Leek Canal Terminus

Having watched the weather forecasts over the last couple of days get worse Mick decided to not risk getting a bus over to Tim Tylers today, there was a chance that by the time he was on his way back that the buses might have been grounded due to the wind. We also wanted to be around should anything happen, not that we’d have been able to do much with a bread knife!

As the wind blustered around us we pottered the morning away, a couple more boats arrived, winded and then found themselves moorings one behind us the other at the front. Mick made sure that things that couldn’t be tied down were removed from the roof and brought into the pram cover. We even wondered whether it would be best to take down and remove the pram cover and frame, but decided to make sure it was fully closed with all poppers firmly done up.

Gradually the morning turned red. Smoke and dust had been whipped up by Hurricane Ophelia and was having an effect on the sun. All very eerie and other worldly, just as it would be before an eclipse. But today it went on for far longer, hours.

Tilly had been allowed out first thing but probably because of the wind she came back after a short while. Huffy Fuffy blowing up your bum! No good that!! So we then had to spend the rest of the day with her shouting at the doors to be let out, by now the wind was getting stronger and we didn’t want her to be blown away, but you try explaining that to a cat who obviously had unfinished business to attend to.

I walked up to Morrisons for a few bits and thought that the wind wasn’t so bad, I’ve certainly known it worse in Scarborough. A couple of hire boats had appeared and winded (most probably helped by the wind direction today) and then disappeared heading straight back into the wind. We wondered how many boats had taken refuge on the other side of the tunnel, so went for a walk. Much to our surprise there were no boats there. The sun had now returned to it’s normal colour and the skies were blue, so we decided to walk along the hill to do a circle back to the boat.

From above the tunnel there were great views across the valleys and all those trees. Our route brought us to the road into Leek, from there we followed the feeder channel back to the end of the canal. Quite windy, but nothing extreme. We settled down for the rest of the afternoon and evening. We found that the volume on the TV gradually had to be turned up, then running the engine helped to block out the now howling gale outside. Suspect nobody would have noticed should we have left it running past 8pm. Mick every now and then went into the pram cover with a torch to check that all was okay. The plank and poles vibrated on their rack for much of the evening despite being tied down. Thank goodness we’d found a good silted up bit of canal to sit out the storm in. Not quite into the side and on a soft bottom Oleanna sat quite happily, not able to bump the armco and no fenders were needed. All we got was the occasional rocking as the cabin side tilted in the gusts.

It was around midnight before it started to calm down outside, we’d decided to wait to go to bed as neither of us would have been able to sleep, which gave us the excuse of another glass of wine!

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 red sun, 1 eerie day, 6 apples, 5 bananas, 4 toilet rolls, 1 bum needing protection, 1 shouting cat, 1 ghost train, 1 diddy feeder, 2 portions Lasagne, 3 glasses each, 7th bag completed, 6/7 hours of major wind.