Thursday 26 March 2015 Ellesmere

Boy did it rain last night, started just before we went to bed and didn’t stop until nearly 9am. We had ¼” all told.

We set off just after 10am in the sunshine, but the wind had freshened over night and has continued to freshen all day with gusts of over 30 mph at boat height. We didn’t have a spot of rain until we reached Ellesmere where there were a few spots just as we moored up, I expected more.

I have never seen painted Chimney pots before but there was a row of three outside this house in Crick. I thought they looked quite good.

Right beside bridge 21W Monks Bridge there are a clutch of goose eggs, but I suspect these are a last years nest that has been uncovered. There are about 8 large white geese that live near the bridge.

As a contrast to the old aqueduct and railway viaduct a new road viaduct carries the A5 across the valley and River Ceiriog which forms the English/Welsh boarder.

The other day I posted about the electricity company running new overhead cables and erecting new pylons, I have never seen pylons like this before, I suppose they are poles really and not pylons, but I have never seen poles with insulators stacked on them before. The helicopter is a police helicopter and they can always bee seen flying round here, when we came up one was hovering a few feet above the Ellesmere College playing field.

At New Marton Top Lock There was a Sea & Land work tug pushing a dredger waiting to go into the lock and behind him a hire boat so it seemed like a good opportunity to stop and fill with water, even if a second hire boat appeared in the meantime. We followed the second hire boat down and were amazed to see New Marton Bottom Lock open as we approached and no boat coming out. It turned it was the crew of nb. Muleless who were moored a short way below the lock, they had seen people struggling to pick up their crew in the wind so thought they would walk up and offer a hand. So not all CC’s are bad like some people would have you think. Muleless is an electric hybrid boat, so quite inivitive.

I have posted a few pictures of “Turnover” or “Snake” Bridges this trip well here is another one with quite a tight turn round on the ramp leading under the bridge, it is bridge 6W Polletts Bridge.

As you approach Frankton Junction you pass under bridge 1W, about 100 yards ahead of you is bridge 69. (just visible in the photograph below) On this canal the bridges are numbered from Hurleston Junction as far as Frankton Junction then the numbering starts again with a W after the number from here to number 49W at Horseshoe Falls where the canal is fed from the River Dee, but you can only navigate to between bridges 45W and 46W.

We carried on with a view to mooring down the Ellesmere Branch for the night where we were lucky enough to find a mooring, I really didn’t want to be moored under trees in this weather. We followed a boat down the Branch who pulled into the first space, but there was a second a bit further down that suited us nicely.

Today’s Journey 10½ Miles. 2 Locks. 2 Junctions in 4 hrs 10 min.

Again, like last night I am able to connect to a BT Hotspot using my Solwise Rocket WiFi antenna and it only cost just over £20, the only down side is you have to connect it via a USB so cant use it with more than one item or an I pad. The nearest house is several hundred yards away, O an I have choice of 5 BT connections, I am even getting a signal from The White Heart over 300 yards away.