Tuesday 31st December 2019



Brenda cleaned the boat through to have her looking nice for seeing in the New Year. I baled out water that had entered the engine room. Unsure as to how this had got in other than overflowing the guttering during the recent rains although the new rubber matting stops a lot of this. There was also blue coloured water, engine coolant, laying under the engine bed that was probably expansion from overfilling the header tank. All had to be cleaned up, a messy job but it seemed quicker to finish this time.   

We then sat in the front cratch pinching ourselves over being at Bramble for New Year. There were two other boats moored behind us and the couple off one joined us for a few drinks before dinner and we met with them later to see in the New Year. The occupants of the other boat were battened down long before midnight, although it transpired that the wife is disabled with MS.

We could hear the fireworks at Holmes Chapel and Middlewich and could see the rockets bursting in the sky from Winsford, Moulton, Davenham and Northwich. It was a beautiful clear night, cold but not too cold for January and we stood outside talking until 1:30.



     


Bridge Street at Midnight, New Year, at Bramble Cutting



A Happy New Year to one and all. And for us the anticipation of another year’s cruising ahead when we plan to head through Birmingham for London.



Over the past 12 months, the engine has run for 555.4 hours and used 757.14 litres of fuel. We have travelled 833 miles, passed through 535 locks and 23 tunnels and operated 56 swing bridges and 17 lift bridges.

We have travelled the length of the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal and parts of the Birmingham Canal Navigations, the entirety of the Stratford-on-Avon Canal, the River Avon, the River Severn and the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal. After negotiating the Severn Estuary Crossing, we travelled the entirety of the Kennet & Avon Canal and the River Thames from Reading to Oxford. We then travelled the entirety of the Oxford and Coventry Canals and onto the Trent & Mersey Canal, with a diversion, exploring the entirety of the Caldon Canal. While spending the winter in and around Middlewich, we have had trips out to Anderton and Chester.  




















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