Tuesday & Wednesday
were busy ‘work’ days. Guys from the
boat yard in and out all day, fixing items on the snagging list and doing some
extras jobs we had come up with. It got
a bit crowded on the boat at times as I had my own job list to complete
too. By Thursday afternoon all was
finished and Buddy and I got ready to leave.
First we filled up with water which meant we had to move away from the
old boat to get near the water point.
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The only picture we have
of the old and new next to each other
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The picture below is the galley
and the door on the angle at the end of the worktop run on the left was rather
problematical. When the kitchen was
built, the angled bit had been left open with a couple of shelves to be used
for display purposes. This was rather
impractical for us as we need as much storage space as possible. It’s OK if you use a boat for the odd holiday
but living aboard we find all space is precious especially considering we had downsized
by 20%. Karen’s plan was to store tins
etc. in the space as they can be piled up in a cupboard but if there wasn’t a
door then they would fall off as soon as we started moving around on the water,
in a lock for example.
When she left for work on
Monday she was adamant that a door had to be fitted no matter what. The
carpenter was really reluctant to add a door because he was concerned about
hinges pulling out. Karen’s response was
to say she would be happy if it was hinged on the floor and opened like a
dishwasher door.
Anyway, to cut the
story short, Tony ended up fitting a door in the way she first wanted so all
was good in the end.
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The galley with the ‘offending’
door on the left next to one of the wine stores (the treads on the steps at the
back lift off to provide further handy wine and boot stores)
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Back to Thursday, and
Buddy and I set off to moor by the Broken Cross pub where it would be easy for
Karen to park the car when she got home from work. She managed to leave early but the M6 was
really slow so she didn’t get back until nearly 7.45. We popped into the pub for a quick drink and
thought it would be a good idea to eat there rather than worrying about it on
the boat. The barman got us some menus
and said we had to order by 8; we put our order in and then he came back and
said the chef had gone home! Anyway, we
were happy to go home ourselves and cook a simple pasta and sauce.
On Friday morning Dave
(Karen’s cousin) and Barbara came over to see the boat. Some of the design features were based on
their new boat that they had had built a couple of years ago so it was good to show
them around. In the afternoon we set off
on the start of our long journey back to Leamington. We wanted to get as far as we could over the
weekend so we cruised until it was quite dark.
At Middlewich we went
through our first lock on the new boat with a couple that we have seen a few
times previously. They noticed that we
had changed our boat and were really pleased that they were in the lock with us
on her maiden voyage. The girl told us
she was in floods of tears when they changed their boat a few years ago when
she realised the ‘lasts’ they were doing, like the last lock, the last fill of
water etc.
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Middlewich Big lock – the first
lock for CHB2
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The next lock was a single
width lock which they all will be now until we get back onto the Grand Union
near Leamington.
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The first narrow lock for
CHB2 with Middlewich church in the background
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When I was sorting out the
pictures that we took during the day I realised how daft my beanie hat looks –
it is far too large and makes me look like I have a head extension.
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My silly beanie hat
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By the time we moored up
outside the Cheshire Cheese in Wheelock on Friday evening we had covered 11
miles and been through nine locks. The
Cheese is one of Dave and Barbara’s favourite pubs so we popped in for a quick
one. The pub is a real drinkers’ pub and
was packed which is always good to see.
Our aim for Saturday was
to get up the Cheshire Flight – 26 locks that will see us leave Cheshire and
into Staffordshire. It is also known as
Heartbreak Hill as there are so many locks in a seven mile stretch.
It was great to take the
new boat out for a good cruise and see how she behaved. We are so pleased with her – so much easier
to handle as well as being a wonderful home inside. In addition to being a
shorter boat the engine is 50% more powerful which makes it much easier to manoeuvre
in tricky situations – I can’t believe we went up so many locks without
knocking the sides. No doubt the
scratches will come in time but it’s good to see her looking so bright and
shiny still.
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Plenty of room in the
locks now
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Another view showing how
much spare space we have in a 78 foot lock
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The skies in the photos
look a bit grey but it was actually quite sunny a lot of the time on Saturday -
good for the solar panels.
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| We've been lucky with the sunny weather in the last week - making good use of the solar power |
Most of the locks on the
Cheshire Flight were originally doubled up to help the freight traffic move more
quickly. Some of the second locks have
fallen into disrepair and are not being maintained but most are still in use.
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Coming out of the bottom
lock of the flight. The lock on the
right is having its gates replaced.
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Having the locks in pairs
means that I have to be aware which lock to head for. Over the years we have developed a series of arm
signals so Karen can let me know which one to use and whether another boat is
on its way down.
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The dark blob on the
bridge is Karen giving me the arm signal to go to the left hand lock but there
is a boat about to come out of it
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As we reached the final
lock of the day we went under the Macclesfield canal which crosses the Thames
and Mersey canal on an aqueduct; we last visited the Macclesfield canal at the
beginning of 2015. The stone plaque on
the bridge says it is Pool Aqueduct but nowadays it is known as Poole Aqueduct
for some reason.
It’s funny that every time
we have been through the Cheshire flight together we have always gone up it apart
from when I brought the old boat up here when I went down the locks – Karen has
still to go down the flight.
By the time we moored up
it was about five o’clock and we were feeling happy but shattered so spent the
evening in. We both felt it was really
refreshing to have a good hard day’s cruise together as it does seem a while
since we have done it.
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Even Buddy was taking it easy on the last few locks
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| Our mooring in Kidsgrove for Saturday night - Buddy crashed out in the little bit of sun that is left |
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