Crew - Graham & Brenda.

An evening cruisette in the dark to get away from the busy road.

Crew - Graham & Brenda.

Brenda :Today's weather forecast - wall-to-wall sunshine. The sun came out, with azure skies, at ten to eight in the evening:-( Just in time to eat supper on the sundeck then! What a grey, tho' warm and dry, day.

In the interests of marital harmony we decided that since we can't agree whether the 'knackered bike pump' bird is a chiff-chaff or a great tit it shall be known, henceforth, as the chaffin' tit-tat. We saw, and agreed upon, grey wagtails collecting grubs and insects at a lock side weir.

Graham lent the sea-searcher magnet to a boater who had dropped her windlass. A successful retrieval was made by her husband. Painting window frames and mending was achieved with the help of a very good bottle of wine.

Crew - Graham & Brenda.

Graham :After a double car shuffle and a trip to a car boot sale we finally set off at 10:40.
Herself had just prepared breakfast when we came upon the first lock, I'd told her it was about 30 minutes away, oh well. Then a quick run to Barlaston where the car had been left this morning. Steak and salad lunch, and home.

Crew - Graham, Brenda & Simon.

Brenda :We had an hour wait before passage through Harecastle tunnel. Tea and sympathy was dispensed to a Dad who had borrowed a mate's boat to take his 8 and 10 year olds for a weekend trip. ' It's flat water and only 6 feet deep. How dangerous can that be?' He was very unnerved after his tunnel passage, having never steered a narrowboat before. He was very upset after having nearly sunk the boat in a lock. Friend had not thought to train this novice crew, Dad had not thought to read the front part of his Nicholson's. He had been advised to keep well back in locks, but had not been told about the cill when descending. As boat was teetering on the cill Dad yelled for sons to drop the paddles. One complied, the other threw his windlass away because he misunderstood. The weld on the rear fender fixing gave way which saved the boat which dropped off the cill, but at the expense of ripping the back out and leaving a hole in the diesel tank. The Dad fell on the deck, bumping his head as he went. It was at that point he realised how much danger he had been in, and what he could have put his little boys through. It seems it's not only the hire fleets that allow poorly trained crews onto the cut! I assured the Dad that, as I saw it, his friend was as much to blame for the damage as he was as he should have ensured they had enough information to stay safe.
Rant over!

Simon :Arrived to inspect Jannock's new coat and assist with northwards migration, and I couldn't miss out on the Harecastle Tunnel Experience. The cloud of moisture which rushes at you when the ventilation fans are switched on is definately an experience to convince the ignorant about ghosts or boggits, as is the 'surprise' in the alcove 450m from the north portal. Spooky! I came in useful as we started down 'Heartbreak Hill', to be continued at about 5.30 am tomorrow if Dad gets his way.

Brenda :Simon and I visited the churchyard for our constitutional. What a beautiful place to await eternity. It seemed such a happy spot, full of loving families. There was one grave worth a mention here; the inscription is :-

'In memory of Hugh Lanyon of Truro
in the County of Cornwall
He died at Lawton on the
15th of June AD 1846;
aged 41 years.
He was an Assistant Surveyor to the
Trent and Mersey Company.
As a record of his Zeal in the
discharge of his duties, the
company have raised this stone.'

Crew - Graham, Brenda & Simon.

Brenda :A beautiful morning, the countryside looks gorgeous. A continental breakfast was served to compliment the weather. We met a breakfast chef ( in nightie) whose gas had run out; she was frying eggs and bacon on a barbecue. What's wrong with cornflakes in such circumstances??? Simon DIDN'T go fishing and caught a fish to rival anything caught aboard Jannock so far, about 2 inches long. As we moored up I understood why we had previously met a crew who had given up trying to sleep here and had left their Hassall Green mooring at 5.30 in the morning. Motorway noise!

Crew - Graham, Brenda, Phaedra & Simon.

Graham : We started from Hassall Green in light drizzle. During the next 10 locks it varied from drizzle to no rain to heavy rain and so on. The side winds caused Brenda a few problems steering but she coped well. Stopped at Wheelock Wharf for water and to inhale the Italian restaurant kitchen exhaust whilst eating our lunch on Jannock. Finally stopped at Big Lock, Middlewich.

Phaedra : So, here I am again. Simon's parents came this morning and we started moving the boat. It was raining most of the time but the locks weren't that many so we didn't have major problems. We are now stopped for the night and we will probably go out for dinner later.
P.S. Euro 2004: Greece 1 France 0 !

Brenda :A 'good++' meal at The Big Lock celebrating Simon and Phaedra's graduation. Steak stuffed with brie, spinach and garlic, followed by Bailey's creme brulee was wonderful. Wobbly Bob my beer of choice, yum. The crew of FMC boat Alder congratulated Phaedra on the quality of 'the match', Greece took France out of the footie.
P.S. 08.00 Sunday, Alder chugged past with cheerful announcement that they had sustained Wobbly Bob damage, one of the crew had taken a dive! Ho ho, Wobbly Bob, the beer that does what it says on the tin.... except there isn't one.

Crew - Graham, Brenda, Phaedra & Simon.

Brenda :Weather much more amenable for cruising today. As we progressed the memories of the Anglo-Deutch cruise of 1991 came flooding back to me. After we disembarked we went along to the Anderton Boat Lift. In '91 it was a rusting wreck, yet still impressed Jost. He'd be amazed to see it restored and working. Sad to see the Lion Salt Works derelict as we spent a happy educational afternoon with the children there in '91.

Simon : A beautiful stretch of scenery, with the odd chemical works thrown in, in glorious sunshine. All the while sipping champagne to celebrate our graduation. Beware low flying herons.

Crew - Graham Brenda & Simon.

Brenda : We got ourselves onto the first downward passage of the day on the Anderton boatlift. What amazing engineering, and interesting to learn that the 2002 restoration returned the lift to the original 1875 hydraulic system. Onto the Weaver and into Northwich as we saw their carnival advertised. A good dozen or more carnival queens and princesses from miles around drove through in posh cars, a twirl of majorette troops paraded, dance schools strutted their stuff through the streets to the accompaniement of a couple of bands. Then nobbut 3 floats! Yes, 3. One church, a youth club ( beautully costumed, made up and rehearsed) and and the doughty ladies of the Samaritans. Shame on you citizens of Northwich, is that the best you can do? A pleasant cruise along the Weaver, down and up Saltisford lock, and moored for the night on the holding moorings for the lift ready for another go first thing tomorrow morning.

Crew - Graham Brenda & Simon.

Brenda : The shame.....I got seasick going up the boatlift. Saltisford Tunnel was very crowded, there was us, a family of ducks and a flight of bats.

Simon : Another day winding around the contours. A fine, pleasant day not withstanding occasional short showers. There was 1 almost pointless lock to put us onto the Bridgewater Canal where we stopped just short of Preston brook tunnel, another bendy one, ready for lock-free cruising into Manchester next week.

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Crew - Brenda & Simon.

Brenda : An earlyish start, one lock and into Middlewich for fresh veg. I walked towards the town and turned left. Big mistake. I realised I was in the wrong direction when the Victorian terraces had gone, the 60s was over, and the late 20th century miniscule detached was turning into 21st century neo-anystyle housing. Navigation by architectural history. I had to kidnap a local child to point me toward a supermarket in this town twinned with the Marie-Celeste. Found the cure for scurvy and decided not to risk pneumonia so we stayed moored up in the rain, and filled out our applications for the Namby-Pamby Boaters' club. Made a dash for it , got through the Middlewich turn-around mayhem and wimped out in the rain again. 14.15, let's try again. Eventually, a lovely afternoon . . . .

Simon : except for the 19 locks I had to do on my own. (Is he getting at me?) That's 57 gates pushed and 76 sets of stiff as He77 paddle gear. Now my back aches...I need some dinner - smells wonderful - and a beer.
On our evening constitutional we caught numerous Rampant Cows about to escape into the Romping Donkey carpark. Then we proceeded to investigate the pink corrugated iron church, nicknamed St. Barbie's by mum on account of it's loud electric pink paint. It's foundation is splendid stonework, inscribed 188something. Any information as to it's history would be welcome.

The church that is now St. Philip's started life as St. Mary's Alsager. In 1883 it was moved by horse and cart to it's present location in Hassell Green. It is the daughter church of Christ Church, Wheelock and the original idea is that it would be staffed by a full time Reader. To facilitate this a house was built by the then Vicar of Wheelock, Rev Millward for any future Readers, and is still in use today. The church is painted pink and is known for miles around as the little pink church! It is also referred to affectionately as the Tin Tabernacle. The church is very close to the Trent and Mersey canal and is an ideal choice for a Sunday morning service whilst on a boating holiday.

Crew - Graham & Brenda.

Brenda : A strawberries and Pimms afternoon, with the glitter of swallows and the swish of haymaking. How fortunate that all but one lock were set for us.
Graham : Today I met the ultimate bimbo. She was with her husband and small son watching Jannock work through a lock. Hubby asked how far it was to the next pub along the cut. I replied 'about 1/2 a mile'. Her next question to me was ' how does that compare with the distance from my house to Red Bull?.....' (Red Bull is a flight of locks on the outer edge of Kidsgrove.)

Crew - Graham & Brenda.

Brenda : As I started my shift lockside I had a feeling 'summat was oop'. Eventually I twigged it; the nail polish adorning both fingers and toes was definately not de rigeur! Added to which there's diamante on my knickers. None of this held me back as I managed to set the second pair of locks for the boat following us whilst working Jannock through. The Dad thanked me warmly, announced that most of his crew were dopey and would Graham swap me for 2 fit and healthy young men to complete the locks. The offer was declined as they were still abed. Later we realised how right Dad was; the boys were literally 'dopey', sneaking off for a quick smoke whenever possible and drinking lager. They were fast becoming a danger to shipping, starting out by smashing the bottles they hadn't thought to remove from the balance beams before moving them. Glass underfoot!.

An all-girl glee club crew, of a certain age, exited Harecastle Tunnel proclaiming loudly that when they went in they had all been 21, and most of them had been sober. Hhhmmm, no boggit today, but a good time was had by all. After last year's debacle when we had to pay salvage fees, for Jannock, in rosemary, we got our own back by rescuing a radio controlled boat. The salvage fee was paid in toffee.

Crew - Graham, Brenda, Matt & Rosie.

Rosie : Started our day with a crew of four, not the six we were expecting but I'll mention no names. Beautiful weather to start but it's turned now , is very humid and getting windier by the minute. My driving seems to be improving slowly, I only bumped the sides a couple of times. A fairly decent day all round apart from the rowdy, drunken men on a stag do in Stone, standing and sitting in the most inappropriate places possible at the lockside. Thanks for a nice day, at least I'm trained and ready for our next chance of a boat holiday.

Crew - Graham, Brenda & Margaret.

Margaret : A lovely day, no rain and a little sun. Lots of wildlife including a squirrel, a heron and a grebe with a fish looking for it's brood to feed. A convention of 'L' drivers was out, all aiming for us or the bank. ( Brenda: some of them were quite accurate and managed to hit their targets. I took pre-collision avoiding action and was in reverse at each impact, but an oak tree wasn't so lucky. Big bang theory, what's that all about?) Moored up with Joe and Jackie Jones, off the Llangollen, and Mike and Hazel on nbs Will Crooks and Tess of Wooton, en route to the GiG. Went to the pub for supper and got talking to a couple from San Francisco. He was in search of 'the full english breakfast' but didn't grasp that it's available all day although not usually before 9ish unless in an urban area. He usually buys his US of A breakfast at 7 am. Ended the evening watching 2 women and a child in a rowing boat trying to catch a duck - don't know why or if they succeeded, but they seemed quite determined!

Crew - Graham, Brenda & Margaret.

Brenda : We took a leisurely breakfast in order to fully appreciate the sunshine and birdsong; that's our excuse and we're sticking to it. The deathwish steerers were replaced by the 'let's take locks very slowly' school of boating, so progress was very slow. At Alrewas we were watched by a well to do, elderly couple. She: 'this canal seems awfully narrow and rather difficult, why don't you go to another one where it's wider for you?' He: ' you've just made all that effort to empty the lock, why on earth are you bothering to fill it up again!?' I explained that we needed it full to enter it in order that we could descend and proceed, but he just couldn't see it. Final mooring just around the corner from the Barton Turns Marina - the 2004 GiG site.

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Brenda : Friday morning we took a mini-cruisette into the marina and 3 abreasted up to Uncle Mort and Albion. We settled in and the rain started, we got stranded in the beer tent! Fish 'n' chips was followed by the main feature in our on-board cinema. Toasts were made to Matt's A level success, and entry to University.

Saturday dawned, and remained, dry. Julian and Caro arrived in time to visit the Burton Brewing museum. It was enjoyed by us all. We finished the visit off with our free beers in the bar and decided to stay for a good lunch and a mini-beer-tasting. The spudfest for supper was very good , being followed by music by Rusty and friends that was very loud indeed.

Sunday started with a communal breakfast twixt us and Uncle Mort. We've never had our beans in slices before, and certainly not accompanied by breakfast quiche. Yum. David Dickinson eat your heart out; the GiG auction was great fun and raised loadsa money for charity. Chinese and Indian for supper, followed by a fun quiz which quickly disintegrated into a gherkinfest. Any smart remarks or protests attracted the forfeit of eating a large gherkin, and after a curry this was indeed a penalty. Tom Kitchen played a mean fiddle for us and the bar had a sale, all pints down to a £1. Foul weather overnight, Jannock springing 2 drippy leaks. The GiG clearing up crew worked swiftly and efficiently despite mud and general sogginess. Farewells were made. How the committee managed a 2 day fine weather slot this summer I'll never know. Someone has got a painting in the attic methinks!

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Crew - Graham & Brenda.

Brenda : I had to do some nifty manoevering and reverse parking in order to get water whilst still within the confines of wind swept Barton Turns marina, and then another set of same to get diesel (rude not to at 25ppl). We managed to start after the worst of the rain had abated and stop before the afternoon deluge. Luckily the Trent was still running slow enough for traffic to pass South. We moored in Alrewas as Will offered to Jannock sit.

Crew - Graham & Brenda.

Graham : A lazy start saw us in second place for all 5 locks to Fradley Junction. We finally turned left at Fradley Junction onto the Coventry canal at 12.30 and decided to stop for lunch just after bridge 90. We picked blackberries apres lunch and then I steered in the rain whilst Brenda showered. We pressed on through Hopwas Woods ( Hooty Owl country ) and went onto Fazeley. The last few miles were in very strong winds which made navigation rather difficult. We stopped for the night on the 14 day moorings just before the centre of Fazely and were puzzled at first as to the source of all the screams - we soon realised how close we were to Drayton Manor Park.

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