Kerridge

Had no Internet connection yesterday so you have had a day off from us. We travelled from Congleton to the moorings below Bosley locks, we didn't go far, all of an hour and a half because we knew there was bad weather coming our way. It started spitting about just before we got to the mooring but nothing too bad. Once moored up the weather closed in on us and it rained on and off for the rest of the day. In one lull I walked the dogs up the locks to see what we were in for. These locks are of stone and I hate to think how long they took to build with all the stone dressing. These skills are now few and far between.

In front of us in the distance was a hill with a BT tower on it, while the weather was bad you couldn't see the tower and this morning you could.

Around tea time the heavens really opened and boy did it rain. Around 9.30pm a boat pulled in front of us and when we got up at 7.30am this morning they were gone so desperate to get somewhere I would think. We got going around 9.15 and when I got to the bottom lock someone was just leaving it, so yet again I faced a long flight with every lock set against me, it was really slow going but I did my usual get Paul in one lock start to fill it then walk to the next one to empty that. At one point I caught up with the people in front and they told me there was a single handed lady in front of them that's why things were a bit slow. I didn't mind we weren't in a rush. About half way through the 12 locks we met a boat coming down so the lady off of the boat following us was able to catch us up. She was being hassled by the boat behind them as they had to be somewhere at a certain time, she gave them a piece of her mind because at the end of the day none of us could go any faster. I was glad to see the back of those locks. While in the top lock Paul nipped off the boat to empty the cassette (in the sanitary station) and I did the rubbish then it was onwards towards Macclesfield. Through the swing bridge at Oakgrove where I had to stop the traffic "oh the power" at the next swing bridge which was a manual one we had caught up with the single hander and she left the bridge open for us which didn't really help as I had already got off the boat so it was quick scramble across the stern to be able to shut the bridge after Paul had gone through. We had to pull in to the side anyway as Paul had to put his arm down the weed hatch to remove a load of weed. We were nearly in to Macclesfield I was down below making a cup of tea when all of a sudden the boat was slammed in reverse "what the" I thought, Paul was shouting for me so I thought there was a major problem. But no the boat that had just passed us was Libertybelle with Trevor and Angela on board, we had met them last year when we were stuck on the Thames so we had to stop and have a quick chat then it was on our way again. When we saw the old Hovis mill we knew we were in Macclesfield. There was only one mooring just by bridge 37, a chap on the water point took our centre rope for us and said it was best to stay as there were no more moorings for at least another hours cruising.

Well if we hadn't had the dogs we would have stayed there but it was just too far from the bank even with a board. So on we went and on and on and on, we met about half a dozen boats going the opposite way hate to think where they were going to moor up. We negotiated three narrow spots. All along this stretch between Macclesfield and bridge 29 it is impossible to moor any where. Yet again we had something round the prop so we had to stop under a bridge to enable Paul to put his arm down the weed hatch and "voila" one pair of tights (in blue, was told if I wash them out I could wear them tomorrow " I DON'T THINK SO") and a load more weed. At last we saw a space opposite the dry dock at Kerridge so here we are completely shattered, 6 hours cruising is just too long, will probably stay here now for the weekend(British F1 COME ON JENSON) and hope our friends from Spain can find us, we know there is a pub nearby so that is a good meeting point.