We've had a fun month in August with plenty of boating as well as catching up with friends & family. We started out with our regular fortnightly run from Macclesfield to Whaley Bridge & back. Then our friends Dan & Emy came up to see us & we headed off with them to the International Citroen Car Club Meeting at Harrogate. We had 4 days of chilling out with friends, there where Citroens of every size shape & type, wonderful catering, (many from Citroen H vans), excellent entertainment & of course a superb range of beers at the real ale bar. By one of those amazing coincidences that show how small & intertwined the world of narrowboats & 2CVs are, we camped next to a couple with a french registered 2CV, they overhead our twitter name of "Coalboat" & came over to chat, it turned out they'd previously owned the tug Baltic, the Big Woolwich Greenlaw & also the tug White Heather, so we had a great time reminiscing with them.
The next week we had our Canadian rellies over to stay. Ann Marie's Sister Karen, Husband Brad & kids Josh, Ben & Ethan all really enjoyed their time staying with us on the boats. We visited Trentham Gardens where we got soaked in the rain but still had a fun day doing daft stuff like the barefoot walk, messing about in the maze & visiting the barbary macaques in the Monkey Forest. We also had a lovely day out boating down Bosley Locks to Congleton, everyone mucked in steering the boat, working the locks, pushing on shafts & even serving customers. On their last night we had a slap up meal at Dolce Vita in Marple followed by a visit to the brilliantly old fashioned Regent Cinema to see the mind boggling film Bourne Legacy .
After all that fun & frolics it was straight back to work with a full schedule of boating for myself & Ann Marie. For our first few days up to Bugsworth & back down the Macc we where joined by our good friend Tom Fletcher, who had come to experience a few days working boating with us. We put in some long hours to arrive at Ellesmere Port on Thursday eve, assisted as usual on the last leg by Alex from Bewitched. Having re-loaded we set off again for the T&M north, the Middlewich Branch was busy with Bank Holiday traffic queuing at the locks & the top of the T&M was hectic especially around the tunnels. It was a relief to get down the lift & onto the big water of the Weaver. We decided to run right down to the lower end of the river at Weston Point Docks which was nice & quiet. We stopped the night at Acton Bridge, before heading up river on Tuesday to the upper reach above Vale Royal Locks. By the following day we were back at Macclesfield to re-load diesel & solid fuel for our run once again to Whaley Bridge & Bugsworth. The weather was pretty good & customers were very kind keeping us going with coffee & choc ices (thanks Sue on No59 & Sue on Carbis :-)) & even beer & wine of an evening thanks to the Crews of Verity Anne & Slicer. Once again we met some lovely folks, some for the first time, but best of all it's lovely to see some of our old regulars returning with tales of their summer jaunts, looking forward to seeing a few more of you in the coming weeks.
Anyway below is our planned schedule for September:-
Sat 1st - Sun 2nd: Oakgrove Br49 Macc to Whaley Bridge & Bugsworth
Mon 3rd: Whaley Bridge to Oakgrove Br 49 Macc
Thurs 13th: Road deliveries to Hyde, Ashton & Manchester Piccadilly
Fri 14th: Road deliveries around Macclesfield & surrounding area
Sat 15th - Sun 16th: Oakgrove Br 49 Macc to Whaley Bridge & Bugsworth
Mon 17th: Whaley Bridge to Oakgrove Br 49 Macc
Tues 18th - Fri 21st: Oakgrove Br 49 Macc to Congleton, Kidsgrove, Middlewich, Nantwich, Chester & Ellesmere Port
Sat 22nd - Mon 24th: Ellesmere Port, to Chester, Middlewich, Preston Brook, Anderton & River Weaver
Tues 25th - Thurs 27th: River Weaver & back to Middlewich, Kidsgrove, Congleton & Oakgrove Br 49 Macc
Fri 28th: Road deliveries around Macclesfield & surrounding area
Sat 29th - Sun 30th: Oakgrove Br 45 Macc to Marple, Whaley Bridge & Bugsworth
Mon 1st Oct: Bugsworth to Oakgrove Br 49 Macc
Please note the above schedule is our plan but it may vary dependant on traffic, customer volumes & stoppages. So if you need supplies or have any question please give us a call or text on 07791345004 to ensure delivery.
Renaissance Canal Carrying - keeping carrying on the canals
