On the 7th May 2023 we set sail from the Marina at Scarisbrik, which is where Arty spent the winter. Our first stop was a short jaunt up the cut at a lovely place called Burscough. This was at the time the of corronation of King Charles, so there were plenty of celibrations going on. Naturally, it was only proper for us to find a bar and join in the festivities!
We were very keen, and somewhat nervous about getting up the flight at Wigan. This is a set of 21 locks, all close to one another and in quite a poor state of repair and therefore are very leaky. The problem with this is that sometimes the small pounds (the bit of canal between the locks) can drain dry. It also means many of the pounds are very shallow and the boat can ground out. Sometimes, when the locks are very poor and leaky, several pounds can run dry and it is necessary to go up the flight and “bring water down” which is a case of opening the front paddles and then the back paddles and letting the water flow through the lock into the next pound down. When there are just 2 of you on the boat this is tricky. We were in contact with the wonderful Wigan Flight Crew group on Facebook and we were hoping that some volunteers would be in the flight to give us a hand – that would be great!
So a big day tomorrow, we are sailing into Crook where we will stay while I work, then on the Saturday we are going up the flight!
Artful Dodger 