Busy on the branch

We got away at 10:30 this morning, but were a long way behind the first boats on the move today.
Another fine warm morning, clouding up a bit later and with a bit of a breeze to make it feel a little cooler.
There was only 1 boat in front of us at Stanthorne Lock, so we were through and on the move again after half an hour.

Out of Stanthorne LockThere’s a 7 mile long pound between Stanthorne and Minshull Locks, with 22 bridges to negotiate, and I was pleased that we’d timed it nicely to avoid meeting any of the boats coming the other way.

Another one passed in the nick of time…..

Ivor and Mel Batchelor with their working boat and butty Mountbatten and Jellicoe.Don’t need any coal today, thanks.

Our easy passage wasn’t to last though, and soon after we had to stop to avoid a Viking Afloat hire boat full of Dutch people. It wasn’t their fault, we just arrived at the narrows at the same time.

Church Minshull nestles in the green Weaver valley.
Then we arrived at Minshull Lock, to join the end of a 5 boat queue.

Queuing at Minshull Lock
With each boats crews helping out, we soon got all the boats up though, not bad, 6 boats up and 4 down in an hour.

There was another short queue at Cholmondeston Lock, but we were up and moored above by 15:00. It’s amazing how many boats were pulling over to moor after 14:00. All to catch the 3 o’clock kick off of England’s make or break game in the World Cup. (If you don’t want to know the result, look away now….)
They won 1-0, finally getting their act together.

Notice anything different?
The decorated border around the glazing has gone, and we’ve gained a couple of ducks….
We fancied a change.

I’ve been following Maffi’s and Andrew’s debate about the speed of passing boats. A couple of boats moored on linear moorings back near Stanthorne have strong views, too.









And if you’re near Coventry this exhibition has got to be worth a look.

Locks 3, miles 8½