Bye Ellesmere till April 2009

The BW services point at Ellesmere, Bendi filling with water and Shush just finished and winded.

Last supplies coming on board before leaving our mooring.

Managed to get a bit of painting done this week, the floor of the front deck wanted a coat to freshen it up, so found some Hammerite in almost the same colour as the original. Have put one coat on and will try to get onother on this week. Eiddwen and Elsie have been to Oswestry a couple of times (Eric and I sent a email to the shopping centre warning them that they were on their way, so they could get in extra stock!!).

On our way at last, we left Ellesmere this morning after using the services, water, rubbish, etc. Making our way against quite a strong gusting headwind, this, combined with the natural 2mph flow on the Llangollen was making the engine work for a change, it also made one or two bends rather interesting as well.

We are going to spend a few days on the Montgomery canal this coming week, and are looking forward to that as we haven't been down the Monty before. At present we are moored out in the country where we like to be when we get the chance.

Thats all folks, see you next week.

Still around Ellesmere

The Town Arm at Ellesmere on a warm Sunday morning.


We are the fourth boat down the line and Bendi is fifth.

Bendigedig winding at the bottom of the arm.

And returning to moor behind us.

Not a lot to report this week, the cut is getting much quieter with less boats about, we have moved on to the Town Arm for three days, as we have been waiting for some decent weather so that the paint brushes could get going. At last, today has been warm and dry and tomorrow is supposed to be the same, so out with the wet and dry this morning, some red oxide this afternoon and top coat tomorrow I hope.

E had her !! birthday on Friday so she had a trip to Shrewsburys shops and we went out for a meal that evening to the Thai Mere Restaurant in town and a very nice bit of grub it was too, we both enjoyed it.

Thats all for now, see you next week.

10 Day stop over

I should have published these photo's two weeks ago but the lack of signal held them up.


Hurleston Locks the entrance to the Llangollen canal.

This is the trip boat on the Manchester Ship canal with a full load.

This was last Thursday on the Preece Arm, just before sunset with a storm coming in.

Last week there wasn't much to write about, a quiet week as they say. We moved on from Whitchurch to open country, then down the Preece branch to Whixall marina for services and diesel at 75 ppl, we then stopped for two nights half way back to the main line it was very quiet and peaceful.

We arrived in Ellesmere on Friday pm and plan to stay around here for the next 10 days or so. Hope the weather gets better as forecast, because yesterday the wind was very strong, and last night I don't think it stopped raining all night. I'm hoping to get some painting done in the next few days, that is if the weather picks up.

Note to Eric & Patsy in California

We are not far from your home town now, in fact Eiddwen is going there tomorrow to do some shopping.I hope you both enjoy the canals as much as we do, BW are starting to put prices up for us CC's, next year there is talk of an extra £ 150 on top of our licence to cover the use of services etc for 12 month cruisers, and the price of red diesel is changing on the 1st November. When we buy fuel after that date, we will have to declare how much is for propulsion and how much for heat and light, this will mean that boatyards will charge us at a higher rate for propulsion. The general consensus is 60/40 split when cruising, but when moored up I don't know yet.

That's all folks.

Signal at last!!!

I have not had a signal since Friday morning, and am fed up with Vodafone's coverage around here in particular. So that is why the blog is late and that there aren't any photos this week and Vodafone's days are numbered, roll on November when my contract ends. I can check the signals of other companies and there are at least two who consistently beat Vodafone on strength.

After leaving Chester, we cruised up to Chrisleton, it was our 43 wedding aniversery so we went to the Cheshire Cat pub for a very nice meal with Eric & Elsie off Bendigedig. The following day we moved on to Beeston for the weekend, and what a lovely few days it was, we had a barbi on Saturday evening. On Monday we headed for Hurleston locks at the bottom of the Llangollen canal, we climbed the four locks and did another couple of miles before mooring for the night. tonight we are in Wrenbury and plan to stay here for 48 hrs.

Message for Eric from California, the designer wheel was the result of an argument with a lock gate, my bike has been on that carrier almost a year and has survived hundreds of locks, however sods law says that sooner or later you will forget it's there and the bike becomes the meat in the sandwich between 14 tons of boat and an imovable lock gate. The bike has a new wheel and now lies on the roof alongside Eiddwens.

Well as this blog is so late i've added on this weeks as well, the signal is a little better today. We are on the Whitchurch arm for the weekend and have been into town to do a Tesco shop this afternoon, the weather is very good at the moment so we are making the most of it. Hope to have more to say next time.

See you all next week.

At the end of the Shropi.

There are 3 lots of water here, in the foreground are the museum locks at the end of the Shropshire Union Canal, the middle ground is the Manchester Ship Canal and the sandy bit at the top is the River Mersey at low tide.

This is the lower basin of the Museum complex, which we have almost to ourselves.

First mate going for a stroll.

Going down the first lock with our little helpers up on top.

Halfway down Northgate Staircase Locks at Chester, a drop of 32 feet in 3 locks.

In case you hadn't noticed, the pictures are in the wrong order. ie. first last, last first!!


This weekend we are in The National Waterways Museum in Ellesmere Port. We are staying for a few days in the lower basin of the museum, and as you can see, we don't have a lot of neighbours! On the way we stopped a night in Chester having had a walk round the shops during the day.

This museum is the best waterway museum I have been in, they really have tried to make it customer friendly, with touch screens every where and some excellent information boards alongside the exhibits.

The weather has finally sorted its self out and so far we have had 3 excellent days. We had a nice walk along the Manchester Ship Canal this morning, and did the last of the exhibits this afternoon, so tomorrow I have got an engine oil & filter change in the morning and the GP in the afternoon, so a restful day!!

See you all nextweek.

Onwards and upwards

My engine is now complete again, Steve from Kings Lock boatyard at Middlewich came on Wednesday morning and removed the piece of bolt left in the head, fitted a new bolt and re-torqued it. Thanks Steve. After looking at the weather forecast for the next few days, we have moved on from Nantwich out into the country side and will stay put until Sunday and then move on towards Chester which is our next goal.

Thursday evening I lit the fire for the first time since last March, it went quite chilly early evening so we had to bite the bullet and get the chimney out of the front locker, along with sticks and coal, whilst trying to avoid the the rain. Half an hour and we were lovely and cosy again. you forget how quickly the fire warms the place up.

No photo's this again this week, my vodafone signal is just not strong enough to download them.

End of the summer?

Spot the Heron

The weather doesn't seem to get any better, although, we can't complain there haven't been many days since leaving London that we have failed to move due to the rain. Speaking to family in East Anglia and friends back in Pembrokeshire we seem to have sailed up the middle of the country and avoided most of the bad weather that they have seen.

At the moment we are moored up part way down the Audlem flight of 15 locks, a few miles from Nantwich, we arrived here yesterday lunch time and are staying till Monday morning, we try not to move on Sundays if possible. I had a few photo's to put on the blog but am having trouble transfering them (it keeps crashing). I am going to try another phone company in a couple of months when my contract runs out. Even though I am only getting 2g on mine most of the time, if I look at the other companies they are showing 3g in the same location, so, Vodafone your days are numbered if your signal strength doesn't increase. Still waiting for progress on the engine front, watch this space.