Middlewich

 

Here I am Rune

Distance 6.0 miles 

Total 5291 Locks  432 Tunnels

Running total mileage 7,975.9miles

 

Once again we’ve got to the intended destination, Middlewich, with no notable dramas. Quite surprised as to how few boats seemed to be on the move now we are this side of Harecastle Tunnel, today I think we have passed three, and two more have come past since we moored. We have called it a day early again today as I wanted to pop into Kings Lock Chandery to see if I could either get a replacement seal for the diesel cap or a replacement air release valve for the Thetford Cassette. They failed on both fronts but almost had the Cassette release valve, they had two but not for my model.

The plan for tomorrow will be to get somewhere beyond Nanney’s Bridge (Bridge 8) since there is a bit of a pantomime of opening and closing the canal there due to a vehicle strike to the bridge. If I can get past there, they can do as they like!

Wheelock

 

Here I am Rune

Distance 3.1 miles 

Total 5285 Locks  432 Tunnels

Running total mileage 7,969.9miles

 

As it turned out today, the weather wasn’t as bad as forecast, we had a few damp spells but no heavy downpours until we’d moored up for the day. Since we started earlier than we normally would (10.15am) we moored up early for the day at 2pm. This then gave me the opportunity to get some bread made as we’re running out, and a couple of other small tasks done. The 12 locks we did today was pretty straightforward, helped by the fact that we were travelling ahead of a share boat with quite a few crew on board, so they occasionally came ahead to the lock we were in to speed things along. I don’t think we actually held them us as I was also filling the second of the double locks that were operational so it was ready for when they arrived. The only slight glitch we had was in one lock where, using my normal method of holding the boat against the bottom gate (going down) it started to be pulled backwards in the lock which I couldn’t figure out. Since I’d only got one bight around the bollard it became increasingly difficult to hold the boat at which point I called for the paddles to be closed down to find out what was happening. Even with the paddles down I still couldn’t hold the boat and eventually had to let go, when it then barreled backwards into the cill at the top gate. My first thought on seeing that was that we’d probably knocked the rudder oput of it’s cut on the skeg, but when I got down onto the boat fortunately no damage done. As it happens I’d repositioned the rear button when recently blacking the boat and that, not the rudder, took the full force of the impact. It turned out that the problem was that one of the paddles on the top gate was still open. Which shows that no matter how long you’ve been doing this lark, mistakes can still be made.

Tomorrow we should get onto the Shropshire Union, Middlewich Arm, and I’m hoping that they’ve sorted out a problem they have on Bridge 8, Nanney’s Bridge, at which the navigation is currently closed.

Rode Heath

 

Here I am Rune

Distance 6.5 miles 

Total 5273 Locks  432 Tunnels

Running total mileage 7,966.8miles

 

Since we had to be up early for the 9.00am Harecastle Tunnel passage, we’ve made the most of the day and cleared just over half of ‘Heartbreak Hill’ locks (14 so far, 12 to go) as well as obviously getting through Harecastle Tunnel. Although we were on time for our passage, I did get a call from the tunnel keeper asking where we were at about 8.40am. The problem was were were behind a boat also heading to the tunnel but had a really slow tickover speed, so slow that all I could do was put into drive for short bursts then drift as I kept catching them up. In a wonderful gesture, when we got to the tunnel they said that we should go first as they were just ‘dawdling’. So we had a good passage through the tunnel at normal cruising speed taking about 38 minutes. Since I was already a quarter of a mile into the tunnel (7 minutes ahead) before the following boat entered it, I would guess that by the time I exited, they were between 15 and 20 minutes behind, they were just a little dot in the distance within the tunnel (tunnel light). The trouble with travelling slowly in a tunnel is that you then don’t have much steerage so the boat will be zig-zagging it’s way along.

Once out of the tunnel there was a quick ‘pit stop’ at the Lidl at Kidsgrove and then onward to tonights mooring. The only fly in the ointment was that the Elsan at Red Bull Services was closed, but we currently only have one full Thetford Cassette (out of three) so whilst it was inconvenient, it isn’t a disaster.

The weather forecast for tomorrow is rubbish, so we’ll have to see where we get, if anywhere.