Think Eddie Izzard!
RAIN RAIN GO AWAY - DONT COME BACK ANOTHER DAY!!!!!
We are sick of the rain... OK so we know we need it... but please - it's really spoiled our current guests trip from Stretford to Cherry Tree... no-one wants to spend time either at the pointy end OR the rumbly end when it's p'ing down... including the skipper ... I've been in a sulk for days.
The ONLY blessing we've had was a short dry window going up Wigan 21 locks ... with the help of a young volunteer (named Jake I think) we did it in 3.hours and 15 mins (up hill)...
NOT bad considering...
However, this was not without incident...we (for the first time) were not prepared to "share" the journey with another boat...
The main reason was SAID boat was one of the 7 month over stayers at Marple... hogging the 48 hr moorings when we passed through in late March... it was one of 3 with overstay notices on them ...
Now rules are rules and there for a reason... ADD to that, the bloke on it was - lets just say "troubled looking", the prospect of spending a morning trapped with him in locks did not appeal. It's not like there hasn't been much water coming down in the last few days anyway...
In addition to just not wanting to share with him for the above reason, we could see from the way he faffed around, it would slow us down and we'd all end up stuck in the oncoming storm... SO, I stood my ground when the volunteer lockie came and asked if we'd wait in the 4th lock up for him to catch up ...
Of course, the catholic in me (well from my dad's side) did mean that the entire journey my conscience was being pricked at "not playing cricket"... So much so, I felt I had to explain to the "proper" lockie when we came across him further up... WHO totally understood our reasons and said "fair enough mate"...
Anyway - we've done short sections in between torrential and just p'ing down periods over the last few days... yesterday going up Johnsons Hillocks alas was one of the worse ones... NOT a boat moving except us... in fact, compared to THIS time last year, the canal is empty - presumably due to Burnley over-running... we have it on good authority however that it WILL re-open on 18th June so we will continue our journey to Skipton (losing one of our cruises as a result) in readiness to collect our next guest there...
Sorry no photos today - my phone got a bit wet and is need of a bit of tlc.
Until next time...
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