Blimey, where's the bollard?

 One minute we were enjoying a cup of tea in bed, the beep news being watched, and then the local weather forecast was shown. Good grief was that really heading our way? Heavy rain and thunderstorms and all to arrive mid-morning. Nop, didn't want to be caught out in that so we shot out of bed pretty quick. Breakfast then, was on the go and even teeth cleaning took a back seat until later. Only one boat joined us last night and that was a fair way away so we had no worries about disturbing their slumber as engine was fired into life and cladding pins removed.   

A 7.20 am get away.

We failed....the rain started just after leaving Booth Lane middle lock. Blooming local forecast, timings all wrong. Ian was on his way to the next lock, no waterproofs just a fleece. Hmm, a water magnet if ever there was one. I did notice the grass cutting team had left the lock landing looking pretty wild, and what's with those white posts almost in the middle of the towpath? With them hammered into the ground the width of the path had been considerably reduced.

Here comes the rain!

Only five locks to do to get to Middlewich, and who should we meet at King's Lock? It was Peter. A long day for them as Barbridge has to be achieved by the end of the day. Could locking for them take longer now that they are going up instead of down?

His boat already waiting below and the last of the locks descending

 

 

 

 

Middlewich junction was busy. More hire boats seen today than in all the two weeks of travelling and one right by the junction. I was intrigued how Peter would cope with the turn towing that boat. Well as I said in a previous post, I was watching a master at work.

My turn to descend Kings lock and I did wonder if there would be room behind the red boat. Ian was at the junction but I couldn't get his attention. Should I do the turn and hope, or do I wait? In the end I thought 'sod it' I'm going for it. Almost had the bow into the junction when Ian eventually realised what I was doing and waved me through. Hmm....better late than never I suppose.

Holding FS under the bridge, that red boat's bow was well into the lock entrance. Must mean no boat was descending. 

Watching the proceedings a lady walked up to me and said "Are you queueing for the lock?" "Yes" I replied, "Our boat is just about to come through the junction and I wondered where we should go?"  she enquired. Ah, not the wisest of moves I thought and told her she would have to inform the captain to hold fire, not to come in yet but wait from a signal from her.

At this lock (Wardle) there is a very big failing by who ever decided where the rings or bollards should be. The red boat with its bow well into the lock entrance could be tied to the top ring. After it had gone in and lock gates closed I pulled FS forward to allow that hire boat behind me to come in. 

Ian up there giving a hand.

 

And then I discovered I had a problem. There was no central bollard or ring to tie to. I had also been told by Ian that a boat was waiting to descend at the top, so no allowing FS's bow into the entrance. I could no longer pull back to the ring under the bridge 'ole because the hire boat had arrived. Furthermore, I was now at the mercy of a lock full of water emptying out, coming at FS at full force making her impossible to hold.

This to show where the rings were. My camera was on FS and no way would I have attempted to get back on board to fetch it.

No more photos of my plight obviously! What I did do was ask for the bottom gate paddles to be lifted really slowly. The gentleman on the descending boat was very obliging and when Ian turned up after helping Peter, he raced to help me with the rope. In the end Ian managed to get down the bank and get FS's bow rope and secured that to the top ring.  After that the paddles were fully lifted and we had no more problems. 

Gosh Middlewich moorings were busy, mainly with hire boats. I managed to squeeze in right at the very end of the mooring by the second bridge and just in time as the predicted rain came down in torrents. Short lived, thank goodness, and no thunderstorms at all! Then as we had settled down all those hire boats up and left leaving no end of room. 30 minutes later and we would have found a space nearer to the lock and, I might add, considerably nearer to the shops!

How else would you answer a phone?

 This morning was wet again, a good excuse to stay in bed longer. And because we made that dash down the locks yesterday, we were now a good day ahead of schedule so deciding to wait until the rain stopped seemed like a good plan. But moving was a necessity because of the abysmal TV and internet coverage on these moorings. It's a good job we have a portable hard drive full of films otherwise we may have had to talk to each other! The chosen film to watch last night was Avatar. Fantastic film and hopefully a sequel will come out soon.  When the rain eventually stopped we set off for Wheelock facilities and then make for Rockery moorings, only about a mile further along.

T'was a good day for inside boat cleaning. I'm ashamed to admit it's been nearly two weeks since I put a duster to the shelves and with the stove now lit, they certainly needed it. By the time I had finished washing walls and floors, two hours had passed. The weather had improved greatly so after lunch I went fishing again. This was another good fishing spot, a mixture of good-sized and medium-sized roach. But then it all changed and went from one extreme to another. I mean on one cast I land a decent sized roach and on the next a blooming stickleback! The maggot was nearly as big as the fish!

There was a lighthearted moment when a chap on a hire boat came around a slight bend in the canal and forgot to move the tiller. He ploughed straight into the opposite bank and this mishap was done right in front of me too. I did laugh as he did also. "It's only our third day on board" said he "And I think I'm getting the hang of it." "You'll be an expert by the end of the week" I laughingly replied.

 

But he wasn't the only one to head for the opposite bank. This chap, also new to boating, did the same thing when he saw us approaching the moored boats. Ian went into reverse and beckoned him on, it became a stand-off with neither knowing if they should proceed. So in the end Ian took the initiative. Thanking the chap as we passed by, he then admitted he was a newbie and hadn't realised Ian was telling him to proceed. Do we need a universal type of hand signal other than the wave?

 

This afternoon I did something that made Ian raise his eyebrows and shake his head in disbelief. Look... I'm sure I'm not the only one to have answered a mobile phone the normal way, only to hear laughter from the other end saying "Mum, mum, this is a video call but all I can see is your ear!"

The wait was over

 Yesterday turned out to be a long, long day. Sure enough that CRT chap came over at 2 pm. The news was good "Just removing the scaffolding and with a few tweaks to the gate, you should all be on your way." 

 

2.30 pm and we were still waiting. Lots of banging came from within the lock, lots of bodies milling about but not much else seemed to be happening. 3.pm and CRT chap is back. "Another 30 minutes and the lock will be operational" he told us again. By 3.50 pm finally more scaffolding was removed, bottom gates were opened, and a boat entered the lock from below.

 

 Yippee, the lock was fixed although only an emergency temporary repair, it should be good until a stoppage on the flight occurs. Ian found out that a collar had been fitted to the cracked heel post, big bolts hammered in, and then a plate welded to hold it securely in place.

Lock closures allow one to chat to those others caught up in the stoppage and what a lovely man was that chap on his towage and steerage boat. Name of Peter, he is well known across the system and two boaters in common to both parties were Tracy and Tim (doggie boat on Sola Gratia) and the infamous Maffi  on his boat Milly M. Such an interesting life he leads constantly in demand for his services. Some time in November he’s towing a houseboat along the Soar to Redhill Marina. Rather him than me!!!
Anyway it was gone 4 pm before the first boat ascended, by the time Peter had taken his boat down, waited while another boat ascended and then taken the crippled boat down, it was 4.30 pm before we could enter the lock.

At the next double locks Peter took the left-hand locks, set the right side for us and waved us on our way once we were through. As a thank you, Ian set all the towpath side locks and opened the gate so he could go straight in. 

 

But once we reached lock 60 he had to give up on that idea as a long length of moorings presented themselves and because of the lateness of the hour, we wondered if Peter would stop there. With every lock with us, we reached the moorings at the bottom lock by 6 pm. A total of 10 locks in an hour and a half. Now that was good going for us. Helps when every lock is with you though. It was nearly dark when we arrived and several boats were already there, still plenty of room and aware that Peter may join us, we pulled forward as far as we could. He never did arrive, but another boater did, so Ian was right not to continue to raise a paddle to set the locks for him.

 

A few photos of our journey down,

You can just make out the way the brickwork has come in on the left-hand wall.

Not all the double locks are still in use

Only just missed going straight down the chimney and dousing the stove.

Lovely Autumnal colours.

 

Phew...that was a near miss! And a masterclass in towing.I wonder how

 Amazing, FS wasn't listing list this morning even though several boats had passed us last night, drawing water from the pound, and all heading in our direction.  One of these boats was 'On Tow' from Ballinger Towage and Steerage Services and we had hoped to set off and get past them today but it was not to be. Anyway those balloon fenders did the trick and kept us nicely floating.

 

Leaving lock 52 it was roughly 3/4 miles to the next lock. On the way was Rode Heath. Having shopped at the new Lidl in Kidsgrove right by lock 41, the one thing we forgot to get was peppers and a small general store was found to be near to bridge 140. Tonight's meal was Fajitas which I usually load up with chicken, onion and peppers.  Anyway not far from the lock 52 the canal snakes around in an S bend. No line of sight toward the right or left of the bends. The amount of offside vegetation was ridicules and the towpath side wasn't any better being covered in high bushes. Of course the inevitable happened. Some sixth sense must have kicked in as I kept over as much to the right as those branches would allow and then, suddenly, the bow of a boat appeared. OMG talk about panic on both sides. FS was thrown into reverse, the other chap did the same and somehow we missed by inches. Unfortunately his boat did hit the concrete bank on the towpath side and one of the gentleman crew glared and tutted at me is if it was my fault. Thankfully the Captain was really nice, "Couldn't be helped" said he "That vegetation could do with cutting back". he laughed. "We did miss though and that's all that matters."  I thanked him as we parted company.

The Rode Heath moorings had but one boat on it, and that was a sunk and burnt plastic cruiser.

I wonder how long that had been there?

Mid-morning and the rain started. It was also very windy and I did struggle to keep FS in a straight line. Not wanting to be buffeted by the wind in between pounds, I held FS back under the bridge.

 

Ominous skies. Yep rain would fall

 It was at lock 55 that we met up with that towing boat again. I must say he has his job down to a T. He tows the crippled boat to the lock mouth, takes off the towing rope, closes the gate, descends with his boat and pulls over to the landing. He then fills the lock, opens the gate and pulls the cripples boat in. I never noticed the lady owner of the boat doing anything other than hold the rope and close the bottom gate, maybe that is the condition of tow. Anyway once the boat has descended, he opens the gates, fetches his boat, backs into the lock and reattaches the towing line. She then closes the gates and gets back on board her boat. It was a masterclass of towing a stricken boat through single locks but oh it took forever to perform. Ian did walk up to see if he could help and it was from the chap that we found out that there was a stoppage at lock 57.

  

No point in rushing then and Ian leaving me at lock 55, walked down to lock 57 to see if any moorings were available. On his return and with a thumbs up, FS was free to descend locks 55 and 56. 

Already on the landing was those two boats. We slotted in behind and then went to have a word with C&RT about the stoppage. 

 

It was a damaged heel post and they had to weld a steel plate to hold it together. The estimated time for reopening was 2 pm and that was only if the repair stood up to lock use.

By 13.50 the scaffolding was removed. 2 pm and the CRT guy comes to see us. "Another half hour" he told us. Groan...time was getting on, it gets dark by 6pm! And we still have those two boats in front. Somehow I don't think we will make the bottom of Wheelock flight tonight! 

And only one photo of the wildlife seen today