Quiet times…

Well, we’ve not done much of anything for the first week of 2018. I’ve made a couple of trips down into Llangollen, but it’s too steep for Mags to manage. Meg continues to make steady progress, I’ve now halved her steroid dose to 10mg/day as per the vet’s instructions, and she still seems to be OK. Fingers crossed.

We were a bit blown about by Storm Dylan and then Storm Eleanor, who had me up at half-one in the morning to lash the cover on the top-box down before it disappeared over the horizon, but apart from that it’s been fine in the mooring basin.

One job I got done was replacing the door glass in the stove. It was a bit of a struggle getting it fitted with a new seal, but I got there in the end.
Now we can see the fire as well as feel it! The old glass wasn’t cracked but it was badly crazed, so it was only a matter of time… It was handy doing it here anyway. Being plugged in to power meant I could use a fan heater to take the chill off the cabin when I let the stove out overnight.

On that subject – we had a visit from Jim, the CRT moorings officer for the area, who asked us to unplug. Apparently the power isn’t supposed to be on in the basin. I wasn’t bothered, I consider it an unlooked-for bonus, but a couple of the other boaters here were a little put out. A little later Roger and Roger from the Ellesmere yard came and taped the sockets and RCD covers up.
They can’t turn the power off at the transformer because there’s frost heaters on the water supply, it seems. And I was also told that the moorings here are still restricted to 48 hours, even though there’s a general winter limit of 14 days on moorings otherwise restricted. Unless it specifically states all year round.
That’s gonna put a crimp on some folks’ plans. Forty-eight hours limit and no power! I wonder how long the tape will stay on…

Anyway, we’d intended to move out today. We’ve been here a week, and in our defense we did think it was 14 days… I did the last bits of shopping yesterday, down the hill in the town.


The Dee is a little full after the rain…




A beautiful day for a short cruise, but cold.

Past the wharf…


…and through the narrows, hewn from the rock on the side of the valley.

We didn’t go far, stopping just past Llandyn Lift Bridge in a fine sunny spot.

There’s been a lot of folk up and down the towpath this afternoon, taking advantage of the sunshine. They’ve been well wrapped up though, the wind is chilly.

We’ll stay here for a day or two, before moving on a bit back towards Chirk.

Locks 0, miles 1