Although the temperatures suggest winter is still some way off Ramyshome is now moving into winter mode.  Follow our progress by clicking on to "Winter 06"

Sunday 26th November (2728 miles, 1792 locks).  This week we have travelled some 250 miles but just 12 of them by boat.  We seem to have slipped in to winter cruising mode now although the weather is still so mild it could be mid September.  Finally, we left the moorings at Poynton on Monday just as they were starting to pump out the sunken boat that, we were told, had sat looking rather forlorn for many weeks.  It is always sad to see boats in such condition and it was good to see that the owner was keen to re-float her even though there will no doubt be much mud and silt to clean up both inside and out before the boat is habitable again.  By lunchtime we were moored up at the "Stumps" just a couple of miles down the "Macc" and finally got to spend some time with Mike & Liz Holloway from Nb Snecklifter.  Theirs was the first canal website we had come across and it was interesting to discover that like us they were former Derbyshire residents with strong connections to Sheffield.  We have followed their adventure through their website (www.snecklifter.com), exchanged the occasional email and finally met them face to face for a brief time in August last year.  This time we were able to take tea and photos and, as always when boaters get together, to compare notes, swaps stories, etc.  For the first time in a long time we were kept indoors all day Tuesday by the incessant rain so our impression of the Stumps mooring was not the best and on Wednesday we had to return to Marple to empty all three toilet cassettes.         It was a very early start on Friday, before 7:45 am., to take a trip to the Yorkshire seaside town of Filey where Roger's parents live.  With Roger's sister Helen the chauffeur and husband Alan along as well it was a real family get together and we returned bearing homemade Christmas cakes and other goodies.  After sailing back to the moorings at Poynton the socialising continued on Saturday evening with a dinner party at the home of Barbara & Jim Thornely in Chinley, with Elaine Bates our chauffeur this time and this afternoon we visited local friends Nuri & Lisa Zughaid and son Alexander, who was still a babe in arms when we saw them last December.         On the days that we don't cruise we need to run the boat engine for about 2 hours to generate electricity and to heat the water so it was useful today to have Nb Alton come down the line of moored boats delivering coal and diesel.  With our diesel tank now full to the brim and bags of coal stored on the roof as well as in the hold we are ready for whatever December and the Peak Forest Canal has to throw at us.  But it will be quite a while before we travel 250 miles in a week again.                             

Sunday 19th November (2716 miles, 1792 locks).  The leaves have been falling from the trees this week as the wind has blown the year on towards winter.  On Monday it blew Ramyshome in to Marple with Roger's sister Helen & husband Alan on board.  Alan is a keen fisherman and as we came into Marple one of his fisher friends was just setting up his rods right where we wanted to moor.  We provided a cup of tea as recompense for disturbing him.  Marple is a useful spot to moor with good shopping facilities just a short walk down the hill plus the essential boaters' facilities.  So we stayed two nights and on the second day Nb Take Five with Dave & Jan Lang on board came in behind us.  We first saw Dave & Jan on the Thames but although we had followed similar routes since then we never quite caught up with each other until they passed us near Braunston back in September.  It was nice to take afternoon tea with them and we have made a date for a games evening sometime soon.  Wednesday, we turned Ramyshome around at the junction with the Peak Forest Canal and headed back down the "Macc" as far as Higher Poynton where we have remained rocking on our mooring ever since.  So this week we have walked further than we have cruised with a hike eastward into Lyme Park on Thursday and a stroll westward into Poynton village on Friday.  Lyme Park is a National Trust property with a grand hall and extensive, open moorland; its claim to fame is being Pemberley Hall in the TV version of Pride and Prejudice - the one where Colin Firth's Mr Darcy strips off and dives into the lake!  Under a clear blue sky the view from the hunting lodge on the hill top was so extensive that we could easily make out the Berwyn hills above Llangollen and the tower at Hunts Cross over the Mersey from Ellesmere Port, places we had sailed much closer to in 2005.  Away to the north were the hills above Wigan, Oldham & Rochdale, places we shall be visiting in 2007.  On Saturday we were able to meet up with Maureen's parents who are over from France for a brief stay, as well as her brother Martin, wife Carolyn & daughter Fiona who live just a few miles away from here, in Bramhall.  Today friends Doug & Anne Shields came a visiting and the social diary for the rest of the year is beginning to fill up.  The pleasure of being close to home once again.  Stuart the floating coalman sold us 6 bags of coal yesterday so we are stocked up and ready for whatever those westerly winds throw at us.  They keep the ice away for now but winter is definitely approaching.

Sunday 5th November (2696 miles, 1792 locks).  How different locks are.  The basic principal is always the same; with all gates closed put water in at the top to fill the lock or let water out at the bottom to empty it.  But in between all of that how they vary.  Of course there are wide beam locks, usually 15 ft wide and narrow locks (7 ft wide) but even the narrow ones differ so much in they way the work.  Narrow locks usually have a single gate at the top and a mitred pair of gates at the lower end.  Most Birmingham locks however have just a single gate at each end, which makes working them a little quicker but requires more muscle power.  Here at Bosley both ends have mitred gates and once the water has levelled out the gates swing with the lightest of touches but the lone lockworker walks further.  Around Walsall some locks are built with channels that allow water to flow into the empty lock at both ends which seems to hold the boat very still whilst it is rising.  Conversely many of the locks coming up Heartbreak Hill fill with quite a "suck" pulling the boat forward towards the upper gates.  We had forgotten about this effect and in the first lock hit the front gates quite hard.  Fortunately no damage done to us, Ramyshome or the lock gates!     We left Church Minshull on Sunday sailing on to Middlewich intending to stop for the night.  We had put our clocks back the night before but woken with the light and thus were up early (for us).  Consequently we had moored and shopped in Middlewich before lunch and with the sun shining decided to carry on, finding pleasant moorings just south of Sandbach.  And so it was Monday that we started our ascent of Heartbreak Hill, the 26 locks that lift us from the Cheshire Plain to the edge of the Potteries and the junction with the Macclesfield Canal.  At Rode Heath we came across Ivor Batchelor, the floating fuel supplier, and bought two bags of coal in readiness for cooler weather that was forecast.  A good plan as by Tuesday night and Wednesday we were experiencing the first frosts of the season.  From t-shirts to thick jumpers in just two days and by Sunday gloves as well!  After laundry and two trips to Tesco's we left Kidsgrove on Friday turning onto the Macclesfield Canal as far as Kent Green where we caught up with old friends at Heritage Narrowboats.  Saturday we were joined by Roger's sister Helen, for coffee, and by the Rossington clan, cousin John, Joy and teenagers Sophie & Thomas who sailed with us passed Congleton.  After towpath fireworks last night, today they have brought us speedily up the 12 locks at Bosley.  With both Bosley & Marple locks closing tomorrow we are once again sealed in to the upper waters of the Macc & Peak Forest canals for the rest of the year.  No more locks for us until January 7th.  Stow the windlasses.       

Sunday 22nd October (2646 miles, 1722 locks).  On Tuesday evening we are moored once again in the centre of Wolverhampton with trains screeching into the railway station just across the away.  Ramyshome is one of five boats moored here tonight.  Feels a bit crowded given that in the last 5 days we have only seen two other boats on the move.  The previous day we had sailed into urban Walsall, descended the locks to the Walsall Canal, removed a pair of trousers (not ours) from the propeller then turned around and climbed back up the same 8 locks.  Some would call that madness but to us it is just being thorough, another bit of blue turned red on our map.  We were "entertained" with fireworks that evening and just before midnight we rescued a very wet and exhausted dog from the canal.  Didn't even stop to say thanks!  Sadly the Curly Wyrley finally lived up to its reputation on Tuesday as being one of the most rubbish strewn canals.  Being also shallow and weedy, the next 3 or 4 miles are a real struggle with several visits down the weed hatch to clear plastics bags, etc. from the prop.  As a result it takes almost 5 hours to travel the 9 miles to Wolverhampton and the end of our fourth and final B.C.N. trip.  Many boaters avoid the B.C.N. like the plague and yes there are some grim places we won't hurry back to.  But there are also some jewels like the secluded Angelsey Basin, moorings at the Black Country Museum, the green space of Windmill End, the sudden change from industrial decline to 21st century modern at Merryhill Waterfront, excellent boaters' facilities at Perry Bar and convenient, secure moorings in the centre of Birmingham.  The B.C.N. reminds us that canals were the highways of the first industrial age not the green country roads portrayed in the holiday brochures and we would encourage others to give them a try for even Birmingham's dark, satanic mills are turning green and pleasant (ish).  The 21 locks down from Wolverhampton to the Shropshire Union are a staircase from industry to agriculture, the Shroppie so rural it passes through only two towns on its way to Chester.  Today we have reached the first of these, Market Drayton and over the weekend have enjoyed the company of another returning visitor, Carol Trasler.  Nicely the rain managed to wait until we had moored up each day before starting to fill the reservoirs and even this far north autumn has hardly begun, the trees still full in leaf.  Things will surely change soon.                          

Sunday 8th October (2544 miles, 1635 locks).  Sailing familiar waters in unfamiliar weather.  Leaving the Oxford Canal at Hawkesbury Junction (Sutton Stop to those in the know) we were soon back on very familiar territory. We had come this way at the end of February but over the years we have sailed in this direction from Barton Turns many times.  Not the prettiest of canals, the Coventry, having escaped the city suburbs heads out into what was once a busy mining and quarrying area.  Through Bedworth, skirting Nuneaton and almost to Tamworth there are signs of old canal arms and wharves that once linked canal to pits and even fifty years ago the Coventry would have been heavy with working boats.  Still busy but now with hire boats and privately owned boats making their way amidst a slowly greening landscape, like so much of the canal system we have seen this year things are still changing.  Back in February the weather was cold, cloudy & breezy but dry.  Now it was cool, cloudy & breezy plus damp to wet most days.  Definitely not what we have become used to this summer.  On Wednesday, having descended the 11 locks at Atherstone we moored up by Alvecote Nature Reserve, another former mining area.  In beautiful sunshine we wandered through the developing woodland and climbed the former slag heap to get a view that circled north and east from Cannock Chase across Staffordshire & Derbyshire hills to Charnwood Forest, Hinckley and the two pyramids of Nuneaton.  By morning any view would have been lost in the heavy cloud and rain that kept us tied up till lunchtime.  Two hours later as we moored at Fazeley the rain came again and we were quickly lighting our stove, not for the first time this week.  Yesterday we had a few battles with the wind as we sailed through Alrewas and finally turned into Barton Turns Marina, a homecoming for Ramyshome if only for the weekend.  And things are changing here too with new boats, new staff and a slowly rising set of buildings which will eventually be a pub, restaurant and shopping complex.  Tomorrow before we head off we hope to discuss a possible winter mooring here for 2007/8.  If we do come back how familiar will the place look then?                    

Sunday 1st October (2496 miles, 1614 locks).  We completed the last few Nene locks on Monday in the company of Nb Hilhouse & Co who it turns out know Brian & Sheila (Nb Liberty Belle).  We text-ed B & S to let them know we were back at Northampton where we had seen them last and a few minutes later Lois & Chris from Hilhouse came a knocking to say Sheila had told them to come and introduce themselves properly.  A small world these waterways.  Tuesday morning as L & C went shopping we set off to climb the 17 locks away from the river and back to the Grand Union main line.  Proper little locks, no guillotine gates nor wheels to turn, just heaven and all done in less than 3 hours.  As if to celebrate our return to canals and thus the ability to moor almost where we will, we spent the next two and half days travelling from Gayton to Norton Junction.  12 miles and 7 locks, which last time we came this way we did in a day.  But then we didn't get time to explore Bugbrooke and Weedon, both pleasant Northampton villages.  Weedon claims to be the English village furthest from the sea so it's rather ironic that both times we have visited it we came by boat.  At Norton Junction we had "done" the Grand Union.  We arrived here from Leicester on 28th May last year ready to head down to Braunston and on to Warwick & Birmingham.  This time we descended Braunston locks at speed and then took the North Oxford Canal, retracing the route we had come from Coventry during March.  Since then we have travelled 1150 miles of which more than 750 were on rivers.  It's been a fabulous trip in wonderful weather seeing lots of fascinating places and making several new friends.  Now it feels like we are heading homeward but there is still a fair way to go before we get there and only 5 weeks left before the locks start to close down for winter maintenance.  And just to prove we aren't hurrying we arrive in Rugby before lunch and then stay the rest of the day.  A very lazy Sunday afternoon "we got no mind to worry........"               

Sunday 24th September (2455 miles, 1573 locks).   The Nene is a lovely river spoilt by the locks and the lack of facilities for narrowboaters.   It flows through a very rural landscape with only Irthlingborough & Wellingborough interrupting the greenery, but oh those locks, especially the ones with wheels to wind the guillotine gates up and down, the short and badly placed lock moorings and generally the lack of overnight moorings.  As a consequence we spent nearly 3 hours cruising and getting very wet as heavy rain accompanied us from Thrapston to Irthlingborough on Friday.  On a canal we would have stopped much sooner.  Fortunately we had the company of Nb Polly Perkins for the last few locks and there was plenty of mooring space when we finally arrived.  More typical of the week, Saturday we had clear blue skies and a good drying breeze so lots of washing done whilst just over the fence Rushden & Diamonds F.C. youth team were beating some other team 3-1.  Very entertaining, probably better than being at Arsenal where the Blades were struggling again.  On Monday, after restocking our larder we sailed on to Ferry Meadows where we moored on the shore of a big lake.  The Meadows is a large area of green land and lakes to the west of Peterborough.  Former gravel works but worked always with the intention that eventually they would become a recreational area for the local population and now for passing boaters as well.  A pleasant place to overnight.  By Wednesday we were back close to Oundle and on Thursday we were blown along to a place called Titchmarsh where we found a good mooring and then walked to Thrapston and back.  A six mile round trip and probably not worth the effort but a good walk along the river bank.  At Irthlinborough it is just 11 miles down the A6 to Bedford; we had come 250 miles in 28 days by a more devious, watery route.  And tonight as the sun sets on another bright, t-shirt day the final 7 miles and 8 locks separate us from Northampton and the canal system.  We may be there tomorrow.                  

Sunday 17th September (2402 miles, 1544 locks).  A little disappointment and a lot of noise.  The canals seemed to be calling on Friday and we succumbed.  Back on the Middle Levels by Wednesday we deliberately strayed off the direct route to Peterborough taking the "ditches" to the fenland town of Ramsey.  Ramsey has an ancient history but now looks not much of a place.  Incomes are obviously low round here; even by our northern standards the house prices are cheap.  However Bill Fen Marina was welcoming and friendly for an overnight stop so not too disappointing.  The plan for Saturday was to pass through Lodes End Lock and follow the New Dyke about 6 miles to its terminus in Holme Fen.  However an inspection from on top of the dyke suggested the way was very weedy and, despite encouragement from local boaters at the marina we decided we didn't want another Burwell Lode experience.  So yes we leave another small section of the map blue but the pull of the canals is very strong now.   The River Wissey despite its attractive name proved the least exciting of the Ouse tributaries.  We arrived at Hilgay on Monday afternoon to hear roadworks on the A10 bridge immediately downstream of the moorings.  Overnight we had quite a storm and before breakfast the work and noise had re-started.  After an uneventful 9 mile cruise we reached the head of navigation amidst a caravan and boat park but although a big sign advertised short stay mooring there was none suitable for a narrowboat.  We simply had to turn around and head back down river.  Very disappointing.  Another big storm over Tuesday night kept us awake but perhaps too there were a few worries about tomorrow's crossing of the tidal section.  No problems, Ramyshome and her crew completed the crossing perfectly disappointing the gongoozellers who may have liked a little more excitement!   On Thursday we were back at March where this time we were woken at 6:30 am by workmen cutting the grassy banks either side of us.  Some people have no consideration.  Tonight we are back at Peterborough having completed our tour of Anglian waters.  330 miles of fascinating, very different waterways and with just 50 locks; many more narrowboats than we had expected to see and some interesting places, the jewels being Ely and Cambridge but St Ives and Godmanchester too made the trip well worthwhile.   So a little disappointed to be leaving but after 7 weeks away the call of the canals is a growing noise we can't ignore.