Dunham Massey Thursday 19 April 2018

Bit of an early call this morning, Thursday is Market Day in Lymm, its quite an affair, today there were 3 stalls, but the amount of noise they managed to generate erecting them is something else. It looks as if summer has just kicked spring out of the door and today it was hotter outside the boat than in.

Before we set off they was a quick wander round the charity shops and a visit to the market, we didn't want pet food or fresh fish, he didn't have a stall, just sold from the back of his van. We did get some fruit and veg at one stall and a couple of very good pork pies at another, I think that was all of it.

The road crosses the Bridgewater canal in lots of places but historically most of these were what they call "underbridges" where the road burrows under the canal, often with a sloping road approach on each side, now in lots of cases there is a bridge bypassing them but they still exist and there is one in Lymm, I was hoping to get a photo of a car coming through, but after I hurried out in front of 2 cars there weren't any. Mostly they are not wide enough for 2 cars and definitely no pavement.

We are well ahead of schedule so we were late setting off, just as I undid the second rope a boat came by, we were to see him again later, as we needed water and when we arrived at the water point at "Ye Old No. 3" there he was taking water, this is not the fasted tap in the world so we were some little time before he was full and ready to leave before we could even begin to fill up. We even had time for our lunch and a bottle of beer.

Once that was sorted we pushed on past Dunham Massey House, needless to say its closed on a Thursday and Friday, maybe we will come back for Saturday, we will see how it pans out. Just passed the house the canal crosses the River Bollin on an aqueduct, this is the site of a serious breach in 1971. When the canal was finally rebuilt it was in a channel about 16 feet wide which leaves the offside abutment of the aqueduct some way from the edge of the canal. We only went about half a mile past this and moored for the night just by Dunham Woodhouse Underbridge.

Before we stop for the night I like to check the stat of charge of the batteries but when I went into the engine room I found that the Sterling Battery Monitor was blank with an unpleasant smell coming out of it, having just looked at the price of a new one I think I will replace it with something else.

Today’s Journey 3¾ miles in 2½ hours