It was a beautiful sunny day when we got up and warm as
well, a bit of a change from yesterday evening when it rained and rained, no
two days are ever the same!
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| Passing the Marin a |
We have Minshull lock to go through this morning and as it
wasn’t very far from where we were moored, Harry and I walked to the lock. Kev came along in the boat past Aqueduct
Marina and under the bridge and then we was at the lock.
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| Coming under the Bridge |
A boat had come out of the lock and he kindly left the gates
open for us. When he passed he said he
had seen an otter by the lock, it was on the lock side then gone into the
gardens by the lock. I had a good look
for it when I got there but we weren’t lucky enough to see it.
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| In Minshull Lock |
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| Ah that's where Kev is |
Kev came into the lock and I shut the gates and then opened
the paddles and filled up the lock. We
then went on our way and Harry sat at the back with Kev again, he likes it out
there.
We moored up at Cholmondeston just before the marina and the
lock in a nice open spot.
We had lunch then went out for a walk up to the lock and
along the towpath for a bit then walked back to the marina where they have a café
and we sat out there in the sun having a coffee.
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| Marina and Cafe |
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| Boat stuck in the lock |
Two boats came up to the lock and one of them was a butty,
basically it doesn’t have an engine and is pulled by the other boat. The one with the engine went in the lock and
up it went. Then it was the turn of the
butty so the chap pulled it in and it was going in okay and then it came to a
grinding halt. At first we thought it
had just stopped and they would need to pull it in a bit more but then realised
something was up so we walked up onto the bridge and looked over and the boat
was stuck, it looked too wide to go through.
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| Half in, Half Out! |
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| Pulling it in with other boat |
There was some CRT volunteers there but they went home and
left him to it as the chap seemed to have it all in hand. We went up to the lock and the chap whose
boat it was said that the lock tapered at the gates so if he could get it past
there it would go in, so he tied a rope on the front and used his other boat to
pull it and at the same time he opened one of the paddles to let water in and
jerk it into the lock.
He tried several times and it didn’t seem to work at first,
but then slowly it came in and eventually he got it in the lock and the boat
came up and they went on their way. A
queue of several boats had built up so they then started filtering through the lock.
We walked back to the boat.
We are staying here tonight and also tomorrow as the forecast is not
good, then we will be chugging on our way on Saturday.
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| Moored at Cholmondeston |
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