Our winter cruising period starts when the BW stoppages take effect at the end of October each year and usually last through until the end of March the following year.

BW use this period to carry out repairs on locks and canals, which means that we boaters have restricted access to the canal network during this period.

They do provide us with a list of the stoppages, which enables us to plan where we can cruise whilst they are carrying out necessary repairs to the system.

2001-04 - Our first winter was spent in a marina on the Macclesfield canal whilst we moved aboard and sorted out our house.

The following three years we returned to the “Macc” as it was the nearest we could get to our family in the north and to Janice’s sister in Manchester.

2005/06 - This was the winter when we tried somewhere different, we moved onto the Oxford/Coventry/Ashby and Grand Union canals centred around Napton on the Hill. This gave us a much larger cruising area.

2006/07 - It was back to the Macclesfield and Upper Peak Forest, as we needed to be nearer to home to enable us to visit family and friends.