The Crew

Traaaa-laaah, here's our new look boat, on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal, Newburgh. 

Last week we had our super crew with us. Nikita & Heather dropped the boys off, but didn’t stay.

They joined us at the beginning of the Bridgewater Canal, where we moored a short stroll from a station & they went home from Wigan.

We moored just by this aqueduct and John took the boys exploring under it.

Only one really wet day for the visitors. Magnus braved the rain for a whole day’s cruise. Whereas Lance popped out for a short while & stayed playing by the fire.

The rain luckily eased as we approached Barton Swing Aqueduct, where we were treated to seeing a big boat’s mast whizz by down on the Manchester Ship Canal. The road swing bridge I guess is more of a priority than the canal, and we had a good wait while the chaps swung it back into place & then walked to the aqueduct.

It was super warm most days, and we just HAD to stop in Lymm for ice creams.

 

 We had some culinary delights, Magnus made a big batch of hot cross-buns. However, not quite so delightful (in my opinion) was their morning cup of tea with squirty cream & marshmallows!!!

 

 

We moored for a night near Little Bollington, where we went down to have a look at the river and where the Bridgewater Canal goes over the River Bollin. As quick as anything, the boys were climbing the trees!! The river bank was very sandy, softer than at the beach.

Our crew are literally learning the ropes.

The boys were really pleased to get a bit of lock action on their last day. There aren’t any locks on the Bridgewater Canal, and to get into Wigan we went up 2 and down 1 lock. Once in Wigan we had a towpath picnic before they went home.

 

It is such a joyous occasion to see the first ducklings of the year and the weather is warming as spring progresses.

I’m not sure I’d like these squatters at the bottom of my garden!!

We have travelled northwards along the Trent & Mersey Canal, with its unusual sights.

We were very sad to see this lock cottage, near Great Hayward barricaded off & uninhabited due to HS2 construction nearby. It appeared the line is going over the access road to the cottage. We don’t have a car and absolutely love travelling by train, but find seeing the massive upheaval the HS2 is having, quite distressing, all for a slightly faster journey.

The Trent & Mersey Canal has narrow locks, unlike most other narrow ones it doesn’t have bridges to cross the locks when the bottom mitre gates are open. I choose to take the boat through all these locks, as I can’t step across the gates. Edmund came for a few days which really assisted us with Atherstone flight of locks and like his dad is able to step over the gap.

 

We were really pleased we fitted through the rather low Harecastle Tunnel with our new solar panels. As we neared the end, the water had turned into tomato soup, due to run off from disused mines.

We stayed a few days at Kidsgrove on the north side of the tunnel to await fuel boat Halsall. John also did an engine service and oil change, which is required every 250 running hours.

Abandon Ship

 We abandoned the boat for almost 7 weeks while it was repainted. 

 

All packed and saying goodbye to our old look boat on a very cold and frosty morning. The ducks appreciated an early breakfast.

 

We have kept similar colours, with dark grey and a very definite light grey panel inside it. I always felt our old light grey looked quite blue, as did many passers-by!! The handrail & rope bollards are now green instead of red.

We have replaced the clip-art oak tree with the Middlesex shield. We felt as we were both born in Middlesex & it’s where Burnt Oak is would be a good talking point.

In addition, we have omitted the large boat builder’s name plaque and have Braidbar Boats 158 added in smaller script.

The acorns on the bow have been replaced with Braidbar Boats logo, a small Maltese cross.

During our away time we were based with Heather & the grandkids in Chorley, but we spent a couple of weeks in Scotland.

We travelled to Inverness by train & stayed in a Premier Inn overlooking the River Ness. It was a stunning journey through the snow topped mountains.

The Caledonian Canal’s end is in Inverness. We walked a good bit of it, the views from the sea lock are quite amazing.

We were fascinated by the railway swing bridge over the canal. Similar to the Manchester Ship Canal, most of the roads cross the canal via huge swing bridges.

We took the bus all the way along Loch Ness to see where the Caledonian Canal left the loch to rejoin a canalised section.

The tourist information centre in Inverness pointed us in the direction of Singleton’s Distillery. They had a super new visitor centre, but we weren’t very impressed with our guide and the whiskies we tasted were quite fiery.

 We were invited to Samantha & Paul’s in Dundee for about 10 days, where we did more sightseeing.

Paul drove us to The Arbikie Distillery. A new site which is almost carbon-neutral, once they have their hydrogen plant up & running they will be.

They use all local products for the spirits and grow their own potatoes and peas for vodka & gins. The tour guide, tasting session and visitor centre were all in all far superior to Singleton’s.

 

 

A few days back at base & we jumped on a train for a short journey with the three grandkids & spent the half-term holiday at a bungalow in Grange over Sands. The station is almost on the beach.

The bungalow had stunning views over Morecambe Bay towards Carnforth.

The coastline was very marshy, and the kids were disappointed at the lack of sand, seeing as that was the place’s name. We loved the walk along the sea wall as there were numerous playgrounds.

We saw some just born lambs on a walk to Humphrey Head Point.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The kids made pizza for dinner one evening.

 

 

The weather while we were away was very good & quite mild. But once we got back aboard our lovely newly painted boat, it snowed for a few days.

 

 

The new-look narrowboat Burnt Oak going down it’s first locks, next to Watford Gap!!

 

The Leicester Line

We’ve been pootling along the lower part of the Leicester section of the Grand Union Canal since New Year's Day. We passed this boat with an amazing life-size mermaid bow fender.

We spent a few days near Husband’s Bosworth, the village name has always fascinated me. The towpath along that stretch is very narrow & is eroding into the canal. Thank goodness the Bosworth tunnel isn’t in quite such a state. This tunnel is quite short and the light at the end can be quite clearly seen on its approach.

We strolled over the tunnel.

The disused L&NW railway appears to be being infilled.

I took the boat down Foxton Locks and John brought it back up the other day. There’s a great team of volunteers that help boats through.

I took my spinning to the top of the locks. There’s a stunning view over the Leicestershire countryside from up there.

We’ve had a sprinkling of snow & have been iced in for a few days now.