Left, Right, Across

This morning we bade farewell to Peter & Margaret.  They turned left at Barbridge Junction whilst we turned right towards Chester.

Peter spent much of yesterday afternoon using the Craftmaster polish on the starboard side of Kelly-Louise and you can tell the difference.  The blue is now much deeper and the “chalky white” surface has disappeared.

We reached Barbridge Junction and; as you would expect; Peter met a  hire boat coming from Nantwich unsighted.  He successfully reversed back from the bridge hole allowing the hire boat to complete it’s turn.  They then turned left whilst we waited to turn right.

The CRT facilities mooring at Calverley was vacant so we stopped to fill the water tank and dispose of the rubbish.  There was a small day boat approaching on the straight immediately before Bunbury Staircase Locks.  It went hard left into the bank and then veered violently hard right bouncing off the line of long term moored boats.  It then appeared to be reversing into a small gap between two moored boats and ended up across the canal.  We started to think they were attempting to wind the boat when there was a change of steerer which resulted in the boat straightening up and heading back towards us.  We hovered, waiting to establish what they were attempting to do.  As the boat passed the steerer apologised mentioning they were still learning how to handle the boat.  We all have to start somewhere.  But they are coming from a very low baseline!  We were joined by a share boat crewed by father, daughter and grandson at the staircase locks.  They were heading back to Tattenhall Marina and as the locks are doubles from this point onwards we shared the remaining locks with them. 

There are 48 hour moorings with rings just past Tattenhall Marina which we have used for tonight’s mooring.

Unlike yesterday’s mooring at Cholmondeston we have a very good internet signal.  You can see the local tower in the photo above.

From our current mooring it is possible to look back at Beeston Castle.  This location gives a different perspective of how the castle dominates the terrain.

I walked the short distance back to the bridge over the entrance to Tattenhall Marina for a view of the marina layout.

Then I noticed a boat which is very familiar.

There is AreandAre halfway down the row.

Later in the afternoon Jan cooked the damson plums she and Margaret picked at Cholmondeston and made enough jars of plum jam to last the year.

Jan has taken a leaf out of Sue of No Problem’s book and labelled the jam with the location of the picked plums.  That way she should remember it next time we pass.

I pottered around making a new header tank for the battery automatic watering system, raising the stern button and tightening a few connections.

Before we parted, Peter and I had a brief discussion about fuel consumption.  He has used twice the amount of diesel we used during our cruise.  We’ve been travelling together and I can only assume the variation between boats is due to one or all of the following factors.

• Waiouru has a new engine
• Our Axiom propeller is more efficient
• The Wilson-Tyler shell provides less resistance.

I’m still thinking what else might have caused the difference! ( Jan here….. Peter Is lead footed…….!)