Frankton Junction to Moreton Bridge No.17W, where the A5 crosses the Llangollen canal.

Travelled 6 miles, worked 2 locks in a time of 3 hours 15 minutes.

After a dry day yesterday, we were in for rain again,  but no where near as bad as on Sunday. We set off from our over night mooring at 9.45am, with a dry start, but this did not last to long, because the rain began to fall.

We wondered why from Frankton junction why the bridge numbers all end with a W. I have now discovered that The "W" addition is a recent act by British Waterways, to avoid possible confusion, especially for emergency services, of having different bridges on the same canal with the same number. See I learnt something new today.

On the way we had plenty of hire boats coming towards us, some not seeming to know what to do when passing another boat which is coming in the opposite direction, but as always we slowed down to let them pass without us putting them on the mud.

Having negotiated Maestermyn Bridge after NB Confederate had come through, we were soon passing the Maestermyn boat yard and hire company.

Anita and Steve were moored up on NB Mignonette, but Steve did give me a happy wave, so hope all is ok with them and the boat.

The gorse is still out, bringing a bit of colour to a gloomy old day.

There was plenty of water running off this field into the canal. Before getting to the locks, I put a load of washing on and made us a coffee, as the kettle was blowing its top on the back cabin stove.

We were past by two Black Prince hire boats, nothing strange about that I hear you say, what was a little odd was the people on board were all wearing yellow marigold gloves. At Bridge 11 Hindford Bridge we almost stopped in the bridge 'ole due to the lack of water, the bridge 'ole was so silted up.

As we approached New Martin Locks in the rain, we found ourselves in a queue. Three boats waiting to go up and boats coming down. So I stepped off the boat with the centre line, wound it around a bollard, which held the boat until it was out turn.

The gentleman on NB Carmel in front of us was single handing, so I worked the lock for him, so he could stay on his boat, which he really appreciated. The boat to come in from the top before us, was a hire boat which had come from Trevor, so this was the holiday makers second lock and they were clearly insure of what to do, let alone how to actually get the boat into the lock. The family were from Serbia and Montenegro and had limited English, but I did my best to give them instructions, which they seemed to follow, well that was until a gentleman on another hire boat behind them wound up the top paddle as we were winding up the bottom paddles. I shout to him to wind the paddle back down and then had to explain to him why I made the request. I think it all went a little over his head as it was his first time on a boat. Everyone concerned with the hire boats was having a wonderful time, despite the rain, which was wonderful to hear. Anyway after almost an hour we were up through the lock and on our way to lock 2, where a boat was just coming out of the lock, which was fortunate. Just as we entered the lock, a gentleman from the lock cottage began flushing some water into the lock, I called to him to wind the paddle down, but he reckoned we would not get into the lock without the extra water. This proved to be right, so I thanked him and told him it was useful to have some local knowledge.

On coming out of the lock, Keith had to wait whilst I asked the boats waiting to go down if they would move down to the lock, otherwise we would not get through the bridge 'ole, this they kindly did and we were on our way again.

With the rain coming and going, we kept getting glimpses of the Welsh hills, which were shrouded in low cloud.

Loved this gentleman.

1.00pm we moored up just past Moreton Bridge on the 48 hour moorings. I made us Bacon Rolls for a late lunch and stoked the stove up to get the copper kettle boiling. There are still plenty of boats passing us, many of them hire boats heading back to their hire companies.

Off to make a Rubarb Crumble and get a few jobs done.