Back to Botany

Tuesday morning and I meet the new neighbours.

I fashioned a temporary repair to the gearbox cable, but as I tried to move off the prop was snarled up.  As I was right at the end of the canal, I was in all the rubbish that collects here.  On investigation through the weedhatch I found several carrier bags and some netting, all tangled around the prop with fishing line and steel wire.  Luckily I have my diving gear on the boat and the diving knife made short work of the steel wire, and I was off!

I arrived at Adlington, and decided to get some diesel at White Bear marina.  Just as I approached the diesel jetty, on the right, a hire boat coming the other way decided that they had priority, swerved onto my side of the canal and onto the jetty. I put the boat in full reverse, managed to avoid collided with the stupid b****, however the temporary gearbox cable repair decided to give up, and I was now stuck in reverse!

I now discovered that I was better at reversing the boat than I thought, and managed to manouver the boat to the bank, and decided to moor up.  The hire boat buggered off without a care.

Yorks Rob rang, he was now at the top of the wigan flight, and he would meet me at Adlington for a pint in the Bridge.  Good plan.

The following morning, I woke to a banging on the side of the boat.  The canal side.  When I looked out of the window, there was a boat across the canal.

I threw a rope on it, and pulled it back over to the far bank.  The boat had been tied up with a fairly manky wagon strap, which had broken.
Once the boat was tied up, I was on the wrong side of the canal!.  An early morning walk back to the bridge, and back to my boat.
After breakfast,, I found an engineering supplies, and bought a box of split pins.  The gearbox cable was fixed for good now.  A short trip  down the canal and I was back at Botany bay.

Maiden voyage

The back end of the boat is a little low in the water, so Sunday morning Sam turned up and we unloaded two dozen bricks from under the bed.  The boat was sitting a bit better now, but still seemed low.  Once the water tank was full, the back had raised a bit more so it was time to try it out.

With Sam and Ian on board we set off down to Botany Bay winding hole, turned around and back again.  I have a bottle of 2009 Grahams port which has been on the boat since it was started, so we cracked that open to toast the maiden voyage.

 Back at the boatyard, all seemed fine, no water coming in and everything running ok.

Rob was moored up at the bottom of the Wigan flight, and he turned up from the train station, so he jumped on board, and we headed off towards Wigan.

First practice of mooring up was at Adlington, and we called into the Bridge for a pint while we were there. A nice pint of Unicorn, not the marshmallow kind unfortunately.



 Continuing down the canal to the top of the Wigan flight...

 Just as I approached the moorings at the top of Wigan, I put the boat into reverse to slow down, and, nothing.  I had forward, or forward.  I killed the engine and slewed the rudder from side to side to try and slow down with little effect.  I started the engine, in gear at tickover, turned the boat in towards the top lock, and managed to turn the boat around so it was going backwards.  I could then use the engine  to slow the boat down and managed to slide neatly into a mooring ten feet before the end of the canal!

 That was enough for my first day out so we retired to the pub.

Unfortunately, the beer was terrible, so we walked down the locks into the town centre.  Two and a half miles and 21 or so (I may have lost count) locks later, we were at Wigan pier.

  A short walk over to the station and we called in at Patsy's new bar Wigan Central.  Very impressive.

SPLASH !!

Tuesday 30th June, I get a text from Ian  "the crane is moving"

A few hours later, I get another

324 weeks and four days  (Six and a quarter years) and the boat is launched.


To celebrate, I went down into London with Tony, to See Rachel Sermani in Shoreditch.  We called into a Brew Dog "craft ale" bar.  Fyne Ales Jarl, a superb beer.  Here in its "craft" form, is is hazy, over bitter, acidic and terribly fizzy. And £5.80 a pint.  I do despair of this craft ale thing.

Rachel was enchanting as ever.

There was a bloke sat there drawing pictures of everything going on.  What a gift.

Friday I had my leaving do at the Mutual, loads of cheese, and beer at Northern prices!

Friday night I spent the first night on the boat, in water

What we need is music!

Prestwich Carnival beer tent.  Saturday, no events, just stalls.  The carnival shuts at Six, on the Saturday, and we have taken next to nothing.

Sunday, we have live music on stage, some great local bands, and the Bury Samba drum band right outside the beer tent.  Sunday we take a reasonable amount, and then, just as we are in full swing, we have to shut as the Carnival finishes at Five.

This re-enforces my thoughts that a Beer Tent/Festival by itself is not enough, you need music.  Time to think about organizing a music festival maybe.


The boat is off the ground, and I crawled under the full length and gave it a coat of black, thus proving to Sam, If I can fit under it, you can! I left him to put two more coats underneath during the week.

Just driving over the tops from Hebden Bridge, there was a superb cloud formation, proper end of the world stuff!

I got back to the boatyard, and Kier waved a beer at me "It's my mates birthday, have a beer"
We sat around talking, and he brought out a barbeque he had made.  Ian was just walking past, stopped for a beer, and piled wood into the BBQ.  Pete and Stacey were wandering past, and stopped for a beer.  They produces some sausages, I produced a loaf and some beer. Somebody produced a guitar and a ukelele, Kier produced a bottle of malt, and we had instant impromptu BBQ Party.

After it went dark, we ordered a curry, the party boat came in and produced some more beer, and Dangerous Dave appeared as if by magic.

These random impromptu parties are great!

Off back down south on Monday, I saw Kennet at Granary Wharf

Quack, and a bit of Black

Tatton Medieval fair was on, but again, very quiet.  I am beginning to think these beer tents are more trouble than they are worth.

 



I finally found a chrome tiller pin, to keep with my "no brass" theme.  The first visible duck on the boat!

Sam has been working on many coats of blacking, and the boat is looking superb!

Monday, I spent a few hours with a 20 tion bottle jack, lifting the boat so the bottom could be blacked.

Pop up bar

Sherwood festival was on again, Sunday Monday.  We decided to get set up on the Saturday, and open Saturday evening for the re-enactors who were there early.

The problem with Saturday was a two hour delay on the M62.  We didn't get to the Sherwood Forest showground until 7:00.  People were muttering about having to go into town to find a pub, but we said we would be open soon. 
We then pulled the fastest bar setup ever out of the hat.  From arriving on site, Marquee up, Bar up and beer ready in an hour and ten minutes!

 The weekend was too quiet though.  Typical of a council run event - no advertising.

 Keeping in the same "pop up" mode, from the time we shut the bar on Monday, the tent was down, van packed, back to Ramsbottom, Van unloaded and having a pint in three and a half hours!

Saturday, I drove the van up to Boot, to drop off beer for their beer festival. A bit of a stuggle, as the van is too long for many of these roads, and the engine too small to drag beer up the hills.

After a night at Boot, I went up to Cockermouth to collect bottles.  The sky was wonderfully moody on the way up.

At last, we now have Marshmallow Unicorn in Bottles!

A rush back on the Sunday morning, as we had another eating at Lukes, Sunday dinner with everything!

 And, of course, Timo is the star of the show

Shiny toys!

It is May again, so time for a trip down to Ludlow Food & Drink festival for judging beer of Wales & West.



 Liam Morrow has a new laser toy and is engraving stainless things with it.  Here we have a stainless growler, ready for auctioning at the 25th Langdale Mountain Rescue Folk Festival.

 One of the winners was a fantastic Chocolate and Vanilla Stout called Snowball by Waen Brewery.  Only the second beer I have ever given full marks to, but at 7.0% it is a bit of a beast!


Back up to Langdale and the folk festival is in full swing, and the weather is great.

Amazing who you meet here (again).

Sunday morning brought low cloud, that didn't seem to be moving. 

Think Posative!  I started off up Mill Ghyll, and got soaked.  After about 100 feet of ascent, I could see nothing.
I was resigned to being wet now, so I decided to head off down the valley and see what the weather was doing there.

 Rain

 Typical summer, go for a walk and stop in the pub to warm by the fire woth hot soup!

 

Tomato and fennel soup in Wainrights.  A superb spicy soup for these long summer days.

 I headed across towards Loughrigg Tarn, and thought I might at least climb loughrigg.  I met some people coming down who said it was zero visibility (and wet).

 I then continued into Ambleside, a terrible pint in the Queens, then decided to head back to Langdale.

 Having now walked 13.2 miles through rain, drizzle, rain, and drizzle, as I walked into the campsite, the sun came out!

 A warm shower meant that I was still wet, but warm and wet.  I returned to the Old and had a few pints of Yates, then the Game casserole finished me off, and it was an early night!