More Macclesfield Canal

Our morning checks of everything revealed that our overheating was probably due to some weed partially clogging the water intake, as this is below the waterline clearing it involved removing the end of the pipe inside the boat and poking and blowing down it until it was clear.

 We carried on our Manchester bound journey this morning. We considered stopping in Macclesfield but visitors moorings there are few and far between with the rest of the canal bank looking very dodgy. We did get a surprise as we saw narrowboat Scarlett moored at the boatyard there. Scarlett used to belong to Tony, our neighbour at Nottingham Castle Marina. Unfortunately there was no one on board so we don't know if he has sold her or has ventured this far from home. The weekend seems, as usual, to have brought more people out on the water so progress was a bit slow but after a short stop in Bollington to buy a loaf of bread we carried on to the Bull's Head at High Lane, where we moored for the night. As it was still warm and sunny we went and sat in the pub garden where Ray enjoyed a couple of pints of Boddingtons and I indulged in a pint of Crabbies alcoholic ginger beer.

I spent some time this evening working out our next few days' journeys. We are a couple of miles from the Marple fight which is 16 locks, after that I won't want to do many more locks the day we go down them, and it will take us between 4 and 5 hours anyway. It is then about 3 hours cruising to the lop of the locks which go down into Manchester on the Ashton Canal. It is recommended that you do the 18 locks in one go, early in the morning, to avoid the local yobs. After that we have the 18 locks up the Rochdale Canal out of Manchester, passage through these has to be booked with British Waterways and you have to leave at 8.30 in the morning. Luckily there are secure moorings at Piccadilly Basin in Manchester. As you cannot go up the Rochdale 18 on a Wednesday our plan is to stay here tomorrow, go down Marple flight on Monday, do a short hop to the junction with the Ashton Canal on Tuesday then go into Piccadilly Basin on Wednesday, stop overnight and head up the Rochdale on Thursday morning. I wonder if it will all work?

As the crow flies we are only 39 miles from Leeds, by canal we are nearly 100 miles with 166 locks to negotiate.

Today's journey 13.3 miles and 2 swing bridges.
So far we have travelled 239.8 miles, 206 locks, 7 swing bridges, 2 lift bridges and 4 tunnels.