Damp but warm

Saturday 13^th July; bridge 110 to Calveley

The forecast was not too good today, with the least wet weather in the morning, so we were on the move soon after 9.  We only made it to the first lock, Wharton’s, before the first shower came, luckily not very heavy.

Another not-so good view of Beeston Castle sitting aloof on its crag.  The hedges have all grown up since we were last here, obscuring the view.

It eased off a bit at Chas Hardern’s boatyard where we had a pump-out, bought a new gas bottle and took on diesel.  All their hire fleet was out, but many of their bookings this year have been last-minute, taking advantage of special offers which isn’t good news for any holiday business.  As Dave was paying, one of their boats, which had just been a little way towards Chester to get a feel for steering and to turn round, had arrived and was about to be shown how to use the lock by the boatyard.  Annoyingly for us it was Beeston Iron lock, which you are recommended to use with a single boat only.  Two more boats arrived as they went in, but let us go ahead as they wanted to stay together.  They reckoned they would go up the iron lock together as they had done it before with no problems.  Rather them than me.  It was nice of them to let us have the lock, but in retrospect I wish they’d gone ahead - with two crew, and with two boats in the locks no need to be quite so slow filling them, they were constantly on our heels, one of the crew being just a bit too assertively eager to get me out of the way.  Helping another boat is a good thing, but hustling another crew along quite so obviously gets annoying.

A rare gleam of sun at Tilstone lock

Most of the Anglo-Welsh boats at the base below Bunbury staircase were out, so it was easy to see that there were no boats waiting.  We pulled in and I walked up to the top – one boat had just arrived on its own, so it was a straightforward cross-over in the middle.  Thank goodness our pursuers had to wait for the boat going down!  That was the last we saw of them.

At the top of Bunbury staircase

The rain had kept off since the first shower, but before we got to Calveley services it returned though still not particularly heavy.  We pulled in to top up the water tank and deal with the rubbish and recycling.  That was all the domestics done in one morning (except for the glass recycling, as the glass bins were overflowing).  We moved on past the shop mooring and the long stretch of close-mown grass to moor just beyond, where the towpath is more ‘normal’ ie a bit rough.  It is hard to tell whether the mown area, which runs along a row of gardens, is part of the ‘stop and shop’ or private moorings – there are few signs.  But we are not overlooked where we are.  We had rather a late lunch, then as the rain had stopped I walked back to the Cheese shop for some eggs and more cheese, then tried walking along the road to the garage to see if they had a paper.  There are a couple of hundred yards with no pavement, but there was an ok grass verge so it was safe enough but I wouldn't really recommend it.  Not only did they have the paper I wanted, the lady serving said she’d keep tomorrow’s back for me too.  Rather than walk back along the road I slid down the bank to the towpath on my bum, managing to get wet but not muddy.  And what should I discover 50 yards back along the towpath but some nice concrete steps up to the road.

I took Jess for a walk back towards the staircase, and on the way back made a note of the number of an unattended boat on the long-term moorings which was on an alarming tilt, and reported it to CRT.

A vent on the starboard side just 3" above water level

The rain started just as we got back to the boat and carried on for a couple of hours.  A  stoppage alert came through this evening for the Northgate locks, this time for the whole weekend – I wonder if it is the same paddle causing trouble, or something else?  One boater we met said these locks were always causing trouble.

4½ miles, 6 locks