Sunday 23rd May
We have had a lovely weekend at Bugsworth Basin. It’s been SO hot, I am burnt to a crisp! We had to rig up a foil blanket ‘tent’ over George’s cage to keep him cool, bless.
We woke up Saturday morning to the sound of munching – there were tadpoles eating the algae off our boat at the waterline! True, see photos.
The basin really filled up yesterday and we had another 5 boats in this basin with us and the other basins and mooring spots were pretty full too. Most of them have gone again now. This is a popular spot for people with boats in marinas nearby such as Furness Vale and High Poynton to come out for the weekend as it is within easy reach and there are no locks to negotiate. Also, there is a lot of room here with a variety of places to moor up so even if you arrive quite late you can always get in somewhere.
That said, it did get a bit chaotic here this afternoon when the coal and diesel boat came through plying their trade. This boat must have been a 70 footer. They passed between the 3 of us moored up on this side and the 3 moored up on the other side and turned round in the basin then as they came back another boat coming this way was between the boat in front of us and the two opposite. He really should have reversed up but he got a bit too far and kept coming. The coal boat had to try to squeeze between the boat in front of us, one on the other side and the one coming this way. Not having room to turn after he passed the boat in front of us because of this he hit the one in front of them which was on the bend and the one coming the other way it was hilarious! Everything went mental for a minute or two and we all had a good laugh.
Another chaotic moment came when I, forgetting my sunglasses were on top of my hat, took my hat off and flicked the sunglasses into the canal! Ken valliantly tried to find them with his landing net, that was until the net part of his landing net detatched itself from the pole and also dissappeared into the abyss! This was duly fished out with a hook but the sunglasses are, unfortunately, still down there somewhere!
We have decided to go back to the Macclesfield from here and then continue up the T and M to Preston Brook. When we get there we will decide what we’re going to do next. That is unless when we get to Anderton we don’t decide to go onto the River Weaver via the Anderton Lift. Decisions, decisions.
