Seaworthy

 

I came up to Thrupp Wharf at lunchtime, because I had an appointment with a surveyor this afternoon.  He was assessing Briar Rose for a seaworthiness certificate, which is required by The Manchester Ship Canal company before they'll let pleasure craft onto their canal.  We're planning to do a short section of the MSC during our big trip during September.

Most of the approved surveyors are based in the north west, but there's one in Warwickshire, and I spoke to him a few weeks ago and agreed that he'd give me a call if he was due to be in our area.  As it happened, he had a job in our marina, so it worked out quite well.

The survey isn't very onerous.  There are requirements such as two 50ft ropes (although enough ropes that can be lashed together to make two of 50ft also satisfies the requirement), fire extinguishers, horn, and life jackets.  Anyway, we passed, and have our certificate.

As I walked up with the surveyor to let him out of the marina gate, I was surprised to see John and Jan Halford and their daughter Ally standing a bit further along.  They're discussing the relative merits of various marinas, and came back to Briar Rose for tea.

Then, as I don't like spending more time in the marina than necessary, I headed out for the night.  I went down to Cosgrove, where there were plenty of mooring spaces, down the lock, and along to the aqueduct.  I turned in the wide bit of canal at Galleon Wharf, and headed back to the aqueduct moorings, whe there was also masses of space.  I'm sure both Cosgrove and these moorings regularly used to be full, but this year there always seems to be plenty of room.

Once moored up, I reinstalled the sockets on each end of the cable from the freeview ariel to the junction box, in the hopes this would solve the problem of hardly ever getting a signal.  It worked, as we've gone from no tv in this location, to full signal strength and quality.  Of course, there's nothing on tv tonight I want to watch, but at least it means we should be able to get tv in more places now.

 

This evening I've also washed the fore deck.  The swallows (or a they swifts?) in the marina a lovely, but they do like to sit on the front of the cratch and leave calling cards all down the front of the boat.  The sun has been out, and it's a quite pleasant evening, especially with the bells of Cosgrove church wafting down the canal.

2 miles, 1 lock.