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

Three canals in one day.

We had arrived at Middlewich earlier than needed for the repair work to Rods boat in the hope that they may be able to fit it in earlier but not really expecting it, we were right, they couldn’t, so on Thursday as planned I locked Rod through the final lock for us on the Trent and Mersey canal and helped him brest up to another boat outside the workshop.

Later in the morning I moved through the lock myself, stopping to top up the water tank before taking the sharp left turn onto the odd little section of the Wardle canal containing its only lock aptly named Wardle lock, which I also passed through before mooring up on the Middlewich branch of the Shropshire Union canal to await Rod. He was ready later in the day so I locked him through Wardle lock and he moored up in front of me, it had turned out to be disappointing news and the expected repairs could not be carried out, he will hopefully resolve them later, but for now it is not preventing cruising.

Yesterday we set off fairly late around 10:30 in chilly conditions and as we pootled along the wind became very brisk.

This boat caught my eye, an unusual design which I would think makes for an equally unusual interior layout, but I thought it looked good.

At Stanthorne lock, our first for the day, Rod set the lock and I went in, the locks are named on the ‘Shroppie’, it was 11’ 1” deep and only when I had risen up a bit did I notice he had help and the helper was a chap I had met before on the Llangollen canal, I don’t think he remembered me although he said he did J.

I went through and it was about about 6 miles of open country before the next lock, the Middlewich branch is mostly wide and pleasant cruising although it was by now very breezy and quite chilly with rain clouds threatening to make it more unpleasant conditions.

Past this canal side house, which was probably once owned by the keepers of a now converted stable block where horses would have been housed and changed for fresh ones in the days of horse drawn boats.

 At Distinctive designs gift shop I saw a sign for ice creams but wasn’t tempted!

I was getting peckish around bridge 13 and attempted to moor at a pleasant looking picnic spot, but the concrete ledge below the waterline, known as the ‘Shroppie shelf’, which is prevalent where the bank is concrete edged prevents you getting within about 15” of the bank and bangs against the side of the boat if you don’t have large fenders so I aborted that and stopped further along after bridge 11 where it had steel pilings.

Rod caught up and we had a cuppa and sandwich before setting off again, the wind made for interesting positioning as we approached and passed Aqueduct Marina, a little sideways crabbing along, luckily nice and wide and no moored boats to be blown into.

It was then up through Minshull lock and a brief shower made me think we had made the wrong decision to move on after lunch but luckily it blew over.

Just a lonely tree.

Venetian Marina was next with Cholmondeston lock the last of the day, Rod locked me through this one and I stopped on the lock landing to assist him through before moving off to find a two boat gap on the moorings and call it a day.

Current mooring:

Totals this post: 9 miles : 5 locks

Middlewich........

....... the end of Heartbreak Hill.

Saturday the weather was decidedly damp, we opted not to move, yesterday started out the same but around 10:30 the skies cleared and we decided to head off, so at 11am we moved around to the service point to do the usual fill and empty.

Service point at Wheelock

We had about 3 miles of lock free cruising before reaching our first lock and it was quite bright although a little chilly and some dark clouds threatened as we approached the village of Ettily Heath.

Luckily the clouds seemed to pass by without discharging their contents on top of us and we were soon approaching lock 67 the first of the 3 Booth lane locks which would drop us down 28' 9".
I was leading so I set the first lock for Rod and worked him through, a boat appeared wanting to go up so I assisted them and then went through myself.

For the next 2.5 miles the busy A533 runs alongside the canal, first on the right and then after crossing over the canal, on the left, the whole section is noisy and windswept, it does not make for pleasant cruising.

This large chemical works dominates the skyline at lock 68.

At lock 69 I passed another boat, only the second one I saw moving this trip, his timing was good as he did not have to stop and he went straight into the lock after I had come out.

The A533 crosses over around here and you are then faced with the huge British salt works.

There was enormous pile of what looked like refined salt under cover and and even larger mountain of dirty looking stuff, I assume it was un-refined salt outside, I didn't take a picture as a white pile of salt did not look that aesthetically pleasing .

At the final lock of the day, Rumps Lock (70) I had a bit of fun with what looked like an escaped white ball fender, somehow it got into the lock on my blind side as I opened the bottom gates, as I moved out of the lock it became squashed between my boat and the lock side forcing me against the opposite lock wall, I had to rub along until it popped out again!

That's the offending object on the right.

It was then a bit more windy noisy cruising for the last mile to the visitor moorings above lock 71 where we have stopped.

The work needed to Rods boat is being carried out by a boatyard just the other side of the lock so he will move up when they are ready for him, provisionally booked for Thursday.

Current mooring:

It's very wide and open here so windy and noisy but it'll do for now.

Totals this post: 6 miles : 4 locks

A few more Heartbreak Hill locks.

Yesterday was a day of mooring options, we had a number of places in mind, we were in no particular hurry and so it was around 8:45 before we cast off, a boat had passed by earlier so we gave them 15 minutes to clear the first single lock before Rod move off to set it for me, as it happened a boat was coming up the lock so I had to wait for him to clear, it was a single hander who had his own method and I hovered mid stream for quite a while before he finally left the lock.

I then moved on to set the next locks, a duplicated pair (54) before the locking began in earnest.

Some nice countryside but little time to admire it all, the locks are frequent and often grouped together but between lock 54 and 55 I had time to snap a couple of views.

 The first mooring suggestion was at Hassall Green, there were plenty of spaces but I decided we had not progressed enough and so moved through two more locks.

Hassall Green

The next option looked ok on Google maps but with the M6 close by and vegetation along the edges it wasn’t suitable.

Passing beneath the M6

So I carried on again through another four locks which took us to Malkin’s Bank another option but it was not suitable either, there is a short arm in the middle of the pound between locks 62 and 63 and that restricted the available mooring space.

Lock 63

Two more locks to find that another option that had looked ok on Google had trees and then concrete edging so that one was out as well.

Another two locks and I arrived at Wheelock, with a section of designated visitor moorings with rings it suited, it had to, it was the last option and after 14 locks I’d had enough for one day!

The moorings are 48 hours but as we are now in ‘winter’ (Nov-end of March) all moorings revert to 14 days unless specifically signed to the contrary, we aren’t planning on staying long though, probably a move tomorrow as long as the weather is ok.

Current mooring:

Totals this post: 3½ miles : 14 locks