Wednesday 8th September
What a lovely day it’s been! The weather has been perfect and we have had a good trip of 6 and a half miles and 2 locks to Church Minshull. It was pretty chilly last night (exacerbated indoors by the fact that I forgot about lighting the fire until it was too late!) so this morning there was a bit of mist. This soon cleared and it’s been fab all day. We stopped for facilities at Calveley, then made our way back to Barbridge junction and turned on to the Middlewich Branch of the Shroppie. We didn’t intend to travel very far as it is only 10 miles to Middlewich anyway. We had a slight hold up at the 2 locks we had to do but there were only 2 boats in front of us. Coming the other way, at the last lock, was a queue of 8 or more boats and some people had been in the queue for over an hour! Still, it was a nice day for standing around chatting. Some ladies, about half way down the queue, had the right idea, they had got the seats out on the bank and the wine! It was nice to get back on the narrow locks again as they are a lot easier to operate but they do hold you up when it’s busy.
Soon after we did the last lock we moored up here. The view is really nice and at the moment there is only one other boat here. We are up one end of the moorings and they are up the other! A few other boats did come in during the afternoon. One came in for lunch, then they went. One for running repairs on his engine, then he went. And one came in, moored up, got his chair and the beer out and waited for another boat to join him. However, when his mates on the other boat came they wanted to go somewhere else so he went as well!
We are experiencing the Shroppie Shelf effect here again but we’ve got it sussed as far as fenders and George’s gang plank are concerned now so it’s not a problem.
You may have noticed no mention of a pub today. Well, there aren’t any pubs until we get to Middlewich. Fear not, we haven’t booked in to the Betty Ford, we have a well stocked beer cupboard so we aren’t in danger of drying out! We sat on the bank with a few cans and the paper and it was lovely. Today has been one of those days that makes you realise why you do boating.
A few updates :- Alternator regulator – working well. New water pump – working well. New satellite dish – working well and chained to the roof. Incidentally, I was reading someone elses boating blog and last week their satellite dish also blew off the roof, so we aren’t the only ones! Damson Gin – maturing as we speak, will be ready for xmas.
