Five Go Mad in Cheshire - Day Three

Monday 31st May 2010

An excellent night’s sleep, again up at a decent time, walked Pip to Christleton and Greenfield lock to have a look at the challenge ahead, then back to Somnia for breakfast and showers. The day started bright, and we set off with Chester our goal. Five minutes before we left, another boat passed heading towards Chester – nb Calan Lai, so we knew that the locks would be against us…or so we thought. We did Christleton solo, but Calan Lai then waited for us, so that we could double up through Greenfield and the rest of the locks to Chester – which was brilliant. We chatted, and they recommended an overnight mooring spot they had used previously, and indeed offered to show us where it was. We expressed concerns about overnight mooring in the city centre, but they said they’d never had any trouble, but then again they had never moored at the weekend – we wondered what difference a Bank Holiday might make!! The rest of the locks were navigated trouble free – Pip enjoyed being ashore all the way, complete with her doggie life-jacket, that often received comments from gongoozlers.

The mooring recommended by Calan Lai was just before Bridge 123E, near the Frog and Nightingale pub. Very handy for Tesco’s, and only a 5-10 minute walk into the city centre. Now all we needed was a trouble free night and it would be ideal. We locked the boat up and wandered into the city, the girls did some shopping, whilst Matt and I killed some time, including watching an amazing and very entertaining street performer, A. J. James, a mix of juggling, magic, escapology all accompanied by some great banter and jokes with the large crowd. He could be a huge star this guy, and the collection he amassed afterwards was huge and well deserved. We then started looking for somewhere to lunch, that would be dog-friendly, and settled on a Revolution chain pub with outside seating. A decent enough lunch, was followed by a stroll down to The Groves by the River Dee. The weather was now fantastic, and it was heaving with families, and couples, and cyclists, and dog walkers all enjoying themselves in a great location. Matt and Laura hired a rowing boat for 45 minutes – Matt wanted to show of the rowing skills he has developed during his first year at Imperial, while Denise, Pip and I sat basking in the glorious afternoon sunshine.

All too soon it as time for Laura to leave us, so Matt, Pip and I walked her up to Chester station for her train back to London, whilst Denise started the shopping at Tescos. On the way back from the station Matt diverted to Tescos to help Denise, and I walked Pip up to look at the Northgate staircase locks for future reference. We unpacked the shopping, noticing that another boat had moored up behind us. With the thought of safety in numbers, I asked them if they intended mooring overnight. They were, and on seeing my Wey and Arun branded polo shirt, asked me where I was from. To cut a long story short, it transpired that they were from Guildford (one end of the Wey and Arun canal), and that spookily they had been on the trip boat the previous weekend when I had been crewing….small world. After a cup of tea we then returned down to the riverside to have dinner at a brand new, cracking restaurant called Hickorys American Smokehouse. A great meal in a glorious location. Back to the boat, cards and then to bed.

45 minutes later, we were woken by banging on the side of the boat, and lots of shouting. Then someone jumped on to the front of the boat, Denise opened the curtains to see a group of lads intent on drunken mischief. She shouted at them to go away….or similar words, and they ran off whooping and hollering. Matt and I opened up the hatch and got out, they had managed to almost untie our stern rope, and the boat behind’s bow rope had also been undone. We secured both boats, and concerned that they might return, I had a quick walk up the canal, but there was no sign. The strange thing is that noone else seemed to stir in any of the other boats. We found out the next day that the boat behind us had woken, and that the yobs had thrown something heavy against one of their windows, but it remained intact. With adrenalin pumping, we decided to stay up a while, had some tea, played cards, and eventually at 3.00am decided to try and sleep…..

2 ½ miles, 5 locks, 2 hours

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.