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Under a Motorway Bridge of course!
So that was the aim for Wednesday, a cruise from Brewood to the M54 Bridge so John could sand and paint to give the rubbing strakes a bit of a tart up!
The wind of the night had not affected us too much as we were in Brewood Cutting, but I had felt the boat rock a little in the early hours, so it was not a surprise to find the roof covered with leaves and seeds once again!
It was drizzling as we set of, but gradually cleared, and the canal opened out as we left School Bridge 13 and Brewood behind.
Brewood Church
Two more bridges and we came to one of my favourite ones - now I wonder if you can guess which one! I took a number of photos as it was looking interesting.
The cut towards the Bridge
The sweep of Avenue Bridge (10) and path of leaves
Under the Bridge and Chillington Bridge ahead
After Chillington Bridge there is a winding hole - it is also Chillington Wharf and two boats moor here permanently. We will see more of this winding hole another time (just to keep you guessing!)
Chillington Wharf
We came upon the results of last night storms as we neared Park Bridge (8). There was room for us to get by, but John took it slowly in case of any submerged branches.
Tree down
The M54 Bridge is between the "Hattons Bridges". First comes Lower Hattons (6) and after the motorway, Upper Hattons (5). We had planned this carefully!
- moor up under the M54 to a convenient mid rope ring, do the work then go down to the winding hole before Upper Hattons Bridge. Winding there we would return to the M54 and John could then do the other side!
We hadn't bargained on the wind though - it whipped through under the bridge and we needed to put in pins fore and aft to keep Epiphany steady. There were convenient holes - someone had done this before us!
Epiphany, with John painting after our winding manoeuvre
A number of boats passed us - some at a reasonable pace, one too fast and one was just right! Looking out I saw it was David from JD Boats at Gailey - he knew to slow down well before a moored boat and then speed up well past! Too many boaters do not take the effect of water into their calculations, and it is no good knocking off the throttle just as you reach a boat! Yes, they might be on tickover, but the disturbance they caused way back is magnified by their speed before slowing then.
It is the wind - it got into my brain (rant over) - so I was grateful to David who remarked "what did we do before motorway bridges?". John replied "go to boatyards!".
We pulled away from the bridge with a boat that had black rubbing strakes instead of dirty, brown, scraped and rusty ones! Blame the Rochdale locks!
So now we are moored facing the wrong way - we need to go back to Chillington Wharf to turn - I said we would see more of it. I hope the blustery wind has died down by then.
Shropshire Union Canal, Brewood to M54 Bridge - 1 hour 7 minutes, 2.66 miles, 0 locks, M54 Bridge to Hunting Bridge - 25 minutes, 0.7 miles, 0 locks
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