Wigan Flight & Leigh Branch

Today's the day! The Wigan Lock Flight was due to open at 08:30. We'd planned to wait for the initial 'rush' to subside before setting off with Daisy and Paul on Mallard around 10am. It wasn't yet 8am when we heard other boats chugging past, so after breakfast Will went to investigate. The CRT had opened early and were waiting for more boaters. We knocked on Mallard's doors and within 15 minutes we were hauling the mooring lines in.

Mallard's engine wasn't very strong so we tied Rainboat to Mallard and made use of Daisy and Paul's youthfull energy to work the locks with Vicky while Will navigated the two boats.

There were plenty of volunteers on hand, including Mick, who stayed with us most of the way. We'd expected there to be a whole load of boats coming up filling the locks as they went and leaving them ready for us to enter. There were only 3 in total and 7 of us going down so we needed to do a lot more work refilling after Richard, Janet and dog Jess on Narrowboat Maud who went ahead of us.

So much water was being released that it spilled over and flooded the towpath at one point. Daisy and Vicky needed to haul two trees out from in front of lock gates but we only saw a few small clumps of Pennywort weed, for which we were thankfull.

It rained most of the morning and poor Tiger, who was 'helping' Vicky on land, got wet through. She was shivering until Vicky stuffed her inside her coat to give her a rest and let her dry.

21 locks later the flight was complete but we had a further 2 locks to pass through once we left the main Leeds and Liverpool canal and turned left onto its Leigh Branch. Daisy, Paul, Trixie the dog, Vicky and Tiger hopped back on board and Paul took over the tiller. It was a lot harder to control the two boats strapped together. Will had done very well keeping them on course. Will and Daisy worked us through both locks and in the final one we separated Rainboat and Mallard and made our seperate ways along the Leigh Branch.

Vicky's parents were on their narrowboat Drifter III, returning to their home moorings at Barrowford from their big trip to London. They'd stayed at the bottom of the flight today so we could spend a little time together instead of simply waving at each other as we passed in one of the pounds between locks.

Despite our tiredness we appreciated the beauty of the Leigh Branch as we motored past the yellows, golds and oranges of birches, alders and beeches. Wide flashes lined with reeds caught the light of the sinking sun on either side. Drifter III appeared as we rounded a bend after bridge 3 and we honked our horn happily.

It was great to see Dad, Sarah and Lenny and it was very kind of Sarah to pass some homemade tiffin over to re-energise us. We'd been on the go for around 8 hours so we needed it! Dad, Sarah and Lenny came over for a cuppa and to see Rainboat for the first time. Leo was cross at Lenny for daring to set foot on his boat. He made his feelings known loudly and we spent the evening shielding poor happy go lucky Lenny from him. A tour was given, Sarah had a poke in the cupboards and Dad asked complicated questions like "wot's that?", some of which we didn't know the answer to!

We'd hoped to take the dogs for a pack walk the following morning. However there had been talk on the Wigan Flight Crew FB group about another lock cill being on its last legs. Erring on the side of caution Dad and Sarah set off early to get on up the flight.

Thanks to you both for the time we spent together. Short but sweet; especially with the tiffin! 😋Leggi altro