Ella Repainted Autumn 2026

 Friday 28th August - Overwater Marina

Today we travelled by car to our new mooring at Nelson’s Wharf where we met Steve (the owner) and left the car.  Steve then drove us to Rugby Railway Station where we caught a train to Crewe.  Delays meant that we missed our connection to Nantwich and in very heavy rain we managed to get a taxi to take us to Overwater Marina.

This is Ella as we left her at the end of the Repaint Cruise, looking very tired and sad.

Andy Russell has worked on Ella over the past month and worked miracles with a lovely new paint job and updated signwriting.

He has even signed the boat ‘Lovingly Hand Painted by Andy Russell’ exactly as I wanted!

We have the traditional sun and moon depicting working from dawn to dusk with the contrasting harlequin diamonds.

Andy has even put the boat name Ella on the gunwale at the bow of the boat, that was a surprise when we found that!

New scroll for our motto…

…and Ella with Diglis and extra scrolls to even out the design.

Ella, looking resplendent in her new livery.  A super job done by Andy and also thanks to Matt and his team for the blacking and all the little extras they have done.  

We stayed overnight on this pontoon as it was very heavy rain and we shall move Ella out of the Marina tomorrow.

Saturday 29th August - Overwater Marina to Audlem Winding Hole

Woke this morning to sunshine and blue skies so decided to move out of the Marina and onto the Canal.  We turned right out of the entrance and travelled all of 0.5 miles.

We moored opposite the River Weaver and just below the start of the Audlem Locks.  Soon after we had tied up the rain started and has kept going most of the day, this is the view out of the pram hood, lots of rain which we desperately need!

The view back along the canal, a whole line of boats stretching back almost as far as the Marina.  The 14 day ruling for moving boats has been suspended because of the low water situation but hopefully this rain will help to improve the problem.

0.5 miles, 0 locks, 10mins

Sunday 30th August - Audlem Winding Hole

Today we have decided to stay on our mooring and spend the day sorting the boat and arranging where to put things on the roof.  We walked into Audlem during the morning and visited the Bank Holiday Fete, coming away with local honey, eggs and books, a good haul!

The River Weaver flows close to Audlem here before heading northwards across the Cheshire Plain towards Nantwich.  This is one of the ponds close to the river which attracts many wading birds.  The Kingfisher regularly breeds in the sandy banks of the river and along the canal.