Thursday 21st November 2019



We left Dave and Jill at Barbridge and headed for the service station at Nantwich beside the marina, 3 miles away. Hurleston Locks, at the junction with the Llangollen Canal, are closed for 5 months and a massive project is underway to completely rebuild one of the four lock chambers as the walls have been gradually moving inwards, now preventing a large number of slightly wider boats from entering the Llangollen Canal. As we passed by, the scale of the works is massive.




Work in progress at Hurleston Locks



At the service station we had to pass the mouth of the marina and go beneath a bridge, to find the services on the right immediately after. We desperately needed to empty the loo, but found the Elsan locked. I went to the marina office and was told CRT had locked it due to continual blocking. We would have been very stuck, but the nice man from the marina allowed us to empty the loo down the manhole of their hire boat pump out. Thank you Nantwich Marina.

Now came a tricky bit of manoeuvring to turn the boat in the narrow, awkwardly angled, marina entrance, the alternative was cruising a further mile to a winding hole. After reversing through the bridge, an attempt was made to wind in the narrow entrance, only for the boat to become wedged between the bank on one side and shallows on the other. The boat was then spun through 180˚ so the shallower bow could pass over the shallows. It worked but there was a danger of us looking complete idiots.

On the return journey was passed a great pile of rubbish on the canal bank. It looked as though it was the detritus of a tinky boat, but there was no boat in sight, unless of course it had sunk. Very unusual for one of these boats to leave their crap behind. Either way, it was an absolute eyesore. 






Dave and Jill had left the mooring by the time we returned, so we chased after them as arranged. Turning right onto the Middlewich Arm again, we stopped at Venetian Marina below the lock for some groceries. Arriving at Minshull Lock there was still no sign of ‘Empire’ although their marina, Aqueduct, was just after the lock with no moorings in between.

Eventually, we managed to ring Dave to find they had moored at Church Minshull Bridge 14, 2 miles further on.  

Once moored, Dave and Jill came aboard for their dinner, and more chat ensued making a lovely evening.     



Weather: cold but dry.



Day Total: 2 locks; 12 miles; 0 Tunnels; 0 Swing Bridges; 0 Lift Bridges; 0 Boat Lift; Day’s running hours 4.8

Overall Total: 826 locks; 1420 miles; 53 tunnels; 61 Swing Bridges; 17 Lift Bridges; 2 Boat Lifts; total engine running hours 903.7






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Monday 22 nd June 2020   Brenda went to Devaney’s, the Middlewich butcher’s first thing, only to find them closed on account of a family bereavement, so went instead to Morrison’s. I stayed on the boat, readying to move and doing more work on family history. On Brenda’s return we both went to Morrison’s for a mega shop. Such hard work lugging loads of shopping back to the boat. We have decided we need to buy a second sack trolley. After the shopping was unpacked and stowed away, we had a cup of tea and some lunch and left the mooring just before 2pm. It felt so bloody good to be off cruising again, picking up where we left off when we left Middlewich on 10 th February, over 4 months ago, supposedly on the start of the cruising year after spending most of the winter static, in and around Middlewich, before the Corona Virus lock-down stopped us, and everybody else, dead in our tracks. We had an uneventful trip as far as Aqueduct Marina where we moored. When Bridge Street wa
Read more
Wednesday 24 th June 2020   Again, last night, the farmers were cutting and turning grass in the nearby fields but then, about 10pm, a heavy dew came down and stopped them working. And gave us a quiet night. We left the mooring just after 9am in order to arrive at Venetian when Susan opened at 10. We passed up Minshull Lock, such a pretty place. The lock-keepers cottage here, we nearly bought when we first moved back to Cheshire in 2000.                                          Minshull Lock-Keepers Cottage                                                    Marina Dwellers at Syke’s Hollow   Syke’s Hollow had been reclaimed by the marina dwellers, Gazebo Wharf as they term it, 6 boats in all. Good for them. I suppose they will be there now until the end of the summer. At the marina, we took on fuel and a gas cylinder, bought some goods and Brenda had a well-earned ice-cream. Susan was pleased to see us
Read more
Friday 26 th June 2020   We both had a terrible night. It got to 28 ˚ and was airless. Rain started at 4am but it did nothing to cool the place down. The rain stopped as soon as it started but came again before 8am and continued heavily until midday. Once the rain had cleared we walked up into Christleton village. It felt so good to be back out and exploring again, although the church was only open for private prayer on Wednesday and Sunday. The centre of the village was delightful, a pretty village, full of some lovely old buildings. Even outwith the actual centre, there was an abundance of gorgeous properties.                                    St. James Church, Christleton                                                            Christleton Village Centre   We returned to the boat, picked up Harvey and went for a walk around the site of the Battle of Rowton Moor, a Civil War battle fought on 24 th September 164
Read more