20 locks, 7 Miles, 1 Lift bridge and 1 tunnel. Now moored below lock 83
Last night we were visited by the local idiots who set loose the hire boat behind us and managed to loosen 2 of our 3 ropes before they were disturbed. The hire boat crew were off the boat but we managed to get a rope aboard using our sea searcher magnet (boy those things are strong) and pull it back to its mooring and secure it again. We suspect that the cheeky young brats even came back to see what mayhem they had caused taunting us from the tree’s on the opposite bank. Still small things amuse small minds.
We were up very early this morning to meet BW workers at lock 65,so early in fact we travelled for about half an hour in darkness due to sunrise not being until 7.38am. Our appointment with BW was for 8.30am with an hour and a half to travel before that, so that we had access to the locks down to Manchester.
With a crew of 6, due to the unexpected arrival of Paul Balmer of Waterways Routes with windlass at the ready, we made good time with just a few lock gates playing hard to get and not opening easily', especially one that had been mutilated by having the end of the balance beam sawn off. (What some people do to get their firewood?). Both skippers had to make several visits down the weed hatches but it was a hire boat following us down who had the biggest problem fouling some sort of lounge furniture.
Along the way we met 2 boats heading up in the opposite direction and they had been instructed, as we had, to leave the locks set open to speed up our progress. After discussion with the BW workman it was decided to moor just below lock 83 on the mooring rings rather than travel around to the Piccadilly Basin at the start of the Ashton Canal.
Once again a big thank you to Paul for his assistance today especially as it was not planned.
1956 locks, 3810 miles, 72 tunnels, 129 swing bridges and 54 lift bridges since Nov 2006
1 comment:
Sorry for Chadderton; the idiots are normally from the Middleton side !
Post a Comment