Why and How???

Saturday 25th October 2015

I have decided to add an entry here to explain how and why we have ended up at this point in our lives.

October 2012

It all began in October 2012 when a group of Dave's friends decided to surprise him with a day on the Basingstoke Canal on a narrowboat.

Champagne flutes at the ready!

This was to celebrate Dave's 60th birthday. Dave and his friends had been narrowboating when they were much younger and long before I met Dave.  I had never been on a narrowboat before!

Lift bridge being raised for us.

The Basingstoke Canal doesn't have any locks on the section we did,  but it does have lift bridges, I was very excited to see this happening.

Steering under the lift bridge.

When I was allowed to have a go at steering the boat I was very excited and loved every minute!

Looking the wrong way!!

So pleased to get through, forgot to look where we were going!!

Graham and I

Graham, known affectionately as 'the skipper' giving me some tuition on handling the boat.

Elaine, Steve and Dave

Being watched from the bow, quite daunting!!

Graham opening the champagne

Part of the outing included champagne and the most delicious canapes before a trip to the pub and an amazing lunch of bread and cheese! 

I found sitting in the bow a stunning experience, despite the noise from the engine 54' away it was delightfully peaceful and the constantly changing view of the canal was captivating.

Reading from canal log.

Graham, Madeleine and Dave used to go on narrowboat holidays when they were much younger and Graham kept a log of each of their journeys.  









March 2013


Following on from my first trip aboard a narrowboat, I wanted to try out a holiday with just Dave and myself.  We booked a boat called Ruby Tuesday from Claymore Canal Holidays at Preston Brook for March 2013.

Ruby Tuesday

If you cast your minds back to March 2013 it was one of the coldest ones on record, the people who had hired the boat before us had given up on their cruise and abandoned the boat at Scholar Green rather than getting it back to Preston Brook.  Hence at the last moment we had to begin our cruise at a totally different start point.

Snow on the canal side

The temperatures were bitterly cold, barely getting above freezing during the day. but the scenery was stunning!

Wrapped up warm

Warm clothing

You might have thought that the freezing temperatures would have put us off, but no, I was completely captivated and once we were home from this trip I began looking into ways in which we could spend more time on the canals.  



April 2013


I discovered that you could buy a share in a narrowboat and get 3 - 4 weeks a year on your own narrowboat that you shared with a group of owners.  So in April we paid a visit to Bromley Wharf on the Trent and Mersey Canal and viewed a narrowboat called Minuet.

Alan and Anne Wood on Minuet

Alan and Anne welcomed us on board and explained how the process worked and how the boat operated.  Minuet has a cruiser style stern and is very light throughout the boat. Dave was armed with a mountain of questions which Alan and Anne answered patiently throughout our visit.  

So the next step was taken, we became the proud owners of shares in Minuet!!  The only problem was that we couldn't actually have any time on Minuet until October, so we booked a week's holiday with Claymore Canal Holidays in July.



July 2013

Heading towards Wigan!!

The weather was fantastic and we thoroughly enjoyed a cruise heading north of Preston Brook. 

Wigan Pier

We cruised on past Wigan and then turned the boat round and returned to Preston Brook.







We enjoyed many hours cruising on Minuet, covering the canals linking to the Trent and Mersey Canal.  





December 2013

n/b Charlotte

In December 2013 we were lucky enough to have three weeks aboard Minuet over the Christmas period.  As we were cruising through Rode Heath we came across this narrowboat moored outside the Broughton Arms. 








We spoke to the builders who were having their lunch at the pub and they invited us aboard to have a look round.  It was then that we decided that if we ever had our own boat built then we would like these people to do it.  At that time it was a pipe dream!!

Somewhere on the Staffordshire and Worcester Canal near Stafford I turned to Dave and announced that I could give up work, sell up the house, have a boat built and live on it!!

By February 2014 we had sold our house in Basingstoke, bought a house in Market Drayton and placed an order for a narrowboat from Bourne Boat Builders.

Our aim is to spend as much time as possible on the boat during the spring, summer and autumn and spend time in the house during the colder months.

n/b Ella

Why Ella?  Our surname is Eyre and our daughters are called Lizzie, Laura and Annabel, which spells ELLA.  It is also a common phrase used in Greece where we enjoy spending our summer holiday, and it means 'come'.

Long term we intend to cruise the waterways of England and Wales and then we would like to take the boat across the channel and cruise the waterways of France.

We can only dream and so far many of our dreams have come true, so who knows....

Mini Voyage - Overwater Marina to Church Minshull and back!!!

Thursday 8th October

As the weather has become very pleasant we have decided to take Ella for a mini cruise. We felt it was important to practise taking the boat out of the marina as well as putting her back in!!

I negotiated our way out of the berth and then out of the marina and turned left onto the Shropshire Union Canal.  The weather was warm and sunny and the canal was very quiet and peaceful.

We cruised through Nantwich and on up to the junction with the Llangollen Canal, here there were a few more boats as this is a very popular canal even during October.

Cruising on the Shroppie

On the left hand side of this photo is a large reservoir and along the railings sit large flocks of gulls, a very impressive sight.

Beautiful red ivy.

A lovely house overlooking the canal with the ivy turning a vibrant red, stunning!

Cruised onto Barbridge and suddenly there was a line of boats, here we turned right onto the Middlewich Branch of the Trent and Mersey Canal.  We joined a queue of three boats going down the first lock, but it was lovely standing chatting in the sunshine.  A volunteer from Canal and River Trust was working the lock as this is one of the busiest locks on the system apparently!!

Toby on the stern

Until he is used to travelling on the boat, Toby is tethered by his lead to the back of the boat. Unfortunately whilst we were waiting to go through the lock, he jumped off the boat and missed the bank, splash into the canal where he paddled until I was able to haul him out!!!  A rather soggy doggy!!

Continued on our way until we reached beautiful moorings just past Aquaduct Marina, here there are picnic benches and barbecue stands available for visitors.  We moored the boat and set off for a late afternoon walk down into the village of Church Minshull where a pub called 'The Badger' serves a very pleasant glass of ale.  However the path we wanted to follow had a very heavy duty padlock on the gate and dire warnings of beware of the dogs!!
We decided to abandon this idea and walked back to the boat, the walk along the canal was very good though.

Instead we opened a bottle of wine and sat at a picnic bench and watched the sun go down, a beautiful end to a gorgeous day.

Evening drink

At the moment Ella is flying the Royal Air Force flag in honour of both our fathers who served during and after WW2 for many years.

Friday 9th October

Today we are going to turn the boat round and cruise back to our Marina.  As the boat is 57ft and therefore wider than the canal, we have to continue along the canal until you get to a winding hole (pronounced as in wind that blows) where we can turn the boat 180 degrees and return the way we came.  They are called winding holes because in the early days of canal travel the narrowboats were pulled by horses and in order to turn the boats the boatmen used to rely heavily on the wind helping the boat to turn.

Church Minshull

A view of the village we were aiming for yesterday afternoon, as we cruised past the gate we noticed that the heavy padlock had been removed - were we imagining it???

Another beautiful cruise back along the Middlewich Branch, left onto the Shropshire Union and this time we moored up outside the Barbridge Arms where we had a tasty lunch.

Cruised on to Nantwich to the Nantwich Canal Centre where we filled up with diesel and disposed of all our rubbish.

As we were returning towards the Marina we saw this heron just standing on the towpath.

Heron

Take off!

Dave took Ella back into the Marina and berthed her beautifully back where she belongs.  A lovely couple of days, enjoying some gorgeous weather and meeting some friendly boaters, brilliant!!!

Maiden Voyage

Tuesday 29th September

Our first night aboard Ella!!!  We were able to load all our belongings onto Ella at 6.30 in the evening and were able to make up a bed to sleep in and find the kettle to make a cup of tea!

Sandwiches from the local shop was our supper and then our first night's sleep aboard.  

Dave by Ella

Wednesday 30th September

Today was spent unpacking all our belongings and finding a home for them throughout the boat.  After a long and exhausting day yesterday, it felt initially a daunting task.  Where was everything going to go?  Would we have enough space?

Once we had started, it was really quite enjoyable and everything ended up being put away in all the different storage spaces cleverly built into the boat.   

Supper in the evening was in the pub, the Broughton Arms.  The boat had been launched from their carpark! 

Kitchen (Galley)

Thursday 1st October

Woke up very early this morning, highly excited as we were going to begin moving Ella from Rode Heath to her mooring at Overwater Marina just outside Audlem.

The boat was facing in the wrong direction, so we began our journey by reversing her 50 yards to the nearest winding hole and turning the boat round so that she was facing in  the right direction.  Sounds easy, but narrowboats are not designed to go backwards, so the whole procedure took a good 30 minutes to complete! 

First bridge

 We cruised from Rode Heath to Wheelock.

Dave and Toby

On arrival at Wheelock we moored up at the water tap and put on water.

Toby having a drink at the tap!

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking Toby and basking in the warm autumn sunshine. Supper was an Indian Takeaway from a splendid Indian Restaurant called Shampaan.

Day 1 - 4 miles, 14 locks, 4 hours.

Friday 2nd October

Early morning mists

Today we cruised from Wheelock to Middlewich.  Again the weather was kind to us and we made good progress.  

After we passed through King's Lock in Middlewich we stopped at the chandlery to buy diesel.  We met Steve who knows Daniel and got a good deal on the diesel purchase.

Diesel for boats is sold at two different rates.  One for propulsion and one for domestic, the government taxes the propulsion rate and is more expensive than the domestic rate.  As our engine heats our water and the central heating, we can get a good split in favour of the domestic rate.

We caught a glimpse of Dionysus, the boat that was launched on the Friday before us, passing under the bridge onto the Middlewich Branch.

We spent our night moored up on the Middlewich Branch of the Shropshire Union Canal, another excellent cruise.

6 miles, 6 locks, 4 hours.

Saturday 3rd October

Today we plan to cruise all the way from Middlewich to Overwater Marina.  Again the weather was good to us and we set off bright and early.  

We made a brief stop at a farm just outside Church Minsull which sells Yankee Candles and then continued on from there.  

It was a long day, and at the last two locks we got caught in a queue of boats.  It is amazing, you can cruise quite happily and see no-one, and then, when you get to a lock there are three boats ahead of you.  Where do they come from?? How does that happen?  We met a hire boat under tuition, full of New Zealanders over to watch the Rugby World Cup, narrow boating was a completely new concept for them.

We arrived at the marina just on dusk, moored up and Dave collected fish and chips from Audlem for our supper.

18 miles, 5 locks, 81/2 hours.

Total cruise:  28 miles, 25 locks, 161/2 hours.

Ella moored at Overwater

A successful end to our maiden voyage, and the beginning of new adventures on board Ella.

Launch Day!!!

Monday 28th September

A beautiful bright blue sky, the sun shining down and today was the launch of Ella onto the Trent and Mersey Canal.

Our good friends, Anne and Steve, arrived soon after us, a complete surprise for us, but it was lovely to see them and they stayed with us for the whole day and enjoyed the spectacle.

We arrived at the Boatbuilders at 8.30 in the morning and watched Ella being brought out of the shed.

She was then hoisted up in the air by an enormous crane.

Then very gently placed on the back of a low loader.

The lorry drove her very carefully to the carpark of the Broughton Arms pub in Rode Heath where she waited for the crane to follow her down.

The crane then lifted her slowly off the lowloader and spun her round to be placed very gently onto the canal.

Ella sitting in the water where we have left her for the night, we shall return tomorrow and load everything onto her ready to start the cruise to her home for this year.

A fantastic day, we are over the moon with the boat and feel so excited and emotional over this most amazing day.

Signwriting!

Friday 4th September

Great excitement, we had an e-mail from Daniel to say that Andy Russell would be arriving at the boatyard at 7.30am on Friday to begin work on our boat!!!

So, up at 6am and on the road by 6.30 to meet him!

Andy Russell (L) and Wayne (R)

We talked through our ideas, took advice on what would work and what wouldn't, decided on the colours for the writing and Andy set to work straight away.

Chalk on the paint

This is an example of the way in which Andy works.  In fact the number has now been changed to 33 and all he did was rub it out and put in the new number.

Slogan to be painted on a ribbon

Dave's slogan for the majority of this year has been  'One life...live it.'  and it is going to be painted onto this ribbon.

Engine in situ

Sparkling clean engine, how long will it stay like this?

Control Panel

The electrician was working on connecting all the wiring whilst we were there. 

Hob in place

Hob has now been fitted into it's space above the oven and we are pleased with how smart it looks and how easy to keep clean as well!!

Kitchen cupboard

The pull out drawers have been put in and are very handy for using all the available space without having to get on hands and knees to see what is right at the back!!

Dinette

The dining area is on a raised plinth so that we can see out the large window just above the table.  This will also convert into a double bed.

The signwriting will take most of the day, so we decided to leave them to it and return home. Daniel will send through photos of the finished work later on today.

We drove home via Overwater Marina and called in so that we could see where our mooring was.  We also paid our £10 deposit for the fob to allow us into the secure parking for our mooring area. 

Electric hookup

Mooring

This is where our boat will live and where can hookup for mains power and water.

View

Here is the view from the boat when we are moored up and going nowhere!!!







The next time we see Ella she will be hoisted on to the back of a lorry, driven down to the canal and hoisted into the water.  We are looking forward to it immensely!