Wheelock Saturday 9 June 2018

First job this morning was to get a coat of red oxide paint onto the area I treated yesterday before setting off to Middlewich.

Some time ago I commented that the concrete bank was so low at Croxton that water lapped over it. To overcome this problem CRT have bolted a wooden batten to the top of the wall to raise it a couple of inches.

Approaching Big Lock there are boats moored each side in readiness for the festival next weekend. I could see a single boat in the lock so a couple of blasts on the horn were required to stop the bottom gates fully closing and allowing us in to share, they very kindly invited us to leave first. The Middlewich locks were against us and the pounds all low. They were so low that Diana had to let water down from the top for me to get out of the middle one.

Middlewich Narrowboats is still all shut up with no sign of new tenants.
Even the pound up to Kings lock was down a bit and I grounded passing under Middlewich Junction bridge. I did consider turning towards Wardle Lock to moor up for a couple of hours, I expected a notice on the bridge saying its closed, but nothing, just a locked up lock. I wonder how many boats have turned into there?  We carried on up Kings Lock and round the burnt out sunken boat, I understand they are planning to pull this out Monday. You can just see the orange mesh beyond the lock.

We moored above Kings Lock and walked back to Wardle Lock and up the Middlewich Branch to a garden party to raise funds for the Middlewich Arm breach repair.

We returned to the boat and continued our journey up the canal, our destination being Wheelock where we have a table booked at Barchetta.

Just above Rumps Lock CRT are renewing the edging at the lock moorings where it has crumbled away.We met a few boats as we made our way up the three Booth Lane Locks which resulted in one being completely in our favour, one totally against us and one half and half so not bad really. Just above Booth Lane Top Lock there is another sunken boat on the offside, but this one is well out of the way and is turned turtle.

Then of course we met a boat at a bridge hole but I saw them in plenty of time, it turned out to be Kay on the Oat Cake boat making her way to the Middlewich Festival.

When we arrived at Wheelock

When we arrived at Wheelock we could see that the magnet fisher people have been here with the remains of this old bike being left against the wall.It looked as if all the visitor moorings in the village were taken and that we would have to go up a lock, wind, come back down and moor on pins below the village, but there was just one space at the top end which is a bit close to a noisy road bridge. In the row of boats moored here we found Flavours Afloat a boat that sells coffee who are also on their way to Middlewich.

Today's Journey 8¼ Miles, 8 locks in 4½ hours