A good day for Germany…

But not so good for England. Comprehensively beaten in the World Cup by what was definitely a better team, and then having to settle for 2nd and 3rd behind the German driver Sabastian Vettle in the European Grand Prix in Valencia. Still there was one consolation; Michael Schumacher, 7 times World Champion and returning from retirement this year to drive a works Mercedes, trailed in 15th.
Mark Webber’s spectacular crash when his Red Bull car did a back flip after hitting the back of Heikki Kovalainen’s Lotus is a testament to the strength of these cars. Both drivers walked away. It could have been so much worse.
It was another scorcher yesterday, I reckon the hottest so far. A day for sitting in the shade and watching the boats go by. But even that entertainment palled as they became few and far between just after lunchtime.

Moonrise over the Hack Green Bunker
Hack Green Bottom Lock
We were away before 9 this morning, wanting to keep our options open for the day. A gentle hour’s cruising saw us at the bottom of the Audlem flight of 15 locks.
On the way we passed Duck Corner, a popular feeding spot for the locals…..
And the newly opened Overwater Marina
Audlem Lock 14 (they’re numbered from the top…)
We had an easy passage up the locks. With traffic coming down and no-one directly in front of us all the locks were with us. Just one was a quarter full, so I trotted up and lifted the paddles to empty it, before going back to let Mags out of the one below.
As she came out of the lock I was amazed to see a guy opening the top paddles to fill the lock! He hadn’t checked to see if there was a boat coming, nor whether the lower paddles were up. He took no notice of my shouts or Mag’s horn blowing, so I had to sprint up and put him straight.

We called it a day after 13 locks, and pulled over on the very pleasant 2 day moorings at Coxbank.

Moored at Coxbank.
The afternoon was a little cooler than the last couple of days, with high cloud moving in. So I set to with my newly acquired second hand polisher on the cabin side. I’d fitted a new cable and fabricated a polishing mop out of an old wooly hat, and it worked well. A lot less effort than doing it by hand!
I’ll post a picture when it’s done.

Had a phone call from friends Derek and Gloria on NB Completely Foxed this evening. They’re heading north up the Shroppie so we’ll have a chance to get together in the next couple of days. That’ll be good.

It’s just started to rain…..

Locks 13, miles 4