Ince Moss (one of those days when it all goes wrong)

We only had seven miles to travel on Sunday and no locks, which meant we could have an easy morning and not leave Chorley until about 11 o’clock.  There’s nothing difficult about the cruise between Chorley and the top lock at Wigan as the cut is fairly straight and wide, no bridges on blind corners and only one sharp bend where you have to be on your guard.  There are quite a few permanent moorings though, which mean you go slow anyway, so it still took us nearly three hours.

As it was such an easy journey I took the opportunity to go through my speech for my middle daughter, Lauren's, wedding which is in just over a month's time.  So if anyone saw a deranged boater talking away to himself as he cruised along , then that was me.

We arrived at the Wigan top lock waiting area (where the Lancaster canal used to carry straight on) hoping to find other boats waiting to go down, but it was empty apart from Gypsy Darling’s plastic boat moored on the spot we were hoping to moor on and as he works on the flight I suspect he’ll be moored there a while.  We didn’t mind as it looked extra weedy where he was moored anyway.

Moored at the flight waiting area – the flight heads downhill to the right

We had lunch on board and then walked half way down the flight and then into Wigan to find the Lidl.  Yes, I know we went shopping yesterday but Lidl do the best pain au chocolate outside of France (well, in UK supermarkets that is).  You may think it an odd thing to stock up on, but they reheat in the oven well and take the same length of time as it does for Karen’s morning pot of tea to brew (I always have a cafetière of coffee if having pain au chocolate - which is seven days a week 😉).

Part of the Wigan flight

We also had a £5 Lidl voucher from our weekly (Saturday) newspaper but had to spend £30 to take advantage of it.  This meant we had a two mile walk back to the boat with heavy bags, yes, wine helped make up the cost 😊

Walking through the older parts of Wigan we found it really strange and then realised why: all the houses were brick built. Having had 2 ½ months in Yorkshire followed by a couple of months in France and Italy we had got rather accustomed to all buildings being stone built.

The other thing we noticed was that many of the side streets had been designated as play streets.  These streets, where traffic movement is banned during daylight hours, have been re-introduced in a lot of towns in the North West in the last few years. 

Play street in Wigan

Amazingly, until the mid-1930s children (or their families) were prosecuted for playing in streets and Salford and Manchester were the first boroughs to introduce play streets by getting a private members’ bill passed.  Shortly afterwards, in 1938, the Street Playgounds Act was passed and play streets started to appear all over the country and then escalated in the 1950s.

Cleminson Street in Salford in 1935 (from Manchester Evening News)

I remember seeing them as a child through the window of my parents’ car but doubt they would ever have allowed me to play in one.  They had virtually all disappeared by 1980 but over the last few years are re-emerging around the country.  Interestingly, play streets originated in New York and still thrive today having never fallen into disuse.

On the way back from the supermarket we met up with Peter Baxter (a lock keeper on the Wigan flight) and he gave us more information on which locks to be careful of and why.  We remembered some of the detail from when we came up but, of course, going down can be quite different.  For example, on the way up, leaky top gates at lock 71 washed away the nasturtiums on the bows.  On the way down, the steerer is likely to get drenched as the boat will be facing the other way.

Oh, and we passed a rare sight on the cruise today: a stanking plank store on the Leeds & Liverpool canal:

Stanking planks at bridge 69

Entry to the Wigan flight is restricted to between 8.30 and 10.00 every morning.  After ascertaining there were no boats to go down with, we set off about 8.45.  There was a lot of weed around where we had been moored so we had to be careful not to take any down the locks with us.  By the time I was going into the first lock, Karen saw we had a giant knot of weed under the bows.  If I had taken this into the lock it could well have blocker up water inlets or outlets when the paddles were opened or closed.

Poling the weed off the bows (the darker green clump)

We had 21 locks to do to get down the flight and they are notoriously cumbersome to operate. Our job was even harder as we didn’t have a boat going down with us to share the work nor were there any lock keepers (volunteer or otherwise) to help out.  We don’t expect to have help and are always happy locking on our own, I just mention the lack of keepers as there are usually some around on this particular flight to help out as it can be so difficult.

Heading into the top lock

All was going well until the half way point.  We decided to have a quick break and stop to make a cup of coffee while we were in a lock.  Whoever is driving would normally make the drinks while on the move, but we fancied a break as some of the gates and paddles had been heavy work.  We moored up in the lock and went inside and noticed the Battery Management System was showing a rather low voltage; we assumed this was because we had had the washing machine and slow cooker on at the same time.    

I went back outside and started the engine to get the batteries charging again and noticed one of the battery warning lights was on.  It was then that it dawned on me that the fan belt that drives the alternator for the domestic batteries must have snapped.

Sure enough – it had snapped

Fortunately, we carry replacements for both belts, so it was into the engine bay to fit the replacement:

   

I couldn’t seem to get the tension right as every time I ran the engine there was a loud squealing noise.  I was beginning to worry that the alternator had gone so we rang Karen’s cousin Dave who lives on his boat and is very mechanically minded.  He listened to the noise over the phone and decided it was definitely the fan belt squealing and not the alternator.  I had another go at getting the correct tension and all was well at last.

The next problem was that there were two gates on two locks that Karen couldn’t open on her own.  At the first lock a guy was walking past, and he kindly lent his weight.  At the second there was no one around so I had to moor up to help.  Normally this isn’t a problem but on this flight there are very few lock landings but we found a bollard right at the head of the lock to tie the bows to and we got the gate open.  Of course, having the bows tied to the bollard inevitably meant the boat swung across the cut and it wasn’t a small matter to right it again and get it into the lock.

At the next lock I couldn’t get a gate closed and a couple, who were walking past, stopped to watch me struggle.  Rather than offering to help all I could hear was a running commentary of things like, ‘Should’ve eaten more Weetabix’, ‘I think he’s got it moving’, ‘Oh no he hasn’t’, ‘He needs to push harder’ and so on.  Unbelievable ☹

I was setting a lock a bit later and suddenly found myself crashing to the ground.  I had my windlass in my hand and landed awkwardly crushing my thumb between the ground and the windlass.  I was winded and just lay there face down.  A guy walked past and asked if I was OK, but I couldn’t say anything and he just walked on.  Then, unbelievably again, a second bloke asked if I was alright and, getting no response, just carried on ☹

Sure sign the magnet fishermen have been in town

We got to the final lock and it was padlocked up as expected and had to wait about 10 minutes for a CRT lockie to come and open it up.  To give him his due, Joe did say we could both stay on the boat and he would close the gates in order for us to get on our way.  We did have some help in the end 😉

We were soon at Wigan junction where we turned left onto the Leigh branch towards the locks at Poolstock.

Getting ready to turn left – the main line carries straight on through Wigan, past Wigan Pier all the way to Liverpool

We stopped for lunch at Poolstock locks and then went down both of them before they were locked at 3.00 pm thus making 23 locks in the day.

We moored for the evening about ½ mile further on at Ince Moss.  We had our first roast of the winter (the slow cooker had had a chicken in it all day) and boy, was that a welcome meal at the end of a tiring day.  Karen’s walkmeter clocked her at 9.5 miles down the two-mile lock flight which goes to show the effect of walking backwards and forwards between each pair of locks several times as well as around them a couple of times on each operation.  Most double locks on the canals in the UK only need to have paddles opened on one side thus obviating the need to walk around the lock a couple of times.  Not so, those on the Wigan flight, with the heavy leakages most locks would never fill up if paddles were only opened on one side; the water would escape quicker than it comes in.

Moored for Monday night at Ince Moss

The first thing I did after mooring up was order a replacement fan belt from a boatyard we particularly like in Stone (just south of Stoke on Trent).  They had one in stock and have put it aside for us when we are passing in a couple of weeks.

It’s now a week since we left Skipton on our mission to get to Aylesbury by 2^nd December.  In that week we have cruised 64 miles through 58 locks, so we only have 220 miles and 130 locks to go.  In other words we have covered about a quarter of the way and been through nearly a third of the locks.  All looking good then as we still have another four weeks to go.

Over the last two days we have travelled 11 miles down 23 locks and just hope we haven’t buggered our batteries having the washing machine and slow cooker on, for an unknown length of time, when the fan belt had broken ☹

And, in case you wondered, I don’t think I’ve damaged my hand but have a very swollen thumb and wrist so hopefully it’s just badly bruised 😊