We saw the Moomins today – with a little narrowboat in his hands. Bless.
We also liked the name of this little boat…
We bid farewell to Ellesmere Port, turning out from the basin and up the pair of locks to the top. Someone had left the top paddle open on the top lock, which Sarah only realised some time after opening the bottom paddles to get it ready for me. So we left a little flood behind at the bottom lock, oopsy! The canal at the top is just as full of weed as the basin is, if not more so.
The paddles don’t have the usual ratchet-type mechanisms, instead you just jam a little metal strip in between the cogs to hold them up.
We didn’t go far today, mooring up a couple of miles before Chester basin to avoid the rain forecast for the afternoon. With the afternoon to ourselves, it was time for a few jobs. We made flapjacks (a joint effort), and then Sarah cut my hair.
Typical Shroppie style, the sides are a bit shallow where we moored. After a while we got fed up of leaning to one side, so tried to find a slightly deeper spot further up – with limited success.
We saw a total of 8 boats going the other way today – something of a surprise as we hardly saw a soul when we came down this way. Speaking to the last of them, Chester is full of boats at the moment, so looks like we might be mooring at Christleton tomorrow rather than in the centre unless we get lucky with a boat leaving as we arrive.
Note from Sarah – I am still aboard, but Toby doesn’t take any half decent photos of me…..anyone would think he’s a single hander reading the blog!!!