Wednesday 22 July 2020

Llangollen: Basin -> Blakemere 22/7/2020

Engine start 579.4 07:10
Engine stop 588.8 16:36 = 9.4 hours

Miles: 19 Locks: 2 Lock miles: 21

Long day today. Given how busy canal was yesterday we wanted to make an early start to avoid queues in the narrows. AJS driving today. ADS walked ahead to check for oncoming traffic.

We ended up 2nd in a convoy of 5 boats which made life easier. Noticeably faster progress downstream. ADS ended up walking all the way to Trevor Basin.

A day boat was just going onto the Pontcysyllte aqueduct as AJS arrived so she was able to follow it straight on. We ended up following them all the way to Chirk. Day boat skipper also skippers a charity boat and is familiar with this canal so no hold-ups.

AJS could not be pried from the tiller all day apart from 5 minutes to scoff a bacon and egg sarne around 12! She did 2 aqueducts, 3 tunnels and a tricky turn in Ellesmere Basin. A far cry from the couple you see where the husband does all the driving!

As before, noticed that the afternoon was noticeably busier than the morning. Stopped briefly at Ellesmere to empty the toilet and shop for essentials (olives and beer mainly) before pushing on a final mile to find a nice mooring at Blakesmere again. Longest day for ages - 9 hours instead of usual 4-5 but avoided the afternoon rush and puts us in a good position for the remainder of the trip.

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