Thursday 10th May 2012

Thursday 10th May 2012

It was a bit drizzly when we got up this morning. Frank headed off for a newspaper with Brolli in hand. As I was assessing the weather a streak of blue flew by, wow a Kingfisher. Where did it go? Straight down the cut. Breakfast and then onto the first swing bridge of the day, first of many!

The rain started to be harder as we pootled along, we dropped our rubbish off in a skip at Moss Bridge and carried on. At Burscough Bridge the heavens opened, we waited for it to calm down before filling up with water and checking out the shops there. A very nice bakery selling fresh hot pies which Steve bought us all as a thank you. Unfortunatly he had to be back at work tomorrow so climbed the steps in a sulk to catch a train.

Gradually the weather cleared up as we pootled along with swing bridges to add interest. Each one is slightly different, some fully automated, others push, some with barriers to move. As we approached Scarisbrick Marina we rang to check if they did pump outs to be told that people normally book them in advance but there might still be a chap there. So we pulled in and hunted for the punp out station, round to the right a bit. NB Catriona was moored up there and a chap headed out from his van to see to us. Pump out and a bag of coal were £21.50 not bad, and the chap was very cheery and told us about putting natural yoghurt down the loo to kill any smells. We turned round and headed back out onto the cut.

There was another chap dredgeing the canal for scrap by one of the bridges, better than stealing cables!
Another six swing bridges as we made our way through Lydiate to Maghull, under the M58 and M57 to moor behind NB Lyra just before bridge 9 Hancock's Swing Bridge.  We had only seen one other boat facing towards Liverpool most of the day, so reconned that there would be only three of us being picked up by BW in the morning.

Settled down for the evening as lots of people walked their dogs, had sausage and mash for tea some more of Franks wine and watched the TV for a while before heading to bed.

Smart guage at start of day 56, at end of cruising day 100, 0 locks, 16 miles, 9 swing bridges,0 herons, 1 kingfisher, 54 cars held up, 2 turned round, 4 pedestrians held up, out of biscuits!