Into The Breach

We got to bed fairly early last night, but sadly the dogs have lost the habit of sleeping on the boat, so we were woken up at about 4am and had to take them out for a tiddle. I have to report that it is fairly cold at 4am on the canal bank, even in an unusually mild December. Once we had them settled back down we slept until 8am, when the day began to break. So in theory we had a reasonable amount of sleep overall, but somehow it didn’t seem that way.

We got up and moving at about 10am. Our main challenge for the day was the locks through Middlewich, six in all. We have decided that Loulie will navigate in the locks, while I do the heavy work, so that she doesn’t finish the day physically exhausted. Although for me some of the locks can be a bit tough, for Loulie some of them are borderline impossible, so she tires much more quickly than I do.

The first lock going up through Middlewich is Big Lock, which lives up to its name, being wide enough for two boats side by side. Nobody is quite sure why it has been built on such a scale, as there is no way a widebeam boat can get to the spot. We were fortunate as another boat was just coming out as we arrived, so I hopped out and Loulie was able to steam straight in. The huge gates were tough for me to move, and I am not sure how Loulie ever shifted them. It is also no fun being a single boat in a double sized lock, as there is more room to bounce around, and Loulie had a bit of work t do to keep her straight.

After that we had the three-lock flight in the centre of Middlewich. Sadly another boat was ahead of us going up, which meant that everything was set against us as we had to empty each lock before we could go in. At the middle lock I made a noob error by leaving one of the bottom paddles open before opening the top ones, which means it fills very slowly. Of course I only did this to make Loulie feel better, as she did the same on the Adderley flight in August.

Once up the flight we turned right at King Lock and went up the Shropshire Branch, going up the Wardle Lock immediately, and them mooring just short of the sit of the breach. We walked the dogs down to have a look, and then I trekked off to Morrisons to get some essential supplies. After that we got back under way, going past the breach and then up the Stanthorne lock, our last one for the day. We have two more tomorrow, and that’s the lot for the voyage.

The site of the breach, looking down to the River Dane

We pootled along for an hour or so more, very much out in the country again – though we did pass under the West Coast Main Line, which is about 15 minutes from our house as the train flies, even if it took us two days to get here. We moored near Church Minshull, far from any roads – we have been to the Badger in the village a couple of times before, and it’s very nice, but we don’t want to try it on New Year’s Eve.

So, that’s it for 2018, our first year on board the Eileen Dover, and we have just started to discuss what we will be doing next year. The Caldon Canal is one possibility, and the Cheshire Ring is another. The really long voyages, like London, will have to wait until I have retired.

Today: 5 hours. 9.9 miles. 6 locks.Voyage: 10.5 hours. 25.0 miles. 7 locks.

Winter Window

We want to take Eileen to the Narrowboat Navigation Company in Nantwich for her winter service, and to have some changes made. The problem is getting there. In the summer we did the Home Run, all the way down the Shropshire Union to Autherley, and then back up the Staffs and Worcs and the Trent and Mersey. However that wasn’t really an option this time – for one thing with the shorter days it would probably have required three weeks in total, and there are also some closures in the autumn on various parts of the network, which would have been a problem.

So we needed to wait until the breach at Wardle on the Shropshire Union link had been mended, which meant the 21^st December. The challenge is that many pieces of maintenance on the canals begin on 2^nd January, often for a couple of months, and these would block our route in several places. So we would have to move her in that small window between 21^st December and the New Year. Fortunately the completion of the Wardle repair was not delayed, which is pretty good going as it took about six months or more. So we decided that it would take us three days, given that we would only get 5-6 hours sailing, and that we would spend New Year’s Eve on the boat.

To give us a chance at a good start, I brought the boat out of the marina last night, and moored her close to Keckwick Lane, opposite the laboratory. We could just see her from the rear windows of our house. This morning we took the luggage up in the car, then parked back home and walked up with the dogs.

We were on the move at about 10:45, which was what I had aimed for, as it took us to the Preston Brook tunnel spot on half eleven, and we were able to sail straight in. Loulie gave the dogs a walk while I worked the stop lock, and we pushed on so we were at the Saltersford Tunnel just after 13:30, so again there was no delay.

We decided we would try to do a pumpout at Anderton, where there is a CRT automatic facility, but it turned out that our card was empty. We were unclear whether it gave a certain number of pumpouts or a certain length of time, and it turns out the answer is one pumpout. It should not be a problem, we ought to get to Nantwich on the half tank we still have free, but if we can find a facility open tomorrow at a marina or somewhere we will use it.

Although it was only about half two at that point we started to think about finding a berth for the night. The first place we looked was fairly full and at the next one there was a single boat with a large aggressive dog, so we kept moving. We thought about stopping close to the Lostock chemical plant, but we decided that didn’t seem such a good idea. In the end, with darkness falling, we came to the spot at Billinge Green where we have moored a couple of times before, opposite a shallow flash. Assuming no problems with the locks we should get comfortably through Middlewich and on beyond tomorrow.

Today: 5.5 hours. 15.1 miles. 1 locks.Voyage: 5.5 hours. 15.1 miles. 1 locks.