Welsh waters: Day 24

A bit cloudy and dull this morning to start and Adrian had a call to do before we set off, so we didn’t get going until about 9.30.  As we approached Chirk Tunnel I could see there was no-one coming so we could head straight in.  After I while, I realised the headlight didn’t seem to be working (although the nav lights were).  Adrian went to fiddle with the wiring but that didn’t fix it, so he shone the torch out the front.  It was enough for an arriving boat to see us and wait, although not without ramming the bank first.  The tunnel took just 6 minutes to come through, compared with the 17 minutes going the other way.  Once out of the tunnel we headed across the aqueduct which was also clear, and which was also much quicker.

Back in England, we got through Chirk Bank without meeting boats on the narrow bits.  Out the other side, I always quite like this house by Bridge 16.

Before the New Marton Locks, there’s an area of marsh land, which always looks quite desolate.

Having hardly seen any boats all morning, we found them all waiting at the locks.  We were told we were sixth in the queue to go down, and everyone also seemed to want the water point.  Eventually we moved onto the water point while we waited, and I calculated we probably had enough time to get the wash part of the washing machine cycle done — so on it went.  The whole water point queue was somewhat disrupted by boats coming up also waiting for the taps (and usually getting one pretty quickly).  After some time we were able to move to the actual lock landing, through the bridge, and still had enough time to make and eat some sandwiches for lunch.  There were also lots of boats waiting to come up, so the lock side was crowded with helpers and gongoozlers.

That photo of the boat coming up was taken a full hour and half after the one of the marsh land.  It appeared that one of the top paddles wasn’t working properly, so each uphill boat took an age.  The crew of this one were American, and were keen to stress they were from Massachusetts, ‘a blue state’!  Then it was our turn to go down.

The lock emptied really quickly, and we were soon on our way to the second lock — Adrian bringing the boat and me walking.  A boat was coming up so we could go straight in, and there was a queue of five or so boats below.  We carried on past Whittington Wharf where all their hire boats were out, and past Frankton Junction where the locks had closed for the day.  We moored at the Val Hill moorings we like.  We then investigated the tunnel light, which is an old car headlamp.  By swapping some wires around, I manned to get one bulb working, but it’s pretty dim.  Fortunately it’s only Ellesmere Tunnel that’s on the horizon in the near future.

9 miles, 2 locks.  (84 miles, 39 locks)