Yesterday we went as far as Wrenbury. Just before the lift bridge beside the boat hire company. Its a perfect spot here. Close to two pubs, a five minute walk to the Spar shop and the bus stop is just 2 mins away. The bus goes to whitchurch in one direction and Nantwich in the other. £2 one way in either direction. Tomorrow we are off to do 5 locks and hopefully moor up beside Sudbury's Ice Cream Farm. Lynne has been looking forward to stopping here.
Yesterday we heard back from Julie at Great Haywood Marina and they do not have any space for us. Well, I think we'll now go onto Overwater Marina. It's not too far from here. We spent some time there last year and it was really nice. Lynne liked it there. The people were nice and it was very good for bird spotting. I'm not tied by my job as I was last year. Although I'd like something for over the winter. Nantwich is not too far from Overwater Marina. Must be some work there. Anyway, we'll stay for a few days then decide what to do.
Again we just toodled along yesterday. Done three locks, under a bridge then moored up. Nice spot here. We might move onto Wrenbury today. See how Lynne feels when she gets up.
Yesterday we needed the services. So we filled up, emptied and got rid of rubbish before decending the locks at Grindley Brook. As we came out of the last lock I spotted a green woodpecker. I'm not really a bird spotter, but Lynne is and I had seen this bird in one of her magazines, so knew what it looked like. Green body, red head and a certain kind of "woodpecker" beak. Lynne got some pics, but I was steering the boat and couldn't take one :-(
After the locks there are quiet moorings. We'd done 2 hours, that was enough. Dogs were getting flustered. Just as we had tied up, Lynne had a call from Val. Paul had bought the stickers for the side of their boat and wanted me to fit them. They were five miles further up, but as we had done enough for the day and Val only had one side of their boat painted, we decided to meet up next week. Fitting stickers is something I used to do in my former life. It will br good to be able to do Paul and Val a favour after all the help they gave us.
Well I got a few things done today. Main thing was to collect a new controller for the solar panels. Found out they weren't working! Fitted the said thing. Just need some sun tomorrow to test it. It will be interesting to see how much difference it makes as it must have been on the blink for a while. At the moment we run the engine for about 4 hours a day. Maybe we can reduce this to three? Well see. Anyway, for Paul thats another one ticked off the list!
Tomorrow I'm fixing the loo. A part snapped but trying to get a replacement has proven difficult. Out of stock everywhere. I'll try glueing it and see if that works.
Dogs much more settled now. Rory has improved his walking thank goodness. He's a little star. Keeps making these comebacks. So, with that I think we'll move down the locks on Wednesday morning. We'll then find another quiet spot.
We have only moved about 1-2 miles to the moorings before Grindley Brook locks. Water point, Elsan and Rubbish points are here as we need these services now. There's a nice big shower here too! There's also a garage shop as we will need milk soon. They also sell gas bottles and we need a spare.
Also Rory has hurt his back leg and is struggling to walk properly. He was in a bit of pain so we gave him his pain relief tablet last night and this seemed to do the trick. A good nights sleep for all (eventually)
This morning Rory been outside for toilets and has recovered some use in his right back leg. Just needs patients and time and he will hopefully be ok.
We also have a broken loo I'm trying to fix. Need a replacement part really. Mmm today's challenge then, getting this part. (Added to the list Paul) I will glue the broken part for today and see where we go from there. We'll stay here for a few days, get some jobs done and rest the dogs.
We seemed to have taken root here in Whitchurch. We're quite happy toodling along. No need to get anywhere in a hurry. Dave from Tattenhall is here. Nice man Dave. He blacked our boat for us and is moored the other side if the lift bridge here at the junction to the Whitchurch arm.
Also Louis is struggling with too much travel as he has tablets for his heart we have to be careful with him. We are thinking we might go back to Great Haywood and into the marina there. Nice and peaceful for Louis. Plus we'll all be amongst friends there. Just waiting for a call back from Julie to confirm if they have a space for us. But we'll see.
We left Great Haywood last Sunday and with overnight stops at Salt (bridge 82), Stone, Barlaston and Longport, we are now rested at Kidsgrove.
Longport is most noted for Westport Lake. This is a lovely nature reserve and Lynne was in her element bird spotting. Beyond the lake and the town itself was, well not very pretty shall we say. Time to move on.
Next up was the Harecastle tunnel. It takes 45 minutes to get through the tunnel. As you enter the tunnel, the doors bang closed behind you. The extractor fan then booms into life. The sound of the fan slowly fades behind you, then a small spec of light in front slowly gets larger. Water drips now and again and the cold air fells eerily chilly. They say the tunnel has ghosts...The small spec of light becomes a large opening and as you exit the tunnel, you can feel the warmth of the sun again.
The car has now been sold at Stafford Car Auction, and we can finally set sail on Sunday! I am going to see if I can get the bowthruster working tomorrow with the help of Mick. He's really good with electrics. Hopefully the fault is something simple and we can have this useful piece of kit working before we leave.
We also need to charge everything up first, lap tops, kindles, cameras etc and I want to sort my music player out. I also need to check how much diesel we have in the tank!. Then we'll be off for the summer.
I will be posting regular updates, so if you are interested in what we get up to, keep checking the blog.
