The thoughts, fantasies and random ramblings of Ashton Boatman Chris Leah, largely, but not exclusively, connected with his work for the Wooden Canal Boat Society, restoring historic wooden canal boats and putting them to work doing good deeds for the community and the planet.
"Forget me Not"s gearbox developed a problem, so, we took it out and conveyed it to the wonderful Richard Powell in Kenilworth. Parts are on order from Sweden. Meanwhile, we had a wellbeing trip booked. I went in search of a willing tug. Luckily, I bumped into Kim Tranter who offered to do the towing with his boat "Aimee Lou".
"Aimee Lou" was originally a British Waterways work flat, rebuilt as a pleasure boat and fitted with a powerful engine. Though not short of horsepower, the relative lightness of the tug, combined with towing from an off centre dolly, made it hard for Kim to keep in the channel.
The weather was lovely, sunny but cool. The best that early spring can provide. "Hazel"s back cabin range has a new chimney, also made by Kim. This enabled us to use the range, burning mostly coffee logs. An excellent fuel but not as smoke free as they claim as you can see from the pictures.
Passing through Gee Cross on the outward trip.
Sadly, it looks like Gee Cross Mill is being demolished. I'd hoped there might be a future for the derelict structure. The way things are going there'll be no mills left soon.
When we got to Marple we crossed the aqueduct and winded next to the railway viaduct, unusually clear of maintenance boats, then returned to tie for the night at our usual spot near Rose Hill tunnel (opened out over 100 years ago but still called a tunnel). Aaron cycled home. I stayed the night in "Hazel"s back cabin.
In the morning I decided to walk up the locks with a bag of recyclables to put in the bins at the start of the Macclesfield canal. I was pleased to see dredgers busy clearing out the heavily silted lock pounds.
The recycling bins have gone. They're clearing the site for redevelopment as posh housing. I could find no more recycling bins in Marple so I ended up carrying it all back to the boat to be transported back to Ashton. A wonderful time was had by all. Many thanks to the National Lottery for funding this trip and many others.
