Rob on Whippet Express heading up towards Henhurst Lock
We weren’t the first though. A wide beam led the convoy, followed by the first pair of narrowboats, then us sharing with the whippets, and finally another pair of “narrers”.
Under Henhurst Bridge to the first lock of the day
By the time we’d got the first couple of locks under our belts Rob and I had perfected the “breasted up entry into the lock chambers” technique. It’s a lot quicker to do this than to take the boats in individually.
Each of the locks has an inscribed stone on the offside just below the lower gates showing the lock number.
Twenty-one to go.
Quadrant gearing on the lower gates where there’s no room for full-length balance beams.
We’d been told by one of the lockies on duty that levels were low on the flight. We’d already scraped the barnacles off in the lower pound below L21, and the pound between 82 and 81 (Locks 18 and 17) was having water put in from further up the flight.
Waiting for water
The leading boat is ahead, in Lock 83 are Ellie May and Eeyore, and we’re in the pound below. We had about 45 minutes wait until there was sufficient water in the pounds ahead to proceed.
Up around Lock 80 we met the first pair of boats coming down, They’ve made better time than us…
One of the pair coming down was Paneke, and we were hailed by Jane and Roger. Good to see you, albeit briefly. Hope you had a good run down the rest of the flight.
The tower on the right looks part of the local scenery, but is in fact very recent and disguises a mobile phone mast.
Jane, being somewhat vertically challenged, had trouble with the high-mounted paddle gear on some of the top gates. So I lent her a stool…
The rest of the locks went mainly without incident, we just got caught on the cill around Lock 70, but our helpful volunteer, Steve, dropped some water through, just enough to get us in the lock without draining the pound above.
In Lock 73
The higher we got the more helpers there were around. The lockies had rung around, asking volunteers if they were available. Several answered the call.
Another low pound, but passable
Just one more to go as we pass the Kirkless Hall Inn
That’s it, pulling out of the top lock
We entered Lock 86 (22) at 08:20, and left Lock 65 (1) at 14:11. Nearly 6 hours, not a record by any stretch of the imagination.
Rob and Jane set off on the long pound above, while we pulled in to top up the water tank before following on. The canal runs along the ridge above Wigan, now over 200 feet higher than where we started out this morning.
We caught up with them near Haigh Hall, moored opposite the golf course.
After getting sorted out we had Rob and Jane in for a glass of wine, which turned into a bottle or three!, Well, we’d earned it, hadn’t we?
This morning dawned bright and sunny another good day for cruising.
Coot (cute??) chick across the canal this morning.
Views looking west.
There are good moorings at Red Rock, just north of the bridge…
…but I wouldn’t count on getting a pint at the pub.
A capped colliery shaft in a field alongside the canal is a reminder of the area’s industrial past.
It’s quiet up here, the long lock flight at Wigan puts some boaters off from coming this far. But the clear water encourages weed growth which gets wrapped around the prop.
A quick squirt of reverse shifts it, though.
White Bear Marina through Bridge 69
Up from the marina there’s a long line of permanent moorings.
Porpoise looks in need of some serious TLC
A clear case of inadequate surface preparation…
We re-entered Lancashire between Addlington and Chorley.
Since Appley Bridge we’d been in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan.
Bridge 74a carries the Manchester to Preston line, and is currently in the process of being electrificated. (just made that up…)
The programme should have been completed by December 2016, then December 2017, then January 2018. Looks like it’s been put back again, unless someone’s been nicking cables…
The canal skirts around to the east of Chorley, then ducks under the M61.
Party boat Boatel at Botany Bay boatyard
Just ahead is the Botany Bay Outlet Village, housed in the old British Leyland Truck and Bus parts factory. It started life as a cotton mill, and currently houses 5 floors of “retail delight”. There’s plans for further development on the site…
We pulled in here, and were joined a little later by the whippets who had stopped at White Bear Marina for a pump-out.
A day off tomorrow, probably.
Locks 22, miles 3¾ yesterday, another 7¾ today.
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