On the Canal

Left the B & B after an authentic English Breakfast consisting of free range eggs, country ham with mushrooms, sausage & French Bread, tea & coffee. Although our B & B did not meet Hilton standards, it was a comfortable & historic home. We enjoyed talking with the husband & their 7 yr old son.

Our next stop was the super market to buy food for the canal trip. Although Susie had made a list of needed items, this was a challenging effort. Simple task like all 4 having to agree on 1 box of cereal. It was a real adventure for Tom and I watching Judith and Susie price comparison shop in UK pounds and trying to convert to American dollars, we spent most of our time in the wine and beer section.

WE DIDN’T HAVE ROOM FOR BOTH PASGENERS AND THE BEER, GUESS WHO HAD TO WALK? Susie and Judith had lots of room, both could still breath. We were ready for a week on the water, case of beer., case of wine, loaf of bread, 2 cans of SPAM and a bag of M&Ms.

Took Tom and I hours to load the boat, then to our surprise we had classes on how to operate the boat then a practical test, both Tom and I knew we did great on the test when the instructor told us we should come back tomorrow and skin up the other side of the boat. Neil (Trainer) took us outside the marina and turned us loose, boy driving this thing is easy, its only 57 ft long and the canal is about 30 ft wide, just bang from one side to the other, it can’t get out of the water. Ran several miles an did not kill anyone or any thing so must have been a success, and Neil our instructor couldn’t wait to get off the boat. Found a great place to spend the night, beautiful views, with sheep on one side and cows on the other, everyone had sinus conditions when we moored (parked the boat foe you non sailor types) but overnight we had our condition cleared up and the sheep, cows and birds woke at 0400.

Putting the boat in the lock was a piece of cake, anyone who can thread a needle can put a 57 ft. boat in a in a 7 ft. slot, with an incoming current that’s faster than the boats max speed. Tom had the easy part all he had to do was steer the boat, I had to manually open the lock gates, regulate the water level, close the gates, all without power, I was in total control.

We crossed both the Chirt and Pontcysyllte aqueducts today, a great adventure, these are 7.5 ft wide cast iron trough built in 1805, that have had little updating, they are 125 ft above the ground, 307 meters long and without safety rails, talk about feeling a little exposed. We have talked about Peggy Tienken and how much she would have enjoyed the experience.. This should have prepaired us for the remainder of the day, several sections of the canal was one-way traffic ( no room for meeting anyone) Tonight we are mooring at the marina in Llangollen where the canal starts. The canal was build to haul slate from the slate mines in Llangollen to London. We have hiked to the mere (lake) that was made (water diverted from the Dee River), in order to provide water for the canal. The path was rocky so everyone’s feet are tender, tomorrow we woill go into town and try and post this to the blog.

Rainy day Tommy hangs on to the boat