Maiden voyage

The back end of the boat is a little low in the water, so Sunday morning Sam turned up and we unloaded two dozen bricks from under the bed.  The boat was sitting a bit better now, but still seemed low.  Once the water tank was full, the back had raised a bit more so it was time to try it out.

With Sam and Ian on board we set off down to Botany Bay winding hole, turned around and back again.  I have a bottle of 2009 Grahams port which has been on the boat since it was started, so we cracked that open to toast the maiden voyage.

 Back at the boatyard, all seemed fine, no water coming in and everything running ok.

Rob was moored up at the bottom of the Wigan flight, and he turned up from the train station, so he jumped on board, and we headed off towards Wigan.

First practice of mooring up was at Adlington, and we called into the Bridge for a pint while we were there. A nice pint of Unicorn, not the marshmallow kind unfortunately.



 Continuing down the canal to the top of the Wigan flight...

 Just as I approached the moorings at the top of Wigan, I put the boat into reverse to slow down, and, nothing.  I had forward, or forward.  I killed the engine and slewed the rudder from side to side to try and slow down with little effect.  I started the engine, in gear at tickover, turned the boat in towards the top lock, and managed to turn the boat around so it was going backwards.  I could then use the engine  to slow the boat down and managed to slide neatly into a mooring ten feet before the end of the canal!

 That was enough for my first day out so we retired to the pub.

Unfortunately, the beer was terrible, so we walked down the locks into the town centre.  Two and a half miles and 21 or so (I may have lost count) locks later, we were at Wigan pier.

  A short walk over to the station and we called in at Patsy's new bar Wigan Central.  Very impressive.