14 miles and one lock.

During the morning we watched the C&RT guys and contractors working on repairing the bridge. Various rumours abound about how it was damaged. We heard that it was possibly a dumper truck, possibly a JCB and possibly a local farmer that damaged the bridge deliberately. On some land adjacent to the bridge a local farmer was using a JCB dumper truck to load topsoil into trailers.

At noon they jacked up the bridge and swung it open. We were first through as Dave on Wombat said they were only going as far as Scarisbrick marina anyway.

The small settlement of Appley Bridge looked attractive so at about 5 o’clock we moored up.