Middlewich Branch

Wended our way from Bunbury to Calveley and stopped to fill the tank with water, and stopped again a couple of hundred yards along to visit the cheese shop. Note to self, worth a visit.

We cruised past our base, which seemed a bit strange, and headed toward Middlewich, found a nice spot to moor, and settled in for the last night of the year.

Today I removed the roof furniture, I have to make a modification to it to accept a wider gang plank.
Although they were fitted with gaskets there was evidence of water ingress, sealant should also have been used.

I have temporarily filled the holes with CT 1 sealant,

No sealant.

Water ingress is evident.

I'll blog about this modification when I do it, now where's my hacksaw?...

After yesterday's weather, back to normal.

That was weird, one day of strong winds and back to calm and dull, which is ok for us.
We had a long way to go today, what we did in two days will be done in one today, so an earlier start was required.

Cheers Cheshire Cat, see you another time.

The start of today's journey.

Slipped the mooring at around 09:30 (early for us) and headed South. First stop to pick up some provisions at Egg Bridge.

They made an effort to style the bridges in those days.

Built in 1770, rebuilt in1937

 All I found was this:- A road-bridge was built over the canal in 1770 so the Egg farm would not be cut off from the main road now known as the A41.  Thus Eggbridge Lane was named!

Shame about this...

Typical of local authorities, come on guys, you demand we bin it, we demand you empty it.

This is the start of tick-over alley.

 We counted the number of moored boats - 121; plus about five or six spaces unoccupied. Let's just suppose the average cost of mooring there is £1500 a year. (It's probably more). You do the maths.

This looks like a new build, and very tastefully done too.

Locks were hard work, that's why Lin's doing them........................Take cover!

The locks are in an awful state up this end of the Shroppie, they leak like a sieve, so much they take ages to fill, and the gates only just open against the weight of water in the pound. The good news is there's bits and pieces lying around to indicate that work is about to start soon.

Bunbury Staircase Locks were the last of the day, these weren't too bad, though they still need work done.

Even the cutbacks are being cut back...

You would only just get a wide beam through here.

And the wind blew...

Didn't it just, especially along the three mile long stretch of moored boats, it was whipping up into breaking waves on the water. The farmer who owns that length of land alongside the cut must be rolling in it, hundreds upon hundreds of moored boats.

We made it to Christleton, managed to wind and moored at the Cheshire Cat. Yes we did go in and had a nice meal. Gammon egg and chips, but they had just sold the last two Wagyu Beef Burgers, our first choice.

It was just too windy to use the camera today, had to concentrate hard and I nearly got blown off the counter by a sudden gust.

What a contrast to yesterday, and tomorrow is forecast to be back to light winds again. We'll see.

More tomorrow.

The plan was...

...Lunch at the Shady Oak.

No such luck as it's closed, and has been for a while by the look of it.

Oh well, nothing else for it so moor up, and lunch on TQ. Linda's finest Turkey and Noodle soup followed by a slice of Christmas cake dawbed with brandy cream.

The journey here was pleasant, though the locks were bloody hard work. Beeston Iron lock is particularly in a poor state of repair, we had to tie our bowline to the gate and carefully reverse TQ to assist with opening it.

Here's some pix:-

Approaching Tilstone Lock.

These little beauties were on display at Beeston Stone Lock.

Beeston Stone Lock.

Wharton's Lock.

More tomorrow.

I struggled to pass the Olde Barbridge Inn.

We slipped our moorings late again, we must be getting old.

Stopped in Nantwich for some provisions and a pasty and stopped again at the water point to refill.

We caught up with a boat that passed us while we were refilling. It turned up the Hurleston flight to Llangollen as we went straight on.

It was painful passing the Barbridge, but it had to be done otherwise we wouldn't get to Chester,  especially with our late starts.

It's been dull all day, heavy cloud but dry.

At least it's not raining. 

Moored just short of Bunbury, wide locks in staircase tomorrow, looking forward to that. 😊

Another lazy Boxing Day...

Had a late start, E 4 B, emptied the ash pan, brought in some wood and coal, disposed of all the rubbish and had a tidy up. Makes ya feel better for the rest of the day.

Slipped the moorings at 12:20, exceptionally late for us, and we didn't go far, only just outside Nantwich.

So much for the lazy Boxing day...
Filled the stern gland greaser, (I always seem to end up doing that job), investigated the shower room fan light, (we're gonna need a new one), changed the reading lamp near the galley...

Out with the old...

...In with the new.

More tomorrow.

So this is Christmas.

Had a lazy morning, opened a couple of prezzies...

Less of the "Old" please.

Chugged on down to the winding 'ole at the bottom of the Audlem Flight, did a 180 and came back to where we started.

The turkey was almost ready by then.

After a lovely lunch we watched a couple of LotSW dvd's then crashed. 😴😪😴😪

Christmas Eve and all is well.

We stayed overnight at Barbridge and moved on in the morning. Stopped briefly in Nantwich to water up and then Lin spotted the chandlery was open so I went in and bought a couple of bags of smokeless to lay in overnight.

Onward, and through Hack Green Locks where we moored up.

First thing was I had to change the fuse in the 12v TV supply socket. An easy job, but required a bit of ingenuity to get the cables back in behind the socket. It's all working correctly now and we can use the telly from it or charge phones etc. with a suitable USB adaptor.

Shown working with adaptor plugged in. There are two other USB charging ports in the ajacent 240v socket which can be used when the inverter is on.

I've been told I'm not allowed to do any more work until after Christmas.

Lucy's here...

We're here at last.

It's been a while since I last posted, Three in their wisdom wouldn't let me upload credit to my account last time, but this time they've updated their website and made it a little easier and managed to load up without a problem.

Had an awful journey up the M5 and M6, heavy rain all the way, started out at 04:40 and arrived at around 08:00. Couldn't do much more than 60 in most places due to spray and visibility, and then there were 50 mph limits in various places and 30 mph through Brum.

We unloaded the car and loaded the boat and went through the usual checks and got ourselves under way.

Through Minshull Lock, Cholmondeston Lock and ended up moored outside the Barbridge Inn where we met a couple who were interested in purchasing a share. We showed them around, explained the detail, and I think they went away with their heads full of info to mull over.

What's next? Into the pub of course, and we started with a curried parsnip soup followed by a Butchers Platter and very nice it was too.

Later, back in TQ, we crashed...

Nice and warmy.