Floating about: Day 6

No rush this morning as we were expecting a visitor: my friend and former colleague, Jordan, was coming to see as, as his girlfriend’s family live nearby and he was up for the weekend.  He was quite keen for a little ride on the boat, so we went across the aqueduct and round the corner, all the way to the water point!  There we filled the tank, got the washing machine going and did other domestic tasks, while continuing to catch up with what we’d all been up to.  It really is nice to see people from our former lives.

When the water tank was full (it took a while as we hadn’t filled since Monday), Jordan headed over the bridge back to his car, while we continued north.  We caught up with a little boat going pretty slowly — we were only just over tickover the whole time, and when he went into tickover we had to slip into neutral.  Fortunately he pulled in at the Barbridge Inn and we slipped past.  We then turned right onto the Middlewich Branch.

We were amazed to see the moorings above Cholmondeston Lock with only two boats on them, as rhey’re noamally busy.  A boat which had not long come up the lock said there were lots more to come, so we’d have an easy ride.  Another boat was just coming up, and then we went into the lock.  There were four boats waiting below, with another arriving to join the queue.

We pulled onto the wharf at the Chamberlain Chandlery at Venitian Marina, to get a top up of diesel and change a gas bottle.  We also wanted to see Nik at Covers and Canvass about some new porthole bung covers, as ours are disintegrating.  He was out on a job, so we pulled forward onto a pontoon and waited for him to come back.  With those ordered, we set off again.  At Minshull Lock, Adrian got off with a windlass at the bridge, but we could see a boat was coming up so I just waited in the middle.  There was another one waiting to come up, and the crew said they’d work the lock so Adrian could get on board.  He’d closed one paddle and shut the top gate, so had done some of the work.  It’s a lock where it’s not easy to get back on at the bottom, so it was quite handy.

The moorings beyond Aqueduct Marina had a few boats on them.  At Bridge 12, which is on a blind bend, there was a boat coming the other way so I had to get out of the way to let him through.  Then it turned out there was another one, but he backed off so we could come through.

The moorings overlooking Church Minshull were surprisingly completely empty.  We considered stopping there, but there are rocks under the water that make lift difficult, so we carried on to the rings before Bridge 14 where we stopped last time we were here.  These were also empty, but a couple of boats arrived soon after.  Where is everyone?  Have they all gone back to their marinas because of the imminent closure of some Midlands waterways?  Are they all on the Llangollen?

Because of the late start and the several stops it was gone 3pm before we had tied up, which is pretty late for us these days.

8 miles, 2 locks.  (22 miles, 6 locks)