IT’S BLACKING TIME.

And we are off to Portland Basin to see Guy and do some much needed maintenance on our beloved Avalon Two. It really should have been blacked last year, but with Covid as with a lot of things it had to be postponed.

Now what is blacking? Some of you might ask. It’s a way of protecting the hull of the boat using bitumen. First the hull is cleaned using a high powered pressure washer, then 3 coats of Bitumen are applied using a brush first then a roller. You have to get in all the little nooks and crannies. We will also be painting the side of the boat up to the gunnels, checking the anodes, the propeller and prop shaft. Basically having a damn good look at what we can’t normally see. And we will be doing the work ourselves, because its cheaper.

Our journey out of Liverpool went without a hitch, and with the help of the Vol Lockees and Sid it didn’t take long. After lunch and a shopping stop at Litherland, and saying goodbye to Norman, we set off again. The Captain had a plan and knew how far each day we needed to travel to get us to Portland basin with a day to spare. So it was a long day for us and we moored up around 6pm in the MONW. It was nice to be out in the countryside again.

Next day and the aim was Burscough, 15miles and quite a few swing bridges for me to do. The people on the towpath were very friendly and we spotted a kingfisher as it darted ahead of us. After another long day we moored up and headed off for a pint in The Thirsty Duck, they had a Liverpool Spiced Stout on, so the Captain was a very happy bunny.

Wigan next on the agenda, not such an early start, but back to doing locks for me. It was a bit like the M1 as we left Burscough, we passed 6 narrowboats and 2 widebeams in quick succession. I checked on the bins at Bridge 35 and happy to report that everything was clean and tidy, albeit the skip was getting ready for emptying.

There are 5 locks between Burscough and Wigan and at one of theses we met Darren Obrian and his very distinctive boat called Carlsberg. We met him a couple of years ago at his moorings in Crooke. He was heading to Parbold for a few pints.

At the last lock next to the dry dock we met a boat coming down, and one waiting. Unsure what was happening I spoke to the Captain of the boat in the lock, he told me the boat waiting had refused to share the lock with him, I could not understand why, it was another narrowboat not a fibreglass crusier, but then I saw all the fenders hung round it and assumed its Captain didn’t want another boat bashing his. Which is a natural part of boating life.

All this meant they had a wait for us to come up the lock, and I soon realised that they were not experienced boaters at all. The crew helped with the paddles and first thing they did was to take of the pawl or ratchet as I call it. This is a safety feature which protects the operator and the paddle gear if the windlass should slip off whilst winding the paddle up. I immediately told the women to replace it and explained why, my blood ran cold when she explained that her Captain had told her to do this at all the locks they had done. I walked away thinking they could be a disaster waiting to happen.’ Hopefully I was wrong.

We moored up and headed into town as the Captain needed to pick up a prescription from Boots. On the was back we called in at the Swan and Railway and had a great chat with the landlord and lady. To end the day we finished off at the Wigan Central.

Sunday, Neil Kath and Rosemary joined us for a cruise to Appley Green. Neil and his daughter Rosemary took turns at steering. We had a lovely day. We also caught up with Will off NB Wills Way. We hadn’t seen him since Langley Mill were he did a walk through video of our boat for his vlog, he is a very friendly chap and it was great to see him again.

https://youtube.com/user/parlou38

Next day and we wound our way into Manchester for the night. We scrumped some apples, saw a ginger cat up a tree who I thought might be ‘Charlie Clarkson Ginger King of Everywhere’ a cat from Facebook, his owner ghost writes about his adventures, but it turned out not to be his highness.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/735992183137728/user/100026100994252

The water was very clear but it looked like we were in the middle of some roadworks when I spotted 8 traffic cones in the water one after the other. I also spotted a 2ft long pike.

We moored in Castlefield basin and had a chat with some local boaters before setting off to Cask, a real ale bar. It was expensive so only the one, then we headed to The Moon Under Water, a Wetherspoons were I treated the Captain to tea.

I was not looking forward to the trip out of Manchester, there are 9 hard locks called the Rochdale 9 that take you through the city centre. The biggest issue for me with them are steps used to climb on to the lock gates to access the offside which are awful (there are no bridges). Luckily, we had help from volunteers at the last 3 and we were soon moored up at Thomas Telford basin, a peaceful secure mooring we have used before.

The next day the locks continued with the 18 on the Ashton Canal, it was another long hard day, and wasn’t helped when I had a nasty fall whilst picking blackberries. At the time I was more concerned with the blackberries I dropped than what damage I had done to myself, but luckily I am well padded and came a way with just a few grazes and a bruised knee.

We took a short detour to Hyde as we had a day to kill. There is a Samuel Smith’s pub called the White Gates near the canal. Its a proper locals pub, and as with all Sam Smith’s pubs no mobiles, tablets or other electronic devices are allowed. This encourages people to talk. We were made very welcome and encouraged to join in the conversation.

So into the dry dock we went, after a good look round everything seemed in order, the problem the Captain thought we had with the prop and shaft turned out to be rubbish round the shaft, but we did need a couple of new anodes and a small crack in the skeg, the bit that supports the rudder. He spent the afternoon giving the bottom of the boat a good going over with the pressure washer and we decided to leave the painting to the next day.

We got on very well the next day, and in about 3 ½ hours we had 2 coats on bitumen on.

After resting for the afternoon we headed into Manchester for a meal at Try Thai with Neil and family, it was lovely.

http://trythai.com/

Neil came to give us a hand next day and after we had finished Pete Findlow, another old work mate of the Captains turned up. We spent a very enjoyable afternoon with them.

Anodes were welded on and the skeg repaired by the very helpful Dan and we are ready to go back in the water and continue our journey but that’s for next time folks.