A HUGE change of plans!!

Tuesday 10th March 2015

I received an email this morning and had to send off a few emails as a result of some of the answers have come back in.

The subject of the email and the ramifications that result, have had a huge and potentially life changing outcome.

Diane and I spent a great deal of time discussing what we would need to do and where we would be going.

The very first result of all of this is that we have completely scrapped our summer cruising plans to head up via the Rochedale to the North-East and cruise the rivers and canals in that area; we won't be able to cross The Wash with Howard and Janet.

We will now be heading south towards London and doing this area as a priority.

This could be our only chance to get there on Ferndale.

We are not in a position to expand on this at the moment.

Having got through all of that, we cruised just a short distance today to moor up on the aqueduct at Congleton.
Today was curtain washing day and although we couldn't refill with water at Bridge 64, there being 3 other boats wanting to do the same, we still have 3/4 of a tank remaining.

A quick visit down into the town centre - it would have been quicker getting there if we hadn't followed Diane's directions and headed away from the towpath, but we eventually made it; made our purchases and enjoyed a coffee before heading back up the Park Lane hill - Diane would say mountain, equating the terrain as similar to K2.
 

we saw this and immediately thought of Sue and Dot.

an interesting plaque on one of Congleton's well known

The sun had been shining for most of day and the solar panels were collecting like nobody's business.

Not long after our return, Alton (Renaissance CCC) wandered past and my first reply was that we were fine for diesel, but Diane needed some for the Reflecs, so out I raced and said that we would need some - it was OK, they were just at the next boat.
79 litres later we were completely topped up.

It was Brian's birthday today, so he received a spirited rendition to accompany his special day - Ann-Marie gave away the secret.

After that it was just a rather ordinary day, but it was a lovely warm one - hopefully a precursor for a glorious summer.

More news on the first item when we can.

4 miles
YTD: 100 Miles, 37 Locks, 1 Tunnel, 2 Lift Bridges, 6 Swing Bridges

Totals: 2994 Miles, 2158 Locks, 99 Tunnels, 36 Lift Bridges, 157 Swing Bridges

Change of Plans - nothing unusual there.

Sunday 11th January 2015

In what is becoming the norm rather than not, we seem to have made a dramatic change to our cruising plans for this year.

Our main plan is to cruise up into Manchester and then head up the Rochedale Canal and along the Aire and Calder Navigation and head up to York and Rippon. Returning from there we will be heading down towards, in order, Sheffield, Chesterfield and then to Lincoln and Boston.
This is where we have our deviation - we were going to then cruise to Nottingham and onward down the Leicester branch to the Grand Union (main line) and head south.
Now we are probably going to do The Wash from Boston.

When we were chatting to Howard on Friday, it became apparent that we would most likely be in Boston about the time he would be there about to cross the Wash, so it got us thinking and we are almost certain we will go that way and then work our way across to Northampton.

We will keep in contact with Howard to finalise this part of the plans - there are still a few things to be sorted out, but we are keen to do it.

With that stated, today's weather predictions indicated that the morning looked better than the afternoon - as we only had 4 miles to go we thought it best to get that done.

From Congleton to the bottom of the Bosley Locks with a waterpoint stop at Bridge 68 was just a 2 hour trip with nothing of much interest along the way.

whilst time was not an issue, this guy decided that tick-over all
of the way was what he would do - later we passed him heading
back after winding

CRT have been doing a great job reducing the off-side scrub

Love the bridges on the Macc

Who said winter cruising wasn't nice -just less leaves

well some of it isn't nice - but only if you are walking -
muddy towpaths

oooohh - cow sitting down - a sure sign of impending rain

The omnipresent "Cloud" - always around in these parts

The railway viaduct

Phone and TV signal won't be a problem

The sky and  cloud  confirm the cow story

...and the "Cloud" is hanging above us

What was more important was the need to clean up a bit of diesel that we had spilled in our front fuel locker - not much but it was finding it's way into the canal - we really hadn't known it was even there until the tell-tale signs showed on the surface of the water.

So everything out and the diesel soaked up using "puppy nappies" and a good wash down with soapy water - all sorted.

We noted from the blog by Tom on nb Waiouru that he had some tar leakage from his chimney - we also have a Reflecs and checked the chimney - there was a bit of tar inside, but it was easily removed with a stainless steel cleaner that we already had on board - almost as clean inside as it is outside - Thanks Tom for the information.

We cruised along the Macc 2 years ago in March -compare the following 2 photographs.

March 2013 - snow in the background; blanket
to keep Diane warmer

January 2015 - no snow; no blanket; same hat; even a bit of sun

We will be heading up the lock flight tomorrow (Monday) once our lockies arrive in the morning - Paul and Elaine will be setting the alarm for a time in the morning which I am sure only exists in their worst dreams and have volunteered to help us up the locks - and of course we get to catch up with both of them as well as we head towards Bollington to spend a lot more time with them.

4 miles
YTD: 27 Miles, 13 Locks, 1 Tunnel
Totals: 2921 Miles, 2134 Locks, 99 Tunnels, 34 Lift Bridges, 151 Swing Bridges