On the 7th May 2023 we set sail from the Marina at Scarisbrik, which is where Arty spent the winter. Our first stop was a short jaunt up the cut at a lovely place called Burscough. This was at the time the of corronation of King Charles, so there were plenty of celibrations going on. Naturally, it was only proper for us to find a bar and join in the festivities!

We were very keen, and somewhat nervous about getting up the flight at Wigan. This is a set of 21 locks, all close to one another and in quite a poor state of repair and therefore are very leaky. The problem with this is that sometimes the small pounds (the bit of canal between the locks) can drain dry. It also means many of the pounds are very shallow and the boat can ground out. Sometimes, when the locks are very poor and leaky, several pounds can run dry and it is necessary to go up the flight and “bring water down” which is a case of opening the front paddles and then the back paddles and letting the water flow through the lock into the next pound down. When there are just 2 of you on the boat this is tricky. We were in contact with the wonderful Wigan Flight Crew group on Facebook and we were hoping that some volunteers would be in the flight to give us a hand – that would be great!

So a big day tomorrow, we are sailing into Crook where we will stay while I work, then on the Saturday we are going up the flight!

As predicted we left Nantwich and sailed up the Shropshire Union Canal until the turning onto the Middlewich arm, which is a fairly short link back to the Trent and Mersey Canal. I have to say, the Middlewich arm is absolutely lovely – some really spectacular countryside all around.

At the end of the arm we arrived at Middlewich itself, where we leave the Shropshire Union canal all together and join back onto the Trent and Mersey. Just between the very last lock on the Middlewich arm, and the turning onto the Trent and Mersey, is the smallest canal in the UK – the Wardle Canal.

Once back on the Trent and Mersey we moored up and went and treated ouselves to some fish and chips from the local shop – we have had these before and they are rather good.

Once fed and watered, we pressed on up heartbreak hill – where the locks are deep and just keep coming!

The plan is to get close to Harecastle tunnel so we can sail through it on Thursday and make our way to Barleston – where there is a delightful pub called the plume of feathers, owned by the actor, Morrisey. From there it is a couple of hours travel back to our mooring in Stone.

So in keeping with the notion of upping the pace, we kinda went a bit bonkers today! Not only did we do about 11½ miles but we managed to fit in some 22 locks as well!

We got to Market Drayton, but the place was a bit rammed with boats. We ended up on the overnight moorings right on the far edge of the town – opposite a set of CRT moorings. Not all that great to be honest.

The plan was to make an early start and walk into the town and get some provisions from the ASDA. In the end, I woke early (for my standards) and decided to take the dog for a long walk as she is having trouble doing her business. It’s something she has had since we got her – we think she is a bit timid about making her mark so to speak, especially when there are lots of other dog smells around.

That turned out to be of limited success, but it meant we are all up before 08:00! Unheard of!! So I said, as it was Sunday and ASDA was not going to be open until quite late, we should just press on.

Press on we did – and then some! First we hit the locks at Adderley. There are five of them, and they are not too bad, fairly shallow and you quite often get boats going the other way which saves a bit of time.

After Adderley there are the fifteen locks at Audlem. Just before you hit the bottom of the locks, at lock 12, is the The Shroppie Fly, which is a pub and restaurant – and we stopped there for some Sunday nosh. I had the topside of beef with all the trimmings – and it was absolutely awesome! I think the doom bar helped, but the food there is what I’d call really honest to goodness, solid pub grub – not too fancy but very tasty and delicious.

So from here, we have heatbreak hill and the harecastle tunnel to navigate before finally arriving back in Stone. So a full few days of sailing. But tomorrow (Monday, 14th) we are going to have a good look around Nantwich before setting off to get back to the Trent and Mersey.

After a very leasurly week going from Stone to Penkridge we have picked up the pace a bit. We need to get Dee back to Stone to get her train on Saturday, so we need to make sure we crack on. From Penkridge we sailed all the way to Autherley Junction, where we turned off of the Staffy onto the Shropy canal.

We stayed the night just after bridge 2 on the Shropy at Autherley. Just around the corner from the bridge is a large Morrisons supermarket and we needed some provisions.

The Shropy is quite an unusual canal, being essentially cut into or built atop the landscape, it tends to go pretty straight rather than following the contours of the land around it. So, quite often you can see for a very long way by canal standards. The other noteworthy thing is the canal edges have a bulge below the water line, meaning it is not possible to moor very comfortably just anywhere – you do really need to find proper moorings.

The first place we want to get to is a lovely little village called Brewood (pronounced brewed apparently) we went here before with Caroline and Steve (see way back in this blog) and really liked the place.

Next we want to go to Gnosall (pronounced nose-all) as we only had a fleeting visit last time.

After that we want to get to Market Drayton which means we are just over ½ way around. As long as we crack on a bit we should then be in good shape to get to Nantwich and then onto the middleport arm of the Shropy and then back to the Trent and Mersey. There we have heartbreak hill, so called because of the copious number of locks we will need to navigate and then we need to go through the Harecastle tunnel – which did not go so well for us last time. Anyway, that will be for another blog.

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I have been working very hard for my new employers, Skylark Creative who are based in London. The work is great and I am loving all the challenges that are coming my way. It’s all software development and I am using the latest stuff to get the job done – so what’s not to like. Anyway, we ran into a bit of a crunch project recently which meant a lot of late nights (well, early mornings really) – so it has been great timing that I have a holiday for a couple of weeks. And what could be better that sailing round the four counties on my boat – especially as the pubs are open.

Damara, my daughter is coming with us so that will add a new dynamic and definitely help with the locks! We will be setting off from Stone, where Arty is perminently moored and heading south towards Great Haywood. From there we will turn down the Staffy and stop the night in Tixall wide, which is one of our favourite spots.

From Tixall we plan to go to Penkridge, a lovely town right on the canal where we will pick up some provisions and probably visit one of it’s many pubs.

From Penkridge, we will head on down through the cutout, which is a very narrow cutting though some granite rock which was carved by the navies using nothing more than pick axes and shovels. Only one boat can go through at a time as there is nowhere to pass. Hopefully we won’t run into too much traffic coming in the opposite direction.

There is a lovely pub just before you get to the cutting where Wendy and I had a really good meal just as the last lockdown began to ease – so we plan to go there again.

Finally, once through the cutting we will turn off onto the Shroppy and start to head north west back up. There are lots of places along here we want to visit again as the last time we were here I had real problems walking with some very sore feet – hopefully they will be all right this time around.

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So, lock down really took it’s toll on our sailing ambitions and we have been nowhere much to speak off in a long while. Just like everyone else, we’ve been stuck indoors doing the same old stuff. Mind you, our “indoors” has changed a bit – we now have a house in Stoke-on-Trent which is about 20 minutes drive from the mooring in Stone. We decided to put the cruise on hold and for me to get back to work to top up the coffers. Originally the plan was to work over winter and sail during the summer, but contract work proved hard to find so we changed our minds again! We seem to be doing a lot of that lately. Anyway, I found an awesome job with a great company in London as a developer – I could not be happier. We will sail, but it will have to fit into my work schedule now.

Damara is coming to visit us soon and we will be off again for a couple of weeks – and I will be able to get the blog going again. I will try and post more regularly as we do plan to do more sailing. In fact, the guys I work with are really into the idea of coming along for a cruise – so that would be fantastic – they will have to hire some boats as we won’t have room for everyone.

We did do some day trips around Christmas – mainly to turn the boat around. On one occasion the canal was frozen over and Arty go to be an Ice Breaker for the day! That was really good fun, listening to the ice cracking as we pushed our way through.

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OMG! It has actually happened! We cannot believe it but it has actually happened and Damara now owns a flat in Swindon!! Amazing. 8 Months and 7 different completion dates later and we have managed to have a sale of a property between one seller and one buyer – absolutely no chain. Anyway, we will be driving down tomorrow (Saturday) to move her in and start decorating. What a relief!!

Remember this date – allegidly this will be when we complete on Damara’s flat!! I, of course will believe it when I see it. Well, in fact I will believe it when the estate agent tells me to come and collect the keys!!

We also need to get the boat serviced (to sort out the running issue with the engine) and we need to move the boat to her Winter moorings in Stone. So, here is the plan. We have the engineer coming on Friday (we think, but he is not the most reliable) and when he is done we will fill with water, pump out and leave Aston Marina for the last time (well, this year at least as we may return) and then sail through 3 locks and then moor up on the side of the canal. We will remain here over the winter until the end of March when we will set off on another adventure. Of course, we may well go off on a short trip from time to time – so watch this space.

On September the 4th we started our 112 mile journey down to Connor and Lucette’s flat with the aim to move Damara into her new flat. The completion date had been fixed a few weeks back and Robert, our solicitor, had confirmed we were all ready to go.

About half way down, Wendy called the estate agent and asked if the keys where ready to be collected, only to be told there was a problem with the sellers solicitor, who was not prepared to proceed as she was missing a document which she was waiting on from the freeholders solicitors. Wendy lost it. Big time. In fact, she had to get out of the car in a lay by and pace up and down for a bit. I have never seem so much steam coming out of her ears!!

To cut a long (8 months) story short, lets just say that the sellers solicitor combined with the freeholders solicitor managed to screw things up. Anyway, expletives aside we decided to stop with Damara for a few days to see if things could get resolved and to try and avoid returning to the boat and waiting again. We stayed the weekend and, in the end we returned on the Tuesday with Tweedledee and Tweedledum still not able to sort themselves out. And here we remain on the 14th September, waiting for any news. By now, we have zero expectations.

After Tixall we went down to Penkridge on the 20th August, which is a lovely town on the canal with some very nice properties butted up against the towpath. We went to the services and then turned around at the nearby winding hole. We had a walk around the town and a chilled time of it. Unfortunately, the engine was playing up again and I was getting a rather unpleasant noise coming from around the gearbox area at the back – something to get looked at as a matter of urgency.

After Penkridge we sailed all the way back to Great Heywood and moored before the lock on the way up the T&M towards Stone. Our plan is simple, get back to the marina and then go down to Dee’s for the move on the 4th September and then stay there until we’ve sorted everything out we can then return and move the boat to her permanent winter mooring in Stone.

On the 24th August 2020 the Marina had a Red Letter day’s balloon trip in the afternoon for quite a lot of people. It was a very calm and wind free afternoon with some lovely sunshine. We only noticed when we walked Martha round the field the balloon was launching from.