What day is it again ……!

Our regular readers will have noticed that we usually publish our blog on Sundays, however yesterday (Sunday) following a long day, helping novice boat crews through the Hurleston 4 Locks, then getting ourselves through the same plus a 5 more locks followed by a beer we completely forgot to write the blog, so here goes…

Last Monday we cruised 8 miles with 5 locks into the centre Chester, a nice mooring near a large weeping willow tree.

Tuesday, we met Nic’s Auntie for lunch at The Old Harkers Arms pub, really good chocolate brownies.

Wednesday we cruised up to Ellesmere Port, the end of the Shropshire Union canal and the National Waterways Museum, which we visited on Thursday morning, before being taken out of lunch by Friends in return of a cruise down to the nearest Winding Hole and back to their car, and after the third turn of the day (turning is not so easy in a 57 foot tin box!!) we headed back in the direction of Chester, mooring up near Chester Zoo.

On Friday we made it back to Chester (a couple of miles) Roger visited the local DIY stores to buy some wheels, which could hopefully be used as fenders against the Shroppie Lip (see last week’s blog). Nic walked Chester City Walls. We then cruised on, via the Chester Staircase of 3 Locks, unfortunately when we got there it must have been the CRT volunteers lunch break, as they were nowhere to be seen, as Roger was driving Nic had to deal with the three locks. We ended Friday at the Cheshire Cat pub in Chrisleton for dinner, spending some “Dinning Out” vouchers we received for Christmas. A nice meal, Roger overdosed on Carbs, Lasagne with garlic bread and fries!

Saturday, we had a long day (for us) cruising back to the bottom of the Hurleston Locks the start of the Llangollen canal, we covered 14 miles including 6 locks, thankfully we had another boat with us through the double locks which made it easier. The new wheel fenders were moderately successful on the Shroppie Lip.

Sunday we were 4^th in the queue for the locks, but there was a problem, as the pounds between a couple of the locks had emptied overnight, so the CRT volunteer was dealing with this before anyone could start their assent of the 4 locks. as changeover day for some of the holiday hire boats is Saturday, there were a lot of novice crews attempting their very first locks, as there was only one CRT volunteer on, Roger helped one of the novice crews up all four locks before starting again with “Life in slow motion”, so it took some time to get to the top, then we could see a boat in each of the other 3 locks and at least 4 more boats waiting to start (we couldn’t see the end of the queue). 5 miles and 9 locks for the day and moored up near Wrenbury.