It's scary in the dark

I left Lymm and headed out further into Cheshire down some nice secluded canals.

This was so peaceful that it seems like a different world

Even the wildlife seem indifferent to me passing by









Then suddenly, there is the M56, and the junction with the Runcorn Branch.











I carried on, past Midland Chandlers and left the Bridgewater canal just before Preston Brook Tunnel

I've never done a tunnel before.
     It looks dark
     It looks narrow.
     It looks scary

 I'm not scared of the dark, so off I go, tunnel light on, into the void...

It is a lot darkey than I expected, and the tunnel light just lights up a small bit of the ceiling. Soon I could see the light at the end of the tunnel - big mistake.  Watching the light at the end of the tunnel is fine, if the tunnel is straight.  I was just getting confident when there was a huge crash, as I hit the kink in the tunnel.  You would not believe the noise it made, it sounded very bad.

I reached the end of the tunnel and pulled over, expecting the worst.  It turns out I have put a small scratch in the side of the boat, and broken the glass on the Port Nav light.  It sounded so much worse from inside the tunnel.

Antway, back in daylight, I passed through one of the stupidest locks - Dutton Lock with a rise of about 2", and carried on down the Trent & Mersey, which is narrower and has a completely different character to the L&L and Bridgewater.

Next came Salterforth tunnel (hit starboard front)

Then Barnton Tunnel (hit both sides)

 

Finally, I squeezed through the last section of Trent & Mersey to Anderton Marina where, as soon as I arrived, Chris Bruce started chucking paint about

Yellow water

I sailed down past Pennington Flash and all the disused mining areas of Hindley,

Then after sharp turn, I was at Worsley, which is an extremely pretty spot, with Worsley Packet house and the Courts overlooking the canal.

I then passed Worsley Dry Dock, which I believe is the oldest dry dock in the country.




Once beyond Worsley, the canal turned yellow!




At the next bend there is the Waterside pub/restaurant and opposite is a lighthouse.  I have no idea why a lighthouse is needed on the Bridgewater.

Then, the ironwork looming in the distance was the start of the Barton swing bridge over the Irwell.

This is a stunning sight, with the control tower on the central island.

Once over the Irwell, the canal turned into an area of greenery that I was not expecting for Stretford.




There are three bridges over the junction that leads from the Irwell into Manchester.

The canal into Manchester will have to wait for another day.     I moored up outside Stretford marina for the night, but struggled to get pins into the rock hard bank.



Monday morning, and I reversed DnD into the marina for the fuel polishing.  This is a neat bit of kit that filters the fuel, returning clean fuel to the tank.
   
 

I can see the sludge and water that has been causing problems.

A new fuel filter, Tank full of diesel and I'm away!




 Once past Stretford the Bridgewater is a long, long straight line, with many derelict industrial buildings.

  The canalside buildings suddenly change to the modern urban style.

 Then the canal turned more rural as I headed out towards Lymm

There is still signs of Industry though, almost every road bridge seems to have a crane by it


I arrived at Lymm and found a nice quiet mooring just past a great pub, a brewery Tap, and a great Chippy - perfect!

How to sink a boat

The Leigh arm was re-opened on the Saturday, but I decided to leave it until the Sunday and let the rush die down.  Sunday morning I came up Henhurst lock and turned right onto the Leigh branch.

At the first lock, I shared with nb Cwm-something welsh.  When we arrived at the second lock, there was an impatient boat coming up.  We had just got into the lock when they lifted the paddles fully.  My rudder hit the cill, and despite me putting full forward, I was stuck.  The conversation went a bit like

  "DROP THE PADDLES"
 "What ?"
 "IM ON THE CILL, DROP THE PADDLES" - at this point another boater opened the top sluices and gates to try to refill the lock)
 "We are in a hurry, we need to get to..."
 "DROP THE ****ING PADDLES!!"
 "But..."
 "IF I SINK YOU'RE GOING NOWHERE!"

At this point the other boater had rushed to the front, oushed the imbeciles out of the way and dropped the paddles.

The front of my boat started rising again.  I got to the front of the boat, and the well deck had flooded to just before the front door.

All of this happened so quickly I am not surprised that boats can get hung up and sunk, especialy when people rush.  I was lucky in that someone at the top gates was quick enough to open the top gates and close the bottom in the same time it had taken me to climb on the roof and reach the ladder on a rapidly tilting boat.

I left the lock, pulled over and put the kettle on!

Leaky locks and Old folk

Tuesday morning arrived, blown in with the wind. Oh Joy! I just love going between locks with gusty wind!
I was supposed to meet the volunteers to help me down the locks at 8:30.  It was 8:10 now so I thought I would move closer to the top lock.  Unfortunately the wind caught me, nearly knocked me sideways across the canal, and lined me up for the top lock perfectly.  Luckily another boater could see my boating prowess, and opened one of the gates for me!
The volunteers turned up and  did a great job sorting the locks out so all I had to do was sail from lock to lock.

Some of the locks were leaking quite badly.






and some of the lock gates were not sealing as well as they should.

In lock 73 the engine stalled when the prop picked up a rubber fender, but other than that evrything went smoothly and soon we were at Wigan junction.  The Leigh branch was closed for lock gate repairs, so I passed through Henhurst lock  to moor up.

The canal is 59 feet wide here.  I know this because when I tried to turn around at the dry dock, the wind caught me and blew sideways down the canal!

A bit of shoving and swearing, and I managed a much more graceful turn on the second attempt!
Moored up in Wigan, but waiting for the Leigh branch to re-open on Saturday.

Wednesday morning, and I went for a wander around Wigan.  There are so many huge industrial buildings that must have been a great sight when they were manufacturing - now sadly derelict.


Soon I was back at Wigan Pier, also closed.

There was only so much of Wigan, so I decided to head off up to the Old for a day or so.

I thought i saw a fire om the way past Staveley, but it was just a dustbowl kicked up by the traffic going through recently repaired roads.

It was still daylight when I arrived, so I had a bit of a walk up the valley to Chapel Stile

Just enough to build up an appetitie for Game Casserole!

And then it was folk night

..and before I knew it it the day was over.

The following morning I had a walk up Mill Ghyll, then over towards Grasmere,  and down Red Bank to Ambleside

       

A mission for clean diesel

So, my first trek out on DnD has been quite eventful. I have put down the "Water in diesel" incident to the fact that the shell as been in the boatyard unfinished for a few years, so there could be anything in the diesel.  A quick google, and Stretford Marina do fuel polishing.  So off to Stretford we go.
A vital bit of info from Yorks Rob is that you can get assisted passage down the Wigan flight on a Tuesday if you are single handed. Excellent.
A quick phone call to CRT and I was booked in for Tuesday first thing.
Sunday evening, I set off for Wigan, but got stuck behind the party boat after half a mile. 1/2 a mile an hour all the way to Cowling, where it turned around to return.
I got as far as Adlington, and decided that Sunday evening in the Bridge Inn would be a good plan. Good pub.


Monday morning was a straightforward cruise to Spring Bridge at Wigan. I couldn't moor near the top lock, as I kept running aground, but Springs Bridge is only 1/4 mile from the top.  I got on the main road where, thanks to guidance from Google Maps, I found a bus into Wigan centre, then to Chorley to pick up the car so I could abandon/park it in Wigan centre.

The down side of this plan was the walk up the Wigan flight to the boat, which is definitely further uphill than it was downhill.  When I returned to the boat, my neighbor was another nbBlueMoon, again from Yorkshire. There must be a lot of mooning going on in Yorkshire!