X Rated

The first part of today’s cruise was warm and sunny.  We stopped at Wheelock to top up the water tank.  This is where we met a couple in 2013 who had read the blog.  They had recently purchased their boat from a marina in the Middlwwich Branch and were taking It to their new mooring.

We could have moored here for the day but as the forecast for the next couple of days doesn’t look very promising we opted to press on. Many of the locks along this stretch of the Trent & Mersey are doubles.  Apparently Telford designed them this way to speed up traffic.  There was a boat ahead of us, however as many of the locks are doubles we kept finding locks in our favour.

There was a message at lock 62 stating Lock 63 was closed.  However is was only one of the two that was closed for maintenance.  Jan took a few photos of the work.

Just beyond the lock is an arm to the right (west) which always appears to be full of working boats.

You can see the entrance to the arm in the next photo.  It’s under the bridge to the left.

At one lock we came upon a boat both of us remember from our 2014 cruise on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal.  It’s nb Lakeland whose owner always moors on lock landings, water points and private moorings, etc.

Oh, and he overstays.  However he does continuously cruise and is licensed.

By now Waiouru was starting to feel sluggish and there was a vibration through the tiller.  We pressed on with the intention of reaching Red Bull but it was now 2.30pm and the sun was racing for the horizon.  The temerature was also falling so we decided to moor in Rode Heath just short of the Broughton Arms pub.  Hopefully they serve a Sunday roast.

By now I was gasping for a cold larger and decided to cool a six-pack on the stern counter.

What do you mean ”That’s not a six-pack!” OK, if I turned it over you’d see a small keg rather than cans!  The bl**dy water was freezing.  Well not quite freezing, but cold enough for me to have numb hands.  I managed to clear the shaft after several minutes of sawing with the breadknife and heaving on the ropes and bags around the prop.

I have to admit I was very pleased to conclude my Chippendale gig and get my clothes back on.