Day 48 – Little Bollington

Try Again.

We planned to push off today to Lymm but our friends from Hector’s House said they stopped at Dunham Massey and went to this impressive NT house.  They also went to the Swan with two Nicks – at this point my ears pricked up! Could this be a new plan? At least a lunch stop.  Meanwhile, Mal from the marina came over with his fuel polishing kit for an hour’s polishing!

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We can’t praise this little marina enough. Mal is always very welcoming and is very keen to please – I bought a stainless steel hat for my chimney and he drilled the holes and fitted anti-vandal screws to it too! We also bought an air filter, one moveable fender (the rubber tyre sort) and two large rubber wheel fenders (from go-carts?) for those sloping bank moorings (like Braunston!).

With all the work done and my engine checks complete (gear box oil today), we sailed off past Sale.

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Nothing but miles of very straight canal behind us and in front of us

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We chugged on for another hour and came through Dunham Massey and onto the aqueducts over roads and the river Bollin. There was a very odd concrete section here – I think it was the site of the big breach back in 1971 – this caused the forming of the Bridgewater Canal trust.

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And here’s our boat um, moored here too!

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The views are stunning – helped by being on top of an embankment. Oh and that pub – just a short walk away – a brilliant pub for lunch and a tea room next door for cream teas . .

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A wonderful pub – earlier, research had shown that is was very dog friendly, had local real ales and did good food all day!

http://www.swanwithtwonicks.co.uk/

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One chicken madras and one steak & ale pie (real shortcrust and the corner piece too!)

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A very sensible pub – 

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A saunter back to boat to lie around groaning! Then off with the dog and a brief splash about in the river Bollin. Mad, soggy doggy!

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Day 48 – I HATE TUMBLR!!

Sorry but just spent an hour editing photos, finding old pix on the web and typing notes for Day 48 when one keystroke – not sure what it was caused the lot to vanish. Darn.  Going to find a new blogging site. Defo.

Day 47 – 4 hours to Stretford

Sticking to Plan A and now that we are getting on a bit, we like what we know, we chugged out of Leigh and back onto the Bridgewater Canal. A pleasant day with little traffic and good views. Back through Worsley . . 

One day, maybe, the navigation may be restored into the Delph … and into the mines? A pleasant looking place but we did not pause. Some friends from Liverpool said they moored here and had their windows smashed and the boat set loose. I suppose you get Muppets everywhere.

Onwards and back over the Barton aqueduct – concentration required …

Line her up & hope no one’s coming t’other way . .

Great view but still that slightly unnerving feeling. That familiar bank side has fallen away. That reassuring knowledge that you are in a small trough of water has suddenly gone and you are sailing over the Manchester Ship Canal!!

Elicits a “fascinating” from Mr Spock but frankly, it just gave me the willies!

Another half an hour and we were back at Stretford marina – take on water , then slide in to a berth for the night. Elastic trickery provided. It was good to be back. 

Quiet night, fuel and maybe fuel polishing tomorrow! Hector’s House had their fuel polished (which is just a filtering system) and lots of water and black gunge came out:

Night in – cooking a big vat of Chilli with rice n peas plus cocktails – Margarita for Viv.  We had a rather posh one in that Cuban restaurant in Albert Dock but it came out like a slush puppy – that is NOT a Margarita. This is a Margarita:

For the uninitiated or curious. Take 100 ml (well, it is for two of us) of good tequila, add 25 ml of triple sec (Cointreau will do), add the juice of a whole lime, add crushed ice and shake vigorously. To be authentic, wipe the squeezed limes around the edge of the glass and dip into salt (Lo salt, of course) – consume with thoughts of somewhere tropical!  Hmm, this comes to mind … . some time ago in Havana:

Day 46 – Time to Chill

PHEW!  With temperatures exceeding 32 degrees inside the boat and the minimum 25.5 in the bedroom … not much sleep was had last night.  If it had been a gradual increase over days, we’d probably get used to it!! Don’t forget we were running the heating only a week or so ago!!  

So, today, we stay put. A phone call to Stretford Marina confirmed they had a space for us on Thursday night, so that’s us sorted; a safe place to moor, nice shower, rubbish point, water on tap and maybe a fuel polish. We can walk into Media City and visit the Dockyard bar too. Thanks David for researching that one!

We said Cheerio to “Hector” and Sally on Hector’s House – fellow travellers to Liverpool – thanks for the cider and coming for coffee today – all the best!

Meanwhile, our friends from Yelvertoft marina join us at Pennington Flash on their way to Liverpool – Roger & Grace on board Kantara – you must read his book: Life with our feet under water:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B019Y1QRBG

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View from their window … 

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It’s a nice place to stay before the ordeal that is Wigan!

Meanwhile, on with some chores … scrubbing the green mould off the cratch cover, a second coat of wood preserver (yes, those Osmo products again) and checking the solar input . . 

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During the winter the condensation from the inside of the boat would form a line – probably the waterline or where there was a gap in the insulation? One solution was to put  carpet tiles up, which was OK but I always intended to find a better, more permanent fix – to stop the wood absorbing the water and mould forming. Ze Osmo produkts can do this, ja? Very impressed so far. No more varnish for me.  Following on from our new modus opernadi of travelling in the rain – stopping in the sunshine. To maximise the solar input. The panels had put 100′s of ampere hours in these last two days – so Steven’s happy!

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The batteries are on float (meaning no need for any more charge) and there’s still 196W or 14.2A for running the electrics on the boat …

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I’m pleased that the system goes to float – meaning we’ve replaced all the energy taken out overnight. As you can also see we have generated 8291 Ah since installation and my very rough calculations mean that’s equivalent to £310 of running the engine on diesel. Neat.

If the weather cools down a bit we may wander off to Leigh and yes, to visit that wonderful establishment, the White Lion. A half hour trek but the beer’s worth it (another Thank You to David for this gem).

Day 45 – Still Flashing

Woe! Inside temperatures reaching 30 before midday! Viv was up early taking morning pictures … at 0520! The misty view over Pennington Flash:

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The large widebeam (Artisan) moved off at 0700 behind us

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Whilst our traveling companions, Martin & Ann on Coriolis Again were moored just ahead of us

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Solar panels aligned to make the most of the day’s sunshine.

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One souvenir Steven bought in Albert Dock was a very expensive Sunometer – to tell you how much sunshine we were getting:

 Well, it’s middday and I suppose time to go out in the sun?

It was still 25 degrees at night …  time for a last minute shot of the orange moon and a hot Toby

Day 44 – Pennington Flash Again

With Wigan out of the way and the forecast set for a mini heatwave of 31 degrees (88F) on Tuesday, we headed all of 50 minutes from Dover Lock Inn to Pennington Flash; knowing what a lovely spot it was and how easy it would be for Toby to have a swim. We paused at the lift bridge to use the CRT pump out – not a great fan of the CRT machines as I guess they get a lot of abuse and are often in a poor condition. Made more of a pain as you have to pay £16 for the privilege of using them! However, this one was a joy to use (really ???) as it actually worked and almost silently too. Job(s) done. We raised the electric bridge, again (as we had let Elisiana thru – fellow Yelvertoft boaters!!) and once more held up long queues of traffic! Such fun!

Two swans – a sipping!

Day 43 – A bit of a long day to get beyond Wigan

We hadn’t planned to do a nine hour day but when you get to share locks and swing bridges, you go for it. We started out near Burscough and chugged on past Parbold, where we collected Mark on Dreamcatcher (No 1). What a splendid chap. We shared locks but seemed to lose him after Crooke, maybe he fancied lunch or had a breakdown, we hope not! Anyway, we were on the Wigan route and so pressed on. Knowing how bad the pound was on the Pooley locks, we didn’t want to get stuck again, we carried on.
We had to let a fair bit of water thru but we made it and Viv said, let’s go on a bit further. The sun had come out and it was turning out to be a most pleasant trip. The combi was roasting some sausages and we finally stopped near the Dover Lock inn. Wonderful view. A long nine hour day but very satisfying.

We met up with Rosie No2, the lovely Welsh couple. Here’s the old Appley locks.

Coming round to Wigan – interesting waterfront

No pix of Wigan (see blog passim) as we were too busy locking thru … but where we moored at the Dover Lock Inn there were some gaily painted mushrooms:

Day 42 – Melling to New Lane

Lazy trip today, there’s no pressure to get anywhere fast! We stopped in Maghull to do the usual shopping and then planned to stop at Farmer’s Bridge (No 31) and the pub – ‘ere tis:

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Sorry not many more pix today – the blog may get a little thin as we re-trace our steps. We waved goodbye to Coriolis as they went along and then we met up with Mark on Dreamcatcher No1 – the guy on the purple boat who kept being rescued by RCR and other boaters in Liverpool docks. He even made an oil slick! He seems OK now and is single-handed. He’s aiming for Pennington Flash too, so we may see him again. I promised Viv a meal out tonight, so it’s either the Farmer’s Arms or the Slipway . .  depending on their beer offerings.

View from the boat – all the way to the Blackpool tower!

We went to the Slipway in the end – not too bad, Thwaites beer but liver & bacon with real mash for £8

Nice spot but make note to self – do not moor anywhere near a pub on a Saturday night!!

Day 41 – Exit Liverpool

Despite our coughs and colds and the 0740 get up & go needed to exit Liverpool – we were off! And yes, it rained again but not until later. So out into the weird tunnels … and goodbye to the odd scupltures . .

The “Superlambananas”, I think …

Past the three graces and the ferry terminal … it feels like you’re creeping out of the city … no one knows you’re there

Out thru Sid’s Ditch and past old warehouses …

Reminds me of B Bond in Bristol and used for the same produce

We were in convoy, as usual, this time paired up with a lovely couple on Coriolis Again (they’re third boat!), we kept pace with them for a few days.

Up thru the four Stanley Locks

Always good for a natter at these locks …

And then the usual, stop-to-clear-the-prop every 5 minutes with weed, plastic bags etc

And then we got to Melling and we could rest. We also heard that our house had finally been sold so we could open the bottle of fizz and celebrate (Nyetimber, from Waitrose, darling). Early night!!

Day 40 – Last Day in Liverpool

We’ve been fighting off slight colds but were determined to play out our time here in Scouse land. It has been a blast. We’ve walked our socks off and to prove it here’s my FitBit log for the week:

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Normally I aim to reach 8,000 a day (reduced from 10,000 as I was too lardy!). Here we’ve nearly doubled it!! But I suspect it has all been put back with all the wonderful beers we’ve imbibed.

A rather laid back day – the thought of leaving and all that it entails … there’s the link to navigate (up at 0700 – be at Mann Island lock by 0800 etc) and then the bit of canal that was full of weeds and curtains until we get back to Melling – should be 1430 – 1500, a sigh of relief.  Meanwhile, back to today, we went off to explore the third Grace – the Port of Liverpool building, as we were told that you can go inside and wander round. And so we did.

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This is the right hand building  …

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Somehow, the song “I dreamt I dwelt in marble halls comes to mind”

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This is a building from the good old days when clerks bustled along corridors with bills of lading and information on the arrival of great ships . . this next image is a panorama, taking whilst spinning round in the foyer . . worth looking at more closely . .”They that go down to the sea in ships that do business in great waters these see the works of the lord and his wonders in the deep”

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And then looking up

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Wonderful staircase – all the brass polished

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Stunning stained glass windows – some depicting the outposts of the Empire

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Meanwhile our friends, Norman and Leah, on their good ship, Brindley made off to the marina.

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Beforehand, some time out chatting with the CRT staff

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So ta ta to Liverpool. I’m sure we’ll be back (maybe by road next time??).

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