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Friday 31 May 2019

Bramble Cuttings T&M

Day : Friday
Date : 31 May 2019
Start : 1000
Finish : 1315 Bramble Cuttings

As you may have guessed dinner was taken at The Stanley Arms last night. I had the pie, which was a good slice from a large pie, my favourite where as Diana went for the chicken Fajitas and the sizzle dish of chicken on onions and peppers was huge to go with the plate full of chips salad and fajita breads. Unfortunately the Mild was not so good but that is not unusual.

This morning we were away at 10 taking a slow chug towards Middlewich, most of the other boats had left and the first part of the journey was quiet. A chap in Northwich was hard at it removing paint from his boat rook with an electric hot air gun, I did wonder about this method for removing old blacking.DSCF1576

Passing the services at Anderton this bow fender on a boat taking water caught my eye, something a bit different.DSCF1577

The building work is ongoing opposite The Old Broken Cross pub. There is a large poster describing the development but from what IDSCF1580 can see at the moment, their idea of Stylish and mine are quite different, it looks like a block of flats going up.DSCF1582

There is now quite a collection of boats moored between our marina and Oakwood Marina, I am not sure what the attraction is there. When we approached Bramble Cuttings we were pleased to see there was only one other boat there, its normally full if we want to moor. It did fill up for a while when a local boater turned up for an afternoon BBQ but they have since left.

We thought we had best wash the boat roof as it is already covered with black smuts from the exhaust, maybe light grey was the wrong colour for our roof?

I thought I had best post some photos of the boat with shiny paint, it may not last.

Click photographs to enlarge them.

DSCF1588 DSCF1586   DSCF1584

Today's Journeymap 3

8 Miles 0 Locks in 3¼ hours

Thursday 30 May 2019

Thursday 30 May 2019 Stanley Arms T&M

Day : Thursday
Date : 30 May 2019
Start : 1040
Finish : 1500 Stanley Arms T&M1500

Well this morning when we got up it wasn't raining, unfortunately that didn't last long and it started just after we set off. As you can see from this photo there is no activity at all at the lock.DSCF1560

The reason for the late start was the bread needed making and we wanted to time our engine running with the bread baking as that is when it uses the most electricity.

Our first stop was Anderton Lift where I nipped up to see when we could come up the lift, first space was 1340 hrs. so we continued up to Hunts lock, on the way we passed this sunken barge, I hadn’t realised until this week that its actually concrete. You can see from the photo what the weather was like.DSCF1561

This tent has been on the river bank just before Northwich for some time now, it must have been quite grim living in there.DSCF1566

At the moorings in town we passed this motorised butty, it has a hydraulic motor in the rudder driving a propeller, a bit like an outboard.DSCF1568

As we winded just below the lock the bread was baked and it also stopped raining so we came down river to the new pontoons in Northwich and stopped for lunch.

CRT have been installing these floating habitats for wildlife along the river in Northwich, you may think its a good idea with that high hard piling along the river, but what you cant see is that the piling ends about 30 Mt to the left of it and then it's natural soft riverbank nearly all the way to Saltersford lock so the little critters are hardly short of anywhere in the area to live.DSCF1573
1pm we set off for Anderton lift, there was a hire boat waiting to go up when we arrived, they had done the Cheshire ring from Middlewich and just had time to come down the lift before lunch and go straight back up after lunch. The Anderton Lift trip boat DSCF1574was doing a good trade, they had just unloaded a boat full and these people were waiting to go. The cruise seems to last about half an hour and they don't quite go into the town which seems a shame. I am sure it would be a lot more interesting for the passengers if they just did another 5 minutes.

At 1-30 two boats came out of the lift and we were on our way in, the hire boat was a 6 berth and had t go well to the front of the caisson to have their stern clear of the white line at the back, if you are behind the line then you trip the lift and initiate an emergence stop as it comes to the top to stop the boat being crushed by the buffer. Once out of the lock it was off to Anderton services to fill with water, but what next. Dinner at the Stanley Arms seemed a good idea so we winded and headed back to the lift, then winded again and reversed through the bridge, waited for a boat towing coming the other way, passed the moored boats and moored outside the Stanley Arms. Once here I refitted the stern light, that's the last bit to go back, I think and then did an oil and filter change plus check the batteries for water, so we are good for another 250 hours again.

Today's Journeymap 2

7 Miles 0 Locks in 3¼ hours

Wednesday 29 May 2019

Wednesday 29 May Salersford Lock

Day : Wednesday
Date : 29 May 2019
Start : 1000 hrs
Finish : Saltersford Lock Landing 1515 hrs

Yesterday the evening turned out to be the best part of the day, the wind dropped away and it stayed fine, the river was like a mill pond.DSCF1546
We were moored right beside a bench in memory of Tommy Shuttlewood a rather famous blind fisherman. The seat now supports some knitted squares as well as other mementoes. DSCF1549

This morning we set off upstream to Northwich Dry Dock passing this chap just keeping an eye on things not that there is much aboutDSCF1552 on this end of the river with Saltersford Lock closed.

We moored up at Northwich Dry Dock to take out car back to the marina where we moor, we left it in Northwich when we picked up Harnser. Once the car was back at the marina we had a short walk along the towpath and then through the industrial estate to the bus stop. Checked the timetable and a bus was due at 1236 hr. looked at my watch and it was 1236 and there coming out of the junction was the bus, good timing or what. needles to say our Suffolk bus passes didn't register on the swipe machine in the bus but the driver was happy and we were soon off back to Northwich. After a bit to eat in town a walk back to the dry dock and say goodbye to Matt, Rebekah and Steve.

By now it was drizzling and windy so we decided to go back down stream. As we passed the waste disposal bins at the CRT yard in DSCF1554Northwich a chap was emptying the bins into plastic bags and throwing it up onto the bank, I wondered how they got the bins up to empty them, now I know. As we made our way down stream the rain got heavier and we had plan to moor in the same spot as last night after winding above Saltersford Lock. The lock has been closed for sometime for repairs with stop planks above and a bund below so they could drain the lock, one of the jobs on the list was to replank the top gates, don't know it this got completed becauseDSCF1557 the downstream bund failed and the lock flooded, thankfully no one was trapped or injured but it has left a half completed lock that they can't drain. At the moment there is no end in sight.

As it was still chucking it down with rain we decided to stay on the lock moorings overnight, well there will be no one going through in the foreseeable future.

Today's JourneyMap 1

7½ Miles 0 Locks in 2¼ hours

Tuesday 28 May 2019

Tusday 28 May 2019 Barnton Cut

Day : Tuesday
Date : 28 may 2019
Start : 1645
Finish : Barnton Cut

Well it must have rained most of the night and was still at it when we got up this morning, by 10am it was just fine drizzle, We did leave the mooring briefly at 10am as Steve was bringing his family down the lift so I went and took a few photos of them exiting but then we returned to the pontoons where I spent the rest of the day fitting door locks, outside 12 sockets and such like.

The Anderton trip boat was doing a good trade with several full boat loads going for a river trip and lift passage.

By quarter to five we had had enough, we could now see the floor in the lounge, the boat can be secured and the radio and TV work again so we pushed off to charge the batteries, just under an hour down to Saltersford lock and then back a bit to the Barnton visitor moorings.

Today's Journey

2½ Miles 0 Locks in 1 hours

Monday 27 May 2019

Monday 27 May 2019 Anderton

Day : Monday
Date : 27 May 2017
Start : Northwich Drydock
Finish : Anderton Boat Lift

Well we woke before the alarm went off to a sunny morning so we were on our way by 7-30. The traffic was light with no hold ups so including a stop we were at the yard by 1 pm. When we arrived Steve was still working on Harnser, he still had the Cutweb spider web to paint on the bows, so we left him to it and headed to tow for a new radio aerial, luckily Steve said "what's this hole in the roof for" I had forgotten all about it. When we got back after a coffee and a bun he was just giving the sides a rub with polish while we loaded up from the car.

We slipped out of the wet dock and moored just above the railway arches to fit a few bit. Steve had refitted everything he had removed but I had removed aerials, horn, sockets etc. before we left her. Luckily I got all the holes in the roof bunged up before the rain. We decided to drop down to the moorings by the lift for the night, a couple of reasons, one its quieter and two it would produce a tank of hot water for the morning. The only down side was it decided to rain and it rained like it meant it for a couple of hours, well after we had moored up.

I am sorry to say tat due to the inclement weather there are no photos of Harnser's new paint work, but the colour scheme is just the same minus the rust and plus the shine.

Today's Journey

2 Miles 0 Locks in 0.5 hours

Thursday 23 May 2019

Test

Well lets see if we can post a photo of a lock on Open Live Writer with this new mod.P5140081


Thank for this posting must go to Tom and his contacts.http://www.narrowboat-waiouru.co.uk/2019/05/robins-open-live-writer-solution_23.html


Without his efforts I and many others would still be struggling to post photographs

Now does anyone know where the lock is?