April 2025 – Narrowboat Firecrest

A few days on the Bridgewater

We’ve still got a fair bit of sorting out to do on board Firecrest after the repaint, so we decided to take a short lock free cruise onto the Bridgewater canal whilst we got on with the chores. (Except for the stop lock) We’d be able to do 12 of the 39 miles before we had to wind due to the breach. While we waited for the time slot that allowed us through the Preston Brook tunnel, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to pick a bunch of wild garlic that’s growing in abundance in the woodland along side the brooks right now. The leaves make a tasty addition to most savoury dishes, but the flowers look great too.

I love a little vase of wild flowers, but only ever pick when they are growing in abundance

Just after the tunnel is Preston Brook Wharf, where we believe Eric’s great grandfather, Willie Jones, worked as a porter.
We suspect it’s changed quite a bit since his day.

It was a fabulous day for cruising, but we had removed some of the old solar panels before the so feeling a bit frustrated that we couldn’t generate any of our own. But in true bank holiday style the sunshine decided to take a holiday too. We had a night in Stockton Heath pottering.

A very convenient mooring, with an easy stroll into the town centre

Eric’s mum worked here as a switch board operator during the war years. She had to walk over the swing bridge that spans the Manchester Ship Canal, if she got her timing wrong and it was open, it meant she was late for work. An unforgivable offence in those days- using the bridge as an excuse just didn’t wash. The bridge is still in operation today so we went for a walk over it. But we dwardled to look at the view.

Looking west, you can see more swing bridges over the big canal

Continuing our journey our nice little canal took us under the M6,

It doesn’t look that impressive from our side, but the noise from the motorway certainly was.

To the honey pot village of Lymm

Think we got the last of the nicest mooring

We treated ourselves to a pint at Lymms microbrewery and sat chatting to an old guy who was a boater and had the misfortune to be moored close to the breach when it happened. Oh boy did it sound scary. Again so lucky it happened overnight, and no one was cruising. He told us we wouldn’t be able to get close enough to see the breach now as it was all cordoned off. Amazingly he was also on the canal when the previous breach happened 50 years ago, in almost exactly the same spot. Then he remembers how all the local boaters became part of the volunteer team that helped provide the manpower to fix it. He was given a commemorative brass plaque to mark the event. This time Peel holdings (who own the Bridgewater) will be managing to repairs, and in their latest statement, they are estimating the canal will reopen for navigation in December 2026

https://bridgewatercanal.co.uk/latest-news/bridgewater-canal-breach-update-april-2025

Once more unto the breach dear friends

On New Year’s Eve we had sat planning our cruising route for the upcoming year, “let’s go north along the Bridgewater and do the Leeds and Liverpool West to East….”
Well that plan sprung a leak didnt it. A great big one, when on New Year’s Day the Bridgewater sustained a catastrophic breach at Little Bollington. It wasn’t rocket science to know this wasn’t going to be fixed in a few weeks, more likely a few years.

Fellow continuous cruisers and prolific Vloggers, Taylors Aboard, had the misfortune to be moored close enough to be directly affected by this breach. They provided some excellent drone footage of what they woke up to on New Year’s day, and the ensuing aftermath documenting it in real time. It was a horrific experience and we can only thank God that no one was actually injured or worse killed that day.

Plan B, we’ll go via the Macclesfield, through Manchester and bypass the breach, until, guess what….on April fools day, just above the Bosley locks, the Macclesfield breached as well. Not quite so catastrophic as the Bridgewater, and will probably only take a few monts to repair. But somewhat more frustrating as CRT had been aware of the potential problem and had executed a temporary repair back in November. I’m not going to cast blame because it’s not straightforward, but we can’t help but wonder why “they” let this happen.

The 2025 Macclesfield breach (photo from Manchester evening news)

We’re still not totally sure what Plan C is, but as we left Uplands Marina, we decided to turn left and take a few days heading towards Lymm, about as far as we can get before the breach. Despite it coming up to Easter Weekend, the canal was quiet, which is a good thing as the Barnton tunnel is one way and relies upon boaters not entering if someone else has got there first. And with awkward angles entering the tunnel that’s not easy. Luckily, the oncoming boat travelling south realised just in time and didn’t hit us while we were inside.

Unfortunately we weren’t quite so lucky when we passed through bridge 211. I’d hopped off so I could take another photo of our lovely shiny boat,

Forgive me, it’ll be a while before I stop posting gratuitous photos of Firecrest

When we saw another boat coming towards us,

Although Eric steered to the side, it was shallow, he grounded and couldn’t move,

And yes we sustained our first scratch. Oh well it had to happen sometime, just wish it hadn’t been on day one. And to be fair, it was accidental, not malicious.
We moored up for the night at the site of the 2012 Dutton Breach. And while I enjoyed the lovely evening view, Eric got the touch up paint out and got rid of the scratch.

Looking down towards the River Weaver and the rail viaduct

And we saw our first ducklings of the year.

Ta Dah, Introducing the New Look Firecrest

We’ve gone green.

Firecrest

Although we loved our original colour scheme, of dark blue with a maroony red trim, it didnt take us long to realise just how much heat a dark coloured boat holds when it’s baked under the summer sun. Yes I’m sure we could fry the proverbial egg on the sliding hatch if we’d been daft enough to try. The red had worn through and faded badly. The blue had become blotchy with patches of the red mix showing through.(It was an old style coach paint)

Still an attractive boat, if a little battered and bruised

The pale grey roof paint washed off and ran down the sides causing grubby streaks, and we couldn’t wash the sides without ending up with a blue cloth. There were flakey bubbles and rust spots. In short Firecrest was looking shabby. But professional boat painting doesn’t come cheap. We debated long and hard, shall we splash the cash or not. OK it was actually an easy decision, we don’t know how long we shall continue to live aboard Firecrest, but we wanted a smart looking boat. In October ’23, we had seen enough lovely boats bearing the PaintShed logo that we approached Nick from N.B. Marine Services and asked him to repaint Firecrest. 2025 was completely free, so we booked ourselves the March slot.

The Paintshed in January

Of course we had no idea what colour scheme we wanted, only that it had to be paler than the original. Over the next 15 months I filled up the memory card on my phone camera, snapping boats in all colours of the rainbow. Eric refused to allow me to go Barbie pink, but some pretty shades of purple were considered, teals and turquoises are always a head turner, but they didn’t quite fit our name Firecrest. I was adamant I wanted a joyful bright coloured boat in preference to a subtle but elegant one. Brunswick Green seemed to fit the bill.

Not sure how a picture of a steam train made it into a post about Firecrest, but hey, look at the colour

Then of course we had to choose which of the three Brunswicks, light, mid or dark… and a contrast trim. We settled on
Light Brunswick Green, BS225 for the main colour,
Sea Green BS217 for the panels
Current Red BS539 for the Red accents (I’m sure that ought to be currant red, but it says current on the tin)
Biscuit BS 358 for the coach lines
And Coat Grey BS 7076 for the roof.
Mixed from Supertune Automotive coach enamel

In January we booked into Uplands Marina, where the Paintshed is based.

Just in time not to get stuck on the cut

And whilst we were waiting for our slot we (Eric) did some serious tinkering on board, enlarging cupboards (thankyou Kevin for your help here), tackling some blackened woodwork, and removing 5 of our solar panels. The panels were showing signs of deterioration so it was an ideal opportunity to replace them. We loaded the car more than once with boxes and boxes of “stuff” with the intention of sorting, and decluttering while we enjoyed the home comforts of “unlimited” storage. And as Nick and Lee were going to remove the portholes so they could apply the spray paint, we took them home so Eric could polish and lacquer them.

Now there’s a man who takes pride in his work

We met with Robin Wagg our sign writer, and agreed upon a stylised image of a Firecrest to add to our name panel. We’ve decided to remove the Braidbar logo panel and replace it with something more descreet. We think Rob’s done an amazing job.

And of course, we also needed new canopy sides to complete the look. So Kinver, who fitted our original covers were called in to make us some more.

Smart green canopy sides

The green fabric isn’t a brilliant match but its good enough, As you can see we have a Yorkshire rose emblem on the bow. I wanted a Lancashire rose painted on the other side and a tudor rose on the button but was talked out of it. Despite dire warnings about choosing paint schemes at Eric is proud to be a Yorkshire man, and we both liked the simplicity of the design so I accepted defeat.

After a glorious few weeks of perfect cruising weather while we were under cover, we were finally ready to wave goodbye to Uplands Marina and the Paintshed, dodging the showers under grey skies.

Finally on the move again

But we weren’t downhearted. Neither of us can stop smiling each time we look at our shiny boat.

A picture paints a 1000 words

Roll on many more years cruising the canals. Give us a wave if you see us. Many many thanks to Nick and Lee at the Paintshed. You’ve done an amazing job and we’re a pleasure to work with.

Bye bye blues.

Whatever’s happened to Firecrest

2024 was a difficult year. We got stuck on the wrong side of the Macclesfield breach, (the 2023 one at Scholar’s Green)

Well and truly stuck as the snow fell and the canal frozen over,

then just as we got moving again mum died unexpectedly, there were more breaches blockages, flooding and landslides hindering our plans to spend the summer on the mid levels around East Anglia,

Only 3 months later than planned but we finally arrived on the Northampton Arm ready to take East Anglia by storm

and when we finally got to Northampton, the powers that be were playing politics about dredging around Salters Lode lock – which meant that we couldn’t get to Cambridge anyway. So a change of plan took us across country through Warwickshire

Leaving Stratford upon Avon for our first river cruise of the year

and into Gloucestershire to get to Sharpness.

Looking our over the Severn Estuary from our mooring at Sharpness,

That was an exciting new location for us and we’re very glad we did it. The remainder of the year saw us travelling up the Severn,

Enjoying wide open space, but with limited mooring on the Severn

and the Shropshire union for the autumn.

to reach Chester in November.

Moored in Chester under the wall at King Charles garden

We were booked in to have Firecrest repainted at the Paint Shed (Uplands Marina, near the Anderton Boat lift) in March so we knew we wanted to overwinter close enough to negotiate any potential closures planned or otherwise, so we booked ourselves into the marina from January. Just in time to get frozen in

Frozen in at Uplands Marina, January ’25

I left Eric tinkering on the boat whilst I went home for some family time. After all the emotional upheavals we faced in 2024 I was drained. But after a minor delay in starting the repaint we have all emerged shiny and energised to start afresh. Of course in true narrowboating tradition our plans to cruise the Leeds and Liverpool canal west to east have been thwarted, first by the catastrophic breach on the Bridgewater canal over NewYear, and then by the breach two weeks ago on the Macc, our plan B route. Yes we could go across to the River Trent and go north that way, we may still opt to do that . There’s still a lot of family stuff going on which we need to prioritise but for now we are celebrating being back out on the cut listening to the rain on our shiny new paint work, what colours did we choose.