Author: Cheryl

Sorry for the lack of posts this week. We have had a few days off the boat to tie up some loose ends on land.
But having enjoyed a relatively mild winter it seems to be becoming a habit that we should drive back to Firecrest in snowy weather.
Thankfully Braidbar had turned our heating up so it wasn’t too long before the boat was cosy again. But far too cold for a cruise.

We’ve enjoyed having the family on board, Heather staying over using the dinette made up as a bed

and Tim joining us by train from his nearby home. Sausage casserole and mash for tea, followed by couple of rounds of Boggle.

The plan for the week is that Eric will continue fine tuning the wiring although the boat is now self sufficient running on battery power only. I’ll be returning to Suffolk with Heather for another few days to let Eric get on undistracted.

There’s always something to do on a boat. Can’t think why I ever worried about getting bored living on a boat. So Monday has become “Maintenance Monday” or Pipes and Plumbing day.

Although we’ve not cruised far, and had the luxury of shore power for cooking etc, the central heating boiler has been guzzling diesel for the past month. And as Firecrest sits better in the water when she’s got full tanks we thought we’d take this opportunity to fill up.

Diesel in at the stern, Water in the bow, and the urh hum removed from the middle.
We found it very useful when other boaters posted their running costs to help us estimate our own budget so with any luck we’ll be able to generate some proper statistics of our own to help the next generation planning their dream.
We’ve been using the boiler for approx 6 weeks, it’s been a mixture of cold but not frozen in and relatively mild for January. We’ve used about 95 litres diesel at 75p/l (that’s about £71). It might not be the most economic way to heat a home but we haven’t skimped on using the boiler and I reckon £11 a week keeping warm is worth it.

And having Andy from Bailey’s trading post right next door to the yard is a good opportunity to fill the tank.

Water is supplied through CART stand pipes situated regularly (or should that be irregularly) along the canal and they are funded through our annual license fee. As it takes nearly 2 hours to completely fill our tank so it’s politer to use Braidbar’s tap than to hog the water point for that long. We reckon it took about two weeks to drain our tank but that was without economising on usage. If we get the warning that ‘winter is coming’ and we fear we’ll be frozen in then, that’ll be the end to clean clothes and showers the biggest use of water. We’re aiming to keep our tank full most of the time to help keep the boat trim and balanced.

And now for the middle. Well you don’t really want photos of me emptying our toilet, do you? (Or filling it for that matter..) Some boating chores are there to endure not celebrate. We have opted for a villa seperata waterless toilet. We haven’t had it long enough to have come across any problems so I’ll leave it at that. You can visit the Eco toilets website if you want more detail.

 

We decided to treat ourselves to an easy day today as Tim, our son was coming to visit and we were still reeling from a stormy windy night. The morning consisted of completing small jobs like wiring a car radio into the galley so we can have music on the move if we want, though I can’t imagine anything sweeter than the bird song.
We walked up the Middlewood Way to meet Tim at the train station, and on the way a cyclist stopped to ask us for directions, in those few minutes we discovered she was a medalist for team GB at Rio, I apologised for not recognising her but it was a real thrill to be able to thank her and tell he how much I’d enjoyed the games and had cheered her on during the road race.
We’ve met some fascinating people this week, all with interesting stories to tell. Yesterday I spoke to the anglers who appear regularly by the boats, apparently the fish enjoy the bits that get flushed out of the boats with the washing up water. And far from disturbing the anglers here, they seem to catch more just after a boat has passed by, Not sure if all anglers share this sentiment but it seems a harmonious arrangement to me. They are after the pike at this time of year.
And the bird watcher who helped me identify the chiffchaff that I’d seen in the bushes. I thought it was a willow warbler but apparently they are migratory birds and on their holidays in January.

Tim hadn’t seen the boat complete before, not many people have. Boat life isn’t for him although he made appropriately impressed comments when pushed. He’d come to take advantage of Eric’s soldering iron to make himself a keyboard. Like father like son. Why buy ready made when you can custom build your own.

Looks like we’re set for another noisy night this time from rain lashing the boat rather than yesterdays wind.

We’ve made our maiden voyage, our shake down cruise. Words can’t describe how good that feels

The day dawned crisp and bright, and Eric was confident that the batteries were charged and we had sufficient cooling power to allow us a few hours without concern. We’ve both walked and cruised this section of the canal several times so we were familiar with the easy cruise up to the winding point at High Lane (that’s ‘wind’ as in the weather, not ‘wind’ the clock, where the canal widens to allow a boat to turn around. Don’t ask me why!)

Being Sunday we had a plentiful audience enjoying the day, non of them any the wiser as to how nervous we were. Thankfully Eric reversed us out of the Braidbar yard without hitting anything and off we set.    Of course this being our first cruise meant that neither of us was prepared to leave the boat to take photos although we were snapped by several of the walkers.

We cruised for about an hour and half, it was a crisp and clear day and  although we thought we’d wrapped up warm we were frozen by the time we moored up. We hadn’t credited the difference it would make between how warm we felt when out walking and how chilled we got standing at the helm. Guess I’ll be adding some thermals to the shopping list but please don’t hold out any hope of seeing those on a future blog. 

We moored back up on the Braidbar spot on the canal, and Eric’s still tweaking the wires and we’re getting closer and closer to gaining our independance.

We put aside the chores this morning in favour of enjoying the sunshine, as we still hadn’t seen the magnificent views from the top of the cage at Lyme Park

We chose a longer route than usual going through Ryles wood towards the main park gate on the A6.

We gained a bit of relief from the steady incline by turning around to gaze at the view, looking towards Bollinghurst reservoir.

The Cage was built as a hunting lodge and banqueting hall in the 16th century. It later became a prison for poachers. We weren’t able to look inside.

We couldn’t help but turn back for another look at the cage as we continued onwards towards the house.

The house was closed for the winter and there were a number of vans parked outside so no photos of the great house yet, but I believe it was used in the filming of the BBC’s production of Pride and Prejudice.

The cafe was open and the  NT knows how to make good soup so we had an early lunch before our final decent back home

I’ll also have a go at. A few days ago Eric rescued a cyclist with a broken bike. Yesterday I pulled a dog out of the canal. While we were out on our walk we saw a spaniel in the canal trying to get out, but the metal pilings put in to protect the bank make it impossible for animals to scramble out. I’m not a doggy expert but this one was looking quite panicked and as its owner wasn’t in sight we opted to play safe and apologise if we’d acted out of turn. Luckily the owners came along fairly quickly looking for their lost dog and they were mightily relieved that we had helped Molly out as she’s not a strong swimmer.

The rest of the walk was uneventful but beautiful as ever. The Macclesfield canal is known for its beautiful bridges.