Farewell Ferndale.

For the last two months we have had the pleasure or Ray and Diane's company (from NB Ferndale).  They have been moored up around the Bollington aqueduct mostly plus other mooring spots along the canal, to keep within the CC rules.

We have had many nights in the local pubs plus bath nights at our house (not together!). 

We cannot thank them enough for their friendship and most importantly looking after our doggies whilst we went off to various appointments.

The least I could do was to give them a hand down Bosley locks today.

It wasn't the best of days ... it was freezing cold, windy and worst of all I had to meet them up at the top of the flight at 09.00!!  I had to get up at 08.00....yikes!

Here is Ray crabbing into a lock, the wind was blowing pretty hard right on the beam ...

I soon warmed up and stayed on lock duty all the way down.....must lose some weight - I felt it!

We reached the longest pound when 'uh oh', there was no water in it!  The boat was stuck on the bottom of the lock!

I went back up the flight to let some water down ...

We finally let down enough water to get out of the lock only to run aground after a few feet.  More water was let down and we were on our way ...

Diane took over the helm halfway down the flight ...

Once at the bottom it was time for a cuppa and a yummy bacon roll.

The wind was blowing hard when I took the final shot.  Ray had to hang on to Diane's bazookas as he was worried the wind would catch them and knock him overboard!  

I walked back up the flight to the car and headed back to Dodge.

Once home it was time to get the motorhome insurance sorted!

So, I started with 'Saga' and what a saga it was!

I am a very patient person but after chatting for nearly thirty minutes to a salesman I finally snapped!  He could not get his head around what a motorhome was for a start and kept asking me the most inane questions, like ...

• Was it a hatchback?!!  
• How long have you had it in storage and have there been any claims on it?
  (I havn't bought the 'kin thing yet - as I have told you 10 times!)

I finally gave up and asked if he would get someone else to ring me back.  Oh joy, I got to speak to someone who knew what a motorhome was!  However, it all came to a screeching halt when we came to storing it at the farm down the road ... no negotiation, 'we won't insure you' - end of!

Never in my life have I had a problem trying to spend money on getting insurance!

I also rang 'Safeguard' again as they were the company who insured our last motorhome with no hassle whatsoever.  They said they would insure us but at nearly twice the price of our last motorhome, which indecently cost the same amount of money!  They would not go into the reasons or give me a breakdown of how they work out their costs either.

Next was a company called 'AIB' who came highly recommended on a motorhome forum I joined recently.  Wow, what a difference!  When we came to the storage question and I mentioned the farm down the road he asked me lots of questions about the farm but he also went onto the google satellite maps to have a look at the farm himself!  He could see that there were motorhomes stored there and, most importantly, how far the farm is off the road and up a winding track.

Yay, all sorted!