Friday: The journey to LLangollen was achieved with a sort of timetable in mind and we arrived after 14 days as expected and all the drop off / pick up points for crew were on time. The journey home, starting today, has no need for precision, so we have decided to see how quickly we can do it. So we left early. The wind seemed less, and the forecast snow had not appeared, though it was cold. Getting an early start guaranteed an uninterrupted passage down the narrow sections. Ideally I would have taken on diesel at Trevor Junction, but the yard was too busy with hire boats returning to want to help, so we carried on with the idea of getting fuel at Ellesmere. Passage through the narrows had certainly been faster going down, although some parts of the canal are still shallow enough to slow progress and give the impression of driving the boat uphill. The aqueducts and tunnels were quicker too and Pontycyllte less scary with the faster speed giving an illusion of more control. Activity was present today at the major towpath and piling recontruction going on between bridges 26 and 27 with the machinery partly obstructing the access to bridge 26. Pressing on we manoeuvred into Ellesmere Marina only to find that this was a Canaltime base and they too were too busy to serve us diesel so we carried on with the aim of achieving Whitchurch in the evening. The wind had got up and was bitterly cold so I was wearing 5 layers including the yachty wet weather gear which with its high collar is good wind protection. Arrival at Whitchurch found our previous mooring in the arm vacant and we availed ourselves of the TESCO supermarket again. So what had taken two days going up, was achieved in one coming down!
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