Etruria & Congleton

by Chris Adams

Crew: Kay & Chris

Friday 2 February : As the boat was free we booked it for a few days over my birthday weekend. As most route options were closed (winter maintenance) we had no chance to do anything ambitious which suited us just fine. We packed plenty of coal and enough books to make it a relaxing weekend.

Some comments about the boat first ...

Side hatch interior: An excellent job has been done here. The outcome looks identical to the photos that we've already seen of Chisbury. As promised there's a half inch gap at the bottom of the new woodwork to allow water to drain through the newly drilled drainage holes.

Pipe Fender: I've now fixed a new pipe fender to replace the missing one.

Stools: I've now removed (and donated to Heritage) the surplus (3rd) stool.

Additional Ventilation: As predicted we now have a vent at the bottom of the rear door plus two additional vents at the front which sit either side of the two existing vents at the bottom of the doors. Not sure how much safer this made us feel though !

Fridge: We now have the fridge sitting on a plinth - so the void on top of the fridge has been lost. Also our old wooden front facia door has been reattached (on reflection it might even have been a different door). We'd not noticed a vent on the "wine bottle" shelf alongside the rear of the fridge before. I assume that with our new fridge which circulates air at the front these modifications are acceptable (?).

Poker: When we were last on the boat I must have let the tip of the poker unscrew itself, fall in to the ash pan and then be thrown out. I've since bought a brass "Edwardian" poker complete with a "sculpture" of Salisbury Cathedral !!!. This cost £10 off ebay and being a solid article is more robust than the old one. The new one is now on the boat.

Rechargeable Torch: As requested I've bought a rechargeable LED torch for £25.00 - I'll reclaim the cost of this from the sinking fund. It's a very good towpath torch and stays bright for over 12 hours although it's nothing like as bright as the 1 million candle power spotlights that can be bought.

We set off at 3:00pm and after filling with water at Hall Green stop lock we arrived at Harecastle tunnel entrance at 4:25pm. When I pulled out the engine stop it felt as though the cable had snapped. Being nervous that Heritage staff were about to finish and as we had an early morning passage through Harecastle booked I decided to take no chances and rang Heritage for a call out. The engineer duly arrived (he was heading for home anyway) and diagnosed that the cable had come out of its grubscrew at the engine end of the cable. Five minutes later and the job was done. We ate on board and then spent a few hours in the always excellent Blue Bell.

Saturday : Spoke to the Tunnel Keeper about all the suggestions that vandals prowled the tunnel entrance. He said that there was one lad that broke into unattended boats but that he was now locked up and there had been no recent problems. We entered the misty tunnel at 9:40 am, very much on our own. Took the usual 40 minutes to get through and were blinded on our exit by glorious sunshine. Moored up alongside Westport Lake. After running the engine for another hour we jumped on a bus to Newcastle under Lyme where we wanderered around for a few hours. We were back on the boat by 5.00pm where we spent a quiet night.

Sunday: Anglers were strung out for about two miles along the towpath making our progress somewhat slow. We winded and moored at Etruria Junction then walked up into Hanley for a look around. Also bought another cafetiére as the one that we had left on the boat a few weeks ago exploded when hot water was poured into it ! Hanley has many shops and is only a 10 minute walk from Etruria. In the afternoon we returned to Westport Lake where Jenn and Tim joined us for a while - they'd diverted from their Southampton to Manchester expedition to say hello.

Monday: Back to Harecastle for it's 08:30 opening. No-one around by 09:10 so I rang B.W. Seems the Tunnel Keeper scheduled for the duty had reported sick - his short notice replacement arrived at 09:30. Once again we were on our own through the tunnel. After emerging at Kidsgrove we rejoined the "Macc" and arrived at Congleton Wharf at 14:00. We walked into town to buy a new mop (the handle on the old one had become a tad bent) and have a stroll around. There's a few pubs in Congleton that from the outside look steeped in history, but from the inside look fairly dire - we couldn't find a pub that we could recommend. After doing some shopping we jumped on a bus (Service 92, every 30 minutes) as the long uphill walk back to the canal did not appeal. After eating on the boat we nipped into the local pub (The Wharf) for a pint. Ice was starting to form on the canal when we returned to the boat.

Tuesday: Cold, cold morning ... there was about a ¼ inch of ice on the canal so we decided to sit it out until the sun thawed it. Fortunately a couple of BW workboats passed so by the time that we departed (about noon) there was no ice left to damage the new blacking. Headed straight back to Heritage and were on our way home by 14:00.

EOH Report:

Pump out middle toilet

Fill with diesel.

Valet booked and paid for.

	Harecastle Tunnel - North Portal
	Moorings at Etruria Junction - alongside Industrial Museum
	Hall Green Stop Lock
	Congleton Wharf on a cold morning