June 30th

We have arranged to hire the dry dock at Taylor's Boatyard, Chester next week in order to repaint the boat.  Of course the weather immediately turned to rain, scuppering our good intentions to get on with scraping off the rust and sanding down the paintwork, etc.

Roger angle-grinding the roof

However Saturday and Sunday were good days and we have put in a lot of hard work - there's an awfully large surface area on the boat (700sq ft approx)

The new seats, resplendent
 in pink undercoat

Our new colour scheme is to be green sides and a burgundy red roof, and we had undercoat specially (and expensively) mixed to match the red -supposedly.  When we opened the tin we were taken aback to find it was cerise pink! Hopefully it will look OK in the end

June 26th

On Tuesday 18th we boated through Chester, passing directly under the City walls and then dropping down through the daunting staircase locks (cut through solid rock) which drop the level of the canal by 33 feet in just 3 locks!

Roger dwarfed by the huge Chester locks

Chester City Wall

Over the next couple of days we made our way to Ellesmere Port, the end of the Shropshire Union canal, and home to the National Waterways Museum.
www.nwm.org.uk

We moored in their basin (thus becoming one of the museum's exhibits!) for the next 5 nights.

National Waterways Museum

Vincent Joseph just visible among the relics!

On Friday 21st we travelled to Leeds for the grand opening of the 'Crowd of Favours' http://www.crowdoffavours.co.uk/

Leeds Brewery's latest pub which is managed by Robert Young, no less! (Jean's son)

Robert's opening night.

Quotation which inspired
the pub's name

Museum exhibit - 'legging' through a tunnel

On Monday 24th June we left Ellesmere Port, having spent many enjoyable hours exploring the museum.

 Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in the waterways!

Over the next couple of days we made our way back to Chester (ever more slowly until Roger plunged into the weed-hatch again to remove another mass of vegetation, plastic bags, and nylon rope!) 

We made an unscheduled stop to rescue a Jack Russell, struggling to climb out of the canal while her owner marched happily on, unaware of his dogs narrow escape!

Wednesday 26th and we have arrived at Taylor's Boat Yard, Chester where we are having our seats welded on to the stern deck.

Miles and Locks and things

Here are the statistics of our trip so for those who hate statistics, turn off now!
We are showing the distances we have travelled and the costs associated with living aboard for a year.
We will update it each month as we proceed.
In addition to the coal and gas used we have also consumed an enormous amount of timber in the stove, which has come from a variety of 'free' sources.

September 2012

Miles: 25       

Locks: 34 

Diesel:  40 litres

Gas Bottle:  £25.00

Coal: 1 bag

October 2012

Miles: 78 (103)

Locks: 60 (94)

Diesel: 120 litres (160)

Gas: 0 

Coal: 8 bags  (9)

November 2012

Miles: 13 (116)

Locks: 12 (106)

Diesel: 36 litres  (196)

Gas £25.00 (£50)

Coal: 2 bags (11)

December 2012

Miles: 5 (121)

Locks: 23 (129)

Diesel: 18 litres (214)

Gas: 0 (£50)

Coal: 4 bags (15)

January 2013

Miles: 10 (131)

Locks: 12 (141)

Diesel: 78 litres (292)

Gas: £25.00 (£75)

Coal: 2 bags (17)

February 2013

Miles: 5 (136)

Locks: 23 (164)

Diesel: 39 litres (331)

Gas: 0 (£75)

Coal: 4 bags (21)

March 2013

Miles: 8 (144)

Locks: 0 (164)

Diesel: 77 litres (408)

Gas: £25 (£100)

Coal: 4 bags (25)

April 2013

Miles: 78 ((222)

Locks: 72 (236)

Diesel: 72 litres (480)

Gas: 0 (£100)

Coal: 2 bags (27)

May 2013

Miles: 48 (270 

Locks: 21 (257)

Diesel: 76 litres (556) Cost: so far £620 approx.

Gas: £25 Cost so far (£125) 

Coal 0 (27) Cost so far £245

June 2013

Miles: 103 (373)

Locks: 55 (312)

Diesel: 78 litres (634) Cost so far £696 approx

Gas: Zero cost so far (£125)

Coal: Zero (27 bags) (£245) 

July 2013

Miles: 106 (479)

Locks: 70 (382)

Diesel: 83 litres (717) Cost so far £772

Gas: £25.50 (£153)

Coal: Zero (27 bags) (£245)

August 2013

Miles: 48 (527)

Locks: 24 (406)

Diesel: 69 Litres (785) Cost £790)

Gas: zero (£153)

Coal: Zero (27 bags) (£245)

So Costs for the year are :
Diesel    £790
Gas       £153
Coal      £245
Licence £845
Total    £2033
And we have covered 527 miles and been through 406 locks

     

June 14th to 17th

The joys of summer boating!

Fri 14^th

Very wet and cold descent  through Hurleston locks to leave the Llangollen and re-join the Shropshire Union Canal and make our way through 5 heavy, double locks as far as the Shady Oak pub near Beeston Castle.

Sat 15^th 

Walked to Beeston Castle, a 13^th C ruin perched high on a rocky outcrop with panoramic views for 30 miles around. We finished off with a meal at the shady Oak to celebrate Roger’s birthday.

Fantastic views from Beeston Castle

Beeston Castle

Sun 16^th

We moved on a further 7 miles – a lock free stretch! We took advantage of the first sunny day for a while to do some washing, but discovered that having a rotary clothes line full of our smalls on the front of the boat did not aid steering! Moored at Christleton, very pleasant village on the outskirts of Chester.

Mon 17^th. 

Ornate hinges on a
Cathedral door

Caught a bus into Chester. Embarrassingly discovered that Roger’s bus pass had expired last March! Chester is a fascinating city dating from Roman times, with an extremely well preserved City Wall which we walked around. Also visited the 1000 year old Cathedral and took a bus tour in a vintage bus which started life in London in 1914.. 

Chester Cathedral

1914 London bus still at work

June 9th to 13th

On Sunday 9th we enjoyed some Chirk leek and pork sausages before setting off through the remaining locks and leaving the Montgomery canal. Our only bit of excitement came when, as Jean wrestled with the washing line, Benny made another bid for freedom at the top lock! Luckily he was feeling hungry and returned without too much hassle. We moored at Ellesmere.

What is this? Prize for best guess!

On Monday we set off for Whitchurch, stopping en route to look at Whixall Moss which was less exciting close up than it had been from a distance. As summer is now here and we are not lighting the woodburner we have to use our circular 'hob-oven' for bread making, which has worked splendidly.

Home made oven for the woodburner

Loaf in stove-top 'oven'

On Tuesday we moved on to Wrenbury and enjoyed a meal at the Cotton Arms. Apparently the Cotton and Starkey families have feuded for 400 years over ownership of land etc. In 1748 an arbitrator allocated the south side of the church to the Cottons and the north to the Starkeys as they couldn't even agree which pews to sit in!

Wednesday was an  exceptionally lazy day, spent reading and sleeping! Also ordered our new 'tractor' seats ready for fitting to the boat.

Thursday saw us setting sail for Hurleston Junction, where the Llangollen canal finishes and joins the Shropshire Union. It is the 13th June, almost mid-summer yet there is a bitterly cold wind, and the rain is lashing down. We have had to light the fire again to dry out!

June 6th to 8th

We've finally left Chirk after nearly a month.

Sailing the Chirk aqueduct 

Hobo Tableau

We have now joined the Montgomery canal, a 35 mile long canal which had fallen into disuse in the 1940s.
There is now an on-going restoration project but unfortunately, only the first 7 miles are navigable despite the strenuous efforts of many hundreds of volunteers over the last 40 years! It is a great pity that more progress has not been made as it is a beautiful, rural canal.
It has proved to be rather shallow and once again we are dragging along the bottom and have been completely stuck a couple of times.

He looks quite docile here!!

Benny has continued his adventures today by attracting the attentions of a rather large German Shepherd who  tried to join him on board! It was a narrow escape!

We have now moved further down to Canal Central, an information centre / cafe / shop where we stayed in the campervan a couple of years ago. Benny decided to come for a walk with us in the evening!

Current end of the line for the
Montgomery at bridge 84

Benny enjoying an evening stroll

On the Saturday morning we walked along the towpath to inspect progress on the restoration work. Anyone reading this who would like a bit of strenuous exercise would be very welcome to come and volunteer.

www.shropshireunion.org.uk/montgomery-canal-restoration‎

June 1st to 3rd

June 1st
We're joined today by Sue and Dave, and by Peter and Di for our trip across the Pontcysllte aqueduct. Built around 1805, it is a fantastic example of British engineering in the early days of the Industrial Revolution. It consists of a cast iron trough 127 feet high and over a thousand feet long which carries the canal over the river Dee. On one side of the boat is the towpath and on the other a sheer drop! We had Benny locked in the bathroom in case he tried another spectacular leap from the boat.

Peter and Di

The aqueduct from below ...

Once across the aqueduct we continued on all the way to Llangollen along a very narrow and shallow part of the canal, but enjoying some excellent scenery. We moored overnight in the basin and went for a meal in a cafe overlooking the river Dee.

At Horseshoe Falls

June 2nd In the morning we all walked the remaining, non-navigable section of the Llangollen canal up to Horseshoe Falls where the canal meets the river Dee. Later we set off on the return boat trip to Chirk, and despite getting grounded a couple of times on the very shallow, gravelly bed, we made it safely back.

The return across the aqueduct

Llangollen Basin

3rd June Roger returned to Leamington to see Jenny and the boys and stop the night with Peter.
Bought some steel tubing and arranged for welding to be done in readiness for fitting seats on the stern deck. Look out for future developments!