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News & Diary
Archive 2005
November to December
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News & Diary
Archive 2005
November to December
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Further travels can be found in Archives
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November 2
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Back in Lyme View marina we have been catching up on various jobs around the boat without stretching ourselves too hard - despite the warm weather it is nearly winter, after all. Last night we returned to the Miners' Arms for an excellent meal to celebrate Liz's 60th birthday when she had a rather splendid tournedos rossini en croute and I had gammon, egg and pineapple, an old favourite. Both were perfectly cooked and the dressed side salad was very good. Only the chips left something to be desired.
It has also been a time of catching up on friends made over the last three and a half years. At the end of last week we had a visit from Tony and Jenny Miller of Jenny Rose who brought us some lovely flowers and the latest news from Barton Turns marina where they are still happily moored.
Our planned cruise from late March/early April will take us back via the Shroppie to Stratford on Avon and the Ashby canal where we hope to spend the main summer months to compensate for not being there this winter.
We've also heard from Mike and Di Bridges who tell us their second Heron boat Quinquireme 2 is nearing completion but two unhappy items of news - for us, that is - come from Mike Hecken who has now put Ronarosa up for sale after his planned five years with the boat are ended and from David and Susan Lane who are selling their boat Plodder, which can be seen on Plodding Up From Aynho in the archives section. Regulars will know of our close contacts with Dave and Sue since we first met on the Ashby and though we'll miss them on the Cut we can understand their decision since Dave has been offered a marvellous job in Scotland that he could not resist. Anyone wanting more info can ring Dave or Sue on 07855236756
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November 11
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Well, I did warn you. When there's less to talk about, updating this journal seems a bit of a chore, and I thought a week might pass between each entry. This time it has been nine days and I've realised that the longer I leave it the longer the gaps are likely to become. So after reading a welcome email from Mike and Jo Edwards of Sarah Kate who miss regular postings I'll try to get down to it a bit more often - perhaps keeping the breaks down to three or four - or maybe five - days at the most.
And to be honest there has been more to write about over the last week or so, including some splendid emails from regular boating readers (one of them below) as well as one from an old school friend, Patrick Purcell, who I have not seen or heard from for over 40 years. He was one of my two closest friends during my years at Cowbridge Grammar School in South Wales and afterwards when I first worked for the Western Mail. Over the last few years especially I have thought about him a great deal (wondering whether he was alive and well for a start!) so it was marvellous to get his email saying he had come across this website by chance. All I know at the moment is he still lives in Cowbridge and has promised me a pint of Brains bitter if I get back that way, but I hope to hear more from him soon.
The strange thing is that friends left behind in my 20s have never grown old - even when I look in the mirror at my ageing face, I can still visualise Patrick only as a young man.
In the meantime, we have come out from the marina again and for the last four or five days we have been tied up at our usual spot above bridge 20 - called the Stumps by local boaters. The weather has been appalling most of the time but one sunny day gave me a chance to get down into the engine space, clear out all the rainwater in the bilge and change the oil and the oil filter before winter sets in. Yesterday a familiar boat Ramyshome went by with time for only a shouted greeting but this morning an email arrived from Roger and Maureen Yorke to say they are at Bugsworth basin and hope to see us somewhere on the Macc over the next few months. We'll certainly get out of the marina whenever the weather permits, except when our now overdue grandchild is born and we drive over to Norfolk, of course, and when we take a Christmas break.
Email update: A lovely line from Mike and Jo's email (see above): "Sarah Kate is now in the process of being re-fitted (after a second stretching) and should be ready early next year. Hopefully we will bump into you next year so you can see how much she has changed. On the way back from Lichfield we passed someone who we see occasionally, but have known for sometime. His comment was 'What on earth do you feed her on? She gets bigger everytime I see her.'"
And another entertaining missive from Sarah Levick of Arcadia who wrote just before bonfire night: "Amazingly, tomorrow we will visit the boat for the first time since the end of our holiday in September. We've been so busy that we just haven't had time but we're determined to head off into the country so that the dogs get a bang-free night. It worked very well last year and it will be nice to have a chug out.
"The holiday incidentally was fantastic, totally restoring our faith in the Cut. Even though we diverted through Dudley and Birmingham centre, we had not a spot of trouble, meeting only friendly natives and fellow boaters. We did have two amazing incidents within three hours of one another, either side of Kidderminster...nothing to do with vandals, but everything to do with running smack bang into the middle of some huge sand/mud bar right in the centre of the Cut. It has never happened to me ever before, not like this when we were actually wedged on our mid point and so were pivoting round this point whether we pulled on bow or stern ropes. The engine got us nowhere and it was only because a fellow boater rescued us in the first instance and a BW workboat obliged in the second that we're now home! Amazing that such obstructions were just there in the middle of the channel....apparently, BW were about to investigate.
"That aside, it was an extremely uneventful trip, the only other excitement being the requirement to get through Netherton tunnel on a single charge of our big halogen torch (we had no headlight for the trip as it was in the process of being replaced with a big new brass one). The charge was going to last roughly 15-20 minutes which meant we really had to get our toe down - the beam faded with about 500 yards to go and thankfully there was enough light shining in from the portal to save us! The dogs behaved very well on board. Suzie fell in once, there were a couple of escapes, and they all thought mummy had gone mad with the number of really long walks they kept getting. Unfortunately, mummy used her Pearson guides this holiday rather than her Nicholsons and she just kept misjudging the distances. Oh that walk between two locks doesn't look far...one and a half hours later and we are all flat out!
"Our big day was Brum city centre to the bottom of Curdworth - 38 locks, the last nine of which were done in the pouring rain. Andy got quite a lot of steering practice this holiday and we shared the slog - I am so unused to doing locks though that my shoulders didn't half hurt the following morning, but we did get a real sense of achievement out of it. I have to say the B&F below Minworth is very nice indeed, particularly at Curdworth bottom where you have all the lakes and bird sanctuary stuff. Not very busy either "
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November 16
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With the weather improving over the last few days, life on this small section of the Cut has perked up considerably. There has been a little rain overnight but otherwise the sun has shone, the moon has beamed, and there has been a crispness in the air that has banished any suggestion of seasonal gloom, if only temporarily. Yesterday, we upped stakes and cruised for an hour or so to Poynton to take on gas, water etc at the Trading Post. We buy from George on Alton whenever we can but his next scheduled trip down the Macc clashes with our visit to Norwich to see our new grandchild - if he or she is actually born by then (now four days overdue!)
Surprisingly there are plenty of spaces at the official moorings above the football field at Poynton so we stayed here last night and will probably wait until tomorrow before returning to the Stumps for the weekend and then back to Lyme View marina. Mind you, it's quietly "rural" even here at this time of the year, especially midweek when only a few dedicated dogwalkers and hikers are about.
One item of news that we have held back until Liz was reasonably settled in, is that she now has a part time job just for the winter months - 20 hours a week in an office near Macclesfield - so the use of the word "we" in the first paragraph was poetic licence. I brought the boat to Poynton, just as I have moved it alone several times recently. There are no locks or swing bridges in this area, of course, but I am getting used to single-handed cruising, which has to be character-building (?), and there's a lot to be said for having the place to myself for five hours four days a week. I'm still relieved when Liz gets home though and it's good to see how she has brightened up by having something to do over the months when we are not cruising.
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After a day at Poynton we returned to the Stumps in time for the rapid drop in temperature that iced the canal over for a few hours each day. The thin skim was easily broken up the first day, but was slower to disperse on Saturday. With Liz returning from Derbyshire on Sunday - she had been to a "birthday do" for our friend Mary
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In mid-afternoon six unexpected but very welcome visitors arrived, two of them for tea and biscuits, four of them for plain water and biscuits. Sarah Levick and her husband Andy Jury of Arcadia were on their way back from Scotland (again,by car, of course) with their greyhounds Susie, Arthur, Miffy and Monty and had stopped off to see us. Luckily I was still moored where I said we would be the last time they read this diary. Obviously, with four dogs there was no question of sitting inside the boat but the warm sunny afternoon made sitting up top no hardship and it was marvellous to see all four dogs for the first time. When Sarah told us about each new arrival I wondered how on earth they could cope but they really are beautiful and well-behaved - at least in the hour they were with me.
Email update: Happy news from Ruth and David Tomlinson - their boat Windrift has now been launched and two of our early correspondents Rose and Baz Philpott travelled from the K & A to help them celebrate. We hope to meet up with Ruth and David next season, probably on the Ashby. And from Pat Bycroft comes this graphic account of Pat and Mike's first days on Hyperion:
"We took delivery of our beautiful new boat early October, our dream come true. (See photograph above). We drove her out of John's paint tent, and she looked a treat. We nursed her all the way back to Stockton, through 21 locks, and back to our builder to finish off a few small jobs. Kate Boats have done us proud. We were in a polythene tent for a few days while a couple of jobs were completed, then out we came into the sunlight, shining like a new pin, free to enjoy our new boat.
"First night out in the open and the heavens opened, the rain fell thick and heavy, and to our horror we soon discovered our windows were leaking. We were flooded as the rain poured in, and were so glad we had plenty of tea towels, because we needed every one of them. As soon as we had got to the last window we had to wring out the towels at the first window, and this lasted until 5.30 am. As you might guess we were a little tired by then. When our boatyard opened they were very quick to get us under cover, back in the polythene tent, and call out the company that made our windows. When they turned up, we discovered that the person from the window makers had cut off the rubber cill that the glass should have sat on, to allow the rain to drain away - how stupid were they.
"That all done and dusted, we set off to Braunston for the week-end, and then planned to go on to Warwick,to make the most of the sunshine. On the trip back we discovered we had a gas leak, and this being a Sunday, all we could do was sit tight, and wait for Monday for help. So no cooking, we needed the gas. No heating as we had a diesel stove, and I was scared stiff, just in case the gas leak and a real flame fire meant we would blow our lovely new boat sky high, and we would be not only cold but wet as well. Ah well, our boat builders did us proud yet again, and we were sorted first thing Monday. Now this tale is about the joys of boating and long may it last."
And knowing Pat and Mike, it's a fair bet it will!
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December 3
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Winter relaxed its icy grip, if only briefly, yesterday morning and the high winds dropped just enough for us to leave the marina in the early afternoon. A short cruise brought us back to our favoured spot at the Stumps where we hope to see Alton some time over the weekend and buy coal and diesel from George Boyle. Surprisingly there is no one else here but we love the solitude and will stay here for about a week. We must make sure that we are back in the marina for December 16/17, however, when we begin our Christmas holiday, so we'll be watching the weather forecast for any return to the ice and snow. If any of you weather experts out there know what's going to happen in the next 10 days please email us in good time. Meanwhile our thanks to all those who have sent good wishes on the birth of our grand daughter Sienna. Some of you seem as pleased as we are!
Just one more piece of news. From the end of February 2006 we will once again be continuous cruisers. We gave notice to the owner of the marina, coincidentally one day before we heard that BW have withdrawn their threatened major increase in licence fees for ccs. We would have returned to continuous cruising even if the fees had gone up and the reason lies in ourselves, not in the marina. As marinas go, Lyme View would be hard to beat for its beautiful location, the friendliness of other boaters there and of the management themselves. It's just that we are not happy in marinas. We could not settle down with other boats on either side, even though they were not liveaboard and we had privacy most of the time. And you may have noticed we have spent a good part of October and November out on the towpath. So we will be out here again in the New Year and plan another couple of seasons travelling, spending at least the winter in between on the Ashby or back here on the Macclesfield, depending on family and other considerations.
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December 7
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The threat of a sudden drop in temperature galvanised me yesterday to leave our lovely mooring at the Stumps and bring Snecklifter back in to the marina, a feat which I managed entirely single-handed, including backing into our narrow slot between another boat and a short jetty. Usually I wait until Liz is aboard to act as bow-thruster but the almost total absence of wind and rain made me suddenly brave. I was still very relieved to tie up, though, and I don't want to try it again in a hurry. Going backwards is not one of my strengths, especially when other boaters are watching with obvious sympathy. Thought I had earned a pint so I walked down to the Miners Arms for an excellent flat pint of Theakston's best bitter but plans to help it down with one of their excellent sandwiches were forgotten when I saw the place was full of elderly folk who had booked for a special lunch. Yes, I know I didn't exactly stick out like a sore thumb (age-wise) but I left as soon as my glass was empty. Will try again soon.
We will certainly stay here in the marina until the New Year, of course, and the next week will be spent getting ready for our short holiday in Derbyshire. In the meantime there are a couple more photographs on Sienna's page for those who can understand our enthusiasm.
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December 14
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We've had a fairly quiet week back in the marina, most of the time spent preparing the boat for its short shutdown when we leave on Friday for our holiday in Derbyshire. Although we are not sure just how long we will be away it is almost certainly going to be the longest we have left Snecklifter since we came aboard in March 2002 so we'll have to make the gas and water pipes safe in case of a deep freeze over Christmas or the New Year.
In any case this will be the last diary update until we do return - our many friends out there are not likely to be interested in our "bricks and mortar" social life and if they are I'll give a short account when it's all safely over! Until then, Liz and I send our best wishes to you all.
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