Another two days in one

The plan for today was to set off in good time and boat through to the top of Audlem before it started raining at ten. If there were no moorings left there, we would slog on down the flight and carry on to the SUCS moorings at Coole Pilate. Accordingly, Sheila got us going just after half six (it was her day to steer anyway) and I ate breakfast whilst she took us through the various visitor moorings of Market Drayton. It meant that when I took over I had a brief bit of quicker boating before we got to the last stretch of offside moorings before Betton Wood.

It’s not the most atmospheric of the Shroppie cuttings but is supposed to be haunted by a shrieking ghost, though that may well be confusion with another Betton Wood which features in a Gothic poem. Sheila took the tiller back in good time for the Adderley flight. The weather continued pleasantly warm and calm as we worked down, meeting several boats coming up. Their crews reported that Audlem was already pretty crowded with boats ready for the Festival of Transport on Sunday and that the visitor moorings were now suspended through the village.

This led to a bit of a rethink about the plan as clearly the situation was not going to improve tomorrow. Accordingly, we decided to adopt plan B regardless of the situation at Audlem Top. Since I’d already worked five locks, Sheila said she’d do the first five at Audlem and we’d work our usual five and five about that we use for long flights.

We could have found room to tie either above the top lock or in our preferred spot two locks down, as it happened. On we went down – we’d not long changed over again at lock six when it started to rain in earnest, about 15 minutes early according to the Met Office. In fact, it fairly bucketed down for the next hour. Things went pretty smoothly, nonetheless, though there were indeed a lot of very trad type boats tied on the moorings below 12 and again below 13, mostly breasted up. The only real problem I had was tucking onto the water point by the Shroppie Fly to allow a boat to come up 13.

We crossed with boats at almost every one of the 15 locks in the flight but almost all were well mannered and no one attempted to turn a lock in front of us. It was just after eleven when we finally emerged from the bottom lock. The rain had already moderated a bit and it pretty well stopped altogether by the time we got to Coole Pilate. There’s plenty of room here and we’ve had a reasonably peaceful afternoon, though a strong wind has given the passing boats a bit of bother.

There have been a fair few more ex-working boats going up, at least one with a proper Bolinder engine. They are unmistakable because of the hit-and-miss regulator that gives the engine note a strikingly uneven beat – pomp-pomp-pom-pom-pom- -pomp-pomp and so on.

Tomorrow, we’ll carry on to Nantwich. We’re now four days ahead of ourselves so may take an extra day there, depending a bit on the weather forecast.

Location:Coole Pilate

A long morning's cruise

We started a bit later this morning – it was 6.45 before Sheila started off. I’m not sure quite why we felt more relaxed about it, as we knew that, if anything, we had rather more to do to get to Market Drayton. As it happened, it was quite a bit more to do, for two reasons. The first was that curse of the Shroppie, the online mooring. I manage to forget in between times just how frustrating the endless lines of offside boats are.

I know boating isn't about dashing around, far from it, but passing mile after mile of usually rather boring looking boats at 2 mph is just plain dull. It doesn't help that the long straights which Telford’s cut and fill techniques made possible make it a much less interesting canal to steer, just as motorways are inherently less interesting than winding country roads (and are built with those selfsame cut and fill techniques, of course).

The deep cuttings are the only relief from the boredom, frankly. The spectacular embankments must have been too, once upon a time, but are now so tree shrouded you need the map in front of you to remind you that you are up to 80 feet in the air.

The other source of delay came right at the end of the morning in the shape of Tyrley locks. We were pleasantly surprised not to find a queue at the top, but there was sufficient traffic up and down to make everything a bit slow, so that we took well over an hour for five locks. There was one volockie on, but he was staying at the second lock down, presumably because its top gate was leaking like a sieve. I’m not altogether sorry he stayed there – he was a bit gung ho winding the bottom paddles and certainly didn’t check with me as steerer before he did so. In a 70’ boat, that’s not good practice.

We finally got moored on the aqueduct VMs a little before one and flung ourselves on our lunch. Having rested and recovered a bit, we made an expedition to the Aldi that I recalled not far from the Morrisons. Actually, it turned out to be a Lidl, but as we said, aldigether it makes lidl difference.

Apparently, there’s a canal festival in Audlem this coming weekend and the moorings are already filling with ex-working boats, steamers and the like, so we need to think about cruising strategy when we leave here. We’re staying put for tomorrow, anyway, whilst the storm blows through.

Location:Market Drayton

Further down than we meant to

Apart from starting just a bit later than planned, things went well this morning, Sheila steering and me locking down through 9 locks to stop on the visitor moorings between 11 and 12 just after ten. I had been rather dreading going down lock 10, scene of near disaster last time we were this way, but all went off no bother today. We now always leave the steerer on the boat, using the cabin shaft to hold the stern forward of the cill.

Despite appearing to be Armco piling where we moored, the Shroppie ledge was much in evidence, with the boat a good couple of feet out from the side.

We had a coffee and went shopping, getting back in time for lunch. Afterwards, though, the see-sawing and grinding got really tedious (we'd not been able to put a spring out) so we decided to carry on down. In the end, we went all the way to below the bottom lock, where we found a number of other refugees. There were spaces on VMs further up, but all the ledge free ones were taken. There's a bit of ledge here, but nothing our go-kart tyre fenders can't handle.

After a pause to recover, we walked back up to visit Audlem Mill craft centre. Some time ago, Sheila had been told that the centre was selling Terylene crochet cotton and she wanted to try some, but none was in view today. I settled for buying a copy of next month's Canal Boat and we tottered back to the boat.

We've got almost decent signals here on both 3 and Vodafone, so can get some work done again.

Tomorrow, on to Nantwich, possibly for a couple of days. We plan to have a serious shop at Morrisons there, taking a taxi back to the boat.

 

Oh the shame

37 years boating and never cilled one yet… until this morning, when the dreaded accident occurred at Lock 10. We'd been having a straightforward morning, early start, Sheila lockwheeling, muggins steering. We'd got into a pattern of Sheila working ahead (most of the locks were with us but needed gates opening) and me working Sanity Again down the lock above.

There was a bit of traffic starting up after a while, so things got even more easy peasy as we didn't need to close bottom gates. That's probably how I got just that bit overconfident, didn't bother to take a centreline off with me, and didn't clock until just too late that she'd slipped back a tad in one of the shorter locks. In addition, the rudder wasn't pushed over properly, or had slid back. The last couple of inches of the rudder sat on the "babby", the wood fender forward of the actual cill, and by the time I realised, she was well and truly on.

I wound the bottom paddles down as quickly as I could, then raised a top paddle a bit to start the lock refilling. As it did, SA slid forward off the cill and re-floated. All looked ok, except that the helm was now amazingly stiff to turn. It improved a bit as we locked down 11 and moored on the visitor moorings above 12. A call to RCR meant that just after ten, Ian Stoykes turned up. He had a go at easing the rudder back into the cup (it's probably lifted slightly out of the cup the bottom end sits in on the skeg) but it was no go.

After consulting RCR, he arranged for us to come into Overwater Marina, just below Audlem. They have a slip for emergency use, and should be able to haul us out tomorrow afternoon. Meantime, they've given us free use of one of their visitor moorings.

So, here we are on a sunny day, nothing much we can do but wait to find out how much damage has been done and how much it's going to cost to put it right.

The rudder is still turning, so there must be a good chance that once it's out of the water, a bit of work with either a sledge hammer to persuade things back together, or with a hydraulic ram if the skeg is pushed up a bit will soon have it all working again.

I hope.

Meanwhile, I've got that post accident rumination "why didn't I take more care and watch more carefully?'

Oh well, I'm not the first experienced boater to do it, and I'm sure I won't be the last.

Busy here at Audlem

We did another prompt start today, getting away just after seven and breakfasting on the move. It turned into a bit of a procession, with boats both in front and behind, but with all of them moving at about the same pace, it wasn't a problem.

It being my turn, I locked us down Adderley flight in fine style, with boats coming the other way at most locks. We chugged merrily on to Audlem, and worked down the top two locks, finding a mooring on the visitors stretch above number 3. This is where Chance was yesterday, but they've obviously moved on as well.

There was time to walk into the village before lunch; on the way we found Susie and Keith locking down in their pair of 35 footers, Etherow and Pilgrim. We've been running across these two from time to time almost as long as we've been living aboard. Susie asked where we were bound, and on hearing that we're taking four weeks to do the stretch from here to just short of Chester, then a quick donder up the Bridgewater and then finally heading to Poynton for the Open Day said "Still dashing about, I see."

They are even more slow moving than us, and really demonstrate that you don't need to boat for eight hours a day to get the most out of the waterways lifestyle.

Au contraire, as the man on board ship in the Bay of Biscay said when asked if he'd dined.

After getting a paper in the village, we went on down to the bottom lock, where we bought sausages, liver and a cabbage from the farmer's stall there, as recommended by Doug and James on Chance.

We just got back to the boat in time for lunch, having passed a lot of boats still slogging up and down the flight, now assisted by some of the new C&RT volunteers.

This afternoon has been a case of taking it easy, catching up with some email correspondence and reading the paper in the sun on the well deck.

Tomorrow, we'll head off for Coole Pilate, then Nantwich the day after.

More boating than planned

The Boots pharmacy problem turned out very well yesterday. When I went back, they hadn't had the afternoon delivery they'd been expecting, so couldn't supply the two missing items. When I pulled a face and pointed out that that meant us spending an extra day in Drayton, they arranged to collect the stuff from another local pharmacy.

Full marks to them, though not to the Boots supply chain.

As planned, therefore, we made a prompt start this morning, setting off at half seven and plodding past all the offside mooring between Drayton and Betton Wood cutting. After that, we made faster progress on a very pleasant morning. It clouded over from time to time, but was still definitely summer rather than autumnal weather.

The original schedule had been to moor at the bottom of Adderley flight, but Sheila had the bright idea of going on to Audlem, working down the top two locks and tying on the visitor moorings in the pound below. I'm glad it was her idea, as it was her turn to lock, and those moorings were absolutely chock-a-block, leaving us with no option but to carry on down the Thick.

I  offered to take over, but she preferred to stay with our established routine for the day. There was a lot of traffic by now, so that we were working one up, one down at most of the locks. Nine extra locks later, we found a mooring below 11, in the long pound above the village. It's not our favourite stop as, although a signed and ringed mooring, it has the dreaded Shroppie ledge underwater, and we still haven't acquired any go-kart tyres which are the only really effective form of fender on the ledge.

No matter, it's only for one night. After lunch we walked into the village, visiting the butcher (Market Drayton doesn't have one in the centre) and getting an Independent from the Co-op.

Tomorrow, we'll water below Lock 13 and then carry on to Coole Pilate.

Late post from Audlem

At least, I think that's where it is...

We made our usual prompt start from Market Drayton this morning, after an uproarious evening with Calolrann, Josesphine, Jhono and Grime - I should say that John has now corrected the spelling of his wife's name on their blog, but that seems to be no reason to give up on such a creative idea.

We had a very pleasant cruise through Betton Wood (supposedly haunted, but we've never seen anything) and down Adderley Locks. This is a really nice flight, excellent position and so on, but sadly in need of maintenance. On we went, Sheila managing to do the breakfast washing up and make a cup of coffee before we arrived at the top of Audlem.

We were followed down that flight by an Anglo Welsh boat doing the Four Counties in a week; starting from Great Haywood on Saturday, they'd made it to here by Tuesday, and were planning on Barbridge for tonight. It sounds like an impossible schedule, frankly; they are half way through the week and nothing like half way round the ring, but I expect they'll make it up somehow.

We tied above Lock 12 at 11.45, four hours after setting off and had a leisurely lunch (the Anglo Welsh crew nipped into the Shroppie Fly for a quick pint before going on).

After lunch we went for a walk to see where the new Overwater Marina is, and on our return, thinking fondly of a cup of tea, found Acen and Autumn Years tied behind us. So we had the cup of tea on Autumn Years, and then seemed to start drinking red wine for some reason.

As a result, here I am cooking dinner and doing this blog post at nearly seven o'clock.

What a merry life.

A bit of extra boating

10th & 11th February

The plan being to go to Audlem for Sunday night, I'd set the heating to come on at 7, and by 8.30 we were away. It was a very misty morning, and for the first half hour we ran with the tunnel light and navigation lights on. It was a classically fine morning of late winter or early spring, and superb boating weather once the mist had lifted.

By 10.15 we were at Hack Green, home of the Secret Nuclear Bunker, and a little later we passed Madasa-soles (no comment) at Coole Pilate moorings. One of the great things about the Shroppie is the number of mooring places (in this case complete with picnic tables and barbeque stands) funded by the Shropshire Union Canal Society.

After a short wait for a Challenger boat to finish winding below lock 15, we worked up 15 and 14 and tied on some very quiet visitor moorings by 12.30. What a good day's boating we thought, all of four locks and all, little knowing what was in store...

After a leisurely lunch, we strolled back down to the moorings below the bottom lock, as Braidbar 96, Leonard, was tied there. We thought there might be someone aboard, but there was no sign of it, although the presence of a couple of pairs of boots drying on the roof suggested that they hadn't gone far away.

As we headed back, the guy on the boat next to Leonard, Director's Cut, whom we know slightly, popped his head out to warn us that with lock 15 stopped tomorrow, BW would lock the entire flight, as there was nowhere to wind once on the way down. This meant that we needed to be up the other 13 locks by the end of the day.

Since it was still a beautiful day, we weren't desperately upset, and soon had Sanity pulled forward onto the water point to top up the tank before going on. There was a boat moored for the winter just by the water point, and they told us that there was a good chance that BW would lock Adderley flight as well, as there's nowhere to wind between the two flights.

It was now 2.30, and we had 18 locks to do to be sure of being clear of the stoppage's effects. Although a bit of a challenge, it's nice to be able to demonstrate that we can do some serious boating on occasion, and indeed we weren't found wanting.

The locks were busy with gongoozlers, it being a sunny Sunday, which always adds to the fun. By 4.15 we were out of Audlem flight, and had time for a quick cup of tea before Adderley hove into view at 4.30. Just on 5.30 we came out of Adderley top and moored on the visitor moorings beyond the winding hole. We'd done 22 locks between 8.30 and 5.30, with two hours for lunch.

I admit that we were a bit tired, but there was a great sense of achievement. It's in these situations that I'm glad of my habit of freezing spare portions of meals. We were able to have beef stew with mashed potato and peas without too much preparation time, which was just as well. A quiet evening followed.

This morning we had a relaxed start, feeling rather stiff – what it's going to be like tomorrow when the DOMS* sets in, I don't know. After breakfast (at about 10 o'clock) I strolled down to the top lock – it wasn't locked. Heigh ho – better to have done too much than not enough – if we'd stopped below Adderley, neither of us would have slept well last night.

As may be imagined, it's been a quiet day today. Some necessary financial things have been done on the net, and after lunch we took a walk to Adderley village, just for the exercise to stay awake, really. There's nothing there these days, except a Post Office that opens only occasionally, and is rumoured to stock some supplies, but it was all shut up this afternoon.

Still, it was a nice walk in the sun, and stopped us from seizing up altogether after yesterday's locks.

*DOMS = Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness