Trafford Centre Tuesday 5 June 2018

Today was another stop start day, I thought I would start with a photo of the Bollards we were moored to last night.

Anyway off at 10 but only as far as Leigh where we stopped just before we went onto the Bridgewater to stock up at Aldi. There were quite a few boats there so we squeezed in between the last moored boat, sharing his ring and the bridge where I had to put a pin in.
I have often told boaters that they run their ropes wrong when mooring on pins, A lot do it like the first photo, which is wrong, it should be like the second.

This is the reason, I was just driving the pin in and the ring fell off, this is not uncommon as the steel in the ring changes composition when its welded and the action of hammering the pin can make them just fall of, the ring was not hit with a hammer at any time.

Shopping and lunch done and we were off again only to meet this coming towards a bridge hole, I held back but he waived me through first. There was a crew of two onboard and the dredger operator had to lower the boom down to the water to get under the bridge.

I have a feeling he may have collected a few stones from the boys sitting on the bridge. The other side of the bridge the trees hang quite low so it wouldn't have been pleasant for the steerer stood up there.

Our next stop was Astley Green where we visited the Mining Museum, unfortunately we were just to late to see the winding engine running, they run it on compressed air, not steam. The winding wheel we were told weighs in at 105 tons and is tapered to that the diameter gets smaller so drawing the cable slower for the same engine speed, lifting the cage at up to 30 mph.

In one of the buildings they have a very realistic but totally fake cottage.

The also have several battery powered trains, most of which are covered up.There is a wealth of stuff here but it needs a serious injection of cash and workers to get it all together.

Our visit complete, there was no charge, just donations, we were away again, this time heading for our overnight mooring at The Trafford Centre, I have never been for dinner in a shopping centre and being asked if we want to sit inside or outside, when its all inside a shopping complex. Of course to get there we had to cross the famous Barton Swing Aqueduct, thankfully there were no kids throwing stones and sweets at us this time.

Today's Journey 12¾ miles in 4½ hours.