Ellesmere, Llangollen – Monday 6 August 2012
Saturday I continued to put the boat back to rights, putting things away into cupboards that had been emptied while the boat dried out and going round with the polish on the wood.  The routine maintenance also filled in time as also did a walk to the local village, the church looks a bit run-down, but is obviously still used (if only for funerals) as the cemetery has a large area of ‘new’ gravestones.  I was back on the boat when at 16:00 (4 in the afternoon in August) I had to turn lights on in the boat as it had got so dark!!  Very quickly after that it started raining and it was impossible to see the other side of the canal.  Until then it had been a sunny day.

Sunday I went off to the local Methodist church which has a regular congregation of about a dozen.  Every-one was friendly and I was introduced as being ‘off the boats’.  The Church Warden had noticed Ice Breaker and had seen the Boaters Christian Fellowship logo so was half expecting some-one.  Chatting after the service he had guessed I might be ex-military because of the St George and the Union flags that I fly.  We also got talking about family names dying out I said that names could be used as middle names which could also help future genealogists as it had me when researching a Drywood family.  I managed to get further back because the youngest son had been given the name Harrisson.  It turned out that was his name (complete with double ‘s’) so maybe a cousin as its an unusual spelling?  The building was a replacement for one put up by the navvies when they were building the canal.  Fine weather all day with sunshine and only a few clouds.

Monday started with an overcast sky with blue bits trying to be seen.  I headed off at 8:30 to the Marston locks, where I was carefully observed by a Swedish holiday crew as it was their first lock, another boat was going up so they will have had two demonstrations before having to work the lock themselves.  Mostly a quiet run until coming across a line of moored boats with one coming the other way, one of the moored boats decided to pull out also coming towards me.  This canal is not wide enough for four boats!  It is a good job I’ve got bow thrusters and plenty of power as they seemed determined to go between me and the moored boats on my side of the canal.  After a bit of discussion on the two boats they passed in convoy and I could get on to Ellesmere for the night.