Worsley Sunday 5 February 2017

Well there may be loads of eating places in Lymm but if you don't have a table booked you will struggle to get in somewhere on a Saturday night. It was a typical town mooring with lights etc, Boys singing about half one and the birds starting singing at half three. and then a little later all the engines starting.

We set off at our normal 10am and were soon passing Lymm Cruising Club who have a good slipway and hard standing area.

Lymm also have on line moorings further along and while passing these at a reasonable speed a boat started to come up behind us, once I cleared the moorings I put the power on only to have the alternator belt start to protest, I knew it wasn't properly tight but was hoping I could get away with it until I retrieve the lost bolt. so I slowed well down and waved him by. The downside of this good deed was that when we arrived at the waterpoint we found him there filling his very large tank, like us he was almost empty but as soon as he was full he was off and we moved back to fill our almost empty tank.

Oughtrington has quite a pretty church, the tower is particularly fine laying to the south of the canal when the village lays to the north. That was one of the things that struck us as we came along how one side of the canal was built up and the other often open farm land.

This young lady caught my eye , almost like being back at Charity Dock.

One thing that I have see which I think is strange is the name they use where a road passes under the canal, I have always referred to them as aqueducts but in this part of the world they are known as Underbridges, a pretty little name don't you think.

The old Linotype factory site is being redeveloped the building with the name on has been saved as has the old entrance building, everything else has been flattened with the exception of the gable ends, which are all being supported by weight down scaffolding, so what the planes are for the ends I don't know, but I expect it will be another housing development hence the three photographs.

We met and were overtaken by a few rowers when we got passed Sale.They were all good, pulling well over when we met and waiting till I was well over before passing us, at the end one of the instructors when to the trouble of thanking us which was nice.

Its not often you see a fisherman with a smile on his face, let alone one who waves at you. Mind you he was right in the middle of the cryising club long term mooring.

We have read a lot in the waterway's press and seen on the internet the new Manchester water taxis known as waxis but I don't know why they required such a large outboard engine on the back.

I didn’t expect to find a Lighthouse on the Bridgewater Canal but there sitting on the bend is one. It would be interesting to know if it lights up at night.A little further on we came to the iconic Barton Swing Aqueduct which looks as if it could do with a good coat of paint. If you look to the left you can see the swing road bridge that crosses the Manchester Ship Canal in parallel to it.

Our planned mooring for the night was the visitor moorings at Worlsey hoping that there would be space for us, it turned out we are the only boat here. I wonder how many boaters have passed this way and not photographed this house.

 

Today’s Journey

15.7 miles, 1 Junction in 5hr 40min