Beeston Castle to the Llangollen

Tuesday. A number of blogs going up together tonight which will bring me up to date.
So Critical Point left us on the most stunning Sunday morning - somewhere behind these 20 + gongoozlers we tried to lock her up.

 On their way down was a beautiful tug named " Hope". Theystopped by MR for an update on Chester's moorings and we did a thorough investigation of their boat..... Daisy was the first on...

 ...swiftly followed by Floyd....followed by Lesley ......followed by.....

Then we had Sunday lunch at the very busy Shady Oak. Monday we set off for the Llangollen and had a funny old day. As we pulled out, the cruiser behind us pulled out before Caxton and we let them go through. So, not only was every lock against us, but we also had to wait for approaching boats to get to us including these contract barges that had to separate themselves.

So a lot of hanging around which became more difficult as the day wore on and the wind increased

By the time we turned on to the Llangollen the wind had become a nightmare, the boats coming down the Hurleston  flight had to slide along our side to get into the lock we'd come up. We sort of met nose to nose and then shoved one boat out around the other. This was, most definitely, 'contact' boating with very little alternatives (thank goodness we haven't just been blacked!). The lock keeper helped Joe out of the top lock which allowed Lesley to help us and us to help Tickety Boo behind us. Left at 9.15am and moored around 5.30pm - crazy. We will be using 60/40 if we keep this up.