Yes you do have to close the lift bridge!

26th October

 Getting ready to leave and Kev gets a phone call from Chris at Anglo Welsh. A problem had occurred at Quoisley lock and it could well be closed tomorrow.  Oh dear, as we were stuck on the wrong side, a decision had to be made whether to carry on or wind to get back to the lock before the closure. The advice from Anglo Welsh was to continue with the journey and they would advise Kev when the engineers had checked the gate. Well, Ian went straight onto CRT website and found that the lock had already been closed, had been since 16.45 the night before.

Please be advised navigation is currently closed at Quoisley Lock on the Llangollen Canal due to a lock gate failure.

Our local team and engineers have been to site and investigated the issue preventing the lock gate from operating. Whilst a method of repair is being organised, navigation will remain closed at Quoisley Lock, on the Llangollen Canal.

A further update will be provided Wednesday 27 October.

 Onward then to Ellesmere, it was here the Kev would have winded to head back. It was not long before we found ourselves lead boats to another 4 hire boats. The lift bridge Tilstock Park was coming up. It was open but only because a lone boater had already lifted the bridge. Ian did the gentlemanly thing and got off to give them a hand. 

 

Clambering over that boaters back deck he told them he would see to its closure. But thereby lay a problem. Those 4 hire boats also wanted to go through, but three were still far enough behind for the bridge to be closed. This bridge is a road bridge and must not remain open and with a car waiting to cross, Ian first closed it before allowing Merlin through. This meant that one of the hire boats had caught us up. I called back at the skipper and asked for one of his crew to get off on the offside to lower the bridge after him. This he said he would do, but not until he had asked the question "Why can't we leave it up?" Anyway I explained why and fully expected him to do that. Ian got back on board and we continued on our way.  But as I looked back he had obviously thought better of it and went straight through leaving it open. Those other boaters would probably have thought this bridge was to remain up, they were far enough behind not to realise. A bit of a dilemma now, Should Ian go back but if he did, how would he get across to the other side to wind it down? All we could hope for was to tell an oncoming boater what had happened and for them to close it after they had gone through.

  This moored boat's pin was pulled!

This time though, it was definitely the way he had secured the boat. On just a center pin, in what looked to be soft ground, well even at the slowest possible pace it would have dislodged it. And it was probably us that did the deed but this time we had evidence of what speed we had been doing. Ian has a Garmin GPS72 gadget, fired into life because we had been following two very slow boats and wanted a rough idea of how slow they had been going. The Garmin showed 1.9 to 2 mph the correct tickover speed for passing boats.

We made Ellesmere early afternoon. Down the arm we went looking for a spot but the only one available was only just long enough for FS at 57'. Merlin at 62' would never have got in so we bagged that spot and Kev took Merlin to wind. Gosh that wind had picked up and with Merlin acting like a sail, it made life really difficult for Kev. With Christine on the bank and pushing at the bow, Kev managed to get Merlin around. 

Back up the arm they went and found a spot just after the entrance. Shame we were apart but with a meal out planned for later, it didn't really matter.

No fishing for me but I felt sure Kev would continue without me. So far (not counting Kev's Perch) I had the biggest fish at about 5 inches. Then a phone call to Christine asking what time we should book a table for at the Red Lion coaching Inn and she informed us that a space had become available in front of Merlin. We would just fit but would be tight. That was it, tiller back on, ropes untied and we headed for the winding hole. Knowing how difficult it had been for Kev, I was prepared to do the same as Christine and push the bow around but we got lucky. The wind died considerably making the turn easy.

Kev wasn't wrong when he said it would be tight!

This was the best way to secure Merlin, rope around our T stud.

 
We had booked a table for 5.30 and a good job too 'cos those diners arriving without a booking were turned away. Not the cheapest of pub grub but wow, delicious and plenty of it. This is one place I would recommend but best to book first. 

And seen on route,

 And wildlife,