Narrowboat Just Heaven

A little bit of drizzle on and off today, but otherwise not a bad day, though very windy.

The deep cuttings along this part of the Shroppie are quite interesting, but otherwise it’s fairly boring, particularly for the steerer as it’s just long straight sections with only the one lock at Wheaton Aston to break the journey.

We stopped for the night on the SUCS moorings just north of bridge 4. Like most this canal the side here suffers with the “Shoppie ledge”. A concrete ledge jutting out into the canal just below water level. This make mooring difficult. We had a high wind to contend with too so it took a couple of attempts to get properly moored up.

The evening was lovely (though windy) with a gorgeous sunset.

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We have moved today, but we’re back where we started. A pumpout and shopping needed today so an early start down Tyrley locks and into Market Drayton. We had intended to use one of the boatyards for the pumpout, but found a BW DIY machine so used that instead. Anyway the boatyard wasnt open when we arrived at 8:45.
After pumping out we went along to the visitor’s mooring by the aqueduct, we were lucky there was only one available space. After breakfast we had planned a shopping trip, but by now the rain was much heavier. The First Mate guide said 18 mins to the shops so we needed to get kitted out in our wet weather gear. We found Netto fairly quickly, but it was quite a bit further to the other shops. As we needed quite a bit of stuff we decided on Morrisons, which was the furthest of all!

It was still raining when we got back to the boat tired and wet. When we went to make a cup of tea, no water! With four of us and little Izzy on board we seem to use a lot more than usual. I reversed back through the bridge to the water point, topped up and returned to the visitor’s mooring. During which the heavens really opened and it poured down. Staying put seemed the sensible choice so we just waited. Then at about 3:30 it eased off a little and we decided to set off to get to the top of the flight.

The amount of extra water in the cut caused by the rain had made the lock by-washes very powerful, and the approaches into the locks very difficult. The only way to do it was to go fast aiming for the by-wash itself and then when the current pushed the bow over put the tiller hard over to stop the stern from being pushed over. The current was so powerful that the water came over the side of the bow and into the front deck. There were several hire boat crews who were finding the conditions particularly taxing.

We arrived at the top at about 5:30 and decided to stay there for the night. The rain had stopped and it was quite a pleasant evening.

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Weather fairly cool and cloudy today, with periods of rain getting heavier as the day went on.
We were going to have a pumpout at Wheaton Aston but the BW DIY machine was out of action (as was the toilet block) because of a sewerage system problem. We topped up with fuel at Turner’s garage and then chugged on to the top of Tyrley locks.
Here also BW was having plumbing problems. The water point was closed and the water in the toilet block was labelled unfit to drink. By late afternoon the rain was fairly heavy so we decided to stay here and go down into Market Drayton in the morning.

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Another rather wet, cold & grey day, where’s the summer gone?
The weather did clear a little in the evening and we decided to have a barbecue as this may be the only chance this week.
During yesterday and today we have had several re-occurrances of the fuel starvation problem. I decided to take out the water trap filter and see if it had become blocked again. There didnt appear to be much there, but I washed it in deisel and put it back in. When I changed the filters previously I had loosened the pipe on the outgoing side of the pump and turned the ignition key until the pump had primed itself and no air came out. However the last guy who serviced the engine said I didn’t need to do that. He said just turn on and wait a couple of minutes for the pump to prime itself and purge the air on the return line back to the tank. I tried that but it didnt seem to work. I tried my method again and that did work !
Whilst I was working down the engine hole I had this duck for an audience!

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When we got to Wheaton Aston lock the wind was blowing very hard across the canal at right angles. There was a queue of four boats in front of us. They were all have great difiiculty getting into the lock in the wind.

The technique used by most was to have someone on the towpath hold the bow rope as the boat approached the lock to stop the front from being blown across the canal.

We eventually got down through the lock (using the above rope trick) and moored up for breakfast in the cutting opposite Turner’s Garage. It was much more sheltered here.

We stayed here for most of the day. In the afternoon we went for a walk, starting off along the Staffordshire Way at bridge 17. Then towards Lapley and back across the fields to Wheaton Aston

At about 4:00 we moved on to High Onn wharf and moored just after bridge 25.

We decided to put on the BW reg numbers that we had got from “Stick on Signs”. Whilst we were doing this Bob & Sue Woodgate came past on Symphony. They waved and called out but didnt stop.

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We stopped for water by the old Water Travel base near the stop lock. It was getting cold and the wind was picking up so we decided to stop for the night on the mooring by bridge 4.

The are rings here but it’s difficult to moor up as there is an underwater ledge.

Had to put off the BBQ again as it was too cold.

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