The 4th morning of our trip was Good Friday. After stopping to pick up a few supplies at the One-Stop across the road bridge we set off.
We left out mooring at 9.20am and cruised north past Wedgewood – into the potteries.
This could be one of my favourite offerings: Tackle, archery, boats and line dancing
The Stoke flight of 5 locks was our first real challenge. Some deep and heavy locks to contend with. At the last and deepest lock, Stephanie couldn’t raise the ground paddle, so I had to climb the ladder and help her.
Stock Locks – with two boaters who are moving to Slathwaite
After this adventure, we motored on to Harecastle Tunnel at a stunning 3mph. We were lucky that we didn’t have to wait long for the tunnel and, as we’d been through the tunnel before, we were asked to go first in the convoy of 4 boats going through the tunnel.
Brick Bottles in the Potteries
At this point we discovered that the tunnel light appears to have been wired in backwards and we couldn’t make the the rear navigation light work, so Stephanie sat and held a torch pointing backwards to show the boats behind where we were.
Once out of the tunnel it was a short hop to the junction where the Macclesfield Canal joined the Trent and Mersey. We needed to make a sharp right hand turn, which I completely messed up – and we ended up wedged across the canal. One day I’ll get the hang of it! I had to clamber off the front of the boat and push it round into the junction.
Looking down on the Trent and Mersey from the Aquaduct on the Macclesfield. Last time we were here we went through those locks on our way round the Four Counties Ring.
The Macclesfield canal has some very narrow bits in it where it looks like bridges have been removed. Shortly after turning into the canal I slowed down to tickover to negotiate one such restriction when a couple came out of the cottage next to me. The man held a long stick with a plate on the end of it on which was placed a carrier bag. “For you” he said to me, pushing the stick in my direction. “We’re giving these to all boaters today just to say Happy Easter”. I thanked them and took the bag, which we discovered held 2 hot cross buns. It was very sweet of them and the hot cross buns were delicious.
We called at Heritage Marina to get gas and a pump out. The pump out was £17 per tank, (not by time) and they did it for us which is nice. It’s more economical for us to get pumped out by time as we have 2 small tanks fitted instead of big one. The very nice chaps there recommended a mooring spot nearby and 15 minutes later at 5pm we were moored up for the night. Our earliest stop yet this trip.
10 minutes later the heavens opened. Had we continued as per our original plan we would have been soaked through. Some days you just get lucky.
Parked up just in time…
Total Distance Travelled: 13.5 miles
Number of locks: 7 locks
< Previous Post : Map of Journey : Next Post >
Leave a Comment