About turn

We winded (that is, turned the boat around) at our Chester mooring on Sunday to head back the way we came. On Saturday night it absolutely lashed it down with enough lightning about to make Elaine cringe. Fortunately, by the time this happened we were safely back on board, having eaten out then promptly returned. We had intended on going for a drink or two but the state of the race goers staggering about the place dissuaded us.
As we did on arriving at Chester, we managed to share the five locks out of the city which certainly sped things up. And all in glorious sunshine, I might add! Our companions decided to stop just after the locks so we were alone again and looking forward to the tranquility of a rural mooring after two days of Chester. We spotted this near Egg Bridge..

We made it to an area called Brassey Green and made ready for a peaceful night in the middle of nowhere. No such luck! We had fields of Fresian cattle on either bank of the canal, each herd being the personal harem of a magnificent Herefordshire bull. They couldn't see each other across the canal but clearly knew of each other's whereabouts! They started bellowing at each other around teatime before quitting for a rest as night fell. They resumed hostilities at 11pm for a while, then started again at 5am. We had a quieter night outside The Lock Keeper pub in Chester and they had a metal band on!
We had to move a short distance on Monday so that Charlotte could meet us at the Beeston Locks, the plan being to go through Beeston Iron Lock and stop in the pound between that and Beeston Stone Lock

Cottage at Beeston Locks

We had to queue for a while but duly made the passage through the first lock then tied up for the day

What could go wrong?

All seemed well as we chilled inside the boat for an hour or so but when I stood up I realised we were tilting alarmingly. Dashing outside, we found the water level had dropped a good 18 inches and we were tilting towards the centre of the canal, hanging off extremely tight lines.

We legged it to the upper lock to let some water through and took the opportunity of moving the boat out of the pound to a more stable mooring. The problem was that the upper lock could accommodate 2 boats at a time whereas the bottom lock had distorted over time and was now just too tight for 2 boats. Therefore, one lock full of water let 2 boats in, but 2 was required to let them out, hence the pound running low.

So, we stayed in our "emergency" mooring with no TV or Sky signal because of trees and no phone signal, let alone internet access. Of course, walking is always available so we headed here for a pint or two

Wild Boar Hotel, Beeston

As for the rest of the day, we had to revert to talking to each other, what a strange evening that was (joke)!

After Charlotte delivered us back to the boat on Tuesday afternoon we moved a little further along to an area between Tilstone Bank and Bunbury Staircase Locks, no phone, no internet but at least we got Sky tuned in. This afternoon we made it to Church Minshull and will be staying here for a couple of days getting some laundry taken care of. Four bars in the phone, 3G available and a clear satellite signal, something has to go wrong soon!