Wednesday 15th July

St. Swithun's Day and no rain. Hopefully this is an omen for the next few weeks.

We walked into Middlewich for coffee while we waited for Steve at King's Chandlery to finish servicing a boat and give us the OK to move our boat down through the lock to moor outside for the repair to the heater exhaust. About 1.15 pm we moved the boat down. Steve was doing about 3 jobs at once including checking over a brand new engine (worth about £10,000) and overseeing its loading onto a truck. It took him about an hour and a half to weld a piece of metal onto the inside of In the Mood and then to drill a hole through this to fit the new exhaust outlet. 

Photos show him welding the metal and then Graham removing the temporary outside plate whilst Steve undid the inside nut.

Typical holiday snaps really! We are very pleased with the repair and just need to get the heater repaired on Tuesday.

We were on our way by 4pm and all 3 locks in Middlewich were set for us. We have moored at the other side of town and are off for a pub meal and maybe a quiz night.