Perfect Harmony

Perfect Harmony
Moored at Huntingdon

Tuesday 19 June 2012

19th June '12



Sunshine again! Popped across the road to stock up on milk and found a postbox! So what? I hear you ask. Well last night we searched the town high and low before eventually discovering somewhere to post Mum's postcard. Typical.



We set off and a boat was coming out of the lock just ahead of our mooring so I carefully steered around it as John was walking down, lock key in hand, and would you believe it???? Some b*****d the lock and brought his boat in. I was furious. I moored up and went over and pointed out that I'd been going in the lock. He laughed and said I could have gone over the top if I'd wanted to. I didn't slap him but politely pointed out that he'd wasted a lot of water and ignored lock etiquette, and then walked off back to the boat. He tried to tell John that he hadn't seen me but John pointed out that we had only come out from the line of moored boats in clear sight of the lock and that he couldn't have failed to see me. Suprisingly he didn't wave as he went past me and even more suprisingly I didn't make any rude gestures.... as John said afterwards, we'd heard of this happening but had never experienced it ourselves. Apparently the chap said that he 'usually' waited for boats and John re-iterated that we 'ALWAYS' waited for them. Good for John.

Apart from that things were quite interesting and everyone else was lovely. There was quite a queue at the 3 locks north of Middlewich and quite a tight squeeze but all was done slowly and with good humour.


Coming out of the first lock with the junction on the left and the next lock through the bridge ahead. John is on the bridge but barely visible!


This is the second lock and there's a small holding pound between this one and the one before - they are also at right angles to each other. there is a boat in the lock coming up and theres a boat behind me in the lock coming down.


This is taken from the same place but looking backwards! We had to time it so that as the boat coming up came out of the lock they went to my right (we normally pass on the left) so that they could have a swing at the lock, while I got into the now empty lock without hitting them, as the boat coming down came out of their lock and made way (somehow I didn't watch at this point) so that they could take my place (a very tight squeeze at that angle) and the boat coming up could get into their lock! Somehow it all worked!

We stopped just after the locks and filled with water and got rid of the rubbish. That is often the hardest thing to do on the water. It breaks my heart that there is very little re-cycling done on the canals. Considering we are so eco-friendly in most other ways it seems a bit of an oversight.


We didn't get to go inside here but it does what it says on the can!



Bizarely there is a double lock in the middle of this narrow canal and here we are inside it with another boat! Apparently they considered making it wide enough for wide-beams but forgot to make the tunnels or any other locks to match! Ironically just along from here is one of the narrowest 'pinches' on the whole canal!

I'm having problems up-loading photos so won't do any more tonight.

We have come through some interesting bits today - there are some what are called 'flashes' along the canal. These are very wide stretches caused by land subsiding into the old salt mines! There are some very shallow bits so you have to be careful to stay on the right course. I have a photo of a heron wading through one! It's quite strange.

There are some real industrial sections interspersed with some beautiful countryside. There's an awful chemical plant across the canal with pipes and rust and bits falling off - not sure who runs it but it's not a thing of beauty!

We are now moored at ...... ANDERTON.... we are going to see if we can go down the lift - apparently you have to book, so we shall go in and see tomorrow what the procedure is. There's a boat festival at Northwich at the weekend so if we can get down we will cruise the River Weaver and go to it.

We are now going to visit the pub opposite and seeing about some food since I have very little in the cupboard!

No comments:

Post a Comment