Saturday 8 August 2015

Arriving home

Homeward Leg

Leaving Botany Bay on Thursday morning at 07.00  we headed towards Wigan, through the quiet countryside Chorley the morning three hour run to the top of the Wigan flight was very pleasant however it was faced with anticipation and some trepidation  as the night before I had a call from our Marina asking if we would be willing to bring a boat back that was broken down in Wigan (crank shaft broken)  We of course agreed one of my philosophy that we are here to help each other and what goes round comes around. On agreeing I speculated we could be in Wigan to collect them around 14.00 hrs
However I did not factor in the state of the Wigan flight, the lack of volunteers, and distinct lack of traffic, so Noreen and I did the whole of the flight with no help, and no traffic coming up which as we all know means we had to fill and empty every lock which takes time. One really annoying part was at the top lock there was two either volunteers or CRT employees we never discovered which, we greeted them with a “good morning lads” only to be completely ignored no not just ignored but blanked with that disdained look of “ IF I do not acknowledge your existence I do not have to speak to you or assist you “  Now do not get me wrong her we were not seeking assistance at putting our boat through the locks its our boat we are responsible for her and we are more that capable of doing the job and the fact that we did the 22 Locks in just under 4 hours is a testament to our proficiency  my complaint to the CRT is that we were completely blanked. As the flight of locks has been under repair and has a notice of restricted traffic I was interested in howe it would effect our decent into Wigan even on the grounds of safety but nothing was forthcoming by the very rude and ignorant CRT people.
Undaughnted we started the decent the weather was awful the state of the locks even worse and I was only thankful that we were on our own and could have a good old moan to ourselves Which We Did. After nearly 4 hours hard graft we eventually reached the metropolis of Wigan were we eventually found NB Still Waters whith guy and his mum on board who had been stranded in Wigan for two days, even though we were almost two hours late they seemed very grateful we turned up. After 15 mins of introduction and explanations of how I intended to get them back to Scarisbrick Marina we were off. Luckily the Leeds and Liverpool canal is a wide canal with corresponding bridge holes and locks so I decided that breasting up would be the best way to go as towing requires experienced crew on the tiller of the boat being towed, we managed to get as far as Crook before I decided that for one day I had had enough it was now 17.00 and we had been at it since 07.00
Mooring outside the pub, we showered changed and had a lovely meal with a few drinks and had a very pleasant evening with our new friends. I decided that the following day would be a 08.00 start as from here the canal could get busy, as we were breasted up it could become more difficult (and it was) meeting the Pride of Parbold (a wide beamed passenger boat) under a bridge with a fallen down tree on my side was a little tense but the passengers were treated to some very good boatman-ship and technical moves neither boat touched or moved a leaf on overhanging fallen trees and shrubbery, many other incidents befell us on the journey too many to mention here. Except that the entrance to the Marina at Scarisbrick  is quite narrow But we managed to get both boats through without touching the side only to be informed that it had never been tried before so I do believe we have set a precedence.
So that’s it folks journeys end 16.30 and in the Marina another 8+ hrs on the tiller after yesterday we are both completely knackered and deserve a lie in tomorrow.
The Boat Log reads :We have traveled 
Broad Canals             328
Tidal Rivers                 38
Commercial Rivers      37
Total Miles                403 miles
Locks                        218
Swing Bridges          118
Tunnels                        7

Total days out             108
I know that only works out at 3½ miles a day but we do like to visit places and where possible within the law of continuous cruising we like to make long stops, making use of marinas where moorings are not available. and traveling between towns by Bus (pass) why not I worked for it!
On reflection it was another wonderful trip and Buggerlugs performed like the true lady she is, then to top it all Wednesday when passing through a quite stretch near Chorley we spotted a Heron fishing, not an unusual sight for the canal but in all my travels I have never seen one actually catch a fish until then, luckily both Noreen and I were on the stern and witnessed the Heron take a little Jack Pike what a wonderful experience that was to end our trip.
Keep an eye on the blog because if you are interested I will be reporting from Australia soon we fly out on the 27 Aug

God Bless
Buggerlugs.

Sill breasted up but enjoying good pub grub

Good early start leaving plenty of room for on coming traffic 






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