Away from the City......

....to a rural mooring.

Yesterday Rod moved up to the water point first as we both needed to fill and empty, I moved up when he was finished and we set off in bright sunshine on a beautiful clear day, but it was very cold especially when passing shady areas or open fields with the wind blowing, so that pretty much meant the whole cruise was bitterly cold, luckily I wrap up warmly.

On the water point with the covered dry dock ahead.

Lock 1 on the Dee branch had plenty of water over spilling the gates.

Moving off under the bridge and away from Chester.

Taylor's Boatyard. 

Having done the necessary we headed off, I lead in case I needed to stop for Jack but he soon assumed the position and was well behaved for the trip.

I promise not too many more of these!

We passed over Deva aqueduct soon after leaving Chester.

There is little to say about the cruise, open countryside, fairly wide straight lengths of canal and no other moving boats, peaceful I guess, oh and did I say cold?

We did have to slow to tick over for some long term moored boats and one was moored about 3 feet further out from the bank than the rest which had me wondering why, I guess it was deep drafted, on reaching it I saw from the writing on the side that it was a steam narrow boat, I have already forgotten the name, old age does that!, and I was too busy looking at it before getting a not great picture looking back.

This one must be owned by a romantic.

Arriving at the village of Stoak, our intended stop, I couldn’t see any rings to moor to, it is shown in my guide as a mooring spot so I had hoped for rings but in the event I settled on an open area with a nice piled edge with a view of Helsby Hill, it looks better than the picture which is often the case.

Current mooring:

Totals this post: 4 miles : 0 locks

Today I took a wander into the village with Jack , not much there but a Church and a pub,the Bunbury Arms, which evidently has a mention in the good beer guide, it looked very pretty from outside.