Between Locks 45 and 44 An early start for Mick who left the boat before 8am and walked up the towpath to the station. NB Halsall was above the top lock and by the time Mick got on the train they were pulling in behind a few other boats waiting for the first passage through Harecastle Tunnel. After stoaking the fire, Tilly and I enjoyed a cuppa in bed. It’s a nice day to go friend hunting Boats started to come past, an almost constant stream of them up towards the tunnel, being met by down hill traffic. Most boats slowly passed as their crews walked from lock to lock. Others sped past aiming f ..read more

Pierpoint Top Lock 55 to above Kent’s Lock 45 A little bit of a chug first thing to reach the next lock, one of the few pounds on the way up to Stoke where there’s enough time to boil a kettle, however not enough time to drink the cuppa you’ve just made! First lock of the day At Thurlwood Lower Lock both chambers were just about full, I opted for the narrower chamber as this was just a touch lower. We rose up keeping an eye out to make sure Oleanna wasn’t too wide, she wasn’t so all was fine. I love these gardens Compared to yesterdays weather today was miserable, damp in the air, cold, then r ..read more

Rookery Moorings to above Pierpoint Top Lock 55 To avoid having to stop for lunch and to give all the other boats headed for the locks chance to get going we loitered, long enough for a breakfast. Along the Cheshire Locks there are places you can moor, you can take it steady rather than climbing the hill all in one go. This time we are aiming to do the majority of locks in a couple of days. I wish gf black pudding was as good and as big as fully glutenified We set off a little after 11am, a bit of a pootle to reach Wheelock where we wanted to dispose of rubbish and yellow water and if there wa ..read more

Bramble Cuttings to Rookery Moorings Breath in! Time to start the climb up through Cheshire today. We made our way towards Middlewich breathing in as we crossed the narrow Croxton Aqueduct, here we leave wide boats behind despite the first lock being wide itself. The banks have been raised, possibly to stop too much water going over the overspill Big Lock is just that, big and can hold two narrowboats. Today we got to share our first lock since the Calder and Hebble, it will be our last until we start going down hill from Birmingham. We chatted to the owners of NB Autumn Haze which looked imma ..read more

Milepost 6ish to Bramble Cuttings I think if they repainted this it would disintegrate Pootleing along the loooong pound this morning it was chilly, you could see your breath. We soon passed new fencing, high, blocking off the view to what used to be a sweet little tree house, at least the fence is wooden. Lion Salt Works, well worth a visit if you are in the area. Plenty of bags were piled up outside Thor, they make biocides and disinfectant. The Four Counties coal boat Round the bend to Wincham Wharf. In amongst the boats we could see NB Halsall’s bow. Last night we’d finished a bottle of ga ..read more

Longacre Wood (1 mile to Preston Brook) to site of bridge 194 (6 mile to Preston Brook) Tilly was allowed some shore leave whilst we had breakfast and joined the Geraghty zoom. Todays subjects, Tweedy Lady protests, digital signatures, Alan Rickman and grit for boggy bits. Thankfully Tilly popped in to say hello so the doors were closed quickly before she could wander off for a few hours. There was time for a wave and a quick hello to passing boaters, some timing their arrival well for the tunnel behind us. We pushed off and I set to with some baking, hoping to have timed things well for l ..read more

Pickering’s Bridge to Longacre Wood Trent and Mersey Canal Another pretty frosty morning, no photo sorry as I actually wanted a bit more sleep before having to function properly. Warm enough to knit outside today A flat pootle today along the Bridgewater. We planned to stop at Thorn Marine to see if their chandlery might have a 200amp slowblow fuse for the bowthruster, we need to replace the spare that is no longer spare. I also wanted to stock up on Fertan and white spirit for when I start repainting the gunnels, grabrails, welldeck, locker lids, patches of rust. A boat was moored on their se ..read more

Bollington Underpass Good morning We’ve nearly had some spring weather the last couple of days. Waking early with the sun streaming in through the gap in the curtains, left by someone overnight! Tilly doing her John Travolta impression Thursdays sunrise was accompanied by frost on the towpath and fog clinging to the canal, well worth waking up for. Thankfully the stove was in so a quick jostle of the coals and opening up of the air vents brought it back to a blazing glory. By midday however I’d wished I’d let it go out, the sunshine warming up the boat nicely. The vents were closed down, into ..read more

This is our 2,000th post on the Oleanna blog. I remember the days when I used to get excited for the 100th or 200th post on the NB Lillyanne blog! Back in 2014 we started our life afloat on Lillian (NB Lillyanne for new followers) a temporary boat whilst we waited for NB Oleanna to be built, we’d already waited quite a while! Lillian was bought with the previso that once we finally moved on board NB Oleanna we would have the year afloat that we’d been looking forward to for so long. The original build didn’t go as it should have and we started to look for a new boat builder. Jonathan Wilson ..read more

Bollington Underpass No tea in bed this morning, Lemsip instead. Fortunatly Mick was starting to feel improved. He did plenty of chores, filling the coal skuttle, got another bag of coal off the roof. Emptied the ash pan and left the bin on the stern deck for ease of access. Between us we emptied the yellow water tank. Then he packed a bag. Why can’t she clean her paws before coming in?! A doctors appointment, dentist, an engineer coming to sort something on our new boiler and a turn around of lodgers have all nicely fitted into a few days, so Mick was headed back to Scarborough. We could have ..read more