Out of the Marina and Off We Go!

Monday morning; there was a little running around to do at the shops before we I headed off to drop the car off to the Enterprise depot. First time I have hired from Enterprise and my dealings with them so far have been excellent, they were only too happy to drive me back to the marina, which saved me a fiver or so.

All the maintenance on Serafina has been completed, the fuel tank maintenance being the last of it, anything else can be done out on the cut. Over the winter she has had a BSS and the maintenance associated with it completed. The engineer has de-winterised her and given the engine a service.

Rachael was waiting for me to get back so we could get going since we were planning to get to Rode Heath today. A stiff breeze, some tight turns and seven months away from the boat made it quite difficult to get out of the marina but once that was behind us it was an easy cruise down to the Harecastle Tunnel (2926 yds or 2.6 kms).

Being a one way tunnel, our timing was a little out, we arrived to just over an hour to wait before our turn. No problem though, Rachael had decided to do a wash so it was an opportune time to top up the water tank. I had planned to do that later on in the day.

Out of the tunnel and down the locks under the aqueduct carrying the Macclesfield Canal our cruise to Rode Heath was uneventful. It did feel great to be out in the English countryside again.

A comfortable 9:30am start today (Tuesday), it was suppose to be raining all day but bright sunshine was pushing through the windows. The first lock today was only a hundred metres up the tow path so it was into early for Rachael. She took the first few locks and then we swapped over for a while.

Most of the locks were duplicated so there was a reasonable chance of getting one that was ready go into. We were following a couple, Dave and Gwen in NB Harebell, we spent a bit of time chatting with them and Dave was happy to set a few locks for us along the way. Dave suggested we stop at Malkin's Bank Golf Club to get bite to eat for lunch. That didn't work so well despite the large sign on the canal offering great quality food...except on tournament day! So, two pints later we headed off for the last few locks into Wheelock where we are spending the night.

A short trip tomorrow to Middlewich where we will take a break for a few days before heading on to Anderton to take the boat lift down on to the R. Weaver.