Hurleston

When we got up this morning another two of the sheets had blown off the bridge and were floating in the canal. They can’t have been fastened down very well as it wasn’t particularly windy at all last night.

It was a bit chilly first thing so Chico wore the new coat I'd made him for Christmas.

We carried on up the locks and after a drizzly start the weather brightened up considerably. This afternoon it was lovely cruising weather, quite mild and sunny.

There’s certainly no shortage of water on this stretch of the Shroppie as all the bye-washes were like torrents.

We’ve seen quite a few moving boats today and the guys at the Anglo Welsh hire fleet at Bunbury were busy getting several of their boats ready to go out, probably because it’s half term.  We’re now moored just before Hurleston Junction and will turn up onto the Llangollen Canal in the morning.  Before it went dark we took Chico for a short walk up the locks and then crossed the top lock gate to have a look at Hurleston Reservoir which is fed with water from the Llangollen Canal.  You can’t make them out from the photo but there were hundreds of gulls bobbing about on the water.

the feeder from the canal

Here we go again

Roger had an early start this morning to move the car up to the Llangollen Canal and travel back to Chester by train. Whilst he was gone I washed the boat and stocked up at Tesco’s and we finally left Chester just after lunch.

The new lock gates at Greenfield Lock look very nice BUT they haven’t been balanced properly so are an absolute pig to open AND they’re leaking badly because they don’t close properly.

Just past Christleton we had to shift a couple of BW mud hoppers out of the way. Half a dozen of them have been moored there for ages but these two had had their bow pins pulled out, probably by speeding boats,  and were blocking the canal.

It’s been lovely to be on the move again, even though the weather hasn’t been that great. We’ve seen a few bits of floating ice but apart from them the canal’s been clear. We phoned Tattenhall Marina to check they’d got diesel but were told that they didn’t want visitors as the marina is covered by 2inch thick ice so we’ll pick some up tomorrow further up the canal.

We’re now moored near the Shady Oak pub. Last time we passed this way the pub had closed down but today the lights were on so we went for a nosy - and a pint.  The new landlords arrived 3 weeks ago and the pub re-opened last Friday.  They aren’t doing food yet but hope to have the kitchens open again from next Saturday 18th.

On the way, we passed 3 large sheets of what looked like carpet underlay floating in the canal.  When we moored up it became obvious where they'd come from.  Theyd been used as insulation to cover brickwork repairs to Bridge 109 but had blown off in the winds the other night.

Maintenance & Security

While we’ve been stuck here in Chester Roger has been doing a few bits of boat maintenance, catching up on all the little jobs that should be done regularly but are always put off till later.  One of them was to remove the water pump and strip it down to clean the filters.  We hadn’t really noticed any problems with the water flow but once he’d cleaned the build up of  “plaque” off the filter the difference in flow has been quite amazing.  It was an easy job to do and only took about half an hour.

I’ve been asked a couple of times recently about the wire security rope we made to stop the yobs?/drunks?/junkies? setting us loose in the middle of the night.  We bought 4m of plastic coated wire and fasteners from B&Q and made up a loop at each end as shown in the photo.  The loop on the roof is fastened to the centre mooring ring with a padlock so even when they untied the bow and stern ropes we were still safely attached to the mooring ring. It was easy to make up and cost about £10 which I thought was well worth it for the peace of mind and a good nights sleep.

Still in Chester

We've been away at our daughter's wedding. It was at Gretna green and was a small, intimate and friendly service held "over the anvil"  in the forge, followed by a lovely reception. The couple didn't want a big wedding with a lot of fuss and my daughter made the bouquets, button holes and wedding favours herself and they worked together to make the cake between them. It was a two tier chocolate cake surrounded by chocolate fingers and sprinkled with edible glitter and was absolutely delicious!

I'd been a bit anxious about leaving the boat in the middle of Chester but when we got back it was just as we'd left it.  It was a different matter on Saturday night though. We were woken at 4.30 by strange noises on the roof which turned out to be a guy trying to untie our centre mooring rope. Roger yelled at him and he ran off and when we went outside to investigate he'd already untied and removed the bow and stern ropes. He must have been either drunk or drugged up as he hadn't noticed that alongside the centre rope is our steel wire rope and padlock!  Even if he'd removed the rope the boat wouldn't have gone anywhere.  We've now bought bright green locking chains and fastened them between the taff seat posts and the mooring ring so hopefully we won't have any more visits.  The work at Greenfield locks has finished so we should be able to leave on Friday as planned, providing the canal doesn't freeze over again that is.

Lock update

It's been a nice day here in Chester, bright and sunny but with a bitter twist. It only managed to get up to 3' and a brisk pace was needed to keep warm when we went out for a walk.
We went back up to Greenfield Lock to check on the progress.  Arriving at 3.45 the workmen had disappeared but we could see the progress they've made. The new lock gates have now been fitted and the paddle gear is back in place. The pointing looks to be almost finished too, so hopefully the lock will re-open on schedule and set us free.

Although Chester Council are superb at cleaning the streets and towpath of rubbish there's always a lot of it floating in the canal and every morning we have a bag full of polystyrene food containers, drinks cartons and bottles trapped up against the boat. We've started picking it out of the water and taking it to the nearest litter bin but I fear we're fighting a losing battle. Today it filled a black bin bag rather than the usual carrier bag.

Lock maintenance progress

The weather for the past few days has been pretty grotty as we've had more gales and rain. Today it was sunny and fairly calm so we decided to go and check on the progress of the works at the locks.

At Tarvin Lock they've put stop planks in to lower the water level in the pound up to Greenfield Lock. You can now see the culvert below the lock paddles. When the paddles are raised the water rushes down the 'hole' and into the lock to fill it.

At Greenfield Lock the BW guys were working away.

2 men were fitting the bottom gates while another was pointing the brickwork on the lock walls.

The hole you can see in the lock side in the photo below is where the water comes into the lock from the culvert above. The water flow can be very fierce if you don't raise the paddles slowly.

If you remember, on our trip into Chester before the stoppages I had to prune branches from a tree which was quite low over the canal so that we could get through.  It's now been chopped down and this is all that's left.  Some of the logs have been stacked up to 'season' ready for use as firewood.

In the other direction, the works to Northgate Staircase Locks aren't progressing very well. I spoke to one of the BW guys who told me that the works are behind schedule due to problems they've been having with hired-in plant and machinery. He did say, however, that they're hoping to make up the delay and hopefully still finish on time.

These shoes were all recovered from the locks. I suppose it makes a change from shopping trolleys and bikes.

A bit of hooky

I was given this beautiful book of crochet patterns for Christmas and have got "hooked" on one particular pattern.

I loved this blanket so much I decided I HAD to make it. So unfortunately everything else is falling behind, including updating the blog.

We're still stuck in Chester, so I'm making the most of the quiet time before we start travelling again to try and get it finished. I didn't realise just how addicted I'd become, but I suppose that's a good thing since I have to make 71 plain squares and 71 flower squares.

I've made about half of the squares now so I'll show you the photos when it's finished.