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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