The overnight storm had just about blown itself out by morning but at times it was a rocky night. When we awoke it was rather grey but the day gradually improved and the late afternoon was splendid, bright and sunny and still warm.
Mike walked up to the local convenience store for a newspaper and then Christine wandered around the basin area that she had not explored yesterday. Whilst she was doing this, Andrew started to turn the boat around - just enough room.
However, we picked up something around the prop in the process and lost almost all power. By this time we were in the narrow gap between the moored hire fleet with another boat that had just set off behind and waiting for us to get out of the way. We had to pull the boat into a gap by rope. Eventually we cleared the prop and, amongst all the leaves we found this nasty piece of rope.
Next came the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct but we had quite a wait for a boat to cross from the other end. They seemed to have most of their crew on the towpath holding the boat away from the rubbing strip!
This time Christine steered us across so that Andrew could take more photos, especially of the sheer drop over the offside edge to the fields and river below. Mike skulked inside the cabin mostly!
Across to the other side and we quickly reached the lift bridge.
Just before reaching Chirk we had a view of the two chemical works which are hidden from the canal when at the closest point. One part - probably the main part of this picture - is Kronospan who manufacture wood panels whilst next door is a site which is currently owned by the multinational Mondelez who convert cocoa beans into chocolate crumb here for sale under the Cadbury brand label. The bars are made in Birmingham.
The approach to the tunnel is very attractive at the moment even if the mass of leaves in the water do clog up the prop very quickly.
Again we had a wait for the tunnel and followed a rather slow boat in front of us but we id manage to head straight across the aqueduct. Just as well as two boats opted to moor in the short stretch between the tunnel and the aqueduct.
A very similar style of aqueduct at Marple is having a railing added to the offside on Health and Safety grounds. Surprisingly, here it seems sufficient just to have these not large warning signs.
At Monks Bridge in Chirk Bank (close to where we met Andrew yesterday) a house has this display!
On a bit and another bungalow has this old chap at the end of the garden.
We then had a steady run through St Martin which gave us Chance to have our lunch in relays. We managed to finish in time to work through the two New Marton locks.
After a couple of uninterrupted miles we arrived at Frankton Junction where Andrew hopped off to take a look at the first four locks. He caught up with the boat some time later after a lengthy walk along the towpath.
It was now a very pleasant afternoon and scenery to match.
Andrew eventually caught up with us at a bridge where the fuel boat we used a couple of days ago was now moored. In the process of passing through the bridge we became stuck on mud - fortunately the chap from the fuel boat came and offered to help pull us off with a rope, Even so it took us some time to get free. The lady from the fuel boat wanted to take a photo of us - she is building a record of where dredging needs to be done.
We then had a mile to run into Ellesmere. Christine jumped off onto the towpath to walk up to Tesco for a small number of items whilst Mike and Andrew took the boat across to the service block.
Christine reported that there was not much chance of a mooring down the arm but we opted to reverse back a couple of boat lengths as there was room alongside the towpath. We even managed a tv signal despite expecting the buildings to be in the way.
14.8 Miles - 2 Locks
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