Another challenging day – we left our mooring and turned back into the main canal only to discover it was empty. Where yesterday we grounded a few times today you could walk across and help yourself to all the supermarket trolleys and bikes. A call to the Canal and River trust on their expensive hotline and in fairness two chaps arrived in half an hour. They opened up the sluices and in no time had flooded the area which was good news for us but presumably people upstream are now worrying where all the water has gone.
We then had to work out where we (actually I) had gone wrong yesterday. Somehow I became convinced I had made a serious boo boo and to try and redeem myself I walked 4 miles up the canal to try and fine the right turning, and of course 4 miles back again.
Gill meanwhile decided to look at the instructions, not something I would ever do (instructions are the manufacturers opinion about how something should be done which should be ignored). So when I got back she informed me were were almost in the right place if only we could find the turning.
The picture at the top shows the lock we wanted, hiding behind the scaffolding of a new building, no signs of course. So then we set sail, only we didn’t. A very long rope which was lurking in the mud spun itself round our propeller so I spent the best part of an hour untangling it in cold, dirty canal water.
Finally we are at our destination in Manchester (Castlefields junction pictured) where we will have a well deserved dinner in a local restaurant before heading into town tomorrow.