We ate breakfast in town at a fun cafe we had found, which that morning had three dogs that desperately wanted to check each other out while their owners sipped their tea. Then it was back on the boat and an easy cruise back to Chirk. We had to position the boat near the marina so we could make a quick drop off the next morning.
Now once again I had the current behind me, so the engine was at an easy glide and I had the towpath on the right, which meant I wasn't in the brush when passing another boat. This was the easy direction. The canal looked just as scenic traveling eastward.
After six days of steering the narrowboat I was feeling pretty good about my steering. This morning I was threading the needle like a pro, no bumps or scrapes going under bridges or through the narrows. I was hot shit. It was a lovely day with a refreshing breeze from the north and non-threatening clouds.
As we motored along I was cooked up a plan from when we got to Trevor Basin, and the sharp right turn to go over the aqueduct. After I got out of the tight spot under the bridge I was going to bring to the boat to a full stop, swing the tiller over and do a beautiful 90 degree swivel to the right, assess if I had right of way on the aqueduct, and then proceed.
So we got to that last bridge, squeezed under, and I was in Trevor Basin. To my left was a raft of boats for the marina. Ahead was a concrete wall and a big load of tourists waiting to walk the bridge. To my right, the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. I threw the boat into reverse, stopped...
And then the stiff breeze from the right promptly started pushing me sideways into the raft of boats. I swung the tiller over to no effect, I just kept going sideways. Tourists started to take interest. Desperate, I purposely ran the nose of the boat into the concrete wall ahead of me, with a loud clunk. More heads turned. There's a bumper at the bow just for this situation, but it was still pretty clumsy. Now at least I had leverage and could turn the nose into the wind. Finally I got the boat pointed at the aqueduct.
My brief hot shit phase was over.
It was super busy with pedestrians on the aqueduct, and fortunately there were two volunteers at either end, with yellow vests on, directing foot and boat traffic. We got the go-ahead and proceeded across. I was still calming down from Trevor Basin, but then I was captured by the thrill of the aqueduct.
Next was Froncysyllte again, with its adorable draw bridge.
We moored in the correct spot this time for Froncysyllte (downstream of the bridge) and had lunch again at the Aqueduct Inn. The owner this time talked to us about Americans buying up English football teams, like Tom Brady's part ownership of Birmingham City. It must be a very mixed bag for the locals. They are proud of their teams, but the teams need the money to compete.
That afternoon we chose a quiet spot on the canal bank for the night, just upstream of the marina. An hour later Balto tied up next to us. We chatted a bit, he's a navy guy from Portsmouth. I said I'm not navy but I'm from a navy town too. We both had a good week.