Prologue - 29th June 2018

This blog will record our voyages in the narrowboat Eileen Dover. So this first entry puts me in a bit of a dilemma. As it took place before we had renamed her, does this count as a journey in the Eileen Dover at all? So if we call it a prologue, then we can regard it as attached to the main story, though not necessarily part of it.

We picked up our new boat - still called The Silver Kroner at that time - from Tattenhall Marina on Friday June 29th. We wanted to get a bit of work done on her, and where better than the place where she was built, the Navigation Narrowboat Company in Nantwich. So our first voyage would be 12 miles down the Shropshire Union, under a glorious sun.

We collected the boat from Stephen Harral at Ash Boats, the brokerage where we had found her. Great service from Stephen - he drove to Nantwich so that we could leave the car there to get us home. He also took us round to the fuelling point at Tattenhall - as we have only sailed hire boats previously, we have never had to take on fuel (or pump out - though that's still in our future).

On the fuelling point at Tattenhall

We set out some time after one o'clock, and immediately encountered a challenge. The T-junction out of the marina onto the main line is fairly tight, and the wind was against us, blowing the bows left when we needed to turn right. It seemed to be going OK, but then as we were about to emerge we saw another boat coming and had to stop. We also waited while a group of paddleboarders went past, and by that time we had drifted into a poor position to get round. I tried, but only put the bows into the opposite bank, so in the end I did what I should have done in the first place, reversed all the way back clear of the entrance and started again. This time it went well, and we were on our way.

We had six locks to manage, and at the first, Wharton's Lock, we caught up with another boat, so Loulie had someone to share the work. For now she prefers me to do the navigation while she works the gates, though that may change on days when the effort becomes too much. The next lock is Beeston Iron Lock, which is twisted so they recommend you don't put two boats in together, and we had to wait our turn. It's a bit of a bummer altogether - the pound below the lock is shallow, especially by the bank, so you have to hang way back rather than pulling in close to the bottom gates.

Waiting below Beeston Iron Lock

The next couple of locks were rather easier - Beeston Stone Lock and Tilstone Lock, out in the country. As we approached Bunbury we were rather surprised to see ahead of us two boats winding, roped together side by side - very smartly done. It turned out they were hire craft, being turned and taken back to their moorings to be made ready for hirers the next day. It gave us a small problem, trying to hold still in the breeze in a rather narrow and shelving section of the canal - no doubt I will get better at handling her. At 57' she is significantly longer than the boats we have hired previously, and it took a bit of getting used to.

Tilstone Lock

Bunbury is a two-lock staircase. We had caught up our companions again, so the two of us went up while a single boat came down. It's a busy spot, with plenty of tourists watching, and fortunately we had a CRT volunteer to help organise things. I had to cross over the lock behind the single boat coming down, and this time I was happy with the way it went.

That was the last lock for the day, so now it was relatively plain sailing - the biggest challenge were the paddleboarders who are a little like cyclists - they go just a bit slower than you want to, but you need to be very careful overtaking them. We went on past Barbridge Junction, and the entrance to the link through to Middlewich, currently blocked by a breach. It was getting well on into the evening now, and the canal was pretty quiet as we passed the end of the Llangollen and nosed our way into the pool at Nantwich, where we tied up at the dock by the boatbuilders. One of the minor problems they were going to sort was that the engine would not cut out on command (probably a fuse gone in the solenoid circuit). So I had to open the engine hatch and reach carefully round the side of the engine, under the air filter, to find the right button. Hopefully I won't have to do that again. We unloaded our stuff into the car, locked up and left The Silver Kroner to be transformed.

Today: 12 miles. 6 locks. 6 hours.