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 was first launched, her maiden voyage was supposed to have been along this stretch of canal en-route to the Middlewich Folk and Boat Festival after visiting Ellesmere Port, but the 2018 breach prevented this. However, we have now travelled the length of the Middlewich Branch no fewer than 6 times since last November.

We need diesel and gas and intend to buy from Susan at Venetian Chandlery. However, she is closed on a Tuesday so we will remain here tomorrow.

The farmers were working in the fields around us until well into the early hours, cutting and turning grass for silage, it was quite noisy. As if my hayfever this year, isn’t bad enough.

Our intention, over the next few weeks or months, is to explore the Llangollen Canal, hopefully before the hire boats return, and to travel back to Christleton to resume our exploring of the Shroppie. Aaron is now visiting on 2^nd July so, instead of going up the Llangollen, we have decided to go to Christleton first, return to Middlewich for his visit and have Paul measure up for our jobs, before then, hopefully turning right at Hurleston Junction for the Llangollen. We shall wait and see how busy it becomes as the hire boats may well be back before then. As it is, an awful lot of boats are heading up the Llangollen before it becomes too busy.    

 

Day Total: 1 lock; 6 miles; 0 Tunnels; 0 Swing Bridges; 0 Lift Bridges; 0 Boat Lift; Day’s running hours 4.1 (2.4 hours cruising; 1.7 hours for hot water etc)

Overall Total: 917 locks; 1647 miles; 53 tunnels; 61 Swing Bridges; 17 Lift Bridges; 2 Boat Lifts; total engine running hours 1132.9