Wincham Wharf (snagging and additions)



After our weekend cruise we got back to Wincham Wharf in time for lunch on Sunday.  As we are in a town we are nice and convenient for DIY stores so we spent the afternoon buying necessities such as a towel rail, bathroom mirror and more storage boxes.

Getting back to Wincham Wharf

In the evening we popped into the bar which is on the wharf.  It doesn’t look like the sort of place we would normally visit but when we tried a bar attached to a boat yard in Wolverhampton we were pleasantly surprised and had a good time with the locals.  This was a bit different – loud 70s rock music was being played on the juke box, which was fine, but for some reason they had chosen to intermingle the records with Christmas songs.  It was also the sort of place where everyone stops talking and looks at you when you walk in.  As much as we were enjoying the (non-Christmas) music, it was too loud and as we wanted to chat we went back to the boat after a quick drink.

Nectars bar

Karen set off for work at five on Monday morning leaving me and Buddy with a long job list to get through by the time she gets back on Thursday evening.  The main thing really, though, is to get the boat yard to work through the snagging list and do the additional bits of work we have come up with.
 
As I have mentioned on blog entries when we have passed through this area previously, it is well known for its salt mining.  Due to the salt mining there are many recorded instances of subsidence and canal breaches over the last couple of centuries.   So whilst we were waiting to meet the boat builder Buddy and I went exploring one of the local ‘salt’ trails to discover more about the area.

One of the many information boards providing history of salt in the area

Obviously we want to get back down to the Leamington area so that Karen doesn’t have to stay away during the week, but we must make sure the boat is as we want it first.  Having agreed a job list with the builder, he seems confident all the work should be completed by Thursday.  This means we could start our journey back down to the Midlands on Friday.

It’s going to be a busy week with tradesmen in and out fixing things and me working through my job list too!  There’s quite a large, friendly, live aboard community at this boat yard; several of the guys work at the boat yard itself and others work locally around Northwich. There is always someone around if I need any advice etc. on some odd job or other.

In the afternoon, Judith (my sister), Nigel and Ned paid us a visit – our first guests.  They had had a long weekend in York celebrating Nigel’s father’s 90th birthday with all the family in, what looked like, a beautiful old manor house.

The guys are due to start working on the boat jobs on Tuesday morning so I suspect Buddy and I will keep out of the way most of the day.

Moored at Wincham Wharf alongside the old Chalkhill Blue

It is so different living on the new boat.  One of the obvious things is that it is so warm – our previous boat had hardly any insulation and no central heating – there was just a stove at one end of the boat so the heat never really got through to the other end.   Now we are spoilt for choice and can be warm as toast anywhere inside the boat.

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