This month was not the most enjoyable we have had in our lives, it started well Sue had a great time in Spain, I had enjoyed my time going travelling with Mark so full of enthusiasm we did laundry and shopping looking forward to our next period of boat travel.
We didn’t get far. Being chilly mortals and it being the first few days of October we felt it was time to light the stove. What a disaster! Smoke billowed out of the joint between the stove and the flue. We contacted a local engineer, Gavin, who visited and on hearing we had just had the flue refitted after removing and de-rusting the roof collar he asked if both ends of the flue had been refitted? On being told it had not he stated that if one end of the flue is removed you have to remake the joint at both ends of the flue pipe as the seal breaks down and flue leakage is the result.
On carefully examining the flue he was able to confirm his diagnosis and discovered that a reducer fitted in the stove flue socket was cracked and must also be replaced as did the stove flue socket which no longer had fixing lugs as these had slowly burnt away over the years. He found replacements and because we were, he felt, wanting to get back cruising drove to the supplier on a Sunday morning, over an hour each way, to collect the parts. Back on the boat it was discovered the reducer was shorter than the original so now the flue pipe was not long enough and needed to be replaced. The Gavin managed to find a local company that had a piece of flue pipe of the correct length and diameter in stock and just a few days later everything was back in top top condition and we were ready to leave with just the bill to pay.
Hells Teeth it was a shock when it arrived. The parts were charged at the Midland Chandlers web prices, so that was pleasing, as if we had ordered them ourselves we would have paid the same prices but would also have paid postage and packing, Gavin, I hope, got a trade discount so he should have made a few bob out of the parts but the biggest shock was the labour Gavin charged just 3 hours at the very low rate of £30.00 per hour. he had spent at least 5 hours on the job, two hours minimum to pick up parts.
The last “going rate” I paid in Essex (2019) was £65.00 an hour and in Warwickshire (2020) it was £45.00 so £30.00 an hour in Staffordshire in 2023 is ridiculous. We insisted he charge the five hours he had spent on the job.
After three days to allow the joints to cure we lit the stove, no smoky atmosphere just lovely lovely heat.
We are on new territory at the moment and today, 12th October will be making our first transit of the Harecastle (aka The Scarecastle) Tunnel that runs between Kidsgrove and Tunstall. The tunnel, which is 1.6 mi (2.6 km) long, was once one of the longest in the country. Built to transport coatl to the kilns in the Staffordshire Potteries. The canal runs under the 195 m (640 ft) Harecastle Hill near Goldenhill, the highest district in Stoke-on-Trent. There were two tunnels first was constructed by James Brindley in the late 1700’s and the second larger tunnel was designed by Thomas Telford, and opened in the late 1820s.
Boats can now only enter the tunnel after a safety briefing by CRT staff with every boat skipper and his/her crew before entry to the tunnel. Wearing life jackets is recommended and a method of signalling with the boat horn explained both verbally and in writing. The boat horn is checked by the CRT as is the boats tunnel light then, after satisfactorily passing under a height gauge, each boat is counted into the tunnel and counted out again at the other end.
To give a flavour of the journey I have included below a YouTube video by one of the best narrowboat vloggers David Johns.
Our transit through the tunnel was exciting but uneventful, it did however take concentration so although we took a photo before we went in and two when we emerged we were far too busy to take any in the tunnel itself.
The canal water at both ends of the tunnel is a startling bright orange colour caused by iron oxide leeching from iron deposits in Harecastle Hill and staining the tunnel water.
The next objective was to descend the aptly nick-named Heartbreak Hill