The brown water tank is full.

There's been no place to pump out for 2 days, so it's strategic purchases: "Do you have a toulet? OK. I'll have a coffee."

Last night we moored by a Canal & River Trust toilet in Wigan. It's still functioning and it's clean! Yay #CRT.

Today the crew's taking the tourist train two stops to Chester, while I get a day of rest. Tomorrow we continue in our search for a pump-out.

#CanalLife #canal #boat #boating #narrowboat #BrownWater #tank #toilet #elsan

We've reached the Leeds & Liverpool Canal bridge that is biased against boats. Cars take priority during peak hours, and around here the afternoon peak starts at 2:00 pm!

At 6:00 pm we will resume boating until the wheels come off, hoping to reach Litherland before dark so we're set up to enter Liverpool with tomorrow's convoy.

#CanalLife #canal #boating #narrowboat #Liverpool #Litherland #bridge #car #traffic

I've booked us a pontoon (a floating dock) in Salthouse at Liverpool. Now all we need to do is get there by Friday.

2 days!

We will have to go full throttle, 3 miles per hour for … hours. Plus 4 more bridges to open, one of which prioritises vehicles – so no opening during peak hours.

It's almost like … work, …with … schedules and … deadlines. 😅

#canal #CanalLife #narrowboat #boating #bridge #SwingBridge

There really is a part of the world where the roads are called Daisy lane, Wood lane, Hall lane, Bleak lane, Moss lane, School lane, Briar's lane, Blythe lane, Hobcross lane, Lowrey lane, Course lane, and so on. The Leeds & Liverpool canal runs through it, near the villages of Hoscar and Lathom.

#CanalLife #canal #boating #narrowboat #map #England #English #village #navigate #cartography #wayfinding

I have a handcuff key in my pocket, these days. Most of the locks and bridges in the northwest are locked with "handcuffs". They prevent vandals from opening both sides of a lock to let the water flow endlessly through and thus drain the canal.

Similarly, people get a thrill out of opening a bridge and then leaving it open, which blocks all land traffic (cars, bikes, pedestrians).

#CanalLife #canal #CRT #boating #narrowboat #lock #bridge #handcuff #key #vandalism

Very pleased that I did not tell the bridge operator what I really think of his "oops I didn't see you".

We were IN the rotating aquaduct (shown in the video in its open/sideways position) when he started closing the far gate. I put the boat in reverse and had us backed out past the near gate before he even saw us.

Assclowns like that cost lives.

At the time I took this video, the ship passing below was long gone from view.

#CanalLife #canal #boating #narrowboat #safety #aquaduct #Manchester

It's a lazy, sunny moment, just before 'The Big Lock' on the Trent & Mersey canal north of Middlewich.

After this lock we'll run the washer and see if the leak* is fixed.

* See my post of 2 days ago.

By the way, when I post a photo of. Ideo, there's usually extra info in the description or "Alt tag" of the image. Make sure you use an app that can show that info – because some apps hide it.

#CanalLife #canal #boating #narrowboat #washing #water #leak #Middlewich

A slow leak* under the bed where the washer pumps out through the hull.

* For those of you who think all I ever post about is our glamorous boating life: this is not glam.

#CanalLife #canal #boating #narrowboat #water #leak #plumbing #washer #hull #glamor #glamour

My husband wants me to help apply decorative decals to the bow.

H: Are you ready?

Me: Yes.

He spends 5 minutes talking to a Canadian couple on the towpath, about our boat. It turns out they worked for the same employer, in Vancouver.

…

H: Are you ready?

Me: Yes.

H: Oh, I gotta pee. [UK readers: He means 'wee'.]

…

H: Are you ready?

Me: Yes.

H: OK. Let me wipe this surface first.

…

H: Are you ready?

Me: Yes.

…

#CanalLife #canal #boating #narrowboat #decal #bow #LGBT #ReadyNotReady

Breakfast on board. "Is that another banana? I thought we only had one. Oh, it's the same one. Half of one."
—My husband, fully awake and sharp as a tack.

Out #breakfast on board a #narrowboat. #CanalLife #canal #boating

We've had hearty beef stew and garlic mashed potatoes, which my husband made from scratch while the guys and I worked locks in the rain.

Not sure where we are, now. and don't care. We're by a field. The rain has everything green and blossoming. See photo. But it's not April green, it's August. Lots of light but shortening days.

We stopped to pick blackberries on the non-towpath side—only accessible by boat—for tomorrow's pancakes.

#CanalLife #canal #boating #narrowboat #locks #meal #rain

It feels good to be back on the boat again, after 3 weeks away.

#CanalLife #canal #narrowboat #boating #locks

Apparently there will be torrential rain this weekend which should partly replenish the water reservoirs across the canal network.

#CanalLife #canal #boating #narrowboat #CRT #England #UK

La cosa ya está bastante mal contando con todos los voluntarios (i.e., jubilados sin salario haciendo de trabajadores) pero este nuevo recorte del 50% puede suponer cerrar varios canales

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-66260233.amp

#CRT #CanalLife #Narrowboat #NarrowboatLife #Canals

At the #Etruria #mill, a (1) boiler powers a (2) steam engine that runs (3) gears that run (4) grinders, to make ground flint and bone for England's bone #china industry. This mill ran for centuries, until 2014. It's white powdered output (ground flint and bone), used by companies like #Wedgewood and #Spode used to make their custom-recipe clay, was moved by boat on the Trent & Mersey #canal.

See additional details in the ALT tags, or photo descriptions.

#dishes #narrowboat #boating #CanalLife

I could say I had a run-in with a batch of nettles while undoing the bow rope on an overgrown towpath.

Except I wasn't running.
… I suppose I had an arm-in with nettles.

I'm itchy.

#CanalLife #canals #boating #narrowboats #nettles #towpath

We passed Chris on Elektra (www.pink-narrowboat.com) and stopped for a chat about his boating plans and our boating planes given the upcoming closure of the Bosley and Marple flights of locks. He's heading up.

Then we had the brown water (toilet) pumped out, filled the fresh water (drinking, washing), and worked one last lock to reach the lower end of the Macclesfield.

#CanalLife #canal #boating #narrowboat #locks #PotableWater #sewage #Macclesfield #Cheshire #Stoke #Staffordshire #England #UK

A Canal & River Trust crew of grass mowers just went by, toward the Bosley flight of locks, trimming the towpath edges and hedges. They skipped the lengths of our boat and another that's tied up here, so the flying crushed rock doesn't chip our paint. They understand that paint chips today = rust tomorrow.

Today we make our way back to Congleton.

#CanalLife #canal #boating #narrowboat #CRT #mowing #towpath #steel #rust #paint #locks #Cheshire #UK

After midnight I remembered: I put Leafy 🌿 out on the bow locker during this afternoon's downpour.

Leafy is now back indoors, where it takes up a LOT of space. Most areas in a boat must do double- or triple duty, cycling between space for dining, sleeping, storing, and working. A boat plant like Leafy is lucky to have a dedicated space overlooking the bow deck from indoors!

#CanalLife #boating #narrowboat #canal #HousePlant #rain

🐜 We are sucking up ants with a handheld Dust Buster.

Last week we moored 🐜 by a hidden ant nest in the long grass, which was touching the boat, so many 🐜 ants 🐜 🐜 came aboard.
🐜

We moved on. The stranded ants found places to gather, in nooks and crannies. Many hundreds were in the gutter around the stern deck, over the engine. 🐜 🐜

In a related story, local fish discovered an abundance of ant snacks 🐜 dropped into the canal, just now. 🐜

#CanalLife #canal #boating #narrowboat #ant #fish #UK