Sunday 9th September 2018



We were leisurely preparing to set off when the boat moored behind us started to move. So we quickly set off while they waited, so that we could share the locks. They were moving faster than we had become used to, but it was nice to be able to share the workload in these ever heavier locks.

We only moved as far as Shipley, at the same mooring as Friday night. We had decided to moor here again because beyond is a long stretch of unpleasant housing through Ilkeston, and anyway, we had planned a day’s maintenance and housekeeping.

I finished off the fendering arrangement we have decided upon. We are keeping the side fenders in place as it saves the paintwork a lot of damage. We are also putting wrap around fenders front and back.





             



Hoops have been spliced out of 10mm rope which are looped through the fender bars that were fitted in the gunwhales. An eye splice is made in the rope that passes through the rubber fender which then attaches to the looped hoop with a karabiner. The wrap around fenders have been fitted with bottle screws at the front and back fender ends, and a length of rope with eye splices fitted to the fender bars to give the correct length overall. The look of the fendering is pleasing and practically, will give added protection.

The bedding was changed. This has evolved so it is now a lot easier to accomplish than the first few times when it was damned hard work. It is a two-person job. The mattress has to be slid off the bed and laid on its side on the floor. The mattress protector and bottom sheet is then fitted over the bulkhead side and the mattress then slid back on to the bed, which is then made up as usual.

There is a large storage area under the bed, accessed by lift-off hatch coves under the mattress. This storage area is being used to house summer, spring and autumn, and winter clothing. We reckon we have seen the last of the hot weather now and mornings and evenings certainly, have been a lot cooler. So, while the bed was being changed, Brenda took the opportunity to change over some of our clothing.

We took ourselves off for a longish walk and then, after dinner, it was back to watching more of the compulsive Game of Thrones, which, unusually these days, took us to bed after midnight.



Weather: cool and cloudy.



Day Total: 3 lock; 1½ miles; 0 Tunnels; 0 Boat Lift; engine running hours 1.8

Overall Total: 201 locks; 374 miles; 15 tunnels; 2 Boat Lifts; engine running hours 218.0


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
Thursday 22 nd November 2018 We were awake during the night and watched a lovely, bright, full moon in a clear sky with a thick ground mist. When we woke this morning the world was white after a hard frost. Apparently it got down to -4 ˚ overnight. The stove has remained light since its first lighting on 19 th October. This morning was no exception and the boat was cold but not overly so, the stove having been damped down overnight. However, we did turn the heating on for ½ hour to warm the boat up while the stove was heating up. We haven’t had the heating on for some time but the times we have, has been when the boat has become cold. We still haven’t yet mastered the regulating of the heating. If it is left on too long, the boat becomes oppressively hot and remains so for a long time.   We went for a walk to the nearest village, Stockton. The walk was along a main road to begin with and was not pleasant with all the traffic and narrow verges to walk on. We w...
Read more
Image
Sunday 14 th July 2019 We went for a walk around Avoncliffe before a slow cruise covering the 1 ½ miles back into Bradford and were, yet again, lucky enough to find a place on the 48 hour moorings. Avoncliffe is a tiny, delightful place and a very popular stop for walkers and cyclists. Around the Cross Guns pub are a few cottages, all staggered towards the river bank and dominated by the Aqueduct. However, looking at signs from the past, it had once been a thriving small-scale industrial centre with water mills and factory mills concerned with the cloth industry. The up-market Avoncliffe Villa apartments bely their past as, first the Bradford Workhouse, then a convalescence hospital for injured First World War troops and later a hotel. Right our Bradford moorings, down a small embankment, is Barton Farm. The farm buildings are all Medieval and consist of a Manor House, a Granary, one of the best examples of a Tithe Barn and several other buildings. Today, the Tithe Barn ...
Read more
Image
Monday 30 th July 2018 We ambled about in the morning. Brenda did some housework and I walked up into Winsford for some shopping. The day was not good, a lot of cloud and threatening rain. Matt brought Manny and Eva out to us at 3pm. Just as they turned up the heavens opened with heavy rain. It was great to see them both, they are here for a week, so hopefully we won’t get sick of them and make them swim home. Once Matt had gone we waited a short while for the rain to stop and then set off. We passed under the two bridges that make up the roundabout at the bottom end of Winsford which we have travelled over countless times by car. As soon as you pass under the first bridge you are off Canal and River Trust waters. We winded at the entrance to the marina being careful not to venture too far into the flash because of the danger of shifting, shallow sandbanks and then started to retrace our route. This now put us right at the start of the Weaver Navigation and by th...
Read more