FreeSpirit

Friday, 4 July 2008

Dave and Heather on Bracken

Dave and Heather finally arrived to make our trip complete. We took nearly three weeks to get to this point whereas Dave and Heather did the whole journey in 8 days!!!!

Getting ready to throw the rope

The BIF'S set sail (Bracken,Icing and Freespirit)

All three boats together at last.

We were hoping to go down the lift onto the River Weaver but two things were against us. One, there was a boat festival going on which meant mooring near the lift was impossible and two, the weather forcast was for gale force winds with possible branches or even worse, tree's down. Instead we found sheltered moorings about 1/4 mile away and gate crashed the festival instead.
The next day we stayed put as the predicted forecast was right for a change. I attempted to fish but with branches crashing down all around me I gave it up as a bad idea.

At the Anderton Boat Festival

Enjoying the sights. We all had a go on the Tombola and actually won a prize!!

Boats at the festival

Looking at the lift from the River weaver

Looking down the flight on Heartbreak Hill

Ian working the locks

Heartbreak hill

After leaving the tunnel at Stoke our next major undertaking was the notorious Heartbreak Hill at Kidsgrove

. With 26 locks in 6 mile it was a lot of hard work. We eventually arrived at the bottom lock at Wheelock at 1.30pm taking 4 and 1/4 hours to do the lot.

Harecastle tunnel

At the entrance. As the tunnel is 2925 yds long (1 and 3/4 mile roughly) and only single lane, we had to wait for our 1 way slot. As we had just missed it we were stuck here for 1 and 3/4 hours.