Unusually someone was watching

 I'm only just catching up after a whirlwind return to land living after our short three days on Percy.

We were above Tixall lock and had a very quiet night setting off at 10.30 am back to the marina. I never understand some people's lack of planning when approaching locks  - case in point was our exit from the lock at Tixall when as we started off  ( lock gates closed as normal) a boat came round the slight bend, however instead of slowing with a bit of reverse she kept the power on and tried to steer around us and onto the lock landing but massively overshot and then hit a load of reverse. This pirouetted the boat anti clockwise into the shallows of the off side and left her crew member who had been walking down the gunnels to the bow isolated. We couldn't do much other that slowly cruise off trying not to look back at the unfolding delays all caused by that speed and lack of planning. Slow down to speed up came to mind.

I guess he who is without sin cast the first stone etc etc.... but we don't cruise fast and try and anticipate, however I'd be wrong to give the impression we (I) were faultless in our cruising approach and technique, so therefore a good reminder!

We turned onto the Trent and Mersey and were soon on the approach to the marina.... it's written elsewhere in this blog about my dislike of marinas and much of this is associated with entering exiting and manouversing. The wind once again was getting excited at our arrival but had made the mistake of blowing towards the exit at maybe 45 degrees to our berth, so with the same person watching who had complimented me on the turn into the marina  - no mean achievement on a 60 foot boat with the wind trying to stop me ...( no bow thrusters on Percy of course) I/we got the stern onto the end of the jetty and let the now disappointed wind blow the bow ever so slowly in a 60 foot arc and at the right time we put percy in reverse and slid backwards into our mooring - if it was only this easy every time  !! 

It seems from the mooring gossip there had been drama the night before with police and assaults and boaters told to move off and the office closed.... all very sad in what should be such a safe and quiet place. But there is no accounting for the effects of emotions and other consumed substances - all marina telegraph of course !

We set to closing down the boat and got home to a week of events that have only just stopped - but kick off again with a flight to Inverness on Sunday that will expanded on maybe later !

 

Getting close to a perfect day

In life you don’t need a lot to make you complete. Love, health and a bit of freedom  usually derived from financial independence all go into the mix to give a happy life of opportunity and exploration and adventure. 

We woke to a very misty canal in complete contrast to the evening before. That gave us permission to relax and enjoy or 38th year married. We’ve been in a relationship for over 42 years …. It’s to be recommended. At lunchtime we took a lovely late winter walk to Shugborough for lunch and a walk in the grounds. 

We have to be back home tomorrow for other family obligations so we had a choice of staying where we were and winding in the wide tomorrow or motoring the well hidden winding  hole at Milton … as it was so nice we fired the donk up and headed off to Tixell lock.

Another excellent wind from Rachel and we decided to stop and moor above the lock as it was dropping cold and the geese on the wide are an unwelcome alarm clock.

We finished the day off with  lovely meal of fillet steak for me and some fizzy stuff. Some music to entertain us into the evening now. 

Don’t die with regrets or unfulfilled ambitions. Life is so fleeting and so precious try whenever you can to live in the moment. Yesterday is spent and tomorrow comes with no guarantee. Sermon over 

A small health delayed anniversary cruise

We were due away on Friday to next Wednesday, however a hearing issue for me and a virus picked up by Rachel saw  us delayed. Last night my hearing came back …. I’d been almost deaf for the last four days  which didn’t encourage me to be out and about on the boat. Rachel was showing signs of fighting off the virus so we had three  options…. Visit friends down south, go to Wales or plan A go to the boat which we did. 

There is always some trepidation on returning to the boat that’s sat patiently waiting since the Ashby cruise. There have been some deep prolonged frosts that are the enemy of unheated spaces such as boats. I was outside sorting the gas cylinders when Rachel primed the water system and thankfully it pressurised and stayed pressurised .

I’d made up a  small base for the gas cylinders to sit on… made of wood with four plastic ‘ door stop ‘ feet to prevent the gas cylinders vibrating metal on metal wearing and removing my newly painted gas locker. Let’s see how that lasts. 

I checked the engine oil and lubed the moving bits and on the second key turn the donk did its thing. I checked the oil pump was working by opening the bypass screw that allows the pumped oil into a sight glass … yep all good. We then let the engine warm up for a good hour and a half  with no load while I got more gas ….I couldn’t quite believe it when I was asked for £52.50 for 13kg of gas ffs. When we had our share boat it was about £7.50 a bottle. I was told they were down to their last two bottles last Friday as there is still a ( dubious) shortage. Rachel was making the bed and vacuuming and cleaning the bathroom. Teamwork at its best. I got a bit ratty getting coal out of the very badly overcrowded forcabin. I need to keep reminding myself to be in the moment and not let things get to me …I considered myself told off by myself.

Then we slowly reversed out and turned out of the marina trying not to upset the lone fisherman who had set up right at the entrance to the marina. I wish I hadn’t bothered as he really really didn’t want to talk to me….but I made him! 

We didn’t really have a destination in mind but it was 3.30pm when we left and any warmth was disappearing quickly. Rachel did a faultless turn onto the Staffs and Worcester canal. We went south on the Trent and Mersey in the autumn and will be heading north on the same canal when we leave the marina in April so this direction made sense. 

It was a lovely late winter cruise and we decided to moor up at Tixell wide as there were only 3 boats and we fancied the view. We were rewarded with a lovely sunset. The mooring nearly went badly wrongs as we’d left the boat in reverse - it doesn’t normally stay in reverse on the push pull lever but it did today and while I was trying to put the rope in the fairlead at the bow the boat pulling backwards I got my finger between the rope and fairlead and was very close to trapping and breaking my finger…out of practice for sure! 

Regardless we are bathed and fed ( a nice traybake of Halloumi and seasonal organic veg) with a bit of wine and the fire has got the boat lovely and warm with the aid of the oven. 

Tomorrow we are letting nature direct us to either more cruising or a walk onto Cannock Chase. We can wind on the wide or cruise to a winding hole just over the Aquaduct….. 

Some photos that tell the story of the beauty of this mooring better than my words. 

A year of volunteering

On my pre retirement course ( thank you University of Derby, it was the only help I got as I approached early retirement ) one thing stood out and that was 'don't immediately start volunteering' as it's the easiest job to get and the hardest to leave ! 

With that good advice it took me maybe three and a half years before I hooked up with Shropshire Staffordshire and Cheshire blood bikes, I did the rider induction and then took ages due to the  pandemic and associated lockdowns to get my IAM - Institute of Advanced motorcyclists pass/award/certificate. Then I had to be assessed again by the charity before I could ride their bikes, then there was the bike inductions , then there was the buddy ride. 

If I recall correctly the timeline in the broadest of terms was something like ....

Charity introduction and registration  - Autumn 2019

Start to end of the IAM course  July 2020 - September 2021

IAM test and pass - November 2021

SSCBB assessed ride December  2022

Bike location and bike induction (waiting on Fire station pass also) January 2022

My first ride which was a buddy ride where I went out with an experienced rider ( Gareth) 4th February 2022

That was my first Blood bike shift and since its the 4th February when this blog post will appear ( at 6.30am when my alarm goes off for an early blood bike shift) I wanted to record my years statistics

Total shifts     26

Total miles    3839

Total drops*  93

Average miles per shift    147.7

Total hours riding 188.25

I'm not as dedicated as some riders but then again I have other interests. It's a nice thought I've helped so many strangers and the NHS also. The * is the number of stops - there may have been multiple samples left at one stop so the package count will be well into the 100....

I always wanted to ride blood bikes -I've some good friend who also volunteer. However when we lost our good friend Jean Emery to a very aggressive blood cancer, and I know she's have be on the receiving end of work done by unknown number of blood bikers maybe across the country - I wanted to do it in her memory and everytime I ride a shift I think of Jean. 

Seems we are sorted.... Mooring

You may know the old adage  - 'It's not what you know it's who you know" well when it comes to online moorings and other non marina moorings you have to know people or do a lot of towpath walking to find snippets of info on vacancies and owners telephone numbers.

We have a good friend who moors on the Shroppie  - I'll not name them as I've not asked that they be included in my blog. We've also friends who moor on the Staffs and Worcester, both on what might be called farmers moorings - on line abbutting agricultural land. Back in the mists of time when C&RT was not and British Waterways was it must have been so much easier to agree a rather large 'end of garden' mooring by some farmers or land owners. A win for them as it brought in more income and win from BW as they got more income and the boaters got nice mooring on line but with the safety of being across from the towpath and not paying marina like fees and not having to endure shops pubs cinemas etc  ( and pay handsomely to be the attraction) Ok the losers were those boaters who have a car type mentality or got to get everywhere as fast as I/we can  and don't enjoy ticking over looking at the moored boats. 

Anyhow said friends were contacted for info and advice and crucially contact numbers for on line off side moorings. As per my last blog no much about that isn't silly money so we put the feelers out and we landed a txt offering a 60 foot mooring at just short of half moneywise of what we would be paying come April at Great Haywood. Water and parking with views. Not absolutely ideal but much better than what we were considering.

Also the vacancy ties in very well with the heavy three months notice period at GH  - so good in that we are planning a 3/4 anti clockwise four counties cruise to land at the new moorings around the end of April. No photos yet but the prospect of using Percy once again as a holiday cottage on the canal with riparian rights. The only change is that I'll have to dust down the Honda suitcase genny as there is no hook up - something I'm quite pleased about. I've never been comfortable with all those boats of dubious electrical installations sitting potentially fizzing away their anodes at best.

The proof of a good business isn't so much how they say hello it's how they say goodbye... so until our business with Great Haywood is complete and we have cruised away I'll hold my thoughts on our time there. To date it's been positive ..... 

Another significant bonus of the type of mooring we are taking is it's relaxed nature  - there were so many constraints when marina mooring. There are jobs that need doing that can be done without fear of breaching the conditions put in place to protect the interests of the on site engineering facility - great if you are not a DIY'er but if you are then that has to be done outside of the marina.

O' and before I stop typing the absolute scourge of marinas - some more than others is wind and berthing. For me it really does spoil the trip out, sometimes even before it's started if its blowing hard as marinas seem to be positioned just so that however you go out or come in you get taught a lesson by nature. Even Percy's low sides and heavy weight still can be a sail to the playful and sometimes mean nasty wind ! 

More to come as and when it's right to type