Change of plan and a welcome visitor

The forecast looked a lot better this morning than it did last night, so we changed plans and set off at nine for Stockton Heath. It made for a very pleasant piece of boating; there are comparatively few on-line moorings on this stretch and the bit between Lymm and Grappenhall is particularly fine; wide and curving through woodland.

Why such a late start, I hear you ask. We’d reckoned around 90 minutes for the run (and were bang on) and the moorings at Stockton Heath can be pretty busy, so we wanted to get there between half ten and eleven. In the event, there was plenty of room on the east side of London Road Bridge.

We’ve tied just short of the gate that leads to the recycling centre, from where you can get onto a side street and so to the main road. After a quick cup of coffee, we walked down into the shopping centre and visited Boots and Aldi.

Back at the boat it was time for lunch once we’d stowed the stuff. We were loafing on the bow afterwards when Dave McKenna came and introduced himself. Dave’s been following the blog for quite a while and is a fellow boater, though presently boatless, poor chap.

As a result, we had a good old natter about this and that, in fact about almost everything except toilets. (No, I don’t know why, either.)

After he’d torn himself away, I took some recycling to the skips and then had a second go at the shopping (actually, a third go as we’d been to the Sainsbury’s Local at Lymm before setting off), finding most of what we hadn’t got in the morning at the Sainsbury’s Local here.

Finally replete with retail therapy, I collapsed on the bow once more whilst Sheila did her gardening. The poor old flower troughs are looking a bit woebegone, having been rained flat twice in the past three days.

Tomorrow, we’ll make another early start and get back onto CRT waters just a week after we left, as we should. Mind you, I don’t know how zealous the Manchester Ship Canal Company (aka Peel Holdings) are about monitoring CRT licensed boats using their water. We’ve certainly not spotted any towpath rangers whilst we’ve been on this canal.