No phone call in the early hours last night, we’d not expected one, even though we both woke up just in case. I think the temperature got down to about 17C, not sure now as we’re constantly looking at different forecasts just in case one is in our favour.
I’ll give it a go, wish me luck
Tilly headed off into the friendly cover despite it doing it’d best to rain. We’d become complacent leaving the back doors open to improve the breeze through the boat when of course Tilly returned with her mouth full. Thankfully Tilly is not like our previous second mate Houdini whom you’d have had a cat-in-hells chance of picking up in such a situation. Tilly was deposited out on the stern deck and the doors firmly closed!
Mick bobbed up to the signal box for a chat with the keeper. Reece wasn’t aware that the bridge can now be opened no matter what time of day, just so long as the temperature is 15C or lower. He asked Mick to forward him the CRT notice and he would check with York. A while later he gave me a call, Mick was correct and the new information about the bridge hadn’t been passed on to him and possibly other signallers.
The rain today was going to be torrential or so we’d been led to believe. As it was just spitting I decided to head out to see if I could find a newspaper, knowing our chosen flavour of print was very unlikely to be on the shelves of one of the two shops in Keadby. As I approached the bridge the red light went out, Reece had spotted me and I’d timed my arrival well with a suitable gap in the trains.
This morning Keadby Road Swing Bridge must have worked as now, sat on the visitor moorings was NB Drunken Duck and a small cruiser who’d come off the river. No obvious signs of life to say hello so I carried on to find the shops.
Chips!
Oh those chips smelt nice from the chippy. I wonder if it’s the only chippy in town?!
There was a selection of papers in the first shop, and as I’d expected not of our flavour. I walked on to the next shop where there were none to be had. Oh well at least I’d got out for a walk.
The yellow is where you walk when there are no trains
There was a train coming as I approached the bridge, Reece could be seen gesticulating ‘Sorry’ as the siren sounded for what felt like an eternity, but it did give me chance to spot the sunflowers growing in a field on our side of the tracks.
It was fun this morning, now it’s just WET!
We’d a new neighbour. Mick had nudged up to make room for NB Lady Phoenix and he and the owner were having a good chin wag. It was now starting to get that little bit wetter, so we retired inside our boats and settled down for the remainder of the day.
Film time
This afternoon’s knitting viewing was The True History of the Kelly Gang (2019). A fictionalised account of how Ned Kelly changed from being a compassionate boy to a gang leader. The end of the film is quite gory when there is a big shoot out, but Ned dies like a Kelly.
Foggy atmosphere
Rain hammered down most of the afternoon, but then cleared into the evening leaving us with quite an atmospheric fog hanging around the power stations. Will today’s rain have helped bring the temperature of the bridge down enough? We’ll see.
0 locks, 0 miles, 1 damp and WET day, 4 boats off the river, pair 101 knitted, 1 film, 0 newspaper, 1 seriously rationalised pile of work stuff, final 1/3rd of the quiche eaten.
We both woke early, would the temperature have dipped sufficiently for Vazon Drawbridge/Sliding/Railway Bridge to move out of our way? Mick put some clothes on and walked over to the signal box, a different signaller from yesterday. Here he met up with a chap from NB Early Rise, who is waiting on the other side of the bridge. A phone call had already been made to York, the temperature not low enough even at the coolest part of the day. Chats were had, then Mick returned and joined me back in bed for some more shut eye, after all it was only 5am.
This face painted white
Over breakfast we considered our options. Should we wait here by the swing bridge, close to the trains kerchunk kerchunking over the sliding bridge through day and night? Or should we try to find a different mooring? One where Tilly could go out further away from the bridge. We decided to have a pootle to see if we could find anywhere. But first Mick walked up to the signal box and made sure they had our phone number for when the temperature dips enough and the bridge opens.
There had been hi-vis people at the bridge this morning along with Northern Power Grid. The domestic electrics were off in the signal box and had been mended. The hi-vis people were from Network Rail and they had been busy painting parts of the bridge white, this will help reflect some of the heat away from the structure. Now as we untied I spotted several blue t-shirts, CRT t-shirts. Hands were shook between orange and blue, might they be about to do a test opening? No chance, the temperature way above the 15C.
Shore leave
We winded and headed back towards Thorne, maybe, just maybe there might be enough depth for Oleanna back close to Pilfrey Bridge, not too far away, but just far enough. There was a lack of blanket weed making the canal obvious to those with four legs and feet, no rocks in view. But sadly no matter how much we tried the bow or stern didn’t get to within jumping off closeness of the bank. We opted to return from where we’d come. When the back doors opened up again, Tilly was most peeved that all we’d done was shake the outside up a bit!
Mick headed for a walk and a possible earwig at what was being said at the bridge between orange and blue people. Other than stopping to tie a shoe lace he didn’t find an excuse to loiter within ear shot for long and ended up going to say hello to NB Early Rise instead.
NB Early Rise by the bridge
Once the meeting had finished the blue bods walked back towards Keadby Lock and stopped for a chat. There was quite a high up person in amongst them. CRT are putting a lot of pressure on Network Rail to get the bridge working for boaters more reliably. They are hoping that the safe working temperature might be raised, even by just one or two degrees. Sections of the bridge had now been painted white and a big light installed so should passage be needed when it’s dark there is now light.
Things lit up by the bridge
Network Rail are working towards publishing a weekly weather report for the bridge, noting windows where the temperature will be at a suitable level for it to operate. Apparently the chap who oversees Vazon for the railway, is in charge of around 9000 bridges, and Vazon takes up half his time!
So we just have to sit and wait, ready to snatch the first opportunity to go through.
My migraine improved enough to go for a steady walk. I’d spotted a couple of paths when we were here last, checked them out on Google maps and set off to cross the railway, then the first ditch and to walk round and back through a wood.
Waiting, I wish I had earmuffs on!
To cross Vazon, as a pedestrian, requires you to press a plunger and wait for a red light and siren to stop, meaning that the gate is now unlocked. If the siren and light stay on, there is a train coming, which there was on my way out. Once it’s clear you zigzag your way across the tracks which go diagonally across the sliding bridge. It’s well worth looking at by foot even if you have to cross at speed rather than loiter on your way across.
More bits painted white
The first track I aimed for had a very protective Cob and his swan family, so I looped back round and walked through the wood to a track and up to the main road. The tide was on it’s way out but still pretty high, would any boats be making their way down stream right now?
Pouring water on the road bridge to cool it down
At Keadby Swing Bridge, the road bridge just by the lock, two Council employees climbed out of the van and walked to the bridge. Here they started up a generator and started to pump water onto the bridge, most probably where it pivots. There was evidence of them having done this earlier in the day. It turns out that at least one boat had been headed for Keadby today, they’d been told to moor up in Gainsborough overnight as there was a problem with this bridge too! Here’s hoping it’s sorted by the morning for them.
After all the excitement at the bridges, even if we didn’t manage to get going, it was time for an easier afternoon. Blimey it was hot and sticky inside, more so outside.
Denmark knitting
Mick pottered on with a few jobs, adding new hooks to fenders, wrapping wire round the yellow water connector whilst Tilly and I watched Denmark (2019) and knitted. Denmark is a bittersweet comedy about a down-on-his-luck Welshman who travels to Europe with a crazy goal, to get himself arrested and sent to a Danish prison where the beds are warm and the water is hot. It’s a gentle British film, with cool outdoor scenes which were welcome today.
Calm descending
Our only neighbour here had been absent during the day. He’d left his woofer shut up inside his make shift boat. We’d been getting quite concerned as the howls were becoming progressively more pathetic. Mick had wondered over to see what he might be able to see, which wasn’t much from a safe distance, we’ve been aware of this chap for a while. Then thankfully the owner returned, beer in hand and quite merry. The door to his boat was flung open and his large dog surged for the bank, all four legs crossed. After dancing a jig or two he packed up all he wanted, bundled his dog back onboard and frantically untied and set off into the sunset. So apart from the trains we should have a quiet evening now.
0 locks, 1.3 miles, 2 winds, 4 blue, 3 hi-vis, 1 sticky day, 0.5 sock, 1 film, 1 mended dishwasher, 2 fenders, 2 broken bridges, 2 more hi-vis, 1 jig, 1 woofer on our radar, 1 boat setting off into the sunset, 1 good place to smoke!
Photos, lots of them of the model box. Time to do the white card version of the storyboard. Also photos of all the model pieces for the Production Manager to see alongside the working drawings, these still need updating.
During the day we started to plan our next cruise. Should we go that way or this way? Which lock? We’d need to chat to lock keepers. Mick got on with the job of booking our next tidal lock, checking times, asking for advice which at the lock we’ve chosen to go through, they don’t give as they are far more accustomed to bigger boats than us.
In the seat next to me today
With the new storyboard forwarded to John I could now have a shower and get myself ready for an evening out. This meant I missed saying hello to Paul from Waterway Routes. Today he’d cycled from Wakefield to Leeds checking data for his maps. Mick sent him to check on some mooring rings above Office Lock to see if they should be included.
A train journey over to Huddersfield meant we had chance to say hello to Paul at the station as he waited for his train to whisk him off back to Bristol after a long day. It was nice to have a brief chat before we all headed for our trains.
A photo that always has to be taken
There is a serious upgrade happening to the Transpennine route so trains go the long way round to Huddersfield or have been replaced by buses. A hobble down to the Lawerence Batley Theatre, taking a slight detour to see what if anything had been happening in the Piazza, this is where Dark Horse Theatre Company used to have an old shop where they rehearsed. The far end of the Piazza and the old undercover market has all gone, were they new concrete structures or the old ones behind the hoarding?
Things are a changing
We weren’t here to see this, we were here to see a development showing of Dark Horses lastest show, We’re In Love (Actually). This has been devised by the ensemble, two members of staff assisting with scene changes and lighting, quite a scratch performance with some wonderful moments.
The Cellar Theatre at the LBT
The actors were great as always. A quick rendition of Romeo and Juliet mixed with 90’s dreams of romance and lots of references to Romantic films. A video camera was used by the actors to follow the action projected onto a screen. Green screen was used to introduce the characters.
Rebekah and Jo
Highlights included multi faces projected and manipulated with large sheets of card. Some very tender moments between the lead actors. The fish tank scene in Romeo and Juliet with some florestry wrap. Claytons dance to amuse the ladies and the one that will be with me for some time must have been during a recreation of the Titanic, Toby appearing as the iceberg wrapped up in a sheet!
A very amusing evening, yes it was rough around the edges, but I haven’t laughed so much in ages. My face ached for hours afterwards.
Naughty Nandos
We followed it up with a cheeky Nandos before getting the train back to Leeds. It’s funny going out for the evening by train, you don’t do that in Scarborough, but here in West Yorkshire I suspect it’s a frequent occurrence. A very good night out, thank you all at Dark Horse for inviting us.
0 locks, 0 miles, 250 photos, edited down to 70, 3 boats up, 1 hotel boat winding two times, 1 visit from Paul, 2 trains going the long way round, 0 cats at the station, 2.11 miles walked, 4 minutes briskly, 9 actors, 4 aching cheeks, 1/4 chicken each, 2 glasses of wine, 1 bored cat.
Tide was in by the time we got to the beach Christmas morning
Christmas and Birthday. We’ve had a good year this year, not so many boaty presents as usual, but still some worth mentioning.
Mick got a serious pair of bolt croppers. These may be handy should anything ever seriously stubborn find its way onto Oleanna’s prop. A new weather station is currently being tested out, there are frequent comments as to the temperature on the coal bunker outside the back of the house. The old weather station wasn’t quite so detailed and it had ceased to show you much other than the time! I had considered getting Mick one that showed the tide times, this may have come in handy for 2025, but he’d selected a different model on his present list. Gardening gloves and bulbs for the house, hopefully the squirrels will leave the bulbs alone as the number of daffodils in the front flower bed seem to have decreased since we let the house out ten years ago, so hopefully we’ll be able to boost them again this year.
I got a new ‘to me’ camera! It was a well researched pre owned purchase from Amazon. I’ve taken a few photos so far mainly of garden benches for reference in the weeks to come. I must read the instruction book to make the most of it. So far so good, it has a 30 times optical zoom. No macro setting that I’ve found yet, but a symbol occasionally appears. I’ll just have to get used to carrying it about with me again and using it rather than my phone.
We need at least two more people to be able to play The Traitors game
A new bumbag came from Josh. The one I bought last year was waterproof to start with, but as it was used the coating was wearing off, so a bad purchase. Hopefully this new one will be better and there is plenty of room for my camera and phone. As suggested by Jennie I will endeavour to swivel it round to the side or my back when working locks so as to avoid pressing buttons on my camera which most probably did for the last one.
Tilly got a book on the Regents Canal with places to eat.I’ve had a scan through it, however it doesn’t mention Perivale Wood at Ballot Box Bridge, a busy fast moving spot, with delicious rodent main courses. It also mentions too many places I’ve not been allowed to sample as shore leave was deemed unsafe.
There’s always scissors
I’ve also had three large white hardback books. One a gluten free baking book with lots of science in it, another a veggie cook book and Billy Connelly’s arty book. All will require some looking at. I also got a bag of Italian pizza flour that is gf. I’ve heard good things about it so I’ll be giving it a go in the new year. Oh and some sock stitch markers.
A cats Protection t shirt and a chopping board came from Tilly, She needs reminding of my dingding time at frequent intervals throughout the afternoon when She’s in, so let this serve as a reminder when she’s outside too! I also got some new baking trays for the boat, the ones I’ve been using were really quite cheap and tinny, so these are an upgrade.
We’ve gradually been eating our way through the mountains of Christmas food, my birthday cake is still on going, I must remember to make a half sized one next year. It was a very good choice, but we’re a little bit bored with it now.
Well the time of year to buy a new licence for Oleanna has arrived. A bigger outlay than in previous years as we now have the Continuous Cruisers surcharge to pay for. We want to cruise the network so we don’t mind paying the extra. However we have waited for the latest credit card statement to come through before buying next year’s licence to help spread the cost a bit.
Tilly’s new rechargeable catnip felt balls
On the renewal there was a button to read the continuous cruisers rules. Mick clicked the button only to find it led to a “404 error. Page not found”! He then hunted round until he found a version of them from 2022. I have just found a more up to date copy (03/2024) but blimey it doesn’t half take some finding!
For those who don’t know about the new Continuous Cruisers surcharge, this has been brought in this year for boats that don’t have a home mooring, we fall into this category. The T&Cs say that we have to move every 14 days, this is nothing new and we abide by this as it’s what we’ve always signed up for and we prefer to be cruising anyway. To avoid the CC surcharge you need to prove that you have a home mooring for 6 or more continuous months. On the latest T&C’s (I think they are the latest!), I’ve just spent a couple of hours searching for, our winter mooring at Goole is covered in the section “14 days or such longer period as is reasonable in the circumstances” in Schedule 1. For staying longer than 14 days anywhere we should have immediately contacted the Trust’s Licencing Support Team, this is what you should do if you have engine failure, medical requirements etc, to overstay in an area.
Foggy Scarbados
In previous years we’ve logged onto our C&RT account and changed us from being a Continuous Cruiser to having a mooring. This meant that should we want to go out every weekend to Sykehouse Junction or Pollington Lock we wouldn’t be classed as over staying if spotted in the same place three weeks apart as we’d have returned to our mooring in between. Now that there is the CC surcharge you can no longer adjust this on line, it appears we should have contacted the Licencing Support Team regarding our marina mooring otherwise we could get an overstay notice. Oh well, we’re fairly unlikely to go out for little jaunts every weekend anyway, but contacting a team member to let them know seems like a waste of their time when we just used to switch from CC to a mooring.
Christmas cheese from Hebden Bridge
PS if you follow a link on the C&RT website to what is expected of you as a Continuous Cruiser you end up with a document from 2012, long before the surcharge came into existence! Oh Well!!!
But Oleanna is now licenced for the next year, that is what’s important and we can start looking forward to our new adventures on her.
0 locks, 0 miles, 3 treat cheeses, 1 year older, 4 balls, 8 pairs of socks, 2 pairs scissors, 1 green triangle, 3 white books, 1 weather station, 1 camera, 1 very cheeky cat, 2 much to eat, 1 Christmas show, 3rd Paddington film, £1525! 54 pairs of socks, plus a little bit.
Thank you Bridget and Storm for your photos this morning of the last official #pipssockathon2024 socks
I have managed a 54th pair too. I really must get round to updating my sockathon page!
Having a hire car for a week we were going to make the most of it. The car was about to be loaded with all sorts of things that could head to the tip when a chap in a van turned up in the street asking if he could take it for us. Not quite the look of the usual rag and bone chap who cruises the streets of Scarborough but he saved Mick the trip.
We’ve been to the pictures too
The final Christmasification happened with me getting my annual hair cut, 6 inches was cut off taking 2.5 hours. I have to say the majority of that time was spent catching up on things and putting the world to rights with Giselle, she must put the time aside between appointments knowing that we’ll be gasing away for hours!
6 inches shorter
Over the coming weekend we are heading to a do in London, more of that in a later post, so we decided to set off a day early and call in to see a second possible boat painter. Down the M1 past Nottingham in the sunshine to the shadows of Ratcliffe on Soar Power Station. Have to say I got a touch over excited at how close we got to the cooling towers and on such a wonderful day too.
Look at them!
We were here to meet with Tom from Gibson and Kenwright Painters. He had given quite a quick response to our original email and his quote/estimate had been detailed and thorough. Options as to using one or two pack paint had both been priced.
Today was their last day at work before their Christmas break. Mick tapped on the workshop window as a chap worked away wearing a mask. Tom came out to meet us.
He chatted away the process they would normally go through. The boat would come out of the water, be washed off and then left for a day or two on ‘the hill’ before being grit blasted, the windows would be left in for this, keeping as much of the grit out of the boat as possible, then it would be brought inside their insulated shed.
Here all the fixtures and fittings would be removed. Windows taken out and boarded over from inside to keep everything out. Now patches of paint left around windows and under fixtures would be worked off, the boat coming back to bare metal, including the base plate.
Tom then works his way round checking any welds around hatches etc, smoothing them out, this stops them from having a tendency to rust in a couple of years. Any metal work, such as welding would now take place, so extra T studs could be added. Then two pack epoxy blacking is sprayed over the whole exterior of the boat to a thickness of between 500 and 600 microns.
Other boat trades next door
The gas locker, bow lockers and stern lockers are all included in the works along with the bowthruster tube which would be painted by hand rather than sprayed, the actual bow thruster having been masked off before hand.
Below the gunnels is then masked off, the cabin sides now sprayed with high build sanding primer, several coats. This is then sanded back to a smooth finish. If in any areas they get back to the blacking more primer is added so the whole cabin is one colour before they start with the top coats.
If we were to purchase new windows for Oleanna they would be fitted all as part of the price. Our stick on solar panels would not survive being removed, so an upgrade would be sought and this could be done via Matt Gibson from Onboard Solar who is also at Redhill Marina.
Once the top coats have been applied Tom has recommended Claire Norton to do the sign writing, she would need to quote separately for this as no two boats are the same.
Unfortunately neither of the two boats in the shed were in a finished state. One had just had the coats of high build primer applied, the other was a day boat which had been painted with extreamly resilient paint , but not as finer finish as we’d be after. Tom is going to let us know if there are any boats near Goole we could go to look at.
Hello Soar
The shed is kept to a steady 20C and is big enough for two narrowboats. He took time to point out details that he insists on doing such as with hatch openings and avoiding any chance of them rusting. They would need Oleanna for between four to six weeks and the next available slot is now January 2026. Any good painter is booked up.
If we were to go with them, their location would have good points and bad. It is close to Trent Junction where the Soar meets the Trent, so only about five days cruise from Goole. The downside is should the rivers be in flood then it would be hard to get there or away. However Oleanna could be delivered early and stay out on the hard until it was her turn. I suspect it wouldn’t be a problem for her to be there for a while afterwards either, we of course would have to pay for her to be there as we would anywhere.
A good visit. We both liked Tom and his enthusiasm for what he does. Any extra jobs we’d be wanting would be possible as other trades work close by at Redhill. In fact next door is Ovation Boats then Tristar.
Looking towards the flood lock under the bridge
Once we’d said our goodbyes we had a walk down the muddy track to see the river. This morning a notice had come through that Cranfleet flood gates had been closed so it was no surprise to see the river flowing quickly past. To our right the flood lock, then out of view to our left around a few bends Ratcliffe Lock.
It was then time to head on southwards as there was a weekend of celebrations to be enjoyed.
0 locks, 0 miles by boat, 2nd painter, 1 nice chap, 1 okay price, 12 months waiting, 6 towers, 1 birthday cake decision made, 1 more batch of biscuits, 2 more painters to see next year.
It may have been the new cough medicine, it may have just been going to happen, but this morning I woke with a very gurglie chest. Both our colds are hanging on and morphing. Over breakfast we had a discussion, today we’d planned to do the Huddersfield Broad Canal and moor up at Coopers Bridge for the day.
Tilly can we sit by the stove too, please!
The Broad locks are quite short, one of them NB Lillyanne nearly didn’t get out of even with both bow and stern fenders lifted. Oleanna was built a foot shorter with this in mind, but she still needs to go on a diagonal and tuck in behind a lock gate to go down. Yes I could give the juggling round of Oleanna in the lock a go or we could revert to Team A. If we waited a day we could go one better, Team A + 1.
Maybe a day keeping warm and not exerting ourselves would also help with our colds. Decision made, we’d not be moving today. It was forecast to rain anyhow, better be indoors and stay dry.
Blues and yellows
The day was spent doing some paperwork for the house. Selecting the yarn for my next pair of socks and winding it into cakes ready to be knitted up.
Just needs a new plug!
A romantic walk up to the bins and around the block made us stretch our legs. A pause to use shore based facilities and Mick spotted a fridge. How generous of someone, giving away a 12 volt fridge rather than disposing of it at a tip!
Quartet
We then sat down to watch Quartet (2012) staring so many wonderful actors. Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, Billy Connolly, Tom Courtenay, Pauline Collins, Andrew Sacks, Sheridan Smith! Then all the musicians who acted as extras, directed by Dustin Hoffman. The film is set in a home for retired musicians and when Maggie Smith moves in there are a few hurdles to be sorted. Finances threaten to close the home, but it is hoped that the annual gala performance by the residents will help fill the coffers. Will the four opera singers be brought together to perform the quartet from Rigoletto? A lovely damp Sunday Wednesday afternoon film to knit in front of.
Here’s hoping things are improved all round tomorrow.
0 locks, 0 miles, 1 walk round the canal, 1 change of plan, 6 spoons of yucky honey, 0.5 of a sock knitted, 0 shore leave, 1 grey day.
The rain started yesterday evening and I think it has been a constant for a least 24 hours. Our current schedule has days off built into it, but they are just about all spoken for. At least the wind had subsided a bit this morning.
We waited to see if the rain would ease. Maybe it would, maybe we’d get a soaking. An early lunch with hope of moving on afterwards. Waterproofs donned. Engine on. The yellow water needed emptying, that was none negotiable.
Mick came in doors, he’d been thinking, so had I. The rain was very big drops, after five minutes out there he’d got pretty soaked. The plan was to do 8 locks today, we’d be dripping wet before the second lock. Could we do an extra long day tomorrow instead? If the weather eased off then we’d head on, but we both knew that wouldn’t happen, even so we both kept our padded waterproof trousers on for much of the day.
Well that’s pants!
Tilly agreed, the weather was SO bad even I didn’t get to go out! You wouldn’t have got to go out anyway, we’re in a car park!
The day was spent doing a blog writing master class with Mick. Writing a post is one thing. Adding the photos, changing fonts to black and bold to make them easier to read is second nature to me now, but it all takes time.
Quality control.
In between giving guidance I watched A Million Little Pieces2018. A jolly little number about an addict who after injuring himself ends up in rehab, he falls in love and battles his past to save himself. As I say a jolly film, not. But good to knit in front of.
Ready for the oven
This evening (still raining), I had a go at my own version of the chicken, ham, leek dauphinoise pie I bought in Northwich the other week. It turned out pretty well, very tasty. Not too healthy, but then dauphinoise potatoes never have been with all that cream. Very indulgent and not a standard midweek meal and I did manage to use nearly every pan we have! I’ll write it up when I have time, and next time I’ll see what it’s like using soya cream instead to reduce the fat content.
Ready for our tummies
Mick had spied that a new series of The Traitors started tonight on BBC 3. It’s also available on demand, so that’s our viewing sorted for the next ten nights. But what a measly prize pot $70,000, that’s just over £33,000 a third of the UK prize pot!
0 locks, 0 miles, 1 wet Mick, 1 dry Pip, 1 dry Tilly, 1 very nice meal, 1 long day tomorrow, 1st NZ season, it’s not the same without a castle!
1 An outside that Tilly hopefully wouldn’t use up within one afternoon.
2 Somewhere not too far away from civilisation and shops to keep me occupied should I need supplies.
3 Near to a train station for Mick. Bollington had been considered but that would have meant a bus ride, here was just a walk down the hill to Macclesfield Station.
Monday.
Mick packed a bag after breakfast, then checked the status of his train, a direct service to Southampton. It was cancelled! Thankfully there was a train an hour earlier, so the packing had to be a touch quicker and off he went. Thankfully Tilly was far too busy to follow him along the towpath.
Here she comes
His trip? A belated 65th Birthday present from Marion and John, a days cruise around the Isle of Wight on the PS Waverley. Last year they had been booked on a trip from Portsmouth, but a storm meant it was cancelled and the PS Waverley ran away around the coast before the winds arrived. He is under instruction to take photos, even been sent with my camera, I’m hoping he’ll write a post about it.
Why haven’t I gone too? I don’t like lumpy water and the thought of being on a boat that might be lumping around all day is something I simply wouldn’t enjoy, I’d feel quite trapped, so I’ve opted to stay on board with Tilly.
All stocked up.
My main job today was to wait for NB Alton to arrive. Out on their fortnightly run along the summit pound, we’d placed an order for some coal and a diesel top up. At 1:30 I heard the hooter as they came under Holland’s Bridge. Brian at the helm and Paul lugging the coal about. 2 bags on the roof and one in the well deck. Then they moved up to top us up on diesel, £1.04. Good to see Brian out on NB Alton, it’s always good to support the coal boats.
My knees were complaining today after working the locks on Saturday, but I managed a walk to the nearest post box and then around the block before returning to get on with some knitting. Pair of socks 38 had the top finished off. Yarn for pair 39 was selected, Autumn Golds. I may add some berries to them too as up on the Macc the trees are filled with them at the moment.
Golds
The afternoon was spent knitting in front of On The Basis Of Sex 2018. A film based on the story of Ruth Bader Ginsburg who was the second woman to serve as Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. She specialised in sex discrimination and the law, and takes on a case where a man was unfairly discriminated against because of his sex in a tax case. If she won then the case could be used as precedent challenging laws that discriminate against women.
Tilly did a good job of keeping my knees nice and warm. It’s a very important job
Tuesday.
Mick was guaranteed to be having a cooked breakfast in his hotel this morning, so to be fair to myself I cooked some mushrooms on toast, very nice they were too. This was to give me enough energy to start weeding out photos. Our storage is constantly filled, so some time editing photos was needed.
I didn’t need lunch today
Long gone are those days when you took a camera on holiday with you, a roll of film, maybe two if you could afford it. 36 frames if you were extra flush. Photo opportunities had to be considered, you couldn’t go wasting that film or flash cubes! Twelve years ago I took it upon myself to scan all my Dad’s slides and I was surprised at how few were rubbish! Maybe he’d wheedled them out, but knowing him they would have been there to keep the numbering system correct. I had to edit them, so scanned any with people and places that meant things to Andrew and myself. This gives us a wonderful resource to look back on when ever we want without having to arrange a dinner party, dig out the projector and a screen, then spend hours sorting the slides into order (that’s where the numbering system came in).
Now we have digital cameras, phones, all so easy to press the button three four times to get that one good shot. On a day like today I’ll take just a handful of photos, but on big days when ascending the Anderton Boat Lift I took getting on for 120, the night time flotilla on the Thames, well it could have been 3 to 400! As I go through them I edit out the bad ones, but there is more editing needed. Mick has already moved a couple of years of boating photos to a different Onedrive as we keep reaching our storage limit and we don’t want to pay for more space.
Socks socks sock coming out of my ears!
I had an idea when I started this years sockathon, a means of showing all the socks off. So as I finish a pair they need recording. Not just one photo, but several, hopefully one day I’ll find enough time to compile them all together. So I have a LOT of photos of socks, several of each. Today I sat down thinking I’d manage to get through the big folder and make it considerably smaller. Well after 4 hours of auditioning photos, I needed a walk.
The Old Hovis Mill
Along the canal, past the Old Hovis Mill and the basin. The collapsed wall just by Black Road Bridge has been rebuilt, for years the rubble of the wall lay across the closed towpath. Now open, but big cracks are showing, it looks like someone has hoped that adding more mortar in places will help. I fear it’s only a matter of time before big chunks collapse again.
Not looking so cleaver
The pontoon moorings were full. I turned up Buxton Road to walk to the Co-op. A few new shops/cafes/bakery. Tommys Bar and Pizza looked interesting even though there was a big shutter behind the windows. Then a couple of doors up was Early Bird Bakes. Not open today and sadly they are unlikely to sell anything for me, but it looked very interesting. They are open four days a week and their bread takes 48 hours to make, lots of tasty sounding pastry labels sat on the empty shelves. I suspect it’s a place well worth a visit if you come this way.
Maple Pecan Buns!
This evening I’ve had a go at stuffing some peppers. The outcome was tasty, but I should have got the peppers cooking before I stuffed them! Next time! There’s two left over for lunch in the next couple of days too.
Reports from the south coast came through all day. Lots of every exciting things to look at, an hour of lumpy water, I was right not to go. I could track PS Waverley as it made it’s way round the Isle of Wight, even visiting a garden in Portsmouth!
By the end of the day I think I’d achieved editing 1/3rd of my sock photos. Guess what I’ll be doing tomorrow?
Cheryl’s socks
As a reward I turned on The Great British Bake Off, it must be autumn. Maybe I should have a go at the technical challenges each week as I’m not going to be busy with panto this year. But maybe our waistlines would like it too much!
0 locks, 0 miles, 2 sausage days, 0 one told me they were sausage days!!!! 79 litres, 3 bags coal, 2 short walks, 253 photos of socks down to 74, 53347279 left to edit.
This morning was planned. Get up push over to the water point, dispose of yellow water, fill up, as the tank filled have breakfast, wind, head to the moorings below the boat lift, Geraghty zoom if they were still there to join, then ascend the lift.
It was chucking it down! Neither of us wanted to spend another Sunday getting soaked on the boat lift. Waterproofs on we pushed over to the water point. As soon as I got inside I checked to see if we could do the lift tomorrow instead. When Mick came in he’d been thinking the same as there was an 80% chance of rain for much of the rest of the day. First lift booking at 9am tomorrow, we opted for 10am, our booking was changed.
Next I did a plan of our route for the next ten days on Canal Plan, would loosing a day mean we’d be needing long days to achieve our next transport hub. The overnight stops all seemed to be where we’d most probably end up anyway. Our plan was complete.
Tank full we reversed back to where we’d come from, squeezing back in. 10:15 we joined the Geraghty zoom. Subjects, halls of residence, being at Uni for 52 weeks a year, Izal toilet paper and wall washing, the later subject we came in towards the end so I’m not sure what that was about.
Hello Tilly down there!
What to do on a wet day in Northwich? Go the pictures! I checked what was on. For once there were a couple of possible films on the list, all with afternoon screenings. Right at the end of the list was a National Theatre Live screening of Prima Facie. I’ve been wanting to see this for ages. We’d missed it online for some reason, and I’ve looked at other cinemas in the past but it’s been fully booked. I checked the seating plan. LOADS of seats. I snapped up two straight away.
Chicken, Ham, Leek Dauphinoise Pie
Lunch first with some of our market swag. The chicken, ham, leek dauphinoise pie was so yummy I’m going to have a go at making one myself. Then I had the difficult discission of which sweet thing to have, half of each. I suspect they’d have been nicer yesterday, but they were still yummy and quite indulgent, well it was a miserable Sunday!
Half and half
All of two minutes walk to the Odeon next door. We resisted any food or drink from the kiosk much to the surprise of the lady checking tickets. The film did have people turning up during the trailers and even into the play, some missing a good fifteen minutes.
A bit different from the deco Odeon we’re used to in Scarborough
Well. WOW! What a performance by Jodie Comer. A one woman show, that sounds like it’s a comedy/stand up, it’s far FAR from a comedy. So many words to retain and so few pauses, such quick delivery and emotion. We soon knew where the plot would be headed and suspected we knew the outcome. Not a jolly afternoons viewing by any means, but enjoyable despite the subject. I’m so glad I spotted it on the end of the listings. If you’ve never seen it I think it may be on in cinemas for the next few weeks.
Outside the day had decided to dry up, should we make a move to the moorings by the lift? No we opted to stay put, enjoy being in the warm. In Morrisons the other day they had Ducks on offer so one of those went in the oven, adding to the warmth from the stove we had a very cosy evening with very nice food.
0 locks, 0.1 mile, 0.5 of that in reverse, 1 wet day avoided, 1 new umbrella, pair 37 finished, 2 cinema seats, 1 incredible performance, 1 roast duck with plenty of left overs, HELLO!! remember me?! 1 extreamly bored cat!
Shore leave was granted, I didn’t want to smell their cooked breakfast anyway, I’d far rather find my own thanks. I did however make it back in time, 1 hour 15 to be exact, to show myself on the screen. Everyone was there, they talked about slimy slugs, squerls eating strawberries again, the big steps in Nottingpants where Toms play with hard balls not bedoingee balls and cheesy flavoured hoola hoops, they sounded like round Dreamies, interesting.
Not the full works
Yellow water was dealt with, Tilly’s pooh box refreshed, and rubbish taken to the bins. As I rolled up the covers the boat in front of us NB Tamarisk, Over the yarnarm, was also making ready to move off. We had a locking partner.
Fishing match to our stern
A group of fishermen had set themselves a match, no-one was having any luck though, no fish biting. The thatched cottage still looks very snug and hunkered down by the bridge, very appealing.
The Marsworth cottage
The Marsworth bottom locks were empty, Mick hopped off to set the top one as Helen and Carlene joined to work the locks, we were mob handed. NB Tamarisk used to be moored on the Bridgewater, Mike and Helen having owned her now for 18 months moved her down onto the Kennet and Avon where they spend much of the year. They are on a summer exploration cruise, possibly up to Birmingham if they have enough time before they want to return to their home waters.
Sharing
Round past all the boats on the boat club moorings. We waved to the Margees house, even though Alison and Laura haven’t lived there since we’ve known them, but we still wave. Under the big railway embankment and on to Seabrook Swing Bridge. It’s very odd being on the boat at such times as it’s usually me who operates it or I’m ready with a windlass to set the next lock, but Carlene did the honours.
It turns out that Carlene used to live at Cooks Wharf on NB Mozart. Mike her brother remembers the Margees house being built. If you are reading this Alison and Laura, Carlene said to say Hello! The large grassy area alongside Seabrook Lock 35 was where Carlene and her friends used to come and socialise at weekends, her trip bringing back memories, I think Mike is doing his best to persuade her to move back onto a boat.
Carlene and Mike reminiscing
At our last lock I felt a touch useless. I’d normally be the one opening and closing gates, lifting paddles, setting ahead. Helen had set the lock and opened both gates, I managed to step off and hold Oleanna’s centre line whilst Mike brought their boat into the lock. But there was no-one to close our gate, paddles were about to be lifted and I had to stop everyone. I most probably could have closed the gate, but my instinct at the moment is to do no pushing and pulling of heavy things.
Time for us to find a mooring, we said our farewells and pulled in a little past some boats. This morning our side hatch had looked out at milepost 54, this afternoon it was 52. Tilly was given another four hours, coming and going. Mick sat outside to listen to the end of the test match and I watched The Courier (2020) whilst knitting away at my scrappy sock.
Benedict Cumberbatch plays Greville Wynne a British Businessman who was recruited to carry information from Russian Oleg Penkovsky in the 1960s. Both men are arrested, after months of interrogation Wynne is allowed a visit from his wife who reveals that the information they had passed to the British and Americans helped to de-escalate the Cuban Missile Crisis. A good film but a few too many subtitles for ease of knitting.
Tilly checking out our mooring
We finally got round to swapping over our duvet today. Summer one unpacked and the winter one stuffed back into a vaccum bag with some thick jumpers and popped back under the bed. It may be back out in a few weeks time, who knows!
4 locks, 2 miles exactly, 1 sharing boat, 1 summer weight duvet, 2 fat jumpers, 0.5 of a sock, 1 film, 2nd test match won, 1 day we’ll be moored at County Hall in Nottingham for a test match, 2 Walsall Turkey Schnitzels, 46th President not to stand again, 1 Mrs Tilly stamp of approval for this morning’s mooring.
