Fishing rods and lock companions

The return journey is never so exciting but things still happen to entertain and we try to stop at places of interest we missed on the way out.

Although it rained in the night we were blessed with a dry though overcast morning although the Captain observed the red light flashing on the fridge gloomily. Two boats passed as the Captain cast off so we followed them – straight through the first swing bridge.

I ran up to the lady on the boat ahead and offered to work the next one as the Captain wanted to stop at the next town to buy milk and bread.

Lottie disliked the warning siren as the gates rose and fell but the bridge was easy to move with the push of a button. A car drew up as the bridge swung round so I indicated there were three boats passing through. The lady said a car had shot under a gate with her almost crashed into the gate at the far end and ended up swinging round on the bridge. Crazy driver! My driver gave a wave as the gates rose in stark contrast to the story.

At Burscroft Bridge the Captain looked for mooring but it was all permit holders only. One of the boats we were following has pulled up at the services mooring and the Captain squeezed in behind it. Thank goodness we are only 40 feet long. The sign said mooring limited to 1 hour.

The Captain declared, “well we need water,” and disappeared off shopping leaving me and Lottie with the boat. I dumped the rubbish and watched bemused as the crew of the other boat took turns to use the toilet.

“We’re using this loo as

ours needs a pump out,” one lady said. I didn’t like to mention that I thought the nearest pump out was over a day’s cruise away.

The captain returned as they cast off, thrust bread and milk into my hands and filled the water tank.

“I found Tesco’s but when I reached the till the girl said they couldn’t take money before 10.00! she said they were open so customers could browse. When I told her I wanted milk now and didn’t want to browse for nearly half an hour she directed me to Spar.”

“That’s what you call helpful staff,” I agreed.

As soon as we left town long rods stretched across the water, each angler waiting until the last second to withdraw his rod.

“Is it a competition?” I asked the friendliest face. He nodded so I wished him good luck. From the grim expressions on most faces it was a serious business. As we ran the gauntlet of extended poles one angler raised his rod so its end wobbled above our heads. I ducked fearing the hook would catch me. Another angler didn’t look and didn’t move his rod. The Captain (who was creeping the boat forward on tick-over hit reverse and still the angler ignored our boat. As our boat slid backwards the rod withdrew but the angler never glanced once in our direction.

still waters

It was a relief to leave the last rod behind and moor in Parbold for lunch. For once the Captain had an extended lunch time. Until today the canal had been quiet  but now boat after boat cruised past, disturbing the marvellous reflections. After 6 boats all going our way the Captain was amazed and decided to wait to let the lock queue die down. However within a few minutes another 2 boats slid past.

“More boats have gone by in half an hour than we’ve seen since we’ve been on this canal,” he muttered.

The Captain cast off and followed slowly, knowing there would be a long queue at deep lock. There were 4 boats waiting when the lock came into sight but at least they were all narrow boats so they could go up in pairs.

After a 30 minute wait the Captain emptied the lock and opened the gate for me to enter. As I moved off another boat appeared and followed me into the lock. The Captain opened the second gate for it but it hit the gate and bounced into our boat then clanged back into the lock wall. The crew member waited until the Captain had closed both gates before climbing the ladder to help.

They got away first as the crew member jumped on board as his boat left the lock while I had to pick up Lottie and the Captain. They operated the swing bridge which put us back in the lead. Did they think the Captain would do all the work at the next lock for them?

canal-side flowers

At Dean lock I got off then we saw a boat was in the lock. A single hander was waiting for a boat to pair with. The boat behind speeded forward as our boat entered the lock then realised just in time it was occupied.

After a short cruise the Captain spotted a length of piling (no banging in of pins required) and moored just outside Crooke which must have been full of boats avoiding the flight of locks into Wigan.

rest time

I walked Lottie back to a narrow wood and found it had several pleasant paths winding through it. Lottie turned it into a racetrack and chased around like Lewis Hamilton trying to get pole position. When she pulled up next to me panting she spotted the shallow river Douglas through the greenery. She charged in, cooled down, then did several more circuits of her track like a pure greyhound before trotting out of the wood back to the boat. Once fed she collapsed and slept the evening away, only waking to check out her bowl in case we had left her some dinner. After a day on the lead our lurcher lurched herself flat out until she felt ready to stop. I’m glad she likes this mooring.