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