Tower Wharf, Chester to Caughall Bridge, near to Chester Zoo.

Travelled 3.9 miles, in a time of 1 hour 25 minutes.

I had a somewhat disturbed nights sleep, what with someone running their generator till goodness knows what time and the loud music coming from Telford's Warehouse, which is an 18th century former canal warehouse. I was then up at 4.30am feeling a little under the weather, so got up had a drink, sat in the saloon with Paddy and Marmite for company, before heading back to my bed at 5am. I then fell asleep till 7.45am when I was woken up by dogs barking on the opposite bank, where two fishermen had been fishing all night. I got up and made Keith and I a cup of tea and we had the TV on for half an hour. I was then up, dressed and ready to take Paddy out for his morning walk.

Along the towpath I saw my first Bluebells of the Spring.

Tower Wharf takes its name from the old Water Tower which used to be close by. Parts of the yard date from the 1840s. In its commercial heyday, the boatyard is said to have employed around 200 people, servicing the huge fleet of canal company working boats.

It comprises a workshop, former saw mill building, former blacksmith’s workshop, covered slipway and dry dock.

The boatyard is now owned and worked by Pete and Yvette Askey of J.P. Marine. It is fantastic to see it in working order once more.

Back at the boat I lit the back cabin stove to take the chill of the boat, as it was a colder start to the day than we have been used to over this past few days. Keith made us Mushrooms on Toast for breakfast, which we had bought the day before, so I suggested I walk back up to Tesco to buy some more for over Easter as they were so nice. I was just about to leave the boat, when there came a knocking on the engine room door, it was Jenine and her son Alex, they had come to say hello. We had a lovely chat with them before I headed off to Tesco to purchase more large Mushrooms, on my return we prepared the boat for the off.

Nesting not far from the boat were a pair of Swans, apparently they had previously nested in the dry dock, but with it now in use, they had to find somewhere else. The Cob was being very protective of his Pen and her nest, but did allow me to get this photo.

11.40am we set off from our mooring and said "Cheerio" to Jenine, William and Alex, they will be heading off tomorrow from their Winter mooring.

Loved this paint job on a boat at the wharf.

On route I saw both these old bikes on the towpath, no more than 30 feet away from each other. Now clearly someone took the time to get them out of the canal, so why did they not take them away. Leaving them on the towpath, just means someone else will chuck them back into the water. I really do not see the point. Cruising away from Chester and towards Ellesmere Port is a plain journey, there are fields and couple of gold courses, but nothing special in scenery. We tried mooring in a couple of places along the way, but the canal was just to shallow, Keith even walked ahead to test the depth of the canal with our mop handle. He came back to the boat saying that we could get in at Caughall Bridge, No.134, near to Chester Zoo, which was where we had moored some 6 years ago with our old boat "Misty Lady". 1pm we moored up and I then put some soup on the back cabin stove for lunch. Both Paddy and Marmite have moved into the back cabin where it is nice and warm, whilst Keith and I settle down to watch "Tobruk" on Film4. This mooring will be our home for at least the weekend.

Chat soon.