The Bridgewater Grand Prix

Despite the weather doing its best to spoil our plans we managed to get the boat blacked and back into the water a day ahead of schedule.  It was particularly good  as when on the hard, the boat sits level but in the water she slopes down towards the stern. The net result was that the shower wouldn't drain properly and half the doors kept coming open.  Still a good chuck up to the marina who did an excellent job at short notice.  We've now moved down the canal and are in the little village of Parbold for the weekend along with quite a few other boats who are all heading in the same direction and who all want to go through the Bridgewater canal when it is due to open.  When we were talking about this we thought it might be a good idea to hang back a few days to let the rush die down.  However, every boat we have spoken to seems to have had the same idea.  It wouldn't surprise me that no one goes through when it actually opens and the rush is several days later.

A reasonable Sunday lunch in the Windmill pub but it seems that, although they are good at Yorkshire puds up here, they are not so good at roast potatoes so only an 8 was scored. We were hoping for more because we stopped here on the way up and Lindsay my daughter and her fiance joined us for the night and we had a really excellent supper there.

So fingers, toes and everything else crossed that the canal opens as advertised. Then hopefully a dash through to the Trent and Mersey Canal and the Anderton Boat Lift which is on our narrow boat bucket list.

The start of the Grand Prix with many boats moored and all heading in the same direction.  We are still miles away from the stoppage and its only going to get busier.

As we came through a swing bridge the skipper of the boat coming the other way said that there were lots of Kingfishers on the next section and there was one in this tree.  I've even bought a camera with a special high speed bird feature just so I can get a photo of one of the elusive little sods.  So here is a photo of a Kingfisher hiding in a tree.