Now we are six

We left Wheelock just before nine o’clock this morning and made good progress to Middlewich, where we tied up above King’s Lock and had lunch. I walked into town and sussed out the best places for coal, diesel and a pump out: King’s Lock chandlery for the coal (£9.70 for 25Kg Taybrite) and Middlewich Narrowboats for the other things. Having got the coal we then winded at the junction and reversed to Middlewich Narrowboats. While waiting for them to service us we made a good start on cleaning the boat. The next operation was to get up Wardle Lock By this time a queue had formed: we were waiting over an hour! While eventually locking up David and family arrived, so we pulled in to the 48 hour moorings and they and their stuff came on board, bringing up the numbers to six. Then followed a bit of car shuffling: David drove to the still incomplete Tattenhall Marina with his bike in the car. The plan was that he’d cycle to Church Minshull where the rest of us would have taken the boat.

At 19:50 we moored up at the rendezvous, and David appeared while I was tidying the ropes. He’d actually been given a lift almost all the way back by the marina owner, who told David that he was still waiting for permission to connect the marina to the canal. It’s supposed to be open in three days’ time!

We ate on board. The boat’s being buffeted by wind, but I expect we’ll sleep.