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.
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