Gracie Update

Remiss of me, we now have a State of Gracie Facebook page and so this tends to be updated rather than the blog. So much has and hasn't happened since last posting.

Gracie has now been out of the water, in dry dock; we have to have some welding done; painting the exterior has started and interior is starting to take shape.

We blacked her ourselves at Portland Basin Marina at the end of the Peak Forest Canal. It was reopened in 2000 as part of the Huddersfield Canal reopening. Lovely people, can recommend it as an excellent place to have work done.

The gas locker floor needs replacing, combination of water underneath in the water tank, a slight lip where the water should drain and gas bottles grinding into metal meant a small hole developed. So we are getting a new floor welded in, the lip removed and some hardwood strips to rest the bottles on. The welder says it has happened previously, so a design fault.

The dogs continue to love this life. We are travelling along the entire Peak Forest Canal and going down into Manchester, via Stalybridge, or StalyVegas, as it is known locally!

We are slowly getting to know boaters and organisations, we have joined the National Association of Boat Owners and Stella has attended the boater's meeting in Birmingham and the Manchester and Peninne  AGM. We have also put our money where our mouth is and become Friends of CRT; meaning that we are sponsoring CRT as well as paying a licence.

Have a good summer everyone

Upper Peak Forest and Early Winter Cruising

Another fortnight and we had a bit of bad news after our last cruise when we went to top up the diesel; tank filled a fortnight ago and when we checked, we had just less then a quarter of a tank, so someone had siphoned about 120 litres of diesel - a sad sign of the times.

We have moored near woodland adjacent to Swizzells Matlow sweet factory this week, in order to stock up on wood - Chris has been hard at work collecting logs all week and we now have at least three weeks supply - will go back there this week and get some more. It helps the coal consumption as we burn wood during the day and put coal on to keep the stove in overnight.

We cruised up to Bugsworth Basin today; there are two views of New Mills, Derbyshire above - the Upper Peak Forest Canal is probably our favourite - the views over the Peak District are spectacular and then you get to the end at Whaley Bridge  and get views like these.

 Upper Peak Forest Canal

 Sunset over the Basin

 Teapot cottages on the way into the basin

Whaley Bridge Basin.

We have worked out to be back up here for Christmas, when I have 10 days off and if it's OK, we might even go cruising - if it isn't raining or icy!

Have a good one everyone - Christmas will be here soon enough  

Summer into Autumn

We haven't gone far this summer. Due to failed engines, we were stuck in Whaley Bridge/Furness Vale for eight weeks,  including Stella's two weeks summer (well, that was advisory, summer doesn't happen in August anymore) holiday, spent on a marina awaiting a new engine.
Anyway, that is all sorted now and we are back cruising. 
We had a lovely weekend last week at the Steam Fair at Bugsworth,  meeting old friends,  catching up with gossip.  Simba had an unplanned overnight stay at Cheshire Dogs Home after going missing and being handed in. My phone had no signal, as I was in Glasgow, so phoned warden when I got back and a very chastened Simba was returned the following morning, after us paying a £91.40 fine.
That's the only problem with being on one wage; we don't have contingency money just at present, with an engine to pay for. However,  things will get better and we are getting set for winter, mooring near woodland, to collect fallen logs for the stove.
Still loving this life; even being without electricity had its own charm. The cats have a new lease of life and the dogs really enjoy going to new places, returning to old haunts. Just have to keep Simba near the boat!
A few photos and shout out to our coalboat, Nb Alton. The lifeblood of the canal, lovely people and have a special.place in everyones lives.
Will try and do this weekly from.now on!

Easter on the cut

It's been about a month since I posted this blog and quite a bit has happened, since the last post. The wrist turned out to be a suspected scaphoid fracture (tiny bone on the inside of the wrist). So, signed off work til Easter and back to the Orthopaedic Outpatients for a check up on the 7th April. They were reasonably confident that although it wasn't broken, I had sprained it, torn tendons and damaged ligaments and advised me to stay off work until the next time they saw me and to have some physio in the meantime. So, back to hospital on the 29th April and signed off until May 1st, as I have holiday booked from 1st-28th May. So, I have been relaxing,  taking dogs out and generally pottering about. We are currently moored about a mile outside Marple,  very quiet and in a shady spot, good for keeping the boat cool in the sun, although there have been cool winds. 

We moved down here from Whaley Bridge a fortnight ago. The dogs have enjoyed the move although we have to watch them in Whaley Bridge,  Simba, in particular tends to wander round the picnic tables (middle name is Yogi Bear) and one day they got themselves completely lost when I was walking to Furness Vale to change the stop cord for a longer one and ended up on the bypass. Fortunately,  they have tags on with Boat name and Chris's mobile number and someone grabbed them and phoned. The same thing happened in Marple - sure sign we need to move on! 

We have a Boat Safety Survey to organise before 10th May, so will phone round on Tuesday to book someone and eldest arrives in less than a fortnight from New Zealand,  so once Easter is over,  we will be moving down the Macclesfield Canal towards Congleton ti be there for the 2nd May and then on round to Nantwich for the 7th May, when she joins us for our cruise down the Llangollen Canal.

I have to say, having this time off work has allowed me finally get rid of the virus that has haunted me since last November and we have also realised how much weight we have lost, both as a result of the flu, but also a complete change of diet (and correspondingly smaller portions). We tend to only have meat once or twice a week and therefore are eating more fresh vegetables and lentils, pulses etc. One of our favourite meals is baked potato done in the ash can and sautéed onions, garlic, sweet peppers and whatever other veg we have; delicious!  We find shop made dishes both very salty and sugary, actually quite a shock the other day when we had pizza and garlic bread and were still hungry afterwards. I reckon this shows that a ready meal diet is designed to make you eat more, not less!

So a cruise to look forward to - have a lovely Easter, wherever you are and whoever you are with.

. 

The start of Spring

I haven't mentioned how we rely on NBAlton and last weekend,  we had friends Onboard when Brian and Anne Marie arrived, they were most impressed with how everything flowed we do - diesel, coal, Elsan all bought within a short time. Coalboats are a lifeline to liveaboards - use them or lose them!

It was oficially the first day of Spring on Thursday - i had booked a half day holiday and went to collect my bike - the government in the UK do a cycle to work scheme - you buy a bike and get tax relief on the cost - pay over 12 months as well. So am now the owner of a red hybrid bike and a rather natty helmet with its own rear light! Watch out on the towpath for me!

Spring has definitely sprung - daffodils are out, ewes in lamb and even the sun has made an appearance.

Finally had my leave authorised - i am not sure why it has to go up.the management line if you want more than two weeks off at a time, or why it then takes nine weeks to authorise; but am now off from the second of May until the 28th May and now the cruise and holiday planning starts - Stella's eldest is over from New Zealand for that time and wanted to go.through Manchester, so.we thought we would finish The Cheshire Ring and go up the Llangollen Canal returning up the Bridgewater Canal through Manchester - the beauty of this is that she can join us and still see family and friends whilst here.

At present we are moving up the Peak Forest Canal towards Whaley Bridge and hopefully Bugsworth Basin will be open for Easter. It is typical Spring weather, brilliant sunshine one minute and pouring with rain the next. At least here the towpath is tarmac and not a mudbath as it is in Marple unfortunately.

We had an.eventful journey to Whaley Bridge - there is a swing bridge at Furness Vale and I normally get off Gracie at the previous bridge so as to have the bridge ready. Chris slowed her down; Shiva jumped offood, but Simba wouldn't - i grabbed hold of his harness to lift him off; his back.legs went in the canal, buy I got him.up and then slipped as I was getting off and fell heavily on my right wrist. Very sore .and grazed hand, got a tubular bandage and painkillers today, which are helping, but it's amazing what makes it twinge. I cycled up.to New Mills this morning as I managed to leave my bank card in the Co-op yesterday; slight flaw in my plan on my return - a headwind and changing gear was very painful! 

This is the view at New Mills - a lovely walk down to the River Goyt and along - it is a shame there are no visitor moorings here, as it . Is a friendly town with some nice shops and an indoor market. 

Once again, though the engine is playing up and so we have.a.call into River and Canal Rescue as Gracie will not start again! 

HopeFully we will be up and started soon as the engineer Is on his way.upupdate to say that the engine now working - lever had jammed owing to a frayed cable! 

Seven months Onboard and our sixth wedding anniversary

We are coming to the end of our seventh month Onboard - a steep learning curve in engines - we have had to get a new starter motor and when fitted it must have loosened the wires connecting the batteries to the alternator - apart from a valve perishing and so water was coming into the bilge. Gracie doesn't like the cold but last week it was twice we just couldn't get a charge into the batteries and had to get a neighbour to jump start her.
Of course as soon as anyone sees an engine cover off - advice is given, tea is drunk and finally on Sunday - a lovely day - we thought, up early, water up and off to New Mills; Gracie, however, had different ideas and decided she wasn't starting. We had had this before and she had started eventually once the air temp warmed up, so I took dogs, Elsan and water bottles to Marple and met Kit & Mike on Here be Dragons, who had helped us earlier and Mike went off to check heaters etc - I went off and got water and on the way back saw two other friends on their boats; who told me the engine was now going.
Turns out there were three wires loose to the alternator and once fixed, she has started like a dream and is charging the batteries up in 2.5 hours again rather than the six it was taking! Also, Chris topped the starter battery up, so that obviously helped.
So the landlubbers, now narrowboaters, learnt another lesson and a big shout out to Wayne and Mike who fixed Gracie's engine and a heartfelt thank you
It is our sixth wedding anniversary on Friday and on the 17th March 2012 we got a nine week old black Labrador, whom we named Shiva, it seems longer than that, we have had a ball really and roll on the next 56 years!

Life Onboard

Had to get my phone mended as it stopped charging and wouldn't turn on. So, no phone for three weeks - well, not strictly speaking, as I bought a basic one. Anyway, they phoned to say it was ready to collect and when I went to collect it, they had replaced it with a new one. So, have spent the last two days getting apps back (including this one!). Well impressed with SONY as the play store remembered what I had previously downloaded, so haven't had to search.

What a funny day - we were supposed to be cruising down to New Mills this morning; but Gracie had other ideas and decided she wasn't going to start! So I went and did the shopping - bones for puppy dogs was the top of the list. We had heard about a marine  electrician based in Marple - retired; so,Chris said he'd go and find him - i got back and he had finished emptying the bilge and said he'd have one last go at starting the engine and Gracie decided she would start!

Then off to find the electrician - lovely man - but can't walk far; so back to Gracie; wind and up to Marple to empty rubbish & get water. He arrived; checked wiring; fixed the horn and will,bring,a meter tomorrow to check the batteries and is replacing 2 fuses that have blown.

I am off to buy a bicycle tomorrow. This should enable us to moor a little easier, particularly in the summer and will keep fitness levels up. Both Chris and I have lost weight (a good thing) and for me I am back (virtually) to where I was when we got married six years ago (anniversary 14 March and 7th month of living Onboard NB Gracie) ;-)

We do so love this life - not saying it is easy - changing Elsan cassettes; getting drinking water falls mainly on Chris's shoulders as I am at work Monday through Thursday; but the dogs get lots of walks (and swims) and his health has improved as well as fitness levels.
So all in all the main lesson we learnt today was that Nb Gracie knows best - but also that you meet the nicest people living this life!