Trips in 2009
From Crooke Bridge No 47 to Crabtree Swing Bridge No 32, a distance of 28 miles, 1¼ flg and 2 locks. If there are any sections of canal that Mintball could cruise without anyone at the helm then this would be one of them. Trips from Crooke down to Rufford or Lydiate were a very […]
From Worsley Visitor Moorings to Crooke Bridge No 47, a distance of 16 miles, 3½ flg and 6 locks. It felt odd being in Worsley again. The last time I remember being moored here we were moored behind “Tinkerbelle”, which was the next boat, after Mintball, to be built by Ron Tinker. Worsley has changed […]
From Acton Bridge No 209 to Worsley Visitor Moorings, a distance of 29 miles, ½ flg and 1 lock. An early start saw us heading north, hoping that we’d got the timings right to get through the tunnel. When we reached Dutton Stop Lock No 76 there were a couple of boats ahead of us […]
From Marbury Woods Footbridge to Acton Bridge No 209, a distance of 12 miles, 3¾ flg and 2 locks. It’s odd how plans change. When we originally planned this trip we’d talked about doing the Anderton Lift but we’d bounced schedules back and forth and decided that although it was a brilliant idea there was […]
From Nantwich Visitor Moorings (north) to Marbury Woods Footbridge, a distance of 22 miles, 7 flg and 8 locks. Despite a good evening drinking in The Vine, where Nick and I had several pints of some very good pints of Hyde’s and discovered a new brewery in Wigan, which would influence our choice of overnight […]
From Ladybird Moorings to Nantwich Visitor Moorings (north), a distance of 11 miles, 7 flg and 22 locks. Kathy and I had come up the night before and had grabbed supper at The Talbot and had basically got everything ready so that when the rest of the crew arrived we could just load their stuff […]
By the time Sunday arrived spring was long gone. Admittedly the mist had cleared and the Wrekin was visible once more but there were low scudding clouds, a complete lack of sunshine and, as is always the case with this part of the Shroppie, a biting wind which chills to the bone. There were a […]
Kathy and I arrived on Friday evening and got the boat loaded up and tried a couple of experiments with the new curtains. On Saturday morning we got up and cast off and moved over to the waterpoint. The water point at Market Drayton is far from the fastest on the system and we ignored […]