Saturday 11th December 2010

Due to various stoppages on the Trent & Mersey Winding Down is moored at Aqueduct Marina on the Middlewich Branch for a few weeks. We got here mid afternoon before darkness fell and checked in with the very friendly staff at the marina. I had had a few conversations with Ian Gorrie who was on board last week re the degree of frozenness of the water. They hadn't been able to get out all week and it looks like it will be the same for us. Although the temperature is above freezing neither the marina nor the canal has been transformed into anything like liquid. But we are moored up on a very nice jetty in between Festina Lente and Jenny Wren. We are hooked up to mains electricity, there is a working water tap and there's plenty of diesel and coal for the heating. There is also a cafe, shore based toilet facilities (we can't get to the pump out station so will make as much use of these as possible). There is also free wifi access. So we are quite happy to stay where we are. We plan to visit various places around and about. Nantwich is a short drive away for supplies. We found Morrisons there last light and stocked up with basics. We then went back to WD and Pip cooked chicken tagliatelli. Yum yum.
The TV couldn't find any terrestrial channels at all which I thought odd. So I checked the aerial connections and found that it was not plugged in at all! Once we got that sorted the TV found 96 channels.
This morning everything was still frozen in so I cooked kedgeree for breakfast (it wasn't us responsible for the recent fishy smell on WD, honest!). Then we topped up with water and ran the engine for an hour or so just to warm it up. I then tried to get the dishwasher going but there was no water getting to it. The stop tap for it was turned off so that was easy to fix.
We then went for a trip to Crewe to find some Christmas lights for a small tree we have brought with us. None at B&Q nor Tescos or Dunelm. But we found some at Sainbury's in Nantwich so we've had a proper sightseeing tour of Crewe and Nantwich.
We are just about to start cooking a Sunday roast.

More another day.


Monday 13th December

Still ice everywhere. I don't think we'll be going anywhere yet. This morning they tried to break up the ice in the marina by running the boat launcher thing into the water. It broke the ice around it but nowhere else.
We had a full English breakfast at the on site cafe. Very nice and a reasonable price too. It really is a friendly place this. 
We went out far a walk along the cut towards Barbridge. The ice out there is still really quite thick, I would estimate about 2 to 3 inches. Even if we could get out of the marina there would be no chance of getting anywhere. It was clear of ice just around Minshull Lock and bizarley it was also clear in all the bridge holes. I don't know why this should be so. Does anyone have a technical explanation for this? We walked up to one of those lovely barbeque sites where we had once moored overnight and had a barbeque! We sat down there and listened to the complete silence surrounding us. There was an occasional bird tweet but that was all. Then a train went past somewhere in the distance and broke the silence.
We then returned to the marina and filled up the water tank making use of Jenny Wren's very useful long hose. Thanks Jenny Wren. Jenny Wren and Festina Lente on either side of us are deserted and empty. If there is meant to be maintenance going on then nothing happened today. Serendipity is also here and deserted. It is moored just two boats from the web cam on the right hand side. WD is at the far end on the right. You just might be able to spot our Christmas tree on the roof but it blends in with one of the footpath lights so it's not very clear.
There is a long crack in the ice in front of WD. Sometimes it is wide and sometimes narrow as the ice moves about. A swan got into it this crack this afternoon. I was worried that the crack would close up and trap the swan's legs but it was ok and swam all the way along the crack into the broken ice caused by this mornings ice breaking attempts. The swan seemed very happy to be swimming rather than walking.
Do any co-owners know where the rubbish bin lid is? We can't find it anywhere.
The freezer has been fitted and makes the right sort of noises when you turn it on. However we don't have a need for it at the moment so we've left it turned off. It has a variable temperature range from -20 up to + 10 so could be used as an overflow fridge if required. That might be useful for storing white wine in the summer (at the moment it's outside).
Various bits of varnishing have been done. The back and side doors are no longer stiff. The ANNOYING door handles on the toilet and cabin doors have gone and been replaced by ball catches. 
The silicone sealants around the galley worktop and in the bathroom have been renewed as have the shower doors. The stove chimney has been re-cemented (and is being given a good test!). 

Got to go now. Christmas cards to write.


Tuesday 14th December

The ice in the marina is thinner now but still no one has moved and I'm not going to be the first! Out on the cut it is still quite thick and I would think unbreakable.
So we've spent another day moored up.
As the original plan was to meet Ian and Elaine at Trevor and swap over with them there we thought we'd go and take a look anyway. It's about an hours drive away from the marina. I've never been up the Llangollen so I was looking forward to travelling over the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct this week. However it had to be on foot! I was very impressed by the structure though and will definitely have to come back in early May by boat. There was not much going on at Trevor. There was ice there too although more broken than back at base on the Middlewich Branch.  The basin was full of Anglo Welsh hire boats. If we had tuned up by boat there would have been nowhere to moor. For such a canal attraction there should be some reserved visitor moorings even if they were only for a maximum of a couple of hours.
We then tried to go and see Chirk Castle but it was closed so no joy there. So we went to have a look at the smaller but still very impressive Chirk Aqueduct. Pip didn't like it here. When she was a teenager, on a narrowboat holiday with friends, she stepped off the boat on to the non towpath side that has no railings. She then tripped and nearly fell over the edge. She wouldn't walk over either aqueduct with me today.
We then headed back to the marina via Ellesmere and Whichurch following the canal. We have had a quiet evening in, I've even written my Christmas cards.The dishwasher is currently doing the washing up. It is funny with the electric hook up being able to run the dishwasher without any thought to power supply and consumption and the state of the batteries.

More tomorrow.


Wednesday 15th December

Excitement today. A boat moved!! Someone wanted to get their boat onto the slipway and out of the water to paint it. They started off at about 10:30 this morning from the opposite end of the marina and arrived at the slipway after dark at about 4:30. There was much tooing and frowing  and very much ice bashing with boat poles and heavy planks of wood. Their main problem was steering as he couldn't swing the back of the boat about to point it in the right direction. The ice looks like it is about 2 inches thick in the middle. I think they plan to remove the boat from the water tomorrow.
Paul and Ken from Carefree turned up to check on Serendipity, Jenny Wren and Festina Lente. We had a chat with them about the recent work done on WD. We said it all looked good. Paul said he hoped there would be smiling faces at the next AGM!
Apart from that we've had a quiet day. We had a spectacularly unsuccessful Christmas shopping expedition to Nantwich but we did succeed in buying a newspaper and a Waterways World magazine. We also managed to buy some food in Sainsbury's. Oh and we had a look round the Nantwich Museum too. 


Thursday 16th December

The big news is that we managed the 100 yds to the pumpout station and back again! The ice in the marina has mostly gone and with the weather forecast to be bad again any time soon we thought that today was the day. We looked out at the cut but decided that looked bad so we only went for a pump out and a fill up of diesel. It was quite windy and I had trouble getting back into our mooring. We were assisted by the marina staff and a pole. So we are snugly moored up again with a full tank of diesel and an empty poo tank. Such comforts can only be understood by fellow canal boaters. On paying for the diesel I said that the split was all heating and no propulsion so the price should be 75p per litre. Apparently HM Government don't believe you when you say such things even if it's true so we had to pay propulsion duty of an extra 50p per litre for 10 litres (out of 59). I tell you it's WRONG!

John Roff came to visit this morning and it was good to meet him. He had a look at the various jobs that have been done recently on WD then went off for a chat with Paul and Artie at Elton Moss. Once again many thanks to John for being our spokesperson and for doing so much to help get things sorted on WD.

The slipway in the marina has been busy today with five or six movements of boats in or out of the water. They have a submersible trailer hooked up to a tractor. The trailer is submerged then you float a narrowboat over it. Then they operate the hydraulics which lifts the trailer base and hence the boat then it all gets towed out by the tractor. 

We were planning to do another trip out this afternoon but it was snowing and the boat was warm so we stayed in and watched DVDs. 

We are thinking that we might go home tomorrow as there is snow forecast  for Saturday across the Pennines. It's actually probably snowing there now.

I'll let you know if we make it home.


Friday 17th December

We've made it home before the snow arrives.

The marina was iced up again this morning but it wasn't too thick and a couple of boat movements were made.
We cleaned out WD then had a very nice steak and ale pie at the marina cafe then headed home.

It's been a different week but none the less enjoyable. Certainly very relaxing. But we do look forward to moving on WD in March! Will the weather have warmed up by then?

Signing off now.

Michael