Friday 27 Mach 2015 Whitchurch

Firstly a big thank you to Alf and Graham who put me right about the helicopters, I have had the wrong idea for many years watching them down the Montgomery Arm. It seems they are not police but RAF ones from Shawbury

Thank goodness that wind dropped overnight and it was a bright start to the day. before setting off we had a wander round town spending a few bob in the local shops. As we returned to the boat Diana wanted some things from Tesco so I returned to Harnser with the other shopping an set to getting ready to set off, moving to the end of the arm to wind, just as she came out of Tesco. I noticed that not only are there rings right to the end of the arm there are also rings across the end and bollard on the off side. If these were all in use it would make winding interesting to say the least.

We left the arm and had a brief stop at the services. The old horse drawn working boat Saturn was moored on the tow path side. This boat has a fantastic underwater shape as you can see from looking at the stern. This enables her to move very smoothly through the water.

Ellesmere has a sculpture trail along the canal, some of them are quite interesting. Please click the photos to view them. 

After the last of the sculptures we were into Ellesmere tunnel, its only short and you can easily see end to end to ensure there is no one coming the other way.

  If you come this way then take care of your aim through bridge 52 or you will be sure to lose paint. When they fitted the protection on the offside running under the bridge they fixed it with a double row of bolts, each head just waiting to attack your blacking or worse your gel coat. They didn’t even use round head or countersunk bolts but hex head.

At Whixall Junction there are some interesting bench arrangements with what looks like a short piece of fence beside them. If anyone know what they are I would love to know.

   We got to see more helicopters today, this time it was obvious that they were military ones, the noise as they approached was something else.
  It was just on 4 pm when we reached the Whitchurch are so we decided that is where we would spend the night. As we down it looked pretty full so we expected to have to wind and come back out, but as we turned I could see a space right at the end passed the cruiser on the so we reversed down there and slipped in behind beyond it just before the very end and this is as far as you can go for now, but the Whitchurch Waterways Trust have plans to change that.

Today’s Journey 12½ Miles, 3 Junctions, 2 Branches, 1 Tunnel, 4 Lift Bridges  in 4¾ hours