7.5 miles, 10 locks The weather forecast for today was heavy rain until mid afternoon. So initially we decided to stay put until the rain eased off. But by about 9:30 the sky was clearing and the rain had stopped, so we set off. The weather forecast was wrong – no more rain all day.
13 miles, 17 locks. A long day today. We had planned a short day. The intention was to overnight in Hanley Park. There are good moorings there and it’s very attractive. But I read some online reports of moorers who have had trouble overnight from local teenagers. So we made a brief stop for lunch
We had previously decided to go up the Caldon canal. It was over 15 years ago that we last did it and, as we are now moving the boat south, it’s unlikely that we’ll be this way again. Unfortunately C&RT have closed the further end because of low water levels. At one point the Candon
Another 7:50 start. Much busier with boats today. The water levels were still down, but not enough to cause problems. We were booked to go through Harecastle tunnel at 14:00 tomorrow, but arrived early at 11:30 today. The keepers said that there were four boats coming through tne other way and we could go about
A day of not enough water! We set off at 7:50 and were soon up through the 3 Middlewich locks, and on round to Kings lock. From there on the water levels were gradually dropping. Just after Wheelock it was down over a foot. We had thought of stopping for the night, but we were
We are moving the boat from Oakwood marina to Droitwich. We have loved it at Oakwood, but the travelling up and down the M5/M6 has got too much. Yesterday we drove up to Droitwich marina and spent the night on The Bath Tub, thanks to Simon & Karen. This morning we got an Uber to
Simon had arranged with Thorne Marine for a pumpout and diesel top up. So they set off early and we followed about 30 minutes later. The thinking was that they would be finished by the time we got there. But they hadn’t even started. Thorne wanted to get their day boats ready first. So we
We decided last night that we would stop at Lymm today, and had planned to arrive late morning. This, we hoped, would give us the best chance of finding two mooring spots. So we set off just after seven. The weather was was a bit grey and drizzly at first, but then cheered up. We
Just 11 miles and no locks today. After breakfast we did a walk around the lake then set off. Worsley was reached about lunchtime, so we stopped for lunch and then decided to stay. Another walk after lunch around the Delph to view the various historic information regarding the original mines.
16 miles, 30 locks After having set off just before seven we made our way to the top of the locks for water (and showers). The Johnson’s Hillock flight are really well maintained and easy, though the bottom gates are heavy. We were trying to get to the top of the Wigan flight by twelve