Dutton Monday 16 April 2018

We woke to the John Lennon dawn chorus, that's not John singing but the continuous stream of aircraft going into Liverpool airport, mind you it was intersperse with bird song. I didn't take any chances with the engine and put the jump leads on before I tried to start her and she spun well, so that's a new battery needed.

The day started sunny which was nice for a change but still not that warm.

So far this trip we have met 4 hire boats and two shared ownership boats all with all male crews, two of the Swiss.

We stopped at the Anderton services for water and by now the sky was quite black, just as we were setting off the service boat Halsall came through the bridge and moored up to deliver coal, we pulled in along side her to get the black tank pumped out. By the time we set off again the sky had cleared and we made our way to Barnton Tunnel and with no one coming it was straight through, but we arrived at Saltersford Tunnel 5 minutes to late for a passage so had to wait until the 12 o'clock slot. By the time we set off another boat had arrived behind us and followed us until we moored at the site of the old Dutton breach.

As we approached bridge 204 I could see a notice warning that CRT were working there. It looks as if they are stabilising the edging stones where the towpath goes under the bridge. A few weeks ago we met Halsall stuck here, probably on one of the large stones that had fallen out, I don't expect CRT will retrieve them when they have finished the stabilisation work before leaving the site.

After we had moored up I investigated the battery a bit further, the SG's of 5 of the cells were fine but the other one hardly lifted the float. no point in recording the SG's, its dead, so I rang Thorne Marine and asked them to get me one for Wednesday when we are there. If only I had checked SG's last week before going home and I could have brought one back with us and saved a few quid. The old one has just turned 5 years old.

Today's Journey 6½ miles in 3½ hours