Saturday 5th November.
Hooray, we are back on board Blackstone.
We have not cruised for over a year due to personal circumstances and a partial refit of the boat. Everything is now sorted out and we are able to use Blackstone again.
This weekend we had a short cruise to Dunham and back.
We set off from the marina at 9:40. There was plenty of cloud, but at least it was dry. The sun came out just before lunch time and it warmed up a bit. However, by mid afternoon the temperature had dropped considerably.
We saw several bonfires along the way. The one at Ye Olde Number 3 is huge. Unfortunately we could not see their firework display from our mooring.
We stopped twice to check the water trap. We have diesel bug and want to keep the water trap cleaned out so that the muck doesn't get through to the filters and stop the engine. There wasn't as much muck as we expected. Fingers crossed that we are finally getting rid of the bug. We have put enough diesel bug killer in over the last year!
I gave the galley a good scrub out. The work surfaces were covered in dirt, dust and varnish. It looked like they had been used as work benches while the saloon was fitted out.
We cruised past Dunham to turn round and then back to moor on the non towpath side by the underpass at 15:15.
Lit the fire and made a mug of hot chocolate. Had pizza for tea and sat listening to the radio for a while. There were lots of fireworks. We could hear more than we could see, but there were some close enough to see including some actually on the towpath as we were going to bed. We put the TV on at 21:00 to watch Taggart, but we decided not to watch it all and went to bed at 22:00.
View from the side hatch Saturday evening.
Sunday 6/11/11
Carl got up at 6:40 to take Maccs out. It was frosty and foggy. Liz got up about 7:20, when they got back.We lit the fire again and the boat soon warmed up. We had bacon barms for breakfast. 
Turned the engine on about 8:30 and set of at 8:45 into the mist. I love this time of year with the frost and the mist in the mornings and the sun trying it's best to break through.
Setting of into the mist
The mist had cleared by 9:30 and the sun was shining. The sky was soon a beautiful shade of blue with hardly a cloud in sight.
Stopped at Thorne Marine to buy coal, peat and diesel bug treatment.
Why are some boaters in such a hurry? Laughing Tam came right up behind us and sat on our tail until we pulled over to let them pass. It's not as if we were going particularly slow. They were travelling so fast that they pulled a Claymore day boat’s pins out when they passed.
We moored for lunch at 12:20 just through Walton. Had lunch and set off again at 13:25. Got back into the marina and moored up at 14:40.
Beautiful sunny day on the Bridgewater canal.
