Dutton

Here I am Rune

Distance 4.9 miles

Total 1136 Locks 61 Tunnels

Running total mileage 1567.9 miles

Several short sharp showers today (and lots of wind) but no thunderstorms. The wind made getting from our overnight mooring onto the holding mooring of Anderton  boat lift a bit problematic since whenever I tried to reverse off the mooring the wind just blew the boat sideways across the river. Eventually managed it by pushing the bows out and ‘through’ the wind which enabled us to get started. The trip up the boat lift was interesting but uneventful (I’m glad to say) and once at the top it was just a case of coming along the Trent and Mersey through two tunnels to our current location. It seems that at this end of the canal they aren’t very good at building straight tunnels. Our first one, Barnton the longest of the two, you can just about see the other end as you enter to make sure there isn’t anything coming the other way. The second tunnel, Salterford, has a timed entry system because you can’t see the other end so we had to wait until 1.00pm to go into it (entry from our end only between the hour and twenty past the hour). We will have the same issue tomorrow at Preston Brook tunnel but that one is significantly longer than either of today’s tunnels.

The plan for tomorrow is to go to the end of the Bridgewater canal at Runcorn and then return to Preston Brook for the night, this will keep us on schedule to get to Liverpool by a week on Thursday.

Moored by the boat lift