Leaving Chester and then Rain!

 Sunday 24th July 2022 at Waverton.

The morning started with a beautiful blue sky behind King Charles' Tower, under which we have moored for the last four days. The first time we've seen a blue sky since we've been here!

This painting from 1779 shows the tower with a lot less vegetation - and perhaps with a touch of poetic licence to make it appear taller than it really is! And very different houses from today's.

This made us smile; the notice warns boaters not to leave their horses unattended on the towpath under penalty of ten shillings.

The only winding (turning) point was behind us, so R had to back MM round the corner and under this road bridge in order to turn around. Passers-by watched from the bridge with great interest!

As we passed, we bade a fond farewell to the Siam Teppan-Yaki Restaurant and vowed to return.

There are five wide locks that take the canal up out of Chester. Unfortunately, we had to do them on our own as there were no other boats around. As we left the top one of the five, it started to rain. At least we managed to do the locks in the dry!

The rain got steadily harder, so R ended up steering under the umbrella, which at least kept him dry.

Luckily, there were no more locks for a while, so R started looking for somewhere to moor. The trick is to find somewhere that you can stop and moor up without getting too wet. While you are cruising under the umbrella it is easy to stay dry but once you stop and try to moor up, the likelihood is that you are going to get very wet.

But we were in luck; R found a space that we had seen on the way up which had rings and short grass, so he was able to moor up very quickly and stay fairly dry.

This photograph, taken later in the evening, could almost be a Constable painting as the late sun caught the tree tops in between showers.

We ended up having a relaxing afternoon listening to the rain on the roof and reading.

Today: 4 miles, 5 locks and 6.2 hours (including four days power).

Trip: 303 miles, 185 locks and 161.9 hours.