A momentous day today because we did our first locks in KV and with Macc. But first, we woke up to a beautiful sunny morning, although it was also a bit misty. After Macc had had his breakfast and while Adrian was in the shower, I took Macc for a walk along the towpath to make the most of the morning and to wear him out.
It really was glorious, and the lapwings in the field next to us were doing their looping flight. Our plan had been to get water above the flight, then head down Bosley Locks, hoping that by that time Macc would be asleep. But all this walking seems to be really tiring and he was already asleep — so we decided to set off, go down, and get water on the way to Congleton tomorrow. So it was before 8.30 that we left our mooring; very shortly afterwards a boat appeared behind us and were probably really frustrated to find us in front of them! I jumped off at the bridge and went down to the top lock, where I found a single-handed chap just leaving the lock. He said he had a mate turning up at 9.30 to help him, so he’d wait on the landing for the next lock and have a coffee and a bacon sandwich — and would set the lock for us. So I refilled the top lock and KV entered her first chamber at 8.43.
Sure enough the next lock was set for us, and the top few are close together so I was able to go down to open the top gates ready while the previous lock empties. The only annoyance is that you can’t walk over the top gates, so have to walk round each time. But the day, the occasion, and the prettiness of Bosley couldn’t dampen our mood.
That big hill in the distance is called The Cloud, and you can see why. It makes for a very fine backdrop. We worked steadily down the flight, and I lifted a top paddle as we left each lock for the boat coming down behind us.
Adrian was keeping an eye on Macc via the webcam, so we knew when he’d woken up. At first he seemed content just to stay there, but then started complaining so in Lock 9 I went in to get him out for a wee. He was terrified of the sound of the paddles being wound up though, so went back on the boat — this time at the stern with Adrian. He started in his bed in the engine room, but was far happier with it on the rear slide where he could see what was going on.
He was actually very good at just sitting there, taking everything in. Towards the bottom of the flight there was far too much water about, which seems odd for a canal that’s plagued by water shortages. It was flowing over the towpath in places and at Lock 11 it was over the coping stones of the lock. This lock also only had one bottom paddle working, while the final lock, number 12 was empty with a bottom paddle open, presumably to relieve the pressure of the water. I couldn’t really complain though, as the top and bottom locks were the only ones I had to fill; all the rest were with us. With only one working paddle and with masses of water coming through the gate, Lock 11 took an age to empty and a lot of struggle to get the gates open. But by 10.30 we were leaving the bottom lock.
There was only one boat moored at the bottom, so we went round the corner and moored up in a fabulous spot.
We sat in the well deck for the rest of the morning, enjoying the sunshine. The boat behind came past and thanked us for lifting the paddles, and the single handed guy followed. We’ve also seen one boat going up the locks, but that’s all the traffic there’s been.
After lunch, I’d been wondering what to do with last night’s leftovers, so thought I’d turn them into a flan. That required a flan case, so I made some pastry. I had the galley side doors open, with the view of The Cloud across the water.
Just ahead the canal goes over a very high aqueduct over the river Dane, and beyond is an impressive railway viaduct. We have the occasional noise of the trains, but there’s no road anywhere near. We took Macc for a towpath walk, and looking back we realised the BT tower that you can see from large parts of the north west is on the hill behind us.
We did the whole journey today on electric propulsion. The good thing is that going between locks you’re travelling quite slowly, and in a lock going down you’re not really using anything at all. And the sunshine helped. We used just over 2 per cent of our battery capacity coming down, but we were back up to where we started by 1.30. Then I had the oven on for a bit which didn’t help! We’ll do tomorrow on diesel to give the batteries a decent charge.
2 miles, 12 locks. (9 miles, 12 locks)