Resending this one, as it hasn't appeared on either list after 36 hours.
Day 26 - Wednesday July 26th - Shebdon to Audlem
13 miles 5 furlongs, 21 locks, 9 hours 30 minutes
Overslept this morning. I meant to be away early enough to reach Tyrley
locks before anyone else got going. Unfortunately, didn't set off until
7am, so it was 9.20am before I got there. There were an old couple on
the boat in front, and after waiting for a boat to come up the lock they
went in and down. When they tried to leave the lock, they got about
15ft out before the bow rode up and they stopped dead in the water.
Luckily there was a BW bod around, and he got his long handled hooked
tool out and had a good prod around, finding nothing there at all. He
shut the nearside gate, to have a further prod, and noticed that their
bow rope had dropped in the water. This was trapped somewhere, and was
why the boat couldn't leave the lock. It didn't appear to be trapped
under the ate, as the gate could open and close quite freely.
Eventually he gave it a good hard tug, it came free and they left the
lock. It was only after they had gone that I realised that the end must
have got drawn through the sluice in the gate and trapped when the
paddle was lowered. The lock keeper agreed and said he'd never known
that to happen before. I kept catching this boat up at every lock in
the flight, and suggested that I would happily work their boat through
the lock and that she might like to walk down to the next one to get it
ready. She was having none of that, saying that she didn't want to hold
me up by making me close up behind them. Oh well, you can but try.
Cleared the bottom of the Tyrley flight at 10.45am, and through Market
Drayton at 11.10am. Fortunately the boat in front of me decided to stop
there for some shopping. Saw Dave Hearmon's Raven moored just beyond
the bridge. Reached the top of Adderley flight at 12.15pm, just behind
a Black Prince hire boat. Followed them down the flight, with only a
couple of up bound boats to help with lock setting. Said hello to Nigel
Burrows on EnSeaBee just above Audlem top lock where he was moored.
Caught up with the Black Prince boat again by the third lock. Despite
having about half a dozen people in the crew they weren't very
efficient. Most annoying was their habit of shutting the bottom gates
even when there was a boat coming up the lock below. Twice I saw the
boat in the lock, so reopened the gates before going back to my lock.
They looked very confused when I did this. I don't think they ever
worked out that if the boat coming up has an empty lock ready for them
it will go straight there instead of coming out of the lock slowly
wondering where to moor to set it up. Unfortunately, the third time
they did this there was a little cruiser in the lock. I didn't see him
until the lock was well over two thirds full, so it seemed best to carry
on. It was at this point that I realised that Arun was not going down
in the previous lock despite me lifting one of the gate paddles. Aghh!
Instead of going back to the lock, opening the gates and driving
straight for the now ready lock, I now had to empty the lock through the
one working gate paddle. When this was eventually done and I had moved
into the next lock, the chap was stood there arms crossed in a very
disapproving manner. He started talking to me, but I explained that
he'd have to wait until I'd stopped the boat in the lock, as I couldn't
hear a word he was saying. He just kept on, so I ignored him until I
could leave the boat. My explanations for what had happened fell on
deaf ears and he stomped off back to his boat. His wife then came up
and said she was quite grateful for the enforced breather. :-) Just
below lock 9 I found what I think was an enormous caterpillar. It was
about the length and thickness of my little finger, but seemed to
consist of about 8 segments. It was mostly green, but had markings like
two big eyes on the back of the first segment. I though at first it was
a small toy that had been dropped by some child, but when it clung on to
the small stick I picked it up with I realised that it wasn't. Stopped
for the night just above lock 12 in the flight at 4.35pm, as there was a
vacant mooring there, and if I didn't stop here by the Shroppie Fly,
there wasn't a canalside pub until Barbidge Junction, some 5 hours away.
Either that, or I could have moored at Nantwich and walked into town,
but even that was three and a half hours away. Decided to do some
washing (and write up this log) before going to the pub.
Weather - Sunny
Tomorrow's Forecast - Sunny Intervals
Terry Streeter
NB Arun - Audlem
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