Homeward Bound - Farewell to the ER II

From the webmistress:
Unforseen circumstances...
Saying farewell is never easy, and I know in David and Helen's case it is with regret that they have to leave behind friends, the 'cut' and countryside walks they have come to love so much.
I in turn will miss David's spectacular photography of those walks!

I will leave the blog up for those of you who want to review where they have been and what they have done in this remarkable two year adventure of the NarrowBoat Elizabether Rose II aka CheeseBoat II. She is now in brokerage and awaiting another owner who will love her as much as these two did.

David and Helen are scheduled to touch down on our side of the world in November, plenty of time to get their bearings before spending Christmas with their daughters and husbands.

Safe Travels you two, Bless the Road that Carries You.

The Current Edition: Summertime! and the Selling is Cheesy...

Note to faithful readers: sorry couldn't resist the pun but I had to Say Something as these UK cheeky blighters have been having a great Summer and we are still at least a month behind temp and garden wise! (not fair, I am posting my complaint to the met as we speak)

*** Update to the Where are They Now:
We will be at the Samuel Barlow pub in Alvecote (B78 1AS for you landlubbers) from July 8th through July 10th, attending the traditional Boaters' Gathering on Friday and Saturday and the Summer Fair on Sunday. There will be fundraising stalls from tombolas to welly wanging, unique gift and craft stalls, trading boats, open historic working boats to view, vintage motorcycles, tricycles, face painter and glitter tattooist. Ryknild Rabble Morris Dancers will be performing, there will also be childrens rides, free boat trips, and More! We will have all our yummy cheeses onboard plus a nice selection of the delicious chutneys we carry - see you there!
***
And the Current List of Places to Catch Them On The Cut: (subject to change of course)

CHEESE BOAT 2 Year Month Date Venue 2011 Jul 2-3 Tame Otter, Hopwas (B78 3AF) Jul 8-10 Boat & Bike Gathering (Friday and Saturday) and Samuel Barlow Summer Fete (Sunday), Alvecote, Coventry Canal Jul 16-17 Hawkesbury Junction, junction of Oxford and Coventry canals Jul 22-24 Fradley Junction, junction of Trent & Mersey amd Coventry canals Jul 29-31 Audlem - Festival of Transport (July 31st) Aug 6-7 Fox & Anchor, Coven, Staffs. & Worcs. canal (WV10 7PW) Aug 13-14 The Lock pub, Wolverley,Staffs. & Worcs. Canal Aug 27-29 Audlem Food & Ale Festival (Bank Holiday weekend) Sept 3-4 Dusty Miller pub, Wrenbury, Llangollen canal Sept 9-11 Ellesmere Boat Festival, Llangollen canal Sept 17-18 Whitchurch Boat Rally, Llangollen canal Dates and events subject to occasional change - please check the 'WHERE ARE WE NOW' page for updates.

David as usual has some wonderful pics posted on ye old F/B so here are the links:
Enjoy!
and Doncha wish you were there, cruising along with them?
I DO!

Let's take a gander at his Phantastic Photos:

The Lake District

Spring 2011

Cheese Boat 2

Anderton - 'aw' pictures of Swan and cygnets

Audlem Music Festival : May 2011

11 Days on the BCN : Birmingham UK

Blessings of a Bountiful Summer!

The Current Edition: March 2011: ER II Thawed Out! Heading Into Her 7 Months of Cruising!

From the March 13 2011 Email

Note to Faithful Readers: kindly click on highlighted links to view David's incredible photos - thanks.

Well, it has been quite some time since we sent out an update on our
lives here in the UK - it has been a very, busy few months - all the
little jobs on the boat we thought we would get to... not yet done,
arghhh...

But, we start our cruising season in just over a week - will be out for
7 months, cannot wait!!

So, what have we been up to..

December was busy, as the Christmas season usually is - we had a quite a
few Christmas fairs to attend, definitely different in a venue as
opposed to selling from the boat - but December is not the time of year
to be heading out on a boat, especially as the canals were frozen from
Nov. 26th for over 7 weeks! But, ERII was safe and warm, plugged in at
the marina.

After Christmas, we had a lovely Boxing Day with our
friends from Cheese Boat 1 then back for a couple of days before heading
to my family in Scotland for Hogmanay (New Year's Eve) - and what a hoot
that was! My niece, Gaby, who turned 11 in January, had the time of her
life... once she could understand what everyone was saying. It's just
one party after another up there, culminating in 'first-footing' after
midnight on New Year's Eve. Upon returning home, her dad asked her if
she'd like to visit Scotland again and the reply was, "No... I want to
LIVE there!".

We did find time to do a couple of small jobs on the boat until we
headed to the Lake District with Cheesies 1 in mid-January. Had a great
time, beautiful weather (which, for those of you who know that area, is
quite unusual), lots of lovely hiking and exploring the pretty towns
like Grasmere, nice pubs - you get the drift..

We were home for a couple of days before flying to Canada to visit with
our daughters and sons-in-law and other family members - a very brief
trip (only 6 full days) and lots of visits to pack in - so, if you
didn't hear from us before you now know why.

Upon return, we picked up our tools and renovated the ugliest bathroom
we've ever seen, God's truth! Our poor clients went to one of those
flashy bathroom showrooms and got sold lots of lovely stuff that
wouldn't work in their small (not quite 6 foot by not quite 7 foot room)
bathroom - we argued to return lots of it and get them refunds, had to
make many changes but we got there in the end, although it took a full
week longer to do because of delays in products, etc.. Clients are
delighted, lovely, modern bathroom with the plumbing actually embedded
in the wall - radical over here!

So, back to the boat for a few days then we went to Dublin last week for
a couple of nights - beautiful city, very European and clean, straighter
streets, except for areas like Temple Bar. And, we had the most
gorgeous weather to top it off - bright blue skies, no wind and 11
degrees - walked miles and miles seeing the medieval and viking
quarters, Dublin Castle, of course did the Guinness tour and ended up at
the Gravity Bar on the top floor - David had his pint of Guinness and I
had a diet coke (just couldn't face a pint of it, although I did have a
Guinness burger for lunch, that counts, right?!) and took in the views,
back to the Temple Bar area - my favourite part of Dublin, hands down!
Walked around Trinity College then to the St. Stephen's Green area (tip
for those of you who want to have a drink in a real 'local' bar, not a
tourist spot - and this comes from Heather and Jamie who know their
stuff - O'Donoghue's just off the green, near the Huguenot cemetery) -
that night David had Guinness beef pie, he's topped up on Guinness for
awhile!

Flew back to Liverpool on a half-empty Ryanair flight, very rare,
usually packed like sardines on their flights - so we both took window
seats and enjoyed the views back to Blighty! Back on the boat to,
seriously, get her ready for the season - we are currently on our
'shakedown' cruise and all is going well. Have used my BBQ the last 2
nights, my favourite appliance in the whole world!

Lots of events happening over the next few months so watch this page!

* Diary 2011 for the ERII ( Or Cheesy 2)
Come buy! Some Cheeses and Chutneys if you are in the neighbourhood.

2011	Mar	25-27	The Fox & Anchor, Coven (Featherstone), Staffs. & Worcs. canal (WV10 7PW)
	Apr	1-3	Mother's Day, The Tame Otter, Hopwas, Coventry canal (B78 3AF)
	Apr	8-10	Fradley Junction, junction of Trent & Mersey and Coventry canals
	Apr	15-17	Great Haywood, Trent & Mersey canal
	Apr	22-25	Easter weekend, Fox & Anchor, Coven (Featherstone), Staffs. & Worcs. canal (WV10 7PW)
	Apr - May	30 2	Norbury May Day Rally, Norbury Junction, Shropshire Union canal
	May	7-8	Middlewich, Trent & Mersey canal (check `Where are We Now` for exact location)
	May	13-15	Anderton Boat Lift, Trent & Mersey canal
	May	25-30	Audlem Music & Arts Festival - Bank Holiday weekend, Audlem, Shropshire Union canal

Love to all,
Helen & David

Winter Special ! Heed and Read! The ERII is getting Known!

Besides being 'iced in',


(For those on Facebook Click HERE for the Frosty Cheshire photos)
They took the time out to be interviewed by Wireless and Ink.

Helen was interviewed on BBC Shropshire Radio..woohoo..
Kindly click HERE to 'have a listen'..
(its a bit choppy in places, but delightful to hear and the Little Black Bomber cheese that is mentioned is pure and simply the Best Mature White Cheddar you have ever tasted!)

And in the Canals Rivers + Boats Magazine: a two page spread about Cheese Boat I and II.
Click on the pages to enlarge to read.
BTW the Smiling couple below is Geraldine and Mike Prescott, owners of Cheese Boat I and fully to blame for all of this Cheese Boat nonsense..(g) It's what good friends do, right?
Page 1

Page 2

Enjoy listening and reading!
Seasons Blessings
Shanti

Winter Comes To England!

ERII Email received: November 29, 2010

We had a Xmas fair to attend in Kings Sutton this weekend, but much snow forecasted over the next few days. So got ourselves down here, pronto. It has been very cold in Cheshire -10C that very f*****g cold on a metal boat. The pond has about two inches of ice on it now! The central heating has been keeping up well, just nice to get into nice warm house.

They have been having a hard time get water to the moorings. Brand new marina but the contractor screwed up and did not insulate the pipes properly. The managers left one tap on each section of moorings( one you tag several hoses together to reach each boat). But someone came along in the middle of the night and turned off the tap. Well guess what, frozen!!! So went through the whole process again and the good Samaritan came along again and turned the taps off, once more. They were at it again when we left.
TTFN David and Helen

For more UK Winter pics: click here.
Blessings of a warm snug home to all who read this.

Catching Up with More Photos from the ERII

Without further ado: two new links to David's Photographic Genius:

A Winter Hike to Stanage Edge

and
just in time for the Holiday Season (dust off your Dickens!)

Christmas At Chatsworth

Blessings of the Season
Shanti

Cinque Terre Italy - Part 2!

From the ER II's Owners - email dated November 8/10

(photo of the Madonna di Reggio - D. Wanamaker (c) 2010

We are recently back from our second visit to the beautiful Cinque Terre
in Italy - we were there at the same time last year so we went back to
the lovely Vernazza again, and had days of really great hiking - we've
pretty much done all the trails now except for one sanctuary at the top
end of the Cinque Terre region. May have to go back to complete it one
day...

David's photos, as usual, are spectacular -
Click here to view the most recent Cinque Terre Slideshow.

Had a lovely season out on the canals, selling cheese and chutneys and
talking to lots and lots of interesting people. Our cruising season
starts at the end of March next year, so we will take these next couple
of months to complete all the (dozens of) small jobs we never got around
to on the boat before we headed out last March!

As well, we have some Christmas events to attend, although we will be
doing most of them in halls or pubs - definitely not the time of year we
want to be moving around the canals on our boat! We are cozy and warm
in a nice, new marina in beautiful Cheshire - 1/2 hour to the west is
Wales, 1/2 hour to the east is the Peak District. There will be lots of
hiking and exploring over this coming winter!

Hope everyone is keeping healthy and happy.

Cheers,
Helen & David

Autumn comes calling on the ER II

Early Morning Fog On The Water

David has uploaded some more great shots as the ER II sails into the Changing Season on the canals.
Kindly click on the above photo for the slideshow link.

Also here is an Update as to where and what they are doing currently.

We will be selling our cheeses and chutneys from a stall at the Whitchurch Farmers' Market this coming Saturday, Nov. 6th. Come see us and enjoy a traditional Farmers' Market!

We are wintering at OverWater Marina near Audlem (CW5 8AY) and plan to sell our yummy cheeses and chutneys in the weeks leading up to Christmas. So many of you have asked us about obtaining our products to give as Xmas gifts that we will be arranging to meet in central places (like Ellesmere by the end of the arm, and Audlem near the Shroppie Fly and Audlem Mill) on the first and second weekends in December to drop off your purchases. Please check this page closer to the middle of November for information re: ordering and definite drop-off dates and times.

If you live in the Audlem/Nantwich area and would like to drop by the marina to purchase cheese or chutneys, please ring us on 07876 032698 for details, or for further information.

*****
So there you have it - Photos and an Update of the Elizabeth Rose II and her owners.
Season's Blessings!

ER II Saga continues....

Time for an update. The boat seems to be all better now.
Fingers crossed.
We got the central heating fixed, ( the burner was flooded - the dumb frackers didn't design the flue properly so rain water gets in and makes it way into the burner can - I have done a John Wanamaker and fashioned a hood for the flue) and the overheating problem is remedied.
Like I said, fingers crossed.

Cheese season is winding down, the day are growing shorter and shadows are growing longer.
No frost on the pumpkin, yet. Scotland's got frost....frost on the haggis?

Like I said cheese season is slowing down, we are going to sell cheese through out the winter but not at the rate we did this year.
We have sold over 5000 cheeses this year so far.
Not too bad.

While we are in Kings Sutton, Kris and Walter are coming over for a couple of weeks.
They fly into Heathrow Sunday and then National Express it to Banbury where we will meet them and stick them in a hotel.
On Monday we will leave the Banbury area and drive up to the boat in Audlem.
Plan is to take them out for a week or more on the boat.
Once we get those two on a plane back to Canada, Helen and I are heading off to Italy for five
days.
Back to Vernazza and the Cinque Terre.

It will be a much needed break.
We are both knackered!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In November we have another reno to do for Peter and Chris.
They own the Audlem Mill and have been trying for years to get their kitchen finished.
I have a feeling this winter might just fly by.

We are looking forward to exploring more of Wales. The Welsh border is about a 20 min drive from the marina. Super cool!!!

Well the selling day is drawing to a close time take down the signs and drink a pint or two.

Love to you both,
Helen and David

Updating September - Where has the Summer Gone!

Email dated Sept 14th

We are up in the wilds of Shropshire on the Llangollen Canal. We have three festivals in this area in September. So far we have done Maesbury Festival on the Montgomery Canal and Ellesmere Festival on the Llangollen. Sales were good at both although I was surprised at Ellesmere figured it would be our best weekend yet. But Audlem blew her doors off. Everyone noticed that it was a little quiet. Might be the constant bad news about a double dip recession. BBC News, talk about self fulling prophesying!

Right now we are moored out of town, chillin' . Both knackered and slowly tending to small jobs. We are having the back end of some hurricane or tropical depression that's drag it's sorry ass across the Atlantic. Lots of wind and rain. According to BBC (those useless fuckers) it is suppose to blow through and we will have a nice late afternoon. If that is the case we will go and turn this boat around and have it pointing back towards Whitchurch and our next event coming up this weekend. After Whitchurch we have to get to Banbury by the 1st of October for their Canal festival. It will be a challenge getting there 159 miles and 103 locks in 10 days. All the wharf rats say its a two week trip (that's what I think also, I guess I'm turning into one of them, quick shoot me!) Watch this space!

At least that was the plan until the mechanical difficulty mentioned on the Cheese Boat Site occurred. Now they are on their way from Audlum headed for Norbury Junction for the week end of Oct 1st to 3rd.

We don't know what the problem was but they ended up at Audlum again last weekend. Probably for the best as Banbury was pretty ambitious.

The Llangollen Canal is the busiest canal Helen and I have ever seen. From dawn to dusk a boat passes us every 5 minutes or less. That is a freak of a lot of boats. This place is totally nuts!!!!!!!

No pictures this time, but we had to get caught up on where they are at least!

ER II Visits Kinver and Stourport

The CheeseBoat 2 does Chester!

I had mentioned to David (with some envy btw) that I would love to have some shots of he and Helen doing the Roman Wall Walk.
Well!
Here are his fantastic photos of them being 'out and about'.
Enjoy!

Where are They Now? Mapshots

For those of you who don't have access to the British Waterways super excellent Canals Map - here is a 'mapshot' of the next leg of the ER II's journey.

They will be traveling from Chester southish then turning North to the Anderton Lift which was noted on this map as being 'out of commission - check with BW'. (map note was from 1991)
Not so. It was restored in 2001 by the British Waterways.
(You can read all about this marvellous piece of Victorian Engineering here)

I hope to be posting more 'mapshots' as they motor along. (click on the map to enlarge it for easier viewing)

As I type this, I got an email:
Hi Guys
Thanks for the e-card and phone message.
Busy weekend and ERII performed beautifully in the 32C heat.
We are off to walk the Roman Wall this morning, then down the canal to
some quiet bank side for a well deserved rest.

When Helen and David return from their Chester Roman Wall tour, I hope David will post some pix to share

In the meantime: Looking at the map, you might be puzzled by the M and L in the little boxes:
M = MILES  and L = LOCKS.
(no the L  does not mean litres of consumable beverages, though I am sure that is probably used as a good excuse by the captain and crew..lol)

This means if you are a smart Narrowboater, you choose a canal route with the fewest locks possible!
Some have over 50, so if you go up and down that route, you are doing over a hundred locks!
Here 's a quick calculation for this leg from Chester to the Anderton Lift:
Adding up the M's in those boxes gives us 38.25 miles.
Now then..if we can assume they are able to do a 'generous' 2 MPH (that's right TWO miles an hour - top speed on the canals is FIVE and as far as I know, the ER II has not been able to achieve that due to busy and crowded canals)
but I digress: they should be able to arrive at the Anderton Lift in 20 hours -
which translates to daylight running of about 7-8 hours for 2 days and a bit.
You can see that Canal Boating is on a 'whole 'nother' Time Schedule for sure!
(considering that by car you could do the same distance in a couple of hours or less)
Another way of looking at it: 1 car hour =  approximately 1 day Canal Cruising
Speaking of Locks:
They are mostly the 'get out of the boat and use your windlass to wind the lock mechanism'  type of lock as well - none of this fancy schmancy swipe card automagical lock mechanism that we saw used in Ireland.


The photo below shows Helen 'winding the Lock' to release the gates.

If you are lucky, and the Lock-Keeper is home, then you can leave it to them to do that bit for you.

So cruise along with us on the next leg of the Ongoing Adventure of the Elizabeth Rose II; selling cheeses on  the Canals!
Blessings of a superlative summer!
Shanti

Back On Board the ER II - Cruising and Cheese Selling

After probably what will go down in the W Family History as the Month of MAYhem (Daughter Jenn's wedding to the dashing Ross), David and Helen are back ' on the Cut' aboard the ERII selling cheese once more.

Due to weak signals and continual frustration trying to get a decent internet connection: posts from them have been sporadic, but here is what I have, so you can now play catchup.

2010 - 06 - 16 AUDLEM
Hi guys,
Sorry it didn't work out with Skype.
It is quite hit and miss out here on the cut.
Hope this is some consolation, I took some shots while the BBQ was warming up this evening. So you can at least get a picture where we are right now.
Believe it or not just drifting across canal (a whole twenty feet) makes a big difference.
Talk to you Thursday or Friday.

ERII - BBQ
Lovely Evening isn't it? don't you wish you were there?


2010 - 06 - 26 CHESTER

Wow! finally got a chance to sit in front of the computer when there has been a signal of some sort.
I'm sure we motor through great signals everyday and on the odd occasion we have actually had a great signal where we moored up.
But as luck would have it I'm just too beat to move.
This new business venture is a lot harder than the B&B.
We are constantly on the move.
We haven't over extended ourselves as far as scheduling goes, it's just so much slower out on the canals with miles and miles of moored boats for example severely affecting our enroute time.
We are naturally traveling a lot further than the B&B business required us to go.
We are making adjustments to our schedule as much as possible but we have commitments we have to fulfill.
Next year will be better as we will have this year's experience to learn from.
We went past Beeston Castle today.
Great looking walk over to it, so the plan is when we leave here on Monday is take a couple hours to check it out.
Want to check out Chester, hope we have a chance.
Busy weekend ahead cheese selling meeting with the "big cheese" from Snowdonia tomorrow for lunch, get a delivery of cheese that was supposed to be with us two days ago but the other cheese company fd up and did not send it so now we are scrambling!
***
Well now its Friday and have moored up for the fifteen time. (You will see by the picture).

It is hotter than hades !!!!
Tricky trying to keep the cheese cool.
We have a dinner to go tonight in some old hall that wont be air conditioned, bloody hell!!!
On a good note cheese came no problem.
Met with Michael from Snowdonia Cheese Company, nice chap.
ime to jump in the shower and try to cool down.
What is with this country?
Feels like Palm Springs in July!!!!!
Love to you both,

PS: In the picture you can't see us, but we are there. Can you see the TV antenna to the right of the white tent on the right? There is green tree canopy, the antenna is right there.
(Note from blogkeeper: I put a blue arrow on the photo so you can find it)

Blessings of BBQ's on the back deck to everyone out there
Shanti

ER II is UP and RUNNING!

Snug as a bug in a rug, or as a 'canard in a canal?' (canard is french for duck, mr. ed)
Click on the photo to view the latest ERII vid!

Hi Guys,
I thought we would have lots of time out on the cut to call email etc. No such freaking luck. Still busy. Sold a ton a cheese so far. We are presently two days from Banbury on the Oxford Canal near a small hamlet named Marston Doles. I had a chance to film a movie of the almost finished boat. Helen has been too busy with lawyers, and cheese. etc to do a catch up letter. So until then this will have to do. At least you get to see the movie. Did it on Youtube this time as I could not get Photobucket to work.

Thanks Dave - it's always great to see how things are coming along and of course we are very pleased to hear that you two are actually 'live aboards' as opposed to being landlubbers.
It's been a long haul but from listening, and hearing! sounds like it was worth it!

Blessings of Country Canal Cruising and Profitable Cheese Selling!
Shanti

Its A Great Day for the ER II - She's Finally A Home!

Pictures - Before The Move:
March 3 - 2010 after a week being out of the water for re-blackening.
The Three Most Important Things In Life:
Eat, Sleep and SHOWER!
EAT (Galley shot)SLEEP (Bed shot)SHOWER! (oooooooo Full size and HOT Water!)Fast Forward to March 17, 2010
.."We are finally on the boat_
Last night was our first night and we slept like babies.
Still lots packing to do at the farm.
(Forgot to mention we have the
farm to the 24th so that is great for clean etc.)
Lots of things to set up but the computer seems to work good with serviceable 3g signal."
Woohoo!
Congratulations Helen and David - it's been a long hard slog, but not only is it a Great Day for the Irish but for Wanamaker Clan as well as we Celebrate your First Night Aboard!
(sound of popping Guiness cans!)
Blessings of bountiful Boat-ness!
J and G

She's Coming Along Nicely - More Pix from David

ER II Video # 2

FIRST TIME SELLING CHEESES FROM THE ER II !

I think it is probably with a great deal of relief and a bit of 'finally', that the ERII was put to the use she was built for - namely being one of the best darn Cheese Boats on the Canal System!

Here is David's amazing photography, giving us a look at what where they are and what they do.

Arrival at Fradley Junction

ER II in the early morning light.
The most picturesque junction (Fradley) in the entire canal system

Setting Up Shop

Our first time selling cheese from the boat.
Helen and a young customer

More Fradley Junction shots

(the Prettiest..Have to agree with you David on that one!)

ER II at Fradley Junction
Fradley Junction,with The Swan (known by the locals as the 'Mucky Duck')
Elizabeth Rose II with The Swan in the background Lock Keepers Cottage Fradley Junction
Now then, who wants to buy some cheese?
Remember you can 'try before you buy'.
Seasons Blessings of Christmasy Cheeses

First ER II Video! Work In Progress