Fifth day Crusing back from Llangollen

The morning started out with sunshine but as we lingered in Llangollen low clouds began to arrive. Beth and Jamee were slow getting up but we are not in a hurry. We are going to leave here and begin heading towards our starting point. We'll probably arrive early tomorrow. There we will get freshened up, tank dumped, more water and then head the other direction for 1.5 days then back. Plan to make it to Ellesmere and then turn around and be back at the boat yard by 9:30 July 4th when we have to turn the boat in.

There are two other boats leaving Llangollen the same time we plan to leave, it's around 10:30 a.m.. The first part of the route is very narrow for 500 meters. There is space for only one boat at a time so anyone coming up needs to wait until we pass. There is a guy that has walked up from a waiting boat so we know it's ok to head down as they will wait. We follow a slow moving day trip boat that is small and basically stops on a dime. Our boat builds speed on the way down as the current carries us with our weight. We try and keep a good size space between the boats. The boat following us is even bigger than us.

After the first narrow area ends the little boat stops right in the way. They are taking pictures and we think trading places at the tiller. We can't get by the as the boat coming forward is heading out. The boat behind us can't stop fast either. Finally the little boat figures it out and moves again. Since we had to pull off to the side to keep from hitting the small boat we wave the bigger boat ahead of us. Off we go again without incidence.

It starts raining so I get out mine and Beth's rain coats. It is rather cold and damp but the heavy rain stops by the time we make it back to Trevor the village at the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. The wind blows making it a cold crossing but at least it's not raining.

It is lunch time and Jamee has warmed our meat pies but we want to stop outside the Chirk Tunnel to eat and then walk up to the Chirk Castle. Unfortunately the mooring spaces are taken up so we head on through the tunnel after waiting for a boat to go through. I walk the tunnel, it is dark and I don't have a flashlight. I made the mistake of looking up in the last tunnel and saw loads of webs...yuck. I don't tell Beth, she hates spiders in fact, she would not get into the cockpit this morning as there was a web and spider on the tiller. I had to remove the spider so we could leave.

Jamee has the job cranking open the Fron lift bridge. This is a pretty bend in the canal with homes along the edges. We finally decide to eat our meat pies while moving. They are very tasty and the local ducks enjoy a bit of the crust. Not much else happens on our ride. The rain has stopped but it is still cool. We pass the area we moored the first evening.

Close to 5:00 p.m. we pull over to moor. We are less than 2 miles from the first lock so we'll save them for tomorrow. We are moored between pastures, mostly Holstein cows on both sides. There are mooring rings to use which is great so we don't have to pound stakes into the ground. We still need to replace the one that was lost.

I fix tuna noodle casserole and we eat around 5:30 p.m. We have the TV on and finish the news and plan on watching one of the DVD's I brought along. By the end of the evening the clouds have disappeared and there is blue sky all around. Looks promising for tomorrow.