Four Counties Ring

[Cruising Mike]

Morning Members,

 

We will be finally embarking on our one week cruise on the FCR starting this Saturday. After booking the boat last Oct the time has flown by and needless to say we are very excited.

 

Are there anything we should look out for during this time? Im aware of the unfortunate incident that occured at Harecastle, and presumably the tunnel is currently safe for passage.

 

We will be starting at Overwater Marina in Audlem and have been given the green light to pick up the boat a little earlier than the 2pm pick up time. This benefits us as we hope to reach Tyrley Top lock by the end of the same day..

 

Coming from Dubai im not sure i will have the necesary mobile wifi needed to update progress, but i will be taking plenty of photos in order to make a journal once i get back.

[Paul C]

Don't worry about trying to keep online to do picture updates/etc, just relax and enjoy the holiday. Its a fairly easy route (compared to some other rings allegedly possible in a week) so long as you get you and your crew into a decently efficient locking technique. The only real issue (and its not even a massive one) is that you need to time the tunnel passage to allow for a bit more travelling to find a reasonable mooring, if you're going anticlockwise (which it sounds you are, if you're starting Overwater marina --> Tyrley locks). Yes you can moor shortly after the tunnel but its better to do for example 12 more locks and aim for Rode Heath. There's about 4 reasonable moorings within the Cheshire locks (heartbreak hill) flight and Wheelock just after them.

 

Also don't be too surprised if, despite your best planning, you trip takes longer or shorter than predicted - with the locks, you could be lucky or unlucky and be delayed by others. So be flexible with your stops rather than having to stop at your planned one each night, but keep an eye on progress so you make it back in time.

 

I assume you've booked for 1 week and are doing just the ring itself, none of the bits off it (Caldon, Weaver, Chester etc)

[arbutus]

Negotiating the junction at Middlewich can be tricky.

Wardle lock is just immediately through the bridge as you turn from the T&M onto the Middlewich branch and you don’t want to be turning and going through the bridge if a boat is coming down the lock.

It’s best to send someone ahead to check out the situation at the junction after you have dropped down the last lock on the T&M just before the junction.

The shore party can check if the lock is free or if other boats at the junction are in a queue waiting to get into Wardle lock.

The area can get very busy and mooring while waiting for Wardle lock can be tricky.

 

Paul C has already covered advice on Harecastle tunnel and mooring after it.

[bottle]

Try to enjoy yourself using Canalplanac (left hand column, Plan a Journey) and not changing any parameters or allowing for short start and end days it come up with....

 

On average each full day will be approximately 8 hours and 35 minutes travelling but some overnight stops have been moved to avoid unsuitable stopping places and this has affected the lengths of the days. The shortest day is 8 hours and 31 minutes and the longest is 8 hours and 38 minutes.

 

Good luck and hope the crew are fit, if not they will be by the end.

[Cruising Mike]

The middlewich junction advice is a good one. Will bear that in mind. In regards to nightly stops i have set a target for each night but all are flexible.

Looking at the weather reports its going to be raining during pick up so that offera some alternatives to what im currently used to here in Dubai

[StephenA]

There's not a lot of moorings above Tyrley before you get to the cutting. The pub up the road from the bridge is pretty good for food, or so I've been told.

 

Stopping in Market Drayton where there are a lot of visitor moorings gives you access to some good pubs including the Joule's brewery tap (The Red Lion) and some pretty good Indian and Chinese restaurants.

[Cruising Mike]

The reason for going as far as Tyrley is because we want to be in wolverhampton at the end of sunday as we have some activities booked there. Stopping at market drayton would mean we would have to get up very early on sunday in order to make sure we reach wolves at a reasonable time

[StephenA]

I see from another post that you're planning to be at Oxley Marine on Sunday Evening.

 

Mintball is currently on hard standing there having some work done on her.

 

Don't forget that you can upload photos to Canalplan where I'm sure they'll add to the rapidly growing archive of Canal photos.

 

Steve

Edited May 31, 2014 by StephenA