Sunday 30th September 2012

Sadly for the Cooks they were unable to take up their allotted weeks on WD this autumn and put them up for grabs to the rest of the syndicate. This week was good for both Pip and me so we put our names in the hat. There were no other names in the hat so it was an easy draw to win.
So here we are. We travelled down from Rochdale where we had spent Saturday evening celebrating my sister's 60th birthday and arrived at a deserted Moss Bridge (Sandbach) at about 11. We loaded up, parked the car and set off northwards towards Middlewich. We've done this run  many times now but it is always a pleasure to get to the first lock (number 67) and be on our way. There was some sort of army cadet force out on the towpath. They were dressed in camouflaged clothing with high visability waistcoats on. A bit of a mis match there! 
We counted 20 swans at Middlewich which is fewer than we've seen there previously. There were around 70 ducks though. We followed a boat down Kings Lock, watched another boat come out of the Wardle Canal, wind and go back up again then followed them up Wardle Lock. There was, of course, no Maureen to give us some advice but it looked there was a bit of work going on in her old cottage.
We then pootled along the Middlewich Branch without stopping. No queues at what we call "The Queueing Lock" (Minshull Lock) and no queues at Venetian Marina either. This is unheard of. 

No queues at the Queueing Lock

We turned left at Barbridge having given way to a southbound NB  that had a very LOUD horn. Then we followed them south briefly until they stopped outside the Barbridge Inn. We went on past the Llangollen turn off and moored up for the night near Henhull Bridge just north of Nantwich.
Pip cooked a yummy Lasagne then we watched Downton Abbey. She went to bed then I listened to the end of the Ryder Cup. Very exciting, who says golf is boring?

This next bit is for the fellow owners of WD.
The tiller is vibrating, it has been since we left Sandbach. there is nothing round the prop but it does feel as though one of the blades is bent again. I'll mention it to Ken but I don't think it is worth taking WD out of the water to fix it before the winter maintenance.
The bow thruster is dead. There is a big fuse that it blown and I see in the fault log that this has happened a while ago and a new fuse was tried which also blew. This needs fixing, I shall jog Ken's memory. 
The BATTERIES !
The battery held out for the evening. We had watched a couple of hours telly and listened to the golf until 2330. I turned off the inverter when I went to bed (I've always done this every evening as an inverter uses power just by being turned on). I forgot to read the Smart Gauge then but in the morning it read 58.
We need another new chimney. The old one is rusting away. We'll get one from a chandlery. All the fire bricks are cracked  in the stove. When we lit the fire there was a strong smell of smoke throughout the boat. I think the stove needs checking out. We plan to get a carbon monoxide detector before using the fire again.

Summary:
16 miles, 9 locks, 20 swans, 70 ducks, 50 army cadets, zero queues.