Graham & his faithful friend Jake on Alton at Marple Aqueduct

Renaissance Canal Carrying - keeping carrying on the canals

George Boyle Strapping the Gate on Marple Locks

Renaissance Canal Carrying - keeping carrying on the canals

Alton on Marple Locks

Renaissance Canal Carrying - keeping carrying on the canals

Alton's Latest Schedule March 2011

With Ann Marie still away on holiday, I (Brian) will be joined by Graham Beard on the next run and George Boyle will be helping us by being on the tiller as we work Marple Locks.

Thursday 24th March:  Ashton under Lyne to Whaley Bridge
Friday 25th March:       Deliveries at Whaley Bridge & Bugsworth
Saturday 26th March:   Furness Vale to Marple and on to Bollington
Sunday 27th March:      Bollington to Fools Nook and return to Marple
Monday 28th March:    Marple to Ashton under Lyne
Tuesday 29th March:    Road deliveries to Sandbach, Middlewich, Nantwich etc.

Please note the above schedule may change slightly depending on traffic and customer requirements.

If you need supplies, please phone, text or email us.

Altons Docking No.3

We really are determined to get Alton into good shape before her 75th Birthday in July this year, so she is back on the wet dock at Ashton Packet for 2 or 3 more sessions of repairs and renovations. This is very difficult to organise with Steve and the Crew at Ashton having to work around our coal run schedules. We really appreciate the effort they are putting in and the work they are doing in very tight time frames.

The repairs on Alton are going fairly well, one or two jobs have been a bit bigger than we had hoped whilst others have not been as bad as we feared. On Tuesday morning work started in ernest with Steve assessing the condition of the repairs carried out to the cabin in October. These look to be standing up well to the weather, so next he looked at the rest of the cabin condition on the chimney side and at the stern. One area that needed some major attention was the joint of the counter / deck and the bulkhead. In this area the woodwork was rotten and the deck corroded. It was decided to tackle the chimney side first. The lowest plank was removed and the deck cut away to good metal.

Alan then made a repair plate which he trial fitted:

Then welded:

Before finishing with grinding:

Mean while down at the bows Steve was working with wood. He had removed the old rotten front timber known as the hood and made a new one.

He also removed one of the cants and made a new one:

Once the welding was finished Steve continued with the woodwork repairs to the back cabin before applying the primer coat of paint to the chimney side of the cabin:

I'll try and get some more photos of the work and update the blog before we start our next coal run with Alton on Thursday.

High Days & Holidays

Well it's been a while since I've updated the blog and as usual life has been a bit hectic as usual.

After the fendermaking course weekend,  I (Brian) and my Brother Mike decided to have a week off, staying with our friends Dan, Hilly, Annie & Tom at their wonderful converted coachhouse near Sowerby Bridge. We had a very relaxing time, sampling good food and ale as well as walking some of it of alongside the Rochdale Canal.

Mike nr Gauxholme on the Rochdale Canal

We walked up from Todmodern toward the summit, then back down again, stopping for an excellent late lunch at Stubbing Wharf, Hebden Bridge. At lock 13 we passed a very unlucky boat that had sunk, we felt very sorry for the poor owner.

We continued down to Luddenden Foot where we had a refreshing pint at the Weavers, before heading back up the hill to Oatsroyd.

Hilly and especially Dan are into their old Citroen cars (like us) so we went over to see work commencing on Dan's latest project a Citroen ID.

I was also very tempted to buy this Acadiane:

On Thursday it was Brians birthday and he had a very chilled out day going to see the Matinee performance of Brighton Rock at the lovely Hebden Bridge Picture House: http://www.calderdale.gov.uk/leisure/entertainment/picture-house/ . After a lovely evening meal and an amazing lemon meringue cake.

We retired to the Grove pub in Huddersfield: http://www.groveinn.co.uk/ . Wow what an amazing pub, about 18 to 20 real ales, lots of bottled beers from around the world, helpful & knowledgeable staff & to top it all a great Irish folk session.

On Friday the McGuigan Clan all gathered together to celebrate mine & my Sisters Aileens Birthday at Wagamamma's in Manchester. We had a delicious meal and it was great to catch up with all the family.

Friday evening was back to work with a vengeance. Unfortunately Ann Marie had hurt her back earlier in the day so she was on light duties for the weekend.

On Saturday we had a very busy day leaving Fools Nook well loaded about 7.30am, and reaching High Lane about 7.30pm. On Sunday morning our good friend Graham Beard joined us at Marple which was a great help as Ann Marie's back was still very sore. After another busy morning, Mike came to collect Ann Marie from Furness Vale, she's is heading of to Canada for a few weeks R&R, with her Sisters, Nephews and Cousins, lets hope she is fit & healthy on her return.

Ann Marie hands over the reigns to Graham, He hands her, her flowers!

After a wet start, it turned into a lovely afternoon and we even stopped for ice-creams at Bugsworth.

After delivering around Whaley, we treated ourselves to fish & chips for tea and then boated back to New Mills in the darkness. We had a swift pint in the Bee Hive, good beer, but loud music and TV meant we soon headed back to the boat for an early night.

It was a good job we had an early night as we were up an away by 6am and in Marple by 8. We wanted a good run down the locks but we knew Mike on Iola had gone down a couple of hours ahead so they would all be set against us. Brian set the first few locks and at lock 13 saw a black cat crossing the gates, lucky or unlucky. Graham arrived at the top lock with Alton and as we started to work the lock we noticed some helpful gongoozlers were shutting all the gates on the locks below!

It turned out that the black cat at lock 13 was unlucky, as at lock 12 we were stuck fast (on a load of shopping trollies) in the bottom of the lock for over 2 hours and the top ground paddle was disconnected so we could't flush out! Eventually Kevin and another chap from BW came out and sorted the paddle gear and gave us a good flush out of the lock.

We eventually reached the bottom of the flight only to have more bad luck getting stuck in the northern portal of Hyde Bank Tunnel for about half an hour.

After a few more deliveries on the Lower Peak Forest Canal, we headed to our destination just before nightfall. Alton is now safely in the wet dock at Ashton Packet for round 3 of it's repairs, with work continuing on the cabin, counter, foredeck, cants etc. I will keep you updated as the work progress's over the coming weeks.

Alton on Platform 4 of Ashton Dry Dock

Making Side Fenders at Audlem Mill

Renaissance Canal Carrying - keeping carrying on the canals

Tim, Hitching his Button Fender

Renaissance Canal Carrying - keeping carrying on the canals

Jeremy, Hitching his Button Fender

Renaissance Canal Carrying - keeping carrying on the canals

Fendermaking Workshop at Audlem Mill

Over the weekend we ran another of our fendermaking courses at Audlem Mill. We had just 2 trainees, Jeremy from NB Pike & Tim from NB Masquerade, so it was quite a relaxed affair. We started of on Saturday morning with a brief introduction looking at the materials and tools that we would be using. We soon rolled up our sleeves and started by making some side fenders. We a stop at lunchtime for a lovely meal of brazing steak & potatoes & veg. By mid afternoon we'd managed to complete 2 very presentable side fenders a piece, so it was time to start work preparing our button fender cores. By the end of the day we were all well on the way to completing our cores.

On Sunday morning we completed the cores and after grabbing a coffee we started half-hitching. Jeremy & Tim soon got the hang of hitching and covering progressed well. It took a bit of practice to get the right tension but they had soon finished hitching around the circumference of the fender. We then learnt how to splice in more rope and began covering the ends of the fender. By the end of the day both Jeremy and Tim had produced very well made button fenders that would look great on any narrowboat.

It was a great weekend and we really enjoyed passing on our skills to people that were keen to learn. Jeremy and Tim were great to work with and of course Peter and Christine at Audlem Mill looked after us very well with lovely food and we felt very welcome.

Our next courses at Audlem Mill is on 29th & 30th October 2011.
Renaissance Canal Carrying - keeping carrying on the canals

River Weaver and back to Whaley Bridge

Well the past 17 days have been a busy time for us as we completed our first big run of the year. We've done about 260 miles, 138 Locks and 24 swing/lift bridges. We've thoroughly enjoyed the journey and its been great to meet loyal customers that have gone out of their way to support us and meet many more new customers, it's given us a real buzz & made us realise that the effort of operating such a big round is worth it.

Anyway back to the story. At 8am Tuesday morning 2 people were knocking on the cabinside, luckily we were up and about. One was a customer for coal, the other was Jason the BW Supervisor? for the Anderton Lift. Jason confirmed that they had a problem with their phone lines but he had finally got our message that we had deliveries down on the river and wished to use the lift. We discussed what we needed with Jason and he went off for half an hour or so to see what he could arrange. He returned to tell us that it was unlikely that he could get us down the lift that day but he could get us down the lift early next morning and back up when we returned later in the afternoon. So we made good use of the day and headed north up the T&M and through the tunnels to Preston Brook. We had a few customers on the way including at Tim Leech's Dutton Dock, where we caught up with Tim and Roy and had a quick look at GU boat Alcor on the dock for repairs to bottom boards and footings. We returned to Anderton that evening to a flurry of customers as dusk fell.

Next morning we where waiting at the lift bright and early, unfortunately so was everyone else. It was decided we would go down on the second passage, so the first two boats went down about 8.30am. Only one caisson was operating and one of the boats that went down was just winding and coming back up. Unfortunately on their return journey the caisson door would not raise. By about 11.30 BW staff managed to get the boat & crew out of the lift (much to their relief), but it was another couple of hours before they traced and rectified the fault (broken solenoid). So it was 1.30pm before we descended in the lift. At this time there was a lot of doubt from various BW staff that we would get back through the locks let alone the lift that night. We only had a handful of deliveries to make on the river but they where spread out and consisted of a few tonnes of solid fuel and reasonable quantities of diesel. We shot off up stream delivering first at Yarwoods, we opened up the engine and made good progress. Jason was good to his word (he knew we had to be back at Macc to reload on Friday) and really helped us by arranging for the locks to be opened late. We finally returned to the lift at dusk, the BW guys were ready and waiting & we went straight in, straight up and straight out, a big thanks to Jason & the BW team both on the lift and on the River Weaver Locks!

That night we did a bit more boating before tying up at Wincham Wharf where we enjoyed a very pleasant evening catching up with our friends Roy and Mel aboard NB India.

It was an early start next morning if we were to get back on the Macc. Brian was up at 5.30am and enjoyed a lovely early mornings boating before rousing our first customer from their slumber at 7.30am. At Middlewich we found that a BW crew with a workboat had just gone up in front of us, but good enough they lifted a paddle for us. At Chemic Locks (Booth Lane) we met up with our old friend George Boyle, who had very kindly offered to be Alton's steerer on the run back to Macc. George got on the tiller straight away and carried on up the locks passing the GU butty Serpens looking in good order (when we looked carefully we could see the joins where she has been re-lengthened with the original sides that had been previously cut out. We had quite a few more customers that morning, the sun was shining and it turned out to be a beautiful day. Some people describe the Cheshire Locks as "Heart Break Hill" but we have always found them a pleasure to work. George was in his element at the tiller and we loved working our way efficiently up the hill. We had our final few customers of the day around Red Bull (where we met up with Steve Wood on the Josher Motor Bream who had set us some locks as he went up the Red Bull flight in front of us) before tying up for the night up just past the aqueduct on the Macc just as the light faded. We treated ourselves to tea in the Red Bull Pub, where we had good food & good ale followed by a great evening of blue grass music. That really was a super end to a perfect days boating.

Next morning we set off under grey skies with slightly fuzzy heads. We made deliveries at Scholar Green, Congelton and Buglawton before arriving at the bottom of Bosley Locks. We hadn't seen a single boat on the move all day, but we soon realised that two boats where making their way up the flight ahead of us. We soon caught them up & we took turns in going ahead and setting some locks for them.

We arrived back at Fools Nook about 3pm and spent the afternoon re-loading Alton with supplies and making local deliveries by road.

There's no rest for the wicked and the alarm woke us at 6.30am Saturday morning, it was bliss to get a shower before we set off. It was pouring with rain as we made our way into Macc but by mid morning it had eased. We called in at Kerridge dock and then through Bollington. We were making good time but at Poynton we got busy again and by the time we were delivering to the Bulls Head at High Lane it was dark. We continued on to Marple, tying up near the Ring o' Bells, where Brian nipped in for a swift pint before tea.

Next morning the rain was lashing down and followed us all the way to New Mills, even so it was great to be back on the Upper Peak Forest Canal. We continued our deliveries around Bugsworth and Whaley Bridge, it seemed weird seeing so many boats on the move & meeting them in bridgeholes and blind corners. We finally moored up for the night in New Mills, we still had time to play cribbage whilst tea was cooking & then hit the sack for an early night.

Next morning Ann Marie set off before 7am leaving Brian in bed with a cold / man flu. He managed to rouse himself to steer for the lift and swing bridges before going back to bed. Unfortunately Ann Marie kept finding more customers on the return journey so she managed to drag him out of the cosy cabin at regular intervals. We arrived back at Oakgrove late afternoon and boy was it a good feeling to be back at base for a few days!

A big "Thanks" again to all our customers, our helpers Graham Beard, Mike McGuigan and George Boyle as well as Jason at the Anderton Lift and all the BW boys in blue who helped us on our way. We're looking forward to the same trip in April as we run to the Easter Gathering at Ellesmere Port Boat Museum, we should have recovered by then!
Renaissance Canal Carrying - keeping carrying on the canals

Braidbar's New Boat Marmite out for a Cruise on the Peak Forest Canal

Renaissance Canal Carrying - keeping carrying on the canals

George Boyle Back on Alton's Tiller on the T&M

Renaissance Canal Carrying - keeping carrying on the canals

Gettin 'em Ahead - Nantwich to Ellesmere Port to Anderton

Well it's been an enjoyable few days boating and we've managed to get plenty more miles and locks under our belt. We had another early start from Nantwich, over the aqueduct and out of town to wind. We made good progress back to Barbridge and headed north serving a few customers around Calverly. It was good to do a few wide locks down to Chester and we even arrived in the city before it got dark. We moored just before the walls and went out to sample the fine hostelries of Chester. We started at the Mill Hotel which was busy and had a great range of 12 Real Ales at reasonable prices (for Chester). We moved on to the Canalside where we enjoyed the Copper Dragon Golden Pippin. We were the only customers when we arrived and only a couple more customers came in whilst we were there. We then made our way just the other side of the bridge to the Old Harkers Arms. This is a Brunning & Price Pub that was packed. The beer was more expensive but a good range of about 6 beers. We finally got a table and treated ourselves to steak for dinner. It was absolutely delicious, great flavour and succulent. We had a bit of a late night as we knew for once we didn't have to be up early as Northgate Staircase was not due to open until the afternoon.

Our heads weren't too bad in the morning, so we had a coffee and brunch before striding out for a walk around Chester's Roman Walls. We pottered down to Northgate about 2.30pm just in time to see Jim Taylor and his BW team complete their work and see us through the locks. Brian didn't even really need to don his raincoat for the usual drenching he gets from the top gates so well done BW. Leaving Chester we passed the old Shropshire Union Yard, previously operated by Boatbuilder Dave Jones. Dave has now retired and new tenants have taken on the lease and where busy tidying the yard. They plan to still operate the site as a working boatyard and we wish them the best of luck at this historic location.

We made steady progress along the Wirral Canal arriving at Ellesmere Port just after dark. We then retired to Brian's parents for the evening relishing in showers and home cooked food as well as good company.

Saturday saw us making deliveries at Ellesmere Port Boat Museum, a very big thank you to Steve Stamp (EPBMS Chairman). We were then joined by Brian's Brother Mike for the journey back through Chester. He enjoyed his days boating and with his help on the locks we made good time reaching the Shady Oak nr Beeston about 7pm.

Sunday morning required another early start as we wanted to reach Broken Cross Northwich that evening. We were straight into the locks and had the cut to ourselves, passing the first boat mid morning on the nasty bend where the main road crosses the canal near Barbridge. There was more traffic and customers on the Middlewich Branch and we reached Middlewich about 3pm. We took a left turn at the junction and carried on down the locks and finally through Big Lock. The culvert has blocked or collapsed here so the water levels on the long pound were a little lower than usual, meaning progress was a bit slow. We finally tied up after 7 again at Broken Cross, Northwich.

Shortly after our friend Mike Askin turned up on his GU motor Victoria and he joined us for a chinese take-away tea in Alton's backcabin.

On Monday Mike headed off to the Anderton Boat Lift with Victoria and we planned to follow soon after, but not before we loaded coal and diesel. Our coal delivery turned up promptly and we were loaded in under an hour, but unfortunately our diesel supplier let us down due to a technical fault on the tanker. Eventually we loaded with diesel at 3pm, too late to get the passage down the lift. We set off north serving customers along the route to Anderton, before mooring up for the night just before the lift.
Renaissance Canal Carrying - keeping carrying on the canals

Finished Loading with Coal at Broken Cross, Northwich

Renaissance Canal Carrying - keeping carrying on the canals

Deliveries at The Port

Alton refuelling the Museums Trip Boat Centaur
Renaissance Canal Carrying - keeping carrying on the canals

Escape from the Macc

We set off from Fools Nook at 7.30 Saturday morning with Alton sitting low in the water. We made good progress through Macc and Bollington but at Poynton those dratted customers kept on coming thick & fast, darkness fell, so about 7pm we decided to call it a day and tied up opposite Marineville. We set of again at 7.30 rousing a few customers from their beds at MiddleKayle. By the time we reached Marple the rain began to fall and the wind began to blow. There was a fishing match on and we usually have a bit of friendly banter with the fishermen, but when we stopped opposite one of them to serve a customer he started ranting and raving and throwing his teddies out of the pram. "What did the hell did you do that for!" he ranted, we replied that we were just earning our living!

We made our way up the Upper Peak Forest Canal. At the 1st lift bridge we got talking to the local farmer and his wife and when they saw we sold red diesel, they asked us to fill up their tractor, so that's what we did. The rain continued to pour down as we made our deliveries to New Mills and Whaley Bridge until we tied up long after dark at Furness Vale. Brian retired to the Dog & Partridge for a swift pint of the excellent Gunpowder Mild whilst Ann Marie prepared tea.

Monday was another early start at 6.30 from Furness Vale. The sun came out and we had the canal to ourselves. We had a few customers to serve on the way back but we made good time and returned to Oakgrove about 4pm. We had hoped to nip into the Fools Nook Inn for a romantic valentines dinner but we had over 4 tonnes of fuel and supplies to reload and we didn't get finished until gone 9pm, so a take away chinese had to suffice.

The Alarm went off about 5.45 and we grabbed showers and made last minute preparations before heading off. We served a few customers and then set off down Bosley Locks, with the wind very blustery. We had a good road with the locks and at lock 10 we were joined by our good friend Graham Beard (owner of working boat Daphne) who had come to lend us a hand for a couple of days.

Below the locks we had quite a few customers before reaching Hardingswood Jn and started to head down the hill. A few more customers at Red Bull and carried on down the lock to reach Hassall Green about 7pm. Graham & Brian retired to the Romping Donkey to sample the Old Speckled Hen.

Wednesday morning we awoke to a hard frost and icy gunnels and lock gates, but very soon the sun came out to make a glorious morning. We enjoyed the journey down the rest of the Cheshire Locks, taking it in turns between the 3 of us to steer & lockwheel. Above Malkins Bank we saw the old working motorboat Malvern with a cargo of lock gates aboard. At Wheelock we fuelled up ex FMC motor boat Bream and chatted to its owner Steve. We continued to have a busy morning through Wheelock, Crowsnest and down to Middlewich. We had some chips from Kings Lock Chippy and then headed west along the Middlewich Branch.

Graham left us above Stanthorpe Lock and walked to Winsford to get the train home. We had a fairly quite afternoon but even in February we met a boat at Church Minshull Lock. We stopped for customers at Barbridge Jn and then headed south in the gathering dusk. We arrived at Nantwich about 7pm and grabbed well earned showers before retiring to the Black Lion for a pint of Peakstone Alton Abbey, agghh!
Renaissance Canal Carrying - keeping carrying on the canals

Spreading Our Wings and February Schedule

Well with most of the stoppages that effect our regular rounds completed, and the ice gone, we can finally start boating further afield than the Macc and Peak Forest Canals. We have had many loyal customers from Kidsgrove, Middlewich, Nantwich, Anderton and Preston Brook etc as well as on the River Weaver, who we have managed to keep supplied by road over the past few months, but we are really looking forward to supplying you by boat again so see below for our February Schedule.

With the current challenging trading conditions (many customers are having to work to increasingly tight budgets), we  have decided that we need to try and develop the business by expanding our round. Last year we had quite a few requests from boaters on the Bridgewater Canal to trade on there, but Liam Hewitt with Kerry Dainty have started trading (as Longford Canal Services) on the Bridgewater last autumn with NB Ariel and we wish them a sincere "Good Luck" in their new venture. So then we considered trading south of Etruria our current limit on the T&M, but we have heard that another new venture has been established by Viv Scraggs retailing coal from her butty Grimsby, paired with her motor Monarch, based around Fradley. So we also wish Viv the very best of luck also with her new business. It's great to see more fuel boats trading. So back to our plans, we have decided that the most obvious way to extend our Cheshire round is to continue north on the Shroppie from our current limit at Bunbury Staircase, down to Chester and to the end of the line at Ellesmere Port. We have been in discussion with Steve Stamp, Chairman of Ellesmere Port Boat Museum Society, the musuem and the society are very keen to encourage more boaters to visit Ellesmere Port throughout the year. They realise that boaters want more facilities, such as elsan disposal, pumpout as well as diesel and solid fuel. They plan to install elsan disposal facilities and pumpout equipment  at the museum and are keen for us to trade the "Wirral Canal" from Chester to be able to regularly supply fuel to boaters. Our plan is to deliver on this whole Cheshire round on a monthly basis alternating between boat delivery and road delivery (stoppages allowing). Hopefully we can build upon the customer base that we have developed on Altons Easter Runs to Ellesmere Port over many years.

Alton & friends at Elesmere Port Easter Gathering 2009

So if you need supplies and are on our route below please get in touch by phone, text or email, alternatively just look out for us and flag us down!

Alton's Current Schedule

12th - 13th Feb:    Oakgrove (nr Macclesfield) to Marple, Bugsworth & Whaley Bridge
14th -15th Feb:     Whaley Bridge to Kidsgrove
16th - 17th Feb:    Kidsgrove to Middlewich & Nantwich
18th - 19th Feb:    Nantwich to Chester & Ellesmere Port
20th - 21st Feb :   Ellesmere Port to Chester , Middlewich & Anderton
22nd - 23rd Feb:  River Weaver, to Preston Brook (wind), back to Wheelock
24th - 25th Feb:   Wheelock to Etruria (wind), Kidsgrove to Oakgrove (nr Macclesfield)
26th - 27th Feb:   Oakgrove to Marple, Bugsworth & Whaley Bridge
28th Feb:             Whaley Bridge to Oakgrove

Note: We hope to maintain this schedule but it can vary depending on traffic and customer demand, but if possible please call us on 07791345004 to place your order or to check our progress.

A Firkin Freezin Free Weekend 4th - 6th February

Last weekend we decided to treat ourselves to a weekend off. Apart from rusty old narrowboats our other passion is rusty old cars or to be more specific rusty old Citroen 2CVs. So we got our 1974 Dyane (central in photo) out of the carport and decided to blow it's cobwebs away with a return to the Derbyshire Firkin Flyers 2CV Clubs, Firkin Freezin Camp. This is a traditional. 2CV enthusiasts annual event, which we used to attend many years ago before work got in the way.

We set of late Friday afternoon, going over the tops from Bosley crossroads to Buxton, along the A6 to Matlock then NE to Ashover, where we arrived in the camping field in the pitch dark. The wind was blowing a whooly which made putting up the tent interesting, it's a good job we have a Vango Force Ten. We soon retired to the pub, The Old Poets Corner, which had a great range of real ales including 3 Ashover brewery beers and Titanic stout. We had a lovely meal and a very pleasant evening catching up with friends we hadn't seen for a couple of years and catching up on the gossip.

During the night the wind blew strong and the rain lashed down, but we stayed snug and warm in our sleeping bags. After breakfast we joined the circuitous convoy (via a couple of swollen fords) to eventually arrive at the fascinating Banktop engine on the Cromford and High Peak Railway which transported goods from the Cromford Canal to the Peak Forest Canal at Whaley Bridge.

In the afternoon we visited Arkwright's Mills at Cromford and had a walk along the Cromford Canal (We cannot keep away from the cut for long).

On Saturday evening in the interests of research we tried the other two pubs in Ashover, the Black Swan for a couple of good pints of Bradwell Farmers Blonde and the Crispin Inn for a delicious meal, but mediocre pint (Marston tied). We ended the evening back at the Old Poets for a very sociable evening meeting more 2CV friends old and new.

By Sunday morning the rain had finally eased (but not the wind) we decamped after a coffee and bacon butties (thanks to the brookes clan - we even get brekkie cooked for us away from the round. We started to make our way home but called in at Darley Dale to see if Peak Rail steam trains were running, they were so we spent the afternoon pottering up and down the line beside the swollen River Derwent. We had a very pleasant time riding on the trains before making our way home back over the hills.
Renaissance Canal Carrying - keeping carrying on the canals

The Return of the Ice

Well for our last run of January the ice decided to return, just to remind us we are very much still in winter. We set of from Fools Nook at 7.30am on Saturday, breaking ice all the way.

Our first customers where at Gurnett aqueduct and our regulars on NB Elleni and NB Sir Daniel Gooch

Once we arrived in Macclesfield we found our pumpout pump and hoses were frozen solid and took a couple of hours to strip them down and thaw them out with many kettles of hot water. This and the ice put us a bit behind schedule, but we made reasonable progress and had a busy day. We decided to push on and we were near Adlington as the sunset. We continue to serve customers and a big thanks to Sue for the coffee and cake and also Liz for the sausage butties, mmm our customers do look after us! We finally tied up at Poynton wide about 7pm where Brian nipped down to the Boars Head for a swift pint, whilst Ann Marie cooked tea.

Sunday dawned to another cold start, we set of about 8am and were so busy with customers that we didn't manage to leave the area until about noon, oh we do like to keep busy.

We carried on to Marple where we had to back down the arm to serve some customers which was interesting having to ice break going astern! Once outside Marple around Strines the ice was thicker, up to 2 inches in places but it only reall slowed us up on the corners.

We were soon busy again and we were serving customers at New Mills as darkness fell. so it was time for a bit more night boating whilst we headed to Furness Vale to Moor for the night.

On Monday we made our deliveries around Bugsworth and Whaley Bridge where we narrowly avoided getting some of BW's dreaded orange netting around the prop!

and we saw more and more of the dreaded stuff in the cut on the way back, including at Bollington

and at Gurnett:

 This stuff is an absolute nightmare to remove from the prop especially when the steel stakes are inter twined.

Anyway on Monday afternoon we were joined by our good friend Graham Beard, who accompanied us to Marple. We then had a very pleasant evening at the Regent Cinema, Marple. This is a lovely old fashioned cinema and we thoroughly enjoyed ithe film Kings Speech.

Today we have made our return Journey down the Macc catching a few more customers. We were ice-breaking again and being followed  by NB Magic all the way back to Oakgove.

NB Magic near Lyme Green

Any Publicity is Good Publicity

This week we featured in a little article in the esteemed publication the Macclesfield Express. We did have a laugh with the NHK Crew, but it is nice to have the boat back to ourselves too.

We are looking forward to getting a copy of the program on DVD, it will be really interesting to see how it turns out.
Renaissance Canal Carrying - keeping carrying on the canals

Fooling about at Fools Nook!

Well after a busy 4 days boating we managed to get Alton back to Fools Nook for the first time in 2 1/2 months. We where frustrated by problems with Oakgrove Swing Bridge 49. We had heard from a customer on Friday that the swing bridge was out of order, we phoned BW at Red Bull & asked if they could sort it. BW said they where confident they knew what the problem was and they would have it sorted. We explained that we would need to go through with Alton on Sunday.

BW Engineers went out to investigate and (we were later told) found an electrical fault and a mechanical fault. They the imposed a temporary stoppage and put a notice on the control panel stating that BW would only operate the Bridge at 10am & 3pm on Sat & Sun. However they didn't send out any official stoppage notice & they didn't phone us back to let us know there was still a problem.

So when we arrive at the Br 49 in the wind & the rain we find the control panel covered bt a laminated sign & sticky tape. We rang freephone canals (i.e. expensive from mobiles). & when the Supervisor? Rang back, he told us we would have to wait for the BW staff to operate the bridge at 3pm. We asked why he hadn't sent out a stoppage notice but his reply was "he didn't have the authority to do that".......

Anyway at 3pm the BW guys turned up with there cones and power pack and set too operating the bridge for the 3 boats waiting.

BW returned to the bridge 49 this morning and declared it fit for operation, but when we once again found that the bridge would not open and kept hold of our key. After a call to Steve O'Sullivan at Red Bull, 2 BW guys came out to reset the bridge for us. They told us that a component in the control box needed to be replaced to stop it "tripping out". They said hopefully it will be replaced today, so we will be keeping our eye out on how the bridge performs over the next few days.
Renaissance Canal Carrying - keeping carrying on the canals