Broken Cross (still learning something new every day)



Karen left for work at five on Monday morning and will be staying in a B&B in Leamington until she comes back home to the boat on Thursday evening.  This gives me and Buddy four days to get all the final preparations done for moving onto the new boat.  It seems we are finally going to take delivery on Friday so we will cruise the last mile on Friday and moor up next to the new boat so that we can transfer our things easily.  Craning is booked for Wednesday so Buddy and I will be at the yard to get the pictures as she goes into the water. 

I use a free app called Antenna Alinger which tells me which direction to point the aerial when we moor somewhere new.  It lists the seven closest television transmitters by name, their distance away, the signal strength and the direction to point the aerial.  Each one has an H or a V next to it and I have always thought this was something to do with the frequency. Dave (Karen’s cousin) explained the other day that it indicates whether the receiver should be angled horizontally or vertically.  This probably means we will get better TV reception in the more remote spots but at least I learnt something useful that day to keep in with my maxim of learning something new each day.


Current transmitter is Winter Hill which is 24.8 miles away and is marked with an H, hence the aerial is horizontal here

The weather was still mild on Monday and we had some good walks.  As it is quite built up around Northwich we tend to stay on the towpath for our walks.  There is a dog waste bin not far from the boat – I have to take a path off the towpath, onto a road and across a bridge to get to it.  Buddy seems to know what I am doing so stays on the towpath – I think he is getting lazy now he’s three years old.

Buddy waiting while I pay a visit across a bridge but he still keeps an eye on me

It feels like winter is coming now that we have got our winter pansies and spring bulbs planted.  We haven’t got rid of all of the summer plants yet as some are still flowering although they don’t need so much deadheading now.  The photo at the top shows winter pansies in the bucket whilst the white summer petunias still going well in the pot next to them

All the roof planters have been emptied and re-potted with bulbs and pansies

We normally do our re-potting out in the countryside so it is easy to dispose of the old soil on woodland floors or under hedges.  Now we are moored in a town we have nowhere to get rid of the old soil so it is all bagged up ready for when we find a waste site or we are out in the countryside again.

We also have to bag up the ash from the stove so that we can dispose of it in the waste sites provided by the canal.  I can just see that when we move on Friday we will have to lug several bags of ash and soil to the new boat too!

On Tuesday morning I went into Middlewich to get the foam cut for the dinette seating.  It was a fascinating operation to watch.  We chose a firm cushion as we don't really like soft seating.  The cutter chose a new bale for us (blue for firm).  The white foam is softer and the multi-coloured is recycled from offcuts of the blue and white foam.  We needed four pieces cut and two of them had one corner shaped to fit under the gunwales.  It took the cutter less than five minutes to do the job.  I was going to order a taxi back to the boat but the owner got one of his drivers to take me on his way to a delivery in Manchester so that was fortunate.

The blue foam is firm, the white is soft and the multi-coloured is recycled and used for general filling
Our fresh bale on the cutting machine

Job done - seats at the back of the cutting table and vertical cushions with cut outs to the front of the table


The most recent reason for the delay in the boat is because Jason, the painter, fell on his boat and has bruised his ribs.  Consequently he has only been able to work a few hours a day recently.  Coincidentally he and his wife drink in the pub where we are currently moored so we have sat and chatted with them a few times.  They are a really nice couple and he seems to be doing a really good job on the paintwork. 

On Tuesday afternoon I paid yet another visit to the boatyard to check up on things and make sure the boat was still going in the water on Wednesday.  Everything is still on track and we will do all the paperwork and handover on Friday.  Mind you, there is quite a bit of craning to do as there are two wide beam boats blocking the entrance to the shed where our boat is.

Two wide beams blocking our exit from the boat shed




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