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!

Sparkling, shiny paint job!!!

1st September 2015

We went to visit Ella yesterday and were mightily pleased to see the progress that has been made.  Although the paintwork is not yet finished we are very happy with the choice of colour and the effect so far.

Door with blind

These doors are very clever as the windows are all double glazed and the blinds are between the panels of glass.  This means the blinds don't swing about and even more importantly don't get dirty!!!  See how shiny the paint is, my reflection is very clear!

Stern of Ella

Here is Dave standing at the stern of the boat. You can clearly see the propeller under the boat and the rudder in front of it.

Flag pole attached!!

Dave is very pleased to see the bracket for the flag pole and how it will look when it is attached.  
There is also a bracket that we can attach a bicycle carrier onto when we are ready.

These are the various control panels which will help us to look after the boat and the engine. We don't really know what they all do but Daniel will explain everything during the handover and there will be documents in folders for everything on the boat.  Exciting bedtime reading!

Hob

The three ring hob has still to be placed in the work surface, but it has only just arrived.  This and the oven are the only appliances to use gas.

Lounge lighting

Wall lamps in the lounge along with spotlights in the ceiling.  All the lighting is LED so power consumption should be very low. 

Kitchen work surface and sink

The work surface is made from the granite slab we went and chose from Derby.  We are very pleased with the colour and the way it lightens the kitchen area.

Tap

Wayne is holding the tap in place to give an impression of what it will look like when finished.  Simple but effective.

Bathroom sink

The bathroom is most impressive with the shower, sink and enormous mirror in place.  It does look lovely.

Bedroom television

The bedroom has it's own small TV with a dressing table area underneath it.  Wayne is going to put some additional lighting under the frame of the television.

Dave in the kitchen

Door design

Here you can see the red and black clearly.  There will be a cream coach line between the two colours.

Beside our boat is another boat that is being worked on as well. 

Brackets

You can see the brackets clearly here, the flat one is for the flag pole and the upright one is for the bicycle carrier.









What next?  The signwriter appears to be on holiday, so that will have to wait until he reappears.  We are away on holiday ourselves during September, so are unable to take delivery of Ella until the end of the month.

Once everything has been finished, the boat will be covered in polythene sheeting to protect it and left where it is.

The date for launching the boat is 28th September 2015, an independent surveyor will then survey it and hopefully pass it, and a safety certificate will be provided.

We are visiting again on Friday and if Andy Russell is available we might get to meet him.  If not we have given Daniel drawings of what we want painted on the boat.  

After so long it feels amazing to know that the boat will be ready for us to cruise away in before the end of the month!!  So exciting!!