Chorley (Comfortably numb again)

Another good day was forecast for Friday, so we made the most of it and set off soon after eight.  We were keen to get ahead of schedule and felt, that at the current progress, we could make up a day in the first week.  All being well we will take a day off when we are on the Leigh branch and spend some time at Pennington flash, a large nature reserve outside Wigan, that we visited on our abortive trip to Liverpool earlier this year.

As the canal heads for Wigan it crosses over or under the M65 no fewer than nine times!  We had just been across one of the aqueducts that cross the motorway when a boat appeared, coming in the opposite direction.  It was Rob & Lesley Pearson who live and trade from their boat Hekla.  We have bumped into each other a few times over the last few years and this was a typical fleeting exchange of greetings as we passed.  

Rob & Lesley well wrapped up

I was well wrapped up too and even had a scarf on as there was a chill in the air.

     

Karen wasn’t on board when I passed Rob & Lesley as she was out for a run on the towpath ahead of me.  She told me later that she saw them when she was running under bridge 108 and was shouting and waving madly at them as they passed.  She didn’t think they recognised her and probably just thought she was one of the local mad women.

We soon left Burnley well behind and were nearing the outskirts of Blackburn where there are three swing bridges fairly close together.

Karen, also wrapped up well, opening one of the swing bridges

I mentioned on Thursday that we were fortunate to only have to stop once when going through Burnley to unwrap rubbish from the prop; Friday was different.  I had four trips to the weed hatch and on two occasions the engine had stopped dead.  Once again the bulk of it was heavy duty builders’ bags that were the cause.  At least they are relatively easy to extract by winding the propeller, unlike wire, mattresses, tyres etc. but I still end up with cold wet arms nearly up to the armpits and yet more crap to carry to the next rubbish disposal point.

At one point I accidently put my hand on a hot part of the engine and, as my hand was so wet and cold I didn’t realise what I had done before it was too late ☹

Burnley can just be seen in the valley

Heading into Blackburn

There are six locks in the middle of Blackburn and, unlike all the other locks on the Leeds & Liverpool, they are not subject to opening time restrictions.  We had rung CRT the previous day just to make sure that this information was correct, which it was.

The Blackburn locks are really difficult for single handers as there are no lock landings.  This means leaving the boat in a lock, walking to the next and setting it, going back to get the boat and driving it into the new lock.  The previous lock then has to be closed up which means another walk back to do it, and so on.

One of the locks on the flight

You may have noticed the balance beams are missing on the bottom gates of the lock above.  This was because a railway bridge runs across the tail of the lock so there is no room to swing a balance beam.  In their place is a winding mechanism that is operated with a windlass.  This approach is usually only seen in cities where bridges have been added since the canal was built such as in Manchester.

Flooded lock - maybe the reason there are no opening hour restrictions – too much water coming down the flight

Talking about single-handers, we met one at the penultimate lock and we teamed up to make his job easier.  It turned out that he wasn’t single handing, he had come up the first two locks with his wife and then took on water whilst she had taken their cat to the vets.  He was waiting for her at the water point, then they could wind and go back down together.  He came down the lock with us but ended up waiting for her below the lock as he didn’t want her to have to walk too far to get back home, so we ended up doing the final lock on our own again.

In the penultimate lock

We carried on another few miles through the suburbs of Blackburn until we were out in the country and then decided to moor up for the day.  The last area we went through was called Cherry Tree where we had moored temporarily back in June for Karen to visit a small supermarket with Charlie and Linda who we travelled with for a few days.  I mention that occasion as we fondly remember that they got lost on the way back and had to ring me for directions.  

Moored out in the country for Friday night (but within earshot of the M65 😉)

We set off around 8.30 on Saturday morning meaning we could have a relaxing five mile cruise to the top of Johnson’s Hillock locks which didn’t open until 10.00am.

For the second day running a kingfisher was the first bird we saw once we were on the move.  This one stayed with us quite a while as they often do, flying off its perch when we came alongside, to find a new perch further along (and I don’t mean the fish perch).  

We saw no boats on the move but when we neared the top lock, we saw two guys getting ready to cast off and they were heading in our direction so Karen told them we would wait for them and go down the locks together.  They were really pleased as they had never been down the locks before. 

James lived on the boat and his friend, Adam, had come along for the weekend to help him move it. 

James works in Chorley and therefore continuously cruises the area.  He has only been living on the boat for six months (having previously lived in a caravan for four years to make sure he could handle it) and has been stuck because of the closures for most of that time.  Of course, as a ccer working locally, that has played into his favour.

Sharing the top lock

There are seven locks on the flight and with Adam and Karen both setting the locks we got down in a respectable time.

Buddy in lock operating pose

James proudly told me he chose the name Comfortably Numb as it would be an unusual name.  I did tell him it’s quite popular but didn’t let on that there are currently 19 boats on the system that share the name.  I did think at one time about taking pictures of boats with names that were song titles but thought better of it, especially as I’m not that good on song titles.

There was a lot of water coming down the flight which made it surprising that there are still restricted opening times.

Water overflowing the top lock gates

Entering the bottom lock together

After going down the locks we stopped at Botany Bay, so we could go shopping at the Chorley Aldi which was only a mile away.  Now we are car-less again we have to carry all the shopping in big backpacks and a couple of shopping bags each making it a slow journey back to the boat.  We had lunch on our return and then I moved on a few hundred yards to the water point.

Stopped for lunch at Botany Bay

The wind had really got up making it difficult tying up at the water point and then the rain started halfway through the operation.  When I’d finished taking on water I could’ve just moved over to the towpath side and moored up for the night but I didn’t fancy staying at Botany Bay because we were right next to the noisy M61.  As I was getting wet anyway I carried on another mile or so and moored south of Chorley where the houses finished.

The rain eased off, but it was still dark and dismal:

   

Our Saturday night stopover – still a little breezy as you can see from the water but nothing like it had been earlier

We’ve covered 24 miles through 13 locks over the last two days and will have an easy day on Sunday.  We will cruise the six lock-free miles to the top of the Wigan flight, stop there overnight and go down the 23 locks to Pennington Flash when they open at 8.30 on Monday morning.  We will be going down the Wigan flight a day earlier than planned so could have a day’s rest later in the week.