A hop down the staircase.

Yesterday was bright and dry as we headed through Chester following the city wall to reach the treble Northgate staircase locks.

Heading away from my mooring.

 It was Jacks first cruise so obviously I was a little apprehensive, I decided to put his bed on the stern deck shielded from the wind and with the engine warmth rising through the deck board he should be ok, for safety I attached his lead to my bike padlock chain. After about 5 minutes he settled down to sleep through the rest of the cruise!

What's happening Captain?

We followed the city wall up to the locks.

I was a bit too busy to take pictures of the staircase until we had eventually descended to the bottom chamber, I say eventually because we had a bit of a problem getting to bottom gates of the top chamber open to allow our descent, whether it was because only one paddle was working or because of an error I might of made in adding water because the lower lock level looked to low I am not sure, but we got through safely after the issue was resolved.

Bottom chamber top gates shared as bottom gates for the middle chamber.

Preparing to exit.

they look big when you are down inside.

 I did not want to go any further on Jacks first day and we moored again as soon as we had rounded the sharp right turn leading into Tower Wharf. It’s still handy for the shops and also now the retail parks are much closer, with some grassy areas as well it suits our needs nicely,

Current Mooring:

 

Totals this post: ½ mile : 1 treble staircase lock

Tower Wharf is a lovely open area with the Dee branch cutting back parallel to the main line through two locks before a sharp right turn, a lift bridge and another lock eventually allow you onto the tidal river Dee, Pearson’s guide book states “a waterway not accessible other than by pre-arrangement and certainly not one for relatively inexperienced boaters, let alone novices or the faint hearted”, that’s me out then J

Here’s some pictures:

Telford's warehouse on the right.

This is now all flats but would have been warehouses.

The Dee branch below the mainline where I am moored.

Lock 2 on the branch leading to the river Dee, sorry about the sun!

Looking down on the Dee branch.

Ahead of us are the services, a covered dry dock and boat yard.

We intend to move on again tomorrow.

A brief update.

On Sunday I awoke to find we had some snow/hailstones overnight leaving quite a covering.

It rained on and off and most of it had cleared away by the time my new crew mate arrived around 6pm.

Jack, an English Bull Terrier.

I have intended to get a dog since I began boating but have either found excuses or not seen a rescue dog I liked at a convenient time, Jack (I have renamed him, he was formerly Maverick) was bought by my son along with his brother (two puppies), in theory it sounded great, two brothers to grow up together but that proved to be impractical, they fought trying to claim dominance and with my Granddaughter being small and curious the risk of her getting caught between them became too great, so I was asked if I wanted to take one of them, and Jack is the result.

We intended to move on today but the weather forecast wasn’t great and I still had a few bits to sort out for the new arrival so we have stayed put and will head off tomorrow.

Jack and I are getting used to each other meanwhile, he’s still at the chewing stage (4 months) so I have been discovering what is at risk (most things) and what is ok (not much), and I now need a new pair of headphones! 

Other than that he seems to be settling in well.

Finally in Chester.

With just 5 locks to pass through but both wanting to top up our water tanks I cast off first around 9:30 and moved up to the water tap.

Water tank filling.

Rod moved up and once I was full he moved on to the tap while I went ahead and set Christleton lock (9).

A large almost tunnel like road bridge awaits the other side of Greenfield lock (8).

This section is quite suburban with houses and industrial units covering its length.

At Tarvin lock (7) there is a view across the sports ground and a round building that would have once housed maintenance equipment.

Approaching Chemistry lock (6) the circular Victorian Waterworks building dominates.

Looking down from Chemistry Lock

At Hoole lane lock we had a bit of a delay, with only one paddle working I was left to hover mid canal while it took its time filling, but I got a picture of this quaint cottage which must have formerly had some other use but now appeared to be a private residence.

After passing through that lock you are in the much more built up area, converted warehouses now used for Pubs Clubs and blocks of flats, we were looking for a mooring spot so brested temporarily before walking along further and finding a 48hr section with rings that suited us and moving up to there.

Current mooring:

Totals this post: 2 miles : 5 locks

We are here until Monday earliest, everything needed is available in the numerous shops within reasonable walking distances. Yesterday I took a trip to the launderette, and topped up with some provisions. This morning we took a wander around, cities and large towns are not my thing, but if they are yours, Chester looks to be a fine place for a stay and explore its many historical features in and around the centre.

A chilly cruise.....

..... and more moored boats than you want to see on a cold day!

We cast off yesterday at about 9:30, the water level at our mooring had dropped slightly and it required a little bit of pushing and shoving to free ourselves from the silt before we could move away and head past the entrance to Tattenhall Marina.

As we came up to bridge 114 the longest line of moored boats I have ever encountered came in to view, not that I knew that to begin with, but they went on and on, they must have been continuous for over a mile, and passing them all at tick over seemed to take an age not helped by the fact that it was definitely chillier than I had dressed for, but it was lovely and bright.

Moored boats as far as the eye could see.

Once finally clear of them it was open country for a couple of miles.

This conversion job was obviously still a work in progress.

We had a choice of two mooring stops in mind; around Egg Bridge was the first, that’s the Village name as well as the name of bridge 119, there was a small group of anglers taking up the available moorings before the bridge and the spots after the bridge did not look too inviting so we carried on, it did look like a ice little area though with some attractive canal-side property.

Our second choice for a strop was at the village of Christleton, two visitor mooring choices were shown in my guide and I had relayed that information to Rod who was leading.

The first option was passed as it was a bit shady

First option area.

We took the second option, although it wasn’t on the visitor ‘moorings’, there was a line of mooring rings, just enough for one boat, right outside a pub and with the car park alongside exposing a gap through to a very noisy main road, so we stopped before it.

This property had a big red 'No Mooring' sign, probably not official,
 but I wouldn't have wanted to moor in the shade of the building anyway

Current Mooring:

Totals this post: 6 miles : 0 locks

I was glad to get below and get warmed up!

Catching up......

.....sorry about the enormous number of words and pictures.

Sunday 12^th

We both needed a fill of water and an empty of cassettes so on Sunday we opted for a late start and a short run to take us of the Middlewich branch and on to the mainline of the Shropshire Union canal, apart from the strong breeze it should have been an uneventful cruise.

I lead off and with no locks I was soon approaching Barbridge junction which takes you on to the mainline, the moored boats on either side did not pose a real problem but the wind made it a bit difficult to cruise in a straight line.

So before entering the bridge at the T junction with its blind exit for me I did what is the correct thing and sounded a long blast on the horn, now the correct response to this if you are approaching the junction along the mainline and hear a horn sounding can be one of two things, either sound an equally long blast, in which case I would slow to a stop knowing it wasn’t clear, or slow to a stop to allow me to exit, my bow was well out of the bridge hole and about half way across before I saw a boat who had not responded at all, he wasn’t slowing nor had he sounded his horn, so evasive action was needed to avoid a collision by me going into reverse, unfortunately at this point it all went pear shaped for me, the wind was too strong and slowly pushed the bow round, despite my efforts to avert it,  until I was actually facing the opposite direction that I wanted to go. After the other boat had cleared (I gave him the benefit of doubt and assumed he hadn’t heard my horn, although Rod following behind me had heard it clearly) and with me semi-wedged across the canal facing the wrong way I waved Rod through so I could re-position myself, this entailed pulling the boat back with the center line until I was clear of the junction and then use the junction to turn the boat the correct way around. Well that’s boat life sometimes!

The service point at Calveley was not far ahead and I caught Rod up again just as he was tying up alongside.

Having filled and emptied first I went ahead and moored up on the visitor moorings, I had found that the fuel boat Halsall was due through here on Monday, it was another reason I wanted to stop early and to make sure we caught him.

Moorings Sunday:

The Fuel boat duly arrived in the afternoon on Monday, I took another 5 x 20kg bags of smokeless and this time they topped my diesel tank properly, 60 ltrs.

Tuesday 14^th

We are sort of killing time again because of Winter stoppages (lock repairs) we will be locked in the area around Chester and Ellesmere Port from 20^th November until the 15^th December so we don’t need to rush to get there, just as long as we make it through the first stoppage before the 20^th November, so today we opted for another short run with it in mind to try and get some provisions, shops are few and far between here abouts!.

We set off around 9am with the Bunbury Staircase locks not far ahead, I was leading again, a warning about the closures was verbally given to me as I passed a long term moorer stood outside his boat, we are a helpful bunch! The first thing you see as you approach are the former stables, used to change to fresh horses in days gone by, working boats used to travel the 80 miles from the Mersey ports to the Black country in just over 24 hours, it will probably take me around 14 days to complete that, including 6 or 7 rest days, but no one pays me to do it J 

The stables and surrounding building are now occupied by the Anglo Welsh narrow boat hire company.

The section of the Shroppie from Barbridge to Ellesmere Port is built to wide beam dimensions so Bunbury staircase is formed by two double locks sharing one pair of center gates, I went and set the lock while Rod hovered midstream.

Top Chamber

In the top chamber looking down on the bottom chamber

Once we were down Rod exited first and I closed up afterwards and then passed by the Anglo Welsh fleet taking up a chunk of the canal width.

Looking back after closing the bottom gates.

Anglo Welsh hire boats lined up two abrest.

It’s very pleasant countryside with the odd impressive view, the canal is deep and wide with no real challenges and so just the scenery to admire watching out for the occasional rare boat travelling towards you, it being Winter.

We went through Tilstone lock (13) before mooring up just prior to the Beeston Locks which is where the stoppage will be on the 20^th November.

Mooring:

 View from the side hatch:

Although it was a nice quiet mooring despite a nearby train line, the towpath was muddy and there was no phone or internet signal for me, one of the reasons for the lack of blog posts, how ever in keeping with my cruise every other day we still stayed on Wednesday as well.

Today Thursday 16^th

Rain first thing, for a while it looked like we may be staying put another night but it did clear and turned into a lovely bright , if a little breezy, day. We set off around 11AM for a lovely cruise taking us through the two Beeston locks, the first of which is a conventional build, the second is built of iron plates which was a result of ground instability and Telfords way of dealing with that. 

This made it interesting for me as there are no lock ladders, normally I use the ladders and walk along the boat roof but on this occasion I had to adopt the method of pulling the boat out of the lock using the center line, which is Rod’s normal method of working, it was also necessary to do this lock one boat at a time due to a ledge in the construction which could catch the unwary boater when going through in pairs.

Leaving the first Beeston Lock

After dealing with that one I left Rod to go through while I set off to prepare Wharton’s lock (10), some lovely views here as well.

A dinky butty, would be towed behind main boat.

Beeston Castle, remains, unfortunately the sun was behind it.

Entering Wharton's Lock

Bit of a leak I think

In comes Rod

There was plenty of open country with views of Beeston Castle high up dominating the skyline,  before passing The Shady Oak pub, may stop here on the return leg.

We moored up on an open stretch of water just before Tattenhall Marina with the castle hiogh up in the distance.

Current Mooring:

Totals this post: 8 Miles : 6 locks