2009 Cruising Blog Starts

The Blog has been resurrected from its winter slumber and in a fortnights time we will be on our Summer Cruise. We have started to get the boat ready by taking all the bedding and towels etc that we will need for about 6 weeks to the boat yesterday.
We have been out on the boat since the last blog entry in August 2008 all with the NCCC on club organised cruises. The first under the new Commodore John Suggitt was to the Services and Social club at Marple, better known as "The Legion" on Boxing day 2008.The next outing was to Bridge 20 on the Macclesfield Canal on 22nd of March the day after our 46th wedding anniversary (yes I did remember it). This was the NCCC opening cruise of the season.
At Easter we cruised South on the Macc staying at Macclesfield on Good Friday night and had my first game ever of indoor bowls using full size bowls. Saturday saw is cruising to Fools Nook and taking a bus trip to Leek (aren't Senior bus passes wonderful) followed by an evening in the pub ( wanted to call it the Royal Oak but it seems that the sign outside is now calling it The Fools Nook). On Sunday a short trip to Gurnet Aqueduct for the Easter Bonnet,Hat,Tie and decorated egg competition.
My Hat won the men's hat section much to my surprise. I thought the guy with the chicken hat should have won. Anyway Marilyn enjoyed the Chocolate egg that was the prize. Unfortunately there were no Photographs of the winning hat (thank goodness).Easter Monday was the return to High Lane. Water levels were low throughout the weekend making mooring close to the bank difficult, partucularly in Macclesfield.
Mayday Bank holiday took us to Bugsworth Basin, the water levels on the Macc and Upper Peak Forest Canals was about 4 inches lower than normal and it took us about 10 minutes to get the boat afloat at our moorings and after that a slow trip to Bugsworth. I understand that it is BW policy to lower the canal levels before a bank holiday to avoid any call outs if there is any un-forcast heavy rain, this seems madness as it is the time when the levels should be maintained to let the increased traffic pass one another without going aground. I wonder if it is the same on all canals or is it just the Macc, which is a shallow canal anyway.