Trent and Mersey Canal:Westport Lake

Not a good day.  It was raining to start with.  The first pound on the flight was low and the boat wouldn't go over the cill, so needed water letting down.  Although we could see no reason for it, progress seemed slow.  We were not waiting for locks.  Pat was always ahead and almost always had the next lock ready. Then the front button fell off.   In the narrow locks on this flight, the boat is always dragged forwards as the lock fills.  It is a feature.  The bow, therefore needs to be on the upper gate and kept there as the boat rises.  If it isn't it will run forwards at speed and ram the gate.   So the button takes a bit of a hammering.   After the first makeshift repair it dropped again, this time losing the chain link that is built in to it.  This required a cut off coat hanger repair.   It took us 6 hours to reach one lock from the top where we stopped for lunch and shopping at the nearby Tesco store, and it was still raining.   Then came Harecastle tunnel.  This is a narrow one way tunnel and is controlled by tunnel keepers who keep a log of boats entering and leaving with interestingly a note of the number of people on board.  So we had to wait for half an hour.  About 5 boats came out, 4 together in sequence and then a laggard.  Once in, the tunnel roof is quite low in places and you need to keep your head down.   Best wear a hat!    Our destination today was the good moorings at Westport Lake about a mile beyond the southern tunnel entrance.   Everything seemed wet, so we lit the fire.