We came up Wigan flight of 21 locks 3 weeks ago and had the help of Edmund and Josh. There weren’t any other boats navigating the locks that day. Then, the very next day there was a problem with one of the lock gate posts which closed the flight for a couple of days.
We had the help of our little crew getting from Crooke up into Wigan the day before we went up the locks. They are a good little crew, but the 21 locks would be too much for them.
Our first stop at the top, just had to be Chorley as Heather and Jason have finally moved into their new house there. They were able to do a gradual move as they had to give a month’s notice at their previously rented house.
Before Edmund & Josh went home we just had to walk up to Healy Nab, heading towards the moors.
We had to walk under the M61 motorway.
The kids found and fell in love with ‘Black Brook’. They have been paddling in it whenever they can.
Our last visit to the brook was under the Crosse Hall aqueduct (canal above us). It was a bit of an underwater archaeology mission, finding lots of pottery & some large, probably cow ribs.
It was wonderful to be able to moor just an 8-minute walk from the new home. We’ve been helping to take off the old wall paper. The house rather smelt of dogs and smoke initially, which improved with the old carpet up and wall paper down.
We are still looking after the kids while mum & dad are at work, but we are able to have lots of room at their house, rather than squished into our boat.
Lots of people use wheelbarrow wheels as fenders and our 25 litre tubs were getting a bit worse for wear, so we brought some wheels. We had to recap our splicing skills to attach the rope. They are a godsend keeping us from bumping onto the bank. It appears that most boaters since lockdown have forgotten the rule of passing moored boats at tick-over and are going past at full pelt, which makes moored boats bonk on the bank. I guess the pleasure boaters have 3-4 lost months to catch up with!!!
During the short little heat wave we managed to open our little Jubilee Fibres floating shop in an idyllic spot overlooking the Lancashire plain and Haigh golf course. We had some wonderful sunsets.
I spun on the towpath and chatted to lots of towpath users and customers.
The roof was perfect to solar dyed some Shetland wool in jars.
