I've been informed that I should say that the smart guage reading at the end of the day was actually the reading at the end of the cruising day, just incase you all thought that we sit here in the dark and don't do anything on an evening.
I woke very early this morning, just as the sun woke up. The sunrise warranted a photo as it was peeking its head up between clouds and trees with the canal steaming away. Very picturesque. Went back to bed for a few more hours zizz.
We are heading to Manchester to pick up crew on Monday so deceided that today we'd like to get to Lymm, so no big Sunday morning breakfast we'd save that for Monday morning. Whilst eating our bacon butties we wondered where the hook up cable might be, neither of us had seen it on Saturday. So we set about looking for it. Could it have been put somewhere strange? After looking in every cupboard and locker including the washing machine (you never know!) we concluded that it must be at Elton Moss. We have passage booked into Liverpool next weekend and will be wanting to make use of the hook up there for three nights. After emailing people we discovered that it must have been unhooked at Elton Moss and not made its way back on board. So either we bought a new one or hoped that maybe Adagio might just lend us theirs if we saw them again.
So on we pressed, passed all the pipes and chemical works at Northwich sun shining but a bit of a nip in the air. The Lion Salt Works is under renovation which is good to see, except the rather lovely ramshackled old buildings are now mostly out of view due to the big blue fencing around the site. We passed NB Houdini, which we always see when on this stretch, not quite as pristine as when we first saw it.
As we got nearer the Anderton Boat Lift things got busier, more boats were out so progress was slow. As we approached Barton Tunnel we were catching up with a boat that really liked using his horn to get round the hair pin bend. He was going really quite slowly. As we came out into the wide stretch there were loads of boats. Four abreast and three abreast. We carried on and asked if there was a queue for Saltersford tunnel, which we were told not really. We had 15mins to wait until passage allowed, but the narrowboat that was ahead of us just ploughed straight on using his horn constantly. As it got nearer to the hour the boats that had been four abreast started to set off, obviously nothing could be coming the other way as the tunnel would have been cleared by NB Noisy Horn. We were allowed to pull out between boats and head through.
At the other end there were two large canoes with dragonheads with about 20 people waiting to paddle them through. Just hope they hadn't started when NB Noisy Horn came through. We pootled on in our convoy going very slowly. Three boats managed to get passed NB Noisy Horn which left us next in turn. His average speed whilst at the tiller would have been about 1.5miles an hour. But he kept disappearing out of view, just to reappear to straighten the boat with another full glass of beer. For quite sometime we pootled along in tickover and neutral behind him, thinking that he'd pull over and let us pass, but no. In the end with four more boats behind us I went up front to ask if he'd let us by, yes was the answer. But no obvious moment of him pulling over came so in the end it was throttle up on a straight and nudge by. He had an old boat with a deep draught, which was fine and he certainly was on the Draught too!
So on to Preston Brook where we sat in a queue for the lock. Three boats went down and two up before our turn. But a nice chance to have a chat. The boats that had been breasted up were the last of the Lymm Boating Club. 32 boats had come out for the weekend. We were last through the tunnel and were really glad that we weren't sat behind NB Noisy Horn.
At the boat yard after the tunnel we asked if they had a hook up cable, but no and the chandlers was closed. So no luck there. Straight on to Manchester, passing the Secret Science Park with watch tower, what do they do there? Between Keckwick Hill Bridge and Keckwick Bridge we caught up with the boat club, well most of them moored up for the night.
At the Keckwick Bridge we saw a lady and dog from Adagio who said that they had broken down, something to do with the alternator, but they were moored somewhere nice so that was okay. We came across them near Moore Bridge and decided to pull in to see if we could help. It was Kens weekend off, Artie was in Cumbria so a chap from Cheshire Cat boats was down in the engine bay. After Mick chatted for a while finding out that their alternator bracket had sheered and was going to have to be replaced in the morning he returned with their hook up cable. They will pick ours up at Elton Moss on Saturday and hopefully we'll be able to put everything back where it should be the following weekend. So we will have light and clean clothes in Liverpool
We moored up in the centre of Lymm right on the bend where we had to reverse up, last space, but it was expertly done. Sunday roast chicken was already on the go. Trying to light the fire proved interesting this evening, as when we'd lit it it started producing smoke where it shouldn't. We let it go out, had tea. There was a plate in the top of the fire that had come loose, so we tried again. Running low on kindleing it didn't take so we shut it down for the night.
Watched the final episode of Homeland and then to bed.
Smart gauge at start of day 52, end of cruising 100, 1 lock, 22.5miles, 5 herons, 1 secret science park, 1 hook up cable!
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