Shropshire Union Canal:Tattenhall

Slow but steady progress this morning up the staircase locks and to a temporary mooring nearest to Tesco's supermarket as we could get.   We need to stock up as the Shroppie can be a bit lonely in places.   Then onwards again.   The first three locks presented no problems.  Two were full and one empty thanks to an opposite direction boat.   The next two are reasonably close, so once in to the bottom Pat went off to prep the next.   I hadn't reckoned with the idiosynchrasy of the one.  The ground paddle culvert opens much further into the lock than normal with the flow striking the boat at the front and even though it was secured with a centre rope it was not enough to stop the bows crossing the lock rapidly and to hit the other side causing stuff in the cabin to go all over the place.  Minor internal damage.  Then as soon as the flow was clear of the bottom of the boat, the rebound sent it all back again.   At the next lock I was ready and had a bow rope on first.   Once on this level we were retracing our path, Christleton, Waverton and then the mile and a half of moored boats.  We gave up half way and stopped for lunch, then continued on to the 48 hour moorings outside the marina at Tattenhall.  Not quite as far as we had originally proposed, but the weather is warm and humid with hazy sunshine.  Rain is threatened later on, although study of the rainfall radar from the Met Office suggests it will be nothing like that suggested on the TV evening news the night before.