Last day of the year

Well so glad that the wind as dropped even though, at the moment, the rain is still coming down but it looks like it might be clearing over Manchester.

We had the early morning visit from the Canadian geese, they are noisy when coming into land just after it starts getting light so you can't really miss them. They then just stare at you through the port holes making you feel guilty that you haven’t got anything for them. Although we were a bit naughty this morning we gave them some home-made bread, which they survived and didn't sink so all was good.

A little chillier this morning compared to what we have had so the fire might get a couple of lumps of coal more this morning.

We will probably stay here until Saturday then pop off to Bollington to do our laundry then come back Monday to see Peter at Braidbar about sorting out a few things with the boat.

The geese must have liked the bread they are still being hopeful!

Nice morning

Yesterday we walked down into Poynton to get some provisions and a pint, not too many people about in town but a lot of walkers around, the car park at Nelson Pit was full and they were parking up the roads.

Well after a couple of days of wet and windy weather, and last night was windy so glad we got the large rope fenders for the sides they stopped us banging against the bank.

This morning has dawned bright but cool. Tonight and tomorrow are expected to be quite nasty, wet and very windy. I hope all those that are already suffering from the weather are going to be OK.

We are going to have a bit of a repeat of yesterday, going into Poynton to pick up a few things we forgot/couldn't fit in rucksacks. Also hope they are in the boatyard today so that we can use their washing machine as ours is still not ready to be delivered.

Well, we are not starting off on a good foot here are we?

Well, we are not starting off on a good foot here are we? It's been 7 days since we moved on and we have not written anything, so here is a brief synopsis of what has happened so far.

Drove up to Higher Poynton from Luton silly o'clock on Tuesday morning. Spend all of the day putting our stuff on boat, finding space to put said stuff and Peter showing the bits we needed to know so that we could spend the night on board at the boatyard.

Wednesday, moved out from boatyard and moored up just next to boatyard, Peter then went into more in-depth stuff about plumbing and electrics. Spent our second night there, next day Peter came and went over everything we needed to know about the engine room.

Thursday we moored at Marple.

We met Edmund at New Mills on the Peak Forest Canal Friday. 

He spent the weekend with us at Bugsworth Basin where we were joined by Heather, Jason, Nikita, Magnus & Lance on Sunday.

Martina baked 3 dozen mince pies and chocolate chip cookies ready for the family's visit. A large pot of boat made soup fed all 7 of us.

 

Monday was our first day alone on the boat. We moored at Disley.

 

Tuesday we moored just south of Marple as we needed to use the launderette. Sadly there's a 6 week delay in our washing machine being delivered.

So far we've had only a few spots of rain while cruising, but it's been pretty windy.

We're looking forward to Ada & Dale visiting Wednesday on their way back from visiting Heather. They both haven't seen the boat since it was launched on Ada's birthday way back in July. There are few teething problems the Braidbar lads need to sort out.

Christmas eve sees us heading to Heather's for Christmas. They will drop us back at the boat Sunday and will be keeping our car.

AND 37 years on

AND 37 years on and many narrowboat holidays, we are just about to move on to our own narrowboat “Burnt Oak”, after both taking early retirement.

 

Why Burnt Oak?

Martina’s dad was born in Burnt Oak. John moved there from Archway, when he was 13 and after leaving school joined London Transport (LT) in 1974, so spent many years getting on and off trains there. Martina was born in Edgware and first met John at the Burnt Oak LT sports ground. We lived there for a couple of years after we got married.

So when we were thinking of names, which is harder than you think, Martina went through the Northern line stations, needless to say she didn’t get too far down the line. Burnt Oak is the second station!   

After a good bit of research we decided to have Colecraft construct our boat’s shell and Braidbar fit it out.

NB Burnt Oak was transported by road from the builder and put into the water at High Lane on the Macclesfield Canal on 7^th July.

It’s been an incredibly exciting 6 months seeing a couple of years planning coming together for our wonderful new floating home.

John's first canal journey

John's first canal experience. 1978

Back in 1978 me and my mate wanted something that would enable us to slow down after a trying time driving underground trains on the Northern line, and boy did we slow down. We didn’t go anywhere, 

except to the pub.

But needless to say we fell in love with canals.
 Picture is Culcutt locks.

John and Ian chilling out!