To Nantwich in the sun

1st & 2nd March

Gosh, Dydd Gwyl Dewi unwaith eto! (St David's Day once more). It hardly seems any time at all that I was waving Sheila goodbye to go and stay near Lincoln for Alex's arrival, and that was the middle of January.

Encouraged by the continuing Spring like feel to the air, and a knowledge that it won't last, we made a prompt start on a misty morning that gradually turned finer and finer, until by the time we'd finished it was sunny and warm.

Mind you, the exercise would have warmed us up anyway, as we worked down Adderley and then Audlem Locks. Adderley were against us, but we crossed with an Empress hire boat two locks down Audlem, and after that things just kept getting better. Two elderly guys appeared, and proceeded to help us work down the flight and a couple of other boats work up.

When we stopped on the visitor moorings by the Shroppie Fly, I went and asked one of them if they were doing it on behalf of SUCS or another canal volunteer group, as I wanted to make a donation, but no, they just do it for the fun and exercise. The day before they'd been at Napton on the South Oxford, apparently.

On the way down the flight, we passed Braidbar 102, Up Spirits, and exchanged some quick greetings, then as we were approaching Lock 12, just before where we stopped, there were No Problem and Moore2Life.

We had lunch, and I shopped at the new Co-op just up the road (the Co-op is currently celebrating Fairtrade Fortnight with a 20% discount on some brilliant Argentine Malbec).

We topped up the water tank, so that we can stay on the visitor moorings in Nantwich without worrying about it, then worked down the last three locks, giving entertainment to various Sunday strolling gongoozlers as we did so.

With hindsight, we would have been better going down Adderley the day before, and doing Audlem on their own yesterday, but then we'd have missed our session with Mike and Jo, so the hard work of 20 locks in a day was worth it.

It was a very pleasant run in the sunshine to Coole Pilate for the night. As I said last time, there's a GPRS connection there, adequate but not exciting. We took advantage of the warm weather to clean the stern and bow well decks, and to sweep a bit of the roof. The cabin sides really need a good wash, but with more grotty weather forecast, it seems better to wait until we are in the real Spring, not this pleasant but false affair.

It was very cold overnight, under a cloudless sky, and there was a bit of frost on the grass first thing, but it was still clear and encouraging in the morning, so we were in good heart as we set off for the final run into Nantwich.

As we approached the Hack Green Two, I hopped off at the bridge before and walked down to the locks, past a BW tug and hopper. Waiting for the lock to fill, I looked back and saw Sanity slewed across the cut by the BW boats, with Sheila waving the short shaft around to get the stern out of the offside hedge, but apparently nattering away as well.

When she came into the lock, she explained that Ivor Bachelor had been in the hopper, lying down swigging tea. It looks like he was successful in his application to move from Tunnel Keeping at Harecastle to working on the emergency gang.

Soon we were arriving at Nantwich, where we found a mooring on the embankment, from which you can walk to Morrison's or Aldi in about 15 or 20 minutes. It's possibly no quicker than tying by the aqueduct and walking down Welsh Road, but more pleasant both as a mooring and as a walk.

We've done it twice today, restocking, and we'll stay here tomorrow, when the weather is forecast to be at its worst. There's some in town stuff we want to do, and it makes a break from all the boating we've been doing recently.