I arrived at Jannock at 8:30 in the morning and had unloaded all the stuff from the car when Simon, Matt and Phaedra arrived at 9. Matt and I did a car shuffle and Jannock set off from Boothstown at 10:15. Bacon and Egg sarnies were taken on the move as we passed through Leigh. On our arrival at the liftbridge, Simon went ahead and returned saying the bridge operator had just started his 12 till 12:45 lunch break and so we moored up and watered up whilst waiting. As we finished with the tap another boat arrived behind us and did the same. 12:45 passed and no sign of the bridge keeper so I went to the office and saw that the fixed lunch time was winter only and it should be 08:00 to 20:00 in summer. I rang the mobile number on the door and it was answered with a cheery "I'll be there in 5 minutes" Whilst waiting, the boat behind presented us with half of a large chocolate & cream cake asking if we could help them consume it as it had been left by a guest the day before and was more than the two of them could manage. The Jannock gannets quickly devoured it once we had worked a few locks. Once through the lift bridge we continued on through the two locks, with their novel gate opening mechanisms, before Wigan and then turned left at the junction. Whilst Jannock has never been north of waters meet since we owned her, I have never ever been up the L&L towards Liverpool before. We marvelled at the rural scenes as we approached the M6 overpass. We followed a wide beam trip boat through the lock immediately below the motorway and then they allowed us to pass as their crew held a swing bridge open for us. We moored for the night and then I was taken to Manchester and made to walk for miles to attend a fathers day meal in a town centre restaurant. A wonderful day with nice sunny weather only marred by the biting wind accompanying it.
__________________________________________________________ Tiscali Security Week - http://www.tiscali.co.uk/security
