Well a few days of not a lot happening; we moored up just up from.Wardle Lock in Middlewich and awaited the arrival of Stella's daughter. The following day, we headed off towards the Llangollen; however, after 4 hours cruising the heavens opened, so we decided to pull in at Sykes Hollow mooring for the night and wait out the rain.
This morning, it was off to Barbridge and Hurleston Junctions, to start our journey. Gracie, however, had different ideas! Despite a survey giving our beam (width) as 6foot 10inches, she would not go into the lock and became wedged in the lock. We tried flushing her out and she wouldn't budge. So, the boat behind us had to pull us out, like a cork from a bottle! So, where to go? We thought of Chester; but the wind caught Gracie and we decided the locks would be horrendous, plus we thought that moored boats and Gracie has a penchant for kissing every boat in the wind that it wasn't worth it and we would continue our journey round the Cheshire Ring. This then gave Chris the,chance to show Stella's eldest how to steer and once she had the hang of it to let her take over, culminating in her handling Gracie in the last lock of the day while Chris & Stella did the lock. As we came up, Stella then decided that she would steer as well (no moored boats and not many trees!) and so we have a steering rota now!
All in all, a good day and week as we finally got the stop cord refitted and the water hoses replaced with heat resistant piping. So, we have a working engine thanks to Middlewich Boats of this parish.
We continue up, planning to be up towards Manchester mid-week and then on and up the locks!
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