Back to Wales - day #3

Early morning floating down the canals. So beautiful. 

Another day piloting his vessel!

We ordered matching sweatshirts that said “Seacruisin’ 2023.” And we wore them everyday. 

The cruise was almost exactly how I imagined it would be.

It was quiet, but not boring, and we never had as much down time as I thought we would. Managing the boat was not not a lot of work. 

It wasn’t terribly difficult, but we often had to jump out and grab the ropes - thank goodness Alli thought to bring gloves because our hands were hurting after the first day! Or we had to use the pole to push us off or make sure we didn’t ram anything. Or we were navigating or checking up ahead or manning locks or managing kids.  

Anyways, we all talked about how we thought we’d have more downtime, even the kids. 

See that antenna to my dads right? Well, we all took a turn piloting the boat. My turn basically consisted of 30 minutes of back and forth. We’d go too far to the right, so I’d overcorrect and go to far to the left. And repeat. After I crashed into the wall I called it good. 

We even let the kids get in on that action. So on Amy’s turn she was doing a pretty good job. She even managed to get us through a short tunnel, but then! As she was celebrating the boat slowly glided into the side of the canal, only there were trees and bushes there and it knocked that antenna right off. We backed up and searched, but it was gone and Amy bought herself a £65 antenna. 😂

The canal was twisty and turny, some parts more twisty than others. And then sometimes there’d be boats pulled over needing to be navigated around. Most people were super chill and helpful, but we did get yelled at and I don’t even think we’d done anything wrong. We came upon a narrow passageway at the same time another boat did, so they ended up being able to pull over fairly easily and someone in a different boat yelled at Matt. So silly. 

The kids got along really well. We had no fighting, just the normal amount of 5 kids together being crazy and loud. 

Another lock, and this time we got to fully operate it. People are so smart to be able to figure out how to make these work!

We ate a late lunch/early dinner at a cute restaurant where we had to order our food from the bar - not uncommon. I thought their glasses basket was cute and honestly, needful. 

We ordered a lot of fish and chips, meat pies, bangers and mash, and burgers. 

And really all of the food was good. I’ve heard British food isn’t the tastiest, but we had good luck. And I’m super happy to report that the Rays spent another 2 and a half weeks in Europe and didn’t eat at a single McDonald’s. Not one. We ate a lot of Lidl and Aldi dinners, but at least it wasn’t fast food. 🤣

People along the river would set up these cute little yardscapes. 

Some even had little duck houses in the water, like a doghouse but for the ducks. ❤️

Aqueduct!

Groups of kayakers would cross these too. That would be so fun!

Wonderful Adi. 

And finally on Wednesday we’d made it back into Wales. 

One night we were out on the front deck and alli turned around to see a creepy Delaney peering out the window. 🤣We stayed that night just past Chirk, which we’d somehow missed again, but must not be that great if we could never figure it out. 🤷‍♀️

Each night we’d find a public mooring on our guidebook and park it for the night, which consisted of tying off the front, middle, and back. Another fab day on the canals!