Autumn Cruising

We have left the Peak Forest Canal for a while; we spent a lovely weekend at Bugsworth Basin and then returned to near Swizzells Matlow factory in New Mills to collect wood.

A hard week, due to an unexpected fee to recover Simba from the pound, but unexpected surprise via our ever present coalboat, NB Alton and meeting a FB friend for the first time helped.

We gently cruised down to Marple at the weekend and will stop a few days whilst Stella attends a training course in Manchester and then a cruise to Bosley Services awaits!

Happy Anniversary Gracie

This weekend marks a year since we moved aboard Gracie.

Reorganisation on NB Gracie

After a fortnight in Strines,; time to move onto Whaley Bridge. We haven't been here since before aster, apart from the brief interlude for the Whaley Water Weekend, when we moored in Bugsworth.

We all like it here, we called into Bugsworth Basin to water up, change Eklsan and remove rubbish.
A glorious afternoon, Shiva in and out of eh cut, Simba shading himself and the cats enjoying hte sun.Then round to Whaley Bridge Basin,.

Next month is the anniversary of us moving aboard NBGracie and we always felt the settee was too big, so today, I moved it to vacuum behind and then decided to try and take it apart. Three hours later, all complete - another  foot or more of floor space and the ability to have a conversation circle. 
Next job is to get a single pine bed (or similar) and have boxes underneath for storage as well as resealing the floor, which took a battering t in the winter with all the rain.

Whaley Bridge Water Weekend first weekend in June

What an eventful two weeks; Fiona left us on the last weekend she was here, but came out to see us on her last day in England. We thoroughly enjoyed the time we had with her, travellers together.
Then it was time for her to leave and for Stella to return to work after ten weeks off. Mixed emotions on this, enjoy the job, but at the same time wanting to be on the cut all the time and travelling. But after two days, moved up to Whaley Bridge; we do like it up here. Lovely town,  friendly locals and for that weekend, a boat village opposite the towpath - bonfire and eating together on the Friday night and then mixing all weekend with that spirit was lovely. Seven boats, eight adults, five dogs and four children, a nice impromptu gathering.
Onto Stella's second week back at work, cycling to New Mills to get the bus is a peaceful way to start and finish your day; it's the bit in the middle that's manic!
But Friday came and as it was a lovely day, washing and housework. With not being on the towpath, the dogs potter up and down near the boat and it wasn't until tea time that I.realised Simba was missing. Those that know him, know what a friendly dog he is, like a big teddy bear; but has been known to take himself (normally,  with Shiva tagging along) for a walk. Anyway, called along the towpath into Whaley Bridge and asked everyone we met, but no sign. I have them registered on the dog lost site, but couldn't remember my password,  so posted his Photos on every group I could think.of and a FB friend, who is a volunteer with dogs lost put it up on.the site and posted, as I had done, on the Whaley Water Festival FB page. I tweeted to every contact I could think of and we kept searching with Shiva. He was especially interested around the vets, but I couldn't get through as they were closed. Finally,  attempted to go to bed about 2am, Chris saw dawn breaking and I was up at 7.30 to continue searching. Then my phone exploded with messages and phonecalls. It appeared someone had posted on a local page that they had found a chocolate Labrador in Tesco car park and had handed him into the local vets and the photo matched. Of course, we had to wait until 9am to phone the vets and sure enough, he was there. So off to the vets to get the errant Labrador. Then discovered,  he had lost his tag which had Nb Gracie & Chris's mobile number on it and although chipped our information was out of date.
In all the excitement,  we forgot to put the batteries on leisure use only and had the inverter (which converts 12volt to 240volt) on all night and managed to drain the batteries. Fortunately,  Nb Alton, the coalboat, came to the rescue last evening and along with coal & gas delivery gave us a jump start. We then.left the engine running all evening deciding that as we are on.our own and overlooking Tesco car park that it wouldn't annoy anyone and we could get the batteries charged up. However,  a new starter battery is required as well as a battery starter pack.
We then went into the Basin to listen to a free concert by a Pink Floyd tribute band - Roger Floyd, an enjoyable evening spent chatting and listening to the band and of course Simba, the local celebrity,  loads of people said they had shared the post and glad we were reunited.
So today, do a bit more washing and then off to the Canal & River Trust stand in the terminus building at the Basin as they are consulting on its future use. Off to get water, empty Elsan and cruise down to New Mills later.

Bollington Festival - working boats

We have had a lovely couple of days cruising down the Peak Forest Canal and onto the Macclesfield Canal. We moored just outside the village of Bollington and Fiona experienced the Bollington Pudding! (try it at the Plaice Restaurant on the main road to Pot Shrigley, past Clarence Mill).
Bollington has a festival for a fortnight,  this weekend was the Working Boat display and Nb Alton, Maria, Badger, Swallow, Joel were all there. Our followers will know Nb Alton is our coalboat and it was nice to see the working tradition still going.
It was also our goodbye to Fiona, who has gone to stay near her Dad's family til she goes back to NZ on Tuesday. We didn't get a photo, so a job for Tuesday (hopefully, Stella will have shifted the summer cold she developed overnight!) as Stella has to go back to hospital for them to check her wrist over.
We have enjoyed having Fiona with us and hope it is not another nine years until we see her again.

Day off in the sun

Fiona and I took ourselves off to meet her other sister, Zoe, today. A lovely day catching up on family news and a very nice lunch at The King's Ransom in Sale. Then we went into Manchester and walked to the Northern Quarter, sat and watched the world go by!
Yesterday, we travelled down from Bugsworth Basin to another favourite location at New Mills and went into Stockport to the market and to visit Chris's nephew and the fairy Garden!
Tonight, we had a salad and a serious chocolate cake for dessert!

The Marple Flight

A beautiful spring day; sunny, warm and a bit of a breeze, but not so you'd notice it. We set off from.just before Marple Aqueduct and did the flight in three hours.
We then cruised slowly down to Disley, mooring just behind old friends and sat in the sun, chatting and generally chilling out after our journey.
It does feel like home turf on this section and coming up the flight was so easy, bizarrely though, the two locks repaired over winter now have to be left empty. Now,  is this because they haven't been fixed properly, or to stop them breaking?
Tomorrow,  we will be off to Bugsworth Basin, to show Fiona the biggest inland port in Britain.

The Journey Continues

Today we thought we would travel to Portland Basin and then onto Marple tomorrow; however,  Portland Basin is awful, no moorings, canal bank perished and so we stopped long enough to nip to the big ASDA and get dog and cat food and then out of there.

Did some washing whilst engine was on, a beautifully sunny warm day - the warmest so far,  due to a lack of wind - even Jo, our elderly black cat sat and enjoyed the scenery and we finally moored up just through Hyde Bank Tunnel.

Manchester is a funny place to cruise through - children's toys dumped in the canal,  although it was nice to hear parents telling children off for dropping the bread bag and at the first bridge being helped through by local lads who operated it for me,  much to their delight. Maybe that's the answer is to show these people what canal life is like; maybe, if enough had an appreciation of it, they would be more thoughtful.

The Ashton 18

We set off today, after taking a collection of rope, carrier bags & a pair of trousers out of the weed hatch. An old friend came to see us with her little 15 month old daughter. We waited for Fiona to come back after having a silver fern tattoo on her wrist.

After a further cup of tea, we set off up the Ashton Flight. This canal skirts the Manchester City Stadium, Sport City and the Velodrome and takes you through some of the more colourful areas of Manchester. Their idea of recycling seems to be to dump everything in the cut, so we had to reopen the weed hatch and remove a sweatshirt caught on the prop.

We finally finished the flight at 8.15, 5 hours of slog, but at least we didn't hit anything big, or find anything nasty in the weed hatch. We are currently moored in Audenshawe and will head off to Ashton-Under-Lyne in the morning.

Day off from locking tomorrow,  there are only so many aches and pains, you can take!

The Rochdale Nine

Well the Rochdale Nine,  we did these last year and it took us hours; this year,  we came equipped with a crew! We needed to empty the Elsan, so took the opportunity to reverse round, empty the Elsan and take on water in Castlefield and then onto the Nine! The first three locks were Ok, tough and very hard work. Then Lock 88, we couldn't close the header gate - call Canal & River Trust and they fished out a metal fence, which we thought was quite awesome!

Then three of our crew had to leave us and so Fiona, Stella and Chris finished the last four locks on our own (with assistance from some passers-by opening lock gates).
There was one funny incident involving a goose and three goslings, who had got seperated because Mum & goslings were on towpath and Dad was in the canal, so shooed them back to the canal,  but not before she threw her wings out to protect the goslings from the dogs, who wanted to say hello!

We finally finished after 5 hours, moored on the Ashton Canal, ready for another 18 locks tomorrow! We will check the weed hatch again in the morning,  as NBGracie was very sluggish coming out of the last lock.
So, not quite, crying and cursing, but another good day. Sunshine, reasonably warm and NOT raining!