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.  




















Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wednesday 24 th June 2020   Again, last night, the farmers were cutting and turning grass in the nearby fields but then, about 10pm, a heavy dew came down and stopped them working. And gave us a quiet night. We left the mooring just after 9am in order to arrive at Venetian when Susan opened at 10. We passed up Minshull Lock, such a pretty place. The lock-keepers cottage here, we nearly bought when we first moved back to Cheshire in 2000.                                          Minshull Lock-Keepers Cottage                                                    Marina Dwellers at Syke’s Hollow   Syke’s Hollow had been reclaimed by the marina dwellers, Gazebo Wharf as they term it, 6 boats in all. Good for them. I suppose they will be there now until the end of the summer. At the marina, we took on fuel and a gas cylinder, bought some goods and Brenda had a well-earned ice-cream. Susan was pleased to see us
Read more
Monday 22 nd June 2020   Brenda went to Devaney’s, the Middlewich butcher’s first thing, only to find them closed on account of a family bereavement, so went instead to Morrison’s. I stayed on the boat, readying to move and doing more work on family history. On Brenda’s return we both went to Morrison’s for a mega shop. Such hard work lugging loads of shopping back to the boat. We have decided we need to buy a second sack trolley. After the shopping was unpacked and stowed away, we had a cup of tea and some lunch and left the mooring just before 2pm. It felt so bloody good to be off cruising again, picking up where we left off when we left Middlewich on 10 th February, over 4 months ago, supposedly on the start of the cruising year after spending most of the winter static, in and around Middlewich, before the Corona Virus lock-down stopped us, and everybody else, dead in our tracks. We had an uneventful trip as far as Aqueduct Marina where we moored. When Bridge Street wa
Read more
Friday 26 th June 2020   We both had a terrible night. It got to 28 ˚ and was airless. Rain started at 4am but it did nothing to cool the place down. The rain stopped as soon as it started but came again before 8am and continued heavily until midday. Once the rain had cleared we walked up into Christleton village. It felt so good to be back out and exploring again, although the church was only open for private prayer on Wednesday and Sunday. The centre of the village was delightful, a pretty village, full of some lovely old buildings. Even outwith the actual centre, there was an abundance of gorgeous properties.                                    St. James Church, Christleton                                                            Christleton Village Centre   We returned to the boat, picked up Harvey and went for a walk around the site of the Battle of Rowton Moor, a Civil War battle fought on 24 th September 164
Read more