The incident with the 2 boats turned out very interestingly. The marina rang me back in the morning and asked for more details and confirmed that they would be in touch with them and reiterate the way to behave on the canal and apologised to us. Then it got better. Later that day (I'm getting ahead of myself here but can't help it!) we followed another boat around a bridge and who should be there but our two favourite boats. The very best of it was that they both went aground and although one boat had got itself off by the time we were a way down the canal, the other one looked well and truly stuck - the last we saw they were pushing frantically with the pole trying to get back into the stream. Normally we'd have stopped and offered assistance but what the heck - we just laughed for the rest of the day and went out and had a meal to celebrate. Yeah!!!!
We left Fron....... about normal time and although it seemed quite wet under the trees where we were, we thought it looked better ahead, and the boat in front of us said that the forecast wasn't too bad. Oh why do we listen?
We headed back towards the Marton Locks and it wasn't too bad to be honest. Not too many boats around and it's always interesting going back since you see it all from a different direction and it's amazing how many things you don't see in one direction that you do from the other. We also enjoy playing "was this where we saw?????" etc. Possibly sad but true and adds to the Harmony of the boats name.
As we are nearing the lock a boat goes by and the woman on the back calls out "about a dozen boats going down - quite a queue!". Great - but weighing up the pros and cons of waiting and having lunch and then possibly joining an equally long queue later or going through and having either a late lunch or something as we go, we decided to go for it.
We tied up and there must have been 6 or 7 boats ahead but there's always a sort of camaraderie about these things and it usually brings out the best in people. As we're slowly moving along as one boat follows another down the lock, the chap in front of us manages to do a nasty fall off the boat and luckily onto the land. Well lucky that it wasn't the water but unlucky that his hand scraped across the gravel and he banged both a knee and his elbow on the concrete edge. I yelled to John to hold the rope and rushed down in the boat to get Arnica tablets and gel and someone else came up and grabbed his rope. We encouraged him to go down into the boat and have a good cup of sweet tea and leave the boat to the small committee that had formed. The poor guy was really shaken and it turned out it was his birthday as well. Anyway I left him with the gel and force fed him tablets as we were going down the locks. Someone from another boat offered to take the boat on for him as there was only him and his wife and they were both a bit shaken. They ended up mooring next to us that evening and by this morning he was feeling a lot better and had been totally converted to Arnica! Result.
At the same locks, there was a constant stream of boats in both directions most of the time and everyone tends to join in to make it go quickly. It got to the point when the boat in front of us had gone down and there wasn't one coming up at that point and I realised that John was on his own - I turned to the couple at the boat behind us and asked if one of them could go and help as it would be quicker. To my absolute amazement (and I'm still in shock over this) the woman started going down the queue behind her asking for someone to help with the lock. She called out to me that she couldn't cope with the boat and the dog as he was such a handful - the husband just clung onto the rope. I didn't dare say anything else - steam was coming out of my ears. They were in a hire boat and had only come a short distance and these 2 locks were the only ones they had to do. They'd already come up them - what did they do? wait for someone else to do it for them I presume. They weren't that old either, 40's or 50's. I just found it amazing that they were completely OK with other people (most of them a good bit older than them) doing all the hard work for them.
The rain had started as we arrived at the locks and in the 2 hours or more it took to get through them both, we were so wet that we just thought that we'd keep going. We couldn't get any wetter so why stop? Paddy nearly jumped ship at this point. He was soaking wet, even with his life-jacket on and looked at us as it to say "This wasn't what I signed up for you know?" Someone at the lock said why not put him in the boat - huh - if only. He cries and barks and makes such a fuss that it's just not worth it, so he has to put up with it I'm afraid.
We got to Ellesmere last night and had hoped to moor in the arm as it was so empty on Sunday. No such luck - it was packed full - even a hire boat moored at the end in the winding hole. So we ended up just before the bridge with too many trees around us to get internet or TV. It didn't matter though since we had already decided to go out to celebrate the pillocks being grounded! We went to the Black Lion and I would recommend it - I had belly pork and caramelised apples - it was heaven! To top off the evening we popped into Tesco and got some groceries so we could leave in the morning without having to go shopping.
We woke again to dry sky's and we had no idea of the forecast and decided to get to Whitworth for the night. As we went through past the meres, it started raining very light, soft rain that didn't look real, more like a backdrop for a film. Just as wet but strange because the sun was out as well and it all looked rather lovely.
We ended up in a convoy for much of the journey - three boats that all took it in turns to stop and raise the lift bridges that are pretty regular along this stretch. It certainly helped to not have to stop and do all of them, although at one time when it was our turn, John jumped off the boat leaving me holding the rope AND Paddy and had left the engine in reverse gear. Not something I want to do too often - running alongside the boat trying to pull it into the side whilst flinging a bemused Paddy on board before jumping on and taking it out of gear. John's reaction was that he hadn't done it on purpose. As I told him, if I thought he'd done it on purpose I wouldn't have picked him up again after the bridge and he could have walked the rest of the way!
The day was becoming increasingly warm and we got to Whitworth and it was only 2.00 so we thought we'd might as well go on and get to Grindley Brook Locks where we filled with water and emptied the cassette and then started the trip down. It was so warm that even the lock-keeper took off his jacket and all was wonderful with the world.
By the time we'd gone down the top 3 staircase ones the rain had started and by the time we emerged from the bottom lock 6 we were soaking. We came out and have moored up at the bottom, more or less exactly where we were last Thursday! And we have TV and internet again.
A wet and miserable Paddy yesterday. We had quite a job mopping everything up and getting dry last night.
An uncharacteristic section of the Llangollen - more like the Bridgewater at this point. but note the sunshine on the water!
A dry, happy, untethered Paddy on the stern today - what a difference a day makes!
John insisted that this looked more like the New Forest than anything else! This is a nature reserve called the Mosses - it's more or less in Wales - the canal is in England - it's one of those border bits. We saw the last of Wales today and crossed into England for good for this trip (probably for any trip to be honest).
Bearing in mind that we have only come down 2 locks at this point so are only about 13' lower than Llangollen Basin - there are a lot of floods around. Heaven knows what it will be like when we get back to the lower ground. Valerie sent a message on Facebook today saying that the Alrewas river stretch is flooded and impassible so we shall have to see what next week brings as we get nearer to home - still a while to worry about that yet.
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