November Cruise - Day One

We left home at 5.45am, and arrived at Norbury Junction just before 9. We quickly unloaded the car -- but not without incident: Adrian managed to slip on the rear steps (which were quite wet as the rear hatch had clearly been left open during one of the morning's showers), hurting his back. It's still qute sore this evening. We visited the chandlery, and bought a couple of things that had been decided at the owners' meeting last week: a new chimney, to replace a very delapidated one, and an ecofan. We also had a chat with David from Norbury Wharf about a few things regarding the winter works. He took us into the paint dock to see a boat that's just been repainted and re-sign-written.

We set off at 9.45 northwards -- new territory for us (although we have walked some of it. It was cold, and there weren't many moving boats. There's plenty of evidence of the significant works needed at the Shebdon Embankment to fix the leak, although it's difficult to see exactly where it was. There's another leak a bit further along, with a coffer dam stopping the water escaping. We passed the former Cadbury Wharf at Knighton, complete with boats moored under the canopy.

As we'd had breakfast so early, we stopped at about 11.45 and made an early lunch of soup and bread just beyond bridge 48. We were on our way again at 12.30, and made fairly slow progress thanks to all the moored boats along this canal. We saw only a couple of moving boats, and even the towpath was quiet until we reached the locks at Tyrley. Most of the locks were partially epty, with some of them almot fully empty. Even so, we were down the 5 in around 50 minutes.


We moored at just after 3pm a little way south of Market Drayton, in a nice open spot with a view of the church. I put together the new hosepipe (another owners' meeting decision, as the one one was broken and wouldn't wind properly). Th ecofan has been spinning all day on the stove, and does seem to make a difference. There seems to be a much more even distribution of heat, with the ceiling much cooler and the rear of the boat warmer. The next challenge is to keep the fire in all night. Tomorrow's forecast promises rain, rain, and rain.

11 miles, 5 locks.