River Weaver & Congleton

by Mike Brown

Friday 4 May : Arrived at Heritage at 1445 and our friends were already there so we loaded up and gave the boat the once over. The only thing noticeable was a scratch about 2 feet long beneath the Rodbaston name on the port side stern that has been patch painted, otherwise the boat looked fine.

Peter had reported problems with the morse controller on his end of trip report and a new one had been fitted before we arrived.

Set off down the Macc. towards the T&M with a crew of four. Once we'd shown the novice guests the ropes there was an enormous difference for us as it was the first time we'd had a crew of more than just the two of us. We made good time and were very surprised at how quiet the waterway was considering it was the beginning of a bank holiday weekend.

In pleasant weather we made it all the way to Hassall Green where we tied up for the night and had a lovely dinner on board.

Saturday : Determined to make the most of both the weather and the journey we were up with the larks and heading North by about 8.30. At 9 am I called the Anderton Lift to book a passage down to the Weaver on Sunday morning.

The new crew had got into the swing of things at the locks and before we knew it we were pulling into Middlewich but not without incident.

We had been three boats back in a queue of boats behind a pair of hotel boats just South of Wheelock. Jenny decided to go on ahead to help out at the lock where the second hotel boat (without an engine) was being manhandled into the lock. She proceeded to stand by to help with the windlass only to have one of the hotel boat's staff rudely dismiss her assistance following which she stormed back to our boat in a bit of a fury.

About 10 minutes later the crew of another boat in the queue came back to us to deliver an apology from the individual who said he'd been having a bad week. When we got through the lock the boats were moored below and fortunately the individual was not in sight or he might have got a piece of my mind - but Jenny was relieved that I wasn't able to vent my anger by the use of some choice words.

An uneventful journey followed to Middlewich where we enjoyed (a rare treat for us) a Fish and Chip lunch from the chippy right beside Kings Lock. We heartily recommend for those who like 'traditional' fast food.

The wash basin in the forward bathroom was blocked so I used the water point at Kings Lock to get some pressure onto the drain. At first all that happened was that an awful lot of 'gunge' came out of the overflow into the sink which then had to be emptied by hand. After a few attempts I managed to get water flowing out of the drain in the normal manner. (A day or two later we bought some drain clearing stuff and treated both wash basins and they are now draining much better).

We got the locks in Middlewich behind us and set off aiming to stop for dinner at the Salt Barge pub adjacent to Bridge 193.

We got spruced up and headed out with nothing but food and a couple of drinks on our minds only to be utterly disappointed to discover that the Salt Barge has no chef and there is no food to be had. It's been like that for several weeks and according to locals it doesn't look like being rectified in the near future.

Back to the boat and a cobbled together dinner from odds and ends.

Sunday : Another early start and we were on the moorings at the Anderton lift in plenty of time for our trip down to the Weaver.

We were very disconcerted by the advice from the lift staff and some locals in the lift with us about not mooring at the Southern end of the Weaver. Nevertheless we proceeded to Northwich where we tied up so that the ladies could do some essential shopping.

We were delighted when Kay and Chris Adams appeared having seen Rodbaston as they were passing to take their daughter back to university so we chewed the cud for 15 minutes or so before they set off again on their journey.

Having received comments about the noise from the engine decks vibrating I had brought some plastic foam which I proceeded to cut into strips and staple to the underside of both engine decks. It proved to be a perfect (albeit temporary) solution as all vibration of the boards stopped and all in all it was much quieter to be standing at the helmsman's position. When the ladies returned we set off down the Weaver to take in the more picturesque part of the river. Being very conscious of lock opening times we didn't actually go to the Southern end but turned back towards the Anderton lift. It was on this part of the journey that we noticed a knocking from the engine compartment at about 1600 - 1700 rpm. We won't go into the details here as all owners have now received them by separate email.

The weather changed after lunch and while we did venture a couple of miles North past the Anderton lift it wasn't much fun in the rain so we headed back and moored close to the Anderton lift.

We had quite a good dinner that night at the Stanley Arms near the top of the boat lift.

Monday : Back onto the T&M where we headed Northwards through Barnton and Saltersford tunnels. Be aware that both of these tunnels, especially Saltersford, are anything but straight and it's quite tricky to get through without a scrape or two.

We turned a mile or so beyond Saltersford Tunnel and headed back towards Anderton.

Filled up with water immediately after Bridge 198 and continued back down the T&M all the way to Middlewich in showers. We moored immediately after the first lock in Middlewich (Big Lock) and went for dinner in the adjacent pub of the same name.

Tuesday : Another miserable day weather wise but off to an early start again. We negotiated our way past Sandbach and toyed with the idea of dinner at the Romping Donkey just beyond the M6 bridge but in the event decided we couldn't put up with the motorway noise so went on for another mile or so and moored for the night in the countryside. Dinner on board was delicious.

It was noticed today that the front loo was full despite the fact that Peter had had both loos pumped out the week before.

Wednesday : Set off towards Red Bull and arrived early afternoon where we did a self pump out at the BW station.

No rain this morning. Lunch at the Red Bull and a bit of shopping at Tesco.

Back onto the Macc where we moored to patch paint the lower hull on the port side and then the rain started again.

Journeyed to Heritage where we pulled in to get advice from Alan Clarke about the knocking from the engine compartment. Unfortunately we could not replicate the knocking when tied up at Heritage so we motored on to Congleton and had a reasonable dinner at the Queens Head.

Spent the night on the mooring at Congleton Wharf.

Thursday : A sunny morning with a bit of a cold wind. We headed up to Bosley locks intending to turn at the winding point just past the first lock.

We arrived behind a new boat (empty shell not yet fitted out) that was negotiating the first lock. As another boat was coming downwards the new boat held at the winding point so that they could pass each other but unfortunately he got himself well and truly stuck in the winding point. By this time the second boat had passed down the lock and Rodbaston had passed upwards.

The two guys on board proceeded to dig themselves into a real mess and clearly hadn't handled a narrow boat previously, despite the fact that one of them had just bought the new 65 ft shell.

I asked them to stop trying to manoeuvre as they were just making matters worse. We turned Rodbaston and got her back down the lock onto the lower moorings and I went back up, negotiated my way through the foliage and weeds to the far side of the pound and was able to get on board. They had mooring ropes that were like washing line, no pole and very little experience. I took absolutely great delight in getting their boat out of the awful situation they'd got in and into the upward lock, witnessed by the crew of Wolverley, and hopefully passed on some of the boating knowledge I'd learned over the past 4 years. It made my day.

We decided to have a barbeque but when I removed the bar-b from the stowage locker it was in a sorry state, falling apart and the grills were rusted. BE AWARE IT HAS BEEN CONSIGNED TO THE RUBISH BIN.

We cooked lunch on board instead.

Painted the lower hull on the starboard side and polished the mushrooms.

We then motored back to Heritage, during which it rained yet again.

Rain stopped so we spent some time cleaning the outside of the boat at the marina.

A very nice dinner was had at the Rising Sun and fortunately Jenny had called to make a reservation otherwise we would not have got into the restaurant.

Friday 11 May : Checked with the Heritage staff about pump outs the previous week where they confirmed they had pumped out both loos. I told them about the forward loo filling up half way through the week and it was suggested that there may have been something in the loo that had caused a blockage and therefore the loo had not been properly emptied when they pumped out after Peter's week.

Ensured two pump outs and valet service were to be done, filled with fuel, filled the water tank, spoke to Bob Woodgate about the knocking from the engine compartment and got an estimate from Heritage for replacing engine mountings.

The only sour note at the end of our trip is that I chipped one of the tea plates and according to Bob he cannot get hold of a matching replacement. If anyone knows where a matching replacement can be found the Browns are happy to pay for it.

Finally, one of our guests believes he may have left a 2GB flash card from his MP3 player somewhere on the boat so if anyone comes across it I would be grateful for a call.

Please be aware that you need to be careful when stowing the mooring pins and mallets etc. in the stern locker so that you don't foul the engine stop cable.