Well overnight it rained and this morning there was lots of noise outside, They moor all the electric boat round here and I thought it was them doing something but they were actually pressure washing all the paving, no goose poo today. Yesterday evening they pressure washed the walls, thankfully they didn’t make any mess on the boat. As it continued to rain and we were in no hurry to get anywhere we stayed put for the morning, The ex-working boat Swift came round the loop twice, first time empty and second with a load of passengers under umbrellas, unfortunately he failed to make the turn both times putting another dint in the wall.
The rain finally stopped at about 1-30pm and everyone one had the same idea, the boat moored ahead of us backed out through the junction and down to the roundabout before heading through Gas Street, 2 hire boats left their mooring from outside the NIA and followed him, we backed out and went down the Farmers Bridge flight. Lots of new cladding has been fitted to the buildings on the offside but there is still a lot of work ongoing.
We met a boat between 5 and 6 so all the rest of the locks were full and another boat just below lock 11.
Down at Aston Junction there was a share boat conveniently moored on the lock moorings having lunch, the up side was all the Aston locks were full. I have never seen the pound so full before, Diana got a wet foot as I came into the lock.Lots of water going down the bywashes, but it disappeared before it reached the bottom of the flight. Part was down I could see they were dismantling one of the old gasometers, I don’t know if its being scrapped or preserved.
We had planned to moor in the long pound between 8 and 9 on the offside, but we met yet another boat who said the 9 to 10 pound was very low, so we knew if it was bad now it would be impassable in the morning so we decided to plod on. A good move because as we went I scraped the bottom several times and had problems getting out of lock 9 having to wait for the level to settle and lift me off the bottom.
When we got to lock 10 it was empty but the canal seems a bit deeper just here and even with Diana drawing a bit of water to fill it I stayed afloat, of course the levels below this were fine, but very little water flowing compared to the top.
There are no longer any visitor moorings at Cuckoo Wharf, the old signages was very confusing as to where they were supposed to be.Now its quite clear.
Down at Salford Junction we turned very hard right, out onto the B&F and then up the GU to Star City for the night, Tomorrow we will reverse to the junction and head off down the B&F.
This is the last time I will update the map of our total journey as tomorrow we will just be retracing our steps from when we set off.
Todays Journey
3½ miles 24 locks in 4½ hours
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