Well after the sunny day yesterday, the hail and rain in the afternoon the evening was clear and fine. Before going to bed I went out to get the TV aerial in and the front deck was a sheet of ice. This morning we woke to a lovely sunny morning at about 6-30 am, by 7-30 we could hear engines running, the locks were due to open at 8-30 and there were at least 6 boats ahead of us, one coming down late afternoon and mooring overnight in the cheeks of the lock, so he probably got down before the one moored on the waterpoint. Diana walked down to the locks and phoned back that the queue had all gone so I made ready to leave, only to have another boat come into view as I was releasing the ropes, so we followed them down. The view of the Cloud was much nicer than when we came up.
Once we reached lock 4 there was the first boat coming up in lock 5 and we were to meet a boat at every lock to the bottom, it was at this point it started to hail which id OK as it bounces off you but then it was rain so a coat was called for. Things went well until lock 7, The lock leaks like a sieve at the top end so all the time the boat ahead was going down the pound was dropping, likewise waiting for the boat to come in. Then as soon as they drew the top paddle Diana was hard aground, and I mean hard. She was just close enough to the bank for me to get my feet on the bank and my back against the cabin side, it took every once of strength to get afloat again, we then had the problem of getting round the boat coming out of the lock. Once we were in the lock I waited until the boat in lock 8 was almost up before drawing the paddles to minimise water loss, I just opened the bottom gates and the top gates of 8 closed again and they drew the bottom paddles. I walked down to find the boat firmly wedged in the lock with 8 fenders down. The last one was removed by me wedging his mooring stake down the side to free the last fender. So my attempts to reduce leakage from the pound above had been in vain.
We cleared the bottom lock just 3 hours after untying and there were no more boats at the bottom waiting to come up.
By now the sun was shining again as we chugged along towards Congleton. Spot on 1pm we met a Rose hire boat, so I asked him where he was going and he said up the locks, so I had to give him the bad news he was too late. After about an hour we moored on the Aqueduct over the Dane in Shaw Brook overlooking the railway viaduct. then about 10 minutes ago the Rose Hire Boat returned so I asked him what plan B was. His reply” Down to the pub for dinner then back to the locks tomorrow night and up on Monday morning.
Todays Journey
5 miles, 12 locks in 4¼ hours.
The route for this part of the trip.
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