Off at last

Just after draining.


Pressure washed, awaiting the scraper

After first coat of Bitumastic

Waiting for BW to fill the dock

It's seems to have been a long winter. We left our Llangollen winter moorings as usual on the 1st April, but had to hang around for 5 weeks waiting to go into the dry dock at Ellesmere which we booked 14 month ago and the first 2 weeks in May were the earliest available. Bendigedig went in for the first week and I gave Eric a hand, then we swapped over and Eric gave me a hand, it certainly helped the week go faster.

'SHUSH' looked great for the first few days, then we arrived at Grindley Brook staircase locks plus 3 more after them, the rules are no fenders when using these locks and with the very strong by wash at the bottom of each it's almost impossible not to scratch some of the paint on the sides as you go down, hey ho it looked good for a while.

We arrived at the end of the Llangollen on Wednesday and turned onto the Shropshire Union canal heading for Autherley Junction , the end of the SU where we will turn on to the Staffs and Worcs canal. Our summer cruise is not set in stone this year we are looking at Oxford and Stratford on Avon at the moment but things could change.