As the winds subside

We are in quite a sheltered spot here but it's still great to see that the strong winds of the last couple of days have been replaced by this glorious calm.

As I write the ever lowering sun warms the boat as it streams through the windows, quickly banishing the morning chill. Without doubt this has been the best September weather we have experienced in our six years of boat ownership but in some ways we wish Autumn would kick in. We are looking forward to witnessing the changes as green gives way to gold before true winter leaves the trees bare. 

I must admit the long, dark days of winter do get me down somewhat and, whilst others might be counting the days to Christmas I count down to the winter solstice around December 21st, knowing that every day after we get a little more daylight.

Jobs for today include digging out our winter wardrobe. Out with the woolies, away with the vests and the shorts (possibly 😉) plus we will be taking the boat through the bridge at Plank Lane today, stopping at the water point to give Lottie a much needed refill.

From a boater's perspective it's good to see the bridge is finally being repaired next week, though the required road closure for all of next week will no doubt do little to boost our popularity ratings with motorists! It will be good to be able to operate the bridge as and when we feel like it but winter closures elsewhere on the network do limit the ability to travel. Peel Holdings are closing the Bridgewater canal just past the Boat House pub in Astley from the end of October until the end of February. This will no doubt be followed by the yearly maintenance to Barton aqueduct which takes place throughout March.

In the other direction, Poolstock lock number 2 is closed between 21st November until mid December, so we will need to ensure we have a full diesel tank as Bridgewater Marina and the supply boat Ambush will both be out of reach for a while if we decide to stay in this area. Perhaps our best option will be to head beyond Poolstock prior to the closure and to return here towards the end of December? That way, we will be here when Elaine celebrates Christmas and I the winter solstice!

The face in the fire

As the temperature is dropping we are lighting the wood burner in the evenings but letting it burn out rather than banking it up overnight. Just a few pieces of coal with a log balanced on top is more than enough to to keep us very warm all night. I took this picture a couple of days ago - zoom in to see the face in the fire

Spooky!

We are staying put here at Crankwood until the weekend. A peaceful location, crystal clear water and the occasional kingfisher flashing by - we love it.

Get the kettle on!

LottieD has running water once more! We moved yesterday to this beautiful spot near Crankwood Road (you should have seen the stars last night!)

so that we could jump into the car and visit Midland Chandlers at Preston Brook. We got the new water filter (and a bit of free advice about changing filters frequently!) and had a good mooch around the place. It's great to see that they sell everything under the sun but sobering to see the prices. They had our cooker (£600 ish), fridge (£549) and inverter (£1149 - boy do I hope that doesn't break down!). Whilst there and in filter buying mode I bought fuel and air filters for an upcoming service then headed back and got stuck in (not literally!).

Such a pain having to dismantle the sliding storage unit but there's no alternative. And the guy at the chandlers advised changing this filter every 6 months! I got everything reassembled but the door unit wouldn't stay closed so a magnetic door catch is now in place. Yes, I know it's cheating but who cares?

Off to Manchester (by bus) tomorrow to celebrate Charlotte's birthday then we will be moving again Wednesday or Thursday.

It's probably my own fault...

....but I had to get this lot out today.

This here is a water filter

You are supposed to change it annually but since we only drink bottled water I haven't bothered. Now it's leaking and I probably have only myself to blame. It's under the sink (obviously) but, more importantly, the sink cupboard had one of those sliding racks that moves further into the cupboard as you close the door.

The filter apparently simply unscrews but not after 6 years! So, it was off with the door, disengage the linkage, slide the rack to the right (you can just see it in the photo), swing the hinged basket out then get in there head first, belly up. And I still can't undo it! So we've had to come back to where we left the car and it'll be a trip to Midland Chandlers in the morning for a complete replacement unit. Oh, the joys of boating!

I'll end on a "cheeky" note with this guy who passed us the other day

Pull yer pants up mate!

Mixing with the house dwellers

Back to Leigh today to tackle lots of bits and pieces.

Train from Gathurst to Atherton to meet Charlotte then get stuck in! Check our formal gear for a Man of Steel dinner next week, do a "big shop", run Elaine's mum on a few errands, check measurements for her new carpets, measure her door for a replacement, quick lunch, more shops, hang Charlotte's lamp shades, remove dead (and expensive looking!) bulbs so we can find a replacement, quick shower (never miss an opportunity to use someone else's hot water), fathom out and programme Charlotte's fancy central heating, go and watch Logan's swimming lesson (excellent!), pick up prescription, load Charlotte's car with all shopping, my drill, selection of screws and hooks, new curtain pole to use as a clothes dryer then crawl up the chocker M6 back to Gathurst. Unload car, load boat then relax as Charlotte crawls back home teehee.

Oh, and I received one of those new plastic fivers

Think I might start a collection!

Tomorrow it's watch the HKR v Giants game then an afternoon session in Wigan 🍻🍻🍷🍷

Feeling a little guilty

I'm sat out on the stern deck supposedly doing boat maintenance (in other words, sitting in a camp chair) while Elaine is turning the boat inside out in a major cleanup. I will tighten the stern gland eventually but let me tell you about the rest of yesterday first.
We did March up the hill to the Co-op as I said yesterday but Elaine suggested we add a little bit to our walk to which I readily agreed.

If only we knew where the lens is!

So, back downhill a little bit then turn left, past the new housing estate and into the fields heading back towards Crooke village and the Crooke Hall Inn (of course!)

A pleasant walk through open fields ensued and we added to it by detouring down a new path for us, taking us through a wooded area as we approached the playing fields at Crook

Soon enough the village green came into view

Then our ultimate destination - the pub!

But what's this???

Drain problems? No worries, there's the Royal Oak over the next bridge back towards Wigan!

Damn! Shut down and being converted into flats! Four miles later, back to a place we knew never closes - the Lottie D arms!

Finally, not to be outdone we made an evening call to the Station Inn, a former waiting room at Gathurst Station

Where there's a will!

It's raining acorns

I don't know if it's the breeze or butter fingered squirrels but every so often acorns plummet into the canal across from us with that characteristic sound and almost total lack of splash that Tom Daley yearns for. Boats passing us (here's one)

have to run this gauntlet until they clear the bridge. For some reason the acorns are much bigger this year and you certainly wouldn't appreciate getting one dropped onto your head from height. We were moored under some oak trees a couple of weeks ago which were occupied by a couple of squirrels and we were getting pelted by the cupules (that's the hemispherical empty bit!) as they fed. That was bad enough! Still, no such worries for us, safely moored on the towpath.

We were here last year and had to put up with the horrible grating sound that accompanied every passing boat. You see, there is an underwater shelf here that means when you moor up standard boat fenders don't bridge the gap between the bank and the boat. No matter how well you tie up you still get thrust into the shelf and it's not a pleasing experience. However, this has been resolved this year!

Last summer I put a call into the Three Sisters race track in Ashton and they confirmed that they would be only too happy for me to take some used go kart tyres off their hands (they literally had hundreds piled up behind a container). Drilled, fitted with an eye bolt then filled with builders foam - job done!

Not much else happening today other than a march uphill out of the valley for a few supplies for tonight's meal. You can overdo things, you know!

The last day of summer

Just about as perfect as you could wish for the end of September, the sun still warming us even in the early morning.

We stopped here so that we could post some letters informing of our change of address and to allow us to wash the starboard side of Lottie before moving on to quieter surroundings for a few days. Elaine washed the port side before we came here and, boy, did she need it! All the house related stuff has left Lottie rather neglected but we are already putting that right.

We came oh so close to lighting the fire last night but simply closing the curtains (something we never do in summer) and firing up the Webasto boiler for 10 minutes soon had the radiators nice and warm. Good to know the Webasto still works as it hasn't been fired up in months.

With the boat nice and clean we headed to C&RT's new offices (they used to be in the office block visible in the first picture but have now moved) to ask why we had been sent a text message telling us to move on as we hadn't moved in 14 days. Turns out we were clocked at Plank Lane the day before we left for 10 days on the Bridgewater then got clocked again on the day we were waiting for the bridge to go up on Friday. Everything got squared away and we are no longer on the naughty list!

We set off for Gathurst with a single hander which speeded things up nicely as far as the locks are concerned. This gent was heading back to St Mary's Marina for October as he spends 5 months every winter in a long term rental in Lanzarote! Something we should perhaps consider ourselves in the future?

So here's yet another picture of Gathurst, where we'll probably stay for two or three days

The walking is good, the pubs are great and the train station is close by - perfect!

As Autumn looms...

....I'm making another effort with this blog. So much has happened since my last entry but hardly any of it has been boat related. The big news is we have sold our house and got Charlotte set up in her new home. It was quite a stressful summer actually with us committed to helping Charlotte when we hadn't got a buyer for our place 😰. Eventually everything fell into place and we are now footloose and fancy free.
In terms of boating we hardly got the chance to move this summer. Almost all of our time was consumed with housing related activities and this resulted in us making short return trips to places I told you all about last year, hence the lack of blog entries. However, I'm determined to log our life afloat from now on!
I suppose the major event I could have reported on was the long awaited marina at Pennington Wharf (or Plank Lane Pontoons as I like to call it 😉). We were moored in the area as the first pontoons were brought down having been craned onto the canal from Leigh Miners car park.

Not something you see every day!

This, combined with the broken lift bridge at Plank Lane resulted in this area being really quite busy. C&RT staff are currently opening the bridge at 2pm daily until it is repaired so we have had lines of boats queuing up daily, making us boaters even more popular with motorists - not!

Well we joined the queue heading for Wigan ourselves a couple of days ago and will be enjoying the start of autumn in west Lancashire, probably getting no further than Burscough before heading back towards Leigh. "Why not head into Scarisbrick Marina?" I hear you say (that's if anyone actually reads this!). Because we are staying out all winter, that's why 😰.

We felt trapped in the marina last winter so are going to give it a shot toughing it out on the towpath. The wood burner has been blacked and the first logs chopped down so we can start off with a smaller fire as summer draws to a close. We can't wait to experience a hopefully glorious autumn before facing up to winter, though we haven't ruled out a few days in the sun if it gets too cold!

Finally, please note below that you are able to leave comments. I've put instructions there so please feel free to drop us a line!