Concrete brings boat to a.

Nine week cruise - day 36 - Saturday 6th August 2005

Whatcroft to Hurleston

Up at 0715, got going at 0750. Log records "TL cam 12.38" so I guess that means that's when I remembered to set up the timelapse camera. No, wait, that entry is before a note about it being busy through Middlewich, and Jan leaving the boat at Wardle Lock at 1110 to do some shopping, with me tying up at the visitor moorings a bit further along the Middlewich Branch. So the TL cam entry must refer to the timecode when I restarted the camera. Yes, that must be it, so I can pinpoint where we are in the ensuing hours of footage. And I still have to compile all that - a fun job for when all the other fun jobs have been done.

Anyway - Jan came back to the boat at 1150 and we moved on. Along this stretch of canal I noticed that every so often there would be a surge of water coming towards us. It would lift and then drop the bow, as if we were going over a speed bump. This must be the effect of bottom gate paddles being opened ahead of us, with the profile of the canal perhaps concentrating the sudden flow. When we got to Stanhorne Lock we found a queue of three boats waiting to go up. This was, amazingly, the first queue at a lock we'd encountered on this trip. Five weeks of cruising, in summer, and no queues until now! Got through the lock by 1250.

At 1705 we tied up at Barbridge Junction having watered up. Here we saw steam narrowboat Emily May (did I get the name right?) turning down the Middlewich Branch from the Hurleston direction. Here also we witnessed a novice (surely a novice?) come out of the Middlewich Branch, under the bridge at the junction, accelerate. and slam into the concrete bank! Must have panicked, seeing the junction, and pushed the Morse lever the wrong way. Fortunately there was no boat passing on the Shroppie at the time to be T-boned.

At 1815 David, Penny, Jemima, Florence and Fergus arrived. We were suddenly seven in number. After loading their stuff on board, we set off southwards and turned right at Hurleston Junction up the Llangollen canal, mooring at 2100 just past bridge 2. We were all looking forward to doing this exciting wateway, new to us.

Photos resume tomorrow.