The Llangollen Canal was built to move freight, before the railroads. Back when it was horses pulling narrowboats filled with coal or shale the canal was known as the Ellesmere Canal, after the market town of Ellesmere. Which is where we were headed this Sunday.
It was on-and-off rain showers all day.
Traveling along the canal we fell in line with another Black Prince boat ("Sydney"), a tall guy maybe a little younger than me with his mom and a husky dog. We nicknamed him Balto. When we got to New Marton Locks we both had to stop for a couple of boats coming up the other way. Normally you alternate boats going up and down a lock, but these guys coming up were having none of that. The first one went up the lock, then they immediately drained it and brought the second boat up while we waited. It was well before noon but they both sounded a bit drunk, and there was a session of tossing kids back and forth once the second boat was up to rearrange the children. Then both skippers hit full throttle and roared off. If we saw them again I probably would nickname them the louts, but we didn’t.
Balto then entered the lock and we helped him down, opening and closing gates and doors. Another boat came up (as you should), then it was our turn.
Here I am waiting for a boat that's just come up to exit the lock. I left too soon though, misjudged while waiting for the other boat to clear and got sucked onto that spillway on the left. No amount of throttle or pushing with my pole budged me. It took Michele and another stranger to pull me off with ropes. It's like sailing, you make every mistake once and try not to sink. I did make it safely into the lock and Michele and other fellow boaters helped me down.
An important part of navigating the lock is to keep your boat forward of the uphill door, because there is a concrete sill there that you can get hung up on.
It was kind of fun sinking into the English countryside as the water went down.
The advice is to stay in the middle of the canal when underway, because the sides can be shallow and it’s easy to run aground. If I fell in I'm pretty sure I could stand up anywhere in the canal, it's not that deep. So Michele was always on the lookout for me for oncoming boats, and then I would dive to the right so we could pass port to port, like all boats do across the world. It's just the cars that are on the wrong side of the road.
Our rough plan was to eat breakfast onboard, either lunch or dinner out and the other in. Today was Sunday and we stopped at the Narrowboat Inn for Sunday lunch.
At Ellesmere there is a short arm of the canal that leads right into town, chock full of docked boats. When we approached we met a boat coming out saying that their spot is open now, so we swooped in and tied up. A couple of swans were our welcome committee.
Tesco was closed but we found some good soup at a local foods store. I walked to the mere of Ellesmere, one of the glacial lakes that dotted the area.
Dinner was the soup and grilled cheese sandwiches with Appenzeller cheese we brought from Switzerland.