Only the second week in the marina and we are bored to tears and questioning if we have made the right choice.
The view from our mooring
Spending almost the entire first year of owning RoJo in Calcutt Marina was quite different as then we had a long list of jobs needing to be jobbed and a car to make fetching materials and day to day shopping easy.
Here we are much closer (around 12 minutes on our e-bikes) to a well-stocked, if expensive, convenience store, a pharmacist, where we got our first-ever flu jabs, a couple of pubs (one of which hosts a Chinese restaurant/takeaway) and an Indian restaurant. There is however a BUT and it’s a big BUT. There is nowhere locally to buy DIY materials, there is a builders merchant less than a ten-minute e-bike ride away but they sell only in builders quantities, smallest length of timber 5m, etc., etc. We did however book the boat in for blacking. It had been done just eighteen months ago and requires doing every three years but the condition of the current blacking was poor so while we had the time . . .
The earliest it could come out is 7th February and when the actual work could be carried out was anyone's guess as it is very weather dependant.
The boredom was relieved when pal Mark came to visit. A boat cruise to Chester city centre and the National Boat Museum at Ellesmere Port was planned but just before we left kindly locals reminded us that winter stoppages had closed Grenfield Lock No 8 cutting off both our planned destinations. We went anyway for a one day cruise but were able only to travel to Quarry Bridge Winding Hole around 0.75 miles from the offending lock. Wandering up to the lock we “gongoozled” the work team cleaning the lock and making it ready to repoint the leaky brickwork and install a new lock ladder.
As cruising was out Mark kindly offered to act as chauffeur and for the duration of his stay took us to many of the local hotspots. A day was spent walking the ancient Chester city walls, another at the Anderton Boat Lift, aka the cathedral of the canals. It was a busy week as we also packed in visits to The National Boat Museum, Beeston Castle and Flint Castle.
Eastgate Street from Chester city walls.
There were many very interesting aspects of each of the trips but if forced to pick a favourite it would probably be Beeston Castle as within the walls a group of volunteers have recreated a roundhouse, the post holes of a similar dwelling having been found nearby. The roundhouse was constructed using the tools, technologies and methods exactly as used for building the original and except a second door (it is used by all ages of school children for education purposes so a fire escape is essential) and one or two other tweaks to allow it to be used by these children it is exactly like the original. Just as exciting was the knowledge base of the two volunteers (one of whom was on the build team) who were able to answer any questions we put to them.
Mark eventually went home and it was back to the boredom!!
I should say that the other liveaboards are pleasant and the Boathouse a warm and welcoming environment, indeed before Mark went home we had another meal there where Mark and I settled on the fish pie while Sue chose Moroccan Lamb. The fish pie was (almost) as good as the fish pie Sue makes, lots of fish, at least three different types, one smoked, a creamy sauce and quartered hard-boiled eggs mixed with the fish and sauce - divine. Sue also reported her meal as excellent.
Christmas was very quiet as our Christmases have been for some years but unlike last year we did manage to get a decent-sized turkey leg from a local farm shop. After Christmas we managed to get a two bone french trimmed rib of beef from another local deli and butchery shop, sadly this shop, located in a pub car park does not have a website only a Facebook page. The quality of their meat is superb.
Mark came for another visit on New Years eve (to share the fabulous roast rib of beef - THANKS Sue) but sadly the weather was not good enough to do any sightseeing so we researched a part re-fit of the galley (kitchen). We, by that I mean Sue, wants to replace the sink with a round one, replace the oven and grill with either a freestanding cooker or another oven and grill and replace the worktop.
We spent hours on t’interweb but were unable to find a freestanding cooker that we could fit in the available space, neither could we find an oven/grill combo that would fit in the existing aperture. Well, it could be altered so we decided to go to Currys and have a look-see and chat with someone in their cooker department. Well, what a waste of time!
There was nothing that was even remotely near to fitting and the staff had no knowledge, just a tablet with which they accessed the Currys website so it was on to plan B, we would replace the current one with another the same.
The sink was not a great problem although when you looked at each one there were a series of problems that eventually reduced the choice to a Hobson's choice of one. Still, Sue was happy with that so it was on to the worktop, which we thought would be easy. In a pig's ear!!!
Many of the worktops Sue liked were a standard 2m long, we needed 2.5m. Of the standard 3m tops on sale, we wanted a thin non-chipboard type. All of these were on extended delivery so we were down to the bog-standard 38mm thick laminate worktop. Sue picked out one that she could happily live with that particularly as the price ticked indicated it was a stock item. We would have to hire a van to get it back but never mind the top was much cheaper than we anticipated. We went to the counter to place an order for the sink and worktop, the sink was a stock item but the worktop was on (at least) a month's delivery with no firm date available.
After mulling over what we had learned we decided, at this stage, to replace the oven with a like for like. The marina said that they could order one for us from Midland Chandlers, we would pay the web price they would get a resellers discount and we would not pay postage charges, a win-win all around.
The grill/oven unit arrived as promised and we set about swapping it with the original.
What a job that was. In the original build, the units had been partly built, then the grill/oven installed and the remainder of the galley built around it with the last item being the fitting of the worktop. We had to slowly and carefully cut away pieces of timber until we could eventually remove the old cooker. It was then we discovered that the gas connection to the new was different from the old, we needed some other bits to make the connection which we could get from Midland Chandlers the next day, unfortunately, Mark needed to go home the day after and as he was the guy qualified to carry out the work we could not afford more problems. Happily, when we arrived at Midland Chandlers the next morning they had everything we needed and by the evening we could have toast for the first time since we bought the boat.
While we were researching the kitchen we had a visit from another pal, Paul, a man of great knowledge and narrowboat handling skill, it was he with whom we booked an “Experience Day” back in 2019 when we first started researching narrowboat living and it was on this day we learned that RoJo was for sale. Paul had just retired but because of water draught constraints with his own boat NB Orient, he had chartered a boat for six weeks to explore the upper Trent and Mersey Canal and the Chester section of the Shropshire Union Canal. Paul's original plan was to first explore the Chester Canal and visit the National Boat Museum which would mean passing Tattenhall Marina so he arranged to visit us for a few days. Sadly the Boat Museum was closed for a couple of weeks so Paul decided to reverse his route and visit The Anderton Boat lift and River Weaver first and then return to the Chester Canal, when he did we would cruise in company with him to Ellesmere Port and back. As stated Paul is a very experienced and skilled narrowboater, but skill means little when you find you have chartered a boat with no coal stove and a totally inadequate central heating system. During his six weeks hire the highest temperature he managed to achieve in the cabin was 5˚C, the boat was soon nicknamed Fridge of the North (real name Angel of the North)
Pauls "heat-free" charter boat (proper name Angel of the North)
After one missed and two dentist cancelled appointments we finally got to see a dentist. It was suggested that as my appointment was 12 till 12.30 and Sue's appointment was 12.30 to 13.00 we went in together. The dentist was very interested in narrowboats and asked lots of questions before I got in the chair and was asked the first question any dentist asks as an appointment opener “any problems?” I explained I had one very wobbly tooth and one broken tooth, he turned to Sue and asked the same question, she answered that she had a broken tooth.
The upshot was he took X-rays of both my troublesome teeth and said neither was saveable and both would have to come out. He examined Sue’s broken tooth and declared he could fix it. I went back in the chair and he pumped lots (or so it seemed) of local anaesthetic and I retired from the big chair while my mouth went numb, during which time he repaired Sue’s tooth before extracting my two problems. What a star, he could have gone through the usual checking and recording all our teeth and made another appointment, at least a month away, but sorted us so that we can get away as soon as the weather improves.
Paul returned the day after our dental work, we were hoping to set off early but Mark was going to join us and could not get here until lunchtime.
We set off around 13.00 left the marina and turned left to go north to Chester and beyond. The trip there and back is a total of 32 miles and 16 locks, with such experienced fellow travellers as Paul and Mark the trip was very pleasant, it took four days. On the last of those four days, the wind was blowing fit to burst but we needed to get back because the next day Sunday RoJo is being pulled out of the water to have her bottom blacked so we must go into the marina. As we got into the marina and felt the strength of the wind I handed the helm to Mark with a cry of “ . . . you are a better helmsman than me you can take her in . . . “. It turned out to be an inspired decision as, although he missed on the first attempt and had to go around and try again, successfully, at no time did Mark lose control or hit any other boat or marina structure. The next day I was approached by the marina managers who congratulated me on my entry, I was tempted to accept the credit but did the right thing and explained I was not on the helm. I also rang Mark and informed him of the conversation.