Wrenbury, in the rain....

Quite a bit of progress has been made this week & we have done so well that I will now take Rowen back home from Whitchurch instead of Nantwich. 

Leaving Stoke on Trent at 7.30am on Monday morning,

 we got to the tunnel at 8am & went in 30 mins later, 3rd in a convoy of 4

 It doesn't seem too low so why all the advice to clear the roof?

 Ah that's why !

 Nearly through...

Once through the tunnel & the lock we moored up for a quick trip to the handy Tesco & then pressed on hoping to make some serious progress. 

 Rowen being useful..

 These stairs have seen some use

Stiff paddles!

Calling it a day at 5pm  we moored up between Malkins Bank & Wheelock, we had done 12 miles 26 locks &1 tunnel in 8 & a half hours, a very long but good day. A much easier day on Tuesday, we did 7 miles & 7 locks & then moored in a lovely spot between Stanthorne Lock & Normans Bridge. It was Sid friendly with a field of sweetcorn behind the hedge in which he had a whale of a time. 

He now has the loc8tor  tag on his collar & although he hasn't been 'lost' as yet it seems to work fine, 2 tags were supplied with the loc8tor so Soona is sporting the other one, just in case although she rarely goes more than a few yards from the boat.

Yesterday was another long day, leaving Stanthorne at 7.30am on a bitterly cold morning, hats & gloves were quickly dug out of storage but before long the sun came up on a glorious autumnal day.

We reached Hurleston Locks by midday, they weren't too busy & we waited for one boat to go up before us, a boat was descending so we passed in the pound to the 2nd lock

 Waiting at the bottom of the Hurleston Locks 

Our assistant's training is coming along nicely. ;) 

A boat had come into the top lock so Mark waited patiently for them to descend so we could pass again in the pound, Rowen & I walked up but our assistance wasn't required as there was a crew of 4. The lockie was keeping an eye out as usual which was just as well as he realised that there was a problem. As the paddles were raised & the water level dropped the boat (sorry, didn't get the name & if I had I'd have forgotten anyway, hopeless with boat names!) began to tilt, the stern was back up against the top gate & on the cill.The lockie quickly dropped the paddles & it turned out that the boat had lost forward drive & as the steerer tried to go forward he just went in reverse. When the lock was refilled & the panic over the boat was pulled back out of the lock, we then locked up & then pulled over onto the service point. A lot of head scratching was going on in the other boat, which the 2 couples on board had just borrowed for a holiday, we left them to it as not being mechanical types any advice we could have given would have been worse than useless!


We plodded on until Wrenbury, mooring up at 4.30pm in the rain, 16 miles & 11 locks in 8 hours. It's raining again today so we have had a good excuse to be idle but as we have made such good time it's okay, if it stops raining this afternoon we may grab the chance to move on a bit otherwise we shall do so tomorrow.

Llangollen Bound so a change of plan, again...

We didn't have a winter mooring last winter as we decided we would see how it went, being our 1st winter away from shore power & it was fine. We did get frozen in at Coven Heath which wasn't ideal but fortunately we had another boat moored close by who had a car nearby & they were brilliant making sure we were okay for water & fuel, even took me to the launderette. After a couple of weeks there was a slight thaw & we managed to get to Wheaton Aston  before everything froze solid which was just the job as all services, including the cheapest diesel on the system at Turners, were close by.

We were thinking that we'd probably see how it went again this year & possibly look at going in to a Marina if things got bad. The BW winter moorings have never really appealed as the majority are on visitor moorings where there may be some facilities ie water, rubbish & elsan disposal but not usually electricity & it seems to be a lot of money just for the benefit of not having to move on also last year you had to book for five months from November to March & we really didn't fancy being so long in one place.
 But there are some with electricity & they do seem to be worth the money as not having to run the engines to charge the batteries is a big saving on diesel plus less wear & tear on the engine.
 Llangollen is one such winter mooring & this morning I read on Bendigedig's blog that you can now book one or more up to five months, so interest aroused I had a look on the BW web site. There was still a few meters left so we bit the bullet & booked in for December, January & February. 
 Then I had a look at the stoppages,  oops... we had planned to potter around between here & Tixall whilst Rowen is here for half term then back down the Staffs & Worcs & up onto the Shroppie but with the change of plan we now need to head north, we knew that Wheelock 65 closes on the 7th Nov & that's no problem but so does Maesterfyn Bridge 5W to Pollets Bridge 6W on the Llangollen not due to open again until 21st Dec ! 
So we need to get a move on, we will move up to Stoke for Friday so I can get the coach to Manchester & once I'm back on Sunday we will be heading north planning to get to Nantwich for the 29th so Rowen & I can get a train back to Manchester, only 35 locks Rowen ! Then when I'm back on the 30th we will press on to make sure we are on the right side of the stoppages. Phew...