April 19th 2012 The Wigan Flight !!!!

Hooray it had stopped raining this morning, which was good news because we had 23 locks to do today, 21 of which make up the Wigan flight. Soon we were at the first lock with its strange configuration of chains to shut the gates.  Lock one and two cleared, we came to the junction to the left Liverpool to the right Leeds, we needed the right turn. Once round the bend we came to the first of the Wigan flight locks. No other boats around so we set off up the flight solo. After four locks we were aware of a boat coming up behind us so we waited so we could double up. Narrow boat Caldon joined us with a nice crew, including young Alfie. It was really tough going and Sheila and the locking member of Caldon did a fantastic job getting us to the top. These locks are big and heavy and everyone has to be unlocked with the BW handcuff key. Once clear of the top lock we waited to use the water point as a couple of boats NB Rag Tag and Bobtail and NB SAR CASM we have been seeing over a few days were topping their tanks. Once watered we made our way to Adlington and moored for the night on the visitor moorings and had a really nice fish and chip supper.

Today 7 miles     23 locks

the first lock of the day with its chains

Sharing with NB Caldon

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