Learning the Locks

This morning we quickly encountered our first locks, which we had recce’d on foot last night. We paused briefly as another boat was coming up, but that meant the lock was set in our favour with the gate open. Andrew carefully guided the boat in, only a slight bump to the wall, while Sarah closed the gate behind. Another boat was waiting to come up so Sarah had some keen helpers on the paddles and front gates from the young family on that boat. Everything went smoothly and we were soon out, on our way to the second lock a little further on. This was more or less a carbon copy of the first, except the helpers were seasoned boaters who had us out within 5 minutes!

A long stretch of canal followed with various corners, bridges, good scenery and sudden oncoming boat encounters which required evasive action. The weather this morning and in the early afternoon was glorious! We pulled up for lunch, soup and rolls (thank you M&P for the delicious soup), before stopping at Ellesmere to fill up the water tank at a Canal and River Trust (CRT) yard. Andrew took the opportunity of being moored up on a different side to clean a mucky window which had been bugging us slightly.

Ellesmere junction is a tricky corner with a bridge and moored boats beyond. Having not seen any oncoming boats while we filled up with water, upon departure we encountered 3 oncoming boats in the trickiest spot. A bit of manoeuvring later we were on our way. More corners, bridges and scenery followed into the afternoon.

Around 17:00 it started raining so we donned waterproofs (no fair weather boating for us!). We arrived at a lift bridge just as an oncoming boat did. Andrew had windlass in-hand but the crew on the other boat ran along and did the hard work. They even waved us through first so we were very grateful. A short while later we arrived at one of our planned moorings so decided to stop for the night. A very enjoyable day, if a little soggy at the end.Read more