Planes, boats and claims.

I had a day of washing and polishing and the boat looked much better for doing it. After our hectic week or so we decided, as the weather was good, to not rush about but have a couple of days breather, doing little short hops, if moving at all.

We hadn't gone very far when we passed this caravan storage then a length of permanent mooring on the off side. I can't find anything about whether this was a working wharf/basin in the past or has been dug out more recently. It is close by Croughton Bridge that is Grade II Listed and was built with the canal in 1795.

On this stretch of canal the Airbus Beluga is often seen. It is based on the A300 plane and first flew in 1994. It doesn't look as though it should fly at all. There are five of them that link up the factories around Europe that fabricate various parts for Airbus. In the UK we make the under carriage and the the wings in Broughton. The plane uses Hawarden to load the wings. There are five of them shuttling about the factories. When they have other time available they have been used to transport aid following disasters as well as aerospace items, planes and helicopters and other items as the payload is 47 tonnes.

The latest plane from Airbus, the A380 has wings that are too big even for the Beluga and these are transported from the factory on a very low air draft barge to Mostyn where they are loaded on to a RoRo vessel that takes them to Bordeaux and onward by river to Toulouse where the assembly of the planes takes place. However they are developing a new plane based on the A340 is being developed. The new plane will be ready for 2019 and again they are expecting 5 to be built and will be called the Beluga XL!

This steam narrow boat was on the moorings it called 'Confidence' but I can't find out anything about it. It is obviously recently built and seems to have a very good scantling! There seems to be a fair few bits of salvaged items like the vents and winches etc. A labour of love by somebody.

We stopped round the back of Chester Zoo in full sunshine and used the early stop to carry one with some jobs. I replaced the forward button and then touched up the port side a little too.

I also did some splicing to make up some new centre ropes. I decided to use some of the old ones to make sacrificial parts as the wear comes on the rope where they pass through the deck edge fairlead.

The next day we were once again blessed with lovely weather and headed off towards Chester. The undulating countryside passed by pleasantly with several RN boats passing on their way to the meeting at Ellesmere Port.

I was quite taken by this way marker for the Mercian Way. It is a long distance cycle route of 230 miles that runs from Salisbury in Wiltshire through to Chester. It is called Mercian as the route passes through the ancient Anglo Saxon Kingdom of Mercia. Strangely it doesn't give the distance to Chester but Bewdley, on the River Severn near Ironbridge, is 101, so around half way. Apparently some walk it too, but if it is on roads I wouldn't think it would be much fun, even if they are country roads largely.

The aqueduct over the A5480 is called the Deva Aqueduct. as that is the name of the Roman Town that developed in Chester. Apparently it was the 2nd largest settlement in England at one time.

We arrived at Tower Wharf at the top of the River Dee arm and before going up the Northgate Staircase locks. We were met with a chug, chug, chugging as a group of RN enthusiast were moored, on their way to Ellesmere Port. We topped up with water and found a good spot in the sun. This is our first sight of the new logo etc being rolled out. I quite like it, so long as it is in context. I'm not sure I would have grasped the idea if I didn't know it was C&RT. I understand the need to engage people who are not boaters, and you have to admit that the majority of users are not boaters. With luck it may mean that less litter is dropped, more dogs cleaned up after, less speeding cyclists, more lengths of canal adopted and 'looked' after etc. I'm not sure how it will bring more money in, but it may well make bidding for grants etc much easier. As it was all done 'in house' too it will have kept the costs down.