The Grand Jaunt part 2 15th May

Saturday's concert came to nothing: poor Ralph McTell had to cancel with a scant 2 hours notice, with tragic personal news. The concert will be rescheduled but we don't expect to be anywhere near enough to come along. 

Instead we settled in with Eurovision and swapping comments on WhatsApp with Laura. Overall a high standard of entries .. staging and choreography as well as singing .. and the obligatory nutty numbers. One of which was Ukraine and who of course won by virtue of turning up. And UK came 2nd! Storming performance by Sam Ryder. So not the night we were expecting but a good one all the same.

Sunday up and at 'em.. showers and refill the tank, dump rubbish etc. A pleasant break catching up with Wendy Jones, and then away by 10.50am (you didn't think we were rushing, did you?). Weather overcast at first, brightening and really quite breezy, as we headed out north for the Middlewich branch.  A lot of boats on the move.
Busy at Barbridge
overtaking other canal users

And a lot of boats moored too, to chug past at tickover, which becomes tedious after a while. Two locks to go through; Cholmondeston (Chumstun to you) with one boat in either direction ahead of us, and Minshull with one to work up ahead of our descent.
For non boater types: the etiquette is if two boats are approaching a lock, check the water level in the lock. If it's low, then the downstream boat can go,or if rather full, then the upstream boat can claim it. 'Turning' a lock ahead of an oncoming boat is the height of rudeness and a waste of water.
Alison helped all the boats through as none had big crews. A further mile or so brought us to one of our top mooring spots, a fantastic view over the R.Weaver Valley and the pub in which our dinner table is already booked. Even better, for once the space by the bench was available for the first time in the many times we have stopped here.
The view 
and the bench.

We should also note the map getting blown into the canal on approach.. luckily it floated and blew into the bank so an easy retrieval. Also a second use of our brand new walkie talkies, a Christmas present from Marc. So useful, when we remember we've got them! The first time was on approach to Market Drayton, walking ahead to see if there was space. Fab things, thanks son!

A mile walk to the pub, through springtime woods, really lovely and much preferable to the narrow, pavement-less road which was the alternative. We were concerned it would be muddy but the trees had soaked all the rain up.

Fabulous food, and really helpful re gf food. They'd recently updated the menu and I asked why there were no gf mains.. they hadn't updated that bit, but the manager rushed over and talked me through all the dishes. Same at pudding time.. Then the stroll back to the boat and in not long before the heavens opened. 

Monday, and we have decided not to put ourselves through the BCN Marathon. We know nothing of those canals and would rather explore in a gentler manner. As a result,  spent a grey morning watching vlogs, specifically Narrowboat Journeys as he is fussy about nice quiet moorings, and transferring his thoughts onto our map. Cheers Phil! https://youtube.com/c/KryfoldSky

The day was spent doing Jobs. The rail around the stern deck needs TLC so that came off,then its framework needs rust treatment.. and a windlass needed a coat of hammerite..
work in progress
Now for the rest
But then rain stopped play and about time too.

We should also say that Andrew's piece on Floating Our Boat vlog did make the cut, see him at 09.30 https://youtu.be/8PUTuuyJkwE


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