Pie Eater

The North end of the tunnel is a bit grotty so I would avoid it for an overnight mooring.

Put the rag in a zip lock freezer bag and use it again.

We have stopped at the junction of the Caldon canal and also near Westport lake without any problems.

I am ringing the RSPCA 😜

Didn't he get a purple fat boat near Manchester?

Venetian Marina have a small canal side shop, chandlers and cafe.

See the canalplan website and put your details in with preferred daily sailing times. If you go anti clockwise you could detour up the Caldon canal if you have time.

The cakes do look delicious and I wonder where they are going after Marple.

They could join the group of canal traders who go to boat gatherings and rallies. Recently they have been held at Great Heywood and Norbury Junction.

I don't think that it would be wise to try to compete with canal side cafes.

I think the difference is that a relatively new boater will struggle when single handing but more experienced boaters seem to cope.

We paid a deposit to book a build slot and then several stage payments and a final payment a few days before launch day.

There were 2 new widebeams waiting to go through the locks this morning at Poolstock in Wigan heading for Crooke.

We carried our own air horn but fortunately never had to use it. We did break down in Harecastle Tunnel once but that was on a hire boat. Luckily we were not too far inside the tunnel. We had run out of diesel and the hire company wanted to know if we had been to Timbuktu with the boat. They did not admit that they had not filled up after the previous hirers. We managed to get to David Pipers? Yard and get a couple of jerry cans of diesel but had to use a traffic cone as a funnel.

It may be normal to do that but I maybe wrong as all brokers are different.

Is that Crooke in Wigan or is there a Crook somewhere else.

I have just watched the latest vlog and I am saddened that Vic decided to turn back after the first 12 locks and decided to return to Marple to trade. It is obvious that this canal is not for the faint hearted.

We used bitumen and then hung an hair dryer in the tank and put the lid back on to speed up drying.

4.06pm armed police now on site!

A chap named Tony Dunkley is now explaining the rules.

If CaRT had read my thread many moons ago cyclists would be catered for.

I drilled small holes through the floor at the lowest points and used a Pela pump to drain th water. I did have to experiment to find a spot between the ballast which was paving flags.

I remember seeing a narrow boat from Aylesbury getting stuck in the second from bottom lock when going up. He said that the last time that he tried he had got stuck in the bottom lock which was then rebuilt so he had returned to try again.