Middlewich

Last night was not the best choice of moorings, There was a regular rail passenger service crossing the canal behind us, but as expected that stopped about midnight only to be replaced with a freight service running almost as frequently and making twice the noise, add to the the aircraft making an approach to somewhere right above us at dawn onwards. Of course none of this was helped by us having the hatches and slide open because of the heat. When I got up for my early morning wee at 4am this is what I saw looking out of the engine room side hatch.

A little late setting off but tis time we passed a boat making ready to set off to Stanthorne Lock, even though we were ahead we still had to turn the lock and by the time we were down there were two waiting to come us as well as two coming down. We stopped to chat with fellow Cutweb members at bridge 30 for a little over an hour before making our way to Wardle Lock where we had to wait for a boat to come up. We turned left on to the Trent and Mersey canal  but came to a standstill at Middlewich Wharf as they were using one of the hire boats to tow a broken down boat from the top lock up to the yard. The three Middlewich locks were all against us, not helped by a paddle out  on the bottom lock. Once down we started looking for a mooring but all shady ones had gone so we tied up by the play park. As I was writing this the boat behind, nicely in the shade has just left, so we have dragged back a boats length.

Today’s Journey

3½ miles with 5 locks in 2½ hours