Middlewich

The sun is shining and we are feeling much happier after our two very soggy days. As we were chugging along we noticed some activity up ahead on the off side. An heroic boater had spied a very young calf in the water that was unable to climb out. The boater had temporarily moored his boat and raced back to haul the calf out and the anxious mum let him. I am sure she was very grateful! We had to admire his quick action to save the poor beast.

Bedraggled calf reunited with it's mum!

Another queue greeted us at our first lock today but since the sun was shining and with a jovial atmosphere amongst fellow boaters the time soon passed. However,  a rumour was travelling that there was a problem down in Middlewich at the locks. Apparently 'they', whoever they might be, we're draining ' big lock'! The folk on the boat in front of us immediately got on their mobile to CRT only to be told that as far as they were concerned there were no seduced works taking place nor any emergencies on the Middlewich Locks. We had already planned to stop before the locks in order to pop into Kings Lock Chandlery in search of 'the socket' and to do some shopping. We would then have a stroll along the canal to see what the problem was.

Hunters Moon emerging from the 100yd long Wardle Canal onto the Trent and Mersey

Firstly, Sid found his socket so he is a happy chappy. Secondly, we found the boat jam above the 3 Middlewich locks! Apparently there had been a leak on ' big lock', (this lock gets its name from being a double width lock on a canal that only has single locks on all it's length!  Not sure why! ). The leak had caused the pound to empty with one poor boater stuck in the middle.  The problem had been fixed and water was being brought down when we arrived but it would be some time before boats started to move again. Then, lastly we found Tesco.We finished our shopping and little tour round the town and returned to Hunters Moon. After a refreshing cuppa we decided to head off, hoping things would have cleared. We sailed through the locks in no time as a steady stream of boats were heading up the locks. They had had been waiting over four hours!

We moored before 'big lock' and witnessed a constant flow of boats coming up and passing us well into the early evening.

An eventful day!

Jenny sporting her best Christmas Present ever -  A cross bodu windlass holder!