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.