Five Go Mad in Cheshire - Day One

Saturday 29^th May 2010

An early departure from Worthing, with a car already full of stuff for the boat, and a small dog – Pippa the miniature schnauzer, two stops in London to pick up Matt and Laura from their universities, and off we set for Cheshire. With the weather getting worse the further north we travelled, we still arrived very much looking forward to a week on Somnia, our shared ownership boat.

It is moored at Tattenhall, a new marina which opened last year, along with another dozen or so Ownerships (or to be more correct ex-Ownerships) boats. From my limited experience, it is a very impressive marina, although being new and probably because of its location, it appeared to be a bit exposed to the elements. It was now raining, a fairly persistent heavy drizzle, as we met Andrew Cooley, the ex-Ownerships local manager, who oversees turnarounds, and who most boats based at Tattenhall have still engaged to perform this valuable task. He showed us around the boat, we loaded on all the gear, and……we waited around to see what the weather was going to do. After some lunch, the rain had stopped so we decided to brave the elements, mainly wind now, and set-off on our great adventure.

Time to fill you in on my experience with narrowboats! Abut ten years previously we had hired a boat for a week’s holiday – it had at least seven berths, and with the minimum of instruction, we spent a total of one week, going up the Oxford canal from Oxford to Napton, turned the boat around and headed back to Oxford. No marinas were used, the route was straight to Napton, wind the boat, and straight back to Oxford. There were a few incidents – hit a bridge in the first two hours, and we were forced aground by a speeding boat at one stage – but all in all I was very pleased with how things went. Wind forward some nine years – and I started crewing as a volunteer with the Wey and Arun Canal trip boats – lots of practice locking, roping and poling but no driving. Then last February after a day at the Ownerships show at Braunston, both Denise and I did a one day boat handling course on the Oxford canal at Fenny Compton. A great day, and a good introduction to proficient narrowboat handling.

Well, back at Tattenhall, exactly as anticipated, the wind was causing even the experienced owners some concern. Getting out of the jetty we were moored at involved the canal equivalent of a three point turn…or similar. Well forward I went, and sideways went the boat with the wind. A few hairy moments going backwards and forwards, and I was struggling. And, as seems to always be the way, there were a few onlookers watching this boat struggle to make any headway in the direction it needed to go. At times I felt helpless, but eventually after a lot of revving and poling we managed to point the boat in the direction of the marina’s exit onto the Shropshire Union Canal. Well, if I thought getting out of the jetty was tricky, as we approached the exit onto the canal it was worse, a narrow gap onto a fairly standard width canal, and the wind was still doing it’s best to make things difficult. Well after a lot of to-ing and fro-ing, we managed to get the boat out and facing the southbound direction we had decided to explore first. I was a bit stressed at this stage, so didn’t enjoy the first hour or so, and certainly could not really appreciate the fantastic scenery – Beeston Castle perched high up on the hill to the right – Peckforton Castle (I think) further along the ridge, and lots of cows.

But soon, the calming aspect of the canal took effect, and before the first lock – Wharton’s lock, I was really starting to enjoy myself already. With a rusty crew – most of them had not done anything really since the trip ten years ago, we all had to learn fast, but the lock was soon behind us. At this stage we were just behind another boat – who kindly offered to share the next few locks. Their boat had a classic, vintage engine that Matt (studying Mechanical Engineering at Imperial College) was fascinated by. They were experienced boaters, and offered all sorts of most welcome advice. Apart from Beeston Iron Lock which is too tight for 2 boats, we did all the locks together, and with no further eventful incidents, we decided to moor up at Calveley overnight – as did the other boat. We ate at the Davenport Arms – dogs welcome, and despite the attraction of a Eurovision-based pub quiz, returned to the boat after a very satisfying meal. With a ridiculously early start, we were all very tired and sleep soon ruled the day.

7 miles, 6 locks, 4 ½ hours.