We have arrived! The weather overnight has been awful, cold, heavy rain and strong winds. Swing bridge 9 can only be used at certsin times to avoid causing traffic disruption. We had to get through before 7:30, so we set off at about 6:15. We reached the top of Stanley locks in plenty of time
An early start to make sure we got to bridge 20 well before noon as we expected a queue, which was the case. We were third in a queue of eight. At noon they opened the bridge and let through the boats in the queue going the other way. So it was about 12:30 before
In the morning we moved the boat over onto the visitor moorings to wait for Andrew and Sheila who were driving up from Dorset. They arrived just after two o’clock. Their stuff was unloaded then Sheila stayed on board and Andrew went off to park the car in Southport. We then set off just about
13 miles a 8 locks. After four days of no locks we had some quite difficult ones today. Just after setting off we had to negotiate Plank Lane lift bridge. This can only be used outside of peak traffic times. So we set off early to get there before eight o’clock. In order to have
21 miles, no locks. As Sainsburys yesterday let us down, we planned to stop at Tesco in Sale to get the stuff we needed. Finding the right bridge to stop at proved a bit tricky. Not made easier by the shop symbol in Nicholsons being in the wrong place. Luckily technology in the shape of
A reasonably early start as we wanted to get to Preston Brook tunnel by eight o’clock. Entry into the tunnel is timed. Northbound from on the hour to 10 past, and southbound from half past to twenty to. So had we arrived after 8:10 we would have had to wait. As it was we got
We knew that it would only be a short day today so we did a few jobs and then set off just before 11 o’clock. The weather was alternately rain and dry, but mostly rain. A quick lunch stop by the Anderton lift, then on to moor for the evening by bridge 211 a mile
We dont need to set off on the Liverpool trip until Sunday, so today we went visiting two National Trust properties nearby. First it was off to Biddulph Grange gardens. These were laid out in the 19th century and were very influential in garden design at the time. Next went went off to see Old
The Weaver lock keepers dont come on duty until 9:00 and cant lock the first boat through until 9:15 it seems. But we were there just after nine and they locked us through. Between Vale Royal locks and Hunts lock there are several boatyards that grew up to deal with the larger boats that used
We started down the lift at our alloted time of 10:00. From the top we could see Brian & Diana on NB Harnser. They had just picked up the boat from having a full re-paint. It looked very smart. As we came out of the bottom of the lift Harnser was waiting there, so we