A slight miscalculation which worked out OK

We moved to the pleasant moorings overlooking the Dee valley on Friday, intending to stay there till Monday. The plan was to drop Mags and Meg off with Val and John, who’d meet us by car at Fron Lift Bridge first thing on Monday. They’d head home while I crossed over Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and into the dry dock for blacking. But it all went a bit awry when we ran out of water this morning. Oops!

So it was a quick revision of the plan. Up to and across the aqueduct, turn around and come back before it got too busy, then put some water in the tank at the tap near the Fron moorings before tying up. In the morning revert to Plan A.
But we finished up with Plan C….

A beautiful morning as we approached the aqueduct

With it being fairly early in the day (and the year) I got the chance for the classic shot of the shadow of the boat crossing the shadow of the aqueduct.

When we got to the far side I was surprised to see that the Trevor Arm moorings were all but empty. I shouldn’t have been, there was an almost continuous convoy of Anglo-Welsh boats zipping past us yesterday afternoon. So I decided to take advantage of the hire boats being out and moored up near the footbridge. A quick trip across to the office confirmed that we’d be OK there for the night, and also that we’d be able to put water in the tank to last us till tomorrow. Result!

It’s been jammed with boats here over the winter, but now the season has kicked off…  
…there’s loads of space.

I had a walk back to the junction to have a mooch about the small museum. I’d not been in before, we’re usually away and off the Llangollen by Easter. And this is why…

It can get a tad busy at the aqueducts and tunnels!

By the time we’re back on the water at the end of the week most of the holiday traffic will have eased. Hopefully.

With the Middlewich breach looking to be a long repair job, we had two choices to go north. Either go the long way round by dropping down to Wolverhampton then heading back north from there, or use the Manchester Ship Canal and the Weaver to bypass the stoppage. I did some checking up on the MSC passage requirements and they’re do-able, but we’ve decided to go the long way around after all. Our Ribble Link crossing has been postponed till the end of May to give us time to get to Tarleton. So when we leave the dock with a nice, clean and shiny bottom we’ll be setting our sights eastward, no more fannying about like we have been doing.

Hi Jaq. As you can see, we’ll not be using the Ship Canal after all. And I hope they don’t decide to close Hurleston before we get off the Llangollen!

Locks 0, miles 2½