Pat & Mike's narrowboating site
Welcome to our boat. Here you will find details for those interested in technical matters, and also a little background material on what boating is all about on the English Inland Waterway System - for us at Least. Elsewhere (see link on right), an index to the blog of our cruises.
The 2014 Washout
We had planned to pickup family at Devizes in April, but as the time drew near to depart it was obvious that as the Thames was on yellow going red boards we wouldn’t be able to get to the Kennet via Teddington, so we set off to go the other way from Oxford - a much longer route. As we journeyed it also became apparent that the Kennet itself was going to be impassable, so hurried changes to the plan evolved with family given a week on the Thames from Oxford then back to Banbury. We then continued north aiming for the Braidbar boatyard at Higher Poynton for some maintenance work. This completed we set off for Chester and Ellesmere Port via Ashton Canal. Whilst descending the locks we had a accident whereby the rudder hit an underwater obstruction causing it later, to fall off. We limped into Manchester where RCR came to the rescue and a new rudder was eventually fitted to enable us to continue our journey. We really enjoyed the Chester end of section of the Shroppie and will return I am sure. Thence via Wolverhampton 21 to our new moorings at Brinklow.
All this you will find written up in detail in the daily blog “Journey Reports”. (See "Other Areas of this site" on the right panel.)