We Made It! - Tuesday 14th - Wednesday 15th May 2019

Crooke to Burscough Bridge Wharf
8.25 miles, 2 locks, 3 swing bridges
2.75 miles, 4 swing bridges

Both boats had the timing perfect to head off together - well it was almost perfect.  Just as we were about to set off a boat came past us heading the way we were going.  We let them get ahead, so we would still be travelling with Linda and Alan on nb Aladin.

It was another glorious morning

 The first lock of the day at Gathurst is right by yet another motorway bridge.

Just to keep me on my toes, there is a new type of lock to try to help conserve water (ie to stop vandals opening paddles and draining pounds).  As I was leaning out to reach this lock I did feel by water mate key was at risk of taking a tumble into the canal.  It now has a cord handle to wrap around my wrist.

We had three swing bridges to get through and for various reasons it worked out that Aladin was in the lead, so Linda ended up doing all the work.  If you read this - thank you.

Welcome to Lancashire leaving Greater Manchester behind us

 The second lock at Appley is 12 foot deep with a narrow bridge at the bottom end - nothing on earth would persuade Monty to go over it.

It was a long way down and we are convinced he has a fear of heights.

This was our view as we approached a bridge - we were completely blind and guess what was in the bridge hole?

Of course a broadbeam!  There was nothing for it, but to reverse and get out the way.

We were on the lookout for the sail-less windmill at Parbold - it is impossible to miss

It was just after we had gone through Parbold that I checked my phone and found the comment on our last blog from Pip on nb Oleana.  'Do stop in Parbold - they do great ice cream'.  Too late I am afraid, but maybe on the way back.

 We will need to turn into this junction on Thursday to head up towards the Ribble link, but today we went straight on.

Before long we arrived at Burscough Bridge to find our target - nb Cleddau.   We moored up facing the wrong way on Tuesday.  We need to run the engine each day to charge the batteries, so it seemed sensible to travel to the winding hole on Wednesday.  Sue came along for the ride - well actually she walked quite a bit of it with Monty and I and supervised the swing bridges.  Tesco has been visited a couple of times, so we are well stocked and will be ready to head off towards the Lancaster tomorrow morning.

The vital statistics for the first part of our summer cruise are as follows:

158.5 miles, 123 locks, 11 swing bridge and 6 tunnels