Monday 6th August 2018



We left Bramble Cutting, reluctantly on all parts, at 10am. The kids were quite down, as were we, as this was the day they would be leaving us.

We dumped rubbish at the waste disposal site in Middlewich and were going to take on water below Big Lock but there was a Black Prince hire boat just finishing with water who were locking up so we shared the lock with them and watered at Town Bridge instead.

The canal up to Big Lock was definitely down in level but there was no problem. Between Big Lock and the three locks the canal was down a good 12ins and we were dragging along the bottom. Speed was reduced for the revs the engine was doing.

Out of a fleet of 17 boats, Andersen Boats had 10 boats still alongside due to cancellations. This on a Monday when normally, at this time of year, all their boats would be out. The situation must be dire for them.

Kenny was on lock-keeper duty at the three locks and saw us through them all. Manny helped along the way but came close to an accident when his windlass slipped. Goes to show just how dangerous locks can be and a lot of people don’t realise.

The pounds between each of the locks were very low and we had virtually no steerage and quite a few revs on the engine just to keep moving forwards. It was a relief when we got through and found the pound above the three to be well down, but easily passable.

We stopped at Kings Lock Chandlery for fuel, we were well down at this time, below a ¼ of a tank. 100.2ltrs costing £83.16. We also bought another container of Elsan Blue, we don’t want to run out of this again so have decided to carry a spare tucked behind the towel holder.

We also asked Steve to look at the stove installation. We weren’t at all surprised when he condemned it outright saying it was a poor installation. We are going to live with it, see how it performs over the winter and then decide what to do.

How do these boat builders get away with it? We feel we have a duty to warn people behind us having boats built by Graeme. Gordon Smith, the owner of a boat two ahead of us is already gunning for blood. He too has had many issues with his boat.

We called into Malts for chips then motored slowly up to McColls where we waited for Tracey to pick the kids up. Very sad.

Sarah joins us tomorrow so we are staying here until she arrives. Then we will, eventually pass out of Middlewich, heading south.

After some housework we walked up to Kings Lock for a few pints and, lo and behold, met with Martin and Michelle.

Back to the boat for a steak dinner. Uhhhmmm.  



Day Total: 5 locks; 2 miles; 4 Tunnels; 0 Boat Lift; engine running hours 3.3

Overall Total: 112 locks; 284 miles; 10 tunnels; 2 Boat Lifts; engine running hours 152.4




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