Monthly Archive: September 2010
Friday 24th – Saturday 25th September, 2010 Return cruise from Marineville Moorings, Higher Poynton to Bugsworth Basin, High Peak Canal, Derbyshire: 10.62 miles, 4 bridges (2 wind up, 2 swing) each way “Don’t come in yet,” said the Techno Son-in-Law to the birthday Captain just after 7 am on Friday. “She’s just finishing your card.” When entry to the kitchen (to boil the kettle for Boatwif’s essential early morning pot of tea) was permitted a visual surprise assaulted the eyes. Bunting,...
Monday 13th September: Kerridge to Marineville, Higher Poynton: 4.8 miles, 0 locks So, at about midday today Cleddau returned to Adlington and slowly cruised past her home mooring of the past two and a half years. When we had left, on June 15th, conditions were bright but blustery, today they were damp, developing to downpour! There was time for a little wander in Bollington this morning – at last I seem to be getting the layout...
Sunday 12th September: Congleton to Kerridge: 12.5 miles, 12 locks An 0752 start – so as to reach the bottom of Bosley Locks, to be ahead of any queues, to liaise with some extra lock-keepers available only in the morning… It was quiet, nothing moving, no road traffic noise, no trains (because it was Sunday?) and the birds, though awake, were still shy of making any appearance. We glided through the stone bridges, at one point...
Saturday 11th September: Lock 57, Hassall Green (T&M) to Congleton (Macclesfield Canal): 12 miles, 18 locks “I’d like to go to America again,” pronounced the Cheshire One while travelling together in the back of Ketchup (the campervan) the other day, “so I could see ‘Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs’ again.” Her memories of the trip out to Southern California last February to visit the cousins seemed focused on a DVD readily available in this country, one in fact...
Friday, 10th September: Church Minshull Marina (near Nantwich) to Hassall Green near Sandbach (Trent & Mersey Canal): 14.75 miles, 16 locks In the dark hours last night my mind turned to the need to prepare a Friday Blog. What would I call it? Back on the Cut? or maybe The Cruise Continues? The first is pretty mundane, but yes, we were back on the boat, and we would be back on the canal or “cut”. “Cruise” , on...
Tuesday 7th September: Hurleston Junction (Shropshire Union) to Church Minshull Marina (Middlewich Branch): 4.5 miles, 2 locks Day 31 since leaving Bedford It had been a wild night, high winds and lashing rain continuing through the evening deep into the night. The weather forecasts for today were for heavy showers at best, heavy rain at worst. So what a surprise it was that the morning was calm, blue, sunny and initially cloudless. ” Better than yesterday” and “We...
Monday, 6th September: Hack Green to Hurleston Junction (still on the Shropshire Union): 5 miles, 2 locks Somehow we’d been expecting rain; there’d been rain overnight but today has been a day of high “blust”. If you incline to a weekly pattern of domestic work – and if Monday is a designated washday – then this has been your sort of day. The second load of washing (from the little washing machine) is almost dry: how satisfying to...
Sunday 5th September: Audlem to Hack Green: 3 miles, 4 locks Last night a Skype call: California calling. “Where are you?” asks the son. “Audlem Locks – but really Haydn Locks,” and I explain how in March, while he and newest son and mother were still making first acquaintance in Downtown San Diego, we had with friends walked this towpath, viewed these locks, lunched at the Shroppie Fly. The oldest son appears on screen, a Second Grader...
Saturday 4th September: Market Drayton (Shropshire) to Audlem (Cheshire): 6 miles, 16 locks The Captain had walked into Market Drayton to buy milk and a paper this morning; he came back with the same impression as mine yesterday. “What a sad looking town.” Meanwhile I had read e-mails and taken a shower. But after the Captain’s return, without a word of information (let alone negotiation), the engine was urged into life. When eventually I queried this unilateral decision he...
Friday 3rd September: Gnosall to Market Drayton, 13 miles, 5 locks If you had wondered whether the Captain and the Boatwif fled the celebratory meal early last night – or stayed, well, they stayed until about 2230, wobbled their way back along a very dark towpath, espied the Plough and Venus and somehow got themselves back onto their boat (despite a near trip over a fender by the Captain). The food was better than average pub grub, but...
Recent Comments