Christleton to Wharton's Lock, near Beeston Castle.

Travelled 8.2 miles, worked 1 lock in a time of 2 hours 45 minutes.

Last night Keith and I enjoyed a lovely meal in the Cheshire Cat. Keith had the Gammon, followed by the Sticky Toffee and Ginger pudding, I had the Hunters Chicken, followed by the Chocolate Brownie and Ice Cream, all washed down with a pint of Lancashire Bomber, which was very smooth. The service was very good as was the food, now I can see why so many people have recommended it to us.  Before retiring for the night, I put a Gammon joint in the back cabin stove to cook over night, now there is a downside to this, because as it cooks I can smell it through the night, which of course then makes me hungry. But cooking it slowly over night means it is very tender.

I was woken up just as the sun was rising by a cockerel crowing on the offside. It is not a sound you hear very often these days. We left our mooring outside of the pub at 9.30am, a leisurely beginning to our day as we were not going very far.

Passing through Waverton I spotted this cat doing a spot of sunbathing in the warm Spring sunshine.

Loved this picture and boat name.

It was long before we were at the start of the mile and half of offside moored boats, in front of us was an Anglo Welsh hire boat we had met yesterday going down into Chester, they were no on their way back to Bunbury.

 

More moored boats. The hire boat allowed us to pass under tick over as they were just plodding along.

And yet more moored boats.

On arriving at Tattenhall Marina, we got our first proper view of Beeston Castle in the haze.

Along the stretch we had passed several large clumps of reeds floating along.

A pen sat on her nest, whilst the cob kept watch. We thought of mooring at Bate's Mill Bridge as there was space, but decided to carry on to Wharton Bridge to see if anyone was moored above the lock. As we made our way to Wharton Bridge and lock we saw a hire boat approaching the lock as another boat exited the lock chamber, so we thought we may as well go up through the lock with them and were ever hopeful that they would wait for us to share, which they happily did.

The moorings above the lock were empty and so we are all alone at the moment, but I bet that does not last.

The sun is out and we have a lovely view of Beeston Castle, which we will visit over the weekend hopefully. During the afternoon I cleaned the brass on the outside and then Keith and I turned our attention to the front fender, which has been looking tired and worn out, but we have not had time to sort it out.

The button fender has been on the bow for nearly 5 years so it has done its job. Especially as it has had a lot of use.

This was the old fender after we had taken the piece of rubber tyre off, the hope was that we could reuse the rubber on the new fender.

After some pulling and tugging we got the old rubber tyre to fit on the new fender.

Keith then fitted the new fender back on to the bow.

It looks great and will be even better when it is bedded in properly and we can tighten it up.

There have been a few boats on the move this afternoon, up and down through the lock. It is now 4.30pm and I have dinner to sort out, so I will cheerio for now.