So then Boating again then Brace Brace Brace

My poor mum has been a bit under the weather so that delayed our leaving a few more days.  She's better now thank you for asking.

We arrived at Tattenhall marina eventually, where WaL had been deposited, it was a lovely afternoon and we'd seen a bit of the surrounding countryside owing to the route Google took us which seemed to be three sides of a square past big houses, expensive cars on the driveways and paddocks with ponies in, nearly all with a view of Beeston Castle.

  

It was a bit blowy as all marinas can be but the forecast was for the wind to pick up.  In fact it has been blowy for quite some days, my hair hates a warm wind after being washed, I end up looking like ripe cotton on a plant.

I unpacked and David went off with the car to Waitrose, just 15 minutes away on the south side of Chester.  He returned, unloaded the shopping and taking his bike went off to plant the car somewhere.

We'd had a gigantic packed lunch eaten in dribs and drabs through the journey.  As boredom strikes when I'm driving,  I like to have another course...  Supper was really unwarranted but I choked down the rest of the sandwiches crisps and a very pleasant glass of.

We moved the next morning and just for a change it was really windy again.

The moorings at The Shady Oak pub looked very sunny and inviting but as it was only about 10am we carried on.   Some of the locks along this way are set amongst most attractive rolling hills and I was tempted to moor up but the pounds were short  and the locks double so we carried on to eventually mooring up one lock below Bunbury Locks with views over what looked like a man made mini lake that had a few fishermen at different times during the evening but birds singing and butterflies flapping all around.

I went inside to wash up while David tried to have 40 winks.  I was being as quiet as a loving wife can be and enjoying the birdsong out of the hatch when I looked up to see a hull baring down on me at 45 degrees,  just behind the hull sat a little granny looking most alarmed.  
"Turn the bloody wheel" I yelled out of the hatch to the unseen helm.  "What the bloody hell are you doing?"

BANG then a quieter SCRAPE...

The helm's perplexed face popped up I'm sorry she wailed, 

"I was doing the push pull thing" by that I took her to mean the tiller left and right.  Her husband appeared and said that he had only popped to the loo.

Now those of you who have met me will find this hard to believe but I am ashamed to say that I had behaved in the way of a fish wife being further incensed by the husband when he said "We've only just started didn't you hit things when you were learning?"

I regretted my outburst and felt bad later that evening.  The next day in Bunbury Locks I saw the gouge on WaL's hull down to the bare metal.

Don't the hire bases teach newbies to put it in reverse ?

Moral of the story don't moor up on a Friday night anywhere near a hire base.  We were hit on two separate Friday nights from the same base.

Oh and David was devoid of his much needed nap.

Reversing out of the pontoon, it doesn't look very windy but the wind took us around nicely. 

Beeston Castle from the canal as we made our way south.

The castle from outside Tattenhall Marina.

Lovely mooring, this is where we were walloped.

Flowers and buzzy insects all the along here.

Supper was chicken and chickpea salad.