We left at 7:00 am. leaving early is is inevitable that we will pass a lot of moored boats, so concious of the fact that mostly the occupants will be fast asleep and missing the best part of the day, we try to creep past without disturbing them. So this mornings little it of canal rage was probably also inevitable, though a first for me. I was warned by the clatter of the silly "safety pin" mooring pins indicating a boat improperly moored. Sure enough the lines we at rightangles to the bank and slightly loose, so not matter how slowly you go the boat will surge forward and back until the line catch and then it will bang against the side. There came a thumping from the porthole and an angry hand gesticulating. The interesting thing was that the next series of boats in the line never moved a jot. The boat in front came up behind us later and said that the boat in question had taken ages to moor up the night before making a real hash of it. So chaps, lines at 45 degrees, pulled tight (unless water level changes are expected) and if on a curve, put a spring line out. If you are upset by boat movement due to passing craft, you are not properly moored. That's it. We had an uncontested run up Stoke Flight hardly seeing another moving boat. No sign of the Etruria Canal festival due at the weekend. There were only two boats moored on Westport Lake moorings, so imagine our surprise arriving at Harecastle tunnel to find a long queue right back to the bridge.
We had to wait nearly an hour for passage, during which time a veritable flotilla turned up behind. We turned off onto the Macclesfield, once through the tunnel and moored near the T&M aqueduct.
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