Thursday 17th May 2012

Thursday 17th May 2012

Mick came back from the shops this morning with the Guardian that we were getting messages about. There was a photo of the Queen on a wide beam called The Pride of Sefton 2, We'd seen this boat last Thursday near Scarisbrick. It had headed to Burnley where it surely must have been repainted before her majesty got on board.

We had a big breakfast, it's time to start eating up supplies. As the drizzle came down we set off. My Dad has spent some of this week unexpectantly in hospital but returned home yesterday so it was time to check up on him at home then relay the info to my brother. All seemed as well as it can be when you are 87.

Numerous Herons escorted us today as we pootled along the remains of the Bridgewater Canal as the weather dried up. Just what do they do in that secret building other than secret handshakes, drink secret milkshakes and keep secret squirrels?

We stopped off at Midland Chandlers by the M56 for some nuts and sandpaper. It's a big shop with an awful lot of boat toys, so we spent sometime browsing.  By this time we'd realised that we'd missed Preston Brook Tunnel for a while, so stopped and had a cuppa and I sanded down the gunwhales on the starboard side to touch them up later on if the weather held. Everyone makes scratches on the gunwhales, but we seemed to have managed to aquire a T and an F from somewhere.

Off through the tunnel taking 15 minutes and to Dutton Stop Lock. I heated up some pain de chocolate that we'd bought yesterday as a snack and on we pootled to Saltersford Tunnel where we arrived just as it was our turn to go, perfect timing. There were so many more boats all of a sudden on the Trent & Mersey than had been on the Bridgewater or Leeds and Liverpool Canals. Going into Liverpool was unusual as there are no moored boats on the outskirts that go on and on and on as they do elsewhere. Also we have spent the last week amongst boat owners and no hirers, we've had comments such as "Well you're doing a dash, we only do two hours a day!" We are now so used to seeing the hire boats go out from Middlewich knowing that most are dashing to Llangollen or doing the Cheshire ring in a week that we don't concider ourselves dashing anywhere, But it's all comparative. We are very jealous of the Continuous Cruisers that we've come across, it will be us one day.

At Barnton Tunnel we nearly met a boat part way through but luckily he heard our horn as he was entering from the east so backed out. After passing the Anderton Boat lift I started to touch up the paint on the bow as we went along, then I put a stew in the oven for tonight. We stopped off at the services to drop rubbish off and carried on to Billinge Green Flash where two other boats were moored. Tied up Mick had a shower as I finished touching up the gunwhales on the starboard side. Stew was ready with a glass or two of wine.

On the news tonight we watched the Queen in Liverpool on a yellow marine duck. Ashley and Sam had told us that she would be on one today, but really didn't expect her to be launched into the dock where we had moored for three nights! Bet she didn't sing " We're all sitting in a Yellow Duck Marine, a Yellow Duck Marine, a Yellow Duck Marine".

The rooks have mooved on mass into a tree next to us bickering away as the sun goes down and geese keep squabbling. Just hope we manage to get some sleep tonight!

Smart gauge at start of day 51 at end of day 100, 1 lock, 0 swing bridges, 3 tunnels, 23 miles, about 20 herons, 2 birds of prey, 5 bats, 6 cygnets, 2 maybe more glasses of wine, 1 secret milkshake.