During March, we headed along the Trent, Soar and Wreake to join the Leicester Line of the Grand Union Canal (GUC). We passed through our old university town of Loughborough, stopping only to top up with groceries and use the services in the basin. We then cruised on to Leicester, where we pulled over at Castle Gardens. This secure pontoon mooring in the city centre is a great opportunity to catch a film at the cinema and pick up a takeaway. Moving on, we went through more industrial areas and were  impressed by the murals that adorned the walls facing the canal (it’s a bit like marmite – you either love it or hate it). Seeing these long stretches of colourful graffiti made me wonder how tall some of the artists were and we hypothesised about the use of ladders vs cans with triggers on poles!

Skirting around South Wigston, the navigation provided us with a trip down memory lane as we used to live within a mile of this stretch. In 1988 (yes, that is a little while ago!), our first marital home was a rented flat above a chemist overlooking the inner ring road, quite a contrast to our current floating residence. It was close to the local school where I did my probationary year as a primary school teacher and Ian would drive his Peugeot 104 to work at Rank Taylor Hobson (of Rank Film fame) as a Research & Systems Engineer. On Google Street View the chemist is now a kebab shop with a store room above it.

We lived in Leicester until 1993, and I even recall doing jury service at the crown court, which was quite an experience, especially as I ended up drawing the short straw by being the Foreman of the Jury (and no, it wasn’t anything newsworthy!). We did cruise around here as a young family on our first share boat, but that must still be over two decades ago, and it is great to see the regeneration that has taken place during those intervening years.

Getting back out into the countryside is quite a treat after all those buildings, but unfortunately we ran into a little boat trouble. No, the tiller didn’t fall off this time,  the throttle cable snapped as we were manoeuvring into the last lock of the day at Newton Top Lock. Luckily, as the gear cable was still intact, we could limp out of the lock on tick over. We then spent the night moored opposite a nesting swan, waiting for the River Canal Rescue (RCR), the waterways version of a break down service, to find us and repair the damage.

Earlier, when we stopped at Kilby Bridge for water we heard that there was a flotilla of boats following us. That evening, they caught up with us. The Fund Britain’s Waterways Campaign Cruise for 2025  are running several cruises throughout the year and you can follow their journeys on their Facebook group – Fund Britain’s Waterways – Cruises for 2025 . They’re heading to London to sail past the Houses of Parliament and raise awareness of how the cuts to the government funding are affecting this national treasure.

Thankfully the sun continued to shine, Dan from RCR did the fix and we headed on to Foxton Locks. Apparently with a height rise of 75ft (23m), these are said to be the longest staircase locks in the world and get 400,000 visitors every year. According to one of the lock keepers, they’ve had as many as 40 boats pass through in a single day. When it is that busy, this is usually achieved with a system of 4 up and 4 down. We were fairly lucky and only had to wait for one set of descending boats, but if the queues are long you can be waiting for hours.

Normally it would take us 2 1/2 hours to pass through 10 individual locks, but we did these in just under an hour. Admittedly we had help from some gongoozlers and their grandchildren, but it was all managed at a steady pace, and at the top, the children were given certificates by the real Lock Keepers for being brilliant lockies. 

We moored up at the top and wandered over to grab an ice cream (resistance is futile). Then we went to see the remains of the Inclined Boat Lift.  This engineering marvel was built to allow wider working boats to transition the hill and used a pair of caissons, cables, pulleys and a steam engine to simultaneously move either two narrow boats or one barge  up and down the hill in 12 minutes. Each tank was full of water and weighed 230 tons with or without a boat. The gradient was 1 in 4.  Unfortunately the boat lift only lasted for 11 years as it proved to be uneconomical to maintain and in 1928 it was sold for scrap metal. 

There are no more locks for us for a while as we’re heading to a marina to abandon the boat for a few weeks.  We’re jumping ship onto Hollie the motorhome for our next adventure. Let’s hope this beautiful weather holds for us!

We’re back onboard after a rather fabulous time in Port Zelande, Holland, celebrating the music of our favourite band-Marillion. Yes, that’s the prog rock group that formed in 1979. No, their singer isn’t called Fish, he left the band in the 80’s, the new lead singer (for the last 36 years) is Steve Hogarth. Out of the blue, Ian was called up on stage to take part in a quiz with his namesake, unfortunately drummer Ian Mosley wasn’t happy that this Ian is a bass guitarist!

Back in Staffordshire, we had a large grocery delivery before leaving Great Haywood Marina to start our big cruising adventure for this year. As we approached the first lock we were treated to the sight of a traditional working boat and I had to admire the panel work. Butty “Ethel” has an iron hull and no engine, she was manufactured in 1930 by Yarwoods and like many boats (including ours) has been renamed a few times: Fern, Elizabeth and Rat. She was originally built for The London, Midland & Scottish Railway Company (LMS). That, despite being primarily one of the “Big Four” railway companies of the early 20th Century, they also owned 543 miles of canal, 8,950 horses, 64 steamboats and 27 docks! Ethel was an LMS station butty, designed to be towed and pulled around a basin transfering cargo from the canal to the railway.

Ian has been busy keeping our boat running smoothly too; he’s upgraded the LED ceiling lights, renewed water filters and serviced the engine. We made a pit stop by a wood to restock with bags of kindling and logs. The temperatures are still getting low at night, around 0 degC (32 degF) but warming up to 13 degC (55 degF) in the daytime, so a glowing fire in the mornings and the evenings is still mandatory as far as I’m concerned!

We do check the weather forecast for sunny days. This is one huge advantage of being retired liveaboards, you can pick the fair-weather days to do your cruising. And as Spring has sprung, there are flowers smiling from the tow path and even the cherry blossom is in full bloom – it’s at least 4-6 weeks early. I can’t deny that I’m loving the warm sunshine, (although with some apprehension as this is being blamed on climate change). For me, all this sunshine feels like a huge release and a joy, I can see the colours of the countryside bouncing back at me instead of being greyed out by the winter sun.

We are on the same route that we followed last May when we took the boat to get blacked at Redhill Marina near to Long Eaton. This time we’re not in such a rush and plan to stop in Burton on Trent for a few days and that means we have to navigate a short section of the River Trent. We are making steady progress because, thankfully, the water levels are all looking normal, unlike last year when we had to wait for a flood to recede. 

We do have some favourite views along this stretch. Colwich Lock is really pretty but nothing beats going down the 5 locks at Fradley Junction and pulling in at the Laughing Duck Café for an ice cream. We picked a weekday for Fradley as we know from past experience it can be a nightmare at the weekends especially as there are a few marinas in this area and when the sun shines, the leisure boaters tend to pop out for a long weekend and this junction with the Coventry Canal can be busy.

The freezer is full of home-cooked meals, the boat is ticking along nicely and we’ve already done 30 of the 150 lock/miles to our next destination. But where is that? Guesses in the comments 😀. 

We’ve arrived at our last mooring spot before we “abandon” the boat in a marina again to head off to the Netherlands for the Marillion Weekend. It’s another old favourite, Tixall Wide. It’s that “pretend lake” near to Shugborough Hall, a mile down the Staffordshire & Worcester Canal from the junction at Great Haywood. We’re still taking our time. In the past we’ve made the cruise from Congleton to Tixall in 2 days – this time we took 49!! But we did stop at Barlaston and visit Neil Morrisey’s The Plume of Feathers pub (no we didn’t see him)

We spent a couple of weeks hovering around Stone running errands, taking advantage of the local amenities including the swimming pool, laundrette and take-away pizza! It’s been a rather grey and dull start to the year, so catching glimpses of the sun in the last couple of weeks has really cheered the soul. The railway station and many of the shops in Stone have a curiously gothic style which seems a little out of place. It turns out that they were designed by Sir Henry Arthur Hunt, a surveyor who worked for the North Staffordshire Railway Company. Earlier in his career, after the Houses of Parliament burnt down in 1834, he was commissioned by Charles Barry to provide the design estimate for rebuilding the Palaces of Westminster (very gothic). Hunt suggested a construction time of six years with an estimated cost of £724,986. It actually took 30 years and cost over £2 million, oops!

Winter stoppages are still hindering us from making further progress south. There are currently 174 closures, restrictions or advisories along the 2,000 miles of waterways that the Canal & River Trust are maintaining. The last stoppages for us are the repairs to Woodend and Shadehouse Locks. They are preventing us from getting to Fradley Junction, but this should be (fingers crossed) completed by mid-March. The CRT contractors and volunteers have been busy trimming back hedges and trees along the tow paths and the offside of the canal. Some of this has been essential because of fallen debris from the recent storms which has blocked the waterway and footpaths. We’ve spent days happily scavenging for wood to restock our supplies whilst daydreaming and scheming about the rest of the year. We still aim to spend most of this summer chugging towards London and then on to the previous home territory of the Kennet & Avon in the direction of Bath and possibly Bristol.

We are keeping ourselves busy.  Ian finished his interior decorating (it looks much brighter in here), chopped wood and serviced the multi-fuel stove. I’ve rediscovered the joys of baking and needlework; the boat is often littered with colourful cut threads and the smell of cakes, naughty but nice. We’ve been liveaboards for three years and whilst it feels perfectly natural for us to be living like this, I can’t believe how quickly the time has flown by.

Living in a very small space means we’re very tight on storage space. We’ve have had a few goes at decluttering our stuff. Minimalist living, weirdly, doesn’t get in the way of a comfortable life. This might seem backwards, but it’s oddly liberating. You just don’t have room for anything that isn’t either essential or extremely precious. It makes you realise how little you really need. During the winter, the fire is always burning, keeping the boat toasty, but the cold surfaces along the inside of the hull can cause condensation, and damp can develop inside cupboards and at the back of shelves. It’s so easy to overstuff a hidey-hole and then sadly suffer the consequences. This wouldn’t happen in a newer boat with spray foam insulation, but Heron is now 28 years old, and we think her rock wool insulation has started to sag a little behind the panelling. We just need to be careful and keep on decluttering.

So as much as we are enjoying the rest, we are missing the warmth and sunshine of the Caribbean. We can’t wait to get going and then these grey days will be a distant memory! Bring on the sunshine and the summer.

It’s been a very wet and cold start to 2025. We are on a safe mooring in Stoke-on-Trent and thankful for the peace of mind that comes with that. Our hearts truly go out to everyone who’s been affected by the recent floods around the UK. It’s a been a huge reality check for us; whilst we always do our homework when choosing a waterway to live on for a period of time, things can happen that are just beyond your control. It has been heartbreaking to see the recent breach on the Bridgewater Canal. During the previous couple of years we have moored in the exact spot where the canal has collapsed and we recognise some the boats that are stranded there. 

At the start of January, we were actually more concerned with being frozen in on the Macclesfield and not getting past a planned stoppage. So having seen the weather forecast, we brought our plans forward a bit. We had a frantic day getting the boat past the location of the planned stoppage, before waiting for our booked southbound passage through Telford’s Harecastle Tunnel. With a maximum width of 8ft (244cm) and a height restriction of 7ft 7inches (231cm) it’s quite narrow and claustrophobic. It’s about 1.6miles (2.67km) long and takes about 40 minutes to pass though. We used to think you have to let your fire go out before you’re allowed in as the air circulation is so poor and there’s a potential risk of fire if gas accumulates. When it’s this cold it can take ages to get the boat warmed up again, so it was a huge relief to discover, a couple of years ago, that the fire could stay in, just with no active flames.

Now we’re moored up by Westport Lake in Stoke-on-Trent on the Trent & Mersey Canal and biding our time whilst some stoppages ahead of us are being completed, so what to do to pass the time? Decorate the boat of course!! We have prepared for this activity but not been overly keen to start it. The plan is actually to make the whole of the inside of the boat to feel lighter and brighter by painting the ceiling panels and the upper half of the walls with an off-white emulsion (it’s quite trendy apparently!). 

This is the first time that we’ve attempted any type of interior decorating on the boat and a few extra problems are evident. For starters, we’ve chosen to begin in the worst area possible, the bathroom (yes, it is the size of a wardrobe). As the boat is jam packed with all our worldly goods, there’s nowhere to put the stuff from the section that you’re decorating, the angles of the walls are awkward and, if there’s someone else moving around the boat (and that includes the dog) then doing a straight edge when the boat suddenly wobbles is challenging! Hopefully the rest of the boat will be less stressful. At least the loo will always be available!

The outside temperatures have been dropping to -8 Celsius (17.6 Fahrenheit) at night. So we’re currently iced in and the ice is too thick to break! When we move around the boat the ice sheet creaks and scrapes against the hull. The noise is freaking the poor dog out and she’s clinging to our legs. To be honest she’s getting older and not keen on having cold paws either, so after a wander around the lake we got all tucked up by the fire and watched the latest Wallace & Gromit film, Vengence Most Fowl. No spoilers, but we do love the familiar locations (especially if you like the Llangollen Canal) and the “high speed” chase at the end is hilarious!

So that’s it, we’ve done our last trip to the bottom of Bosley Locks. We have turned the boat, and our next destination is a mooring in Congleton for the festive period. There are plenty of plans in the air for next year but only one is set and that’s a fly-cruise to celebrate Heather’s significant birthday in December, so anything could happen between now and then!! So I thought I’d do a snapshot from our adventures this year as we wind up 2024

We have spent the last few days meeting up with the fuel boat (again) for a delivery of diesel and coal. Yes, well, it was actually a van, so technically not the boat. The boat based at Bollington Wharf, is above the 12 Bosley Locks and their sister boat, based on the Four Counties, is usually blocked by stoppages at this time of year, so they use a van for deliveries on the lower Macc in winter. To help, we have to moor up where there’s easy access to a road. Not as iconic in style but far more efficient on time and labour than the return journey for the fuel boat.

Whilst moored up in Congleton and for the first couple of weeks of cruising in January we’re not going to be able to source wood along the towpath, so we’ve been out foraging for firewood to keep us going for about a month and the store in the bow is chock-a-block full. To the point that someone has pointedly banned me from picking up any more sticks from the towpath!

Our stove is doing a grand job of keeping us warm, but I will confess to missing the warmth and the blue skies of the Caribbean and the salty, warm, turquoise waters of Jolly Bay. This winter seems to be a very grey one; cloudy, windy and wet so I’m enjoying spotting the buds on the trees and the snowdrops that have already started showing their faces. All reminding us that Spring isn’t too far away and hopefully some sunshine too.

Meanwhile it’s time to focus on the festive season and get back in touch with friends and family. Time to enjoy each other’s company and tell tales (mostly true – perhaps a little exaggerated for effect!!) of this year’s adventures. 2025 will see us heading south to London via the Grand Union and then, hopefully, eventually, to Bristol Harbour via the Kennet and Avon Canal. And somewhere along the way, Heather is hoping to finally get her right knee replaced!

So this is a BIG thank you to all of you who follow our travels and read the blogs (especially those who are kind enough to leave a comment). We hope you all have a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy 2025.

No more blue skies for us and daytime temperatures over 20 degrees lower, we’re back in Cheshire. We spent a couple of days in Lyme View Marina doing laundry, getting over jet lag and reacclimatising before we then headed back out onto the cut.

I don’t think we’ve ever seen the Macclesfield Canal so busy. The summit pound seems far more popular than we’ve seen it in previous years with loads of boats moored up at favoured sites. At 193 years old, the Maccy is one of the youngest canals but it’s still having problems on the summit level as the water level is still a little shallow. We’ve gone past two temporary repairs; one is a broken sluice near Bridge 20 and further south there’s a collapsed culvert. I really feel for the deep drafted boats as they are struggling to move, not just because the water is down a bit, but because the silt seems to have accumulated under the bridges on this stretch.

We found space to moor beside the impressive Adelphi Mill.  For nearly 120 years fabrics were spun here, first cotton then silk and finally nylon. During WW Il the mill produced material for parachutes and also worked on classified development of materials. Our first mission was to visit Holly the Café Boat which was moored just across the canal. This cafe is run by a young couple who are liveaboards and we’ve been following them on You Tube for at least 3 years. We’ve seen them in various locations on the canals but we ‘ve never made it to the café when it’s been open. Now they are permanently moored at Bollington Wharf and we finally got to taste Vic’s freshly roasted coffee and Jo’s scrummy cakes. Both were well worth the wait and I think I’m going to have to try to make those plaited cinnamon buns myself. (Mmmmm – cinnamon)

But it’s too dangerous (and too expensive) to stay around such delicious treats, so we made one of our epic, spur of the moment decisions and opted to continue south onto the lower section of the canal, away from the uncertainties of shallow water and busy moorings. We headed for the locks at Bosley.

We picked a dry day, and began with a 5 mile cruise to the top of the flight that would drop us down 118 feet (36 m) towards Congleton. Fortunately for us most of the 12 locks were full, in fact they were overflowing, so we could go straight into most of them without having to fill them first. Three locks had leaky bottoms (bottom gates) that needed topping up, but despite this we made excellent progress and completed the flight in less than 2 hours. I think that’s a record for us!

Now it’s time to chill and wait for Christmas !!

We’ve moored the boat up for a few weeks and followed the sun in Hollie the van for a few days of calm along the Welsh coastline. Bennar Beach Campsite is just south of Shell Island (which closed for the winter last weekend) and it’s just a short distance along a boardwalk to the sandy beach that stretches 7 miles from Barmouth to Shell Island.

Ian’s been exploring. Somehow his walks always end up further than planned, so his 5.5 mile beach stroll to Barmouth turned into 8.5miles with the unexpected addition of roads and fields! I think the dog was as footsore as Ian was by the time they got back to the van. At lunch time they sat by the dunes watching the RNLI practising the launching and recovery of a Shannon class relief lifeboat, “John Metters”13-26.

The Shannon class all-weather lifeboats don’t have propellers and are powered by 650hp twin waterjets with a top speed of around 25 knots (29 mph; 46 km/h) and a range of 250 nautical miles (460 km). These boats have reinforced hulls and can be recovered from any suitable location by the boat beaching itself on to sand or a slipway. It’s then winched up on to an ingenious trailer system that’s fitted with a turntable allowing the boat to be rotated ready for an immediate relaunch.

As some may know, I’m a bit of a beachcomber. This time I found loads of shells and a big jellyfish (yuck) but, thankfully, not a lot of rubbish this time. I’m a bit disappointed that the birdlife is a bit sparse, but perhaps that’s a reflection of the season and they’ve all flown to warmer climes as it’s a bit nippy in North Wales. I did find a WWII pillbox (DFW/3 Type 26). This square version of pillbox was intended to be used to cover river crossings or similar open viewpoints. Of the seven standard designs created in 1940, this was one of the least favoured, possibly due to its compact size (3m x 3m). I would say that it’s a testimony to the durability of the reinforced concrete that it’s in such good condition, but then again, there’s evidence that the Bedouins of southern Syria and northern Jordan were using concrete in 6500BC!

You probably saw the news about the big aurora storm on the 10th of October, so you can guess where Heather was; down on the beach trying to capture that elusive incredible shot! It was an impressive storm and there were a few big puddles to find reflections in. Ian was finally convinced to get out of the nice warm van, the rays have to be visible to the naked eye before he’s interested in stepping into the cold night air (what a whimp!) as evidenced below wearing my bobble hat (it was 3 degrees celsius). (Hang on – who had a dip in the sea despite the chill October weather – Ian’s no whimp!!)