Another sunny morning to wake up to, in fact the sun was so bright when I wound up the shower room blind, I had to wind it halfway back down again! The mooring before Red Bull Aqueduct actually had one of the best views we’ve had of Mow Cop up on the hill. With the tunnel to go through today we wanted to be off at a decent time, so got under way at about 8.15. We crossed the aqueducts, made the sharp left to run alongside the Trent and Mersey, then the next sharp left towards the junction.
Once through it was sharp right towards the tunnel. We suspected we had timed things right when a boat was coming the other way. We pulled up to the tunnel waiting area behind one other boat, and the tunnel keeper told us there was one more boat to come out, then we could go in. We had a slight nervous moment when our headlight didn’t work, but Adrian twiddled the connection in the cratch and it came on. The other northbound boat appeared, the boat in front of us went in, and we followed a minute or two later, so there was a bit of a gap between us.
I noted last time that the changes in the headroom inside the tunnel seem more pronounced when going south than when going north, and it’s definitely true. There are lots of places where a drop in tunnel height is marked with white paint.
It took 39 minutes to get through, which is about the same time as going north on Saturday. There were three boats waiting at the southern portal.
These are now very familiar waters, but it’s not always been this sunny as we’ve passed Middleport Pottery.
We moored up at Festival Park, and it wasn’t even 11am. A big re-stock was planned as we had access to the car again, so we went off and did that. After lunch, I had an item to collect at a locker at Morrison’s, and we’d decided Adrian would go back to the laundrette to do bedding and towels that we’d struggle to find drying space for on the boat. He dropped me at the supermarket, then noticed signs for a Revolution Laundry — these are the unmanned machines in the car park. So he decided to use them instead. There’s not much difference cost-wise; a plus is that the Morrison’s cafe is right there, a minus is that you are folding your laundry in a car park. It’s all an education! Back at the boat, I did a few jobs including swapping a 230 volt socket to match the more modern ones we changed some to a few years ago, and refreshing the blinds in the shower room and galley.
6 miles, 0 locks. (25 miles, 2 locks)
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