Guess what? Summer is almost over, and we’ve had a bit of a rough time cruising this year. We were delayed because we had to wait to get the boat blacked. You know, you can’t have Tupac put on in the cold weather, right? Well, it turned out to be a waste of time because the place we took it to said they wouldn’t do it because it hadn’t been prepped properly in the first place. Talk about hindsight! If we had known, we could have left the area months before.

Anyway, we finally started heading north, and you know how it is, this year has been the driest ever recorded. The water levels are slowly going down, and each mile we go, it gets worse. CR&T did their best by sending us emails to keep us informed, but I do think if there was less fire fighting and more general upkeep of the canal systems, we wouldn’t be in quite as bad a mess as we are now.

But hey, boaters also need to be mindful and not waste so much water by being patient and doubling up when going through locks. It’s easy to do, and it’s also a good idea to check before emptying a lock in case another boat is coming in the other direction.

Anyway, it’s not worth moaning because it’s happened now, and many people are stuck in areas they wouldn’t have expected to be.

We were hoping to do the rest of the Caldon Canal and then get up onto the Macclesfield Canal, but we haven’t managed to do that yet. We’re stuck on the Trent and Mersey, waiting to see when it reopens. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that we can get up there by the onset of winter.

My brother took us back to my parents’ recently, and we decided to bring our car back. It really annoys me having to have it as we usually manage and only use it when visiting the family or sometimes over winter, but needs must, I suppose. 

The good thing for us is that where we are, there is an excellent pub, a local butcher’s, and a supermarket, so we don’t need to use the car too often.  The best things are that Steve had had plenty of time to keep up with his orders and start to build up some spares, and I’ve loved getting on with my book that hopefully will be out in October, all about life aboard. 

Then there are the great towpaths, so I’m able to run without getting mudded up as I train for the Great North Run, which is coming up this next Sunday. 

I do feel so sorry for all the hire companies and the hirers too, as their holidays will have been ruined, and the businesses will be struggling to stay afloat. 

Now, as we wait for the rain to appear, we need to take it in our stride, try and help each other when we can, and be mindful of the water we use. Hopefully, next year’s cruising will be much more fun, and we will actually get where we are planning to go. 

Thank you for reading; hope you enjoyed my little ramble. I will be back soon.