The Winnipeg connection as we reach Ellesmere

Blakes Mere (Br 56) to Maestermyn Bridge (Br 4), Llangollen Canal, 9 miles 0 locks

No, we are not going backwards, the bridge says Bridge 4 ahead of us!.. The numbers are starting again since we passed the junction with the Mongomery Canal.  Actually just after the bridge number 2, which is a turn over bridge, Lucy waited to come aboard No Problem, we soon realised why she needed to come aboard, the towpath ‘ran out’.. such is the corrosion along the bank of this canal that the towpath has been eroded away with no sign whatsoever of any sort of repair.  I always thought that a towpath had to be put into a state of repair on every canal, I must be wrong!

Anyway… it was a lovely morning this morning when I poked my head out.. so much so that I went straight back in to get the camera as a boat was just emerging from the bridge ahead of our overnight mooring along the early sun kissed canal..

Nice mooring here last night it was, once again so very quiet away from roads and railways.. but onward today to Ellesmere to pick up post and some much needed fresh vegetables.. Along the way we passed the short Ellesmere Tunnel..

Which reminded me that I had forgotten to do anything about our nice new chrome francis spotlamp which I want de-chromed back to brass.. I have shoved it in the cupboard!.. Must do something about that before the winter is out..

Walking towards us just after the tunnel was a group of people taking pics of No Problem.. not unusual for people to take pics of her.. the flowers for a start are still giving a good show.. but as we drew alongside “Hi Sue, Vic and Lucy, I am Dennis and we are the Canadians from Winnipeg!”.. WOW!

So I immediately pulled in and greeted my blog readers of over 3 years … A grand tour of No Problem followed while Vic patiently held No Problem into the side.. then it was off along the canal to give them all a ride back to Ellesmere where they had walked from to meet us after parking their car there…

Here we are then moored alongside in the Ellesmere Arm.. and left to right are Linda, Sandra and Dennis.. It is Linda and Dennis who are from Winnipeg.. they are staying with cousin (I think that is right) Sandra in the nearby town of Oswestry, just south of Chirk.

It sure was lovely to meet you all, and we were so pleased to have caught up with you today after missing you knocking the door on Monday when we were out..

So with fresh vegetables, meat and milk aboard as well as the post collected we continued to the end of the arm..

Winded at the end (turned) and back out onto the main canal again turning right to leave Ellesmere behind after filling with water at the services.. There was a much admired and talked about narrowboat moored opposite the services today.. narrowboat Saturn..

“She is the last horse-drawn Shropshire Union Canal Fly-boat in the World – originally built to travel non-stop, day and night, carrying perishable goods. Over 100 years old, she has been fully restored to her former glory; not only to preserve her for posterity but to educate present and future generations about our waterways, narrowboats and horse-boating.”

It was getting a bit late, but I want to get to Chirk for Saturday/Sunday morning without having to rush, so thought we would put in a couple of hours this evening hoping it would be a bit quieter along this busy waterway.. but no it wasn’t, and boats were still piling past us in the opposite direction using the canal like a bloomin’ racetrack.. I just burst out laughing at one point when I saw trees on the non towpath side ‘painted’ all sorts of colours where boats had scraped them.. as I went through a bridge a boat was coming round the corner ahead of me.. panic set in and he shoved it in reverse making the bow come right across the canal.. I had to stop.. by now I was in fits of giggles at the antics of some of these boaters..  We even had boats steaming up behind us like they were on a mission.. I just pulled over and let them through, and within minutes they were out of sight, sheeeeeeeesh.. madness!

OK,OK I know they only have a week to do all this lot in.. I have a lifetime.. I don’t mind all that, just I don’t like to see a canal in such a state as this is getting in, it is worrying.. the bridges are getting badly damaged, and seemingly they are not being repaired, the towpaths are eroding away, and seemingly not being repaired either.. I just hope that this canal is not going to suffer because of all the traffic that have to rush about just to ‘do’ the canal in a week.. *sigh*

Moored tonight on a hard edge along a bit where there is no official towpath.. no walkers can get here, so we have the place to ourselves!

Continuously cruising near Ellesmere...

Sparks Bridge (35) to Blakes Mere (Br 56), Llangollen Canal, 9 miles 0 locks

I just been relaxing the last hour or so, and came across something that made me smile.. I am always of the opinion to let others live the way they wish, it’s just the way Hector has put it that got to me..

“Ben, My wife and I lived aboard for 15 months until our boat needed to be restored.
We are not the greatest ones for pointless rules, so let's be realistic here. We stayed as long as we wanted where we wanted and were only reminded of the rules politely when we would move on, eventually.
This caused no hardship to anyone, especially the good burgers of any town or village where we frequented the shops and hostelries.”

Oh this is from a nice canal forum community called Just Canals by the way.  By pointless rules, Hector means that he should not overstay a mooring after 14 days. Anyway this family sounds totally relaxed, not sticking to the rules obviously, but adhering to being asked to stick to them if you see what I mean.. they want no hassle, no hassle to have to pointlessly move, and no hassle if asked to move, they just move..

Chas pointed out another article to me today over at Narrowboatworld..

“THE scourge of boaters everywhere·non continuous cruisers·that take up the best moorings for months on end usually surrounded by unsightly junk and running generators to the annoyance of any that moor nearby, have had their death knell sounded by a Court judgement, setting a precedent that could see them eventually cleared from the waterways.”

These are also known as ‘continuous moorers’.. but there is a difference in our Hector and ‘the scourge of boaters everywhere’..

The Narrowboatworld article goes on…

“The boater was granted a 12 months licence on 1st June 2005 claiming he did not require a mooring permit as he would use his boat continuously for cruising in accordance with the British Waterways Act 1995. However, the boater did not use his boat in accordance with continuous cruising requirements, and after writing to him on numerous occasions, British Waterways issued court proceedings to have him and the boat removed from its waterways.”

Ho hum, so Hector moved his boat after being told that he had overstayed his continuous cruising mooring time, our naughty boater refused to do so even after 2 years worth of asking!!.. fair enough. 

The boater taken to court actually took his boat out of the water himself, but had to pay costs to the court, but I don’t think those costs would have been anything like what he would have had to pay for a permanent mooring, so in a way he won.. paying less than he would have?

I love being a continuous cruiser, being able to be free to choose.  I try my very best to stick rigidly to the rules, and for sure, there are 3 or 4 years worth of blogs to prove that I mainly do.. there are also a couple of blogs within that time that prove that I don’t too I must admit!!!

Anyway, just some thoughts on the page this evening for a change from the ‘idyllic life’ of a continuous cruiser.. but hey it has been idyllic today..

Yet another disused rail bridge to go under.. this part of the world has disused railways everywhere you look, an unbelievable number of lines.  I wondered if this went back to the days when the coal mines were active.. it is so very remote in these parts, maybe the railways were put in place to pick up the odd few people in hamlets to take them to the major towns.. well there must have been some reason..

A good days cruising today, I enjoyed.. well mostly enjoyed, there are far too many narrowboats from hire bases continually cruising this canal for sure!!

Grindley Brook's delightful locks and it's rescue time too

Grindley Brook to Blackoe, Sparks Bridge (35), Llangollen Canal, 2.5 miles 6 locks

Following a stop day yesterday we waited for Duke and Duchess the hotel boat pair to leave their overnight mooring just up from us before pulling the pins ourselves to head towards the 6 locks at Grindley Brook, three normal locks and a staircase of three more.

But just as we left a narrowboat started creeping out from the towpath ahead of us with no steerer in sight.. and gently came across us and settled on the far side of the canal.  Now we could either leave it there for the crew to swim to or we could rescue it.. of course we would rescue it!..   For sure it is not the weather at the moment for swimming!..

So slowly edging No Problem along the far side of the canal I nudged the Middlewich Hire Boat’s bows over…

Notice how the front rope is still coiled up on the bow, couldn’t have been tied up very well.. then it was just a matter of persuading the stranded narrowboat to head for the towpath with a bit of help from No Problem and the very versatile Vic!…

One more shove and that tidied the back end over as well.  Once securely moored with both front and back ropes this time we were on our way…  It was a funny day today.. maybe crews in this area had been pub crawling or something because as yet another hire boat emerged from the first lock, I untied No Problem where I had been patiently waiting only to see some of the crew off the emerging boat shutting the gates!!  “Hey leave them open please we are waiting to go in”.. “Eh?”  “We are just going in that lock, open the gates please”.. “Oh!”.. Ho hum wakey wakey..

Up through the first three then a bit of a wait before doing the last three in a staircase with the help of the lockeeper..

Passed that now famous Holly on the way up.. stolen last year from Middlewich Narrowboats and recovered, she is now back in service as a hire boat and is out and about.  I wondered if her holidaymaker hirers know why so many people are staring at them this week!

Lots of little shops on the way up these six..

And a very attractive area.  We had left at 11.15 hoping it would be a bit quieter that time of day.. well they do start early on this canal you know.. I heard the first boat past our mooring this morning just as it got light, keen lot I must say, but I was wrong about it being quiet today, and it wasn’t until gone 2 this afternoon that we had actually cleared these 6.. so a late lunch stop at the top before settling a little further on past Whitchurch for the night.

A very busy canal this is.. even this time of year, goodness knows what it is like in the summer months, but there are plenty of moorings everywhere.. all neatly manicured with rings, so I don’t really know why this one should have taken this unique way of mooring..

wonder if ‘dump in bank’ will catch on?

Left turn to Llangollen, but only just...

Nantwich to Grindley Brook, Shroppie and Llangollen Canals, 15 miles 13 locks

It was a very sharp turn to the left to head for Wales, in fact we were on the way to Chester I was sure at one point, as the wind almost made decisions for us!

But with a bit of persuasion I tempted No Problem round to the left and came back and moored at the bottom of the first set of locks on the Llangollen Canal..

Now here is one canal that I have not been on, and I have been on most since I started boating in 1975.  I was looking forward to it.. well was/am because we are only as far as Grindley Brook.  Mind you, looking at the mileage since last Friday, I am surprised we have done so much!

After a bad start where I didn’t see the signs to lift the fenders until the front of No Problem was in the lock.. DOH!!!  Got stuck! , so I had to reverse out much to the amusement of all the onlookers as I travelled the 65 feet down the side gunnel to lift the fender praying that the wind would not swing me too much.. then back and another 60 odd feet down the otherside to do the same.. but keeping cool, and smiling at the gongoozlers.. I managed to enter that first lock without too much trouble before making our way slowly up the canal through the locks as they appeared..

Then at one lock we were taken aback by the numbers of flowers and tributes left by people by the lockside.. see, you can be travelling in the most remote areas of this country and still come upon scenes that tug the heart strings.. “To Dad” “Will be sadly missed”, and some tributes with no words.. I wonder what happened here on that day not long ago..

Passing some lovely open farmland, this was an odd sight..

Seagulls of some type all congregated together in the middle of a field, doing nothing but lying down with their legs tucked underneath them like a herd of cattle might do if they had occupied the field.. no I am not going off my rocker.. I just thought this was rather odd thats all!!  .. Well I have never seen anything like it before!..

OK.. so onward..

And after spending the night near Wrenbury we pulled the pins this morning to pass through the electric lift bridge at the Alvechurch Marina Hire Base.. and here I could not get No Problem round the corner to go through the bridge because of all the narrowboats from the hire base on the right..

But with a bit of shove and push at the front, and help from those working to ready the hire boats for the next holidaymakers, No Problem was soon on her way and through the bridge..

Nice pub here, well it looked nice from the outside, might explore the inside on the way back!

Water flows along this canal from the mountains in Wales to the other end of the canal at Hurleston where there is a reservoir that it flows into.  I was surprised at the amount of water coming by, apparently it is some 6–12 million gallons of water per day flowing down, and here at Quoisley Lock you can see the flow..

This means trouble for me as I try to steer 67ft of No Problem into the locks with that lot flowing broadside just at the entrances!… I am having to approach at a speed very much faster than I like..

I remembered the breach further along this canal that happened in December 2004 I think it was.. Goodness if you can imagine all that water piling over the top of the canal and into the valley.. sheeeeeeesh.  On the lock sides there are little ‘houses’ where stop planks are located that slot into the sides of the canal to stop the water flowing,

but to be honest I wouldn’t know how on earth they would stop all that water from flowing down these embankments if there was to be a breach.

Ha always funny when I go into a lock going uphill because you never know what you are going to see when the crew open the top gates to let the water into the lock to raise me up.. a surprise at Willeymoor Lock.. and I had only just made lunch too while I was waiting for the lock to be made ready..

If the wind today had been in the other direction I might have known by the moorish smell that greeted me as I ‘appeared’ from the deep!  That would have saved me slaving in the galley..

Still,  we have been out tonight to the Horse and Jockey just over the road at Grindley Brook where we shoved in the pins for this evening.. tis pouring with rain now, I think winter has arrived..

And so to Nantwich

Hack Green Locks to Nantwich, 3 miles 2 locks

A few rest days at Hack Green, well I say rest days, one was spent visiting the dentist in Stafford via a taxi from the little bridge by the locks to the station in Nantwich and thence to Stafford via Crewe.

We also arranged for Mr Tesco to deliver us some groceries and for the delivery of some new chairs that we had bought/ordered in Market Drayton last week, we were not comfortable with the ones we had and managed to sell those to make room for new ones.

And with all that done we pulled the pins this morning on the lovely quiet mooring, where I had also enjoyed some great walks with Lucy...

It was busy with boats too, and, typical, just as we pulled the pins, two narrowboats came through the bridge.. so we waited for those to go through the locks, and along with Moore2Life we were the third boat through.

A nice run down to Nantwich, a lot of moored boats about though, but we found a space by the A530 aqueduct..

We are moored just up those steps to the right along the embankment.  Lunch then in Nantwich today at this wonderful bookshop come pavement cafe on the left in this lovely old building..

I loved this town, not a clone town as we tend to find as we cruise the waterways, but lots of independent family businesses, and seemingly the locals like it that way.  The only supermarket we saw was Morrisons, and then that was just outside the centre near the station.  There sure was plenty to look at, with ginnels going off in all directions getting my attention as I curiously peered down them looking at the little shops.

The church dominated the skyline from where we were moored, the walk to town was about 10 minutes, although there is a bus for those not wanting to walk that far.. it goes every half hour from the bus stop close to the bottom of the steps from the canal embankment.. but I walked to town twice today, having forgotten to take the post to the post office first time!

Certainly a place I shall visit more on the way back, there is still plenty to explore there.

Andy Edwards told me not to miss out on visiting Nantwich, well thanks Andy, you are right!  

Whoosh to go just short of Nantwich with an I spy on the way

Bottom  Adderley Locks to Top of Hack Green Locks, Shroppie Canal, 15 locks 5.75 miles

We did a bit over the weekend.. well the weather was nice!

And on Saturday, hey, hey…

Look at that, tis our good friends Mo and Ness with Balmahahahaha!  Thanks for the pic Annie

Nice as always to meet up with Mo and Ness.. fleetingly this time, but maybe we might ‘do some stuff’ in the spring together on our way to the fens.  We broke some ground on that, or at least broke some ‘wanna do’ things.. watch this space!

We had an absolutely fabulous night out on Saturday at the Shroppie Fly..

I decided to have a t bone steak.. It was one of the best steaks I have had out to be honest.. Vic wondered if I had bought new boots to fit all I ate in.. just is was so nice.. I never ate anything much on the Sunday!..

Music, as usual, from this pub was great.. and we listened to the ‘second half’ back on No Problem having retired there at around 10.30pm for last orders aboard!

Sunday saw us on the move again, and with a 7 or 8 boat wait at the Hack Green Locks, we decided to put the pins in and watch the boring F1.. OK OK.. yes it was boring.. but a lovely mooring here.  I am surprised there are no 48hr boards up.. seems like it’s 14 days.. yet again so very quiet.

We are moored near the Hack Green Secret Bunker.. Ooops should I mention it’s a secret?..

I think it is OK,I just put that in google and it said there were half million sites that mention it!.. Might go have a look at it tomorrow.  A local told me that one of the rooms is not open to the public.. ho hum I wonder why.. 

Lucy loves Over The Bridge at Betton Coppice

Bottom of Tryley Locks to Bottom of Adderley Locks, Shropshire Union Canal, 4.5 miles 5 locks

Pins pulled and onward through Market Drayton this morning stopping just past the visitor moorings for water.  Here is the main base for the Challengers..

Here they all are.  These are share boats where there are probably 12 owners who have set weeks of the year cruising.. I think it works out cheaper in the long run than hiring a narrowboat, but they wouldn’t get their choice of weeks aboard very often over the years.

We stopped at Victoria Wharf Boatyard at bridge 65 and filled with diesel at 43.9p a litre, and bought a couple of bags of coal, welsh nuts, at £6.25 a bag.. that didn’t sound too bad.  We do hope to pick up some wood soon, and while we were at Market Drayton we took the chainsaw into the garden machine centre for its yearly service just behind Wilkinsons and Woolies where they checked it out while we waited.

Normally we get “Yeah we can look at it for you in about 2 weeks time”.. these people were very understanding that we lived on a canal narrowboat and needed it doing NOW.. “Yeah bring it in and we will service it while you wait”.. great stuff!

So now we are on the lookout for wood!

Mind you there isn’t any room on the roof at the moment, the flowers are still going strong, I am very loathed to plant them out on, or near the towpath as I normally do come late August ready for the winter pansies.. they are still going strong as you can see from some of the pics.

Lucy enjoyed trotting along the towpath today, and the one command she loves the most is “Over the Bridge Lucy”..

Whoosh, so fast she goes, she is too fast for the camera to focus even!  This is a turnover bridge where the towpath swaps from one side of the canal to the other.. she loves to beat us through the bridge hole.. giving us a “Nah nah beat ya”  look as she emerges on the other side of the canal..

Once Lucy has done a turnover bridge just the one time she will always remember it next time she visits even if it is years ahead.  There are a few turnover bridges that now have main roads where she cannot get over, and she knows to get on the boat at the bridge before them even if I forget to call her!

The Adderley flight of five locks was very very quiet today, I guess we got there about 12.30, and we only met one boat on the way down.. funnily enough it was Inheritance skippered by one of my blog readers.. we passed in one of the short pounds, and unfortunately I did not get a name.. but it is always nice to meet one of my readers..

The more and more I am doing of this canal the more I like it.. I have not been on this canal since the 70’s.. and then I was doing the ring so not really taking as much time to enjoy as I am now.. The Adderley locks is a lovely, lovely flight of locks, and down at the bottom are some moorings with rings no less..

Of course not only do I skipper No Problem but I also do some chores too..

Well wash day is wash day whether you live in a house or live on a narrowboat!

Tryley Locks in the evening sun

Top to Bottom of Tryley Locks, Shropshire Union Canal, 1 mile 5 locks

Chill out day yesterday moored at the top of the locks, and today we went into Market Drayton to have a look around.  It could have been better, the buildings are very medieval looking, but it still seems like a clone town.  Apparently the Council “Could do more” as one resident told me.. “For instance” she went on.. “At the carnival there was only two floats, and the council didn’t care.. the council have ruined this town” Harsh words from one of the locals.

I didn’t think it was THAT bad, there is no covered shopping mall, but lots of the streets are narrow, and the shops are spread well throughout the town, making a visit worthwhile.  Market Drayton of course, is the home of the gingerbread man!

So late in the day today we left our 48 hour mooring to drop down the 5 Tyrley Locks..

The late sunshine sending dappled patterns on the rock at the sides of the cutting where the locks are.  Yet again a beautiful part of the Shroppie.. all cut out of the rock once more.  I really am in awe how all those years ago navvies could do this work of cutting this huge cavern like cutting and building up the embankments elsewhere.. no machinery either.  Even today a job like this would take a long time..

Above, Chas and Ann (Moore2Life), having already gone through this flight, helping us through the last of the 5 locks. We were joined by a couple of beautiful buzzards as we descended as well .. there are a lot of those in this area too..

The last couple of days have been the same pattern, cloudy during the day with the evenings bursting into sunshine.. we certainly had the best of the day on the move late on.

I sure am enjoying this narrowboat now the prop has been changed, even dropping down these few locks has been totally different.. it was just soooooo easy and unstressful with more power seemingly at my disposal, no more struggling to make No Problem go where I want her to.. just have to ask nicely now!

Dunno about tomorrow.. moving for sure, but no idea how far or where to yet.. wonderful way of cruising innit?

Early morning tranquility before zooming off to Tyrley

Norbury to Tyrley, Shropshire Union Canal, 10 miles 0 locks

The stock was changed this morning, this is where the tiller arm connects to the rudder ..

This was the beastie that came out, and a new bit was welded on.  This piece in the pic had worked itself loose over the years and made the tiller shudder with the free movement from the tiller to the rudder.  I have kept this bit, it says JL Pinder & Sons Boat Builders.. well it is part of this narrowboat really, part of history, it will serve as a bit of ballast, it sure is heavy!

I was up early this morning.. no real reason, I just was.. and this was the scene here at Norbury Junction as people were beginning to waken to a new day.. some very tranquil pictures across the canal…

and this looking the other way towards the British Waterways services.  This is the real junction and to the left past the bows of No Problem is the southern route to Birmingham, to the right the northerly route to Chester, and under the bridge the entrance to the now derelict Shrewsbury and Newport Canal..

I couldn’t wait for the engineers to finish their work on NP to try out all the alterations and see if they worked as we had hoped, and just after 12 noon we swung her to the right and headed north.

No Problem handled totally differently, the larger prop making all the difference.  No more did we have a sluggish boat struggling along on high revs.. no more did we have to endure the rattling of the tiller arm and the shuddering vibration of it through my body.. she was a different boat altogether happily going along with seemingly no effort.. a real pleasure to skipper with no movement whatsoever of the tiller.. in fact I could just let go and the narrowboat continued along in a straight line holding course… brilliant!! Oh Boy, was I one happy gal!

It was fantastic today.. at last we were on our way with no ‘we must get this done’ stuff left on our list, and now we are free to cruise wherever we like for the rest of the Autumn without having any commitments to work on No Problem… phew… 

Vic and I relaxed on the cruiser deck while the canal alternated between high embankments, where we could see the mountains of Wales, to deep wooded cuttings into solid rock.. the bridges at an awesome hight above us..

This particular cutting, Woodseaves, is particularly narrow, and passing boats is difficult.. I do wish British Waterways would cut the edges.. our side for passing today was non towpath side.. ie in the bushes.. so it was hard not to scratch he paint with all the ash tree saplings trying to grow out and up to the light..

Above is the old Cadbury’s Wharf, where, between 1911 and 1961 Cadburys processed local milk supplies into chocolate crumb and transported that to Bournville in the Birmingham area by canal.  It was nice to see some old working boats at the wharf, including Starling, built by W.J. Yarwood & Sons Ltd of Northwich in 1936, and the British Waterways working boat No 121 both seen here under the wharf buildings.

And so to Tyrley.. we put the pins in for the night.. what a lovely area this is.  Been down the locks with Lucy this evening, once again an outstanding area of beauty.. will look around more tomorrow I think..

A New Prop at Norbury Junction

Moored Norbury Junction, Shropshire Union Canal

She didn’t want to come out too far, but far enough to be able to change prop this morning.  This pic gave a few on the far side from her a bit of a fright as she was pulled up the slip..

The bows disappearing under the water!   But we had bunged up the scuppers, the drain holes on the front bow deck, because we thought they might go under the water.. done with wedges and silicon to be water tight, and also the gas locker scuppers, leaving the cover off for ventilation to that. 

It worked well and no water entered No Problem as she was left hight and dry with the prop just about out of the water.. she sure wasn’t going to go any further up that slip!  Simon’s tractor thingy tried, but the back wheels left the ground refusing to bite any more under the weight of NP!..

Down the weedhatch then to remove the prop, better than having to get the waders on I suppose.  The boatyard here does not have a trolly to bring a boat out of the water completely anyway.. they have a dry dock which they use a lot, just that it was booked out for the next month or so, and we really did want to get this job done.

It wasn’t long till the holding nut was loose enough to screw off..

Now to compare the sizes..

Just one extra inch on the prop size, going from a 16” to a 17”, and look at the overall difference.. we kept the pitch the same at 12”.  This should make a big difference to the revs and therefore save diesel as well as being much quieter on the lower revs.

That went on OK, and soon NP was happily back in the water again. 

A very thorough engine service followed, the first we have done since we bought her.. changing oil, fuel and air filters on this occasion as it was pretty obvious that servicing had not been done for a very long time!

Tomorrow we are getting the rudder stock changed.  NP has one of the old style stocks at the moment with the cast iron roundy bit with J Pinner written on it.. the boat builder.  We will replace that with a welded bit as there is quite a lot of play in that area.. I’ll take some pics tomorrow to show you what I mean..

Been out tonight for a lubbly dubbly meal over at the Navigation (see above pic, its the building on the opposite bank) while we are moored here in the boatyard.. so will post this blog before it gets too late, so you can see today’s pics.

Norbury for the weekend

Gnosall to Norbury, Shroppie, 2 miles 0 locks

We filled with a bit of water this morning.. not a lot because we need to be as light as we can for our possible pull out up the slip here at Norbury Boatyard on Monday morning.  If Simon’s tractor thingy can drag No Problem out, then he will fit a new prop.

Still, we can always run the taps on Monday morning to empty the tank.  Anyway by lunchtime we had slowly cruised the two miles and managed to get a bit of washing done.  The rest of the day I spent locked away dealing with some ‘I’ll do it tomorrow’ paperwork. 

It is almost impossible to moor anywhere between Gnosall and Norbury because it is an embankment and there is a ledge all the way along under the water so we can’t get close into the side.. So we moored on the very furthest visitor mooring from the junction so to be handy to move on Monday a couple hundred metres to the boatyard. It’s nice here, quieter than the busy junction itself.

I noticed on Andrew's blog, Granny Buttons that he is complaining a bit about boaters wanting to moor in remote places and how they should all moor together so that others can do more miles per hour not having to slow down all the time..

But it won't remove the problem of the growing number of cruising boats seeking remote overnight moorings. 

I suspect that people who are already irritated about having to slow down past long stretches of official online moorings are going to be less inclined in the future to slow down past boats moored in the middle of nowhere.

I also suspect that boaters who are moored in the middle of nowhere will eventually have to be less complaining about speeding boats and get used to tying up more tightly. 

I have said a few times on my blog that I don’t mind boats coming past quicker than tick over.  We put a spring both back and front on No Problem (using 4 mooring stakes, roping one forward and one backward on the bow and the same again on the stern) when moored remotely for that very reason. 

We purposely seek remote moorings when we can.. reasons? .. well we are not the ‘herding’ type, we only have to endure our own boat engine, no generators, no dogs constantly barking, no unsightly towpath rubbish, no muddy towpath caused by regular moorers,.. I could go on.

But our type of ideal mooring is a bit of an advert, and often after we have moored two or three other boats feel the need to ‘herd’ and so that starts an Asda car park for boats!

But as long as boats don’t come past at full cruising speed and boats are tied up properly then there should be no complaints!

I been browsing a bit tonight, and I enjoyed this bit of post by a geek afloat who is seriously thinking about becoming a liveaboard..

Another niggle that has been concerning me over the last few days is how I can maintain my geekiness on the narrowboat. After all a few batteries and an inverter isn't exactly going to give me the levels of global warming electricity I need as a true geek to power all my gadgets and pc's!! After all I have to have the largest carbon footprint I can muster, that's what being a geek is all about. The off switch is an anthaema to true geeks, why switch off when standby and sleep mode are there just asking to be used. However 2 laptops and 3 desktop pc's, a server perhaps, a router, mobile phones on charge, oh, and a games console or 3 will soon drain all the life out of the boat's batteries. This need some deep thought

Maybe he should be looking at installing a cabin full of batteries.. ha he should be talking to Paul Balmer on Waterways Routes, our geek would need all those batteries that power Paul’s narrowboat to power his gadgets!

That reminds me, the write up about Paul’s narrowboat, Waterway Routes is in the Canal Boat mag, the latest October Issue now on sale.

Gnosall to London..

Moored Gnosall, Shroppie

It was good..

But then it always is good, his only ‘Red Piano’ concert this year.. very spectacular it was too..

He seemed to really enjoy this one himself, and just behind us was his partner David along with Shirley Bassey and we also saw Graham Norton.. so we were in the best place!

One more pic for you from a good series taken by Ann (Moore2Life)..

The stage had some fantastic sets, and balloons and glitter swarmed around this huge arena..

This one from my phone would you believe.. Anyway it was well worth the trip and luckily the tube strike was called off the evening before, so we were able to get across London without too much of a problem although some of the routes were still out of action, we had a plan A, B, C and D.. in the end it was Plan B!  Thanks very much Alex for the Clipper Information, that was plan C by the way, oh and hope you enjoyed the concert as much as we did too!

Two day’s hard travelling and just 4 hours sleep last night.. I have to confess, after the concert it was back to the hotel for a few beers and lots to chat about with daughter Wendie, as usual we got carried away, and I think it was close to 2am before our heads hit the pillow.. up at 6.30am this morning for an early breakfast before saying our farewells as we split to different lines at the underground station to go our separate ways.. Magic time that was…

So I am a bit zombied this evening and it is getting late so with those pics uploaded and posted, I gonna call it a night.. after battling the rush hour this morning getting back across London, it sure was a pleasure to get back to the peace and tranquility of No Problem…

Gnosall is handy for buses to transport us around..

Moored Gnosall, Shropshire Union Canal

Let me firstly thank you all for your comments on the last blog, I am pleased some listened to the interview on BBC Radio Shropshire, next time I will remember not to say errr or umm.. and to try and do it in a Pompey accent!!  Anyway thanks everyone!

I was asked a couple of blogs ago the colours of No Problem, so I will put that here this evening as the comments are getting a bit long.. for  Kevin, Debbie & Dawgs the paint colours are as follows..  International Toplac, the blue is 018 (I think.. there is paint down the side covering up the number a bit!) Mauritius Blue and the green is 077 Donegal Green.  I only know that today as we got the paint out of the bilge to paint up the bracket that will hold this…

Our new headlight!   I should be able to see going through the tunnels with this little beauty!  This came off a fire engine no less, a spotlight.  At the moment it is chrome, but I want the chrome taken off because underneath is brass.. I found it on ebay and put in a bid.  It was in the wrong section, so I got it for £100 instead of what I was expecting to have to pay around £250.. Officially known as a Francis Searchlight.  At the moment it is 240v, but can be changed back to the original 12v.  I might keep it at 240v and just have the inverter running when we are in a tunnel… just got to find someone to de-chrome it now.

Anyway it fits perfectly on the front of No Problem, all we need now is a tunnel to test it out! .. Tunnel, tunnel?  Don’t mention tunnels to me!

Been the dentist again today in Stafford.. Yuk.. but tomorrow it is off to London and The Dome.. good job I got an early train booked from Telford what with the tube strike, I guess it is going to be a bit crowded getting across to Greenwich, but then the other 19,997 people going to the concert are going to have the same problems!

Staying overnight in the city tomorrow before returning to No Problem on Thursday.. apparently the Dome concert hall is awesome.. heh, on the Ticketmaster website it says “Do not book tickets on level 4 if you have a fear of heights” Blimey that really does say something!

We (Me, daughter Wendie and Annie of Moore2Life) have some good seats on level 1 row 4, the block closest to the stage on the side facing the great man, he will be playing his red piano facing us.. can’t wait!

Playing computers and sound at Gnosall

Weekend – Cowley to Gnosall, Shroppie, About 1 mile or so.. 0 locks

Computer skills when retired tend to slow… so I had to drum up some past skills that I had to produce a recording of my interview on BBC Radio Shropshire.  It was a 3 hour program last Thursday that I was on, but on the Beeb site you can listen to a weeks worth of programs.. my interview of just over 6 minutes was hard to find on the morning show that day.

I am chuffed with myself that I managed to be able to download a program to enable me to record the bit I wanted.. chuffed because I had to find it.. and now chuffed that I have managed to upload it to my server!!

I spent most of the weekend doing that you know!.. Oh in between walking around 15 miles over the last three days with Lucy and a day in Stafford today too.. Sheeeeesh I do fit it all in eh?

It is a large file if you are going to listen to this on your narrowboat connection, but if at home on a broadband or wifi connection you might like to hear the voice behind the text on this blog..

Be aware it is around 5.7MB, a big file to download for mobiles..

Ha, there are a lot of errrs and ummmms, but David Beckham does that when he is interviewed, so I am in good company!

My Interview Click here to listen (5.7MB)