Author: Cheryl

Kidderminster trip Day 4

Narrowboating plans can never be relied upon. And we started the day with a big hiccup. Our toilet wasn’t behaving itself. I won’t go into too much detail other than to say after a few tedious hours of inspecting, pondering, rinsing through, researching cleaning agents etc (acid or alkaline based, we settled for dilute caustic soda), luckily it was a teething problem that we’d caught before it became a horrible smelly job. But that’s one of the joys of living on a boat. You can’t just call out a plumber, you have to be prepared to have a go at fixing things yourself and I’m happy to say Team Firecrest survived this event.
I even managed to go for a brief walk around Stone, it’s a pretty place with a lot of history but my mission was to buy milk and because it was pouring with rain so I didnt explore properly.

Some lovely bridges today.

I don’t know what caused me to turn around and look behind but I was surprised to see the stonework was different on each side. I wonder why.

Not too many locks to do today, 7 or 8 and most were nicely spread out so I could dry off in between, and they were all set in my favour. At one lock we met a lovely young couple on holiday from Scotland, they had never seen a narrowboat in a lock before and were so excited and fascinated that we lived aboard.  We had to pose for photos and answer questions. When I suggested they consider hiring one for a holiday they looked quite crest fallen, “oh no we can’t do that,” she said glumly “he’s over 6 foot tall” –  well there was only one way to prove them wrong and he was quite amazed that he could still stand upright inside. They went on their way with huge smiles on their faces, and so did we. Sharing is a two way gift and an unexpected pleasure.

Turning another corner, this time onto the Staffordshire and Worcester canal, and right into the Anglo Welsh marina at Great Haywood. We’d been told that Kevin the manager had heard about Firecrest and was interested to see how the electrics worked, he was just about to leave for the evening but said we could moor there overnight so as it was chucking it down again, we did. Who’d have thought we’d spend the night in a hire boat base.
Not what we’d expected the day to be, but in the end and another interesting and mostly enjoyable adventure.

No rest for the wicked, Braidbar had a hectic weekend  at the Crick Show, taking second place for the visitors favourite show boat. They returned exhausted on Tuesday afternoon. The yard was full, with boats and customers both old and new, and a wet and soggy marquee to dry out. And to top it all we’d discovered a new problem on Firecrest. The valves on the radiators were leaking. We first saw this about 2 or 3 weeks ago. We think that because it was only a slow weeping leak the heat from the radiators being on had caused the fluid to evaporate which is why it wasn’t seen earlier. Three attempts at tightening the valves failed to rectify the problem so the system was depressurised and jointing compound was applied. We think that’s sorted it out.

James and Reg tackled the ventilation and sound insulation around the generator so we can at least hear ourselves think whilst it’s running.

And the lads delivered 200kg of extra steel ballast to trim the boat properly.  It will sit under the floor

Peter signed the paperwork and I paid the licence fee and at 5 pm on Thursday June 1st we reversed out under the bridge and Eric winded the boat without embarrassment.

and waved goodbye to the leaving committee. Austin wanted to invite the Poynton Brass band, but then we wouldn’t have been able to show off our silent engine to the assembled onlookers.

After a day of much laughter and excitement, we were too exhausted to go far. we only made it to Bridge 18 at Lyme view Marina for a steak super at the Miners Arms.

Distance travelled exactly 1 mile.

Another busy weekend, this time socialising, which means baking and eating and drinking.

And that was another boat learning curve.

My go to easy reliable dessert bake is a lemon tart.

(thankyou Jamie Oliver) make pasty case, pour in a lemon creamy custard and bake for half an hour.

What Jamie Oliver didn’t tell me, was not to over cook the pastry in your new fancy oven otherwise you’d have plenty of crispy trimmings to feed the ducks -yes the ducks knew there was food on offer and came begging at the hatch. it would have been mean not to share with them….

And that when you pour a pint of creamy eggy lemony mix into the pastry case everyone needs to stand still for the half hour it’s baking otherwise every time the boat rocks it will spill over the edges making a horrible mess to clean up.

however, said tart did emerge from wobbly oven reasonably intact and it tasted delicious once the crispy bits had been removed

And so we ate drank and were merry while we said a lot of fond farewells to the lovely people of Whaley Bridge, Bugsworth basin, and Poynton. In particular, thankyou for sharing so much kindness and hospitality to Kate, Annie and Martin from the studio and all the lovely knitters, John and Marion, Pablo and Carli, Lawrence, Carl and Lesley  And so many more people who we’ve chatted to along the way, either on the tow paths,  on their boats or in the pubs. I’m sure we will be back up the Macc and Peak Forest before long but once we’re done at Braidbar we are pointing our boat southwards for the next month or so.

The flag iris are out in full flower. Hard to photograph en masse but beautiful to look at as we cruise by.

I wondered if I would miss my garden when we moved on board but a field full of buttercups is hard to beat

CRT do a lot of work to maintain the banks of the canals and where there’s been erosion (Not helped by the wake created by fast boaters) wooden stakes are inserted in the canal which hold thick hessian sausages pre seeded with suitable plants and then back filled with dredging. It’s a win win project. Practical and pretty. It won’t be long before this has all taken root and stabilised both backside and footpath.

Drinking and driving, at least he wasn’t speeding as well. Far too hot for that. Everyone was flagging today, but we’d had a busy day in the yard with ‘the lads’ working flat out to get things done before Braidbar set off to exhibit at Crick.

Yes, we’ve made good progress on our snagging list that I’m hoping to share very soon.

Anyway, back to today, hot and bothered and not expecting anything more to be done, we set off for an evening cruise. I made a cuppa but Eric wanted a pint, and I can’t say I blame him.