I have Internet !!

A bit of a catch-up again due to not being able to post, so it's a long split post.

Sunday 9^th January: Wrenbury

I set off this morning at 10:30 for a fairly short run to Wrenbury.

The initial part of the trip was fairly uneventful, just farmland, you tend to not see so much wildlife during the winter months but as another boat approaching got quite near I spotted a really beautiful brightly coloured kingfisher just sitting on a branch posing, sadly I couldn’t risk getting my camera because of the proximity of the other boat and of course the kingfisher never moved, typical!

You do see a lot of swans but I think this one was lost; Alton Towers is quite some distance from here.

The Baddiley locks were my first obstacle, three of these and the first once was against me, so I worked through that and as I approached the second one a boat came out of it so I was able to go straight in, then as I left the second one a boat approached so I was able to leave the top gate open for him and that also meant the third lock was in my favour so I was able to nudge the gates open, all in all a nice bit of luck.

Not long after the locks my Pearson’s guide highlights a sharp bend, but when I got there I did not see any reason for the highlight, it was sharp-ish but fairly wide, maybe in the summer with lots of holiday boat traffic it could prove a problem.

Lift bridge 19 just before Wrenbury was down.

The controls are on the non-towpath side but this one was ok, there was a reasonable section of bank to hop onto so I nudged into the bank and walked along the gunnel  to hop off the bow taking my bow rope with me, this type of bridge is opened by windlass (windy lock key thing) as against the counterbalance weight type (pulling the counter balance beam down to get the bridge up into the open position) I prefer the windlass type because you don’t have to try to chain it in the up position, it just stays up until you wind it back down, and luckily as I was opening it a boat approached ahead so I was able to leave it up, hop back aboard, and go on my way leaving them to go through and close it after.

Leaving it 

I moored up before the next lift bridge and went for a stroll around the village, it’s only small, not much here, the usual two pubs and a church and a well stocked Post Office cum general store, although like most of these quiet places there is housing expansion out from the central part, here’s a few pictures.

Cotton Arms Pub

Dusty Miller pub

A nice house

and another

St Margarets church

Village stores cum Post Office

Wrenbury Mill ABC boat hire and the next lift bridge on my route

Unfortunately there is only a very weak phone signal, no internet and no TV on my little Necvox antenna (I could not be bothered to put up the main ariel, did I miss anything?)

The boat in front of me is selling rope fenders and I need an extension piece to my stern button which is shorter than the projecting rudder,it is in fact already quite big being made up of two separate parts but the rudder projects another two or three inches.

This helps to prevent damage to the rudder should you reverse into a lock gate or anything else, it also prevents the rudder being dislodged from its retaining cup, a bit of a nightmare if that happens requiring two or three strong people and a big hammer to get it back in place, so if the chap has what I need I may stay and fit it tomorrow otherwise I will probaly move on.

Total travel today: 3 miles : 3 locks : 1 lift bridge
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Monday 11^th January

I had a chat with the fender maker and decided to buy a new button to replace one of my existing ones, this is my current setup, it's short and too low catching the rudder occasionally

 I removed the thin one nearest the boat and replaced it with the thicker new one.

I then refixed the existing outer one, leaving me with this.

It now projects further than the rudder so should be much better, from an aesthetic point of view it would have been nicer if it were a slightly bigger diameter but the chap did not have any bigger ones.

It was a lot harder to do than I had thought, stretching out over the crowded stern deck, you have the tiller, the mooring posts and the seats all in the way, add to that the effect of gravity and trying to get the shackles holding it together in the correct chain links by shifting it all up one link at a time until you get it right, it was about four hours of hard slog, with resulting sore fingers and back, but another job done and another £50 lighter in the wallet.

No travel:

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Tuesday 12^th January

Having no internet combined with a very weak phone signal is frustrating, so I had decided to move on to Whitchurch this morning, however, when I woke it was raining so I thought it would be another day at Wrenbury.

Around 10 the rain cleared and it didn’t look too bad so I thought I’d give it a go, the lift bridge ahead is electric which isn’t much help (it just means you don’t have to physically wind it up) and has traffic lights because the road crossing it is fairly busy, so I wasn’t looking forward to holding up the traffic, although it does give you a feeling of power J. As I was about to set off the fender-maker said he would walk ahead and operate the bridge for me which was nice of him and it meant minimal work for me (just steer through the gap) and less of a delay for the motorists.

It was very chilly and bright to begin with but dark clouds around warning of rain at some point and I was happy to see that the next lift bridge was open.

For those who have wondered what a winding hole is here is a very nice example, Thomason’s Winding Hole.

Basically it is an enlarged area cut into the surrounding field or whatever to allow you to put your bow into the ‘hole’ and turn the boat using forward and reverse as necessary, it is pronounced like the blowy stuff as the boatmen of old relied on the wind to move the boat around.

They are not always as big and clear as this one and not many have a name posted.

The first lock of the day was Marbury lock.

Another amusing (to me) boat name, but I think he should add ‘and a packet of crisps’

Moving from Cheshire back into Shropshire the next lock was Quoisley lock, which appears just after a blind bend beneath the bridge carrying the A49, a precautionary sounding of the horn even though I haven’t seen any other boats moving today.

Next comes Willey Moor Lock with the very conveniently place pub of the same name, I will assume Willey Moor was famous for something as my Pearson’s only states that it is justifiably popular, and I have not internet to research it.

Then on to Povey’s Lock which turned out to be the last one for today, where I found a windlass on the spindle of one of the bottom gates, this surprised me as I hadn’t passed anyone so it had either been there overnight or a boat going up the lock with two people operating the gates must have left it, anyway my first thought is always ‘I hope they had a spare’! Shortly after with the sky looking decidedly like heavy rain approaching I decided not to tackle the next 6 locks but moor up for today, it was a good call because shortly after the rain came, heavy and persistent.

Total today: 5.5 miles : 4 Locks : 2 Lift bridges (open)

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Today: Wednesday 13th January

Well to say it was cold this morning would be about right, the roof of the boat was sheet ice as it had rained last night, the ropes were frozen solid and the cabin was ‘cool’.

Half an hour later with the boiler on and the fire roaring my outlook brightened, it was still very cold so I left it until 11 before setting off on the short but busy run to Whitchurch where I hoped I would get an internet signal.

Just ahead was the first of the 6 Grindley Brook locks, 3 single locks followed by a staircase of 3 more raising me up 38ft 11inches.

It started well as I got to the first lock a boat was descending so I helped them through and expected the ascent to be easy as all the locks should now be in my favour.

The second lock had a fairly vicious bywash which I didn’t allow enough for and I bashed to lock entrance wall a bit harder than is comfortable.

The third lock was uneventful leaving the staircase for me to tackle. 

I tied up and went to have a look to make sure no-one was descending and to be clearer on the layout.

Staircases are combined locks so instead of 3 separate pairs of gates (in this instance) that would normally be needed there are only four gates, 3 in pairs and one single, the middle lock in effect is formed by using the top gates of the lowest lock as it’s bottom gates and the bottom gates of the top lock as its top gate, if that makes sense!

Navigating them should be fairly easy, when going uphill you start with the bottom lock empty and the upper locks full and when going downhill you start with the top lock full and the lower locks empty.

When I looked all three locks were empty  as expected because the earlier boat had come through, so in order to speed my progress I made a mistake, I opened the paddles to the top and middle locks to fill them, ok, that was fine, but then I decided I had time to bring the boat into the bottom lock as the others were filling, I didn’t have time, so what happened was the middle lock filled and continued to be filled by the open paddles until it overflowed, I had to jump off the boat as I saw the problem and run up and drop the paddles to the middle lock, by now water was cascading over the gates and lock sides and running down the paths, hmmm.... lesson learnt again, don’t rush and try to cut corners to save time! Luckily no real harm done, I soon stopped the flow and continued on through slightly embarrassed, luckily no one about to witness it.

It was then a quick stop on the service point to top up the water tank and on to Whitchurch mooring just before Lift Bridge 31 on the offside visitor moorings.

It was all rather busy so only mooring pictures today. But as is evident by this catch-up post I have internet! Sorry it's a bit long.

Tonights mooring taken from the side hatch for a change.

Total today:  2miles : 6 locks

On to the Llangollen

Well it's a bit late but Happy New Year everyone.

On Saturday my family visited me, it was a long drive for them and I met them as soon as they arrived and we headed off to the Shroppie Fly in Audlem for lunch, it was nice to sit down and catch up with news and get some cuddles from my granddaughter Hazel. The food was ok, not great but ok.

We all went back to the boat and I opened my Christmas presents ☺.

My daughter-in-law Natalie took this lovely
 picture of me and little Hazel,
 someone was making her happy !

It was soon time for them to head home, it was a lovely if shortish visit, hopefully next time I might be further south.

I haven't done much else, I went into Nantwich a couple of times for supplies but it rained each time so no pictures, it is a very nice town though.

The fuel boat was due to come through Wednesday morning so I requested a stop but he had a few more customers than he expected and as he passsed me late Wednesday he shouted that he was out of supplies and would be back Thursday early afternoon, he finally arrived about 4:30 so all was ok.

This morning I headed off at 10 it was very cold but dry, passing over the Nantwich aqueduct over the A534

My first stop was at the service point for the usual fill and empty, the water pressure was poor so the fill took just over an hour.

Moving on again and the first boat I met was at a narrow with moored boats either side, I had right of way but realised he wasn't slowing so I had to, he apologized saying he couldn't see me because of the moored boats and the low winter sun, it was ok, these things happen, I  just had to use a large handful of throttle in reverse to avoid contact with him, and then sort out avoiding contact with the moored boats J

I was soon arriving at Hurleston junction where the Llangollen joins the Shroppie, an interesting sharp left as you come through bridge 97 with the lock landing on the left where the bywash also is, it's plenty wide enough but I could not get round and over in one go, so a bit of reversing to get into position.

In position on lock landing

There are warnings to lift your fenders and this is why.

Not much room on the left

Not much room on the right either!

Quite tight this flight of four Hurleston locks taking you up 34ft 3inches.
It has been known for boats to get wedged in narrow locks held tight by their fenders as the waters drops away beneath them, I bet that causes the loss of few years of lifespan from the hapless boater, probably won't do it twice!

A smooth run through the four locks, two in my favour and two against due to leakage filling them up.

Looking back down the flight of four locks

It was looking a bit black over the fields and I considered stopping but decided to carry on a bit.

I then made a quick stop at Swanley Marina to purchase another Pearsons Canal Companion, this one is for Welsh Waters and is the fourth one I have bought from a series of nine, I was soon off again through the two Swanley locks.

Nice chimney on a nice house

I didn't have the chance to read the companion to get a feel of what I wanted to do so I have moored up in the countryside just after bridge 10, just me and some horses in the field opposite, lovely.

Tonights mooring

Today's Travel: 6 miles : 6 locks

 

Nantwich

I checked the weather report yesterday morning and it seemed to be ok so I headed off towards Nantwich around 10am.

It was quite chilly but pleasant enough as I moved past fields

and not much happening, passing another boat moored up the owner asked me what Quinquireme  meant, a fairly common occurrence to which I gave my now normal response ‘an ancient warship with five deck of rowers’.

There are two fairly isolated locks on this stretch, the Hack Green locks, arriving at the first lock which was against me I was just about to fill it when I spotted a Canal and River Trust workboat approaching so I helped them through before moving through myself, this meant the second lock was in my favour, just a bit of a fill to get the top gate open, and I was through that one and away again.

Approaching the first lock

About to exit the second lock

Nantwich is a very busy canal area so I stopped at the first available mooring and then walked ahead to see if I could find better, I needed to be somewhere convenient for visitors coming on the 2^nd Jan to be able to park and get up on to the high embankment that exists along this section, I found somewhere a little better a few hundred yards ahead so moved on to that, it's a little way away from the action and so is fairly quiet but later I walked along to buy some milk and after the aqueduct ahead of me it was packed fairly solid for the next half mile or so with moored boats.

Current mooring

Total travel:  5miles : 2 Locks

This morning the very high winds were whipping up waves on the canal, my boat was rocking from side to side and the rudder was banging on the stern in a regular beat despite being secured with a bungy cord as I usually do, behind me on the bend in the canal the water was at its worst and was crashing into the boat moored behind me and washing over his stern deck, it was like waves at the seashore, quite a sight.

I popped into town, about a 20 minute walk, it looks very nice but the weather was not really suitable for sightseeing so I will return another day.

Christmas catch up.

Christmas Eve:

It wasn’t a great start, my timings were all wrong again. I walked through an absolute downpour to get my provisions, I think the staff in Morrisons must have thought me insane, I was dripping water all over the store.

Back at the boat and dried off and it cleared up a bit, but I put the waterproofs on anyway (better late than never) and set off about 10am, I wanted to do a short hop which included 5 locks and look for a nice quiet spot to moor for tomorrow.

Just a little way along from my mooring were these flats and houses with private moorings, a lot were unoccupied but some had boats on them.

I have heard of this boat through other blogs and thought I’d share the humor with you.

As I was approaching the first of the flight of five Adderley locks the heavens opened again, it was cold, wet, slippery around the locks and muddy on the towpath, at lock 3 it began to hailstone, lovely, what more could you want, oh yes, the boat got caught on the lock landing as the level  in the pound dropped, it was lodged solid and I could not get the centre line untied, ho hum.......ever wish you’d stayed in bed?

So with a lot of pushing and shoving on muddy slippery towpath and no luck I tried reversing and to my joy and relief she eased off the bottom and the rope slackened and I was away again.

At lock 5 the last for today the wind was almost blowing me off my feet, I could see my mooring spot ahead and could not wait to get to it, but this would be the worst time to try to rush, the stone edgings around the locks were treacherously slippery and I did not fancy ending up in the water.

So as I left the lock the sun came out, I could not believe it, the afternoon has been bright and sunny although still a bit blustery. I am moored at Adderley visitor moorings just after the locks.

Christmas Break Mooring

Look at that bright Sun.

My view for Christmas.

Total travel 24^th: 4 miles : 5 locks

Christmas day was quiet, as I intended it to be, I washed the roof, cooked a roast dinner and uncorked a nice bottle of Red I had treated myself to, I was halfway through eating dinner when I realised I’d forgotten the Yorkshire puds, how can you have a roast without them! Well I had no choice my brain was not on the dinner as I was dripping over Morrisons floor.

Yesterday it was back to howling winds and a rocking boat, good job I neither wanted nor needed to move.

Today was much better, no wind although a dampish feel as the sun wasn’t out when I set off for a short but physical cruise, I wanted to get through the 15 locks that make up the Audlem flight.

Just about a mile to the first lock through lovely countryside.

 And then the work begins, first lock.

They were all against me today, I had some joy when two boats came up the flight following each other, it meant those two locks were in my favour, but because of leakage the rest had drained before I reached them.

Looking down the flight, lock 4, I think.

I also had some nice walkers offer to close the bottom gates for me at three of the locks, that helps, some people are lovely.

Lovely former lock keepers cottage

I stopped in the pound after lock 11 and had a cuppa and a sandwich before setting off for the last 4 locks, passing The Shroppie Fly pub.

And then after about 4 hours the sight I was waiting for.

Final lock ahead.

I had intended to moor after this lock but did not like it so I carried on, passing more lovely vistas.

And then the fairly new Overwater Marina, it's another big one, I think the farmers must make a killing selling their land for these.

Beneath bridge 80 and a nice section of empty piling with nice open fields and that was me done for the day, you may gather I prefer to be out in the countryside moored up when I can, it's just peaceful compared to the more popular venues. 

Tonights mooring.

Totals Today: 4 miles : 15 locks

Closed for the Holiday.

I moved today, found a lovely spot to spend Christmas but.......why is there always a but? I have no phone signal at all and only a very weak internet, so Merry Christmas everyone, I will move on the 27th and hopefully be back to normal.