Hirers could not get boat back in time

I WAS most interested in the comments of Jessica Walker who had the problems when hiring a boat on the canals, writes, Reg Dailey.

We too had similar problems, not I hasten to say with rivers, as we leave them well alone, but with our attempt at the Cheshire Ring and being held up so many times.  I realise that boaters keep a log, but we are hirers, and have been for seven years now, having calculated it was much cheaper as we only have a fortnight to spare so the cost of buying a boat and paying for all it requires far outweigh the cost of hiring.

Three days late

But I digress, my point being I have no record of where we were held up though once it was in Manchester and then on the Macclesfield Canal and then at, I believe it is Harecastle Tunnel.  This meant that we finished up three days late, but did not leave the boat but kept going until we reached the hire company.  We had rung them and told them what had happened and they were very good, for obviously it was something they were experiencing, so did not charge for the extra days as it was not our fault.

Reading your journal it is clear that there are now more problems than in the past, as we have only been held up once before, and that was last year when we went down to Oxford, but at that time we had done a few miles before we were stopped and as the boats waiting were allowed to go the following morning, it did not cost us any loss of time.

Not ready for next hire

Going back to what Jessica Walker wrote, I can see why hire companies are having trouble if their boats are held up and thus cannot be ready for the next hire, though in our case the company had boats in its yard so was not desperate for ours, perhaps as we had hired out of the August holiday season.  Though we have enjoyed our holidays on the canals and met some very nice people over the years, I can see this being our last time, as it was too much hassle attempting to keep up to get the boat back on time, that we failed to do.