2024 cruising has been an awfully long time coming.
I’ve been working all winter and have barely seen anything apart from the view out of the window. The plan was to finish working at the end of March and set off to have some fun., but plans don’t always work out. We left the marina on 3 May and I’m still slaving away on my laptop three days each week. We’ll see how long that lasts.
We’ve been on a mission for the past week. The canals up here are very familiar to us and the weather has been kind so we’ve been moving when when we can and picking places where we know the internet is good and there’s something for Martyn to do when we can’t. Some of the familiar stops have just been a quick touchdown; like coffee from the Horsebox in Worsley and a swift couple of pints in the Brewery Tap in Lymm. We did meet fellow Bickerstaffe owners Sean and Diane on Alchemist in Stockton Heath and had a most convivial evening over a couple of bottles of wine. There is, sadly, no pictorial evidence.
We still get time to stop and have a little nose around. We tried to repin an unmoored boat in Manchester and found a car boot sale in Dunham Massey. It was probably the worst one I’ve ever seen, but it was all for charity so we paid our £1 and went for a nose. We even rescued a party of lady hireboaters who got themselves thoroughly stuck coming out of the Saltersford Tunnel. Sir Martyn the Chivalrous to the rescue!
So today we are sat in the sunshine at Kings Lock in Middlewich, having dodged several historic boats yesterday on their way to a festival in Anderton. We are getting new batteries and having a couple of other boat-related jobs carried out ready for this year’s cruise. You know what the acronym BOAT is, right? Bring Out Another Thousand … If the canal gods are kind to us, and we have the time we have plans this year that include Stratford-upon-Avon, but we’ll see how it all pans out.
Pleased you are on the move and the three day week is ok for now 👍🏻 hopefully see you on the cut sometime xx
Always nice to see you Karen, on water or on land!
Well done Martyn for rescuing the damsels in distress!! 🙂
We were hoping to have seen you but I think we came down onto the Weaver the day you must have gone through Anderton.
Where are you having your work done?
We are always tempted by the Weaver, it’s one of our favourite waterways. We got everything done at King’s Lock. See you soon I hope, where are you off to when you come back up the Boat Lift?
Some weeks I find it a challenge to get my work done and other weeks it is fine. Hope you manage to balance it out and we get to connect again this year. We can commiserate over a bottle of wine. Happy cruising!
I really hope our paths cross Pauline. I assume you and Derek are going to Crick? Hopefully we’ll catch up there at least.
Hooray for the launch! I’m working in S’s office now and we’ve conquered tax time and are doing odd jobs ‘round the house and thinking of you! Stay cool, have fun, turn off the laptop when you can!!💚
Excellent, and I owe you an email too – a very long one!
So good to hear you are both well and back on the roam around our Beautiful canal network.
When do you think you would be around Stafford area please?
Hi Kevin, I don’t think we’ll be on the Staffs and Worcester this year, but we should be in the vicinity of Great Haywood later this week. We’ll be stationary there for about a week and then off down the Trent and Mersey.