Saturday 10 September 2016

A long morning

We set off at a quarter to eight this morning after a bit of a lie-in. We'd had tea in bed, but got going without breakfast. I'd started mine by the time we got to bridge 47, the manual swing bridge, which was in one of its sulkier moods. A passing walker gave me a hand to get it open and Sheila had to tie Sanity Again and come and help to close it. What's really irritating about this bridge, that always used to be left open, is that it was, apparently, the Macclesfield Canal Society who insisted it be reinstated as there is a public footpath over it.

Not that anyone has ever been seen actually crossing it, at least by this crew. If the MCS put more effort into volunteer work parties tidying up the vegetation, I might be less angry with them for having created a major problem for boaters. What those less heavily built or fit than us are supposed to do, I don't know.

Hey ho, we had a good run down Bosley, meeting four boats coming up altogether and finishing in two hours. We'd fitted in a washload as we went, what's more. A good steady chug to Congleton followed – we've got a mooring on the aqueduct embankment again, though it's quite busy here.

The batteries had a good charge, too, the tail current being down to 2.5 amps when we stopped.

As may be imagined, it's been a quiet afternoon. The weather, though nothing very special, has been calm enough to deploy the whirligig, good news when the washing was mostly towels and the like. We'll have an easier day tomorrow, just the plod along to Scholar Green, then through Harecastle on Monday. It's my turn to steer through this time.

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