Yes, this weekend folk law was re-written. We arrived at Jannock at 9:15 Friday night and the sky above Appley Bridge was a blaze of red without any smoke visible or fire sirens to be heard so it looked promising for Saturday.
We awoke Saturday morning to persistent rain so when Matt (No. 2 son) and Adam (his pal) arrived we postponed setting off in the hope that the weather would clear. We finally gave in and set off in the rain. We passed through Appley lock (cor that's a deep one) and then on through Parbold towards the junction with the Rufford arm. We met no boats heading East until four all appeared together in a row, obviously like London buses then. We stopped at the Sani station at the junction but it was all padlocked up, due to vandalism the note said, but it is not suitable for self pumpouts anyway. The rainfall increased in amount and ferocity as we started down the first two locks so we abandoned Jannock, tied to some railings, and headed for the Ship Inn for a celebratory pint. Matt and Adam had just got their degree results yesterday so we felt a celebration was in order. After lunch, we heard another boat descending the lower of Latham locks and so we untied and shared with them all the way to Rufford. Today we awoke to strong winds and occasional rain so we vacated Jannock bringing away most of our personal rubbish so that she is ready for Matt to occupy for a couple of weeks. Graham www.jannock.org.uk [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
