Yesterday, we found a spot in the marina large enough for our boat and next to a wide spot that we “might” be able to turn around. Once again, thank God for Shelly’s calm presence and skill and the rest of the amazing crew. At one point Sara climbed off the boat and onto the high hill in the middle of the basin to pull the front of the boat to the left to aid in the very tight turnaround. It was the most impressive eight-point turn I have ever witnessed.
Under the low and narrow bridge…
…and onto the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct again. It was just as amazing and awe-inspiring as the first time we went across.
I was taking photos and videos of this picturesque trip across the aqueduct. Then I hopped onto the boat and took over the tiller to steer the boat across the rest of the aqueduct. Okay….here is the real truth. The aqueduct is so narrow that when I hopped back on the boat no one even needed to steer. I put my hand on the tiller and didn’t move it at all. Sara jumped off and took my photo while Shelly crouched down out of sight. They wanted me to have an impressive photo. I have good friends.
There are parts of the canal that are only wide enough for one boat. Other places have space for two boats to pass each other. Then there are parts of the canal that allow for mooring sites, which makes them three boats wide….if you are careful.
We are traveling back over familiar canal today. Tom ran ahead to pass on information of oncoming boats. Sara and Shelly took turns steering. Kara got back to the job of sewing on last night’s merit badges. Linda and I sat on the front of the boat feeling very Zen as we slowly moved through the water. We waved to passing boats and pedestrians. We did some bird watching. This goose was doing its morning yoga.
Last night we told which merit badge we would like to work towards. Linda is working on the “Boat Hair, Don’t Care” badge.
We knew when we got to the Whitehouse Tunnel we were almost back to the Chirk Marina, our first stop of the day.
We wanted to stop at Chirk Marina so we could dump our toilet tank and get our water topped off. It was a very sharp right turn into the marina and one of their employees ran over, hopped on our boat and backed us into a slip. Johnny was working and he answered everyone’s questions and assured us we can make our destination for the day. Our broiler has never worked so Sara had them check it out. It needs a new part, which they didn’t have in stock. We were relieved to learn it wasn’t user error.
Once we were pumped out and topped off we headed out of the marina and started down new territory for us. We headed down the canal to the Bridge Inn for lunch. But first we came to the Chirk Tunnel. This is the longest tunnel we will go through. There was quite a queue of boats waiting for their turn. This tunnel was longer than the last one. We could just barely see light at the end of the tunnel.
Water drips down from the roof and stalactites have started to form there. I took this photo from the front of the boat towards the back of the boat as we came through the tunnel.
Directly after the Chirk tunnel was the Chirk Aqueduct. In the small area between the tunnel and the aqueduct there was a queue going each direction and it was absolute chaos. Kara went ahead to help and found people yelling and gesturing.
The phrase we hear over loudspeakers in train stations here in the UK is “See something. Say something. Sorted.” There is a promise that you don’t have to take care of it yourself. It will be sorted for you. Sara, Shelly and Kara got it sorted and we headed across another aqueduct, which is considerably shorter.
As you can see, I enjoyed the ride across.
As soon as we were across we left Wales and entered England.
As Kara walked along the towpath she found all kinds of interesting things we didn’t see from the boat.
When we got to a sign that said, “Bridge Inn —2 minutes ahead” we moored the boat and headed out for lunch. We walked down the steep hill only to find that the Bridge Inn would not open for 2 hours. But the view of the aqueduct and train bridge from the Bridge Inn was worth the walk.
We voted to have sandwiches on the boat and to continue to Ellesmere (or close by) where we will find a pub for dinner. We ate our sandwiches and enjoyed the “wild” life along the canal.
We arrived at the queue for New Marton Upper Lock. A man ran out of his boat and yelled at us that there was a line and we were crashing it. He was next in line but he had moored himself far back and never moved forward. This allowed him to yell at every boat as they passed him unaware that he was the “beginning of the line.” It turns out the man who yelled at us today was one of the men who hit our boat last night and to whom Sara yelled “Boys, Boys!” I bet he enjoyed yelling at us. We waited about an hour until we finally made it to the front of the queue. While we waited Shelly made friends with the other boaters in line. They were very curious what made a group of Americans decide to make a canal trip. They wondered if we watch YouTube videos in the US that entice us to travel on the UK canals. So Shelly came and got me to explain that it all started with a romance novel one of our group members read. They chatted us up for a while trying to teach us how to say Llangollen correctly. Meanwhile, Tom and Linda had gone forward to watch how to operate the lock. They ended up operating the lock for six boats whose crews preferred not to get out and “dirty” their hands. It made them very proficient by the time we made it to the front of the line.
Shelly stayed on board and made sure the rutter was across the all important white line in the lock.
By the time we made it to New Marton Lower Lock we were all prepared for a non-stressful, smooth experience. It takes a village.
The rest of the trip was very cold. Kara took a turn driving the boat.
We tried to distract ourselves by studying how sheep get down on their front knees to eat grass…
…and noticing the swans swimming next to the narrow boat that was named swan.
Johnny at Chirk Marina assured us that we could make it to Ellesmere in five hours. We left the Chirk Marina at 10:30 a.m. and didn’t get to Ellesmere until 6:30 p.m. Johnny seems to be a very optimistic person. We walked into town and found an Indian restaurant. On the way back we stopped in at Tesco and got some provisions. Back at the boat just before dark we had planned to play a game but everyone was ready for bed. We fell asleep to sheep baaing in the field across the canal from our boat.
No comments:
Post a Comment