Monday, May 08, 2017

U Turns and late cruising…

We’d turned to face upstream when we stopped yesterday, so we had to turn around to head for the holding moorings below the boat lift. That was the first of three…

First trip to the holding moorings
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I went up to the booking office in the visitor centre to get a slot for going up, to be told that the next available one was 15:45! They’ve only got one tank in operation, and, of course, the trip boat takes precedence. So I accepted that, then walked a little way up the towpath to have a chat with Peter and Jennifer on Mactra's Filia. We’d hoped to see them on the river, but they didn’t get out of Uplands Marina as soon as planned.
They intended to head down today, and after they’d booked in they walked down to see us, we’d turned around and moored back on the new pontoon by this time. A good natter and a brew and cake was had, and we found out that their booking is at 16:30, so they’ll be going down after we get back up onto the canal.
  
Back to the new pontoon
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So at 15:00 we turned around for the third time today, and pulled in on the holding mooring again, behind another boat that we shared the lift with.

The Edwin Clark’s last trip to it’s mooring at the bottom of the finished as it rounded the corner from the lift entrance, then we were told to proceed.
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Last look at the Weaver for this year – probably.IMG_4363

Peter and Jennifer were just arriving at the top for their trip down.IMG_4365
All being well we’ll see them later in the year.

It was 4 o’clock now, well past our normal finishing time, but we decided to push on anyway.

Dropping a bag of rubbish off at the services we carried on through Marbury Wood.
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A drift of bluebells
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We nearly stopped just outside of the woods, but didn’t. Then again near the Lion Salt Works, but the moorings were a bit full.
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Wincham Wharf was another option but we went past there too.
The brisk wind was starting to feel chilly now, but we decided to head for the flashes. We’ll have a couple of nights in Middlewich when we get there, so we thought tonight should be spent in the sticks. We tied up at half-six, 2½ hours from the top of the lift.IMG_4378

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Locks 0, miles 7

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