Wednesday 25 March 2015

New coal boat on the Llangollen Canal

Spring is definitely in the air here. We've had some fantastic sunny days recently and there are primroses and daffodils everywhere although I never seem to have the camera handy when we pass a yellow patch. There are also lambs in all the fields and they seem to be fascinated by  the boat and run down to the canal when we go past. I'm still waiting to see my first ducklings of the year but I don't think it'll be long as there are hardly any female mallards about at the moment, presumably they're all sitting on nests in the reeds.


I dropped Roger off at Chirk Marina last Thursday and carried on to moor at Chirk Bank. Chirk Tunnel is only wide enough for one boat and as I was about 20 yards from the end a boat started coming in. A long blast on the horn made him stop in his tracks but he had no excuse for not having looked before he came steaming in as he wasn't alone. His wife was suitably embarrassed but he gave me such a dirty look as if it was my fault he had to reverse! We've seen him a few times since and he's still giving me the evil eye, silly man.

A new fuel boat has just started operating on the LLangollen Canal and as you can see from our diesel gauge we were desperate for it to reach us.


I was expecting Mongomery to get to us on Friday but they didn't arrive until Saturday evening. The Llangollen canal is so shallow they had been dredging it as they went and had got stuck in several bridge holes. Even so, Hannah and Jon arrived just as it was going dark and gave us cheerful service with a smile. Their diesel is really cheap for this canal too. 72p/l as opposed to £1.05/l at Chirk Marina.


They moored up behind us for the night and went to the pub for a well deserved pint. I really hope they make a go of it. Coal boats are a dying breed but are so essential for us live-aboard boaters, especially in winter. If you need supplies you can contact them by
phone - 07756170860
email - andertoncanalcarrying@outlook.com
facebook - ACCo-Llangollen fuel boat
Twitter - @welshcoalboat


Roger finally finished the job at Chirk Marina and we carried on cruising in glorious sunshine to Ellesmere


where we've had hail showers with hail the size of large peas!


3 comments:

Alf said...

Just to be pedantic, Mountbatten is not a new trading boat, but a previously long established trader in new ownership, so having said that, I also wish them luck in their new endeavours.

Unknown said...

Yikes, look at the size of those hailstones!!

singin said...

Hi glad to see some competetion on this canal as the marinas appeared to have the franchise. We have been round the system in the last twenty years and always maintained that a "diesel boat"would be good for the Llangollen, but always told the canal was too shallow by other traders. Good luck to the Jon & Hannah on their new venture. Phil St John