Weather !

For our first few weeks of cruising, after lockdown was lifted, we have enjoyed good boating weather, by good we mean no rain during the day, and not a lot of wind, as trying to manoeuvre a 57ft boat in a strong cross wind is challenging, especially in to small locks where you only have a couple of inches at each side to “play with”. 

However, this week’s weather has not been so accommodating we have had lots of rain and wind, so much, that for a couple of days we have not moved, and on other days not moved far.

We continued up the Trent & Mersey canal to Middlewich, meeting famous names en route. The boat that appears in Peaky Blinders … no we hadn’t seen it either! Then at a lock in Middlewich, Dave Myers of Hairy Biker, this week Hairy Boater, fame!

Our van has been ready for a couple of weeks, so thought it best to go and collect it.  So, after much planning (which is the best train station to be near?) and re-planning, (at 8pm on Friday evening, oh Saturday’s train ticket is half the price of Monday’s) on Saturday Rog got a Bus to Winsford, a train to Coventry via Wolverhampton, then walked to the Garage. 

We left the Coventry basin on 2 April, five weeks ago, this time, Rog drove from Coventry back to Middlewich in less than 2hrs  in atrocious weather! Switching from 3mph on the canal to 70mph on the Motorway as a little shock to the system, but also a reminder we are living up to the boat’s name and doing “life in slow motion”.

The van appears to be all fixed, and is now parked in Middlewich Boats carpark for the next 10 days, before we go back to Pocklington for a visit after the 17 May when Covid restrictions are relaxed a little further. 

We forgot to put the Locks & Miles in last weeks blog, so below is a catch up!

Today we have also done our first single wide lock for two boats, aptly named the “big lock” in Middlewich, but we were on our own in the lock, this time. 

	Last Week	This Week	Total
Locks	34	32	109
Miles Cruised (approx.)	42	14.5	187