Stoppages and more stoppages

It's been a funny old week.  After making my way back along the Llangollen Canal I moored for a day at the junction with the Shroppie and took advantage of a sunny day to get a bit of black paint on the hull. 

I then had a pleasant day cruising up to Middlewich where the Shoppie connects with the Trent & Mersey.  Middlewich, while only a small town, is a busy canal junction with at least 5 boatyards almost end-to-end along a single mile of canal. It is also home to the unique narrowboat Elizabeth with her distinctive superstructure. 

I spent a couple of days there as I was in no hurry due to the stoppage beyond Anderton just 10 miles up the canal.   The canal trust carries out much of it's planned maintenance in the winter months aiming to have all the work completed by Easter ready for the main boating season.  This does make navigating through the winter months a bit tricky and I have managed to plan my way around most of them.  As my way north was blocked until the end of the week and I planned to go down the Anderton boat lift to spend a week on the river Weaver.  Unfortunately the information on their website is out of date, in fact a year old, and thus I arrived yesterday to find the lift was closed until 19 March.  This meant I was now stuck as the closure I was waiting to clear was only half a mile further up the canal.  Resigned to waiting for the weekend I got on with more spring cleaning and today was pleasantly surprised on walking along the canal to find the closure had been removed and the canal was once again open.  

This afternoon I moved up the 6 miles to Preston Brook where I wanted to stop to collect some boaty bits from the large chandlery here, tomorrow mornings job.  The Bridgewater canal is not owned by the Canal and River Trust but rather by the Manchester Ship Canal.  As a result stoppages are not shown on the CART website and I was informed by a fellow boater, who enquired as to where I was headed, that there is a stoppage on this canal which starts on Sunday for 2 weeks.  A quick check of the location shows it is 25 miles away so I'll now have a couple of busy days getting the boat through before the weekend - And of course rain is forecast.  I've never been so keen to see Easter.