Internet booster aerial

You probably remember me moaning about the poor quality of the internet signal we've had over the past few months. I can manage without phone signals but feel totally lost without the internet, which we use to keep in touch with family and friends as well as shopping and banking.  Back in the spring we bought a very expensive aerial which we were told would solve all our problems. As we'd bought it on-line we had the usual 14 day money-back guarantee which was a good thing as it was absolutely useless!

Roger kept researching other aerials all over the summer, before finally deciding on THIS ONE

He's mounted it on a pole which fits onto our top box, but it works almost as well when it's just laid down for travelling.

We've been using it for about a month now and it hasn't missed a beat. We haven't found anywhere yet that we couldn't get a decent signal, even here on the Ashby canal which is a notorious black-spot for both internet and phone signals.

It's been another crisp but sunny day, so we set off fairly early (10 ish) and cruised up to the end of the canal at Snarestone. We filled up with water, dumped the rubbish and had a long chat with a nice lady from the Ashby Canal Association before turning round and coming back to Shackerstone. Mark on the coal boat Calisto had recommended the Rising Sun pub here, so we popped in for a pint and lunch. The food was really, really good. I had steak and Guinness pie which had more meat in it than I'd cook for the two of use and which was meltingly tender. Roger had fish and chips which he said was the best pub lunch he'd had for ages. It's definitely one to mark in the book for a return visit.

The only other moving boat we saw today was this one.

They said they were 'electro fishing' and had a large tank inside the boat filled with large fish which we thought were Zander

Freedom At Last!

My chemotherapy has been done at The Christie Hospital in Didsbury which is why we stayed in Portland Basin Marina at Duckinfield for so long. I've now completed that part of my treatment and the next stage is radiotherapy at Salford Royal Hospital so we're moving.... finally....YAY!!!!

We set off yesterday (Saturday) accompanied by our son and his girlfriend who were helping us down the 27 locks into Manchester. The sun beat down and we had a really good trip, only seeing two other moving boats all day.

After about 4 or 5 locks we met these 3 kids swimming in the lock. They were no problem, getting out of the water to help open the gates. I gave them the usual lecture about Weil's Disease and the general dangers of swimming in the canal and especially locks but they couldn't care less. They were young and having a ball and one of them was doing a great job of fishing debris out of the water and bye-wash.

Those of you who know me probably wouldn't recognise me away from the boat. In weather like this I'd usually be in shorts and strappy tops rather than all covered up and hiding under a hat, but needs must......

I was surprised how many tiny ducklings were bobbing about. We must have seen half a dozen separate broods. It must be the good weather stimulating second or even third matings.

The Ashton Canal goes right past both the Velodrome and Manchester City Football Club. Football fans will recognise these old signs. The roads don't exist any longer, due to major redevelopment in the area.

I was going to take photos of the new metro station and football stadium beside this lock, but we had a "major incident" which took almost half an hour to sort out. Three boys were messing in the bye-wash and when we pulled into the lock it was obvious they were in a bit of a state. Two of them had fallen and badly cut themselves and had decided to clean up in the canal water!  So out came the antiseptic and plasters and I cleaned them up. It took almost a full packet of plaster to sort them out. One had a broken toe but there wasn't much I could do about that. They were extremely polite and grateful and we sent them off home to tell their parents what had happened, again with a warning about the dirty water and possible infections. It seemed a bit strange how grateful they were for the first aid but I understood why when one of the kids said his mother wouldn't care and he was in for a battering!

Just after this lock is the lowest bridge on the Ashton Canal.

We crept slowly through it with a couple of inches to spare.

You can tell when you reach the end of the Ashton Canal when the high rise flats start springing up. You can see the balconies in the centre of the tower.

Most were occupied so we had plenty of spectators as we went down the last lock.

As on previous trips, we moored in Piccadilly Basin. This is good secure moorings in a gated community but as we know the gate entry combination we went out into Manchester for a few beers to cool down.

Canal and River Trust - turbo-charged response

On Wednesday when we were coming up Lock 91 on the Rochdale Canal Roger noticed that the ratchet on one of the top paddle gears was loose and working it's way off the spindle ready to fall in the water, so he phoned the local C&RT office to report it.  By the time we'd left the lock and arrived at the next, no more than 15 minutes, the maintenance guys had arrived to fix it! We've had fast response from C&RT  to other maintenance problems this year so I'd urge you to report anything you come across.  After all, if they don't know there's a problem how can they fix it?

Yesterday we left New Islington Marina, dropped back down the 2 locks on the Rochdale canal and then Roger worked us up the 18 locks of the Ashton Canal.  We didn't have any problems apart from low water in the top 3 pounds. This had been caused by a convoy of 5 Claymore hire boats coming down the locks on their way back to their base at Preston Brook. The pounds hadn't had time to recover from having 5 lock-fulls of water taken from them in rapid succession so we just let some down to raise the level a couple of inches to stop us dragging on the bottom.

We're now moored in Portland Basin Marina again and will probably move again tomorrow ready to go up Marple Locks on Sunday before the winter stoppage.

Ashton Canal

We spent last night in Portland Basin Marina, having gone there for our 4 yearly Boat Safety check. I can't believe the boat is now 4 years old! Where has the time gone?

We'd had torrential rain and strong winds overnight, so I was very happy that by the time we were ready to set off at 8am it had cleared up and the sun had come out.

Our first obstacle of the day was bridge 21.  Nicholson's guide book states that it's very low, and it was. The short cruising chimney only just made it through.

We'd met a guy at the top of Bosley Locks last week who claimed to be a professional boat mover and who told us how he'd never been on a worse canal than the Ashton.  He claimed it was full of rubbish, that the locks were exceptionally difficult and the area was full of scroats. So based on that I was dreading the trip.  It just goes to show that you shouldn't listen to everything you hear.  There was no litter in the water and neither boat picked up anything round our props.  The locks were well maintained and reasonably easy to work through, certainly no worse than anything we've come across elsewhere.  The only bit of graffitti we saw was this, and we didn't see any scroats either.

We got to the first lock just before 9.30.

A few of the locks (can't remember which) had these hand/foot holes in the lock sides. I haven't come across anything like them anywhere else.

It took us a long time getting down the flight as every lock was empty so had to be filled before Roger could take our boat in. Once he'd gone out I re-filled it for David on Wye Knot 2 and then helped him work down.

This is lock 4. Just round the right hand bend was another low bridge which was even lower than bridge 21. It was a railway bridge that's head reinforcing beams added underneath it and was so low that I had to take the chimney off and the flowers got flattened a bit. It was even lower than Droitwich Tunnel and that's saying something!

This is a block of apartments in New Islington, beside the new marina. They're hideous and are starting to look decidedly shabby as the graphics which have been put all over them are starting to peel off. It's no wonder they're half empty.

7 and a half hours after we left Portland Basing we finally made it to Piccadilly Village where we're spending the night.

It's a good job there's only the two of us travelling today as there's only room here for 2 boats. It was a tight squeeze for us getting into our mooring and I doubt that a 70ft boat would fit.