Shall I shan't I?

Shall I?

no perhaps not

So I was lucky on the way up the Llangollen as all lift bridges were operated for me.  On the way back I caught them all.  Ho hum

And then today I thought I would call in at Swanley Marina and get some diesel.  Ships Cat and Bobcat decided to go boating without me and without diesel.

In my defence it was windy and with great good luck I had managed to reverse back to the diesel point, leap off with back and middle ropes get them both around a bollard step on board and a quick forward thrust and back into neutral (or so I thought).

When I started to pull in my ropes before the wind took the boat too far away I realised that it was in forward gear still and now too far away to reboard.  A quick untie of ropes,  gradually losing hold of the back one.  By now people were aware things were not going well.  I managed to pull the boat far enough around before having to let go the middle rope.  The boat finally came to rest across the canal and would probably have carried on round and into marina and caused mayhem in there but the walker on the towpath finally realised I wanted him to put it in neutral.  The boater from the marina got hold of the front rope and I ran up and over the bridge.  Phew I was very lucky, neither of my two ropes ended up around the propellor and there were no other boats to get bashed around.  The boater advised me to get diesel elsewhere, they apparently had tried to get diesel before returning their boat to the Marina and ended up having a domestic because of the wind!

I will be having words with both cats shortly.

Airs above the ground

So here we are doing our bit of flying in an narrowboat.

She wanted to play all on her own so I let her.  Much quicker coming back and less banging around.  I preferred to keep the boat nose to the towpath side as I noticed distinct flexing when the other way around!

We moored up in Trevor Basin and as it stopped raining at 3pm decided we would stick to plan A and walk to Llangollen.  Having decided half way there that we would take a bus back I said why not go all the way to the Horseshoe Falls only about 1/2 mile further on.  How wrong I was.  When we got there we spotted a sign saying Llangollen 2 miles.  All in all we must have done about 8 miles which nearly killed me.

I love buses, they are so quick and comfortable.  We made sure the driver would give us plenty of time to get up out of the seats in case we had seized up and limped back to the boat.

Fran cooked for us while I did some work and then we watched Erin Brockovitch as she hadn't seen it yet and I hadn't watched it for several years.

Next day was much better weather wise and we had a lovely trip back to Chirk.  Fran enjoyed herself so much that she decided to leave after rush hour and would cook for me again.  I am indeed blessed.

So we walked to Chirk Castle, got in for free as it was so late in the day

and madam got stuck into the dressing up.

A thoroughly enjoyable three days, I wasn't a billy no mates and I got to do a bit of culture vulturing.

Fran says the sleeping arrangements were perfectly fine but as she had just come from a wet camping/walking weekend in the Dales it is all relative.

She also coped admirably with the fact that two days before she arrived the water pump had packed up completely and I was rationing her to half a saucepan of water to wash herself in! 

What a little trooper.

The perennial question

has been answered.  I found this floating past my boat when I came back from a walk around Chirk.  I managed to fish it out complete with it's seat and lid using just the boat hook.  I think it may be full.  Now what do I do with it?  No doubt people passing my boat will think it is mine - perhaps I should have let it float away and be someone elses problem.

Nasty nasty.  I am assuming it got blown off the back of a boat on the aquaduct?  It is very windy today and it doesn't appear to be broken in anyway so I'm thinking not 'thrown away' perhaps just lost in transit?

Montgomery Canal

I know they don't like to encourage you to hog the best spots

(all moorings along here seem to be marked 24hr, 48hr or 72hr even in the middle of nowhere)

but this is taking the biscuit.

On my way back I will moor overnight near the junction and bike down the Montgomery Canal.  It is only 7 miles long I believe and the exercise will do me good.

I stopped for a day in Ellesmere and had a good wander around.  It was lovely not to have to boat and I think the cat appreciated it as well.  The water pump (which has not been well since the big freeze) was sounding a little odd in the morning so I took the bed apart to have a closer look at it but it wasn't leaking or anything just making a bit of a fizzing noise.  I did a load of washing and it appeared to shut up, after lunch I went for another little walk in the park and when I came back it had died.  I think the electrics on it are cooked.

I have a spare one ready but will probably cope with water in containers until I get back onto home territory and just hope I pass enough water points on the way or I may be reduced to syphoning some out of my full tank!

Of course I am expecting visitors.

Cat done me a favour

Ha ha

She didn't want to come in for breakfast thus delaying my start until 11.30.

This meant that all lift bridges and locks were done for me by very kind people that I wouldn't have met if I had left at 8 or 9am!

So yah boo sucks cat.

Wrenbury

So having done 9 locks using the technique of stepping over the half open bottom gates (I saw a woman do it and she was shorter than me so I decided not to be a chicken) I have got these locks down to a fine art.  However I had reached my target stopping time of 1pm so am leaving my first proper solo lift bridge for tomorrow morning. (ie not an electric one) I will go and inspect it shortly.

Damn damn cat

Was supposed to get back to the boat on Saturday afternoon leaving home at 12.30pm, with all shopping etc ready for the big push to the aquaduct.  Bloody cat ran away before I could get her into the box and hid in someone elses garden until 7.30pm missing her lunch.

So we then kept her in over night, trapped her under the bed in the morning after breakfast and she scratched me, bit and scratched Rob before she calmed down and in the box she went.

She then crapped in the box halfway to the boat so I had to stop and dispose of the offending items (keeping her in the box by the scruff of the neck) all in all I was not best pleased with the little darling.  However we appear to be friends again.  Although I am still cross about the delay.

I now have a new gas bottle, some diesel in the c/h tank and a fully serviced engine.  In the end I did empty all the oil out before Rob got to me so all he had to do was change the oil filter with his special tool and refill the engine.  I had to sacrifice my water jug as extra storage.  Next time I will be able to do the whole service myself.

We got back to his house around 10pm stopping for fish and chips on the way home.  Probably the best chips we have ever had so he is making a note for revisiting when out and about on his bike.  Unfortunately nowhere near us normally which is a shame.

I am not that pleased with where I am moored at the moment as it is a tad busy which means I am banging about on the shelf.  I am hoping that it will all calm down soon.

Gearbox oil change - tick

Today I am mostly waiting for himself to bring me some oil for the engine service.  As I had the time and also wanted to move the boat about 200 yards nearer where he can get the car to I decided I was going to be big and brave and attempt the gearbox oil change having run the engine for only 10 minutes (we have enough oil for the gearbox) all by myself.

Being a woman I also multi tasked and washed my towels.  I managed to hang them out to dry without getting them covered in oil!

I would make a start on the engine oil but haven't got enough containers for the old oil to be decanted into. 

Whilst the engine was available I did my best to get it a bit cleaner.  Despite being covered over with a sheet it still got a bit dusty from the carpentry work during the fitout and all the nooks and crannys are a mess.  Maybe I should invest in a long thick artist type paint brush to really get into the difficult bits.

Anyway I am very pleased with myself.

Salt anyone?

A little bit of wind today ...

but nothing I can't handle.  Mooring up for the many locks was interesting I adopted the quick exit from boat clutching windlass, middle and back ropes and hurling the ropes turned around the bollards quick fast modus operandi.

Curious neighbours

Most of the locks on this flight come in pairs but everysooften one is out of use. This is a pain when someone has offered to help set your lock and then you come out of your lock and find the next pair is a singleton.  at least she did come back and set the single lock filling for me which meant I knew noone was coming up and was able to stick my bows into the lock entrance.  Unfortunately the non towpath side ones often have snotty messages on the ends of the gardens and no bollards.

Some of the closed off ones look perfectly operational, some are completely filled up and grassed over with a pipe running through but this was my favourite.

Sometimes it is not the potential frolicking that is important just that you know you can.

Lovely moorings and pastures new

What a relief to see the back of the Bosley 12.

Offside mooring - good for cat frolicking.

Pastures new - I turn left onto the Trent and Mersey and head north.

Couldn't work out what the jangling was about then realised it was not on the towpath.

No idea how many cows but hundreds.

I sincerely hope not milked by hand some of them looked like they was busting.

You know the bucolic scene of the cowherder straw and baler twine?

Not any more ...

Lovely spot, lovely day - no more of that awful wind, shame I have to move on tomorrow.

What an experience

I really did not want to get out of bed this morning.  My calf muscles had seized up completely probably because in an effort to save my bum I did a bit of stand up cycling.  I know and I didn't fall in the canal either!

Forced myself to emerge and face the windy day.  I needed to tackle the Bosley locks and felt it would be better done on a Bank Holiday as more likely to be willing helpers around.  How right I was.

First swing bridge was open but just as I was nearly there I spotted another boat coming the other way so hard astern thinking perhaps they had opened it.  Big mistake not sure what happened but lost propulsion got half way through and had to pull it rest of way and go down the weed hatch.  Not much there but still things were not 100%.

Bit further on for no reason at all I grounded.  Let boat behind me past.  No amount of pushing and shoving seemed to have any effect, passing walker pushed off the front still no good.  Fizzical Attraction gave me a bit of a tow until we thought we were past the worst of it they went on their merry way boat behind also carried on and there I was still stuck.  Finally got myself off and tried to catch them up at the electric swing bridge but they had already gone through.  My heart sank and then magically it opened in front of me and a man on the bridge waved me on and shut it again after I had gone through.  He belonged to a boat behind me.  Lovely.

Got to Bosley locks with two boats up my tail - prepared the lock and then my boat just would not leave the side due to the wind and no one came to assist they all just stayed chin wagging around the water point. Then salvation in the form of a lad on a hireboat that had tried to ram me the day before for no apparant reason (driver panicked everytime he met another boat!!) came running up and helped me through.  He said he had to do the driving through bridge holes due to the excessive panicking by Dad.  Their boat was way back by the bridge somewhere.  I gradually worked my way down the locks never having to close a set of gates behind me and usually that lad or someone turned the lock in front of me so that I could go straight through the pounds which was good as it was so windy that the first few were extremely bumpy landings.

Second half of locks I was assisted by a lady from Serendipity (moored at the top of the locks) who was walking her two dogs and generally helping people up and down as necessary.  The second half was also much easier as by now I was meeting boats coming up.  Tried to offer her a cup of tea at the bottom but she spotted an elderly couple going up so off she went to assist them.  I was her 7th boat!  I hope that when she had gone up solo in her boat earlier that she had had half as much help as I had coming down.  Good Karma going her way.

Moored up in a lovely cat frolicking type of place.

So get out and frolic.

It was too windy to sit out in the lovely sunshine but I managed to get my chair into the engine room so was able to sit out of the wind and see the world go by (I had to keep bobbing up and down to see anything but hey ho)

Who said narrowboating was relaxing?

I beg to differ.

Travelled 7 miles by boat.

Replaced inner tube on bike wheel (twice due to first one not being correct aaargh)

Cycled 7 miles back to car.

Got told off by a lady walker for cycling on the towpath despite me being ever so polite to everyone.  She said I needed a licence.  Wished I had said ' what makes you think I haven't got one ' will do next time ... after all I pay to maintain the towpath bet she doesn't.  Mutter mutter spit spit.

Drove I don't know how many miles in the car (took about 20 mins)

Cycled 7 miles back to the boat.

Made the mistake of cutting the corners of the windy canal by going by road.  Forgot roads go up and down.  Down to the river back up the otherside !!!

My exercise induced asthma came out in force - thought I was going to collops.

My bum hurts

My hands hurt (left cycle gloves in the car doh)

My legs ache.

no tv signal