Not my type of boating not my favourite canal by a long way.

The upper end of the Llangollen reminded me more of a theme park than a relaxing corridor of peace and tranquility today....

Back to the start of the day which was peaceful at Frankton Junction, a boater passing the other way advised it was chaos at the new Marton  locks which was maybe a bit of an exaggeration but there were three boats waiting to go up the first lock and when we exited the second lock there were six boats in a queue with more boats arriving as we cruised off to the next delay. 

Leia gave me a shock by falling into the very fast by-wash at the second lock, luckily she remembered how to swim and I was able to lift her out before she was swept into the canal but for the first few seconds she was tumbling in the white water ! 

It was warm and sunny so she dried out on the back counter 

We cruised on to Chirk and eventually (the canal narrows and the flow of water being pumped down the canal from the Dee really does slow the boat) we turned onto the Chirk aqueduct.

 

A real privilege to take Percy from England into Wales via this unique structure.

We were following a day boat but the flow across the aquaduct had us crawling along and the day boat disappeared into the tunnel. A walker advised there was a boat waiting at the other end so we tied up and waited. We were soon joined by three more boats. It was very difficult to see if a boat was coming as all the many walkers were using their phone lights to light the way and it was impossible to social distant to get into the tunnel to get a good look. Just as the boat came out I could see a boat approaching  - I’d waited a good time and the pressure of the other boats was growing I wanted to alert the boat we were due in the tunnel after waiting so I let rip with the air horn in the tunnel - much to the annoyance of a pair of walkers who took issue with me over it. I explained why I had done it and apologised if I had made his ears hurt (snowflake I think is the term ) .... the boat came through oblivious to my horn signal.... so we set to and has a very slow and noisy cruise as we were accompanied by a group of  people who were literally screaming and shrieking their heads off in the tunnel.

My patience was wearing thin so we stopped at our scheduled location of the visitor moorings near the Chirk marina. I counted over 12 hire boats that all went out between 3 and 4 ... there were 8 from a base below the two Marton locks and god knows how many from the Anglo Welsh base over the aqueduct (plus three day boats) 

I took a cycle ride up to the aqueduct to see if there were any free moorings at Trevor and it was horrible, people (ignorant people who had not a thank you for me waiting and giving them space to pass ) all over, boats queuing traders trading. - all great if you want something to see and do but I wanted a little peace ! 

One of the Chirk hire boats had motored over the aqueduct and was hopelessly trying to wind where the canal takes a sharp left to Llangollen. There was a lady and fella on another Chirk boat looking lost and I asked if they needed assistance... she replied “ I’ve just brought this £hit map for 11 quid and its useless ... I asked if she was looking for moorings or to motor to Llangollen, she advised the latter and I pointed her on her way. Boats were headed for the full Trevor moorings so the winding there would have been interesting. The winding Chirk boat gave up when a posh looking trad boat came wanting to go up to the Trevor moorings. ( that were full) he was advised to throw a bow rope to one of the boat year staff who had come across the bridge to help... he did indeed throw the rope all of it forgetting to put it over the t stud to howls of laughter from the posh trad boat lady (poor show) 

I had saw enough and our trip will complete the outward section very early on Monday morning with a trip over the aqueduct wind and then beat a hasty retreat off this lovely but overly commercialised canal. I don't think I’ll be back until I have the back stove fitted on Percy and do it in winter.

So tomorrow we will stay put and let the hire boaters disappear their individual ways and avoid all the people who just don't seem to know about social distancing. 

The Monty is looking so tempting !

 

First there were bloggers now Vloggers

When I started my canal journey (did I say 23 years ago ?) it triggered an interest that was fed by a few decent bloggers at the time. So it was natural when I got my first boat I started my blogs (Comet Waterlily and Percy) Skip forward 23 years and its Youtube Vloggers  that get the interest. There is still a hard core of bloggers who I guess like me do it more for the record for themselves than popular interest. 

Today I met, albeit briefly one of the most genuine of pairs of Youtube bloggers - Rich one part of Fran and Rich  from 'Floating our Boat' The briefest of chats and again Percy got a compliment  - praise indeed. 

A brief stop at Ellesmere to top up water and empty the cassette again ! 

Then just after Ellesmere I spotted Ables Ark - the original Youtuber Dan Brows second boat after Tilly his little springer. I have to say it looked a bit sad ! 

Todays cruise was uneventful apart from the number of boats on the move. This is a great canal but the number of boats (at the moment) occupying the water is a put off. Also the flow is a pain going towards Llangollen as they use the canal to move water from the river Dee to the reservoir at Hurleston. It moves at about half a mile an hour so a normal cruising speed of 3mph is reduced to 2.5 and much less through bridge holes and past moored boat. Conversely on the return trip it'll be a roller coaster of 3.5mph - about 40% faster - if fast is a currency on the canals.

We moored up just past Frankton Junction, where we winded on our first trip so from now on its all new canals for us. Plus the last couple of days should be the most memorable before we start the trip back . 

We had a walk down the Montgomery canal, quite beautiful and we have a tentative plan to detour down there for a day subject to further planning !     

A complete 180 in cruising terms

We were slightly ahead of our planned schedule so today Mr Alarm Clock got a day off and we woke to pet time .... the time the dog gets restless and the cat comes on the bed demanding food - 8.15am as it turned out.

Last nights mooring and the view from the walk I explored this morning.

We were low on a few things and close to Whitchurch so a plan was agreed to shop - lunch  - cruise for a few hours in the afternoon past todays planned mooring around the Prees Branch. I did a recce walk through some lovely woods to see if there was space for Percy on the Whitchurch arm, there was not (until we walked there and a couple of boats had moved. )

Whitchurch is a place I've ridden past many times on my bike when on my way to Wales for the day. It was a pleasant surprise to find it is another small well provisioned market town - we like these places, small enough to be friendly but large enough to have everything - including a computer shop that sold me a 32gb micro SD card  - I'd left my drone card at home I guess !

We cruised on and met as many boats as we have seen all trip the other side of Whitchurch, at lift bridges bridge holes and bends - as you do. I think there is a 2 or maybe 3 to 1 ratio of boats leaving the Langollen to those like us making our way ever deeper. ( obviously based on when we are moored up)

It really does feel desolate around Whixhall Moss  - I am recollecting it from over 20 years ago and I had the same feeling then. As we were motoring on into the latish afternoon the boats lessened and only two have past since we mored up at 5pm, both hire boats, setting far too an adventurous schedule to 'fit it all in"  - both going opposite to us.

We moored up just past Bettisford, an earlier start tomorrow to enjoy the Mere's.

I was able to fly the drone now I have an SD car so the pictures will show you where we are ! 

Lovely.....

A fly-away video of Percy resting for the night 

Real reflection(s) ... and a near death 23 years go

Yesterday my retirement calculator clicked over to three years. I’m a lucky sod for sure, being able to enjoy/ afford my retirement in the way I live it. There was some planning hard work, study etc of course.

Another reflection was on our boating ‘career’. We think about 23 years ago we did our first ever lock on this canal - Marbury lock. We hired our first canal boat with our two lads out of Wrenbury Mill. Today when we passed the base there were no boats in the basin... do they still have a hire fleet I wonder, if they do they were all out. 

Rachel bringing Percy through the electric lift bridge that gives the boater power to stop the traffic !!

Now here is the scene of the near fatality.... ok some poetic license for sure but the memory was thus.... By the time we were on our way back on our first trip I had relaxed enough to allow Tom my eldest to drive the boat while Rachel was in the boat reading and Callum my youngest and me were walking ahead to lift the lift bridges (winding the pneumatic pumps on the bridges to lift them) we got to the last bridge before returning the boat and Callum was playing the game of seeing how long he could stand up on the bridge while being raised .... ( pre parental H&S) only Tom decided it would be fun to see how quick I could wind the bridge up as he put the boat in warp drive at the bridge... result was to prevent a major crash I had to wind the bridge up as fast as I could resulting in youngest son  literally hanging off the hand rail, which Rachel saw as the boat thundered under the bridge with me yelling at the top of my voice to Tom To slow down who was laughing his young head off ! What an end to the holiday ! How I laughed, not ! 

Here is the first lock we ever  did in our canal boat career 

We had a very good run to our scheduled overnight stop at Povey lock, so we took lunch and a siesta then carried on to clear the Grindley six Which I did not like too much as the by-washes were really fierce making lock entering a real challenge. We climbed the flight and thankfully emptied the two rather full cassettes, disposed of the rubbish and watered up. 

A long day but we are ahead of our schedule so may explore the Whitchurch arm in the morning. 

Clown of the day award goes to .....

......well let’s start with the alarm that got an extra hour today to wake us from our slumber. Better nights sleep so I woke more refreshed. We were chugging away just after 8 which worked well as when we got to Hack Green locks we had a tail of two boats. 

I forget how nice  this stretch of canal is between Audlum and Nantwich. Nantwich was full at 10 am with only one free mooring, shame as we like to visit the town centre there. I stopped for diesel at Nantwich canal centre ..... very friendly staff and took on just over 113 litres with the engine counter at 759 hours. I’ll check back on the blog to see when I last filled up.... I think Turners last year on the way back from Stourbridge.

Then is was a slow but uneventful cruise to Hurleston junction where I spotted a two boat queue for the locks .... no problem I’m a Brit so I joined the queue ! 

Enter stage left the clown, or rather the fisherman who was fishing spot on in the centre of the ‘ turning basin’ for the entrance. Of course the wind was blowing the left turning boats across said basin, so I advised him to keep an eye on his line as Percy drifted around while I got the stern into the wind. Ironically he said he’d already had one clown take all his tackle..... I think it was a wasted insult as I motored through his swim.... what a tit. 

It was very busy with boats going up and down and I’d forgotten how short the pounds were between the last two locks. The vlockies said it was relatively quiet with only 21 boat movements so far that day compared to the normal 45/50 that combined up and down. Bodes well.we took on water while we lunched but the cassette will have to wait wait as the Elsa was frustratingly our of commission ( I wonder for how long ) 

Then it was a nice gentle pootle getting reacquainted with the fast by-washes and the ‘ flow’ through bridge holes.

We past “our Cottage” A lovely place between the two Swanley locks that we came close to buying a few years ago, the current owners have extended it and made a lovely job of the place.... he even had his boat at the end of the garden ....lovely. 

We got to our target destination of Badderley bottom lock. I expect it’ll be an early start tomorrow to nip off the three Badderley locks then swing bridges ! 

  

Cock-a-doodle-doo

Sadly the alarm clock was reliable as ever and did its thing at 6am this morning. We did get an earlyish night for us but my aching joints ( fibromyalgia) saw to it I had not the best seven hours sleep so I was dozing when the alarm kicked off. 

I do like early mornings and cruising early ( just don’t like getting up early) and nature welcomed me into  another day of my life with a little show of beauty.

Engine lubed up and the day tank pump re primed (every now and again it gets air into it stopping it pumping) we were off at 7.20am with a destination of bridge 85 close to Hack Green locks.

We pootled through a sleepy Market Drayton seeing NB Jubilee in her new mooring - looking good John and Jan.

We were soon caught up by a hire boat with six lads who I let past. I thought they might be efficient but I think too many pints had been sunk the night before as at the top of the Adderley flight one of them tied the centre line so tight to the bollard his mate used his Swiss Army knife to just cut the rope ! The steerer then spend a good few minuted revving the engine out of gear and wondering why there was no forward motion. I’m not too sure he was happy to be educated by a crusty old man ( me) on how to gain forward momentum !

We made good progress down the Adderley flight  (lovely locks and location) but the Audlem flight was stop start and I think we had to turn about 10 of the 15 locks. At the last but one lock it started to rain and we were hungry as the clock was hitting 1.30pm So I moored up a bit short of Hack green just past Overwater marina. 

The afternoon job is to free a stuck (full cassette) before either of us needs the loo ! 

Tomorrow we hopefully will get onto a canal not cruised since we stuck Waterlily’s nose up to Swanley before staying put and letting the other boats do the cruising. 

We may get fuel also, Percy has big diesel tanks so it might be as well to to use some of that up before we fill up....I’ll play it by ear. 

Lovely Adderley wharf

I can associate with this boat name 

The top lock needs some TLC to replace the cill or clear it out.

We have thought about a cratch, but not over the fore cabin rather between it and the main cabin 

And we are off.... at 5pm

This is our Llangollen cruise. Yesterday we should have been flying out for a two week self sailing Trip around the Greek islands. That’s been deferred until next year now so it’s a bonus two and a bit weeks on the boat with the destination of Llangollen basin.

We were planning on getting away yesterday morning when I did the original CanalPlanAc route but a family meeting today in Walsall saw us arriving at Percy late yesterday, getting the bed made and clothes put away while I was in Eccleshall food shopping.

This morning while Rachel sorted the rest of the stowage I watered up, lubed the engine, changed the auto stern greaser ( it lasts a year and the label I stuck on last change advised Sept 20 for a change and it was ready.) Final job was to sweep the chimney and get my arm up over the back boiler plate to remove the debris. All done then over to Walsall.....

We got back and started the donk untied and were on our way at 5pm with a revised target of Tyrley locks (original first night was at the top of the Adderley flight but that would have meant a lot of night cruising after a long day neither of us fancied.)

It was a lovely evening while the sun was with us 

We decided to do the Tyrley flight even though we knew it would see us mooring up in the dark. Got to the third and I could not get the gate past half way open, it was hitting something on the canal bed. Tried multiple times so I asked Rachel to bring the boat forward so I could try a rope and the boat, however the pound was filling back up and the far side bywash pulled Percy onto it ! So it was getting dark, I could not open the top gate and Percy was wedged on the weir ..... tried not to panic and got the boat bole. The canal or rather the water in the pound came to our rescue in two of the issues ..... the water rising in the pound lifted Percy off the weir enough for me to push the stern off. Then the extra water had (I guess) floated the gate just enough over the obstruction for me to open the gate.... but it was getting darker and we were getting to the last two locks that you may know are deep in a cutting so dark. 

It looks lighter than it was as I needed my head torch to do the mooring up. I. Think that is Venus above Percy - the small dot above and in the middle of the tree ( the other is the light reflection ) 

We are behind schedule still and Rachel has a work call to take at 3pm tomorrow plus last time we were in Nantwich the moorings were very full so it’s a 6am alarm call tomorrow to be on the go at 7 ( I prefer early morning cruising over night cruising for sure)