For some reason an early start had been planned for Thursday so it was 6am away and steady, very pleasant progress through Whitehouses and Chirk tunnels and the Chirk Aqueduct. No other boats seen and all the narrow bits conquered in such quick time compared with the arrival. I had never really taken stock of the effect of the flow though read about it time after time.
The section from Rhoswiel to Frankton is really in the worst condition of the whole canal and unremarkable EXCEPT for New Marton top lock which nobbled us again, as it had done on Tuesday. No sooner had I booked the trip down to the Monty with BW Northwich at 08:45 than we left the lock and caught something on the prop at the by-wash. It would not whizz, neither one way or the other so we hauled UM (again) beyond the jagged lock moorings so one could peer into the weed hatch, at leisure. A piece of rather hard softwood had become wedged firmly between the prop and the underside of the counter. The obvious remedy a gentle tap with the lumpy and a pin failed and attempts to cut the wood with a hacksaw blade were futile ! The next obvious remedy involved application of a bit more force and small chunks of wood did surrender, but the vision of an RCR frogman began to loom. A more measured review suggested that the RCR man would not become a frog until he had applied maximum possible wallop to the crime scene from above, so I decided to do it myself. Crash bang wallop wood gone. We reached Frankton at 11:30 and were last but one in line for the descent to the Monty. All very good, extended lunch stop almost just beyond the end of the mooring for Graham Palmers Lock then a late afternoon chug so far as almost just beyond the lower mooring for the lower of the 2 Aston Locks. Friday should be a gentle meander to the LofN alleged to be Br 81 and back to Maesbury. We have a Saturday return to the Llangollen booked. Beeky PS1 we will keep an eye open for Margerita though we will be north of Hurleston for 5 days or so from Mon 21st so may miss. PS2 The Monty is not as quiet as Frankton ! Roads, agricultural stuff, bunny shooting. Perhaps Maesbury is tranquil.
