Lymm

Although the bridgewater is lock free and wide it does get a little boring if your on it too long, the limit is 7 days for a CRT registered boat but we had 9 day's because chris was coming down to bring his suitcases ready for his holiday starting next weekend.
As we went through lymm i was looking for the autistic art boat that i had promised myself to look at but it wasn't trading when we past, it was on it's mooring, oh well maybe next time we come this way.
i have been looking for sponge so i can finish the semi trad seating off but had no luck untill i spoke to kev and he said he had some i could have in the shape of single foam sofa bed's **perfect** all i had to do was take the sponge out cut it to size and add a bit on the end as it wasn't quite long enough.

just for you kev, the bridgewater club

foam cut to size and glued

Fitted and Covered.

MSC barge

happy frog

you can't get any closer to the canal than that

jenny may

Lymm

Saturn

Gifford

Shad

Preston Brook To Grappenhall

Had a wonderful weekend with Ben,Kev and fliss nice to see old friends, not seen kev since last year when we went up the Marple flight, so today being the coolest this week we moved on to Stockton Heath to shop only aa 10 minute walk to morrissons and over the Manchester Ship Canal, i never realised how straight the MSC was, so shopping done and moved out into the wilds away from the madding crowds and motorways.

MSC looking towards anderton

train arriving at runcorn east

MSC looking towards manchester

Swing Bridge over the MSC

To the Bridgewater

After a couple of hectic days at middlewich and a couple of relaxing days in the wilds we moved on through Anderton and onto the bridgewater,i must say the weather has been beautiful not a cloud in the sky and promises to continue for a few more days yet.

Anderton boat lift

Dutton boat yard

Tunnel times

its a bit slow when the canal runs into the lock.

oh hello

nicks new friend

in

and out

Runcorn Arm

Middlewich FAB ( Folk and Boat Festival )

It's been an interesting few days to say the least, we left sandbach to head to the festival, we had invited ben onto the boat to drive to middlewich which is about 6 miles away, ben is close now to buying his own boat and needs all the experience he can get. whilst we are travelling boaters kept shouting as we passed "theres a boat sunk in lock 74" now lock 74 is the last lock we were going through to breast up on the side of the witchcrafter, we decided to moor up just before kings lock and have a walk down to see if there were any moorings below, suffice to say no there wasn't so we went to look for our friends and have a chat then went back to the boat and ben on his way on his push bike. next day we went down the locks and moored up on the witchcrafter, had a walk round the town which was heaving with revellers, every pub was blasting out music to attract custom, what a great atmosphere it was too, back at the boat we had a walk round the stalls that were set up on the side, we also walked the line of boats to see thier wares on the way back we bought 4 bags of fudge from the fudge boat yummy. seeing as we were only staying the night we had a little drinking session that went on till 3.30am, sheila and jim had gone off to the pub and joined us later.

sunken boat

CRT in attendance

some of the market stalls

more market stalls and horseboat maria

Wedding on a hire boat, how novel.

Single Handing

just a quick update for the last few days, nick went home for a couple of days to do stuff which left me alone to move the boat to a better mooring, so i stopped off at redbull services to water up and empty the elsan before going down the locks, as i untied there was a hire boat coming up with a CRT volunteer helping them through, great i thought he will help me down the first lock, Wrong!!! as they left the lock the lockie walked up with them to the next lock oh well good job i can do them on my own, so down 3 locks to a rural mooring where the dogs didn't need a lead perfect, chris bought nick back and the next day we moved off down to sandbach, i looked on water explorer to see where islonian and thewitchcrafter were moored, they were a 10 minute walk away so off i set to surprise them, we are staying here for a few days as the weather is forecast to rain, next move will be to the middlewich festival.

Going down

Floating whilst i close the gates

Redbull & Horse Drawn Boat

After settling down our boaty friends we had to stay here for a bit of a banter on saturday night with some forumites that are coming here to meet us, in the meantime ben decided that he wanted to go and see a boat he has been looking at online so asked me if i would go with him of course i said yes, so off we set to Blackwater Meadow marina on the shroppie close to ellesmere, saw the boat he wanted to see and i think he was disappointed as it didn't turn out as he expected poor ben, anyway whilst we were there i suggested he looked at another boat that was 38' he said nah its too small, i persuaded him to look and he was well impressed with the layout of a smaller boat maybe opened up new horizons for him. then we went off to Overwater marina which is in the middle of #fucknowswhere too far from any civilization they were having a RNLI day which sadly we missed and as we arrived 30 minutes before they shut we didnt get to see any boats either, all in all it was a great day out in his little sports car with roof down and wind blowing in your hair.
On thursday we had Sue Day and Bilbo Baggins come by pulling NB Maria they are heading to middlewich Folk and boat festival for the boats 160th birthday.

sue ready to harness him up

NB Maria at the lock

Bilbo having a break waiting for the lock

the crew after a great night drinking and eating.

 Back row from left to right forumites :
Smiffy - Trento - Goodboy - Benjam

Front row from left to right :
Tillergirl - June - Goodgirl
must do it again at middlewich