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.

A Visit to the Show

We left Great Heywood last Tues and made our way down the Staffs & Worcester canal to the Inland Waterways Association's National Festival held this year at Pendeford at the head of the Shropshire Union canal.

Arriving at Autherley Junction there were several boats queing for the lock on to the Shropi, IWA helpers were controlling it, so we waited for their call to go through the lock, 2 hours later we made the turn and moved on down to a nice mooring for the night. Saturday we walked up to the show and spent the day looking around and spending money. At least the weather was warm. We moved on later in the day and are now out in the country on a quiet mooring.

Sunday we made our way down to Brewood and had Lunch at the Bridge Inn very nice too. we moved on a bit further and stopped for the night, on Monday we cruised on down to Norbury Junction which is where we are now. I'm hoping my engine problem will be sorted this week, I went to the Vitas stand at the show and spoke to them and it would seem that the engineer is iminent. we shall see.

Sorry no pics this week, will try harder for next week.

Tixall Wide, more like a lake than a canal. There are lots of Kingfishers here

Balloon leaving Shugborough Hall, several nights a week in the summer weather permitting so we are told.

Well, weather wise it's been a mixed bag again this week. We left Atherstone last Sat and cruised slowly up to Great Heywood, where we arrived Thurs pm and we are staying till Tues, waiting for tablets for Eiddwen and doing a bit of cosmetic work on the outside of the hull, these narrow locks take off more paint than the double locks on the GU, or maybe it's me!!

We are here on Tixall Wide, it really is a lovely spot, and a great favorite with many boaters. I'm afraid the picture doesn't quite do it justice. Tomorrow I have to go back to the junction to get diesel ( it's only a mile ), when we arrived in Great Heywood we moored on the 48 hr moorings, so had to move on Saturday. I couldn't get any on Saturday when we moved up here because it was change over day at the boat yard and they don't wan't to see any one then. It's the first time I have let it go down so far, I've only got about 20 litres left so a big bill this time!! Will let you know next week.

Changeable weather

Tucked up for Sunday





Well weather wise it's been a changeable week, Hot at the start and very wet at the end. We arrived in Atherstone on Weds pm, Eric had to go home to Newport so we moored up for three nights. Set off again on Sat in a real downpour, so did six locks and three miles and stopped out in the country just before lunch, and with a good signal for Sky we are nice and cosy for rest of the weekend ( The Eisteddfod is on S4C as well as the Olympics )



On Thurs a 30 footer moored behind us with a retired couple on board, they went shopping and locked themselves out, so I went over with some spanners and took their hatch off so we could open the door. Eiddwen and I then went shopping and when we came back there was a little thank you card pinned to our door, Now wasn't that nice of them, with people like that there is still hope for the rest of us!!

My engine problem still hasn't been resolved, however the correct people are in the know and I await their pleasure, in the meantime we are cruising slowly onwards.