Thursday 7th June It's a grey day today. We need water but the tap is broken and I don't fancy using the tap in the dunny dump as suggested on the hand written notice. We leave Bugsworth Basin just before nine and have a quick trip down to where the pub is and investigate the rest of the basin. There are more boats moored here than where we were. Fantastic spot though. Back to the main line and turn sharp left to Whaley Bridge. There are moored boats almost all way along here. At the end we wind and take in water while Wendy goes provision shopping at the local Co-op. I get chatting with a nice chat who is running canal trips from here and get some good tips for our run through Manchester. Sounds a bit scary. At 10.30am ish we start our return journey back to Marple. How different the canal looks now the sun has gone, but still most enjoyable. A few more boats around today and we are in a bit of a convoy. This works well at the lift and swing bridges as we each take turns to open and close. We arrive at the lock at 1pm. The top lock is full, good sign. Out comes the bike and I set locks while Wendy steers. There is nothing about until lock 12, when another boat is coming up. We have been helped on the first few locks buy some children. "Why are they not at school?", I ask Dad. "It's half term" came the reply. Now this is not good news for us, we chose this week because half term had finished. Turns out in this part of the world, the children get 2 weeks, not the same as us at home at all. We are advised by the lady from the boat coming up, to make sure there is nothing on the boat than can be removed and close and lock all doors and windows when going through Manchester and make and early start. We had already had similar advice from fellow list members, so we were sort of prepared anyway. The news that a body had been found yesterday in the canal did nothing to raise our hopes.The flight is very picturesque but the lock gates are extremely heavy and the paddles stiff. A BW boat appears 4 locks away at one point and I ask them to leave the gates open and we will do the same. The very nice BW man willingly agrees. At 4pm give or take we arrive at the bottom lock and Bridge 16. Following advice have moored here for the night. Another fab day. An early start tomorrow. No idea what the TV picture is like, have not got round to putting the aerial up yet. You will just have to wait until the next thrilling instalment to find out :-).
Regards Andrew & Wendy from The Cut
