks, according to the news. Haweswater in the lakes is only at 59% of it’s capacity, instead of the usual 89%. This is where most of the region’s water comes from.

It wasn’t much today, though. Started at around 6 o’clock, and brightened up soon after lunch.We set off in company with a couple on NB Amy Grace, who’d shared the moorings with us last night. The pounds between the locks around the junction are still low, meaning sticking to the middle of the channel.
Just 3 locks today, Henhurst Lock up to the junction, then a right turn and down the two Poolstock Locks onto to the long level to Manchester and Preston Brook.

Sharing Poolstock No 1 Lock.
Leaving the two locks the canal runs through an area badly affected by mining subsidence, causing shallow flashes on both banks. These are well populated by wildfowl.

Goose Creche on the move.
The towpath from Wigan to Bridge 3 is excellent, an all weather surface much used by cyclists, runners and walkers.
We pulled in at the Dover Lock Inn after just a short day. Our erstwhile travelling companions on Amy Grace decided to push on a little further. Never did get their names.

Locks 3, miles 3½