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 and we were pleased for her, readying her hire boats for the season, opening on 6^th July. She only has to fill 7 one-week slots and is then fully booked.

 

Bridge Street beside Venetian Chandlery

 

Nik of the Cover and Canvas Co. has moved from Beeston into the former stained glass business premises. Much better site and workshop for him. We had a chat and he gave us some press studs for an idea we have to hold the front cratch covers back when filling with water.

After saying goodbyes to Sue and BJ again, we set off for Barbridge Junction, turning right towards Chester. At Bridge 103, the North Western Farmers bridge, we encountered the rubbing planks from the bridge adrift right across the canal. We had been warned about this and CRT had already been informed. We managed to gently push our way past.

 

Rubbing Planks in Canal at Bridge 103

 

We stopped at the service point at Calveley where we took on water, 135ltrsinto the tank and 60ltrs in containers. So in the 7 days since last watering up, we had used 200ltrs, but this included 2 washes at 30ltrs each. Just 20ltrs per day excluding the washing.

We also emptied the loo and had a much overdue rubbish dump, we had been unable to dump rubbish since leaving Syke’s Hollow apart from stuffing some into public bins. Middlewich portrays itself as a canal town, but the facilities for boaters are virtually none-existent. No rubbish skips, public Elsan point and even the, potentially, much used water point at Wardle Junction has a ½” fitting as opposed to a ¾” as used on the rest of the system.

We paired up with another boat at Calveley to share the double locks. The sun and the heat had become unremitting and it was hot, hard, dry work. The couple on the other boat were relatively new to the canal and their inexperience showed. They had bought their boat last October from Tewkesbury Marina and had been stuck there all winter due to flooding, only then to be caught by the Corona lock-down. He had a lot of difficulty handling the boat, constantly using his bow thruster, and she struggled greatly with the locks. They must have had a terrible time working their way from Tewkesbury and would undoubtedly have struggled with these heavy set of locks on their own.

We went into the Iron Lock at Beeston ahead of them, with the lock, even though built to wide-beam scale, only being considered wide enough to fit one boat due to movement of the lock sides. We left the other boat here, and went as far as Wharton’s Lock where we were lucky enough to moor just above the lock, the only empty space.

On the way down the 5 locks, the algae became thicker and thicker. Over the lock-down, this had been a problem on the long pound above and CRT had been flushing water down in an attempt to disperse it. Presumably now, it will be left to the boats, but it would cause no amount of problems if the stuff were to become entangled on a propeller.

 

Brenda was suffering from the heat and drank herself through a full jug of water before sitting in the shade. It was hot, probably one of the hottest days we have had since moving onto the boat.

We had planned to eat outside but, even at 8pm, it was far too hot and the front cratch, the second option, even hotter, so we finished up eating inside in the relative cool.

After dinner, Brenda lay on the bed while I sat outside with the fishing rod. There was something scaring all the smaller fish, most likely a Pike. It was nice though, at last to have the fish biting after the water quality suffering from the lack of boat movements.

We both had cool showers before bed and slept with most of the portholes removed and the front and back end of the boat, open.

 

Weather: very hot with no wind.

 

Day Total: 7 locks; 8 miles; 0 Tunnels; 0 Swing Bridges; 0 Lift Bridges; 0 Boat Lift; Day’s running hours 6.0

Overall Total: 924 locks; 1655 miles; 53 tunnels; 61 Swing Bridges; 17 Lift Bridges; 2 Boat Lifts; total  engine running hours 1138.9