A much nicer day today, with sunshine from the start and not so much of a breeze. We got some washing under way, and set off at about 9 when the wash part of the cycle had finished. I walked up to the lift bridge while Adrian brought the boat, and then walked up to the junction, where we turned right, under the junction bridge.
I walked on to the lift bridge on the main line. A little later, I wondered whether an approaching boat was Debdale, in which we used to have a share. It was — and as we passed each other, the owners on board said it was the who’d bought our share. That was back in 2011, so it’s nice to know it worked out and they still have the share after all this time.
Some of the bridges on this canal are tricky. Lots of them are at funny angles, and there are often reeds or trees blocking the view. All you can do is approach slowly and hope nothing is coming the other way.
We had a number of lift bridges, and a one before Whitchurch, an Anglo Welsh boat going the same way as us had just gone through — and kept it up for us. It meant we overtook them, but said we’d do the next one. That was the one by the Whitchurch Arm; Adrian jumped off and lifted the bridge, and I waited in a gap on the offside moorings while the hire boat and then a single hander came through. We had only a little further to go before mooring up at the moorings above Grindley Brook. There was loads of space, so we just picked a nice spot. It wasn’t even 12 noon.
A bit later we walked down to the locks and had a toasted sandwich at the Lockside Cafe, while a number of boats went down. Then we wandered down the rest of the locks, to find a load of boats coming up. One of them was a Braidbar, No 95, with new owners on board. They’ve renamed the boat from Autumn Years to Tilly 2, as their previous boat was called Matilda.
This afternoon, Adrian had a call, we’ve been down for the compulsory ice cream, and I’ve made a chicken and mushroom pie with the leftover roast chicken. Later we’re planning to wash the towpath side of the boat, which is very dusty.
6 miles, 0 locks. (45 miles, 15 locks)
1 comment:
Hi Adam, whilst we are no longer boaters l do keep abreast of what is happening on the cut, in particular what you and Adrian are up to now that you are “retired” lt was nice to see Autumn Years on your blog and although it has a new name it’s still Autumn Years to us, it’s looking good so we are pleased to see it is being looked after. I think it has had at least two owners since we sold it. Bob sent us the photo you sent him so it’s had plenty of interest today, we still see Bob & June and they also keep us informed of what you are doing. If you find yourself on the Trent at Newark at any time in the future it would be nice to catch up. Take care and happy boating.
Graham and Carolann.
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