September Cruise - Day Nine

Today turned out to be a very socialable day. We had a lot to do, so set off at 7.15 down the Red Bull Locks. It was chilly and overcast, but as we moved north we came to the edge of the cloud and came into sunshine. There were lots of boats going down, which wasn't a problem at the duplicated locks, but each set that's down to a single lock became a bottleneck. But everyone helped everyone else, lifting paddles or opening gates as necessary. We were surprised that roar of the M6, which crosses the canal just below Lock 58, doesn't travel very far. Mostly, it's a very rural flight.



As lunchtime approached, my sister, her husband, and my neice Rachel arrived. We went down a couple more locks, and moored in the long pound between locks 64 and 65. We had lunch, Rachel had a sleep, a feed, and a play, and several hours passed in no time.



We set off down the last couple of locks; Rachel seemed to like going along and was particularly interested in the water leaking through the top gates as we went down. There were no available moorings at the village in Wheelock, so we stopped on the water point. Rachel had another feed while we filled the tank, and our visitors then disembarked to go back to their car. In the mean time, a couple of shady characters had sneaked up to the boat threatening to untie our ropes and push us off: it was Lesley and Joe from Caxton! It was great to see them again, so we moored up just past Bridge 154, and spent the evening in the Cheshire Cheese with Lesley and Joe, and their travelling companions, Jill and Graham from Matilda Rose. And as you probably suspected, the subject of toilets was amongst those covered.

6 miles, 24 locks. (103, 92)